1. Analyze your own data. Don’t just rely on your memory of your client demographics, how and why they came to you, what concerns they had and other details. Gather information during prospect calls and intake; review marketing results, email metrics and website analytics; run detailed billing reports; and document client interactions. There are software tools that can help with this, including using a Client Relationship Management (CRM) System to capture and organize client information effectively. However, you can also use your billing or contact database.

2. Improve your communication skills. Good communicators are attentive, patient and empathetic. Do you ask open-ended questions and encourage others to share their thoughts? Do you maintain eye contact and avoid distractions? Are you interrupting speakers or making assumptions about what they mean? If your skills aren’t where they should be, get training to teach you how to interact, elicit and respond to information and build stronger connections.

3. Use social media. A wealth of information is available on social media about clients and prospects. You can review their social media pages, posts and connections as well as research their competitors and industry. Through a practice known as ‘social listening,’ you can continually monitor relevant social media conversations and trends to learn more about clients’ needs, preferences and pain points. There are social listening tools that can help with this. You can also use social media to directly engage with clients and prospects by reacting to or commenting on their posts and sending messages.

4. Search Google and online databases. As with social media, a simple Google search can reveal relevant personal and business information about clients and prospects. In some cases, you may also want to search online databases, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) website, Westlaw/Lexis, Bloomberg, Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) and others. You can also set up Google alerts and targeted searches in other databases to notify you of new search results.

5. Conduct client surveys or interviews. Many professionals will ask clients whether they are satisfied with their services. However, it’s important to get more in-depth information about clients’ experiences, opinions and preferences. Asking for specific feedback enables you to identify areas for improvement, gauge the degree of client satisfaction and loyalty (i.e., how likely they are to recommend you) and ask about the need for other services. It also demonstrates that you care about your clients and the quality of your services and can help diffuse a potential complaint before it becomes public.

6. Review or conduct industry/consumer research. Relevant research can help you understand your clients’ concerns and anticipate their needs. It also helps position you as an expert who can provide timely advice. There are organizations that may already have done relevant studies and surveys or depending on the nature of your work and target audience, you may want to invest in creating custom research.

7. Attend relevant conferences and events. Going to the places where you would most likely find your clients and prospects enables you to gather information firsthand, interact in person and share and gain insights.

8. Read publications that your audience reads. It is important to know the information sources that your clients and prospects use to help you understand their level of knowledge and the type of content they view as helpful.

9. Continue the conversation. The purpose of gathering information from various sources is to help you engage with clients and have well-informed conversations. However, this isn’t a one-time event. It’s critical to stay up to date on your clients’ interests and concerns with regular discussions.

The ultimate goal of taking these steps is to leverage your newfound knowledge to enhance your services, nurture relationships and develop more effective marketing and sales campaigns.

If you need assistance with gathering intelligence on your target audience or creating a plan to reach them, contact us for a consultation.

Step 1

Your marketing plan doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as a few written pages that outline specifically what you are going to do to market yourself. Before you get to that part, however, you first have to answer a few key questions:

(a) What’s your personal brand? Your brand is your reputation– what you are known for and what people expect from you personally and professionally. You should be able to succinctly state what you do, who you help and how you add value to relationships. Focus on what differentiates you from your competition.

(b) Who do you want to target with your marketing? You have to develop a profile of the person you are trying to reach, including their demographics, industry, geography, etc. Then identify their interests and concerns and the best places to find them (ex. industry organizations, publications they read, etc.). This will help you develop a strong marketing message and promote it in the right places.

(c) What are your priorities and goals? Where do you want to focus your efforts? For example, is your objective to get new accounts, retain or upsell existing clients, get a promotion/new job or attract media attention? Once you know what you want, then set a concrete target, such as a certain number of accounts, amount of revenue generated, positive reviews from clients and so on.

(d) How much time and money are you willing to devote to marketing? If your firm is supporting you, then you may not need to outlay money. However, the firm will have a budget. If you aren’t getting assistance, set your own budget. Regardless of whether you are getting money, you still need to devote your time to marketing. How many hours a week will you set aside?

Step 2

Next, you have to outline what specific marketing activities you will undertake and set goals for yourself. For example:

(a) Outreach to referral sources or prospects. Who will you meet with? How many people will you contact every month?

(b) Speaking engagements. How many per year? What types of organizations?

(c) Articles. How many per year? What types of publications?

(d) Networking. How many and which groups will you join? How often will you attend meetings?

(e) Marketing to past and current clients. What materials will you send and how often?

(f) Social media. How often will you post? What types of content will you post? How often will you interact with your contacts online?

(g) Website. What content will you create for the firm’s site (blogs, videos, eBook, etc.) and how often?

(h) Publicity. Will you submit your name for awards, reach out to reporters or podcasters, send out press releases, etc. and how often?

Step 3

Finally, you need to determine whether and how your firm will assist you. Can they create appropriate marketing materials, provide social media and business development training, research and pitch organizations and publications on your behalf and/or provide client data, prospect lists and competitive intelligence?

This may seem overwhelming but once you answer the first few questions, the second part is basically a spreadsheet listing your activities and goals. Importantly, you don’t have to do it all from the start. Pick one or two things to focus on and be diligent and consistent in your activities. Then expand from there.

If you need help with your personal marketing plan, contact us for a consultation.

1. Identify your “best” existing and past clients. How do you define “best?” Are your best clients the ones who paid you the most last year (i.e., gross revenue)? Or are they the most profitable (i.e., you realized the highest hourly rate for your time)? Maybe they represent clients who are the easiest to get or who pay promptly and never complain? Or it could be clients who hire you for the kind of work you enjoy the most? Your definition of the best does not have to be the same as other people’s. It should fit your needs and highlight the specific types of clients you want to have.

2. Create a client profile or buyer persona. If you want to get more clients like your best ones, you need to understand as much about them as possible. You do this by developing a client profile or buyer persona which documents pertinent information to guide your marketing efforts. For example, what are their demographics, stage of life/business, interests, pain points, etc.? How did you get them as clients? Did they come through a certain category of referrals (past clients, colleagues from other firms, specific networking groups, etc.) or some other manner? What drives their decision-making? This information will help you target them more effectively by identifying where you can find them and what message will resonate with them.

3. Prioritize your efforts. Many business experts recommend putting your existing clients into 3 buckets – A, B, and C. Bucket A has your best clients. You want to give them the most attention to retain them and encourage them to give more referrals to you. In addition, you want to use the bulk of your marketing time and money to target more clients like them. Bucket B has your average clients. They need to be kept satisfied, but more importantly, focus on how they could become A clients. What kind of marketing and business development will help you get more business from them directly or through referrals? Bucket C consists of clients who take up a lot more time than the revenue they generate warrants. Often, the C clients are the ones who are easier to get and hard to get rid of because they help pay the firm’s bills even though they are only marginally profitable, if at all. When professionals complain they do not have the time to market, it may be because there is a significant amount of time spent on C clients. Time is money and you must decide whether it makes good business sense to let go of C clients in order to focus on getting As and Bs.

4. Develop a marketing plan. The key to successful marketing is to have a written marketing plan which lays out what you want to accomplish and the actions you will take. The plan should focus specifically on getting more clients like your best clients and outline the strategies and tactics you will use and the resources you will invest in achieving your goals. Random acts of marketing don’t get results. You need to concentrate on targeting your audience consistently using multiple marketing tactics.

Stop wasting time going after any client and use these 4 steps to get your best clients.

For help with your marketing plan, contact us for a consultation.

1. Differentiating your practice. We’re all suffering from information overload and offering your audience more generic services and resources won’t set you apart and get you noticed. Marketing a specialty sets you apart from the competition because it forces you to clearly define what you do and what you know in a highly specific way that is different from other firms.

2. Fewer competitors. There are tons of firms that say they serve business owners or high-wealth individuals or they can handle a laundry list of issues for any size company. So if you target your marketing message that broadly, you are going to be competing with all those firms. On the other hand, focusing on a particular industry, type of service or other niche means you have a smaller group of firms who directly compete with you.

3. Better quality leads. How good are the leads you are getting? Are they truly solid prospects? Do you have a high conversion rate? Marketing yourself broadly may bring in more calls, but if they don’t convert to business then it’s not really helpful. Having a well-defined specialty means people have a better sense of the kind of work you do and whether your expertise is a match for what they are looking for from a firm. The ones who call you are specifically interested in your niche practice and that means they are more likely to become clients.

4. Becoming an expert. Your prospects don’t want a generalist; they want a specialist who understands their needs, concerns and industry/situation. By defining a niche, you can really get to know it well and showcase that expertise. Monitor the relevant developments and trends, learn the industry and the key players, influencers and competitors. The more you know about your niche, the better you can provide insightful information to your audience and position yourself as the go-to expert.

5. Knowing your audience. If you have a niche, you need to know who you are targeting with a lot of specificity. Who are they? Where are they? What are their challenges? Where do they turn for information? Imagine trying to understand all of this if you have a general audience. By specializing, you are in a better position to understand how to help your prospects solve their problems and make them satisfied clients.

6. Targeting your message. When you focus on a niche, you can develop better distribution channels for getting your message out. You know where your audience is and you can deliver the message to them. That means taking the time to join and get involved in the groups your audience is involved with, write for the publications they read, and build relationships with the influencers they trust.

7. Maximizing resources. If you’re trying to hit everyone, you will be stretching your time and money very thin. Instead concentrate your resources on your niche. You will find it easier to leverage your marketing and content efforts. Whatever you’re doing to showcase your expertise – writing, speaking, networking, search engine optimization, partnering – can all work together to help you amplify your message and get you more bang for your buck.

Still worried about losing potential clients you were qualified to handle? Marketing a niche doesn’t mean you’re only taking clients in that one area. And there is nothing to say you should only have one niche. The larger the firm, the more specialties you may want to have. However, keep in mind all the benefits described above and stay focused on your best niches for success.

In developing a buyer persona or client profile, you want it to be based on real data and research, not just what you think is true about your market. To that end, here are 7 ways to gather that information:

1. Existing data from clients/prospects. One of the first steps you should take is to look at what clients and prospects have already told you about themselves. When new clients and prospects come in, you should try to gather as much information as you can, such as their individual and company information, demographics, needs, how they got to you, etc. Go through your own database (or create one if you don’t already have one) and analyze and segment your contacts. You may be surprised by how much you can learn about what types of clients are attracted to you, at what times and under what circumstances. The data can reveal niches, trends, patterns and other useful statistics allowing you to better target your ideal audience.

2. Appending data. Often you can’t collect as much information as you would like directly from contacts. People hate to fill out forms and it can be difficult to get answers without annoying clients and prospects. In some cases, you can fill in the gaps by appending your data through third parties. There are services offering to fill in gaps in your data with financial and industry information, contact names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. There are also data mining and aggregation services which gather information from public sources and the internet.

3. Analytics. Your email, web and social media analytics provide a great deal of useful information to help you to create and hone your buyer personas. Understanding how, when and where people find you online and engage with you can reveal a wealth of information about them. For example, the key words they are searching online can tell you about their concerns or reveal trends. The third party sites sending traffic to you tell you about what information sources they may be using. When you produce content, analyze which types and outlets result in more site visitors, registrations, email click-throughs, and social media sharing to determine what resonates with your audience.

4. Surveys, interviews, focus groups. It’s crucial for your buyer persona to incorporate feedback from actual people. Affirmatively reach out to your clients and prospects. Find out how they found you, what their chief concerns and motivations were, how they went through the buying process, and what they like about your services.

5. Competitive intelligence. Yes you need to focus your research on your buyer, but you should also look at what your competitors are doing. In what ways are they targeting this buyer? How are they positioning themselves? You should look at their website, marketing materials, clients, and social media and web traffic. How are buyers connecting and engaging with them? From where are they getting their traffic? What distribution outlets are they using? The idea is to consider what are they doing differently from you and what lessons can you learn about your buyer.

6. Industry sources. It’s crucial to understand the industry in which your prospects operate. What is happening in their industry? Who are the relevant players? What are the key concerns? Research and subscribe to publications, blogs and other information resources relevant to your audience’s industry. Think about how these developments impact your clients and prospects both positively and negatively.

7. Social listening or social media monitoring. By actively monitoring social media channels, you can gain valuable information about your target audience. You can use social media to learn about industry developments and concerns, find influencers and communities, check out competitors, research leads, explore content ideas, and pose questions to your prospects. Join relevant LinkedIn groups, use Twitter to search for appropriate hashtags, follow companies and competitors, and set up alerts to stay current on your market.

You can do all of the above on your own, but there are also tools and service providers to help you with each of them. There are plenty of recommendations online for everything from CRM systems and marketing automation software to web analytic and social listening tools. For some suggested tools, see Social Media Today, Blogging Wizard and Curata.

Some of these may go beyond your needs and that’s fine. As I said in my last post, the important point is to not gloss over creating these profiles. 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.