The problem most businesses have is not a content problem.
Craig Hindman is a marketing consultant based in Adelaide Hills, South Australia, working with businesses across SA and nationally. The businesses that typically get in touch have been producing content for years. Social posts, newsletters, maybe a blog, occasionally an ad. None of it is moving the needle, and nobody can explain why.
The reason is almost always the same: there is no coherent strategy underneath the activity. No clear positioning. No message that has been deliberately crafted to land with the right people. Just output for its own sake, dressed up as marketing.
That is the work. Getting clear on who you are talking to, what you actually stand for, why anyone should choose you over the alternative, and then building the marketing around those answers rather than hoping that activity equals results.
Who this is for
Marketing consulting works best for businesses that are past the startup stage and serious about growth. Specifically:
- SMEs and growing businesses in South Australia and nationally that have something worth marketing but are not getting the traction they expect
- National not-for-profits that need senior marketing thinking without the overhead of a full-time marketing director
- Businesses that have tried agencies and found themselves talking to account managers who do not understand their category
- Business owners who know their marketing is not working but cannot articulate exactly why
If you are a startup with no budget or an enterprise with a large in-house team, I am probably not the right fit. If you are somewhere in between and want someone who will think hard about your specific situation rather than apply a template, let's talk.
How marketing consulting with me works
1. Discovery conversation
A direct conversation about your business. Where you are, where you want to be, what you have tried, what has not worked, and what you think the real problem is. This is not a discovery call with a junior consultant taking notes. It is the senior conversation.
2. Situation audit
An honest review of your current marketing. What you are putting into the world and whether it is working. What the competitive landscape looks like. Where the real gaps and opportunities are. This is where most engagements start before any strategy gets built.
3. Strategy development
Positioning, messaging, channel strategy, and campaign planning specific to your situation. Not a template with your logo on it. Thinking that starts from your actual market position and builds toward where you want to be.
4. Execution
Unlike most consultants, I can take the strategy through to production. Photography, video, web design, SEO content. You do not need to brief three separate specialists who have never spoken to each other. One brain, the whole picture.
5. Ongoing advisory
Some clients want the strategy and then implement it themselves. Others want a senior consultant in their corner continuously, thinking about their marketing every month. Retainer relationships are available and preferred, because they consistently produce better results than one-off projects.
What marketing consulting can cover
Depending on what you need, an engagement can include any combination of the following:
Positioning and messaging strategy - the foundation. Who you are, what you do, why it matters, and how to say it in a way that sticks. This is the work that makes every other piece of marketing cheaper and more effective.
Campaign planning and management - integrated campaigns across the channels that actually reach your audience. Briefs, timelines, content strategy, and asset production. I can manage the whole thing or hand a clear brief to your team.
Brand and marketing audits - a direct look at what you are currently putting into the world and whether it is working. What to keep, what to cut, what to improve.
Customer journey mapping - understanding every touchpoint from discovery to purchase, and identifying where people are falling off and why.
Content strategy - not a content calendar, but a content plan connected to your goals and built around what your audience actually needs to see before they are ready to buy.
Channel strategy - which channels deserve your attention, which do not, and how to allocate your budget and effort across them intelligently.
25 years of being in the room where it happens
I have worked with Wesley Mission nationally, Tasman Holiday Parks, Bike About, PhotoSentinel, and dozens of smaller businesses across Australia. Most recently, I spent nine months as a senior communications advisor to key political leaders during the 2025 and 2026 South Australian Election, leading digital communications strategy, social media, photography, and video production across the campaign. It is the kind of high-pressure, high-stakes communications work that sharpens your thinking quickly.
The common thread across every engagement is not the sector. It is the brief: help us grow, help us get clearer, help us stop wasting money on marketing that does not work.
The other thing I bring that most consultants do not: I can execute. If the strategy calls for a campaign video, I can shoot it. If you need a website that converts, I can build it. If you need the SEO to back it all up, I do that too.
Strategy that stops at the slide deck is an expensive slide deck. Strategy that gets built, shipped, and measured is a business asset.