May 21, 2012
10 ideas for growing your marketing program and your firm – 1 step at a time.
With apologies for butchering the quote, Steve Martin used to joke, “You can be a millionaire… First you get a million dollars…” That’s like many marketing recommendations today. All you need to do is blog, make rain, optimize something, create a series, or do something else that seems easy, but takes much more effort to implement or maintain once you get started.
I don’t agree that there is ever just one solution, but how do you get just one thing started? Running your firm takes enough time, let alone trying to run a marketing program. So let’s try to keep things very simple here. Do something. Read the rest of this entry »
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General, Marketing | Tagged: accounting firm marketing, attorney marketing, best practices, demand generation, financial planner marketing, law firm marketing, lawyer marketing, referrals, reviews, testimonials | 
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Posted by Dave Slovin
May 13, 2012
5 ways to encourage more website visitors to contact your firm.
This morning I was in the office catching up on some email. It was interesting that the majority of marketing articles in my mailbox talked about how to generate website “traffic” from one source or another. A successful business, they claimed, requires SEO, pay-per-click, Facebook ads, Tweets, and [insert social media cliché here] to drive that traffic.
I live in Atlanta, where “traffic” is a 2.5 hour drive to commute 10 miles. Just like Atlanta traffic, website traffic can be a waste of time and money – unless those visitors actually contact you.
Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | General, Marketing, Sales | Tagged: accounting firm marketing, attorney marketing, bandwagon, best practices, demand generation, financial planner marketing, law firm marketing, lawyer marketing, lead generation, website conversion | Permalink
Posted by Dave Slovin
May 1, 2012
Don’t Define. Differentiate.
Why do your clients choose your firm/company/practice over others? Is it just because you’ve got employees who come into the office every day and do their jobs? Probably not. So why do so many companies resort to these types of generic statements on their websites and in other collateral? Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | General, Marketing | Tagged: accounting firm marketing, advice, attorney marketing, best practices, demand generation, differentiators, law firm marketing, lead generation, messaging, prospect, webs | Permalink
Posted by Dave Slovin
April 15, 2012
Putting a cheesy marketing metaphor to work for your firm.
I was meeting with a prospective client last week, trying to convince the principals that they could cut out a good chunk of their advertising budget and improve marketing results by just implementing an ongoing content marketing campaign. The group was having difficulty understanding why an established firm needed to keep pushing their message to prospective clients, so I pulled out a cheesy old example that I saw in some marketing class years ago. Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | General, Marketing | Tagged: accounting firm marketing, blogging, communication, demand generation, law firm marketing, lead generation, linkedin, Marketing, Marketing ROI, prospect marketing | Permalink
Posted by Dave Slovin
April 1, 2012
Know where you stand and then get active.
There are a number of ways to describe our firms’ marketing efforts, but let’s keep this easy and just use two distinct terms – active and passive. To see where you fit on this continuum, Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | General, Marketing | Tagged: accounting firm marketing, blog, communication, demand generation, law firm marketing, linkedin, Marketing, newsletter | Permalink
Posted by Dave Slovin
March 13, 2012
Learn a sales lesson from the lady in the St. Lucia straw market.
I was on a Caribbean cruise last week – first time away from email in years. The first stop was St. Lucia, home to one of the larger straw markets (local crafts, etc.) in the region. Let’s just say I’m not a shopping fan, but I negotiated a morning of ziplining for an afternoon of shopping – and received $50 in free sales training.
Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | General, Sales | Tagged: accounting firm marketing, business, business development, demand generation, financial planner marketing, law firm marketing, Sales, Sales Improvement, st. lucia, straw market | Permalink
Posted by Dave Slovin
February 24, 2012
Five (different?) tips for landing the next client.
I know. You’re not technically in a sales position. You are a professional. I also bet that just doing a great job is not enough of a magnet to attract and retain every prospective client. You can always improve, and that’s why it helps to think like a sales rep sometimes.
Before you roll your eyes at yet another sales article, I thought about that too and tried to look at this topic from a little different perspective. This won’t be about active listening, consultative selling, SPIN or other sales seminar approaches. Here are a few simple sales tactics Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | General, Sales | Tagged: accounting firm marketing, business development, demand generation, law firm marketing, lawyer marketing, Sales, sales effectiveness, Sales Improvement | Permalink
Posted by Dave Slovin
February 13, 2012
3 questions to ask yourself before you spend money with a competitor.
I got a call this week from a “marketing specialist” at a large law firm directory company announcing that it was time for a law firm client’s marketing review. Of course, that meant it was time to hear the annual sales pitch.
I started thinking about the value these directory/marketing companies add versus the competitive threat they present, so I searched “Family Law Firm on Google. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by Dave Slovin
February 2, 2012
Is your content the cream of the crop, or crap?
I’ve seen a lot of online discussion recently about the quality of the content that we’re including in our websites, blogs, and other communications. Is it educational? Does it speak to the right audience? Does it speak English?
When a friend asked me last week to comment on his new website copy, I pulled out a list of criteria that I’ve been using for a few years and got to work. After ripping apart his website (sorry), I realized that this list was a good tool for anyone to use when evaluating pretty much any content. Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | General, Marketing, Sales | Tagged: accounting firm marketing, blogging, communications, content, content quality quotient, demand generation, financial planner marketing, law firm marketing, Marketing | Permalink
Posted by Dave Slovin
January 13, 2012
And other dumb vendor questions.
I can tell it’s ad renewal season because I heard this question four times yesterday from representatives of major advertising companies – a new record. These companies must be sending their reps to used car sales training, rather than consultative selling.
When I’m asked this question by a rep selling to one of my clients, my answer is a simple, “Zero.” Try it sometime. You’ll leave the rep speechless. Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | General, Marketing | Tagged: accounting firm marketing, advertising, advice, business, demand generation, financial planner marketing, law firm marketing, Marketing, Marketing ROI, measurement | Permalink
Posted by Dave Slovin
