Nervous about that big marketing project looming on the horizon? You may want to hire a marketing consultant to guide you, both logistically and creatively.
What Does a marketing consultant do?
A marketing consultant is a hired professional who can help you with a wide range of marketing goals, from developing your marketing plan to helping you build and monetize a blog.
Or perhaps you want to publish a book? Create a website? Design a social media marketing strategy? Marketing consultants know what you need to do, who you need to hire, and what training you’d need if you were to do the project yourself.
They are your advisor and liaison as you navigate your business marketing strategies in web design, social media, graphics, publishing, SEO, and other marketing focuses.
If you’re not sure what type of marketing help you need, or if you’re not familiar with the different marketing options available, a marketing consultant can give you a clear overview and be a great resource to help lay out your business marketing strategy.
In this blog post, we’ll list 13 projects a marketing consultant can help with, and give some examples of the types of learning you can acquire from having a marketing advisor in your corner.
Keep in mind, marketing gurus typically have a variety of practical resources they can offer their clients, too, such as preferred printers, web designers, and social media experts. They likely have relationships with creative professionals they can recommend for a variety of marketing needs such as photographers, writers, and media contacts.
A marketing consultant can help you choose the best software programs and hardware setup for your business marketing strategy, and they can help you to market your business effectively and efficiently.
13 ways a marketing consultant can help your business:
1. Publish a book
If you’ve ever wanted to write a book, a marketing consultant can help you get your book published. They can help with everything from developing the marketing plan for your book to getting it listed on Amazon and other online stores.
A marketing consultant can help you self-publish.
They can teach you how to:
- Plan your book
- Write your book
- Have your book edited
- Layout your pages
- Create a front cover
- Setup print and ebook files
- Distribute your book
A marketing consultant can teach you how to publish a book yourself, or they can advice you on getting it published through a publishing company. They can help with the planning stages, writing, editing, layout and design, and marketing of your book.
2. Publish a magazine
Do you have a great idea for a magazine but don’t know where to start? A marketing consultant can help you get your magazine printed and distributed. They can also help with marketing your magazine, both online and offline.
For magazine publishing hire a marketing consultant to help you:
- Structure your magazine: Determine page count, percentage of editorial to images and ads
- Calculate ad sales pricing
- Create a media kit
- Layout your magazine
- Curate your photography: self-authored, stock purchases, hiring professionals
- Set up your file according to print specs
- Distribute your magazine
A marketing consultant can help you take your magazine from idea to published work. They can help with the planning stages, layout and design, marketing of your magazine, and getting it printed and distributed.
Magazine design is much more than simply laying out text and images on a page. To create an effective and visually appealing magazine, you need to consider things like:
- The overall look and feel of the magazine
- How to use typography effectively
- What kind of images will be most effective
- How to layout pages for maximum impact
- Designing covers that stand out from the competition
Marketing consultants typically have years of experience designing publications and can offer you guidance and advice on how to design an effective magazine.
3. Build, publish and monitize a blog
Blogs have become valuable tools for today’s small businesses. If you’re not sure how to build a blog, or if you need help marketing your blog, try hiring a professional to guide you.
For blog hosting, a marketing consultant can help you:
- Setup your blog
- Host your blog
- Pick your blog name or niche
- Design your blog site
- Write effective blog posts
- Market your blog
If your blog will be hosted on your business website, a marketing consultant can teach you how to use SEO tools to rank higher on the search engines results pages.
Here are some tips for creating a successful blog:
- Make sure people are interested in what you have to say. There’s no point in blogging for yourself. That’s called a diary.
- Understand the mechanics behind creating and hosting a blog website or page. The initial setup of your blog will be a project that will take up much of your time initially, but less so as your systems are established and running well.
- Know that SEO plays a huge role in the success of a monetized blog and be prepared to learn or hire out for it.
4. Plan your social media marketing strategy
Are you using social media for your business but not seeing results? If so, it may be time to hire a marketing consultant. A marketing consultant can help you take your social media marketing from idea to successful strategy.
Some marketing consultants do hands-on social media management for their clients and others teach their clients how to do their social media management themselves. Alternately, the marketing professional you hire might act as an agent for you, researching providers, and negotiating for best value/costs on your behalf.
For social media marketing, hire a marketing consultant to help:
- Determine which social platforms are best for your niche
- Setup your social media accounts
- Create a social media marketing plan
- Develop content for social media posts
- Advertise on social media platforms
A marketing consultant can help you develop an effective social media marketing plan that will help you reach your target audience. They can also provide training on how to use various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. This will help you get the most out of your social media marketing efforts.
5. Build your website
If you don’t have a website for your business, or if you have a website but it’s not effective, you can hire a marketing consultant to help. A marketing consultant can build a basic WordPress website for you or teach you how to do it yourself.
For web design, hire a marketing consultant to help:
• Choose and register your domain name
• Set up your Web hosting
• Install and setup WordPress
• Create pages, posts, and menus
• Add plugins and themes
• Build a blog
If your website is more complicated the marketing consultant you hire may advise you to seek out a web design and SEO company to take on your web build project. The consultant can advise you on which companies are most capable of handling the job, interview the companies with you using video-conferencing, and help direct the project if necessary.
6. Increase your website SEO
If you’re not happy with your website ranking or if you’re not seeing any traffic, a marketing consultant can help you understand how you can increase your website’s search engine optimization.
For website SEO, hire a marketing consultant to help or teach you to:
- Understand the various methods of website SEO
- Design your website SEO strategy and understand dollar and time costs
- Have a plan for DIY or who to hire
Your marketing consultant can help you with SEO basics as well as advise you on your next steps for massive growth. They can provide you with tested SEO providers if you’d prefer to hand off your website SEO to a specialist company.
7. Create printed sales materials
If you’re looking to promote your business offline, a marketing consultant can help you create print materials such as brochures, sales sheets, postcards, and trade-show materials.
For print jobs, hire a marketing consultant to help:
- Conceptualize what you are trying to create
- Write the sales or informational copy
- Choose photos or purchase stock
- Layout the project
- Make print projects press-ready
- Who to print your job with
Don’t discount the benefit of creating printed sales materials for your business. Printed products are an important part of marketing because they provide a physical product that can be distributed to potential customers.
Print and trade-show marketing can be extremely beneficial for companies because it allows them to reach a large, targeted audience with their message.
Additionally, printed products are often more memorable than other forms of marketing, which means that customers are more likely to remember a company’s message.
8. Create your business logo
If you need a logo but aren’t sure where to start, a marketing consultant can help. A marketing consultant can provide you with logo design options and help you choose the right one for your business. They can also teach you how to create a logo yourself using various software programs or hire out to a crowd-sourcing design website such as 99designs.
A marketing consultant can create your logo or guide you on how to create it yourself.
They can:
- Help you understand what a good logo design is and isn’t
- Create your logo in all necessary formats for print, web and other media
- Show you how to register your logo (if you need to)
- Recommend logo creators
Logo design is typically where business owners decide they are going to save money and do it themselves. And many times they can. But your company’s logo design is so important—and so costly if you get it wrong—it at least warrants guidance from a professional.
Hire a consultant to guide you, design your logo for you, or help you to hire a crowd-sourced designer.
9. Build your brand
If your business is new, or if your business branding is lacking, a marketing consultant can help you build your brand by developing a brand strategy and identity. A marketing consultant can also create, or teach you to create, a style guide for your business.
A marketing consultant can help with your business branding by:
- Building a strong brand foundation
- Creating a brand strategy and visual identity
- Developing marketing materials that reflect your brand
- Making sure all of your marketing is cohesive.
Business branding is more than just your company logo. Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business, especially in today’s highly competitive marketplace.
A strong brand can help a company to stand out from its competitors and build customer loyalty. It can also increase awareness of the company and its products, which can lead to increased sales.
There are many different ways to create a strong brand for your business. A marketing consultant can help you to identify your target market and develop a branding strategy that will appeal to them.
10. Plan your video marketing strategy
If you want to get into video marketing but don’t know where to start, a marketing consultant can help. A marketing consultant can teach you how to create videos that promote your business, product, or service. They can also help you understand the different types of video marketing and which ones would be most effective for your business.
For video marketing, hire a consultant to help you:
- Determine the right video marketing strategies for you
- Teach you how to set up and optimize your YouTube or other video platforms
- Create videos for your business
- Teach you how to create and edit videos yourself
Do you have a video project you need help with? A marketing consultant can help you vet and hire the right videographer for the job or the right video editor for videos you’ve taken yourself.
If you have ongoing video marketing needs—whether shooting, editing, or publishing— a good marketing consultant can help you define the services you need, find the best companies to do the job, and help you negotiate the best pricing.
11. Create a course and sell it online
If you’re an expert on a topic and want to create a course to teach others, a marketing consultant can help you do just that. They can help you develop the content for your course, get it online and marketed properly, and even help you sell it.
To create and sell an online course hire a marketing consultant to help you:
- Determine whether your skill or expertise is ideal for a course
- Develop the content for your course
- Market and sell your course online
Online courses are becoming more and more popular. Smart business owners are leveraging their expertise and creating courses to sell to their audience through platforms such as Teachable or Thinkific.
But what if you don’t know where to start?
That’s where a marketing consultant comes in. A marketing consultant can help you with everything from developing your course content to designing your marketing materials to launching your campaign.
12. Create a landing page and sales funnel
If you’re looking to create a landing page for your business or product, a marketing consultant can help. They can also help you develop a sales funnel to get more leads and conversions from your website traffic.
Example of a sales funnel:
A marketing consultant can teach you how to:
- Create effective landing-pages
- Set up and track conversion goals
- Build a sales funnel
- Learn how to create sales funnels yourself
Landing pages and sales funnels are an important part of the sales process.
A marketing consultant can help you create and design high-converting landing pages and sales funnels that will increase your conversion rate and generate more leads. They can also advise on the best way to convert those leads into paying customers.
A marketing consultant can guide you as you create your own sales funnels and landing pages, create the funnels and pages for you, or advise you on how to find other funnel creators to do the job.
13. Explore paid advertising
If you’re not sure where to start with paid advertising, or if you’ve been running ads but are not seeing the results you want, a marketing consultant can help. You want someone who can teach you how to set up and run effective PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns that will reach your target audience and generate leads and sales.
If you want an agency to do your ongoing paid advertising for you a marketing consultant can help you find the right one.
For paid advertising, a marketing consultant can help you:
- Understand the different types of paid advertising
- Set up and run effective PPC campaigns
- Generate leads and sales from your PPC campaigns
- Advise you on other effective paid advertising
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a great way to get your business or marketing campaign off the ground. It can also be very expensive if not done well. A marketing consultant can advise you on best practices to help you self-manage your PPC campaign, or they can help you hire a relevant company to manage your paid advertising for you.
Conclusion
Marketing consultants offer a wide range of services that can help businesses with their marketing efforts. From helping to build a brand to creating marketing materials, websites, and marketing campaigns, marketing consultants can provide the expertise and guidance businesses need to succeed.
Marketing consultants can be a valuable resource for small businesses by referring the best vendors, resources, and freelancers to hire for each marketing need.
From publishing to graphic design, content creation, videography, photography, websites, SEO, and more, having someone who can do the job and be a trusted advisor for large projects can give business owners strong peace of mind.
In today’s modern market, having a professional marketing advisor can make the key difference, catapulting your business above the competition.