As students of marketing, we thought you might be curious to follow along the results of our “become a bestseller on Amazon.com” 48-hour campaign for our new book Professional Services Marketing.
The campaign centers around providing premium content to book buyers from ourselves and highly respected thought leaders in our field when they purchase from Amazon within a limited time frame. The thought leaders have all agreed to share with their constituencies the complimentary content, and to do so during the 48-hour window of the campaign. The content contributors and their excellent contributions include:
Let’s say you know there’s a big client out there that’s looking to hire a firm like yours. You’d love to get that deal, and you hear that while the client knows that you exist, their short list of possible providers doesn’t include you.
Forget about it, right? Probably would be a lot of effort and leave you with the goose egg to show for it anyway.
Inside all of us hides an inner nerd. I’ve been accused around the office of not hiding mine particularly well, especially when it comes to quoting famous and obscure movies alike.
A few years ago, I reviewed the American Film Institute’s top 100 movie quotes list, and shared the secret marketing messages hidden in each. When I saw Liquid Generation’s 100 best movie lines in 200 seconds, I realized that more hidden messages needed to be freed.
(Video caution: Some PG-13 in there…)
Here goes:
“He slimed me.” Ghostbusters, 1984
Secret message: People know when you’re trying to pull the wool over their eyes or use a cheesy sales tactic. Don’t.
“You’ll shoot your eye out, kid.” A Christmas Story, 1983
Secret message: Don’t let someone scare you out of doing something you want to do. There’s nothing wrong with a little risk.
Marketer extraordinaire Paul Dunay noted to me recently that a blog is the Swiss Army Knife of social media. I happen to be a Swiss Army Knife fan, and I have a bunch at home. There’s the little one I used to have on my key chain. The all purpose knife is in the top drawer in the kitchen. And the mega, gaudy, way-too-many-things-on-it knife is in my tackle box. Different knives for different times and different needs.
I’ve been blogging regularly since January 2007. In recent months, it’s become evident that I needed a new knife with more tools. Since we at Wellesley Hills Group launched the original blog:
RainToday.com has grown to close to 60,000 subscribers
Through RainToday, we’ve launched numerous research reports, webinars, tools and guides, and more
Other folks at Wellesley Hills Group, besides yours truly, are writing and need to be heard
Sad to see the old one go, but we’re shelving the previous blog for a newer, shinier blog with more bells and whistles, that will best help us share this ever increasing volume of content with you.
Here it is. Welcome to our new toy. We hope you enjoy it as much as I’m sure we will.
As of today, the Services Marketing Blog is functional. As far as we know, it all works. But as anyone who has moved into a new house knows, while we’re officially at this address now and are receiving guests, we haven’t decorated yet. Soon we’ll be adding on various features and functionality to make the user experience as worthwhile as possible.
And we’d like you’re help. What do you think? What would you like to see added on? What would make the Services Marketing Blog as valuable a resource to you as it can be?
Where does a professional services practitioner, marketer, or salesperson start with all the social media out there? The choices can be overwhelming and many people choose to ignore the social media landscape altogether.
In this podcast, we talk with Paul Dunay, author of the forthcoming book FaceBook Marketing for Dummies, and discuss what social networking is worthwhile and how to have a blog and content that is relevant.
(Time: 08:53)
RainToday.com’s Podcast “Marketing & Selling Professional Services” is produced by the Wellesley Hills Group.
In professional services firms, the experiences we create for our clients plays a huge role in our ability to satisfy them, generate the return on investment they are looking for, and ensure they stay loyal clients. Listen to this episode as Peter Merholz, author of Subject to Change and president of Adaptive Path, explains what service firms can do to deliver valuable experiences to clients.
(Length: 13:19)
RainToday.com’s Podcast “Marketing & Selling Professional Services” is produced by the Wellesley Hills Group.
If you’re trying to sell a 1960s automobile in the next century, you have a very limited market. The same goes for firms trying to sell services which haven’t adjusted to the realities of the current recession.
Listen as Paul Collins, managing partner of Equiteq LLP, explains how to build a value proposition that sells in a recession, drawing from his vast experience helping consultancy owners improve their profit performance and realize equity value in their businesses.
A lot of people think “trust in business” is a little soft, a little oxymoronic, and a little odd. But it’s not. It is an essential component of successful client relationships and a key element in winning over prospects.
Listen as Charles H. Green, founder and CEO of Trusted Advisor Associates, breaks down how trust works in professional services, what the components of trust are, and how trusted advisors can reconcile that role with their responsibility to develop new business.
(Time 10:14)
RainToday.com’s Podcast “Marketing & Selling Professional Services” is produced by the Wellesley Hills Group.
Quality of intellectual capital is, of course, subjective. With notable exceptions, too much so-called intellectual capital doesn’t deserve the label. People dive in to “write articles,” “write a white paper,” or “deliver seminars” because these are “good marketing things to do.” Without rigorous inquiry and attention to quality, they’re bad marketing things to do.
Regulation play in the 1925 U.S. Open ended in a tie between Willie McFarlane and golf legend Bobby Jones. Their first playoff round ended in a tie. Jones then lost the U.S. Open by one stroke to McFarlane in the second playoff round.
In the first round of the tournament, on the eleventh hole, Jones’ approach shot slid off the front of the green into the high rough. As his practice swing swept through the grass near his ball, Jones saw the ball had moved. Nobody else did. Still, Jones informed his fellow player Walter Hagen that the ball had, indeed, moved, and he assessed himself a penalty stroke.
After the round, folks lauded Jones for adhering to the rules. His response, “You’d as well praise me for not breaking into banks.”
As students of marketing, we thought you might be curious to follow along the results of our “become a bestseller on Amazon.com” 48-hour campaign for our new book Professional Services Marketing.
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