![]() |
Advertising Resource Center |
|
|
Why Hire an Advertising/Marketing Consultant?
As a business owner, you have the option of taking several different approaches to handling your Marketing and Advertising. You may choose to handle the responsibility yourself, with the idea that no one understands your business quite the way you do.. You may also consider hiring a full time marketing manager or even assigning the tasks, as they arise, to someone already working within your organization. Consider this? When your business needs plumbing work do you do it yourself? Hire a plumber to be on staff full time? Or ask your accountant to handle it? Call in the Experts. Though some advertising and marketing ventures seems simple enough to be handled ''in house'', nothing is as costly as a marketing misfire. Not only may you be sending out the wrong messages, to the wrong markets, but also by the time you catch it, your budget may be in no shape to recover and redirect. The truth is, no one can do the job as effectively and efficiently as someone who lives and breathes the industry everyday. Plus, the added perk of consistent media contacts that will prove to be financially beneficial to your business. Seeing the forest and the trees. When you hire a consultant you hire an objective opinion, as well as a fresh point of view. Sometimes a business may lose perspective on itself by being too heavily immersed in the day-to-day operations, and lose itself in the big picture, missing the small details? or vice-versa. Sadly, sometimes a business's marketing will clearly reflect this. The president of a private jet company's focus is on the bells and whistles of his fleet. It's what he sees as important in his view of his business. Inevitably, his marketing may also focus on this portion of his business, ignoring what he is really selling to his potential clients: The feeling and the status of private jets. If you add another ball, technically it is juggling. If you, as a business owner, or an employee take on the added tasks of the marketing of the business, attention is being taken from other projects and responsibilities. Inescapably, focus and demands are bound to pull from one and take away from others until something falls to the floor. Consultants are dedicated to one, and only one, portion of your business. Their focus is committed, and they allow you to keep yours where it should be. The Gumby Factor. Consultants are very flexible. Immediately ready and available to take on assignments at a moment's notice. Accessibility to getting a new project off the ground is just a phone call away. On the other hand, trying to hire a new employee specifically to handle your marketing needs takes valuable time to places ads; conduct interviews and then sort through applicants, hoping to find the right person for the job. The M -Word Money. When you total up the actual cost of bringing on a new employee, you will most likely find that hiring a consultant is much more cost effective. The hourly rates may seem to favor a full time employee, but when you factor in employee benefits, training time, vacation/sick time, 401(k), the added overhead involved in situating a new employee, and the sheer fact that you may be paying full time wages for something that may not need full time attention, the cost effectiveness will fall in favor of a consultant. Which bring us to.... The C- Word Commitment. Hiring a full time employee is a commitment. And bringing on an employee to handle a special marketing project, or set up an initial marketing plan, may in the long run leave you scrambling to find a new project or position for that employee. Or worse yet, you find yourself paying a full time marketing director to do basic maintenance. Hiring a consultant requires no long-term commitment. When a consultant completes a project, they have the flexibility to move into whatever position you need them, from quarterly analysis, to basic maintenance, to completely out of the picture, but on the sidelines when you're ready to take a new step forward. "There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still." -Franklin D. Roosevelt Mary Ellen Martelli
MORE RESOURCES: MetLife CEO Robert Henrikson, who vowed not to waste the financial crisis, will expand the insurer's global reach by buying an AIG unit for $15.5 billion American International Group Inc. bondholders reaped at least $3.2 billion after the bailed-out company announced deals to sell its two largest non-U.S. life insurance divisions for $51 billion. Indexes rose for a second day as a drop in wholesale inventories and improvement in corporate bond markets added to signs the economy is strengthening Shares of the following companies are having unusual moves in U.S. trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses. Prices are as of 4:05 p.m. in New York. Treasuries declined, led by shorter-maturity debt, as gains in global stocks lessened the refuge appeal of U.S. government securities. The U.S. posted its largest budget deficit on record in February as the government boosted spending to help revive the economy. What Wall Street economists and strategists had to say about key developments on Mar. 10 The cost to protect against defaults on U.S. corporate bonds declined to the lowest in almost eight weeks as a surge in company bond sales signaled increased investor confidence. Investors should buy Asian stocks outside Japan after valuations dropped and before sentiment strengthens further, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said. NHN Corp., the owner of South Korea’s biggest Web search engine, is among the final bidders for LDH Corp.’s Livedoor Co. Internet unit, three people with knowledge of the matter said. Asian stocks rose, sending the MSCI Asia Pacific Index toward a seven-week high, on speculation Japan’s economy is recovering and that increased demand will allow commodity producers to boost prices. Nomura Holdings Inc.’s Jane Wang, vice chairman for China investment banking, resigned from the Japanese brokerage, said two people with knowledge of the matter, marking at least the fourth senior departure this month. Wall Street analyst opinions on stocks making headlines in Wednesday's market Ross Morrow, a professor at Iowa State University, talks about the possible impact of U.S. climate-change legislation on gasoline prices. Morrow also discusses the implications of higher prices for the U.S. economy. (Source: Bloomberg) Promotions and international sales let McDonald's wow investors while shares of Wendy's and Burger King languish amid a U.S. hunger for jobs Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, talks with Bloomberg's Betty Liu about Greece's fiscal woes. Rogers, speaking from Vienna, says a bankruptcy for Greece would benefit the euro. (This is an excerpt of the full interview. Source: Bloomberg) Although vacation bookings are rising with optimism about the economy, prices for hotel rooms and cruises will need time to rebound The jobless rate in the U.S. held at 9.7 percent in February and employment declined less than forecast even as severe winter weather may have forced some employers to temporarily close. |
RELATED ARTICLES
How To Use Pictures To Immediately Start Increasing The Response Rates Of Your Marketing There should only be one, over-riding reason why you're doing anything in your marketing.Know what that reason is?Of course! To increase the response rates of your sales promotions!Because that leads to. Creating a Winning Logo Creating a logo to get you noticed.When you're branding a company with a name, a colour scheme and a logo the logo is often not given enough care and attention. 2005 Super Bowl Ads... Winners and Losers Well, Super Bowl XXXIX is history. Too bad for the folks who consider themselves the always-pullin'-for-the-underdog type. The Art Of Fear Free Advertising Is fear of failure an issue when you commit valuable money in advertising?Well how about if I showed you a way to remove this fear and you know that you would be able to spend money advertising KNOWING you would get a return?Is that a valuable lesson?Course it is!So, how do you do it?The answer is testing!It's simple really.. How To Write Kick-Ass, Profit Pulling Adverts For Your Business? Doesn't that just grab you by the eyeballs and make you stop dead in your tracks? I mean it's a little harsh - grammatically speaking - but holy smokes, it does it have 'stopping power'.. The Not-So-Hidden Persuaders: The Power of The Media Upon Us All In 1957, a perspicacious young journalist from Pennsylvania named Vance Packard wrote a book called The Hidden Persuaders. It was meant to explain to the public at large why they buy the products they do and to warn them about the psychological aspects of consumer appeal that lie beneath the levels of consciousness. Promotional Vehicles It is difficult to miss a Hummer, but how many companies could afford to run one to promote their business? The answer is, of course, very few and it is doubtful whether GM's overgrown offspring would be the most suitable promotional vehicle for many of them. What then are the alternatives and how could businesses benefit from using a vehicle as an advertising medium?What is a promotional vehicle?A promotional vehicle is a car, truck or SUV with purpose-designed adhesive vinyl graphics applied to its exterior, promoting a business or one of its products or services. Improve Your Promotional Flyers And Improve Sales Admittedly, I have not seen your advertising flyer. Then again, I probably don't have to. Lamination of Signs I suspect that everyone has an idea of what lamination is even if you have only seen it in passing. Restaurant menus are a common example. 10 Simple Techniques To Make Your Ad Get Powerful Attention 1. Make your ad's keywords and phrases standoutby enlarging the text. Media, the Internet, Yellow Pages, and Your Business If you are reading this article, chances are you could use a little extra money. With the advent of the internet and the migration of advertising dollars from print to electronic (and this time, it's the real thing, I swear! Not one of those 1999 tech busts!. Advertising For The Long Haul and Not the Short Term Gains New Age Media Concepts issues its first article of many that will focus on the advertising and marketing industry. "If a young man tells his date she's intelligent, looks lovely, and is a great conversationalist, he's saying the right things to the right person and that's marketing. Push vs Pull Advertising Push vs. Pull Advertising - Understand the Consequences for your Product or ServiceYou will save yourself a considerable amount of time and money if you first determine your product's (or service's) suitability for "pull" and "push" advertising. Why People Fail in Mail Order Mail order is a very complicated business. Every phase must beplanned, analyzed and tested. What Does Your Business Card Say? Business cards are the most underutilized andmisunderstood marketing tool in business. Manypeople spend the bucks for cards and don't make aneffort to get them into the hands of those who canhire them or buy from them. Buying Radio? Read This and Dont Waste Your Money Pay close attention and make it work the best for you.No doubt you've listened to, and then quickly deleted, messages from account execs from your local radio stations. Should You Advertise on TV? When people discover my background in advertising,the questions flow. One of the most frequentquestions is "Should I advertise on TV?"I can't answer that questions until I ask anumber of questions first. Advertising - Does it Matter? When advertising, you need to sell your opportunity, your products and yourself. What sets you apart from everyone else? Maybe you produce a newsletter with a specific content where there is a demand from a particular group of people, or you promote your own special product that no one have not yet seen. Yellow Page Advertisers: Your Calls are Going to Decrease - Heres the Remedy Response rates to Yellow Page advertising are decliningThere's no getting around it, traditional Yellow Pages arein trouble. Fewer people use them every year. How To Get Big Sponsorship Money for Your Band, Tour, Event or Production Touring is a bands greatest opportunity for success. But, touring can be very expensive. |