Download Step 5 -Action Plan - Chartered Accountant Interim Managers

The 30 Minute Marketing
Plan for Self-employed
Professionals
Marketing Is An Art
My Favourite Definition
Of Marketing
“The science and art of
exploring, creating,
and delivering value to
satisfy the needs of a
target market at a
profit.”
Philip Kotler, American
marketing author,
consultant & professor.
Marketing
≠ Social Media
We are talking about a
particular form of marketing
here – the marketing of selfemployed professionals
The Brand Is You!
;
The Brand Called You!
“ To be in business today,
our most important job is
to be head marketer for
the brand called You.”
Tom Peters, American business consultant
and bestselling author.
;
“Ask
Yourself...
What do I do that adds
remarkable,
measurable,
distinguished,
distinctive value?”
Tom Peters, American
business consultant and
;bestselling author.
Successful Brands Deliver Added Value
(Benefits)
Magnum
Ice cream
Personal
Indulgence
McDonalds
Hamburgers
Happy Moments
EY
Accountancy
Services
A Better Working
World
“There’s one single marketing
mistake that’s killing the success of
more accountants than the global
crisis and UK recession combined”
Wayne Morris,
UK author of Best Practice, a marketing and sales program for accountants
That One Single Marketing
Mistake?
“You market yourself as
an accountant”
The 30 Minute Marketing Plan For
Self-employed Professionals
Step 1
What Benefits do You Offer?
The 30 Minute Marketing Plan for
Self-employed Professionals
•5 questions for you to fill out as we go along
•You can do it for your whole business or a
strand of your business (existing or desired)
•It’s for YOU alone, no need to share anything
•It’s a start rather than an end...
•Can (should) be re-visited regularly
Step 1 -What Benefits do You Offer?
Examples
“A listening ear combined with detached and considered advice.”
“My expertise lies in combining commercial, organisation and
contextual insights to create strategic thought leadership and
pragmatic interventions.”
“I am passionate about entrepreneurial start-ups, and great at
supporting and advising them on fundraising, shareholding
arrangements and growing global operations.”
Take 3 minutes to reflect and fill in
Step 2
What Do You Want?
Step 2 - What Do You Want?
Examples
(Or not want?)
“To have the immense satisfaction of a day’s work well done.“
“To earn x a year, working three days a week.”
“An interim position as Financial Director in a medium sized
company.”
“A non- executive directorship.”
“To find clients who I can work with from home 3 mornings a
week.”
Take 2 minutes to reflect and fill in
Step 3
Identify people or organisations that
you could add value to and that
meet what you want?
Take 2 minutes to consider and fill in
Ideas Funnel
Ideas
Evaluation
Action
Step 3 (B)
If the people or organisations you have
identified are quite generic make a couple of
them more specific
.
E.G.
Irish FMCG companies might become Dawn Meats
Semi State company Boards might become Bord Bia
Large Legal Firms might become McCann FitzGerald
Take one minute to make sure you
have some specific targets
Step 4
Which opportunities to go after Prioritising your resources
Three Matrices
Fit with benefits you bring
HIGH
Fit with
what you want
LOW
HIGH
LOW
Take One Minute to Plot Your Target
Organisations / People on Matrix
Fit with benefits you bring
HIGH
Z
A
Fit with
what you want
LOW
HIGH
X
LOW
Size of opportunity
BIG
Level of
HIGH
effort
required
to get business
LOW
SMALL
How Much Of Your Existing & Past Business Has
Come from People With Whom You Have A
Personal Connection (Direct or Indirect) ?
Connections In Jobs Market
•80% of today’s jobs are landed through
networking (ABC News , 2012)
•More than 80% of jobs are found
through one-on-one networking
(Research quoted by CPS Accountancy
recruitment UK)
•41% of jobs are found through
networking (Forbes Magazine based on
2010 American data)
We are in Ireland (2 degrees of separation!)
........and are self employed professionals
Level of connection currently with target
HIGH
Ease of making
an approach
DIFFICULT
EASY
NON EXISTENT
Step 4 - Which Opportunities To Go After
- Prioritising Your Resources
Is this really
worth the
effort?
Why
bother?
Worthwhile
opportunity &
you have some
connection
Worth a go
The 30 Minute Marketing Plan
for Self-employed Professionals
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Identify people
/organisations
who you could
add value to
and who meet
your vision
Clarity
about
benefit you
offer
What you
want
Prioritise
these
targets
Step 5
Marketing Requires Strategic
Clarity
"There is nothing so
useless as doing
efficiently that which
should not be done at
all."
Peter Drucker
The founder of modern
management
Step 5
Action Plan
Social Media
A Subjective Take On Social Media For Self-employed Professionals
Device
Basic Role
Importance
Comment
Potential
Linked in
An on line CV.
Very high
At minimum fill out
fully & post your
photo.
Research.
Connection.
Keeps you top of
mind.
Notice-board (Blog).
Website
An on line
brochure.
High
Your website design
should reflect how
much time & effort
you are willing to
put in.
Out of date websites
are unprofessional.
A tool for
engagement:
•Build up a mailing list
(newsletters etc).
•Blogs.
•Case studies.
Twitter
Visibility.
Showcase
your expertise
& interests.
Depends on
you!
Requires
authenticity & on
going engagement.
Engage with potential
clients.
Keeps you top of
mind.
Research.
Facebook
(in my
opinion
twitter is
more impact ful & less time
intensive)
Social Media
An excellent (If
poorly titled)
guide to social
media
Action Plan
Some questions to consider:
Do I know enough about targets? Is my information up to date? Do
I know who the decision makers are? What’s important to them?
(research)
Am I clear about what I have to offer them / Is my offering
optimised to benefit them?
Are there tools/databases that can help me (e.g. Stateboards.ie ,
Irish or EU Tender organisations) ?
If I have a relationship with them how do I nudge them or bring my
skills to their attention?
How do I go about engaging with targets, if I don’t yet have any
contact with them?
Step 5 -Action Plan
E.G Research
Web search –
also look at
what they have
been up to on
social media
Who do you
know who
you can ask
about
them?
Check out
Who’s Who
on Linked in
(and who
knows people
you know)
Can you
experience
their product/
services in
some way?
Who are their
competitors?
What are they
up to?
Can you fine
tune benefits
you offer to
meet their
needs
“The Aim of Marketing is....
....to know and
understand the customer
so well the product or
service fits him (her) and
sells itself”
“.... to make selling
superfluous."
Peter Drucker
The founder of modern
management
Step 5 -Action plan
E.G Building on connections you have
Set up a
coffee
Go to an
event where
you know
they are likely
to be
Send them an
article you
think will
interest them
Write a blog
you think will
interest them
& send it to
them
Comment
favourably &
share things
they have
posted on
LinkedIn / social
media
Invite them to
an event you
think might
interest them
Let Me Remind You ....Marketing Is
An Art!
Step 5- Action Plan
Take 3 minutes to decide on:
•Three actions you will take
over the next week
•Three actions you will take
over next month
You now have a Marketing Plan for this month
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Identify people
/organisations
who you could
add value to
and who meet
your vision
Clarity
about
benefit you
offer
What you
want
Step 5
Action plan
• Long term
• Short term
Prioritise
these
targets
A Final Question
Does your future business success
deserve the investment of 30 minutes
of your time a month to think about
who you are targeting and how, and
taking action?
This presentation, the 30 minute marketing plan
template and a list of resources are all available to
download on
www.cainterimmanagers.ie/membership/members/memberresources/
If you have any questions or I can help in any way:
Jean Callanan
087 6287386
[email protected]
MomentaHub.com