Berbay's Blog: Marketing for law firms, engineers, CPAs, architects and other professional services

Berbay markets in complex ways (Search Engine Optimization, Pay-Per-Click, social media) for clients in complex professions (lawyers, accountants, real estate brokers), so it’s nice to be reminded from time to time of the simple yet effective marketing techniques.

I got such a reminder recently while walking my dogs, a door hanger advertising the services of The Swiss Handyman caught my eye. This basic advertising medium, selling this humble service, has a couple things to teach even the most sophisticated marketer.

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The first thing I noticed was the door hanger’s paper stock—a hard, glossy material (possibly even plastic). Not only do you not typically see door hangers of this stock, you don’t even typically see stock of this quality used for marketing materials from professional services firms. Using high-quality stock in business cards, brochures and other print collateral is something I propound to my clients: It says, “I believe in myself enough to invest in this material,” and helps persuade potential customers to have the same faith.

More practically, high-quality stock is durable. The reverse side of the Swiss Handyman’s door hanger offers an extensive list of jobs he can do. The door hanger’s durability means even if someone didn’t need any of those things done now, they could put the ad away in a drawer and when they needed it later, it wouldn’t be crumpled or torn.

The other thing I liked about this ad is that it leads the viewer to attribute qualities people associate with Switzerland (promptness, precision, reliability) to this handyman. First, of course, he calls himself The Swiss Handyman (and the door hanger assures the viewer, “He really is from Switzerland!”). The door hanger also features an image of the red-and-white Swiss flag, and a corresponding red-and-white color theme is used throughout the ad. Finally, the door hanger consciously utilizes the abovementioned characteristic Swiss qualities as descriptors for the handyman.

Looking at the ad, I’m reminded of the holiday season while I was in college that I worked as a gift wrapper at Tiffany’s in Beverly Hills. We were told that if a piece of crystal, glassware or china had a “Made in Switzerland” sticker on it, we should leave it on to suggest positive associations, whereas if anything was made in China (and a lot of stuff was) the tag should come off. The Swiss Handyman is employing this same smart selling tactic—and any marketer would do well to take a page from his book.

Really good ideas are almost as rare as natural redheads.  So when I spotted one at the salon recently—a good idea, not a natural redhead—it jumped out at me.

The salon was offering to take 10 percent off whatever hair product they were promoting that day if you brought in an old hair product of your own. Ladies—you get why this is a clever ploy to increase hair-product sales. My medicine cabinet, for one, is absolutely littered with products I’ve bought—when my hair was somehow different, or somebody recommended a brand, or whatever—but used only once or twice, or never. There aren’t many people who this promotion wouldn’t cause to think of their medicine-cabinet graveyard and resolve to return, exhumed hair product in hand.

The problem is, I wasn’t interested in the products the salon was promoting—but I would have been interested in a discount on a salon service or another promotion.

Those who market professional services have a lesson to learn from this. The salon had a good idea, but it wasn’t executing the idea to its full extent. When you’ve got a good idea, really question yourself about whether you’re taking full advantage of it. Could it be implemented in a different area of your business? Could it be used to reach another market? Ask yourself: Am I giving my good marketing ideas the full treatment?

We’ve all seen them: Those square barcodes that have been popping up everywhere from cereal boxes to business cards. Many of us, however, don’t know what the strange-looking images are—much less how we might want to use them in our marketing.

The barcodes, called QR (Quick Response) codes, work something like the barcodes found in supermarkets or other stores: When scanned, they provide information. A QR code can support up to nine different types of data including, contact info, URL link, calendar event, geographic location, etc.

In order to read the code, you will need to “scan” it by taking a photo with a smartphone camera (Keep in mind, you have to download an application to read the codes). Once read by a smartphone, QR codes direct potential clients to a “landing page” on the internet, where they will be able to access what they were sent for, whether it is information about trends in your practice area, event details, contact information, etc.

If you’re thinking about incorporating QR codes into your marketing efforts, there are a few points to consider:

• First, what will you provide using the code? A video about a recent court decision that impacts your clients? Contact information?  A discount?  How will your offer improve your potential clients’ lives? You need to provide something of value to keep them engaged.
• You should deploy a “call to action” with your QR code—just a few words near the code to entice people to scan it. For example, “Scan this code for a free gift,” yields a higher scan rate than, “Scan this code.”
• Think about design and usability. Color, for instance, makes a code look more approachable than the traditional black and white. A common mistake when it comes to QR codes is to direct people to your regular website. Aside from the fact that many websites don’t load very well on cell phones, your standard website doesn’t provide any added value to a potential client. He or she could have easily accessed your website without the code.
• Once you have your QR code marketing campaign in place, it is important to track the results. The most meaningful way to do this is to track not only the number of scans, but how much time visitors spent on the landing page. If the landing page is your Facebook page or Twitter account, you should record how many new fans/followers you received during your QR code campaign.

QR codes are here to stay, and will only be popping up in more places as time goes on. You can quickly and easily generate a code using sites such as Kaywa, Qurify and Delivr. QR code marketing can be quite successful—if, before embarking, you give thought to the factors involved in developing a high-quality campaign.

One of our clients, a professional services provider, was considering spending a lot of money on an ad in a special supplement to a widely read publication. The amount in question far exceeded what they normally spent on any kind of marketing.   We advised our client not to “put all their marketing eggs in the same basket,” but rather invest that same amount in a consistent marketing program throughout the year. Why? The answer lies “frequency vs. reach.”

When you are evaluating where to spend your advertising dollars,  you usually look at frequency vs. reach—i.e., how often your target market will see your ad vs. how many people will see it. In this case, our client’s ad could potentially reach a large number of people, but they would see it only once, if that.  (i.e., no frequency).

Frequency in advertising is analogous to consistency in marketing.  Small but regular “touches” is what makes for effective marketing.

And, speaking of consistency, I met with a prospective client who told me that, yes, his firm does send out e-newsletters to clients, prospective clients and referral sources. When I asked how often, he said about once each year. A marketing activity on an annual basis is consistent, but in this instance, greater frequency would improve its effectiveness.