Here’s what you’re looking for: Bruce W. Marcus

Never mind who – why?

By Bruce Marcus
Professional Services Marketing 3.0

EDITOR’S NOTE: CPA Trendlines was privileged to have a long relationship with Bruce W. Marcus, who was ahead of his time in his thinking and practice in marketing for accounting. We are publishing some of the late expert’s evergreen work, which retains wisdom for the present.

OK, somebody talked to the press, and leaked information that shouldn’t have been leaked. That’s three problems, not one.

Primary, of course, is how do we control the damage caused by the leak?

MORE: Creating the Perfect Ad | Ten Keys to Crafting Ads | Four Things to Know About Social Media | Internal Communications Are Underrated | Four Things Better Than a Company Song | Let’s Lose the Word ‘Image’ | The Risk In Not Understanding Risk | What Your Marketing Program Can and Can’t Do | Nine Reasons That Prospects Say Yes | How Marketing Evolved to 3.0
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Then we worry about who did it.
READ MORE →

Here’s how to get it right.

By Bruce Marcus
Professional Services Marketing 3.0

EDITOR’S NOTE: CPA Trendlines was privileged to have a long relationship with Bruce W. Marcus, who was ahead of his time in his thinking and practice in marketing for accounting. We are publishing some of the late expert’s evergreen work, which retains wisdom for the present.

At last, the perfect law firm ad campaign. Well, pretty much perfect. The 39-office, Atlanta-based law firm has been running an ad campaign that embodies every principle of good advertising.

MORE: Ten Keys to Crafting Ads | Eighteen Things Advertising Can Do for Your Firm | How and Why Client Service Teams Work | Manage Knowledge as a Marketing Tool | Secret Marketing Formula: Get One Client at a Time | Marketing a Fixed Position in a Moving World | How to Build a Marketing Culture | Have You Planned How to Service Your New Revenue? | Why Is Change So Hard for Firms? | Why Value Pricing Works | Why Competition Matters Most
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Its ad in the Wall Street Journal has a picture of a man in front of a crossroad sign as if he were choosing which fork to take. The headline, which is really a callout in the middle of the copy, is in larger type than the rest of the text, which says “where you go now” (lower case as is).
READ MORE →

And why some ads don’t work.

By Bruce Marcus
Professional Services Marketing 3.0

EDITOR’S NOTE: CPA Trendlines was privileged to have a long relationship with Bruce W. Marcus, who was ahead of his time in his thinking and practice in marketing for accounting. We are publishing some of the late expert’s evergreen work, which retains wisdom for the present.

Certainly, the current crop of ads tends to be better than the earlier ones, although we had such weirdies as “Accounting Is Our Passion.” (“Passion” is the current fad word). I thought passion to serve clients is more to be desired. How many words will be wasted to explain the link between their passion and their ability to meet your need?

MORE: Eighteen Things Advertising Can Do for Your Firm | How Hard Do You Work to Keep Your Clients? | When Clients Think They Know Marketing | How to Put Target Marketing into Context | Everyone in Your Firm Is Marketing | Accountants vs. Lawyers: Who Wins the Marketing Battle? | Professional Services Marketing Requires Flexibility
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Then there was “Financial Restructuring Without the Bitter Aftertaste,” for a law firm. The copy’s OK, but the illustration of three executive with faces screwed up (presumably from the bitter aftertaste) looks as if they’ve been drinking doctored Kool-Aid. Pretty inviting, isn’t it? A good rule is don’t try to be funny in public until at least six strangers, none of whom is related to you, laugh at what you’ve written. Nothing sours an ad more than unfunny attempts at humor.
READ MORE →

And five things it can’t, no matter how good it is.

By Bruce Marcus
Professional Services Marketing 3.0

EDITOR’S NOTE: CPA Trendlines was privileged to have a long relationship with Bruce W. Marcus, who was ahead of his time in his thinking and practice in marketing for accounting. We are publishing some of the late expert’s evergreen work, which retains wisdom for the present.

Advertising, in professional services, has a strange history. More words, and more dollars, have been wasted on it, and less seems to have been learned from its mistakes than from any other marketing tool we currently use.

MORE: How Hard Do You Work to Keep Your Clients? | Four Things to Know About Social Media | Internal Communications Are Underrated | Four Things Better Than a Company Song | Let’s Lose the Word ‘Image’ | The Risk In Not Understanding Risk | What Your Marketing Program Can and Can’t Do | Nine Reasons That Prospects Say Yes | How Marketing Evolved to 3.0
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

In the early days – the few years post-Bates (1977) – advertising was still anathema to law and accounting firms. Arthur Young was probably the first to do it after Bates, which was an exercise in courage (I was there – I remember) and then came Deloitte’s “Beyond the Bottom Line” campaign. The more likely scenario at the time was typified by the then-managing partner of Price Waterhouse, who said about advertising, “Over my dead body.” Now law and accounting firms, including its successor firm, PWC, spend millions. Marketing for professionals, as we know it today, didn’t come easy. I’m not so sure it’s much easier today. Certainly, getting it right in advertising is no slam dunk.
READ MORE →