Professional Service Firm Marketing Tips & Strategies

Latest Newsletter Available

2010-03-18T13:08:00-05:00

Just a quick note to let you know that my latest marketing tips newsletter went out today. This edition discusses the building blocks that make up a successful marketing tactic. If you don't subscribe via email, you can find the newsletter here.

Social Media Pro Content Updated

2010-03-18T08:08:23-05:00

For those of you who purchased the Social Media Pro program, you should see some new content this week. Here are the new lessons by session.

Session #1

Making Your Google Alerts Even Smarter
Feedly – A More Visual Blog Reading Option

Session #2

How To Use Customer Rating and Review Sites
Getting More From Your Google Maps Profile

Session #3

Using Google Wonder Wheel to Create Keyword Rich Blog Posts
Ways to Make WordPress Even More Useful

Session #4

5 Steps to Successful Facebook Advertising
Using the Involver Facebook App to Add Fan Page Content

Session #5

5 Ways to Use Social Media for Things You Are Already Doing
Measure Your Social Media Results Scientifically

If you haven't participated in one of our Social Media Pro programs, you can learn more here.

What should I write about on my blog?

2010-03-15T09:07:24-05:00

One of the challenges professional service firms face when starting a blog is consistently coming up with topics to write about. Back in September of 2008, I offered 5 tips to find topics to blog about. Here are three more tips for finding topics to blog about:

Guest blogging – Most of us have other professionals in our network who do similar work, but have a slightly different view point or way of expressing themselves. Ask them to contribute posts to your blog. Volunteer to contribute posts to other blogs – it can be a great way to be found by a whole new audience.
Create a series of posts. Since many professionals are accustomed to writing articles and white papers, it is common to carry that writing style over to blogging. In addition to writing in a more conversational style, trying limiting your posts to one or two main points. Save the other points for future posts, creating a series of posts rather than one long article.
Revisit your old writings- Things change. People change. Your experiences shape the way you look at things. Don’t be afraid to revisit your old writings and expand upon your thinking, admit you were wrong, or share the “exception to the rule” you have recently discovered.

Leave a comment and share your favorite source of inspiration for blog topics.

Make a Referral Wednesday, How Can I Help?

2010-03-10T05:46:41-06:00

We are half way through Make A Referral Week, how are you doing so far? Personally, I need to step it up a little. I've made a couple of referrals, including connecting two people that I would like to do business with but haven't yet.

Sometimes, our biggest obstacle to getting referrals is getting in the habit of asking for them. I think the same goes for giving them- we have to remember to ask. So here is a quick tip to help you start the habit. Call up 15 people (that's only 5 per day for the rest of the week) and say "This is Make A Referral Week, who can I connect you with to help you with your business?".

Ask without the intention of receiving anything in return, but be prepared to answer when they ask how they can return the favor. Just as it is important to help others, it's also important to be able to graciously allow others to help you.

We are half way through Make A Referral week, who can I connect you with to help you with your business?

Make a Referral Week Starts Today

2010-03-08T07:39:04-06:00

Today is the first day of the 2010 Make-A-Referral Week. Make a Referral Week is an entrepreneurial approach to stimulating the small business economy one referred business at a time. The goal for the week is to generate 1000 referred leads to 1000 deserving small businesses in an effort to highlight the impact of a simple action that could blossom into millions of dollars in new business.

One of the educational programs related to Make-A-Referral Week will be John Jantsch's session on Building A Referral Engine. John's session is scheduled for Wed, Mar 10, 2010 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CST.

As you make referrals, be sure to update the Referral Counter page.

Do you need referrals for your business? Drop me an email or leave a comment below telling me who you would like to meet and I'll do my best to connect you with someone in my network.

3 Metrics for Referral Marketing

2010-03-03T07:18:18-06:00

I'm a big fan of regularly reviewing you marketing plan. I believe that regularly reviewing your plan is just as, if not more, important as creating the plan in the first place. Marketing plan review discussions generally include metrics. Here are three of my favorite metrics related to referral marketing:

Referrals Given - I always like to start with this one. I'm sure we have all heard sayings like "give to get" and "givers gain", but do you set goals and measure results related to the referrals you give others?

Stay in touch conversations - More often than not, referrals don't come from partners right away. It takes some time to nurture those relationships. Having a system in place to regularly reach out to maintain your "top of mind" status is a key to a successful referral strategy.

Referrals Asked For - more often than not, the biggest obstacle to receiving referrals is that we don't ask for them. You don't have control over how many referrals you receive, but you certainly have control over making requests.

Do you have a favorite metric for tracking your referral marketing process? Leave a comment and share it with us.

Looking for more referral marketing tips?

John Jantsch's lastest book, The Referral Engine, is now available for pre-order.

Today is my LinkedIn Birthday

2010-03-02T05:40:00-06:00

Last May, LinkedIn celebrated their 6th birthday with 40 million users.

Today is my 6th birthday as a LinkedIn member. I’m not sure what the exact calculation is to get from social media years to people years, but I have a feeling it would work out to me being a very old man <g>.

It’s been fun to see LinkedIn grow and change. When I first joined, I remember it being populated by mostly technical folks and venture capitalists. It quickly turned into a resource for job seekers and recruiters. Of course today it is a widespread tool for connecting, collaborating, and making referrals around the world.

I can’t find the exact numbers for March 2004, but in December of 2003, LinkedIn had 81,000 members. In April 2004, they reached the 1/2 million member mark. Here is an interesting timeline that I found on SlideShare:

LinkedIn Timeline

View more presentations from jcamero3.

Department of Defense Issues Social Media Policy

2010-03-01T06:39:42-06:00

The Department of Defense recently released its official policy on social media. The policy provides for "open and consistent access" across the non-classified network. A post describing the new policy on theDOD blog provides this simple but sound advice -

"Keep in mind that everyone has a responsibility to protect themselves and their information online, and existing regulations on ethics, operational security, and privacy still apply."

Are you still blocking access to social media sites in your firm? If so, maybe it's time to take a cue from the DoD and create a simple policy and guidelines for using social media at work. You can view the Directive-Type Memo below.

DTM 09 026

View more documents from Department of Defense.

The Referral Engine - Available for Pre-Order

2010-02-25T07:10:19-06:00

(disclosure - I am an Authorized Duct Tape Marketing Coach)

Although referrals are the marketing cornerstone for most accounting, law, and other professional service firms, many still struggle to create a system that consistently generates high quality referrals.

In the follow up book to his best selling Duct Tape Marketing Book, John Jantsch reveals a systematic approach to consistently generating a steady flow of business from referrals.

The book is already generating high praise from industry experts. You can read what they have to say and watch a short video of John explaining why he wrote this book here.

I'll be posting more about the book and how the lessons it contains apply to professional service firms just as soon as I can get my hands on a copy.

The book is scheduled to be released in May. You can pre-order from Amazon here (affiliate link)

Tom Peters on Thoughtfulness

2010-02-22T05:31:51-06:00

Over the weekend, I found this short video from Tom Peters where he shares his views regarding thoughtfulness as a key to success. (If you can't see the video, click here)

So what do you think about the role that thoughtfulness plays in your business?