What to expect from a marketing consultant

Perhaps I’m a tad biased (ok yes I’m completely biased) but it’s good you’re considering hiring a digital marketing consultant. As I’ll explain in this post they can bring huge value to your business in a cost effective way as and when you need their support.

The first step is ensure you do your due diligence when finding a suitable marketing consultant. That way you can be confident in trusting them as you really need that to get the most out of your consultant in allowing them to do what they do best.

Now you’ve hired your consultant they should go through some form of discovery process (you can learn more about my process here). It’s important you give them warts and all when explaining what is you do, financial performance, previous marketing, resources etc. as this gives them best chance of advising you effectively.

At this point a good consultant should not be giving you immediate solutions before they’ve conducted their overall research and digested the information you’ve shared. They may share some examples and tips but an experienced consultant will take their time to ensure the advice they give has the best chance of success.

During their research process a good consultant will often share a ‘quick win’ opportunity with you. They may have spotted something early on such as an idea to improve a high-traffic landing page or a tweak to an email marketing campaign. Nothing is guaranteed to succeed of course but ideally if you impart this suggestion you should see an improvement which is a nice solidifier for confidence in your ongoing working relationship.

Once they’ve completed their discovery and research process they should now be presenting you with their recommendations, strategy and plan for marketing your business. This should have sufficient detail to show their level of detail but be concise enough to be an actionable set of recommendations. And this is the key part a consultant is their to guide and advise you will still need to act upon their recommendations across your team to see the results.

One lesser considered aspect of a good experience working with a consultant is when they educate you about their process and how things work. It’s an added benefit of hiring a consultant to also learn a bit more about their area of expertise and in fact it helps the partnership flourish as they more you understand the more you can effectively communicate and deliver on their plans.

Finally a marketing consultant’s work shouldn’t stop at the presentation of their initial strategy, plan and recommendations. A good consultant should be continually bringing new ideas to the table particularly in a fast-paced environment such as digital marketing, they should be reflecting on their previous plans to see if the data and/or market indicates you need to make a change.

So there you have it, hopefully I’ve gone some way to confirming your idea to hire a marketing consultant. The right consultant give the right tools can be a hugely valuable asset to your business. The key is to do your own research up front to ensure you’ve hired the right consultant and then to trust in the process and give it time to see the results of your investment come to fruition.

As always if you’d like help creating your marketing strategy request a consultation call with me today.

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