5 Big Ideas for Marketing your Data Consultancy
In this article, I outline three essential foundations and five big ideas for marketing your data consultancy.
My goal is to help you evaluate what you're doing well with marketing, and where you possibly need to make some changes.
So what is 'Marketing' anyway?
If you ask ten data consultancy founders what they understand by the term' marketing', I'm confident you'll get ten completely different answers.
For some, it means 'social media', 'publishing content', 'creating awareness', 'educating the buyer' or even 'PR and Brand Building'.
Too often, I meet data consultancy founders who are focused on the tactical - blogging, speaking, webinars - without fully appreciating the 'bigger picture' of marketing.
So to help deepen the education in this space, I wanted to start with a compelling definition for what marketing means (because data folks love definitions!).
To come up with a meaningful definition, I decided to look to the past, beyond the glut of social media' gurus', to discover an explanation that was timeless, tested and trusted.
In doing so, I found a definition that I feel most closely reflects what marketing was in the past, is now and will be in the future, irrespective of tech trends.
This definition comes from one of the most important marketers and business influencers of the last 50 years - Jay Abraham.
During an interview some years ago, Jay summed up his approach to marketing, which I've broken down into three foundational elements:
Foundation #1: "The continual education of a customer or prospect for the life of that customer on the advantages and benefits your company or your service brings them that no one else does."
Foundation #2: "The intelligently formulated process of increasing their demand or desire for your product or service."
Foundation #3: "The strategic process of bringing them to closure and completed action."
There's a lot of takeaways to unpack just in these three sentences, so let's dive in and see what they mean to the marketing of your data consultancy.
Big Idea #1: "Continual education of a customer, or prospect, for the life of that customer"
I love this quote because it speaks to the problem that many data consultancies are afflicted by "Post-Delivery Ignorance".
Let's call it PDI for convenience.
PDI occurs when you do a great job for a new client but then move on to the next client, and the next, and the next, without any real consideration for maximising the lifetime value of past clients.
You've read that your best clients are your past clients (assuming you didn't screw up) - so why aren't you engaging them through educational materials and insights?
A recent client who onboarded our myDataBrand program shared some light on why this is a problem for so many data consultancies.
After the data consultancy founder shared countless stories of clients they had done great work with, I stopped them asked:
"You do excellent work - so what's the problem?"
They thought for a moment and replied:
"I just want more clients, consistently".
"Great, I get the need for new clients - but how many of your existing clients have you continued to educate and engage with?", I asked.
Cue long pause.
"None. That's not good, is it?" they responded.
We unpacked what was behind their lack of engagement with past clients, and these were some of the reasons we uncovered:
The consultant assumed the client would "call me if they need me."
The consultant was unsure of how to create the right content, and even if it was the 'done thing' to 'bother' their clients with content
They were always busy delivering, so content and marketing wasn't a priority or skillset for them (hence why they joined myDataBrand)
They had some confusion around the logistics of sharing content e.g. format, frequency, GDPR rules, and other trivia
When we boiled it all down, there was one fundamental problem:
Educating and engaging past clients through content marketing hadn't occurred to them as critical, so they didn't have a process and plan to make it happen on a consistent basis.
They now realise it is critical and we're putting a plan together to re-engage past clients.
This stuff doesn't need to be complicated.
Sometimes you just need a spouse, mentor or coach, to 'point out the obvious' and help you create a set of trackable daily habits that you can even carve up and outsource if you're particularly strapped for time.
Big Idea #2: "...advantages and benefits your company or your service brings them that no one else does"
Why you?
Seriously, why do clients pick you?
There are thousands of consultants who can deliver DMBOK, data maturity assessments, Big Data architectures, Data Migration roadmaps and Data Governance Frameworks - just like you.
But why did you, or your firm, win that last client project from all the other competing firms?
I asked a past client why they picked me recently and their answer made me chuckle:
"I could tell that at heart, you were a data geek like me - you understand the world we operate in".
And there was my differentiator in a nutshell.
There are countless sales coaches, business advisors, social media gurus and marketing mavens, but I’ve focused my positioning firmly on the data sector, because that’s the industry I have the greatest expertise.
In short, I play to my strengths, so should you!
Now, I get that you don't like to showboat or boast, that's not your nature. Perhaps you’re an introvert like me.
The very thought of promoting your services, not to mention selling and persuasion tactics, may leave you in a cold sweat.
But these past clients of yours, they see things in you that they don't see in other consultants.
And one thing your future clients will love to see is that inner confidence you have because you 'really know your stuff' and bring something fresh to the table.
When you learn what that is, and play it back to your target audience in the form of your value proposition, straplines, data stories and testimonials, you take your marketing to another level of impact.
And remember, the majority of your competitors aren't doing this stuff - giving you a clear advantage in a crowded marketplace.
Your ability to communicate why your firm is the best choice for solving a specific problem should become the cornerstone of your marketing:
If a client valued the insights from a past article you wrote, you need to create more content.
If clients are impressed by the way you handle conflict and politics, you need to spell that out in your marketing.
If clients value the clear communication and progress reports you deliver, you need to make that evident in your content and sales discussions by showing examples and mockups.
For example, back in the days when I delivered large, complex, data migration projects, I asked one client why they selected me.
Their answer: On an earlier webinar, I had talked at length about the importance of a Pre-Migration Impact Assessment to shorten the overall project timeline. In their view, anyone who was that thorough and focused on getting the project completed on-time could be trusted over other firms who were quite happy for projects to drag on and on.
If you don't know what makes you unique, ask your past clients, they'll tell you.
Big Idea #3: "...intelligently formulated process..."
The critical thing to point out here is the obvious omission of a marketing process in most data consultancies.
Yes, you may knock out plenty of LinkedIn status updates, the occasional article and even the odd webinar, but that's not a process.
As Jay points out, your process must be based on a formulaic process.
And that requires two things:
Clear delineation of steps and activities (a process)
Constant monitoring and analysis of metrics (the formula)
Most data consultancies that onboard our myDataBrand program do so because they want to create more consistency and impact with their marketing.
And that starts with developing a precisely documented process that you will religiously tweak and enhance for the life of your business.
You can't improve what you can't visualise or measure, so start mapping out a marketing process and pay careful attention to your performance.
Because you will soon find it's not just about designing a content publishing process - the real challenge is understanding why you're not creating content even with a process in place.
When you have a process that you don't follow, that's when you need to spend some time of self-reflection or coaching, getting to grips with those fears and limiting self-beliefs about your ability to put out great content that an audience will value.
So any publishing system you create must combine the tactical with daily habit-forming and self-analysis to help you push through the desire to do nothing. You're far more likely to fail if you ignore the latter.
Big Idea #4: "...increasing their demand or desire..."
What do your clients desire from those data frameworks and widgets that you sell?
It's probably not what you think.
I was once hired by a data quality software vendor to revamp the marketing materials of their flagship product.
Visually, their old sales brochures were slick and glossy to the eye, but the copywriting was dull.
They spoke of data profiling capabilities, automated join analysis, high-performance de-duplication - all the buzzwords were there.
And that's what so many data vendors focus on, packing their marketing copy with features, but without really understand the real desire of their target audience.
For this product, I established that the position of Data Quality Manager/Leader was an ideal fit for the product. So I spoke with several in this role to understand not only their technical and business challenges but the Aspirational Identity they were hoping to attain.
Remember that your ideal clients aren't motivated by the journey; it's the destination that gets them excited. Their Aspirational Identity is the person they want to become, having solved the challenges holding them back.
Following conversations with several Data Quality Managers, I learned that:
Scaling up the impact of their small team to deliver a broader benefit to the business was a real problem
Coordinating the team on a day-to-day business was proving difficult, there were so many moving parts and complexity to the work they did
Speed of response was a key metric that they were struggling with, being able to respond to internal requests had become a big issue
Control was an issue, on a personal level, they wanted to appear as if they had their act together and were organised, effective, strategic and supportive to the needs of their stakeholders
Armed with this blend of practical challenges and more aspirational personal goals, the copy for the product practically wrote itself.
We could now put the product features into the context of something far more important, the demands and desires of their Ideal Client Profile.
The brochures were written from the perspective of the buyer, not the seller, dramatically increasing the chance of resonating and influencing future prospects.
Check out your marketing collateral, does it talk about 'we' and 'I', or do you write with the deep understanding of the pains, gains and aspirations demanded by your client audience?
Big Idea #5: "...bringing them to closure and completed action."
There are two things we need to cover here - Calls to Action, and Closure.
Firstly, far too many data consultants are afraid to make an explicit call to action in their articles, posts and other marketing content.
When you have an excellent service that customers value, it is your duty to offer that service to your audience. A percentage of your readers will be struggling, often in real mental anguish, with a problem you can eliminate.
It astounds me why so many data consultancies make it incredibly difficult to contact the author of an article, or webinar, or LinkedIn post.
If someone reads your content, resonates deeply with the information provided, and can sense that you're someone who could potentially address their condition, why would you not make an offer to reach out and engage with them?
And yes, I accept that you don't want to offer free guidance, we all expect to get paid for our time, but at least make it clear how you can be contacted and what that process would look like.
Creating a straightforward 'Call-to-Action' is the simplest of improvements, but perhaps the most critical, that should be addressed in all your future (and past) content.
Here are some examples of simple calls to action:
If you have a weekly newsletter, tell them to sign up (I've had 45 subscribers to my list this month, don't let anyone tell you newsletters are dead).
If you have a handy checklist or guide, offer it to people in return for their email address (I still get 20 registrations per day using this tactic on Data Migration Pro).
If you have a call scheduler, add it to the bottom of your articles, blog posts, LinkedIn profile and other prominent locations (here's mine in action).
Now that we've covered off Calls to Action, let's finish this article on getting clients to closure.
If a prospect for your data services reaches out for more information, that's when you want your content marketing to really kick in.
Think of the last time you made a big purchasing decision, such as a car, home TV, or expensive appliance. You don't just walk up to a salesperson and hand over your cash, you carry out research, ask around, read the sales blurb, compare and contrast the options.
What can you do as a data consultancy owner to ensure your firm comes out on top, allays the fears of your prospect, and stand out from the thousands of firms that prospect could choose over you?
It's simple. Add value.
Share case studies. Point them to past webinars and guides. Show them testimonial videos and connect them to previous customers.
Yes, it can be a pain in the arse to create this stuff, it can take ages to write up and plan, but you only need to do it once, and then it's just minor tweaks along the way.
Have a plan for what you intend to send.
Don't just dump a big load of fact sheets and PDF's on them in one go. Space it out, so you're always front-of-mind each day they're pondering on their next steps.
You may think you're swamping them or bugging them, but you're not, they value information, they want to make the right decision so help them select you by providing valuable insights and resources.
What Next?
None of this is rocket science.
Start with one of the above foundations today, and chip away until a process and plan emerges.
Most of the data consultants I work with know what they should be doing.
They join myDataBrand not because they've never heard of content positioning, marketing or social selling - they get it.
It's just hard sometimes to sit down, map out a process, and get to work, so having a coach or trainer to motivate and teach you the 'how' can be a smart move.
If you would like to finally create a predictable marketing and sales process for your solo or boutique data consultancy that breaks all this stuff out into a set of daily habits that are achievable, let's talk on a free Breakthrough Call.
