How to Hire a Marketing Coach or Marketing Consultant for Expert Help

Intro

Are you confused about what to do next with marketing to grow your business?

You’re not the only one. 😅

The path to marketing success can be a wild ride of trends, data puzzles, and strategy tweaks.

The right Marketing coaches focus on skill development and consultants can bring clarity and a huge return on investment, even if you already have an internal team.

So strap on your seatbelts, and let’s go explore how to hire one today.

What’s the difference between a coach and a consultant?

Before you hire a coach or consultant, you should understand their roles.

Marketing coaches focus on skill development, systems, and goal setting and assist with improving your marketing skills and strategies based on principles and experiences.

A coach primarily asks questions to help the client come up with their own solution (kinda like a therapist.)

A marketing consultant will be more hands-on in your business by identifying problems, advising on actionable recommendations, and delivering the solution to achieve your marketing goals.

A consultant answers the client's questions, so they don’t need to figure it out themselves.

Businesses that use a coach or consultant report a median annual growth rate of 17% with a 98% satisfaction rate. [source: zipdo]

Back to square one

To get the most out of hiring a coach or consultant, you should document your current situation, what you’ve tried already, the results, your budget, and what you’d like to achieve next on one or two pages.

A detailed summary provides the basis for clear communication and expectations between you and them from the beginning.

Researching potential coaches/consultants

It’s critical to thoroughly research your ideal coach or consultant because, if not, choosing the wrong person for the job can cost you a lot of wasted time and thousands of dollars.

Narrow down the options to just a handful of them using two or more of these methods:

Ask for referrals

Referrals, aka word of mouth, are the pinnacle of marketing.

85% of business owners hired coaches based on personal connections [source: Zipdo]

And so, if someone you know can refer you to them, it’s a good indication the person or company is trustworthy.

Consider the source of the referral, their relationship with the coach or consultant, and if there are any motives behind it, like a commission.

It could be the case that the person only heard a story about a coach/consultant from a close connection or from who they follow on LinkedIn.

If you’re a part of any related industry groups or masterminds, be sure to ask around there because the person referred could be the most qualified for your needs.

Online Searches

If you’re the type of person who likes real-life [IRL] meetings, you can try Google searching for “marketing coaches near me” or “top marketing consultants in location.”

Other search examples you can try:

• Industry name marketing consultant
• Most affordable marketing coaches
• Digital marketing coach for hire
• Small business marketing consultant
• Marketing expert for startups
• Content marketing coach online
• Social media marketing consultant services
• E-commerce marketing consultant near me
• SEO marketing coach for beginners
• Online branding coach and consultant
• Marketing strategy consultant in [city or country]
• Personalized marketing coaching for industry
• Email marketing coach and consultant
• Inbound marketing expert for hire
• Online advertising consultant services
• Marketing mentorship for entrepreneurs

Social Media Searches

Another method is to find coaches and consultants on social media using keywords and Boolean search.

Did you know there’s a search category for services on LinkedIn? Not many people know this.

It even displays ratings and reviews if there are any too.

Source: linkedin.com

On Twitter, you can try putting the term “marketing consultant” and then, on the right-hand side, choose the filter “near you.”

Source: x.com

With Meta (Facebook), you’ll have more ways to find who you’re looking for compared to X (Twitter) based on who your friends know, what city they’re from, education, and where they currently work.

To get more precise people results, use parenthesis around the search terms.

Source: facebook.com

Matching expertise with your goals

When you’re vetting potential coaches or consultants, you should make a checklist of requirements that, if not met, are potential deal breakers.

Particularly, the more specific the ask, the closer you can find someone with the expertise you’re looking for to help you with practical digital marketing strategies.

Pinpoint your questions to specific goals such as increased web traffic, improved search engine rankings, lead generation, or sales growth.

Always check references and get feedback from past and current clients who have been with them for at least 1 year.

If they’re a coach and have many past clients, it could mean they helped them solve the problem already and no longer needed their services -- which is a wonderful thing!

Drawing off of someone’s positive and negative experiences can help you understand what to look for and some of the red flags to avoid during the elimination process.

Initial consultation and assessment

This is where all of your preparation in the “square one” stage comes into play to help steer the conversation - the more they know, the better they can help.

Many professional marketing consultants and coaches will ask you to complete a survey or questionnaire before the consultation.

Treat this like a job interview and take notes.

Ask the consultant about their experience and stories from past projects to get a sneak peak into their skills and style.

Then decide, do they have methods that vibe with your style?

Do they specialize in your niche, such as ecommerce?

Don’t forget to ask about their availability and communication style, too.

• Will they work closely with you and your team daily or weekly?
• How do they mostly communicate with you? (by email, video calls, in-person visits, etc.)

If things go well, you can get the lowdown on things like contracts, payment plans, and other important details.

You can expect the average hourly rate in the United States to range from $100 to $350 per hour. [source: zipdo]

Remember that you don’t have to make a decision right away, and trust your instincts.

Defining success metrics

Decide what goals to focus on: sales, web traffic, brand awareness, and other areas.

Work with the coach or consultant to choose and prioritize the relevant metrics, including target numbers in mind.

Then, agree on what analytical tools to include to monitor the performance, i.e., Google Analytics for website traffic, social media analytics platforms for social metrics, and email marketing engagement dashboards.

Making your decision

Selecting a digital marketing consultant or coach can be stressful if you don’t know what you’re looking for or you feel nervous and think, “What if I choose the wrong one?”

It’s normal to react this way, but there are a few key traits to consider during the final decision-making process if all their skills are equal.

Strategic approach

Any strategic marketing plan should be well thought out and tailored to you once they are hired.

It’s a huge plus if they only work with certain types of businesses, so it’s more likely they know exactly what works right now to create business growth.

Pretend you run a local fitness studio that wants to amplify its virtual class registrations.

The consultant’s suggested strategy could involve targeted social media posts and ads, local SEO, building email lists, and driving class registrations via an email campaign.

Transparency

Do you think you’ll be able to have constructive conversations with them?

Whether the marketing campaigns are on track, failing, or thriving, the client needs to have open communication and honesty about how things are actually going.

Part of having the results you want to achieve is 80% communication and 20% action so make sure you can collaborate well with them.

Innovation

Consider whether or not the consultant has come up with innovative marketing strategies in the past that exceed industry growth standards.

Rapport and trust

If you sense that you can’t trust the coach or consultant to help you achieve your marketing goals, stop pursuing them.

You’ll need to know that they’ve got your back.

For example, it’s been 3 months, and you’ve still not made a sale using their online marketing techniques. How are they actively working to fix this immediately!?

Onboarding

Once you’re ready to move forward, you’ll receive a needs assessment to analyze specific marketing challenges, strengths, and objectives.

After fully understanding your unique needs, the consultant will create a detailed proposal outlining the scope of work, strategies, timelines, and costs for both parties to agree and sign.

The next step is providing access to relevant marketing data to help the consultant create a customized strategy for you.

During a kickoff meeting, the consultant will help you set up any necessary tools and platforms and go over their plan step by step.

If you’re working with a coach, they’ll review and tweak the plans you’ve come up with by asking you diagnosing questions and suggesting some options for improvements.

Regular check-ins and updates will ensure your marketing ship is sailing in the right direction and there are no holes in the boat.

Conclusion

The truth is…

Nobody can grow by themselves without the collective knowledge of others.

You can do marketing yourself with the guidance of a coach.

Or you can save time, and hire an expert consultant from the start because to scale past a certain point in your business, you’ll need support and a team.

That’s why they’re in high demand, especially experts in paid or organic search, social media, product marketing, and email marketing. [source: CareerFoundry]