When you’re marketing professional services, you’re marketing more than just your work. You’re marketing a potentially long-term relationship, discretion & privacy, and a deep specialist knowledge of your industry. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you plan your marketing:

1. Have a strong website

Your professional services website should clearly communicate your USP. It should describe your services/offerings, and introduce your team. If you are in an industry that deals with sensitive information (healthcare, legal, or financial services) you should consider what information (certifications, testimonials, case studies) will help build a sense of trust between you and your potential clients. Last, but not least, your website should be reasonably updated, accessible, and easy for your clients to navigate. Keep an eye on your competitors’ websites, and plan to do a significant update to your website at least every 3-5 years as both style and technology continue to evolve. 

2. Use location marketing when appropriate

Depending on whether your business serves a partly or completely local clientele, and whether a location listing is industry-appropriate, a location listing such as Google My Business, Yelp, or Bing can be a helpful way to drive search traffic to your business and/or website. While these tools are free and relatively easy to use, you should plan to update information regularly (especially with holiday hours/closures) and be prepared to respond to public reviews or questions in a timely manner.

3. Use the social media that serves your industry

Your professional services business doesn’t need a presence on every social media platform. If you’re going to use social media, it’s best to use it in a targeted way and focus on that platforms that are most valuable to your audience. Many professional services or B2B consultants find LinkedIn the most effective platform. However, depending on your industry, sometimes another platform may be a better choice.

4. Have a clean and defined brand aesthetic.

Not every business needs an extensive brand package. However, if you’re going to be producing marketing materials, or creating online content, you should create or work with someone to generate some basic brand aesthetic guidelines. Using 1-3 brand fonts, a 2-4 color palette, and specific style choices on how you incorporate photos or images will help you achieve professionalism and consistency in your marketing.

5. Create a plan on how to execute your marketing

Your plan should include maintenance (updating your website, updating information on location services/social media) and content creation as needed/ or planned (social content, website blogs, regular emails). Build both of these tasks into your marketing team’s workflow, and add time to evaluate your efforts on a regular basis (quarterly is a good place to start). 
Take a look at our Strategy program for more information on how we can help establish an effective marketing strategy for your business.