How a Marketing Consultant Can Help Your Business
This question is valid either you have a marketing department or you haven’t done any marketing until this moment. Since a marketing consultant is an individual who is not involved with your business, he or she will look at the data objectively.
Most of the time it means that they can find errors or things that simply do not work for you with ease, not to think twice about perhaps the time that you’ve invested in building them.Sometimes the look from the outside is more than enough to improve the business performance. In addition to that, a set of fresh eyes can propose things that you didn’t try and can work to improve different parameters within your business.
Business owners also contact me when their own marketers lack experience or knowledge in a specific subject. Or when they want to get a second opinion about the issue that they are having.Either way, a Marketing Consultant is someone who can always improve the current marketing situation for any business, and help to improve the current growth and results.
I have to be honest here, on super rare occasions my final report to the client says “There is nothing to improve, your marketing strategy is perfect and your channels work 100%”.I usually come up with at least 10 hard mistakes and between 25 to 30 small ones.
Now, that we know that Marketing Consultation is always useful, let’s see what qualities should you search for when looking for one.
Who is a Marketing Consultant?
A Marketing Consultant is usually a freelancer or a contractor with a wide range of marketing experience. This person should understand every aspect of marketing, starting from brand development, content creation, SEO, PPC, Marketing Research, and Strategy creation. This person should be working in the marketing industry for at least five to six years, preferably with clients from different industries. Glassdoor agrees with me regarding the experience and also thing that there is need for 5+ years.
Find the in-depth definition of a digital marketing consultant on Coursera.org, here is a link to the article – check it out
It doesn’t mean that one person should be an expert in ALL of these topics, but, he or she needs to understand them in order to make a good audit and prepare a marketing plan to improve business results.
There are different types of Marketing Consultants, some specialize in lead generation, in B2B or B2C, and so on. Ideally, you should be looking for someone with a specialization in your issue, but a wide knowledge of other marketing aspects.For example,
I specialize in lead generation both for B2B and B2C, while I’ve been working with clients from all the main industries like, Finance, Fitness, Health, Food, Fashion, and so on. Both with small and huge advertising budgets. I have knowledge of advertising on every PPC channel out there (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google Ads, TikTok, Youtube, Yahoo, Bing, Pinterest, and others). I also have technical knowledge of tracking installation and setting up Google Analytics. Website optimization, content creation, email marketing, marketing research, and other technical marketing stuff. You can check my full portfolio here, to understand it in more details.
As you can see, the list is going on. That’s why it’s better to understand what is your issue or to look for someone with a wide range of experience.
There is no golden formula or strict list of skills or requirements, as long as it is related to digital marketing or social media marketing in any way. Just recently I saw an article on Workable.com with marketing consultant job description, the most interesting part was the skills that Marketing Consultant should have in their opinion. This kind of strict list of skills might confuse a lot of people and make them look for too long for someone that won’t be able to actually do a job. For example, one of the things that was standing out to me is – Proficient in MS Office/Working knowledge of IT and marketing software.
The word IT is wrongly used and should not be used at all when looking for a marketing consultant, you simply want someone who will be able to use MS Office to analyze data from any CRM system. There is also no need to look for specific CRM knowledge, since you’ll be able to export the data into the excel sheet for the marketer anyway.
Be aware of false requirements, and always make a list of your own. To make sure you are hiring a right person for a marketing consultant work.
How does Marketing Consultation work?
There are a few different possibilities, you can either get a time consultation or order a certain amount of them for a specific period of time.Sometimes, I even end up teaching my clients about advertising or a specific social media platform, since they would like to understand how to read data or measure the success by themselves.
In either case, I start with the introduction meeting, just to learn about the business, business goals, and issues. To understand if I can help, and what information should I request in order to do so. This meeting can last between 15 to 40 minutes, depending on the case.
After the introduction meeting, we are scheduling a date for a paid consultation. I am charging payment before the consultation, to make sure that my client is serious and won’t ghost me at the time of the meeting.
I come prepared for the consultation call when my goal is to solve as many questions as possible and to start the process for the client. At the end of the marketing consultation call, the client should have an action plan for whatever issue he or she experiences.
It is also recommended to schedule a follow-up call within a week or two, this can help to check if things are working according to the plan or if there are some adjustments that need to be done.
In case I need to have more than one or two calls with the client, I have hours bank for five, ten, and twenty hours. These hours can be used for the six-month period. Clients find it useful since they like to have professional support when they need one, who is already familiar with their case.
Where to look for a Marketing Consultant?There are a few different ways to find a good consultant.
LinkedIn Search
I would recommend looking for Marketing consultation services on LinkedIn, there is a special tab called “Services”.
- Use a search bar, type “Marketing consultation”
- Choose the “Services” category
- Your search result will show you people who are offering different types of Marketing consultations. Go over the profiles and choose the one that suits your business goals.
LinkedIn Personal Post
Use your personal LinkedIn profile to search for a consultant, and tell your network who are you looking for and what issue are you looking to solve. That way you’ll receive recommendations from your network or marketing professionals will reach out to you.
LinkedIn Job Post
This is not my favorite option, but it can work as well or at least provide you with various profiles of marketing experts.
Post a job post via your LinkedIn Business page, and say that you are looking for a marketing freelance for a few hours job. Use different job filters, like questions about specific skills that you require, that way you will limit unqualified people from applying.
Upwork
It’s the best platform to hire a freelancer, you can choose their location, price range, and set of skills at the same time. If you are not familiar with Upwork yet, check this article to find out how to hire a marketing consultant from them.
The biggest disadvantage that I find on this platform, is that people are not usually willing to schedule an actual live call meeting with you. They feel too comfortable chatting with you over the platform. In some cases, it means that the profile verification is fake, and they do not want you to see their real identity or it means that they simply used working via chat room. Either way, you must mention your intentions to have an actual call in the job description.
How to measure the results of Marketing Consultation?
It works best if you have any questions or concerns. You should come prepared to the consultation, and even send your questions ahead. At the end of the consultations your questions should be answered and you should receive a clear plan of action. If you had a specific issue, you should see that it improved over the course of the next few days.
You might want to check out my other articles in my Blog.