The Relatable Advisor

Taking a Different View on Marketing for Consultants

For most independent consultants or partners in small consulting firms, the biggest challenge they face is not creating value for their clients. They know how to do that—and, of course, they’ve done it before. Their job is to deliver the necessary information and ultimately teach their clients how to gain an edge. Drawing on their professional experience, they can see aspects of the bigger picture that most people miss, thereby making different perspectives and solutions accessible. They also recognize that they don’t need to have all the answers beforehand, as long as they are willing to listen and keep an open mind. With a combination of specialized and general knowledge at their disposal, they are able to devise solutions to a multitude of problems and challenges on the fly. And, in many cases, a consultant’s role also includes helping clients develop their own answers and concepts. This is what experts are paid for—if the client decides to hire them.

Client acquisition for professional service providers has never been easy. Offering a service of any kind means selling a future outcome that will only become apparent after the work has been completed. In some respects, the consulting sector is facing even greater challenges these days. Over the past few decades, some large consulting firms have earned a reputation for making big claims and headlines, while putting less effort into delivering practical knowledge and sustainable solutions tailored to the needs of the businesses they serve. Furthermore, to some extent, potential clients may not even know what they need and might have only a limited understanding of the problems they will face in the future. And, for someone who hasn’t previously worked with you, it can be even more difficult to discern the value you offer. Potential clients have no objective way of determining which consultant will perform better than the others. Once a contract is awarded to one consultant, they may never learn whether any of the others would have done a better job. Therefore, winning a client’s trust and confidence beforehand can be more challenging—and essential—than many consultants might believe.

Understanding the Psychology of Perceived Expertise

When it comes to selling to corporate clients, some people say that features and price are—or at least should be—the only relevant factors. Yet, especially when marketing consulting services, any information you offer your client—including all facts and figures—can have a favorable effect on a potential buyer’s decision only when two conditions are met: perceived expertise and, on some level, trust. Both are intangible constructs that exist in your clients’ imagination, and both are necessary for your client to expect you to deliver on your professional promise. For a potential buyer to feel comfortable signing the contract, it must appear reasonable to expect an outcome that justifies the expense. Without emotions, even the most rational and cerebral person will not take action. Whether we’re aware of it or not, feelings—be they subtle or obvious—drive our behavior on a deep level. Rational conclusions alone are not enough; the right emotional state must be triggered, conveying that the expert is indeed capable of delivering—otherwise, we won’t like the idea of making the purchase.

So, what exactly builds trust and positive expectations in a potential buyer’s mind? In essence, we perceive a person or company as trustworthy and competent if what we believe we know about them—from our own experience, hearsay, reading, or media—fits into familiar patterns of reality associated with expertise and trustworthiness. Furthermore, to follow through with a purchase, we must have confidence in our own ability to make effective use of what is being offered. We need to believe that the promised value is applicable and beneficial not just for anyone, but particularly for us in our specific situation. We must feel positive—or at least sufficiently reassured—when picturing ourselves benefiting from the offer; otherwise, our nervous system will not trigger the behavior needed to complete the purchase. More often than not, we also need to feel comfortable imagining ourselves justifying our buying decision to others—whether it’s our supervisor, spouse, colleague, or business partner—even if we rarely ever discuss expenses with them.

Entering the Conversation in Your Future Client’s Mind

All this is highly relevant in more ways than you might think. When potential clients—those who are a good fit for the consulting services you offer—are lost before you even have the chance to meet them in person, the reason is simple: the internal conversation they have does not end in your favor. This isn’t your clients’ fault, nor is it necessarily yours, as you aren’t responsible for the past experiences that largely shape their opinion-forming process. However, as a business owner, it is your responsibility to provide potential buyers with the information they need to draw reasonable conclusions and avoid getting lost on their path to a positive buying decision. The information you convey in your marketing content must align with their internal narrative while matching their emotional state and worldview. You need to make the information significant to your future buyer rather than merely discussing what is relevant from your own perspective. Ultimately, to enable a potential buyer to decide to hire you, you must effectively guide the internal conversation in their mind in a way that increases the likelihood that they will appreciate the value and competitive advantage you can create.

Cutting this conversation short by pushing the sale is one of the biggest mistakes a business consultant can make. It might be tempting to focus solely on reaching for the lowest hanging fruit—directing all communication efforts toward prospects who are ready to buy immediately. However, this represents only a small share of the market—likely around 1 to 5% of all companies that sufficiently match your ideal client profile. Moreover, you will capture only a fraction of this segment, as other consultants are also vying for these clients. A much larger number of potential clients—often around 10 to 30% of those who fit the profile—could be willing to shift into a buying mindset within the next 30 to 180 days if your communication were adequately aligned with their internal dialogue. They do not want to be pushed or treated as if the sale were already closed. Because they are in need of what you offer, they remain open to receiving information that appears relevant and addresses the challenges they face. In this way, an image of you as the go-to expert in your field can take root in their minds.

Expert Positioning 101:
Thinking About Marketing in a Different Way

My name is Dr. Stefan Liekam. When I write about expertise-based positioning for specialized consultants, I do so not only from my perspective as a marketing consultant, copywriter, and business communication advisor but also from my academic background in psychology, educational sciences, philosophy, and medicine. Additionally, much of my insight comes from more than two decades of practical experience in coaching, counseling, and teaching. What connects my diverse areas of interest is the element of human—and interhuman—experience. During my final two years at university, I wrote my doctoral thesis on interpersonal perception, focusing on a scientific view of empathy, sympathetic understanding, and emotional intelligence. Right after graduating, I made a living as a coach, seminar facilitator, and ghostwriter. In all of my roles, I used language to make a difference and create value for my clients, which eventually led me to establish myself in business communication, consulting, and marketing.

I never bothered climbing the career ladder in the shiny world of mainstream advertising; for the longest time, I didn’t even call myself a marketer. Instead, in my projects for corporate clients, I considered it my job to help companies get their communication right by using principles and tools that, for the most part, aren’t taught at business school. Nowadays, my take on using psychology to increase sales remains distinct from most marketing agencies’ approaches. Looking at modern media culture in all its elusive glory, I’ve often felt repelled by the pitch-and-push attitude and the superficiality that largely drives mainstream marketing. That philosophy has never aligned with the strategies I believe to produce the best possible outcomes for my clients. Especially in the field of expertise positioning, I realized early on that marketing can be more effective and impactful when executed in a less obtrusive voice.

Whenever I look back, trying to recall how I began to think about marketing and business communication differently, one particular incident from my time at university comes to mind. I see myself walking down one of the hallways on the fourth floor of the so-called “piggy building”—the pink-painted structure where the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences was located. Coming from the Department of Psychology and heading toward Education, I pass by the offices of several professors and research associates. On that floor, with insider knowledge of what was happening behind many of these doors, I sensed the tension between conflicting parties, each aiming to position their research branches as more important than others. As I walked down the aisle, a thought occurred to me: marketing psychology and learning psychology—and, by extension, teaching—should be considered one and the same. This was not a common perspective in that environment. From the outside, the faculty always appeared welcoming and liberal-minded; yet those more deeply involved in university life knew that almost everyone was eager to defend their turf against differing opinions. In fact, one professor was known for his outstanding ability to position his research projects successfully, while others—despite undertaking more interesting and relevant work—struggled to secure research funding. In a way, that professor was more a marketer than a scientist; however, what he sold, first and foremost, was an image of scientific expertise.

Back then at university, I began to realize that my background in human sciences provided a solid foundation for viewing marketing from a different angle. Marketing should always be about conveying information that is both relevant and significant enough to make a real difference in a potential buyer’s mind. The same is true for teaching. In fact, psychology and educational sciences offer considerable insight into how the human mind processes information to generate knowledge. Teaching doesn’t simply mean putting thoughts into somebody else’s head. Rather, a good teacher can enter the internal conversation in a learner’s mind in a way that helps the learner develop the understanding they need. A good teacher must be influential to perform their role effectively—though not in a way that forces the teacher’s agenda above the student’s interests. This is the kind of influence that expands a learner’s view on reality and connects the dots to make a meaningful difference.

Over the past few decades, two main traditions have been shaping modern marketing. The first primarily focuses on broad impact—aiming simply to put the message out there in an upfront, straightforward, and often image-heavy manner—and essentially being the bread and butter of traditional advertising and corporate branding. The second tradition is more conversational, educational, and strategic. This approach enables world-class copywriters to produce highly influential content for both online and offline purposes, making them some of the highest-paid professionals in the marketing world. It focuses on eliciting the thoughts and emotions necessary to establish connectivity, and it requires deep psychological knowledge to be impactful in any voice or style. Operating in a highly audience-specific way, it aims to increase the perceived relevance of a product or service and to have a sustainable impact on those potential buyers who would benefit most from making a purchase. Studying the principles and techniques practiced in this second tradition taught me how to think, talk, and write more effectively—building credibility and establishing trust in the process. By creating synergies between the marketing knowledge I absorbed, the perspectives from my scientific background, and the practical work I did with people, I developed the toolset and methodology of expertise-based positioning that I focus on today.

The way I’ve come to see it, marketing shouldn’t be about pushing and hustling potential buyers into thinking, feeling, and behaving in a predetermined way. For the potential client or customer, marketing content should resemble a conversation with someone who genuinely takes an interest in helping them—someone who understands their situation, with whom they can relate, and whom they may even consider the expert or go-to person for addressing their problem or challenge. None of us wants others to impose their opinions on us. Instead, we want to be informed and educated, seizing opportunities to benefit from the experiences and insights others have gained, as well as accessing any shortcuts they might have discovered while building their expertise. At times, conversing with such a person might push us out of our comfort zone, as they may question our perspectives and preconceived notions, point out inconvenient truths, or say things we don’t particularly like to hear. Yet when this happens, we want reassurance that it will ultimately work in our favor—knowing it comes from someone who is as committed to our best interests as to their own.

Expertise-based positioning, first and foremost, is about communicating consciously to establish an intentional connection between the expert’s world and the potential buyer’s reality. No matter what type of consulting we offer or which area of expertise we focus on, we can’t simply tell our future clients to see things our way and expect them to follow suit. Instead, for them to embrace our perspective and recognize the value we can create, we must make both ourselves and our offer comprehensible, relevant, and accessible from their point of view. In this sense, marketing is not about forcing others to believe what we want them to believe; it’s about guiding their attention, enabling them to expand and diversify their understanding of their problem, challenge, or business situation, and increasing the likelihood that they will make an informed buying decision. Thus, being a marketer is no different from being a coach, teacher, or facilitator. Ultimately, we want to be that relatable expert who makes a difference and serves our clients in the best possible way.

Expert Positioning 102:
Your Business from Your Client's Perspective

There’s a short—and quite straight-to-the-point—definition of marketing that every business person would be well advised to bear in mind: Marketing is your whole business as it’s being perceived from your buyer’s perspective. Most mistakes made in marketing and sales occur because this simple fact is either ignored or misunderstood. Effective communication with future clients, whether through marketing material or in person, shouldn’t be about telling them what we want to hear ourselves. Instead, it must be about conveying the information needed to enable our potential buyers to see and comprehend the relevance of what we offer from their perspective. We might know what we can do for our clients from our own point of view, yet we must give them what they need to reach the same level of knowledge and understanding. It’s our marketing content that has to provide reasons to trust and expect that the claims we make and the insights we offer are indeed relevant to the goals and future scenarios our potential clients aim for. So, when it comes to explaining expert positioning in a nutshell, it needs to be about examining our future buyers’ perspective on us and our business from a variety of angles.

How to Be Relevant to Your Potential Client’s Reality

Many business consultants struggle to understand that entering into a conversation with a potential client must start with the consultant immersing themselves in the client’s world—not the other way around. As long as a potential buyer doesn’t feel that you can comprehend their situation from their point of view, they will have a hard time trusting your expertise. And, in this respect, there’s little room for mistakes. This is especially true when the conversation is happening internally—in their head—as their inner dialogue oscillates between your marketing content and their preconceived knowledge. Of course, when it comes to the consultant’s area of expertise, it’s part of the job to “know better.” However, “knowing better” is rarely a good starting point for any conversation. “Knowing them and showing it” is far more effective. They want to feel engaged, not just talked at. What’s important to a potential client is to see the relevance of what you offer to their business situation. You cannot rely on them to make this connection on their own. Therefore, your first job in any conversation with a potential client—especially when this interaction occurs through marketing media—is to enter their world before inviting them to reap the benefits of yours.

They Cannot Trust You if They Don’t Know You

It’s common sense that you need to know who you’re dealing with to feel confident in their willingness and ability to deliver the outcomes you need. This is even more true when services are purchased instead of products. Large consulting firms often seem to assume they’re automatically entitled to trust, as if there’s nothing they need to prove. Yet, from a psychological perspective, quite the opposite is true. As a service provider, the first thing you must prove to any new client is that you actually “exist"—meaning that you are indeed who you claim to be, and that you’re willing and able to serve them effectively and efficiently. For that, your marketing content must be worded in a way that is both congruent and, ideally, supported by a story. Not necessarily an astounding or unparalleled one, but certainly one that is relatable, relevant, and meaningful to the potential buyer. An impactful origin or mission story isn’t about bragging or inflating your importance—it’s about speaking to the reader’s subconscious in a way that positions you as someone they know, someone they wouldn't mind being associated with, someone who makes sense, someone from whom they’d like to receive more information, and someone who can offer solutions to their problems or challenges.

You Are the Expert, yet, You Need to Be Relatable

Most people tend to trust expert advice—it makes them feel assured. Yet, we also like to listen to advice from friends, which similarly comforts us. So, what’s the difference between a friend and an expert? Following a friend’s advice makes us feel good because of our deep need for social approval and belonging. In contrast, aligning with an authoritative figure triggers a sense of elevated social status and reduces the risk of being doubted. The same goes for any renowned companies and brands with which we associate. However, when it comes to following expert advice, we’re much less inclined to act on it if we don’t sense any common ground or personal connection—even if we know they likely know better. Interestingly, the dynamic tends to shift when we learn something personal about the expert—such as their values, motivations, background, or goals—that makes us feel our worlds aren’t so different. Thus, while we tend to believe in expert advice, we are more likely to follow it when that expert appears relatable.

Be the Teacher First, the Salesperson Much Later

There’s a marketing rule that is especially true when selling expertise: give before you take. This principle is often ignored because many don’t fully grasp how it applies to marketing and selling. Experts frequently believe they must protect their knowledge, assuming that if they disclose too much beforehand, potential clients will have less incentive to hire them. Yet, this is rarely the case. Often, when you give away parts of your most useful information for free, people become convinced that even more valuable insights await them. Even if you share a lot, it won’t automatically enable them to apply your knowledge to their specific situation and solve their problems without your help. Most people lack the experience, skillset, and time to get the job done at the required level. And, when overwhelmed, they won’t fully utilize the information they receive. Therefore, you should give them enough to make a difference on their own while also creating awareness of the even greater impact you can have if they hire you.

If You Intend to Be Relevant, Don't be Exchangeable

Looking at how most consultants market their services, you get the impression that there’s a code of conformity to which they all adhere. A typical consulting website makes general claims about the value they supposedly create, might highlight some of the methods they use, and references select clients. None of this distinguishes their expertise from that of other consultants. Moreover, when several consultants work together, their website usually doesn't say who they truly are or whether they can deliver the outcomes you actually need in your situation. Marketing for consulting services doesn’t usually aim to convey what it’s like to work with the consultant. For that to happen, the consultant has to make more of an effort: talk about their clients’ needs and situations first, and themselves second. They need to become relevant by providing helpful and insightful information before any offer is made. Ultimately, they must be transparent so that potential clients can form a stronger connection with them than with their competitors.

Expert Status is A Construct in Your Client’s Head

People commonly associate expert status with certificates, credentials, and public recognition. However, there’s another, more psychological, perspective relevant to expertise-based positioning. When we encounter someone who can explain a specific problem or challenge better than we can explain it to ourselves, we are highly prone to assume that they must know the solution. Furthermore, if their explanation is tailored to how our brain prioritizes information—taking our individual learning style into account—we automatically perceive it as more significant and profound. Finally, if that person points out connections and insights we hadn’t noticed before, thereby expanding our perspective in a meaningful way, we’re inclined to believe they can do so again in the future. From a marketing perspective, it’s not merely your knowledge that makes you an expert—it’s the expectations your clients and future clients develop for you to create value by offering the answers and solutions they seek.

Using the Written Word for Positioning Your Expertise

Just a few decades ago, before the invention of the internet, becoming a highly recognized authority in nearly any field required you to be a published author. Despite the changes brought about by the online media world, one thing remains true: using the written word to influence, educate, and inform is crucial in positioning professional expertise. Nothing creates an image of knowledgeability, competency, and authority like a written marketing piece that resembles a printed book, magazine, scientific publication, or white paper. If such a document is crafted in the appropriate voice—using effective psychology to catch and maintain the reader’s attention while conveying professionalism and relevant insight—it doesn’t matter whether it’s printed on paper or available electronically. Even if the reader only glances at or skims the document, a distinct impression of expertise is conveyed, positioning the originator—be it an individual or a company—in a very favorable light. And, of course, being backed by such a publication can be one of the strongest differentiators for many consultants in their market or niche.

It's Just One More Step from Expert to Thought Leader

The one thing your clients most want from you is the ability to predict the future. Of course, they know you can’t do that. Yet, in a way, they want to feel as though you can. They seek an expert’s opinion that prepares them for what’s ahead—short-term or long-term—so they can make better decisions leading to the outcomes they desire and need. They want you to analyze the current situation and its antecedents in a way that renders your insights and conclusions relevant to them. For potential clients to envision themselves benefiting from your expertise, it’s helpful to embrace that aspect of the expert’s role, positioning yourself as a thought leader by making your realizations, intuitions, and predictions on relevant topics publicly accessible. Doing this methodically and strategically shows that you care about what’s important for your clients and are willing to go the extra mile by keeping both yourself and your clients up to date. This is how an image of thought leadership emerges naturally—and how a consultant is positioned as a reliable, authoritative, and relatable source of valuable information.

Dealing with Objections Always Sooner Than Later

Consulting is largely about communicating effectively and efficiently. Yet when resistance arises in your client’s mind, you must address it to get your message through. In that way, consulting is much like marketing—in which you must handle objections in your potential client’s mind even before meeting them in person. You need to become their ally in reaching their goals, addressing what holds them back, and doing so in a way that highlights the difference you can make. It’s not about confronting your client aggressively; they don’t want to be patronized or told what to think. However, they will feel acknowledged if your information reflects an awareness of their situation and concerns—whether stated directly or implied. There are many reasons potential clients doubt whether they’ll get their money’s worth. If too few of these concerns are addressed—or if your responses raise even more resistance—they won’t take you up on any offer. Therefore, marketing must be educational, much like consulting, by enabling people to be receptive to your information so that you can help them achieve greater success.

About Marketing Systems and Staying Relevant

A common mistake in marketing is to focus solely on what everyone else does and try to mimic it. Nowadays, anyone can place a series of ads online or offline, start a social media campaign, contact potential buyers through industry directories, or pursue other marketing measures—learning from mistakes and outcomes along the way. However, if you fail to bridge the gap between your reality and your clients’ reality, you’ll lose many potential buyers. Triggering interest is only the first step. Keeping people engaged long enough for their internal decision-making process to result in them hiring you is a different challenge. Without systems in place—coordinated processes that ensure your potential client’s attention is directed to the right pieces of information in the correct order, while accounting for their prior knowledge, preconceived ideas, and relevant circumstances—you’re leaving much to chance. Marketing systems can be simple or complex, depending on the size of the business, its economic goals, and other factors. However, for any consultant, the systems they rely on should be at least as organized and strategic as the services they sell.

Expert Positioning 103:
Developing an Expertise-focused Marketing Plan

When it comes to developing a marketing plan for our business, one of the first questions we need to ask is how we can exert maximum leverage in our market in the most efficient way. Possessing adequate expertise in marketing and sales helps us find the best possible answer to this question. Yet, as mentioned before, we must also understand the psychology of the potential buyers our communication is targeting. And, of course, we need to have a clear understanding of our short-, medium-, and long-term goals—and how these goals interrelate—to even decide on the marketing measures to be taken. To develop a strategic approach, we must also consider predictable, or at least assumable, future scenarios that might become relevant to our business development. Although all this requires a certain level of sophistication, much of it ultimately stems from common-sense thinking.

Most marketing agencies don’t examine their clients’ businesses from such a multifaceted perspective. For them, the job is more about selling the latest marketing trends, creating splashy campaigns and flashy web designs, and telling you what the big players in your market are doing—so you can do the same. Of course, if you’re fortunate enough to have a huge marketing budget at your disposal, you could pursue mainstream marketing. It may work to some extent and yield some of the desired outcomes. However, that is not how an expertise-based brand is built. Quite likely, the tactics that biggest players in your market use today are not the same ones they employed to achieve market domination in the first place. Moreover, what they did in the past to reach their current level of success may not serve you best in your current circumstances. Figuring out a strategy that positions your business as the only preferable choice in your potential client’s perception—rather than merely trying to be the loudest and most dominant among many competitors—requires deeper psychological expertise. Yet, it has the potential to advance your business in a sustainable way. To apply the right strategies and tactics coherently, every step taken must align with the bigger picture and overall strategy. Therefore, for our purposes here, we’ll adopt the “three stages of expertise-based positioning” framework to integrate our marketing measures.

Stage 1:
Strategy Building Groundwork

The first step in developing a marketing plan focused on expertise-based positioning is to analyze the business’s current situation, define available resources, and clarify which specific outcomes to aim for. More often than not, this involves examining potential markets and target groups, performing competitor analysis, and making reasonable assumptions about economic trends and the business’s future. How complex such an assessment needs to be depends on many factors. However, the goal is not to complicate matters unnecessarily—it’s about thinking straightforwardly to determine which combination of marketing tools and approaches will most effectively and efficiently achieve the desired outcomes.

This process might require examining certain figures more closely than ever before. For example, knowing how much a new client is worth on average—in terms of gross value and revenue—is essential for calculating the allowable cost of client acquisition, a key factor in determining an appropriate marketing budget and measuring success. It’s about simple math and reasonable estimations, so there’s nothing unmanageable about it. At the same time, the assessment must also consider less tangible factors, such as identifying the psychographic attributes of an ideal client profile that allow for marketing communication to be tailored optimally.

Ultimately, this isn’t about complicating things but about creating a realistic view of our business on which we can base our marketing efforts. It’s about developing a thorough understanding of what the business entails from our buyer’s perspective, providing a baseline for strategic and consistent communication with future clients.

Stage 2:
Laying a Foundation for Perceived Expertise

When building an expertise-based business, we need to accept that we cannot be an expert to everyone—and that is a good thing. Trying to appeal to everyone usually means that nobody feels truly addressed. Our primary goal should not be to achieve the broadest outreach but to create the most targeted impact; that is, we want to communicate in a way that resonates most with those potential buyers who are the best match for our offerings. This truth might seem self-evident, yet it is dismissed far too often. Many claim that nobody takes the time to read anymore and that fewer people have the patience to watch informational videos to the very end. However, in most cases, it isn’t that our potential clients lack focus—they will inevitably stay focused, provided they’re given enough of a reason. Then again, since all of us are constantly bombarded with information, winning and retaining a future buyer’s interest has indeed become more of a challenge these days.

Despite the fact that the average person’s attention span is shorter than we might like, giving less information does not automatically generate more buyers. Sometimes shorter is better—but only if it accomplishes its purpose. Moreover, if done right, future clients don’t always need to consume every single detail. In general, a prospective client must remain engaged long enough to receive the necessary information to feel comfortable with making a purchase. Often, a potential buyer stops engaging not because they cannot focus, but because the content feels boring, hard to follow, too general, or irrelevant. If a potential buyer believes they’d miss out on value by stopping, they’re more likely to want to know what comes next. Therefore, to launch or grow an expertise-based business, you need to trigger your future clients’ desire to learn more—eliciting the expectation that what you offer is relevant to their situation, problem, or challenge. To ensure your offer is something they won’t want to miss, focus on making your content significant, comprehensible, and digestible—not for everybody, but for those who are the right match.

To advance your business effectively, there are three basic pillars to prioritize when building the foundation of an expertise-based marketing approach: online presence, a central positioning piece, and an outreach strategy. In this context, online presence encompasses not only the business’s website but also a consistent portrayal of perceived expertise across all online profiles and platforms. Next, the central positioning piece serves as a marketing instrument that connects your business to its field of expertise. This could be written content—such as a book, white paper, or long article—or any other medium designed to address your potential clients’ key challenges, establish your expertise, and convey relevant, useful information. Finally, the outreach strategy builds on the first two pillars, enabling your business to systematically target, approach, and respond to potential clients. By employing appropriate strategies, processes, tools, and media channels, a well-functioning outreach strategy will cultivate a pool of prospective clients who are either in immediate need of your offerings or likely to respond to future proposals.

Stage 3:
Building Expertise Sustainability

There is much that can be done to strategically position an expertise-based business—gaining market leverage and establishing expert status. Moreover, using the momentum built during this process by continually pursuing appropriate marketing measures is key to creating strong, lasting relationships with both existing and prospective clients, ultimately positioning you as a leader in your market or niche. For nearly any business, taking ongoing steps to generate interest and reach additional potential clients is economically important. And, it’s equally essential to reinforce your business’s expertise status with your current client base, encouraging them to become repeat buyers. Often, it isn’t about doing as much as possible but about achieving the desired outcomes in the most efficient manner. With a solid foundation in place, every subsequent step should strengthen the established image of competency and relevance while supporting future efforts.

To be economically viable in the long term, a marketing strategy must enable a business to leverage its financial resources, operational capacities, and available skillsets sustainably—without having to reinvent the wheel every other week. For efficiency and consistency, a governing strategy must be in place to align all marketing measures. Whether it’s a regular newsletter, social media campaigns, blog marketing, public speaking, direct mail outreach, events, joint ventures, traditional public relations, webinars, articles, books, or other publications, every measure should aim to create synergies while still delivering independent results. Again, this isn’t about complicating things; it’s about being organized and methodical so that you can simplify your efforts. It’s about creating a roadmap that gives your marketing the attention it needs to support your business’s profitability in the most efficient way.

Expert Positioning 104:
Choosing the Next Steps for Marketing Your Business

At times, it can be tempting to believe that running a business is one thing and taking care of its marketing is another. However, the truth is, if your work involves offering services or products to a free market—and thereby reaching potential buyers who can make a choice and act on it—marketing is, in fact, your business, not just a part of it. Meaning, marketing is your entire business from your buyers’ and potential buyers’ perspective. Moreover, if your professional responsibilities require you to communicate with prospects, clients, suppliers, stakeholders, partners, coworkers, employees, or anyone else who plays a role in moving your business forward, then your business communication is, on some level, marketing communication. Interpersonal relationships—even if we aren’t constantly aware of it—are largely about using language to connect, influence, and create in ways that wouldn’t be possible without exchanging information. Making our opinions and views on reality accessible to others plays a huge part in operating within human society. In this sense, every person—and particularly every business person—needs to be a marketer.

There’s much that can be outsourced when it comes to marketing activities, which can ease implementation and offer more flexibility in pursuing business growth. Building the required skillset to handle elaborate content creation tasks may not fit into an already busy schedule. Hiring an external expert who knows what they’re doing might be the only way to avoid settling for subpar compromises. However, if you decide to do it all by yourself, rest assured that it is possible. The information I’ve shared so far can be tremendously helpful in that regard. Besides, there’s knowledge about your business and your clients that only you possess—knowledge that is essential for getting your marketing on track. Moreover, some marketing tasks are more cost-effectively handled internally and should be integrated with the processes and systems that keep the business running. Usually, expertise-based positioning is most effective and efficient when different people—and different types of expertise—come together, with some tasks managed by marketing professionals and others handled in-house.

Chances are, reading this little marketing guide up to this point has expanded your understanding of what’s possible for you and your business. It might even have given you some concrete ideas about how expertise-based positioning can fit into your business development and communication strategies. If this is something you want to pursue, you could use my quick walkthrough as a roadmap for creating your own marketing material, utilizing the perspectives I’ve introduced. Alternatively, if you’d like assistance adapting and applying the principles and strategies of expertise-based positioning to your specific business situation—combining the right tools and approaches, and building marketing content that truly makes a difference—feel free to send me an inquiry using the contact form below.