![\"\"](\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/mantieadvertising_adobestock_150276459.jpeg\")
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and five things it can\u2019t, no matter how good it is.<\/strong><\/p>\n by bruce marcus<\/i> editor\u2019s note: 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 was privileged to have a long relationship with bruce w. marcus, who was ahead of his time in his thinking and practice in marketing for accounting. we are publishing some of the late expert\u2019s evergreen work, which retains wisdom for the present.<\/i><\/p>\n advertising, in professional services, has a strange history. more words, and more dollars, have been wasted on it, and less seems to have been learned from its mistakes than from any other marketing tool we currently use.<\/p>\n more: <\/b>how hard do you work to keep your clients?<\/a> | four things to know about social media<\/a> | internal communications are underrated<\/a> | four things better than a company song<\/a> | let\u2019s lose the word \u2018image\u2019<\/a> | the risk in not understanding risk<\/a> | what your marketing program can and can\u2019t do<\/a> | nine reasons that prospects say yes<\/a> | how marketing evolved to 3.0<\/a> in the early days \u2013 the few years post-bates <\/em>(1977) \u2013 advertising was still anathema to law and accounting firms. arthur young was probably the first to do it after bates<\/em>, which was an exercise in courage (i was there \u2013 i remember) and then came deloitte\u2019s \u201cbeyond the bottom line\u201d campaign. the more likely scenario at the time was typified by the then-managing partner of price waterhouse, who said about advertising, \u201cover my dead body.\u201d now law and accounting firms, including its successor firm, pwc, spend millions. marketing for professionals, as we know it today, didn\u2019t come easy. i\u2019m not so sure it\u2019s much easier today. certainly, getting it right in advertising is no slam dunk. advertising has five major generic purposes:<\/p>\n as more firms now advertise, it becomes increasingly important that the advertiser \u2013 the lawyer or accountant \u2013 as well as the advertising agency understand the process as it pertains to professional services. to be passive in the process, and to allow a clueless agency to guide the decision, is as dangerous as eating unidentified mushrooms, simply because advertising is so different for professionals than it is for products. your agency may be a good one, but if they don\u2019t understand that difference, then your ad may be clever, and attractive, but irrelevant.<\/p>\n it should not be forgotten that professional services are probably the only enterprises that depend upon the full participation of the professionals themselves for their marketing efforts. product marketing doesn\u2019t often involve the people who make the product. but who hires a lawyer or an accountant without actually meeting the practitioner? how can an ad be written without input from the lawyer or accountant? in other words, ads alone don\u2019t do the job. a total marketing program that actively includes the professional does.<\/p>\n what, then, is the specific purpose of law and accounting firm advertising? to build a reputation and name recognition that reinforces other marketing efforts that attract and sell to prospective clients. what\u2019s its role in professional services marketing?<\/p>\n this seems hard for product advertising people to understand, which is why most professional services advertising is so bad. few people read an ad by a law or accounting firm and call up to say, \u201ci saw your ad \u2013 let\u2019s start monday.\u201d advertising builds an impression of the firm (which is why attempts to be funny are silly), name recognition and reputation \u2013 so that somebody who eventually needs a firm will tend to choose that of the better known advertiser rather than to choose the competitors. <\/em>if the ads address a specific problem or specialization, they are likely to get inquiries. ultimately, it can be a significant element of a total marketing program \u2013 but without the full program the ads are doing only a fraction of the marketing job.<\/p>\n in fact, there is an unpleasant little secret. if you ran a series of ads that simply said, \u201csmith & dale is a law firm,\u201d and ran it often enough, people would know your name. but you would be competing against firms with ads like the ogletree deakins ad, which goes beyond name recognition to project a capability and a quality sufficient to bring the firm to mind when people are choosing a firm for their specific needs, for your skills and experience.<\/p>\n some things to consider, then. not rules \u2013 advertising is an art form, and frequently, the best advertising (and art) comes from breaking rules. but artists know that to effectively break the rules, you have to know what the rules are. just some basics, then, to clear the way for originality, relevance and effective advertising to function. (a paradox \u2013 fairness dictates noting that, through some anomaly or another, bad ads sometimes seem to pull or impress readers better than good ads. but that\u2019s part of the mystery of advertising.)<\/p>\n but if it\u2019s all that difficult to do well, and expensive (never mind the return on investment), why do it? many good reasons. advertising a professional service can \u2026<\/p>\n and in the cold call, it helps take the chill off of ignorance about who you are and what you can do.<\/p>\n to understand its effectiveness, it\u2019s equally important to know what advertising can\u2019t do. for example:<\/p>\n these same principles apply, in large measure, by the way, to websites and social media.<\/p>\n and five things it can\u2019t, no matter how good it is.<\/strong>
\nprofessional services marketing 3.0<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n
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exclusively for pro members. <\/span><\/strong>log in here<\/a> or 2022世界杯足球排名 today<\/a>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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\nunfortunately, advertising is much more complex than it looks. it is the most subtle of all marketing tools, and the most frustrating. it can even succeed by breaking traditional advertising rules, if that\u2019s done properly, by experienced copy writers, and with great skill and courage. but judging from the full body of professional services advertising, even most ad agencies don\u2019t seem to understand the differences between selling a law or accounting firm and selling toothpaste. and therein lies the core of the problem in most professional services marketing as it\u2019s too often done today.<\/p>\nwhy advertise<\/h3>\n
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what advertising can\u2019t do<\/h3>\n
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\nby bruce marcus<\/i>
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