What are types and examples of Growth Marketing Consulting projects?

OVERVIEW

A growth marketing consulting project can take several forms depending on the goals, the stage of the company, and the budget. There is a time and a place for each type of engagement. Startups need to stay flexible and working with an established and trusted consulting firm can help you grow quickly and efficiently. When the runway is generally short, setting off in the right direction can mean the difference between a successful next-round raise or your business failing. Typically, growth marketing projects fall into one of three engagement types:

  • Retainer

  • Project

  • Hourly

Let’s dig into them to view some examples and find out when each type of engagement might be appropriate for your business.

Retainer-Based engagements

A retainer is a monthly flat fee that includes a service, or many different services, that can be delivered within a monthly timeframe. This is often useful for startups and other companies that need consistent support in one or several areas. For Seed and Series-A startups, the retainer projects usually focus on creating and executing a go-to-market strategy, demand generation which might include paid media management and SEO services, conversion rate optimization (CRO), product marketing, or a contract CMO engagement. A mix of strategic and tactical support helps them achieve their key goals quickly. The contracts are generally at least 6-months or longer. In short, retainer projects are great for making sure that you hit your goals and get consistent support where and when you need it during this very important and ever-changing phase of growth. It’s the most efficient way for a startup to figure out how to grow quickly.

For post-startup stage companies, many of the retainer-based engagements we manage are SEO, CRO, or demand generation ones. These later-stage companies need expert help growing a channel, or several channels, but have the strategic expertise in-house already. They’re more focused on getting results as efficiently as possible. This is where it is quite easy for Boston Growth Marketing (BGM) to show the cost savings compared to a full-time hire in even just one of the marketing service areas. However, we often support these clients in several areas, making it almost a no-brainer on the cost savings alone.

Many of our clients see a cost reduction of at least 50% when using BGM on retainer vs full-time staff. However, we recognize the need for adding in-house expertise in key areas, so we’ll often work with clients to help hire and fill positions as their business matures or changes.

In summary, the benefit of a retainer-based engagement is that you have a team ready to go when you need them. It’s responsive and comprehensive. You get subject matter experts available to you that you couldn’t hire within your budget.

Project Engagements

A growth marketing project is a deliverable that has more specific boundaries than our typical retainer-based projects. It is designed as much around a deliverable as it is around a goal or metric. Tactical projects that fall into this category include:

Ongoing projects like SEO strategic support and paid media management (both under the demand generation umbrella) are typically retainer projects. While the creation of each program is a task in itself, the careful and ongoing management of these programs is what provides consistent results. It’s often the same thing with CRO - once you see the sometimes wild results of the first project (“wild” as in positive beyond your expectations), clients tend to want to make this a core part of their marketing engine.

If you aren’t yet sure that you want to commit to a retainer engagement, a project might be a great way to test the waters and quickly get some of the key insights or deliverables you need.

Hourly Consulting

Companies that are newer to marketing, are in the earliest stages of creation (like angel-funded startups), or just need strategic guidance once or twice a month can benefit from BGM’s hourly consulting. These sessions usually last an hour and can be focused on whatever you want to explore, but we suggest starting with your biggest problems or goals and then working backward into what should be done to solve them. It’s not unlike executive coaching with a focus on high-growth marketing.

Hourly consulting works well for these types of companies or leaders:

  • You are rebooting an old marketing program

  • There’s a corporate marketing team that supports multiple business units (read: you get the scraps)

  • Founders that need high-level strategic marketing and product guidance to support their new product idea

  • You’re looking to hire your first marketing employee and want a more experienced leader to support them strategically

Hopefully, that gives you an overview of the different types of engagements that Boston Growth Marketing offers. We are flexible because the types of startups we work with have needs that are constantly evolving. If you’re interested in learning more about working with us, please contact us.