| |
| |
|
Marketing Information |
|
|
|
Like Brushing Your Teeth
What do the following things have in common: brushing your teeth, regular exercise, eating a balanced diet, paying your bills on time, cleaning your gutters, spending quality time with your spouse and kids?? They're all forms of regular "self-care" that, if you neglect them for a period of time or take the wrong approach, there will be costly negative consequences. The same goes for marketing. Do any of these symptoms sound familiar? ? Your phone does not ring regularly with new prospects. ? You don't regularly hear, "Hey, I've heard of your company!" ? Your sales pipeline is dry, so you go to some networking events, get some leads, then stop. ? People don't respond quickly to meet or talk with you after an initial introduction through networking. ? The leads you do get trickle in slowly. ? You spend a lot of time looking for opportunities, but aren't getting the results you want. ? You can't safely project your firm's income for the next 6 to 12 months. ? You're finding it hard to attract and retain top talent, even in a recently tough economy. ? Relationships with clients tend to be short and one-off projects (i.e., no repeat business). ? You rely heavily on one or two income streams (i.e., consulting or coaching). ? Most of your eggs are in one basket (i.e., one or two major clients), and if they went away, you'd be in trouble. ? You're too busy to look for more clients. If any of these symptoms ring true for you, one of two things is probably happening. Either you're not marketing on a consistent enough basis to generate reliable results. Or you're not using the right approach to get the kind of results you want. Or both! Consistency is Key The American Dental Association recommends brushing your teeth at least twice a day. The USDA's food pyramid maps out a balanced approach to eating. Your mortgage company or landlord stay happy when you pay them monthly on time. Experts urge us to clean our gutters twice a year. You get the idea? Do we really follow all of these guidelines to the letter? Probably not. But within reason, people who consistently follow healthy habits over time, get better results, live "younger" longer, and incur less cost (financial, physical, emotional) than those who do not. This is definitely the case with marketing for professional services. You simply cannot dabble in lousy messaging, offer an unwanted service, do occasional networking, or disappear from your target audience's radar, only to reappear when you need more work. Benign neglect and sporadic attention will get you predictable results. Here's why: clients come to you in a very vulnerable position?they need something from you that they can't do for themselves or don't have the expertise to solve on their own. So they need to trust that 1) you won't lead them astray, wasting their time/money; and 2) you have their best interests in mind. How can they begin to trust you, then, if you disappear from sight, inconsistently communicate with them, or say things that they can't understand or relate to? Taking a proactive, consistent "preventative maintenance" approach to marketing is the key to building trust in the marketplace. Here's how to make marketing a healthy habit: STEP 1: Offer what the market wants. Sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised how often I see firms selling what their clients "really need, they just don't know it yet." Or, "this is such a worthy cause (new approach, cutting edge strategy, etc.), I just know it's needed." Unless you have the PR and marketing budget to fund a major, long-term educational campaign, you can't afford to take this approach. STEP 2: Say the right things to the right audience, at the right time, in the right way. What you say (messaging) is more important, and harder, than spreading the word. The biggest waste of time and money is to spin your wheels promoting your services when you're saying the wrong things. STEP 3: Do some form of marketing every week, if not every day. Even if you're swimming in more work than you can handle now, you can't afford to stop promoting your services. Ever. Pick a "theme" for the week and just do it: prepare a talk, draft an article, network, write your monthly keep-in-touch e-newsletter, ask for testimonials, add case studies to your website, send items of interest to clients and contacts, write thank you notes, do a postcard mailer about your next talk, call an old client, write and send out a press release, provide great client service, develop a valuable freebie to give away, and so on. Successfully marketing professional services is about establishing and sustaining trust through a consistent approach to meaningful visibility with your target audience. Ignore this advice, and in short order you'll suffer the equivalent of cavities, leaky gutters, bad credit, and an expanding waistline?and end up paying the expense of emergency surgery, instead of the smaller investment of taking a preventative approach. (c) 2004 TurningPointe Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved.
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
What Our CAT Taught Me About Marketing! Toby is one of our two family pets (both cats). He is quite astute, and he has learned one of the most basic tenets of selling - stick with what works!Many of Toby's days are spent perched on the top of my monitor as I work here on my computer. Did Jesus Get Killed for Practicing Interruption Marketing? I'm reading Seth Godin's Permission Marketing and he brings up the difference between Interruption Marketing and Permission Marketing.Interruption Marketing is when you interrupt people from what they are doing in order to ask them to pay attention to something else. The Six-Step Process That Grows Your Business 1. Examine your clientele and define your ideal client. Great Marketing is Like Making a Great Movie KNOW YOUR AUDIENCEThe Oscars will be handed out soon, and it's a perfect time to keep this in mind: If you're a business owner or manager, it's wise to think of yourself as a great film director who's telling a story. Having directed films, stage, television, and stage productions we noticed that the principles of great directing or filmmaking apply exactly to great marketing. Give me a Referral any Day - the Power of Networking I nearly panicked recently! Well, maybe a slight exaggeration but here was a situation I had not been in for some time. The freezer had broken down and the dilemma I faced was - a speedy solution was necessary BUT I did not know anybody who repairs freezers. Postcards - Picture Perfect Promotion There is a simple but almost mystical law which governs promotion and marketing and their relationship to the amount of business generated: business will come in to the degree that you get your message out, promote, let people know you are there, advertise, write to people, call people, e-mail people and generally communicate to existing or potential clients.It isn't a fact that registers easily and it almost takes faith to follow this dictum until you have seen it work over and over in all sorts of different businesses and organizations (as I have). Postcard Direct Mail Marketing: 15 Ways To Grab Attention If you use direct mail postcards to generate leads or sell a product or service, you need to create postcards that grab your prospect's attention. The place to do that is Side A, the side that doesn't have the stamp and address on it. Do You Have This Important Tool in Your Marketing Arsenal? Many business owners do not understand the authenticity and validation that a simple toll-free number adds to their business presence.It is particularly important that any business owner whose market is not exclusively local consider beefing up the image of the business with a toll-free number. The Advantages of Full Color Brochure Printing A brochure can be a great promotional tool, whether it is for is a real estate listing, a trade show handout, a data sheet, or another application. The most professional and eye-catching brochures are usually those that are full color. Business Cards That do the Business A business card makes a statement about who you are and what your business is about. It needs to convey the quality of your business and an insight into your personality. Build A Successful Business By Staying Connected Over the course of your business life you'll come in contact with a number of other business people. They could be lawyers, business services, suppliers, customers, etc. How to Convey Trustworthiness in Direct Mail Marketing Sales Letter A person or business that might buy from you is called a prospect. But they might just as accurately be called a skeptic. Case Study: How to Get a Big Boost in Response by Taking Your Marketing to the Extreme Want a big boost in response and quick sales from your next direct marketing effort? Then take your marketing to the extreme. What do I mean by extreme? I mean unconventional, break the mold, out-of-the-box, reaches-out-and-grabs-people-by-the-lapel marketing. Tradeshow Booth Cures - Knick-Knack Knockouts Okay, we were kidding about the smoke, but not about the mirrors. Mirrors are exceptionally useful Feng Shui devices, especially in regards to manipulating the flow of energy. The 30 Incredible Ways To Sell Your Products Now and Sell More How to sell more and sell quickly online for your products and service? Here is the long list for your reference. 1. Lack Of Business Isnt Always The Problem When you're just starting out in business, it's a safe bet that you need more clients. But what if you have been up and running for a while, and you're still not making as much money as you would like? You may be in the habit of thinking that attracting new clients is the answer, but this isn't always the case. An Example of Understanding Consumer Thinking A church in my community provided me with one of the best examples of understanding the consumer, which I've ever experienced.Once a month a church in my community provides free lunch, open to the public. Rules of Thumb for Marketing to Your Past Customers Keeping in touch can dramatically increase business, when done properly.It's a fact that your customers are your best leads. Direct Mail Response Devices and How to Craft Them Successful direct mail packages contain three things: an attractive offer, a call to action, and a response device. The offer is the Incentive. The Mighty Marketing Brochure "Brochure" is French, and it comes from brocher, meaning to stitch. According to The American Heritage Dictionary, a brochure is "a small booklet or pamphlet, often containing promotional material or product information.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
