How to promote your independent consulting business

Are you maximizing all of the resources at your disposal? Are you prioritizing them properly?

Assuming you want to grow your consulting practice both vertically (expanding your work/relationship with existing clients) and horizontally (reaching out to, and securing, wholly new clients), there are several ways to go about it. It’s not hard to get a zillion hits for such an objective by searching online.

But assuming that your resources aren’t exactly infinite, the key word here is prioritization. In this article, we’ll review some of the manifold ways in which you can promote your independent consulting business; more importantly, we’ll talk about how you can weigh which options are most (and least) important for you—what’s known as the “media mix” in the advertising world.

Let’s make some other quick assumptions here. Let’s assume that vertical growth is easier to attain that horizontal growth, since you’ve already got your foot in the door. (Indeed, we’d already posted an article in this series about getting follow-on business and growing your practice with existing clients, so we won’t belabor that here.)

Let’s also assume—just for now—that 1) you’re going to be focusing your efforts via online channels (as opposed to, say, postal mailers or cable TV spots), and 2) your target clients are so mobile-connected that they’ll most likely be learning about you from the confines of a cellphone screen or tablet, and less likely a laptop or (heaven forbid) desktop computer.

With all those assumptions in mind, here are some of your options for self-promotion, some more obvious than others, along with some thoughts for maximizing each:

Commit to your online social presence. The big word here isn’t “social”; it’s “commit.” Sure, you’re probably already on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter (if not more), but how are you using those channels? We recently worked with a client whose LinkedIn overview and profile were totally outdated; are yours? When’s the last time you made a post? Your posting history is available for all to see; if they see that you post in sporadic bursts every few months, it won’t exactly help your cause.

Blog wisely. This is a hot-button topic for us here at Copel Communications. We’ve seen so-called “big ad agencies” soliciting bloggers to write “thought-leading articles,” for supposed “Fortune 500 clients,” replete with original research, image searching, keyword tags, and CMS (content management system) work… all with a budget of $15 per blog post. Honestly. You could probably advertise for—and even find—similar resources (maybe even for $14!), but do you think that that would establish you as a thought leader?

Okay, it was an easy question. But the fact is, you’re smarter than any “production blogger” you could hire, and the search engines (read: “Google”) are continuously getting way smarter at distinguishing repurposed/aggregated “click-bait” from genuinely useful information. That’s great news for you. (Even if it’s not the best news for those poor McBloggers out there.) You are already a subject-matter expert, so write about what you know! It can be as easy as talking about what you know, so make those blog posts count. (Even if you just want to feed your topics, ideas, and input to a professional writer, that’s a good way to proceed.)

Exploit your content. Work smarter, not harder. Just because you know you’re posting the same content on different sites/in an e-newsletter, etc., doesn’t mean your prospects are reading them all and comparing them. Keep your bases covered and maintain consistency; you’d be missing opportunities if you don’t. And the added work of “repurposing” is minimal; think of it as a force-multiplier.

Your website is great, isn’t it? If you felt an uh-oh as you read that question, move this paragraph to the top of your to-do’s. Not hard to prioritize when you see it as a checklist item, is it?

Approach deeper-dive channels with caution. Whitepapers can be incredibly powerful—but are they your first line of attack? Are they what clients seek first? Ditto for, say, podcasts. We love podcasts! But that doesn’t mean they’re at the top tier of your media mix. If they are, great, but be sure they’re properly placed in your hierarchy, since they require time, effort, and production resources.

Consider getting help. Following the above best-practice guidelines will maximize your odds of success. But they often require specialized skills which may not overlap your strengths. Fortunately for you, we have the unique combination of consulting, marketing, and creative skills which have let us help independent consultants and boutique agencies to boost their billing for more than 15 years. Best of all, we’re fast, efficient, and surprisingly affordable, given the value we provide. Contact us right now and let’s talk about growing your business as quickly and productively as possible. 

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