In many of the conversations we have with both prospective clients and small business owners in general, a common theme emerges around marketing. These small-and-medium-sized business (SMB) leaders are looking for ways to improve brand awareness and increase lead generation efficiently and cost-effectively but often lack the time or marketing expertise to do it themselves. It is a perfectly understandable conundrum, because if you own a automobile service station, for instance, you are probably an expert at fixing cars — but not necessarily at marketing your business.   

Business leaders can take one of three routes to deal with this marketing issue:

• Remain with the status quo and try to handle marketing internally by having employees in other roles chip in
• Hire full-time marketing talent to build and execute a strategy
• Work with a marketing consultant that acts as an extension of the company but is not a full-time employee

Increasingly, SMBs are choosing the third option, turning to a small business marketing consultant for help. This approach offers a number of benefits — here are some of the most significant: 

1. Access to Expertise: Obviously one of the most distinct advantages a marketing consultant offers is experience that internal staffers with other primary job functions may not have. In many cases, a small business marketing consultant can offer insights even to organizations that do have a small in-house marketing team. For instance, an SMB with just a marketing director and graphic designer may be focused on strategy and broad initiatives, but not necessarily on executing on more granular but still critical tasks like SEO optimization; social media and paid social management; lead management; ROI tracking; and database management. A top tier marketing partner can provide affordable seo services, social media management and a wide variety of other services.

2. Cost Savings: Bringing in a marketing consultant, rather than a full-time employee, also keeps costs down considerably. On top of the savings gained from paying a monthly retainer rather than a full-time salary, organizations can also avoid paying for expensive benefits packages when they opt to partner with a small business marketing consultant. A business can also make better use of its internal resources by outsourcing some marketing functions, so it may be able to maintain a leaner staff in other departments as well. 

3. Learn as you go: One of the most often overlooked benefits of engaging with a small business marketing consultant is that you can learn from his or her expertise. Even if you don't get into the weeds with marketing execution to the same level as your consultant, you can still have regular meetings and/or training sessions to help increase company stakeholders' knowledge of marketing strategies, technologies and best practices.

Want to learn more about how a small business marketing consultant can help your business? Please reach out to schedule a consultation with one of our marketing experts!