| |
| |
|
Marketing Information |
|
|
|
Sum of Its Parts
I just spent a week at the beach with my family and, as much as I vowed not to think about work, stumbled onto a highly relevant lesson for marketing professional services. It was actually my mother who inspired this lesson, thanks to the following beachy quote she had on the refrigerator: "Saltwater taffy, for example, does not taste good. Seagulls are not pleasant birds. Most people look better in clothes - a lot of clothes. But it works. The beach is the ultimate triumph in setting." -from the article, Sea and Be Seen What does this have to do with marketing professional services? A lot. Just like saltwater taffy, seagulls, and under clothed people, any one thing done in isolation to market your professional services won't work. When you take the sum of its parts, marketing works. Let's take an easy example: networking. Done in a vacuum, networking is just a "part." Without ways to sustain a new contact's attention, build their trust, or keep in touch - the other "parts" of your whole - you spend far more time and energy drumming up business than if you had other aspects of your marketing "machine" doing a lot of the work for you. Let's get specific. The biggest mistake I see is when people go out, network (or make cold calls, or send direct mail pieces), is that they simultaneously scare prospects off with an anemic poorly-messaged website, no value- adding resources to build your prospect's confidence, and new contacts that vanish into thin air because there's no systematic way to stay in front of them that's affordable and effective. The same "in isolation" principle applies to other marketing "parts." * If you invest in telemarketing, but send new leads to a lousy website (even if you don't send them there, they'll look you up), you're shooting yourself in the foot. * If you're a master at churning out brilliant weekly e-newsletters, but haven't "packaged" your services into a range of ways potential clients can buy from you, you're missing the point of using an e-zine as a smart promotional tool. * If you go to all of the time and effort to get booked as a speaker, then run around preparing for and delivering your talks, you'll get nothing but a nice ego boost and applause unless you target the right audiences and hit them with "What in it for Me?" messages. All of that time, money and energy wasted?but not if you pay attention to the sum of your parts! To avoid wasting your resources and to make the most of your individual marketing efforts, make sure you have all of these parts working together: * Positioning that sets you apart from others offering a similar service. From your target audiences' perspective, what makes you different? Why should they choose you? * Packaging in the form of a value-packed website that you can send new contacts to, demonstrating your value (again, through their eyes) and building their confidence in you as a good solution to their problem. * Promotion: An easy way to keep-in-touch with contacts and prospects, even if you're using other high-touch tactics, such as follow- up calls and meetings. The point is that not every new contact is a ready-buyer when you first meet. You need to stay on their radar, at least monthly, so that when they're ready to buy, you're there. A monthly e-newsletter or e- zine is the perfect vehicle. * Persuasion: You've got to turn contacts into prospects, prospects into clients, clients into referrers, and so on. Simply setting up sales calls and writing proposals won't do it, though. As any successful sales person knows, there are many moving "parts" to master. You've got to know who the decision makers are, what they're willing to spend, how buying decisions get made, how to stay in control of the selling conversation, and how to ask for referrals, to name a few. * Performance is the one "part" most of us in professional services rely on most - it's how we get referrals and maintain (or tarnish) our reputation in the marketplace. It's the marketing part that keeps me on my toes the most, above any other marketing challenge I take on, including writing this e-newsletter, upgrading my website, closing a sale, or giving a public talk. Why? Because it's all about managing and exceeding client expectations, two very tricky "parts" to master. If this doesn't ring a bell with you, then take this quick quiz to find out what it really takes to master Performance: http://www.turningpointemarketing.com/Is_This_For_You.html In isolation, I'm definitely not a fan of saltwater taffy, seagulls or bathing suits. But in the right setting and working all together, they're part of the most effective vacation I can think of. The sum of its parts works. So too can your marketing. (c) 2004 TurningPointe Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved.
MORE RESOURCES:
Marketing - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Key Marketing Strategy - You Need To Stay Visible! If you want to get consistent results from your marketing, you need to stay visible to clients and prospects. But, how do you do that?It's not going to do you a whole lot of good if you produce a bunch of great marketing stuff and nobody ever reads it. The 7 Areas of Marketing Waste - Are You Committing These Marketing Sins? If you want to reduce waste and grow your business it can be useful to know where to look. Marketing waste is usually most apparent in these 7 key areas:1. 3 Ways to Gain and KEEP Customers Using Postcards In today's competitive (sometimes cutthroat) marketplace, savvy business owners need to constantly look for ways to get and, more importantly, keep their customers. When used properly postcards offer a great opportunity to do both. Top 10 Marketing Pitfalls Ten Marketing Pitfalls By Stuart ReidIf you want to make it BIG in Internet Marketing you need avoid some common mistakes. Here's a list of the top ten Pitfalls that catch out beginner Marketers (and many established ones too!). Discover the Winning Marketing Strategy Secrets of Donald Trump Apprentice Wanna-bes The highly entertaining Donald Trump's search for an apprentice turned into a hit reality TV show captured attention of millions of Americans and week after week delivered great insights into leadership, business and marketing savvy.In one of the episodes Trump challenged the two opposing teams of apprentice wannabes (Apex and Mosaic) to put together a bridal gown sale. Why Most Marketing Videos Dont Work Every now and then I will meet someone who has commissioned a marketing video that did not work for their company. It is a sad state of affairs and it is avoidable. To All Internet Marketers - How To Get My Business? More and more people are realizing that the Internet offers great potential to set up a healthy business for pennies on the dollar. This is good news for internet marketers - but it also means that they need to lift their game. Two Steps to Improving Your Marketing Success Since the human brain seems to be able to focus on only one thought at a time, it's difficult to evaluate an advertising idea from the perspective of both a marketer and a customer. That's why it's necessary to use a two-step process when developing highly effective ads, sales letters, web pages, and e-mails. The Top 10 Wild and Wacky Ways to Market Yourself for Big Visibility In today's competitive world of business, it takes moxie and pizazz to sell a great product, idea, or service. This list will provide you with ten unusual and creative marketing strategies which will help you to stand apart from the competition and to increase your visibility. Unique Marketing Ideas That Generate Cash! First of all - keep in touch with your customers! One of the best ways to do this is with a newsletter. Today it's easier than ever to have a newsletter - use email. Contrarian Marketing at Benettons Perhaps, with apologies to Dale Carnegie, we should call this article: "How to make enemies AND influence people."The subject: United Colors of Benetton's campaign to promote its clothing, using photos and stories about death row prisoners in the U. Produce More Sales from your Email Promotions Five Ways - Part 1 Do sales come from your ezine regularly? How many well-written articles do you submit per week to opt-in online ezines? How often do you send thank you's and follow up messages to your different email groups? If you answered not many, then you need to re-evaluate. The answer to online success is the same as traditional success--promotion, promotion, promotion. 3 High-Impact Fixes For Your Marketing Woes How many times has your competitor gotten one over on you? The feeling of being left behind just eats away, until you do something about. The problem is that we often feel that we've got to come up with some grand plan in order to get our business skyrocketing again. To Be Successful Sell to Wants not Needs My mother used to tell me, tongue in cheek, that I never wanted anything in my life- everything I asked for was something I needed!! Think about it. We say, "I need a new car. Receiving a Brochure Printing Quote Brochures are a great way to get your message across. While having a brochure can be extremely useful, it is sometimes hard to know whether it is affordable. A Complaint? It's a Compliment! - 7 Tips for Dealing with Complaints at Trade Shows A Complaint? It's a Compliment!What made you mad last week?In the past week, how many times were you upset by something? What action did you take? Complain to the neighbors, make a snide remark to a co-worker, post it on a list or email a group? Did you just gossip or did you try to make it into a positive experience? They say we complain to ten people for every one compliment about a product or service.Did you call the manager of the company, write the company president, email a suggestion for improvement? Probably not. How to Turn Your Marketing Into a Money-Making Machine - Examples of solid Marketing As Claude Hopkins presented in his Scientific Advertising many decades ago, there are scientific ways of tracking your Marketing and Advertising and determining clearly and unequivocally what works and what does not. Without knowing the facts about what is effectively increasing your leads, and subsequently your sales success, you might as well be throwing money out the window-literally. Small Business Marketing; Abstract Philosophical Discussion Our bodies work like our small businesses. They work best by word of mouth, networks, referrals, etc. Where to Find Cheap Brochure Printing Whether it is for is a real estate listing, a trade show handout, a data sheet, or another application, brochures can be a great promotional tool. They can be very expensive or surprisingly affordable, depending on your needs and where you look. Trade Show Display Booth - A Marvelous Contact System Trade show booths are one of the best direct contact systems with end consumers. The face to face meeting opportunity with customers can provide some excellent results?provided you have a good communication strategy in place.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
