Background
There is no industry sector in our economy that does not have its own corps of consultants able to tackle any issues a company might require assistance with. As a result it is difficult to generalize consulting statistics, as consultants in dissimilar sectors will have drastically different requirements and preferences in their daily operations. These differences extend to the task of promoting their enterprises, as a number of consultants prefer to work exclusively by word of mouth and therefore have no marketing budget or strategy whatsoever. The majority of consultants do pursue new business aggressively, thus they find themselves in need of a coherent marketing and promotional plan allowing for company growth by adding new clients and encouraging additional billings from existing ones.
The marketing and promotional requirements of the consulting industry vary not only by personal preference and background but also by the commercial sector where the consulting firm operates. Consultants who work in financially related services such as accounting, business analysis, insurance, investments, personal finance, taxes, venture capital and wills and estate planning will have considerably different clients and marketing approaches than technology consultants, who specialize in computer training, e-commerce, information technology, search engine optimization, software training, telecommunications and website management. While the former category requires the acumen of a CPA and profound grasp of numbers and spreadsheets, the latter requires advanced technological training and know-how. The clientele of a financial sector consultant will consist of individuals in particular positions at accounting firms and financial institutions; they will need to be addressed in a different manner than the clients of the technology sector consultants, who tend to be younger, more casual and oriented towards interests alien to the financial consultant's clientele.
Not all consultants deal specifically with corporate executives. The consultants who specialize in architecture and building safety, beauty, childbirth, city planning, clothing and fashion, college admissions, college planning, diet and nutrition, editorial planning, energy, environment, fitness, home improvement, imports and exports, intercultural communications, interior decorating, legal, marriage relations, medical and health, mental health, parenting, real estate, retirement planning, social policies, stress relief, tourism, travel planning, weddings and weight loss will encounter all types professionals, from trainers and nutritionists to realtors, medical practitioners and academics.
Regardless of the industry sector, email and
social media marketing is the best way to reach out to clientele. Consultants who are active in the commercial relations and mentoring fields of sectors such as advertising, business change and reform, business networking, career advice, crisis management, diversity in the workplace, entrepreneurship and small business start-up, human resources, leadership, management, market research, marketing, media relations, organization, public relations, public speaking, publicity, sales, strategy formulation, team building and time management will come into contact with executives who are working in many types of arenas; yet, they all have a common denominator in their perpetual contact with the Internet. These executives have computers on their desks and in their briefcases, are never more than a few feet away from a web-enabled mobile device and in constant touch with their Web activities wherever their daily schedule takes them.
Consulting is also internally diverse: In terms of marketing, there are likely more extremes in operational marketing and promotional styles than in other industries. However, the utilization of email and social media marketing by consultants across all sectors is unanimously elevated. More than four of every five consultants currently engage both their existing clientele and prospective clients through email marketing. Nearly nine of ten consultants are either currently in the process of applying an
email marketing strategy or intend to do so in the immediate future. Only 11 percent of all consultants are not involved in email marketing
and have no plans to be - one of the lowest such statistics to be found in any industry. Essentially all figures pertaining to the consultants' utilization of email marketing technologies are considerably higher than in other industries. More than three of five consultants apply segmentation methodologies to their email content; nearly six of ten send email newsletters and missives more than once a month; the reported open rates for the consulting industry are 50 percent higher than the average for all industries; click-through rates are almost four times greater than a sector such as restaurants.
Given these statistics, it is clear that the consulting industry is generating a great deal of its continued development, advancement and progress on the power and reach of email and social media marketing. Consultants everywhere have discovered there is no other medium that provides the lucrative benefits of
email marketing.
