The Role of Ethical Messaging when Marketing to 21st Century Consultants

At the heart of any growth management, or commonly referred to business development, process is marketing. There are multiple steps involved in creating a marketing strategy for your consulting services. Though the role of marketing changes as prospects move through the pipeline to clients, the importance of branding and communication does not change. Developing a marketing strategy involves key steps by identifying your target markets, identifying your value to each market, and using messaging when communicating the value.

A Framework for Messaging

The critical ethical moment in the process is developing the messaging that will be used across all marketing efforts during the growth management process.

List your target markets along with client profiles. Consider your historical trends, current situation, and future long-term and short-term consulting goals. Use this knowledge to create client profiles for each target market. Note that, client profiles vary from type of organization, age of the organization, number of employees, and legal structure, and consulting firms may specialize in a specific type of organization.

Each client profile is distinct and speaks to a specific target market. For each target market and client profile, identify your value. To do this, note your capabilities and differentiators along with the access and experience you offer clients. Brainstorm about the following benefits you afford clients. Consider that the value you, as a consultant, offer must also take into account not only the benefits of your services, but also the costs of your services. This is how you derive the value:

Benefits

• Consider your service—performance, features, and technologies used;

• Consider the access you provide—availability, reliability, and distribution methods;

• Consider the experience you provide—service, solutions, and overall impact.

Costs

• Consider the price of your service;

• Consider the total cost of using your service;

• Consider the terms you offer.

Derived Value

• Consider the overall value you provide clients by weighing both the outlined benefits as well as the outlined costs.

For each target market, formulate three to five key messages that you will communicate across your marketing efforts. These efforts include, but are not limited to, sales collateral, social media posts, website content, speaking events, sponsorships, advertisements, etc. By developing these key messages, you will have created the foundation of your core messaging which is critical to any marketing strategy.

Messaging is not only critical to current revenue generation, but consider the future profits you are laying the foundation for generating through your marketing efforts, This messaging exercise allows you, as a consultant, to have a quick reference of your core elements of your messaging—audience, value-proposition, key messages—to leverage throughout the various channels you leverage as part of your business development program.  Though your method, distribution manner, or specific campaign may change over the course of time, this reference serves as a standard for implementation, regardless of initiative.

The Role of Ethics

Ethicists study all types of ethics and ethical situations; however, normative ethics provides rules for how thinking and acting 'ought' to be performed. So, how 'ought' a consultant, or consulting firm, develop ethical messaging? How is ethics related to the three-step process identified above? Your motive is critical when finalizing the three to five key messages per target market. What 'ought' to be the motive of a consultant when developing these strategic messages?  Considering normative ethics, the motive of the consultant or consulting firm with strategic messaging must keep the client's interests paramount with honesty and integrity during the consulting relationship.

Reflect on the three to five messages you created per target market within this framework:

• Do the messages keep clients' interests paramount?

• Are the messages true and honest?

• Do the messages speak to an understanding of the client's situation?

• Do the messages speak responsibility about the services you are able to offer?

• Do the messages honor all legal obligations, intellectual property laws, and anti-plagiarism standards?

• Do the messages adhere to your personal code of ethics?

• Do the messages adhere to your firm's code of conduct?

• Do the messages empower your clients?

• Do the messages discriminate against a culture or group of people?

• Do the messages deceive or mislead your clients?

• Do the messages speak untruths of your competition?

Conclusion

When it comes to consulting ethics, one of the key aspects for you as a consultant is to maintain a professional desire to seek better outcomes for your clients through the services you provide. Ethics is an individually-applied concept as it is not something your firm or colleagues can force upon you. As a consultant, you are providing specialized knowledge to a client in need who is utilizing your personal traits to complete a task. Rather, it is an individual decision to leverage ethics in all professional aspects starting from the beginning of the business development process with ethical marketing messaging through to the completion of the consulting service for the client.

Sarah Skidmore, marketing director for Cogent Analytics, develops strategy and delivers results-driven campaigns that directly impact growth management. Skidmore brings marketing innovation to industries including manufacturing, construction, medical, consumer products, and more. She has spoken at several universities and global conferences. Skidmore is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Strategic Leadership in Global Consulting from Regent University.