Marketing Consultants

There are two main ways to generate more demand for your consulting services: high-quality content and an ultra-compelling value proposition.

Here’s how I think about both…

The value proposition is all about the transformation you plan to help create.

Below is an example of a value proposition (mine):

I help marketing professionals transition from selling their hands to selling their head so they can generate greater profits and make a bigger impact with their expertise.

It may not be perfect, but it gets the idea across and paints a picture of the transformation I help people make.

The next part is high-quality content. It doesn’t matter what kind it is as long as your intended audience wants to consume it.

It could be blog posts, emails, podcasts, video, social media, ebooks, webinars—doesn’t matter as long as it’s high-value.

You also need to create enough volume for people to notice and become blown away by the value you’re offering for free.

One good article or resource won’t cut it.

When you combine a strong value proposition with a serious volume and quality of content, you’re going to do three things:

1. Attract the people you want to work with
2. Begin building a relationship with them
3. Create the trust necessary to do business over time

If you’re not seeing traction with your lead flow, it might be either your value proposition is off, or the quality and quantity of your content are missing the mark.

By the way, niching helps with both.

If you want help with any of this, hit reply to this email (or email hi@kevin.me if you’re reading this via RSS/blog).

Tell me about your business and goals. If you’re a fit for the group, I’ll invite you to the new free tier of the Mindshare community.

If you could wave a magic wand, what would you like your business and life to look like in 10 years?

What if you could accomplish more than you think this year towards that goal if you tried? What would you do differently?

Keep a long-term view of the horizon in your mind, but also see what can be done today to bridge that gap quicker.

You might just surprise yourself.

 

Today, I made some changes to Mindshare—a professional development community for marketing consultants, strategists, and fractional CMOs.

The group is focused on helping you package and sell your expertise—not just execution—and to turn your ideas into leveraged products and services like advisory retainers, mentorship programs, memberships, subscriptions, group coaching, info products, workshops, training, and more.

In short: to build and run a more profitable and impactful marketing practice.

What are the changes?

There are now two tiers.

1. I converted everyone in the $15/month group to a free tier, Mindshare Community, to make it accessible to more people. You can hit reply to this email and request free access if you’d like to join.
2. I introduced a new paid tier called Mindshare Pro.

Here’s what each option includes

✔️ Community Access – Mindshare Community & Pro
Mindshare brings together marketing strategists, advisors, and fractional CMOs in an environment designed to foster conversations and mutual support.

✔️ Mindshare Radio – Mindshare Community & Pro
Get access to a private podcast with quick audio lessons designed to help you improve your work and build a more profitable marketing consulting practice.

✔️ Consulting Workflow & Templates – Mindshare Pro
Get access to an entire operating system for your consulting business, including the tools, templates, systems, and processes I use for my own work.

✔️ Methodology Template & Training – Mindshare Pro
Copy or borrow inspiration from the Mindshare Marketing Methodology (a Trello board you can copy) as the basis for what will become your own proprietary methodology.

✔️ Asynchronous Audio Coaching – Mindshare Pro
Ask as many questions as you like (one at a time) and get detailed personalized answers in written, audio, and/or video format. You can also subscribe to the responses as a separate podcast feed to learn from others’ questions on the go.

✔️ Monthly Mastermind Meetups – Mindshare Pro
Each month, members meet live over Zoom for a morning coffee where we talk shop and share ideas in a mastermind-like setting.

If you’re interested in any or all of this, head on over to Mindshare to learn more or sign up for the Pro plan.

Or, hit reply to this email and I’ll send you the invite to the free Community membership.

Hope to see you inside!

No matter how long you’ve been in business, change is a constant.

You should expect and embrace it. Change means opportunity if you’re prepared for it.

For some, it happens quickly. For others, it happens slowly. But it always happens. There’s no escaping it.

The way to navigate this reality is two-fold:

1. Always be iterating
2. Always be innovating

It might feel scary to try new things in your business. There’s no manual.

But if you’re not constantly tweaking, iterating, and innovating, you’re sure to get left behind.

Do what works. But also keep iterating and innovating—forever.

Being known for something is hard.

Southwest is no frills. Volvo is safety. I focus on the business of selling and delivering marketing advice.

In order to become known for something, you have to choose what you want to be known for. And that’s often easier said than done.

It means saying the same things over and over again from new angles in your marketing and messaging.

It means not talking too often about things that are off-topic or unrelated to your core thing.

Building an association inherently means making trade-offs. It means saying no to being associated with other things that are not your main thing so you can become known for something specific.

At least until you’re ubiquitously known for that thing.

Being known for one thing is hard enough. If you want to stand out as the go-to person for your thing, you need to be relentlessly focused on it at the expense of other things.

Make the trade-off or get lost in the noise.

If you often find yourself optimizing tactics or copying your competitors, it might be time to think in terms of innovation instead.

The best way to do that is by analyzing your top 20% of clients and actually talking to them, seeing what ways you can better serve them.

Another is to see what the market is asking for when they come to you for help. There’s a lot of gold in those sales conversations!

It’s fine to borrow ideas from competitors and iterate on your ideas over time. In fact, you should!

But that will only get you into the game. It won’t make you a category leader.

Chances are, if you create something new and unique that your best clients are asking for, the marketing part would get a lot easier.

“Better isn’t better, different is better.”

I don’t know who said it, but it’s true.

Keep innovating.

There’s a difference between premium and being the most expensive.

Premium does infer quality. But the most expensive does not always mean the highest quality.

There’s a time and place to be the most expensive option.

But sometimes being premium while being just expensive enough can enable you to be the most successful over the long run.

Price appropriately for your situation. But whatever you do—be premium.

I’ve been looking into buying wireless noise-cancelling headphones recently and I’m at a crossroads.

I could either buy a pair for under $100 by an electronics company, Anker, that I respect for their other equipment.

Or, I could buy a set by Bose for over $300, which are known for their quality in audio electronics.

Both claim to do similar things, look similar, and have great reviews on Amazon. But they are clearly different products.

I’m the kind of person who likes to buy things right, not twice. I’d rather have fewer things but better quality.

And while I don’t have any particular need for the more expensive headphones, they are probably the ones I’ll buy.

Why? Because I expect them to last longer and deliver better sound—even if I can’t see that from the way both products are described online.

A few insights come to mind:

• Some people (like me) prefer to buy the best of a category they can afford because they tend to last longer and deliver a better experience—therefore being less expensive and better in the long run.
• Price is a signal—and usually a decent one—for a product’s quality.
• When the stakes are high, most people won’t settle for anything less than the best they can find and afford. People with real pain don’t buy cheap painkillers.
• Even when the stakes aren’t high, quality buyers will often still choose quality over price.
• Premium buyers tend to be easier to please and are less price-sensitive, making them good clients to attract.
• If you want to attract people who prefer quality, and you plan to deliver on that promise, you must price at a premium to align with their expectations.

Whenever possible, you should aim to be the premium provider in your category.

Not only will the higher prices allow you to earn higher profits, you can also reinvest more into making your products and services the best they can be.

You’ll also attract better buyers in the process.