Magic marketing wand

Part I Step 1

Initial conversation

Prior to moving forward we’ll have a brief conversation over the phone about what it is that you’re looking for for your firm. We’ll assess if there is a fit between what we do and what you want, and whether or not it makes sense to move forward.

To schedule a call please use one of the contact forms on this website.

Step 2

Paid diagnostics

We will issue an invoice for 2,000 USD payable upfront. We will schedule a 1-2hr diagnostics call typically within one week upon receipt of payment.

During this call we will ask you multiple questions to better understand your situation. There are no right or wrong answers so there is no need to prepare in advance.

The more unprepared you are the better as it usually reveals what otherwise might’ve been attempted to be disguised. The more candid you are about the state of affairs at your firm the better our assessment of the situation.

If after this paid diagnostics session either of us decide not to move forward for whatever reason, we will refund you this fee in full. Typically within 2 business weeks.

Providing we have mutually agreed to go ahead we will spend some time (usually a week) to analyze your answers and come up with proposed solution(-s).

If the diagnostics reveals the Magic Marketing Wand is the best way to move forward, we will proceed. If we come to a conclusion that some other solution works best for your firm at this point in time, we will suggest that.

Step 3

Level of engagement

Based on the findings of the diagnostics we will communicate over email to agree on the level of our engagement. The scope of our work in the MMW package is a most common one but some modules might have to be removed, and alterations are possible. This has an effect on the final price.

Step 4

Paperwork required

To formalize things we will send you the paperwork: a contract to sign and return, a NDA signed on our part to protect your confidential information. We will then send you a list of materials you’ll need to prepare (e.g. list of employees, roles, revenue, number of clients, gross/net profits, etc.). All of the information requested is vital for clear assessment and future recommendations.

Once you sign and return the contract we will send you the second invoice for 31,500 USD. Full prepayment. Non-refundable.

Step 5

Number of workshops

We will conduct workshops (typically 8 in total) via Zoom (or similar). One workshop per week. All workshops are recorded for future reference. Some workshops consist of two modules, ~ 3 hours each. On average a typical workshop runs for 6 hours with a few breaks in between work.

It usually takes 8 weeks to go through all workshops. Sometimes we have to get back to one or several of the modules and rerun them partially due to newly uncovered (or previously missing) piece of data or information.

On some occasions we might have to conduct live workshops for several days in a row. In such cases this requires allocation of additional funds for our engagement including travel expenses. Such situations are discussed and agreed upon separately.

Who should participate

We expect principals (owners, founders, presidents) and key executives from marketing, sales, business development and heads of individual service departments to be present at all times.

The exact number of people will be agreed upon during Part I of our engagement.

The homework

Most of the workshops have homework that has a due date — typically two days prior to the next workshop. It usually takes an hour to complete homework assignments.

Some of the assignments are instrumental to upcoming modules. If the homework isn’t submitted on time by all participants, we’d have to postpone commencement of the following steps.

Constituent modules

The Magic Marketing Wand package consist of the following modules:

• Core MVVP — discovering and formulating mission, vision, values and purpose of your firm.
• Culture — what kind of culture would work best for your firm.
• Target Market — a closer look at your clients.
• Competitive landscape — an overview of your competition.
• Naming — [optional] when you need to rebrand, merge or change positioning.
• Storytelling — [optional] to boost your marketing communications.
• Positioning — what business you’re in / should be.
• Differentiation — how you can stand out from bland commodities.
• Service offerings — designing and repackaging your capabilities.
• Pricing — choosing the right price band for your expertise.
• Lead gen — a system for getting more leads and better-qualified clients.
• Messaging — fundamental messages for compelling marketing comms.
• Touchpoints — designing a comprehensive points-of-contact map.
• Roadmap — putting it all together, budgeting and assigning responsibilities.

Step 6

Recommendations

After the last module we will require 2 weeks to digest the data and produce concise, to-the-point recommendations.

Formal written reports are typically 60 pages long and are outside of the main scope of our engagements. Price starts at 2,000 USD and up for such reports.

We don’t recommend including an executive summary into the scope if the intention is to skim through the report, and put it on a dusty shelf.

Step 7

Creating deliverables

The Roadmap module will reveal what needs to be done for the designated business objectives. Together we will produce a list of tasks, scopes, timelines and budgets.

The must-have parts of the Magic Marketing Wand package are branding fundamentals, professional lead-generating website and your commitment to the schedule.

At this stage we will issue an invoice for approximately 31,500 USD. This is the amount you should plan for but the exact amount (that sometimes is less) will be worked out at the Roadmap stage.

These amounts are payable upfront and are non-refundable.

Branding fundamentals

We will outline what’s included in branding, what to expect and how many revisions you will have. This part of the engagement usually commences within 2-4 weeks.

We will cover all the fundamentals: logo design, color palette, icons, patterns and typography. We will not produce any of marketing collateral such as business cards, brochures, posters, etc.

But you will have all the essentials as a solid branding system including guidelines for dos and dont’s. From there any professional graphic designer will be able to create any marketing collateral per your requirements.

We have specific objective criteria for evaluation and acceptance of our branding work. It always follows industry’s best practices. Subjective evaluation such as like or dislike will not be permitted.

If you’re looking for a perfect branding that everyone will love, the Magic Marketing Wand is not for you. Please select a different solution without the branding component.

Step 8

Professional website

Once the branding is done we will proceed with building a professional website for your firm. The Roadmap module will reveal what functionality of the web app is required to meet your business goals.

Typically a professional services firm requires a content management system (CMS), some reporting tools and several third-party integrations. From the front-end perspective (design, nr.of pages, performance, SEO, content, copy, UI & UX, etc.) you can expect the kind of website you see in front of you. The back-end (CMS, dashboard, automation, etc.) is always custom-made per specific business objectives.

The new website is typically delivered within 6 months. It takes less time for smaller firms that have smaller budgets and less of immediate business objectives. It can sometimes take longer if the budget is tight but objectives can’t be postponed. But in other cases six months is what we aim for to create a solid, well-desinged professional website.

Automation and other custom-made tools that can boost your team’s performance are discussed, billed and built separately. This includes instruments such as content publishing and automatic distribution, notification systems, behavior tracking & analytics, data exports, social media auto-sharing, scheduling, etc.

Step 9

Implementation of the marketing plan

At this point you will have a solid positioning, a compelling differentiation, a lead generation plan, a professional website that will attract prospects and client qualification system. The next logical step is to start implementing digital marketing tactics to fill the lead gen pipeline.

So after approximately 8 weeks of business strategy and then another 6 months of development of your firm’s branding and website we will engage in the final stage of the MMW solution.

Your team will come up with compelling taglines for your online ads. At this point you will have a landing page (-s) and A/B test PPC ads ready. We will review them and make suggestions where necessary.

You will have a list of prospects and a marketing message ready. We will review that and you’ll be ready to start sending this out via email, mail or overnight delivery.

During the Lead Gen module we will finalize the list of high impact activities that you should be focusing on. We will once again review those, make any necessary adjustments and you’ll commit resources to these activities.

Final steps of this engagement

We will check in with you on your progress twice during the next six months. We will answer your questions and make further recommendations for adjustments where necessary. Such check-in happens via email correspondence or brief phone calls.

Beyond this your key people will be getting insights via email from us if they sign up on this website. We will anounce about upcoming seminars, new tools and calculators as well as deliver fresh articles on the subject of marketing for professional services firms.