Most boutique consulting firms can get more return from their marketing by cutting things out.
Nassim Taleb calls this Via Negativa.
It means the negative way in Latin.
Instead of adding new things to achieve a goal, you cut things out.
You get to the solution not through addition, but subtraction.
I’ve realized a lot of the advice we give to our clients follows this.
Especially the firms that had already been investing in marketing without enough ROI.
Because most firms try to do, offer, and tell a lot.
This inevitably widens the front.
You have fewer resources to dedicate to more things.
The quality drops.
You run the risk of prospects judging your firm by weak touchpoints.
Or confusing them with too much information and options.
Here are 18 things we advise our clients to cut.
Most of them will do more for your pipeline than anything you could add:
- Cut out the industries, departments, or titles you added to your ideal client profile “just in case.” Every addition costs you specificity and makes marketing harder.
- Cut out the problems you claim to solve for them.
- Cut out offers and capabilities that bring in less than 10% of your revenue. Focus on marketing your core service and its entry offer.
- Cut out promoting services that only existing clients buy after you build the relationship. If a service is hard to sell to prospects, don’t waste your marketing resources on it.
- Cut out marketing channels that you are not willing to dedicate enough effort and resources to (podcasts, YouTube, etc.).
- Cut out any resources (articles, case studies, guides) that don’t do justice to your firm’s expertise. Not having them will serve you better.
- Cut out content topics that fall outside your firm’s expertise. Talk about fewer topics to make your firm an authority there.
- Cut out the frequency of publishing if it will increase quality. Don’t “create content” for the sake of it.
- Cut out vague language like “transforming industries” and “driving innovation” from your website and marketing material. Talk in your marketing the way you talk to prospects in person.
- Cut out cold outbound and automated messages that irritate prospects. Respect your prospects’ time and intelligence, so they respect your firm.
- Cut out weak website pages and sections that add no value and distract visitors. If it’s not relevant to a prospect, it shouldn’t be there.
- Cut out stock photos from your website, decks, and social media.
- Cut out AI-generated posts, articles, images, and presentations. You’re selling expertise, never associate your firm with anything generic.
- Cut out confusing calls to action. Prospects need to know one clear next action at every step.
- Cut out design elements that compete with your content for attention.
- Cut out ads that lead with your capabilities instead of your prospects’ problems.
- Cut out claims to differentiation using table stakes like “professionalism” or “being client-oriented.” They do the opposite: making you appear just like any other firm.
- Cut out the urge to add even more marketing channels, services, or client profiles without mastering the existing ones.
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