The start of a new decade provides a great opportunity to review where we were 10 years ago and where we’d like to be in 10 years’ time. The same applies to your marketing strategy. However, a 10-year marketing strategy is unlikely to stand the test of time, so let’s focus on what marketing tips you can implement in 2020!
-
Business vs Marketing Strategy
These two strategies should be aligned. Define what you want your firm to achieve this year and then use your marketing strategy to outline how you will get there.
-
Set marketing objectives
Set realistic expectations as to what you want to achieve this year, e.g. increase the number of clients; grow the fees by 15%; update and relaunch the firm’s website; launch a new service, etc.
-
Confirm your target audience
Who do you need to be communicating with over the next 12 months? Existing clients, prospective clients, trade and industry bodies, staff and so on. To see how to hone in on your target audience, read our blog ‘How to attract your perfect client’.
-
Agree on the marketing budget
If you don’t have time to carry out marketing yourself you will have to adopt activities that build and maintain your presence without you having to be there. These are likely to cost more money than the traditional avenues of networking and word of mouth referrals. So be realistic in what marketing activities you want to implement and how much you need to spend.
-
Be clear on the message(s) you want to get across
Your marketing activities will be more effective if the information you are communicating is relevant to your target audience. Think about the key messages which best describe what you do and how these can be of assistance to your audience. Your messages may need changing for different groups you want to communicate with, or for different products and services you want to promote.
-
Spread out your marketing activities
Make sure there is a steady flow of marketing activities throughout the year. Creating a marketing action plan can help smooth out the peaks and troughs of activities across 2020. This makes it easier to implement, puts less strain on internal resources and also helps to build momentum with your communications.
-
Use different marketing channels to increase effectiveness.
Don’t rely on just one or two activities to help you achieve your marketing objectives. There are so many different ways to communicate these days, we need to be mindful that our target audience may prefer different methods compared to others. The most effective marketing strategies take this on board and use a range of different channels to communicate their messages, e.g. phone calls, mailings, adverts, PR, social media, networking, emails, face to face meetings, seminars etc.
-
Decide who needs to be involved in the marketing process
Marketing is more effective when there is more than one person involved in the firm. Even if you have an in-house marketing specialist the more people you have who can spread the word, share the workload and make it happen, the better. It’s not just the responsibility of partners and directors, get others involved including admin, trainees, and future managers/partners.
-
Consider outsourcing some of your marketing
Whether you’re a multi-partner firm with an in-house marketing department or a small firm with little or no experience of marketing, an external marketing adviser can make your activities more successful. From reviewing existing activities and support (whether internal or external) to brainstorming ideas on how to achieve your objectives or actually implementing activities, a third party marketing company could give you more marketing tips you need to boost your marketing in 2020.
-
Agree who will make you accountable for marketing
It’s all well and good having a great marketing plan for 2020, but who will ensure that it gets implemented on time and in budget? If you don’t have a board of directors/partners to make sure the marketing strategy is on track, consider bringing in external advisers/mentors to make you accountable.
If your firm could benefit from some new marketing tips and perhaps having a marketing rethink in 2020, sign up for our free marketing review call and let’s make 2020 a marketing year to remember!
