What is the Difference Between a Marketing Consulting Firm and a Marketing Agency?

• If you already have a profit center marketing strategy in place and need someone to execute on your strategic marketing plan, look to an agency to help plan specific campaigns and deliver on those plans.
• If you don’t know where to start, have started but haven’t seen results, or need help validating your strategy, look to a consulting firm to help turn your marketing function into a profit center.

What is a marketing consulting firm?

What is a marketing agency?

To oversimplify it, marketing agencies execute on marketing activities. There are some agencies that can help guide the strategic marketing plan, but for the most part, a marketing agency focuses on tactical outputs identified in an overarching plan. Some agencies are all-encompassing and provide services from branding to digital campaign execution. Other agencies opt to specialize in a particular area (only SEO or only web development).

So, primary difference: marketing consulting firm plans, marketing agency executes.

What is it like working with a consulting firm versus an agency?

The People

Who would you be working with in a consulting firm model versus with an agency?

An agency often partners with a leader in the marketing department, whether a CMO, marketing manager/director, or marketing coordinator. Typically with an agency, you’ll engage with a single strategist and/or account manager and a group of production team members (e.g., designers, developers, writers). This relationship works best if you have a solid marketing plan and an in-house resource dedicated to managing or overseeing the agency’s production with clear direction.

A good marketing agency will partner with you to drive your marketing strategy forward and not just be an order-taker. However, because the relationship’s goal is to produce tangible outputs, the strategic planning will most likely be (and often should be) focused on specific campaign or project deliverables.

The Services

What do I “get” with a consultant versus an agency?

A marketing agency executes tactical marketing work on behalf of your company. And, because they typically focus on executing marketing activities, will steer your plan in the direction of the specific services they offer. This could include things like: branding, SEO services, advertising, websites.

A consulting firm works closely to craft a strategy and plan unique for your organization. As previously mentioned, this typically starts at the top, so your end result should be a strategic marketing plan. Outputs could include things like: customer and competitor analysis, calculating marketing ROI, messaging, and so on. From there, a consulting firm will create an actionable marketing plan and, depending on your working relationship, help to find the best resources to execute it. (That might mean helping to fill in-house positions or find qualified outsourced vendors.)

So, primary difference: a marketing consultant will often oversee an agency’s output, whereas the agency executes on the items identified in the marketing plan.

More on Structuring your Marketing Department

If you’re looking for more guidance on how to structure your marketing department, we’ve put together a Guide for building a strong marketing department.