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Seven Marketing Mandatory’s

Every day we go to work wanting to do our jobs, technically competent, appropriately staffed and capable of delivering.   But the world is speeding up, changing and challenging the way we are doing business.  I know it. You know it.
No matter how much some want to deny it, people are communicating differently, thinking more selfishly and expecting more.  Clients don’t just want a technically capable service provider anymore, they want a professional service that stays at the cusp.  They  want to be the centre of your universe.  And why shouldn’t they… they are your Clients.
All those delivering services in 2012 will be faced with a series of opportunities… keep doing things the way we always have and hope for the best; or understand what our markets require from our services firms as their positioning shifts and find ways to deliver a evolved service that fulfills the "right now"needs of our target clients.
Here are the most important trends I urge you to address in 2012.  Some of them are marketing, and some of them are more important “market positioning” for your firm:

1.  Look at your markets, understand your current USP
2012 is the time to look at your whole market positioning and decide which parts of the new economy are right to embrace in your professional business and which are irrelevant.  For many businesses the opportunity exists to develop a whole new unique selling proposition (USP), tweak their existing one, or perhaps to consider how you can make your service more valuable and in turn more visible than your competition for the very first time.
Marketing is now no longer an option, it is a mandatory task, but simple self-promotory campaign based marketing just makes you mediocre.  To succeed and really drive growth in 2012, you will have to be more than mediocre at marketing, you are going to need to know exactly where your niche is, because if you don’t your customers simply won’t find you there.

2.  Communicate differently on email
Our marketplace is communicating differently to how they communicated last year or the year before.  There is more email in our inboxes than ever before.  So much of it is noise, offering little or no value, selling not giving, pushing not leading.   But with more than 60% of people reading their emails on mobile devices, on the go, over more than 15 hours in the day, the opportunity to provide quality content via email that positions your firm at the forefront of your market is irresistible.  Please don’t waste the opportunity.
 
3.  Make your Website Work Harder for you
Three or four years ago your website was something static… a tool to set and forget.  You built a website, wrote the copy and updated it from time to time with self-promotion.  Now, the website is one of the primary gateways to your business.  It is the first place that someone goes when they find out about your firm, and the best opportunity that you have to lure them in, calling them to action right when they are ready to step up as a service-buyer.  Other than your community, it is the most important tool you have in your kitbag… because it is the hub from which all your other marketing activities can happen… email marketing, advertising, Google adwords, direct mail, social media, referral… all of these tactics lead to your website.  If your website doesn’t have honest, convincing hooks to catch those fish, you are mossing the best opportunity available.
 
4.  Get Social
Did you know that the fastest growing age-group of social media users in 2011 was those between 55-65?  So many of our sensible, professional clients start out resistant to (or mildly curious about) social media when we work on their first strategy, but when we explain the personal and business benefits of being active in their online communities, most quickly step up for a look and like what they see.
Being an appropriate part of your online communities not only helps you to understand the emerging technologies and communications techniques as they ripple through our markets, it also presents your business as being progressive, inquisitive and active in its marketplace.
But what you really need to understand about social media is this:
• In online communities people group themselves by their interests, technical capability and communities, so you can often find your primary target markets more successfully online than you can offline, and with a carefully constructed campaign, showcase your capability without selling gaudily, flogging your soul or spending a cent (you may have to spend a few hours though).
• As a desirable professional people will “check you out” online long before they ever approach you to provide a professional service.  They judge you on your Linkedin page, your online communities, and the depth of your personal brand.
• You should never, ever entrust your business or personal brand to the youngest or most social person in the room.  Your brands are the most important things you have in professional services.  They take years to build to the level where they attract clients organically. Why would you risk them on someone who doesn’t necessarily understand that one inappropriate update, tweet or comment can do inexorable damage?
 
5.  Ensure your data is in order
When we communicate with clients in this time poor, message rich world, we want to deliver only the most relevant, valuable information we can, and we want to do it in a timely manner.  So it is important to have living client, target client and influencer lists (or ideally, a well-adopted client relationship management (CRM) system) and the business processes to support it.  You need to have segmented your target clients well, so you can deliver them only the most useful information to them, and you can do it fast, while a trend is still a trend, and your news is still news.  Fundamentally, though, the most important thing when building a list, is to build the business processes that ensure people continue to update it and use it.
 
6.  Understand your pipeline, for next year [not last year]
The winning markets in 2012 may look very different to the winning markets in 2011.  Most experienced business operators understand this.  They know that during an election year Government work will slow for an extended period, and during a global credit crunch only the most capitalized firms will be taking risk.   So where will your active clients come from next year?  Which will be more profitable?  And how many do you need in your pipeline to cover your costs and meet your targets?  How much of this will come from existing clients, and how much from new clients, and now we come back to #1… What is the USP that is going to secure those clients as yours this year?

7.  Evolve your services
Are you providing the services that your target clients need in 2012?  Are you offering them the latest technology, tools and capability, streamlining their spend and driving greater efficiency from their projects?  Are you leveraging and collaborating with your Clients and Partners, using client portals, collaborative project management tools, and communicating as often as they need?  Have you taken the time to look at how you can evolve your services with the changing technology environment and faster web speeds available?  What do your clients need?  What do they want?  How can you ensure you give them everything they need and waste nothing?  2012 is not a year for looking back and considering, it is a year for stepping forward and serving the clients you have, and building the clients you want by giving them want they need and what they want.  2012 is a year of evolution. 
 
If you get on top of all this, you’re ready for a bumper year.   So have have a Merry Christmas and a safe holiday season, and we’ll see you online in 2012.

Written by Rebecca Wilson, Stretch Marketing