UK Lead Generation Podcast

James Dooley: If I’ve got a consulting business, how would I look to grow it? What would you do?

James Dooley: If you're looking to grow a consulting business, the first thing I would do is dig deeper and understand what I’m actually consulting for. There are many types of consultants—business mentors, entrepreneurial mentors, financial consultants. People often claim they consult on “everything,” but you must identify what you're good at. Niching down lets you create the right messaging, content, and marketing strategy so you can become the best in that specific lane.

James Dooley: There are traditional methods like billboards, TV ads, radio, magazines. They may work for some, but for consulting I don’t think they’re effective or trackable in terms of ROI. Social media is a great free strategy—be active, share relevant quotes, post Reels, get comfortable on camera, and give value. When people see you know what you're talking about, they want more.

James Dooley: Then there’s SEO for your website. You need awards, testimonials, and case studies showing how you’ve helped clients. Share your blog posts on social media. You can also run social ads—Facebook, Twitter—but honestly, LinkedIn is the number one platform for consultants. It lets you specifically target business owners and decision-makers.

James Dooley: At FatRank, we’ve helped many types of consultants—sports pitch consultants, ground survey consultants, online mentors, and more. If you fill out the contact form at FatRank.com and tell us what you do, we have a system where we take the risk. We do the work—SEO, social, PPC—and you only pay on converted jobs. You pay nothing upfront.

James Dooley: But of course, you shouldn’t rely only on FatRank. You should generate your own leads too. SEO increases the valuation of your business. Kasra, can you share examples of companies that underestimated SEO until they saw the lead volume and the valuation multiplier when selling?

Kasra Dash: Many business owners think of SEO as: “I spent £2,000 this month, how much do I get back by the 30th?” It doesn’t work like that—especially with a new website. It’s not PPC where you press a button and leads come in the same day. SEO is a long-term play, but once you rank, there’s little ongoing cost unless you expand with more sites or locations.

Kasra Dash: When you rank for terms like “finance consultant in Manchester” or “business coach in London,” you tend to stay there. And when you sell your business, your website becomes an asset because it generates inquiries consistently. That directly increases your business valuation.

Kasra Dash: Another benefit is diversification. We spoke to a business that got completely banned from Bark for no reason—that was their only lead source. With your own website, that can’t happen. You're not dependent on one provider. Even if you use FatRank, you still have your own inbound inquiries running in the background. Buyers love that.

James Dooley: So for consultancy businesses looking to grow, the three major players are:

SEO – increases business valuation and brings consistent inbound leads.

Social media – be everywhere: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest. Stay visible.

FatRank.com – fill in the inquiry form and see if your consulting business qualifies for the pay-on-converted-jobs model.

James Dooley: Anything to add?

Kasra Dash: Yes—consulting is like personal training. The best personal trainers have before-and-after case studies. When scaling—even with FatRank—the main things we need are case studies, reviews, video testimonials, and a solid digital presence. If you have strong conversion ability, FatRank can work extremely well. If a consultant can’t convert leads, the partnership doesn’t work because none of us make money.

Kasra Dash: So get your digital assets in order first.

James Dooley: If you’re a consulting company and you found this valuable, give it a like—hopefully this helps you grow your consultancy online.