How To Get Clients As A Consultant - Marketing Tips
By Benjamin Rogojan - AKA (The Seattle Data Guy)
There are many different ways to get clients.
You can be great a selling, networking, partnering with vendors and my personal favorite is market.
Marketing in particular can help build a sustainable system that can take a longer time to get started but once started, can help keep your prospect pipeline full.
But how do you market, and how do you get people to actually read or watch your content without having to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on Google Ads.
In this article, we’ll not only be talking about how to think and produce better content but also how to actually get people to read and watch said content.
Give More Than You Take
Many people think marketing is about shouting from the rooftops about what your product is. But marketing also has an aspect of empathy and understanding the actual problem you are trying to sell to.
In particular, in the social media world, you have the ability to market using smaller pieces of content all the time. But content costs attention, and most people create content that is very "their goal focused"--it’s focused on selling their product.
Basically, it's begging for attention without giving anything in return. That's not how to build an audience or possible future prospects. Instead, your content should be about giving value to your viewers. Maybe it's answering how to set up Snowflake or write better queries.
These are topics that are likely to be searched, and if you do a good job, when you do have a CTA or when a possible prospect finally runs into a problem that they need a consultant for, they'll call you.
Distribution Is The Name Of The Game
The assumption is that you can just create content, and people will show up to read it. Well, I view content similar to products.
You spend some time building the product and most of your time finding distribution for it. The general rule of thumb is you'll spend 20% of your time putting together content and 80% distributing it and hyping it up. I mean, think about a UFC or boxing match; the actual match is generally 10-50 minutes. But the marketing for it will be far more. There will be press conferences, articles, tweets, posts, etc.
And even in that, you can see how a machine like the UFC uses every distribution channel it has at its disposal to make sure you know the fight is happening.
So where can you distribute your content?
Where Can You Distribute Content?
Linkedin - You might have noticed I share a ton of content on Linkedin. That's because it is an amazing distribution engine. Sure, maybe it doesn't do much for SEO, but it does often get your content in front of business people who are probably trying to solve the problems you can help with.
Here are some examples of posts you can try:
Reddit - If you get an article to blow up on Reddit, it'll be an evergreen situation. I still have articles from years ago that have traction on Reddit because they blew up. What's great about Reddit is that it is broken down by topic, so your content, if shared in the right subreddit, will be seen by the right people.
The problem here is that people on Reddit, rightfully so, hate people that spam. So be mindful and make sure you're providing valuable content. Even when you do sometimes, you'll be downvoted into oblivion. It is what it is.
But try not to spam.
Twitter - For me, Twitter has never been my focus. It has never driven that much traffic, nor have I felt it really has a great ROI. That being said, there are plenty of people who simply reshare content that did well on Linkedin on Twitter. So you don't always have to create new content. Here are a few examples:
Medium - I started a lot of my writing on Medium. I have articles there from 2017 and it really helped build up the SEO for my own blog. Medium continues to be an excellent place for distribution. But don't let subscriber counts fool you. If you write an article that the Medium algorithm doesn't like, it won't get shown anywhere.
Substack/Newsletter - We just talked about Medium, and one of the problems with Medium (although they have tried to fix this) is you don't own your audience. That's why I eventually started writing on Substack because now I own the emails. I own the audience.
I am no longer subjected to the algorithms of Medium and YouTube.
YouTube - An under-utilized platform for distributing content and improving SEO is YouTube. YouTube is great for getting your face out there and building up your expert credentials. The challenge is that more nuanced topics don't do well. Personally, I have started to mix up my content. About 80% of it is focused on intro videos, and the other 20% is more geared toward people who might be decision-makers trying to figure out who to consult with.
Slack/Discord Communities - One way I have seen other consultants gain a lot of traction for their content as well as their services is they'd be helpful in Slack and Discord communities. Sure, you can share your content. But being helpful and showing that you're actually knowledgeable in the space can be far more valuable.
If you're in the data community, here are a few reputable communities:
Marketing Is About Building Trust
Recently my wife and I had to purchase a washer and dryer. We were looking through the various brands and she called out ones she had never heard of, thus she didn’t trust.
Familiarity breeds trust.
Whether you like it or not, the more times someone sees your brand and associates it with what you do, the more likely they will trust you. Especially if you’re constantly providing helpful content.
This also means you need to provide a consistent stream of content. This doesn’t have to be 3000 word essay’s twice a week. Most of us content creators test out content ideas on short form mediums like Twitter or Linkedin to see how people react. Then if it does well we will put more effort into the longer form version.
This lets you both create more opportunities to get in front of your audience and it helps build a sense for what your audience and possible customers need help with.
Overall, content marketing isn’t a fast game(unless you spend a lot of money).
Final Tips
While content marketing can be a powerful way to attract clients and build your consulting business, there are also some common challenges that you might face along the way. For example, you might struggle to create engaging content that resonates with your target audience, or you might find it difficult to keep up with the demands of content marketing while also running your consulting business. Here are some tips for overcoming these challenges and maintaining a successful content marketing strategy:
Focus on quality over quantity: Don't try to create too much content too quickly. Instead, focus on creating high-quality content that provides value to your audience and establishes your authority in your niche.
Repurpose your content: You don't always have to create new content from scratch. Repurpose your existing content into different formats, such as videos, infographics, or social media posts, to reach a wider audience. Especially those pieces that seem to resonate most. This might seem like a contradiction to the quantity over quality but if you’re putting out quality content, then repurposing it is even easier.
Outsource when necessary: If you're struggling to keep up with content creation, consider outsourcing some of the work to a freelancer or agency. This can free up your time and allow you to focus on other aspects of your consulting business.
Track your results: Use analytics tools to track the performance of your content and adjust your strategy as needed. Experiment with different types of content and platforms to see what works best for your business.
Starting Your Own Consulting Company Today
Looking to start your own data analytics consulting company? Not sure how to attract clients, partner with the best vendors, or choose projects you're passionate about?
I've been there. In my Technical Freelancer Academy, I share how I built a successful data analytics consulting business from the ground up. A business that made it possible for me to quit my data engineering job at Facebook.
See you there!
How often do you get your clients directly via Linkedin?