When Businesses Should Hire a Marketing Consultant

By Dr. Jan Southern, J. DelSUR Marketing Group

A marketing consultant is a highly skilled business professional who can improve a company’s brand, position and ultimately their success. Marketing consultants have varying specialties and areas of expertise, including social media strategy, content creation and optimizing your advertising budget.

A consultant helps create a detailed marketing plan, determines the messaging for the identified target audience and recommends the right marketing mix of tactics to achieve the company goals.

Here are five reasons to hire a marketing consultant:

1. You Are Marketing Without a Plan

As business owners, we get caught up in our day-to-day activities and before we know it, months have gone by and we have spent time and money on marketing and advertising without really knowing why. We are swayed by the next best social media platform or dreams of a television commercial for our business but we haven’t taken the time to develop a target audience or a budget for promotion.

A marketing plan will increase the effectiveness of any promotion you do, will save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars and will give you peace of mind that you are moving your company forward with deliberate activities and focused intention.

For example, a marketing consultant who specializes in marketing strategy and planning will give you a roadmap for the coming year that will set you up for success and help you blow away your competition.

2. Your Marketing Isn’t Working

You spend time and money promoting your business but it just doesn’t feel as if you are getting the return on investment you expected. Or, maybe you aren’t sure how to know whether or not it is working and have no way to measure it.

The right marketing consultant is going to take a look at the big picture and help you choose marketing tactics specific to your business needs and then assess whether or not the campaign is getting the intended results.

3. You Can’t Afford to Hire a Full-Time Marketing Team

Every company starts out thinking they can handle the marketing of their business themselves. You may be able to do some things on your own such as building a social media profile, scheduling content or setting up Google My Business, but to maximize your resources, hire a marketing professional.

There is so much more to marketing than posting something on social media. A marketing professional will be able to look at the big picture, identify the goals and targets and help choose the right marketing and advertising tactics that will bring significant results.

Maybe you haven’t been ready to hire due to budget constraints or uncertainty on where to begin. Hiring a marketing professional—whether for setting up a marketing strategic plan, a short campaign or a more long-term partnership—will make any marketing efforts so much more effective and will save you valuable resources in the long run. This way you can do what you do best—focus on running your business.

4. You Need Help with the Big Picture or One Specialized Area

Maybe you already have a marketing team or a marketing manager but you recognize the need to develop a marketing plan that will take your business to another level. Or, you need help in one specialized area such as digital marketing. Hiring a marketing professional who has expertise in a specific area can enhance the efforts of your in-house team.

5. You Want a Brand Refresh or a Complete Change in Your Brand Identity

Your brand and visual identity is one of the most important components of your business. It’s one of the first things potential customers notice. Often, team members and leadership are too close to the company and culture to see the brand how your customers see it. An outside perspective from a trained brand expert can make all the difference. Hiring a professional who can take a fresh look at the company and conduct the appropriate marketing research is essential when tackling a rebranding for any business.

Here are just some of the things a marketing pro can do for you:

• Write a strategic marketing plan aimed at delivering results
• Identify ways to attract new business
• Implement effective digital strategy, content marketing and social media management
• Search engine optimization (SEO) plan
• Conduct marketing research
• Develop and implement a plan for customer retention
• Website design or redesign
• Expert copywriting to help your business stand out
• Design an advertising campaign
• Design collateral material such as flyers, posters, etc.
• Build a sales funnel
• Track and analyze the effectiveness of any marketing campaign or social media strategy to be sure it is working
• Public relations—getting your business seen by more people
• Assist in hiring a marketing team

If you have been frustrated or overwhelmed by trying to decide where to advertise or how to grow your business, contact a marketing professional with the right expertise. You won’t realize how much you need their help until you start working on a project together.

If you’d like to see how a marketing consultant can help your business, let me know: jdelsurmarketing.com/feedback