Does marketing your HR consultancy give you the ‘heebie-jeebies’?

When asked “What’s holding you back growing your HR consultancy?”. Karin Brawn from Karin Brawn HR replied with:

“I still find it really nerve wracking even putting something on LinkedIn. I’m not sure whether it’s imposter syndrome or the worry that it might get the wrong type of response.

“It’s really difficult sometimes to get your head in the right place and to not doubt yourself.

“After 25 yeas in the HR industry, you’d think I’d be all right about it!"

I wanted to talk about the point Karin made because I know she’s not alone.

Running a business is a lonely job sometimes, as you very much know.

And growing a business takes a lot of vision, commitment to that vision, self-determination, energy, and most importantly confidence.

Now throw marketing into the mix – a ‘dark art’ that you don’t feel very skilled in and no wonder you end up second guessing yourself.

That’s why I wanted to share a framework with you that I’ve used myself and shared with other HR consultants to help you grow your HR consultancy with confidence.

I call this framework: M.P.I. which stands for: Mindset, Preparation and Implementation.

1. Use your life vision and goals for the business to motivate you

You recently received a copy of my book “Firing People Doesn’t Grow Your HR Consultancy”, in which you’ll remember there being an entire chapter on your life vision and goals for the business.

Why? Because this sets the scene for everything you do.

Marketing yourself and the business does require a lot of energy and you often find yourself operating outside of your comfort zone.

That’s why my first recommendation is to remind yourself of your life vision and goals for the business every single morning.

Doing this helps to motivate yourself, and give yourself that gentle nudge you might need to send that connection request, post that letter or phone a prospect.

2. Remind yourself of who you are

Warning: I’m going to say ‘cap’ A LOT, in the next few sentences.

Business owners wear many caps and it’s easy for you to sometimes blur which cap you’re wearing when doing certain things for your business.

When it comes to marketing, instead of putting your marketing cap on, you instead think you need to put your sales personal cap on – which can immediately make you feel uncomfortable because let’s face it, who likes selling themselves?

When in fact, when it comes to marketing your business, the best cap to wear is the cap you feel most comfortable wearing. Your HR consultant cap.

When you’re sat in front of a prospect or client talking to them about their HR, you’re in your lane. You own it and it’s very easy for you to win people over.

And that’s why when it comes to growing and marketing your business, my second recommendation is to remember that you’re a fantastic HR consultant.

3. What is the goal of your marketing?

 Well, to get new clients obviously, James?

And yes, that’s very true. But think of this as a by-product of your marketing. Not its primary focus.

Answer this, what do fantastic HR consultants do?

At a very basic level, you inform, advise and solve the headache that is HR for your clients.

Take this one step further, you also help businesses create a happy and productive workforce. You help attract the very best talent and retain them. And most recently, you’ve helped businesses survive a global pandemic.

This is what your marketing should be about.

My 3^rd recommendation is to offer your prospects fantastic advice, answer their questions and to solve their problems in your marketing.

And at the end of everything you write, put a simple call to action such as “If you’re struggling with finding the right type of staff, we can help.”

Your marketing will become so much easier when you think like this and will be 100% more powerful.

When marketing your HR consultancy ‘off the cuff’, it’s very easy for anxieties to creep in and stop you from doing it.

I also don’t advise growing your business in this way because it’s not systemised and consistent.

An easy way to tackle this is by being prepared. Work a few weeks in advance and think about the things you’ll like to do.

Maybe you’ll like to post every day on social media, publish a longer article once a week and send a letter to data you’ve recently bought.

Once you have your marketing schedule, you can then think about the topics you’ll want to discuss.

As discussed before, you can use these categories to help you come up with great content:

1. What changes do I need to inform my prospects about?
2. What advice am I offering at the moment?
3. What questions do prospects and clients ask me?
4. What problems are my prospects and clients facing and what solutions are available to them?

My 4^th recommendation is to create a list of content you can talk about and work a few weeks in advance to create the marketing materials you need.

With a better mindset and a catalogue of marketing material you can use behind you, I know you’ll feel so much better and more confident about growing your business.

But you have one final hurdle, and that’s getting it out there. If you struggle to implement your marketing in a systemised way, consider D.O.A.

Delegate

Delegate posting your social media or publishing your blog posts to a capable member of staff that would love to help.

Outsource

 If there isn’t anyone in house to help, consider finding someone externally to help you like a freelance marketing assistant.

 Automate

If you don’t feel comfortable handing this over to someone else, you can use scheduling tools like Hootsuite, so you can schedule your marketing in advance.

For me, helping you grow your HR consultancy isn’t just about marketing tactics. It’s about making you a better marketer using the skills you already have. I love it.

If you’d like to chat more about the contents of this article or about growing your HR consultancy, look on the right hand side at the different ways I can help.