With careful planning you can still grow your firm during economic distress. (Photo by WTL photos)
Some people say the recession is nearly over, but the reality is many firms are dealing with economic distress and will for some time still. They’re scrambling to hold on to clients, find new clients, and retain staff. How can they plan in such an uncertain time? What can they do so that when things do improve they emerge with the strength to live and thrive? RainToday contributing editor Bruce W. Marcus has some ideas in this week’s article, 10 Steps to Planning Effectively During Economic Distress. Following his 10-step process, firms can better understand the strengths and weaknesses of their client base and can make informed decisions about the allocation of resources.
Growing your business during challenging times is difficult, but it isn’t impossible. One thing firms can do is build a community to interact with and engage prospects, says RainToday contributing editor Vickie Sullivan in her article, 3 Types of Communities That Can Grow Your Business. Start by deciding what you want the community to do, then determine what type of community is good for you: a big group that can create big buzz, a small group of people who have big budgets, or a big group of people who have small budgets? Read Vickie’s article to help you decide.
If a big group that generates big buzz is for you, one obvious choice is Twitter. In this week’s podcast, How to Become a Marketing Success on Twitter, Sarah Milstein says Twitter is one of the best places to demonstrate your thought leadership. It’s a great way to do lightweight marketing, as well as to network with prospects and clients, says the co-author of The Twitter Book. Listen as Sarah reviews how to get started using Twitter, what you must do to get people following you, and the business benefit of using Twitter.
Participating on Twitter and showcasing thought leadership is definitely one thing staff can do if they find themselves with less billable work. In fact, there are many things staff of all levels can do to help with the firm’s marketing, says Anne Scarlett in her article, Mobilize Under-Utilized Staff to Help With Marketing. Following her four-step plan, determine areas in which staff can help and how to motivate them to want to help.
Firms may also want to consider online video as a way to demonstrate thought leadership and capture the attention of potential clients. That’s what Blyth Valley did when it discovered it needed a way to differentiate itself from the competition and attract more customers. The insurance brokerage produced an online video campaign that resulted in greater requests for quotes and more policy purchases—at higher rates.
“The idea is that the person watching the video could pick up the phone and talk to this person,” says says Alex Wright, the firm’s marketing director, in this week’s case study, Testing the Value of Video: How an Insurance Firm Doubled Conversion Rates. And obviously people did.
