When I began my career as a content marketer, I only knew a few digital marketing consultants. At the time, it was still seen as something you did toward the end of your career. I envisioned myself making that same decision years from now. But, like all things that come unexpectedly, life had other plans.
So I wasn’t surprised that it didn’t take long for me to love it. I get to work with a wide variety of industries and meet remarkable people from all over the country and sometimes, the world. I have written about so many random topics including web copy for car interlocks, social posts for staffing agencies, and blogs for healthcare tech start-ups. There isn’t a dull moment and the work is always interesting, which is ideal for a curious person like me.
There are business owners out there hesitant to hire someone like me and that’s understandable. But the beauty of hiring a content marketing consultant is that the possibilities are endless, and it’s well worth considering.
Benefits of Hiring a Content Marketing Consultant
Depending on the company, budget, and the goals you’re trying to accomplish, there are plenty of benefits to hiring a content marketing consultant.
- Cost-Effective: It’s much more cost-effective to hire a consultant, especially for businesses that are new and might not have a marketing budget. They charge an hourly or project rate and can customize the scope to fit your needs.
- New Perspective: Sometimes, a business is so entrenched in what they do that they have a hard time coming up with something new that appeals to their clients and customers. A content marketing consultant can offer an outsider’s view on content that can improve what’s there or generate fresh ideas, especially when it comes to writing.
- Flexible: Content marketing consultants work flexible hours and have flexible capacities. This is great for companies who need to fill in gaps due to medical, parental, or caregiver leave or for an individual project. Consultants also aren’t bogged down by administrative tasks or meetings like regular employees, allowing them to focus and have the capacity to help when needed.
- Scalable: I’m going to say a hard truth and it’s that there are plenty of people who are hired full-time that shouldn’t be hired full-time, including content marketers. Marketing needs change often, whether it’s a big project coming in the pipeline or business slows nearly to a halt. The best way to navigate these changes is to hire a person who fits these needs so that everyone goes into the relationship knowing that things can scale up or down at any time.
3 Questions to Consider
If you’re still on the fence about whether or not you need to hire someone, here are some questions to consider.
1. What Work do I Need Completed?
Some clients are simple and only need a content marketer for one thing, like writing and managing content for social media. Others might need these skills plus help with SEO, graphic design, event marketing, or other various tasks. In that case, hire an agency because they have a specialized team that can take on a variety tasks. A content marketer who does all of this will get burnt out.
2. What Can I Afford?
This is always a tricky subject, but if you know you’re at a point where you think you need to hire a contractor, it’s best to be open and honest about the budget from the get-go. The same goes for the contractor. The goal is to achieve the best-case scenario for the client and the contractor: the company gets the help they need and the contractor feels fairly compensated for it.
3. How Much Help do I Need?
This question will determine what amount of content marketing help you need and there are plenty of options:
- Full-Time: If this is a person you need long-term, a full-time employee or a contract to hire is your best bet. Some consultants take full-time contracts like this with the hope they get hired after it ends. But, you may also consider a contract role that lasts only a certain period (3 months, 6 months, a year, etc.) for when an employee is out on leave or to test out the role.
- Part-Time: If you want a consultant to stick with you for ongoing work, but not enough work for a full-time employee, part-time is the way to go. I had a client for over 4 years in this capacity and it worked well for both of us.
- Project-Based: For project-based work, consultants work perfectly. You get extra help from someone who is specialized in the task for the optimal amount of time.
Once you know how much help you need, the next hurdle is finding the right content marketer. Not all of them work full-time and plenty work part-time like myself. Most of us are juggling multiple clients, so we will only consider work if we have the capacity to do it.
I recommend asking colleagues in your industry for marketing consultant recommendations. All of my clients have either been referrals or from current connections, so you’re bound to find a few good candidates. Another way is searching through Google, but again, I’d ask connections for insights on the business.
It’s a bit overwhelming to find the right content marketing consultant, but I’m hopeful these suggestions will help.
Ready to take the next step in hiring a content marketer? Contact AFJ Digital to learn more about how I can help.
AFJ Digital 