Advanced Marketing for Independent Contractors and Consultants

1
Advanced Marketing for Independent Contractors
and Consultants

• STC 51st Annual Conference
• Baltimore, MD 2004

2
The Presenters

• ModeratorThomas Barker, Texas Tech
  UniversitySpeakersRich Maggiani, PDI Creative
  CommunicationElizabeth G. Frick, The Text
  DoctorThea Teich, Teich Technical Marketing
  Communications

3
Applied Marketing An Integrated Approach

• Rich Maggiani
• PDI Creative Communication
• Vermont Chapter

4
An Anecdote

• A story that illustrates this session

5
An alliterative approach to marketing

• I. Product. The goods and services you offer,
  and what customers receive.
• II. Price. How much you charge.
• III. Promotion. The strategies for marketing
  yourself.

6
I. Product

• Who are you?
• What do you offer?
• Define your ideal customer.
• What are your customer benefits?

7
Who are you?

• Generalist
• Specialist in an industry (such as biotechnology)
• Specialist in a topic area (such as word
  processing)

8
What do you offer?

• Some services include
• Technical writing
• Technical editing
• Planning
• Training
• Some products include
• User Guides
• Course materials
• Online help

9
Define your ideal customer

• Define your target audience.
• Size of company
• Amount of billings you could get a year
• Quality of work
• Location (proximity to your office?)
• Other factors meaningful to you

10
What are your customer benefits?

• Features drive benefits
• Example powerful engine that goes from zero to
  sixty in 8 seconds (feature) gets up to speed
  on the highway fast and safe (benefit).
• Benefits drive marketing efforts
• Benefits to customers
• Benefits to customers customers

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II. Price

• Define your price
• Refine your pricing strategy

12
Define your price

• Hourly or fixed price

13
Refine your pricing strategy

• Difference prices for
• Different size customers
• Longevity
• Different services
• Monetary payback received by customer

14
III. Promotion

• Define your marketing goals
• Plan your promotion

15
Define your marketing goals

• How much in sales?
• Profit percentage?
• Number of clients?
• Billable hours in a week?

16
Plan your promotion

• Plan their implementation
• Create a timetable and a budget for your
  promotion.
• Assess your results periodically and adjust as
  necessary.
• Keep it up market constantly.

17
Define your message

• Write your position statement
• Write your marketing message
• Create your identity

18
Create your materials

• Print materials
• Web site
• Packaging

19
Plan your activities

• Networking or word of mouth
• Direct mail
• Publicity
• Cold calling

20
Using Information Foraging as a Marketing
Strategy

• Elizabeth Frick, Ph.D.
• The Text Doctor
• Twin Cities Chapter

21
Strategic planning theory

• Formulate research plans in relation to social
  goals
• Balance efficiency/productivity with credibility
  and social appropriateness

22
Information foraging

• Select one diet over another
• Specific types of data
• Weigh estimated costs of procurement against
  potential value of sources
• Search in patches
• Look in library collections, special journal
  issues

23
My goal

• Demonstrate how data obtained from information
  foraging can complement strategic marketing.

24
Information foraging

• Search in patches
• Information patches
• Library collections
• Special journal issues
• Subject-matter experts
• Online query results

25
Information foraging

• Exploit scent in looking for new patch if no
  scent, then random walk
• Information scent
• Bibliographic references
• In-text citations
• Online links
• Personal referrals

26
Information foraging theory

• Assumption We modify
• Behavior according to yields
• Information environment to enhance productivity

27
My strategic segmentation 1

• Size 100-500
• Geography Metropolitan area
• SIC codes
• Government
• Medical manufacturing
• Engineering

28
My initial foraging
Dun and Bradstreet
29
Advantek, Inc.
Size (local)
Industrial description
2671 SIC Code
30
Segmentation by SIC CODE
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Manufacturing sector
32
Service sector
33
Finance sector
34
Entegris
Potential contact
Hey, I know her!
35
My strategic segmentation 2

• Associations
• Give pro-bono presentations to associations
• Go light on sales pitch, heavy on information,
  credibility

36
Associations online
37
Associations, cont.
38
Associations, cont.
39
Forage for leadership
A former student!
40
Conclusion

• Stick to market research activity long enough to
  see value
• Weigh estimated costs of procurement against
  potential value of sources.
• Be willing to abandon or shelve it for a better
  strategy.
• Exploit scent if no scent, then random walk be
  ready to abandon.

41
Marketing Through Intensional Networking

• Thea Teich
• Teich Technical and Marketing Communications
• Southwestern Ohio Chapter
• SIGs Marketing Communication, Consultants and
  Independent Contractors, Indexing

42
Intensional Networking

• Tension and stress
• Tensile strength
• Intentional

43
Rise of Personal Networks

• Countervailing trend
• The more remotely we can work, the more we need
  to network
• Networking not new the absolute necessity of it
  is

44
Work-related teams and communities are not as
reliable as networks

• Continuous flux of corporate organizations
• Reorganizations
• Instability
• Changeable organization charts
• ?Will the work team you have today be there
  tomorrow?

45
What is an Intensional Network?

• Personal assemblages of people who come together
  to collaborate for short or long periods

46
Characteristics

• Takes effortBusiness is about relationships and
  keeping in touch with people.
• Deliberate
• Involves choices
• Acknowledged as central to success
• Increasingly popular business model core group
  augmented by contractors
• Working roles hard to capture in standard org
  chart

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Implications for Independents

• Part of independents value to clients is their
  networks (years of contacts in specific
  industries)
• Network structure allows for greatest
  flexibility? as needed (as opposed to teams,
  communities, or virtual teams)

48
Need to care and feed your network

• Never know where your next project will come from
• Refresh the list?renewing old contacts
• Live subnets?currently active part of the
  network
• Creative connections?deliberately seeking out
  individuals with skills you think you may
  potentially need in the future

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Strong and Weak Ties(Granovetter, 1973)

• Role of technology enables bursts of
  intimacyfollowed by months of lack of
  communication
• Ambiguity of current relationships more
  difficult to define
• Entrepreneurs who are most innovative usually
  spend more time networking with diverse groups,
  i.e., not just with close friends or with people
  just like themselves

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Implications for Professional Associations

• Emphasize networking as essential for success
• Enable focused networking
• Promote networking as important activity, i.e.,
  dont just hope it happens
• Provide means for people with different expertise
  to connect

51
Sources

• Nardi, B. A.., Whittaker, S., and Schwarz, H.,
  Its Not What You Know, Its Who You Know Work
  in the Information Age, www.firstmonday.dk/issues/
  issue5_5/nardi/index.html, May 2000.
• Petrusewicz, M., Innovators Navigate Around
  Cliques, Stanford Business Magazine, May 2003,
  www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/bmag/sbsm0305/ideas_ruef
  _networking.shtml
• Typaldos, C., Future of professional guilds,
  www.typaldos.com

52
Any Questions?

• Our presenters have been Rich Maggiani, Elizabeth
  Frick, and Thea Teich