Before heading towards the most important marketing strategies, we will like to tell you about some initial steps that you should consider before deciding what strategies you should choose for your consulting business.
The first step is to determine marketing goals and develop a budget to achieve these goals.
The objectives of the marketing strategy can vary depending on the situation of each consulting firm. Some examples of marketing strategy goals are increasing brand awareness, increasing conversions, or increasing revenue.
In addition to goals, you also need to develop a budget. Why is the budget so important in marketing strategy? Maybe some people think that posting on social media is enough, without the need to spend money.
Unfortunately, you have to throw away such thoughts if you want to get the most out of your marketing strategy. You must be willing to spend money on advertising on Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, or other online advertising platforms.
Utilizing social media feeds alone is not enough to attract potential customers. What’s more, the ever-changing social media algorithms make your posts on social media missed by potential customers.
In addition, costs for online advertising can be adjusted according to the budget you have. Because most online platforms implement pay-per-click where you can set the advertising budget according to business capabilities and according to the broad reach of the target audience. So you won’t be burdened by high advertising costs.
MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR CONSULTING BUSINESS
There are many promotional or marketing strategies that you can apply to grow your consulting business. Here are the most powerful marketing strategies for consulting business success:
1. Take advantage of Google My Business
Our first recommended effective marketing strategy is the use of Google My Business.
Google My Business is a feature for business owners that is useful to make it easier for potential customers to find out complete information about your business.
From the business name, company address, company telephone number, company email address, hours of operation, company website, and office photos, to customer reviews.
By registering your consulting business on Google My Business, your office automatically appears on Google Maps. Customers who want to come to your place of business will find it easy to get to the location with the help of Google Maps. Yep, you don’t need to bother thinking about a complex marketing system. Let google maps work’ for you.
Even though it looks trivial, Google My Business has many benefits. From businesses appearing on Google Maps, and customer reviews, to communication media for customers. So make sure your business is listed on Google My Business.
2. Define One Main Social Media Channel
The next effective marketing technique: Social Media!
There are many social media options that you can use for marketing strategies. There’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LINE, Pinterest, LinkedIn, to YouTube. Does your firm has to be active on all social media? Certainly not.
It could be that a specific consulting business needs to conduct a social media campaign on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Meanwhile, other consulting businesses may only need to use Instagram. Maybe your business needs to do social media marketing on Instagram, LinkedIn, and LINE.
How to determine the right social media for your business? The answer is research. You need to do audience research to determine which social media is best suited for your business.
One of the most effective audience research methods is the Bulls Eye technique developed by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares to map marketing strategies on social media.
The Bulls Eye technique consists of five steps, namely Brainstorming, ranking, Prioritizing, Test, and Focus On.
3. Implement Content Marketing
Content marketing is a marketing technique that involves creating and distributing relevant, important, and consistent content to attract an audience to convert them into consumers.
One of the main media for running content marketing is a blog. Blogs can be useful for getting high traffic through organic search.
So, you can create a blog to show potential customers that you are an expert in the industry that you are in.
In addition, you can also use a microsite. This mini website is important to help you create a more focused and unique marketing campaign.
4. Share Relevant, Important, and Consistent Content
As mentioned in the previous point, the content you share must meet three conditions, namely relevant, important and consistent. First, you must create content that is relevant to your consulting business.
Second, being relevant is not enough. You also need to consider whether or not the content is important for the target audience to know. Make a priority scale containing topics that are relevant to the target audience. Sort from most important to least important topics.
Finally, in content marketing, you can’t rely on just one piece of content to attract the audience’s attention. It takes a lot of content so that you can finally experience the benefits of content marketing for your business.
5. Take advantage of Paid Search
Since the invention of online search engines, anyone can find anything in cyberspace, from scientific journals to household appliances.
The existence of online search engines such as Google has also changed consumer behavior, where consumers can now search for products on Google before buying them. Google calls this situation Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT).
Paid search can be found in all search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. However, Google is the biggest platform for paid search.
Google provides paid search services through Google Ads, previously known as Google AdWords. With Google Ads, you can set the reach and specifications of your targeted audience.
6. Use Social Media Ads
Reach on social media is not only obtained through organic reach. You can also take advantage of the ad services of each social media platform to increase the reach of your social media posts.
What’s more, social media timelines such as Instagram and Facebook apply a random system, no longer based on the time of posting. This can cause your social media content to be missed.
You can overcome this by using the ads service. For that, you can take advantage of social media ad services.
7. Take advantage of Coupon Sites
Coupon sites are not only useful for clients looking for discount coupons but also useful for consulting business owners to promote their businesses.
The main goal of placing coupons on coupon sites isn’t selling, but increasing brand awareness.
The more attractive discounts you offer, the more people will use your coupons. That way more and more people will try your services. If your services are successful in satisfying clients, they don’t need coupons anymore.
8. Build Relationships
Apart from building a marketing strategy on the platforms above, you also need to build relationships with people in consulting industry.
Join Facebook or Facebook groups related to consulting business. Become a speaker or sponsor at seminars and events. That way, you can get information about developments in the industry.
9. Make the Most of Print Promotional Tools
Although currently online marketing strategies have been implemented by most consulting businesses, there are still many offline promotions that are still effective in today’s digital era.
One way is to maximize print promotional tools such as business cards, flyers, or brochures. Print promotion tools help increase brand awareness and enhance your company’s reputation.
Because not everyone has access to the internet and of course, print promotion tools will make your business more trusted.