“That’s a neat billboard. I think I’ll call them!”
That’s not something you hear much of anymore, or think of yourself as you drive down the highway. It’s a rare day when you see a massive billboard for a church or tech company or retail store miles upon miles away and decide “Yep. I’m going.”
We’re pretty sure that reading the billboard content and writing down the number on it might fall under the category of “distracted driving.” But that’s beside the point. The main point is that customers today need more than a touch-and-go attempt at advertising.
Are you still spending bookoo bucks on direct-mail flyers and other similar marketing materials? If this is the case, you are wasting your time and money. It leads to a big investment with little ROI.
And it’s not your fault if you are still relying on these materials to shine in your industry. You have a lot to deal with, and you may tend to go for the traditional marketing methods that worked in the past.
And that is the very essence of why you need marketing consulting for your business.
What Is Marketing Consulting?
You have heard of sales consultancy, or using a sales consultant from an external agency to close more sales.
Marketing consulting is, in a nutshell, when you outsource your marketing efforts. Or, for your overarching strategy. Your marketing consultant is that same kind of external agent. They are who you go to for advice when you need to create and implement your business’s marketing strategy.
They wear a lot of hats. Your marketing consultant expert will help you to align your brand values with the messages they send to your audience via marketing. The right marketing consulting firms will help you understand all the details of your marketing plan. Then, they help you create and, often, assist you in putting it into action.
When you take on a marketing consultant, they come from a marketing consulting firm. This means they surround themselves with fellow marketing professionals. They all dedicate themselves to being the best in outsourcing that they can be.
All in all, consultants’ services go far beyond all those tasks. But we will get further into that later.
What Does a Marketing Consultant Do?
Like we said, marketing consulting is a role that involves a lot of responsibility. To make it clearer to you why you would benefit so much from the services that come with consultancy marketing, we broke it down into a list.
Below, you will find nine areas that your consultant can help you improve. As you will soon see, they are vital steps they will take to improve your business as a whole.
Each of these is what most normal marketing consulting firms do. And for the sake of simplicity, we will use the singular “marketing consultant” in the following content. But keep in mind that there are some marketing agencies that go above and beyond for their clients. These types of agencies far exceed the scope we provide here to deliver your own personal success story.
Creates Marketing Blueprint
First up, you need a blueprint. This is a similar process to when you start any new business journey. Think of it as your roadmap. Think of it as your literal blueprint that outlines your strategy. Here, your marketing consulting pros in particular serve as the master architects.
How can you carry out a plan without instructions? When you were younger, did you start a paper without an outline? Did you start driving without studying for your permit test? No. And you cannot make crucial decisions for your company without outlining them with a blueprint first.
This is by no means the final stage in your marketing strategy. But it is the most important first step in creating one to begin with.
It also serves as part of your scope to determine how you and your firm will work together. It can lay out what steps they will take on your behalf for your marketing plan.
Creates and Implements Specific Marketing Strategy
After your marketing consulting agency works with you to create your blueprint, they start to get their hands dirty.
This is the step when you really start to realize how much goes into your strategy. But the good news is that you don’t have to stress about going at it alone; you already have your marketing consulting firm in your corner.
Without them in this step, you may fall back into the old habits of trying any regular tactic. The specific marketing strategy the two of you choose together ensures you follow the exact steps to business growth.
They will help you relearn the way you think about marketing materials, tactics and ultimate steps to take. This way, you can forget all about those billboards and mail-in correspondence that might not work as well as they once did.
Conducts Marketing Consulting
Sure, this one may seem obvious. But we mean it. Your marketing consulting team will continue to conduct marketing consulting.
We understand that this may seem – well – redundant? But it is important to note that generic consulting firms might give you a blueprint and general strategy and wash their hands of the matter. Top-tier consulting firms follow up all the time.
The consulting process does not end with the first couple of steps. It entails monitoring, measuring, remeasuring and some more monitoring. You two will be a team, not a hierarchy.
Creates Marketing Plan
Your strategy is your holistic approach to achieving your marketing goals. Your marketing plan is the road you take to get to that destination or the specific ways you go about achieving your marketing goals.
A lot of people get them mixed up, but do remember that they are as equally important as they are different.
Upon hiring them, your marketing consulting firm will take it upon themselves to know your business, head to toe. At the end of the day, they should pretty much know your business better than you do. Crazy, right?
Not so much. Their in-depth research of who you are and what you are all about allowing them to custom-fit your marketing plan to your specific needs.
The best firms make sure that your plan is measurable. Then, it is easier to reassess and adjust where you need to as it unfolds. These measurable, “mini” goals should give you a timeframe of when you need to complete certain tasks that fall under your complete plan.
You will have metrics to use, an audience to target, content to put out and more.
“No stone left unturned” is the name of the game.
Helps Implement Technological Tools
Ah, yes. The dreaded tech stack; dreaded, at least, for those who prefer traditional marketing methods.
If that sounds like you, stop dreading it! Easier said than done. But with the help of a quality marketing consulting team, it turns into – dare we say it – fun.
You need modern tools and technology to survive and thrive in your industry. And your consultant can come in and analyze which ones you are using right now, checking to see if they are effective or not so much. They base this analysis on their extensive research about your business.
With that in mind, they can suggest the most appropriate and effective new tech tools for your organization. You want results, and they do too. Your success is their success, all corniness aside.
There are too many tech tools out there to list here. But email tracking, automation software and content management are some that you can expect to hear about from them.
Helps Drive Traffic, Generate Leads and Nurture Leads
As you know, leads are useless if they are not quality ones. But it can get tricky when you try to pinpoint why some of yours are not effective. There are tons of reasons this could be, and you may not have the training in this area to understand all the logistics.
We don’t fault you for that; you have your areas of expertise, and we have ours.
Your marketing consulting agency arms itself with pros in this aspect. They check out what you are doing for lead generation right now and determine what you could be doing to make it better. Plus, they know that leads do not end with generating them. You have to nurture them to turn them into prospects, then loyal customers who want to stay.
There are other strategies they can put into place for you to make sure you deal with these aspects. These may include SEO-focused blog content, an increase in site traffic and the right landing pages and CTAs.
They will even help you to perfect the art of marketing campaigns that nurture your leads along the buyer journey. This will move them down your sales funnel and right where you want them to end up.
Helps You With Social Media Marketing
It is a common mispractice to assume that social media is an easy feat. And it can be, if you have the right resources to optimize your content there. Again, this is where your consultancy firm comes in.
A lot of the time, if you use it incorrectly as a content creator, it does more harm than good.
On your own, you have to figure out what platform to use for what content and when to post. The idea of what outlet will work the best for you is a hassle in and of itself. But your consultant is a pro in this area, with countless training and firsthand experience under their belt.
Once they help you with those areas, they will make sure they engage with your audience all the time.
Helps You With Content Marketing
We keep saying that word: “content.” And we have good reason to since it is a crucial element in your marketing strategy and plan.
It warrants its own strategy, called a content strategy. Your consultant applies their know-how to optimize your content for your target market.
Helps With SEO Strategy
This is another area where you need to turn to the experts. SEO has a lot of moving parts, but they all work together to beat your competition.
Not only that, but your personalized SEO strategy will complete the ultimate goal. This is to improve your marketing strategy and your customer relationships.
Some Top-Notch Marketing Consulting Firms Provide:
The best marketing consulting firms hit the mark, but they also go beyond that.
Here are some of the programs, tools and techniques they might provide for you:
- Affiliate Management Programs
- Business Coaching
- Communication Training and Consulting
- Ecommerce Logistics Management
- DIY Courses
Necessary Skills Every Marketing Consultant Should Have
Finally, you need to look for some key qualities and skills in your marketing consultant, or the agency you use for business development.
Here are some of the most important ones:
- Online marketing
- Social media marketing
- Nonprofit marketing
- Copywriting
- Print or TV advertising
- Public relations
- Direct response marketing
Conclusion
There are certain things that run-of-the-mill, “ordinary” marketing agencies will provide for you.
But you are no ordinary business professional. Likewise, your business is unique and far from the ordinary. So why would you aim for the norm with your marketing agency and stop there?
You don’t have to when you come to Business Marketing Engine for your marketing solutions. Check out our podcast and blog for tips from today’s business leaders and fellow entrepreneurs.
For the real growth to happen, though, click here to contact Business Marketing Engine today.
