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thought leadership marketing for consultants

Thought Leadership Marketing For Consultants: Quick-Start Guide

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What is thought leadership marketing and why is it a powerful marketing strategy for consultants?

Thought leadership marketing is a form of marketing where you share your expertise on a specific topic.

As consultants, our expertise is our product. Therefore it’s critical that we demonstrate our expertise to our prospective clients.

Thought leadership marketing enables us to do that.

By the end of this article, you’ll understand what thought leadership marketing is, why it’s so powerful for consultants, and how you can start doing it today.

Let’s dive in.

As consultants, our expertise is our product. Therefore it’s critical that we demonstrate our expertise to our prospective clients.

What Is Thought Leadership Marketing?

Thought leadership marketing is a form of marketing where you share your expertise and authority on a specific topic.

When you focus on one area over and over again, and you explore every nook and cranny of that area, you’re able to…

  • provide unique perspectives
  • uncover interesting data
  • identify potential risks and threats
  • capitalize on hidden opportunities

For example, think about Simon Sinek. His name is synonymous with “start with why.”

Consider Peter Drucker. When you think of Peter Drucker, you think of “management.”

And if you think about Nancy Duarte, you think of “presentations.”

Each of these thought leaders became associated with these phrases because they consistently shared their expertise on the topic.

Thought leadership marketing helps you win clients by selling without selling.

That’s what thought leadership marketing is: banging a particular drum over and over and over again on a specific topic — and providing genuine value — until your name becomes synonymous with that topic.

Generic content isn’t thought leadership. You can’t become a thought leader without deliberately choosing a specific topic.

With thought leadership marketing, you must give before you try and get.

Many consultants are concerned about thought leadership because they feel as though they are giving away their “secrets” for free.

But the thought leader has a different mindset. They think…

“Let me give you the best information, and if you find it valuable, let’s explore how we can work together. If you don’t find it valuable, that’s OK too.”

Ultimately, thought leadership marketing helps you win clients by selling without selling.

We’ll explore more reasons why it’s so effective in the next section.

Why Thought Leadership Marketing Is Powerful For Consultants

There are several reasons why thought leadership marketing is one of the best ways for you to market your consulting business.

  • It provides tremendous value to your market and ideal clients.
  • It spreads awareness about you, your business, and your offers.
  • It helps to sell your offers, meaning sales will require fewer sales conversations.
  • It puts you into a position of authority in your industry and establishes you as a “trusted advisor.”
  • It speeds up the sales cycle, and you’ll face fewer objections about price.
  • It’s evergreen: the content you create will market your business for many years through search engines.
  • It helps you to hone your craft as you think critically about a specific topic.

Can you say the same about any other marketing method?

As a result of doing it consistently, you create a powerful reputation. You become known for something. Your reputation will do the selling for you.

The thought leadership you produce will sell your services without you having to it.

Becoming a thought leader will take years. But in the process of becoming one, you’ll create content that markets your business, sells your offers, and earns your reputation as an elite consultant.

Your reputation will do the selling for you.

Thought Leadership Marketing Examples

Now, we’ll get into some examples of thought leadership marketing for you to model and learn from.

1. Consulting Success®

Our own business, Consulting Success®, is built on thought leadership marketing.

We started the business 13 years ago as a blog.

Our aim was to share helpful information with entrepreneurial consultants, something that has remained constant.

While we’ve added different formats and platforms we use to put that information out there, we lead by sharing valuable information for consultants, by consultants.

That’s why we create…

We create all this because we want to help entrepreneurial consultants build successful businesses.

Today, Consulting Success® is a recognized brand around the business of consulting and how to become a consultant.

When people want to grow a successful consulting business, they come to us.

We have a lot more to do, and we’re excited about it — but we got to where we are today by picking a focus, and sharing everything we know about that focus (helping consultants start and grow their consulting practice).

It’s all in our tagline: helping entrepreneurial consultants grow profitable, scaleable, and strategic consulting businesses.

If you pick a focus and then create consistent, valuable content around that focus, you’ll eventually become a thought leader in your space.

2. Nic Cambpell (Build Up Advisory Group)

Nic Campbell is the founder and CEO of Build Up Advisory Group, where she helps philanthropies scale their impact through improved grant making and organizational structuring.

She joined us years ago as she was transitioning from working at one of Ray Dalio’s companies to become a consultant.

In our coaching program, Nic reached six figures quickly. Since then, has gone on to build a 7-figure practice with an amazing team.

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Her thought leadership marketing began as videos on YouTube and Linkedin.

Now, she’s created her own podcast: the Nonprofit Build® Up Podcast, where she shares her expertise around building better philanthropic organizations.

Her consistent efforts to share her expertise in this area has catapulted her to the top of her industry.

3. Elliot Begoun (TIG Brands)

Elliot Begoun was an amazing Clarity client who joined our program while he was still employed.

In his first few months as a consultant, we helped him build up to six figures in revenue.

Now, he runs an entire team — and his firm is a multi-million dollar practice.

Elliot’s thought leadership marketing helped him achieve greater success as a consultant.

In terms of thought leadership marketing, Elliot…

  • Writes articles for his website
  • Writes articles for different publications
  • Speaks on podcasts
  • Speaks on panels

…all of which provide valuable information to his community: those interested in natural product brands.

Today, Elliot’s name and company are highly associated with “natural products brands,” and he’s considered a thought leader in the space.

Action Step: The “One-Pager” Thought Leadership Piece

Here’s an exercise you can do today to start your thought leadership marketing.

  • List the top five problems your ideal clients are facing.
  • For each problem, write a one-page (250-500 word) piece on how you think about, approach, and solve that problem.
  • Share each piece anywhere where your ideal clients hang out online (LinkedIn, newsletters, guest publications, etc) — and you can even send it to them directly.

Remember: thought leadership marketing isn’t limited to writing (or this particular type of writing).

Don’t think in terms of days or even months. Think long term: years.

Other examples of thought leadership marketing include:

  • Content on your website
  • Content on other websites
  • A weekly newsletter
  • Writing for other publications
  • Speaking at in-person events
  • Hosting webinars and presentations online
  • Writing books
  • Speaking on podcasts
  • Researching and publishing white papers

The medium isn’t as important as the fact that you consistently create thought leadership around a specific topic: an industry, a type of software, a set of problems, a particular phrase, etc.

And it’s worth repeating that you must share your thought leadership.

Thought leadership marketing is a long-term strategy.

Don’t think in terms of days or even months. Think long term: years.

Sure, you’ll earn some quick wins from your thought leadership. But becoming a true thought leader takes years.

And once you reach the position of thought leadership, you’ll enjoy a more predictable, profitable, and scalable consulting business.

Get Help Creating Your Thought Leadership Marketing Strategy

Thought leadership marketing is an incredibly powerful way to build your authority and attract new clients.

However, to do it, you must create and share your expertise — and do it consistently.

It won’t solve your marketing problems overnight.

But after a few months of creating and sharing your expertise, you’ll notice a profound difference in how you market yourself and how clients perceive you.

If you’d like our help creating and executing a thought leadership marketing strategy that helps you attract clients on auto-pilot, our customized Clarity Coaching Program is for you.

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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