By Wayne Brown
Several years ago, I had a chance meeting with the leaders a 30 year old non-profit organization in New Jersey, who shared their financial and staffing struggles with me. Being the optimist that I am, I suggested a few viable resources and marketing strategies that I felt could help them. Their jaded responses and reluctance to seek outside help caught me by surprise. This company, I thought to myself, will not be around in the future. Sadly, I was right.
Many times in a situation like this one, a good marketing strategy can do more than make a business look pretty. Unfortunately, for small businesses, marketing is typically viewed as an extra “expense,” pushed aside by other “more important” expenses, such as payroll, inventory, and rent. However, hiring a small business marketing consultant can help get a number of things accomplished that will ultimately lead to achieving a company’s objectives.
About a year ago, WOW Creative Group started working with a $5 million company that was primarily interested in our graphic design services. What they didn’t realize at the time was that all of our collaterals are created based on a company’s brand standards. With that in mind, we set to work in creating a brand for them. From there we developed a marketing plan to take the brand to the consumer, which involved a new website, growing awareness on social media, email, pay-per-click platforms, using video to sell products, tracking analytics, as well as the traditional forms of print. At the end of the company’s fiscal year, there was a significant increase in their return on investment, and the CEO commented that hiring a marketing consultant was perfect for their size company and money well spent. Prior to hiring us, the company’s department managers were responsible for marketing and advertising their individual products and services, which created inconsistency and confusion in their marketplace.
Hiring a marketing consultant in the absence of a full-time marketing director or team offers huge benefits. For one, there’s no acclimation period to reach 100% productivity, as would be expected from a new salaried employee. A seasoned marketing consultant comes with experience and can create a plan of action right away without having to wait months to learn the business. Another benefit is that marketing your business might only require a certain number of hours a week, which might be much less than if you had to pay a full-time employee. In addition, you won’t have to deal with the usual HR headaches, training, payroll, sick and vacation time, and other costs typically incurred by employees. In fact, hiring a consultant is a tax-deductible expense.
Company owners and executive leaders usually have the skills needed to run their respective businesses, but not necessarily in all areas of customer acquisition or the technology that powers it. In addition, wearing too many hats is not always a good thing for any business owner or director, as the ability to manage effectively becomes stretched too thin.
If you’re a business owner or director and find that you don’t have time to pursue opportunities in your market because of time constraints or staff limitations, and are constantly pushing other aspects of business aside just to get through the day, please contact me at wayne@wowcreativegroup.com.