Top 2011 Blog Posts that will Help You Excel in 2012

We all go into battle every day. Some of the lone wolves think they can do this by themselves. Yet, marketing professional services is a team sport. Think of your efforts as creating a collective and relying on the team for the skills they bring to the table. This post is intended to help you help the team. In doing this, you will excel next year.  2011 is almost at a close, and it’s that time of year when most of us reflect on the year gone by. What’s worked? What hasn’t? What should we start thinking about for 2012? Here at the Insight for Marketing blog that means taking stock of blog posts and topics from the year to find out what topics and issues are speaking to all of you.

Proposals 2012: How to Win More Clients

In the event that the coming year is the time for you to throw a business proposal or two out there on a regular basis, keep several factors in mind.

Six Reasons Why You Should Hire a Consultant

Whether you should be looking at a consultant for marketing, business development or in the case of this article, public relations, the reasons for retaining outside services are the same.

Senior Managers are Biggest Roadblock to Effective Internal Communication, Survey Says (originally published on May 25)
Challenges with senior management is the reason many internal communicators pull back from what they believe to be the appropriate course of action, according to a recent survey by the Institute of Internal Communication (IoIC). Among those surveyed, 45 percent said senior managers are a major block to progress in key areas of their development. (Read more.)

What is Branding and what does the mind have to do with it?

Not sure if you saw this already, but Fast Company magazine and Mechanica released a joint survey titled the Branding Forward Project in which 623 marketers participated. Lots of interesting findings, many of which showed a divide between proponents of traditional marketing approaches and those favoring new marketing techniques.

5 ways B2B companies can benefit by listening to social media conversations

When we read about the importance of listening, monitoring and being active in social media, it is typically in reference to B2C companies. Social media is almost seen as “sexy” and a “must-have strategy” for B2C success, yet we tend to hear less about how important real-time listening and social media monitoring is for B2B companies.

Leadership Communication: 6 Steps to Handle Tough Conversations (originally published on March 2)

Having tough conversations and communicating difficult topics is part of a leader’s job. But just like you plan for contingencies in your business, planning how you will communicate difficult messages can improve the ultimate outcome. It is seldom easy to share difficult news, but thinking through your approach in advance definitely can improve the process.

In addition to the variety of topics posted above, you migh want to take another look at the Insight for Marketing posts over the last 12 months.  The information varies from building sales, to creating marketing plans and investing in social media.  Finally, we always appreciate your feedback and questions.  If we can be of any further service, please contact us.  We believe in free speech and our preliminary conversations are always offered without charge.

How to Create a Measurable, Client-Centric Marketing Plan

As marketing services professionals begin planning for 2011, what is the number one question on the mind of management today? In an economy that is staggering and an industry where the unemployment rate is greater than the national average, a higher return on their investment in marketing is probably at the top of the list.


In other words, the strategies and tactics in your 2011 Marketing Plan need to be measurable. But, it is more serious than that. The plan must also breakdown how you will acquire, retain and grow client value. Yes, it needs to focus on clients.

Most firms believe they already focus on clients. If this is true, then why do we spend 80% of our marketing resources acquiring the 20% of new clients that are needed each year to replace lost clients?

The answer to that is simple: It costs at least 5 times as much to gain a new client as it does to keep an existing client. But it still begs the question: How do we keep existing clients?  You need to bridge the gap between marketing and business development, and you need to measure results.

Measurement can be a tricky thing when it comes to marketing performance. Some firms already measure the results of marketing, but are they measuring the important metrics? It reminds me of the quality craze in the industry when every firm was using quality as a way to differentiate. The firm I was at adopted the Phillip Crosby model. Everyone from clerical up to management was tasked with charting some aspect of their work. It soon became clear that there were a lot of things that could be measured, but not all of them were beneficial for improving job performance or quality.

The same is true in marketing. For example, the number of proposals written or hit rates could be measured. Obviously, these are metrics that are directly related to the number of new jobs. However, what if all of the new projects are coming from existing clients? If your overall hit rate is 70% and all of the projects come from clients who are at 100%, your effective new client hit rate might be at 35%. Is that a metric your company can prosper with? We can look at a different scenario to prove this point.


What if your new projects are falling in one market or service sector when your mission is to find work in multiple markets and service sectors? On the outside the return on marketing investment looks rosy, but when you peel back the results, the future does not look as good.

This is the paradox of measuring return on marketing investment. On one side you have to build client loyalty and on the other you need to find projects in multiple markets and service sectors. For many firms it means taking a new approach to market planning. It must start with the 2011 Marketing Plan.

The framework of the plan—Objectives, Goals, Strategies and Tactics—remain the same. Measurement happens in the details. When you review strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, you must start at the beginning with market research. What does your firm research prior to developing an annual marketing plan? Remember the three types of research: Secondary, Syndicated and Primary.

Are these essentials included in your annual market planning activities? In my seminars and workshops, I always like to use the story of Alice in Wonderland. Remember when she comes out of the hole and she asks the caterpillar which way she should turn? The caterpillar answers, “Where are you headed?” Alice replies, “I don’t know.” Then the caterpillar says, “Then it doesn’t matter which way your turn.”

Marketing plans without a foundation of research represent the same dilemma. It is no wonder that most industry marketing plans are simply copies of the previous year with new numbers.

Like I said at the beginning of this blog, 2011 is the year to get serious because management is serious. Management is no longer giving a rubber stamp to market planning as usual. They want measurement that is effective. Although they look at the bottom line, they recognize the business needs of feeding all service sectors and markets as well. Maybe they have even challenged you to look at new markets.

Business Development Professionals has developed a new workshop to help marketing services professionals with 2011 marketing plans. “Create a Client-Centric, Measurable Marketing Plan to Acquire, Retain and Grow Client Value” is the one learning experience that will help you achieve management’s expectations as you document the return on marketing investment (ROMI).

The Workshop will be held in Chicago on December 3 and Philadelphia on December 7. It will also be held in four other cities next January and February. For information call (610) 908-5143 or visit the website: www.businessdevelopmentpros.org

First Key Habit of Highly Effective Marketing Services Professionals

Habit 1 Communication Procedures

5 Habits of Highly Effective Marketing Services Professionals may help those who are struggling to improve their job performance.

Habit 1: Communication Procedures
Without question, one of the most essential elements of any good relationship is clear and open communication. As a marketing services professional, practically everything that we do is communication in one sense or another.
With this in mind, it becomes evident why communication procedures are the most important skills for us to develop.

I have previously written regarding some positive ways to communicate with others. This article is well worth the reading. However this time, we’ll look at some procedures that can be set up that will facilitate greater communication.
The first step to more effective communication is to eliminate unnecessary informational inputs from your life. We have to do this first by getting organized. Since I’ve written about this before, I’ll summarize very briefly here:

How do we eliminate information?

Inbox – Have one place where all incoming physical information goes and process it no more than once a day.

Email – Do not leave emails in your inbox after you are finished with them. Email responses generally yield more emails, so be conservative with responses.

Trash Can – In most cases, when in doubt, throw it out.

Phone – Marketing folks can get bogged down with unimportant telephone calls. However, don’t dismiss calls from sales professionals out of hand. Consider the marketing person who told me she hated telemarketers. Did she think clients thought the same of her when she called trying to market the firm’s services, or does she view the business development team in the same light as telemarketers.
Highly effective people respect the work of other professionals and will take a call from someone with a service they might be able to use. The key is knowing when to end the conversation and how to tell the person their service is not needed at this time.

Another time waster with the phone are people in your network who call to chat without a specific business reason for the call. It is important to keep these conversations short. You can end the call with an agreement to meet sometime in the future to talk about business opportunities.

You have now been shown how to eliminate some of the communications overload. Remember, these tips do nothing to reduce the 4000 advertising messages you receive each day, but they are a start. Now what can you do to improve your communications methods?

1. Answer every important email Clients love knowing that their question is important to you. Even if it’s a rude email, be sure that you answer it in as peaceable way as you possibly can. I had an irate client who emailed me while I was at a convention. I happened to check my email that evening and responded immediately. I told her I was at a convention, but the person who could help was also at the convention. I subsequently had lunch with him the next day, we laughed about the problem, and solved it. I got back from the convention and had a lovely email from her telling me she knew I would solve it.

2. Return every important phone call How do you handle calls to and from clients? Are you in the habit of returning calls the same business day? What about colleagues, people in your network or vendors? I have put together a prioritized list (from my standpoint) of important people. The lower they are on the totem pole, the less necessary communication is with them. If they’re not on the list, communication is usually not vital. However, do not confuse vital with important. Vital might be the difference between winning and losing a client. However, important might be the one call that connects you to your next client. This is why time management and priorities are so important. Highly effective marketing services professionals have a system for handling phone calls. On the business development side they even have developed methods for handling voice mail when their reach potential clients.

3. Encourage communication How do you handle communication with your team? As marketing advocates we have to work successfully in a collaborative and interdisciplinary environment. The firm’s brand really depends upon the communication you receive from your team. If this isn’t part of your plan, you need to incorporate it soon.

4. Set up a blog I like the functionality of a blog. Make sure your firm’s experts are contributing and get the word out to all your clients, prospects, suspects and vendors. Have your experts and other team members tie it in with their alumni associations as well.