Marketing a business consultancy firm may be challenging as you are not selling a physical thing but services to people who may not be aware that they require those services. Let us look at some of the tested methods used by business consultants in Singapore to market their ventures.
You can profit by helping other companies make informed decisions and resolve problems if you are an expert in a particular industry or niche. Here are some ways and platforms where you can market your business consulting services in Singapore:
Direct mail
It is a compelling way to promote a new business consultancy, as it targets the exact audience you want to reach. However, you will have to rent or create a targeted prospect list, then send your proposed customers a flier, sales letter, brochure, or “lumpy envelope” with an enclosed gift detailing the business consulting services you provide. Personalize your sales message and emphasize the advantages of your offer while giving all the necessary details.
Advertising
Advertise in specialized magazines or trade journals by placing ads and advertising in special sections such as the directory of consulting services. Local yellow pages also present a worthy place to advertise. It is good to consider placing a larger ad in the book since people assume that spending more money on the ad means that you are more professional or established than other business consultants. Be tactful in advertising since it can be expensive to do.
Newsletters have proven to be useful in rounding up customers for your consultancy firm. You can present news of interest to possible clients through newsletters and remind previous clients that you are still doing what you do best and ready if they want help again. Your newsletter should include tips for success, editorials and opinions, and other important industry news.
Join Singapore Business Advisors and Consultants Council
Singapore Business Advisors and Consultants Council (SBACC) is a professional body that enforces Practising Management Consultant certification. As a member of this organization, you will be recognized as an authority by companies in the private sector and various government agencies such as IE Singapore, WDA, and SPRING Singapore.
One of the most daunting tasks for any business is to market itself in a way that resonates with potential customers.
No matter what industry you are in, from sales to service, there is always market research to be done, and you need to know how to go about doing it.
What makes your business special?
Your business’s unique selling proposition (USP) is why you exist in the first place and is the key to successful marketing. The USP is used in marketing to define your product or service’s special qualities or advantages. Essentially, you exist to solve a specific problem for which you have the answer.
It is important to understand that having a USP means something other than that your product or service is the best on the market. It means that it differs from other products and services in the marketplace and serves a particular need or want among your target audience.
Studying your target audience’s needs and wants is the key to creating a successful business. You can develop products and services they will value and benefit from. It is a two-way street – what are your customers’ needs, and what can you offer to solve those problems?
Where Do I Start?
The first step is to identify your target audience and determine which ones you will focus on.
Who are your customers, and which one(s) will you pursue first? Whom do you intend to serve with your products or services?
It is imperative to find your niche in a crowded marketplace. Crowdsourcing and artificial intelligence have made it easier to find your niche, so you can find the customers you deserve. However, having a clear idea of who you are targeting and why you are different is essential to creating successful products and marketing strategies.
How Do I Identify My Target Audience?
A sound marketing strategy cannot be created in a vacuum. You need to know your audience inside and out or at least have a good idea of who they are and what they want. Otherwise, you may end up marketing to the wrong audience or, even worse, no audience.
This is why conducting research and collecting as much data as possible about your target audience is important. Start by asking friends, family, and colleagues for their opinions about your product or service. Visit business websites and forums to see what questions are being asked and what people are saying about your industry. Look into search engine optimization (SEO) and run a few quick keyword searches to see what comes up. Search Analytics from Google can help you pinpoint the right audience for your product or service.
Taking the time to build a solid foundation of knowledge about your target audience will pay off in the end. You can tailor your marketing strategies to be more effective and less likely to fail.
What Do I Want To Achieve?
Apart from identifying your target audience, you must also set your goals and objectives for this marketing effort. What do you hope to see from the success of your marketing efforts?
Do you want to gain more customers? Are you looking to raise brand awareness? Will you use social media to attract new investors?
All of these things are possible, but you must set your sights on something specific and measurable. As the old saying goes, you cannot set a goal that you cannot achieve. It is a waste of time and effort if you set a goal that is too ambitious and unlikely to be reached.
How Do I Measure The Success Of My Marketing Efforts?
To determine the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and set the right foundation for future growth, you need to set measurable goals. Measuring the success of your marketing efforts is also essential to ensure that you are not wasting your time and money and that you are improving your results. To tie everything together, you should review your business’ performance from a customer’s perspective, looking for specific metrics that can be attributed to the marketing campaign. For example, check the number of new customers you gained due to the marketing campaign or the amount of traffic to your website from organic search engines (like Google).
The metrics you pick can be tracked and attributed to your marketing interventions. For instance, if you decide to use social media to promote your business, you can measure the success of your campaign by counting the number of people who interacted with your posts or followed you on social media.
Your marketing strategy will only be as effective as the tools and metrics you use to determine its success. With the right metrics, it is easier to tell if your marketing efforts are making a difference, and it will be easier to answer the question: How do I market my business in Singapore?
How Do I Market My Business Consultancy Firm in Singapore
If you’re reading this, you’re either in the process of establishing a business consultancy firm or are a seasoned practitioner who has been doing this for some time.
In either case, you clearly understand a business consultancy firm and how you can provide value to your clients through this unique skill set.
When you establish your business, you will face numerous marketing challenges. This article will discuss five vital tactics you must follow to market your consultancy effectively.
1. Define your target audience
You know your target audience as a business owner, strategist, or marketer. Your job is to identify these people, understand their needs and wants, and develop strategies to draw them to your services.
For example, if you are running a business consultancy firm focused on digital marketing in Singapore, your target audience will be defined as professionals in the digital marketing space. Now, it’s your job to understand what sets them apart from others, what challenges they face, and how you can help solve these problems.
2. Identify your competitors
In most industries, competition reveals the market size and encourages you to develop your offering to capture a market share. When you’re establishing a business in a new industry, however, this is only sometimes the case. In some industries, such as legal consultancy, you may face little competition as there are few players in the game. For instance, Baker McKenzie, Handa Global Finance, and Watson Briggs LLP are Singapore’s three legal consultancy firms.
In other industries, however, such as life and health insurance, you will encounter fierce competition. You must understand how your product relates to other industry players to position yourself as a viable alternative. With this information, you can craft innovative marketing strategies to entice prospective customers to your site.
3. Establish benchmarks for success
Every business is different, but in general, the more you can measure and track the greater your chance of success. Whether you’re a small business proprietor running a virtual shop or a large corporation with an in-house marketing department, setting goals and benchmarks for key performance indicators (KPIs) will give you a clear idea of how you’re progressing and allow you to evaluate the effectiveness of your strategy.
Without goals and KPIs, it’s easy to get distracted by the day-to-day minutiae of business and forget about the bigger picture. Establishing KPIs for crucial metrics, such as website traffic, leads, and sales will give you a clear idea of how you’re faring and allow you to determine if these efforts result in the desired outcomes. For example, a landing page with an asset from which you can download the user manual will generate the most leads. Or, you may decide that you will need to focus on marketing activities across social media channels to achieve your goals.
4. Identify the key performance indicators (KPIs)
Every business is different, so you need to tailor your KPIs to the specifics of your situation. Regardless, several key performance indicators (KPIs) can be used to track the progress of your marketing efforts. A/B testing is one of the most important strategies for measuring the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. A/B testing, also known as split testing, is the process of comparing two different treatments (A and B) in order to determine which one is more effective at achieving a certain goal. For example, let’s say that you’re A/B testing the effectiveness of a banner ad on a particular landing page.
Under this scenario, you would have two versions of the banner ad: one with a CTA button and the other without. When visitors land on the landing page, they will see either the standard banner ad or the with-CTA version depending on which version they click on first.
You can use tools, such as Google Analytics, to track the success of your A/B tests and modify your strategy as needed. For example, if you see that the ad without the button performs better than the standard version, you might decide that a better-performing ad would include a CTA button.
5. Measure the results of your efforts
This point can’t be stressed enough: without measurements, you have no idea whether or not your efforts are producing the desired results. As a business owner or marketer, you must understand how to measure the performance of your strategy, whether you’re launching a new product or brand, improving an existing offering, or trying out a new marketing technique. Measurement is vital to the progress of your marketing plan. With it, you’ll know if your efforts result in the desired outcomes.
As a digital marketer, you’ll be faced with the arduous task of tracking the success of your strategy on different platforms. For example, you can measure the click-through rate (CTR) of your ads on Google AdWords, the conversion rates of your affiliate partners, the ROI of your social media campaigns, and the popularity of your website and blogs.
In each case, you will collect data from various sources, such as Google Analytics, HubSpot, and Mailchimp, making it a bit cumbersome to keep track of all this information. It’s a good idea to set up custom dashboards in tools like Google Analytics to keep all these metrics in one place, so you can easily monitor the performance of your strategy across various platforms and channels. With this information, you can identify areas for improvement and determine the effectiveness of your efforts.
Network with Industry Leaders to Get Speaking Engagements
Networking with industry leaders will help you to secure speaking engagements that will expand your clientele base and audience. For example, suppose you are an expert in online marketing in Singapore. You may be invited to speak at seminars and business conferences such as the Annual International Conference on Computer Games, Multimedia, and Allied Technologies.
Finally, you need to have a website to connect with entrepreneurs and company directors who require business consulting services. Search engine marketing strategies such as PPC will also help you to advertise your brand online by strategically placing ads on SERPs whenever someone searches for your target keywords.
MediaOne is a top SEO agency that helps business consulting agencies market their services in the vibrant and ever-growing Singapore business realm by providing the best SEO and SEM practices. Learn more about us by calling today at +65 6965 7008.
