Posts Tagged ‘professional services’

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December 1st, 2010

4 Levels of Brand Engagement: Level 2–Pass the Two-Second Test.

(The second article in a four-part series)

If you’re doing well in the search arena, congratulations. You’re definitely headed in the right direction. Moving forward, the second level of engagement requires passing the two-second test with your visitors.

In my rather un-scientific experience, if a searcher finds your website, they will give you approximately two seconds to determine if your site is legit. Their search engine of choice may have listed your site in their results, and they may have clicked on your hyperlink. Now they will have to decide if they have truly found, as U2 would say, what they were looking for.

You’ve done this before. You were probably searching for something like “cool cuff links” or “funky shoes.” And while the link you clicked on was called something like “The coolest cuff links in Indianapolis,” when you clicked on the link, it took you to a spammy-looking landing page.

cufflinks

One… Two… Window Closed.

On to the next search.

Armed with this fresh perspective, take another look at your website. If you were stumbling upon your website for the first time, how long would it take you to determine what it is about?

Stay tuned for Level 3 – Strong Compelling Content…

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November 29th, 2010

4 Levels of Brand Engagement for Professional Services Websites

(The first article in a four-part series)

Professional services websites primarily exist to serve two purposes: to further legitimize the firm and to generate leads for their professional service. There are added benefits if your website elevates someone in your firm as a thought leader or sells books, apps, or other services online. However, most of these features exist ultimately to either lend credibility to your firm or generate new leads.

So how can your website do a better job of generating traffic, attracting business, and legitimizing your firm as a contender?

The secret is that brand engagement on your website isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition. There are four levels of engagement that your site must surpass before it can truly begin to convert traffic to prospects.

Level 1 – Be found.
This may be obvious, but it’s usually the most overlooked. At the most basic level, you either need to send traffic to your website (via ads, social media, or other linking strategies) or help searchers find your site on their own.

If the most content-rich website doesn’t have any visitors, it is much like the tree that falls in the forest with nobody there to hear it fall.

To send more traffic to your site, be sure your email signature, social media profiles, guest blog posts, and any other websites are all linking successfully to your website.

Next, find out how you’re performing in search. Do a Google search for your primary professional service offering and your geographic location, such as “Design Indianapolis.” If you’re not in the top five, or at least on the first page, there’s a very poor chance that you’ll be found by searchers.

design indianapolis

Now try doing a search for your firm, by name.

Are you the top search result? If not, you’ve got some work to do.

Stay tuned for Level 2 – The Two-Second Test…

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November 15th, 2010

Lessons from "The Referral Engine" part 1/2: What is Your Referral Strategy?

Like most of our professional services clients, our business is heavily driven by referrals. Most of these referrals come from current clients, past clients, strategic referral partners, friends, and family. So naturally, when I heard that Exact Target was hosting a lecture by John Jantsch, author of “The Referral Engine,” I was intrigued to attend.

Non-fiction isn’t always my go-to reading material. So for me to come back from John’s presentation, inspired to run out and buy his book, says A LOT! After reading and literally studying his book, I wanted to share some of my take-aways.

First, I encounter very few business development professionals or companies that have a plan in place for soliciting referrals. I think we share the mindset that, “I get business and do good work, and my clients will tell other people about me. I will get new business simply by meeting or exceeding expectations and giving the customer an amazing experience.” But, in reality, once we have earned the right to ask for a referral, how often do we really ask?

From this I concluded that we need to develop a strategy for soliciting referrals. We must ensure that the people who have had positive experiences with our brand in the past are educated about our services. It also helps if they understand what pain points to listen for and how to refer us if the opportunity arises. It can often take several meetings or campaigns for these groups to truly understand how to refer you, thus you must regularly communicate with them.

Second, it’s easy to ask for referrals from friends, family, and referral partners, but why is it so much harder to ask our clients? We wouldn’t ask for a referral if we did not feel that we had delighted the client and earned that right. So my challenge to each of you is to set expectations when you first engage with a client. Express that your goal is to give them a first-class experience, a smooth process, and the result they envisioned. Encourage them to be open and honest in working with you so you can manage and ensure a pleasant experience along the way.

Finally, be sure to let your clients know in advance that you will be asking them if they know anyone else that could also benefit from your services. It makes us all feel good when we make a referral that will make someone else’s life, business, or situation better. In turn, doing so will quicken your sales cycle, lessen the competition, and be a win-win for everyone.

So, what are you doing today to create your next referral?

You can learn more about “The Referral Engine” at www.referralenginebook.com

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May 4th, 2010

Professional Services Website Emergencies

The Top 10 Mistakes Professional Services Firms Make Online
and How to Avoid Them.

I was honored to lead a breakout session at SMPS Heartland last week on website design best practices. Building upon our previous entry entitled Website Emergency, we pulled out the top ten website design issues we see in the AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction) industry.

We discussed web design best practices, reviewed writing for the web, explored the basics of SEO (search engine optimization), and much more. Our attendees all received a free website emergency checklist. If you’d like your very own, let us know.

We broke the emergencies down into three categories: content, design and SEO:

// Content Emergencies //

architects website mission statement

When was the last time you visited a site to read their mission statement?

1. It’s all about us.
Does your site inspire visitors with compelling messages and fantastic photography? Does it offer them what they’re looking for, or does it focus on your firm’s history and go on about your mission statement? Yawn.

(more…)

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May 2nd, 2010

Designing an Engaging Tradeshow Experience

What does your tradeshow booth say about your brand?

Our branding firm had the honor of sponsoring the opening reception of a regional conference this past week for an association of professional architecture, engineering and construction marketers called SMPS Heartland. While we enjoyed the fact that as sponsors, we were allowed to have “a booth,” we didn’t want to be one of those displays that people would just walk past. Our number one goal was to engage with conference attendees and SMPS members.

Miles Design branding firm drink coaster

This coaster is looking for conversation.

(more…)

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March 23rd, 2010

Marketing Emergency: Website Design

Our design firm sees its fair share of branding and marketing emergencies. The running joke is that our conference room becomes a make-shift triage for marketing patients. And for a variety of reasons, websites seem to be the most common marketing emergency that our design firm encounters.

In fact, if I asked 100 professional services firms if their websites were “under the weather” or worse, I’d be willing to bet over two-thirds of them would say, “Yes!”

An ill-performing website (more often than not) is the symptom of a larger marketing and positioning problem, rather than the problem itself. But that doesn’t change the fact that these websites are presenting with some serious symptoms.

Does your firm’s website qualify as a
marketing emergency?

If you’re unsure, you can try your hand at a little self-diagnosis. Here’s a simple three-step check up:

(more…)

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January 26th, 2010

5 Social Media Tips for Professional Services Branding.

What’s the number one branding question we’ve been hearing from our professional services clients these days? “Should our firm be using Social Media?” Any guesses what my answer is?

“Nope.” That’s right, nope.


Not unless you have a strategy for how to make it work.

In reality, Social Media can greatly support your efforts to brand your professional services firm as thought leaders and experts in your field. So what are we recommending to our clients who are committed to making Social Media a part of their branding and marketing mix? If you’re operating a legal, accounting, consulting, architecture or engineering firm, you may want to read on.

1. Develop a Social Media strategy.
When considering Social Media, first devise a plan. As marketing goes, it can seem easy and inexpensive, but it requires planning, time and energy to implement well. Your biggest cost is the time of the people who are managing your Social Media.

You’ll need some goals to think through which strategies make the most sense. Do you have a sales goal? Database growth? Hopes for PR or public speaking? You’ll need a solid strategy to get there.

2. Understand how Social Media is unique.
It’s not like advertising or even in-person networking. It’s a two-way conversation that allows and even encourages others to take part in the discussion. It can reveal a level of authenticity (or lack of) in your brand. And you’ll want to understand the SEO implications of Social Media as well. In some sense, it’s like word of mouth marketing that everyone can see and comment on.

3. Demonstrate thought leadership.
As I mentioned earlier, Social Media is a great opportunity to build on your brand’s reputation as thought leaders or establish a unique positioning for your firm. It’s a matter of sticking to what you know, taking a unique point of view, and asking for feedback.

Compelling thought leadership can also attract top talent to your firm.

4. Use the right tools.
Not every social medium is right for every business. It all goes back to the strategy – who are you trying to reach, why, and what do they want to hear?

LinkedIn, Twitter, and even Facebook Fan Pages may be good fits for most businesses, but for deeper content sharing, consider blogging, compelling videos, or even taking an active role on other industry blogs.

Meanwhile, don’t forget to incorporate your social links into your other more traditional branding efforts – website, business cards, and email signatures.

5. Social Media is not the end game.
Thought leadership, in the end, is only one strategy to build your brand. If you’re selling legal advice, it may be a great strategy. If you sell cardboard, it may not be. Consider your audience, and develop the right social media strategy for your brand.

Social Media isn’t going away anytime soon, so before you jump in, be sure to spend time thinking through your strategy. It can be a great avenue for professional services firms to brand themselves as thought leaders.

Who are the thought leaders in your industry, and how do they use Social Media? Please share your thoughts:

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October 20th, 2009

Designing your Mission:Simplifying the Rational, Emotional and Radical.

This past weekend I was reading an article in Fast Company that reminded me of a speaking engagement I had a few years ago.

I was asked to discuss corporate website basics–what websites need and where most go astray. If I remember correctly, the first words out of my mouth were, “Take your mission statement off of your homepage, because nobody cares.” I think I had their attention.

I went on to explain how so many corporate websites showcase their bland, forgettable mission statement prominently on their homepage. A website isn’t helping anyone by telling the world “our team empowers life-long learners to achieve the utmost quality and customer satisfaction in every…” Zzzz… Does that sound like an excerpt from your corporate mission?

I have talked about the importance of niche positioning and how a mission statement often reflects poor positioning. Which should come first, the mission or the positioning? I’ll be the first to admit it’s a bit of a chicken/egg thing. We prefer to begin by developing a strong positioning and let the mission statement flow from that language. But to be fair, today we’ll look at the mission statement as a starting point.

Ideally your mission statement should be the guiding light that directs the course of your business. If your mission is a little lackluster today, let’s look at four ways to reconsider where you’re going.

1. The Rational:
What do you do? What is your product or service, and who do you do it for? What is your market? How far is your reach? What are actions that your company uses to describe its services? This step should be pretty straight-forward. Once you’ve wrapped up, move on to step two.

2. The Emotional:
How does your organization make the world a better place? Who does your company benefit? Who would miss you if your organization disappeared? Why should anyone care? Make a list of some of the most emotionally charged benefits of your company. If the world reaped the utmost from your benefits, what would that look like? Once you’ve given this ample consideration, move on to step three. Still scratching your head? If you’re stuck on this one, consider enlisting some professional support.

3. The Radical:
What is the one thing that you do better than anyone else? Are you the best at it in your market or region? Can you claim “only-ness?” Complete this sentence: We are the only (blank) in (blank) that does (blank). When you fill in the blanks, what do you get? If it sounds the same as your competition, you may need to dig deeper. Give this plenty of thought before moving on to step four.

4. Simplify:
Taking what may be several pages of notes from the above exercises, begin simplifying the message into statements. If you’re really focused, you may be able to distill it down to a few succinct words. One of our clients has their corporate mission statement polished down to two words. “Inspire Hope.” Here’s a hint: Corporate senior leaders need to own this. Hiring a professional to help word-smith your mission statement is wise, but this is not a task meant for a committee. That’s important. No mission statement committees. Got it?

So how do you know when it’s right? It should be clear, concise and inspirational. A two-word mission isn’t the right fit for everyone, but if your mission is unclear, ambiguous or wordy, keep working. Are you inspired yet to get started? It’s your business. Make it your mission.

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July 30th, 2009

Website Redesign – Is Your Site the Problem or the Symptom?

Is your company considering a website redesign in the coming months? If you’re like most companies, you’re trying to figure out how to get the most out of every dollar spent. Marketing budgets are no exception. Because it’s usually the first place potential customers will go to learn more about your service, even relatively strapped businesses grasp the importance of their website.

Many professional services firms come to us planning to discuss a website redesign. Often, after a brief discussion, they realize the need may be deeper. And that need is proper positioning.

We explain to our website design clients that we are first and foremost a brand strategy firm. To build a great brand you must first begin with great positioning, and that requires a great strategy.

It’s easy to get intimidated by the word strategy, but on the most basic level, it’s focusing on how you want to answer some basic questions. Here’s a few you might consider when reviewing your company’s brand online:

Who are we?
This should be the easy one. Is your name, product, or service memorable, fun to say, easy to read, and somewhere that customers will recognize it? Do you look and feel like your competition, or are you uniquely you?

What do we do?
Again, this seems kind of obvious, but what is it that your company does? Are your complimentary services visible, or are you inundating your visitors with a laundry list of services.

Why do you matter to the marketplace?
Who do you work for, and how is that different from your competition. “We help make sure you get quality, on-time service every time.” First of all, who is “you”? And second of all, that statement could represent a law firm, a florist, or a plumber. The point is, there’s no differentiation in that statement, and worst of all, it’s nothing unique or memorable. If that’s on your homepage somewhere, we should talk.

What do you want your customers to do?
Your visitors may not knowingly ask themselves this question, but your team should know the answer. Do you want your visitors to browse a photo gallery, sign up for e-news, call the 800#, or fill out the contact form?

If you’ve never taken a moment to consider those questions, pop open your web browser at some point today, and take a look at your homepage. How do you think your potential customers would answer those questions for you?

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July 11th, 2009

A three step strategy for sharing expertise on Twitter: How professional firms can use Twitter to position expert brands.

Are you a little leery of jumping into Twitter? I think that’s a common feeling among many high-end attorneys, accountants, architects, engineers, and technical consultants that we’ve spoken to over the past few months. It’s not that these professionals don’t have anything valuable to say, they’re just not sure how best to get started.

All you need to do is jump online and post what you had for breakfast, right? Easy there… let’s take a step back first.

Let’s pretend for a moment you don’t need me to convince you why you should be tweeting and that you’ve already established a solid set of goals for utilizing Twitter with your branding and marketing team. Let’s assume after a long, focused discussion with those teams, your vision looks something like this:

1. Expand your network online to create top of mind awareness of your firm
2. Establish or reinforce your firm’s areas of expertise
3. Attract the top talent in your space by showcasing your firm’s thinking

You’ll want to spend some time designing a vision specifically for you, but that’s a good direction to begin implementing your Twitter strategy. From here, nearly everything you’ll need to get started can be included in one of the three following categories: Start, Share, and Expand.

1. Start – Basic recommendations to get you tweeting:

- Choose your handle. Visit Twitter.com to select your own unique handle. It will be your username, and your posts will show up with “@” in front of them. Pick something like your name or your company’s name. I’m @joshmiles. You can also upload your own avatar or photo and customize your page.

- Explore different user interface options. You don’t have to be on Twitter.com to use their service. Tweeting functionality is built into various websites, smart phones, and desktop applications. One of my favorites is a free desktop application, which has a companion iPhone app called TweetDeck. It allows you to manage tweets in groups, shorten links, post photos, and even allows for multi-account support.

- Make smart posts. In general, stick to what you know. This doesn’t mean you have to be robotic, but if you’re tweeting about sushi more that you tweet about your area of expertise, some followers may lose interest.

- Schedule your tweeting. Choose specific times in the day or specific days in the week to spend some quality time on Twitter. It could be 5 minutes or 5 hours a day, depending on how Twitter best fits into your overall communications strategy. Bottom line – decide how important it is to your own strategy, and get in the habit of making regular updates.

- Follow smart people, or anyone you like for that matter. But since we’re talking about building up the reputation of your firm, be smart about who you choose to follow. Clients, vendors, coworkers, and even other experts are great people to follow.

2. Share – What to tweet:

- Share your firm’s thought leadership content. One obvious use of Twitter is to share your firm’s ideas, links, and articles. Just remember: share, don’t “sell.” Users follow people for various reasons, but few will continue to follow users who post blatant sales messages.

- Share great posts, blogs, etc. Anytime you read a great relevant article, post a link to it. You can also forward other users’ posts to your own followers, called a “ReTweet.”

- Don’t limit your thinking to what you can fit in 140 characters or less. You can link to longer content such as websites, videos, blogs, etc.

- Company Blogs. Speaking of blogs, every posting at your firm would be greatly complemented by a Twitter mention.

- Email Newsletters. Do you have an e-newsletter? Provide occasional links for email newsletter sign-ups.

- News, Events, and Awards. Twitter is a great platform to make announcements, share news, awards, mentions, etc.

- Have Fun. If used in good balance, Twitter is a great way to showcase some of your firm’s culture or some of your personal interests. But like we discussed earlier, don’t get carried away on the personal stuff.

3. Expand – Don’t stop there…

- #Hashtag Keywords. For some topics, you may want to “tag” your post the with the pound sign such as #branding or #followfriday – click here to learn more about #hashtags.

- Stay on top of your account. Keep an eye on who’s following you, and choose who makes sense to follow in return. Find other users who talk about similar keywords, and consider following them as well.

- Hello my name is @joshmiles. Add your handle as another piece of contact info: email signature, email newsletter, blog, website. If it makes sense, consider even adding your handle to print materials (business cards, etc.) or sharing it in articles, presentations, or networking events.

Remember to commit some time to discussing your goals and strategies before jumping right in, but don’t sit back for too long. Being an active Twitter user may be one of the best ways to position your brand as an expert firm.

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