A range of downloadable guides and blog articles designed to help you on your professional services marketing journey.
I spend a lot of time talking about what’s wrong with the state of professional services firms marketing and thought to myself is there a better way to get the message across? The fundamental issues I continually raise are; Lack of differentiation Service attributes ahead of expertise Over emphasis on brand and wordsmithing Firm first,…
By Jim Thompson
In the beginning, accumulating 1,000’s of followers is something we didn’t consciously set out to do (not that I recall anyway). But along the way we have created our own tribe of some sorts, of both engaged followers and many clients (p.s. we still have room for more). That’s why I thought it might be…
By Jim Thompson
There are many ways to dissect and segment the professional services market, but for me, there are 4 segments that sit above all of them. It starts with two segments, those who are ready to buy and those who are not ready to buy what you have to offer. We can then divide these two…
By Jim Thompson
By far the greatest challenge I see with professional services firms from a marketing perspective is their ability (or lack thereof) to differentiate from their competitors. Differentiation is a marketing 101 concept so why do so many struggle with it? Unfortunately, most firms are victims of poor differentiation due to their own willingness to adopt…
By Jim Thompson
Yes you’ve heard it all before but online marketing is a different kettle of fish and the rate of change while exciting can be daunting. Before you worry about your new website or whether you should be on Twitter there are some fundamentals to get right. After working with and in the professional services industry…
By Jim Thompson
Developing personas is one of the most critical pieces of work we undertake while developing a content marketing strategy. If something isn’t quite firing in your marketing, chances are there’s something in the persona that has been missed. They give you a clear picture of your target audience by personifying their characteristics, buying motivators and…
By Conal McClure
In marketing B2B professional services, pain is usually the motivator pushing people to buy whatever it is you are selling. The more you can draw it to the surface of your target audience and decrease their tolerance to put up with it, the more successful you’ll be at triggering and moving them along the buyer’s…
By Conal McClure
I spend a lot of my time talking to professional service firms, reviewing their marketing collateral and in particular their websites. One glaring recurring theme I see is that everyone is trying to differentiate themselves on exactly the same things. Of course, if every firm’s differentiators are the same, then they aren’t differentiators no matter…
By Jim Thompson
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about why word of mouth is still the main source of leads for so many firms. Back in the days before electronics let alone the internet, word of mouth was the only way to find help, so why do we still rely on it so heavily? From a…
By Jim Thompson
Yes, your clients all have a secret – they would rather not have to buy what you are selling. In an ideal world, they would prefer it if they didn’t need you. All things being equal they would prefer that the problem they needed you for didn’t exist or they could resolve it on their…
By Jim Thompson
We’ve all had FOMO at some stage (Fear Of Missing Out) when we see our friends off having a great time somewhere while you’re stuck at home or somewhere you’d rather not be. It’s particularly prevalent now thanks to social media with people posting numerous pictures of their holidays and/or social activities. Are they doing…
By Jim Thompson
Let me show you how by revealing how NOT to market a management consulting firm. I had a lot of good feedback from my mock lawyer’s website, illustrating in no uncertain terms how NOT to market a law firm. If you missed it take a look here – https://www.weusme.com.au/ Yes, it may make some of…
By Jim Thompson
The name for a start. It’s a catch-all phrase that includes topics like differentiation, business models, pricing strategies, positioning, account management, LinkedIn, sales pipelines, tender writing and events. Let’s get really clear, the goal most professional services firms are trying to achieve is how to produce sustainable and profitable revenue generation. So, I’ll assume you’re…
By Jonathan Roberts
We’ve all heard the comment “No one ever got fired for hiring IBM” although perhaps some should have. I’ve heard many of you share your frustrations at losing a tender or project to a big firm because the client feels safer in doing so. You know the client would get a comparable, if not better…
By Jim Thompson
There’s a lot of noise about out there about “New Law” but the only ones who seem to be excited about it are lawyers. As a buyer, I say welcome to the world everyone else has lived in for decades if not since commerce was invented. Sure, it holds some value for a buyer if…
By Jim Thompson
I used to be a big fan of the elevator pitch, proudly being able to explain to a stranger what I do in one or two sentences. But I’ve completely changed my mind. The main reason being that I’ve never actually been asked by someone what I do in an elevator 😊 and even if…
By Jim Thompson
When I first meet a client, I deliberately do very little research on them beyond looking at their website. Not because I don’t want to make the effort but to put myself in a prospect’s shoes and to hold onto that all important first impression. I’ve done this many times and a recurring pattern I…
By Jim Thompson
If you only worked with ideal clients that genuinely valued your expertise? We all invest our most valuable and non-renewable resource (time) in activities we’d rather not. Taking out the rubbish, picking up the dog’s droppings and weeding the garden are just some of mine. Spending time with tyre kickers, attending most networking events and…
By Jonathan Roberts
A lot of marketers and advisors jumped out early advising people what to do in light of the current crisis. I must admit I was tempted to do the same but thought I’d sit back, watch what happened and gather my thoughts before writing anything on the subject. One thing is certain though and that…
By Jim Thompson
I’m not a religious man, in fact far from it but last week I had an epiphany, or should I say I was given one by my colleague Conal McClure. We were at lunch eating noodles cooked in lobster brain sauce having our ongoing conversation about what it is we really do for our clients…
By Jim ThompsonIt’s 5.22PM Tuesday February 4th and I’m sitting in the RACV Club in Bourke Street Melbourne. I’ve just logged out of Infusionsoft* having reviewed and updated the details of the 9 people that subscribed in the last 12 hours to our “11 Steps” lead magnet. Oh and I’m drinking green tea, a single malt scotch…
Being a Geelong boy it was great to read a recent article in The Age newspaper about Geelong based retailer Cotton On and how they mastered the middle market. For those of you that don’t know Cotton On started in a car boot in 1991 and “… housed just 40 staff in its headquarters 10 years ago. It now…
At the expense of declaring my age I can tell you that when I first started work as a trainee accountant many moons ago none of the following existed; Personal computers Fax machines Email Mobile phones Websites The internet!! And you could even smoke at your desk! Sometimes I think we forget how much the…
What if I told you that your marketing team has decided not to go down the path they know your firm needs to go down because they know you will let them down? Trust me it happens and I have seen it too many times. One of the things I have learnt when it comes…
We often get asked, how we apply our approach to digital marketing within large professional services firms. The question arises because we make no secret of the fact that the real power and opportunity in digital marketing is when it is highly targeted, underpinned by a narrow position, clearly defined personas, and very targeted messaging….
What is the greatest impact the internet has had on business? It has completely destroyed some business models and created many more but in my humble opinion its most far reaching impact is that it has given birth to this monster. DEB – The digitally empowered buyer. Take a minute to meet DEB and understand…
I don’t expect you to care about my firms’ mission, vision, how good I think we are or how many awards we might have won, so much so I would never enter any awards. I don’t care you don’t care because I don’t care about yours either, all I’m really interested in is; are you…
