Who Is a Marketing Consultant and What Do They Do?

For the past few years, most businesses have gone digital – with the 2020 pandemic accelerating the trend. According to Shopify, global e-commerce sales are expected to hit $5.5 trillion in 2022, over 80% more than the estimated $791.70 billion realized in 2020.

The increasing growth of E-commerce and online marketing have increased the demand for marketing consultants in practically every business, as business owners seek help to scale their business using actionable marketing strategies.

Are you a business owner needing a marketing consultant or an individual interested in becoming a consultant?

This article is for you as we explain the roles and responsibilities of a marketing consultant.  

 

Who Is a Marketing Consultant?

A marketing consultant provides businesses with guidance on the most effective ways they could reach their customers. A marketing consultant creates a comprehensive go-to-market strategy, gives marketing estimates, suggests improvements that need to be made, implements marketing campaigns, and monitors development using analytical tools. 

Typically, businesses work with marketing consultants for a short period to assist with a specific project. Marketing consultants may work for an agency or independently. Their duties change depending on the project and for each client.

 

What Does a Marketing Consultant Do?

A marketing consultant typically is of two forms: an individual consultant or a full-time marketing agency with several employees to plan and carry out every element of a digital marketing strategy.

Depending on the one you need for your business, a marketing consultant may perform any of the roles below:

• Develop a marketing strategy from scratch or revise an ineffective one.
• Create a new brand identity or improve the current one to appeal to the target market.
• Examine current marketing strategies to determine if they are still effective and locate any areas needing improvement.
• Creating a new content style guide to make it easier to produce innovative, impactful content.
• Updating outdated content to comply with a new content guide and optimizing it for search engines.
• Creating a social media strategy will assist the organization in utilizing its social media channels.
• Educating staff members to carry on marketing activities after the consultant contract has expired.
• Establishing new procedures and workflows to improve project management.
• Tracking analytics for SEO, PPC, social media marketing metrics, and other metrics to determine how well new marketing strategies are working.
• Providing updates to the client on the status of the project as needed.

 

Types Of Marketing Consultants

There are different marketing consultants, and they are all classified based on their areas of specialization in marketing. 

 

Digital Marketing Consultant

The role of a digital marketing consultant is to promote a company’s product or service through online marketing channels. They also design a marketing strategy, analyze consumer engagement, and monitor advertising campaigns. 

In addition, they are in charge of deciding which business models are best for startups, helping launch new software and websites, figuring out the ROI of advertising, and discovering fresh approaches to boost customer engagement.

 

Inbound And Content Marketing Consultant

The roles of an inbound marketing consultant include; helping a company become more visible online, increasing website conversion rates, and attracting new customers. The consultant is instrumental in putting content marketing strategies involving blogging, SEO, email marketing, and conversion rate optimization into action.

The duties of an inbound marketing consultant include identifying the target market and producing pertinent content for potential customers to attract them to the website and persuade them to make a purchase. The additional roles include evaluating the company’s current situation, choosing marketing goals, identifying the geographic scope, researching rival websites, increasing traffic sources, and tracking results.

 

Search Engine Marketing Consultant

A Search Engine Marketing consultant, also known as an SEM consultant, works on a website SEO to increase organic traffic. SEM expert helps improve your website’s visibility, reach, and conversion rates while bringing in more visitors.

An SEO marketing consultant works with Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Ahrefs, SemRush, Screaming Frog, and other SEO tools.

 

Social Media Marketing Consultant

A social media marketing consultant is responsible for creating an effective social media strategy, setting up a successful sales funnel, maximizing the return on investment from social media campaigns, and attracting new potential clients to your company.

Some of the necessary skills required for a social media marketing consultant include; understanding various social media platforms, utilizing social media reporting tools, and reading data analytics. 

Finally, a social media marketing consultant should also be extremely knowledgeable about social media KPIs and platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, and Tiktok.

 

5 Steps To Become a Marketing Consultant

1. Get A Degree

To start your journey as a marketing consultant, you need to get a bachelor’s degree in marketing, business, or other related fields.

A marketing degree would also help you get certified whenever you want to specialize in a specific marketing niche. Also, most employers demand that marketing professionals have a bachelor’s degree in related fields because they often prefer graduates to non-graduates.

2. Gain Work Experience

A marketing professional who wants to become a consultant must have work experience. A workplace experience would give you the opportunity to a hands-on experience in various marketing roles, proving that you are knowledgeable about marketing techniques and have the skills to use them to accomplish goals.

Also, you will better understand the marketing strategies you prefer and the most effective ones in different situations. There are several methods in marketing, and exploring these methods can help you become familiar with the necessary tools to develop your own strategies.

3. Add Necessary Skills

For employers to consider your CV, you need to acquire the necessary skills required of a professional marketing consultant and add them to your degrees and workplace experience. Since most marketing consultants have broad areas of expertise, it is best to acquire a different set of skills rather than only focusing on one. These skills range from copywriting to data analysis and being an expert in the newest marketing technologies.

4. Get Certified

Certifications serve as proof to employers that a candidate possesses the skills and knowledge required for the position. Even seasoned experts in digital marketing need certificates to show that they are committed to keeping their knowledge up to date.

For marketing professionals who deal with business owners, particularly those in the non-profit sector, the Foundation for Marketing Excellence in Entrepreneurs offers several certificates. For those working in B2B marketing, the Business Marketing Institute and the American Bankers Association provide certification programs.

5. Network With Other Marketers

To get your first, second and third clients, you need to reach out to people and build a network. You must stay in touch with old friends and join marketing forums to stay updated with market trends.

Online and in-person networking are viable options, and the most effective strategy combines the two. Growing your business requires a strong internet presence. Utilize social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to market your services and gather consumer input.

Ceate blog posts that link to your social media profiles to boost your profile and engage with potential customers.

Lastly, create a website that showcases your portfolio. To boost your chances of attracting new clients, include encouraging client testimonials.

 

Marketing Consultant Skills And Background

A marketing consultant typically has a bachelor’s degree in marketing or a related field, as well as several years of experience working as a corporate marketer and expertise in several areas, including social media, lead generation, SEO, PPC, and others. 

The marketing consultant will also handle communication between the internal team and the current marketing department, so previous experience as a marketing leader in one or more businesses will be a huge plus.

Working as a marketing consultant also requires a general understanding of the various marketing strategies and how they are implemented or expertise in some particular marketing niche, such as digital marketing or social media marketing, depending on the consultant you would be looking for. 

A marketing consultant also has experience in branding, public relations, TV advertising, copywriting, and marketing automation software like Hubspot, Hootsuite, Marketo, Eloqua, Pardot, and other marketing software.

 

The following skills are necessary for the marketing consultant to perform their job well:

Strong Research Skills

A marketing consultant must be able to conduct market research, brand analysis, competitive analysis, and other related research to achieve marketing goals. The expert should be able to plan the research and apply the findings to boost the brand’s success.

Proficiency In Free and Paid Marketing Channels

A marketing consultant should be proficient in both free and paid marketing methods. The free marketing method organically drives the audience through search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. If you have a huge social media following, you can get free traffic via social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat.

The paid marketing method requires you to pay for ads and is grouped into social media advertising and PPC advertising. Social media advertising involves driving paid traffic from platforms like; Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and links, while PPC helps you get paid traffic from search engines. 

As a marketing consultant, you should also be familiar with other methods like; influencer marketing, email marketing, and video marketing, which can all be organic or paid, depending on your strategy.

Leadership Qualities

A marketing consultant must be able to work with others and keep lines of communication open with all parties, including coworkers and internal departments.

Technical Skills 

A marketing consultant must possess technical skills working with numerous analytical tools, like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Moz, Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, and more. The consultant’s skill set should also include knowledge of marketing automation clouds, CMS, and CRM.

 

What Is The Average Salary Of A Marketing Consultant?

The average salary of a marketing consultant is between $55,000 and $65,000. The amount you earn is affected by the service you offer, the company you work with, and your location.

 

Wrapping Up

A marketing consultant mostly works with businesses to create brand awareness and campaigns for their products and services. They can also assist in strengthening and improving your marketing strategies.

If you are planning to start a career as a marketing consultant, this article has provided you with everything you need to know about becoming a marketing consultant, including the career opportunities and skills needed.