Do companies hire DS/ML consultancies based on their blog articles?

Question

How do companies that can afford to spend a respectable amount every month on consulting - say $15K/month and above - go about hiring data science / machine learning consultancies?What is the thinking and process they typically follow?I see a lot of DS/ML consultancies publish blog articles on DS/ML topics. Sometimes they focus on industry use cases and sometimes on theory/engineering.How effective are these blog articles really in acquiring clients?Do you know any instances of CTOs / CEOs who look for such articles and evaluate a consultancy based on such content?

karlhughes · Accepted Answer

I run a service business that gets some clients from blog posts. While we're not in DS/ML, we're similarly technical and priced.
Content like blog posts usually don't close sales on their own. Most successful consultants get the most business early on through referrals, but blog posts can help widen the top of your funnel, showcase your expertise, or move people through to close.
We invested in content early, but didn't start seeing any leads or clients from it for six months, so it's not the channel I'd recommend for getting your first clients. That said, once you have some margin to invest in content, it's great because it's a passive source for inbound leads.