Our Insights
The Bloom Group periodically publishes its own white papers and thought pieces. These documents are designed to give executives at professional services organizations ideas for how they can substantially improve the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. To receive automatic notification when we issue a new piece, please e-mail us or subscribe to our periodic newsletter. You can read our newsletter archives here.
Our most recent publications—most of which are available for downloading—are listed below.
Thought Leadership
- Making the Most of Your Firm's Publications: A Portfolio Approach to Intellectual Capital Development
- Survey Says: Strong Intellectual Capital Is The Key to Effective Professional Services Marketing
- Case Study Research: The Overlooked but Indispensable Tool in Attaining Thought Leadership
- Competing on Thought Leadership: The Seven Hallmarks of Compelling Intellectual Capital
- Using Surveys to Generate Market Demand
Marketing Strategy
- Making the Most of Your Firm's Publications: A Portfolio Approach to Intellectual Capital Development
- Survey Says: Strong Intellectual Capital Is The Key to Effective Professional Services Marketing
Campaign Execution
- Getting Marketing and Business Development on the Same Page
- Why Great Writing Matters to Professional Services Firms
- Outsourcing Marketing: Can it Work in Professional Services?
- Making a Business Book Pay Off
- Using Events to Generate Business
- Building a Winning Sales Deck
- Becoming a Credible Source for the Media
- What Editors Want
Online Marketing
A Consultant's Comeuppance
This article—written by The Bloom Group's founding partner, Bob Buday, and published in the February 2003 issue of Harvard Business Review—is a fictional case study about a consulting firm called Flynn Fuller Consulting that is about to be banished by a longstanding client, a major bank. A new CEO of the bank orders senior managers to get rid of all consultants except those who can make a convincing case about why they should stay. The case study then explores the debate among a quickly assembled Flynn Fuller team about what should go into the one-hour presentation the CEO has requested. Several commentators, including executives who have used consultants, offer their views on how Flynn Fuller can make a strong case. For a reprint of this article, e-mail us at info@bloomgroup.com
Why Focus is Crucial to Growth (135 KB)
For professional services firm leaders who continue to search for that elusive growth formula, it’s time to ask a fundamental question: Is your firm sufficiently focused? In this installment of our Thoughts on Thought Leadership series, we discuss how firms can boost the return on their investments in service development and marketing by developing a clear focus on the real expertise they bring to the table, the business problems they solve, and the companies most in need of their help.
Getting Marketing and Business Development on the Same Page (630 KB)
Leaders of professional services firms can begin to increase the returns on their marketing and sales investments by ensuring marketing and business development are playing the same game, on the same team, using the same game plan and scorecard. For the majority of firms, our research and experience tells us that despite the fact that marketing and business development people are both charged with expanding their firm’s client base, at any given time they may be promoting different services to the same companies or speaking about the same services in quite different ways—thus confusing their clients. By working in concert, successful firms’ marketing and sales activities create many more viable leads; those leads turn into work much faster; and, they’re selling bigger and more profitable projects.
Making the Most of Your Firm's Publications: A Portfolio Approach to Intellectual Capital Development (160 KB)
What if a venture capital firm funded entrepreneurs on a first-come, first-served basis? What kind of return on investment should they expect? Unfortunately, this is about as sophisticated as many professional services firms get when it comes to deciding which ideas they should invest in and develop into publications. And while mediocre publications may seem trivial compared to bankrupt businesses, remember that for professional services firms, these publications are one of the key channels for communicating expertise with prospects. When they aren't good, neither is the market's view of the value your professionals can add. Conversely, our experience shows that quality publications can lead to tangible benefits—including millions of dollars in new business.
Case Study Research: The Overlooked but Indispensable Tool in Attaining Thought Leadership (282 KB)
While striving to be thought leaders, many professional services companies fail to effectively use the most important tool for developing compelling intellectual capital: case study research. In this issue of Thoughts on Thought Leadership, we explore why case studies are so critical and discuss an approach that firms can use to ensure that their case study research generates new insights for solving complex business problems.
Competing on Thought Leadership: The Seven Hallmarks of Compelling Intellectual Capital (88 KB)
Thought leadership has become the competitive differentiator for consulting and other professional services firms. But increasingly, it's becoming a buzzword that has lost its true meaning. Learn what thought leadership is—and what it isn't—in this white paper by The Bloom Group's founding partners.
Using Surveys to Generate Market Demand (133KB)
This installment in our Thoughts on Thought Leadership series explores the importance of surveys in a professional services firm's thought leadership program and discusses how to make surveys more newsworthy and effective.
Why Great Writing Matters to Professional Services Firms (123 KB)
A professional services firm’s articles,
proposals,
presentations, studies, brochures,
and books are the physical embodiments of its expertise. In effect, for
professional services firms, their words are their products, and
it’s critical for them to exhibit great writing.
However,
these firms often don’t pay enough attention to the writing
process, producing materials whose messages are unclear, jargon-filled
or simply not compelling. Many of these firms eventually discover that
substandard writing can be fatal to sales and marketing efforts because
it gives clients and prospects the impression that the firm’s
ideas are equally low in quality. In this article, The Bloom
Group’s Bob Buday and Bernie Thiel discuss why bad writing
happens, what constitutes good writing, and how superior prose helps
distinguish firms from their competitors. The authors also present five
steps that professional services firms can take
to ensure that their writing is of the highest quality and can attract
and convert
prospects to clients.
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Outsourcing Marketing: Can it Work in Professional Services? (68 KB)
Coming out of the most recent economic downturn, many professional services companies have found that their marketing staffs are just a fraction of what they were during the booming 1990s. However, the demands for marketing have not decreased accordingly (in fact, they have increased exponentially). By teaming with an outside marketing services provider, organizations can develop and execute—on a timely basis and at a predictable cost—the programs critical to differentiating themselves from competitors. In this issue of Thoughts on Thought Leadership, we explore how professional services companies are benefiting from outsourcing both creative and execution-oriented marketing activities.
Making a Business Book Pay Off (200 KB)
A business book can be one of the most expensive and highest-risk marketing initiatives a professional services firm can undertake. It also can generate tremendous benefits for the firm if done right. This edition of Thoughts on Thought Leadership offers insights into what it takes to produce a successful business book that engages readers and generates business for its authors.
Using Events to Generate Business (144KB)
This installment in our Thoughts on Thought Leadership series explores how professional services firms should use educational events to generate business and examines the nine elements critical to the success of any event.
Building a Winning Sales Deck (126KB)
This installment in our Thoughts on Thought Leadership series reviews the critical elements of an effective professional services sales "deck" and discusses common pitfalls to avoid in presentation development.
Becoming a Credible Source for the Media (126 KB)
This installment in our Thoughts on Thought Leadership series discusses how professional services firms can establish an effective, credible relationship with key members of the media.
What Editors Want
Editors face skyrocketing demand for good stories to fill the Web’s infinite space, at the same time that budget cuts have reduced writing and editing staffs. Therefore, for professional services publicists, it’s never been easier to find a home for your stories. If, that is, you do it right. The Bloom Group’s David Rosenbaum has been a writer and editor at dailies, weeklies, and monthlies for more than 30 years, most recently as the editor of CIO Magazine. Read David’s advice, based on his experience, on how to pitch ideas and build trusting relationships that lead to successful story placement.
From Electronic Brochure to Online Lead Generator: Powering Up the Professional Services Website (502KB)
The vast majority of websites of consulting, law, accounting, IT service and other professional services firms are essentially electronic brochures — static online publications that don't let prospects easily understand their deep expertise. But by organizing their website by the client problems they solve and demonstrating their deep expertise in solving them, a number of professional services firms have been using the Web to accelerate the lead streams.