As a small business ourselves in a big pond we have to look inward at how we market and brand, just as our customers do.  Patrick Schaber of The Lonely Marketer and the Branding Wire project put out his checklist on what a B2B consulting firm should do to market and brand themselves.

The interesting perspective is that Patrick, as a marketing manager, would be the client … not another marketing/consulting firm saying what they do.  He put his thoughts into a checklist of what he expects a firm to do to gain business.  Although he didn’t ask for anyone to put themselves up against the checklist, I thought I would tweak things as they related to us and evaluate Prime and more specifically myself and our web team!

Here is how Patrick believes a marketing firm should market and brand themselves (My evaluations are below them in blue).

Stick With Who You Are: Marketing has evolved so much over the last few years that the amount of marketing functions is hard to track. There is branding, email marketing, SEM/SEO, web design, blogging, paid search, etc. We had considered outsourcing our SEO and had interviewed many consultants. I would ask each firm on the phone if they had SEO professionals in house and each would say yes. When they arrived for a meeting it was obvious the company’s web designer was now an SEO professional or they would say they’re “partnering” with another firm on this project. Well, I know a bit more than your average person about SEO so it was easy to see that they really didn’t understand the trade. I think you need to brand and market to your skills and not pretend you’re something you’re not.

Prime:  With a staff of 25 we have a very diverse yet cohesive group.  In looking at our web department staff of four, we each have areas of specialty and experience that we must continually hone.  What we are is a great advisor, creator, producer, manager and marketer of small business websites.  We are not equipped to handle Amazon.com, but we are equipped to help small business leverage the Internet through great design, solid programming and functionality, robust user features and the ability to attract traffic/users (through both SEO and marketing) and turn them into clients.

Speak Out: If you’re primarily a local consulting firm, than I think you should be working at getting speaking engagements and local or national industry events. Being seen as a speaker promotes yourself as an expert and therefore shines positively upon your consulting practice.

Prime:  I know I could personally improve here.  I speak at some random Chamber events and to some local real estate offices on web design, search, SEO and Internet marketing, but I could definitely find arena’s to communicate more of my knowledge and more of our offering.  Drop me a line if you have a group I should speak to! (aaron AT primeadvertising.com)

Be That Company People Have Heard About: Getting involved in local chamber events and doing the networking side of the business is a must. I believe alot of customer engagements start with meeting potential customers or people that can point you towards those customers at local networking events.

Prime:  Since day one, Prime has been heavily involved with local government, local chambers of commerce and many other local businesses and organizations.  We are a VERY active community company.  I can’t count the number of times a client says “Man, I see you guys everywhere!” … that’s a cool thing.  Prime definitely excels on this one.

Be Heard: I’ll be honest, the top two or three consultants we had in were people who had blogs that I read or podcasts to which I listened. I felt like I had the chance to get to know them and learn that they were experts in their field before we even met.

Prime:  We finally got on board with our blog back in February of this year and it has been a fantastic move.  While I haven’t landed a client specifically from the blog, I have had many comments that they learned a lot from reading past posts during our planning stages and it helped them in their process understand more for what we’re trying to accomplish.  I posted before on the positive impacts the blog has had in site traffic and also in growing our content online.

Be Search-able: Whatever you do online - whether that is a website, blog, podcast, etc. - make sure you’ve optimized for local search. The first thing I did was go to Google and look for Minneapolis consultants. If I couldn’t find you online, I was going to have a tough time finding you.

Prime: This has been a focus of ours this year.  Hyper-locally we have made it into the Google Local One Box for “Maple Grove MN web design” and the #1 organic result.  We are now concentrating on “Minnesota Web Design” and have entered the game at page 5 on Google, but we’ll keep making strides to make that first page.  There is ALWAYS room to improve here and we’re putting in the effort and seeing results.

Be Prepared: As a buyer of consulting services, I can tell you that I need to know about your company and with whom you’ve done business. In our first meeting I’d like to know how big or small you are, what areas of expertise you have in house, and examples of projects you’ve recently done.

Prime:  I LOVE meeting with clients and learning about them and how we can help in their goals.  We have tons of past projects to highlight and great tools and strategies to outline.  I want a client to walk away from the first meeting understanding our capabilities, our process and what we can accomplish together.  I want them to be excited to get my recommendation, plan and estimate!

How Will We Work Together?: This might not be a popular opinion, but I think a lot of branding happens as you present yourself to a prospect. I think companies can set themselves apart by how well they present their processes. Too many companies have walked into my office and left me wondering how we were going to work together. Professional presentations and outlines of how you typically go about working with customers goes a long way.

Prime:  I agree Pat, simply for the fact that people, talents and communication represent a company first and foremost! I explain our web design process from the current meeting moving forward and past completion.  Pat is right that understanding the process builds trust and that builds success.  Knowing both side’s roles and next steps is a must for a good relationship and project.

Price Wisely: I’m not the type of buyer that always jumps at the lowest price. In fact, I think the lowest bidder usually gets tossed out of consideration. How you price your services says a lot about how you perceive the work you will do.

Prime: Our website estimates are well laid out and contain explanations of the services and line items for those included.  I have received many compliments on the detail and ease of comprehending the proposals we put out.  That said, there is always room for improvement so little tweaks come out just about every time.  We are rarely the cheapest bid, but we are the easiest to understand, most well rounded and the one with the most value.  I always think of the joke … “Who wants the cheapest open heart surgery?” … it’s not about price when you’re serious about what needs to be accomplished.

 

Well, there you have it.  I think we’re doing a decent job, but there is room for improvement.  Thanks Pat for your perspective. Business owners and management reading this, maybe you should tweak this checklist for yourself and evaluate your strengths and areas to improve.  It’s a good thing to grade yourself every now and then.  If you do, let me know, I’d be happy to link to it!

 

 

 

Posted on October 9th, 2007 by Jeff Wagner
Filed under: marketing, small business

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