For some reason, there’s always a little hesitancy among new entrepreneurs about getting help. On one level, that’s understandable. After all, it’s nice to know that it’s you and only you who’s responsible for your business’s success.
However, all of us have blind spots, and in the world of business, failing to find and correct them in time has serious consequences. This is particularly the case when it comes to problems related to growth. Without prudent guidance, you might end up having to make tough calls like the one Amazon is making.
The company is now targeting over 30,000 corporate layoffs to pare expenses from mass hiring during its pandemic growth. According to Reuters, that’s over 10% of its 350,000 corporate team. In other words, good marketing advice helps you in ways beyond just better sales. But how do you know you need it? That’s exactly what we’ll explore in this article. Let’s jump right in.
#1. Your In-House Team Has Started to Stall
This is the typical scenario that causes businesses to reach out to marketing experts. You might be in a situation where no amount of tweaks and changes to your strategy is making a difference, and sales are being affected. Marketing consultants work with scenarios like these all the time, and the good news is that they’re well-equipped to help you out.
After all, according to data from Mordor Intelligence, it’s a field with a market value of over $34.10 billion. What’s more, with a CAGR of 4.70%, it’s set to grow another $14.16 billion within the next five years. So, there are real experts in this field whose job it is to understand the best course of action to take.
However, on the surface, it can sometimes seem like you’re doing the exact same thing that marketing consultants generally advise. So, what’s going wrong? Well, there are several potential reasons. One factor may simply be your team’s over-familiarity with the brand, which causes them to lose an outsider’s eye.
Likewise, although your team may be skilled, they may be unaware of recent trends in marketing that consultants are typically privy to. So, if it feels like your team has hit a wall, it’s a pretty good sign that you want to reach out to an expert.
#2. You Find Yourself Needing Critical Niche-Advice
These days, there are so many important decisions that businesses have to make. It also seems that each of these decisions has the potential to drastically affect your sales and growth. In some niches, this can put you in a sticky dilemma where you’re unsure about what the right move is.
AI integration is a great example, and in some cases, it can be immensely helpful. Take the case of businesses switching to AI website builders instead of hiring traditional website developers. As Hocoos explains, AI has advanced to the point that makes this possible. You simply answer a few questions about the kind of website you want, and in a few moments, your website is up and running.
At the same time, other forms of AI integration, for instance, content creation, can have serious consequences in a marketing context. Use just one AI-generated article or video script, or voiceover, and before you know it, you’re getting penalized by platforms, and users find you no longer trustworthy.
Thus, recognizing that you need advice in a specific area is another sign that it’s time to speak to a consultant.
#3. You Can’t Tell What’s Working Anymore
The fact is that many marketers are experienced in popping the hood of businesses and getting down into the details. According to one Nielsen report, over 64% of global marketers felt confident in their ability to measure metrics like individual-channel ROI (return on investment). That said, it’s still a challenging process, which is why confidence in measuring ROI across an entire funnel drops to 54%.
Of course, even a single percentage point of confidence more than what you have is an asset worth tapping. This is because a lack of clarity is one of the most frustrating experiences you can have as a business owner.
Your sales and growth may be fine, but if you’re in a state of ‘it might explode if I touch anything,’ well, that’s not ideal. If you want to start actively growing, you’re going to need to make changes, and that’s the tricky part. You may look at your dashboard with all the numbers and graphs, and can’t figure out what’s really responsible for what.
What’s more, with so many vanity metrics like clicks, views, and likes, it can get truly confusing at times to know what’s important. If you find yourself in this situation, it’s yet another sign that reaching out to a marketing consultant is a good idea.
To better understand how modern AI trends can impact your marketing decisions, you can also read our guide on
How Google’s AI Overviews Are Changing Online Search.
All things considered, besides budgetary concerns, there’s no reason to feel hesitation when it comes to reaching out for help. Marketing happens to be one of those fields where growth is just affected by hundreds of factors.
So, the earlier you realize when you could use some expert guidance, the sooner your business is out of any dry spell it’s in.