The way you market yourself and the services you provide will establish your personal brand. This brand is the way the marketplace sees you. There are many ways to inform your targeted business community of your services and availability. You will need to invest time and resources into a variety of media and other sources in order to attract potential clients.
Develop A Strategy First
The best way to develop your personal brand is to develop an overall marketing plan or strategy. Although this takes time at the start, a planned marketing strategy is more efficient than a haphazard one. This means you will need to familiarize yourself with the varied marketing tools available to the independent or small business owner, including both online and offline approaches.
Create An Online Presence
Your website. When starting your consulting business today, it is essential to create a presence online. This includes your own website as well as participation in social networking sites. There are two key things to remember in establishing your online marketing materials. They should be professional looking and content rich. Being content rich means having material on the site that can be valuable to potential clients, in addition to the marketing and contact information.
Social networking. Once you have developed your website, you can develop a profile on social networking sites, such as LinkedIn. As your practice grows, try to communicate across other media, such as Twitter. Using Twitter, you can “tweet” 140 characters of unique content to connect with others who have similar interests. The goal is to build relationships and participate in communities by adding value to the ongoing conversation.
Your blog. Your Internet marketing strategy might also include a blog, which is a way to provide unique content and opinions as well as to prove your expertise in an area. Many people combine their company websites with their blog. (See our review of 31 Days To A Better Blog).
Online Directories. Finally, you need to explore online listing services or directories that are specific to either your geography or your area of practice. These can also be a cost effective way of establishing your personal brand on the Internet.
Old School Basics
Although much of your marketing will be conducted through the Internet, there is still a great deal of face-to-face activities that will be required of you. A professionally printed business card is essential. As you begin networking and meeting with prospective clients this is often the second impression they have of you. It is also what you leave behind. If your budget allows it, a simple tri-fold brochure highlighting your expertise and services is also a good idea. This brochure needs to bring attention to your skills and consulting area of expertise, but will point the reader to your website for more information.
Networking in the Consulting Marketplace
There is much written on the art and skill of successful networking. For consultants, some of the best places to network are in professional organizations and trade groups of your target clients. However, membership is just a start. Attending meetings and conferences is certainly helpful in getting to know the people who are the real buyers.
But more important, is to be active in the organization. This includes making presentations or writing articles for the groups’ publications. This is an excellent way to become known as an expert in front of your target market. It is important to remember that these opportunities should not be used as a sales pitch. Instead, present a compelling case study or solution with which you have been involved. If the information is valuable, your byline will draw interest from potential clients.
Marketing Through Requests for Proposals (RFPs)
While it is important to identify potential opportunities in your clients organization and anticipate solutions that may be useful to them, you still need to be ready to respond to their current problems. Many organizations make their needs for services known to the marketplace through requests for proposals. Consultants will compete for this work based on approach, expertise and cost. It is important to make sure that you are “on the list” to receive these. This could be through registering with a purchasing office, signing up for electric notification or monitoring websites.
Not only can responding to RFPs provide a pipeline of potential work, it is another opportunity for you to market yourself. Responding to these requests will vary in complexity and level of effort. Often initial respondents may get pared down to a more manageable group that will lead to an in person or online meeting. While you may not win the engagement, you will get a chance to represent yourself to the buyers. This can lead to future work. If the opportunity exists, take some time to discuss with the client ways you can improve your future proposals. This shows that you are willing to listen and often provides valuable insight.
Staying in Contact
Once you have a set of target clients, you need to stay in contact with them. Your goal is both to learn what opportunities exist in their organization as well as to let them know what new solutions or services you can offer. Regular email correspondence is good, but a periodic phone call is important to maintain that personal relation. It also lets them tell you what is going on in their business. While you can learn a lot from published material, there are many challenges that managers and business owners face, which they are not eager to have published. As you build deeper personal relationships with your clients you can achieve the goal of becoming a trusted business advisor
It’s A Critical Skill
Focusing on creating and marketing your personal brand is critical to finding clients willing to pay you for your services. This effort is especially critical in starting your consulting business and may take a lot of your time and resources. However, nothing beats that message from a client that says we like your proposal and want to get started. That is the payoff for your efforts.
The Articles in this Series:
Part 1: Is Becoming a Consultant Right For You?
Part 2: Finding Your Niche in Consulting
Part 3: How to Develop Your Unique Personal Brand
Part 4: How to Manage Your Consulting Business
Part 5: Growing Your Consulting Business
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