INSIGHTS

At the inaugural North East Marketing Awards 2018, Cal Partners won the Agency of the Year (under 20 employees) category. The event took place on the evening of Thursday 18th October at The Biscuit Factory, Stoddart Street, Newcastle and was attended by marketing industry leaders from across the region. As well as being finalists for the Agency of the Year Category, Cal Partners' founder and director, Chris Lucarelli, was also a finalist in the Marketing Director of the Year category.

It is easy to underestimate the vital role social media plays in the recruitment process, particularly in professional services.  During our own recent experience of hiring a new member of the team, we were surprised by how many candidates, when asked why they applied for the role, responded by saying that they liked what our company was doing on social media.

The team at Cal Partners is celebrating being shortlisted as finalists for two categories at the North East Marketing Awards 2018.  Cal Partners are finalists in the Marketing Agency of the Year category, and founder, Chris Lucarelli has been nominated for Marketing Director of the Year category.

If no one person or department is leading the way, does ‘marketing’ get pushed aside because the day job and billing take priority?  Many professional services firms find that marketing activities become disjointed and ad hoc and people think they are a hassle and a waste of time. 

Client reviews can be a powerful influence and help towards the success of a business through its reputation, profile and brand.  Reviews are particularly useful within the professional services sector.  With a lot of firms offering and selling the same or similar service, it can be a very competitive market and difficult to differentiate.  Client reviews provide credibility, proof that what you are saying is true and promote the added value that you offer – reducing the risk that the potential client is taking in using you.

These days it’s increasingly difficult to stand out in the professional services sector, when more and more firms appear to be offering the same (or similar) services.

One way to make your business really stand out is to develop a niche. This entails laser-focussing your efforts on a specific area of expertise, rather than settling on a one-size-fits-all approach. This specificity of service then allows you to pull ahead of your competitors, establishing you as a leader of your chosen niche.

The team at Newcastle based specialist marketing agency and business development consultancy for professional services, Cal Partners, has expanded with the appointment of Marketing Executive, Alison O’Neill.

Social media schedulers and planning tools have been a life saver when it comes to planning posts, automatic reposting and most importantly saving the time it takes to log in and doing it every day.

To stand out from all the white noise on social media, content must now be more engaging and interesting than ever before. With the recent Twitter changes banning bulk tweets and same posts across duplicate accounts, is scheduling now becoming a thing of the past?

With the looming deadline for the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) now only a couple of months away (25th May 2018), businesses are frantically trying to get their heads around the new legislation. There has been a lot of scaremongering and so many news articles, seminars, presentations and workshops about the new regulations with worrying statistics and consequential fines. It is important to remember that being GDPR compliant can bring so many benefits, not only for your clients and potential clients but also for your business.

Professional services firms such as lawyers, accountants, and surveyors are increasingly seeing the value in having a strong social media presence to raise their profile, attract new work and talented new recruits. Against that, they are often too busy with their day job to be able to dedicate the time to an effective social media campaign needs. One option is to engage an external company to manage social media – something that those in the professional services industry rightly regard as very risky.