One of my clients recently asked about how to get better cooperation from the subject-matter experts (SMEs) who are the authors of the content. My work for this firm is mostly around ghosting content based on interviews, PowerPoints and other written materials, and it’s what’s now called “thought leadership content marketing.”

If your firm needs to reach senior-level executives – the C-suite – to present your services, it can be difficult to get a chance. Senior people are guarded by assistants, voice mail, a never-ending schedule of meetings, and frequent travel. They’re not likely to see your e-mails, take your calls, return your voice mails, or be at any networking events you can get into.

Many professional services firms today are tightening their marketing focus these days, often with a focus of developing and building relationships with certain specific target companies – the “key client” strategy. Marketers are under pressure to do their part in building and retaining their firm’s relationship with these clients.

If you ask many professional firm marketers the purpose of their firm’s content marketing program, they may come back with vague ideas like “to position our firm’s members as thought leaders,” or “To build awareness.” That’s easy to say, but hard to do, and harder yet to verify whether or not it’s working.

“But it takes so much of their time!” is a frequent complaint that many professional services marketers have about content marketing, followed by, “We can’t get our firm’s busy professionals to generate content.” Well, yes, it consumes some of their time. But it doesn’t have to take a lot, at least not in comparison to the benefits they receive.

Are you looking for the ideal marketing vehicle for reaching people with significant budgetary discretion in your firm’s ideal markets? This vehicle needs the following characteristics:

In this blog, I’ve talked about the value of getting your firm’s thought leadership content published. This post digs into three “bad deals” in making that happen, and how you can avoid wasting your time and money.

How can you match your firm’s marketing efforts to its geographic reach? This matters because it costs money to reach potential clients, and you don’t want to waste impressions on people who won’t become clients.

It can be discouraging. You’ve finally persuaded one of your firm’s experts to write an article for publication. You sent it off to the publication, and never even heard back from the editor. Even a couple of follow-up calls to the editor didn’t help. So what went wrong?

In the previous blog post (#99) I set out the definitions of some terms used in publishing print and online publications. If you’re going to work in their world, it helps to be able to understand their language.I originally planned to put all 40-something terms in one post, but it was too long, so I chopped it into two posts.

Every industry has its insider terminology or jargon. That includes the editors of online and print publications. You may find them hard to understand, as they may use mysterious terms like “byline,” “query,” and “cutline.”

In an age of Google, is it still worth for professional firms to get their ideas published in third party media, including (gasp) trade magazines? One of the central ideas of this blog is that it is worth the hassle.Why? Well, third-party niche media are specifically designed to reach very senior people, with significant budgetary discretion.

What’s the best way to put your firm’s ideas in front of potential clients? There’s no single answer to that question. You need to have access to a wide range of tools, and many touch points, before a prospective client is ready to even consider your firm’s services.

If you’re like most business professionals, you’d rather put your time into actually doing the work you love, rather than doing what it takes to get that work. So, wouldn’t you want to pick work-getting methods that are the best able to attract the clients you most want to serve?

One of the best ways to make sure your ideas get in front of the people you want as clients is to be where they’re looking.