Generating qualified management consulting leads is exhausting for two main reasons: the number of competitors you have and how your lead generation strategies need to be updated every month, which either includes changing them or adding new elements.
Most consultants fail to generate them since they are trapped in the traditional methods or decide to add just a few because others are using those strategies. Although some work and you need to integrate them into your marketing plan, you must learn how to turn them around to the point of adjusting each aspect to your business.
With this in mind, we recommend starting with proper analysis and research. Take your time to learn about what your competitors are doing and what can be good for you as an individual.
Not because it is popular, it will be your solution. Thus, always search for what’s best for you.
Next, you can have a look at all the lead generation strategies we share below for you to market qualified leads.
Consider Guest Posting
Traffic is the hardest part of acquiring leads online. No matter how great your website design is, traffic will be the limiting factor in obtaining leads.
Writing guest posts on a website serving a similar audience is the best way to start gaining traffic.
Blog owners are constantly under pressure to produce quality content. Many people will be open to guest posts if you approach them with a focused pitch on their blog and their readers.
The website owner may ask for a brief bio at the end of your post. This allows readers to find out more about you and can be done via a link to the site.
Guest posting is more than just writing articles. It will also help you to build stronger relationships. Consulting is a relationship-based business. The stronger your relationships, the better your business will be.
List Posting for Your Business
You can list posts if you have something your audience is interested in.
You should also reach out to the person you are featuring in the post to get a snippet of information. You might ask each podcast host why they started it, who they are for, and what goals they have for it (if you are covering podcasts in your posting).
List posts are easy to create, read, and popular. You can also use them to build new relationships via outreach. After you have completed your article, ask the people featured in it to share it with their lists.
McKinsey’s top article of 2017 was a list posting. It had less than 1.000 words yet; it is amazing.
For your next piece, consider a list post. Reach out to experts to create a list and get them to share their knowledge. Then combine all that information into one post.
Consider Offering Downloadable Educational Content
You can create “lead-magnets” and offer downloadable educational content or, at least, functional and useful one to attract more clients.
The idea is to get an email or contact info in exchange for this content for them to access it. This is why these are emails that you exchange with clients to get their email addresses and name.
These are some examples of educational content you offer for download to generate leads for your management consulting company:
- Content Upgrades.
Your website articles should have the main purpose of educating your prospects and readers so they can achieve their goals by using your advice.
You can help them achieve the same result with a content upgrade.
Use Google Analytics or your comments to find the most popular blog posts. These are the best posts to help you get more leads since they bring you the most traffic and give you ideas of what to share for the leads you need.
The main message of your article should be written. Once you have a clear understanding of the reasons this piece of content is so popular, you can create a resource to help your prospect get that result quicker.
The lead magnet should be placed in line with your content so readers can opt-in for your newsletter to access this resource. The resource should directly relate to the content they are reading when they visit your article.
A content upgrade will increase the number of management consulting leads you receive each month as long as you utilize the strategy properly.
- Publishing A White Paper.
White papers are reports that focus on one topic within your industry. This white paper is meant to be authoritative and inform your reader about complex topics. It will also give your firm’s perspective on it to help you make better decisions.
White papers are a great way to attract leads because they make you a trusted advisor for your prospect.
Your white paper answers their questions, after all.
A trusted consultant is in a better position than any consultant for selling conversations. This position is one that your white paper can help you to take.
As with any other lead magnet, you will use your whitepaper as either a general opt-in or content upgrade. Write a series of articles about your whitepaper and position it within each article to generate more leads.
It is crucial to know if your prospect is interested in the topic before you start your inbound sales outreach strategy.
- Making a Video Course.
A video course is more than what your prospects are expecting to get as a lead magnet. It can help you propel your marketing far beyond your competition and ensure you’re getting those high-quality leads everyone wants.
You don’t have to make it a 20-plus hour video course. It can be a 3 to 5 lesson course that allows your prospect to get to know you and hear your voice as if they were at a presentation. This is a powerful, trust-building, and educational marketing strategy.
This video course is designed to help clients understand the problems they face in their business and offer solutions.
You want to end it by introducing them to your options for working together if they are interested in hiring an expert to solve the problem or implement the solution that you discussed in the video series.
- Free Email Course.
A mini-course in email is a great way to create lead magnets for consultants. It can be “dripped” over a series of days to your leads.
You can send your leads a mini-course via your email marketing software and encourage them to reply and begin a conversation. You will not only be nurturing and educating your leads, but you will also be helping to establish relationships and start conversations with them.
Your email course’s first lesson should be educational. Your goal is to show them how to solve the problem they are facing, and you have decided to focus on it.
You should introduce your services before you present them as the next step in your educational material so leads don’t feel overwhelmed or like you are just trying to get all the money.
The last email should be informative but at a higher level. If your prospect would like to have you implement/consult what you learned from your lesson, you will want to introduce them to you.
- Host Your Own Podcast.
To build a high-growth consultancy business, it is important to position yourself as a trusted adviser. You’ll get more leads if you establish yourself as an industry resource.
You can become a great resource for your industry by starting your podcast and interviewing thought-leaders from your industry. It can also be used as a networking tool. Everyone loves sharing their knowledge and expertise publicly.
It doesn’t have to be difficult to start your podcast. You can record a Skype interview and upload it to iTunes. Each episode will be a win-win for you, your guest, and your audience.
Work on Your Website for Leads
Your website is a collection of web pages that are hosted under your domain. Clients can use them to find out more about you, and well, we all know how a website works.
A consultant’s website was a mere digital brochure until recently. It’s now the core of your business as most visitors are trying to get in contact and ensure you are able to offer the solutions they want and need. With this in mind, having your website alone won’t be enough.
You need to make sure it is high conversion and can offer them what they are missing. With that in mind, you can follow some tips we will share.
First, take notes of the fact that there are two types: websites that serve as a digital brochure, resume, or to provide information about the firm or consultant; and websites that serve to generate leads.
The majority of online consulting websites are not the latter. This is how a consulting website that generates leads looks like:
- You generate intellectual property.
- This creates credibility.
- Prospect interaction creates trust.
- From this, you can create new business. A credible website, which is buyer-friendly and visitor-friendly, accelerates this process.
- A lead-generating website showcases your thinking (your intellectual capital) in your unique voice (your brand) to attract the right kind of prospects.
- This website can help you attract prospects to your sales pipeline and move them down the pipeline until the time comes for them to make a sale.
Therefore, you need to focus on adding the right elements and guaranteeing that your site is designed for conversion.
Now, how do you bust your conversion? We will get into that with another lead generation strategy (maybe more than one).
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Your Website
Search Engine Optimization is a set of best practices and techniques for improving your website’s rank on search engines.
Google will reward you for publishing consistent content and writing in a way that benefits your prospects with the right keywords they are searching for and the elements that will boost your efforts.
Search rankings will increase for content, case studies, or resources on your site, which makes it easier for prospects to find your website.
SEO is all about creating useful content consistently, linking to other valuable sites. Outbound leads convert up to 10x more than inbound leads. Therefore, ranking high can have huge benefits for your consulting company.
Follow Up: Add a “Hello!” Page
Follow up with people you meet is the key to magic, and your “Hello!” page makes it easier.
It provides recipients with a “call to action” through a link that takes them to your website. Here they can remember who you are and what your expertise is. It gives them the chance to sign up for your mailing list.
You can include a link to your page on business cards that you hand out frequently. Include it in both your LinkedIn profile and signature, and it can be used to help people you have met recall who you are, what your work is, and how they can help you.
Share Your Referral Page with Colleagues
A “Referrals page” is one you can create on your website and send to contacts. It helps them get into your sales pipeline faster and with less friction.
Let’s suppose you have two leads. The first is a referral from your top client. You know that they only recommend people who are a good fit. The second is an entirely random lead.
Referral pages make the former lead feel special and encourage them to complete the form.
Also, keep in mind that referrals are special leads that deserve special attention and should be capitalized on every page and form you send.
Referring to you through a referral page makes it easy for clients to recommend you. They can share a link with others who might be a good fit, and it will make it easier for them to contact you.
Your intake form should be included on your referral page. Add three additional items:
- Social proof: Use testimonials from clients you have worked with previously
- Copy this message to explain that they can book an appointment before the rest of your queue
- This is how you explain to them that you will give them more time for your consultation
Utilize Online advertising
Online advertising is when you pay for impressions. These are just a few of the many ways that paid to advertise can be used to benefit your consulting business:
- Facebook Ads.
Facebook lets you advertise, and your ads will appear in your prospects’ Facebook feed. You can target users using Facebook’s Advertising platform based on many criteria.
Send them to a landing site that offers something in return for their email address and name.
Your landing page should be simple and easy to link to. The more effective your copy is, the more conversions will occur. It is worth clicking on these ads to see how the landing pages are constructed.
Ads are a great investment option if you have the money and time. This is a fast way to drive targeted traffic to your site and convert them to leads.
Your prospects are more on Facebook than you might think. Many top High-Growth companies are using advertising to reach their customers and consider it one of the most important marketing strategies.
- Google PPC Ads.
You’ll find this in every search you do, especially when you are targeting locally by mentioning something like “management consultants Florida.”
Examples of consulting companies advertising with Google are many. This can be the most cost-effective way to pay for a marketing strategy that actually works with the right settings.
To keep it simple and mention the essentials, keep in mind that these are called PPC ads. Your ad is displayed based on the search query your prospect enters. You pay for each “click” on your advertisement.
This is how you can achieve a positive ROI for your advertising. Target the keywords your prospects are searching for, get them to click on your advertisement, and then create a landing page that engages and converts them into leads.
This is a direct method of getting leads. You’ll get more leads if your landing page and copy are better.
These leads might not be the most organic or qualified, but with a strong PPC strategy and a healthy budget, you can get leads faster than if your focus was on content marketing or SEO.
- LinkedIn Advertising.
Did you know that LinkedIn could allow you to advertise your consulting services? You just need to be smart about it.
LinkedIn is the best platform for business professionals since it has more than 500 million members. It focuses on business, entrepreneurship, and job postings.
It makes it possible to be very specific and precise with your target. LinkedIn is also the most popular platform for prospects so that you can reach them through the advertising option available.
One of the benefits is that it has a reputation for high costs per click.
Bet on Email Marketing.
Email Marketing allows you to market to clients via their email inboxes. Your potential client has become a qualified lead once they sign up for your lead magnet and have joined your email list.
It will allow you to bring them down the sales funnel, so you can convert them into clients.
Now, although this is a great strategy, it also takes time to work on it. You usually have to pay for an automation software like MailChimp to ensure this doesn’t take most of your time.
However, the good part is that this doesn’t cost that much. You can easily invest in this without hurting your budget or future profits.
Now, focus on nurturing leads with this strategy.
Your email list should not be viewed as an anonymous list with email addresses and names. It should instead be a collection of leads.
To nurture these leads and get them to hire your services, you need to use your email database.
Instead of using emails to pitch your services, your email should be used to teach, help, and share. You’re priming your leads to view you as a trusted advisor by sharing your content with what you know.
Your email list can be used to nurture by:
- Sharing your content with them.
- Encourage them to “hit reply” so you can start a conversation.
- Your subscribers will receive exclusive member-only content.
- Let them know what you are up to and your current projects.
- Training them about their most pressing business issues.
Don’t Forget About SSF Segmentation
Your email list is one of the most powerful tools you have as a consultant. It allows you to market your business, build relationships, and sell your services on a large scale. These are things we think we have made clear so far.
It’s not easy to acquire prospects, nurture them, and sell them something or offer your services. Effective segmentation is key to using your email list effectively. This means sending the right emails to the right people based on their stage in your relationship.
There’s a method created called the SSF Segmentation, which is a useful framework for email messaging and automation:
- Sidewalk – Prospects who don’t know what to do about it. Your goal with Sidewalk prospects is to raise awareness about potential problems in the business.
- Slowlane – Prospects who are conscious of their problem and want to learn how it can be solved. Slowlane prospects are interested in learning about your process and how to solve their problem.
- Fastlane – Prospects who understand their problem and how it can be solved. Fastlane prospects allow you to pitch your services. That’s it. If they don’t have the time, they will hire you if you have done a good job.
The Local Lead Generation Process for Your Management Consulting Business
All right! So, everything is about building properties and generating leads. But how does the process actually take place? Are there other steps I need to know?
The steps I mention below are what students from our local lead generation program follow to generate leads for businesses like yourself. So I’ll help you see what we do. And how if you join our program, you can simply generate leads for your own business (unless you want to start a side hustle and build a laptop lifestyle business).
Essentially, our lead generation can be divided into four steps:
The first is prospecting. You need to take the time to do market research on a niche (industry) and determine how many phone-driven businesses are there.
Keep in mind that this is local research as you need to know how many companies need leads. For example, you may search for “plumbing services Youngstown OH.”
You will find dozens or even hundreds of businesses trying to get themselves in front of the customers by ranking on Map Listings, organic results, and even Ad.
The second step, building. When you find a niche (plumbing, tree services, a software company, real estate…), you will need to start building your digital properties. You don’t need to be an expert in HTML or coding. It can be easy with the right tools.
The third step is now taking time to rank your lead gen website. With the site done, you need to work on SEO strategies and start dominating those Google search results. If you’re new to SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimization.
To keep it simple, it consists of the entire process of growing a company’s visibility on search engines like Google and generating organic traffic. And remember this, local lead generation is part of the strategies.
Moving on to step four, once you rank the site, you will start getting your ROI and profits. You only need to rent it out to a local business interested in the leads the site generates. You can offer a couple of free leads to their move on with the actual pay per lead.
To review steps 1-4 above, I described it to a normal student who is building a lead gen business to help local service providers generate more calls. But replace the student with you as the business owner. And replace sending the leads to a business to simply siphoning the leads to your personal business.
By the way, fun fact, about 20% of our students in our local lead gen program are actually business owners who went through the program. And they use the skillsets we teach to generate leads for their own business.
An Example of Lead Generation: Home Advisor
You must be thinking, “if lead generation sounds so good so far, how come I haven’t seen any company?” That’s the thing; there are many out there. You just don’t know they are dedicated to it.
HomeAdvisor is one of the best examples you can find on the Internet as it is a top lead generation company that has spent millions building its brand but also earned even more zeros for this same reason.
They started small as everyone else but invested in building their brand awareness to make people who are looking for home services go to their website and find what they need. They are over 75% of people’s first choice when they need those services.
If you don’t get HomeAdvisor that much or need a refresh, users need to submit their information to request a service and get a professional or expert who can provide it.
HomeAdvisor’s job is to share your information, which makes you a lead, with local companies so they can contact you and offer the service you’re requesting. For sharing this lead information, HomeAdvisor gets paid by the companies. This happens for every single lead they send to multiple businesses.
Business owners who don’t have marketing skills or don’t even know how to have any online presence will always rely on those pages to list their services. They will save time and effort, but companies like HomeAdvisor can make them spend lots of money as leads aren’t exclusive (one lead is sent to multiple companies after all).
Using Facebook Ads aka Paid Ad Platforms: Do They Generate Leads?
They DO generate leads. If not, no one would use them.
However, you need to remember two facts:
- Paid ads or platforms can be expensive.
- They don’t generate “natural” leads.
Whenever someone sees or clicks in one of those ads, over 80% of them did it by accident or are trying to close/report it.
Why? Because they aren’t looking for those services. At least not at the moment.
What those ads do instead is interrupt their time on the platforms. Users aren’t there to find companies or businesses unless they are searching for a specific company’s user, and for that, there’s a search bar. This is why it is hard to convert them to actual customers who will show interest in the companies’ services. Also, you’re limited by a budget.
When using lead generation, everything is organic. You aren’t forcing others to pay attention to your business but rather being there when they need you. This is why Google’s organic traffic will always beat paid ads, and the reason companies continue investing in it, which is a lot cheaper as well.
What Is Local SEO?
Don’t worry… I didn’t get it at first either. Following the short explanation, local SEO focuses on scaling businesses’ visibility on search engines. However, this is only for those who serve their communities face-to-face.
What does this mean?
Experts and professionals like painters, plumbers, and dentists (but not only them) offer their services to their local customers. Why? Because they can’t deliver them unless they are located in the same area of their customers.
To make sure those businesses get more leads, you need to rank them locally by claiming the business listing on Google to place them on Map Listings. Local SEO also involves online reviews, citation management, and how you manage your entire online presence in the local area.
If you are going to bet on lead gen, you need to adapt yourself to today’s world: The Internet.
Keep in mind that although traditional channels and methods like billboards, warm calls, and pamphlets still work, they aren’t part of your tools. Whenever someone needs a service, they go to Google and search for it.
“Dentist in Miami” or “plumbing services in Orlando,” etc. And you can keep coming up with services or professionals people need and look for. Thus, you need to make sure you’re using Google to get the companies in front of their clients.
Users will always click on the first search results (those near the top), and many of them will be either Ad links (people paid to place their websites there), Map Listing, and then you get websites. Almost all of them are your goal and where you should always aim to place yourself.
Can My Management Consulting Business Utilize a Local Lead Generation Strategy?
If you want customers, you better know you need it. Following the previous explanation, lead gen is all about placing businesses in front of their customers, choosing them over their competitors.
Put it simply – it’s all about closing deals and having clients for those companies to make money. The main difference with the usual methods companies use for this is how lead generation approaches different channels to get them in the right place of the market to get customers.
Those channels are all focused on the Internet as most people are searching for products but also services across the net. The issue is that the Internet is way too broad, and businesses don’t know how to place themselves. They usually try, but they get one common result: losing money and time.
How Powerful Are Organic Management Consulting Leads from Google?
For companies looking for customers, it’s everything. For you? Pretty much the same. When you build a business with digital properties, you get to make thousands of dollars a month.
This isn’t a “get started today and get rich tomorrow” thing, but it is HIGHLY scalable, and ROI + positive results are guaranteed. Learning a fairly decent and very needed set of skills to create your digital properties and start ranking them on Google is required.
I have invested in several online businesses over the years, and if there’s something uncertain, whether you will get your ROI or not, even more than the actual profit.
However, this business moved my earnings from five figures a year to a month in ONLY passive income while sitting comfortably at home.
On my laptop. Anywhere. Anytime.
You can look at one of the first sites I built back in 2016, and it continues making me over $1.000+ every month. The best part is that I don’t need to touch it or the rest I’ve built over the years, just like this digital property.
What Makes Lead Generation SO Alluring?
Here it goes: you can work from home.
The main issue with regular business opportunities is how much you need to invest in staff, equipment, or rent to have a place to sell your products or offer your services.
We all know the hassles of traditional businesses that involve regular expenses, which are extremely high. Can you afford it? I don’t think so, and even if you can, is it worth it? Now, it isn’t only about the money. You also need to put in a lot of work, and it isn’t only during the first couple of months or years. Usually, it is as long as you continue running it.
You can save yourself those headaches and bone-breaking tasks and expenses with lead gen since it is more about generating leads with digital channels—mainly websites.
Websites can be VERY cheap to build, and with many tools online, you get to do it in a couple of hours instead of days. Any virtual or digital business is scalable and won’t need constant maintenance.
So, let’s summarize this:
- You save money in regular expenses with traditional and most online businesses as what you need is yourself and digital properties (websites).
- You can bet on passive income.
- There’s no need to hire more people to get started.
- You can generate leads in multiple industries, which allows you to work on any niche you want.
How Can I Get Started in the Local Lead Generation Program?
Anyone can start and learn. That’s the beauty of this business model. I knew nothing about SEO, Map Listing, and everything I’ve mentioned so far. It is all about learning the skills, gaining experience, and deciding to take the step.
Remember that this business model will never get old as business owners are always looking for leads. They need to do business and scale their companies. Why not do the same while helping others and still making money?
You can start with this local lead generation course highly recommended for anyone wanting to grow in the business. It is a close training that will take you through each step and make sure you are able to get your ROI, profits and take control of your life.
You will be added to an incredible lead generation family ready to help you 24/7 when asking questions on the group. Anyone is welcome who’s willing to put in the work. Click here to watch the lead gen webinar.