With all the readily accessible marketing tools available these days, there are many companies implementing and delivering their own marketing activity. This is always a good thing IF a company has the right knowledge, resources, expertise and above all, time. Many do, but many don’t, and this is why some companies should consider engaging a marketing consultant.
Perhaps you want to understand what the benefits of hiring a marketing consultant could bring to your business? Perhaps your current activities are not quite doing what you need. Perhaps you want an independent view or maybe you need to review your current strategy. Whatever your reasons to consider hiring a consultant; a marketing consultant is a professional marketer who can be brought into a business to help improve your marketing efforts. They do this by assessing and understanding your business and drawing up marketing strategies that will help you communicate your message to your customers.
A consultant may well begin by assessing your business; where it is now and where it wants to be as a result of effective marketing activities. They will have a wide variety of techniques and tactics at their disposal to develop a marketing plan. A consultant will help you to create a marketing plan, help you decide on best messaging and propose the most effective marketing mix to best communicate your message.
Additionally, once a marketing plan has been decided the consultant may well be in a position to help you to execute that plan, optimising and assessing the performance of your marketing and ultimately making you more successful. They will help your business to grow with better marketing.
Being in business means competition and, whatever sector you are in, there is always the challenge of finding new customers and/or retaining the customers that you have. This is called marketing. But marketing costs money and time to effectively deliver and if you are a business owner or manager, and are doing the marketing yourself, be warned, this takes time and knowledge. Do you have this time and knowledge or is your time better invested in improving the business or just focusing on the day job? Some business owners get it so right, in that case, if you are happy to continue doing so and you have the time to do it, great, keep doing the good work!
Marketing is constantly changing; technology is constantly on the move and new opportunities and ways to target your customers are always changing, particularly when it comes to the internet and the dreaded social media.
No doubt you will have a website. If not, invest in one NOW. A website should sit at the centre of your marketing strategy. Customers will find you because of it, they’ll be able to research your products and services from it, they’ll be able to communicate and potentially purchase through it. But the internet is changing rapidly, what happens when your website becomes unfit to perform its role? How do you know when your website is no longer performing as it should? This is where a consultant can help you. Either to develop a new site or better improve the digital footprint that you have.
Marketing consultants don’t just look at your website, they can provide insight into the market, your competitors, best practice etc + they keep up-to-date with the latest techniques and strategies. Ultimately, marketing consultants will understand how to make marketing work harder for your business. I can think of many reasons that businesses should choose to engage or in fact need a marketing expert, but price will also be a determining factor.
So, when it comes to money, the cost will usually be calculated on a day rate or an hour rate and sometimes as a project. The nature and challenges of the brief and the marketing objectives will influence the pricing structure. As a rule, a senior marketing consultant with at least 20 years’ experience spanning a wide variety of sectors and with a proven track record could charge between £500 and £1000 per day. The more days that you hire and the more commitment you make, it is likely that the cost will reduce. Sometimes consultants also have external costs and fees that will be quoted separately, but elements like travel and expenses are usually incorporated into the fee.
You might think (wrongly!) that hiring someone is the cheaper solution for your marketing. Salaries for marketers will vary on location of your business and the candidate experience levels. As a generalisation, if you were
looking to hire a Marketing assistant it could cost you c£25,000 per annum, marketing managers between £25,000 and £55,000, Marketing Directors could be anywhere from £55,000 to well in excess of £100k. In addition, there is the time required to find the right person and, if you employ an agency there are costs there of up to 15% of the final salary package on offer.
Therefore, another great benefit of hiring a consultant is that you can hire them as when needed. You may need Marketing Director level consultancy for a short time to help you get organised, define the strategy and direct your team. It could be that it is much more cost effective to hire a Marketing Director for a short time to achieve this goal, falling back on the experience of your team once the goals and direction have been set.
At Bath Marketing Consultancy our ethos is one of adding value and creating impact. We like talking to people; we like to be challenged and we like to create new relationships!
