Led by Philippa Channer, Olney-based Channer Consulting helps small business clients develop and implement customized content marketing strategies, then create and distribute content that works.
About Channer Consulting
I started Channer Consulting in February 2020. The decision to go out on my own came after I had spent 15 years as a communications manager at a nonprofit, where I managed content strategy for multiple departments. There, I mastered the use of overlapping marketing calendars and guided the department teams on when and how to promote their initiatives based on the audiences they were trying to reach. When that job ended, I decided to be more present with our growing family and work from home. Yet I knew I could still provide value to the community. I decided to apply what I had been doing for that organization to help small businesses in the area.
In the beginning, Channer Consulting focused on social media management. That was where everybody seemed to need help. I was also primarily focusing on nonprofit organizations in my area. Nonprofits are dependent on donations and sponsorships throughout the year. Many rely on events like annual galas to bring in big chunks of their total revenue. When COVID hit, much of that had to shut down, and many nonprofits were closing their doors – or in danger of doing so. I found myself helping nonprofits with their pivot, including learning how to put on virtual galas, and that helped launch Channer Consulting.
Soon I started going beyond social media to developing content campaigns, much as I had been doing on my previous job with the nonprofit organization – the operative question with each client being: how should we promote this?
But clients kept asking me at the end of the month or the end of a campaign: “How did we do?” I didn’t know how to answer. I could quickly identify things like growth in the number of followers and follower engagement. But I had no way of knowing how that translated into progress for their business. Are they getting more customers because 100 people liked this post? Social media can be little more than a popularity contest – but if it isn’t helping a business grow, what’s the return on investment? I didn’t know how to measure that success – or lack thereof. And my focus had been on creating content – because that’s what clients said they wanted. However, most of them didn’t have a strategy for why they were employing social media content in the first place. They didn’t have a system for translating “likes” into customers.
That’s when I started shifting my focus. It was getting me clients but not making any progress for myself or the clients. We were increasing posts on their feed that nobody would see in six months. So I stepped back to figure out how to shift, including with my existing clients, away from just social media management and into communications and marketing strategy. I told them, “For the money you’re giving me, let’s do this instead.” I started putting the word “strategy” behind my title.
Today, most of what I do is content strategy. We start with an organization’s business goals. And from there, we plan what content we need to get them closer to their goals. I would develop, then hand over the strategy. If they wanted me to execute, we’d move into a monthly subscription model, depending on how much support they needed from me. Today, that’s how we mainly work with clients. I started adding strategy in 2021, and in 2022, I just kept refining the Marketing Strategy product I now use.
I’m enhancing my services quite a bit. A lot of small businesses don’t operate from an overarching marketing strategy. Many do not even have a business plan, and even for those who do, it is often the bare minimum. Realizing that I have the tools and resources to help them, I have shifted my focus to deal with those fundamentals first. This will be a better value for many small businesses needing that support.
About Philippa Channer
I was raised in Orlando, Florida, and went to college and got a Master’s degree in criminal justice there. We came to Maryland after my fiancee’s parents moved here and asked for his help with some family business. When we married, we agreed to relocate to be closer to them and arrived here in 2004.
I had graduated by then and hoped to become a federal agent. Getting into the federal system can be a long process. I calculated that being closer to D.C. might be an advantage as I began to apply for jobs. While I waited on the feds, I signed with a nonprofit.
The responses I’d hoped for from the federal agencies didn’t materialize, but I was content. As time passed, I felt I was in the right place and would learn something essential and add some value to the organization. Once I was in there, I felt: “I need to be here for now.” I knew the salary was nowhere near what I could make in a federal job, but it was a Christian-based nonprofit, and I felt a calling to help them. I ended up staying with them for 15 years.
I have since become a Certified Digital Marketing Professional (CDMP), as earning a credential in my new field seemed important to me. I felt it added value and credibility to the services I wanted to provide.
What Does Channer Consulting Need Right Now?
At this point, my focus is on meeting more people. I’m working on getting more exposure, generating more brand awareness, and getting my name out.
I have a weekly podcast that goes out on Wednesdays. This podcast comprises educational content targeted to the market I serve. In July, I am launching another podcast series in which I’m interviewing local business owners. As the weekly podcast has done, it will help me meet more business people. Also, it gets some exposure for local small businesses. I’m going to break down the interviews into roughly the following format, asking the business owners to
- Introduce themselves. They can promote themselves and share whatever they want listeners to know about them and their business. This includes anything they think will help increase their value when people hear it,
- Share any marketing successes they’ve had. This will include strategies they’ve tried that have worked – and have successfully generated business for them, and
- Reveal some of their marketing struggles. What have they tried and failed at, or what have they wanted to try but haven’t yet figured out how to approach or execute it?
I’m actively seeking people willing to put themselves out there and be interviewed.
So far, I’ve been working with really small businesses. But I have been expanding my product mix to offer some business plan development. And I realize that I need to price my services differently to grow. So I’m starting to expand to serve medium-sized businesses as well.
Serving and Being Served in Montgomery County
Because meeting new people is one of the primary ways I get to be known and how I promote my business, I do a lot of volunteering. I am actively involved with the Olney, Maryland, Rotary Club and Lion’s Club – and am on the board of directors with the Olney Chamber of Commerce and the Montgomery County Small Business Association (MCSBA is based in and closely affiliated with the County but is a private organization.)
I’m also now a participant in the second cohort of the Montgomery County Black Collective’s AMBER Program and a member of the Maryland Black Chamber of Commerce.
Advice for Small Businesses
When starting, many of us are “solopreneurs.” In this phase, we are tempted to believe we have to do everything ourselves. That’s not true.
My primary advice to my small business colleagues in Montgomery County is that, as you network, don’t just look at the people you’re meeting as potential leads and referrals. Consider also how many of them can help you grow. I have found my bookkeeper, CPA, attorney, and business insurance through networking. I had been trying to manage these business functions by myself and found it stressful. I found that by making those connections and having other businesses provide those services for me, I freed up time to work in my “zone of genius,” which is marketing strategy.
Remember that partnering with other businesses to procure essential services will significantly benefit your business.