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 However, if you have a musty and out-of-date boilerplate, it is time to consider a fresh approach!
Source: looktouch.tumblr.com via Dianne on Pinterest
Dusty Old Boilerplate Defined
Boilerplate text is a pre-written dialog for all subject matter introduced by architects, engineers, general contractors, and other professional services firms when responding to a request for proposal for professional services. Usually, RFPs and RFQs have frequently asked questions, which allows for the use of boilerplate text to quickly answer the question and “fill in” the blank. While this sounds efficient, boilerplate often becomes “old” and may not completely answer the question in a way that best positions your firm for an interview shortlist or services award.
Content Marketing Defined
Content marketing or inbound marketing is a marketing method that involves creating and sharing content to procure new work. Content marketing aims to develop valuable and relevant media to influence audiences and nurture relationships. Media can take various forms, including blog posts, ebooks, newsletters, whitepapers, videos, case studies, infographics, and photos. Continuous content marketing or inbound marketing creation can easily replace tired old boilerplate.
Blogs Provide a Platform For Organizing, Managing and Rating Great Content!
by date, i.e., the most recent post appears first. Blogs are tagged, i.e., indexed by subject matter, which allows for eased content look-up. The blog is a great way for professional services firms to organize and manage a content marketing effort that is a resource for responding to RFPs and RFQs. Instead of going through the boilerplate file structure and dusting off the old text, reference your firm’s blog post index to look up the hottest posts that resonate with your blog subscribers. If the post is popular with your audiences, you know you will have a winning response. For more information, please read How to Generate Blog Content for Professional Services Marketing.
If You Know How to Create A Great Proposal, You’ll Love eBooks
An ebook or electronic book is a publication in digital format. The ebook contains text, images, and links published via electronic devices. Once you publish a series of blog posts, consider publishing an ebook covering common subject matter or mixing up the posts to tell a story that your audience may find interesting. If you are familiar with producing qualifications and proposal documents, generating an ebook will be a snap. You format your design to incorporate images, screenshots, charts, and graphs. In ebooks, you can also add reference links, CTAs for additional resources, and social sharing links that should be placed on every page.
Presentations Offer Opportunities Beyond Their Original Intent
Think of all the great slide decks you have put together. These presentations may be from industry speaking engagements or special seminars. Whatever the case, these slide decks offer great traffic and lead generation opportunities that go beyond their original intent. If you have designed beautiful presentations with valuable content, it is time to share them with your audiences. Presentations can be incorporated into a blog post in a variety of ways. A presentation incorporated in a blog post can build interest for a future presentation, add appeal to the existing text, or be added as a downloadable file via CTA. The opportunities to re-purpose these presentations are limitless.
After reading this post, I am sure you are thinking about all of the content marketing resources you have at your fingertips. Don’t let this moment go to waste!
