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Kelly O'Brien - EzineArticles.com Expert Author
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Kelly O'Brien Email Alerts
- Three Ways to Invest Time and Money in PR
[Business:PR] Let's say you want to get the word out about your latest research, service, product launch, opening, or award. Public relations is a great strategy, especially if you consider tactics like "VNRs," "SMTs," and radio.
- When Good Looks Aren't Enough
[Business:Marketing] Don't you think that good work should speak for itself...that if you're good enough at what you do, you shouldn't have to hustle up business? This is like saying a pretty face with no personality will get you past the first date – it’s just not true!
- Sick of Kissing Frogs? Obey These Four Laws to Find True Client Love
[Business:Marketing] Ineffective, poorly done marketing and sales is the equivalent of kissing frogs – it won't get you what you're looking for. Ready to try a different approach?
- Client Testimonials with a Twist
[Business:Marketing] Testimonials are a great way to draw potential customers to your services. People are positively influenced by someone else saying great things about your business and what you have to offer.
- How to Turn Strangers Into Lovers
[Business:Marketing] Think about the last time you fell in love. When you met, were you excited? attracted? cautious? curious? How long did those early feelings last – moments? weeks? How did you learn more about each other? As you fell in love, what did you need – trust? shared interests? commitment?
- Twelve Tips to Make "Moments of Truth" Count
[Business:Marketing] If you care about your image in the marketplace, this article is for you. I don’t mean graphic image…I mean the impressions and perceptions people hold about you and your organization, based on how they’ve been treated or what they’ve heard about you from others. Building sustainable relationships with your target market is as much about actively attending to the market’s experience of your firm, as it is about other parts of marketing that are more obvious.
- Revealing Secrets About the Color of Marketing
[Business:Marketing] What if you could incite action in a target buyer, just by choosing the right color? Did you know that you can comfort, sooth and calm with color? Or that you can let them know you’re stable, reliable, and always there for them?
- But Do Your Buyers Hear You?
[Business:Marketing] Just because you have something important to say about your product or service, it doesn’t mean people are ready to hear you.
- Be Yourself
[Business:Sales-Training] I can’t tell you how many times I say to clients and workshop participants, “It’s not about you, it’s about your clients.” And I stand by that. The subtle, tricky part about connecting with your marketplace is that you still have to be yourself. So it is about you, but not in the way you might think.
- Bird by Bird
[Writing-and-Speaking:Writing] It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by marketing. First, there’s so much to learn: What works? What’s a waste of your time? Where should you invest your energy and money?
Then you have to prioritize: Where should you start? What’s the ONE THING that, if you don’t do anything else for a while, is your best first step?
- How Gratitude Works
[Business:Marketing] Want to know what the highest-impact, lowest-cost tool is in your marketing toolkit? First, here are ten reasons to start using this tool right away:
- How to Manage Your Marketing Mix
[Business:Marketing] Advertisement. Promotion. Public Relations. Do you know the
difference? Do you know when to deploy which one? Did you realize
that there's a huge difference between them to begin with?
If advertisement, promotions and public relations swim together in
your head under the category of "marketing," don't worry, you're not
alone. Many people confuse them and don't understand the difference.
It seems like once a week someone will say to me, "we really need to
do some advertising to get clients...can you help us?"
- How NOT to Waste Your Time Networking
[Business:Networking] Ever wonder if networking, referral groups, and conferences are a waste of
your time? Think about it how many hours do you invest in deciding where to network, registering, getting there, "working the room," and then following up? How much real business do you generate from your networking efforts? How do you know where to invest and where to cut your losses? If you're not thinking critically about how (of if!) to network, I guarantee
that you¹re wasting a lot of time and money. Bonnie Lowe recently interviewed me for her upcoming e-book: Networkaholics Revealed! True
Confessions of People Who Networked Their Way To Success (And How You Can Do the Same). Here's what we discussed...
- Ten Easy Marketing Tasks You Can Do NOW
[Business:Marketing] Who says scientists can't market? Here are 10 easy marketing ideas that a group of folks at the National Institute of Standards and Technology came up with today during our monthly Marketing Action Group:
1. Listen to (and write down!) the questions your clients ask. They're clues to the problems you can help them solve. They're also topics for your next article, talk and e-newsletter. Don't invent this stuff - just listen!
2. Plan and write out your next sales conversation. Got a meeting next week with a hot prospect? Write down the words you will use to find out who the decision makers are, what the budget is, the scope of their problem, and how you'll ask them to take next steps. If you have no idea how to do this, send me an email and I'll help you think through it.
- Three Easy Lessons to Take Your Online Marketing to the Next Level
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Internet-Marketing] I just spent the last week in two very different, but parallel universes. After helping researchers in a federal government agency work on getting their science understood and used in the marketplace, I tapped the wisdom of a conference full of online marketing gurus. The common thread? These experiences reinforced several lessons that will help you succeed in attracting the right kinds of clients. Here are ideas and resources to help you take action:
- Are You Playing Checkers or Chess?
[Business:Marketing] When you think about how to attract more clients for your professional services, are you playing checkers or chess?
You're playing checkers when you...
* Attend a networking event and expect it to generate business
* Invest thousands of dollars in direct mail and expect prospects to eagerly call about your services
You're playing chess when you...
* Understand that there are right clients and wrong clients for your firm, based on where you want your firm to be in one year, two years, five years - and that your definition of "right" will change over time
* Consider what the right kinds of clients look like for your firm and then carefully develop a roadmap for all marketing activities that align with your definition of "right"
- Sum of Its Parts
[Business:Marketing] I just spent a week at the beach with my
family and, as much as I vowed not to think
about work, stumbled onto a highly relevant
lesson for marketing professional services.
- Love My Dentist
[Business:Marketing] I love my dentist! When is the last time you could say that
about yours?
True, dentists do tend to get a bad rap (remember Steve Martin's
sadistic character in the movie, Little Shop of Horrors?). But
even real-life visits to the dentist aren't high on the list of
relaxing things to do.
- If My Work is Good Enough
[Business:Marketing] Don't you think that good work should speak for itself...that
if you're good enough at what you do, you shouldn't have to
hustle up business?
- How to Earn the Right
[Business:Marketing] Marketing your professional services is a lot like dating: you have
to earn the right to be intimate.
In both endeavors, you can't skip or rush through levels of intimacy
for the relationship to work. Whether it's a new flame or a new
client, you have to build trust that leads to deeper levels of
commitment.
- CRM: Strategic Engine or Just Another Tool?
[Business:Marketing] CRM…strategic engine or just another technology tool? How would you answer this question about your company's CRM initiative? It depends on how honest you are in answering some other questions, including:
- The First Rule of CRM for Financial Services
[Business:Marketing] Things have to change. Cross selling is not going to happen simply by installing new CRM technology. A corresponding movement from a transaction mentality to the underlying CRM principle of focusing on the long-term relationship is required. What does this mean for financial services? Stop pushing products and start building relationships.
- Painless Marketing for People Who Hate to Market
[Business:Marketing] Face it…you know you’ve got to do something to keep a steady stream of clients coming to your professional service firm. But when it comes to the m-word (marketing), you’d rather not. Do any of these statements sound familiar?
- CRM Star Wars: When Marketing is from Venus and IT is from Mars
[Business:Marketing] Inherent tensions exist between marketing and IT. This is often compounded by lots of cross-talk, with each function on different channels. When tension becomes unresolved conflict, CRM strategy is impossible to execute. To avoid clashes, it helps to understand that CRM is not just about the exchange of information, it's about the exchange of relationships. And every effective relationship includes a fair amount of conflict. The key is in how you handle it.
- Take Your Firm to the Next Level
[Business:Management] So you did such a good job in 2003 at bringing in new clients to your firm that you’re swamped with business, your firm is large and growing, and all parts of your marketing system are in place and running smoothly? Congratulations - you're off to a great start for 2004!
- Getting Your Services Used
[Business:Marketing] Every day I talk with professional service providers who do great work, have a valuable service that really helps people…and struggle to get their services used as much as they’d like.
They get a lukewarm response after an initial conversation while networking, the referrals come in but don’t convert to real business as often as they’d like, and they can’t seem to get prospects to see them as that much better than other professionals offering similar services.
- Differentiate or Die
[Business:Marketing] Sounds pretty harsh, doesn’t it? Well, I can tell you from personal experience with both my own business and with my clients, “differentiate or die” is not an exaggeration. Whether you’re a small one-person shop or a large government agency, solvency and the future of your business rely on you standing out in a competitive marketplace.
- How to Profit from Your Expertise (Part 2 of 2)
[Business] Last month we looked at the first step in how to naturally profit from your expertise: packaging your knowledge into articles and talks. Done right, you’ll exponentially multiply the number of motivated, pre-qualified prospects you reach in a fraction of the time that networking and referrals require.
- The "M-Word"
[Business:Marketing] Let's play a word association game. Quick...when you think about marketing professional services, what words come immediately to mind...? I played this game recently at a networking event, and here are some of the responses I got... "referrals" "word of mouth" "don't have time" "expensive" "do you mean advertising?" "how do you do that?" "brochures" "logos" and "ugh!"
- How to Put Law & Order into Marketing Your Legal Practice
[Business:Marketing] Regardless of your law firm’s focus – criminal, civil, corporate, family, business, etc. – the greatest challenge most small to mid-size firms face is the lack of a strategic and disciplined approach to business development. Relying on referrals does not a strategy make! And waiting to get serious about marketing until that major case is wrapped up is way too late.
- Like Brushing Your Teeth
[Business:Marketing] What do the following things have in common: brushing your teeth, regular exercise, eating a balanced diet, paying your bills on time, cleaning your gutters, spending quality time with your spouse and kids…?
They’re all forms of regular “self-care” that, if you neglect them for a period of time or take the wrong approach, there will be costly negative consequences.
The same goes for marketing.
- The Role of Marketing for Boards of Directors
[Business:Marketing] Small and emerging companies often do not put together a board of advisors or board of directors for many reasons. Some entrepreneurs believe that businessmen and women would not be willing to serve on their board of advisors for the little or no compensation that the new company can afford. Another reason small and emerging companies do not have boards of advisors is that often the entrepreneur does not want advice from others. In some extreme cases, entrepreneurs believe they do not need advice from others. GSI knows better.
- How to Profit from Your Expertise (Part 1 of 2)
[Business:Marketing] Are you looking for a natural way to market your professional services? What if you could exponentially multiply the number of motivated, pre-qualified prospects you reach in a fraction of the time that networking and referrals require?
- How to Leverage Your Most Powerful Marketing Tool
[Business:Marketing] What if you could reach thousands of prospects, build fruitful, pro-active relationships with them, and stay top-of-mind with them on a regular basis…and not spend a fortune in the process?
If this sounds too good to be true, then you’ve not mastered the art of leveraging your firm’s online strategy. A web site is one of the most unique and powerful marketing tools you have, if you develop and use it correctly. It can also be a huge drain of wasted money and resources if you don’t know what you’re doing.
- Your Secret Marketing Weapon
[Business:Marketing] As a professional service provider, you’re paid for what you know. People come to your firm for the expertise you offer, first and foremost. Did you also realize that this is also your secret marketing weapon?
- Turbo-Charge Your Rollout with ERM
[Business:Management] Employees are the often-neglected stakeholders in the success or failure of a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) initiative. But employees don't always resist new ways of doing business. If you factor in relationship management practices that engage people in the change process, you can circumvent significant resistance and actually speed up implementation.
- Shine a Spotlight on Your Professional Service Firm
[Business:Marketing] 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.
- How to Up-Sell Change
[Business:Marketing] As Freud cautioned, it's insanity to keep doing the same thing and expect different results. You know things have to change. Business as usual is a guarantee to fail. Your boss supports you, but is fairly lukewarm about resources and time commitments. Your staff agrees but then claim they are too busy. Activity traps, inertia, disinterest, ambivalence, fear… people fabricate (consciously or unconsciously) lots of reasons to avoid making change. This is a frequent organizational dilemma: a needed change stalls before you even get started.
- Why Smart People Don't Know How to Market
[Business:Marketing] As an educated professional, your success is based on what you know, your education, your intelligence, and your creativity. Even if you’re just starting out, you’ve achieved success just to get your many degrees and pass those licensing exams! Your clients return and refer because you apply your expertise and insight to guide them to appropriate answers for their unique situations.
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