Tips for Consultants: The Marketing Trifecta

When it comes to promoting ourselves as consultants, there are three important components to marketing.

1. Networking
   
2. An effective business card
   
3. Maintaining newly formed relationships through regular communication

Entrepreneur magazine recently published three articles on their website addressing these three components. Below are links to those articles and my thoughts on each.

(Networking) Less Networking Can Mean More
Ivan Misner, the author of the article, suggests that rather than concentrating on visibility at many networking events, we should take a moment to stop and review the relationships we have developed. Ask yourself if you are sincerely going out there to develop meaningful business relationships are are you just collecting names. Ideally, you want to establish credibility with the people you have created relationships with. You can't do that unless you concentrate on cultivating the relationships you have worked to create.

The verdict: consider going to less networking events and focus on quality, not quantity.

(An effective business card) Top 5 Business Card Blunders

I've always maintained that a consultant's business card is probably the single most important marketing piece they can possess. Forget brochures or flyers. They simply are not as effective as your business card.

The challenge is trying to convey your message in a powerful and meaningful way on a small piece of card stock. John Williams, the author of this article, provides 5 tips to help you avoid making an ineffective business card.

(Maintaining newly formed relationships through regular communication) Making It to the Inbox

E-mail is probably the quickest and most inexpensive way of keeping in contact with your current and potential clients. When using this medium, the last thing anyone wants it to be considered a spammer. Spam software on end-user's computers and ISP e-mail servers are getting increasingly strict. The author of this article, Gail Goodman, offers 6 handy tips to help make sure your message reaches your recipient's inbox and gets read.