PRACTICE MARKETING blog

"Everybody is an entrepreneur."

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The price of stamps are going up to 44 cents on May 11, 2009. You have until May 11 to buy the 42 cent Forever Stamp that will be valid, forever (they go up to 44 cents on 5/11 too). As the cost of stamps will be going up about .05% every year, it may be a pretty good investment! I'll leave that up to the financial advisors.

My concern is that direct regular mail marketing is a staple of day-to-day marketing. You may not want to utilize regular mail marketing due to its low lead generation ratio (and possibly low closing ratio). Arguably, it's about 1%. True, one man's junk mail is another business' direct regular mail marketing campaign.

How do you go through the mail? Over the trashcan? The chuck-ratio of regular mail marketing is rather high. The chuck ratio of package mail marketing is much better - we don't throw away gifts as easily. Inevitably the cost of this will also go up.

Moreover, I am saddened that during these challenging economic times our USPS is making it more expensive for the average business to market itself. They would argue that they are only meeting their own costs; and are staving off their own bail out.

What do you think? How does this impact your Word-of-mouth marketing strategies?

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On Friday, one of my clients, Bruce Maasbach arranged a seminar for his circle of real estate agents. While much of the time should have been dedicated to a tactical, Web 2.0, Marketing Action Plan... my inspirational preamble was more valuable. First a mindset change, or a paradigm shift, has to take place for a Real Estate Agent to do business from 2009 on. Hear what I mean:

Three 10-minute parts will automatically be on the right-hand of the video above when I upload to my blip.tv account. With the poor lighting and zoom, the video quite frankly sucks. But my audio silhouette - with hand gestures - gets my points across!

VIDEO 1: I go through how the market has changed over the past 10 years.
VIDEO 2: I explain how ludicrous the real estate industry has been, and a brave new vision for them.
VIDEO 3: I talk about how real estate professionals can begin creating a new business model.

Originally, I had brought my projector, my laptop, with a PowerPoint... but there was no table for the equipment, screen (or white wall), and I'm sure WiFi would've been "too secure." I'm a speaker, not a presenter, so I didn't care.
LESSON TO BE LEARNED: I did bring hand-outs, which are low-tech and guaranteed to work.

What do you think about the new Business Model Vision I proposed for real estate agents/brokers?

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A few days ago, I was then invited to speak at the Attorney/Accountant Networking Group; there, I outlined a PRE/PRESENT/POST goals for our networking. Here's a re-cap:

PRE the meeting: Have a goal of who/type of person you'd like to meet & how many. PRESENT: Be present; leave your cell phone or Blackberry alone. Don't participate in "drive-by" networking (those who run past you handing business cards). Don't pitch anybody; likewise, a good 10-minute conversation is "enough" with 1 person. I "doggy-ear" those I plan on getting back to - especially prospective clients. POST: Follow-up within 3 business days. They may be prospects, centers of influence, or potential connectors to either of those 2. AND, put them into your database - and preferably, your e-newsletter list.

SO what are the 4 types of groups?
1) Trade associations: Not necessarily those of your peers, but your target market's association. Of course, as a lawyer, you probably get a lot of referrals from other attorneys... so Bar Associations are a good choice. And more and more CPAs are concentrating on a niche market, or specialized service; thus, Societies can also be a good trade association choice. Nearly every profession/industry have national and local associations; plus within their profession/industry there are sub-categories/specialties; moreover, often ethnic/geographic groups form within trades/professions.
2) General gatherings: These include chambers of commerce and other open rooms that attract a variety of professionals. Often they meet early in the morning or in the evening. There may be competitors, peers, colleagues, and clients in the room. For all those folks, standing out and showcasing your distinctive expertise (preferably with a 1-liner) is paramount. Don't forget the ones sitting down; often business owners and other decision makers don't know how to network well. And don't forget to wear your own badge.
3) Non-compete groups: Like the one I belong to, American Business Associates (ABA), these are usually small, round-tables of 15-20 professionals. As it implies, there are no competing professionals in the room. While there may be more than one financial advisor or attorney, they usually agree on specific areas of focus. Some non-compete groups are more 'retail' oriented, featuring more business-to-consumer businesses; others are more 'professionals' oriented, featuring advisors including attorneys, accountants, and financial advisors; still others are more niche, featuring professionals who all target one market (e.g., healthcare).
4) Database meetings: These are the informal meetings that you can create from your own database. By networking your clients, centers of influence, and colleagues, you are growing everybody's network, influence, and thoughts of you. As they invite their circle of influence, your network grows exponentially. Don't overlook this bounty in your own background; and don't underestimate the folks that are dormant in your database. The new year is a great time to spark old relationships.

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Are you getting any comments from prospective customers like “our budgets being slashed”, or “It’s not in the budget”? I will paraphrase Jeffrey Gittomer: “Why are you selling to the person that has to go ask Daddy for the money, when you should be selling to Daddy in the first place?” It’s an abrasive, but I believe, valid point.

Here’s how it works; The principle or CEO sees a possibility & an idea or belief of what it will take to improve her/his business from YOU (salesperson/consultant/trusted advisor). He/she then delegates/introduces you to the Director of _______, with accompanying words of encouragement and/or direction to explore what you are suggesting & see if it will work for them. If there’s a strong potential fit/synergy/ROI, then surprise – surprise, money/budget that didn’t exist for the Director of _______, suddenly & almost magically becomes available.

I’ve personally sold millions in products & services by bypassing the entire decision chain, and speaking directly to the person that holds the proverbial purse strings. Most of which were never “in the budget”. Warning – it requires dedication to effective & creative marketing, not to mention strong & clear communication skills to get and keep the ear of the decision maker. Also, it’s not often you can even get there at all - through the “normal channels” of bureaucracies, management ego’s, and gate keepers that are so prevalent in mid-sized and larger organizations.

I assert that effectively reaching & engaging with the prime decision maker requires a whole new level of commitment, one beyond what most of us have ever experienced. A commitment to a cause, to making a difference for a client, their employee’s, and their customers. A commitment to add real and tangible value. This absolutely has to supersede your desire to “make the sale”. The $$ comes as an effect of your commitment to your cause and to your client, not the other way around. Take a stand (as in “stand out”) for something both you and your target markets prime decision makers both care deeply about. That’ll get you on their radar screen!

Lastly, it takes a commitment to leveraged, effective, and consistent marketing & branding. Consistent “value first” marketing that uses a web of channels, clear value driven collaterals, and consistent touch points to convey the most valuable thing you have to offer – your cause/what you stand for - Your Personal Brand.

Mark Bullock
Partner – Practice Marketing Advisors
www.PracticeMarketingBLOG.com
www.MBullock.com
 

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I recently received an unsolicited email “Newsletter” from a well intended but misinformed motivational speaker. It was sent TO: me from an MS Outlook account, with 70 or so other recipients plainly listed in the TO: field as well. Effectively distributing to all the recipients - all the other recipients email addresses. The “Newsletter” was in the form and attached PDF of a scanned, blurry, & tilted paper document. Additionally there was no obvious or automated way for me to “Opt-Out” from future emails.

Aside from the unwelcome intrusion, and a chuckle about how unprofessional and ineffective their email marketing campaign is, I was struck by the total ignorance by the well intentioned sender that what they had done is called Spamming, and it’s illegal. So I wanted to share with you a couple of nuts & bolts tips on how to avoid making a similar blunder.

1 – Don’t use your desktop email program for bulk email – EVER (no, don’t just use BCC to get around the TO: field problem, because it doesn’t always work). Get an automated & compliant email list management service like Openmoves Email, Talkware Media, or even Constant Contact. They’re cheap, easy to use, will give you valuable tracking & feedback or your email campaigns, and most importantly – they’re CAN-SPAM Act compliant.

2 – Compose your emails for delivery as both HTML & plain text. Most of the services above will automatically deliver which ever format the recipients email program will accept. What ever you do, don’t include an attachment. This will almost always get your email either rejected or un-opened (unless you are a “trusted” sender for that recipient). Alternatively you can include a link (Web address if in text) for readers to follow to get a PDF or other document from your Web site.

3 - Always include an “Un-Subscribe” or “Opt-Out” link at the bottom of both versions – it’s the law folks, just do it.

4 – Use the automated tracking features of your chosen service to see who’s getting it, who’s opening it, who’s forwarding it, etc, and who’s not. Process your blocked and/or returned email so as not to get blacklisted by the email Spam Gods.

5 – Once you have all of the above figured out, now you can put an “Opt-In” form on your Web site or Blog for people to subscribe (permission marketing) to your content. The form is linked back to your email list management service for automated processing (Auto-responding) – but that’s for another post.

Mark Bullock
Partner - Practice Marketing Advisors
www.PracticeMarketingBlog.com
www.MBullock.com

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I only recently put myself up on LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace. This was after years of not really getting what the value was, and my concerns over the “professionalism” of my being on such sites. But, I bit the bullet and set-up my profile on each, and started wondering - now what?

I figured out that it was probably a good idea to scour my address book for the people in my own network that were already on one or more of these sites (some I had not been in touch with for years). I found a few dozen, and decided to invite them to “join” my network. About half of those I invited joined – ok, not sure what happened with the other half, but now what to do with those I was connected to? How could I leverage this medium, what could I contribute that would be of value?

Then it dawned on me, how about making “recommendations” and/or “endorsing” the people I knew. It would be a simple gesture, acknowledging who each of these people were for me. Many I had not directly done business with, but I could certainly speak about their character – what kind of person they were. So I took a Sunday afternoon and wrote about 25 recommendations and/or endorsements for those in my “network” on LinkedIn. I spoke from the heart, in plain language, again simply acknowledging these people for their individual contributions to me, or the community around them – what ever came to mind.

What happened next frankly stunned me. First off a handful of individuals immediately recommended or endorsed me back – thanks guys! But what was more important was the emails & calls I got thanking me for my endorsement, and wanting to know how I was, what was up to, and when could we meet for coffee – lunch whatever. Now as I said, some of these folks I hadn’t interacted with in a few years, and honestly most were not aware of my career shift towards marketing.

In short the combination of relationship “re-connects”, “cross-connects”, direct business, and referred business that I received thought this simple act of endorsing others, was totally disproportionate to the relatively small effort I initially made. You see I had stumbled on a powerful secret – I made it about them, not about me. The moral of the story: Join an online social network, be authentic & generous, connect & endorse others. Business is conducted personally between people, people are personally connected to each other – get personally connected – conduct more business, personally!

Here's a cool video on Social Networking

Mark Bullock

Partner / Practice Marketing Advisor

PracticeMarketingBLOG.com

MBullock.com

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We all have a marketing budget. Is it a line item? Is it consciously invested? Is it monitored? Is it planned?

Our marketing budget is the time we spend on networking, asking clients/COI for referrals, improving our website, writing our newsletters, and all the other W.A.T.E.R.S. endeavors. And of course, we all have a money budget for marketing. We may only spend money on events, mailings, phone calls, and collateral development -- and some of us may make media ad buys.

All too often we find clients more interested in making a Splash, to keep up with the larger firms out there. Yet, time and time again, we find that that it's the consistent small actions - marketing habits in routine drips - that really provides the biggest bang for the buck.

Splashy ads and campaigns can spark buzz. But it's the consistent drips that sustain word-of-mouth marketing and follows up on results.

Start a drip campaign of e-mail, phone, regular mail, and meeting campaigns. You can do so today. When was the last time you had breakfast, lunch, or dinner with one of your top clients?

Splash campaigns should be planned, executed, and managed more strategically so as to not waste precious time and money.

In both (and you should have both), Your Practice Marketing (aka, W.A.T.E.R.S.) Action Dashboard becomes pivotal and center stage. See attached.

 Ebook: Download | Hits (438)

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The cost of acquisition of a new client can be very high, both in $$ and your resources and yet the typical practice/firm puts out 80% of it’s marketing effort towards acquiring new clients and only 20% on existing clients. Marketers in the know – know you should reverse these percentages. The fact of the matter is you’ve already made the investment to reach your existing clients, develop a trusted relationship with them, and proven your value to them. – But – do they know how else and in what other ways you can serve them going forward?

It’s crystal clear in this market place the value of branding yourself as a specialist. But that doesn’t mean you can’t capitalize on more general or other specialist opportunities with existing clients as those opportunities arise. And frankly – why not create those opportunities in the first place?

Here’s a couple of quick samples:

1. Some folks are uncomfortable referring others, or you may be uncomfortable asking for them. So how can you always follow the marketing thumb rule of always ask for referrals? Here’s the secret – Don’t ask for a referral – ask for an “introduction”. After confirming your client is happy, simply ask if they know anyone they would be willing to introduce you to. Make sure you are willing to give away an initial meeting to advise or council. This is a much softer sell, and far less threatening request than asking for your customers to essentially “sell” you to their friends & associates.

2. Add every client to your ongoing follow-up system. IE. your email/snail mail newsletter, your seminar or event invitation schedule, your promotional invitation schedule, copies of any and all press you receive, etc., basically any and every chance to stay in touch. Also, don’t forget to invite them to any fund raiser / charity events you sponsor, golf outings, trade show’s they may enjoy, etc.

3. Lastly, consider developing a small & affordable, value driven, maintenance/update program. This could be a yearly Will review, or a bi-annual financial planning review, anything you can turn into a retainer and/or recurring revenue that keeps you top of mind and creates ongoing value for your existing client base.

The above are just a handful of ideas. Fact of the matter is, it’s no secret that expanding the lifetime value of an existing client, and farming regular high value referrals is not only a huge boon to your bottom line, but much more cost effective and productive that constantly chasing after new clients through traditional advertising means.

For another effective habit on getting referrals watch this video:

Referral Marketing - Planting Seeds

Mark Bullock Partner/PMA Practice Marketing Advisors www.mbullock.com

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