I attended a very informative networking session about marketing to other businesses conducted as part of the Commerce and Industry Association of New Jersey’s Marketing Roundtable.
Guest Panelists included Mary Che, Vice President of Marketing, Connell Foley LLP, Vivian DiStaso, Director of Business Development, New Jersey Law Journal and Tracy Straka, Executive Vice President, Creamer Environmental Inc.
Topics included the importance of blogging as a means to educate your audience about what is important to them, not as a means to self-promote, which was music to my ears, considering how often we discuss the importance of the ABE’s, Always Be Educating.
TIPS ON B2B MARKETING
Mary Che, who spoke about the challenges of law firm marketing, reminded the audience about the importance of consistent online communications as part of a structured method of following up with prospects and suggested ongoing blogging should be conducted at least once a week if possible..
Vivian DiStaso talked about the importance of adopting an all-encompassing strategy so that your business remains top of mind when your prospects are ready to begin the buying process.
And Tracy Straka spoke about how her 100 year old company empowered all employees to be sales people and the the importance of one-on-one relationships. I especially valued her comment about not accepting every job that came their way, only opting to take on projects that they knew they would be successful at.
While two of the panelists were specifically aimed at helping law firms market themselves to gain new business, the unifying message was that all industries need to have not only an outreach program in place but a systematic method for follow-up, something we’ve heard time and time again yet a minority of hands were raised in the room when asked who had a systematic follow-up method in place. In other words — lot’s of room for improvement when it comes to fruitful followups.
(l to r) Moderator, Larry Feld, Hunter Group, Robin Wittich, The Thank Tank, Gene Sower, Samson Media
Thanks for attending today. It was a great audience and a terrific panel. Hard to believe that with all the regulatory restrictions that some professionals can even find new business at all. I think we all learned a few worthwhile ideas from the session today.