Finding Good Marketing Consulting: The Key to Success?
5.00/5Are you striving to grow your business? Are you looking for ways to reach new target groups or do you want to give your brand a face?
Are you struggling to break through the increasing competition or are sales figures declining, and you can’t quite put your finger on it?
You don’t have to manage all these problems and challenges on your own. Professional marketing consultants are there to work with you to find a way to increase your company’s sales or improve margins.
At least, that’s the goal that marketing consulting focuses on. Find out exactly what marketing consulting entails, how it can help your company, and how you can find good support here.
What Does Marketing Consulting Involve?
Marketing consulting is not a time-limited process and this is exactly where the specialty lies. The work does not stop with the development of a marketing strategy, but goes far beyond that.
The results are analyzed and evaluated together with the marketing consultant. Only in this way can optimization measures be taken that will also lead to the desired success in the long term.
In order to find out whether this has really occurred, the goals must be made measurable. Consequently, interim goals and main goals are clearly defined in advance.
Should the development take a different direction than the one you are used to, appropriate adjustments will be made. So you can be sure that you will not be left out in the cold halfway through. Marketing consultants accompany you all the way.
Having put the cart before the horse, let’s look at each of the aspects that professional marketing consulting can encompass.
1. Definition of objectives
In a good marketing consultancy, the formulation of objectives should lead the way. As already described, this is the only way to measure whether the consulting was successful. They form the basis for a solid strategy.
2. The SWOT analysis
The SWOT analysis first deals with the current situation of your company. Here, on the one hand, weaknesses of the company, but also strengths and opportunities are highlighted.
In addition, you can take a look at risks by using this method. Through the SWOT analysis, consulting can focus on ironing out weaknesses and still promoting strengths.
3. Competition and market analysis
In order to achieve the client’s goals, it is inevitable to look at the market and the competition. Therefore, any good marketing consultant will guide you in the appropriate analysis.
4. Definition and analysis of the target groups
At this point, the existing target group is defined and analyzed. If necessary, opportunities to develop new target groups are also sought here.
5. Customer benefit and USP (unique selling point)
What makes your product special, and what benefits does it have for the customer? These two aspects are essential for the development of a marketing strategy and are therefore worked out in advance.
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6. Development of the marketing strategies
Now that thorough preliminary work has been done, it’s time for the actual development of the marketing concepts. This should be anything but a vague guideline, but rather very concrete specifications.
This also includes creating an appropriate marketing plan in which all measures are recorded. This will then be used to check whether the agreed goals have been achieved. As already discussed, the controlling of marketing is also part of a marketing consultancy.
What Are the Benefits of Marketing Consulting?
You can certainly take charge of developing and optimizing your marketing strategy without professional support, but marketing consulting offers significant advantages that can be summed up in three meaningful words: Clarity, efficiency, and transparency.
Working with a professional marketing consultancy ensures that you develop a guide for your complete marketing that includes clear and distinct guidelines. This uniformity in turn promotes clear communication to customers and partners externally as well as structuredness internally.
Through the concretely worked out guidelines, all participants know exactly in which form they are involved in the process, which results in an increase in effectiveness and efficiency. Finally, when cooperating with the marketing consultant, you can at any time question how successful the marketing strategy is, which gives you complete transparency.
How Can I Recognize a Good Service Provider?
There are many marketing agencies. All you have to do is enter the relevant words into the search engine, and you will be provided with a number of results. This raises the legitimate question of how to find the right service provider.
Consulting agency vs. marketing consultant
As a first step, you should think about whether you want to turn to an agency or to an independent business consultant. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages.
Agencies are usually a company with a multi-member team of different specialists. This way, you can be sure that you can expect the appropriate services even for large orders. A disadvantage with large agencies can be longer communication channels, as the various work assignments are delegated within the team.
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Find what you're looking for!In addition to agencies, there are marketing consultants who work on a freelance basis. The clear advantage of this is that you are always dealing with the person who will ultimately implement the work. Therefore, the marketing consultant can also answer all the questions you have on your mind right at the beginning and tell you directly where his limits lie.
From the initial contact to the development of the marketing strategies to the controlling of the marketing, you will have a fixed contact person who is well informed about the entire process.
Choosing the Right Marketing Consultancy
Once you have decided whether you want to entrust your marketing to an agency or turn to an independent consultant, the choice has become smaller but is still large.
Here it depends, among other things, on your individual requirements, for which services you want a consultation. It is possible, for example, not to take advantage of the entire package, but only the support with the market analysis or the SWOT analysis.
These offers should then of course be included in the provider’s services. Sortlist offers you a matching system with which you can quickly and easily find the providers that fit your needs.
In addition to the services offered, you should also take a look at the references. Every agency and every freelancer will only speak highly of himself or herself on his or her website. So it is much more interesting what former customers say about the cooperation. If there are no customer reviews at all, you should also approach the matter with caution.
In the final step, of course, the marketing consultancy must fit the budget you have available for your marketing.
How Much Does a Marketing Consultation Cost?
If you are toying with the idea of using a marketing consultancy, the first question that understandably arises is the cost. Unfortunately, this is not so simple and, above all, cannot be answered in a blanket manner. After all, pricing takes into account various factors such as the scope of the project and the amount of work required in terms of time.
However, we do not want to completely avoid giving a few figures, but we want to emphasize that these are only rough guidelines.
For strategic marketing consulting, you can expect a daily rate of around 1,000€ from a professional consulting firm. The hourly rate is in most cases over 100€. Of course, the above figures don’t mean that you can’t also come across a daily rate of 1,500€ or perhaps receive an offer for 800€ per day.
While we’re on the subject of money, we want to recommend not going straight for the cheapest offers. In the rarest cases, you will get a lot of value for little money. Marketing consulting is no exception.
If you try to fish for a bargain, the worst-case scenario is that it can backfire and you’ll be left with your business looking just as good or bad afterward as it did before. To avoid this, you should definitely make sure that “proof of concept” is offered with marketing consulting, i.e. that the success of the consulting is made measurable.
Success through consulting
It is hard to imagine today’s world without marketing. Due to the flood of advertising that we encounter in everyday life and in the media, it must be well thought out in order to achieve the desired effect. Marketing consulting can be the key to success.
Together with the experts, you can go from the first step of formulating goals to controlling your marketing strategy. Comprehensive support ensures that you are not left with a result you are not satisfied with. After all, optimization and adjustment are part and parcel of consulting.
