Take a few deep breaths. Give yourself a quick silent, confidence-boosting pep talk. You can do it. Rehearse your introduction line. Be prepared to say no, fight your corner and be impervious to the incredulous stares you are likely to get when you present the facts. It’s time to go. It’s time to talk marketing plans and budgets with your partners.
As we trudge into the final quarter of a particularly difficult year, the time has come to contemplate a new future. Like every other year, your managing partners will be encouraging you to set up marketing planning meetings with your department heads and sector leaders. The format and conclusions of these meetings are predictable. You uncomfortably wince at overspend caused by unplanned, expensive partner pet projects (of dubious value). Everyone at the meeting makes solemn commitments to be more rigorous, more robust and more measured in the year ahead. Then drained of all inspiration due to the depressing reality that budgets are going to be slaughtered once again, you resign yourself to do the same as last year but more economically: a few seminars, minimal advertising, refreshed brochures and an entertainment box at the firm’s favourite sporting event. Long disillusioned sighs are audible across the professional services marketing world.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. 2009 has been a landmark year; the most difficult of decades and not one we are easily going to forget. Is now the time to break the cycle and inject some originality into our marketing plans? Redundancies, recessionary caution and spending cuts have changed the face of business. An adapt or die mentality has got the survivors this far and the same commitment will accelerate prosperity in the recovery era.
During the boom times marketing became an ego-driven pursuit of supremacy; shouting about successes and demonstrating superiority over competitors with over the top hospitality. For marketing, some of our biggest decisions involved pondering whether to choose pricey champagne or whether a good cava would be acceptable. But gone are the days of endless rounds of drinks frivolously consumed in the name of business development, extravagant hospitality packages for events favoured by partners (rather than their clients) and expensive gimmicky campaigns (that were forgotten far quicker than hoped). Tried and tested formulae of previous years suddenly seem insensitively outlandish, a little crass, unjustifiable and far too predictable. With our comfort blanket whipped from under our noses, things could now get interesting.
The case for originality is clear. The delivery will be more challenging. Originality is not about eye-catching gimmicks; it’s about getting the basics right and delivering carefully crafted messages that will attract and engage clients and targets.
What do your clients really want?
Imagine the scenario: you’re in a marketing planning meeting when an enthusiastic partner buoyantly jumps into the conversation. “Why don’t we do something different this year?” Great, a breakthrough. “How about we abandon a few of our regular seminars and hold a cocktail party instead; get a high profile speaker and show everyone just how strong and resilient we are by making a bit of a splash?” Oh. Your heart drops. Not exactly the inspired idea you’d hope for. Instead you face a bitter battle to prove that a cocktail party is probably not the best option.
Our clients’ needs can be overlooked when developing new marketing ideas. We are often too focused on delivering projects based purely on what one partner thinks their firm should do to make them look bigger and better than their competitors. Instead the focus should be on delivering relevant, timely and insightful information that facilitates new enduring relationships with clients and prospects. Let’s take an example:
Through client service reviews you’ve learnt that a number of your clients, forced to cut their teams due to redundancies, are now under-resourced. Your contacts are struggling to juggle their workload and have limited time to coach the junior members of their team that they desperately need to rely on. Providing a helping hand would definitely win you favour. A chat over a glass of wine at a lavish drinks reception will only offer a short-term distraction from the problem, a whole day out at the races could actually make it worse and a secondment may seem politically inappropriate and costly. But if it’s a common trend amongst your clients maybe you could develop a mentoring offering, where fee-earners are trained as mentors and made available to help your clients develop their junior talent. For your stressed-out clients, this could relieve pressure on their time and present a compelling incentive to appoint you on bigger projects in the future.
Embracing change
Keeping up with change can be a challenge, particularly in the unsettling times we are experiencing. What may have worked six months ago could prove to have no relevance today. And who knows where we will be in the next six months.
As new communications channels have emerged, they have revolutionalised how we receive information, how we find it and how we interact. Traditional communications tools such brochures, press releases and seminars suddenly seem mundane, static and slow. Empowered by the internet, the rise of social media and our unnatural attachment to Blackberrys, everyone has the ability to get to the most current information quickly, when they need it, without even leaving their desk. We no longer rely on printed newspapers and trade publications for our news feed – more up-to-date information is always only a few mouse clicks away.
The internet has enabled the democratisation of information. As soon as anyone hears rumblings of a change in legislation or a rumour in the market, they have the power and the technology to find out more instantly, respond with their own views on comment boards and spread the news further. There are dangers associated with this, but also the opportunity to spread your news and opinion far quicker than via a press release, raising your profile and reaching whole new markets with minimal cost and effort.
Instead of focusing solely on traditional print media, savvy marketers will explore new ways to leverage the profile-boosting power of electronic word of mouth. So, look for new media outlets to channel your messages. Consider hosting a webinar (that clients can log into real time or at their convenience) instead of resorting to a static, traditional seminar. Maybe even post it on your own YouTube channel. Use social media (blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn etc) to boost the number of touch points you make with your clients, targets and other connections. Make bold, pithy, informed tweets and status updates an engaging way to attract your target audience’s attention, encourage interaction, drive traffic to your website and improve your search engine rankings. As new ways to communicate open up, work alongside the new emerging media and become a trusted source of reliable and timely information for your clients.
No firm is an island
Your firm doesn’t exist in isolation; it’s not untouchable, it’s not self-preserving, it relies on others to grow. Which is why strategic marketing alliances could be an interesting twist on the typically lone stance most professional services firms take to marketing.
Collaborating with competitors may seem a controversial step too far – although a lively, debate between a panel comprising representatives from competing firms would undoubtedly attract an audience of prospective clients eager to witness sparks fly. But alliances with clients or members of your referral network offer a safer place to start. Maybe hosting joint events (and sharing costs) with an intermediary you would like to develop closer ties with, making a client panel a focal point of an event, piggy backing a bigger brand to attract a wider audience, sharing targets with a multiplier with complimentary interests, arranging joint sales missions or seeking public speaking opportunities at esteemed industry events. Applied with thought, collaborations are a cost-effective and powerful way to boost your credibility and demonstrate thought leadership, without overtly selling.
Appeal to your clients’ emotions
We’ve all heard it before - people buy people and sales decisions are driven firstly by emotions and then the rational appraisal of capability. This is nothing new. But still so many marketing campaigns are stiff, formal and bland.
If you remove your logo what distinguishes your materials from that of your competitors? Often very little. In the days where print and post were the main medium of business communication this could be excused. However, with diverse multimedia platforms now at our disposal, the opportunity to inject our firm’s distinct personality into marketing is only limited by our willingness to experiment.
Most firms now have websites. But they are often little more than online corporate brochures. There is nothing wrong with this - it’s a good base - but there is potential to do more by using carefully applied audio, video, animation, blogs and comment boards to bring your brand to life. Your marketing should give prospective clients an insight into your people and style of working. Webinars, podcasts, Twitter feeds and video client testimonials are all ways to add colour, interest and personality to your communications. Used effectively, strategically and consistently, they can help initiate relationship building and ignite the preference of a prospect before you’ve even spoken in person.
Attracting new business and maintaining a favourable public profile is a top priority for professional services firms at the moment. Even those who were previously cynical about the value of marketing, have been infected with a sudden sense of urgency to present a competitive and compelling public profile. Maybe it’s time to capitalize on this willingness and push the boundaries.
So, back to those planning meetings. Is it time to shake things up? Yes. So, take a few deep breaths. Give yourself a quick silent, confidence-boosting pep talk. You can do it.
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