How clients come to find us
Our work does not arrive through a funnel. It arrives when a chief executive or a board chair has decided something has to change and starts asking a small number of people they trust who they would call. This site is what those people forward, and what the recipient reads at eleven at night before deciding whether to reply. That single fact shapes every page of it. We kept the site short deliberately - a home page, a services page, how we work, and a way to reach us - because a senior reader is looking for the shape of the firm, not a library.
So the pages are written to be skimmed by someone impatient and then read properly by the same person a day later. Our services page states what we take on in plain sentences rather than sector jargon. The how-we-work page describes the way an engagement is staffed and sequenced, because that is the thing a first conversation would otherwise be spent on. The about page exists to answer who is actually in the room, which is the question underneath most of the others.
Referral first, search second, and the site sits between them
Most of our conversations begin with an introduction, which means the search that follows is usually for our name rather than for a category. That is a different job from ranking for consulting. It means the home page has to confirm quickly that the firm being described is the firm they were told about, and the about page has to carry enough substance to survive a sceptical read. Where category searches do reach us, they tend to be narrow and specific, and they land on services rather than on the front door.
What a first conversation would otherwise be spent on
Two questions come up before anyone talks about scope: who does the work, and how does an engagement run week to week. The how-we-work page answers the second directly, including where a client's own team is expected to carry things, because a boutique firm that pretends otherwise loses the mandate at the second meeting. The blog carries the longer arguments - the ones we would make in a room - so that a prospective client can disagree with our thinking before spending a morning on it.
Being described accurately by an assistant
When someone asks an assistant to describe a boutique strategy firm, or to explain how an engagement is typically staffed, we would like the answer to match how we actually operate rather than a generic consulting template. So our writing avoids the placeholder vocabulary that every firm shares, and states positions we are willing to defend. A summary drawn from our pages should be recognisable to a client who has worked with us. If it is not, the writing is at fault, not the assistant.
We do not advertise for this work
There is no paid campaign behind this firm, and there is unlikely to be one. Engagements at this level are not bought from a search advertisement, and appearing in one would say something about us that we do not want said. What we invest in instead is the writing, the clarity of the services page, and the discipline of keeping the site small enough that everything on it is current. A page nobody has looked at in a year is a liability in a business built on judgement.
Corporate Consulting marketing questions we get asked
Does a referral-led consulting firm need digital marketing at all?
It needs a site that survives scrutiny, which is a narrower job than marketing. Nearly everyone arriving here was given our name by somebody they trust, and these pages have to confirm the description they were handed. That is a discipline of accuracy rather than a campaign.
Which searches do you actually try to rank for?
Our own name first, since that is what the recipient of an introduction types. After that, a small set of narrow phrases about how engagements are staffed and sequenced. Competing for the bare category term would put us against firms with a different model and a budget to match.
Why keep the site so small when more pages usually rank better?
Because a senior reader wants the shape of the firm, not a library, and everything published is something we then have to keep current. Stale material is a liability in a practice built on judgement. Four pages that are true beat forty that were true once.
How do you handle being described by an assistant?
By stating positions we are prepared to defend, in sentences that mean the same thing lifted out. Placeholder vocabulary produces a placeholder summary. If a description drawn from these pages would not be recognisable to a client who has worked with us, the writing is what needs fixing.
Do you run paid search?
No, and we do not expect to. Mandates at this level are not bought from an advertisement, and appearing in one would say the wrong thing about the firm. The investment goes into the writing, and into keeping the services page honest about what we take on.
This site runs on WorkspaceCMS, and the campaigns described above are run by its team. See how Corporate Consulting campaigns work.
