The trouble with hiring a consultant to fill a need you don’t have staff to cover is that you don’t have staff to direct the consultant on the need to fill. It is the oroborus of consultant decision making. And it’s what gets a lot of small businesses and nonprofits stuck in a rut. Meanwhile, you do know you need help.

So, how do you choose right marketing consultant that’s going to work for your nonprofit or small business?

Let’s walk through a few of your options. First, ask yourself the following questions.

What are we trying to accomplish?
Do we already have the strategy and just need the skills to pull it off?
Do we have the skills but need a strategy to pull it all together?

Those answers should get you a little closer to some of the competencies you’re looking for in a consultancy.

Skills Based Consultant

If you already know what you need to do, and just don’t have the in-house skills to do it well, you’re likely looking for a skills-based consultant. This might include a copywriter, graphic designer, web developer, fundraiser or social media marketer.

Depending on your budget, these folks can be found as individual freelancers, or parts of larger agencies - some that focus just on that skill, others who cover a broader range of marketing support.

When hiring a consultant of this variety, you should already know what it is you need to get done, whether it’s a website overhaul or a social media campaign. Have some goals, a deadline, and your budget in mind. While some of these folks will walk you through a deeper goal setting process, the onus is on you to know who you’re trying to reach and why at the very least. Otherwise, it will just be activity for activity’s sake. Although sometimes, that’s all you need.

Marketing Agency

Looking for help with a big picture strategy or major campaign and expert execution? That’s when you call you in the big guns. A marketing agency will help you look at different areas of execution, develop, and create the pieces you need.

Even when you’re paying more money and expecting more in return, you still need to come to the table with an understanding of who you’re trying to reach, what impact you expect the efforts to have on your business, and how you’ll integrate the campaign or strategy into your day to day operations.

Make sure you have someone on your team who has the capacity to work with the agency, represent your organization, and manage the back and forth it takes to get to a final product.

Marketing Strategist

A marketing strategist will conduct research on your organization and market trends to create customized marketing and communications recommendations. They might then stay on to help manage the implementation of those recommendations, or make connections to freelancers or agencies who can bring them to life.

Plenty of strategists swoop in, drop off a report, and swoop back out again. Perfectly fine for a fully developed team, but if you’re just getting started or have a lean team, those reports are much more likely to gather dust than move your organization forward.

Embedded, or fractional, marketing strategists - like yours truly at Good Dube Consulting - get to know your organization on a personal level. First to provide strategic advice, then to stay on to help you integrate that advice at a pace and volume you can manage so it's effective and sustainable.

Bringing on an embedded marketing strategist means you have someone to answer the big questions (do we need to start digital fundraising?) and the small ones (how do I tag someone in an Instagram story?). And, it enables you to make shifts in strategy based on the reality that times are pretty chaotic right now, never mind the usual twists and turns of running a small organization.

Just as critically, a marketing strategist can help you get to the point where you’re certain of your audience and objectives so you can bring on board more creative or tactical support and know how to direct them. They can even craft, distribute, and manage your request for proposal process and agency relationship, or help you draft exactly the job description you need when you’re ready to grow your team.

Ready to hire a consultant now? If you’re still uncertain, schedule a complimentary 30 minute call with me. Not only can I help you decide on the best direction to take, if it’s not with me, I have a network of talented consultants ready to get to work helping you reach your goals.