I’ve written often about the value of producing high-quality educational content. It is one of the best ways to expose your experts and your firm to new audiences while building a library of valuable content.
But what if your experts say they don’t have time to write, speak or record videos? They are, after all, generating the revenue that keeps your firm afloat and doing the work that makes your clients happy.
When I hear that a firm’s subject matter experts are too busy to participate in marketing, first, to be completely honest, I have flashbacks because, well, I’ve been there. But I also hear that they don’t believe they have anything of value to contribute. Or, that marketing is someone else’s job.
The problem is not really their lack of time. It’s that they, and firm leadership, misunderstand how professional services marketing works.
A while back, I wrote a short piece titled All Experts Are Marketers, in which I argued that because expertise is what your clients are buying, it has to be the central component of your marketing. And by central component, I mean giving away some of that expertise as free content.
Content—whether it’s a blog post, an article, a YouTube video, a webinar or a speech at a conference—is the way we expose our audiences to our expertise. And when you give someone who is interested in learning about a topic multiple opportunities to sample your expertise, the way they perceive you starts to change.
They begin to understand how your firm approaches problems. They begin to recognize that the experts at your firm not only have deep knowledge, but that they have solved business problems like theirs before. Your followers begin to trust you and view you as a top authority.
And when they are ready to buy, they think of your firm first.
But for all this to work you have to get those reluctant marketers to recognize that they have something crucial to offer.
In my previous article I discussed one strategy to encourage your experts to become more involved. Specifically, they could offload the heavy lifting to professional writers who can produce high-quality pieces based on a short interview or outline.
But while that approach can be very useful in many situations, it can mask a larger problem. If there isn’t buy-in from top leadership, including a commitment to set aside time for at least the firm’s most talented experts to write and speak, then it becomes all too easy for your professionals to deprioritize those activities. If nobody with clout is talking to the team about the importance of content marketing, then guess what people are going to focus on first? That’s right: client work.
Firm leadership must embrace content marketing for this approach to work. After all, these experts are the firm’s most valuable assets. But value isn’t just about how much money a person commands from the client. It’s also about how much new business they can attract.
The marketing team can help, too. For instance, they can lighten the load by setting up and managing a content calendar, researching keywords, providing editing support, helping to promote the content, and seeking out and arranging speaking gigs. That’s less time the expert has to spend on those things.
The key is that the professional team must know they are essential elements in the firm’s marketing strategy. Most firms don’t provide this clarity. As a result, they struggle to produce a steady flow of expert content—and they suffer from lower visibility and slower growth.
So how do you change?
If you are a top leader at your firm, you know what you need to do: set expectations for your experts and support them with the time and resources they need to produce high-quality content.
If you are lower down in your organization, the path can be more complicated. Different firms have different structures and power dynamics. It could be as simple as forwarding an article or two to the CEO along with a well-reasoned case for changing the culture. In other firms, you might have to find a sympathetic superior and work the message up the chain of command. Or it could involve bringing in an outside consultant to make the case directly to top management.
However you do it, if you want to market your firm like a top performer, this leadership is a critical first step. And a giant leap for your firm’s future prospects.
