By Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk

by Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk, president

Feeling overwhelmed lately? Having trouble keeping up with all the platforms and tactics available to marketers these days? Frustrated by the fact that you don’t have time to keep up with technology and do your job at the same time?

Turns out you are not alone – not by a long shot! According to a study spearheaded by Adobe that surveyed 1000 marketers in a variety of industries, nearly all marketers, regardless of level in the organization, feel completely overwhelmed. In fact, over 75 percent feel that marketing has changed more in the last 2 years than in the last 50. No wonder it’s so hard to keep up!

A vast majority feel that having a strong digital presence is vital to success, though admit that their approach is more “let’s see if this works” than a complete, planned strategy. I hear this in the professional services community all the time. The good news is there are tons of ways and myriad options for getting your message out there; the bad news is there are tons of ways and myriad options for getting your message out there. So what’s a firm to do?

Whether you are a marketer by trade or simply a professional services provider who has to handle your own marketing, there are some ways to take a bit of pressure off. To feel like you’ve got a more solid grip on the big picture, I recommend that you start here:

Create a plan. Before you start committing yourself and spending money willy nilly, take the time to sit down and create a marketing plan. What services are you trying to promote? Who are your ideal clients? What do they read and what platforms do they use? What information is important to them? You can’t promote everything you do to everyone in the known universe, and even if you could, it’s not an effective strategy. Take a close look at your firm, the services you want to promote, the audience you want to reach, the market in which you exist and the goals you hope to attain. Once you have your arms wrapped around all of this, choosing strategies and tactics will be much easier.

Ask your clients. If you simply aren’t sure where your clients go for information or what they find valuable, don’t guess. Ask them! So many times we make assumptions when the real answers are simply a phone call or lunch meeting away. Pick a handful of your best clients and ask them for their input. You’ll get honest answers that will help you develop effective marketing strategies and your clients will appreciate the fact that you came to them for help. What’s not to like there?

Define success before starting. While reaching new customers was the first priority for those included in the Adobe survey, the next three concerns were focused on ROI and measurement. So before you implement a new campaign, think about what you expect to get out of it and define how you will measure its effectiveness. Do you want to increase LinkedIn connections by 10 percent? Do you want 100 people to download your white paper? Would you like 20 people to attend your seminar? Whatever it is, set a goal and then gauge your progress against it. You may not reach it, and you  may need to adjust your expectations, but without setting some sort of measurable goal, you’ll never know if you reached it.

You don’t have do to it all. I don’t care if your biggest competitor is all over Twitter. If your clients and prospects aren’t there, then focus your efforts somewhere else. That’s why the plan is so important. Seriously, we are pulled in so many different directions with the plethora of marketing paths available today, we need a road map to follow. But we also need to know where to focus our efforts so we get the most ROI from our work. Do what you can, measure results and retool as and when needed. Marketing isn’t an exact science, but with some planning and regular review, it can be a bit more scientific than randomly throwing spaghetti at the wall.

I encourage you to take a look at the survey, and please share your thoughts in the comments too. And if there’s any help we can provide, feel free to reach out. You don’t have to do it all alone!