FOR CONSULTANTS & ADVISERS
How does video marketing for consultants build trust?
Why video helps advisers win trust, which types of film work, where to use them and how to feel comfortable on camera.
What thought leadership is for consultants, how to find a point of view, which formats suit you and how to prove your expertise.
Thought leadership means sharing a clear, well-evidenced point of view on the problems your clients face, so the right people see you as the adviser to call. For consultants, that’s publishing useful ideas regularly in formats you’re good at, backed by real experience. Self-promotion doesn’t count. Neither does borrowed opinion or a one-off article.
The phrase has worn thin, mostly because so much of what gets published under it says very little. That’s an opening for independent consultants. Clients rarely need more content. What they need is someone who’s seen their situation before and can say something specific about it, which is exactly what good thought leadership for consultants does.
Below we cover what it is and how to find a view worth sharing. Then we look at how to keep going long enough for it to pay off.
Thought leadership is expertise you can see. You take what you’ve learned from your work and form a view on what clients should do about a problem. Then you share it in a way that helps them decide. The test is simple: would a client learn something they can use?
It isn’t a sales pitch in disguise. If every piece ends with “hire me”, readers stop trusting it. It isn’t a round-up of other people’s views either, because repeating the news adds nothing your reader couldn’t find alone. A slogan or a big personality won’t do it, since confidence without evidence just reads as noise. And it isn’t one big launch. Reputation builds through repetition.
Our guide to personal branding for consultants explains how all this shapes the way clients see you overall. Here, we’re focusing on the ideas themselves.
You already have the material. It’s sitting in the patterns you spot across your client work. Try these prompts:
A point of view needs an edge. “Communication is important in change programmes” is true, and nobody will remember it. “Most change programmes fail at the middle-management briefing, not the announcement” gives a reader something to agree with or argue against. Keep client details confidential. Share the lesson and leave out the case.
Pick formats that play to your strengths. You’ll be doing them for years.
Written pieces are the easiest to find and share, and to reuse later. LinkedIn lets members publish newsletters, and its Help page on newsletters says subscribers get push, in-app and email notifications whenever an edition goes live. Put the full piece on your own website too, so you have a copy you control.
Short posts suit single ideas and questions, or lessons from recent work. They’re the quickest way to see which topics get a response before you write anything long.
Speaking gets you in front of buyers, and it rewards clear thinking. A talk can turn into an article or a recorded clip later, or a slide deck. Recording it on video makes that reuse much easier.
A short report built on a survey of your clients or contacts, or on your own anonymised project data, is the strongest format there is, because it contains information nobody else has. It takes longer. One a year may be plenty.
Going on other people’s podcasts as a guest is often easier than starting your own. You also reach an audience that’s already there.
Consistency beats volume. Pick a rhythm you can keep up, such as one considered piece a month with a few short posts around it. That will do better than a burst of activity followed by silence. Set the pace for your busiest quarter. Your quietest one will mislead you.
Build up a small bank of topics from client questions and batch the writing. One strong idea can become an article and three posts. It can feed a talk or an email too. If you work with a marketer, give them an hour of your time each month, because your thinking is the one part nobody else can supply.
Opinions persuade more when there’s evidence behind them. Show your working. Describe the situation and what you did, then what changed. Specifics like a timeline, a method or a before-and-after measure carry more weight than adjectives.
Google’s guidance on helpful, reliable, people-first content makes a similar point about websites. Show first-hand experience and name the author. Say who they are and why they know the subject. Do that on every article by adding a byline and a short biography.
If you use testimonials, the ASA says you need documentary evidence that they are genuine and permission to use them. Professional photography and a credible website make your evidence look as strong as it really is. That’s the point where marketing for consultants and good thought leadership meet.
Give every piece a next step that fits what the reader came for. That could be another article or a short guide, a subscription or a conversation. Link back to your services page and make it easy to get in touch. Then send a short personal message to everyone who responds, including people you’d like to work with who leave a like or a comment. Keep track of which topics lead to meetings, and write more of those.
We help consultants present their expertise professionally. That means photography and websites. It also means video and social media, built so good ideas are easy to find and easy to believe. Read more about our marketing for consultants and advisers. We agree a clear brief, scope and fee with you before any work begins.
One example is a short article explaining why a common approach to your clients’ problem tends to fail, with a better alternative drawn from your own experience. A talk, a LinkedIn series or a small survey report can do the same job. What counts is a specific view backed by evidence.
No. You need to be useful to a defined group of clients. A consultant with a narrow specialism and a clear point of view can carry more influence in that niche than a well-known generalist. Reputation grows from helpful contributions, repeated over time, that clients can see and trust.
Expect months, not weeks. Early signs include conversations and connection requests, and referrals that mention your content. Results depend on your niche and how consistent you are, as well as the network you already have. Don’t judge a new programme until you’ve given it at least a few months of regular publishing.
The ideas should come from you, because your experience is what makes the content credible. Plenty of consultants then bring in an editor or marketer to help shape and polish it and get it published, which saves time. Always read and approve anything that goes out under your name.
Why video helps advisers win trust, which types of film work, where to use them and how to feel comfortable on camera.
How independent consultants can rank for the services and problems they solve, using topic pages, genuine expertise signals and earned links.
How consultants can go beyond headshots with working shots, workshop photography and a planned image library, including consent for client meetings.
Four quick questions, and we’ll show you where we’d start. Your answers come straight to us with your message, so you won’t have to explain it twice.
A 30-minute introduction call on Microsoft Teams, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Your answers come with the booking, so we’ll be ready for you.
Prefer to talk it through? Make an appointment for a 30-minute call on Microsoft Teams, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
A closer look at the work behind each part of your plan.
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