Does Your Marketing Team Have Too Many Strategists?
I often get email questions from my confident readers (i.e. those willing to take the risk of asking) about issues they are facing. The most recent was a great inquiry from Shari, a talented a six-sigma process designer who was asked to get involved in assessing a...How to Write a Brochure, If You Must
I lament the overuse of marketing brochures as crutches in lieu of purposeful discussions and meaningful client interactions. I simply try to avoid spending marketing time and resources on perfunctory, haughty, worthless marketing collateral.
HOWEVER, if Marketing is going to produce a “brochure,” here is how to write a brochure correctly.
What is Marketing?
My wife says that I tilt at windmills when I try to convince the professional services world that Marketing is strategic and more than making things pretty. Alliance partners and business leaders say they have the “strategic stuff” covered. My marketing peers wonder why I expend so much energy and political capital fighting an undefeatable foe. After all, it’s easier to just ride a horse in the direction it is going.
In the immortal words of John McClane in the movie Die Hard, “Yipee ki yay,…!”
12 Steps to Transform Professional Services Marketing
Professional services marketing is like no other.
Professionals services firms market complex, intangible solutions to what are big, public, and potentially embarrassing problems. The solutions are bought by the most sophisticated c-level buyers at top companies around the globe. And, professionals must operate from Byzantine, matrixed systems in one of the most political and contentious ownerships structures, a partnership.
Buyer Persona Shortcomings
Has your firm’s marketing team developed buyer “personas” yet? If you haven’t, please don’t. If you have, please throw them out. I have always had a distaste for the “persona” craze that has gripped marketing during the “content marketing” fad. Sure, I get that...PODCAST: Responding to the Threat of Content Marketing
In Episode 3, Responding to the Threat of Content Marketing, Jason and I tackle the approaches professional services firms can use—must use—to defend themselves from the SaaS onslaught and the commodification of “proprietary” intellectual capital. Most...Introducing the Rattle and Pedal podcast
Does the world really need another podcast? It does if it confronts the “BS of Professional Services.” That’s exactly what Jason Mlicki of Rattleback and I are doing with our new podcast, Rattle & Pedal™, conceived last year and launching today Jason and I...How to Identify Your Ideal Client
Identifying an ideal client is the fundamental building block of a profitable, growing business. The ideal client can be hard to find as a start-up when you are just trying to keep the doors open and make a sale—any sale. It can be just as hard for established firms...10 Reasons Why Partners Don’t Understand Marketing
One of my more popular and controversial blog posts is “Why Your Marketer Doesn’t Understand Your Firm’s Business.” The title alienates professional services marketers before they get to the first sentence. It satisfies partners because it recognizes what they might...Choose Your Value Proposition Words Carefully
Professional services attract some of the best and brightest people in business. We matriculate to top schools and graduate at the top of our classes. We are star athletes, cheerleaders, debaters, musicians, student council members, and more. We are competitive,...How Much Should a Professional Services Firm Spend on Marketing?
This is one of the most popular questions asked among practice leaders and marketers in professional services. An agency colleague told me recently that the correct answer from most marketers is always “more.” Yet, most partners and busines…