Recently I posted about the counseling and other resources available from SCORE. Here are 11 Rules for Success from the folks at SCORE: Eleven Rules for Success Work smarter, not harder. It’s not how much you do, but what you do and how well you do it. There are...
One of the challenges facing small business owners who blog is coming up with things to write about. Here are 5 tips that I share with my customers to help them come up with ideas for their blog posts: Answer your customers' and prospects' Frequently Asked Questions...
I see a lot of marketing advice about how to "make my small business look big". Before you go about making your small business look big, ask yourself if that is what you really want. Or, more importantly, is that what your customers really want. I would bet that in...
CRM and other business automation tools typically allow you to personalize the messages you send to your prospects and customers. This is usually done using some sort of field code and mail merge process. You create a template that looks something like this: Dear...
Traditional advertising doesn't work for professional service firms. I must read that 3 or 4 times a week. Lately, the advice that follows is "Drop your print advertising and replace it with online, pay per click (PPC) advertising". Will changing to PPC...
Over on Law.com, Bruce Marcus has an interesting article titled The Difference Between Doing and Managing Marketing (link no longer available). In this article, Mr. Marcus describes some of the progression of the marketing function in law firms and some of the common...
This post is mostly a reminder to myself but may benefit others as well. Not everyone wants to grow their business. Of course I know this intellectually, but, it is easy to assume that everyone does. These assumptions creep into our language and we may not even be...
In this post, a sales and marketing manager for a small tax consultant office asks, "How can I get our tax consultancy noticed?". This post reminded me of a small, but important, mental shift that will improve the effectiveness of marketing your professional...
The May issue of Practical Accountant features an article outlining the struggles professional service firms encounter with their marketing function. The article is based on a survey conducted by the marketing and research firm The Bloom Group. Here are some of the...
I recently had the opportunity to speak at a conference for massage therapists. As is true for most professionals, word-of-mouth, or referrals, was cited as the most important marketing strategy in building their massage practices. It was also the general consensus...