Full Description

Leave your competition in the dust with A/E Marketing Fitness Plan

• Use the easy-to-follow, step-by-step action plan for getting the most out of your firm’s marketing program
• Implement the included tips and tricks to maximize the ROI on every marketing dollar you spend
• Identify ineffective marketing tactics and replace them with effective ideas that get results
• Use the checklists, worksheets, and interactive tests in each chapter as guides to implementing your plan
  
• Get the most from your marketing staff, databases, and Web site
• Learn the secrets of creating direct mail pieces that look good and get results
• Get insider advice on using the media to get attention for your A/E firm
• Build a list of potential clients that’s second to none
• Create a culture in your firm that understands the value of marketing and everyone's role in business development
  

Are you happy with the results you’re getting from the money you’re spending on marketing? Or could you stand to maximize the ROI on your investment? If your A/E firm is like most, there are steps you could take to improve your firm’s marketing program right now and for the long haul.

ZweigWhite’s A/E Marketing Fitness Plan is a comprehensive, action-oriented guide written exclusively for firm leaders and marketing professionals of architecture, engineering, planning, and environmental consulting firms who are looking to get their marketing efforts on target. This is not a dry, theory-laden textbook! This book will help your firm not only identify—but fix—the marketing problems that you may be experiencing. Follow the steps in ZweigWhite’s A/E Marketing Fitness Plan, from the beginning assessment to the closing reassessment, and you’ll reap the highest return from your A/E firm’s marketing program.

There are hundreds of books on marketing out there, but this is the only one designed for the unique challenges that A/E and environmental consulting firms face. A/E Marketing Fitness Plan combines all the knowledge of ZweigWhite’s expert marketing consultants in a single volume. These folks have helped hundreds of design firms just like yours improve their marketing, and now all their best ideas, tips, and warnings are available in clear, simple action plans that you can put to work in your own firm.

Do you know the current state of your firm’s marketing program? ZweigWhite’s A/E Marketing Fitness Plan starts with a complete assessment of where your firm’s marketing practices stand right now so that you can pinpoint your problem spots. You’ll be able to identify what’s working and what’s not.

After completing the initial assessment, you can use A/E Marketing Fitness Plan to get specific steps your firm can take to fix what’s not working. Get detailed advice on how to integrate marketing with your strategic plan, develop a winning marketing plan and budget, create winning presentations and proposals, and build a media relations program that gets results. You’ll also learn how to conduct effective market research that leads to new jobs.

• Chapter 2 gives you easy steps to take to integrate marketing into your firm’s strategic business planning.
• Chapter 3 teaches you how to create a solid marketing plan and how to put together a “clean sheet” marketing budget.
• Chapter 4 shows you how to create a marketing culture in your firm.
• Chapter 5 teaches you how to get the most from your internal marketing staff and work with outside consultants.
• Chapter 6 presents you with an effective plan for building a database of  contacts that will help you track business better than ever before.
• Chapter 7 shows you how to improve your firm’s direct mail program and gives you action plans to create the best mail pieces in four different categories—newsletters, brochures, personal letters, and postcards.
• Chapter 8 teaches you how to get your firm in print with an easy media relations program that gets results.
• Chapter 9 presents a primer on conducting market research and client perception surveys.
• Chapter 10 shows you how to tap the marketing potential of your firm’s web site.
• Chapter 11 gives you some tips on sales and business development strategies you may not have thought of before.
  
• Chapter 12 arms you with the knowledge of how to create winning proposals and give winning presentations to potential clients.

Finish up with the final reassessment in Chapter 13, which will show you how much progress you’ve made since putting the action plans to work and determine how much further you have to go. The appendices include handy reference information, along with a chapter-by-chapter compilation of the action plans from the book and a sample marketing plan and budget for you to study.

Occasionally, you’ll notice topics that pop up in more than one chapter. That’s because many techniques in good marketing affect more than one area of business. We’ve tried to make a note each time there’s some overlap so you know exactly where to turn in the guide to learn more.

You can read the whole thing chapter by chapter or skip ahead to the chapter that deals with your firm’s specific marketing problems. The step-by-step action plans, coupled with worksheets, checklists, and interactive tests, map a clear course of action to take to solve the problems that may be hindering your firm’s opportunities for true marketing success.

Follow the steps in A/E Marketing Fitness Plan, from the beginning assessment to the closing reassessment, and you’ll minimize the waste in your firm’s marketing program and make sure the money you spend on marketing is being used to the utmost. This book will more than pay for itself if you implement even one of its powerful strategies!

The days when A/E firms could rely on one or two top sellers to bring home all the bacon are long gone. A/E Marketing Fitness Plan will provide you with necessary steps to implement a strong, consistent marketing program that makes the phone ring and drives real demand for your services!

Contents

Foreword

Chapter 1: Self-assessment: What’s your current marketing fitness

Chapter 2: Integrating marketing into your strategic plan

Chapter 3: Developing marketing plans and budgets that gets results
- Developing a marketing plan that gets results
- Developing a marketing budget that gets results

Chapter 4: Building or strengthening a marketing culture

Chapter 5: Getting the most from your marketing team

Chapter 6: Building your database

Chapter 7: Getting your message out
- Producing effective newsletters
- Creating effective brochures
- Writing effective personal letters
- Designing effective postcards
- Improving the effectiveness of direct mail

Chapter 8: Getting into print
- Creating a press list that gets results
- Writing effective press releases
- Distributing press releases via e-mail
- Getting original articles published
- Making the most of your press coverage

Chapter 9: Conducting effective market research
- Conducting effective market research
- Conducting effective client perception surveys
- Conducting effective original research

Chapter 10: Tapping the marketing potential of your web site

Chapter 11: Improving your sales and business development strategies

Chapter 12: Creating winning proposals and presentations
- Writing winning proposals
- Creating winning presentations

Chapter 13: Check-Up: Reassessing your marketing fitness

Appendix A: The complete A/E Marketing Fitness Plan

Appendix B: Sample marketing plan and budget

Appendix C: Chapter test keys

Appendix D: Additional sources of information