When you look at marketing yourself as a consultant you should look at:
- What you already have set up.
- Growing your specialty – this is the best way to stand out because if you’re serving people you’re naturally going to grow yourself and it’s going to grow the marketing organically.
But what do you do if you don’t have those people coming to your website, and continue to come in for consulting? These are a few things to you need to do:
Inbound Marketing
You’ll have to look at some of the inbound marketing you’re doing on your own website. This will be things like:
- Blog posts
- Podcasts
- Facebook lives that are redirecting people back to your website
- Creating resources
- Long-form blog posts
Connecting With People Outside Of Your Website
- Guest blog posts
- Getting interviewed on podcasts
What’s great about getting interviewed by other people is that it forces you to conceptualize your approach to consulting.
You will have to ask yourself some tough questions: What makes me unique, there’s so many other consultants out there. Why should someone work with me? What makes me different?
That doesn’t mean that you have to innovate from the beginning, and that you just totally stand out. It could just be your approach, it could be that you frame things a little bit differently. We often get paralyzed by perfection because we think we have to totally innovate and start from scratch. But it might really just be that you’re bringing together a number of great ideas that help people in a different or unique way. Or maybe you understand the pain of the problem differently than other people.
How To Market Yourself
- Reaching out to Influencers that are already doing the work – Make sure that you are adding value. You have to understand their blog/podcast, pitch yourself as something that’s unique and new but it also goes within the DNA of that website. If you do this you are better able to get on to those websites and podcasts
- Looking for gaps within your specific industry – Maybe all of the print magazines are terrible and it’s time for one that maybe costs you some money to send out. But people will love it and that’s going to get you some attention as an innovator or someone that’s recreating something that’s been done terribly.
- Make sure that you innovate new ideas – Focus on that one thing that’s going to give you tons of growth, but then keep adding layers to it. What do people need before, during and after consulting with you? This sandwich approach helps you serve people better.
When you’re marketing yourself, the number one thing to remember is that you’re not marketing yourself, you are solving a problem.
You are working on pain. What is the pain that you are trying to help with in all that you do? So if you’re getting interviewed on a podcast or doing a guest blog post make sure you’re always focused on this.
For more resources on consulting and growing your practice click here, we would love to help you continue to grow your consulting and your private practice.
Joseph R. Sanok, MA, LLP, LPC, NCC
Joe Sanok is an ambitious results expert. He is a private practice business consultant and counselor that helps small businesses and counselors in private practice to increase revenue and have more fun! He helps owners with website design, vision, growth, and using their time to create income through being a private practice consultant. Joe was frustrated with his lack of business and marketing skills when he left graduate school. He loved helping people through counseling, but felt that often people couldn’t find him. Over the past few years he has grown his skills, income, and ability to lead others, while still maintaining an active private practice in Traverse City, MI. To link to Joe’s Google+ .
