Sonja Jefferson

Your inbox (and head) is no doubt brimming with good advice & resolutions for the coming year. If you are still grappling for clarity on the marketing aspects, here are a few recommendations to build into your plan:

1. Make your web strategy bigger than your website

Your website is a vital marketing tool but it’s not the only place on the WWW that needs your focus. Most businesses put all their web energy into their company site and wonder why they don’t get much benefit from it in terms of leads. "75% of your focus should be on what is happening outside your website," say Halligan and Shah in their brilliant new book ‘Inbound Marketing’. They recommend an increase in general web activity in order to draw people back to your website. Good advice. For 2010, consider social media, posting articles on affiliated websites, contributing to related forums, pay per click campaigns & email newsletters; all with links back to useful content on your site. For maximum exposure: "make sure you and your company’s DNA shows everywhere, across hundreds of sites" (Seth Godin).

2. Produce useful, informative content

The purpose of marketing is to connect with potential customers. Marketing literature that simply screams ‘We’re the best!’ is no way to start a relationship and build trust. Instead of shouting at your customers, try connecting with them. Create useful, informative content that helps solve their business problems. Become a useful resource: the attitude should be not ‘Look how great we are!’ but ‘Look how useful we are - we have the answer to your problem’. In terms of content, there are many options open to you: articles, ‘How to…’ guides, whitepapers, case studies, webinars, videos, e-books - the list goes on. Whatever medium you chose, make the content valuable to your buyers: help them: educate them; prove your expertise and earn their trust until they are ready to buy. Valuable content sells.

3. Think niche

Struggling to position your company effectively and generate leads? Step back: stick your stake in the sand and target your marketing efforts at a particular niche. The more precisely you can describe your customers and address their issues the better. This is a contentious subject as Guy Kawasaki describes: "Many entrepreneurs are afraid of being ‘niched’ to death and then not achieving ubiquity. However, most successful companies started off targeting specific markets and grew to great size by addressing other segments." If you want to sell successfully, you can’t be everything to everyone. What do you want to be known for? To make your life easier start by identifing a target market and develop your service to be ‘remarkable’ in that niche. Anchor your pitch by telling your chosen customers how you will solve their specific problem. Don’t be afraid to turn people away.

4. Get into social media

Face it - social media is now mainstream and for good reason too. Sites like LinkedIn and Twitter are immensely valuable business tools for professional businesses and consultants. Used effectively they’ll help you to build your community of contacts & extend your reach; they are easy-to-use broadcast channels for your ideas and content; they open up a dialogue with other experts, customers and contacts, refining your own expertise. Social media enables buyers to ’see who is talking sense’ in the sector they’re interested in, giving information to build knowledge and trust before entering the sales phase. NB: This route is most effective when combined with a business blog (to share your ideas) and a newsletter (to maintain contact).

5. Remember your existing customers and contacts

"Stay in touch," advises smart marketeer Mick Dickinson. "Too many businesses chase new business when existing customers and contacts are far more valuable."  Too true. If you want to make life easier and more enjoyable this year, don’t just focus on trying to wrestle strangers through the conversion process: devote more time and effort into communicating with your current contacts regularly, in ways they appreciate and find useful.  It’s the most effective route to consistent sales. If you communicate regularly in ways they appreciate, they’ll reward you with referrals and new business. A monthly email newsletter is a very effective way to do this - Mel Lester, a US-based management consultant I follow on Twitter, produces the most valuable, targeted newsletter I’ve seen to date: see - http://tinyurl.com/yenvzqd.
 

I really hope these 5 suggestions help you. As ever, I’d be fascinated by your feedback: how are you going to promote your services this year? Anything important I’ve missed off the list?

A very happy and prosperous 2010 to you all.

Sonja

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In these still uncertain times most professional service businesses are thinking hard about how to attract new customers and win business. Many companies had no burning need for a formal approach to marketing in the boom years. They comfortably relied on repeat business and referrals and their companies grew very successfully as a result, thank you very much.

Times have changed. The old methods of lead generation are no longer sufficient. If you want your company to survive this downturn and come out of it stronger, you need to get serious about marketing.

Looking at the problem from the client perspective is a good place to start. If you understand how they approach supplier selection you can implement an informed marketing strategy with the greatest impact on your ability to win new clients.

I’ve recently bought the Raintoday 2009 Benchmark Report on Professional Services Marketing and Selling. The results of this comprehensive survey give a fascinating insight into how clients buy, and what they look for in potential suppliers. It’s a compelling read for any professional business who wants to market effectively.

Here are the highlights…..with a few comments from me:

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Stick your head in the sand, do nothing and hope for the best!

 

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Every small business entrepreneur knows that a credible web presence is a must have if you’re serious about getting your venture to fly.

For most start ups, one of the very first things on the ‘To Do’ list is the company website. You pick up the phone to a creative web design agency and instruct them to build you an impressive site.

From a quick poll of my small business clients, this can set you back anything from minimum £1000 for a basic version, to between £3000 and £5000 for more functional, better designed site. Some of my customers have paid up to £10,000.

No doubt, if you’ve picked the right web design supplier to help you, this route can get you a great looking corporate website. But if funds are tight, it may be reassuring to know that in terms of creating an effective web presence, this is not the only route open to you. There is now a plethora of free and very powerful web tools you can use to communicate with potential customers and start promoting your company online.

{read more….}

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VALUE - TRUST - USABILITY - PRESENTATION

I’m often asked to evaluate a business website before we get down to rewriting the content.

As an independent outsider it’s easier to give a fresh perspective, without being mired down in the detail.

I try my hardest to think like a customer and review the site from their point of view.

Here are the four crucial elements that customers have come to expect from a company website, and some ideas on how to fulfil them. 

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"The well-written white paper is a super weapon in your marketing arsenal*."

Despite its many benefits, the white paper is still an underused promotional resource for professional businesses here in the UK. This article should throw some light on how to use this powerful form of content to connect with your customers and bring in business. {read more….}

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I missed an event last week. Seth Godin, described by many as one of the most intuitive marketers of the day, led a talk at Westminster Abbey of all places on the art of marketing and spreading ideas in the digital age.

I’ve read many reviews of the session, and watched clips on You Tube and I wish I’d known about it in advance. His message is a crucial one for anyone selling professional services today.

Seth is the best selling author of several seminal books on ‘new marketing’, including The Dip, Purple Cow, Permission Marketing and Small is the New Big (I’ve got the lot, and recommend them highly). He holds an MBA from Stanford University and his blog (http://sethgodin.typepad.com) is one of the most popular business blogs in the world.  He’s been described as ‘the Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age’ by Business Week.

If you’re one of those people who doesn’t get time to read many books, here’s a quick summary of what he has to say: {read more….}

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I first set up a Twitter account in October last year, but to be honest I was fairly sceptical about its worth. I’d seen the cutesy Twitter logo on many of the blogs that I follow; I’d read about it in the Sunday papers; I’d heard Stephen Fry rave about in on radio 5. I was curious to know what the fuss was all about, but I was pretty sniffy about its value as a business tool. Our working days are busy enough. Do we really need yet another ego-massaging, time wasting social networking site?

Having said all this, I don’t like missing out on a party, even a bad one, so I thought I’d give it a go. {read more….}

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Article writing is a very powerful lead generation tool for any consultancy businesses. An incisive, well-written article will help to get your clients’ attention and position your company as a trusted resource in a competitive world. 

62% of buyers of professional services claimed they would be “Very” or “Somewhat” likely to initially identify and learn more about a potential service provider through an industry website article or story (How Clients Buy: The Benchmark Report On Professional Services Marketing And Selling From The Client Perspective - see: www.raintoday.com).

But article writing is not just a great marketing device: it can be used to close sales too. If you write an article in response to a specific client question or problem, you can influence the sales process in your favour and help them to come to a decision more quickly. {read more….}

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There are thousands of books on marketing out there. Most focus on how to market products sold by large corporations, not the services of small professional businesses.

But marketing is not just for the big guys; it’s something that all businesses, whatever their size, should and can do - and it works. Here are 4 books I’ve read this year that show you how:

The New Rules of Marketing and PR: by David Meerman Scott

This is a massively positive and inspiring book for small businesses: the manual for anyone looking for new, cost effective ways to get the word out there and bring in leads.

David Meerman Scott smashes up the old rules: big budget advertising, ‘interruption’ marketing, flashy design, branding and spin - they no longer hold sway in our internet-driven world. In this book he paves the way for a new approach based on thought-leadership, education, two-way conversations and useful content - all targeted at solving customer problems.

This is great news for small businesses: a real opportunity to prove your worth and build your fan base by positioning your company as a trusted resource, and without a huge budget too. In this new world, authentic content is king. Ditch the spin and learn how to use a variety of tools to drive sales including content-rich websites, white papers, articles, e-books and blogs.

(Check out his blog too for regular articles - www.webinknow.com.)

The following 2 books tell you how to use some of the new tools that David Meerman Scott refers to:

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