Hiring a Marketing Consultant: A Comprehensive Guide for Business Owners

If you’re a business owner or a startup founder, marketing is a no-brainer for you. It’s almost impossible to stand out in today’s competitive landscape when you don’t have a robust marketing strategy. Every day, you see new startups killing it with impressive marketing campaigns — and you feel like you need to keep up, before it’s too late.

This is why many founders decide to hire an in-house marketing team as soon as the budget allows them to do so. They hope to get more leads or customers, so they invest a lot of money and time to build an effective marketing team.

But what if I told you there’s a way to get you similar results, without spending a long time on hiring and onboarding new team members? In this guide, I’ll walk you through the process of hiring a marketing consultant that will help you grow your brand awareness and increase your sales.

The role of a marketing consultant in business growth

A marketing consultant is an expert who works closely with businesses to develop, implement, and optimize a marketing plan. They help you deal with multiple time-consuming digital marketing tasks, such as:

• Analyzing market trends
• Identifying target audiences
• Devising effective campaigns to generate leads, increase brand awareness, and drive sales

A good marketing consultant uses all the latest marketing tools, techniques, and technologies, and helps you stay ahead of the current trends. Thanks to it, you’ll maintain a competitive edge in your industry, regardless of your current team size.

Benefits of hiring a marketing consultant

There are numerous advantages to hiring a marketing consultant for your business. Some of these benefits include:

• Access to specialized expertise: Marketing consultants possess a profound understanding of various marketing channels, tactics, and best practices. This enables them to develop and execute strategies that deliver clear business results.
• Cost-effectiveness: Hiring a marketing consultant is often more cost-effective than employing a full-time marketing team, as you only pay for their services when you need them.
• Fresh perspective: Bringing in an external consultant provides a fresh set of eyes on your marketing efforts, often leading to new ideas and innovative strategies that can drive growth.
• Scalability: As your business grows and evolves, a marketing consultant can help you adapt your marketing strategy to meet changing demands and capitalize on new opportunities.

To help you visualize the benefits better, let me tell you a quick story about one of my clients — a SaaS company:

When we started working together, the founder told me about a serious problem with their lead nurturing process. They struggled to keep their free trial users engaged throughout the entire month (the trial lasted 30 days).

First, we identified the issue by analyzing customer feedback from chats with customer service. The main source of users’ problems laid in the lack of clarity on how to use the product to its full potential. It was hard for them to understand the real-life struggles the app could help them.

To address this problem, I did two things:

1. I prepared an entirely new email sequence for the trial period.
2. I created an interactive video course, guiding the users through the most important aspects of the app.

With this, we were able to provide our customer service team with new tools to support the users throughout the trial period. While I can’t share the exact numbers with you, we noticed that both the number of confused customers in the chat and the churn reduced from 5% to 2%.

When is the right time to hire a marketing consultant?

The simplest answer to this question is: you know it best. Knowing when to hire a marketing consultant depends on your business's unique needs and goals. Some common situations when you should consider hiring a consultant for your business are:

• You're launching a new product or service and need a comprehensive marketing strategy.
• Your current marketing efforts aren't delivering the desired results.
• Your internal marketing team is stretched thin or lacks expertise in a particular area.
• You're looking to explore new marketing channels or tactics.
• Your business is experiencing rapid growth, and you need guidance to sustain and capitalize on this momentum.

While hiring a marketing consultant can seem like a daunting task, it can be detrimental to your next campaign success. Building an in-house marketing team can cost a lot of time and money. Finding a consultant to help you plan, execute, and optimize your marketing efforts might be the most cost-effective option.

Let’s delve into the process of finding and hiring the ideal marketing consultant for your business, from defining your objectives to maintaining a successful partnership.

Defining Marketing Objectives for the Freelancer

Once you've decided to hire a marketing consultant, the first step is to define your business objectives. This will help you determine what you need from a consultant and what you hope to achieve with their help.

Start by identifying your marketing goals. Do you want to:

• Increase brand awareness?
• Generate more leads?
• Improve your conversion rate?

Understanding your goals will help you determine what kind of marketing consultant you need.

Once you've identified your marketing goals, it’s good to establish at least vague key performance indicators (KPIs) that will help you measure success.

While working on your KPIs, make sure you know:

• What you want to achieve: Do you need to raise organic traffic? Build a social media following?
• When you need to achieve it: Do you have a specific time frame you expect to achieve these results?
• Why is it important for your business: Does this KPI clearly correspond to your current business goals?

Answering those questions will help you determine the kind of marketing consultant ideal for your business. For example, if your goal is to improve your social media presence, you might want to look for consultants with a solid social media expertise.

This will also simplify the creation of your marketing strategy. Once you find a proper consultant who aligns with your KPIs, they’ll be able to define a proper direction for your marketing efforts faster and more accurately.

Where to Look For Right Marketing Consultants: Networks, Referrals, and Platforms

If you're ready to start your search for a marketing consultant, there are several places you can look. Here are some of the most effective methods:

Ask Others for Referrals

One way to start looking for a marketing consultant is by leveraging your network. Reach out to your colleagues, friends, and other business owners in your industry and ask them if they know of any good marketing consultants that they can recommend.

This is particularly helpful because it taps into your existing relationships with people you trust, who may have already worked with a consultant that they can vouch for. Additionally, these contacts may have insights into the specific skills and areas of expertise that are most relevant to your industry.

Use Social Media

Social media can be a powerful tool for finding marketing consultants. You can search for consultants in your industry on platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter. You can also post about your search for a marketing consultant and ask for recommendations from your followers.

Make sure to do your research on any potential consultants you find on social media. Look at their profiles, their work history, and any reviews or recommendations they have received from previous clients.

By using a combination of these methods, you'll be able to find a wide range of marketing consultants to choose from. Remember to take your time and do your research to ensure that you're finding someone who is a good fit for your business.

Use Freelance Platforms

If you're looking to hire a marketing consultant, freelance platforms like Fiverr, Freelancer.com, and Upwork can be a great place to start.

These platforms allow you to post a job description and receive proposals from freelancers who are interested in working with you. You can view each freelancer's profile, work history, and reviews from past clients to help you make your decision.

Attend Networking Events

Finally, attending networking events can be a great way to meet marketing consultants in person. Look for events in your industry or community and attend them to meet other business owners and professionals. You may find that some of them are marketing consultants themselves or can recommend someone they've worked with in the past.

By using these methods, you'll be able to find a wide range of marketing consultants to choose from. The key is to take your time and do your research to ensure that you're finding someone who is a good fit for your business.

Final Thoughts

Hiring a marketing consultant can be a game-changer for your business, providing you with access to specialized expertise, fresh perspectives, and scalable marketing strategies. To hire the right consultant for your business, start by defining your marketing objectives and identifying your KPIs. From there, leverage your network and use freelance platforms to find potential consultants and attend networking events to meet them in person.

Remember to take your time and do your research to ensure that you're finding someone who is a good fit for your business. And if you want to grow your brand awareness and increase your sales using content marketing – schedule your free 30-min discovery call with me, and find out right away if we're a good fit!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)