Confessions of a Marketing Consultant

Lauren Hall-Stigerts’ lessons of starting a one-woman services business and marketing herself.

Level: Introductory

@LstigertsLauren@marketinggal.com

@LStigerts

I started my marketing career with enterprise CRM soft ware as a generalist.

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After picking up skillz, I worked at startup soft ware powerhouse SEOmoz as their Marketing Communications Manager.

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I decided to jump feet-fi rst into online marketi ng consulti ng. The opportunity, challenge, and excitement of running my own business and fostering lots of relati onships excited me.

But it all started with the lessons I learned and relati onships I built while working in-house.

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Lesson 1:

Working in-house first isn’t a requirement, but it REALLY helps.

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Great connections can be made while you’re working in-house.

Cyrus Shepard (of PlaceFull) and I knew we had chemistry when we worked together at SEOmoz.

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Cyrus pulled me in on his latest project at event space rental PlaceFull. I worked on content strategy and email marketing.

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Lesson 2:

Tell people you’re available.

Find friends and colleagues who need help.(This seems obvious, but it’s easy to forget when you’re busy doing everything.)

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Lesson 3:

Find a consulting mentor who is where you’d like to be (eventually).My two mentors give me so much energy. They boost my confidence and speed up my success with sage advice. One is my financial planner who gave me the first big push to stick with consulting. My second mentor is a friend who created a niche for himself in game design consulting. They both independently volunteered to be my mentors – people like them are invaluable and critical to your success.

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I’ve done more new and someti mes terrifying things since beginning my consulti ng than I have in my enti re life.

I ’ve also grown more as a professional while being a consultant than I have over longer periods in-house. If I ’m not stretching myself every day, then something is wrong.

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Lesson 4:

If you’re doing something every week that terrifies you, you’re doing something right.

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My website looks decent. Personal branding? Check. Descripti on? Check. Email signup form? Check.

What’s missing? Everything else. I’ve decided to hire a professional designer to move this forward in a way that I can’t.

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Lesson 5:

Outsource the things others can do better than you can.

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Invest in a way to track your clients, hours, projects, invoices, finances, and expenses.

FreshBooks is worth every penny I pay for it. I’ll be thanking myself come tax season.

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Lesson 6:

Take your business as seriously as you do your clients.

It’s easy to get caught up in what makes you money today. But you never know what will happen, so don’t forget to take care of your own business for future success. Treat yourself like a client.

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I use THINGS soft ware to keep me focused – both on the job and whatever I have going on in my life. It ’s based on the GETTING THINGS DONE approach to ti me management.

It ’s based on the GETTING THINGS DONE approach to ti me management. Finding a trusted system that works for you is key here.

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Lesson 7:

Find ways to recharge your batteries.

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I’m extroverted, so working on my own can burn me out. I recharge by getti ng out and working from diff erent locati ons. It also energizes my creati vity.

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I also love working around others. I’ll visit local clients’ sites to touch base. (Double bonus: They know they’re appreciated!)

If I’m not working at a client site, I’ll also drop in on friends and coworking spaces. Here, I’m visiti ng my BFF while she works on her teaching plans. That’s her cat.

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Getti ng out to industry events is ESSENTIAL – I can touch base with friends, network with new peeps, learn new things, AND recharge my extrovert batt eries! WIN!

Bonus points if you can name all of these really smart SEO / UX / IA friends in the photo with me.

Answer (L to R): @justi nrbriggs @ipul lrank @jcolman

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I have lots of hobbies that fulfi ll other parts of my personality outside of work, such as costuming at conventi ons…

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… and playing music.

It’s important to me to keep my hobby time sacred – it feeds back into my work creativity and energy.

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Lesson 8:

Keep your story simple.

Don’t be everything to everyone. Focus on your core strengths and build a story on them.

People love stories. They remember them. They’ll remember you. And that’s a good thing.

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Lesson 9:

Keep yourself visible.

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Find opportuniti es to share your experti se (for free). And try to do it as frequently as ti me allows.

I’m parti cipati ng in a Max Impact marketi ng hangout on Google+ here. These are great because they’re recorded and circulated.

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Facebook Page to practi ce my own content and social media marketi ng. (And stay in contact with the people who want to hear from me!)

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Twitt er. A must for online content curators to strut their stuff.

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-Email newsletters

-Blog posts

-Question and Answer sites

-… SPEAKING!

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Lesson 10:

Create serendipity.

I snagged this from Rand Fishkin.

It’s another way of saying “create you own luck.”

Do things for people who need help. Do it for free. Don’t expect anything in return.

And watch the magic unfold.

@LStigerts

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Lauren Hall-StigertsMarketing Consultant

@Lstigerts

Lauren@marketinggal.com

Let’s be friends!