A marketing consultant is a professional who can be of great help due to his knowledge and experience, great support at our disposal, whose contribution we should have if we want the growth of any business project.
What work does a marketing consultant do?
A marketing consultant assists companies like a doctor assists a woman in labor. That is, they help her to start her project to move it forward.
He works in financial and technical contexts and knows the activity of various sectors.
Marketing professionals are able to assess the sustainability of a business, being aware of the crucial steps to follow to accomplish a successful business initiative.
The marketing consultant is a professional figure that has always existed but who has recently been experiencing a new role and new limelight.
He is a person who has a targeted preparation in communication techniques and who must know the tools and channels useful for the elaboration and dissemination of the messages to be promoted and conveyed.
Its task is to help improve the image, communication, and customer portfolio of a company, thus increasing the turnover and the sale of related products or services.
How does a marketing consultant help your business?
On many occasions, an entrepreneur is a good manager, a good developer, or a good product designer, but not a good salesperson. On those occasions making a marketing plan becomes complex, and sometimes it is not done. But even on these occasions having a strategic marketing plan is essential, so it will be necessary to resort to external help.
In the face of any difficulty and unforeseen event, we have to stop and think to develop action plans. The specialized marketing consultants have studied the strategies to follow in each case, depending on the circumstances, the type of business, and the status of that sector inside the market place. In this manner, we will save resources and time to develop action plans.
A consultant can:
- Advise us before initiating a major investment, expanding our business, or undertaking new ones.
- Assist us in seeing business and professional opportunities that we are not aware of.
- Offering advice to help us sell more and better reach our potential customers.
Not just that, a marketing consultant can also do a tremendous amount of work for us (market research, forecasting, action plans) so that we can focus on business development and staff supervision.
He analyzes the possibilities of marketing a product and advises companies on the strategies to adopt. Companies call upon a marketing consultant, wishing to launch a new product on the market. With their professional competencies, they evaluate the product’s chances of success according to consumers’ expectations and the competition.
- He has a strong commercial sense.
- He constantly works on commercial and competitive intelligence in order to adapt the offer in line with the market.
- He is a manager and an excellent communicator who has to deal with diverse and varied audiences.
- His spirit of synthesis and analysis allows him to anticipate the evolution of the product on the market
A marketing consultant’s mission is to analyze the market’s evolution in the product’s sector of activity. He establishes a global strategy as well as a communication plan for the launch: advertising in the press and on the Internet, media plan, purchase of advertising space, costing studies, budget, statistics, etc. The marketing consultant then assesses the impact of the product on the general public and ensures follow-up.
He can also take care of meetings with partners and investors, do public relations for our brand on our behalf, and take care of formalities with official bodies.
What tasks does it perform, what role does it cover?
Generally, the Marketing Consultant is a Marketing Professional with several years of professional experience in the areas: Marketing, Communication, and Advertising.
Whoever carries out this profession is a person with a consistent professional background, characterized by significant work experiences in different businesses.
The Marketing Consultant is a strategically and operationally relevant figure for any Company or Entrepreneur who wants to start and promote their business more successfully.
The “versatility” of the skills acquired allows this professional to deal with both strategic and operational marketing projects:
- Implementation of Strategic – Operational Marketing Plans
- Implementation and coordination of Integrated Communication Projects
- Coordination and control of Advertising Activities and Promotional Actions
- Media Plans Coordination
- Website creation coordination
- Coordination of SEO, SEM, and Social Media Marketing Campaigns
- Implementation and coordination of Direct Marketing Campaigns (telemarketing, email marketing, couponing, etc.)
- Planning and coordination of sales force activities
- Sales network training and updating
- Analysis and control marketing activities.
Skills of a Marketing Consultant.
The Marketing Consultant, in addition to being an excellent “strategist,” is also an effective operational figure: he carries out telemarketing, sets business appointments, and writes content for the web, and much more.
Below we are listing the main skills of a Marketing Consultant:
- Strategic marketing
- Operative marketing
- Excellent knowledge of sales techniques (he is a good seller)
- Knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP
- CMS main knowledge; (able to create websites)
- Excellent knowledge of SEO techniques (search engine optimization)
- Activation – coordination of Keyword advertising campaigns
- Coordination of BELOW THE LINE and ABOVE THE LINE advertising campaigns
- Coordination of coordinated image projects (contacts and chooses partners/suppliers)
The Marketing Consultant is a Professional with both specific skills (gained in specific product sectors) and transversal skills (useful in various areas and applicable in different roles and organizational contexts), which make him a real “problem-solve” in the field of Marketing, Sales and Communication.
Role and tasks in SMEs.
In small to medium-sized companies, the Marketing Consultant is probably more of an operational figure than a managerial one.
The small business’s daily working life is characterized by a frequent overlap between roles and tasks in the marketing, communication, and commercial fields.
Small companies, in fact, both for budget and staff issues, cannot always afford a clear division of roles and tasks between the sales department and the marketing-communication department.
It is in these realities that the figure of the Marketing Consultant is exalted!
Thanks to his versatility and flexibility, this professional can act as a “connector” between the “top” and the “company” base, personally developing and implementing commercial actions and promotional campaigns.
It saves SMEs money.
In small companies, we can say that the Marketing Consultant helps to acquire new customers, and increase turnover, SAVES MONEY!
This professional is particularly useful in times of crisis to relaunch the small-medium business and is essential during the phases of:
- New business opening
- Promotion of new products/services
- Business Relaunch/Relocation.
Role and duties in large companies.
Surely, in large companies, the Marketing Consultant has a more managerial role with more specific tasks.
In large companies, this professional figure deals with the enhancement of the “Brand Identity” (Company Identity) and the development of the “Brand Awareness” (Company Notoriety).
The development of these “assets” is obtained by implementing specific commercial actions supported by effective promotional-advertising campaigns.
Furthermore, the Marketing Consultant, in synergy with the Managers of the other company functions (Communication Sector, Commercial Sector, and Human Resources Sector), has the task of setting up and coordinating the integrated communication of the company.
With integrated communication, both external communication (strategic positioning, increase in the company’s brand awareness) and internal communication (to share values, “mission,” and “vision” with all Collaborators at all levels) are managed.
What does the job market offer to this professional?
Let’s face it clearly: every self-respecting Marketing consultant must be an “entrepreneur of himself.” So it is not enough to send CVs via email, but it is essential to invest in interpersonal relationships:
- Getting to know other professionals
- Forge partnerships
- Attend industry events
- Promote your professionalism online and offline
If we do not want our money to go into smoke, we must contract the services of a marketing consultant with professional experience, unique credentials, and a professional trajectory that justifies his expertise. Only then, in comparison to our competitors, we can have the weapons to boost our business and make a difference.
In summary, a marketing consultant is an extremely creative person. He can help in finding simple solutions to complex problems. He is capable of analyzing multiple scenarios and give different solutions to everyday situations.
Creativity is the key to the success of a marketing consultant. It is so simple that no one sees it except the winner. A marketing consultant is disruptive. He will propose solutions and paths that many times will seem risky or unfortunate. If he is able to justify why these strategies, you should trust him.
The paths to success in the world where almost everything is invented go through looking for alternatives to what everyone else does.
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