Did you know that there are nearly 1.2 million managing consultant businesses in the United States? The goal of business consulting is to help a business grow, give them advice in an area that you are an expert in, and lead them on the right path.
If you are a business consultant, the first thing that you need is for people to know that you exist. That is where digital marketing comes in.
This can help with business consultant advertising and allow you to get your name out there.
What business consulting marketing trends should you be aware of? What are the biggest things to note in this industry in 2023?
The Rise of Influencers
Over the last few years, influencers have played a bigger and bigger part in business marketing. They can be the key to getting access to the younger generation and ordinary people who are not looking for business ads or business products.
In 2020, about 89% of businesses will either maintain or increase their budget for influencer marketing in 2024. The fact that about nine out of every 10 businesses are doing this should show you just how vital this can be.
This is a type of marketing that has grown rapidly over the last few years.
Back in 2016, the influencer marketing industry was worth about $1.7 billion. Do you want to know how much it was worth five years later? The answer is a whopping $13.8 billion.
In fact, the industry increased in value by $4 billion just between 2020 and 2021. It doubled in size compared to two years prior.
As you can see, this industry is showing no signs of slowing down. Combining that with the fact that almost every business is getting involved with this should show you how important this is going to be for business consultants in 2023.
So, make sure that you study what influencers are doing right when it comes to marketing and see what kind of notes you can pick up from it.
More AI Usage
The next thing that you should expect in the digital marketing industry is more AI usage. It is no secret that this is becoming a bigger and bigger part of our daily lives.
Some people may be afraid of this, while others embrace it. In terms of the business world, this can be one of the best tools that you can have available for you.
AI can help you out in many different departments. The first thing that it can do for you is it can be a great analytical tool. This is where customers and data can come into play.
For example, say you want to keep up with stock and see how many of each product you sell. Well, AI can help you out there by keeping careful track of products with the codes and data it is given. Then, you can see what products are selling well and what products you may have to consider recalling.
Another thing that it can do for you is can get you information. Apps like Chat GPT that use AI technology can browse the internet for any piece of information that you are looking for.
It can then present that information in paragraph form, giving writers and general businesses a tool at their disposal to use that information to their advantage.
Catering to Attention Span
You may have heard that people have shorter and shorter attention spans lately. Well, statistics prove this to be true.
The average attention span of a human is 8.25 seconds. That is a shorter attention span than a goldfish!
What this means is that business consultants have to be aware that they are going to have a very narrow window to get a customer’s attention. It is safe to say that if you do not engage with them and capture their attention in the first 10 seconds, you may have already lost them.
So, what can you do about this? The answer is to make sure that your marketing gets immediate attention from customers.
An example of this can be using digital pictures to advertise. However, do not just use any random pictures or graphics.
It should be something that will really make a potential customer stop scrolling through a page and take a second look at what you have to offer. Examples of this can be using color graphics, high-quality pictures, short phrases, big letters, and more.
Do some tests on this and see what captures people’s attention the most. Then, start advertising like you only have 10 seconds to win someone over.
Winning With SEO
Another thing that business consultants need to be aware of in the digital marketing world is how important SEO can be. This goes for content marketing in particular, but it can always go with websites as well with the right keywords.
The goal of SEO is to win search engine optimization. That means that your product or service is going to want to appear at the top of search results for as many things having to do with your product as possible.
So, say you are working with a brewery in Wisconsin. You will want to use keywords such as “breweries in Wisconsin”, “best beer in Wisconsin,” “Wisconsin beer,” and more.
The point of this is that you are going to need somebody that knows what they are doing with SEO on your team. The reason for this is no matter how good your product or service is; people need to know that it exists.
If you are not on the first page or two for the most relevant search results, then it may as well be like you do not exist in the eyes of the customer. Because of this, you should see businesses put even more stock into this in 2023.
Using Multiple Languages
Until we get better technology to communicate with people that speak different languages, it is going to be important to have a bilingual staff if you are selling a more international product.
This can be the gateway to getting involved with more countries, getting more customers, and finding new people to do business with. An example can be someone that is a medium-level employee on your staff being the glue between you and a partner company in China.
The reason for this is that person can be a translator that you can trust. So, as a business consultant, this can open up many more doors for you.
On the opposite side of the business, you may be looking for customers that could use your skills and that happen to speak a different language. This is where having a bilingual staff comes in handy.
You can have somebody do all of the translating for you, and it can give you a new business to work with that you may not have otherwise had. So, if you are a business consultant that wants to work with businesses with a specific primary language, consider looking into this.
Bigger Social Media Presence
Finally, the average person is on more social media platforms than ever before. This means platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and more are a large presence in the business marketing world.
As a result, your marketing plan needs to be able to cater to each one of these platforms.
Do you have a video that is good for TikTok? How about a picture that is good for Instagram? Can you keep your caption short and sweet on Twitter?
You need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of every one of these social media platforms. You also have to be aware of what social media platforms people are using. The last thing you want is a Myspace popularity situation on its last legs where you are advertising to no one.
So, do your research on each one of these social media platforms and figure out what your plan of attack is going to be for each.
Be a Better Business Consultant
These are six trends for 2023 that a business consultant will have to contend with when it comes to digital marketing. They are going to have to use more social media platforms, get people’s attention instantly, adapt to AI, try to have bilingual staff, find more influencers, etc.
If you do all of this, your business consulting firm should do just fine in 2023. Maybe you want some help promoting your business.
If so, reach out to us today and see how we can help move your business forward.
