by bruce w. marcus
professional services marketing 3.0
to understand its effectiveness, it’s equally important to know what advertising, including web sites and social media, can’t do.
five quick examples:
- unlike product advertising, professional service advertising, in most cases, can’t persuade people to buy services they don’t need for business or personal reasons
- with the exception of direct response, advertising can never limit itself to precisely the audience you want, and so a measure of it — and a measure of its cost — is always wasted. under the best of circumstances, there is a great deal of slippage in reaching an audience, and certainly in the cost of reaching that audience.
- no ad can work entirely on its own and out of the context of a larger program. the degree to which any advertising works is in proportion to a larger marketing effort.
- it can’t supply complete objectivity or credibility. it’s your space or time and your message, and readers know it. readers also know that because you say something doesn’t necessarily make it so, and so all ads tend to be read with a measure of skepticism.
- no ad can close a sale for you, particularly in professional services. the best that can happen is that an ad inspires your prospective client to inquire further of you, or even to send for descriptive material, but that’s not the same thing as making a sale or signing a contract.
bruce w. marcus is a pioneer in professional services marketing and coauthor of “client at the core.” this is adapted from his new book, “professional services marketing 3.0,” available for purchase here.