Digital marketers grow businesses, but between paying huge rates and finding digital marketing talent who actually know the ropes, it’s not a role many business owners look to fill.
That’s where freelance digital marketing experts on sites like Fiverr come into the picture. They take the guesswork out of finding a professional vs a beginner marketer and make it so that business owners and organizations can hire digital marketers on a budget.
If you’re planning on hiring a digital marketer on Fiverr, this guide is for you. I detail what you need to look out for and outline the steps you need to take to hire someone worth their onions.
The hiring pitfall
Most businesses looking to hire a digital marketer usually try to hire a generalist or jack of all trades, if you like, to lead their digital marketing efforts. This strategy of hiring someone to cover all segments of your digital marketing only works when you’re hiring in-house, not freelance. In-house digital marketers have the commitment and patience to understand every segment of digital marketing as it fits your business.
Freelance digital marketers, on the other hand, hop between jobs. Their skills are usually tailored to one segment of the digital marketing divide. Unlike in-house hires, they don’t have the commitment nor time to hone in on other areas. If you do hire a generalist digital marketer on Fiverr nine out of ten times, they’ll outsource your task to other freelancers at a higher markup to you.
Rather than go generalist way, you want to find specific freelancers for specific digital marketing needs. And then work to syndicate digital marketing efforts.
Fiverr does an awesome job of categorizing digital experts according to their skills. Plus, they also provide tools to help you collaborate seamlessly with more than one freelancer at any point in time.
What to look out for in the ideal Fiverr digital marketer
In-depth technical knowledge in their area of expertise
There are a lot of amateurs masquerading as professionals on Fiverr. A great way to weed out the pseudo professionals from the real deal is to dive into the technical details of whatever digital marketing role you’re looking to staff. This is easy if you have prior knowledge and are just looking to outsource a task, but since you’re here, I’ll assume you don’t.
How to test technical knowledge
Describe your problem and ask for a template solution.
Explain your scenario to the Fiverr digital marketer and ask how they’d approach it. If they’re the real deal, you should get a structured, no fluff, easy to interpret strategy for addressing your needs. When it’s mumbo jumbo that confuses you more than it enlightens, then you’re most likely dealing with a hack.
Now, this process is technically a consultation, and while many Fiverr digital marketers will do it for free, it’s always a good idea to pay freelancers for their time. Obviously, you don’t want to do this for all the digital marketing freelancers you find on Fiverr. Later in this guide, I describe how you can screen freelancers on the first pass so you have a handful you can then subject to tests before you make your final decision.
An established online digital marketing presence
Whether it’s on professional websites like LinkedIn or popular social media sites like Facebook or Twitter, you want a digital marketer who has a reasonably large online presence. They don’t have to be influencers or even remotely popular on these sites; what you’re looking for instead is an indication that they are recognized marketing entities and are part of a marketing network.
Much of online marketing is interacting with like minds to keep a solid grasp on what works. Some other important parts of marketing just won’t work without solid industry connections. A digital marketer who’s recognizable online and partakes actively in the global marketing community is usually better equipped to fulfil goals, all things being equal.
How to test this
Simply ask for links to their online digital marketing handles. What looking you’re for is evidence that they practice what they preach. An example’ good sign’ is a digital marketer who’s actively interacting with thought leaders in the industry (either directly or through content they’ve shared).
A reasonable collection of case studies and portfolios
Case studies are proof of work, so to speak (not a reference to the Bitcoin blockchain). Ask any experienced marketer, and they’d tell you the best kind of marketing is that learned by getting down and dirty.
You want a digital marketer who’s gone through several cycles of experimentation, modification and real-world strategy deployment. It’s better if they have portfolio entries related to your business niche, but that shouldn’t be a set in stone requirement. Good digital marketers know how to adapt strategies across industries and businesses.
How to test this
Any digital marketer who has tried and tested strategies will have their work portfolio brimming with samples and case studies. Ask for these case studies, and whatever samples you get should include a summary of the problem, how it was handled and the results.
These three requirements are the basics of what you should look out for in the ideal Fiverr digital marketer. I’ve deliberately left out the great thinker, flexible… type of qualities because those are personal and not readily quantifiable. Nevertheless, a digital marketer on Fiverr who checks off the three requirements I just outlined should have all of this in their locker as well.
How to hire a good digital marketer on Fiverr
With what you need to look out for covered, the next step is finding someone who has those qualities. Fiverr is awash with digital marketers from all corners of the world. Your options are literally limitless, and while this is a good thing, your hiring process needs to be objective to avoid falling into the pool of indecisiveness.
Start your search from the Fiverr categories page or by using the search bar
Fiverr has a dedicated digital marketing segment, and it’s a good place to start if you’re not quite sure the exact digital marketing expert you need to hire. Alternatively, you can directly search for a digital marketing specialist if you already know what you want.
In both cases, you’ll be presented with the best performing digital marketers relevant to your query. That’s thanks to Fiverr’s native sorting algorithm. While it does have its faults, it’s ingenious in the way it identifies and presents top talent in fields like digital marketing on Fiverr.
When using the search functionality, feel free to get as specific as you’d want to be. For instance, something in the lines of Google ads PPC expert.
Use filters religiously
Fiverr’s algorithm does well to present you with the best digital marketers per your search queries. Usually, it’s enough to find a fit if you’re searching for a popular service. Other times your needs might be peculiar, and that’s where filters come in.
The service options filter, for instance, allows you to specify the industry of specialization, so you only have digital marketers with such specialty in the search results. You can also filter based on your budget and even go as granular as sorting freelancers based on what exactly you need done via the ‘service includes tab’ of the service options filter.
Use reviews to make a shortlist
The majority of the freelancers you’ll see on Fiverr’s digital marketing list pages will have a lot of reviews. Reviews tell the story of what it feels like to work with the freelancer, but you need to be careful when assessing reviews on Fiverr – many are Fake!
How to access reviews for a clearer picture
Don’t get too comfortable with the five-star reviews
Yes, the ideal digital marketer on Fiverr should have a sizable number of five-star reviews, and as I noted earlier, most of the freelancers you’ll meet through search will have enough of them. But Don’t get fixated on five-star reviews.
They all say tell the same story of how the freelancer is great. You already know this since Fiverr only ranks freelancers with something of a good track record top of their listing pages.
What do the negative reviews say
Negative reviews reveal what issues you could face if you hired the digital marketer. Check out two to three-star reviews if the digital marketer has any of those and note the pain points of the reviewer. How did the digital marketer respond? Aggressive? Understanding? Or compensatory? Did their response make any sense?
Next, you want to assess the one-star reviews. A freelancer with loads of one-star reviews, even if they have an abundance of five-star reviews, is never a good sign. I would steer clear of those kinds of profiles. For those with a limited number of one-star reviews, you want to check if there’s a recurring theme among the reviews.
Are past clients complaining of the same or related issues? If so, then it’s more likely that the digital marketer is deficient in that regard as opposed to it being just a random pissed of Karen, which is something you’ll see a lot on Fiverr.
Use the ideal digital marketer checklist
I’ve already described what to look for in the ideal Fiverr digital marketer. And by now, you should’ve narrowed down your options to two, maybe three, freelancers. What you want to do next is use the checklist I described earlier to screen your potential hires. Remember, however, that that checklist is just a general template.
Your final screening process should match your needs.
If you’ve followed these steps to the later by now, you should have a qualified digital marketing expert on your hands. As I said, the final choice of a digital marketer you make will come down to your needs. So feel free to adapt this hiring process to fit yours.
You could add interviews, video consultations and other onboarding processes to ensure you’re getting exactly what you want. I’ll, however, note that for any interview or consultation you attempt to schedule, it’s always a good idea to pay the freelancer for their time.
What digital marketing services can you find on Fiverr?
The Fiverr digital marketing category page does a great job breaking down all the digital marketing services you can purchase on Fiverr. Let’s do a quick rundown of the subcategories, so you have a contextual idea of the digital marketing services available for purchase.
Search engine optimization
With billions of consumers reaching businesses exclusively through search, search engine optimization is one area of digital marketing you simply cannot ignore. SEO is all about optimizing your website and digital assets to rank top of search engine results pages (with Google being the most significant search engine).
There are many ways to go about this, but most will revolve around creating superior content, the kind that shines above everything else competing in your space. Done right SEO provides a consistent, persistent and organic way to generate leads. There’s a lot more to SEO marketing, and you can see my guide on Hiring an SEO expert to get started.
Social media marketing
Much like search engines, social media provides a platform to generate organic leads. And on Fiverr, there are digital marketing freelancers to help you all the way through establishing a fledgling social media presence that can pull in these leads.
From setup to content research and campaign planning and execution, social media marketing is one of Fiverr’s most established freelancer subcategories. There’s a growing influencer marketing subsection with some well worth micro and nano influencers.
I’ve had more than decent success working with freelancers here so I really recommended getting started with the services available if you’re looking to take your social media game up several notches.
Advertisement
Ads provide a clearer-cut route to reach consumers, and the results are usually instant compared to SEO, for instance. But you already know this. On Fiverr, you can find freelancers who can lead, optimize or assist your ad campaign on practically any digital media.
There are social media advertisers on the platform who specialize in social media hosted ad content. Search engine marketers with specialty knowledge on how to place and optimize ads on search engine pages and display advertisers for when you need your ads to go on websites and apps.
Content marketing
Content marketing is a field of marketing that ties into virtually every segment of marketing. You need content to post ads, to dominate search engines results pages and even on social media to drive engagement.
Fiverr is home to digital marketers specialized in various areas of content marketing, including but not limited to:
- Email marketing
- Messaging and short-form marketing
- Video marketing
- Affiliate marketing
- Marketing analytics and strategy formulation
Depending on your business and what you’re planning to achieve, marketing could be a simple case of drumming a content strategy or a much more complex endeavor requiring in-depth research and strategy formulation. Except you’re a marketer yourself, you’re going to need a helping hand for the latter and thankfully, Fiverr is also to a growing number of marketing analysts and strategy formulators.
On Fiverr, you can get market audit services to identify your needs, deficiencies and strengths or full-on marketing analysis to expose business opportunities and marketing strategy formulation geared towards exploiting these opportunities.
Industry and purpose-specific marketing
Sometimes you need someone with a specific set of skills to handle a specific form of marketing. Think of something like marketing your products on a podcast or setting up a crowdfunding campaign. A growing number of digital marketers on Fiverr offer such industry or purpose-specific marketing services. The most popular of them include
- Podcast marketing
- Crowdfunding design and promotion
- e-commerce marketing
- mobile app marketing
- ebook marketing
- music promotion
Note that there are other niche-specific marketing services on Fiverr. If you need it, then a digital marketer on Fiverr is probably offering the service; all you need to do is search.
What are the advantages of hiring a Digital marketer off of Fiverr?
An abundance of talent
Fiverr has a bad rap for the quality of talent available on the platform, and some of that is justified. However, because of the immense number of freelancers (digital marketers in this case) on the platform, your chances of finding someone who’s not only skilled but perfectly fitting to your needs is incredibly high.
Asides from Upwork, there’s arguably no other place online to find a digital marketing marketplace with such a diverse array of talent.
And there are skilled digital marketing talent on Fiverr, I’ll tell you that, you just need to take your time to sort through the pseudo-professionals. The steps I’ve outlined above should get you well on the way
Digital marketers on a budget
One of the strong points of Fiverr, which is still related to the number of freelancers it houses, is that many of the talents on the platform come from developing or underdeveloped worlds. This reflects on their rates.
While you might find it incredibly difficult to get someone from the United States to run a Google Adwords campaign for a retainer fee of say $500 per month, On Fiverr, you will find multiple digital marketers from the world over who’ll be more than glad to take up that offer.
You might think the quality of service delivery will be worse from digital marketers outside developed worlds, but that’s not necessarily true. Provided you stick to the hiring framework I described earlier (hiring based on demonstrable experience and expertise), you’ll be fine finding a skilled digital marketer regardless of their location.
Fun fact, hiring offshore and outsourcing digital marketing tasks to foreign digital marketing freelancers is the default strategy of the most popular digital marketing agencies on the market today. Might as well cut the middle man and deal with the talent directly.
Money-back guarantee
Fiverr runs an escrow based service and what that means is your money is secured in escrow until the freelancer delivers as per your negotiated agreement. In the one of chance that they don’t complete the job or fail to deliver on the negotiated terms, you can file a dispute and get your money back in full.
This emphasizes one part of the Fiverr digital marketing hiring process. You need to explicitly outline all the requirements and project deliverables to the freelancer before signing off on a project. If any eventualities arise, you have hard evidence to back up your claims.
Flexibility to scale and adjust your digital marketing campaign
Want ten ad managers running your ad campaigns simultaneously in ten different countries? Fiverr provides both talent number and the tools to make that happen. Perhaps you just discovered another lead vertical, another way to acquire customers via social media.
You don’t need to shuffle your cards and start planning a recruitment exercise for a new social media manager. You can get one right off of Fiverr and better still seamlessly integrate them to your digital marketing team via Fiverr Business.
Fiverr business is a team collaboration platform that allows you to onboard multiple freelancers and collaborate with each one of them via a central dashboard. It’s like running your own agency only this time without the extra overhead.
To conclude
Like any hiring process, this might sound like a lot of work. Trust me; it’s not. The entire process is something you could complete in less than 30 minutes if you’ve got your mojo on. And once you do it one, two, three times, it then comes off as second habit, and you might not even need to reference this guide again.
Got questions. I’d love to hear them via the comment section.
