Consultants 2.0: How to organize and manage the new marketing for consultants and professionals

By Stefano Calicchio

Few fields of work have undergone such drastic and profound changes in recent years as that of consultancy. The consultant and the professional have found themselves squeezed within a completely new paradigm, where on the one hand simplified access to the market has led to the growth of competition, while on the other hand clients have shown an increasing need for professionalism and personalization of the service offered. Unfortunately, these problems can no longer be solved with the communication tools used in the past. 
This book has been conceived as a real training course, during which many issues will be explored in depth:

- the best tools for the promotion of a consultancy activity, both offline and online;
- marketing techniques dedicated to professionals;
- the consequences of the digital revolution for those involved in consultancy;
- the digital levers on which to act to acquire and retain clients;
- the transition from traditional to digital communication;
- and much more.

Stop wasting time and start finding new clients with marketing 2.0. If you really want to achieve lasting results by beating the competition, this guide is for you.  

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stefano Calicchio
• Release date: Nov 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9791220220316

Book preview

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Introduction

Few fields of work have undergone such drastic and profound changes in recent years as that of the liberal profession. Consultants and professionals have found themselves squeezed within a completely new paradigm, where on the one hand simplified access to the profession has led to the growth of competition while on the other hand the client has shown an increasing need for professionalism and personalization of the service offered.

The main consequences of these two opposing forces have resulted in new problems and difficulties for consultants and professionals, who are now faced with an increasingly chaotic and complex management of their daily work.

Unfortunately, these problems cannot be solved with the tools used in the past, but this manual was created to solve exactly these dilemmas, offering concrete resources and operational strategies able to provide the long-sought solutions.

Today, professional training and digital marketing are the only real antidotes against the flight of customers, so the development of new communication and online marketing strategies become essential to consolidate the material and immaterial heritage acquired through years of hard work.

Just think of the growth of the internet and new technologies, now used directly by millions of people, to understand how easy it has become for potential clients to find information that until yesterday could only be acquired through paid consultancy.

At the same time, the changes currently underway offer professionals and consultants capable of renewing their business strategies important opportunities to develop their online business, acquire new clients and find prospects interested in their consulting activities.

Think only of the opportunities offered by your website or the commercial opportunities available through a well-structured digital marketing campaign. And that's not all: today it has become much simpler and cheaper to have a direct relationship with your clients, keeping a digital conversation open that guarantees loyalty with the professional of reference. This is the case, for example, with blog marketing.

This book has been conceived as a real training course, during which many themes will be investigated and solved:

the best tools for the promotion of a consultancy activity, both offline and online;

marketing techniques dedicated to professionals;

the consequences of the digital revolution for those involved in consulting;

digital levers to acquire customers and to retain them;

the transition from traditional to digital communication;

and much more.

Being able to build a new relationship with your clients, overcoming the difficulties due to the great changes of recent years, can be much easier than you normally think, but only if you know the right strategies and how to do it.

If you really want to find new customers for your business by beating the competition in a simple and effective way, the guidance in front of your eyes is for you.

It has been written by a consultant who has already tackled the problems outlined above by verifying in the field the effectiveness of the proposed strategies and obtaining lasting results. Now it is also time for you to discover the new communication strategies offered by the web.

Chapter 1: How to promote your consultancy activity

How to promote your consultancy activity

The job of the consultant and the professional has always made competence and specialisation the main lever for the acquisition and maintenance of the client portfolio. Until just fifteen or so years ago, before globalisation and liberalism led to the opening up of consulting professions, it was quite difficult to think of promoting or advertising consulting online.

With the advent of the web, the main consequence is that the activity of a professional and a consultant can no longer be entrusted exclusively to word of mouth and traditional business practices, but must necessarily open up to the market, exploiting new tools and new communication prerogatives.

In these times we are moving in a territory that is not only unexplored, but also rather delicate and fragile, because professional ethics and the attitude to sobriety typical of this particular working environment cannot and must not be abandoned due to the introduction of more aggressive promotional strategies. This also gives rise to many qualms on the part of those working in the sector, so much so that few consultants still have their own well-structured web marketing website and a functional marketing plan for the promotion of their professional practice.

It is clear from the above that it is important to begin a specialist study path in order to understand which tools can be used and which marketing practices are best aligned with the reader's visibility objectives, without losing their authority.

For this reason, the following pages will show you the main tools and some strategies that can be used effectively to promote your consultancy activity, whether you are in the start-up phase or running a well-established firm and want to consolidate your market position.

This is an important opportunity for growth and improvement because the continuous professional updating to which consultants and professionals are often called unfortunately transcends topics such as marketing and promotion.

On the other hand, over the last few years the professions and consultancy market in Italy has changed profoundly and needs professionals with new skills, able to understand and implement visibility and marketing strategies in a similar way to what many small and medium enterprises already do successfully.

The tools available to the consultant and professional

Unlike traditional economic and entrepreneurial activities, freelancers and consultants have to plan their marketing activities with particular delicacy. By virtue of the particular climate of esteem and trust that is established between the consultant or professional and their client, promotional activity cannot be too invasive or self-referential.

There are considerable ethical and deontological implications that cannot directly apply the same marketing and advertising techniques used in industry to consultancy practice. Most professionals who decide to update their skills in this field through generalist marketing readings face considerable difficulties due to these market particularities.

The first step is therefore to design a good marketing plan in line with the real needs of an operator in the field of professions or consultancy.

A marketing plan for professionals should cover the following areas of operation:

Offline initiatives: this area includes all the traditional promotional activities already carried out or implemented by many consultants and professionals. The most widely used tool in the field is that of requests for word of mouth or references, through which it is possible to increase the number of clients. Interpersonal presentations, in particular, work well because potential clients have requests or needs regarding urgent and pressing personal issues, so they prefer to leverage the positive experience of a friend rather than price or cost of the service.

Online Initiatives: particularly interesting and promising, online marketing initiatives allow you to add an important piece to your marketing plan. The Internet makes it very easy to reach new prospects, such as clients potentially interested in consulting. The reason is quite simple: the web is today the first tool used to resolve doubts or