Alastair McDermott

[Research] Marketing Best Practices for Consulting Firms

How do consulting firms find new clients? How should they find new clients? These are crucial questions at the best of times, and even moreso in the economic downturn that we’re likely to experience due to COVID-19. I sought to answer these questions, and more, by surveying over 1,000 consultants.

Where Does Your Ideal Target Audience Hang Out?

Now that you’ve got some educational or thought-leadership type content planned, the next step is to get it in front of your target audience. Have a Profile Everywhere I recommend that you have a business profile on all of the major networks that looks professional and contains your positioning statement

Positioning Yourself as an Authority

How do you position yourself as a thought leader and authority? Content Marketing One approach is to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise by creating “content”. I’m sure you’ve heard about content marketing. I love the idea, but I’m not so crazy about the name “content marketing”. It feels very generic, and

The Problem with Building Your Own Website

In my last article, I wrote about why your website sucks and your web designer hates you: https://marketingforconsultants.com/why-your-website-sucks/ On LinkedIn, Philip asked me: If I’m my own web designer, does this still apply? 😉 Yes. Yes, it does! Why Is It so Difficult to Self-build an Effective Website? Apart from

Why Your Website Sucks and Your Web Designer Hates You!

Many web design trends and technologies have come and gone since I started building websites in the dark ages of 1996. But one crucial issue hasn’t changed much since day one: “Web design” is not really about “design” at all. If you’ve spoken to many business owners, you’ve probably heard

Crafting Your Positioning Statement

For me, the single most important thing you must have clarity on in your business is your “positioning statement”. Your positioning statement defines your brand position, identifies your ideal customer and the problem you solve for them. A quick note on terminology: positioning statement can also be referred to as

What Is Their Painful, Urgent Problem That You Solve?

In the previous article, I challenged you to focus on just one target vertical as your market. Most consulting firms have a wide range of different ways that you can help your clients, for the many different problems that you can solve for them. Where Does It Hurt? For the

Who – Specifically – Do You Serve?

A fundamental element of a marketing strategy for a consulting business is to have a specific target market. You can probably help a whole range of different clients, and you might be tempted to keep your target market as broad as possible, particularly when times are tough and the economy

Trust is the currency of professional services

Marketing in the world of consulting may not be easy, but it is quite simple. It’s all about understanding trust. Trust is more valuable than cash. Trust is the currency of professional services The purchase of consulting services is very different from other types of purchases, which is why so

Lead Generation Tactics for Your Website

I’m going to outline four simple lead generation tactics that you can use to generate leads for your business from your website. These tactics are sometimes called “funnels” or “sales funnels”. Here are the four tactics we’ll cover in this article: Contact Form Call Booking Call Application Email Opt-in But

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