I was recently asked: Has anyone developed any industry specific marketing plans that they can share? We want to include industry specific plans along with our overall company marketing plan. The intention is to get more buy-in from each our industry partners in doing more marketing for their individual industries.” – My answer is below:
I can’t say there’s a one-size fits all marketing plan out there by niche – service or industry…specifically because, as you said in your post, your intention is to get more buy-in from the partners. Behavior is fueled by motivation – so there are two major points to consider when crafting a marketing plan for the professionals at your firm: the first is the ideal client they want to attract. I just perused a website that boasted the firm’s specialization in the healthcare industry – upon further investigation, their healthcare niche listed community hospitals, dental practices, group physician practices and bio-medical manufacturers – and there were three others, there, too! How do you market to that broad of a target audience? Which healthcare client do you truly want to serve? Which do you have the most experience in working with?
Secondly, the partners are more opt to participate in marketing activities they are more comfortable doing, so I would suggest you keep that in mind. Marketing plans should be very specific to the expectations around what each partner will do to get his/her name and the firm’s name “out there” on a regular basis. Those activities will be different, depending upon the comfort level and skill set of each partner you are working with.
Finally, no matter what the ideal client and / or the marketing activities that will be decided upon there are always four key areas that every marketing plan should focus on: clients, prospects, referral sources and target organizations.
TIERNEY Coaching & Consulting, Inc. uses a proprietary questionnaire to help CPA professionals identify their preferred ideal client as well as commit to specific marketing activities that they value in order to attract their ideal client. It can quicken and simplify what has often been considered a cumbersome process of creating an effective, straightforward individual marketing plan. Let me know if we can be of more help with this important endeavor.
