Okay, so you are nursing the idea of engaging the services of a marketing expert. Perhaps you believe you’re leaving lots of money on the table when it comes to your marketing campaigns. Maybe you lack the skillset or team to help optimise conversions to get the best ROI.
Regardless of your reasons for wanting to bring a specialist on board, you feel this is not the right time for that decision. Well, perhaps you are still trying to analyse the benefits of entrusting your marketing campaign to the hands of an expert. Or, maybe you’re just not sure if hiring a consultant is the best idea at the moment.
In today’s post, we take a look at the duties and benefits of a marketing consultant for your business. Do you even need to hire a specialist in the first place? So, let’s go back to the basics and define who a marketing consultant is.
What does the term “Marketing Consultant” mean?
A marketing consultant refers to a specialist who can help analyse your entire marketing inputs and your prospects and target audience and then put together a proven and effective strategy to better communicate your business and brand to them.
A consultant is someone who has immense experience working with businesses of different sizes and in various industries. They are great at spotting and leveraging opportunities.
They possess the expertise to analyse your business and promotions and then recommend or develop customised marketing strategies that make it easier to attain your marketing and revenue goals. It’s the job of a marketing consultant to craft a marketing plan, choose the best marketing techniques and channels, and the best approach to get your message across.
Furthermore, after mapping out a proven marketing plan, the specialist then executes the plan, and monitors and tweaks your campaigns to improve performance. Their goal is to take your business to a whole new level.
It’s the job of a marketing consultant to constantly explore more ways to help you maximise the return on your investment and marketing inputs!
Why should you hire a marketing consultant?
If you run a business of any type, you’ll realise the struggle to compete with other businesses in your industry for a limited pool of potential customers or clients. However, with the right marketing plan and execution in place, you can outdo the completion and get a steady stream of new customers regularly. Marketing requires monetary commitments and as a goal-oriented business, you don’t want to waste money while trying to get new customers. While you could choose to run and manage every aspect of your business yourself, including marketing, it takes a lot of time and skills to pull off, time that could be channeled into improving other aspects of your business.
Some business owners pull it off and get great results. If you are getting outstanding results from doing it and you have the time to continue, great. However, if you don’t have the time or if you are still getting average results and stats here and there, you may want to leverage the expertise of a specialist.
Marketing keeps evolving; so is the technology driving it. Your business will need to constantly need to adjust to the latest online marketing trends out there.
If you are reading this, the chances are that you’re business already has a website. Your website acts as the “centre of gravity” of all your marketing efforts, it makes it easy for customers to locate you, they can get more information about your products or services, and they can interact with your brand and make purchases and payments directly through it. But things can change rapidly on the internet, what do you do when your website gets overtaken by your competitors”? How do you even know when your website is no longer doing well? This is where the expertise and experience of a marketing consultant come in, either to help you tweak your site or create a new one that gets the job done.
The job of a consultant isn’t limited to checking out your website, they give recommendations based on current best practices, they are in tune with the latest marketing trends, and they are experienced in marketing campaign optimisation. We’ve highlighted some of the reasons why you should consider working with a marketing consultant below.
- Marketing consultants specialise in marketing: Marketing consultants make a living helping businesses reach their objectives. They are passionate about helping businesses improve their marketing activities. They have lots of experience plus a proven track record in the digital marketing space. A competent marketing consultant can easily look into your existing marketing activities and devise a marketing plan that is more likely to help you reach your business goals. They know exactly what they are doing and will help you manage and maximise existing marketing efforts or encourage you to explore more proven marketing channels. A professional consultant will take the guesswork out of your marketing plan; create effective strategies that help you reach your goals more quickly.
- Consultants help you save time: marketing consultants bring lots of experience to the table and are capable of executing more marketing activities better than you or someone just learning the ropes. They are great at making research and drawing up plans quickly; they work more efficiently and are conversant with all digital marketing best practices. Allowing a specialist to take charge of your marketing gives you enough free time to concentrate on running your business, which is critical to your success. By designating the marketing aspects of your business to a consultant, you will have more time to build a relationship with your potential and existing customers.
- They have the right connections: marketing consultants have access to other specialists whose expertise and experience may be needed in various aspects of your business. Whether it be social media creators, SEO experts, or other marketing experts, they have instant access to a team of professionals they can reach out to or partner with. A marketing consultant has a pool of other specialists from which they can pull out talents to further grow your business. These other professionals can handle other marketing aspects that may be beyond the scope of your regular consultant. This will save you time and help you avoid the trial-and-error processes of approaching individuals and getting quotes for specific tasks.
- Consultants are more effective at marketing: you probably already have a budget that goes into running your business. But can you identify the areas that need improvement? It’s the job of a consultant to evaluate your marketing and identify what needs to be improved. They will apply their experience to help you optimise your existing marketing efforts or craft new ones. A marketing consultant shows you the areas where you need to put more money, reduce, or pull the plug on spending. Even with the costs of hiring them, they can help you optimise your marketing campaigns and activities and bring amazing returns on your investment.
Does my business need the services of a marketing consultant?
At what point should you consider working with a marketing specialist? Businesses need a consultant for a variety of reasons. It may be to get a specific task done. And sometimes clients need to engage the services of a specialist to work on a long-term or more comprehensive project. Below are some of the highlighted reasons why businesses choose to hire a marketing consultant. If your answer to any of these 9 reasons is yes, then you should consider getting in touch with a marketing specialist at Bright Owl Marketing sooner rather than later.
If you are in this situation, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us so we can discuss how we can help you reach your marketing objectives. We have marketing consultants in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane ready to assist.
What should you expect from a Marketing Expert?
When hiring a marketing specialist, you should expect to answer lots of questions. They will request ask to see sales or leads data, they will want you to give them access to your analytical tools, and they will want to analyse the viability of the service or products you are offering. They want to meet your entire team and interact with them also. They want to have a deep understanding of your business and the goals you are looking to accomplish. They will “interrogate” you and constantly look for areas of your marketing plan that needs improvement. The marketing specialist will be interested in seeing the marketing plan and activities you’ve recently implemented, as they want to see the results that those activities have yielded. Be sure to be helpful and provided as much information as possible, as it will help them make decisions on crafting a proven marketing plan tailored to your business goals.
You may also need to conduct some research. Depending on the understanding of your customers’ behaviours and what triggers them to patronise you. Understanding the behaviours of your customers will be helpful when crafting a plan to reach them. Research can be as easy as using existing data to create and categorise customer groups and types. You can create simple online surveys where they will provide basic information, such as indicating what they like or dislike. Interacting with your customers or jumping on focus groups, where they hang out, can help you understand their preferences and motivation.
After collecting and analysing all the required information, the marketing specialist will craft a marketing plan which will form the core of the marketing strategy. The specialist will include a list of potential promotional channels and material in the marketing plan. At this point, you will start looking at how much you want to spend to get your marketing message across to your potential clients.
Next, the specialist crafts a proven plan that captures all marketing inputs for a certain period. It can be a campaign that lasts for a couple of weeks, a few months, or even for a whole year, depending on your business objectives. The plan will include details of specific promotions and the required budget, as well as the expected return on investment. No two marketing plans are the same, just as customers aren’t the same. The marketing specialist will be at the centre of all your marketing activities going forward, executing and optimising campaigns, communicating with relevant stakeholders and ensuring that every pound is well invested.
Marketing consultants are your go-to resource to help you be more successful with your marketing efforts. From the creation of your marketing plan to the execution of every single campaign, they will help you understand what’s working, and what isn’t, and will optimise and manage your marketing efforts every step of the way. After all, they want to help your business grow and they want to keep you as a long-term client too. The best way to do this is to make sure your business turns a profit and becomes the successful empire it deserves to be.
This blog is a great place to start for any small business owner seeking to understand the role of a marketing consultant better. But I would love to hear any other good questions worth adding to the list?
Article Written by Craig Pethebridge, who is Small Business Marketing Consultant for Bright Owl Marketing.
