Building a successful consultancy is no mean feat. Many firms start because they feel they have the expertise and experience to provide valuable insights to clients. However, many fail because they don’t have the practical knowledge to either push their firm above the growing noise of the consultancy industry or scale up once they’ve established their brand.
For marketing consultants, this might feel a little strange, as their bread and butter is to help clients improve visibility and attract clients of their own. The good news is that, as a marketing consultant, you already have the skills and tools you need to grow your business. You likely need the most help with identifying areas in which to apply focus and understanding the practices that can have a holistic effect upon your business.
So where can you make improvements and adjustments that are both cost-effective and result in conversions? How do you take your success with your current clientele and leverage that to draw new eyes to your services? How do you assess what your business needs to thrive, and implement this to achieve your long-term goals?
Asserting Your Expertise
As a marketing consultant, you already know the value of quality content when it comes to establishing your clients’ brand in their marketplace. While it can help in the awareness level of the marketing funnel, one of the key areas in which content makes a difference is establishing the company as a source of expertise. You need to take a similar approach to your consultancy.
Producing blog posts for your own website is a good start, but you need to go further. Research the sites that are important to your target demographic, and don’t just practice the top trends in marketing; write guest posts about the trends that are relevant to their business. Don’t limit yourself to writing about these in an academic sense — demonstrate you know how to use elements such as marketing automation or executive branding as part of a wider strategy. Offer some practical coaching advice that they can start implementing themselves, and guide them toward reaching out to you for further assistance.
Podcasts and videos can be more effective in establishing your brand voice and helping clients to feel as though you’re approachable. Make content that shows that you understand their challenges, and follow up with solutions that show you have experience in helping to solve them. Collaborate with former clients where possible; interview them to highlight what the familiar challenges are, and how an expert consultant makes a difference.
Making Connections
Networking can be uncomfortable, but it’s necessary. If you fail to put energy into establishing and maintaining connections, you’re limiting your ability to attract new clients. Though there are some tried and true methods — such as attending conferences and utilizing LinkedIn — it’s worth thinking outside of the box to find new and more exciting ways to make connections. Not only does it help you build useful relationships, but it also demonstrates your creative thinking.
Collaboration
Approach the process from the perspective of offering something mutually beneficial. Reach out to potential clients to participate in the creation of assets that both help their business and highlight you as a source of information. Knowledge tests can be a good option here, as they allow the prospect to demonstrate what they know, but also highlight areas that they may not have considered, which can be an opening to useful discussions.
This means of connection is a perfect opportunity to bring more traditional media into your collaboration efforts. Instead of collaborating with potential clients, look to your existing clients to partner for podcast episodes you can publish to your blog. The niche of your consultancy is likely to help define the style of your podcast. When you’ve ironed out most of the basics, choose topics that are relevant to the relationship you have with that client. Was there a specific issue that you were helping the client to resolve? Ask your client to take your audience through the process and results using guiding questions.
Social Media
Social media has become an integral part of the marketing landscape, but knowing how to use it correctly and legally can be a bit of a minefield. Use your social media to demonstrate how to avoid making illegal mistakes. Show how you’ve gained permission to use photos or music, and disclose the right information about intellectual property you employ.
If you’re working to establish not only your client base but your authority in your niche, creating videos to post to your social media channels is a highly effective means of killing two birds with one stone. Authority is established through education, and using video helps make a connection with your audience that makes them want to learn from you. You can give them a little taste of what they’ll learn when they choose to become your client. Conduct a video review of the top five social media scheduling apps. Keep it neutral if you want to whet appetites for your opinion or divulge your choice and your reasoning to establish greater authority. Ensure that your posts are shareable so your audience can pass them along to other prospective clients to create buzz.
Most importantly, invite questions and comments on any of your videos and encourage discussions among posters. Go further by not only responding via comments but creating follow-up videos to the most intriguing or relevant questions and comments. You can make important new industry connections, and help demonstrate your coaching expertise in one fell swoop.
Be Authentic
There’s no sure-fire way to make this work for you. Every consultancy is different, and every consultant within that firm will be different. Some of you might have to overcome some introversion to step out and make connections, but this doesn’t mean to say that you should take on a bold and brash personality to do so. Others might already be up for interviewing clients on podcasts, no scripts needed (don’t do that — always have a script!).
Some of the most effective and fruitful connections will come from your ability to demonstrate your authenticity. Use your empathetic qualities to reach out to people to show that you care enough to want to help them solve a problem. Talk about what values are important to you, and those you appreciate in your potential clients. Remember, it’s not always about the quantity of the connections, it’s the quality.
Accountability and Assessment
Most of the steps we’ve outlined here are largely outwardly-facing. However, it’s important to remember that how you run your consultancy, and the actions you take behind the scenes can affect your ability to scale your consulting business, too.
This can begin with your hiring process. Bringing the right people into your business brings new perspectives, and allows you to innovate, which is always attractive to new clientele. But this can’t be done to the detriment of the business. Undertake intelligent assessments of your assets and cash flow, use tools like a payroll tax calculator to gain an understanding of what you can afford, and what cuts and investments you might need to make to onboard some new talent.
This speaks to the importance of frequent assessments and reporting in general. Commit to frequent auditing of your processes — not just for efficiency, but also for customer service and employee interaction. Reach out to current clients to gain an insight into what they felt was positive, and demonstrate your willingness to improve your practices. Don’t forget to include the content you use to connect with them. Is the podcast preferred over the videos? Are social media posts more important than blog posts?
Be open to publishing the results of your assessments every quarter alongside your plans for the future. This demonstrates that you value accountability and openness, and can foster trust in new and existing clients alike.
Conclusion
Generating new clientele is a familiar problem for any burgeoning consultancy. However, by applying your marketing skills through content creation and networking, and taking stock of your behind-the-scenes processes, you can grow your business and establish yourself as an industry leader.
