Here's the latest Edition of 'The Authority', helping consultants grow their revenue by sharing intriguing educational stories.
It’s my ultimate aspiration to create a bubble of calmness with this bi-weekly ‘think piece’, a place of stillness in the face of everyday stress. A chance to reflect on what really matters in your consulting work.
The Big Question
Questions I get from consultants. And my answers.
Question #13: I received this question from a reader (thanks!):
'What are the common mistakes when developing content as a consultant?'
Here are some of the most common mistakes I’ve witnessed (and many of them, I’ve committed myself when I was starting out).
Big mistake #1: your content doesn’t serve these 4 core principles
Developing content as a consultant serves these 4 main objectives (I’ll keep it short) and if you cannot tick these boxes without hesitation, you are undermining your consulting business!
Getting visible: If you are reluctant to embrace content-driven marketing (writing, presenting, teaching,...) as a consultant, nobody will ever find you on the internet! Content-driven visibility is the only thing that is going to make you stand out in a crowded and very competitive consulting world. Now even more than before! The more you open up, the more your clients and prospects can relate to you as a consultant. Your competitor is only one click away!
Building trust: Sharing content is the best possible way to build a strong and credible reputation as a consultant. Without trust in your expertise, nobody will ever call you to meet!
Grow traffic: If over time your content is not driving organic traffic to your website (and your services as an expert), you won’t have a business! Of course, this is not a sprint but a marathon.
Generate leads: If you’re able to grow the traffic to your content, it’s an absolute must to convert that traffic to subscribers. If your content is of high value, readers will be happy to subscribe to receive more and you will have more opportunity to get visible and to build more trust in your expertise.
Big mistake #2: your content isn’t high quality and doesn’t resonate with your target audience
When I develop my content, I always keep the pain points and challenges of my audience at the forefront of my mind and my goals, and I use all my learnings to show them how they can implement what I’ve learned to achieve similar results. That's what I did all those years.
Your main objective? Educating your buyers/clients, share best practices with them, tell them what to look out for, give them valuable tips on how to achieve success, demonstrate how you’ve helped others in their shoes. Value, value, value! And share that value. Share. And share again.
Big mistake #3: your content development and distribution process is suboptimal
Lacking consistency: allocating time on a regular basis to create content is a must. You can’t post one article today, another one in two months, and a third one six months later. This will do nothing for your visibility. Make sure to post on a consistent basis.
Not recycling (repurposing) your content: splitting a longer article into shorter posts, turning articles into visuals, expanding an existing article into a longer one – there are so many ways to recycle content! Failing to do that is just adding more work to your schedule. I’m quite fanatic about this and recently wrote this article: My 1-Day-Per-Week Content Machine That Consultants Can Replicate
Failing to identify a set of keywords to support your content strategy: Google is our new boss. You must be mindful of that when putting together a schedule of content. You have to spend time researching relevant keywords and do your best to organically integrate them into your content. I use the Ubersuggest keyword tool for my content research. I will explain how I use this tool in my next newsletter.
An interesting question for the next edition: I received this question from a reader (thanks!):
'2020 was a tough year. Luk, do you see any future trends emerging from the challenging 2020 year, important for us to take into account in our work as consultants?'
Would you like to send a question for one of the following newsletter editions?Please send it to me here.
The Disturbing Truth
Unsettling revelations from experts I admire. And from myself.
Every Monday morning, I am sharing a consulting-related advice on Linkedin to start the new week.
These advices reflect years of my passionate thinking about the consulting profession and span one year of writing. I've mixed my own quotes with carefully selected quotes from experts I admire and you may never have heard of.
Here are the quotes from the past 2 weeks. Let the inspiration be with you (if you let it).
Topic 30-11-2020: No one will do marketing for you!
Your expertise will sit alone, shipwrecked and starving on a distant desert island unless you stand up and start calling attention to the work you do and the problems you are committed to solving. (Tom McMakin in his book ‘How Clients Buy’).
Topic 7-12-2020: Stand out or race to the bottom!
The way to avoid downward price pressure is to avoid commoditization. And the way to avoid commoditization is to appear meaningfully different to your ideal buyers. Doing so means making some hard strategic decisions. The kind of decisions that will feel risky. That will set you apart from the crowd. That will push you outside of your comfort zone. But if you want to escape the race to zero, that’s exactly what you have to do. (Jonathan Stark)
The Irresistible Content
I write a lot. Here's the update from the past weeks.
This book addresses a big problem many consultants face – the same one I touched upon in the ‘Big Question’ sections – generating a solid volume of relevant content.
In this book, Meera Kothand presents a fantastic guide to generating new content ideas, explains which types of content can deliver different kinds of results, introduces readers to the notion of a ‘brand voice’ and how you can develop one for yourself, and so much more.
I have learned many of the things Kothand explores in her book (and several other of her great books) through trial and error, through years of experience. So to read it all in a structured, easy-to-consume, logical order will certainly be a timesaver for consultants who want to get it right from the start.
The 3 main things I learned from this book:
Define your audience
I am seeing a lot of consultants writing stuff that doesn’t really resonate with their target audience. They write irrelevant stuff, not really adding value to the ‘problem resolution’ of the typical pain points of the ideal client (yes, ‘ideal’ is important...not just ‘any’ prospect/client).
The book has helped me a lot - despite having written >200 articles - to be as sharp as possible in my audience focus and Meera Kothand provides excellent thoughts and support frameworks.
Define your unique and consistent voice
In working with my consulting clients, I've experienced firsthand that many consultants are struggling to translate their (often technical) expertise into ‘a voice’ that is easily understandable, attractive to read, and value-adding to their target audience.
Developing ‘the right voice’ (both in speaking and writing) creates a much deeper connection with your potential clients as they will understand what and who you are standing for. At least, if you are able to exhibit your voice in a consistent way, recommends Kothand.
I’ve always been the somewhat rebellious guide/mentor and I’ve never muddled around with the consistency of ‘my persona’. As Kothand states in her book: ‘Inconsistency confuses your readers’ (and disconnects from your prospects/clients, I’d like to add).
Grow your consulting business with valuable content
Creating engaging content is one thing, but using it to convince your readers to hire you for your expertise as a consultant, is quite another thing. Content without a lead generation strategy is wasting your time in the long run. It’s what too many consultants don’t get: your content indirectly reflects the services you provide and the learnings you are sharing, inspire your prospects to get in touch with you.
It's what Kothand calls ‘The Offer Method’ in her book, a technique for designing content that shows your readers (or your future clients) how your services as a consultant can solve problems they didn’t even know they had. She uses a five-step process to develop such service-oriented content. Really worth reading!
The Inconvenient Number
Visible Authorities have a better pipeline. The evidence.
If you produce content that addresses specific issues your target market experiences, you will find your readership.
69% of executives will choose thought leadership content by a brand over information by traditional media when seeking actionable insights and practical solutions.
The reasoning is simple. When it comes to industry-specific insights and practical solutions, senior executives trust the expertise of those who’ve worked in the field for years over journalists in regular publications. The question is: are you going to be the one to provide these executives with the answers to the questions they are interested in?
A sneak peek behind the curtains of my business. Luk's lab.
One of the big reasons I advocate for consultants to take on a more systemic approach to developing their authority is data.
The ability to track your target audience as they go through various stages of engaging with your content is something I am very adamant about.
As you collect this data, you can organize it into dashboards and see what percentage of your website visitors converts into regular visitors, subscribers, into clients. That’s how you also identify gaps and weaknesses in your strategy.
I use Hubspot to track all my data and organize contacts. It’s a powerful marketing automation solution that allows me to easily integrate most of my marketing activities within a single platform.
Here I’m including a screenshot of what a dashboard for a single contact of mine looks like. This particular contact:
has visited my website 4 times already and has read 4 pages (and I can see which ones and for how long)
has gone through a range of stages, including landing on one of my blog articles through a keyword search on Google
has been upgraded by the system to a ‘lead’ and then to a ‘marketing qualified lead’
has downloaded my ebook
has visited the page for one of my offerings
I know exactly at what stage of engagement this contact is and, based on that, how to tailor my approach to him/her.
The Inevitable Learning
The programs I am teaching. To become a better consultant.
My Accelerator Program, new slots for 2021: I have A LIMITED NUMBER OF SLOTS in 2021 for senior consultants eager to attract their ideal customers and grow their consulting business consistently. The Accelerator Program starts with a full audit of your market positioning and covers the necessary long-term improvements and quick wins. The number of participants for this 1-2-1 virtual training is limited. Access on a first-come-first-served basis. Here's the link to the info page with the program content. You can book a call on this info page to discuss your participation.
