A small business marketing consultant can provide a fresh pair of eyes with new perspectives and out-of-the-box ideas to boost your marketing. Many brands (small or mid-size) are consciously investing in hiring marketing consultants to scale their business to new heights.
Ever wondered how to:
- Create awareness about your services?
- Cost-effectively generate leads?
- Budget for your marketing efforts?
- Track your campaign’s performance?
- Keep prospects engaged throughout the sales cycle?
- Convert those prized leads?
- Gain those evergreen reviews and referrals?
- Manage a marketing agency?
A small business marketing consultant can help you with the questions above.
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Many small business owners still rely on traditional marketing efforts to grow their business, like my friend, Nick, a proud owner of a staffing agency. His agency relies heavily on its sales agents’ cold calling to generate leads. There is no problem with this approach except a big one – it is expensive and likely inefficient given the new-age scenario.
As per CareerExplorer, a median salary of an advertising sales agent in the United States is $52,666 per year. Now, imagine an army of sales agents…Oops! Not easy for a small business owner!
So, what can Nick do instead? Maybe hire a digital marketing agency?
Not a bad idea. But for a small business owner, it is often hard to select the right agency.
Agencies come in different sizes and areas of expertise. For example, Neil Patel, an influential marketing personality, runs an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) agency. Undoubtedly, his agency will be great at SEO. But how would a business owner know if their company needs SEO or a different strategy to grow its topline?
Also, agencies will ask you to commit long-term (Imagine marrying a person you hardly know!) and continue upselling services you probably don’t need.
When to Hire a small business marketing consultant?
A marketing consultant can act as a bridge to a digital marketing agency or help scale your current marketing efforts. A consultant will help strategize and map the right marketing approach to take. They will analyze the competition, understand industry trends, and build a marketing roadmap.
A consultant typically works on a project basis and can be used strategically as per your marketing needs. For example, you can hire a marketing consultant to build a roadmap for all your marketing campaigns. Or create a content calendar based on your company’s content marketing strategy.
How much does a small business consultant cost?
A marketing consultant usually charges between $65 and $300 per hour. Typically, a 2-3 week-long consulting project will cost you $2,000-$10,000. Pricing depends on several factors, such as:
- Scope of work
- Complexity of project
- Industry
- Consultant’s experience, etc.
A marketing consultant will send you a proposal with the project scope, estimated cost, and timeline. You will require to give your approval to start the project.
Steps a marketing consultant will take to skyrocket your business
A marketing consultant is not superhuman, but they know the turf and can support a brand sail through easily. Digital marketing trends indeed keep changing – not to worry! A consultant will help you keep up with the latest in marketing and ensure your visibility.
1. Understand your business
Consultants are active listeners and will spend time understanding your business. They will deep dive into business objectives, vision, mission, revenue and profitability, products and services, strengths, challenges, etc. Consultants usually rely on frameworks such as SWOT analysis, Porter’s Five Forces, etc., for their understanding.
2. Segment your customers
A consultant may segment your customers by geography, demographics, psychographics (lifestyle, values, etc.), and behavioral patterns (usage, intent, etc.). They will then bucket them into separate priority groups (such as platinum, gold, and silver) and target them with customized marketing campaigns.
3. Analyze your industry
A consultant will conduct an in-depth industry analysis. They will analyze your competition, the latest trends, and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) impacting your industry. Keeping their eyes peeled on your competition’s strategies, they will start crafting your marketing strategy. You may also see a persistent use of sites such as Semrush that track keywords your competition is ranking.
4. Devise a marketing strategy
With arms and ammunitions ready, finally, it’s time to get into the battlefield!!
Based on the analysis, a digital marketing consultant will start devising your marketing strategy. They will set goals and identify KPIs, such as website traffic, sales, signups, etc., to track performance against targets.
Your site’s digital sales funnel (see figure below) will be keenly observed under a magnifying glass, and a consultant will suggest various steps to improve engagement at each customer touchpoint.
In building awareness, a digital consultant will advise on popular online marketing channels, such as email marketing, SEO, paid advertisements, and content marketing. Social media channels are again a winner in building customers’ interest in your brand. Partnering with the right set of bloggers, niche YouTube channels, and influencers could be crucial too.
A consultant will enhance your website and social media presence to generate more leads and sales conversions. They will identify where customers are lost at different touchpoints and bridge that gap. Furthermore, they will create a plan to improve customer loyalty and lifetime value (CLV) with the help of content and social media channels.
Digital Sales Funnel
5. Plan your Marketing Budget
The mantra is to look at the marketing budget of companies in your industry or similar companies in other sectors to arrive at a number. The consultant will also look at various options to split the budget across tactics (SEO, content creation, etc.).
A small business marketing consultant will audit your marketing stack and assign a budget for necessary software purchases and upgrades. An experienced consultant will also keep a buffer for unexpected expenses and testing new marketing tactics.
6. Devise an Execution Plan
Besides being futuristic, your goals need to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound). A SMART example of a marketing goal is to increase the website traffic by 300% by the end of Q4, 2021. The consultant will ensure that these goals are not too aspirational or vague, leading to aimless spending.
A consultant will list the actions to be taken. They will map the project flow on a structured timeline, such as a Gantt chart, to specify each marketing activity’s start, duration, and end date. They will capture details such as cost, resources needed, project manager, etc.
7. Set useful KPIs to track performance
All marketing efforts should be data-driven, and a company should be able to understand which campaigns or channels are bringing customers. A consultant will select KPIs that help track your marketing activities’ performance and keep your team/ agency accountable.
It is essential to ensure that KPIs align with your organizational goals. You do not want traffic on your site that does not convert to paying customers. KPIs should be both activity-specific and ones that align with company goals. Leading activity-based KPIs are visits, impressions, and bounce rate, while business-aligned KPIs are CPA (cost per acquisition), revenues, and conversions
Tips from OPSVISE
You may decide to hire a marketing agency or build an in-house marketing team. A small business marketing consultant can set up new processes and manage crucial projects in either case.
If you decide to outsource your marketing, a consultant will be valuable in selecting agencies that are the best fit to achieve your business goals. Vendor selection requires screening a list of vendors, finding the right match, negotiating prices, and scanning terms and agreements. Also, processes around managing agency work, auditing marketing results, etc., need to be planned to function smoothly.
Lastly, for an in-house marketing team, consultants can advise on the best-fit solutions and software (MarTech stack) for CRM, AB testing, content hub creation, lead generation, marketing analytics, and data visualization. The right solutions for workflow management, hiring, and training can significantly increase efficiency and save costs for a small business.
Opsvise is a a digital marketing consulting firm for small and medium businesses. We devise an online marketing strategy for your business, manage digital marketing agencies for you, and build a right marketing stack to meet your goals.
