If you’re thinking about looking at your options for marketing consulting services, fees may be a concern. Choose the right consultant and the fees will be well spent and will deliver results that could dramatically improve your business. Let’s take a look at some of the fees you may be charged, and learn how you may want to measure your return on investment as well.
Initial Consultation
Many marketing consulting firms will talk to you and provide a free initial consultation. It’s probably best to stick with free evaluations to help you choose the right company. Most professional firms find it time well spent to demonstrate their value-added proposition and have the opportunity to talk to you about what they can do for you. After that, a marketing strategy and implementation plan will be discussed, along with a discussion of marketing consulting fees. Your marketing firm should articulate your full pricing schedule so there are no surprises.
Marketing Services Fees
Various items may be charged, such as: staffing, research, and execution of the plan. Other charges may also apply, such as design services, printing fees if you use marketing materials such as in print, and other charges related to your campaign(s). Your adviser should be able to provide you with a breakdown of some of those charges. Paying for expert services won’t come free, however, so be prepared to pay a fraction of the change for the consulting aspect of marketing services. Qualified marketing consultants also get a decent hourly rate for their time, but it should be money well spent.
Consultants work with you to help you achieve your desired results. A marketer doesn’t just take over your business operations and make changes to your business infrastructure without input from him. The right consultant works alongside you and will help you learn how to manage your marketing efforts more effectively and whether or not those efforts are paying off should be apparent fairly quickly.
Consulting ROI measurement
The return on investment is important. When you invest in your business, it’s helpful to see in real data where that investment is taking you. You’ll spend money, time, and may spend resources implementing a marketing campaign or overall plan, so it’s important to see the fruits of that labor.
If results aren’t apparent just in terms of bottom line earnings, the marketing company can provide you with detailed reports, especially if you’re advertising online, to help you see results in other areas, such as search engine. rankings, increased website traffic, increased brand awareness through web analytics, and other areas that show marked improvement between now and before they hired the marketing consultancy. It may take time to achieve results, but the right company can help and prove themselves along the way.