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In a world where anyone can access the archives of
the Smithsonian Institute with a click of the mouse,
potential clients will not be satisfied if a consultant’s
Web site turns up nothing but marketing babble. Clients
come to your Web site for one reason: to solve a problem.
They expect your site to look professional, be easy
to navigate, and offer content that helps them understand
how you can help them.
Patterns for buying consulting services have changed,
and there’s no turning back. We’re in the
era of guerrilla clients—buyers who have
a wealth of information at their fingertips and use
it. A study by the Information Technology Services Marketing
Association (ITSMA) found that 77 percent of decision
makers find service providers, including consultants,
using the Web, even if they have referrals.
Clients gather intelligence from the Web to assess
consultants’ capabilities. Without a Web site
that unequivocally shows your unique capabilities, guerrilla
clients will always pass you by.
Too many consultants create replicas of “yellow
pages” ads on the Web. They fail to capitalize
on the power of the Web to attract clients and grow
their businesses.
Make Your Site a Hub
Your Web site should be the marketing hub of your
practice. Think of your site as equal parts consulting
office, demonstration lab, library, and publicity machine.
Its content, appearance and ease of use show your competence
as a professional.
Your site paints a powerful portrait of your visual
identity by reflecting your style, and how you choose
to present yourself. It also serves as a showroom from
which you can exhibit your wares. Your Web site gives
you a platform from which to tell your story, describe
your mission, list your clients and distribute information.
It also provides you with visibility both in and out
of your industry.
Leading firms create a repository on their Web sites
for their intellectual assets—articles, papers,
proposals, studies, surveys and reports—which
prospective clients can examine. These materials help
visitors understand how the consultants think and how
they tackle problems.
Ten Characteristics of a Killer Consulting Web Site
1. Show Legitimacy as a Business. You
will build credibility with visitors by including simple
items on your site like the physical address of your
business, photographs of your offices, or by listing
membership in professional and industry associations.
Include contact information on each page.
2. Update Content Frequently. Some
consultants fail to maintain their sites’ content,
resulting in sites full of stale information. Web visitors
assign more credibility to sites that are current, or
at least demonstrate that they have been recently reviewed.
3. Encourage Action. On each page
of your site, find a way for visitors to interact with
you, whether it’s to sign up for a newsletter,
request a special report, link to another page on your
site or send you an e-mail. Your site should engage
visitors, not just let them “click and go.”
4. Exchange Value for Time. Web site
visitors, particularly those looking for consultants,
will gladly exchange their time for value and insight.
Provide relevant, valuable and usable content, and prospective
clients may put you on their shortlist. Consider using
interactive diagnostic tools that help clients measure
the impact of issues they’re facing.
5. Rapid Response. If you receive
an e-mail inquiry from a visitor, follow up immediately,
no matter how busy you are. That e-mail inquiry about
your services will not improve with age; don’t
let it get moldy in your Inbox. And drop the canned
auto-responder. Automated responses don’t get
you any closer to the client.
6. Simplicity. Create your site for
clients, not for the artist within you. Make the design
of the site simple, intuitive to use, and easy to read.
Provide lots of white space on pages because visitors
tend to skim pages, not read every detail. And stick
to a simple, eye-pleasing palette. Your layout should
be logical. Navigation buttons and features like newsletter
sign-up boxes should be in the same place on all pages.
Make it easy to download material by providing explicit
instructions.
7. Speed Doesn’t Kill. Make
sure each page and link loads quickly, no matter what
type of browser or machine a visitor uses. Don’t
assume that all visitors are using high-speed connections
when they access your site. Visitors will leave your
site in a heartbeat if your pages load too slowly.
8. Pass the Acid Test. Before you
launch a new or revised site, ask clients and colleagues
to thoroughly test every element of the site. Ask them
to answer questions such as…Is the site easy to
use? Does it provide useful information? Would the site
prompt you to contact the consultant?
9. Accountability for Ongoing Site Quality.
Some consultants create Web sites just because
“we need a site,” but then let them languish.
Since it’s an integral part of your external marketing
program, don’t let your site die on the vine.
Assign accountability for its long-term value to a specific
person or group, so you will reap the full benefits
of the Web.
10. Go Easy on Data Collection. On
some consultants’ sites, visitors are asked to
give up pages of personal information before they can
receive a simple white paper. Keep it to a minimum.
Ask only for their e-mail addresses, and then send them
the information they requested. If they find value in
your material, they’ll call you.
Remember that guerrilla clients demand more. They want
professional sites that give them solid information
about who you are, what you do, how you think and most
importantly, how you can benefit them. Providing anything
less will eliminate you from their list of candidates
for their consulting projects.
Michael W. McLaughlin
is the co-author, with Jay Conrad Levinson, of Guerrilla
Marketing for Consultants. Michael is a principal
with Deloitte Consulting LLP, and has over twenty years
of consulting experience with clients in businesses
of every size, from small start-ups to some of the world’s
highest-profile companies. He is also the editor of
Management Consulting News. For more information,
visit http://www.guerrillaconsulting.com.
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