Professional Service Providers, What You Must Know about Marketing Professional Services Today

Let me be clear - what should be referred to as selling, now is called marketing by many. This is problematic because it causes them to expect too much from what are actually very indirect efforts.

Many people think that marketing - the single most important thing any of us can do to increase our business - is supposed to result in new clients.

In fact marketing's role is to put us in a position where we can sell more effectively. A well considered marketing strategy will illustrate our uniqueness, our suitability as a service provider, and it will attract people - the right people to us, but unless we are willing to ask them to buy something, it was all just a waste of time and money.

Marketing professional services effectively is an art as much as anything else. If you do it the right way, you will find a lot of takers in the market for your services. If you do it wrong you will be considered just another hype merchant whose so-called value proposition sounds remarkably like all the others.

In the good old days marketing professional services was a lot more straightforward. Your goal was to have a very strong network of friends, relatives, fellow service providers, and existing clients. Then, thanks to your wide network, you were able to get new clients through word of mouth alone.

So, you never felt the need for marketing professional services aggressively. When your inventory was low you'd attend a Rotary Club meeting, play a round of golf, attend a convention in your target industry, or take another professional advisor to lunch and get a few referrals.

However, that was before the advent of the Internet. Now, everything has changed - or has it?

The Internet has completely altered the way people do business. Earlier, a nice referral from one of your existing clients would seal the deal - converting the prospect into a new client. This is not necessarily the case today. Even with a very good referral, prospects will insist on taking at least a cursory look at your web site.

In the old days they might ask you for your brochure and they might even look at it. Now the expectation is that you have a web site - everybody does, and if you are as sharp as you want them to think you are, it will be well put together and up to date.

If you have a clunky, poorly managed web site, it will create a very bad impression of you. By now everyone knows it does not cost much or take much knowledge to have a professional looking web site, so if you don't - what does that say about you?

And if you do not have a web site at all, your chances are slim to say the least. Think about it.

A great looking web site does a brilliant job of marketing your services. It does it better than the brochures of old because there is never any out of date information on it - and new content is added regularly. Like your old brochure your web site is your brand, you can't leave it on their desk, but they can bookmark it. Here are three things you should remember while developing one.

1. The design should be professional. It should not look poorly constructed. And that's simple with about a zillion WordPress themes available - at no charge whatsoever or customized to beat the band for as much as you want to spend. That's why there is no excuse for not having a respectful looking web site

2. The content, needless to say, is the king. Potential clients won't just take a cursory look at your web site, some will actually read it, subscribe to your newsletter, and regularly read the information posted there - they want to get to know you better. Again this is too simple - people know that and if you don't have good relevant content, you lose points on the credibility scale. The better your web site copy, the better the chances of impressing your new clients.

3. Your web site should be optimized properly. To many people that means all the search engine optimization stuff we hear so much about, but that's not important. What is important is having your on-page and off-page optimization around the keyword phrases your prospective clients use when they are looking for the services you provide. The beauty of web site optimization, compared to traditional advertising and marketing, impacting marketing professional services - is that it's possible for you to puzzle out the precise terms people are using when they are looking for services like yours and then test - getting results quickly so you can make the adjustment on the fly.

Marketing professional services is very easy once you harness the power of the Internet, but it still won't put clients on the books and it won't put money in the bank.

That will come from making sales. Your Internet marketing strategy will tilt the odds in your favor and increase the number of people to choose from, so you spend your valuable time with the people you really are fired up about serving.

While the Internet has dramatically altered marketing professional services, it has not eliminated the power of referrals, the importance of attending association events, or having lunch where the successful business owners are.

Everything that worked in the past should still be done - the Internet makes it faster!

About the Author

Successful professionals are always on the lookout for ideas and resources to help them. They are also looking for creative ways of marketing their professional services. If you want to be even more successful in the future than you are today, learn more about marketing professional services and share your insights with others, visit us and join in the discussion.

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The Importance of Marketing Mix and the 4 Key Mix Elements

The marketing mix section of your small business marketing plan concentrates on the tactics used to achieve the marketing and business plan. Those tactics can be categorized as the four Ps of marketing: product, price, promotion and placealso known as the distribution channel.

A common analogy used in describing marketing mix is relating the mix in marketing mix as being the ingredients in a recipe: you need to get the quantities of each element right or the result will not be what you need or expect.

Consider the following questions carefully when you build your marketing plan:

When developing your marketing tactics for the product, you must consider the features, advantages and benefits of the product. Define all the characteristics of your product. Define and rank which are most valuable to your target market Why are they valuable to your market Define what is unique about your product and why it has a competitive advantage something that is not easily duplicated. Consider conducting a marketing research survey to test your assumptions. You may be surprised to find out that what you thought was important to your market is not. Make sure you can address all these questions in your marketing plan.

Pricing your product sounds like a straightforward process but the reality is that it is a very complex process. At what stage in the life cycle is the product Product life cycle stages will influence price. Are you the high cost, high value provider Or the low cost, high volume provider Does your product have unique attributes that can not be easily duplicated Does your product have a competitive advantage not easily overcome Are you trying to buy your way into the market Be very careful with this buy-in strategy --it is often very challenging to move a low price up. Is this product a loss leader for your sales of another, more profitable product There are still more questions to consider when developing your price and you must analyze each answer carefully before determining the price for your product. Typically it is a good idea to plot your price attributes on a grid - you can visually see where you are on a grid and better assess if that is the right place to be.

Promotion includes a number of marketing communications tactics. Should you build a direct mail program is your product conducive to a printed description; do you have a good targeted mail list Can you market your product online Are traditional advertising methods print, radio, television the most appropriate What kind of budget do you have Does your product have a strong enough brand If not focus on building a stronger identity and brand. How can public relations efforts help you promote your product Can you successfully participate in trade shows and industry events to sell your product How will you craft your sales story: from sales letters to sales pitches Have you build measurements into each of your promotional vehicles Do you truly understand your market and your audience Recognize that you will need to use more than one of these tactics to launch a successful marketing campaign.

Place is how your product moves to market. What distribution channel will you use Will it be a business-to-business channel or a business-to-consumer channel Will you sell using your own sales staff, or will you outsource sales and use distributors or sales agents Can you sell your product online or must it be offline and in-person Is your market geography wide or narrow What are the implications of the answers to these questions on your marketing mix

When building and creating your marketing plan you must consider these elements of your marketing mix because they will have a significant impact positive if well planned and managed; negative if poorly planned and not managed on your products success or failure.

All small business owners go into business expecting success; not all plan for success. Ensure that your small business enjoys success by developing a strong strategic marketing plan that includes a comprehensive marketing mix.


About the Author

Kris Bovay owns Voice Marketing Inc, the business and marketing services company. Kris has worked for, and with, a range of small, medium and large businesses and has been able to help business owners focus on their challenges and improve their business results. Kris has a masters degree in business administration, with a specialty in marketing, operations, planning and strategy. For more business advice, visit

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