Three big hairy marketing opportunities most miss

By Rebecca Wilson | Published: May 5, 2013

I’ve spent the last few weeks travelling around, meeting and speaking with many professional services business owners and their staff all over the country.  What is apparent to me is that many are missing out on a couple of enormous opportunities.  So today I want to flag three areas of your marketing you should understand better and consider properly leveraging.

 

3 big opportunities many professional service firms are failing to harness

Embracing social media as a key tool for marketing and BD. 

Very few professional services companies in Australia have embraced the online environment well.  Their marketing department might have finally allowed their staff to use Linkedin and given them a strict terms of use policy, but most of the staff (and possibly many corporate marketers) don’t know “how” to leverage it to their advantage and make money for their company from it.

 

You might be surprised to hear just how many of our clients come to us after watching us for some time on social media, gradually building trust.  Social media is a great way for you and your business to gradually build a relationship with its market… and allow them to choose to do business with you.

 

A website that talks to your customers properly

Many firms are failing in the implementation of a great, powerful website that talks to their clients and targets properly and regularly.  It is frustrating to watch so many companies get burned in the web development process at the moment…

 

What you must remember when you go to build a website is that web designers and internal marketing teams are not usually experts in business or marketing strategy (trust me!!! And I know and love plenty of people in both types of roles). So if you go to a web designer and part with a lot of money without properly understanding what you  and your customer want to get out of it, and I mean really get out of it, you are doing yourself a great disservice.  Web developers go through design school!! not business school so they cannot tell you if your business strategy or your website is talking to the right market or not…  That coupled with their desire to keep the costs of development down and the profit margin up means they rarely suggest too much innovation once the priced is fixed down.

 

So if you aren’t careful, you’ll be back there in a year complaining that your site “Isnt good enough” and starting all over again.

And  finally,

 

Ensure you are harnessing the true power of content

Businesses (and many PR companies too) don’t understand the new way of marketing – inbound marketing or content marketing.  And it ain’t that new!!!  People outside of Australia have been content marketing for over 5 years.  About as long as we have at Stretch.  Remember the cries “Content is King”??  Well it wasn’t then, because there was no ways to serve content well, but now CONTENT IS KING.

 

Content marketing is possibly the most powerful and lowest cost form of marketing available to a professional business.  Good content allows you to generously educate and inform your clients without selling anything.  Instead, you use it to build a closer relationship with them over time by repeatedly giving value to them.  Content can come in many forms, from articles, blogs and whitepapers to videos and infographics.  If you think it is just email newsletters, and that they don’t work, it is time to take a more careful look.

But be warned, most PR companies are still approaching content marketing as a broadcast mechanism, writing salesy advertorial.  This is NOT content marketing… this is PR and PR as we knew it two years ago is less and less valuable.  Why…? Because the media is less powerful and we all have direct reach into our markets.

 

So, take what you can from my few weeks on planes, in trains and driving round talking to business owners… They are the value I get to share with you as a part of eating my own dog food.

 

And before I finish up, I just want to remind you to get going on your marketing and BD if you haven’t already…   The period from April until November is usually the time when most businesses get to enjoy accelerating, growing and earning.  Start now and you’ll reap rewards sooner than you might if you put it off til July.

 

image: svilen001

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Give your business some juicy stories

By Rebecca Wilson | Published: March 25, 2013

Have you ever sat back from your business and asked yourself – what are the consistent stories we tell clients about what we do, how we do it, who we do it for and why?  Do you have stories like this?  Have you written them down and do you use them as the foundations for your business’ marketing and communications?

I have been asking people I meet this a lot lately, with most people looking me dead in the eye with a wry grin and answering “No, we don’t have any stories”.  Usually followed by “That is just what we need.  Can we get some?”.  “People don’t really know what we do,” or “We need a bit more profile in that area,” or even ”Our staff aren’t good at explaining the real value we bring to a client”

Sound familiar?

You see, the world is changing, or should I say bluntly, it has changed! Traditional advertising doesn’t work cost-effectively any more to get your message across.  People don’t have time to read the papers, they aren’t sitting anywhere reading magazines, they don’t have a radio on their desk anymore, and direct mail simply doesn’t reach its destination. Instead, they want to be engaged, valued and given insight and leadership, regularly, in a way they can develop trust for your business.  They want to hear from you.  They need your stories.

Reminding the target client of a story they know and trust performs a powerful short cut to getting your marketing across. 

Clients want to choose whether you are worth listening to and get to know your business by listening to it over a period of time.  They want to hear your stories.  They want them to be told to them in different ways, and tied back into the major value propositions you offer, sensibly, without selling.  If you don’t tell them, you are missing a massive opportunity.

Anticipated, personal and relevant insights always perform better in promoting your business than unsolicited junk.  If you build stories, then use the relevant ones to communicate with the relevant people around your business rhythmically… the chance of them listening to your message is a lot higher because the stories will have a value to the person you are trying to engage.

Give people stories to tell and they will tell them… give them nothing and they will either make up their own or say nothing at all. 

It is important to remember that conversations are going on in your marketplace everywhere all the time.  If you give people inside and outside your business the stories to tell, you’ll encourage the right types of conversations about your business and the trends and clients it is attached to.

Now I know there is a percentage of you out there shaking your head going “Nope, I just don’t need any more stuff in my inbox… I don’t have time for video and … “

But you are reading this aren’t you.  Why?  Because we strive to give you useful, selfless ideas that can help you in business, and that my friends is the key.  Useful, selfless, valuable ideas people can use will keep them reading your stories, time and time again.  People want value. And with the value can be a good stashing of personality helping people to get to know you, like you, and perhaps, one day they might call you to do business.

Despite all this, so many PR companies pump out blatant advertorial, blind to the importance of the story, the real value of content marketing, and ignoring the importance of “giving value”.  I know, because I am also a publisher of a website that receives many content pitches from PRs with some significant disappointment at the quality of the “stories” they send.  Be aware of this.  SEO providers too.  They are often hired for volume, not quality, which can be problematic later, but that is another article.

So if you are going to build stories, promise me this… they will be smart, valuable, useful and insightful for the people you want to have engaged with them.  Don’t bother with advertorial, google keyword stuffing, or ignoring the need to communicate – it just won’t work for you.  Your clients are human beings.  They want value.

You can build stories up over a long period of time, in so many different and engaging ways like:

  • Blogging and/or Business Articles
  • White papers or Research papers and insights
  • Video
  • Social Media
  • Media Coverage
  • Industry stories
  • Guest Speaking
  • Personal Contact

The best stories combine a little of each, giving people a great taste of what you have to offer, without any selling at all. And they are not one hit wonders, they are sagas…

Bear in mind, you will be judged by how good your story telling is.  If you business is bad at story telling, it will probably be bad at selling, because frankly that is what marketing and communications is, story telling…

 

How many stories does your business have?   

photo credit: Stewf via photopin cc

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‘Look outwards’ to grow your pipeline

By Kate Chaundy | Published: March 25, 2013

 It is very easy to look inward in marketing your business and play it safe. Activities like reviewing and adding another system or process, endlessly focusing on client work, updating your marketing materials again, tendering for everything that comes your way or continuing to sponsor or host events that are not getting results are all sign of looking inwards.

We have all seen companies stuck in this rut, procrastinating and avoiding approaching new markets because looking inwards is easy and comfortable, much easier than looking out.

The truly brave look out. They know the trends affecting their industry, who the new target markets are, and then go find them. They take action put themselves in front of them. This takes courage, belief and conviction.

The good news is that focus and discipline can shift our thinking to achieve great results and drive into new markets. Here’s how to get started.

1.    Know the trends.

The most important step is gaining an understanding of the trends that are affecting your industry and the key opportunities that you can capitalise upon. This information will give you knowledge of the right markets you should be focusing on and their hot buttons to give direction to your marketing.

2.    Have clear goals and accountability.

Armed with your target market in mind you can set clear goals about the action you need to reach them. Determine what you need to do to get in front of them and how frequently it will occur. This could include a combination of events, public speaking, communications and campaigns. Lay out accountability for these actions by setting goals and measuring your progress and successes. Use others, internal or external to your business to keep you accountable, catch up regularly to report back on your progress, seek guidance and work together to strategise on the new markets.

3.    Build relationships in the industry.

Seek out people in the industry who can give you access to your target market. Be generous with these people and give, build and maintain relationships. Become part of committees, give information, connect people or donate your time. Also use strategic partnerships with aligned firms and work together to help each other get in front of new markets.

4.    Harness tools to achieve your goals.

Each target market is different and a one-sized approach will not fit all. You may find that direct campaigning works well for one market but in another it is best to softly leverage networks and industry associations. Ideally a combination of key strategies should be used. Know your markets how best to reach them, then pick the right marketing and business development tools to achieve your growth goals.

5.    Review and reflect.

Once you have been active in your markets, review and reflect what worked. You may have found that some activities were more worthwhile than others, achieving great results that quickly filled your pipeline. But some activities may have consumed a lot of your time for little result. Be sure to adapt quickly so that your efforts achieve the most bang for your marketing buck. But remember consistency is important too, so if you are seeing trickles of hope, don’t give up just yet! You want to build on this to increase your visibility in key markets.

It is a delight when we see highly motivated teams, active in their markets, achieving great results. The energy that they bring easily builds relationships, attracting new clients and gives them a healthy pipeline of work, and solid business growth. High quality staff are also empowered by and attracted to these kinds of firms, it is easy to see why.

photo credit: gerlos via photopin cc

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The last two weeks on the social media rollercoaster

By Kate Chaundy | Published: February 18, 2013

In the last two weeks there has been two shining examples of what to do and what not to do when handling a corporate social media page.  

The first example showing quick thought and smart action that works, comes from Oreo. During the Superbowl last week the power went out for around 30 minutes. The clever social media managers for Oreo quickly developed an ad that was simple, smart and on target, tweeting it out…

“Power out?” Oreo posted on Twitter. “No problem, you can still dunk in the dark.” The tweet was retweeted 10,000 times within 1 hour.

Why it worked…

Relevance and timing is everything.    Oreo realised people would be jumping on Twitter to comment when the power outage happened and they quickly moved to be part of the fun. It worked because the image was posted at the right time and it was relevant to audiences.

Show that you are human.    When the lights went out at the Super Bowl, many were making fun of it through jokes on social media. Oreo jumped right in and without being stupid or offensive and had people laughing along with them. They became part of their community and showed that they had a sense of humour. People relate strongly to a brand and the people behind it when they share similar experiences.

Build your followers.     Oreo had been tweeting and posting culturally relevant ads every day for six months, gathering loyal followers. They had a structured social media plan and laid the foundations for the Superbowl social media ad that resonated strongly with their followers and encouraged sharing.

On social media, simple is best.     We are seeing a movement toward a more visual web. Images are quick and easy they don’t require additional clicks or even very much time to digest. Most importantly, they are easy to share

 

The second example at the opposite end of the spectrum shows how things can go horribly wrong.   It comes from Applebees, which is a chain of casual food restaurants in the USA.

So the story goes, a customer declined to leave a tip. Instead the customer who happened to be a priest left a snarky note. “I give God 10% why do you get 18%”. A waitress picked up the note, took a photo of it and posted it on Facebook. Unfortunately the note included the name of the customer. The waitress subsequently lost her job for violating a customer’s privacy.

What followed afterwards was difficult to watch.

Numerous Facebook groups were created to support the waitress and to boycott Applebees restaurants until she was hired back.

Applebees in response committed a multitude of social media sins over a very short 12 hour period. This included hiding behind privacy statements and legal jargon, deleting negative comments from their social media pages, denying their actions, copying and pasting previous statements instead of responding to concerns, and arguing back with comments.

While there is always two sides to the story, Applebees could have saved themselves from the humiliation. Here are some ways how…

It is better to join the conversation rather than try to control it.     The new reality of social media means that brands can’t control the conversation anymore. Applebees shows us that many companies are still struggling with this concept and need to shift from a push marketing mindset to a pull marketing reality. Their followers were crying out for interaction and conversation but instead Applebees gave them repetitious corporate statements.

Be honest and transparent.     Applebees should have been honest and transparent from the start. The public would have been a lot more forgiving. Instead they tried to cover their mistakes and denied any cover up. Of course this just made the situation a whole lot worse.

Listen to your audience.     Instead of listening to comments and politely responding Applebees chose to delete, ignore or pasted standard responses. This showed disrespect to their audience and caused outrage and a flood of negative posts towards Applebees. Questions and direct comments even if they are negative must be acknowledged and responded to politely.

Put someone in charge of social media with experience.     Make sure the person who is handling your social media accounts has experience, not only in social media, but also in social media publishing and monitoring for a business. They must also understand your business, the products and services it offers, and must be mature enough to handle a public relations crisis if it develops.

The key takeaway from these examples is that social media is a vital part of a content marketing strategy for businesses. Therefore, it pays to get it right. On top of the above points, make sure that you have a social media plan in place that includes your social media goals and objectives, key messages, and sets out the overall tone and voice to be portrayed. This will ensure that your social media will maintain and build on the credibility of your brand, increase customer loyalty and ultimately gain new customers and followers.

Kate Chaundy is a Marketing Consultant with Stretch Marketing. 

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The Power of Community in Marketing: Two Big Choices

By Rebecca Wilson | Published: February 6, 2013

You have two choices in business…  Who you want to be, and who you want to do business with…

You can be a person with a very strong business instinct, who never works a minute unless they are paid for it, who wont go out of their way to help someone unless there is something that is in it for them… who doesn’t see the point in building a network unless there is something to be gained from every single person they bother with in every single minute.

Or you can be a person who works actively with the community they live in, knowing that these are the people around those you do business with, the people that support them, guide them and influence them.  You can contribute a reasonable, but not ridiculous amount of time to helping your community, using your smarts, learned experience and business nous to assist those at their time of greatest need.

You have the choice how you build your network and who you do business with.

The first person… lets call them “Person A” have a rather narrow network of people who they have done favours for, who “owe them something” and operate on a “quid pro quo” basis.  They operate inside this network and people gradually get to understand the limitations of this person’s approach.  They can be very, very successful… and those financially dependent on them are fairly grateful for this.

“Person B”, instead is always looking for opportunities to help those in their network in the knowledge that giving valuable opportunities to those in your network makes them more successful and builds a stronger mutual trust between you.  They care for a couple of important causes, usually ones they can add value to through their capability or network, bringing greater value than others of a different skill base might be able to.  The communities they work in recognise this and are grateful. This gratefulness displays itself in many ways, from industry networks to referrals and beyond.

Why do you have this choice? 

You have to choose in professional services to be memorable, influential and interesting to your networks, and it sure is made easier by being an active part of your community.

Two years on from the Brisbane Floods, I was invited to speak this week to the Alumni of the Queensland College of Law about our experience two years ago building a community with Flooddiscounts.com.au.  This story resonated with everyone in the room.

Back then, the team at Niche Studio, and my team at Stretch Marketing, along with a team of Brisbane volunteers, built an online community portal collecting discounts to help flood victims that were so traumatised by the widespread lack of insurance coverage in the 2011 floods.  The community came together very rapidly, all within two weeks, and achieved extraordinary results. When we created Flood Discounts, I subconsciously knew how important it is to do things for your community and had worked with my own communities for many years helping and fundraising for good causes.  But the sense of goodwill created when you demonstrate your propensity to help others on such a scale is terrific.

It brings you back to the big question at the top… do you want to be Person A or Person B?  What do you do for the community that sits around your business?  And how do you become memorable, influential and interesting?

There are many different ways you can… 

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Start the year with courage

By Rebecca Wilson | Published: January 22, 2013

Bang!  The starters gun has gone off for 2013.  In fact, it went off in December, when you should have been preparing all of your important relationships for the new year, as we wrote last year in “Stand out from the crowd this Christmas”. 

“Nobody really gets mentally back to work until after Australia Day” a few people have said to me this week.  Now I don’t know about you, but I am conscientiously “back at work” this week, as are many of the business owners and colleagues I know.  Sure, they took a nice long holiday, and enjoyed the fact that pretty much the whole nation has been on three or even four weeks sabbatical… but we’re back, we’re feeling brave, and ready to confront what 2013 has in store with as much courage as we can.

This year could be challenging if you let it escape early without holding the reins, or perhaps, if you get a firm grip now, it could be awesome.

So, what do you do after you’ve switched on your computer and aligned your pens for your first week of furious action, deleted your junk mail, called all your live clients and spoken with your team …

 

1.  Define the trends in the market and the sectors that you want to “piggy back” on this year and decide the ones you don’t want your business associated with.  Then communicate them with your team.  Stick them on the wall if you can find a place.

The last half of 2012 struck fear through many sectors of our economy, especially in Queensland where government, iron ore and professional services all went off the boil at once and for some time.    You can avoid a repeat of this by looking hard at the client-sector breakdown within your workload and diversifying it across a couple of different industries shifting away from those with structural issues.

 

2.  Write down your target clients and target influencers, and detail the next action you will take with each.  Put a deadline on the actions and hold yourself accountable for them.

Only you can make your year more successful than last year and it is done by making more effort with more people.  Despite how tough it might feel, there is work out there in most sectors, you just have to find it and win it.

 

3.  Get your 90 day marketing plan ready for a February start to the year of “tactical activity”. 

Almost all of our clients have detailed, tactical 90 day marketing and communications plans that run through the active quarters of the year Feb – April; May – July; August – October; Nov – Jan.  Why do we break the quarters up like this you ask?  Well, these are the cycles that we have found businesses truly function in.  What do they contain… all the clever tactical activity we have assembled for you this quarter and who is accountable for making it happen.

 

4.  Kick off your first client communication

Put yourself at the front of everyone’s mind by giving them some useful information for the new year.  Email it, post it, or personally deliver it, but please, please, please communicate with your clients.

 

5.  Then, get out the door and start talking to people. 

Starting the year off from a long holiday like this year’s is not easy.  When you sit down with others, you may just find that your clients are struggling to motivate their new year of energy, and your courage and vigour is just what they were looking for.  You may even be able to help them with their new year’s resolutions of better management, staffing, planning or execution, just because you made the effort before others.

Happy new year.  We look forward to catching up with many of you over coming weeks.  If you want some help with your plans, materials, strategy or execution, please dont hesitate to give us a call.  

Rebecca Wilson is the Owner and Principal Consultant of Stretch Marketing. 

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Stand out from the Crowd this Christmas

By Rebecca Wilson | Published: November 27, 2012


As everyone around you in the professional marketplace winds down from a hard year into Christmas, you are presented with an opportunity.  You can wind down with them, or you can take the opportunity to stand out a little from the crowd by stepping up your marketing and communications a notch or two, carefully positioning yourself and your business for the new year ahead. 

At this time of the year, we know most people move to a self-centric stance, thinking about how they get through their workload to their holidays and what they will be doing while they are on them.  And many also wind down their business minded thoughts from active to reactive, putting plans and planning on hold until the new year.   But should we really be saying… “Well, lets just wait until the new year… No one is going to make a decision now anyway”… or is December potentially the most important month of the year setting you up for the period into Easter and beyond?

What is the opportunity?

Now is not the time to amp up your advertising to top volume trying to “sell, sell sell”, but it is the time to carefully build on the relationships you have been fostering throughout the year.  Visit the people you care about and engage with them, without selling anything.  Understand them, their challenges, their fears, their upcoming vacations and their year ahead.

It is also a good time to say thank-you and perhaps share a small, considerate gift (or time and ideas) with your most important clients

Just because your clients become me-centric, doesn’t mean they don’t want to be communicated with… in fact it gives you the opportunity to tune into this self-centric stance and get to know those contacts as people more than you do today.

 

Set yourself up for the year ahead

This time of the year is also a good time to revisit your plans and consider what you can do to build a bumper year in 2013.  Are your communications, content marketing and media interaction all working for you the way they should be?  Could they work harder next year with more suitable scoping, segmentation or a stronger understanding of the new tools available?

If you let it, this time of the year gives you the breathing space to make choices about your marketing and communications and get them into place firmly for the new year.

 

Make December your best month yet

December is great month to make a personal, engaging effort.  People feel more social in December, and are more likely to embrace a casual or comfortable catch up.  It is a good time to make your honest and genuine thanks known to your clients and contacts; and it is a good time to put plans in place for the next quarter.

This December, you can choose to flick off your productivity switch, or you can make it a bumper month for personal, high quality market interaction.

The choice is yours…

 Rebecca Wilson is the Owner and Principal Consultant of Stretch Marketing  

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New Linkedin Company Pages: How to make the most of them

By Kate Chaundy | Published: November 10, 2012

You might have noticed that LinkedIn is looking a little different lately. New upgrades have brought a raft of changes, that include a new home page with a larger, cleaner news feed, larger images and a greater visibility of trending topics.

However, the most significant changes have been to the company pages, making them bigger, better and more interactive.  So if you have never considered leveraging your corporate presence on Linkedin and are interested in starting… read on.

Businesses can now update their company pages with regular content and stories,  enabling their followers to receive updates and insights about job opportunities, company news, employee moves and more.  But even better, you can post your fresh content articles and anecdotal stories to your followers much like an individual can update with their regular personal updates.

On top of this, it is important to mention that with these changes, your LinkedIn company page is now getting indexed by search engines so appropriate use of it will increase your web visibility and SEO too. This week we offer some tips for getting the most out of LinkedIn Company pages.

 

1. Update, create and complete your company page

Populate your company page using descriptions about whom you serve and how you serve them. Include key specialties of your company and use keywords that will resonate with your target markets. Be sure to pull in your news and blog posts by inserting the URL. Include your products and services pages on your profile. On these pages you can include an image, description, list of key features, landing page URL to your site and any links to special promotions. You can even embed YouTube videos on the products and services overview page, as well as each individual product and service page. Once you have completed setting up your LinkedIn company page, you will need to enable the page for status updates. Add in the designated people who will post status updates on the company page within your settings.

 

2. Build followers

To get the full benefits of your LinkedIn company page and ensure your updates are visible, you will need to get some followers. Increasing your company page followers means that your updates will be seen more widely throughout LinkedIn. Building followers for your company is an ongoing process and you should constantly be working to build company page followers on LinkedIn in order to expand your reach. Below are some suggestions to quickly build your unique business community for your company page:

  • Encourage existing employees to link up with your page. Existing employees can help extend your company’s reach by sharing your status updates with their connections on LinkedIn.
  • Follow the company pages of industry peers, vendors, current customers and prospective customers. Many of them will reciprocate the action. Also consider following companies outside of your industry that are in your same geographic location.
  • Send an announcement to appropriate LinkedIn connections to follow your company page. Make sure to provide benefits on why they should follow your page. What is in it for them and how will it assist them in their role.
  • Post a “call to action” to follow your page within relevant LinkedIn groups.

Keep in mind that the more relevant followers you have in your LinkedIn company page, the more opportunities you have to be visible and build influence with your target markets.

3. Provide interesting and value-adding company page updates

Although LinkedIn suggests that you post status updates to your company page about jobs and breaking news, these types of posts are all about you and your company. If you want to engage followers, make it all about them and provide interesting and value-adding updates that can help them to succeed in business.  You can include a company blog, or topical articles that you write for industry publications. This is your opportunity to establish your company as the industry expert. Don’t forget to include rich media such as an image or video in your company updates to make them stand out and capture attention.

 

4. Engage and network with people from companies you follow

Do you want to get noticed by a business you would like to work with? Watch for their company updates and engage with them. Just like you can engage with individual status updates on LinkedIn, you can do the same with company page updates. For example, a company that you follow has a vacancy and is seeking the right candidate. Point them to several professionals in your network who might be a good fit. If a company posts something that is helpful to you in business make sure to thank them publicly and share it with your connections. By helping the companies that you care about grow their visibility, you will also expand your influence with the company. Promote and refer the companies that are important to your business by liking, sharing and commenting on their updates. These companies may also return the favor and help to promote your business on LinkedIn as well.

5. Monitor and focus your efforts

On the main landing page of your company profile you will be able to see who has engaged with or commented on any of your company updates. Make sure you update your company status frequently, check and respond promptly to comments, and engagements to determine what is working, and continue building followers for your page. Remember to keep your LinkedIn company page fresh and interesting.

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Regardless of the size of your business, it is important to invest in your LinkedIn company presence. It is a way to set your company apart from your competitors, show your value and provide an ongoing service to your customers. It is also an excellent way to build a community around your business and attract new prospects.  If your LinkedIn company page is setup and managed well it will act as sales funnel, and support your business development efforts by providing an ongoing flow of good quality prospects.

Kate Chaundy is a Marketing Consultant with Stretch Marketing. 

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When the going gets tough… what do you do more of?

By Rebecca Wilson | Published: October 17, 2012

 It’s tough out there at the moment. Consumer confidence, government spending cuts, mining taxes and recent commodity weakness have compounded to make Queensland and many cities in Australia tougher places to do business.  

For every client we see enjoying and building on their success, we see five more grappling with the tough economy.  It is a far different ratio to this time last year when commodity prices were at their highs, and our Government still had pork in the barrels. But if you are one of the five in the tough seat… what are you doing about it? Has your business stepped up its business development and marketing efforts in recognition of tighter purse strings and tougher times? Or are you wallowing in uncertainty not knowing what to do next?


We’re working with some of our clients to double the pace of business development activities and step up their marketing, in an effort to stuff their pipeline with similar amounts of work to the previous year.

Here is five ways you can double the pace of your business development and marketing:

1. Write down your existing and target clients for the coming 6-12 months. Give yourself a definitive focus on your existing clients, and the targets you can and will make contact with who have levels of business activity expected during this period.  Look hard at the list.  Is it really big enough?  What other targets can you seek out in your market?  Make the list larger and more definitive than it ever had been … as quickly as you can.

2. Understand who your influencers are. Who are your regular referrers? Who are the people who suggest to those in your target markets that they should use your services? What networks have you built around your business that organically draw clients to you? Write them down and consider how you will engage this group more actively at this time to keep your business front of mind.   Get all your senior staff to do this with you.

3. Detail the projected pipeline and make your team accountable to bring it in. If you work in a team, assign out responsibility for each target client and target influencer and make people accountable for driving the relationships properly. If you work productively as a team you can cover a lot more ground doing personal business development than if all roads lead to one or two individuals in your business.  Sounds logical, but its amazing how many don’t organise their approach.

4. Make yourself more visible. No matter how you slice it, visibility is the key to getting more business. In my opinion there is plenty of ways to make yourself visible, but in a tough economy stick with the simple ones… and do them with rhythm.

5. Communicate communicate communicate. If your network is larger than 300 people you physically cannot keep up with everyone, all the time. So in addition to increasing your personal communication efforts, consider putting in place regular high quality ecommunications (or even print communications) that will keep you in the eye of your market. But remember to give value with your content, rather than senselessly self-promote. The open rates a company achieves if it gives valuable insights are much higher than the open rates of self-promotional content like case studies and project overviews.

 

This year, across many industries, it is much harder to find the work to fill your pipeline.  If you have to turn over double the number of stones to get half the amount of work this year, you’d better get cracking.  What’s that old song… “When the going gets tough, the tough get going…”

Tell us what you are doing to step up the pace?

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Posted in Business Development, Professional Services Marketing, Referral Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

17 Great business blog topics

By Rebecca Wilson | Published: October 7, 2012


Most of the businesses we work with run a blog or article and ecampaign framework these days to communicate with their clients and nearly all of them struggle for a topic from week to week. 

So this week I have made a list of a range of different ideas you could explore for your business blog topics so it isnt as hard to get the next one out.  You could even use them to build an editorial calendar for the coming 90 days.

  1. Comment on breaking industry news.  Scan the newspapers in your city and country and give someone an insight into something topical.  Google and your industry like these types of blogs a lot. You could write about how the current economic trends are impacting your city or industry.
  2. Relate a topic that is very current in the media, back to your readers’ business or application.  When Stephen Covey died, many business bloggers wrote about what his processes had done for them.
  3. Debunk a myth or misconception.  Expose how things are really working in your industry, factory, business or market contrary to popular opinion.
  4. Write a portrait of success.  Tell a story about a client, customer or community member and talk about how they are successful.  Don’t relate it back to your products or services.  Instead, enjoy telling their story, giving them the spotlight.  The benefits are that you will probably enjoy writing the piece, and your subject will probably send the article to the people they know, broadening your network.
  5. Provide an overview of some research or a paper you have read. Offer an overview of a recent study or whitepaper relevant to your business that applies to your reader giving them insights in a short article with lots of take home tips.
  6. Teach them something.  Step  by step instructions on how to do something that is required in an industry make valuable and long-lasting blogs.
  7. Think about pain. What are the biggest problems your readers face? Focus on topics that would help them overcome the pain or assist them in taking crucial steps forward.
  8. Give valuable tips.  Offer quick tips that your readers can use to improve their own value in their workplace, life or industry. Many people are reading blogs to continue their learning in life, so be sure to help them.
  9. Make predictions for the future about industry and markets.  Draw on economic numbers, industry indicators, trends to tell a story about the future.
  10. Run a reader poll and blog about the results.  If people take the time to answer a survey, they will often take the time to see how others ansered it.  Sometimes the media will be interested too.
  11.  Provide your thoughts and opinions on industry and local happenings.  Your thoughts, opinions and feedback are why people choose to work with you, so don’t be afraid to show them.
  12.  Feed on some controversy in your region, state or industry. Weigh in on your industry’s hottest topic. This can be especially effective if you have a contrarian viewpoint.
  13. Interview someone important.  Select a leader in a space that has something to offer your market.  You might be surprised how happy many thought leaders are to participate in a little Q&A.
  14. Give a conference or important event overview. Provide an overview of a recent presentation or conference that your readers would be interested in and could draw something from.
  15. Explain how to handle something that could go wrong .  Offer your readers an explanation of how they should handle themselves should something in your field go wrong.  This is a powerful opportunity to build a relationship before you  might need it.
  16. Write about what matters to you?  A great type of post to drive interaction and community.  Tell them what matters to you and invite them to share what matters to them… you might be amazed what you learn about your readers.
  17. Do a book or product review. Tell readers if the hot new book in your niche, or product in your market is insightful or pointless.  Consider doing a review of a group of products related to your space.

And lastly, the all important, what NOT TO DO…

Remember the good old 80:20 rule.  Blogs and articles are not for selling.  They are for giving value to your audience with generosity.  If you must talk about your projects, products or recent successes, please do it with humility and make the “selly selly sell” part less than 20% of your email or article.

Happy blogging!  Tell us some of the ideas you like to use…. There has to be some we missed…

 

 

 

 

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  • Rebecca Wilson

    Founder and MD of growing Professional Services Marketing firm, Stretch Marketing, I keep myself on the cutting edge of business trends, digesting technology changes, Internet forces, industry challenges and business opportunities on a daily basis. Myself, and the Stretch Marketing team learn constantly so you can access smart marketing and communications thinking locally, and nationally, whenever you need it.

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