Why hire a marketing consultant?

Are you a company without a marketing strategy or team? Considering hiring a temporary marketing consultant? Reviewing candidates on Bark, Upwork, PeoplePerHour and Indeed? In this blog I've put together some advice for you based on my experience.

A consultant to review your marketing strategy

Your marketing consultant will be able to review your sales, leads and channels to determine how the pipeline is functioning and where your internal and external resources should be used.

Have your website content management system (CMS), customer relationship management (CRM) software and marketing automation ready. This can include Wordpress, Salesforce, HubSpot. You should also have your Google Marketing Suite ready to invite external consultants as 'view only' users.

If your company doesn't have any marketing technology implemented, your marketing consultant can recommend and implement systems to your budget.

Genuine marketing output for a trial period

Marketing consultants like me will have all of the necessary hands-on skills and experience to perform the equivalent role of a marketing manager, social media manager or website manager for a period of time.

That way, you quickly and seamlessly act on the marketing strategy that was reviewed in the first instance and begin output to drive brand awareness and generate leads.

By witnessing genuine marketing output first hand, the rest of the company can get used to the flow of work between departments and fine-tune sign-off communications as activity is scaled up. This can include the sales team having a proven process to give intel to the marketing team about a campaign opportunity or senior leaders briefing marketing effectively about a PR need or a strategic move to a new market.

A proof of concept of who to recruit long term

An effective marketing consultant will have experience managing upwards, delegating work and working alongside with suppliers to provide practical advice on how an efficient marketing function should and could work.

You can't fully understand who to recruit in the long term until you trial it in a day-to-day working environment. What skills do you need and what kind of personality do you need to work within your company culture? How much travel will be required to complete activity and do you need someone who is active on social media? Do you need someone creative or someone more technical?

For more advice on marketing consultancy and marketing recruitment contact Will Selby, The Marketing Sub on 01202 980927 or email themarketingsub@gmail.com with the subject line 'Marketing Consultant'.

Considering hiring a temporary marketing consultant?