No matter your profession, your job title and your ensuing responsibilities, marketing yourself and your company is vital. If you’re a CEO, you’ve got to clearly define your corporate values, your reach, your product or service, and your edge over your competitors.
Even attorneys – especially attorneys – need to market. Your law practice no doubt seeks to recruit stellar attorneys as well as A-list clientele. Where once advertising was a taboo concept for law firms, today it’s essential. No matter whether you represent businesses, individuals, plaintiffs or defendants, if you’re not adept on the latest effective marketing strategies and practices, it’s readily apparent to those who see anything connected with your brand. And if you screw it up, it takes years and potentially a chunk out of your bottom line to fix.
Larger law firms with an impressive marketing budget and a serious commitment to branding are often doing it the way it needs to be done. Many times, these firms wisely outsource the crucial function of keeping their brand in front of the community, existing clients and prospective ones.
But what if your firm is smaller or is too busy to consistently and professionally generate stellar, distinctive marketing communications? Wouldn’t it be great if there were a means of tapping into such expertise in a manner that’s affordable and that involves a minimal time commitment on your behalf?
There is. After years of measuring a palpable, quantifiable demand for professional, real-world education about how to do marketing the right way, a team of respected communications and marketing professionals have united to present the 2019 Marketing & Branding Forum, sponsored by People in Business Networking. At the risk of sounding like a commercial from this point on, suffice it to say that this might indeed be THE answer for individuals and companies who want to get marketing right this year. $50 buys you 12 midday sessions at Porter’s Steakhouse in Collinsville – the third Tuesday of every month in 2019 – that include absolutely everything you need to know to creatively up your firm’s marketing game.
The topics and sessions are below. Taking the liberty of speaking on behalf of my fellow presenters, it’s in our best interest to equip you so you can declare success early on, avoid frustration and achieve maximum success in your firm’s messaging. Our forum presenters are true A-listers when it comes to marketing, pitching the media, reputation management and more.
Join us by registering at pibnetworking.com/page/joinforum or call 618-225-2253 for more info. I guarantee you this will be time well spent.
Third Tuesdays, monthly
Marketing & Branding Forum @ Porter’s (11:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m., cost of lunch is on you)
January 15: Submitting Your Stuff the Way the Media Wants to Receive It
Kerry Smith, Informationworks Inc.
February 19: Building Relevant Content to Enhance Your Brand Image & Increase Sales: Using Social Media Strategies That Actually Work
Tom Gatti & Nikki Abernathy, Black Twig Marketing & Communications
March 19: What’s News and What Isn’t?
Dennis Grubaugh, Illinois Business Journal
April 16: Help! I Need Decent Photography and Videography
Carmen Sledge, Cork Tree Creative
May 21: Making Your Technical Firm’s Message Clearly Understood
Brandy Scheer, SCI Engineering
June 18: How to Network Effectively (Rather than Talking to People You Already Know)
Kerry Smith, Informationworks Inc.
July 16: Developing a Realistic Marketing Budget
Scott Tripp, TrippCo Creative
August 20: Managing Your Reputation: Your Brand Lives or Dies on It
Ron O’Connor, O’Connor & Partners
September 17: Preparing for Media Interviews
Julie Hauser, The Hauser Group
October 15: The Buyer’s Journey
Jay Burgmann, Shockwave Strategies
November 19: Search Engine Optimization: How to Rank Higher in Google Searches
Dick Slackman, Co-Owner, Tenby Technologies
December 17: Your Organization’s Messaging: Are You Ready for 2020?
Desiree Bennyhoff, CEO, Edwardsville/Glen Carbon Chamber of Commerce
Kerry Smith is secretary of the homegrown, nonprofit business organization known as People in Business Networking. She is owner of Informationworks, Inc., an Edwardsville-based business writing firm.