Without one, a company can’t promote itself to clients. The alternative is a chaotic, start-and-stop, ineffective endeavour that wastes time and money.
The marketing planning method that works for consumer products, industrial goods, or non-profits doesn’t work for professional services. After years of working in these industries, we’ve learned this.
Let’s look at how to create a marketing plan for professional services firms like yours.
A marketing plan isn’t just a collection of promotional ideas. You must follow a certain method to create a custom plan.
Define marketing planning
A marketing planning process develops goals, strategies, and implementation approaches. It can be used to create a new firm or practice area, reposition an existing firm, or plan new business development efforts.
Certain phases may be more or less important depending on your scenario. When developing a new practice area, focus on its strategic elements. Develop a go-to-market plan.
Rebranding, or repositioning your company in the market, requires strategic and tactical aspects to boost brand visibility.
Most organisations update their marketing plan or budget once a year, analysing performance and altering methods. Few firms retool their entire firm strategy each year, although many do so annually.
Planning your marketing
Professional services marketing planning is crucial. Some say marketing planning is a waste of time and resources. Referrals and repeat business are key to professional services marketing, they say. Marketing is a non-essential, nice-to-have activity.
This is often the attitude of senior executives with a long history in professional services. This view merely lacks data consistency. It’s false.
Two studies support marketing planning. The Hinge Research Institute studied professional services buyers’ behaviour.
Referrals are still vital, although their importance has been dropping for years. The global epidemic has made distant communication common. Key selection criteria favour firms with superior relevant knowledge above strong referrals. Professional services firms’ visibility has declined. From your buyers’ perspective, marketing is more vital than ever.
Second, we studied the fastest-growing and most profitable professional services organisations. In this research series, we explore, “What do fast-growing organisations do differently than slow-growing firms?” ’
We found that not tracking marketing performance or basing plans on historical data leads to delayed growth and reduced profitability. Firms that track marketing KPIs and ROI are more likely to have high growth (20% or more compound annual top line growth) and high profit (25% or more profitability).
Marketing planning is crucial. Marketing planning is crucial if you want to develop and profit like your clientele. Let’s examine the benefits of a structured marketing strategy method for professional services.