Have you decided to start a consulting business?
Congratulations! You have made a smart decision. This industry is growing fast, and it looks like it will not be going anywhere anytime soon.
However, as with any business, you need new clients right? Finding clients online is not as easy as it looks…
Not to sweat, though! I’m here to help.
After 15+ years of experience assisting consultants to find clients in an ever-evolving digital climate, in this article on how to get consulting clients, I will show you my top golden tips that continue to serve both myself and my current clients (see some of my results).
Want us to help you get more consulting clients? If so, here are the next steps:
Step 1: Watch our free Masterclass training (explains how the strategy works)
Step 2: Schedule a call to work with us (if you want us to help you do everything)
Quick Summary
In case you are in a rush, here is a rundown of important things to focus on for attracting consulting clients for your business:
- Know your dream client well
- Know what social media platforms they use
- Use your free consultancy content to generate leads
- Run lead-generation ads on social media
- Have an easy-to-navigate landing page
- Have a strong email marketing campaign
- Use ad retargeting so potential consulting clients remember your business
- Use a video sales letter (VSL)
This article discusses the most often overlooked golden tips for getting consulting clients for your business.
However, the most important thing you can do for your business is develop a top lead generation strategy that puts your business in front of dream clients that actually want to work with you!
Watch my free masterclass to learn how to develop a lead generation strategy that does just this.
How do I get more consulting clients?
1. Know your dream client well
Your consultancy business needs dream clients – those who can truly benefit from your expertise and services. But how do you identify them?
It’s not just about your potential client’s business size or industry niche; it’s about understanding their pain points and desired outcomes on a deeper level.
Your ideal clients are those who face specific challenges or pain points that you can solve. Individuals or organizations might need guidance and support to achieve their goals.
To attract them, you need to speak their language and address their unique needs. You can only do this once you grasp who they are.
In my experience, I have found the following questions to really help when looking to understand a target audience on a deeper level:
- Who are they? What are their demographics, such as age, gender, location, education, and income?
- What are their interests and hobbies? What do they like to do in their free time, and what are their favorite brands, products, or services?
- What are their goals and aspirations? What motivates them, and what are they striving to achieve personally or professionally?
- What are their pain points and challenges? What are the obstacles they face, and what are the frustrations they experience?
- How do they consume information? What channels do they use to get information, such as social media, blogs, podcasts, or email newsletters?
- What are their objections and concerns? What might prevent them from buying your product or service, and how can you address those objections?
Once you have a clear answer to questions such as these, you can create a highly efficient and effective digital marketing campaign that will get your business in front of the right people—people who are interested in working with you.
If you need help attracting your ideal clients, check out ‘Step one’ in my free Masterclass video for some unique ways you can do this.
2. Know what social media platforms they use
If you’ve taken the time to research your ideal clients, you’ll have a perfect idea of where they hang out on social media.
While there are countless social media platforms where you could find consulting clients, the chances of them being on the leading platforms are very high, so you are better off focusing your attention there to begin with.
The main ones are Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn and YouTube.
So without guessing, you can go to the Facebook or TikTok ads platform, create an audience, test and see if your target audience is on that channel by targeting behaviours, interests, location, etc. These platforms have robust ad targeting.
For example, suppose you want to target high-net-worth individuals for your consultancy business. In that case, create targeted ads that pinpoint behaviors such as frequent flying, interests such as luxury items, and wealthy zip codes, just to name a few.
Remember that for your social media strategy to be effective, you need to build trust with your target audience. You can do this by providing value.
For more on what social media platforms to consider for your paid ads, watch my free masterclass.
3. Use your social media presence to provide value
The quickest way to build trust and familiarity with your dream clients is to offer them value.
You can do this by offering prospective clients a taste of your consulting services. You know how to solve a problem for them. You probably know how to solve many.
So, aim to create educational content around a solution to one of their problems and offer it for free. This will strengthen the main building blocks of any relationship: familiarity and trust.
This educates your audience, allows you to build genuine connections, and creates opportunities to show prospective clients your unique value proposition.
You can also build social proof by sharing and engaging with helpful content.
For more on how you can do this in an impactful way, watch my free masterclass where I show you how to get your valuable content in front of potential consulting clients who need it.
4. Use your free consultancy content to generate leads
Now that you know where your dream consultancy clients are hanging out (what social channels they’re on) and what problems they face (your free educational content), you can start advertising to them.
In return for the free content, ask people to give you their contact details (name and email) so you can follow up with them in the future.
When you ask people for their names and email in return for free educational content, this is called lead generation.
To generate leads, you will need to be familiar with what both a lead-generating social media ad and a landing page are.
5. Run lead-generation ads
What is the difference between a regular social media ad and a lead-generating ad?
You can run social media ads for many reasons: to generate brand awareness, increase website traffic, promote products, or capture a potential customer’s contact information. A lead-generating ad does the latter.
This will cost some money, but you don’t have to spend much to start. You can get started for as low as $1,000 a month, and once you get some results, scale up whenever you’re ready.
The more you spend, the more results you can get.
This means you can generate leads on Facebook and TikTok without having a landing page.
6. Have an easy-to-navigate landing page
Not only does a landing page look more professional, but it also gives you key information on how your new and potential clients engage with your brand and value proposition.
You can track metrics such as conversion and bounce rates, giving you a powerful opportunity to dial in your marketing strategy and enhance your messaging to resonate better with your target audience.
You can also integrate this into your social media marketing campaign. In your social media content, include clear calls-to-action (CTAs) that motivate your potential consulting clients toward your website.
For a landing page, you don’t need to spend much money on web development. Watch my free masterclass if you don’t have a landing page already (or want to learn more).
7. Have a strong email marketing campaign
Once you have completed the other steps, you will likely be generating leads for your consulting business. This means that you will have a list of potential clients’ emails.
In this day and age, people need more time before making a purchase. With an email marketing campaign, you can continue following up with prospective clients who have already shown interest in your business.
You can even personalize your email messaging to speak to them directly based on their current point in the buyer’s journey (information you can get from a good landing page).
This may sound like a lot of effort. However, many email marketing and all-in-one marketing platforms automate the entire process.
When you follow up on time, you prevent your new leads from losing interest after they have converted into new leads or even new consulting clients.
8. Use ad retargeting so potential consulting clients remember your business
You’ve found your dream clients. You’ve offered them your best educational content and directed them to your landing with a solid call to action; they’re even clicking on it! However, you find they disappear without converting into a lead.
Does this mean they are uninterested in your business?
No, not at all. It means they’ve been distracted, and you must remind them that you exist.
That is where ad retargeting comes in.
You can even target people who read and engage with your content frequently but have not subscribed yet.
9. Use a video sales letter (VSL)
The most effective way to generate qualified consulting leads is by using a video sales letter (VSL) as a lead magnet.
This works perfectly in conjunction with a targeting paid ads campaign.
In the VSL, you will want to include the following:
- Big problems of your potential client (pain points)
- A solution(s) to such pain points
- What your solution is, and how you’re different
- How they can schedule a call with you
Using a VSL, your ideal consulting clients and leads can qualify themselves, build trust with you, and determine whether or not your business will be a good fit for them. The benefit is that you will not waste time on leads that are not a good fit for you.
Watch my free masterclass training for an example of what a VSL looks like and for other must-knows regarding lead generation.
In Conclusion
Deciding to start a consulting business can be an exciting and profitable journey!
However, as with most businesses in this day and age, you will need to have a good understanding of how to get new clients using digital marketing strategies such as lead generation.
This can be a confusing and frustrating part of starting a new business. However, it is essential to keep in mind that this is a process that takes time, patience and understanding.
And if you stay on course and commit to learning and adapting to an ever-evolving digital landscape, you will eventually see success!
If you want to learn more about how to get consulting clients using up-to-date and relevant digital marketing techniques, watch my free masterclass for more.
FAQs for getting consulting clients
Ashley Davis (or ‘Ash’ for short) is the CEO & Founder of Skyline Social. For over 15 years, Ash has been helping business owners get high-quality leads, appointments, and clients each month. He has extensive experience working with B2B & B2C industries in finance, insurance, marketing, sales and beyond. Learn more about the author here.