Ok, so I might seem a bit biased in doing a blog post about why hiring a marketing Consultant makes good sense, but the truth is that it does. It’s common for many business owners (myself included) to try to be an expert in everything and do everything themselves. But the truth is that none of us, no matter how experienced we are, can be experts at everything. So, with that said, here are a few reasons you should consider hiring a marketing consultant.
You Don’t Want to Deal with a Marketing Agency
Big marketing companies charge big money; that’s just reality. This is especially true If you’re a small or medium-sized business. You don’t need an expensive advertising agency to do your marketing for you; you only need one expert marketing consultant who knows what they’re doing when it comes to all things marketing. Another challenge in working with a marketing agency is that you are just one of the potentially many other clients. Many of them could have much larger businesses than yours and have the money to keep the lights on for a big agency. So, at the end of the day, do you think you’ll be a top priority?
You Don’t Want to Commit
Do you really want to commit to having a full-time marketing person? The benefits that need to be paid out, the space that needs to be made for them, and the time commitment on projects that don’t really require a full-time person. Probably not, you’re not alone in your thinking; a lot of businesses prefer a marketing consultant for several reasons, including that they can be kept onboard on any term basis you choose, they are a flexible solution to in-house marketing staff, and they are held accountable for keeping things on track because if they aren’t producing more business for you, then they really aren’t needed, and you can simply say “Bye” if you feel they are not producing you more business. This fact tends to help drive quality work and measurable marketing results.
You Need a Budget-Friendly Solution
It might sound strange, but an independent marketing consultant can be a perfect fit for a business with a tight budget. You have to do more marketing to help your business grow. Still, you can’t commit financially to hiring a full-time person or a super-expensive marketing agency. But need a flexible solution to help make marketing tasks happen, a marketing consultant is a smart solution. Sure, hiring a specialist consultant in their field sounds like it should be expensive. Yes, any marketing consultant will have a higher hourly rate than an employee. But, when you do the estimates, they come out way more cost-efficient than hiring a staff member. The added benefit of using a consultant is that you get a much higher level of expertise for your money. It’s a super-flexible commitment. You are in control of how much you spend on working with a consultant from an hourly perspective.
You Need an Actual Marketing Strategy
A good marketing consultant takes the time to build a solid foundation based on an actual marketing strategy before jumping into a series of tactics to boost your business. Until a proper marketing strategy is laid out and run with clear and measurable goals in mind, you’ll find that your marketing efforts never seem to truly build momentum. This is where a marketing consultant comes in most handy, by working closely with you to target the problem areas of your marketing activities, even if that problem area is that there are no marketing activities at all. In fact, at times, it’s even better for a marketing consultant when there have not been any marketing activities before; it gives a cleaner slate to start with.
You Need Fewer Marketing Objectives
A competent marketing consultant will help you find your highest payoff work and your most important goals based on where you want to be in a year, in two years, or five years – not next week or next month. Also, a good marketing consultant will make sure that the number of priorities and goals at any given time stays very small and laser-focused, ensuring that things don’t become unmanageable and ensuring that each marketing activity that is being done on your behalf is ensuring that you’re getting the maximum ROI.
You Have Resource Gaps
Sometimes in the “do it all yourself” world of business, it’s hard to spot the areas that need outside help. For example, you may be able to set up your newsletter and create some basic header graphics for your social media profiles, but is this work robbing you from focussing on higher payoff work? It probably is. Sure, those things need to be attended to, but a good marketing consultant helps you stop doing the things that are better handled by others. In fact, hiring a marketing consultant can help you become the President, CEO, or Owner again, handling other pressing matters that only you know how to manage.
You Need to Fix Your Conversion
Many business owners (and sometimes marketing consultants) focus solely on website traffic, and social media likes exclusively when the highest priority should be customer conversion and solid proof of ROI. A good marketing consultant will follow the “breadcrumbs” of any campaign they run on your behalf and ensure they have some sort of closed-loop system to clearly see which part of the marketing campaign attracted customer x to your website and then made a purchase. You, as a client, should always know the how and why of why you made a sale from any type of campaign that was run by your marketing consultant.
It’s Tough to Stay Focused
One of the little secrets of consulting is that a part of you simply needs someone to hold you accountable – someone to help you document your goals and objectives and keep you on track; if you start to wander off into new ideas and other distractions, why? Because staying focused seems way too boring for most creative entrepreneurs. A marketing consultant’s role is to ensure that you and your marketing campaigns stay on track. This is often done through your consultant, consistently ensuring that you stay focused through a series of pre-set meetings. Still, the most significant gains are realized when your focus starts to produce solid results. A good marketing consultant will request metrics tied to your specific marketing goals and will always help you to understand the value you’ll derive once you reach them.
You Don’t Want to Manage Vendors
It’s no secret that it can be a real hassle managing multiple vendors who only have one single thing in common, you. They have no idea exactly what the other one is doing for you at any given time; this causes major disconnects in what you are trying to do from a business marketing perspective. For example, do you really want to manage a web company, a social media agency, or a freelance writer? I could go on and on; you get the picture.