Isn’t joining a new job one of the most overwhelming feelings in the world? Seeing as this is my first and a new job to boot it certainly is even more. In order to complete my Hubspot practicum I was told to come up with a topic. Management Consultancies has been a topic that is quite interesting to me and hence this is my first ever blog for Znbound. According to a study conducted by HingeMarketing.com, 81.1% of respondents believe that the biggest challenge faced by management consultancies is attracting and developing new business.
Does inbound marketing have any answers? Let us find out. Broadly, there are two reasons why Management Consulting firms should consider inbound marketing.
External Reasons
- Market Participants: The leading firms are already doing it and those that are not, are actually doing it, without giving it the direction of inbound marketing. In the latter case, firms are publishing enough thought leadership content, but fail in promoting it, such that it can generate new business.
- Buyer Journey
Internal Reasons
- Business Growth
- Branding / Awareness
External Reasons
Buyer Journey
According to Gartner, the average buyer completes 57% of the purchase process before ever contacting a salesperson. They conduct pre-purchase research with search engine queries and talk to trusted colleagues to learn how they’ve solved similar problems. Consultancies are notorious for having only a few decision makers and a tediously long sales process. In such a demanding situation, it is of prime importance to make prospects find you themselves. So in this Golden Age of the well informed customer, we must go out of our way to not only publish content but also make it easily found to those seeking it. Inbound Marketing is the weapon to be wielded and can increase your leads exponentially since it primarily deals with earned media. In this case, Thomas Witt Consulting was able to increase their leads by a multiple of 13 by adopting inbound marketing.
Bridging the Gap
The Big 4 in Management Consultancies PwC, EY, Deloitte and KPMG are no strangers to using content for marketing themselves. They publish 100’s of reports annually to ensure that their brand image is maintained and further enhanced. While they are already engaged in content creation which is an integral part of the inbound methodology they have not given it the structure that it deserves. Promoting this quality content on social media and optimizing it for Search Engines are just a few of the key tasks that most consultancies are missing out on. Inbound Marketing can be the tipping point for consultancies looking to expand the prospects that they can reach.
Internal Effects
Business Growth
Consultancies have always had to find unique ways to market their service to potential customers. Growing up I don’t think any of us saw ads of EY and PwC, did we?Consultants are the bread and butter of a management consultancy. They are the “products” that the firm is essentially loaning to those in need. So why not tap into their vast ocean of knowledge and offer a drop to the world? With Inbound Marketing, a consultant can do what he/she does best- help solve people’s problems. By creating content they will draw prospects to them instead of running after them. Content Marketing, which is a subset of Inbound Marketing, is often more cost effective than traditional interruptive marketing. In fact, according to themarketinghelpline.com content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing but can generate 3 times more leads. By getting consultants to create content you are not only lending them visibility and social proof; in the long run, you are also increasing their credibility in the eyes of a prospect.
Brand Building
In a market that is increasingly getting saturated with each passing day, it is very important for a consultancy to position itself as a thought leader.The Gartner report mentioned above talks about prospects researching their problem and it’s solutions. When they’re researching their problem, it is critical that they find your company and are able to access the right information at the right time to influence their purchase decision. So it is very important to be helpful to prospects by answering questions and sharing information. It doesn’t matter if they never use your services, they may introduce you to your biggest client yet!Prospects must look at the firm as one of the most trusted sources on the Internet for anything with respect to management and hence seek them out when they/their friends require a unique solution. So do you think Inbound Marketing and Management Consulting are a match made in heaven?
