If you’re looking for external marketing support, you’ve probably asked yourself one of these questions:
The answer depends less on the provider than on the problem you’re trying to solve.
Some businesses need specialist expertise to deliver campaigns. Others need experienced leadership to build and guide their marketing function. Others are still trying to answer the commercial questions that will shape every marketing decision that follows.
That third situation is where a research strategist can help.
Research strategists are less familiar than agencies or marketing consultants, but the work often sits at an important point between business strategy and marketing execution. They explore questions about customers, markets, positioning, messaging, and commercial opportunities, then help the business use that evidence to decide what to do next.
You might work with a research strategist before appointing an agency, alongside a fractional CMO, or as part of a wider marketing project. It isn’t necessarily an either/or decision.
The right choice depends on whether you need to answer an important question, get experienced marketing advice, lead the marketing function, or deliver work that has already been agreed.
A research strategist helps businesses answer important commercial questions before they make major marketing or growth decisions.
Rather than starting with campaigns or channels, they start with evidence.
That might include:
The goal isn’t simply to produce a research report. It’s to help leadership make better commercial decisions.
This is the work I do in AmpliStory. In workshops and client calls, the comments I hear most often are some variation of:
“I hadn’t thought about it that way.”
Or:
“Nobody’s ever asked us that question before.”
That is often where the value lies.
People inside a business naturally develop a shared way of seeing it. An external perspective can ask new questions, challenge assumptions, and connect information that already exists but has never been considered together.
Research strategy is particularly useful when the decision reaches beyond marketing alone. Customer understanding, positioning, pricing, market selection, product direction, sales, and growth strategy are often closely connected.
A research strategist may be the right fit when you’re trying to answer questions such as:
These aren’t purely marketing questions. They are commercial questions that influence the marketing strategy, brief, and work that follow.
Not necessarily.
Marketing consultant is a broad term covering many different types of expertise. Some consultants advise on marketing strategy and planning. Others specialise in areas such as SEO, branding, demand generation, digital marketing, or content. Some combine strategic advice with hands-on delivery.
A research strategist has a more specific focus: investigating and interpreting evidence to help the business make a decision.
There can be considerable overlap. A research strategist may have a substantial marketing background (like me), while a marketing consultant may carry out customer or competitor research as part of an engagement.
The practical distinction is the starting point.
A marketing consultant will often begin with the marketing challenge. A research strategist begins with the question the business needs to answer, which may involve marketing, sales, customers, products, competitors, or wider commercial strategy.
A marketing consultant provides external advice or specialist expertise without becoming a full-time member of the marketing team.
Depending on their experience, they may help with:
A marketing consultant can be a strong option when the direction is broadly understood, but the business needs experienced advice, an independent view, or expertise it doesn’t have internally.
The scope varies considerably, so it’s important to understand whether the consultant primarily advises, investigates, leads, or delivers.
Marketing agencies help businesses plan, create, and deliver marketing work.
Depending on the agency, that might include:
Agencies can also contribute valuable strategic thinking. They may challenge the brief, refine the message, recommend a different approach, or bring insights from other projects and clients.
However, an agency will usually be able to do its best work when the business has made enough of the underlying decisions to provide a clear direction.
That doesn’t mean arriving with every detail resolved. It means having enough clarity about the audience, objectives, priorities, offer, and decision-making process for the agency to move the work forward.
A fractional CMO provides senior marketing leadership on a part-time or flexible basis.
Rather than advising on one project or delivering an individual campaign, they take responsibility for directing the marketing function.
That may include:
A fractional CMO may also collaborate other external specialists. For example, they could bring in a research strategist to investigate a particular customer, market, or positioning question. They might then work with an agency to turn the resulting strategy into campaigns, content, creative work, or a new website.
Hiring a fractional CMO doesn’t mean expecting one person to conduct every piece of research and deliver every marketing activity themselves.
| If your business needs to… | The best fit is often… |
|---|---|
| Answer an important commercial question before making a major decision | Research strategist |
| Get external marketing advice or expertise on a defined challenge | Marketing consultant |
| Lead and direct the marketing function | Fractional CMO |
| Deliver campaigns, creative work, or specialist marketing services | Marketing agency |
These categories are useful, but the boundaries aren’t absolute.
Two providers may describe themselves differently while offering similar support. The more important question is what they will be responsible for, what evidence they will use, and what outcome you expect from the engagement.
Yes.
I’ve worked directly with agencies, providing the customer research, positioning, and messaging foundations they needed to support a client over the longer term.
The agency could then apply that work across websites, campaigns, content, design, and wider marketing activity.
This can be particularly useful when a business is preparing for a major project, such as:
Research doesn’t compete with good agency work. It can give the agency a clearer brief and stronger evidence on which to base its recommendations.
A research strategist and fractional CMO can also work together.
The fractional CMO remains responsible for leading the marketing function and turning business priorities into a coherent marketing strategy. The research strategist can investigate a specific question where deeper evidence or an independent perspective is needed.
For example, the fractional CMO may need to understand:
The resulting research gives the fractional CMO a stronger basis for setting priorities and making decisions.
Before choosing a provider, ask yourself four questions.
You may need a research strategist when the decision depends on evidence about customers, markets, competitors, positioning, messaging, or a new commercial opportunity.
A marketing consultant may be the best fit when you need external expertise or an independent perspective but don’t need someone to lead the full function.
A fractional CMO may be appropriate when the business needs senior leadership, clearer priorities, and oversight of the internal team and external partners.
A marketing agency may be the right choice when you need skills, capacity, or creative and technical execution that you don’t have internally.
In practice, you may need more than one of these.
The aim isn’t to find the provider with the broadest possible list of services. It’s to understand the question or responsibility you need them to take on.
A marketing consultant usually provides individual advice, strategic guidance, or specialist expertise. A marketing agency provides a wider team that can plan and deliver services such as branding, campaigns, websites, SEO, content, or paid media.
Hire a marketing consultant when you need advice or expertise on a defined challenge. Consider a fractional CMO when you need someone to lead the marketing function, set priorities, manage budgets, and oversee teams and external partners.
A research strategist is useful when you need evidence before making an important decision about customers, markets, positioning, messaging, products, or growth. They can work before or alongside a consultant, fractional CMO, or agency.
Yes. A research strategist can provide customer insight, positioning, messaging, and market evidence that an agency can use to develop stronger creative work, campaigns, websites, and marketing programmes.
Not in every case. However, customer research may be valuable if you are unsure who the priority audience is, what customers value, how the business should be positioned, or what message the agency should communicate.
Yes. A fractional CMO often leads the marketing strategy and manages the agency relationship, while the agency provides the specialist team and capacity needed to deliver the work.
You should have a reasonable level of clarity about your objectives, priority audiences, offer, budget, internal decision-makers, and how success will be assessed. An agency can help refine the brief, but unresolved commercial questions may require additional research first.