Many business owners have negative opinions of online marketing ‘consultants’ because they work in a flat-fee relationship.

It’s our opinion that businesses are much better off working with a team that is paid on performance only. Particularly through an equity stake or sharing of revenues.

Here’s Why

In many flat-fee consulting arrangements, it goes down like this:

You hire RealCoolSEO for $2,200/month. They come in and clean up some title tags, suggest re-doing your internal link structure, and queue up 25 blog links they use for every client.

This takes about 1 day of work. RealCoolSEO is on cruise control from here on out. A few reports per month, a few more blog links to keep your mind at ease. Just enough to keep that monthly check coming in.

The flat-fee consultant’s incentive is slim. The only way for them to make more money is to get more clients like you, which means their best people are off trying to get more clients. You’re working with the maintenance man. The day-to-day.

Any growth in revenues you see from this arrangement is going to flatline sooner or later.

Your Monthly “Fee” Should be $0

The best partners for your business don’t want money up front. The best partners have a vested interest in your growth. Only when you get paid, should they get paid.

Only then will they take an active interest in your business.

A successful online marketing campaign requires constant attention to connect a service to a customer.

You want links? Constant. Branding? Constant. Conversion optimization? Constant testing. Email marketing?

This is not a “set it and forget it” world, no matter how much the ease of the internet makes it appear so.

The best ‘consultants’ understand this. They will dig into your Facebook account and see how your customers talk. They will sit in on Board meetings and learn every aspect of how your business functions.
Takeaway

Forget about paying a monthly fee. Start thinking about what % of 10x in revenues you’d be willing to share with the right partner to make it happen.