This past week I had the opportunity to present to two different groups of consultants who have each made an important business decision: To invest in themselves.

On Tuesday, I spoke to a workshop in Mountain View, CA sponsored by Women in Consulting on using video to promote your consulting practice. On Thursday, I presented a module on strategic marketing practices to Alan Weiss’ Million Dollar Consulting College in Newport, RI.

Here are a few of the insights I shared with these groups:

• Go back to the basics: You need a good quality product or service priced and packaged appropriately, a target market that is willing to buy what you offer, and a promotional program to make sure your target audience knows what you can do for them.
• Don’t do what everyone else is doing—do what makes sense for you.
• Figure out what differentiates you from other possible offerings, then use that to create your personal brand.
• Ask your clients why they hire you. You may be surprised by the results.
• When you’ve got nothing but a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Instead, use the whole array of tools available to you.
• Keep things as simple as possible—don’t overly complicate things.
• Start with one or two marketing initiatives, get those going and then add additional programs one at a time.
• Develop great content to support your brand. Get those ideas out of your head and into something you can share with clients.
• Keep the end in mind: Your goal is to build a sustainable consulting business not create marketing materials for their own sake.
• The Web is enduring not endearing: Be careful what you post—it will be around a long, long time.
• Marketing is ongoing—it’s a process, not an event. There’s never a bad time to market yourself.