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Wrong reason for the wrong answer
Mark, you have a major point and let's not make it easy for the technicians to drag the profession back.
It's actually not that difficult to find content for the blog/magazine because there are letters, reports, telephone and meeting notes being produced every day littered with key words. Just cut and paste, remove the clients name and you have the basis of an interesting article.
Go for it and you'll be different and being different is half the battle.
Good luck
Bob Harper
www.moresoftware.biz
blogs help with search engines ?
As I understand it, and I am not an expert so maybe someone who is can clarify, but a blog 'attached' to your website helps with getting you up the Google rankings. This in itself may be worth the time and effort to keep you on the 'first page' of the search engines.
What about an online business magazine
A blog or "online business magazine" (as I prefer to call it) is something professional service firms can use to great advantage as part of their marketing and communication strategy.
Think about it. For literally no money a firm can set-up and update their own online magazine every day. The entire team can be involved which is great for developing team culture and demonstrates the firm lives in the “real-time”.
There can be articles about tax and general business advice as well as commentary on topical issues of the day like the credit crunch crisis. A firm can even announce and publish the results of its annual client survey!
While local key influencers, like bank managers, receive template newsletters from other firms which look and read the same you’ll be sending them regular emails with a link to your unique Website to keep them informed. You could even build relationships with key influencers by recording interviews with them and uploading to your online magazine.
Using technology like this is low cost and high impact. If, like me, you believe in education as the basis of the marketing strategy then a blog is a great platform. Inform and impress clients and prospects about important changes and developments and this dovetails with your positioning for value pricing.
Now, if you do some PR and someone reads the article and visits your Website, the promise of a proactive firm is enhanced by great content. This means the chance of an enquiry is significantly improved. Bearing in mind marketing is a two stage process (and getting people to check you out online is step one) having great content is vital whatever marketing you are doing.
There are many other tactics and strategies combining online and offline marketing. Linking the blog/magazine to PR could be done by writing a brief article about a Press Release. The article could refer to an online briefing for the journalists (which you host using Website and video using Camtasia) with a Q&A session at the end. The video could have a link to a Press Release for them to download.
I’ve only seen a handful of firms use a blog and now use the full potential because they haven’t rolled it into the wider marketing mix. There’s a huge opportunity for firms and keep in mind this type marketing is going to attract and develop technology friendly sophisticated clients that are drawn towards consulting and willing to pay a premium
Bob Harper
www.moresoftware.biz