Finding and evaluating marketing companies for you marketing consultancy project is never easy. First, you need to spend time defining the brief for marketing work that you want done, and briefing a marketing consultancy is not a simple matter. If your project is about marketing strategy, the brief will need to contain a lot of detail about the past and present situation of your business. If the project is more about marketing promotions or about internet marketing, then you will need to gather a lot of data about current and past performance of you marketing efforts.

An early decision you must make is the type of supplier that you want. If you live in Peterborough, then you may be happy to work with a Peterborough marketing consultant or a Rutland marketing consultant, or a Cambridge marketing consultant, depending on the travel time. However, you may also wish to work with a larger firm and may prefer to work with a UK marketing consultant.

You must also choose the type of business consultant focus that you would like. Types of focus include:

   Business to business marketing - In the B2B marketing arena.
   Marketing strategy consultants - Focused on direction, not delivery of programs.
   Internet marketing consultants - web based business development
   Email marketing specialists         - Developing only email campaigns
   SEOs                                          - Search engine optimisation specialists
   Direct marketing companies       - Focussed on direct mail and catalogue marketing
   Business development firms       - Specialists in sales lead generation
   Telemarketing businesses          - Using the phone to drive growth

A lot of businesses are looking to the internet for growth at present. When searching for a top consultant you need to define the skills they need: technical know-how, internet marketing advice, putting together an internet marketing plan with a long-term outlook or simply revealing some web marketing secrets to help you sell more. Look at the businesses marketing services to determine how they can help you.

When the brief has been analysed, most top marketing consultants will still want to test your marketing effectiveness. This may take the form of a quick review of everything that you do, or the consultant may take one element of your promotional work and focus on that. One favourite topic is email marketing, because it is relatively simple and quick to analyse.

Look at how well the consultant has answered your brief. The top marketing companies will always do this well. Look at the marketing articles and other business articles on their website. Are they interesting, easy to understand, yet with some insight. Also look at the quality of the writing in their marketing advice center, if they have one. These are important clue to use in selecting a top marketing consultant