So you own a consulting business and you feel like it’s not living up to your standards? There are many ways to ensure that your business gets the amount of clients that it truly deserves. Here at ThunderQuote, we are planning to help you with just that. Ensuring that you have enough clients to ensure the growth of your brand.
A consulting business is crucial to the economy because you add value to your client’s businesses and you are their liaison between the real world and the business world. When a client engages with a consulting firm, they do it to access deeper levels of experience and expertise for a facet of their business. Consulting firms do extremely well in the economy and according to a study made in 2012 by First Research, the consulting industry rakes in around $300 billion annually. It is a huge number and it is a thriving part of the economy because there will always be companies that are in need of consultation.
Branding a company successfully is a difficult process and its difficulty heightened because it’s such a competitive environment. We have gathered some of the best tips to successfully market your consulting business to ensure that you get more clients.
But first, you need to understand what personal branding means for your consulting business.
What is personal branding? Personal branding is the practice of people marketing themselves and their businesses as brands.
Next, here are the tips we feel that will help you get more clients for your consulting business :
Tip 1 : Make Your Brand Stand Out
Be distinct. There are going to be thousands of other consulting firms out there. So it will become easy to just fall in the background with all the other firms and be soon forgotten. Therefore, it will become very important for you to ensure that you stand out and that you are different from all the other firms out there.
You can then try to reduce competition as well. Look at exactly what your firm is good and try to make a distinction from the other companies by enhancing that strength. For example, if most of the firms around your area are focused on marketing, you should probably concentrate on leadership or standardising operations. Find your niche area and milk it. That is going to be the only way you will stand out and become a top player in the business.
Tip 2 : Get A Website For Your Company
We cannot stress this tip enough, getting a well-designed website is crucial to market your consulting business to the world. A website is the first thing customers see even before they get to know your company and the services you can offer. You might have the best consulting firm out there, but if your website is driving customers away, how are you going to keep afloat? A credible website will become the backbone to build a great brand. The website becomes a personal representation of your company as well as your skills. Make sure it is well-designed, it must also have great graphics to accompany it and make sure that it is up to date and gives off a professional aura.
Always make sure you vet the professional web developers that you are looking to hire first before signing any contracts. Another key to the perfect website is making sure that you hire the best developer out there for you and someone who understands your brand and will go above and beyond to make sure that your website embodies that brand thoroughly.
Tip 3 : Start A Blog
Blogging might seem like something not as important to businesses because you might not have the time or the expertise for it. However, according to statistical evidence from BlogHer, 81 percent of U.S online customers trust information and advice from blogs. It is an alarmingly high number.
Once you start a blog, it will show your clients that you are more personable and that you appreciate them enough to offer them advice. The more quality advice you give, the more likely they are in trusting you. In addition to that, another study done by InsideView says that B2B marketers who use blogs generate 67% more leads than those that do not! That’s a significant jump of leads which will generate you so much more revenue!
If you create an amazing blog that has a great readership, this automatically becomes a marketing tool for you and it will help launch your brand. You can then start using it to advertise your business to ensure you have a steady line of customers.
Tip 4 : Networking
Everyone in the business industry knows how important it is to be able to network successfully. Networking with the people in the same industry with you is crucial as it allows you to garner more client alongside increasing the amount of referrals you might get. Another way to do it is to actually try social networking! Get on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn and get your name online. Join groups online and start making acquaintances. If you feel like you have no idea how to start, try hiring a professional that can come in and evaluate your business to create a comprehensive plan to help you market your brand the right way.
We hope you’ve found this guide useful in trying to market your consulting business to the world. The world is your oyster and sooner or later you will manage to conquer it!
ThunderQuote is the most comprehensive business services portal in Singapore, Australia and ASEAN , where hundreds of thousands of dollars of procurement contracts are sourced every month by major companies like Singapore Press Holdings, National Trade Union Congress and more.