Table of contents
- What is a content marketing consultant?
- What does a content marketing consultant do?
- How much does a content marketing consultant cost?
i. Hiring an in-house content marketing consultant
ii. Hiring an agency content marketing consultant - How to make the most of your content marketing consultant
What is a content marketing consultant?
Firstly, let's explore what a content marketing consultant does and the services they offer to businesses.
A content marketing consultant is a professional who specialises in developing and executing content marketing strategies for businesses. Content marketing involves creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — ultimately, with the goal of driving profitable customer action.
What does a content marketing consultant do?
In a nutshell, a content marketing consultant will give you advice on how to create a content strategy that will work for your business. Their aim is to provide you with a rich content strategy that is highly targeted and designed to both attract and educate your potential customers.
Content marketing consultants are familiar with all aspects of content marketing, including social media, SEO, email marketing, content strategy, blogging, editing and research. They will also have a good knowledge of how to use metrics and analytics to report back on both your current content marketing approach before they start, and your results along the way. This is essential, as you should clearly be able to see what impact your content marketing is having in terms of increased traffic and leads, increased conversion rates and the number of sales.
As part of their role, a content marketing consultant may advise you on your marketing funnels, look at your conversion rates for optimisation, and they’ll almost certainly review and audit your current content creation and strategy and suggest improvements.
You can expect them to look closely at your target audience and review your buyer personas to ensure you are targeting the right people for your services or products. And they’ll look at how you are trying to reach your ideal customers currently and what might be improved.
A good content marketer knows that content marketing is about building trust, building brand awareness and establishing a business’s credibility and authority in its field. They’re there to keep an eye on the big picture and help you and your team create a content strategy that’s right for your business aims and goals. They’ll help you focus on what matters and ignore what doesn’t, so you can get excellent results with your content marketing and grow your business.
You might hire a content marketing consultant at regular intervals to review how your current content strategy is working for you and ensure that it is still working for the stage of business you’re at now, and for getting to the next level.
How much does a content marketing consultant cost?
Many business leaders want to be able to improve their marketing processes but worry that the cost will be prohibitive. So, how much does it cost to hire a marketing consultant?
Well, there are a couple of different ways you can make use of a content marketing consultant. You can hire them specifically as an in-house position, or you can make use of contractor packages through an agency. We explore each in turn below:
Hiring an in-house content marketing consultant
This is a good option, usually for larger businesses that need someone fully focused on their business marketing needs alone.
You could hire someone part-time or full-time, depending on what you need, and you’ll know for certain that they aren’t juggling a hundred other clients and moving from project to project.
This does come, however, with all the usual duties you’d expect with hiring an employee. You need to have HR functions in place, provide training, find desk space for them if they’ll be working at your premises, and of course, you’ll need to provide a full salary package.
For a full-time content marketing consultant, the average salary in the UK is £45,851 per year, according to Glassdoor.
Decide what you need and be sure you really do have to have a full or part-time employee before going ahead. You may find you can still get excellent results by hiring a content marketing agency to work with you as and when needed.
Hiring an agency content marketing consultant
If you don’t want to hire someone in-house, another option is to choose an agency.
For smaller businesses, this can be both a time saver and a money saver. You don’t have to pay a full-time salary, National Insurance, tax, benefits or any of the other things that come with hiring an employee. All you need to find is the fee the agency charges every month, and you can still get a great service.
Adzooma has done research into average prices for marketing agencies in the UK in 2021. According to their findings, the average is “£725 per day, £817.90 monthly retainer, or £325 per post.”
That might sound a lot, but this is an average cost, and you will be able to find content marketing consultancy services at a lower price. Decide what you really need, then shop around, look carefully at what is included and check their reviews before choosing an agency.
Read More: How big is the content marketing industry?
How to make the most of your content marketing consultant
These tips can help you get the most value from your marketing consultant:
- Do your research: Before you hire someone, get a thorough understanding of what content marketing is, if you don’t already know. Ensure you know enough to be able to work alongside your new hire and understand their feedback to you, and that you have at least a rough idea of how you want them to improve your situation.
- Familiarise yourself with your content: Have ready any previous content marketing you’ve done and a link to where you keep all your previously written content so they know what you already have and can work out where the gaps are. You will also need to provide them with access to your various content publishing and analytics dashboards.
- Actively collaborate with them: While it is their job to work out a content plan for your business and to implement it, the more you get involved and give them the information they need, the better job they can do for you. That doesn’t mean micromanaging, but simply being available and engaged in the process.
- Listen to the feedback they give you: They are the experts and the right content marketer will bring with them a range of ideas and suggestions that really can make all the difference to your business.
How much does a content marketing consultant cost? Well, it’s not so much a cost as an investment. The right content marketing strategy, implemented by someone who really knows what they’re doing, can take your business to the next level and beyond.
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Header image: Medienstürmer
Embedded images: Sarah Elizabeth, Christina @ wocintechchat.com, KOBU Agency