| |
| |
|
Marketing Information |
|
|
|
Shine a Spotlight on Your Professional Service Firm
As a life-long dancer, I know a bit about the importance of good preparation before performance. Before a dancer is ready for the spotlight, she has to master the basics including alignment, strength, flexibility, balance, choreography, and artistry. The same is true for successful marketing. When you send a brochure, run an ad, promote a website, give a talk, or just tell someone what you do, you're on stage. But if you've not mastered the basics, you will not engage your audience and you risk serious injury to yourself and to your firm. Before the Curtain Rises Well before any performance, dancers invest time building a solid foundation. It's this foundation - not the costumes, lighting or even music - that enables them to give a persuasive, moving performance that connects with their audience. With effective marketing, the same sequence applies. Before the curtain rises on your attempts to attract clients, make sure you've mastered the basics first: Get aligned. Dancers spend years learning how to align their body properly for balance and how to keep "knees over toes" to prevent injury. What have you done to align with your customer's worldview? Do you really understand what keeps your clients up at night?what their real problems are, which may or may not have anything to do with what you currently offer? What are you doing to stay aligned? Do you say no to opportunities that aren't within your niche? Do you still have a "Plan B" in case your current direction doesn't pay off or have you fully committed to finding a good niche and making it work? How aligned are your services and pricing with what really sells in today's market? Build strength. Accomplished dancers may look graceful and light on their feet, but the illusion is only possible because of tremendous strength and power from within. How do you demonstrate your firm's strength? By showing the market your authority to do good work through well-written case studies, client testimonials, bios, media appearances, and measurable results. Be flexible. Without flexibility, dancers cannot move fully or prevent injury. The same can the same be said of your approach to serving your clients. Do you only offer one way to address a client's needs (i.e., high-priced consulting)? If so, you'll miss opportunities. Package what you do in several ways, at various price points. Go slow to go fast. Dancers aren't born being able to execute complicated choreography. Ballet dancers train for years before going "en pointe" (into toe shoes). It may not take you years, but an effective, customer-focused marketing strategy takes time to develop and launch. This doesn't mean you avoid revenue-producing work in the meantime, it just means you take the time to work "under the radar" to craft the right approach that accelerates your effectiveness once you launch it. Artistry. Every dancer interprets the music and story in her own unique way. This artistry is what differentiates truly outstanding performers and makes for a memorable audience experience. What have you done to identify and communicate your unique competitive advantage? What makes you stand out from others offering the same services? Why should customers buy from you when they have a number of choices? What about your offer, price, guarantee or standard sets you apart and how do you demonstrate that? Expert instruction. In any sport or art form, exceptional performers receive expert instruction, feedback, and coaching. Dancers rely regularly on classes, instructors, mirrors, feedback from partners, video, and critics' reviews to continuously improve and refine their performance. What are you doing to refine yours? Rehearsal. Only after getting aligned, building strength, developing flexibility, learning choreography, and expressing artistry is a dancer ready to rehearse for an actual performance. When you're ready to take your strategy to market, make sure you've tested it first. This means trying out your positioning statement informally at networking events, writing an article or two and getting feedback, conducting a small amount of telephone research with people in your target market, and so on. Before you spend the money to develop a new logo, print new business stationary, design new brochures, revise your website, or go on a sales call test and rehearse your message. When you start getting a "that's for me!" response from your audience, you're ready for the spotlight. On Stage & In the Spotlight Once you're on stage, your hard work and preparation pay off. However the marketing process continues: Lights, camera, action! Being in the spotlight means it's time to shine. The dancer's hard work pays off, enhanced by music, lighting, sets, costumes and makeup. The same is true of how you present your message to the market. Your website, brochures, talks, published articles, how you introduce yourself when networking, and the sales process are simply vehicles for communicating the fundamentals you've put in place before the curtain rises. If you start with them, without the basics outlined above, you risk looking foolish and off the mark when it comes to connecting with your audience. Connect with your audience. Being on stage doesn't guarantee that a dancer will engage the audience. You've gotta work it! At a recent repertory performance of amateur dancers at Joy of Motion, a local dance school, the audience enthusiastically hooted and hollered as the Street Jam dancers fully engaged them with their energy, funk, attitude, and huge smiles of joy. The audience fed off that energy and, in turn, motivated the dancers to give their best. What are you doing to build and sustain a relationship with your clients? Are you pushing a stale portfolio of products and services or are you listening to what your clients want and responding in kind? Exceptional performance. Long-term success at the box office depends on an exceptional performance time after time. So once you've closed the deal, what are you doing to ensure exceptional performance for your clients? Your most powerful marketing strategy is turning in a great performance time after time. Remember your supporting cast & crew. Nobody tolerates a prima ballerina that alienates those around her for long, no matter how talented she is. Likewise, if you don't attend to relationships with employees, peers, supervisors, vendors, and allied professionals, you'll find yourself wondering why everyone around you is so "difficult to work with." What are you doing to nurture relationships and alignment within and beyond your firm to ensure your strategy to attract more clients moves forward? In the end, if you give your audience a good value, at a fair price, based on solid preparation and a stellar performance, you'll garner good reviews, and have a long, fruitful run at the box office. Break a leg! (c) 2004 TurningPointe Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved.
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
The Advantages of Full Color Brochure Printing A brochure can be a great promotional tool, whether it is for is a real estate listing, a trade show handout, a data sheet, or another application. The most professional and eye-catching brochures are usually those that are full color. Professional Marketing Have you looked for marketing advice on the internet recently? There is no shortage of self-proclaimed 'gurus' from which to choose. But what kind of advice are they shilling out? Too often, it's over-the-top hype, blatant commercial ad copy and other tips designed for selling an inexpensive product to the general public. What Can Star Wars Teach You About Creating a Buzz for Your Business? Many people think marketing is some type of mystery that only a few select people know the secret too. In fact if you look at the entertainment industry you will find some of the best models to follow. Mission Statement Impossible Dant dant da da dant dant da da. Dant dant da da dant dant da da. Multicultural Marketing - Taking Care of Business At Hand Multicultural marketing mirrors the changed face of America and is getting the attention of small-business and other organizations looking for an edge in diverse ethnic markets. "Gone are the days when businesses succeed with a 'one size fits all' approach to marketing. Take the Logo Litmus Test Here is your C.I. Mobile Marketing a New Age Strategy More and more companies seem to be looking for new and innovative ways to market their products. Overlooking most of the traditional marketing techniques, more companies are pioneering the relatively new mobile marketing campaign. How To Turn $100,000 Into $1,191,817 In Just One Year Part II Turning a modest $100,000 annual turnover into $1,191,817 may sound outrageous but if you really understand the fundamentals of marketing this becomes quite achievable.Once you realise that just improving every area of your marketing can create a multiplying effect on your turnover it's time to look in more detail at exactly which areas you should target. Five Joint Venture Marketing Skills A Small Business Owner Must Have Joint venture marketing is a lucrative way of leveraging the assets of two or more businesses. It is the fastest way for businesses to achieve certain business goals and benefit their clients at the same time. The Top 10 The Top Ten Signs That Your Marketing Message Needs a Facelift Is your marketing plan dull, flat, and downright boring? Is it lacking the zest and appeal which can penetrate the consciousness of your buyers? If so, you may be driving away folks who could easily buy your products or services. If so, these ten signs from The 90 Day Marketing Marathon Blunders from A to Z: B is for Boring will support you in raising your awareness of what drives folks away and tips on how you can create a message which will catch fire in the market place. A Jack Of All Trades Is Often The Master of None You've heard variations of that saying your entire life. Consider: a marketer to all markets . Your Marketing Message - Could You Wring More CASH Out Of It With This Ancient Japanese Discipline? When it comes to your marketing message, the little things count. Trouble is, you'll never come to respect how much, until you make a commitment to science. Beware of Magazine Style Yellow Pages Ad Design. I have been designing Yellow Page ads for the past 15 years. I have been fully submerged in the medium. If You Can't Answer This Question Your Business is Doomed! How do you answer the seemingly easy question, "What do you do?" Do you talk about YOU? Do you talk about your products/services? Do you talk about your industry? Do you explain the process of how your products/services work? If you answered yes to any of these questions you are missing an enormous opportunity.Every time someone asks you "What do you do?" and every time someone reads your marketing materials you have the opportunity to:* Interest potential clients * Increase the potential for referrals * Find out about potential strategic alliances * Create recognition for yourself and your business * Position yourself as an expertStop right now and take the time to discover how to answer the question, "What do you do?" in a profitable way. Marketing to the Affluent - with Wine With its association to an affluent, sophisticated lifestyle, wine can make a good accompaniment when marketing to an affluent audience. However, I am not talking here about ordering expensive wine at a client diner. The Apprentice: 5 Lessons in Marketing Donald Trump's hit reality show, The Apprentice is a godsend for marketers around the world.Why?Because all of the tasks that the prospective apprentice's go through each week and each season involves some sort of marketing skills. Getting Paid to Promote Yourself We all know we can pay a magazine or a newspaper to run ads for us. Businesses do it all the time. If You Do No Other Preparation Far too often we see small businesses rush into doing things without planning and preparing. Unfortunately, marketing is a great case in point. The 3 Unknown Steps of Marketing Success To be your own marketing expert you first need to know where to begin. It's no good learning how to be a good copywriter, if you don't know what medium is best to promote your work through. Meaning and Marketing -- The Links You know who you are and what you want and what it means or will mean for you to be FULLY ALIVE and you also know that you can change it it -- your definitions. If you don't, you will.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
