Do Black Friday deals or offers typically apply to doctors, tax counselors, lawyers, architects, consultants, accountants or any other type of professional services firm? Not if you are a professional services firm. The economic models of retail just don’t stack up for these and other professionals..
Can you imagine your dentist offering a Black Friday special? “Come in Friday from 3 am until noon and have two cavities filled for the price of one!” Or perhaps your cardiologist offering a BOGO on heart valve replacements. Can you consider a cosmetic surgeon advertising for “Black Friday Nose job Special. Purchase a rhinoplasty and receive a liposuction and tummy tuck for half-off.”
What about a personal injury lawyer advertising for the long holiday weekend special; crazy huh? “Visit us anytime Black Friday through Cyber Monday, and if we don’t win your case, we’ll pay you!” I don’t think so.
Dentists do offer deal site style lead Gen campaigns, I’ve seen them. Heck, I even purchased a dental cleaning, x-ray package and check-up from one. But nothing else in the professional services arena comes to mind when thinking about “deals & steals” for pros. Maybe you know of some, and if you do, leave a comment about what you’ve seen.
Lead Generation for Professionals
There are numerous things a professional services firm can attempt to generate quality leads. From a committed online marketing program to pay per click and outright purchasing leads, the strategies are far too many to go into in this article. Here are a couple ideas that you implement rather easily, regardless of your business sector. These are generic.
Pay Per Click – PPC is based on ad words, so understanding your ideal client is critical. You must identify the absolute keywords that bring about interest. Once identified, pay per click ads can run on a daily budget, and once your established daily limit is hit, your ads will not appear online. It takes some testing, but leads will come to you. It depends on what your average lead costs (you need to determine that) versus what it will cost to qualify a lead based on number of clicks.
Reputation Marketing – Online reviews generate leads, if they are good ones, that is. Real testimonials and reviews on sites like Yelp, YP, industry specific review sites and YOUR OWN review site will not only generate leads, but enhance your online presence. There are reputation marketing solutions available from local marketing experts in just about every community, but also available online. A local marketing expert doesn’t have to live in your community to develop a winning local strategy either. They can be set up for you to manage in-house, or the expert can manage it for you. An effective program can be monitored in real time to ensure your business reputation is well cared for.
Mobile Lead Gen – Establishing a quality lead generation campaign geared specifically for mobile is another strategy in which a local marketing expert can assist. From geo-fencing to Near Field Communications, iBeacon and mobile search lead generation are affordable solutions.
Social Media Lead Generation – With advances in marketing solutions that focus specifically on social media messaging, lead generation at the local level can be revolutionary. Innovative social media lead generation SaaS platforms (software as a solution) are on the rise, and can be DIY and Done For You by digital marketing experts. This specific methodology concentrates on lead generation in REAL-TIME. Lead Gen firms will be rolling out these platform offerings any time.
Programmatic Marketing& Advertising – The basics, that is. Programmatic marketing is relatively complex, but the basic aspects of it can be easily understood. As an example, utilize your presentation skills to get in front of groups, and follow up with specific email, digital messaging like SMS or retargeting from website views. That’s the tip of the iceberg, but it’s a start. You can learn more about programmatic marketing here.
Local Marketing Lead Providers – There are experts in the arena of lead generation that can supply quality leads based on a number of factors. Contracting with one may sound difficult, but in reality, it’s a pay for performance situation. If “qualified lead” means that someone actually makes an appointment to be seen for a consultation, you can establish an arrangement to have a lead Gen company provide them. You only pay for qualified leads and not prospective clients. It takes the guess work out of lead generation. Weighing the cost per lead against cost savings by performing lead Gen other ways is the only consideration. It’s still up to you to close the deal. The lead Gen company can’t do that for you.
The Bucks Stop Here
American consumers are now hooked on discount days and stay up all night standing in front of a store entrance just to save on gift purchases, or saving a few bucks on things that entice them. Retailers are in the cash turnover business, that is why sales of merchandise must be appealing to both consumer and retailer. It doesn’t matter if the margins are small on these types of sales IF they can turn their investment dollars that are sitting on the shelves into cash, and do that several times a month. I’ve been told that in order for a retailer to actually run profitably they need to turn over their cash 5-8 times a month. That’s why some businesses are always having a sale. If a retailer can net 3% on cash 5-8 times a month, the aggregate profit can be considerable. Year-end inventory reductions help as well, by lowering tax liability for unsold inventory. That’s how this entire Black Friday/Cyber Monday thing got started in the first place. We are capitalists after all.
