Choosing the right marketing agency, consultant or independent freelance marketer

Choosing an outsourced marketing agency, freelancer or consultant can be tricky.

It’s very challenging to make a decision based on an area that encompasses everything from website and SEO work, through copywriting and brand tone of voice, to paid ads and PR.

Below are some questions I’ve put together to help you gain a better understanding of what agencies, consultants or freelancers may need to be more effective in helping your business or organisation grow.

What problem are you actually trying to solve?

Before you brief anyone, it is worth being specific. Are you trying to generate more leads? Reach a different type of client? Build a stronger brand? Recover from a period where marketing has drifted? The answer shapes which type of support will serve you best. Execution problems need execution resource. Strategic problems need strategic resource. Confusing the two is the most common and most expensive mistake.

Do you have a strategy, or do you need one?

If you already have a clear market position, a defined audience, and a messaging framework that is working, a good agency or specialist can execute against it effectively. If you do not, giving an agency a brief before the strategy is in place tends to produce polished activity without commercial direction.

What does success look like in twelve months?

Any marketing partner worth working with should be able to connect their work to a commercial outcome: more of the right enquiries, a stronger pipeline, a clearer market position, better talent attraction. If they can only describe success in terms of likes, impressions, or posts published, that is a signal worth paying attention to.

Understanding how external marketers charge, and why?

Day rates, monthly retainers, project fees, and performance-based models all have different implications. Day rates incentivise time spent. Retainers incentivise relationship maintenance. Project fees align better with defined outcomes. Ask not just what they charge, but how the charging model shapes their behaviour.

Do you have more questions?

If you have any questions or are keen to understand more about the process, please just get in touch.

More than happy to help with an initial conversation. You don’t know what you don’t know.