After 1.5 years of chaos, digital transformation, and negative consumer emotions, many businesses, especially small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) found themselves facing more marketing challenges than they've ever anticipated —all the more reasons why you need a marketing consultant to get ahead in today's marketing game.

Digital Marketing is Rapidly Changing

Digital marketing has never been changing more rapidly. Within the past few months, Google has pushed out three new spam-filtering algorithms. Meanwhile, Facebook has officially become Meta, TikTok continues to grow its userbase at an explosive speed, and Instagram removed IGTV format completely after many adjustments with their algorithm.

On the other hand, LinkedIn continues its confusing exploration of stories, creator mode, and other new functions, and let's forget the less-discussed, yet equally critical channels, such as Quora, Reddit, and Pinterest.

Therefore, it is unrealistic to expect a business owner with a million other things to take care of to stay on top of all these updates. Meanwhile, a marketing consultant's job is largely about staying on top of the game. You see the difference now?

You Need Navigation in the Post-Pandemic Landscape

So many things have changed among the consumers after the chaos we've just crawling out of. Emotions have been shaken, and focus is shifted, which calls for new ways of messaging and marketing.

With consumers being more aware and sensitive than ever, working directly with a consultant familiar with the market shifts, consumer behavior, and various targeting method would significantly increase your ROI. In addition, a marketing consultant can also help you customize your message so you remain relevant in the new world.

Marketing Requires a Systematic, Strategic Approach

Too many small business owners are overwhelmed by the endless marketing tasks. Social media managing, community engagement, SEO, content creation, funnel building...

If we were to list everything that goes into today's marketing sphere, we would be starting a separate post just for that purpose. As a result, most business owners find themselves task chasing, when marketing would only bring your desired result when approached from a systematic and strategic way.

Therefore, you need a marketing consultant to help you execute the tasks properly, but also understand the why behind the things you do.

Now is the Time for a Marketing Audit

A marketing audit is crucial to a business's resilience and future. To grow, we must understand our advantages and disadvantages, focus on our strengths while navigating through our weaknesses, and the only way for us to know those things is through an honest auditing process.

However, auditing by yourself could be distressful and emotional, which often leads to inaccurate results. In addition, industry expertise is an absolute necessity to conduct an effective audit. Then, why risk gathering wrong information when you can invest in a professional diagnosis?

Your Consultant is your Most Trusted Comrade

Finally, nobody likes fighting alone. Because doing everything on our own is scary, especially when it comes to marketing. And that's why you need a marketing consultant. The right consultant is your biggest cheerleader and most trusted comrade. You should feel so comfortable sharing with them both your joy and distress, success and failure.

If any of these reasons mentioned above resonate with you, then, it might be high time for you to hire a business consultant. However, keep in mind that larger consultancy firms aren't always better. Find the firm that understands your mission and is familiar with your type and size of business is often more important than anything.