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5-Step Consulting Marketing Strategy To Get Clients Consistently

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Are you having trouble building a consulting marketing strategy that helps you get clients consistently?

According to our How To Start A Consulting Business Study, marketing is the BIGGEST challenge for consultants.

And this is not only true for early-stage consultants but also for those who have been in business for several years.

If you’re not generating enough sales conversations with your ideal clients, then you have a marketing problem.

And if you have a marketing problem, it will trickle down to every aspect of your business:

Learning how to generate conversations with your ideal clients is critical to your success as a consultant.

In this post, I’ll share a simple, 5-step consulting marketing strategy that will help you generate consistent calls with your ideal clients so you can win more business.

Whether you’re an experienced consultant earning high 6 or 7 figures — or brand new to consulting — you’ll find the best practices for marketing your consulting business in this post.

Let’s dive in…

CONSULTING MARKETING STRATEGY: QUICK LINKS

What Is A Consulting Marketing Strategy?

First, let’s define both “marketing” and “strategy.”

Marketing (for consultants) is how you attract the attention of your ideal clients and your ability to generate conversations with them.

Your strategy is a detailed plan of how you’ll achieve that goal.

So, your marketing strategy is a specific plan for how you’ll attract the attention of your ideal clients and generate conversations with them.

For example, posting on LinkedIn is a marketing tactic. It can work, but only within the context of a proper strategy.

Your marketing strategy defines what tactics you’ll actually use.

As you may have noticed, relying on referrals is not a strategy.

We’ve had many high 6 and 7-figure consultants who have joined our program because their referrals started to dry up.

Don’t get me wrong: getting referred based on the work that you do is great.

But, at some point, you should implement a consulting marketing strategy if you want to grow your consulting business to the next level.

Over 50% of consultants investing $5K+ in their marketing are earning more than six figures per year.

Note that marketing for consultants is very different from marketing other types of businesses.

You’re not selling t-shirts or widgets for a couple of hundred dollars or less.

You’re selling your thinking and your expertise that creates anywhere from tens of thousands to millions of dollars of potential value for your clients.

So, you’ll have to market yourself in a way that demonstrates your thinking and expertise and demonstrates value.

Next, I’ll go into the five steps to creating your consulting marketing strategy.

If you’ve been consulting for a while, as you read through the rest of this article, think about what you can adjust or improve in your current marketing system.

And if you’re new to consulting, simply follow the steps below.

We’ll start with a step that most consultants skip (but is very important).

Step 1. Discover Your “Magic Number”

Consultants who write down their goals are much more likely to achieve them.

Research by psychologist Gail Matthews shows that just by writing down your goals, you’ll increase your chance of achieving them by 42%.

This is especially true when it comes to marketing and sales.

If you know…

  • Your monthly revenue target/goal
  • How much your average project is worth
  • How many conversations with ideal clients it takes to win a project

…you can be very specific about what you must do daily to achieve your monthly target.

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For example, let’s say you want to make $50K per month.

(Many of the consultants in our Clarity Coaching Program are earning this amount — or even much more — by applying what we teach in our marketing modules)

And if your average project is $25K.

And 1 out of every 4 conversations with an ideal client turns into a paid project (25% closing rate).

Based on these numbers, you can conclude:

  • You need to win 2 projects per month to reach $50k.
  • You need to have 8 conversations with ideal clients per month — or 2 conversations per week.

Then, you can zoom out and look at what you’re doing TODAY to generate those 2 calls per week.

We’ve created a simple spreadsheet for you to do this exercise and plug in your numbers:

Magic # Exercise Spreadsheet

Click File > Make a copy to save a copy of the spreadsheet for yourself.

Just by writing down your goals, you’ll increase your chance of achieving them by 42%.

Knowing your “Magic #” makes your marketing and sales targets crystal clear.

You’ll use the rest of what we teach in this guide to generate that number of conversations with your ideal clients.

Step 2. Identify Your Ideal Client

As a consulting business, you provide expert advice to people or organizations to solve problems and create results.

Who are those people or organizations, exactly?

The more specific you are about WHO you serve, the easier it will be get in front of them and make sure that your message and materials resonate with them

Doing this will help you to stand out.

Without standing out, your ideal clients won’t pay attention to your messaging and content (which is marketing).

They’ll be less receptive to having a call with you about how you can help them (which is sales).

Your marketing strategy begins by getting clear about who your ideal client is.

Think of it this way: it’s easier to stand out by being a big fish in a small pond.

specialization vs generalization for consultants

You’ll stand out more, garner more attention, and people will see you as the expert you are, usually much faster. And it will make it much, much easier to get clients.

So how do you actually figure out who your ideal client should be?

You’ll have to brainstorm and find your “niche.”

A niche is an industry or type of client. For example…

  • Nic Campbell works with nonprofit and philanthropic organizations.
  • Jason Fearnow of Prime Contract Solutions works with mining companies.
  • Husain Shekhani of Ultrasonic Advisors works with companies in the ultrasonic device industry.

None of these consultants target “businesses” or even “small businesses.”

Instead, successful consultants serve a specific niche.

How do you actually pick a niche that you feel confident about?

In our Clarity Coaching Program, we instruct clients to use the Niche Scoring Method.

consulting niche scoring method

(If you’ve already selected a well-defined niche, then you can skip this exercise. But it’s good to double-check your niche to make sure that it fits the right criteria and is the ideal one for you to be focusing on.)

Write down a couple of niches that you’re interested in serving.

If you can’t think of any, pick the industries that you’ve worked with before.

  • What industry does the company you work for now belong to?
  • What about companies you’ve worked with in the past?
  • Or, how about companies you applied to work at?

Once you’ve picked out a few of these industries, score them on the following factors on a scale of 1-5 — with 1 being weak, and 5 being very strong:

  • Experience: How would you rate your experience with this niche?
  • Expertise: How would you rate your status as an expert within this niche?
  • Results: How would you rate your confidence that you can deliver results for this niche?
  • Potential: How would you rate this niche’s growth and how willing they are to hire consultants?
  • Interest: How would you rate your interest in this niche?
  • Access: How would you rate your ability to speak with ideal clients in this niche?

Then, you add up the total scores for each niche. Pick the one with the highest score to start with.

Pay particular attention to the “Interest” score.

You’ll enjoy your work more if it’s an industry or niche you are passionate about helping.

You can always change your niche later. But if you want to build a successful consulting marketing strategy, you must first pick a niche. Only then can you go on to the next step.

Step 3. Develop Your Magnetic Message

Now that you’ve gotten clear about your Ideal Client, you’ll write a simple and clear message that gets their attention.

We call this your “Magnetic Message.”

A good Magnetic Message is “magnetic” — it attracts the attention of your ideal clients like a magnet. It’s the “unique value proposition” for consultants.

Before writing that message, let’s think more deeply about your ideal client.

Your ideal clients have problems they want to solve.

You, as the consultant, use your expertise to solve those problems.

As a result of those actions, your expertise creates results for your clients.

Problems, Actions, and Results are the building blocks of your Magnetic Message.

For example, let’s say you’re a sales consultant who helps enterprise software technology companies.

  • Problem: Your ideal client’s sales team is performing poorly.
  • Action: You offer a 6-week sales training program.
  • Result: On average, your program increases the sales team’s performance by 33%.

Do this exercise now.

  • Write down the biggest problem your ideal clients have.
  • Write down the actions (high level) you take to solve that problem.
  • And then, write the result of each of those actions (the OUTCOMES your work will create for your client).

Now, you can put all of this together into your Magnetic Message.

Here’s the formula:

I help [WHO] to [solve WHAT problem] so they can [see WHAT results]. My [WHY choose me]…

Let’s break each part of the formula down.

  • WHO: Who you serve.
  • WHAT (Problem): What problem you solve for them.
  • WHAT (Result): What result you create for them.
  • WHY: Why they should choose you.

magnetic message formula

Here’s an example.

I help enterprise software companies with underperforming sales teams so that they can boost sales and revenue. My 10 years of experience and 6-step program has helped over 20 clients boost their sales by an average of 33% in 6 months.

  • WHO: Your ideal client (ex: enterprise software companies).
  • Solve WHAT problem: The problem that you solve for your ideal client (their sales team’s underperformance).
  • See WHAT result: The result you create for your ideal client (ex: boost sales and revenue).
  • WHY choose me: Why your ideal client should choose you (ex: 10 years of experience and 6-week program has helped over 20 clients boost their sales by an average of 33% in 6 months).

The Magnetic Message has everything you need to draw the attention of your ideal client.

Its purpose isn’t to win the sale. It’s to simply get them interested in you and want to learn more.

It doesn’t have to be perfect. Once you’ve written it and it’s “good enough” you’re ready to test it in the market.

Step 4. Activate Your Network

What’s the easiest way to market your consulting business?

Inside our Clarity Coaching Program, one of the first areas we take clients through is the “Network Reactivation Campaign.”

It’s a process of reaching out to everyone in your network so that they’re aware of what you’re doing.

When you focus on adding value and building relationships, more opportunities will come your way.

It’s a practical method to jumpstart your marketing strategy. Run this process after you’ve written or updated your Magnetic Message.

First, make a list of everyone you know. LinkedIn is great for this.

Think past clients, colleagues, employers, family members, friends — EVERYONE you know. You never know who will provide a referral.

Then, send each of them an email. It might look something like this:

Hey NAME, I just thought about you.

What’s going on? Would love to hear from you.

{Insert a line about what’s going on in your personal life}

{Insert a line about what’s going on in your business — what you’re working on and your Magnetic Message}

If you know anyone that might be interested in this or might need help in these areas, please let me know.

Best,

YOUR NAME

And remember, networking is a 2-way street.

Add value to the people in your network’s lives as well.

Share helpful articles with them. Connect them to people who they’d benefit from knowing. Promote something that they’re working on.

Consulting is a relationship business.

When you focus on adding value and building relationships, more opportunities will come your way.

Make a habit of spending 20-30 minutes a day on networking: adding value to people’s lives and making sure they know your Magnetic Message.

Make sure EVERYONE you know is aware of your Magnetic Message, and you’ll systematically market your business and increase the chance that you’ll be referred.

This is the “low-hanging” fruit of your marketing strategy.

Next, we’ll get into the execution of your strategy: building and running your Marketing Engine.

Step 5. Rev Up Your Marketing Engine

Should you be on Instagram?

Is YouTube the way to go?

What about paid Google or Facebook ads?

There are thousands of ways to get the attention of your ideal clients.

However, most of these are “shiny objects” and tactics.

For consultants, some of them work — and many of them don’t.

If you don’t focus on what actually creates conversations with your ideal clients, you’ll be stuck in “marketing tactical hell.”

Here’s what you want to focus on with your marketing — actions that generate conversations with your ideal clients:

1. Direct Outreach: reaching out directly to start having meaningful conversations with your ideal clients.

For example, a direct LinkedIn message or email sharing valuable content with an ideal client to add value to their lives — and to get them interested in what you offer.

2. Follow-up: following up with ideal clients and adding more value.

For example, sending a direct mail to them — something they would find interesting, meaningful, unique (like a case study or white paper), and prompts them to reach out to you to learn more.

3. Authority-building: Publishing thought leadership and doing SEO to position yourself as an authority and to support your outreach/follow-up efforts.

For example, using your consulting website to publish articles that help your ideal clients.

You should be doing Outreach, Follow-Up, and Authority-Building EVERY DAY.

If you combine outreach, follow-up, and authority-building, your marketing will be effective and fulfill its purpose: to build relationships with your ideal clients and to create conversations with them.

You need a plan — a daily list of activities — that will help you create X number of conversations with your ideal clients.

Remember your three key marketing activities: Outreach, Follow-Up, and Authority-Building.

You should be doing Outreach, Follow-Up, and Authority-Building EVERY DAY.

weekly marketing schedule

Early-stage consultants will spend more time reaching out to clients and following up with them.

Writing content to build authority is a longer-term strategy, whereas outreach and follow-up can create conversations very quickly.

You need to wake up each day and know exactly what to do every day in order to hit your numbers.

Doug Nelson, one of our Clarity Coaching clients, put his magic # everywhere around his home.

His day wasn’t finished until he had his required number of conversations with ideal clients.

As a result, he grew his consulting business from $400k to over $2M dollars within 18 months.

Here’s a sample daily plan you can use to start your Marketing Engine:

  • 8:00 AM: Start your direct outreach in the morning
  • 8:30 AM: Follow up with any potential clients from the previous day
  • 9:00 AM: Make warm follow-up calls
  • 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM: Client work
  • 2:00 PM: Marketing Engine conversations/Authority Building
  • 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM: Client calls and meetings
  • 4:00: Daily review (focus on the most direct path and stage of your marketing maturity)

If you follow this marketing strategy, you’ll be reaching out to ideal clients, following up with ideal clients, and creating content for your ideal clients.

And you’ll systematically begin generating conversations with them.

Data-Based Marketing Tips For Consultants

So, you’ve started your marketing engine and you’re beginning to book calls with your ideal clients.

How do you improve the overall effectiveness of your strategy and system?

Here are a few tips to focus on: the 80/20 of marketing for consultants.

1. Referrals Are King

37% of consultants listed “referrals” as their primary means of generating new business — 20% higher than the next most selected answer: Networking & Events (18%).

If you can build systems around asking for referrals, you’ll win more business.

Don’t expect clients to just give you referrals. Go out there and ASK for them.

2. Pick Up The Phone

41% of consultants say that making phone calls is their most disliked marketing method.

However, 7% of consultants say that making phone calls makes them the most money — the third highest income-generating marketing method for the consultants we polled.

Don’t be afraid of picking up the phone to call your ideal clients. It will create more opportunities for you than you think.

3. Follow Up!

Did you know that 80% of sales are generated between the fifth and twelfth contact?

However, 92% of salespeople give up after no sales on the 4th call.

That means most of you are giving up before your prospective client is ready to buy.

If you want to make more consulting sales, the magic is in the follow-up.

Plan to follow up with each of your prospects at least five times. Shoot for 10-12 follow-up touch points spaced out over 8-12 weeks.

If you feel like you’re being too “pushy” or “spammy,” then make sure that your follow-ups add value.

4. Make It A Daily Habit

We see a positive correlation between marketing frequency and the number of clients.

Consultants who work with 1-3 clients per year market their business less (only 25% market their business daily) than consultants who work with 6+ clients per year (38% market their business daily).

Consistency is key with your marketing; don’t just market when you need clients. If you make marketing a daily habit, it will become automatic.

5. Invest In Your Marketing

Investing more in your marketing correlates to a higher income.

Over 50% of consultants investing $5K+ in their marketing are earning more than six figures per year.

Marketing is an investment, not a cost.

If you invest $10K in your marketing and it helps you win 3 $25K clients (that’s $75,000), would you do it? Of course.

If you want to become an elite consultant, invest in coaching, programs, and systems that will help you market your business and get more clients.

Get Help Creating (& Executing) A Consulting Marketing Strategy That Consistently Generates New Clients

If you struggle to generate calls, you’ll struggle to build a successful consulting business.

You can spend years trying to figure out marketing for yourself…

…or you can leverage our expertise in this area to “short-cut” the entire process.

If you want help creating a marketing strategy for your specific business and situation, check out our Clarity Coaching Program.

We’ll work with you one on one to dial in your marketing strategy AND tactics so that you’re booking calls with high-value prospects every single day.

We’ll work hands-on with you to develop a strategic plan and then dive deep and work through your ideal client clarity, strategic messaging, consulting offers, fees and pricing, business model optimization, and help you to set up your marketing engine and lead generation system to consistently attract ideal clients.

Schedule a FREE growth session today to apply for our limited capacity Clarity Coaching Program by clicking here.

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