What is a marketing consultancy (and is it what you actually need)?

It’s a feeling almost every founder recognises. You've built a brilliant product and hired a smart, passionate team, but your marketing is just spinning its wheels.

You’re running ads, posting on social media, and sending out emails. Everyone is busy. But none of it seems to connect into a predictable system for getting customers. It feels disjointed, chaotic, and—if we're being honest—incredibly frustrating.

You’re not crazy. It makes sense that you feel stuck. This is a classic growing pain for businesses hitting a certain scale, the point where random acts of marketing simply stop working.

Why your marketing feels stuck in first gear

The problem isn’t a lack of effort from your team; it’s the absence of a clear, guiding structure. Without a solid plan, every marketing activity is just an isolated task, not a vital part of a cohesive engine. This is usually where a sprint-based approach creates clarity quickly, focusing the team on solving one foundational problem at a time.

When your marketing feels disconnected, it often comes down to one of these core gaps:

• Unclear Positioning: Your team isn’t truly aligned on who your ideal customer is or what makes you the only choice for them.

• Fragmented Messaging: Different people on your team describe the product in different ways, which confuses your customers.

• No Repeatable System: You’re stuck relying on one-off campaigns instead of building a process that generates consistent, predictable results.

This is the exact moment you need to shift from just ‘doing marketing’ to building a marketing engine. The first step to getting unstuck is figuring out what a marketing consultancy does and how it can provide the architectural thinking you’re missing.

A practical founder moment

Picture a SaaS founder who has churned through three different marketing hires in two years. Each one came in, launched a few campaigns that delivered a brief spike in traffic, but nothing ever stuck. The founder is burning cash and, frankly, losing confidence.

The problem wasn't the hires; it was the lack of a defined strategy for them to execute. They were given a destination ("get more leads") without a map.

A consultant would have stepped in first to build that map—clarifying the messaging, defining the target audience, and creating a simple, repeatable plan. That small shift changes absolutely everything.

So, what exactly is a marketing consultancy?

A marketing consultancy isn't another agency you hire to run your ads. It’s about bringing in senior-level strategic thinking to fix your marketing's foundations. The goal is to give your team the structure and confidence they need to finally move forward.

Think of it like hiring an architect before you build a house. The architect doesn’t lay the bricks—they draw up the blueprint. That plan ensures the whole structure is sound and functional.

A consultant’s job is to work on your business, not just get stuck in it. They’re there to create the systems and clarity that have been holding you back.

The three pillars of a strong marketing foundation

Most marketing teams struggle because they've been building without a blueprint. A consultant brings a fresh, outside perspective to assess the three core pillars of your marketing engine:

• Positioning: Who are you, really? And why should a specific group of people care?

• Presence: How do you show up in the market? This covers your brand, website, and messaging.

• Promotion: What are the simple, repeatable ways you can connect with customers and create real demand?

Getting these foundations right is becoming non-negotiable. The Australian management consulting market, which includes marketing consultancy, hit $5.6 billion in 2024 and is projected to soar to $10.4 billion by 2033. This isn't a fluke. It’s driven by tech and agtech companies realising they need to ditch the guesswork and invest in proper strategic leadership. You can dig into these trends in this detailed market analysis.

The whole point isn't to create more marketing 'stuff'. It's to build a clear, simple system that your team can actually use to get results long after the consultant is gone. That’s what creates real, lasting momentum.

A common founder mistake

Picture this: a SaaS company lands a big funding round. The pressure is on to grow fast. The leadership team’s first instinct? Hire five new marketers.

A good consultant would hit the pause button. They'd ask, "Before we start hiring, are we 100% sure our message is hitting the mark? Do we have a clear plan for what these new people will actually do for their first 90 days?"

This is where the real value is. A consultant makes sure the foundation is solid before you start spending a fortune on the walls and the roof. A huge part of this is helping businesses identify a target audience with surgical precision, so every dollar is aimed at the right people. When we embed with a team, this is often the very first gap we fix. It stops the chaos and gives everyone immediate direction.

Consultant vs agency vs in-house team

Deciding whether to hire a consultant, sign with an agency, or bring someone in-house is a classic founder headache. The lines often blur, leaving many businesses stuck and burning cash on the wrong fit.

Let’s clear this up with a simple analogy.

Imagine your business is a house. Your in-house team are the people who live there. They handle the day-to-day upkeep. A digital agency is like a specialist you call in for a specific job—the plumber to fix a leak. They're experts at their trade, but they aren't there to redesign the whole house.

A marketing consultant, on the other hand, is the structural engineer. They don't live in the house or fix the dripping tap. Their job is to inspect the foundations, diagnose the real cause of the cracks in the walls, and give you the blueprint to fix the underlying problems for good.

This short decision tree can help you visualise whether you need high-level strategic guidance or hands-on execution right now.

As the flowchart shows, it’s pretty straightforward: if the core issue is a lack of a clear plan, you need to sort out your strategy. If you have a solid plan but not enough people to do the work, then execution is your bottleneck.

The architect vs the builder

Most teams get stuck because they've never had someone step back and provide that architectural view. They keep hiring more builders (agencies or junior staff) and then wonder why the house still feels chaotic. A consultant provides the missing leadership and structure needed to help your team execute effectively.

The demand for this kind of strategic leadership is climbing. In Australia's bustling consulting scene, marketing consultancy has become a vital part of the broader management consulting industry. There are now 94,910 management consulting businesses across the country, a figure that's been on a steady rise since 2020. This points to a clear trend of moving away from random acts of marketing towards structured, senior-level guidance. You can dig into more data on the growth of Australian consulting businesses at IBISWorld.

To help make the choice even clearer, here’s a breakdown of how each option stacks up.

Choosing your marketing support model

Factor	Marketing Consultant	Digital Agency	In-House Hire
Primary Focus	Strategy, systems, and structure. The "why" and "how".	Execution of specific tasks like SEO, ads, or content.	Day-to-day execution and brand knowledge.
Typical Role	Acts as an interim CMO or strategic advisor.	Specialist service provider for a defined channel.	Team member responsible for ongoing tasks.
Best For	Fixing foundational problems like positioning or messaging.	Scaling a specific, well-defined marketing channel.	Building long-term, internal capability and culture.
Outcome	A clear plan, repeatable systems, and an enabled team.	Campaign results, traffic, or channel-specific metrics.	Deep product expertise and consistent daily output.

Ultimately, it’s not about which option is "best," but which one solves the exact problem you have right now. If your foundation is cracked, no amount of new paint is going to fix it. A consultant gives you the blueprint to rebuild with confidence.

Clear signs you're ready for a marketing consultant

Hiring a consultant too early is just burning cash. Waiting too long can grind your growth to a halt. It’s normal to feel a bit stuck trying to figure out the right moment.

The signals are often quieter than you think. If any of the following scenarios feel a little too familiar, it’s probably time to get some outside help.

You have more opinions than answers

Does your marketing strategy meeting feel more like a debate club? The CEO is convinced you need to be all over LinkedIn, the sales team is clamouring for shinier brochures, and the product lead believes one more feature will magically fix everything.

When you're swimming in opinions but starving for a clear, data-backed direction, you’re just treading water. A good consultant cuts through that internal noise. Their first job is to provide a single, structured path forward that’s based on strategy, not just the loudest voice in the room.

Your sales team is complaining about lead quality

This is a classic red-light indicator that something is fundamentally broken. If your salespeople are constantly muttering that the leads are “no good,” don’t blame them. This is almost always a direct symptom of weak positioning and muddled messaging.

Think of your sales team as the canary in the coal mine. When they can’t close deals because prospects don’t “get” what you do, it’s a massive sign you need to fix your message at the source. This is precisely the kind of gap we love to fix when we embed with a team—creating a straight line between what marketing promises and what sales can deliver.

You’re ready for a consultant when you realise the problem isn’t a lack of marketing activity, but a lack of marketing clarity. It’s a shift from asking “What should we do?” to “Why aren’t our efforts working?”

A founder moment you might recognise

Imagine a SaaS company with a brilliant product that they can't explain in a single, simple sentence. Their website is a swamp of technical jargon, their sales deck is a 50-slide monster, and every new hire gets a slightly different story about what the company actually does.

The tech is solid, but the message is a mess. That confusion inevitably bleeds into every ad campaign and sales call, making everything harder than it needs to be. This is the perfect scenario for a consultant to step in, untangle the narrative, and build a simple, powerful story that the entire company can tell with confidence.

What a consultancy engagement actually delivers

So, what do you actually get when you bring in a marketing consultant? Plenty of people have been burned by vague retainers or handed a 100-page strategy document that just gathers dust.

A modern consultancy engagement isn’t like that. It’s not about delivering advice and walking away. It’s about building tangible assets and systems your own team can use long after the project ends. The real goal is to leave you with clarity, structure, and momentum—not dependency.

The value isn’t just in the final product; it’s in the process of getting there. When we embed with a team, the first thing we do is break down a huge, messy problem into a focused sprint. This turns chaos into a manageable project with a clear finish line.

Moving from advice to actionable assets

The outcome of a good engagement should be a set of practical tools that give your team confidence and direction. This is about creating a central source of truth that aligns everyone, from the sales team right through to product development.

Instead of abstract ideas, you should expect concrete deliverables you can put to work immediately.

• A Validated Messaging Guide: A simple, powerful document that clearly defines who you are, what you do, and why it matters to your ideal customer. No fluff.

• A Repeatable Content Engine: A structured system for planning, creating, and distributing content that builds trust and generates demand without constant guesswork.

• A Redesigned Conversion Pathway: A clear, user-focused journey on your website that guides prospects from awareness to action.

The real deliverable isn't a document; it’s the alignment and confidence your team gains. It’s that lightbulb moment when everyone finally starts telling the same story and working towards the same goal.

Pricing that provides predictability

This shift towards tangible outcomes has also changed how engagements are structured. Open-ended retainers are being replaced by fixed-fee projects, giving scaling businesses the transparency and predictability they need to manage their cash flow. You know exactly what you’re investing and precisely what you’ll get for it.

The demand for this kind of focused, senior-level help is definitely growing. Australia's consulting services market is expected to be worth AUD 14.45 billion in 2025 and is set to nearly double by 2034. This boom gives growing tech and SaaS firms more options than ever to get the leadership they need without the commitment of a full-time hire.

For many scaling businesses, a key outcome of an engagement is creating and implementing a modern B2B SaaS marketing guide that provides clear, sustainable strategies. You can get a better sense of what this involves in our complete guide to marketing strategy consultation. At the end of the day, it’s about building a system that works for your business.

Your first step to getting unstuck

Feeling overwhelmed by all this is normal. The good news is, the path forward doesn’t mean you have to fix everything at once. It starts with one simple but powerful step: gaining absolute clarity on your positioning.

Before you spend another dollar on ads, you need to be able to confidently answer three core questions:

1. Who do you actually serve? Be brutally specific. "Tech companies" isn't an answer. "B2B SaaS founders in Australia struggling with user retention" is getting closer.

2. What tangible problem do you solve for them? Get to the root of their pain. This isn't about listing features; it’s about the frustration, inefficiency, or risk you eliminate.

3. Why should they choose you over anyone else? This is your unique point of view or specific process that no one else can replicate.

Getting honest about your foundations

Take a moment. Try to answer those questions right now.

If the answers feel vague, complicated, or change depending on which team member you ask, you’ve just found the real source of your marketing friction.

It can be an uncomfortable realisation, but it’s also the most valuable one you can have. This single issue is likely costing you more than any failed ad campaign. If you're finding it hard to nail these down, a deep dive into how to conduct a competitor analysis can often shine a light on where your own message is falling flat.

If this feels messy, that’s normal. You’re not behind. This is a clear sign that you’ve outgrown your current marketing foundations. You just need structure. That clarity is your first, most important step to regaining momentum.

Still got questions?

It's normal to have a dozen questions swirling around when you're trying to figure out if what you need is a marketing consultancy. Most founders are in the same boat, feeling a mix of curiosity and caution.

Let's clear up some of the most common points of confusion.

How much does a marketing consultant cost in Australia?

Costs vary, but the bigger question is how you pay. Forget confusing, open-ended retainers. Many modern consultancies work on fixed-fee projects for specific outcomes, like a foundational positioning sprint or building a repeatable marketing system.

This approach gives you cost certainty. You know exactly what you’re investing and what tangible assets you'll get in return, which is essential for managing cash flow. It removes the guesswork and focuses everyone on the result.

How long does a typical engagement last?

This depends on the model. Traditional retainers can drag on for months, often leading to a lack of urgency.

A much better approach, especially for tech companies, is a focused, sprint-based model. An initial engagement might last 90 days, designed to solve a single, high-priority problem like fixing your core message or building a reliable way to get leads. The goal isn’t to create dependency; it’s to build capability within your team and leave you with a clear structure to move forward.

What is the ROI of a consultant vs. an agency?

An agency's return on investment is usually measured in channel-specific metrics, like clicks from an ad campaign. They’re focused on the tactics.

A consultant’s ROI is more foundational. It's measured by things like:

• A shorter sales cycle because your positioning is sharp and compelling.

• Increased message clarity across the entire company.

• A team that can finally execute with confidence and direction.

Think of it this way: a consultant fixes the engine for the long term, rather than just pouring more fuel in.