MARKET PLANNING SPECIALISTS
What is market planning?
Market planning is the practice of developing a roadmap for marketing your products and services. A marketing plan clearly outlines your marketing goals and the steps you need to take to achieve them.
Here’s a quick overview of the skills you should look for in market planning professionals:
- Market planning
- Market research
- Marketing strategy
- Communication (written, verbal, and visual).
Why do you want to hire market planning specialists?
The trick to finding top market planning specialists is to identify your needs. Is your goal to find someone to set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely) goals for a new marketing campaign? Will you require experience marketing within a specific industry such as health and wellness? The cost of your project will depend largely on your scope of work and the specific skills needed to bring your project to life.
HOW TO HIRE MARKET PLANNING SPECIALISTS
Market planning specialists can help you with the “4 Ps” of marketing: product, price, place, and promotion.
So how do you hire market planning specialists? What follows are some tips for finding top market planning specialists on Upwork.
How to shortlist market planning professionals
As you’re browsing available market planning consultants, it can be helpful to develop a shortlist of the professionals you may want to interview. You can screen profiles on criteria such as:
- Industry fit. You want a market planning specialist who understands your industry so they can help you figure out how best to reach your target market.
- Project experience. Screen candidate profiles for specific skills and experience (e.g., performing a SWOT analysis to highlight a marketing strategy’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats).
- Feedback. Check reviews from past clients for glowing testimonials or red flags that can tell you what it’s like to work with a particular market planning specialist.
How to write an effective market planning job post
With a clear picture of your ideal market planning specialist in mind, it’s time to write that job post. Although you don’t need a full job description as you would when hiring an employee, aim to provide enough detail for a contractor to know if they’re the right fit for the project.
An effective market planning job post should include:
- Scope of work: From setting SMART goals to writing a marketing plan, list all the deliverables you’ll need.
- Project length: Your job post should indicate whether this is a smaller or larger project.
- Background: If you prefer experience with certain industries, technologies, or marketing tools, mention this here.
- Budget: Set a budget and note your preference for hourly rates vs. fixed-price contracts.
Ready to maximize the effectiveness of your marketing efforts with a solid marketing plan? Log in and post your market planning job on Upwork today.
FAQS FOR HIRING MARKET PLANNING SPECIALISTS
How much does it cost to hire a market planning specialist?
Rates can vary due to many factors, including expertise and experience, location, and market conditions.
- An experienced market planning specialist may command higher fees but also work faster, have more-specialized areas of expertise, and deliver higher-quality work.
- A contractor who is still in the process of building a client base may price their market planning services more competitively.
Which one is right for you will depend on the specifics of your project.
How long should you contract a market planning specialist to complete your project?
As difficult as it is to estimate how long you will need a market planning specialist, budgeting time is very important to keeping your project on track.
Be prepared to budget more time for more-demanding market planning projects. For example, creating a marketing plan for a single promotional campaign you wish to run on Facebook will take less time than developing a marketing plan for a multichannel marketing campaign.
What are the steps involved to hire market planning specialists?
Here’s how to hire market planning consultants in four simple steps:
- Identify your project needs, whether it’s content marketing or social media marketing.
- Define the scope of work and write a detailed job post. Be specific about deliverables (e.g., work with the content marketing team to set SMART goals and develop a content calendar).
- Review proposals and shortlist potential market planning specialists for unique skills needed to bring your project to life (e.g., creating a marketing plan for a pay-per-click advertising campaign).
- Interview market planning talent to gauge whether they’re the right fit for your project.