Loading...
Answers
MenuHow can I market my management consulting service through a website?
Wondering if a simple company website ill suffice of there's more to it than that. How can I reach potential clients which mostly are senior executives and huge corporations by building a website?
Answers
Certainly a lead gen website would help with a strong call to action.
LinkedIN would be a good source of leads as well.
Dont discount using Direct Mail to get your message accross
Even though it is a little costly, the most powerful way is to send your direct mail piece via FEDEX or DHL
This way - the gatekeeper wont open it. And it makes a big impact to the decision maker (your target prospect)
Hope that helps!
I have worked with large companies over many years. Getting past the gate keeper is not always easy. But they all use email.
Create value for them that they can access
Publish on Linkedin Publisher, upload slide decks to slide share, create videos on linkedin. Put links to these in your email signature which they will receive when they hear from you.
When you meet them, ask face to face if you can add them to your mailing list and then set up auto responders to deliver this content to them in short simple emails with a link to the content.
Do get in touch if you would like to discuss further...
Warm regards, John
The website is just the beginning...after that's built, you'll want to get people TO the website to learn more about your services. But yes, the website should be where you start.
You can use a service like Squarespace or Wix to build a simple, yet robust, website. They have very affordable plans that start at around $10/month and shouldn't take you too long to build.
From there, you can add on robust tools like Eloqoa or Marketo, to help with lead sourcing. But for the short run, a simple contact link or contact form should work.
Make sure you also set up Google Analytics on your site from the get-go. That can help you learn how people came to find your site, which then influences any possible SEM (Search Engine Marketing, probably Google Adwords) strategies. If you service a specific location, Adwords is robust enough to reach those potential clients in the area you'd like to target.
Questions like these are right up my alley. Let me know if you'd like to set up a call to go in more depth; I can help you build a plan of attack and may even be able to help execute on some of it too. Good luck!
A traditional 'brochure style' website won't work. Senior Executives in huge corporations mostly already have relationships with the traditional big name consultancies. You will reach them by making their gatekeepers look great. To do that you need to solve their gatekeepers' problems. Your website needs to provide huge amounts of help to them. Over months as you develop trust and understand their situation more then you will start to make progress. It is crucial to differentiate from the big name consultancies.
You might consider trying heavy LinkedIn marketing for such a thing, with just a simple web presence to state your qualifications and give people a way to contact you. This particular market probably isn't out there Googling for your offer, so using a website and SEO wouldn't be that useful. You may also want to network heavily in the industries that you are trying to reach, because you can meet contacts that can introduce you to the people you want to meet.
Along with the ideas mentioned above by the respectable professionals, I'd love to recommend the following strategy:
- Discover your top competitor's websites (3-5 are a good number to start with)
- Then discover how they are doing on the web e.g. PPC, SEO, Social Media or Local Citations whatever it is
- Then extract their Foot Prints and "carefully" follow their tactics. In this sentence, word carefully is important. In online world, some strategies, if worked well for me, may not be good for the other. So keep getting some advice/help from Pros before you finalize anything.
PPC and Local citations to directories such as Yelp, Yellowpages, Google My Business are a faster way to get targeted traffic, in turn, sales
But organic SEO...Needs at comparatively longer time span to achieve goals!
Definitely work on educational resources for management. Authority and reputation require transparent actions, which should be tutorials, free ebooks or other online materials that focus on the best management practices, programs and strategies.
Free content would bring more traffic from Google and social networks. Free ebooks and other "products" can be used for capturing emails. Consider a free email course on project management that you promote with lead capture forms, exit intent popups and others.
Start promoting on LinkedIn and other social mediums, partner with other websites, guest post on blogs that focus on project management or other complimentary services that rely on good project management strategies in order to be successful and profitable.
If you are certified PMI/PMP/PRINCE2 manager, add that to your website. Try to partner with certification authorities and provide services for them with some attractive discount.
There are other ideas that you could implement as well, contact me and we can chat more.
Related Questions
-
What is the best method for presenting minimum viable products to potential customers?
Whoa, start by reading the Lean book again; you're questions suggest you are making a classical mistake made by too many entrepreneurs who live and breath Lean Startup. An MVP is not the least you can show someone to evaluate whether or not building it is a good idea; an MVP is, by it's very definition, the Minimum Viable Product - not less than that. What is the minimum viable version of a professional collaboration network in which users create a professional profile visible to others? A website on which users can register, have a profile, and in some way collaborate with others: via QA, chat, content, etc. No? A minimum viable product is used not to validate if something is a good idea but that you can make it work; that you can acquire users through the means you think viable, you can monetize the business, and that you can learn from the users' experience and optimize that experience by improving the MVP. Now, that doesn't mean you just go build your MVP. I get the point of your question, but we should distinguish where you're at in the business and if you're ready for an MVP or you need to have more conversations with potential users. Worth noting, MOST entrepreneurs are ready to go right to an MVP. It's a bit of a misleading convention to think that entrepreneurs don't have a clue about the industry in which they work and what customers want; that is to say, you shouldn't be an entrepreneur trying to create this professional collaboration network if you don't know the market, have done some homework, talked to peers and friends, have some experience, etc. and already know that people DO want such a thing. Presuming you've done that, what would you present to potential users BEFORE actually building the MVP? For what do you need nothing more than some slides? It's not a trick question, you should show potential users slides and validate that what you intend to build is the best it can be. I call it "coffee shop testing" - build a slide of the homepage and the main screen used by registered users; sit in a coffee shop, and buy coffee for anyone who will give you 15 minutes. Show them the two slides and listen; don't explain, ONLY ask.... - For what is this a website? - Would you sign up for it? Why? - Would you tell your friends? Why? - What would you pay for it? Don't explain ANYTHING. If you have to explain something, verbally, you aren't ready to build your MVP - potential customers don't get it. Keep working with that slide alone until you get enough people who say they will sign up and know, roughly, what people will pay. THEN build your MVP and introduce it first to friends, family, peers, etc. to get your earliest adopters. At some point you're going to explore investors. There is no "ready" as the reaction from investors will entirely depend on who you're talking to, why, how much you need, etc. If you want to talk to investors with only the slides as you need capital to build the MVP, your investors are going to be banks, grants, crowdfunding, incubators, and MAYBE angels (banks are investors?! of course they are, don't think that startups only get money from people with cash to give you for equity). Know that it's VERY hard to raise money at this stage; why would I invest in your idea when all you've done is validate that people probably want it - you haven't built anything. A bank will give you a loan to do that, not many investors will take the risk. Still, know not that your MVP is "ready" but that at THAT stage, you have certain sources of capital with which you could have a conversation. When you build the MVP, those choices change. Now that you have something, don't talk to a bank, but a grant might still be viable. Certainly: angels, crowdfunding, accelerators, and maybe even VCs become interested. The extent to which they are depends on the traction you have relative to THEIR expectations - VCs are likely to want some significant adoption or revenue whereas Angels should be excited for your early adoption and validation and interested in helping you scale.PO
-
What is essential for the skeleton of a business plan?
1. Lucid understanding of the objective behind business plan development 2. Customizing the content plan (skeleton) per objective 3. Adopting planning the business approach than writing a business plan 4. Knowing "How-To" and "What-If" Hope above to be of some help. Looking for anything specific? Feel free to reach out.SB
-
I have this social media idea,but no coding skills. How do I get someone to do the coding (cant afford to pay them) and not give away half of my idea?
Dilip was very kind in his response. My answer might be a bit on the "tough love" side. But that's for you to decide. My intention, just for the record, is to help you (and those like you) on your path to success. And that starts with having a viable philosophy about entrepreneurial-ism and business. And I'm going to answer this because I get asked some form / version of this question very frequently from newcomers to entrepreneurial-ism. The scenario goes something like this: "I have a great idea. It's amazing, I love it, and I just KNOW it's gonna make me a ton of money. But I have no money right now so I can't afford to (fill in the blank with things like "to build it / create it / market it / etc" or "to hire the required staff needed to work in my business to sell it / develop it / etc"). And I don't want to tell anyone about my great idea because I'm worried someone will steal it and make MY million / billion dollars. But I can't afford to legally protect it either... So how do I launch without the skills to personally create the product AND no money to hire anyone else to do that either??" The answer is ... You don't. Look - let's be honest. All you have is an idea. Big deal. Really. I'm not saying it's not a good idea. I'm not saying that if properly executed it couldn't make you a million / billion dollars... But an idea is NOT a business. Nor is it an asset. Until you do some (very important) initial work - like creating a business model, doing customer development, creating a MVP, etc - all you really have is a dream. Right now your choices are: 1. Find someone with the skills or the money to develop your idea and sell them on WHY they should invest in you. And yes, this will mean giving up either a portion of the "ownership" or of future income or equity. And the more risk they have to take - the more equity they will want (and quite frankly be entitled to). 2. Learn how to code and build it yourself. MANY entrepreneurs without financial resources are still resourceful. They develop the skills needed to create what they don't have the money to pay someone else to do. 3. Get some cash so you can pay someone to do the coding. You'll probably have to have some knowledge of coding to direct the architecture of your idea. So you will likely still have to become knowledgeable even if its not you personally doing the coding. (This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of options... And I'm sure some of the other experts here on Clarity have others to add - and I hope they do) To wrap up - Here's my final tip to you that I hope you "get"... It's FAR more valuable to have an idea that a very specific hungry crowd is clamoring for right now - One that THEY would love and pay you for right now - Maybe even one they'd pre-order because they just have to have it - Versus YOU being in love with your own idea. [Notice I didn't say "an idea that some as-of-yet-undetermined market would probably love"] I wish you the best of luck moving forward.DB
-
What is the best way of coming up with business name ideas?
A good name is unique, and stands out but should ideally create a positive association with it, especially your target demographic. When it comes to naming new products, companies will spend sometimes months and go through thousands of options before arriving on the one that they'll ultimately go with. Don't rush this process because its ultimately much more costly to have to go back or change, or ultimately fail because the name did not resonate enough with your target demographic. The name is not everything but it's a huge part. Go to techcrunch or cruncbase and look at any number of new start ups which are probably all great ideas or products but because they have either a dumb name or a not so unique name, they can fail. My personal pet peeve is the stilted and formulaic neologism of adding "ly" at the end of any noun or verb---perfectly hilariously noted throughout HBO's Silicon Valley. At this point, we are all more clever than this. Anyway, when you have only seconds to make an impression on a consumer, the last thing you want is cognitive dissonance caused by the name. Cognitive dissonance occurs when the signifier is not what is signified and vice versa; you're looking at a bicycle but someone insists it's a fish. And you're like, wtf. This happens when you're looking at a great product but then it unexpectedly has a weird or dumb name, a range of slight neorological impressions then occur, effecting the emotional relationship between consumer and product: confusion, annoyance, distrust, etc. All of these slight negative responses are not what you want associated with your product when you only have seconds to make an impression. That's why a good name matters. Now to your name: Dude Undies. Scrap this immediately. First of all, when it comes to men's underwear (I'm assuming this is your product), this is dangerous minefield territory because whether you like it or not, you're automatically dealing with issues of male insecurities involving self worth, virility, potency, etc Some light word association exercises (maybe among your friends) might be helpful in yielding an alternative to "undies" which i associate with: children, bedtime, potty training, etc.Absolutely not what men want to be wearing. You can see why this word next to "Dude" is cognitive dissonance in and of itself, never mind your product. I suggest you go back to the drawing board on this. Think about what makes your product different from your competitors', what value are you bringing to the market? Play with these ideas make a list of at least 50 words (thesaurus.com is very helpful) find a word or words that at least create that same impression. From my own observations, I've found that men love products with as few syllables as possible. If this is too daunting for you, enlist the help of a good copy writer with experience in product naming (I know a few if you need one), they should be able to give you a list of ad campaigns that they worked on. Paying them $100 for a good name is worth it in the long run. I hope this helps, best of luck to you!VG
-
How do you manage a developer who's slow, especially when you have a small budget and you don't feel like you'll get things done in time?
Usually Programmers are only slow when they don't know how to solve a particular problem. So they will spend a lot of time researching and a lot of trial & errors to solve a problem. It is important that before you engage a programmer on a project, you break down the entire project into simple, easy to understand modules. Let him give you an estimate of how many hours he will require to complete each of the modules. Example: a typical site will have a login module, registration, My account, profile etc. So let him estimate how much he will require to do the login. You can go even detail here. (e.g. how much extra time if you were to implement Facebook/Twitter Login?). Once he start developing, track his progress closely and make sure he is following his given timeline. If he goes over his budgeted time on a module, talk with him and see what went wrong. It is often seen that they may be wasting their time on something very insignificant that you may have asked him to implement, but you can totally go by without it too. So by understanding what is taking longer time, you will be able to prioritise things better. You definitely need some tools to get this done. Google Spreadsheet or Excel works just fine. But if you don't mind spending a few bucks there are many agile project management tools that you might look into. Here is a list, google them all and sign up for trials: * AgileZen * Agile Bench * Assembla * AssiTrack * Blossom * Basecamp * Breeze * DoneDone * Eidos * Fogbugz * GreenHopper * Jugggla * Kanbanpad * Pivotal Tracker Or the reason why he is slow can be purely non-technical. Sometime your developer may don't share the same level of enthusiasm as you about the idea that you are working on. They often don't often see the "bigger picture" (since you don't share everything with them explicitly). If you can somehow get them excited about what he is a part of, it will work like a drug :) He will work day and night without questioning you. But you need to work equally as hard as him. The moment he sees that you are the boss and he is just the guy doing work for you -- his mentality will shift from being part of something to being the low paid developer. Ultimately its all about motivation and making him a part of your venture. After all he deserves it, if he is really playing a crucial role in the entire development.SK
the startups.com platform
Copyright © 2025 Startups.com. All rights reserved.