Marketing Consultants

I’ve heard it said a few times that fractional CMOs who have never been a CMO for a company shouldn’t call themselves fractional CMOs.

I get the point—but that assumes people naturally graduate from an in-house career as a senior marketer into self-employment.

The reality is, a lot of us begin our independent marketing career a lot earlier than CMO tenure would allow.

We may actually be better marketers because of it.

When I worked in-house for a corporate law firm, I was challenged for about a year and a half and then plateaued.

The only challenge I had was from my part-time freelance work—before and after that job. That’s where I really learned the nitty-gritty of marketing.

You can be a fractional CMO if you want to. You don’t need to have been an actual CMO in the past.

I prefer you work towards being a marketing advisor, but fCMO is a reasonable step on the journey to advisory work.

It all comes down to whether you have the skills to help your clients achieve growth.

Most businesses hiring a fractional CMO are small businesses. Ones that have no chief executives outside of the CEO.

Unless you work with Fortune 500 companies., you don’t need Fortune 500 marketing experience. It wouldn’t even help if you did.

You need small business marketing skills. Or tech startup skills. Or B2B SaaS marketing skills.

Fractional CMO—like all terms—comes with a lot of baggage. But there’s also a growing demand for the service.

Don’t let people tell you if you’re allowed to call yourself one. Your job is to define what fractional CMO—or any other term—means to you.

As long as you get a profitable result for your paying clients—in a way that clients like—it doesn’t matter what you call it.

Just don’t end up with an inadvertent part-time job in the process.

—kw

The argument that “my client won’t pay me for strategy and someone else to execute” usually means one of two things:

1. They don’t value your specific expertise independent of who executes—they just want someone with a decent set of hands to get stuff done. This is fixed with vertical and/or horizontal specialization, by the way.
2. You can’t imagine doing only the strategy and referring the implementation work to someone else—usually for confidence reasons but also because it feels like you’re giving away money to someone else.

The reality is, if you do all the work, you get all the money. And that’s good!

But the problem is, the more implementing you do, the less you’ll ultimately be able to earn as a soloist. And the more things you do, the more your work suffers.

There are only so many hours in a day and people will pay only so much for execution.

My effective hourly rate—time spent on calls or replying to emails—is about $400-500/hour depending on the week. Some clients and projects average a lot higher.

Do you think someone would pay me that much to write their blog posts or update their website?

Nope. Not happening. But they gladly pay me a few grand a month to facilitate the outcomes with a combination of strategy, partners, and resources.

If you want to make the most money for your time without becoming an agency, find ways to sell strategy and leave the deadlines, deliverables, and cognitive stress for the specialists.

You’ll get paid more, your clients will be happier, and you’ll enjoy your work more, too.

—kw

P.S. If you want help making that transition, there’s a distinct process that works. You know where to find me.

Back in 2013, I went to back school to upgrade my philosophy degree with a post-grad certificate in Entrepreneurship.

The courses I took in the one-year program spanned most major categories of business, including finance, tax, law, marketing, management, HR, accounting, import/export—you name it.

The benefit of taking such a program was that I learned how to operate all major departments of a business. I knew enough to think about, hire, and manage people in each area.

It wasn’t enough to be a specialist in any one area—each could have its own PhD program. But I felt confident enough to manage each area with a reasonable degree of competence.

That’s all you really need to start running a business.

As an independent strategist, your job is to do the same when it comes to your knowledge of marketing and business in general.

You have to understand how businesses work to help get your ideas implemented across multiple stakeholders and actually produce measurable results.

But you don’t need to be an expert in each area of business.

You also have to understand all of the marketing channels, how they work together, how to measure results, and how to determine good work from bad.

But you don’t need to be an expert at executing every single channel.

Sure, it helps to go deep in the areas you’re good at and slowly add skills in the adjacent fields so you can collaborate and/or advise on the big picture.

I’ve been building websites for more than two decades now. That’s my thing. It eventually led me to content marketing, email, design, SEO, and eventually paid media and so forth.

You don’t have to be an expert on every channel. But you do want to know enough about all of them to do your job as a marketing strategist.

The learning never ends.

Until next time!

—k

P.S. Later this month, we have a guest expert, Rod Burkert, coming to speak to Mindshare members about how to think about equity compensation, how to value the equity being offered, and how to value your time in exchange. Sign up for access to this training and all past workshops.

Here’s a little mindset consideration for you:

All businesses need marketing.

No business can exist without it. Even people who “don’t do marketing” still have a website and still interact with their customers on a regular basis.

Without marketing, you’re invisible. There is no business. 

Successful companies spend money to do marketing the right way.

Are they spending it on you?

If not, is it because they’re not aware of you? Is it that they don’t think you can help? Or is it some other reason?

Here’s one thing I noticed as both a marketing consultant and educator: business coaching and education are not a necessity.

Most businesses don’t invest much in those categories.

But marketing services? You bet they do. Which means they’re inherently a lot easier to sell.

If you’re finding it difficult to get new clients, here’s the simplest way I can help you in 2 minutes:

1. Make sure people know you exist.

Put something out there. Show up on LinkedIn or wherever your clients hang out. Deploy the Golden Goose strategy for added leverage.

Your first goal is to ensure people know you exist in the first place.

Sounds obvious, but yet I bet even some of your friends don’t know what you do.

Think in terms of how you can get your mere existence out to more people.

Good things will happen.

2. Give people a taste of your expertise.

Ever go to Costco, try a sample of cooked food, and then buy something you never would have otherwise?

Samples work. People don’t know what you have to offer until they’ve sampled it.

Give away your best thinking. Create mini ah-ha moments. Talk about what the successful companies in your space are doing.

Write on a micro topic so people see the depth and specificity of your expertise. Then go deep on a broader topic to show people how comprehensive you can be.

Don’t hold back your best ideas, either. People will pay you well only when they believe you have unique and valuable expertise. Show them.

And that’s it. Simple, right?

At the end of the day, the more you remind people you exist, and the more expertise you can let people sample, the more clients you will have.

—k

P.S. Since you’re paid for your expertise, why not invest in developing it faster? Mindshare‘s library of training, and coaching has you covered. Our latest training was on the aforementioned Golden Goose strategy, which you get access to as a member. Check out the sign-up page for an updated list of what else is inside.

Do you focus much on optimizing your website for search engines?

Personally, I don’t really do much beyond the basic best practices. My strategy has been more focused on email, social media, and Golden Goose tactics to build awareness for what I do.

But a part of me feels like I’m missing out—especially as I begin to sell knowledge products to a large potential audience.

That’s why I wanted to talk to Tsavo Neal about how he approaches his marketing and business model. Tsavo gets almost all of his clients and customers through search engine optimization.

It just so happens, he teaches other consultants how to do the same. Which made this episode packed with value.

In this episode of Mindshare Radio, Tsavo and I unpack:

• How he decided to niche down on helping consultants attract clients through their website
• A breakdown of his business model comprised of do-it-yourself and done-with-you offerings
• How raised the price of his course from $197 to $497 without deterring new customers
• His thoughts on evergreen vs. launch-based (open vs. closed-cart) access to his course
• How he sells $5-6k in digital products each month relying almost exclusively on SEO
• A walkthrough of his done-with-you SEO service and how he designed the program
• A deep-dive walkthrough of his SEO process, including research, outlining, writing, editing, publishing, and distribution
• How he chooses keywords to write articles for based on competitiveness and difficulty
• How he’s applying these same skills and techniques to rank and monetize a website in the Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu niche
• And a lot more!

If you’ve ever thought you might want to get your website ranking better for search engines, get your pencil ready because this episode will show you how.

Mentioned links and resources:

• Phillip Morgan
• Consulting Success
• Ahrefs.com
• TsavoNeal.com
• @TsavoNeal on Twitter
• BJJEquipment.com

Listen here or subscribe via your podcast player.

—k

P.S. Want a deeper-dive training on how to do exactly this process? Tsavo shared an over-the-shoulder view for Mindshare members last month on how he does it. Sign up to get access to that plus a library of other training, group coaching, a private Slack community and more. Learn more about Mindshare → 

A few weeks ago, I invited Mindshare member and long-time marketing consultant, Mark Evans, to talk shop with me about the business of marketing consulting and fractional CMO work.

This was a really fun episode. We went deep into the nerdy nuances of fractional/interim CMO and advisory work.

Some topics we explored include:

• Mark’s transition from reporter to marketing consultant
• How he uses his training as a reporter to do positioning and messaging work
• The challenges and frustrations of fractional CMO work
• Why a strategic advisory work is his preferred way to engage with clients
• His thoughts on coaching, mentoring, and training in-house marketers
• The value proposition of interim CMO vs. fractional CMO
• Pricing and value calculations for advisors vs. fCMOs
• Refund policies and minimum commitment periods
• Setting expectations and getting clear on goals before starting engagements
• How and when to turn down clients who aren’t a fit
• The importance of continually marketing yourself
• Using video, podcasts, and showing up in person to build trust

Books mentioned:

• The Inside Advantage by Robert Bloom and Dave Conti
• Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug
• Rocket Surgery Made Easy by Steve Krug

Connect with Mark:

• Marketing Spark (consulting website)
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

 
Listen here or subscribe via your podcast player.

—kw

P.S. Looking to grow your marketing practice? Mindshare has you covered.

Doing execution work is not just an important part of a marketer’s journey—it’s essential.

The problem is, it can be stressful and exhausting if you aren’t intentional about how you do it.

It’s hard to relax when you’re spinning so many plates under the constant pressure of deadlines and deliverables. Your brain never really turns off.

That’s where I was before I transitioned to advisory work. I offered too many services, charged too little, and worked too hard for a 30% take-home margin. Not ideal.

Luckily, there are things you can do to reduce the stress of execution work while increasing your overall profitability.

I learned these lessons the hard way. And if I were to go back to doing execution work, I’d use many of these ideas as soon as possible.

So let’s get into it…

1. Offer fewer services

It sounds counter-intuitive, but offering fewer services can actually make your business a LOT healthier.

Instead of offering web design, SEO, PPC, and social media—pick one or two complimentary services and stick to that.

When you do the same things repeatedly, your work gets easier. Sure, there’s complexity. But as you do things repeatedly, it becomes less taxing each time.

Over time, your ability to produce actual results becomes more predictable.

People refer you because of how dialled in and organized your workflow is—not to mention how good the results are.

You start to enjoy the work more. It feels more effortless when you are streamlined.

You’re actually building expertise with your craft, which is a rare commodity—even in a world full of marketers.

And that expertise is what allows you to charge a premium for your work—which leads to more profit—and the cycle continues.

2. Sub-contract your work

When you offer fewer services, you can dial in your process to the point where you can train less expensive people to do the actual execution work.

Your work becomes formulaic, which means you don’t need to hire the most expensive people you can find to do the work.

You can hire someone less senior to follow your process and get the same outcomes for you—leaving more profit margin for you!

When you offer too many services, you never really create a refined process because there’s just too much to do.

Better to focus on doing fewer things, build your expertise, and document your process until it becomes second nature.

That’s the core of how you create leverage around your expertise.

3. Productize your services

Productizing lets you take your processes to another level.

You can design your entire methodology from start to finish, ironing out the issues as you go.

As you do this, you’ll create more predictable results with a predictable amount of work at a predictable profit margin.

The client gets the result they want with less complexity and an overall smoother experience. You get built-in profitability and less stress overall.

Everyone wins.

You can still sell custom alongside your productized services. But you’re also refining your core offerings and the process that goes with it until you no longer need to sell custom if you don’t want to (or charge a premium when you do).

4. Hire a project manager

Once you get established, you will eventually want to let the trains run without your direct intervention.

Hiring a project manager to keep projects on track and correspond with clients can free up a ton of mental bandwidth.

With your available time, you are now free to focus on improving your process, the client experience, and finding more clients.

Your job now is to market and work on the business—not just in it.

5. Niche down

Similar to the other steps, when you work with a smaller segment of clients—a niche—you get to make your process even more dialled in and efficient.

Your results become even better and more predictable than simply being a horizontal expert at your craft.

One caveat: I wouldn’t rush to niching down until it’s clear you have a competitive advantage in that niche.

You can niche down too soon, which can be limiting. Better to simply seek more clients who resemble your current best clients.

If you find the best work and results come from working with B2B SaaS companies, aim your marketing at them.

Go where they hang out. Create an audience page for them. Create case studies to support your expertise.

Eventually, you can go all-in if it seems like it’s working for you.

6. Sell your process

It may be counter-intuitive, but selling your process to your peers/”competitors” or even to people in your target market can unlock huge amounts of revenue.

By selling your process as a course, book, templates, or other knowledge product, you can sell your expertise for almost pure profit from people you otherwise may not have been able to generate revenue from.

You can also sell mentoring and coaching, which is a highly rewarding model.

7. Become a “producer”/interim/fractional CMO

This one is a middle ground between freelancing and agency work.

The gist of this one is to essentially be a part-time marketing manager.

You charge a fixed fee, from $3,000 to $10,000+ per month and in exchange, you do things like:

• Creating a strategy and plan
• Managing budgets
• Hiring people to do the execution work
• Writing briefs
• Managing projects
• Quality assurance
• Reporting and analytics
• And basically being the point person for any new project or activity your client needs

This particular model comes with a lot of caveats and warnings as it can itself become like a full-time job with a part-time salary. I’ve written about it extensively.

But if you want to earn six figures with just a couple of clients, this is your best approach to take if you manage scope and expectations properly.

Eventually, your goal would be to transition to advisory capacities as soon as possible by leveraging your systems, processes, templates, and Rolodex gained from the producer role.

By removing the managed part of the service, you free up a lot more bandwidth to create even more profit per effort.

And that’s it!

Simple in theory, but takes discipline and time to do right.

Got a question or other idea to add to this list? Hit reply and let me know.

—kw

P.S. Want help growing your marketing freelance or consulting business? Check out the coaching membership for training, community, and advice.

There are nearly unlimited ways to package your expertise.

You can do 1:1 consulting, coaching, training, courses, memberships—you name it!

You can even combine them, sell multiple concurrently, or begin with one thing and transition into the next.

There’s really no single best way to sell your expertise. But there are a few things to consider when designing your next offering.

Questions to consider:

1. What can I offer that will actually be able to achieve the desired result?

If there is no objective, there is no engagement.

How do you know what to offer if you don’t know where you’re going?

The times I’ve had the best results were when my clients knew exactly what they wanted to accomplish and brought me along to help them do it.

On the flip side, the times when I’ve had the least success are times when the client didn’t know exactly what they wanted to accomplish. We learn the hard way sometimes (speaking about myself).

Clarity of goals creates clarity of scope—and with that, a much better chance of success.

2. How much can my target market afford to spend?

This one is tricky because it can be easy to fall into the trap that your target market “has no money”. Or “has so much of it” that it should be “easy” to sell to them.

That said, it does help to estimate based on the potential value you help them create—at least in general terms.

Starting with the price and working backwards from there can be a great way to determine what you can offer.

3. What can I offer that will be mutually profitable for me and my clients?

Related to the point above, ask yourself what you can sell that is profitable for you and your clients in terms of both time and energy expenditure and based on your own profit targets.

It might be easy enough to sell a $10k/month consulting package but if it takes all of your time to deliver, is it worthwhile for you?

Only you can decide…

4. How does my target market prefer to engage with me?

Some CEOs are extremely busy and don’t want to read your book or take your course.

They want you to do it for them. Or to advise on and lead the process.

Knowing what your ideal clients prefer—and what they don’t want—will make it a lot easier to shape your offerings around them.

You’ll only know by selling custom engagements and trying out new offers until you see that resonates.

5. How do I prefer to work—and what constraints do I use to accomplish that?

This point is underrated. Doing work that isn’t in your zone of genius or that drains you of energy is a recipe for failure in the long term.

You don’t have to love every part of what you do. We’re paid to be uncomfortable and do hard things.

But it’s worth considering what style of work suits you best so you can at least factor that in and optimize for those kinds of offerings.

In closing…

There are a lot of other questions, but these are big ones for me when it comes to designing my offerings.

What do you consider most when designing yours?

—k

Someone the other day joked on Twitter with me that advising was more like being a cheerleader than a builder.

I chuckled and then disagreed.

Good advisors don’t just bring encouragement and access to your brain for advice. We do that, too, but that’s not all we do.

Good advisors typically have a long history of building. Of doing execution work for years—decades in some cases.

Eventually, they graduate from that part. They stop laying every brick by hand and start leading instead.

The good ones use their expertise to deliver templates, examples, resources, referral partners, and even an operating system for how things can get done the “right” way.

Like a therapist—you wouldn’t expect them to go out and solve your interpersonal challenges for you, right? That’s not their role.

Sure, it can feel like you’re showing up naked sometimes when you have nothing but your ideas. But even if that were the case and you didn’t have all the assets and materials, it doesn’t matter.

What matters is whether you can successfully transport your clients to the place they want to go.

The reality is, we’re in the transformation business. The only difference between advisors and “builders” is that our role in the building is not based on using our hands. Anyone can be hired to do the hands work if the blueprint is drawn out effectively.

Our job is to help our clients get a result in the best way we know how. That’s it.

(And sometimes, that might even include a little cheerleading if it’s required.)

—kw

P.S. If you’re looking for some website inspiration, my friend Tsavo updated his top 38 consultant websites list and included me on it. It is worth a look if you’re looking to improve areas of your website.

One of the (many) problems with hosting your newsletter or blog on platforms like Substack is the inherently undifferentiated user experience.

When I see an email from Substack, or land on an article someone shared, there’s no feeling that comes from having an original design.

It feels—to me at least—like I’m reading content churned out by a machine, not a craftsperson.

My eyes glaze over.

I remember Ben Thomson of Stratechery saying that he wanted his blog to have a distinct typeface so people would feel like they had been there before if they came across his ideas more than once.

People often need to see your website a few times before they commit to subscribing to your newsletter. You want them to feel familiar with you when they do. You want to stand out.

Platforms like Substack will try to commoditize you. To package you into a neat box with limited formatting designed to fit their platform and VC-backed objectives.

They don’t want you to be overly differentiated because it’s not good for business. They want you to help build their brand and keep eyeballs on their platform.

It’s the same with LinkedIn, Medium, and many others. They’re aggregators of attention. That’s how they grow.

Whether you take that as a cynical view or not, there’s truth to it.

I’d rather publish on my own platform (ideally an independent one) and treat other platforms as syndicators.

I’d rather craft my identity one pixel at a time than force my ideas to fit into a box of someone else’s design.

When people come across my content, I want them to notice if they’ve been here before.

You may get distribution on a platform like Substack. But it will be hard to stand out—or leave an impression—when all you have is a restricted set of visual (and other) rules to conform to.

Build on your own platform. Distribute wherever you like, though.

—kw