What Kind of Marketing Consultant Do I Need?

Over the last five years marketing has moved to become one of the most important topics for the leaders of small and midsize companies. Understanding and embracing the importance of marketing to business success is critical in this hyper-competitive era.

The marketing consultant label is almost as confusing as the term marketing itself. There are consultants or, better referred to as marketing tacticians for everything from website designers and search engine optimizers to sales trainers or graphic designers.

A true marketing consultant is a critical strategist. If marketing is all the things a business will do find and keep customers an all-inclusive, strategic platform must come first. Consider what a Chief Marketing Officer’s responsibilities might be in a large firm. Than consider the fact that marketing is a full time responsibility, however for a closely-held business it usually does not require a full time staff member.

You need a marketing consultant to perform an evaluation of all the current “to market” activities the organization uses to engage customers. Then, based on this assessment a well-qualified marketing strategist will create a marketing plan. This plan will articulate your unique selling proposition (the USP) or brand statement, and outline all the action plan items required build a robust and sustainable process for finding and keeping customers.

Working with your company on a part time basis over the next several months or so, the consultant will implement your plan then mentor your team when it is time to get out of the way.