Marketing Yourself as a Consultant

Part 1: The Very Basics

Getting thru the Tunnel of "Marketing Yourself"*

Note: This essay was getting long (5 print pages already) so I broke it into two parts.  The second part focuses on promoting yourself via blogging, publishing, knowledge sharing, Web directories, etc.

As I noted in my last essay on marketing, I started my career in a small company environment (and, yes, I walked to school up hill, both ways, in the snow, even in June). This experience taught me a lot about marketing when you don't really have a large budget. In this essay we are going to talk about how to market yourself as a consultant.  And, as you'll see, this essay is really focused on the basics.

What is a Consultant? What is Marketing?

Once again we are going to start with a definition. A consultant is someone who sells his or her knowledge on an time or project basis. Sure, you knew that but it helps to normalize the playing field for all readers. Now let's return to our definition of marketing: Marketing is the creation of demand for a product or service. This now restates our problem as:

How do I create demand for myself?

or

What makes people want to give me $$$ for nothing more than me?

Now that we know the problem, here are some brief tips about how to tackle it. 

1. It all starts from one happy customer.

When you get started consulting you will quickly find that customers want references. This is central to your overall marketing effort so when you get that first customer who agrees to pay you $$$ for something then go all out to make them happy. Even if you lose money it's still worth it. When I got back to consulting this time around I went all out for my first client and that's what you need to do.  Once you have a happy customer, you can use them for a reference, get additional work from them, get a retainer relationship with them, use them to help get you additional work from referrals, etc.

2.  Focus, Focus, Focus.

When people first start consulting, they often take on anything for money. I totally understand this but focus is key. When you start marketing yourself as described below, pick one, two or three things and then put efforts towards them. For me, it's software product marketing, PHP and blogging. For you it might be embedded systems programming, java and systems administration. Whatever you pick, you can probably consult on but you do need to pick something.  You can do the other things for money but it's the ones that you focus on which make you a business.

3.  What's our product literature?

In my last marketing article, I referenced product literature pretty heavily.  Guess what?  There is product literature for consultants too.  Here is mine in all it's unvarnished glory:

• My Resume -- http://www.fuzzygroup.com/resume.htm

• My Writing Samples -- http://www.fuzzygroup.com/writingsamples.htm

• My PHP Portfolio -- http://www.fuzzygroup.com/portfolio.htm

• My Fan Mail -- http://www.fuzzygroup.com/fanmail.htm 

• My "Working with Me” -- http://www.fuzzygroup.com/workingwithme.htm

• My website -- http://www.fuzzygroup.com/

A couple of points here:

• Always, always put this kind of critical stuff in your root directory.  Why?  Because a lot of crawlers may not go any deeper.

• Always link to this stuff right from your home page.  Why?  Again, crawlers.

• Have simple urls.  Damn simple.  Why?  Because Google shows me the url and I am likely to click on "workingwithme.htm" since I can guess what it is right from the name.

• Don't have spelling errors, typos or broken links here.

• Make it all straight .htm or .html pages.  Why?  Crawlers always index them.  PDFs turn me off.  Flash pisses me off.  Please note that this is me only but there are a lot of people out there like that.  I view these rich media types as options, not as required items.  Also although Google can index PDFs, why rely on people having the correct plug-in, etc.  And don’t forget that if the user runs a lot of browser sessions, GDI resources die and plug-ins don’t load.

4.  Answer email fanatically.

People who responded to my last article may have noted that I was absolutely fanatical in responding to them.  Everyone got at least a "thanks for saying thanks".  Some got one or two pages of feedback on their personal marketing issues (Hi Gert!).  Here's why: You don't want customers, you want fans.  I'm going to cover this more in a future essay so I won't say more now other than to point out this:

• People relate well to other people once dialog has been established.

• People appreciate personalization.

• Email gives you a cheap, easy way to personalize.

• People remember personal attention.

• You don't know what comes down the pike.  Every single email could lead to consulting work.

Having fans is lots better than customers.  Fans spend more money with you over time.

5.  It's All About Follow Up and Persistence

I don't know anyone who really enjoys this part.  Here is what I do for potential consulting leads:

• Meet someone somewhere who might be a possible source of work.

• Email them and thank them / jog their memory /etc.

• Touch base with them after a few weeks via email again to see if they are still live.  You might point out a url that's on topic for them, direct them to a blog entry you wrote, etc.

• Try and figure out a reason to call them a few weeks after that.  Why?  Because email is all too easy to ignore or put off.  Also if I know someone is trying to call me then I might answer their email.

The key here is simple: don't be afraid to be persistent.  A lot of times in the past when I have hired consultants, I chose someone for no other reason then he or she happened to be in my Inbox.  Scary, huh?  That's the reality of people being very busy (see my other essay).  If it's easy for people to hire you then they are a lot more likely to do so.

6.  Assume People Have the Attention Span of a Gnat and Leave Your Site at Any Excuse

I can't tell you the quantity of "professional" websites that I have been on (and usually by web professionals selling web design services) where I see:

• Spelling errors

• Broken links

• Grammar errors

Grammar errors may be ok (I actually don't think so but most people notice less than I do).  Spelling errors are unforgivable.  Broken links are even more unforgivable.  And, while I am not perfect here myself, I do try very, very hard on this point.  The way that I look at it is this: "If they can't maintain their own site then they don't have the attention to detail to consult for me".  To me, in my consultant hiring days, it was just that simple.  I don't care about the cool flash, the great images if the consultant can't handle the basics. 

Oh and before you tell me that people don't ever comment on this, consider this:

• Most people just won't speak up and comment.

• A lot of people won't notice specifically that a word is incorrect but they walk away from the site with a "not right" feeling.  This is called a subliminal perception in marketing speak (if my memory is correct) and it's very real.

Conclusion

I hope that this essay starts to give you a feel for marketing yourself as a consultant.  There is a lot more to cover but this is what I consider the "framework".  Please feel free to contact me at sjohnson@fuzzygroup.com with questions or comments. Also keep checking my blog.

*Note: This picture is a stretch but I liked it.

© Copyright 2002 The FuzzyStuff. Last update: 5/2/2002; 4:04:04 PM.