If you're the kind of ambitious person who wants to run a marathon, you'll need to train.

Seems obvious, right?

You can’t just “wing it” for a 26.2 mile race.

So you'll probably do long runs, speed workouts, cross-training like swimming or cycling, and even strength training. And, of course, proper nutrition and rest play an important part.

You also need a goal. If it's your first marathon, maybe you'll just be happy to finish. Or you may want to finish under a certain time, or win your age category—or maybe you want to win the whole thing.

So how do you put all that training together so you reach your goal?

You need a strategy.

If you have a solid strategy, you have a better chance of achieving your goal. Without a strategy, you're unlikely to finish your race well—or at all.

A lot of professional service firms make the mistake of marketing their businesses without a clear marketing strategy.

They see the latest trends—LinkedIn! Video! SEO!—and jump in feet first.

Or maybe they build a website and never touch it again.

Inevitably, they don't see the results they hoped for and then conclude "marketing doesn't work." That wastes both money and time.

The Difference Between Marketing Strategy and Tactics

Strategy and tactics aren't the same, but they're both essential to your firm's success.

Your marketing strategy is your plan to achieve your marketing goals.

It's the why behind what you're doing.

Your marketing tactics are the how—the specific actions you take to execute your strategy.

In our marathon training analogy, the tactics include your workouts (long runs, speed training, cross-training), nutrition, and rest. Your strategy is the plan that combines all those elements to help you achieve your race goal.

Marketing your business works the same way.

For example, if one of your marketing goals is to increase your leads, your strategy should be to build a sales funnel.

Your tactics for achieving that goal would include crafting a clear message aimed at your target audience, building a website around that message, creating a lead generator download, and following up with an automated email sequence.

Marketing Strategy Comes First

When it comes to marketing your business, strategy always comes first.

Essential to your strategy is highlighting how your business is different. If prospects can’t see how you’re different from your competitors, they’ll shop on price. You don’t want to win the race to the bottom.

Here's the process we use to help clients showcase their distinctiveness:

1. Determine your marketing goals

2. Identify your target audience

3. Craft a clear message with the StoryBrand framework

4. Apply the tactics to accomplish your goals

Let's break down each step.

Step One: Determine Your Marketing Goals

Goals can be big picture—your overall business strategy—or campaign-specific. Either way, clear goals move your business in the right direction.

Your goals will vary depending on your business and campaign, but common marketing goals include generating leads and closing more sales.

Effective goals need to be concrete. Any abstract goal (“we need more sales”) isn’t helpful and likely won’t lead you to the results you want.

A good framework for your goals is SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

For example, you may want to see a 20% increase in leads coming from your website in the upcoming quarter.

This goal meets the SMART criteria:

• Specific - Not more leads but a 20% increase in leads from your website.

• Measurable - As long as you know how many leads you got last quarter, you can measure the growth.

• Achievable - Maybe you’ve gotten 5% growth in the last few quarters. Pushing for 20% is ambitious but, depending on your methods, still realistic.

• Relevant - Getting more leads grows your business.

• Time-bound - You want the leads in the next quarter.

This helps you track your progress and ensures you're moving in the right direction.

Step Two: Identify Your Target Audience

You can't market to everyone.

It's not only impossible, but it's also ineffective.

The next step in developing your marketing strategy is to identify your target audience—the group of people most likely to buy from you.

To do this, you'll need to understand who your ideal customer is. Start by creating a buyer persona.

A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your target customer.

It includes demographic information like age, gender, and income level, as well as psychographic information like interests and values. You want to understand your audience’s hopes, fears, and dreams.

This gives you a clear picture of who you're trying to reach with your marketing message.

When you get inside the head and heart of your ideal customer, you have a much better chance of crafting a message that resonates with them.

Step Three: Craft a Clear Message with the StoryBrand Framework

Your marketing message needs to be clear, concise, and relevant to your target audience. It should speak to their interests and values and offer them a solution to their problem.

Your message also needs to clearly present how you’re different. 

• Do you deliver better results than your competitor? 

• Do you deliver them more quickly?

• Do you serve a unique niche that no one else serves? 

You’ll want to talk about those things.

For professional service businesses, the StoryBrand framework is an ideal tool for crafting your marketing message.

Engaging stories effectively capture our attention and keep our interest—it's why we'll spend two hours watching the latest James Bond, Pixar, or Avengers movie. The seven-part StoryBrand framework builds on these time-tested storytelling principles to engage your audience and invite them to act.

Here's a summary of the StoryBrand framework elements:

• Character (Hero) - Your customer is the main character who wants or aspires to something—they are the hero of the story

• Problem - The hero can't achieve what they want because they face a problem

• Guide - You position your firm as the Guide who can help the hero solve their problem

• Plan - Give the hero a plan—a concrete series of steps showing how their problem can be solved

• Call to Action - Invite the hero to move toward solving their problem (for example, buy your product)

• Avoid Failure - Show the risk of not solving the problem

• Achieve Success - Paint a picture of the hero's new life after their problem has been solved

When you present your message in this compelling way, your customers will listen and are more likely to act.

When you work with us, we take these steps and put them into a Brand Messaging Guide for you. This gives your business clear direction for all of your marketing messages: website, social media, and print.

Step Four: Apply the Tactics to Accomplish Your Goals

Now that you have an effective message and goals in place, it's time to put tactics into action.

Your marketing tactics will vary depending on your industry and what works best for your business, but some common ones include:

• Website or landing page

• Lead generator (AKA lead magnet or content offer)

• Sales email campaign

• Nurture email campaign

• Social media marketing

• Paid advertising

Each tactic has its own set of strategies and best practices. Be sure to do your research before implementing any new marketing tactics.

Here’s what the entire marketing strategy and tactical process looks like when we do it for clients:

Grow Your Business with an Effective StoryBrand Marketing Strategy

Marketing doesn't have to be a waste of money and time for your professional services firm.

Effective marketing can drive growth for your business. When you develop a proper marketing strategy and build it around the StoryBrand framework, you have a better chance of accomplishing your business goals.

Contact me today for a free 20-minute consultation to see how you can use the StoryBrand framework to grow your professional services company.

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