What drives development at immediately’s quickest rising consulting corporations?
For over a decade, we’ve been asking this query and discovering the solutions in our annual High Growth Study. Since its inception, this analysis mission has tracked the evolving advertising methods of profitable consulting corporations. The 2025 High Growth Study: Consulting Edition reveals the vital elements that separate immediately’s quickest rising consulting corporations from the remainder of the pack.
In immediately’s weblog put up, we’ll share a couple of of the findings of this yr’s analysis report on consulting corporations. You should buy the complete analysis report to your firm right here.
The Quickest Rising Consulting Corporations
Right this moment’s consulting corporations are wrestling with a bunch of points, lots of which have been with them for years, resembling worth sensitivity, a expertise scarcity, generational modifications within the workforce, and the necessity to develop new expertise. However in addition they face challenges distinctive to this second.
The 2025 Excessive Progress Research supplies a complete evaluation of those challenges and the methods that Excessive Progress corporations make use of to beat them.
Regardless of the various challenges confronted by companies that promote consulting companies, the Excessive Progress corporations grew at a powerful clip: at the least 20% compound annual development price over a three-year analysis interval. They characterize simply over a 3rd of the pattern of 384 consulting corporations who participated within the examine.
With a development price of 41.7%, the Excessive Progress corporations grew 4.4 instances quicker than common—a major enchancment over final yr’s efficiency, when median development for the top-performing cohort was 35%.
What can we be taught from these quick rising corporations? How are they responding to the challenges of immediately’s market? Which advertising strategies do they make use of? Let’s check out a few of the findings from the complete examine.
Discovering 1: AI and Automation Lead the Dialog
For the previous 5 years, a thrum of uncertainty has rattled the consulting companies panorama. In 2025, unpredictability continues to be with us, although its vibrations have diminished a bit to make method for a brand new seismic wave: the breakout of synthetic intelligence (AI).
In keeping with our knowledge, the consulting business is grappling with incorporating AI and automation into their companies. This problem was reported to be the primary problem dealing with consulting corporations immediately.
Your entire consulting business is attempting to determine how AI goes to have an effect on their operations, service supply, and advertising. AI guarantees to rework consulting—with all of the alternatives and threats that include disruptive change.
On the identical time, AI is altering the way in which companies are marketed. Whether or not or not these guarantees are saved stays to be seen, however AI’s sharp ascent to prominence is actually exceptional. It’s no shock that AI has shot to the highest of corporations’ checklist of largest challenges.
Discovering 2: Content material Creation Is Right here to Keep
Like final yr (and the yr earlier than), creating content material stays the highest advertising precedence for Excessive Progress consulting corporations.
In a pool of choices together with over a dozen choices (together with partnership advertising, advertising know-how, purchaser journey mapping, creating thought leaders, and extra), the Excessive Progress consulting corporations chosen creating content material as their prime advertising precedence for 2025.
Clearly, content material advertising continues to play a serious position in these corporations’ success.
Excessive Progress consulting corporations perceive that producing academic, useful content material showcases their thought leaders and builds belief with potential shoppers. This method aligns with a number of key findings from the 2025 Excessive Progress Research. Content material advertising serves as a strong engine for producing digital leads, utilizing worthwhile, skilled insights to seize the eye of potential patrons. It additionally enhances the usage of case tales, which might present particular examples, and context, additional demonstrating a agency’s capabilities (see Discovering 4 under).
By constantly delivering high-quality content material, corporations can differentiate their model in a aggressive market and set up themselves as thought leaders. That is notably essential within the face of rising competitors from new corporations and the evolving panorama of AI. Content material creation additionally supplies tangible metrics for measuring advertising effectiveness, permitting corporations to trace web site visitors, content material downloads, and social media engagement. Briefly, content material builds belief, generates leads, demonstrates experience, and positions a agency as an business chief.
Discovering 3: Excessive Progress Consulting Companies Generate Digital Leads
Excessive Progress consulting corporations generate a good portion of leads digitally—and notably greater than their friends within the No Progress class. They obtain about 40% of their leads on-line. Digital leads come from numerous sources, together with web site contact kinds, content material advertising, social media, webinars, and digital promoting.
It is a benchmark for digital lead technology, however we imagine it might—and possibly ought to—be larger. As you’ll be able to see intimately within the full report, even Excessive Progress corporations haven’t achieved the best ranges of digital maturity with consistency. As that scenario improves, we anticipate this quantity to extend.
Discovering 4: Consulting Companies Use Detailed Case Tales in Their Advertising and marketing and Enterprise Growth
Once we have a look at which strategies are used most frequently by the quickest rising consulting corporations, creating and publishing case tales got here in second—a discovering distinctive to the consulting business.
What does this inform us about how these corporations attraction to their patrons? Case tales show previous efficiency and showcase success in a related and compelling format. They construct belief and resonate with potential shoppers. They supply tangible proof of experience. In addition they present the affect of companies. By highlighting particular shopper challenges and profitable outcomes, case tales present a strong technique to show the worth of a agency’s companies.
How accessible are your agency’s case tales? Are they printed in your web site? Do you function the tales in your different advertising supplies? Have you ever tried delivering them in different codecs, resembling video?
Discovering 5: Excessive Progress Consulting Companies Outsource Specialised Advertising and marketing Duties
Outsourcing specialised advertising expertise is a method Excessive Progress consulting companies have used for a few years. On this yr’s report, we see that Excessive Progress consulting corporations outsource expertise extra typically than their No Progress friends in almost each class we measured.
Topping the checklist are internet design, search engine optimisation, video manufacturing, and graphic design.
Outsourcing supplies entry to specialists, the newest instruments, and cost-effective options. Excessive-quality outsourced suppliers will prioritize transparency about their outcomes, making it simpler to measure your return on funding. Be sure you rent businesses or consultants that know your business.
Discovering 6: Measuring and Using Advertising and marketing Metrics is a Mess
A brand new addition to this yr’s analysis was a query asking corporations to price their proficiency in capturing and using advertising and enterprise growth metrics. The information tells a transparent story: It is a huge problem for consulting organizations.
Whereas the quickest rising corporations did report the next stage of proficiency than Low Progress corporations, the distinction was marginal. Three quarters of Low Progress corporations have low proficiency in utilizing metrics, in comparison with 60% of Excessive Progress corporations. This discovering highlights an enormous weak spot in each teams.
We requested those that reported low or some proficiency why they gave their score. Frequent solutions included time constraints, lack of devoted personnel, funds limitations, outdated know-how, and difficulties in connecting knowledge throughout platforms.
No skilled companies marketer will inform you that monitoring metrics is unimportant. However what’s clear from the info is that there’s a lot of labor to be finished on this entrance.
Dive Deeper with the Full Report
These findings supply a glimpse into the methods of the quickest rising consulting corporations in 2025. The total 2025 High Growth Study: Consulting Services Edition supplies a complete evaluation of the elements driving success in immediately’s market. It affords detailed insights, data-driven suggestions, and actionable methods. This report is a useful useful resource for any consulting agency that wishes to thrive within the face of change. Able to dive deeper and unlock the secrets and techniques of excessive development? Get the full report here.
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