The accelerated pace of change in professional services marketing has only increased the need for businesses to look outside their expertise for marketing guidance. Until rather recently, professionals could count on their trusted reputations and local community contacts to obtain an ongoing stream of clients or patients. That is no longer the case today as lawyers, accountants, management consultants, architects, engineers, dentists, doctors, and other professionals must deploy exhaustive multi-channel marketing efforts to just maintain their practices. Business that want to grow and capture more market share must do even more!
Significant developments in professional services marketing during the last few years have accelerated the trend for business to utilize experienced marketers to help them promote their brands. Some of these changes include:
- Legal sanctions and marketing compliance. Several highly publicized court cases have opened the door to such previously banned marketing tools as advertising and the guidelines continuously evolve.
- Too many professionals. Law, architecture, dentistry, and other professions have become overcrowded and their members must increasingly compete for the same pool of potential clients.
- A less than favorable public image. In the age of social media fueled consumerism and malpractice suits, professionals are no longer on a pedestal. This access to ratings, reviews and other information has made it necessary and acceptable for service professional industries to use online marketing to improve their public facing brand image. The Internet has highlighted the need to improve their clients and patients satisfaction.
