How to sell consulting services: 6 best tips
A few years ago, consultants had no choice but to advertise their services directly to companies, carrying out a more aggressive sales approach and without much prior strategy, focusing on knowledge and awakening the customer's needs.
Nowadays, with the advancement of digital marketing methodologies and the focus on building informative content, consultants are gaining new alternatives for prospecting clients and approaching those interested in services.
In today's post, learn how to sell consulting services over the internet. Discover the 6 best tips for getting clients for your consultancy using all the power and scope of the web!
TIP #1: FIND WHERE YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE IS ON THE INTERNET
If you have doubts about how to sell your services online or how to get clients for your consultancy using the internet, know that the first step is to hunt for the target audience.
The internet is a wide place, however, capable of generating large audience segments. There are forums, discussion sites, Facebook groups and many other “niche pages” where you can find people with the same type of interest, profession and/or need.
As a consultant, you already know who your product is intended for, right? Therefore, your main challenge is not to define the target audience, but to find it.
With a little research and analysis, you can find the best places to capture the public's attention and promote your consultancy.
TIP #2: BET ON CONTENT MARKETING TO EXPAND PEOPLE'S KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR BUSINESS
The content marketing methodology prioritizes an informative discourse. The old purely commercial discourse leaves the scene and a new way of publicizing its services enters the field.
Based on informative content, you will be able to promote your consultancy online in a much more consistent way, that is, demonstrating knowledge, generating authority before the target audience and creating approach strategies based on knowledge.
By aligning content distribution with the commercial methodology of the sales funnel, you will have more control over the stages of the consumer journey. With this, it will be possible to distribute knowledge aligned to the moment of interest of people about the services of your consultancy.
It is recommended that the consultancy invest in the creation of content such as:
- blog posts;
- Ebooks ;
- Infographics;
- Newsletters;
- Posts on social networks.
TIP #3: DEVELOP GOOD CONTENT
Content marketing is a good bet to get clients for your consultancy, however, the methodology will only work if the content offered is of quality.
Many companies bet on creating content for their customers and interested parties, but fail in execution. Ideally, all marketing products should have:
- A topic that is relevant and consistent with the pain/needs/desires of customers;
- A language suitable for the target audience;
- An optimized construction, using links and CTAs to lead people through the different contents;
- A speech aligned with the stage of the sales funnel
Content marketing is not just about creating texts for blogs, newsletters or e-books. Everything needs a strategic tie and a well-structured dissemination process.
If care is not taken with the quality of the information and with the dissemination strategies, the plan can backfire, that is, the information created to attract and generate authority will, in fact, scare people away.
TIP #4: BET ON EMAIL!
The public of a consultancy is assembled by professionals in search of improvement or for companies that intend to develop processes with more value, correct?
And what is the most used communication channel in the corporate universe? That's right, the email! Those who think that the use of e-mail for disclosure is something fruitless is wrong.
Email may have gone through a crisis in the mid-2000s due to the exorbitant increase in SPAM, however, it is still quite functional for selling your online consultancy.
To be successful, it will be necessary to keep in mind that e-mail is, in fact, a sensitive communication and that it requires a lot of strategy. But this sensitivity can be “broken” by building good messages via email.
E-mails focused on establishing well-structured lead nurturing flows and newsletters are capable of generating authority for your company.
More than authority, the emails will serve to attract your audience's attention and encourage people to get in touch with your consultancy and find out more about the services.
TIP #5: HAVE A GOOD WEBSITE TO SELL YOUR CONSULTANCY
A website is the digital center of information about your consultancy and the services provided. Everything your business does needs to be well described on the website.
Giving up on creating a website in times of high connectivity is going against the logic of dissemination most used in this second decade of the 21st century.
The internet is essential to obtain results and, without a website of its own, your consultancy loses visibility and gives up developing marketing actions that are structured in the presence of an electronic address.
TIP #5: SEO IS ESSENTIAL FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO POSITION THEMSELVES ONLINE
If you're wondering how to sell consulting services, know that organic traffic is a great way to get clients. Organic traffic is made up of people who came to your site without any advertising effort, that is, they found your site.
And when we talk about “finding a website”, we're talking about using internet search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo Search.
The listing order of the pages in these systems is based on SEO rules and the quality of the site.
And SEO is the set of good practices for building texts and pages on your website, making the content present there scannable, that is, read by the algorithm of the search engine.
Logic is more or less like a barcode. When your website adopts SEO rules, the page becomes easier to read, and the search engine identifies that that page has enough quality to appear among the first results.
Being on the first page of Google is very important to capture organic traffic, and this will only be possible by paying attention to SEO requirements .
TIP #6: LEAVE ALL THESE TASKS IN THE HANDS OF PROFESSIONALS AND FOCUS ON YOUR CORE BUSINESS
As a business consultant, your focus should not be on strategies to publicize your services, but on capturing knowledge to develop your work.
Time is a limiting factor for all of us, so our recommendation is: leave all your publicity efforts in the hands of those with market expertise.
Building pages with optimized SEO, writing quality content and putting together assertive newsletters are some of the tasks that will require knowledge. And a bit of time. It will be something that you will have to fit in with your other professional demands.
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