Particularly since the advent of online marketing, many businesses have been tempted to keep their marketing operations in-house. After all, we can all send a tweet or email and post to social media, right? However, as all too many businesses–from sole practitioners to large corporations–have learned from experience, marketing is best left to the experts. At DMC in Calgary, Alberta, we pride ourselves on delivering customer-first service aimed directly at expanding our client’s market share and increasing their revenues.
9 Things Outside Marketing Consultants Will Bring to the Table
1. Marketing Experience
Just as your business specializes in what it does, marketing agencies and consultants specialize in marketing. It’s all we do. This gives us a depth of knowledge and experience that simply cannot be matched by those cramming to do marketing in their spare time.
Strategy Meets Market Knowledge
Not only are marketing professionals educated in various techniques and strategies that have been developed over time, but they also are able to stay on top of the latest marketing trends to see where things are now and where they are going. As outside consultants keep your marketing plan up-to-date with the latest technology, strategy, and, trends, you can put your focus squarely on your business and customers.
2. Allow You to Focus on What You Do Best
By taking over responsibilities for marketing strategy and, in some cases, execution, outside consultants allow you to reclaim the hours lost to in-house marketing. Not only is this likely to make your marketing plan more efficient and effective, but it will also allow you to put your focus back on running your business as well as possible, knowing that your marketing is safely in expert hands.
3. Focus on Trends
With everything else a competitive business must focus on in today’s world, who has time to stay up on the latest marketing trends? Marketing consultants, that’s who. Because marketing is what we do, outside consultants are tapped into the world of marketing in all of its incarnations 24/7.
4. More Comprehensive Marketing Strategies
Many businesses that try keeping their marketing programs in-house do not even realize the full extent of what they are missing out on. Outside marketing experts are familiar with a broad range of tools and strategies with which non-marketing professionals are unaware. And, in today’s quickly evolving digital world, outside consultants also are able to stay on top of the latest online marketing trends.
Make Sure You’re on the Latest Platforms
Outside consultants keep track of where your customers are, including the latest online platforms. Not able to keep up with the newest crazes in social media, apps, messaging, podcasting, or any other of the constantly expanding number of online outlets and potential marketing opportunities? You don’t have to! Outside marketing professionals literally make it their jobs to provide their customers with the most current strategies based on the latest data.
5. Expand Your Reach
Sure, even non-marketing professionals could name a few familiar marketing platforms, both traditional and digital. But do you know how many you are missing? Do you stay on top of which platforms are currently generating the most traffic and which ones are frequented by users with demographics similar to your customer base?
Do you know the most effective strategy for allocating your marketing budget among online, TV, print, radio, and other media? Outside experts bring all of these answers to the table because understanding how best to deploy your advertising dollars is our business.
6. Make the Most of Limited Marketing Resources
Whether your advertising budget is measured in the hundreds of dollars or the millions, one thing remains true: no marketing plan ever has unlimited resources at its disposal. Therefore, one of the most important aspects of developing and executing an effective marketing plan is making sure that whatever resources are available are deployed to maximum effect.
Don’t Waste Your Money on Wrong-Headed Marketing
Unfortunately, for non-marketing professionals, it can be incredibly difficult to separate fact from fiction when it comes to knowing how best to spend their marketing dollars. Today, there are any number of platforms large and small clamoring for your ad dollars, but only experts with real marketing experience and knowledge will be able to separate the sound investments from the hype.
7. A More Consistent Approach to Marketing
One of the biggest challenges facing in-house marketing operations is that oftentimes, particularly in smaller companies, there is not a dedicated marketing team but rather certain individuals responsible for marketing who also serve other roles within the organization. In many cases, this means a business owner or manager trying to jump on social media to send out some promotions when not busy with other tasks.
Don’t Let Your Marketing Efforts Ebb and Flow
Unfortunately, this kind of hodgepodge approach often leads to inconsistent marketing output, and we all know that one of the keys to an effective marketing plan is consistency. When relying on in-house marketing, output often rises and falls as other responsibilities allow. When things get busy or time is particularly hard to come by, marketing is one of the first things to go by the wayside. However, this can mean sacrificing your business’s future success for its present needs.
8. You Retain Control
Some businesses fear that engaging an outside consultant for their marketing plan means handing over control of their business’s public face to an outsider. However, these concerns are largely unfounded. Marketing professionals work with their clients to formulate marketing plans and campaigns that take into account a business’s unique character and culture, strategizing on the most effective ways to communicate the business’s message to the largest possible audience of potential customers.
A good marketing professional will never make any moves with which their client is uncomfortable. Rather, they strive to accurately amplify the unique voice of each business, while helping to ensure that this voice strikes the intended tone.
The Right Outside Expert Actually Can Give You More Control
In fact, the right outside marketing expert can actually give you more control over your business’s marketing plan, not less. For example, at DMC, we provide our clients with a single dashboard from which they can oversee and manage their entire marketing operation.
9. A Fresh Perspective From a Knowledgeable Expert
A key part of an outside consultant’s role lies right in the name: outside. By bringing in a knowledgeable expert from outside your organization, you can provide a fresh perspective on how you can best achieve your goals and give your business the public face you desire. When one is “too close” to a business or is inside an organization, it can be difficult to see how that entity is perceived by potential customers and the public at large. An outside consultant can literally bring a valuable “outsider” perspective to your marketing strategy.
See What an Outside Marketing Consultant Can Do for Your Business
By possessing relevant expertise in the area of marketing, devoting themselves full time to the study of current trends and best practices and providing a fresh perspective, outside marketing consultants can bring benefits that no in-house marketing efforts, no matter how well-intentioned, can match.
At DMC in Alberta, Calgary, we pride ourselves on taking a customer-first approach to helping our clients achieve their business-related goals. Contact DMC in Alberta today to see what we can do for your business!
