Marketing Advisor, Mentor, & Educator
Kevin C. Whelan
Are you a marketing freelancer or agency owner considering fractional CMO or advisory services?
I did a video explaining some of the main differences, as well as how to make the transition into it (without betting the farm).
(Be sure to subscribe to the channel if you’re into this kind of thing!)
—kevin
As marketers, we have to do a lot of things.
Our skills—by necessity—range across a variety of channels and mediums, often requiring us to stretch our abilities to pull things together.
And while we can’t be good at everything, we can work on our core skills and hire great people to partner with us on the parts we can’t do as effectively.
The way I see it, there are five core buckets of marketing skills. I think of them as paints on a palette. They’re the primary colours.
And within those skill buckets, countless sub-specialties work together to produce the results we chase.
It’s our job as marketing consultants to a) get decent at all of them from a hands-on perspective and b) learn how to effectively hire, collaborate, and lead others in the execution.
So what are these skills?
Let’s get into the big ones in my latest YouTube video.
—kevin
This is a tricky question because there’s no single best way to approach this.
But if you feel like:
a) you’re just not into the niche you’re serving or
b) it’s just not the most compelling option for you
…it’s worth considering a change.
Because here’s the thing… your niche isn’t your personality. It’s not your identity. It’s not your life sentence.
Your niche is a strategic business decision.
It’s a thing outside of you. One you can replace any time you want.
The way I see it, you can be a mercenary or a missionary (or better yet, follow your curiosity).
If you’re taking the missionary approach, you pick a niche because it makes money and you’re good at it—even if you’re not really in love with that particular vertical.
If you’re taking the missionary approach, it means you’re in it for the love of the game. And while this approach is ideal, it only works if it’s also profitable.
So how do you change your niche one way or another?
Your mileage may vary, but I can tell you what I did personally in case a similar path makes sense for you.
Don’t throw away all your clients. These folks will help fund your new venture.
You still market this business, but you do it in different ways.
It becomes more focused on direct channels like email newsletters, webinars, relationship-driven tactics, and Golden Goose.
It’s under the radar but still high-leverage business development.
You become quieter on social media to avoid confusing your new ideal customer. More on that in #3 below.
You slowly phase out of marketing this business and begin talking about your new thing more often.
By the way, it’s super hard to market two niches, so try to focus on promoting one niche at a time to avoid confusing the market and overwhelming yourself.
This is where you begin to dabble in your new thing.
You create your website, clarify your value proposition, and keep your offers fairly loose while you learn and validate what people want.
You create some content on your blog. Fire up a newsletter. Research where your audience hangs out and begin showing up there.
Ideally, you look for people with audiences and begin to build contact. It’s a long game, but if your content and ideas are strong, they might be willing to let you share your expertise with their audience.
Slowly, you’ll build momentum with your marketing. When I started Everspaces (coworking consulting business) I wrote daily for several months.
Doing this forces you to think deeply about your ideas and contextualize them deeply for your target market. It’s proof you have value to offer.
You don’t need to do this, but it’s worked so well for me as a background asset that I’d be remiss not to tell you.
My general consulting website is KVNW.com (my old agency website) and it works fine to build trust with leads who are not in any particular niche.
I don’t market it. I don’t talk about it. I only show it to prospects outside of my niche who come along via word of mouth.
You might put this under your own name since it would describe you as a marketer and how you help companies.
It doesn’t even need to look like a business website. It can be more like your horizontal identity (marketer) and calling card.
I picked a brand name (KVNW) because I already had a business with it and it just made sense.
But do what works for you. Again, this is optional.
Eventually, you need to cut ties with the old thing. Doing too many things is a recipe for failure if you’re trying to build something new.
By this point, you ideally have some clients and are building credibility in the new niche.
By going all-in, you get momentum and traction much faster.
At least, in theory.
You could do it this way. It worked for me because:
a) niching takes time, and
b) I didn’t want to go out of business in the process.
If you can go all-in earlier, all the better.
But just know that even with the best positioning efforts it still takes time to build affinity, trust, and authority in the space.
The key thing here is keeping the old thing running long enough to stay in business so you can keep slowly pivoting your business.
It’s one thing to pick a niche, it’s another to be seen as credible in it. That’s why I generally recommend taking this overlap approach to some people.
It’s the survivalist approach. You wouldn’t give up eating berries in the wild if you were still learning how to fish, right?
This is what worked for me, so take what you like and run it based on your own constraints.
Until next time,
—kevin
P.S. Here’s what’s been happening in the membership this week:
Join us to explore topics like these, get your questions answered, unlock new resources (see the library here), and be among peers of other driven marketers trying to grow their business around their expertise—not just their hands: https://howtoselladvice.com/membership
Whether you’re looking for your first or fiftieth client, here are the simple yet effective pieces you’ll want to build and improve on over time.
1. Pick a target market
It doesn’t need to be hyper-niche. But it can’t be “everyone” either. I recommend starting a little general and tightening as you go. Just like surviving in the woods, don’t get picky about what you eat too early or you will starve. Survive. But have a general focus that you are already credible in.
2. You need a website
It doesn’t need to be fancy, but it should be clean. I’ve put many six figures through Everspaces and it couldn’t be simpler. In fact, the simpler you keep it, the easier it will be to convey your message. Focus on clear messaging, offering as much value as you can with free content and resources, and demonstrating your credibility throughout. Your services are there when people are ready to browse.
3. Blog like hell
Your blog is basically an archive of your published work. Text posts, audio, visuals, curations… put everything on it. You want people to be able to visit your site and get consumed by your ideas. To go down rabbit holes and see what you’re made of. If you want people to buy your thinking, share it as often as you can. When I started Everspaces, I wrote daily for several months to get traction. When I started mentoring marketers, I wrote about 600 days in a row. Aim to be prolific.
4. Get active on social media
Social media is a place to interact with your peers and more importantly, potential buyers. You can distribute your ideas there but leave them on the platform if you can (ie don’t just post links—share full thoughts). Mention your newsletter for those interested in going deeper and getting other benefits.
5. All roads lead to email
Speaking of which, have an email list. Make it casual and conversational. Give people a way to get to know you and keep in touch—without the meddling fingers of our algorithmic overloads. All roads drive people to your email list. Your email list is where the money is made.
6. Build relationships
Every niche operates in an ecosystem. Get to know people in your target market, reach out to people, ask how they’re doing, exchange ideas. But also get to know people who serve that niche. See who you click with, you never know what may come of it later on. You don’t need to hard-sell people. Simply talking to people will usually be enough to generate something over time.
7. Show up IRL
The more events I attend in my consulting niche, the more clients I get and the deeper my relationships become. Word of mouth is amplified by showing up in person. Don’t be afraid to get out of your comfort zone and attend events. Or speak at them, if you can. Either way, showing up matters a lot.
These are just a few high-level ideas but frankly, none of them are complicated. They mostly require tenacity.
If you need results quickly, reach out to your ideal target market and offer to help if/when they need it. But spend the rest of your time establishing your authority and building for the long term.
Eventually, people will come to you. It’s simple, but it takes time. And it works.
—kevin
P.S. If you’re not registered for tomorrow’s FREE workshop with Billy Broas and you want to improve your copywriting + messaging skills, be sure to sign up today. Full details here.
So much of what I do as a mentor to other marketers (which is different than my consulting work) is helping people wrestle with decisions.
Things like:
Most often, people already know what to do. Or at least, they have a good hunch.
And assuming their hunches aren’t built on faulty premises or unclear goals, I usually tell people to follow their gut and see what happens.
The problem is, when we hesitate too long on a decision, we get stuck. And the longer we think about what to do, the more paralyzed and confused we become.
What if instead we just followed our hunches and tried things—even if it risked us looking silly if we later had to reverse those decisions?
I’d bet we would learn a lot faster and spend less time standing stuck in one place.
If you’re looking for permission to try that thing that’s pulling you in, this is your sign.
There will always be risks associated with making decisions that feel important.
But most decisions can be reversed or altered down the line. And most decisions don’t have as much at stake as we fear.
The real risk might be standing still.
—kevin
P.S. If you’re not registered for next week’s free workshop with Billy Broas and you want to improve your copywriting + messaging skills, be sure to sign up soon. Full details here.
A couple years back, I invited messaging strategist Billy Broas to teach his Five Lightbulbs messaging framework to our community.
The 5LB Framework helps tighten up the way we communicate offers, services, and products. I use it all the time when I write copy and messaging.
Since then, Billy has helped many others—including the likes of Ali Abdaal, Tiago Forte, and Ryan Diess—implement his framework.
Another recent and notable project he’s worked on was for Leila Gharani, a wildly successful Excel educator/creator with 2.6 million YouTube subscribers and a 7-figure online education business.
It’s hard to create compelling copy and messaging that drives a reader from consideration to purchase—particularly on home pages, sales pages, service pages, and more.
So, I thought I’d invite Billy back to teach us how he does it, using his recent project with Leila as a case study example.
If you’re struggling to create clean, clear, and convincing copy for yourself or your clients’ websites, this training is for you.
Billy will dive deep into things like:
This one will be FREE to the public for those who can attend live and the recording will be placed delicately into the Member Library.
Members will also get a cheat sheet to make implementing these concepts a breeze.
Register or Join:
—kevin
P.S. Feel free to share the event registration page with a friend or colleague!
One of my favourite things to do a few times a week is record what I call, Audiologs.
Audiologs are private audio files that I share with members that are usually off the cuff and short.
I’ve probably recorded about 75-100 of them so far.
They usually involve situations I experience in my consulting practice (good or bad) or provide lessons borrowed from other students and repackaged as lessons in a more generalized way.
Private podcasts are a super fun format to produce. They’re intimate (a core strategy of mine).
They’re intended for people who are already bought-in. They go into deep on the nuances.
In my world, they don’t need to be polished, either. That’s what podcasts are for.
Most are recorded on my iPhone and shipped directly into the Slack community with no edits.
It’s about the idea over the polish.
They’re an easy way to build deeper relationships with the people in your audience and/or community (the ones who are bought in).
Here’s an example of a recent one if you’re curious:
“What people need to see before they buy
You can get the full list of these Audiologs along with dozens of hours of training and additional resources inside the membership.
Speaking of which, the next training is this Wednesday on Memberships, Subscriptions, and Community.
Audiologs would make a perfect subscription product or compliment to your membership, so I’ll be talking about ways to do that also.
Curious? Join the fun for $7 today (annual only).
—k
P.S. The $7 trial for the membership goes away tonight at midnight EST (or before I go to sleep). If you’re on the fence, risk the $7 and give it a try.
Here’s the thing about positioning.
Positioning isn’t just the words you use on your website.
It’s not messaging. It’s not copywriting. In fact, it has almost nothing to do with language at all!
Positioning is a result of the strategic decisions you make about your business.
It’s about what you do (or don’t do), what you’re good at, who you do it for, how you do it, and a variety of other business strategy-related factors.
In the book Positioning by Al Reiss and Jack Trout, they say that positioning is where you exist in the minds of your customers relative to the competition (paraphrasing).
So how do you create a clear-thinking business strategy that makes for a compelling position in the market?
It all starts with your promise. Your universal value proposition, as I call it. The thing you do that permeates every corner of your business.
That promise informs your content strategy, the services you provide, your messaging, prices, methodology, and so much more.
It’s the through-line. The thing that keeps you aligned in everything you do. It’s your north star.
Once you’re clear on that, you can look to see where you might fit relative to other options in the market.
You might have the same core promise for the same audience as someone else, but you decide to do things in a different—perhaps more opinionated—way.
That would inform your positioning in the minds of the market. But that’s not positioning. That’s business and marketing strategy.
Your promise shows up in everything you do. And that promise—delivered consistently—tells a story.
The market then picks up on that story in their minds. They begin to place you—often subconsciously—somewhere in their minds relative to the other players in the market.
That is your positioning. And sure, you can coax it by communicating more effectively about what your strategic promises are. But you can’t really position yourself directly.
Positioning is a byproduct of good business and marketing strategy.
If you chase the wrong thing, you might end up running in circles.
—Kevin
P.S. Here is a behind-the-scenes look at just SOME of the topics and questions happening in the membership this week:
If you’re a marketing consultant and are interested in topics like these, learn more here.
One of the most fundamental questions that comes up in my world is how to design your productized consulting services.
There are core two ways to go about it:
After seeing the question come up again recently, I figured I’d create a definitive video explaining the two general approaches—and why a hybrid is probably your best bet.
I’ve sold well over US$1M with these exact approaches and continue to use them today, generating multiple six figures consistently each year as a result.
Needless to say, these services work extremely well for me and practically sell themselves.
Check out my YouTube channel for all the details on how I do it.
—kevin
P.S. If you use YouTube much, be sure to subscribe to the channel as I don’t always email with new videos like these.
I have two kids under five. They’re amazing.
But I only need to leave them for five minutes before the living room with all their toys becomes a hazard zone.
And frankly, it’s not that different than how we run our businesses. We play (work) and before long, things get a little.. disorderly.
All things tend towards chaos and complexity if left unchecked.
Having downtime and slack in the system helps. But you know what helps even more?
Having fewer toys.
One of the most common things I hear from the consultants inside Mindshare is that we’re all a little bit overwhelmed.
We do too much. We believe we can do everything, help everyone, and be everywhere.
But you want to know a secret? So little of it actually matters.
There’s a good chance that 20% of what you are doing right now is driving 80% of your results.
And yet, we pile on more instead of focusing on doing fewer things better.
How do we know what to do then?
We follow our instincts. We try things. We experiment.
But then we look backward and see what worked.
The signs will be there. They might be boring—maybe even a little obvious—but they’ll be there.
You might find that most of your leads will come from referrals and word of mouth. And that means relationships are the key to you growing your business.
Or you might find that your YouTube channel is going gangbusters and is driving all your opportunities. Doing more videos is probably not a bad idea.
Or you might find that 80% of your profit comes from a very specific type of customer. Perhaps make them your sole focus and ignore everything else.
Our job isn’t to be busy.
That feels like the way but it rarely is.
Our job is to try things, see what works, be objective about it, and then do more of it.
It’s a process of adding and removing things based on what works.
So sure, experiment. Have fun. Throw the toys around. Follow your hunches and interests.
But then take a hard look backward and ask yourself one single question: what’s actually driving business results and what is just busywork?
Avoid the chaos. Keep it simple.
—Kevin