A consultant is the right purchase when the question is which direction to take and the wrong one when the question is who will do the work. Companies buy strategy when they are dissatisfied with execution, receive a document, and are no better off, because the deliverable answered a question nobody was actually stuck on.
The three commissions that are genuinely strategic
Choosing which customer segment the company will serve, choosing which channels it will invest in and which it will stop, and choosing what it will say that competitors cannot. Each involves giving something up, which is what makes IT strategy rather than planning. If the brief does not require anything to be given up, you are buying a channel plan and should say so, because a channel plan is cheaper.
A deliverable you cannot act on next week is not finished
Specify the output before the engagement starts: the decision made, the evidence behind it, the first ninety days of work that follows, and who does each piece. A deck describing the market is research, not strategy. Ask to see a sanitised example from a previous client and judge whether you could brief an agency from it.
Independence is what you are paying for
A consultant who also wants to execute has a reason to recommend the work they sell. That is not disqualifying, but it should be disclosed and priced in, and the strategy should be usable by whoever wins the delivery contract. A recommendation that only the author can implement is a sales document.
Day rates and how long it should take
Strategy is bought in days, not retainers, and most questions of this kind are answerable in two to six weeks with access to your data and your customers. A long open-ended engagement usually means the question was never defined. Agree the number of days, the access required and the review points before signing.
Questions people ask about digital marketing strategy consultant
Consultant or agency?
A consultant decides direction; an agency delivers against it. If you already know the direction, hire the agency and save the fee.
What access should a consultant expect?
Analytics, the CRM, the ads accounts, and interviews with sales and with customers. A strategy produced without talking to a customer is a hypothesis.
How do I judge a consultant before hiring?
Ask what they would need to see in the first week, and what would make them tell you not to invest. A consultant with no answer to the second question has never given that advice.
Should the consultant be paid on results?
Rarely workable, because the results depend on execution they do not control. Pay for the decision, and put outcome incentives in the delivery contract instead.