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	Marketing Checklist For Consultants

	by Brian Konradt

Marketing can be as simple as engaging in a one minute conversation with another person or as complex as a $3,000 direct mail advertising campaign. Everyone has done some type of MARKETING in their lives -- including you. You may have sold things at a garage sell -- that's marketing. Maybe you recommended that a friend see a movie, which she did. That, too, is marketing. At your last job interview, you talked about yourself and how you and your experience could benefit the company -- and you got the job. That's marketing.

WHAT IS MARKETING?

But marketing is more than selling a product or service or yourself -- basically, it's getting the prospect INTERESTED in what you're selling. And that's not so easy -- unless you know exactly how to do it. Most people know how to market -- but not everyone knows how to market EFFECTIVELY. When you mail a prospective client a piece of your promotional material advertising your availability as a consultant who is seeking work and don't get a response, then that's marketing. But when the prospective client responds to your promotional material and requests additional information that leads to work, that's marketing effectively.

DON'T IGNORE YOUR MARKETING!

Marketing is probably the most ignored and NEGLECTED function of operating a profitable consulting business. Consultants ignore or neglect marketing because of the following reasons:

Marketing must be done on a CONTINUOUS BASIS. That eats away 20-30% of your time each day. Instead of working eight hours each day for clients, you really work five or six hours each day for clients.
Marketing is NON-BILLABLE TIME. When a consultant stops working on his client's project to do his own marketing, he does not get paid for his time.
Marketing costs money and can exhaust your time. A popular complaint among consultants is the lack of TIME to shoehorn daily marketing into their daily schedules. Consequently, many consultants market their services in short, quick, ineffective "spurts."
Beginners often quit their marketing efforts too soon because they're not soliciting responses IMMEDIATELY. And established professionals neglect daily marketing because they have referrals and REPEAT work. Never stop marketing -- even if you have plenty of clients.

TIPS FOR GOOD MARKETING STRATEGIES

Marketing is the LIFEBLOOD of your business. Your business does not grow, flourish or live without marketing. Once you understand how to market effectively, you'll increase your chances of running a successful, profitable consulting business, guaranteed. Here's a checklist to market any service or product effectively:

AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN

Marketing is repetitious. For your marketing to create impact, build rapport and establish RELATIONSHIPS with your prospects, your marketing must be repetitious -- there is simply no other way. Plan on promoting yourself to the same prospect at least five times before you anticipate a response.

CATCH THEIR ATTENTION

Marketing must interest the prospect about your product or service, not just sell it. If you can't stir up INTEREST about your service or product, the client will junk your promotional material in the garbage.

STICK WITH IT

Marketing must be performed continuously, not infrequently. Avoid marketing in spurts. "Marketing, to be effective, must be done on a continuous basis -- not when you feel like it or when you need to do so," says corporate copywriter, Joan Berk. "When you market in spurts, you put yourself at a risk of having to wait for the results and scrambling around to find work to meet payments. If you market EACH DAY -- or at least every other day -- it's much easier to manage, keep track of your results, and you won't put yourself in a state of panic when you lose a client or fall short of a project. You'll have many inquiries, leads and referrals on tap."

HAVE PATIENCE

Marketing creates impact GRADUALLY -- not immediately. Anticipate sluggish results the first time you market your services, but don't quit! Marketing's impact builds up gradually -- over time -- not overnight.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR

Marketing focuses on soliciting a response from the prospect, not just the work. If all you do is ask for work, you probably will not get it the first time around -- no matter how qualified you are. To increase the chances of the prospect outsourcing work to you, you must try to solicit a RESPONSE -- have the prospect contact you to receive your free business newsletter or a free consultation. When you solicit a response, it brings you closer to securing work from the prospect. Responses are nearly as important as getting the work itself.

FOCUS ON THE BENEFITS

Marketing sells solutions, never your services. Prospects only care about one thing -- how your skills can solve their problems. That's it. If you can't help the prospect solve his PROBLEM, you won't get the work.

Brian Konradt is the owner and operator of FreelanceWriting.com, a free web site for writers who want to master the creative and business sides of freelance writing. Mr. Konradt is also the owner of BSK Communications and Associates, a communications and mail-order business that operates MasterFreelancer Web Store. You may visit his websites at www.freelancewriting.com and www.masterfreelancer.com.

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