Make it Rain! A Column by Erica Stritch
"Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts."
~Albert Einstein
"Marketing in a down economy" is all the rage in the world of marketing advice. Most everything I read has some economic focus. And—surprise, surprise—when it comes to marketing, regardless of the path the advice takes, the destination seems the same: Measure your marketing and focus on your return on investment (ROI).
It's good advice for sure; you should always tie marketing activities and tactics to revenue generation. But it's not that simple for the professional service firm. Follow the "measure every tactic, drop activities with low return" advice and you could do more harm than good.
The services sales cycle tends to be long and requires much focus on starting, maintaining, and enhancing relationships. Marketing can be a critical component of all facets of relationship building, and each phase—starting, maintaining, and enhancing—frequently takes multiple touches through different methods and extended time to realize their effect.
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