Yesterday, Michael McLaughlin, the co-author of Guerilla Marketing for Consultants, outlined the 4 questions every consultant should ask about their practice as the New Year starts: 

• Did This Past Year Turn Out for Your Practice Like You Thought It Would?
• Who Do You Want to Work With?
• Is Your Marketing Program Serving You?
• How Compelling is Your Service? 

All are good questions, but in the third question, he makes a great point about the importance of a consultant’s website:

“The problem may well be the lack of a focused message.

That lack of focus often cascades into every part of a practice. But it shows up most distinctly on a consultant’s website. Some sites offer such diluted messages that you can’t tell what the consultants actually do.”

I’ve seen a lot of consultants’ websites, and unfortunately, the majority of them don’t make me think “I really have to talk to this person!”

For marketing consultants, the bar is higher. Before I interview a marketing consultant, I check out their website and decide whether the person/firm

CAN sell;
Might be able to sell; or
CAN’T sell.

I don’t hire consultants in the third category, and need a STRONG personal recommendation to interview consultants in the second category. Right or wrong, my judgment is based on the difference between a good website, a mediocre website and a poor website. In fact, I wonder how marketing consultants with outdated website design, unfocused messages and a lack of persuasion can even stay in business?

I realize budget can be an issue: Approximately 84% of marketing consulting firms in the U.S. last year (Bizminer.com) had 4 or fewer employees. But if you’re a marketing consultant, that’s no excuse. Does your website influence a client’s buying decision? Absolutely. After your reputation, your website is the most important marketing tool. 

It takes years to build a strong reputation. A poor website can neutralize it in 10 seconds. The good news is that you can build a quality site today for under $2,000 (even under $1,000 if you do some of the work yourself). It doesn’t have to be flashy: It has to be effective.

Check out some great free web management platforms (Drupal, Joomla and WordPress) and tips on developing content for your website and revamping your website content.

Tags: websites

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 8th, 2009 at 8:40 pm and is filed under Marketing Strategies and Tactics, Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.