Establishing your firm’s value and good name is, as ever, the key to brand marketing. This can be challenging in a wired world, where much of your activity is transparent, leaving it open to comment and criticism. As your brand generates interaction and feedback, make the most of the positives and learn from criticism to move your business forward. Professional services brand marketing is simple--when you adopt these seven basic tenets:

Lead generation for professional services firms is best accomplished through the synergy of various well-thought-out, ongoing marketing efforts. The goal is to get in front of your target audiences (clients and prospects) wherever they are and keep in touch. This way, you catch the prospect when they need your services—when they’re ready to decide to "seal the deal." At this point, quality clients and pre-qualified leads will jump right into your inbound marketing funnel.

The online world is getting more crowded daily, so setting your company above the rest can be challenging. By keeping concrete goals in mind, however, strategic inbound marketing for professional services firms can bring your core audience to you. inbound marketing

In today’s wired world, electronic communications are rarely extraordinary. Daily is filled with emails, text messages, tweets, likes, and follows that typically fulfill some useful purpose. These messages are quick, take minutes to draft, and rarely involve thoughtfully written prose.  One could easily say, “This is simply the natural evolution of communication.”  While that may be the case, I am not convinced. 

In prior posts, you've learned how inbound marketing practices can be highly effective when it comes to catching the eye of a desired visitor. It is essential to apply these methods to keep visitors, leads, or existing clients interested in learning more.  You must delight readers with fresh, relevant content to keep their attention. 

Does your lead need a little nudge to close the deal?  Deciding to commit business resources is a considerable step for many business owners, but some owners have an easier time than others.  If you’re having difficulty closing leads developed through inbound marketing methods, the following describes a few easy steps that can be taken to encourage them in the right direction. 

When nurturing relationships with website visitors, you must get beyond the initial attraction and impress audiences with content that keeps them interested.  The next step is to convert visitors into leads for business development by gathering their contact information.  Contact information is essential to continuing engagement.  The question is…“how will visitors voluntarily provide their contact information?"  The answer to this question is that you need to give them something in return in the form of content. Content can be in ebooks, whitepapers, or tip sheets – whatever information would interest the industries you serve and associated client profiles.  Once you master content, you will have as many leads as possible.

While the rules of attraction for the human species are not clearly understood, the rules of attraction in the game of inbound marketing are clear-cut.  The scientific rules have already emerged.  Inbound marketing works on a conscious level to motivate strangers to take action for reasons that are tucked inside your firm’s content. 

Think back to when your long-term client relationships began with a spark.  That spark is that initial message or action that caught their attention.  What is that spark? What caught your client’s eye?  It may not be just one thing; it may be a series of things that initially attracted your clients to your firm.  In an attempt to understand client attraction further, refer to the definition (source: dictionary.com) provided below:

Inbound marketing aims to create content people love. 

Regarding social media channels, Pinterest tops the chart for using visual content as an inbound marketing tool. Visual content like an image or video can communicate a qualitative or quantitative viewpoint. They can show a vision or assist audiences with visualizing how to execute a plan. A series of images or a video can also show change. Combining this social media channel with a solid inbound marketing strategy will help your audiences see how your firm can use pictures to illustrate ideas and provide solutions.