Day 1: Why consultants fail to attract clients through their website
[CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR HOMEPAGE TEMPLATE]"If I don’t find a new client soon...I’m done."
It was late fall of 2016. It had been a slow quarter.
And I hadn’t found any work — and that means I wasn’t getting paid.
As a freelance design consultant, I thought I was doing all of the right things...
- Sending proposals on job boards
- Cold-contacting potential clients
- Reaching out to my network for referrals
...but none of it seemed to work. And if it did, it wasn’t consistent or predictable.
It all felt like luck.
And I was all out of luck.
I didn’t feel like I was in control of my business.
I started freelancing so that I could run my own business.
Instead, what I got was a cold, hard lesson…
You can be great at what you do — but that’s not enough to attract clients consistently.
One September morning, I woke up to an email from a colleague.
He referred me to a business he was working with. They needed my services, and they wanted to bring me onto the project.
We closed the deal that afternoon.
Saved by the referral once again, I thought.
Even though I won the project…
...I couldn’t get over the fact that it was dumb luck.
I vowed that I would never have to rely on a referral like that again.
I wanted to control who I worked with, when, and for how much — not have to sit and hope for referrals.
I didn’t want to attend tiresome networking events.
I despised soul-sucking cold-calling.
And referrals, while they were nice, meant my business was feast-or-famine.
I wanted to predictably attract clients.
WITHOUT needing referrals.
So I could quit all of the race-to-the-bottom job boards.
And so I could never have to make a cold call ever again.
In this email course, I’m going to teach you how to use your consulting website to attract clients.
By the end of this course, you will have learned...
- A new way of thinking about your consulting website (and how turn it into a marketing and sales machine)
- How to generate the exact amount of revenue you want in your business
- Your new daily marketing habits to attract endless high-quality clients
- What a high-converting consulting website looks like (and why it works)
- And much, much more...
Today, for Lesson 1, I want to show you a better way to think about your consulting website.
The BIGGEST mistake consultants make is that they use their website like a brochure.
If your consulting website is all about YOU instead of YOUR PROSPECTIVE CLIENT...
...it’s not going to help your business.
From this day forward…
Your consulting website is no longer a brochure, business card, or resume.
Your website is a marketing asset. It’s a form of advertisement.
And the goal of marketing is to get your potential client to TAKE ACTION.
If your consulting website isn’t sending you new leads every week, it’s not doing its job.
If you learned one thing today, let it be this:
Every word, every pixel, every page, and every link on your website has a job. To get your visitors to take action.
Most of your competitors are working with designers who can make a pretty website.
But they have no idea how a consultant can turn prospects into qualified leads — and new clients.
Your website can help you attract more clients, and earn more revenue.
Tomorrow, I’m going to show you how your website will help you earn the type of revenue you want.
Best,
Tsavo
P.S. — How do you feel about your website?
Does it help you generate business, or do you feel like you’re stuck in the feast-or-famine cycle?
Hit reply and introduce yourself. Tell me about your consulting business.
I read and respond to every email.
Day 2: How much revenue do you want to earn in your consulting business? Here’s how you do it:
Yesterday, you learned the important mindset shift about your consulting website.
You learned the purpose of your consulting website:
To get your prospects to take action.
But what’s the POINT of them taking action?
What does your prospect taking action mean for YOU?
Today, you’ll do an important exercise.
I call it: Setting Your Income Goal.
Doing this will help you get clear on where you want to be in your consulting business.
And it will bring your website in alignment with your goal.
Let’s get started.
To win consulting projects, you need to consult with prospective clients. You must sell them on the project.
It’s your marketing that generates these consultations.
Your marketing creates interest in the minds of your prospective clients. Effective marketing inspires them into booking a consultation with you.
Without these consultations, you cannot win more consulting projects.
Your website is the hub of your marketing. It works to create more of these conversations with prospects.
And eliciting a response from your prospect is how your website gets them to take action.
Let’s dive into the questions and get specific.
1. How much money do you want to earn per year in your consulting business?
You need to write down how much money you want to earn per year.
Put it on paper.
Follow along with the example.
Let’s say you want to earn $200,000 per year.
Now, you can work backward from that number.
You can reverse engineer your success.
2. How much do you charge per project, on average?
Write down how much you charge per project.
Take the average.
Let’s say your average consulting project is $30K.
Here’s the formula for how many clients you need to hit your income goal:
Income Goal / Average Project Income
You want to earn $200K per year. Your average project is $30K.
That means you must work with 6.667 clients per year.
But, not all consultations lead to a new project. Only a certain percentage of them do.
That brings us to the next question...
3. How many consultations with prospects does it take to turn one into a paying client?
Think about how many conversations with prospects result in paid work.
Let’s say 1 in 5 of your consultations result in a consulting project.
That gives you a 20% sales conversion rate.
Now, you can figure out how your website fits in.
You must know the percentage of your website visitors that results in a consultation.
Or, in other words...
4. What is your website conversion rate?
Only a certain percentage of your website visitors result in a consultation call.
This is your website conversion rate.
Let’s say 0.5% of your website visitors result in a consultation call.
Now, once you know your...
- income goal
- average project revenue
- sales call conversion rate
- website conversion rate
...you can get the exact numbers it will take to reach your income goal.
Here’s a breakdown of the numbers:
- Annual income goal: $200,000
- Average project: $30,000
- Clients needed: 6.667
- Sales call conversion rate: 20%
- Consultations needed per month: 2.778
- Consultations needed (per week): 0.694
- Consultations needed (per day): 0.093
- Website conversion rate: 0.5%
- Website visitors needed (per month): 555
- Website visitors needed (per week): 139
- Website visitors needed (per day): 19
I created a spreadsheet that you can use to plug in your numbers.
You can find it here: Consultant Website Income Formula.
Do the exercise for yourself right now.
It will shock you how achievable your income goal is when you break it down into small, bite-sized chunks.
In tomorrow’s lesson, you’ll learn the 5 marketing habits.
These habits will help you attract the right prospects to your consulting website. So you can get the website visitors you need to reach your income goal.
Now, you have your goal.
Tomorrow, you get the system to achieve your goal.
Best,
Tsavo
P.S. — This exercise is a FREE chapter in my book.
If you LOVE the idea of your consulting website doing your marketing and sales for you…
...and you want your consulting website to actually help your business (and not just exist)...
...I wrote the book for consultants like you.
You can learn more about the book by clicking on the link below:
> Productize Yourself: The Consultant’s Guide To Attracting Clients Through Your Website.
Day 3: The 5 habits to attract endless high-value clients (your system)
On Day 1, you learned how to think about your consulting website. Its job is to get your prospects to take action.
On Day 2, you set your income goal. You know how much website traffic you need to reach it.
In today’s lesson, you’ll learn the 5 marketing habits to attract prospects to your website.
In my book, Productize Yourself: The Consultant’s Guide To Attracting Clients Through Your Website, I featured David A Fields.
David coined the 5 "marketing musts" for consultants.
These are…
- Networking
- Writing
- Speaking
- Trade Associations
- Digital Presence
What makes these marketing tactics so powerful for consultants?
Through these methods, you’re…
- providing value,
- demonstrating credibility
- fostering relationships
- building trust
...all at once.
Compare these methods to display ads or affiliate programs.
They don’t provide value, demonstrate credibility, foster relationships, or build trust.
If your marketing doesn’t do this, it’s not effective.
As a consultant, you’re selling yourself. You’re selling your thinking. You’re not selling a commodity.
The 5 marketing musts help you showcase your expertise and advice.
That’s what makes them attract your prospects to you.
Here’s the key…
Networking, Writing, Speaking, and Trade associations each have a "digital equivalency."
So, the "Digital Presence" method is using these digital equivalencies.
Here’s what they are:
Networking -> Direct Outreach
With Direct Outreach, you’re reaching out to a potential client or partner. You’re not trying to sell them. You’re creating a new relationship.
Writing -> Content Marketing
Content marketing is just sharing what you know. As a consultant, what you know is valuable. Write what you know. Publish it through your website. Each article is like a mini-version of you. And each one provides value to your prospects.
Speaking -> Podcasts/Webinars
Speaking on podcasts or hosting webinars puts you in front of many potential clients at once. When you speak, they get to see you and hear you on a personal level. They get an in-person demo of your expertise and value.
Trade Associations -> Guest Blogging
Find an industry-related online publication to write for. Become a contributor to websites that your potential clients already read. The trust established by the trade association will pass along to you.
Forget all the other marketing "tricks."
These work for consultants offline. And they work for consultants online.
When you combine these marketing habits with an effective consulting website…
...you’ll have "marketing gravity."
Your consulting website will work around the clock to attract new clients.
Now, put these habits into daily use.
Here’s how you can leverage the marketing musts to build a marketing system:
- Write 250 Words: Write 250 words for an article on your website.
- Publish Content: Publish a short-form piece of content.
- Self-Promote: Promote one of your articles, your services, or your website.
- Direct Outreach: Introduce yourself to someone new in your market.
- Network Tap: Follow-up or check in with someone in your network.
Do you think you could get all of these done in an hour each day?
You could probably get them done much faster with some practice.
And that’s all it takes.
Consistent, focused effort — on the tactics that work.
Practice your marketing habits every working day. That’s what it means to market your consulting business.
Not like a freelancer...but like a real business owner.
You’ll be producing thought-leadership. Growing your network. Expanding your audience. Establishing yourself as an industry expert.
Brick by brick. Step by step.
You won’t have to rely on just referrals and networking. Instead, you’ll make your consulting business more predictable.
Clients will start coming to you instead of you chasing them.
You’ll build a reputation. You’ll position yourself as the trusted advisor.
Give these 5 habits a try tomorrow morning.
And then, commit to doing them for 30 straight working days.
By doing this, you’re front-loading your marketing.
You’re putting in the work NOW so you can attract new clients for YEARS to come.
And tomorrow, we’ll dive deeper into how this will change much more than just your business…
Best,
Tsavo
Day 4: How consultants get wealthy — without relying on luck
Back to the fall of 2016.
I got lucky with the referral.
I knew the project would keep me afloat for a few months.
But after this, I swore I would make a change.
I read Million Dollar Web Presence by Alan Weiss.
It’s about how consultants can leverage their website to attract clients.
As an introverted guy who hated cold-calling and tired out from networking events quickly...
...I became obsessed with the idea of using my website to do my marketing and sales.
This line from the book had me hooked:
"There is a profound difference between beating on prospects’ doors, trying to convince them of how good you are, and prospects coming to you, saying they’ve heard of your value and are curious as to how they can work with you."
I spent the rest of that fall working on my consulting website.
I vowed to STOP sending out proposals on job boards.
And no more cold-calling.
That meant…
- Refining my messaging
- Creating a lead-magnet
- Writing in-depth articles
- Setting up analytics
- Practicing the 5 marketing habits
I did this for a few months.
I’ll be honest with you.
For the first 3 months, nothing really happened.
I was stumbling around.
I didn’t know what I was doing.
All of this marketing stuff was new to me.
I almost went back to Upwork just because it was more comfortable.
But I knew that would be a cop-out.
So, I kept at it.
And after 3 more months, things started to change. Fast.
Thousands of prospects were now visiting my site every month.
I was booking multiple consultations calls per week — and they were coming to me.
I wasn’t just finding clients...I was creating them.
As I would work on my client projects…
...I would get notifications about consultation calls with NEW clients.
That was an amazing feeling.
I was attracting new clients through marketing I had done months before.
It gave me a sense of control.
I stopped feeling like a freelancer or consultant — and more like a real business owner.
And best of all?
Referrals, cold-calling, and networking events became optional.
Did I still ask for referrals and go to networking events?
Of course.
(Cold-calling? Screw that. I cut that out completely. Never again.)
But I knew I didn’t have to rely on them.
I felt so much more relaxed. And that made all my marketing and sales even stronger.
My consulting website was working around the clock for me — 24/7.
A few years later, I read a tweetstorm by billionaire investor Naval Ravikant.
It’s called "How to Get Rich Without Getting Lucky."
And it helped me define my point of view.
Here are some highlights from the thread.
Think carefully about how they apply to you, the consultant.
- Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.
- Fortunes require leverage. Business leverage comes from capital, people, and products with no marginal cost of replication (code and media.)
- Code and media are permissionless leverage. They’re the leverage behind the newly rich. You can create software and media that works for you while you sleep.
- If you can’t code, write books and blogs, record videos and podcasts.
- Become the best in the world at what you do. Keep redefining what you do until this is true.
- Summary: Productize Yourself.
Read the entire thread here. It’s a must-read.
This course is about MUCH more than just your website or marketing.
It’s about helping you earn more money, more freedom, and more time.
Your consulting website, as permissionless leverage, can do work for you. While you sleep.
It allows you to front-load the work.
You do the work now and reap the benefits of it for years to come.
An article I wrote in December of 2016 still attracts thousands of prospects to my website per month.
Unlike cold-calling or asking for referrals, your website compounds.
It’s not a one-time thing. It grows and gets stronger over time.
When you use your website to provide value, you’re investing your time wisely. And you can see a 10X or 100X return.
There’s nothing I love more than this:
Speaking with consultants who apply what I teach...
...who tell me that now their consulting website is helping them get more clients.
And I want you to have that same feeling.
So that you know what it’s like to wake up to an inbox full of prospects who want to work with you.
That would be nice, wouldn’t it?
Today’s lesson was high-level.
Tomorrow, I’ll explain makes the high-converting consultant homepage template work.
If you don’t know what makes a consulting website effective beyond looking pretty or clever…
...tomorrow, I’ll SHOW you why it works.
Best,
Tsavo
P.S — If you didn’t catch it…
Productize Yourself is the name of my book.
It’s about helping consultants like you productize yourself.
"We have created doppelgangers, tangible duplicates of ourselves that provide for simultaneous relationships and ensuring value around the clock, across continents and cultures."
-Alan Weiss, Million Dollar Web Presence
Is your website working as your digital doppelganger? Is it helping you attract more clients?
Or is it just collecting dust — like a tired old digital brochure?
If it’s the latter, learn more about the book by clicking on the link below:
> Productize Yourself: The Consultant’s Guide To Attracting Clients Through Your Website
Day 5: Download your NEW high-converting consultant homepage template (and why it works)
If you haven't already, download the consultant homepage template using the link below:
In today’s lesson, I’m going to explain what makes this template effective for consultants.
This template provides the perfect start to a consultant’s homepage.
The first section is your "Hero" section.
Your hero section includes a picture of you and your USP (unique selling proposition).
As a consultant, your prospects should see photos of you on your website. This makes your website authentic and approachable.
It helps you build trust. And you can’t generate leads through your website without building trust.
Your USP explains the value you provide to your prospect.
Here’s a simple formula you can use to write your USP:
I help {MARKET} achieve {DESIRE}
EXAMPLE:
I help construction companies improve performance and increase profits.
This is a powerful USP formula. It forces you to clarify what you do.
Imagine that you’re a construction company owner. You read the example USP above.
If you want to improve performance and increase profits, you’ll want to learn more.
That’s the goal with your hero section. Get your prospect curious about you and how your expertise can help them.
Finally, there’s a big CTA (Call to Action) that prompts your prospect to learn more.
The second section is for Social Proof.
Include logos of the clients you’ve worked with.
Include logos of websites where you’re featured.
Placing these logos with proximity to a photo of you is powerful. It creates an association in your prospect’s minds. They’ll associate those brands with your business.
This also helps to build trust. You want to stack "trust-building" elements throughout your website.
In a relationship business like consulting, trust is everything.
No trust = no leads.
The third section is for your Articles.
As a consultant, your thinking is your product.
Articles help you demonstrate your expertise and your thinking.
But more than that — articles help your prospects solve problems and get results.
That’s how your website provides value.
If your prospects to your articles, they’re more likely to become a qualified lead.
In this section, link out to your articles. Show them they can learn something from your website.
The fourth section is a Testimonial.
Testimonials are the STRONGEST trust-building element on your website.
They are powerful because they overcome objections.
Sure, you can say anything you want about yourself on your website.
But, you want your potential clients to SEE the success of your current clients.
Then, they’ll want to know how you can do it for them.
Include your best testimonial right here. With permission, use your client’s photo.
The fifth section is for your Case Studies.
Case studies are content on steroids.
They tell a story.
Where your client was before they met you...
How you solved your client’s problem...
And the result you created for them.
Good case studies resonate with your potential clients.
Your prospects can’t help but picture themselves in the story. They see themselves getting the results you’ve achieved.
Link to one of your best case studies in this section. Or, link out to multiple case studies.
Again, we’re drawing your prospect deeper into your website.
The sixth section (after another testimonial) is your About section.
Notice how this is at the bottom?
Your prospects don’t care about you until they know how you can help them.
In this section, give them a quick high-level overview of you.
And then, link to your About page.
The seventh section is your Footer section.
This section is at the bottom of every page.
You’ll use your footer to build your audience.
You’ll offer them something of value (your lead magnet) for their email address.
This will turn EVERY PAGE of your consulting website into a lead-generating asset.
At the very bottom, you can include your email address, phone number, and social media pages.
Did you notice how EVERY section has a specific job?
Half of the sections build trust. The other half call on your prospect to take action.
There is 0 "fluff" on the website.
And 80% of it provides value to your prospect. Only 20% of it is about you.
That’s why it works.
Now, it’s time for you to implement this design yourself.
Tomorrow, I’m going to share something very special with you.
It’s the fastest and easiest way to set up your ENTIRE consulting website.
Even if you suck at marketing, design, or copywriting…
...it will help you stop procrastinating, get it done, and get REAL results (more clients) from your consulting website.
Keep your eyes on your inbox tomorrow.
Best,
Tsavo