If you’re running a small business, you already know there seem to be countless challenges to face and finding solutions often happens on the fly. To be as effective as possible, you need to organize your work wisely, figuring out what you can handle yourself and what processes you should outsource.
Marketing consultants can be a true partner to reaching new success… but not all agencies are the same. Some specialize in very niche industries, others encompass different skills and services, and the price tag may vary widely.
So how do you find and choose an expert who will meet your expectations. Here’s a 4-step guide on how to effectively select a marketing consultant.
Why Hire a Marketing Consultant?
Marketing is powerful, but it’s not as easy or simple as many business owners might think. Having an expert on your side can be particularly helpful. For businesses with super small teams, outsourcing could be one of their first considerations.
- Wider range of skills and dedicated expertise
- Out-of-the-box vision
- Access to marketing tools and technologies
- Lower cost than direct hires (often)
- Scale without hiring
- Your focus stays on running your business
Let’s delve into a few of these.
A wider range of skills
Unless you have a large company, you probably can’t afford to have full-time content writers, web designers, social media, PPC and other specialists on staff. By working a marketing consultant, you get access to this broad range of skills in various fields for the exact number of hours or activities you need at a particular space of time.
If you’re planning to roll out a massive project and need help to fuel your campaign, you can go to consultant can provide the expertise and execution skills across the different areas of marketing strategy needed to launch your project.
Professional consultants usually pull together any additional specialists requires, like programmers, photographers or videographers to apply the right mix of expertise to meet your goals. And, the consultant will project manage all of this to keep it all moving along and on deadline.
When it comes down to it, even with 1 or 2 marketers on staff, there’s a lot to manage, especially with a goal like entering new markets, rebranding or a successful product launch. That’s when it’s time to start shopping for a marketing consultant. And why not? You get on-call access to experts specialized in Digital Marketing, Field Marketing, Growth Marketing, PR, Events planning, and so on.
Out-of-the-box vision
If you’ve ever heard about cross-industry innovation, you’ll know that many of the challenges we face might have been solved in other industries. One of the most successful examples is how the Formula 1 Pit Stop brought the idea of fast-food drive-throughs.
Most marketing consultants work with all kinds of businesses and industries and know best practices that they can share with your company. An outside opinion can give you a whole new angle from which to look at your company and your marketing strategy.
Access to industry tools and technology
Investing in the top software on a regular basis comes at a high price. However, a good marketing consultant comes may already have licenses and subscriptions to some of the industry’s must-have tools, so their clients gain access to the best technology on the market.
If you hire a consultant, you pay for both their expertise and the marketing software they invest in.
Lower costs (in some scenarios)
In some cases, it’s cheaper to outsource your tasks than have a full-time employee, especially in cases where you have one-off requirements.
Hiring a qualified full-time specialist will take a lot of time and effort to find; and it can be more expensive than working with an external consultant.
For example: the average salary of a digital marketing manager is $123,899 per year; and for a SEO specialist is $47,752 per year, according to Glassdoor. Plus, there additional expenses to consider with on-staff marketers, like insurance, taxes, and retirement plans, the total sum rises to more than $200,000 per year.
The services of a marketing consultant aren’t free, but most will work with different budget sizes and offer various pricing models. This could include a retainer with an hourly rate, or it could be project-based.