Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

It sounds like you need a strategic marketing plan.

I suppose when dealing with a lawyer one should have a suitable disclaimer – maybe that’s why no-one’s tackled this question yet?

OK, my disclaimer: You probably could use expert business/marketing help. Do not attempt the following steps unless you fully understand what you’re doing. If you need help, hire me or someone lese to come there and lead you through this process.

Here's what you need to do:

1. Distil the Mission and Organisation Purpose (that won't take long)

2. Understand your environment. Where you've been, the competition, SWOT, PEST analyses.

3. Create a portfolio of your products.

4. Set your business objectives based on the strengths and opportunities you have.

5. Look at your target markets. If you don't know your target market, you can work it out. Where has all the business come from for the last 50 years? Is there a preponderance of industry types, geographical distribution of clients? Are there new client types you want to pursue?

6. Segment the target markets into manageable chunks.

7. The fun part: develop business strategies to meet the objectives you set back at step 4. You can map these into a Balanced Scorecard strategy map if you like, it help communicate the strategy through your organisation, and helps with cascading strategy and measuring strategic success…

8. Document all your assumptions as you go. You may want or need to refer to these later.

9. Now you have a business strategy, look through the target market segments and figure how you’re going to attract their attention.

10. Work out the message you want to send them. What is the one key thing you need to communicate, to get prospects to call you, or to accept your subsequent inbound call to make a meeting with them.

11. Choose the media to communicate. Website is a good response mechanism, but how will you get people to go there? Outbound E-Mail marketing? Press, Radio or TV advertising? Web address on the Goodyear blimp?

12. PR can be terribly effective for professional services firms.
How did these firms get onto this independent reference page? https://www.bizforward.com/wdc/issues/2002-03/buzzguide/

13. Work out your sales strategy. How will you handle inbound responses to advertising? How will you run an internal or external prospective client meeting? PowerPoint Presentations, Case histories, or start by asking for a brief on their problem?

14. Check whether there are any limitations on how or where you may advertise. These may be legal or enforced by your professional associations. (Not trying to teach you to suck eggs, honestly!)

If all else fails, e-mail me for help!

Good Luck

Chris Blackman
chris_blackman@asvpconsulting.com

Hey, it's textbook stuff, no wonder we give similar responses.

I guess one point I think is worth making, that the strategic process is often at its most productive and fertile when done in a workshop format.

It's really worth thinking about identifying a suitable person internal to the firm, or else bringing in an outsider who has conducted numerous workshops, to facilitate and conduct your group's process through the framework.

A good facilitator will challenge and push your group to come up with a very tight definition of what the firm is about, and who you really seek to serve, before starting to suggest the type of messages you want to send out.

There aren't any shortcuts to this process - just as you can't expect a Judge to pass sentence, without first having a trial, and a verdict.

Ooops, my preceding argument appears to sail across Michele's bows... Unintended... Sorry M :)

I have to agree with Chris and his step by step "how-to".
Everything was well covered.

It is textbook, but that is where you start when speaking generally.

Michele also makes a good point. Why not skip the long analysis, and just find your target and go for the throat? That works too!

Ravi-

What is better than textbook stuff? Experience and hands-on knowledge. Yes textbooks are a based on learned experience, but the key word you used was "Distilled"...in other words, distillation removes the radicals in order to give a condensed form of an idea or function of a certain topic. The only way to really know how to do it via is experience. Experience exposes you to the radicals and variants that the textbooks filter out so as not to confuse you. Remember, academea is a tool, a means to a end. Reading a book doesn't make you an expert.

Great plans - but I think you need to add one more item: budgeting.

In order for a long term program to succeed, you will need a long-term committment from senior mgmt to fund the effort.

My feeling is that a "revolving door" program which tries this / tries that / tries the next thing. always looking for short term results, will not leverage the strength of your 50 year old company.

The above "textbook" checklists have excellent advice to determine what to do - now you need to line up the resources to get it done.

As I suspected, top mgmt has not funded this...

... and I agree that they are "... not totally wrong...". Certainly networking is an excellent way to promote a professional services firm. The fact that the firm has grown over 50 years says something.

... it sounds to me as though you are swimming upstream to sell the powers on a long term program. Wouldn't it make more sense (and be much lower risk to you) to follow the path of least resistance, creating tools they can use in current networking activities? Once this produces results, you will have credibility to suggest a broader approach, as well as some proven tools in place.