Fact:
You need content marketing if you want to reach the people who will buy from you. ✅
But do you need content marketing consulting?
Good question. Let’s look at the other facts.
As marketer-extraordinaire Seth Godin famously said, “Content marketing is the only marketing left.”
That’s because consumers are increasingly tuning out traditional ads 🙈: 42.7% of internet users worldwide employ ad blockers. The biggest reason? “Too many ads are on the internet.” The second-biggest reason? “Ads are annoying/irrelevant.”
In the 2020s, consumers also prefer to put their money where their trust lies. (The average consumer reads 3-5 blogs before talking to sales. They want to know who the heck you are, what you stand for, and if you’re truly an expert.)
And content marketing is THE trust-building tool in a world where we’re all bombarded with flashy ads and slimy sales pitches. 😵
If you’re not doing content marketing, or you’re doing it and not seeing results, or you’re confused about how to implement a content marketing strategy…
You might need some help, because content marketing WILL work if done right.
Enter content marketing consulting. 🚪
This is a service that can help you pull together your content marketing so it actually performs. If you need desperate content help, then a content marketing consultant just might be your new best friend.
Let’s get into the details, including why content marketing consulting may be the lynchpin you’ve been missing in your business.
What Is Content Marketing Consulting?
Content marketing consulting is a service offered by a content marketing consultant. This strategic advisor (or an expert and their team) will help guide your content strategy in a successful direction so you get results.
This means a content marketing consultant will be able to turn around failing content and teach your team how to pivot and start creating rock-star content.
Unlike hiring an agency, consulting helps you at every stage of the content marketing process because it’s deeply enmeshed in strategy – and strategy touches every part of content (or it should).
A consultant will also teach and train you/your team, whereas an agency will simply take over without teaching you anything about their process.
What Does a Content Marketing Consultant Do?
Content marketing consulting involves a mix of teaching, guiding, strategizing, brainstorming, and, ultimately, implementing an action plan to get your content rolling.
Consulting can be pretty hands-off (meaning your consultant acts mainly as an expert advisor and strategist) or hands-on, depending on who you hire.
Here are the basic jobs a consultant (and their team, if they have one) performs:
1. Audit Your Content Operation
Before they dive in, a consultant will do an audit of your entire content marketing operation to get a bird’s-eye view of your situation. They’ll look at the content you’ve already published, your content calendar (if you have one), and every facet of your content strategy – even if you don’t have one documented.
Of course, your content strategy includes:
- Your goals and KPIs (key performance indicators) for content
- Your budget (including staff, tools, and website costs)
- Your content differentiation factor
- Your audience research and personas
- Your chosen topic areas (tied to keywords for SEO)
- Your brand voice guidelines
- Your workflows for creation, publication, and distribution – including team members and their roles
- The tools you use to execute content, including keyword research tools, content calendars, social media tools, and your content management system (like WordPress)
(And if you have none of the above, your content marketing consultant will swiftly start guiding you on putting every piece in place. 🧩)
2. Provide Guidance, Recommendations, and/or Implementation
Once they’ve evaluated what’s working, what’s not, and what’s missing, your consultant will help you build (or rebuild) your content strategy.
The extent of this work largely depends on your contract with them.
If you do your own marketing in-house, they’ll lend their expertise, advice, and recommendations, which you can then put in place yourself. Your consultant may also offer content marketing training for your team depending on what skills/processes are M.I.A. For example, they may offer SEO writing training for your writers.
If you hire your consultant to implement their recommended content strategy, they’ll put together everything for you and deliver it for your approval. This might include:
- Defining (or redefining) the goals you’ll aim for, including how to measure success with specific metrics
- Audience discovery, including one or two personas
- Recommended topics/keywords to focus on (based on research of your industry)
- Types of posts to focus on
- Recommended platforms to publish and promote content
- An ideal posting schedule with topics mapped to a content calendar
- Suggestions for optimizing your content/website for SEO and usability
- Execution of all of the above, including creating and delivering content
(By the way — I define a content strategy consultant in even more depth at contentstrategycourse.com, including average earnings, skills, and more.)
Why You Might Need Content Marketing Consulting
If you need any help at any stage of figuring out this thing called content marketing, hiring a consultant could be your best bet for success.
Here are some common reasons why you might need this service.
1. Your Current Content Marketing Plan Isn’t Working
If you’re doing content marketing but it’s not turning out results – think more traffic from Google, more trust built with your audience, more leads that convert, and ultimately more sales – you might need content marketing consulting.
If you’re in this position, you may have a documented content strategy and a lot of content on your site already. You may have processes in place for content creation, publishing, and promotion.
BUT – it might be hard for you to take a step back and evaluate where you’re going wrong. This is where a consultant can come in, impartially analyze your content marketing, and identify the issues so you can pivot to what WILL work.
2. You’re Struggling to Put Together a Content Strategy
Maybe you’re stuck in the planning stages of content marketing. Maybe you’re excited to start implementing content and build up your site with high-quality guides and articles…
But you’re lost in the weeds of figuring out how you’ll do it.
These questions may run through your mind:
- “Should I post every day? Bi-weekly? Weekly?”
- “My team is small. Who will be responsible for which creation tasks?”
- “What parts of my strategy need to be in writing, and which parts can remain fluid?”
- “Am I targeting the right niche?”
- “Keyword research is not my forte. What if I’m missing opportunities?”
Yep, a content marketing consultant can step in here, too.
In this scenario, they’ll take the reins and guide you on building out your strategy so it’s successful. They’ll answer your questions with research and data. They’ll look at what you’ve cobbled together and evaluate it based on their expertise. They might completely shift your direction OR work with what you’ve created.
Either way, they can jump into your half-completed strategy and help you get where you need to go.
3. You Want to Do Content But Don’t Know Where to Start
Smart content marketing consultants know a solid content strategy is necessary for a healthy brand ecosystem.
It’s how you grow a brand organically and sustainably, which you can watch me discuss in the video below:
Your consultant will give you those seeds, help you plant them in the right soil, and advise you on how to care for them and water them.
If the only thing you know about content marketing is that you needed it yesterday, this will be a huge win for you.
A consultant will steer you in the right direction, not to mention help you create/document your strategy from the ground up (because this IS important – 62% of the most successful marketers have a documented content strategy). 🌱
Needless to say, if you haven’t done any content marketing yet and want to start on the right foot, then a content marketing consultant can definitely help.
4. You Have Zero Content Marketing Know-How
Lacking in the content marketing knowledge department?
Don’t have time to learn the ins and outs of content creation, publishing, and promotion?
Just want somebody experienced to take charge and teach you exactly what you need to know for your specific audience/industry?
Hand it all off to the right consultant. 👋
Because sometimes you just need another brain on board. Sometimes you don’t have the bandwidth to do it all, especially if your brand is small and your hands are busy stirring multiple pots.
Plus, if you already know and believe in the power of content, you also know hiring someone to make it happen will be well worth the investment.
5. You Have a Content Marketing Team But Need Additional Training and Skills
Let’s say you have a content marketing team assembled in-house who are either missing the mark or missing key skills.
A content marketing consultant is who you would call to come in and train your team – whether that means teaching them better ways to create, publish, and promote content; or giving them skills like blog-writing for SEO, topic research, updating old content, etc.
4 Major Benefits to Investing in Content Marketing Consulting for Your Biz
So, we know the scenarios where you might need content marketing consulting. What about the benefits?
If you invest in consulting, here’s what you’re likely to get:
1. An Outside Perspective That Fills in Your Content Gaps
One of the best parts of hiring a content consultant is the unbiased perspective they bring to the table.
They’re not part of your business, they’re not on your content team, and they can see clearly where you cannot.
They have a full stake in turning your content around so it succeeds, and they’ll use their outside perspective and expertise to get it done.
If you want a better idea of how powerful this can be, not just for your marketing but also for your biz growth, check out this testimonial from a student in The Content Transformation System – my 12-month mentorship program where I teach you how to build/execute a content strategy AND how to implement powerful systems and strategies for growth inside your business:
Learn more about the pathways and systems I use to coach my students in my free training.
2. More Expertise to Guide Your Content Strategy
Content marketing and strategy consultants get into the game precisely because they know this rodeo. 🤠
They’ve been there, done that. They’ve built content strategies. They’ve executed content strategies. They’ve gotten results. And they’ve already nailed a winning formula for content marketing.
Plain and simple.
In most cases, when you hire a content consultant, you’re getting the benefit of years and years of experience behind your content marketing.
For newbie business owners, for struggling content operations, that’s well worth the investment. Especially since content marketing has an incredible lifespan on the internet (one high-quality blog can keep performing for at least two years after it’s published!).
3. Strategies to Leverage the Content You Already Have
Chances are, if you’re considering content marketing consulting, you already have a cache of content built up.
It’s probably not working for your brand growth at this point, but that doesn’t matter.
Your consultant will help you get the most out of your existing content by coming up with a strategy for tweaking, rewriting, updating, and, well, zhuzhing it. ✨
Source: Cambridge Dictionary
You heard me correctly: Not all of your current content needs to be forgotten or tossed in the dumpster. A savvy consultant can salvage at least some of it.
And, because content ROI compounds over time, your old content might have the most buried potential. That’s why updating content is such a good strategy – and why most experts invest in it.
As such, as part of your initial content audit, any good consultant will review your existing content and determine a personalized strategy going forward for shining up those diamonds in the rough. 💎
4. Skills and Knowledge to Move Forward on Your Own
By definition, a consultant will not move in, make changes to your content marketing, and then leave you to figure out the rest.
Instead, a consultant will consult with you. They’ll teach you so you can be self-sufficient after your contract is up.
That means, once your content strategy is in place and your brand is comfortably creating content consistently, you’ll have the tools, skills, and knowledge to continue without your consultant’s help.
It’s very much like the adage about teaching a man to fish:
Source: Quotefancy
Except, let’s reword it this way:
Give a brand a content strategy and you help them grow for a day. Teach a brand about content strategy and you help them grow for a lifetime.
In other words, you’ll be armed for the future, confidently able to make decisions and execute great content on your own steam. And that’s powerful beyond belief. 💥
Need Content Help? Content Marketing Consulting Could Be the Answer
If your content marketing is struggling (or struggling to take off), content marketing consulting could be just the leg-up you need.
Instead of floundering around on your own, trying to unsuccessfully D.I.Y. with limited knowledge and no expertise…
You could call in an expert who knows this stuff inside and out, who could swoop in and immediately turn you in the right direction.
The investment is worth the time savings alone. You won’t go through painful stages of trying and failing, trying and failing. You won’t waste time publishing worthless content that doesn’t move the needle week after week.
Instead, you’ll shoot straight to what works. 🌠
Your content will perform!
And performing content is money content. 💰
Need I say more?
…Maybe I will. 😉
If you’re now sitting here wondering where you can find content marketing consulting services, look no further.
In essence, this is what The Content Transformation System, my 12-month mentorship program, exists to do:
- Help you get more out of your life by guiding you through building a powerful digital business with content. ✅
- Help you lead a business and marketing plan that doesn’t suck you dry. ✅
- Show you how I built a sustainable 7-figure business out of content marketing – and teach you to do the exact same thing, with the same systems, strategies, and skills. ✅
Apply now for The Content Transformation System. Let’s get you rolling toward the income and impact you crave. Watch my free 30-minute training to start your transformation today!
