Marketing is one aspect of a business in which the organization cannot afford to fall behind. It is a common occurrence where organizations face the challenge of not executing effective marketing strategies successfully. Issues may arise when the marketing activities fail to generate more sales and revenue. There are many avenues in the field of marketing, and any one of them could be the problem. The fact that these problems took place and the company wasn’t able to fix them is a good reason to deduce that the people on the job may be lacking in some areas.
Marketing consultants are hired to guide the company out of the issue it’s stuck in. These people are highly skilled professionals in the field of marketing, and it is quite evident. Their proficiency reflects in their work and the way they talk on the matter. Good marketing consultants are instantly able to figure out what went wrong in the first place. They also let the company know their weaknesses and how they can correct them.
Work of a Marketing Consultant
Marketing consultants collaborate with the company. They come up with proper and professional strategies and let the team know how to execute them. The work of a marketing consultant is split into two categories: execution and strategy. The main job of the marketing consultants is to provide consultation and guidance. Executing the job isn’t always part of the deal.
Strategy is essentially the toughest part. Marketing consultants in charge of strategy are expected to deeply analyze and understand the company in question and then devise proper marketing plans and strategies to lift them. These people are often in charge of managing the strategy when it’s in the execution phase.
Execution is more of an easier job, especially when you have a skilled professional at hand. These marketing consultants can be categorized as skilled labor. They already know how to go about a marketing strategy, know the dynamics of the field, and, most importantly, know how to execute the strategy. If you hire a marketing consultant just for the execution part of the job, then it means that you already have the ideas in your mind. You don’t know how to implement the ideas. This issue is where the marketing consultant and their expertise come in handy.
General Fee of a Marketing Consultant
Marketing consultants generally charge in two ways. These two ways are either the hourly charge or project-based charges. Consultants who are brought in to share their expertise and give ideas to devise strategies often charge on an hourly basis. They come in and sit with the company and the marketing team and discuss with them about the company, their business model, their previous strategies, and possible future marketing plans as well. The whole process can be time-consuming and require a lot of discussion and brainstorming, and that is what you pay the marketing consultant for.
If the marketing consultant is charging per project, that person is probably hired to execute the strategies. They work on the project and log in the hours it took to complete the given task. They may draw up a rough idea of how much time it would take. They may also charge some advance fees to start the project and claim the remaining fee after the project is done. If the marketing consultant works on more than one project, this is usually the way it goes.
Conclusively, marketing consultants charge by the hour. The most general bracket of a marketing consultant’s charges goes from about $65-$300. These charges include the fixed overhead charges that the marketing consultant is required to charge. The charges also vary depending on the marketing consultant’s experience and the demand this person makes for his labor hours. The more skilled the marketing consultant is, and the more the number of the project they have worked on is great amounts to their charges.
The average marketing consultant usually charges about $100-$175 per hour. This fee may seem very steep because, generally, companies do not pay their employees such a huge sum. This e would all come down to you making this decision based on how much you can spend. One thing to remember is that you always get what you pay for. The investment will eventually prove to be quite profitable if the marketing strategy works out well and generates a lot of revenue. This begs the question, are you going to put in fewer hours with the marketing consultant to lower the expenditure, or will you put in more hours to execute a good marketing strategy? Your final decision will come down to when you calculate and evaluate the real cost of going into this project.
How to Reduce Hiring Costs
When hiring a marketing consultant, you should always put quality over everything. The general fee that marketing consultants charge can be very steep to many companies who are already pouring in a lot of money in marketing and not generating much revenue. In this case, you can opt for some tactics that will help you reduce the charges of these marketing consultants.
Say that you need a marketing consultant for upcoming projects, and you’d require them to work for around 10 hours per week. According to the average charges of a marketing consultant, you’d need to pay them $1750 per week and around $7000 per month. This amount comes to $84000 per year, and the marketing consultant is not even full-time.
Some marketing consultants offer monthly packages to work with companies ranging from the work they’re hired for; it could either be for advisory, consultation, or managerial purposes. These charges range from $3500 to $11500 per month, depending on the advanced expertise required for the job.
If you are not looking to hire marketing consultants for an entire month, you can go for another approach to decrease the charges. Since marketing consultants charge by the hour, you can try to be more efficient, and time so you wouldn’t have to pay them as much. You can do a few things to prepare for all the things that the marketing consultant may ask for beforehand. The best way approach is to provide the marketing consultant with an outline of the business and product, the targeted audience, competitors, etc. You can also be efficient in making the marketing consultant understand your business the best way possible, so they don’t have to spend a lot of time on it themselves.
Final Thoughts
Marketing consultants are professional and skilled people who can ultimately bring your business and revenue way higher than before. This factor is why it would be best if you don’t get startled by the steep charges and think about the long-term benefits that a good marketing consultant will bring to your company.
