How much does it cost to hire a marketing consultant and what we do for your business?
Consultant’s fees vary depending on the experience of the consultant and what type of marketing services you need.
Common Marketing Services:
1. Community Management & Social Media
You need help getting started and creating a strategy, or you already have a presence on social networks but your staff lack the time and expertise to stay on top of things. This happens all the time!
Hiring a marketing consultant to take charge of your online community and/or social media accounts should feel as if someone on your staff is doing it.
A consultant will make posts, start conversations, respond to your customers, share company news, information and photos of interest to your followers.
Before hiring a consultant, please make sure you know exactly what you’re getting, and what types of posts he or she will be making on your behalf.
2. Inbound Marketing
A consultant can optimize your website to increase traffic and drive leads, set up and manage your company blog, create a lead-capture plan, write and post fresh content and provide detailed reporting.
3. Strategic Marketing Advice
If your company has a challenge related to marketing, a consultant can be brought in to offer insight and ideas.
Expanding into new markets? Not sure the best way to reach your ideal customers? Need to increase sales per year from current customers? These are all challenges a marketing consultant can help you solve.
4. General Marketing Support
A consultant can work with your company just as a hired Marketing Manager and help your company by providing advice and direction.
He or she can also create your marketing strategy and execute some, or all of it, so you and your staff can get back to focusing on what you do best.
How Much Does a Marketing Consultant Cost?
As with any other service provider, each marketing consultant will have their own fee structure. The most common are:
1. Hourly Rate
Some consultants charge by the hour to complete a project.
Based on my research, in Canada (including the Saint John, New Brunswick area) you’ll probably pay $75 – $150 per hour to hire a marketing consultant.
You might also pay more, depending on the specialization of the company you work with, location, or their years of experience.
2. Flat Rate/Project-based Fee
For a one-time project the price may be quoted as a flat rate.
3. Monthly Fee/Retainer
If your company needs certain marketing services on an ongoing basis, a set monthly fee for those services is the way to go. Like a flat rate, you’ll know your investment up front and be able to budget for it.
This type of arrangement also guarantees you’ll receive the services you need each month and the consultant will ensure they have those hours available to serve you.
A monthly retainer can be anywhere from $1000 to tens of thousands of dollars per month depending on the level of services your company needs.
Here are some example retainer packages. We found these by looking at the websites of marketing agencies in Canada and the United States who have their rates posted online.
Social Media:
$1000 per month is the starting point we found for social media management of one network for a small business (such as managing your Facebook Page). The cost will increase depending on the size of your follower base and frequency of posting.
Inbound Marketing:
A basic inbound marketing package, including weekly blog posts, SEO, social sharing, lead capture and reporting will start in the range of $2500 to $3500 per month.
A more comprehensive inbound marketing package that also includes advanced content creation (ex. downloadable eBooks and white papers), more frequent blog posts, lead nurturing emails and detailed reporting starts at about $3500 to $5000 per month or more.
According to an SEOmoz survey of 34 agencies in 2011, the most common monthly retainers of inbound/online marketing firms in Canada are: $1000-$1500, $1500-$2500 and $251 – $500. We have no way of knowing what exact services these included.
Interested in hiring a marketing consultant?
Contact 1-855-886-3843 Click Here–> www.socialdominancemedia.com or FILL OUT THE FORM BELOW to have someone contact you.
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