Digital Marketing Consultant

A digital marketing consultant advises and implements marketing strategies with various digital technologies and tools. They render these services as an independent consultant or as part of a consulting firm. Their responsibilities include advising, planning, analyzing, developing and implementing marketing campaigns. Additionally, marketing consultants audit existing digital marketing campaigns based on the needs of a company. Marketing consultants work with both small and large companies. They may work with existing marketing departments at large companies, train new marketing professionals, or upskill existing staff.

When to hire a digital marketing consultant.

It is advisable for small to medium businesses without marketing expertise to consult with a marketing consultant before they attempt to do marketing on their own. The accessibility of digital marketing channels makes most businesses believe that they can do online marketing without professional assistance. Unfortunately, most do not succeed and leave a bad taste in their mouth about online marketing and feel that it is a waste of time and money.
It is usually the case for small businesses that they hire a marketing consultant when they don't have a marketing expert on staff. Large companies with dedicated marketing departments hire consultants to advise and train their staff. The following are some of the advantages of hiring marketing consultant or outsourcing digital marketing:
• They offer an outside perspective on internal problems.
• They provide specialized skills and expertise that a company lacks.
• They offer a new perspective on marketing or customers.
• They allow businesses to focus on their core business.
• Outsourcing saves you money.
• You get a higher level of expertise for your money.
• You get flexible commitment.
• You’ll spend less time on people management.

Advantages of outsourcing digital marketing

External Viewpoint

A digital marketing consultant can help you identify marketing strategies and activities that aren't working for your business. They offer fresh new ideas on marketing strategies and guide you to best practices. Many businesses get stuck in their old marketing strategies and lack the direction and expertise to implement new, innovative approaches. A consultant will guide you on the right path and help you adapt to new standards faster.

Digital Marketing Specialist

Outsourcing digital marketing provides specialized skills and expertise that a company lacks. While marketing experts may seem expensive, their value to a company far outweighs their cost over time. Marketing specialists are results-oriented. They report on results and make it easy for you to measure Return on Marketing Investment. They provide marketing data collection and analytics that go beyond marketing to provide business intelligence.

Focus on Core Business

It can be difficult to focus on the main business function when marketing activities are involved in the organization. Whenever the workload of marketing activities increases, the core functions of the business suffer, which hurts the growth of the company. By outsourcing digital marketing a company transfers marketing activities to a marketing agency so that they can focus on their core competencies. Focusing on the core business function results in higher productivity and increased creativity which is essential for business growth. Outsourcing digital marketing is key to business growth.

Outsourcing Saves Money

Outsourcing converts fixed labor costs into variable costs, which means you only pay for the services you use. Having in-house employees does not give you this level of flexibility. With outsourcing, you can customize your consumption of services based on your requirements. The consumption of your service can be seamlessly scaled up or down as business fluctuates. For instance, when your annual revenue isn't sufficient to justify full-time content writer, you probably don't need a full-time writer. Although it's an important job, you don't have enough work to justify a full-time salary. Plus if you hire a fractional or virtual digital marketing service, you pay only for the services you use but retain the reliability of a dedicated employee.

Flexible Commitment

In today's world, digital marketing agencies offer no-contract marketing services that alleviate clients' fears of commitment. Working with a non-contract marketing agency gives you the freedom to decide when to retain services that are beneficial to you and when to terminate them without incurring a fee.

Less Time on People Management

Collaborating with digital marketing agencies eliminates the need to create and manage marketing teams. The process of establishing marketing teams is complex and may take time. When you outsource, you will have time to focus on other aspects of your business rather than building teams and managing people.

Disadvantages of outsourcing digital marketing

Now that we have learned the advantages, let's take a closer look at the downsides and how they can be mitigated.

Exposed confidential data

Whenever you outsource digital marketing, you are required to grant your service provider access to your digital assets, such as your website backend, social media accounts, Control panel, and more. When this happens, confidential company information can be compromised. To mitigate the risk, you may need to change your digital platform passwords every three months and thoroughly screen service providers to ensure they follow cybersecurity best practices. Although this is not a full proof method, it can reduce the risk

Misaligned Business Goals

A lack of open continuous communication between a business and a digital marketing provider often leads to misalignment of marketing goals with business goals. This problem can be resolved by establishing a monthly marketing campaign review and strategy session. In this way, both parties are kept informed of progress and changes as they occur.

Brand identity lost

When external marketing companies produce marketing content, the general voice or look and feel of a company's brand is usually lost. This is due to the marketing agency not having a brand guide from the business they work with. Therefore, it is recommended to prepare a brand guide before outsourcing marketing. It will provide guidance on content creation, design, and many other marketing materials development.

Conclusion

A successful relationship between marketing agencies and the businesses they work with requires flexibility, collaborative energy, and creative thinking. For more information on outsourcing or working with a digital marketing agency, Click Here to book your first free consultation.