Category: implementation

6 steps to creating a marketing budget to grow your business

One of the biggest reasons marketing fails is because firms don’t set aside appropriate resources to getting it done. Regardless of the size of your budget, if you want to be effective, you need to think carefully about how and where you spend your time and money. How do you do that? (more…)

Biggest marketing takeaways for small firms

How can small firms improve their marketing? Earlier this month, I joined a panel discussion on marketing at the Long Island Tax Professionals Symposium sharing tips on how small firms can successfully market their practice. Regardless of what kind of professional service firm you have, the same rules apply – firms must clearly differentiate themselves, be consistent in their marketing and focus on building relationships. (more…)

12 ways to stay top of mind with your referral sources

For professional service firms, referrals will always be a significant way to get new business. However, you can’t get a referral if you don’t stay top of mind with your referral sources. The trick is to promote yourself using a mix of marketing channels. You never know what type of marketing your contacts may see so you want to be visible in lots of different ways. (more…)

Top 10 marketing dos and don’ts

Many professionals aren’t comfortable with marketing. Good marketing isn’t a mystery, but it does take time to figure out. A good way to get started is to consider some marketing dos and don’ts to guide your efforts so they will be more effective in attracting business. (more…)

How marketing can grow your business

Do you know what it takes to grow your business? At a recent program hosted by The Alternative Board, speaker, Pete Hayes of Chief Outsiders, spoke about how the right “Insight, Strategy and Execution” can drive business growth. (more…)

Content marketing best practices

According to the 2016 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America study of 3700 companies, 88% of organizations are using content marketing. And 76% expect to increase the amount of content they are producing over the prior year. With so much emphasis on content marketing, what can firms do to help make their initiatives as successful as possible?

1. Document your content marketing strategy. The CMI study emphasized that “B2B marketers who have a documented content marketing strategy get better results from their content marketing tactics, social media platforms, and paid methods of content distribution compared to those without a written strategy.” A documented strategy keeps you focused on what you want to achieve and helps you design a plan for how to get there.

2. Create buyer personas. One of the keys to successful content marketing is understanding your target audience or buyer. Develop a profile (buyer persona) of that ideal buyer, client, or referral source, including their key demographics and behaviors. The more you know about your buyer’s needs, the better you can tailor the substance of your message as well as how you promote it to them.

3. Choose a well-defined niche. We’re all suffering from information overload and there is so much content available that it’s overwhelming to look at it all. One of the ways to stand out is to promote a narrow expertise.

You may find yourself with fewer leads, but better quality ones because you better match what the prospect is looking for and there are fewer obvious competitors.

4. Develop an editorial calendar. An editorial calendar helps you create and manage your content workflow. Use it to plan out content topics or themes in advance, establish deadlines and assign responsibilities for each step in the process. Think about the format for your content, your message and audience, where and how will it be marketed and distributed and what resources are needed.

5. Reuse content. Coming up with new content on a regular basis is challenging so look for ways to repurpose your existing content. For example, create longer and shorter versions of everything you do as well as think of different formats such as writing, audio, video, and presentations. Content curation is another method of reusing content, but you are selecting and sharing useful information created by others. Ideally add some of your own thoughts and commentary when sharing other people’s content.

6. Track results using appropriate metrics. The end game for any marketing is to bring in revenue, but there are other goals to keep in mind, such as; lead generation, lead nurturing, brand awareness, customer retention, and engagement.

Determining the appropriate metrics depends on your specific goals. However, some of the more common ones include: website/blog traffic and engagement metrics (unique and repeat visitors, page views, time spent on site, etc.); social media interest (followers, connections, sharing, etc.); quality and quantity of leads generated; and other ones.

Once you have established your metrics, start testing your tactics and revise and hone your strategies accordingly.

7. Start small and scale up. You don’t have to do everything at once. Instead start with a pilot project that you can scale up over time. You can focus on 1 or 2 priorities or tactics. Or look at how your existing content marketing can be improved keeping in mind some of the best practices mentioned in this article. Consider what you are already doing as well as how adding resources could improve your results.

Once you start to see successes, you can build on them.

Content marketing is a great investment when done right. Hopefully these  best practices will help make your initiatives more successful.

Need help with your marketing? Contact us for a free consultation.

8 marketing musts for your firm

Everyone wants tips to help market themselves. We’re all hoping to hear the one thing that we can do to magically bring in business. Unfortunately there is no one thing, but there are lots of little things that can help. I work a lot with lawyers and was recently on a radio show to talk about Marketing Tips for Attorneys. To prepare, the host, Ken Landau, asked me to come in with 30 tips. I’m not sure how many we actually got to, but here’s a sampling to get you started whether you are a lawyer or other kind of professional:

1. Have a strong LinkedIn profile. When someone googles your name, your LinkedIn bio is usually one of the top results. What do you want people to see there? It’s your opportunity to impress them and stand out from the competition. Don’t waste it. And don’t rely on people going to your website to read your bio there. Some may only look at your LinkedIn profile.

2. Share content regularly on social media– both your content and other people’s. Social media is like networking. You have to be out there consistently, get involved, follow up with people you meet and stay in touch. Every time you share something on social media your network will see it. Post your own stuff, but also like and comment on other people’s posts, ask questions, and start a discussion. It will build your credibility and a lot of people will reciprocate, which will expand your reach to everyone in their network. And remember to join and share posts within groups. That gets you in front of members of the group even if they aren’t part of your direct network.

3. Focus on a niche. Stop trying to be everything to everyone. Focus on a specific area, type of client, business model, etc. It’s better to focus limited marketing resources on a niche area rather than spreading them all over multiple areas. Ultimately it will bring you better leads and more money. (Check out Inc.’s, How to Narrow your Target Market for more tips.)

4. Position yourself as an expert. This goes along with focusing on a niche. Identify a topic, issue, specialty, etc. where you have experience and you can speak with authority. Get known for that by speaking and writing about that area consistently. Make sure your marketing message highlights that expertise. Again focusing on a narrow area brings better results than saying that you can help anyone with any problem.

5. Blog regularly. In determining how to rank a website, search engines look for sites with high-quality relevant information. They also look for websites that are updated frequently and have lots of pages. Blogging helps with all of these. It boosts a firm’s organic search results when prospects are searching online. And it also makes firms more credible (because they have lots of great content) for prospects who are now on the website and evaluating their services.

6. Involve employees. A recurring problem professionals have is coming up with good topics to write and speak about. Employees can help you create content that is interesting to your readers since they are often dealing with day to day issues with your clients. You want your blog posts, newsletters, presentations, etc. to address the real questions that your prospects have about their problems. Employees can also help promote your content by sharing it via their own social media channels.

7. Seek out relationships with other experts, organizations, and media. Get to know others who speak to the same market you are targeting and are well-known. They can help you build your own credibility and spread your message. But remember you have to help them first.

8. Have a marketing plan. Random acts of marketing are not effective. Create a written plan outlining who you want to specifically target with your marketing and how you’re going to do it. Then make sure you allocate resources (time and money) to getting it done.

For more tips, listen to the radio program.

Social media tips for professional service firms

Are you taking advantage of social media marketing? There are lots of benefits, but it also takes time. Like all marketing, social media is a process of taking lots of small steps to build your presence and reputation. A recent Legal Marketing Association webinar offered some great tips for firms to help them make the most of their social media efforts.

1. Have a plan. Don’t rush into a social media campaign. Determine your priorities and goals. Build a strategy. Be clear about your message. What do you want to say? How do you want to be seen by others? Who are you targeting?

2. Do your homework. Look at what your competitors and clients are doing on social media. What kind of conversations and industry trends do you see? What are others saying about you online? Use this information to help determine your own strategy. Remember too that social media is a great tool for researching the needs and interests of your clients and prospects. It can help you be more proactive in your practice instead of waiting for them to come to you.

3. Build consensus internally. If you’re within a firm, not everyone will be equally supportive, but it won’t work if there isn’t some consensus. There needs to be advocates for social media within the firm to keep it going.

4. Focus on quality, not quantity. Yes it’s very important to be constantly visible on social media. Consistently sharing information is a key component in getting noticed and staying top of mind. However, quality matters a lot too. Better to produce really good material less often, than lots of mediocre stuff.

5. Measure results quantitatively and anecdotally. It takes time to see results. In developing your strategy, you need to decide what kind of results you are looking for (more new visitors to your site, time spent on your website, followers, likes/shares of your content, etc.). Then you need to make sure you measure those results over time. The numbers are important, but anecdotal results are also key. It may be great that your web traffic has increased by 20%, but it feels pretty good too when someone calls you to say they liked your article. Those personal stories can be great motivators and confidence boosters.

6. Provide training. Make sure you and others at the firm get appropriate training.

7. Help rising stars. The strongest benefits from social media may be seen by professionals who aren’t as well-established. Those who already have strong networks and reputations should still use it to market themselves. But social media provides an opportunity to new and lesser known professionals to develop their reputation as experts and grow their network.

For more tips on using social media, see Do’s and Don’ts of Using Social Media to Grow Your Business.

If you need help with your social media, contact us.

How to position yourself as an expert to attract clients – Part 2

Wouldn’t it be great to be considered an expert in your field? What better way to attract business. It’s not a mystery or out of reach for most people. There are specific actions you can take to help you become a go-to resource. We covered 5 tips already in our previous post. Here are 5 more:

6. Maximize your reach through owned, earned and paid channels. Owned distribution channels refer to channels you control – i.e. your website, blogs, social media, direct mail and email. Earned channels are public relations and media opportunities. Paid channels are advertising related, including paid search, sponsored content and other outlets. Use all these ways to get your message out.

7. Listen to and engage with your audience. Ask for feedback from clients, prospects, referral sources and other contacts. Join groups where you can become an active participant in discussions on the issues important to your audience. Their experiences will inform your thinking and also make it more likely they will stay interested in what you’re talking about.

8. Involve employees. Your employees can be a great resource for content ideas as well as help to disseminate your message. Often they are the ones that talk to clients about day to day matters – questions, complaints, etc. Ask them for input on what you should be writing/speaking about. Also employees can share your content via their own social media channels, which gets you in front of more people.

9. Use social media. Social media has a lot of great uses. First, it’s a tool for listening. Monitor what your clients, prospects, industry and media outlets are discussing. You should also look at what your competitors are doing. Social media is also a distribution outlet. Promote your content via the social media channels your target audience uses. However, remember when sharing your own content you should repurpose it for each outlet. Don’t post the same content in the same way for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other channels. Finally use social media to find key contacts. For example, you can mine LinkedIn to help you find people in your industry, influencers, groups, or potential clients.

10. Cultivate relationships with other experts, organizations, influencers and media. You are judged by the company you keep. In building relationships, it’s always better to give than to receive. Reach out to individuals and groups and help them spread their message. As you build credibility with them, opportunities may arise to work with them, or get them to share your work with their audience. With organizations, get involved in committees and look to take on a leadership position. It is a great way to stay informed on the issues and make key connections.

Hopefully these 10 tips will put you on the path to becoming a go-to resource who attracts clients. It’s not easy to position yourself as an expert, but the rewards are worth it.