{"id":87911,"date":"2012-07-19T08:55:30","date_gmt":"2012-07-19T12:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wpmu.org\/?p=87911"},"modified":"2012-07-19T03:57:27","modified_gmt":"2012-07-19T07:57:27","slug":"stop-sucking-as-an-online-marketing-consultant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/stop-sucking-as-an-online-marketing-consultant\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Rules to Stop Sucking as an Online Marketing Consultant"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Post<\/em><\/p>\n

A lot of my fellow WordPress enthusiasts and my readers are marketing consultants. Even those who don\u2019t position themselves that way\u2026and unfortunately some of them suck at marketing.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not hating on anyone here. Everyone sucks at something\u2026and I spent my share of years at \u201cHard Knocks University\u201d<\/strong> before I finally got a clue.<\/p>\n

-Shudders-<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve noticed something peculiar about entrepreneurs, though\u2026<\/p>\n

They all think they\u2019re marketing experts.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t blame them I guess. It\u2019s intoxicating to the EGO\u2026wielding the power to conjure up the money to put food on your table while millions of poor souls are forced to work for an employer in exchange for a measly, albeit predictable, paycheck.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to get what I call \u201centrepreneurial fever.\u201d This is where you make $50 working for yourself and suddenly you\u2019re this marketing guru\u2026a legend in your own mind.<\/p>\n

But when you\u2019re sitting across the table (or on Skype, halfway across the world) from a client who knows as much about marketing as an octopus knows about operating a cell phone, you often become the expert by default.<\/p>\n

In case this has happened to you, or in case it\u2019s in your near future, I thought you might want to know what I\u2019ve learned from the piles I\u2019ve stepped in as a marketing consultant\u2026<\/p>\n

#1: Lesson One: The Customer is the Expert<\/strong><\/p>\n

Have you ever heard that the Customer is always right?<\/p>\n

Well, I\u2019ve got my own spin on that now\u2026<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s greatest marketing expert is your customer.<\/p>\n

Of course, they don\u2019t know this, and it\u2019s better that way. Easier to sell them stuff. The best way to learn how to market to a customer is to measure their behaviors<\/em>, and WordPress has a ton of plugins and gadgets that help you do this.<\/p>\n

Use these tools, and find out what\u2019s going on in the customers\u2019 heads before you start giving your clients advice. This is easy to do if you monitor customer behaviors and ask yourself why they\u2019re responding to your client\u2019s marketing the way they are.<\/p>\n

Of course, you could always survey the customers, but many times that\u2019s about as useful as a flamethrower in a room full of gas cans. Your customers don\u2019t always have a clear idea of what they really want, and what people say on surveys tells you very little, if anything, about what will actually motivate them to spend money.<\/p>\n

But if you watch their behaviors, you\u2019ll discover what they honestly value. This is the only cure for what I call \u201csneakerbreath.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Open mouth, insert foot)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to catch sneakerbreath as a marketing consultant. All you have to do is open your mouth, say something that sounds right, only to have your client come back and give you the ole\u2019\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried that and it didn\u2019t\u2019 work.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

Ouch.<\/p>\n

Ever had to talk your way out of that one? Not much to say other than:<\/p>\n

\u201cMy bad.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

So before you advise, find out how the customers are already responding and build your strategy around customer behavior.<\/p>\n

#2: Lesson Two: Question First, Consult Later<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you start advising before you\u2019ve asked at least three to five good questions, I\u2019ll be willing to bet you my left shoe that you\u2019re misleading your clients.<\/p>\n

Napoleon Hill once said that opinions are the cheapest commodity on earth. Yet many well-respected entrepreneurs say information<\/em> is the most valuable commodity on earth. If you smell a contradiction here, I don\u2019t blame you.<\/p>\n

The difference lies within the perspective from which an opinion is given. An opinion based on correct knowledge can be worth a fortune. But an opinion based on speculation, and even genuine experience, can be as rotten as a bucket of raw sewage. You have to ask the right questions first.<\/p>\n

The poet T.S. Eliot once said:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere is the wisdom we\u2019ve lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we\u2019ve lost in information?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Post
TS Eliot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019d pose this question to anyone who aspires to be in the education business, especially marketing education and particularly for those who have a lot of experience already. Experience can be your biggest crutch. It can cause you to advise a client based on assumptions about what you believe the problem is, only to end up in the \u201cof those who have nothing to say, few are silent\u201d<\/em> club.<\/p>\n

This is why it\u2019s always a good idea to have three to five diagnostic questions that you ask before you give any input about a client\u2019s marketing strategy. In fact, it\u2019s a good idea to do this before you even consider taking them on as a client or quoting them a price for your services.<\/p>\n

Questions are the mark of wisdom, and people will pay you well to ask the right questions. They seldom care about opinions\u2026they can get those anywhere.<\/p>\n

#3: Lesson Three: Read<\/span> Fail to Succeed<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you want to be a goldmine of marketing wisdom for your clients, learn by taking risks and testing your knowledge when marketing your own business. You might have heard the saying:<\/p>\n

\u201cReaders are leaders.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Cute, I like how they made it rhyme. That\u2019s as far as the value of this saying goes. Leaders are people who take action and who learn through trial, error and persistence. This is especially true when it comes to being a thought leader in the marketing niche.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like Dan Kennedy (the marketer of marketers) said:<\/p>\n

\u201cMarketing isn\u2019t something you learn, it\u2019s something you do.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Dan
Dan Kennedy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Amen to that.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying you shouldn\u2019t read to become a better marketing consultant; but if reading comprises 20% or more of your learning, you\u2019re making beds in a burning house and asking your clients to sleep in them.<\/p>\n

There are thousands of books on marketing, many of which were written by people who couldn\u2019t make money doing anything else so they decided to try advising people about making money.<\/p>\n

-Scratches his head-<\/em><\/p>\n

If you read enough of these books, you\u2019ll fill your head with theories that sound great but which, when applied, go over like a belch at a wedding banquet. Reading might be safer, but if you want to be a good marketing consultant, you have to risk failure and learn what really works.<\/p>\n

#4: Don\u2019t Forget Lesson #3, Get to Work<\/strong><\/p>\n

Life is too short to suck at what you do, and take it from someone who has stepped on plenty of land mines; these lessons can help you blow up your income as a marketing consultant. Find out how your client\u2019s customers are already responding, ask some solid questions before giving advice and learn by testing your own ideas in the marketplace.<\/p>\n

Online marketing consultants are as common as ants at a picnic, but there will always be a feast of opportunity available for those who are worth their salt.<\/p>\n

Best,<\/p>\n

Seth C<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These are three lessons every online marketing consultant needs to learn, either the hard way or the easy way…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132058,"featured_media":87914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"blog_reading_time":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_tutorials_categories":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[235],"tags":[],"tutorials_categories":[],"class_list":["post-87911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-misc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132058"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87911"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220012,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87911\/revisions\/220012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87911"},{"taxonomy":"tutorials_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tutorials_categories?post=87911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}