Convention told me to label my craft as a ‘marketing consultant’. It was an obvious label – it was what I did. Becoming a ‘marketing consultant’ was an obvious transition for me. The prior 12 years had been spent as an employee, a director and then a business owner within the world of digital marketing. I had a brief dabble owning an agency too, but quickly realised it wasn’t for me. I needed to define what I did. ‘Marketing consultant’ worked.
Along with 264,000 others in the UK… I was a ‘marketing consultant’
A consultant in what exactly?
My biggest problem was deciding which label worked best for me. That moment when you’re confronted by the flashing cursor on Linkedin asking for ‘Your Title’. My career, to date, had been a blend of experience with SEO, Affiliate Marketing and Paid Search. However, I’d built my own business through Content Marketing. The problem was, 5 years ago, that label didn’t exist. Surely I couldn’t label myself a blogger?
So, I labelled myself a Digital Marketing Consultant. At the time I feared niche, I wanted to keep my options open, so thought a nice generic title would suit me well. I fixated on process. I blogged about what I believe my potential clients wanted to read. What they wanted to hear. How PPC campaigns could be more effective. How SEO could create more traffic. How Analytics was really important. The same blogs that my competitors were churning out too. At least, those who I thought were competitors. I did what I believed suited my label. My work was defined by my label.
The competition….
I used to pay a lot of attention to who my ‘competitors’ were. I saw the same names appearing in search rankings. The same names having their articles shared on Twitter.
In order to justify my role, my label, surely I needed to have competition? Benchmarks to measure against, people to inspire to be like. The thing is though, whilst we all carried the same label we had completely different methods to achieving our end goal – qualifiable client results & confidence in our work… and most importantly for me, referrals.
My evolution as a consultant… aka doing the job
In the early days, if my client’s request was to focus on process, it’s exactly what I did. If they needed help running Paid Search, I helped them run Paid Search. But, then, my experience taught me to begin asking questions:
‘Why are you looking to increase your spend rather than increase your conversion?’
‘What if you focused on creating new content rather than building links?’
‘Why do you believe people should use your services over your competitors?’
Now, I was challenging my client’s convention rather than consulting on their behalf. Rather than carry out a marketing task, I needed to understand why the task was requested in the first place. The root problem.
The epiphany moment
In late 2013 I reviewed my website. I sifted through the 100s of blogs I’d written to help define exactly where I was. The problem? Collectively, they didn’t represent where I was now. Now, my role was to ask questions, as much as it was to provide answers. Working with 200+ clients had taught me to think beyond process. It was a slow evolution, but I suddenly began to understand how to practice what I was preaching. I had been contradicting myself. I had been focusing upon the label. I had been restricting myself by my label.
So, 2014, I started afresh. A brand new canvas. The site you see now is what I am really about. I no longer focus upon process. How to get the best out of PPC or SEO or any other platform or device. The problem I had witnessed and addressed with my own clients I was now taking on board and acting upon myself. I taught my clients how to break convention. How to differentiate their business rather than converge with their competition. How to present what it is they do and why they do it. How to verbalise and demonstrate the quintessential essence of why their business exists in the first place.
Defining your specialism
I’m no longer concerned by my ‘label’. My label is now Ian Rhodes. It doesn’t define my work or categorise my business. It tells you who I am. The role of my website, social media engagement and speaking is to present what I represent (and why it matters). I leverage my writing to tell you why I do what I do. If what I say, or write, resonates, then I expect you to start a conversation, whether through social channels or just picking up the phone.
I no longer have a specialism. I simply help businesses to understand who they really are and what their craft represents to their audience… and then connect the two. That involves breaking the conventions of task-driven marketing.
From 264,000 competitors to none
With Brand Less Ordinary I have a canvas from which I can present my work, my ideas and my learning. It articulates what I do and why I do it. I’ll be introducing a podcast and publishing a book shortly. Now that I’m focusing on what I’ve learned, rather than what I’m teaching, I have a whole new and exciting direction for my business. I’ve removed the label and adjusted my mindset.
Your website is your canvas. It’s where you represent what you really are. What your craft, your products or service helps your clients to achieve, how it makes them feel. Why you do things differently.
The problem with labels
When you focus on label you believe that’s your calling card. If you offer outsourced secretarial services, you believe that that is what your prospects are seeking. If you sell stationery products, you believe that this is what your prospects are seeking. It narrows your vision. It removes the opportunity to influence a far greater community.
I love the quote from economist JK Galbriath, “the conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking“. That is why we need to break convention. We need to be thinking about how we serve our audience, with our knowledge, our experience and our passion. We need to think beyond our label and truly understand the story we tell. That’s how you truly differentiate yourselves from the competition.
What would happen if you removed your business label? How would you do things differently?
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