Niche Practice Marketing: 6 Practice Growth Questions for the Third That Get It

I just finished reading an interesting commentary called “Why the Professional Service Firm Blocks Its Own Growth” by a fellow named Robert Craven. Basically, Craven’s premise is that when it comes to building professional services firms, the partners are their own worst enemy for reasons ranging from lack of business management acumen to ego.

You may or may not agree with his position, but it’s been my experience that within any given professional services firm, about a third (or less) of the partners really “get it” when it comes to marketing and business development; about a third will never, ever get it or don’t want it; and the other third are uncommitted.

6 Practice Development Questions for the Third That Get It.

So I’m dedicating this blog post to the niche practice leaders that are in the third that get it. You’ve probably come to the conclusion that the traditional marketing strategies and tactics used by the firm are becoming more and more marginalized by how prospects are now in control of what, where, why and when they engage with the firm’s marketing initiatives.

You’re probably not interested in investing the twenty plus years or so of slow build referral marketing and networking because you want growth now. Just like technology has dramatically altered the way you deliver and manage services, so too has it impacted marketing and business development.

Here’s six questions you might want to discuss with your team, and with firm’s marketing team if you have that resource available:

(1)    Do we have a clear cut sense of our goals in terms of new and retained dollars, clients, leads, conversion rates and more?

(2)    What are we doing to get our niche more visibility online and offline?

(3)    How many integrated lead generation campaigns are we going to develop and execute this year?

(4)    How are we going to nurture the leads we acquire that aren’t sales ready?

(5)    What metrics are we going to use to measure the ROI on our investment?

(6)    What resources do we need to achieve our goals and who will be responsible and accountable for making our marketing initiatives work?

Find the Answers with Inbound Marketing

Most if not all of the answers can be addressed with a new playbook: inbound marketing. When niche practice leaders organize their marketing initiatives in a way that integrates referrals and networking with powerful digital marketing strategies and tactics, you get found, generate leads, nurture leads and delight prospects and clients with meaningful content.

For more information on inbound marketing, check out our Fresh Ideas, here.

There’s no mystery here. If you look at the history of professional service firms that have been aggressive and progressive when it comes to marketing, you’ll find that these firms grow bigger at a faster rate than their more conservative and traditional peers.

If you’re a niche practice leader and you’re not happy with your growth, than maybe it’s time to put in a new playbook.