There was an engaging discussion on LinkedIn that posed the question:
“Do you think the first point of action for an SME should be to hire/use a marketing consultant or to try a few things themselves and then outsource to refine things?”
As a Marketing Consultant I hadn’t fully considered the impact of this choice before; I go in to organisations that need to revitalise their marketing practices, typically in response to a pressing business requirement. But equally I have been involved at the launch stage to set up marketing from scratch. The posing of this question challenged me to consider which is more beneficial to me and then more beneficial to clients. This post is in response to that question and considers when it is a good time to get a Marketing Consultant involved.
But first…
Why should you use a Marketing Consultant? What do they really do?!
For the purpose of this narrative, I am making the assumption that there are two types of Marketing Consultant: one that is focused on strategy, is technology agnostic and applies Marketing Knowledge to resolve business issues, and the second is tied to a platform, such as an email campaign tool or to a service type – such as SEO Consultant, or Digital Marketing Consultant. While both are important and valuable, the latter is not included within this discussion – specialist tools and services, like SEO, in my view, feature within the overall Marketing Strategy and should not be the sum of the Marketing Strategy.
A good Marketing Consultant is one that has learned about the rights and wrongs of marketing and has demonstrated an ability multiple times. A great Marketing Consultant is able to understand a business situation and then apply the relevant technologies, processes and people to achieve the objective.
To be great, you need to have experienced different: situations, people, targets, tools, ways of working… and have previously failed enough times to understand when something is looking dodgy in order to transform the outcome to one that is successful.
Based on this view, a Marketing Consultant is used to identify how Marketing can influence the desired business outcome and oversee the implementation of the strategy and the people that will deliver it. The Consultant will not just consider the Pay Per Click Campaign, but everything that feeds in to it, and is required following it, understanding complimentary technologies to deliver a rounded marketing strategy that achieves success.
The value of a Marketing Consultant should be quickly evident through what they say; but is only proved through successful delivery of the project. It is right that the Consultant should be able to justify their expense through productivity delivered. Often outsiders offer a non-financial value – knowledge that cannot always be achieved by internal teams, busy keeping up with daily tasks. Knowledge of what other organisations do, new technologies, new practices – knowledge that provides a new perspective on existing problems.
Back to the question posed.
There are two opportunities for when the Marketing Consultant is brought in: at the outset of the initiative (whether this is the formation of the business, launch of a new product or something else) or at a point post launch, following a period of organic development.
The role of a Marketing Consultant at business or product launch is to many, exciting. There is a blank canvass on which can be presented a strategy that starts at the beginning of marketing (with initial customer insights and product development choices) and extends through to post-purchase customer care, having identified classic Marketing frameworks like the 4/5/6/7 Ps of Marketing, whichever you were taught!, and the different approaches to Marketing required, whether Digital, Content, Relationship, Account-Based, Engagement, etc, or a suitable combination.
In contrast, the role changes when brought in following the business’s internal efforts, sometimes with a Marketing specialist employed, too often where the function is split between a non-marketing team that has capacity to take on the work. In such instances, a consultant needs to evaluate what is going on, what the objectives were and how the activities are set to meet these targets, and make recommendations to affect success. At this point, it might be prudent to implement a strategy, or a means to structure marketing activities in a different way… back to the many Ps of Marketing.
Both situations, regardless of the people already employed or otherwise, the tools in use, or not, or any processes being followed are united by one thing: a desire to achieve something.
With this in mind, perhaps the ‘when’ a consultant goes in is less important than the ‘why’.
As we know it is infrequent that a healthy person consults a medical doctor. It’s usually ill people! Likewise, there is a tendency to call on consultants when something isn’t right or when something ambitious needs doing. Something that needs the input of an outsider, a specialist, someone with a different skillset, or who has solved the problem before, or who can bring a different perspective on the current business situation.
My answer to the question posed on LinkedIn reflected this view. It should be considered that the stage at which a Marketing Consultant is employed is less important than the ‘why’. Having stated objectives allows for someone with an understanding of marketing principles and tools, to come in and translate the business requirement into an actionable Marketing Strategy. Then can the business employ appropriate people and resources in direct response to the challenges being faced. A good Marketing Strategy chooses the resources required, including people.
If you need a fresh perspective on your marketing activities, get in touch and let’s discuss what Headway Marketing can do for you.