Marketing consultants come in many shapes and sizes. If you’re going into the industry, it’s essential that you know what kind of consultant you plan to be. It’ll shape the way you brand yourself, the way you look for clients and the way you work with clients.
These are the five most common types of marketing consultants.
==> Type #1: Small Business Advisor
This type of consultants tends to work with restaurants, spas, hair salons, grocery stores and other small businesses.
This kind of consultant identifies new ways to bring in customers, and helps clients plan and execute marketing campaigns.
Common tactics might include coupon mailers, coupon packs, newspaper advertising, cable TV advertising and joint ventures with other local businesses.
==> Type #2: Client Acquisition
This type of marketing consultant tends to work with individuals or organizations that deal with higher end clients. For example, investment advisors, lawyers, doctors and real estate agents.
Again, the goal is to bring in more clients. In this realm, however, the tactics are quite different. Common tactics might include web advertising, PPC marketing, buying leads, and magazine or newspaper advertising.
==> Type #3: Pay Per Click or SEO Consultant
This type of consultant focuses on the online aspect of marketing. They’re focused on helping clients maximize their PPC or SEO returns.
Generally marketing consultants are either PPC or SEO but not both, as they’re both very specialized skill sets. Clients can range from mom and pop stores to Fortune 500 companies.
==> Type #4: Branding Advisor
This type of marketing consultant specializes in helping companies figure out their brand and their core message. They help shape both the visual message as well as the intangible message.
They help figure out things like logos, banners, posters and multimedia and help make sure that everything the company puts out adheres to a coherent message.
==> Type #5: Social Media Consultant
Social media consultants can help companies in a number of different ways.
Some consultants specialize in helping companies set up social media in the first place. They’ll help design Facebook covers and Twitter backgrounds, help register pages, help get a feed going and so on. They help take a company from no social media presence to having one.
Other consultants actually help run the social media campaigns. They take over the reins and post tweets, post status updates, run contests and create infographics.
Still others specialize in crisis management. These companies will monitor your social media feeds for you and jump in should negative press start spreading among the social sphere.
Some social media consultants take on more than one of these roles.
These are the five most common types of marketing consultants. Each targets very different customers and uses very different skill sets. Make sure you know which category you fall into before you jump into the industry.