What's in your marketing plan?

It’s that time of year: time to plan for 2011. What goals do you have for your company? How do you plan to achieve them? What’s your marketing strategy? Fail to create a plan of execution and you’ll find yourself darting from one thing to the next like a dog that has escaped from his yard running free throughout the neighborhood, chasing anything that looks interesting. (Squirrel!)

Equally important is sticking to that plan and following through on what you set forth. If you don’t execute on the plan, and you can say goodbye to any results you hoped to achieve, writes Jason Jacobson in his article, 5 Things that Will Cripple Your Marketing Effort.

“Some items in your plan will work better than others, but everything in that plan should be there for a reason,” Jacobson says. “There are no magic beans in this business, but deviating from the plan to make media purchases based on gut feelings will cripple the plan and can significantly maim your brand, business, and bottom line.”

What things specifically can hurt you? Jacobson points first to ignoring executions that you start. For example, if your marketing plan includes an email newsletter, social media page, or any marketing execution that requires maintenance, you must maintain it. (Read 5 Things that Will Cripple Your Marketing Effort to learn what else can hurt your marketing plan.)

Multi-Level Marketing

As you create your marketing plan, it’s important to consider marketing on multiple levels, writes Sharon Berman in her article, Business Growth Depends on Multi-Level Marketing. Marketing at multiple levels sustains your pipeline so you don’t run out of work, she says. The three main levels:

1. Marketing based on relationships and degrees of separation: Nurture relationships with clients and referral sources
2. Marketing on a scope-of-project level: Work on long-term projects while also working on short-term items
3. Marketing on a priority level: Acting on time-sensitive issues, such as new service launches, while also planning for future events, including speaking engagements and writing opportunities

There’s a plethora of things you can add to your marketing plan, but the key is to know your audience and focus your attention on things they are interested in. Are they involved in social media? Do they like getting updates via email? Do they listen to podcasts during their commutes? Do they attend webinars?

If you find more of your ideal clients heading to the virtual world for information, consider participating in a virtual conference or tradeshow. Similar to in-person conferences in which you have keynote speakers and a vendor expo, virtual events allow you to get in front of a targeted audience. Only you don’t have the expensive travel costs and setup charges. You can participate as a speaker, showcasing your expertise, or sponsor a booth and talk with prospects about their challenges and possible solutions.

In fact, Dennis Shiao, author of Generate Sales Leads with Virtual Events, says virtual events are better at generating qualified leads than other online marketing efforts.

“You’ve got folks entering your virtual booth, and you’re able to interact with them on the spot. I call it accelerated lead generation,” says Shiao in his podcast interview, Accelerated Lead Generation via Virtual Events. “So, rather than generating a lead and then having, say, telesales follow up with them a week later, with a virtual event you’re generating a lead and you’re interacting and qualifying them on the spot.”

Online Marketing Success

Online marketing and advertising can go a long way toward helping your company stand out in a competitive market, as Zendesk Inc. learned. The company combined its strong brand name and logo with a strategic advertising campaign and saw its business grow significantly, writes M. Sharon Baker in her case study, Strong Brand and Strategic Advertising Help Software Maker Grow Business.

“The company pursued a marketing strategy that included online and display advertising, search engine optimization (SEO), and paid search in order to shorten the sales cycle, stand out in what is a very crowded segment of the technology industry, and generate more leads,” Baker writes.

An important part of Zendesk’s strategy was ReTargeter, an online advertising service that allowed companies to continue marketing to their website’s visitors by reminding them of their original visit with display ads after they left the company’s website.

“We wanted a way to jog people’s memory,” says Jacob Meltzer, online marketing manager at the company. “ReTargeter has a great reach, and we’re keeping Zendesk fresh in the visitor’s memory.”

The plan is working, Meltzer says. Zendesk is rising above the noise of the many competitors offering similar software, and the number of trial downloads (required before any purchase), has increased 11%-12%.

Keep It Simple

Your interaction with prospects, whether it’s via online marketing, a phone call, or an in-person meeting, must include helping those prospects make buying decisions, writes Jill Konrath in her article, Ease Your Prospects’ Decision Making and Win More Sales. Busy people who seldom make buying decisions would rather do nothing than have to wade through a complex process.

“Crazy-busy prospects can’t handle complexity. They hate it when things are difficult to decode, decide, or decipher. It grinds them to a screeching halt, which is the normal human reaction to being overwhelmed and stressed out,” says Konrath. “As a seller, your job is to make things easier and minimize the effort for your frazzled prospects.”

Fortunately there are several things you can do to ease the decision-making process for them, including showing them how you can complement what they’re already doing, not replace it, and proposing smaller service offerings rather than the whole shebang.

“Eliminate as much complexity as possible,” Konrath adds. “If you don’t, it can easily become a major showstopper, which is not a desirable outcome.”

Photo credit: Elvis Santana

Are you laying the foundation for a strong, long-lasting business?

When times were tough this past year, did you find yourself taking on any paying client? Are those clients now much more work than the revenue they bring in? Are you still worried about generating enough revenue and making it through to the end of the year? Are you struggling to grow your firm? If you answered yes to any of those questions, chances are you’re marketing plan is lacking.

It’s no secret. If you want a long-lasting, successful business, you have to start with a strong foundation. And that foundation includes having a strong marketing plan that can guide you into making the best decisions to grow your firm, not just doing anything because it will bring in a few dollars.

“In the past, the normal was your professional services business could survive if you had a pulse,” says marketing strategist Lisa Nirell in her podcast interview, Setting the Foundation for a Strong and Wealthy Company. “You could have a few good paying clients and get by pretty well. But today, the only way you can thrive is if you have a plan. And the plan is the only way to navigate through what we’ve seen in the last five or six years.”

What should your plan include? To start, you have to acknowledge the pressures buyers are feeling about having little time and too many options, and make sure your messaging clearly articulates your value and how you can help them with their challenges. Stay away from talking about your services and instead talk about how you can make their lives better—eliminate the problem, save money, save time, etc.

“The more time you spend talking about your service, the less inclined a prospect will want to continue that conversation,” says Kelley Robertson in his article, How to Lose a Prospect’s Attention in 5 Seconds. “The more you focus your attention on their situation and their problems and demonstrate how you can help them improve their business, the more you differentiate yourself from the competition.”

When you discover a niche that few if any providers are addressing, you can further differentiate yourself. That was the case for Robert King when he founded Legally Nanny. He wanted to hire a nanny and could not find anyone who could help him comply with all of the legal and tax requirements employing in-home staff. And so Legally Nanny was founded, writes Gwen Moran in her case study, How a Legal Services Firm Grew Revenue by 66% in One Year with Low-Cost Marketing.

King used that niche, as well as extensive content marketing, social media networking, and word of mouth, to make Legally Nanny a go-to provider.

“We do tons of marketing and absolutely no advertising. I don’t pay any money for advertising, and I take advantage of all the free sources of marketing that are out there,” he says.

What does Legally Nanny tweet? They share articles in which they are quoted, partnerships, training opportunities, King’s upcoming speaking engagements, and articles King has written—to name a few things.

Joseph Riden, author of Twitter Tactics That Help You Get New Clients, stresses that firms (or people tweeting on behalf of firms) should stay away from tweeting the boring irrelevant things that have given Twitter a bad name, such as what you had for breakfast and your morning walk with your dog.

“Consider tweeting something that would contribute to the conversation you want with clients or prospects,” Riden says. “Put yourself in their shoes. Ask, ‘What tweets would make me feel smarter or better at business?’ ”

In his article, Riden explains an excellent Twitter campaign that he says caught the attention of prospects and got them to take action—click over and get more information.

Nothing, however, beats referrals for generating new business. People come to you already trusting you because someone they like and trust pointed them in your direction. But to get those referrals still takes work. If your referral engine isn’t chugging along as good as you like, C.J. Hayden suggests partnering with others.

“There are many possible referral sources for any business other than its own clients. You can begin to build your referral base dramatically by seeking out referral partners,” Hayden writes in her article, Need More Referrals? Partner Up.

Potential partners include other prospects, colleagues, and competitors. Yes, competitors. You may have a specialty that they don’t cover. And there could be times when they’re unable to take on new business, perhaps they don’t have the resources or there is a conflict.

“The best partnerships are reciprocal. If the two of you share the same target market, the possibility of two-way referrals is high,” Hayden says. “But even if you can’t imagine how you could refer business to a potential partner, don’t let that stop you. Savvy business people are always looking for qualified professionals like you to refer business to because it helps them take care of their own clients.”

Learn more about developing a marketing blueprint and growing your business at Lisa Nirell's Sept. 14 webinar

With all of the economic doom and gloom around, you’d think that every business is suffering. The truth is, however, that firms that went into the recession with a strong foundation are not only surviving but they’re growing.

During a recent conversation with marketing strategist and author Lisa Nirell, who is conducting a webinar Sept. 14 titled How to Build a Practical Marketing Blueprint to Grow Your Business, Nirell explained that when companies are armed with a strong marketing plan, they are better able to handle down times—even the chaotic ups and downs this recession has shown us.

Nirell says she has noticed that “most successful firms that provide expensive and high-value services to other companies are really thriving when they focus on seven wealth-building principles.” One of those principles is to shift the business model to one that enables organizations to educate, inform, and inspire others, she says.

The Beryl Companies in Dallas, which provides call center services to hospitals across the U.S., has seen huge success with this approach, Nirell says.

“In addition to focusing relentlessly on great customer service and consistently innovating,” Nirell says, “one of the things that their CEO, Paul Spiegelman, did early on when the company was formed is he said, ‘I want to be known as a company that educates and inspires our healthcare community and our hospital community, so I want to start something called The Beryl Institute.’ ”

The Beryl Institute publishes research and educational information about improving the patient experience and how that activity links to better financial outcomes for health care providers. More than that, it’s “a community of professionals committed to ensuring service excellence in healthcare.” Members can read the organization’s blog, get white papers, read presentations from the institute’s annual conference, and get information about upcoming webinars and seminars.

Spiegelman plays an active role in getting Beryl’s name out there. He writes for publications such as Entrepreneur, Healthcare Financial Management, and Leadership Excellence, and he is the author of Why is Everyone Smiling? The Secret Behind Passion, Productivity and Profit.

“They have reported consistently that their profits are about 50% higher than their nearest competitors,” Nirell says. “And I think it’s because they are a go-to company for leaders in the healthcare industry that are passionate about serving their patients and their community.”

Of course, it took time for Beryl to get to this level, and it required a strong marketing and business plan. This is where Nirell can help. In her Sept. 14 webinar, she will help attendees develop a practical, easy-to-understand growth plan for their firm and a system for consistently promoting their brand. What makes this webinar different is that it will be customized for attendees. If you take the Wealthy Company Scorecard diagnostic, Nirell will be able to give you practical, time-tested strategies to market and grow your firm.

Get Back to the Basics: Services Marketing 101 (photo by drp)

Back to School;
Back to Marketing Basics

It’s that time of year: back to school time. You can’t visit a mall or department store without seeing kids fighting over backpacks and picking out their first day of school wear.

This is also the time of year when vacations wind down and professionals return to their offices recharged and ready to kick off new initiatives to carry them through the end of the year, as well as set the table for a strong 2011. (Can you believe we’re already thinking about 2011?)

As students get back into their school routines, we’re getting back to the marketing basics for professional services firms. Here are seven foundational elements that should be a part of every services firm’s marketing plan:

1. Writing: Writing articles is a great way to increase your reach and your authority. Look to publish your articles in industry and association publications, business journals, on your blog or newsletter, and on industry websites. It takes time for this tactic to take hold. You can’t write one article, publish it on a website, and expect the leads to start flowing in. You need to write and publish on a regular basis. Do this and you can start to build a real guru status for yourself in your particular niche.

2. Speaking:  Public speaking goes hand-in-hand with tip #1. Speaking engagements are an incredibly powerful way to share your expertise, boost your credibility, and meet new prospects. I know of professional services firms that have been successful in building their entire firms simply by getting their professionals out and speaking on a regular basis.

3. Networking: When it comes to marketing and selling professional services, it’s all about relationships. The first place to look for new business is from the relationships you already have with family, friends, colleagues, past clients, etc.

You should work constantly to build up your network and to strengthen your relationships. Find two or three industry groups or associations that your clients and prospects are members of. Attend events held by these groups. Better yet, speak at these events (see #2), write in these industry publications (see #1), and then network with the members.

4. Referrals: This is an oldie but a goodie, and it’s something that often gets overlooked. Diligently ask for referrals. Your clients want to help you succeed, so help them help you.

5. Warm and cold calling: Warm and cold calling are tremendously effective tactics to generate leads with prospects. While many professionals shy away from making calls—and it’s certainly not for everyone—if you have a good list and strong message, it can get you in the door of prospects who may not have even known you existed. For tips on how to get started, check out these three  Cold Calling Scripts.

6. Direct mail and email: Warm up your cold calls by sending a direct mail letter in advance. I’ve found that a letter, call, email, call sequence works very well to warm up cold prospects. Use value based offers  such as a recent article you wrote (see tip #1), information on an upcoming speaking engagement (see tip #2), or an upcoming networking event (see tip #3) that they might like to attend.

7. Lead nurturing: You can implement all of the above tactics and generate a steady flow of new leads, but if you don’t have a lead nurturing plan, all’s for naught. Don’t let the prospects that you’ve worked so hard to get fall through the cracks. Stay in touch and walk them through the sales process.

While there are many tactics (too many to list in one blog post) that can, and do, generate leads for professional services firms, these seven will help you build a strong foundation for additional marketing activities. The key is to not rely on one tactic alone. You can see how each of these tactics work together to help you build credibility, boost your authority, and generate new relationships that ultimately lead to new business.

So this fall, get back to the marketing basics, and you’ll start to see the new leads and new business begin to flow in.

When selling services, sometimes you can slip into some bad practices – even some unethical practices. In some firms, there’s pressure to be the top salesperson, while in others there’s pressure to just survive. No matter the situation, you don’t want to become someone who does whatever it takes to win a client, says Jill Konrath in her latest article on RainToday.com, Say No to Unethical Sales Practices. Doing so will set you up for disaster, for unethical behaviors can have serious ramifications, such as loss of respect and trust, Konrath says.

Avoid bad sales practices if you don't want to come off as a sleazy salesperson

If you’re panicked about the survival of your firm and try to sign every and any client, you’re heading into different trouble. You will end up with clients you really can’t help or clients who will leave after a few months. You want satisfied clients who will stay with you for years. To get them, you must first determine who your ideal clients are, says Randy Shattuck in this week’s podcast, Acquire the Ideal Client, Not Just Any Client.

Once you determine who your ideal clients are, then you can decide the best marketing strategy to get them. In Part Two of Shattuck’s two-part article series, Five Best Practices to Generate New Business, he says that to get prospects interested in your services, you have to speak to results that matter most to them. Follow the practices he gives in this article, and you’ll increase close rates, revenue, and profitability.

Shattuck will discuss client acquisition in greater detail during his November 12 webinar, Top 5 Client Acquisition Strategies in a Tough Economy. You’ll learn how to capture ideal clients who are perfect for your firm, how to manipulate the B2B buying cycle in your favor, how to close more deals, and how to improve your profitability.

During the webinar, Shattuck also plans to review the results from his latest survey on client acquisition tactics and strategies for 2010.  Take a few minutes to take this short survey before the webinar. All participants will receive the full results after the broadcast.

Indeed, firms are under intense pressure these days, but Sharon Berman points out that the web makes it easier for smaller firms to compete with large firms. In her article, Competing with Large Firms: How the web Levels the Playing Field, Berman says for a relatively low investment, smaller professional services firms can expand their presence and reach desirable clients as effectively as firms that have larger wallets. It’s as simple as taking advantage of the tools the Web has to offer.

On the Internet nobody knows if you’re a dog. In the same sense, nobody has to know you’re a small firm.