What Does a Marketing Consultant Actually Do?

What Does a Marketing Consultant Actually Do?

Let’s cut through the mystique and get real about what marketing consultants actually do. Because if you’re thinking about hiring one, or you’re curious about becoming one, you need to understand what value they bring beyond nice PowerPoint decks and marketing jargon.

The Straight Goods

A marketing consultant is someone who helps businesses figure out how to grow. That’s the simple version. The more detailed version is that they help companies spot opportunities, solve marketing challenges, and build strategies that drive measurable results. They’re problem solvers who combine strategy, creativity, and execution to make things happen.

But here’s what separates good consultants from mediocre ones: good consultants don’t just give advice. They roll up their sleeves and help you make things happen.

Not All Marketing Consultants Are Created Equal

Here’s something that needs to be said: a lot of people calling themselves marketing consultants today come from purely digital backgrounds. They know Google Ads, social media, SEO, and marketing automation inside out. That’s great. But marketing is more than digital tactics.

Real marketing starts with understanding your customer. Not just demographic data or website analytics, but actual human needs, motivations, and behaviours. What problem are they trying to solve? What keeps them up at night? How do they make decisions? Where do they look for solutions?

This is about segmentation, positioning, and using the full marketing mix to plan effectively. As Kotler and Keller (2016) emphasise in their foundational text *Marketing Management*, successful marketing requires understanding consumer needs deeply and creating offerings that deliver genuine value. It’s about brand strategy, messaging, pricing, distribution, partnerships, PR, events, and yes, digital channels too. Sometimes it’s about straying outside the lines to deliver your message in ways your competitors aren’t thinking about.

A consultant who only knows digital is like a carpenter who only knows how to use a hammer. Sure, they can drive nails really well, but they can’t build you a house.

The best marketing consultants bring broad, strategic thinking combined with deep expertise in multiple disciplines. They know when to use digital and when to use other channels. They understand how all the pieces fit together to create a cohesive strategy that actually works in the real world. Recent McKinsey research confirms this, finding that CMOs who focus solely on digital tactics whilst neglecting fundamental marketing principles struggle to demonstrate business impact- only 27 per cent of marketing leaders feel their organisations are equipped to handle the broadening demands of modern marketing (McKinsey & Company, 2024).

Strategic Thinking First

The foundation of what any marketing consultant does is strategic thinking. This isn’t about tactics or channels or the latest social media trend. It’s about understanding your business at a fundamental level.

What does this look like in practice? A consultant starts by asking questions. Lots of them. Who are your customers? What problems do you solve for them? Who are your competitors? What makes you different? What are your business goals? What’s working? What isn’t?

These aren’t cocktail party questions. They’re diagnostic tools. A consultant is trying to understand your business model, your value proposition, your market position, and your growth potential. They’re looking for gaps, opportunities, and areas where you’re leaving money on the table.

From there, they build a strategy. Not a marketing plan filled with tactics, but an actual strategy that defines where you should play and how you should win. This includes identifying your target audience with precision, articulating your positioning in a way that resonates, and mapping out the customer journey from awareness to advocacy.

Good strategy is about making choices. It’s about saying no to certain opportunities so you can say yes to the right ones. A marketing consultant helps you make those choices based on data, experience, and a clear-eyed view of what’s actually possible.

Diagnosing What’s Broken

Most businesses don’t hire consultants because everything is going great. They hire them because something isn’t working, or because they want to grow faster than their current approach allows.

A marketing consultant acts as a diagnostic specialist. They audit your current marketing efforts to understand what’s working, what isn’t, and why. This means looking at your messaging, your channels, your content, your campaigns, your metrics, and your team.

They’re looking for inefficiencies, missed opportunities, and fundamental problems that are holding you back. Maybe your messaging is confused. Maybe you’re targeting the wrong audience. Maybe you’re investing in channels that don’t deliver ROI. Maybe your brand doesn’t differentiate you from competitors.

The diagnostic phase is crucial because you can’t fix what you don’t understand. Too many businesses throw money at marketing without knowing what actually drives results. A consultant brings objectivity and experience to cut through the noise and find the real issues.

Building the Roadmap

Once the strategy is clear and the problems are identified, a marketing consultant builds a roadmap. This is where strategy meets execution. The roadmap outlines what needs to happen, in what order, over what timeframe, and with what resources.

This isn’t a theoretical exercise. It’s a practical plan that accounts for your budget, your team’s capabilities, and your business priorities. It includes specific initiatives, clear timelines, defined responsibilities, and measurable goals.

A good roadmap also includes quick wins and long-term plays. You need some early victories to build momentum and prove value, but you also need strategic initiatives that build sustainable growth over time.

The roadmap becomes the North Star for your marketing efforts. It keeps everyone aligned and focused on what matters. It also gives you a way to measure progress and hold people accountable.

What makes this work is connecting marketing activities to actual business outcomes. As recent research shows, CMOs face mounting pressure to demonstrate ROI—finance teams and boards want to know exactly how marketing spend translates to revenue and profit. A good consultant builds this accountability into the roadmap from day one, with clear metrics that matter to the whole business, not just the marketing department.

Hands-On Execution Support

Here’s where reality happens. Some consultants hand you a strategy document and disappear. That’s not particularly helpful. The best consultants stick around to help you execute.

This might mean helping you hire the right people, training your team on new approaches, working alongside your team to launch campaigns, or even doing some of the work themselves. It depends on your needs and capabilities.

Execution support is valuable because strategy without execution is just talk. A consultant who understands this becomes a true partner in growth, not just an adviser who shows up for monthly meetings.

They help you navigate the messy reality of implementation. They problem-solve when things don’t go as planned. They adjust the strategy based on what’s working and what isn’t. They keep you focused on priorities when distractions arise.

Bringing Specialised Expertise

Marketing has become highly specialised. There’s content marketing, demand generation, brand strategy, digital advertising, marketing automation, analytics, SEO, social media, conversion optimisation, and about a dozen other disciplines.

Most businesses can’t afford to hire experts in all these areas. A marketing consultant brings deep expertise in specific areas, or broad expertise across multiple areas, depending on their background.

This specialised knowledge is valuable. They’ve seen what works in other companies. They know the best practices and common pitfalls. They can put sophisticated approaches into play that your team might not know exist.

They also stay current with trends, tools, and tactics. Marketing evolves quickly, and what worked two years ago might not work today. A consultant invests in continuous learning because that’s their business. You get the benefit of that investment without having to make it yourself.

Providing Objectivity and Fresh Perspective

When you’re inside a business, you develop blind spots. You get attached to certain ideas. You make assumptions based on limited information. You can’t see the forest for the trees.

A marketing consultant brings objectivity. They’re not emotionally invested in past decisions or existing approaches. They can tell you hard truths that your team might be reluctant to voice. They can challenge sacred cows and question assumptions.

This outside perspective is valuable. It forces you to think differently about your business, your market, and your opportunities. It pushes you out of comfortable patterns and into new territory where growth happens.

Measuring and Optimising

Marketing without measurement is just guessing. A marketing consultant helps you define the right metrics, set up tracking systems, and build dashboards that give you visibility into what’s working.

But measurement isn’t just about reporting numbers. It’s about using data to make better decisions. A consultant helps you understand what the numbers mean, what’s driving them, and how to optimise for better results.

This creates a culture of continuous improvement. You run tests, learn from results, and iterate. Over time, this approach compounds into significant performance gains.

Acting as a Strategic Adviser

Beyond specific projects and initiatives, a marketing consultant often becomes a trusted adviser. They’re someone you can bounce ideas off, who understands your business, and who can give you unbiased feedback.

This advisory role is particularly valuable for founders and executives who don’t have marketing backgrounds. Having someone you can call when you’re making important decisions, or when you’re not sure which direction to take, is worth its weight in gold.

The relationship evolves from transactional to strategic. The consultant becomes invested in your success and brings insights, connections, and ideas that go beyond the original scope of work.

The Fractional CMO Model

Here’s where things get interesting for a lot of companies: the fractional engagement model. Instead of hiring a full-time marketing executive or working with a consultant on a project basis, many businesses are retaining consultants in an ongoing fractional role.

What does this look like? Think of it as having a seasoned marketing leader on your team for a fraction of the time and cost of a full-time hire. Maybe it’s two days a week, or ten hours a week, or whatever makes sense for your business and budget.

This model has become popular because it solves a real problem. Many companies need senior marketing leadership but can’t justify the cost of a full-time CMO or VP of Marketing who might command £200,000-plus in salary plus benefits. A fractional arrangement gives you access to that same level of expertise for a fraction of the cost.

The benefits are real. You get consistent, ongoing strategic leadership rather than periodic project work. The consultant becomes deeply embedded in your business, understanding the details, the culture, the challenges, and the opportunities. They attend leadership meetings, work closely with your team, and function as a true member of the executive group.

They provide continuity and accountability. Unlike project-based consulting where someone comes in, delivers recommendations, and leaves, a fractional consultant is there week after week, month after month, making sure things get done and adjusting course based on results.

For growing companies, this model is a game-changer. You can scale your marketing leadership as you scale your business. Start with a few hours a week, increase as needed, and eventually transition to a full-time hire when the business justifies it. The fractional consultant can even help you recruit and onboard that full-time person.

It also works brilliantly for companies going through transitions, launching new products, entering new markets, or rebuilding their marketing function. You get senior expertise exactly when you need it, without long-term commitments or the risk of a bad full-time hire.

From Ad Hoc to Ongoing Partnership

Many consulting relationships start on an ad hoc basis. A company has a specific challenge or project, they bring in a consultant to help solve it, and that’s that. But increasingly, the right consultant becomes the monthly or weekly CMO or adviser.

This shift makes sense. Smaller operations get access to marketing expertise at the director or board level for a fraction of the cost of a six-figure hire. Instead of paying £120,000 to £200,000 for a full-time marketing executive, you might pay £1,500 to £3,500 per month for ongoing strategic guidance and hands-on support.

For many businesses, especially those in growth mode or without deep marketing capabilities internally, this ongoing access to senior marketing leadership is exactly what they need. You’re not just getting someone to execute tactics. You’re getting strategic thinking, experience across multiple industries and situations, and someone who can guide your entire marketing function.

The consultant shows up regularly, stays on top of what’s happening, provides direction to your team, and makes sure you’re making smart decisions with your marketing budget. They become part of your leadership team without the overhead of a full-time employee. According to McKinsey & Company’s (2025) survey of over 100 marketing leaders, 83 per cent of global CEOs look to marketing to be a major driver for most or all of a company’s growth agenda but, only when it’s properly led with strategic thinking, not just tactical execution.

The Bottom Line

A marketing consultant does a lot of different things depending on what you need. But fundamentally, they help you grow your business through smarter, more effective marketing.

They bring strategy, expertise, objectivity, and execution support. They help you make better decisions, avoid costly mistakes, and move faster than you could on your own.

The best consultants don’t just tell you what to do. They help you understand why, they build your capabilities, and they stick around until you’re seeing results.

If you’re thinking about working with a marketing consultant, look for someone who asks great questions, brings relevant experience, communicates clearly, and is genuinely interested in your success. Look for someone who understands that marketing is more than just digital channels—someone who thinks strategically about customer needs, market positioning, and the full range of tools available to reach your audience.

The right consultant can be transformative for your business. The wrong one is just an expensive distraction.

Choose wisely.

References

Kotler, P. and Keller, K.L. (2016) *Marketing management*. 15th edn. Harlow: Pearson Education.

McKinsey & Company (2024) *Connecting for growth: a makeover for your marketing operating model*. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com (Accessed: 28th December 2025).

McKinsey & Company (2025) *Past forward: the modern rethinking of marketing’s core*. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com (Accessed: 28th December 2025).