A marketing consultant is a very skilled professional who understand analysis, what motivates consumers and how to put strategies in place to improve business.
Some people confuse advertising agencies and marketing consultants, assuming that marketing consultants do the same thing but independent from an agency. However, the two are very different although they perform complementary functions.
If you know what message to advertise, you would hire an advertising agency to create ads. They have incredibly creative teams comprised of art directors, copywriters and graphic designers who will help deliver the message in a fresh and engaging way through a commercial or other ad campaign.
A marketing consultant, in contrast, is the person who helps a company decide how to best engage existing clients. Additionally, the marketing consultant will help to determine who else might be enticed to try the product or service and how to expand the client base. A marketing consultant looks at the existing business model and then, using analytical tools, considers the market potential and develops a strategy to achieve larger goals. Throughout the process the marketing consultant ensures adherence to the company’s mission and measures success, testing response and tracking results while implementing a comprehensive strategic marketing plan.
YOU NEED A MARKETING CONSULTANT IF YOU:
- Want to build your business
- Need to set well-defined goals
- Require a solid strategic marketing plan with both short- and long-term goals
- Need help monitoring key metrics to measure success
- Are uncertain what key metrics would be (things such as daily foot traffic, lead to sale conversion ratios, website traffic, social media engagement, incoming calls or leads, profit margins)
- Want to improve relations and loyalty with existing clients
- Desire to expand into new markets and attract new customers
An experienced marketing consultant will be well worth the cost of assessing and improving your business.
WHAT ARE A TYPICAL INTERNET MARKETING CONSULTANT’S ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES?
There are many different ways that a marketing consultant can help an organization, with rolesas varied as there are industries and service providers.
HERE ARE SOME TYPICAL RESPONSIBILITIES CONTRACTED TO MARKETING CONSULTANTS:
- Identify new opportunities to engage with existing and new clients
- Evaluate existing marketing materials, social media and advertising, determining how successfully these target customers and generate sales
- Shape company branding, the identity of a company and how well it resonates with the desired demographic (is it professional? unique? recognizable?)
- Manage the brand if something happens to damage a company’s reputation – damage control so to speak
- Maximize lifetime customer value by getting former customers to return more often, perhaps with new product or service opportunities
- Improve client engagement through social media, creating innovative campaigns on various media that are integrated for optimal success and managing interactions with customers
- Coordinate content platforms such as website, blog and landing pages
- Write content mindful of Search Engine Optimization keywords to generate organic search engine rankings
- Manage email and social media marketing campaigns, online advertising, mobile and local marketing
- Track and review analytics and conversions to benchmark success and achieve optimal results
As you can see the roles of marketing consultants are quite diverse, which is why it helps to know which skills are best suited to your needs.