In today’s fast-paced, information-overloaded world, the importance of marketing and communications is greater than ever. It’s no wonder that your marketing demands might be surpassing your team’s capacity—whether your resources are maxed out or you have a special project requiring focused attention, you need help and you need it yesterday.  

Here are four reasons why hiring a consultant for your marketing needs is a smart business strategy. 

1. Fill Specialization Gaps
   We’re living in an increasingly specialized world, where marketing teams are composed of a range of specialists. You may already have marketing and communications professionals on staff but in today’s fast-paced world, gaps can quickly become evident. Utilizing a marketing consultant can bridge gaps and drive your marketing strategy forward with expert insights and flexible support.  
   
   Beyond addressing skills gaps, there’s also the importance of industry knowledge and experience. By hiring a consultant with specific industry expertise, they will already understand the nuances of your business, while deep subject matter expertise will enable them to minimize the learning curve and quickly ramp up. As an expert in their field, a consultant hired from a consulting firm will be able to efficiently contribute to your team, blending in seamlessly and working to get critical projects completed.  
2. Provide Fresh Perspectives
   There’s a lot of talk these days about silos and breaking out of them. But, even if you’re able to knock down the interdepartmental walls within your own company, there’s still one silo that’s not only often hard to escape from, but whose existence is often hard to even recognize. That’s the silo of your company, and in some cases, your entire industry.  
   
   Because consultants come from outside your company – but still have the expertise and knowledge to understand your industry – they are able to bring an outside perspective to your marketing and communications projects and challenges. An outside consultant with a deep background in product marketing across different categories may provide experience with activations and business trends unheard of within your own sector, but which promise to attract the attention of your audience, differentiating you right out of the starting gate.
   
   And, sometimes, the best thing that a fresh perspective can offer is reassurance you have the right strategies and tactics in place, as a consultant works with and helps guide your team across the finish line.
   
   
3. Grow On-Demand
   The cost of hiring new employees can be substantial—a business faces expenses related to recruiting and onboarding, training, wages, benefits and payroll taxes. Even for smaller companies, these expenses can easily add up to tens of thousands of dollars for each new hire. And the impact of poor recruitment, high employee turnover, and an unsuccessful hire can lead to additional costs down the line. Studies show that the cost of replacing an employee can be 1.5-2 times the employee’s annual salary.  
   
   With the implications of cost-per-hire, an advantage of marketing and communications consultants is that they can be hired on a project-by-project or interim basis. A business owner can test the business strategy, the need, the skillset of a consultant, or hire for a temporary vacancy without having to go into all the costly risks of hiring and offering benefits and stock options.  
   
   For instance, when a communications director for one national family welfare agency went out on maternity leave, a communications consultant was hired to continue driving multiple projects in her absence, including a social media audit, social media strategy development, and an SEO audit among other deliverables. The consultant had a brief period of onboarding prior to the client’s departure and continued the projects seamlessly to completion prior to the client’s return.
   
   Because consultants are only selected if they are at the top of their professions with a depth of knowledge and experience, you can be assured of rapid deployment and integration. There isn’t precious time spent on creating job vacancy ads, having them approved by HR and legal, then the long process of waiting for resumes to come in and reviewing them, followed by finally hiring and onboarding. Skilled and qualified marketing and communications consultants are the workforce equivalent of plug-and-play.
   
   
4. Increase Growth, Not Friction
   Whether your company is a startup, a high growth organization, a Fortune 500 corporation or a regional non-profit, a common goal is often growth. But growth and business development isn’t always a straight line and can come with growing pains and associated costs. And it often means moving quickly and scaling to meet demands by adding additional talent and expertise.
   
   As we’ve mentioned, by leveraging a professional services firm to hire a consultant, companies can tap into a diverse pool of specialized skills and knowledge and experience, providing greater flexibility and efficiency. This approach reduces the necessity for a sizable in-house team, resulting in substantial cost savings and allowing businesses to scale and adapt their marketing strategies more effectively.
   
   Another benefit of a consultant is the ability to “try them on for size” before making a full-time hire.  
   
   Not only can you scale quickly to meet growth demands, if the expertise is new to the business and you’re wondering if it requires creating a new role and adding headcount, a consultant allows you to prove the value and impact to the business, building a case to create a new full-time headcount. All of this while gaining immediate traction.
   
   Another advantage of project-based hiring compared to full-time employment is the positive flexibility and scalability it brings. By their very nature, project-based professionals are agile and adaptive. Their contribution can be both strategic and tactical based on your current and upcoming business priorities. As you approach an increased growth cycle, they can be brought in to help execute the extra work and then let go (without any concerns about exit compensation) enabling you to scale as needed for spurts of growth and expansion. 
   
   Lastly, growth often means change, and we all know that not everyone is comfortable with change. That discomfort can lead to dissatisfaction and, ultimately, employee turnover. For example, it may become necessary to reorg internally to achieve growth targets and milestones. 

Bringing in outside perspective for marketing and communications can provide continuity in the event of this type of turmoil. Not only can it mean that your business is able to maintain its regular cadence of marketing efforts, but a marketing consultant can also help ensure your internal communications are effectively supporting the changes to the reorganization efforts. This drives adoption, increases employee engagement, and ensures staff turnover doesn’t become contagious.  

In today’s dynamic business environment, leveraging the expertise of marketing and communications consultants can be a game-changer. Whether it’s filling gaps in specialized skills, providing fresh perspectives, or enabling growth without friction, consultants offer flexible and efficient solutions tailored to your unique needs. At AMF Strategic Consultant Services, we have the experience and deep skilled workforce to help everyone from startups to Fortune 500 companies make their marcom efforts a success. Click here to start the conversation.