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January 8, 2018 Content Chat Recap: Launching, Growing, and Evolving a Content Marketing Consultancy

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LAUNCHING-GROWING-AND-EVOLVING-A-CONTENT-MARKETING-CONSULTANCY

For the month of January, our #ContentChat conversations are centering around how to grow your career—whether it’s starting a new job, getting promoted, or starting your own thing. we kicked htings off this week with Gillian Muessig (@SEOmom), CEO and co-founder of Outlines Venture Group, and co-founder of Moz.

Q1: What are the minimum requirements to hang out your shingle as a consultant?

Many people dream of ditching their day job and hanging out their shingle as a consultant. But when are you ready to do so successfully?

You’re ready to consult once you have quantifiable expertise.

Once you’ve got the right mindset—and tools in place—you’re in business.

Spend time building your professional network before you take the leap.

Work on your thought leadership platform—it will be a key business development driver.

Start with a business plan. What are you selling, how do you deliver it, and who’s your ideal customer?

Q2: How do you develop a portfolio of work and recommendations to establish your expertise?

Thought leadership is a key method of moving your consultancy forward. So how do you build your thought leadership profile?

You’ve got to put in the time.

Consider pro bono clients that will raise your profile.

Work on building your network of raving fans who will refer you.

Start with a content audit and draft a content strategy for brand you.

Guard your time from “wanna-be” clients.

Take on passion projects that show your expertise in action.

Q3: How do you find and close your first 10 clients?

The hardest part about launching and growing a successful consultancy for many people is having to sell themselves. After all, most content marketers don’t have a sales background. But selling is key to running a successful consultancy. Here’s how to do it.

Build relationships with agencies/organizations who work with freelancers and subcontractors.

Identify a critical problem you solve, and create gated content showing how to solve it.

Help your network out and they’ll reciprocate.

Proactively reach out to companies/brands you’d like to work with and tell them how you can help them reach their business goals.

Overdeliver to your first clients and nurture those relationships to last a lifetime.

Q4: How do you expand your business without going into debt?

What happens once you’ve hitten the point where you need to move beyond being a one-person consultancy? How do you grow without n outside investment?

Take a fresh look at your pricing.

Invest in clients who will help grow your consultancy.

Take on short-term, part-time contracts and grow those client relationships.

Build out your virtual team.

Don’t take on more work than you can handle.

Consider crowdfunding.

Budget with growth in mind.

Q5: What do you do if your market is so crowded that the veteran experts win all the bids?

Find your niche and run with it.

Put your flexibility to work as your advantage.

Partner with the experts.

Define and refine your “why me” pitch.

Q6: Eventually, it’s time to give yourself a raise. How do you charge more for your work?

It feels scary to raise your prices. What if your clients leave? But if you’re providing them with value, they won’t. Here are our #ContentChat’s perspectives on raising prices.

Your low low prices may actually be a hindrance.

Fire clients that aren’t in-line with your current pricing or growth strategies.

Think through ways to serve clients without being the one providing all the service.

Learn to say no. Don’t take work that doesn’t value your time fairly or that takes away from better-paying work.

If you have packaged pricing, think about ways to expand the package with a corresponding price increase.

When your costs go up, so do your clients.

Q7: Solopreneur life isn’t for everyone. How do you segue from being an independent provider to becoming an employee at your dream job?

About Erika Heald

Erika Heald is a content marketing expert and executive ghostwriter. As founder and lead consultant at Erika Heald Marketing Consulting, she helps organizations define and document content marketing strategies that drive business growth. Erika led and grew high-performance content marketing teams at Highwire PR, Anaplan, and Achievers. You can also find her on her blog erikasglutenfreekitchen.com or hosting the weekly #ContentChat Twitter chat on Mondays at 12 noon Pacific.

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