As a professional services marketer, you tirelessly seek new ways to engage your audiences. It can get discouraging to perform traditional marketing methods, and I'd like to know if you are making a connection. You attend professional seminars and lectures that cover important points to consider. However, you can't find the right ingredient to bridge the gap from concept to an emotional connection with your audience. 

Traditional prospecting and go/no-go practices take time to analyze.  During the prospecting phase, knowing which messages are on target and which need to be included in the boat is difficult.  At the go/no-go phase, you cannot quantify a prospect's interest level. Inbound marketing methods make it possible to determine which messages resonate with your audience and also gauge the level of interest. This post aims to help you set the stages for your firm's inbound marketing funnel.

Marketing professional services constantly require content generation.  We are always responding to requests for qualifications and requests for proposals.  Once we are done, these responses are filed away and referenced for yet another response.  Why not take a fresh approach to your writing skills?  Try repurposing proposal content to create eBooks highlighting your firm’s market expertise. If you can write great proposals, you can write an eBook that generates leads.

In my recent post, Deep Six Boilerplate with Content Marketing for Professional Services, I discussed transforming the tired old boilerplate library into a high-performance blog that rates your text by the popularity of your post.  One of the suggestions was to incorporate presentation slide decks into your content marketing practices.

How do you feel about your firm’s boilerplate? Personally, my experience with boilerplate has always been miserable.  A Boilerplate tends to be a useful “start” for responding to a lengthy request for a proposal (RFP) or request for qualifications (RFQ).  However, the boilerplate is not fresh or exciting, and if it is not regularly enhanced, the text becomes stale and dull. If you like your firm’s boilerplate, please do not read further. However, if you have a musty and out-of-date boilerplate, it is time to consider a fresh approach! 

Marketing professional services is not a casual client encounter. Unlike businesses that sell products with a short sales cycle, a firm offering professional services tend to take a relationship marketing approach. Relationship marketing acknowledges the value of long-term client relationships by providing valuable, rich content that goes deeper than the typical sales promotion.  

Valentine's Day is the perfect day to offer a heartfelt message about winning the hearts and minds of clients. I prepared a light-hearted post on this special day to show readers how much I care. 

At the beginning of each year, marketing professionals take a more granular look at their firm's annual plan for trade shows and events. Trade show and professional event strategic marketing is a process that takes some planning to ensure the firm generates an increase in business development activity that justifies participation costs. 

Any firm can easily inspire inbound marketing campaigns with mission and vision statements. These statements provide direction and purpose, encourage achievement and ensure inbound marketing campaign activities align with a firm’s business goals and inbound marketing strategy. A firm’s ability to effectively embrace the values of the mission and vision statements will enrich the firm’s entire work environment. 

How is your annual marketing plan coming along?  Our recent post, Do You Need a SWOT to Start Marketing Planning? Covered the situational analysis section of your professional services marketing plan. Another important component of annual marketing planning is setting goals and objectives.  In the spirit of kicking off the New Year with a complete plan, this post covers goals and objectives.