Why Should You Hire a Chicago Marketing Strategy Consultant?

Do you feel beaten down by competition? Are you looking for ways to improve promotional processes and strategies? Consider hiring a Chicago marketing strategy consultant.

These often-underrated local subject-matter experts can help launch, scale, and grow your business in five ways. They:

• build a cohesive, value-driven brand,
• design and refine effective marketing plans,
• streamline objectives and resources,
• create more income and reduce operating costs,
• track analytics and improve performance.

Learn more about the benefits of working with a marketing strategy consultant below!  Let’s go!

Watch this video to find out more about how Digital Authority Partners can create a great marketing strategy for you!

1. Build a Cohesive, Value-Driven Brand

Branding is essential to any successful business, yet many people fail to grasp its true significance.

At its core, branding is about creating a distinct image, message, and identity for your company. It is about expressing who you are, what you stand for, and what unique value you offer customers.

It is not just about creating a catchy logo or slogan; it is about embodying your values and consistently communicating your message across all customer touchpoints.

When branding is both cohesive and value-driven, it can lead to increased consumer loyalty and retention and better revenue streams. Customers are more likely to trust and choose a company that aligns with their values and has a strong brand identity.

A Chicago marketing strategy consultant applies many strategies to concisely define your company's brand. One of these is a brand audit, a comprehensive analysis involving the following:

• Review of the brand’s history, values, mission, and vision
• Conducting a competitive analysis to understand the market
• Review of the brand’s messaging and visual identity, including logos, taglines, and marketing materials
• Evaluation of the customer experience, including customer service, sales process, and website user experience
• Analysis of your online presence, including social media, website, and search engine visibility
• Performing customer surveys and gathering feedback to understand the market’s perception and brand reputation
• Identifying areas of strength and weakness and developing a plan to address them

2. Design and Refine Effective Marketing Plans

Marketing plans are roadmaps to success. They help you stay on track and keep your team focused on the shared vision.

Your business is likely to have excellent marketing plans when it:

• is based on thorough research and analysis;
• addresses the company's current market position, potential growth opportunities, budget, and timelines;
• includes measurable metrics for tracking progress and includes options for refining the plan over time;
• has flexibility and focus to quickly align with the company’s overall business objectives while remaining adaptable enough to respond to changing market conditions.

Besides implementing these easy ways to improve your Chicago marketing strategy, they also:

• ensure you are using timely, real, objective data, not assumptions or guesswork;
• use their extensive experience with customer segmentation strategies to develop campaigns that reach the right audiences at the right time with the right message;
• review current plans and procedures to make sure they are still appropriate;
• refine existing plans to maximize results, reduce costs, and better prepare for future changes, such as new customer preferences or digital trends;
• guide positioning and messaging to help you stay competitive.

3. Streamline Objectives and Resources

A common belief is that many local businesses, especially small and medium-sized ones, need a huge budget and massive resources to function and compete.

This belief is not always true. Marketing well is not only about having resources. Most importantly, it is about using them efficiently with the right systems. Countless startups fail to ever launch because they have already burned through their money during the early phases, such as research or product development, before they ever reach the marketing stage. 

A marketing strategy consultant can help you by:

• Developing strategies to efficiently manage the budget while optimizing marketing results, including using cost-effective methods such as search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing
• Working with your team to create a unified system of execution that mirrors the company’s vision
• Recommending technology solutions such as incorporating artificial intelligence for marketing to streamline operations and increase productivity

4. Create More Income and Reduce Operating Costs

Generating more income and reducing operating costs are two of the most common goals for business owners. These are also the strengths of an expert Chicago marketing strategy consultant.

One tactic they can explore is omnichannel marketing, a customer-centric approach that integrates various touchpoints to provide a seamless experience for users.

An omnichannel strategy allows you to efficiently communicate with customers, nurture relationships, and provide personalized experiences that encourage them to engage with brands.

How it works varies depending on the industry or business goals. If you are a buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS) company, it can look like this:

• developing a mobile application and website with shopping cart functionality;
• integrating the two platforms so shoppers can start an online purchase on their smartphones and finish it in-store;
• establishing loyalty programs to reward returning customers for new purchases;
• contacting potential customers through email or text messages, especially for order updates;
• using targeted advertising based on customer profiles;
• unifying inventory and customer relationship management (CRM) platforms.

5. Handle the Nitty-Gritty to Let You Focus on the Essential

Small- and medium-sized business owners often run their organizations as a one-man operation. If not, they have only a skeletal workforce with hardly an in-house marketing department.

Most spend between 40 and 60 hours per week operating their company while also trying to make it grow. Much of their time goes to administrative tasks.

One underrated reason to hire a marketing strategy consultant is so that someone else can handle several to-dos while you pay more attention to other vital activities. Even better, you can avoid costly mistakes by letting an expert deal with jobs you are not familiar with.

What roles can they take over? Here are a few:

• developing plans for communication and promotion campaigns;
• measuring the effectiveness of campaigns using analytics;
• establishing relationships with influencers or partners;
• monitoring market trends to identify opportunities;
• organizing workshops or seminars for product launches or discounts.

Summing Up

Hiring a Chicago marketing strategy consultant is a bold but wise decision. After all, you should have all the help you need to launch and strategically grow your business.

However, choosing the right expert is equally important. Digital Authority Partners (DAP) stands out with its years of experience and team of experts well-versed in the latest marketing trends and techniques.

We approach every project with a detail-oriented mindset and a commitment to achieving the best possible results for every one of our clients. Contact us today to learn how we can help your business maximize its potential.