Hire a Marketing Consultant

Even the best product will see no profits if the business behind it doesn’t have a marketing strategy of some sort. Driving brand awareness is essential to every business, big or small, because how can you get customers if nobody has heard of you?

Creating and implementing a marketing strategy, however, is no easy feat. It requires skill and understanding of what works and what doesn’t; what makes a good impression and what could drive possible customers away.

The best way to create a winning marketing campaign? Outsourcing to a professional. As a business owner, outsourcing marketing strategies can save you time and money, allowing you to focus on your core business operations.

Here is my list of the best websites to turn to when you need to hire a marketing consultant.

Our Favorite

Fast. Flexible. Freelancers.

MarketerHire

• Pre-vetted experts across marketing specialties
• No long-term contracts or hiring delays
• You choose the talent — they make the match
• Great for startups and fast-moving teams

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On-Demand Talent. No Agency Markups.

GrowTal

• Freelancers in paid ads, SEO, email & more
• No bloated retainers or hidden fees
• Work directly with proven specialists
• Ideal for lean, agile marketing teams

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Managed Marketing. Vetted Talent.

Mayple

• Fully managed strategy + execution
• Mayple oversees quality and performance
• Great for founders who want hands-off growth
• Backed by structured reporting and results

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Best Websites to Hire a Freelance Marketing Consultant

Read our guide on the best freelance websites for marketing to find and hire talent to grow your business.

Hiring a marketing strategist through consulting services allows you to access specialized expertise and save resources by utilizing external insights without committing to a full-time hire.

1. MarketerHire

Best for the top digital marketing experts

MarketerHire ensures the quality of their marketing experts by only accepting less than 5% of the digital marketers that apply to their site. They focus on finding a digital marketing strategist whose skills align with the specific needs of your business.

Aside from their picky process in picking freelancers from applications, their talent team is also proactive in recruiting top marketing consultants to join their site and work with their clients. They also have each marketing consultant perform pilot or test projects before signing them on.

After matching you with the right marketing consultant with your company within 48 hours, they will typically get started on your project within a week.

After that, they will check in with you every two weeks to make sure that everything is going well between you and your marketing consultant.

Read our MarketerHire review.

Visit MarketerHire

2. Mayple

Runner up for finding and hiring top marketing experts

Mayple is a freelancing site that thoroughly vets each of the marketing consultants that it allows to create profiles. Businesses may need to hire marketing consultants when experiencing growth challenges, competitive pressure, or entering new markets.

After the extensive process of making sure that the freelancers who have applied to their site are talented and highly skilled, they will rank each of them based on how adept they are at digital marketing.

To help you find the right marketing consultant, they first give you a long questionnaire that helps them understand your goals and needs. This questionnaire will cover things like how much you need your marketing consultant to work, what kind of business you have, what your current marketing strategy looks like, and more.

With this information, Mayple then uses AI technology to search through their database and find a marketing consultant that can suit your needs.

Read our Mayple review.

Visit Mayple

3. GrowTal

Since your marketing consultant is someone you will be working with on a regular basis, they must be a person that you enjoy working with. It is also important to have a skilled marketing leader to guide and motivate your in house marketing team. GrowTal uses this as the center of every freelance-client relationship that they create.

GrowTal starts its process by meeting with you for a 15 or 30-minute Zoom call. During this call, they get to know you, your company culture, your marketing goals, and what kind of marketing consultant you’re looking for.

After getting a feel for who they think would make a good match with you, within two business days they contact a handful of marketing consultants to see which ones are available and interested in working with you.

They will present you with three to five marketing consultants that you can choose from.

Read our GrowTal review.

Visit GrowTal

4. Upwork

Best overall freelance website for finding marketing talent

One of the most popular freelancing sites is Upwork, and it’s also one of the best places to find a marketing consultant.

On Upwork, you have the ability (and responsibility) to choose a marketing consultant for yourself. Engaging with experienced marketing agencies can significantly enhance your company's growth potential and strategic direction by executing tactical aspects of your marketing strategy.

You simply post a job listing exactly what you’re looking for. Specify if you need a marketing consultant for a long-term relationship, need someone to do a complete overall of your marketing strategy, or just need someone to help you boost the marketing strategy you’ve already created.

I like Upwork because you can get multiple applications within minutes of posting a job, so it’s a great option for people who need a marketing consultant on their team ASAP.

Read our Upwork Review.

Visit Upwork

5. Fiverr

Fiverr is another large, popular freelancing site that thousands of companies use to find marketing consultants.

On this site, you actually browse through the profiles of marketing consultants and reach out to the ones that you’re interested in. Being able to hand-pick your marketing consultant puts you in power.

When you search for a marketing consultant on Fiverr, you can check out what specific skills they have listed on their profile. You can search specific tags to find a marketing consultant that specializes in your company’s industry, someone who can coach you on how to handle your own marketing or someone who can just come up with a concept for you to implement.

Read our Fiverr review.

Visit Fiverr

What is a marketing consultant?

A marketing consultant is a professional digital marketing expert that a company brings on to maximize the effectiveness of its marketing campaign through comprehensive marketing consulting services.

They look at the big picture and use their knowledge of best practices to create a winning strategy to drive brand awareness and profits.

What's a Marketing Broker?

What marketing strategies does a marketing consultant use?

A marketing consultant first takes a look at what a company’s current marketing strategy looks like. They leverage their marketing expertise to get to know the brand’s voice, the target audience, and what the company’s goals are.

After analyzing the existing strategy to see what works and what doesn’t, they come up with a new plan to utilize marketing techniques (like SEO, social media marketing, and even word-of-mouth) that boost the visibility of your brand and connect you to your target audience.

They can then help you implement this plan by creating and launching new marketing and advertising campaigns.

Benefits of Hiring a Marketing Consultant

Hiring a marketing consultant can bring numerous benefits to your business. Here are some of the advantages of working with a marketing consultant:

• Expertise: A marketing consultant brings specialized knowledge and expertise to your business, helping you develop and implement effective marketing strategies. Their deep understanding of various marketing tactics ensures that your campaigns are well-planned and executed.
• Objectivity: A marketing consultant provides an objective perspective on your business, helping you identify areas for improvement and opportunities for growth. This fresh viewpoint can uncover blind spots that your in-house team might miss.
• Cost-effectiveness: Hiring a marketing consultant can be more cost-effective than hiring a full-time marketing employee or agency. You can access high-level expertise without the long-term financial commitment of a full-time salary.
• Flexibility: Marketing consultants can work on a project-by-project basis, allowing you to scale your marketing efforts up or down as needed. This flexibility is particularly beneficial for small businesses or startups with fluctuating marketing needs.
• Access to new ideas and perspectives: A marketing consultant can bring fresh ideas and perspectives to your business, helping you stay ahead of the competition. Their exposure to different industries and marketing strategies can inspire innovative solutions tailored to your unique challenges.

Qualities to Look for in a Marketing Consultant

When hiring a marketing consultant, there are several qualities to look for to ensure you find the right person for your business. Here are some of the key qualities to look for:

• Experience: Look for a marketing consultant with experience in your industry or niche. Their familiarity with your market can provide valuable insights and more effective strategies.
• Expertise: Ensure the consultant has expertise in the areas you need help with, such as digital marketing, social media marketing, or content marketing. Specialized knowledge in these areas can significantly enhance your marketing efforts.
• Communication skills: A good marketing consultant should have excellent communication skills, both written and verbal. Clear and effective communication is crucial for understanding your needs and conveying their strategies.
• Analytical skills: The consultant should be able to analyze data and provide insights to inform marketing decisions. Strong analytical skills help in measuring the success of campaigns and making data-driven adjustments.
• Creativity: A marketing consultant should be able to think creatively and come up with innovative marketing solutions. Creativity is essential for developing unique campaigns that capture your audience’s attention and differentiate your brand.

How much does it cost to hire a marketing consultant?

The cost of hiring a marketing consultant depends on many different factors like the location of your company, the amount of work you expect of the marketing consultant, the level of expertise that your chosen marketing consultant has, and what industry your company is in.

The range for hourly rates listed by freelance marketing consultants across these sites is a large one, with marketing consultants charging anywhere between $12-$250 per hour.

On average, the rate for a marketing consultant is $85 (this number was generated based on data scraping popular marketing consultant profiles across multiple platforms and locations).

How to hire a marketing consultant

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how exactly to go about hiring a marketing consultant.

1. Identify your needs – How much do you need your marketing consultant to work? Do you have no marketing strategy at all and need to start from scratch? Or do you just want some tweaking of your current plan to grow brand awareness? It is important to find a marketing strategist aligned with your specific marketing needs.
2. Create goals – Think about what you ultimately want from your marketing consultant in something quantifiable. Set up a goal like “I want x amount of new customers in three months” or “I want my site to get x amount of new visitors.”
3. Define your budget – Know exactly how much you can afford to pay a marketing consultant (using this guide is a good reference).
4. Explore best websites for marketing consultants – Since there is such a wide range of specialties that marketing consultants could have, go with a site that provides the right marketing consultants you need within your budget and your specific marketing goals.
5. Create test or pilot projects to see if they’re a good fit for your culture – Asking questions like “what is my brand’s biggest area of weakness right now” can give you an idea of what depth of analysis they can do for your brand and how well they can communicate the plan to you.

Working with a Marketing Consultant

Working with a marketing consultant can be a collaborative and productive experience. Here are some tips for getting the most out of your relationship with a marketing consultant:

• Clearly define your goals and objectives: Make sure you and the consultant are on the same page when it comes to your marketing goals and objectives. Clear goals provide direction and help measure success.
• Establish open communication: Regular communication is key to a successful working relationship with a marketing consultant. Schedule regular check-ins to discuss progress, challenges, and any adjustments needed.
• Be open to new ideas: A marketing consultant can bring fresh perspectives and ideas to your business, so be open to trying new things. Embracing innovative strategies can lead to significant improvements in your marketing efforts.
• Provide access to necessary resources: Ensure the consultant has access to the resources they need to do their job effectively, such as data and analytics tools. Providing the right tools and information can enhance their ability to deliver results.
• Set clear expectations: Establish clear expectations for the scope of work, timelines, and deliverables. Clear expectations help avoid misunderstandings and ensure that both parties are aligned on the project’s goals and outcomes.

Measuring Success

Measuring the success of your marketing efforts is crucial to understanding what’s working and what’s not. Here are some ways to measure the success of your marketing efforts:

• Track website analytics: Use tools like Google Analytics to track website traffic, engagement, and conversion rates. These metrics provide insights into how well your marketing campaigns are driving traffic and generating leads.
• Monitor social media metrics: Track engagement rates, follower growth, and other social media metrics to understand the effectiveness of your social media marketing efforts. Social media analytics can reveal which platforms and content types resonate most with your audience.
• Use marketing automation tools: Marketing automation tools can help you track the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and automate repetitive tasks. These tools provide detailed reports on campaign performance and help streamline your marketing processes.
• Conduct regular reviews: Regularly review your marketing efforts with your consultant to understand what’s working and what’s not, and make adjustments as needed. Continuous improvement is key to long-term success.
• Set clear KPIs: Establish clear key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your marketing efforts. KPIs provide specific, measurable goals that help you track progress and evaluate the impact of your marketing strategies.