I can count the number of times I have heard a potential client complain about their past experiences with so called ‘experts’ on my hands and toes and maybe yours also.  I often hear things like, we told them what we wanted and they promised us the world but we ended up getting….nothing, banned from Google, ripped-off, in an argument, losing customers and the list goes on. Navigating the world of digital marketing is not easy, there are many nuances that only an experienced professional would know about.  Unfortunately anyone can say they are a pro but you need to look a lot deeper than just taking them at their word. First off, I would do a search of their proper name, what comes up? If they are experts in online marketing they should have a robust footprint.  Does their online persona match their claims of experience?

Another issue with hiring experts is that you should be prepared to pay a reasonable amount of money for their time.  If you aren’t then you are much better off looking for someone less qualified that can still offer you some value.  A good example is this local ad I came across on Craigslist:

Something tells me that if I was looking for a real estate expert to work for $15 an hour I would not get too many responses and the ones I did get would not be experts.  So my advice is to set realistic goals for the kind of help you will get based on the amount of money you can afford to pay. Looking for experts at bottom-barrel prices will often lead to getting zero value, or less.