Is Hiring an Independent Marketing Consultant Worth the Money?In an ideal scenario, any investment you make in an (effective) independent marketing consultant will be paid for many-fold by improved results and cost savings.

In other cases, it could be a giant waste.

Here are four situations where hiring one makes sense, and three where it doesn’t.

Should You Hire an Independent Marketing Consultant?  In These 4 Situations, Yes.

1. You’re Just Starting Out, with NO Marketing Experience

Starting a business is hard enough.  If you’ve never done marketing before, it’s even harder.

As a startup, you need everything: a logo, a website, and more.  That makes you very prone to:

  1. Wasting a lot of money on things that are overkill for your new business.
  2. Wasting a little money on something that costs you big time in lost opportunity.

Take website development, for example.

  • Some agencies will charge you thousands for a website that you don’t need yet, driving up costs unnecessarily.
  • Some freelancers will charge you next to nothing for a website that’s so bad, it pushes new customers away.

You’re also so focused on starting a business that you may forget to ask yourself questions that are essential to building revenue.  Who are your target and most profitable customers?  What are the best ways to reach them?  Is your pricing marketable?  What happens when a lead comes in the door?

In the case of a startup, a good independent marketing consultant will help you step back, take a breath, and focus on the right things.  Then they will help you figure out what you need, and a cost effective way to get there.  A session or two can save you time and money in the long run, and set you up for success in your new venture.

2. You Do Spend (or are About to Spend) a Lot of Money on Marketing, and You Have No Idea Whether It Works Or Not

Maybe you’ve got a marketing agency on retainer that sends you monthly reports you don’t understand.

Maybe you’ve invested a lot of money in marketing over the past few years, but haven’t been happy with revenue.

Maybe you’re about to drop a large chunk of money on a brand new website or marketing arrangement (like an agency or internal hire), but you’re feeling unsure.

A good independent marketing consultant will be able to cut through the cr%& and figure out what’s working for your business (and what’s not).  Then they’ll put you in a position to make good/better decisions about your marketing spend, and invest money in a way that produces results.

As an objective third party vested only in your overall success, they’ll be more focused on strategy and less partial to tired tactics.

Example: Some companies sell and derive revenue from pay-per-click marketing, and they’ll tell you that PPC is absolutely essential for your business.  Then they’ll spend your money on it with no ultimate accountability for overall revenue results.  How can you really know if PPC is best for your company?  And if you have no frame of reference for measuring pay-per-click success, how do you know what they’re doing is right?

An independent marketing consultant won’t start with a tactic.  They’ll start with a goal, develop a strategy to get there, and then find tactics to help.  Plus, they’ll help you find partners who can perform those tactics cost effectively.

3. You’re an Owner who Spends on Marketing, but Doesn’t have a Lot of Time to Manage It

When your marketing team or agency sends you a deliverable or new idea for review, do you:

  1. Say yes without really considering it because you don’t have time to deal with it?
  2. Let it sit on your desk for weeks with no action?
  3. Dismiss it because it’s yet another thing to add to your list?

None of those scenarios are helpful to the growth and success of your business.  In fact, they can be damaging.

By hiring an independent marketing consultant, you can shift some of that burden onto someone else.  Someone who is experienced enough to be a steward of your goals, and focused enough to make things happen correctly.  The best independent marketing consultants will also be versed in business strategy, so that they can help you identify and accomplish results that matter.

But make no mistake: you will still need to be involved on some level.  You’re the expert on your business, and you’ll need to partner with your independent marketing consultant to ensure a productive relationship.  (See #2 of when hiring one doesn’t make sense…)

4. You Have a Marketing Team-of-One

I see this a lot with small B2B industrial companies and family businesses.  They have the revenue to support a marketing employee, but:

  1. Only at a junior level, and/or
  2. They don’t have experience managing marketing people.

Some even have a junior person on their staff plus an agency, which can be a recipe for disaster.

If your junior person lacks the experience to…

  1. Shepherd the business vision and goals through the agency relationship,
  2. Challenge both the agency and the business to live up to their potentials, and
  3. Tactfully call bulls&% on either side if needed,

…money and resources will be wasted.

Even if you have a more seasoned marketing person, one brain on any given task leads to stagnant strategy and costly missteps.

By giving your marketing team-of-one access to an experienced independent marketing consultant, you give them a true partner in their success (and the success of your business).  You can also get outside perspective to identify holes and fill them to produce better results.

So when is hiring an independent marketing consultant a bad idea?

Just like there are some scenarios when hiring a consultant can be a great investment, some can be a giant waste of money.

1. Your Company is Struggling

An independent marketing consultant cannot fix something that’s just plain broken.  If you’re struggling to turn a profit on some aspect of your business, or you’re seeing revenue dive of a cliff, you’ve got bigger fish to fry than proactive marketing.  Fix those problems first, then turn your attention toward growth.

Marketing can help your business go from good to great.  It can rarely solve inherent issues.

2. You Don’t Want to Be Involved in Marketing at All

If an independent marketing consultant says something like, “Set it and forget it!” or “Leave all of your marketing to me without any work on your part,” it’s probably too good to be true.

Even the best independent marketing consultant will fail if you hire them and then don’t make yourself available to them as a resource.  Their outside perspective is only valid if it is paired with your knowledge and experience.  You also need to support their efforts, and when required, enact change at multiple levels of your organization.  They can take a lot of your plate and develop and shepherd a strategy, but it will work best if you take part.

3. You are Not Willing to Invest in Strategic Change

This can manifest itself in two ways.

  1. If you have a known tendency to ask for advice and then not follow it, don’t waste your money on an independent marketing consultant.  If you are not open to change, you will not get your money’s worth out of a collaborative engagement.
  2. Good marketing consultants don’t come cheaply, and hiring one may feel like a leap of faith.  Their experience will warrant compensation that may seem expensive, especially if priced on an hourly basis.

When evaluating a marketing consultant, think of their goals and projected results, and the impact that those projected results could have on your business.  For example:

  • If new customers have a average lifetime value of x, how many customers do their efforts have to acquire to make it worthwhile?
  • If they can raise a customer’s lifetime value by x%, what is that worth to your business in the long run?
  • If they can trim $x off your budget by finding more efficient ways to accomplish tasks, how much is that worth over the course of a few years?

Evaluate your investment in an independent marketing consultant on those terms, and the answer will probably be a lot clearer.

(P.S. If your independent marketing consultant doesn’t think about their own value to your business in the same way–run!)

Hiring an Independent Marketing Consultant: Which Camp are You In?

I am an independent marketing consultant, so perhaps this post is a bit self serving.  If you’re in a scenario where hiring one makes sense, I’d love to hear from you and better understand your goals.

If you’re not, that’s ok!  Collaborations work best when both parties are ready and able to make good things happen.  You can still send me a note if you need tactical marketing help like design or PPC.  I have a lot of contacts in the industry who specialize in those areas.