Our Marketing Philosophy

Morningstar Multimedia is a marketing and web design firm based in Philadelphia, PA. We work with professional services firms including lawyers, consultants and real estate agents to help them build a personal brand, develop a marketing strategy, and use the web to generate leads for their businesses. Krista Baker and James Balaguer, both graduates of the University of Pennsylvania, founded the company in 2000.

Real World Small Business Marketing

As a small business owner, you wear many hats - and marketing is one of those hats. You probably accept the principle that you should be marketing your services - that marketing is what brings clients (and therefore, money) in the door - but chances are, you are confused (maybe even frustrated or overwhelmed) about which marketing strategies and tactics will work.

Unfortunately, marketing has a long learning curve, and it's easy to waste a lot of money on ads, websites, and promotions that just don't work. Worse, you may not understand why they aren't working.

We find that most small businesses make two fatal mistakes with their marketing:

1. They don't plan out their strategy, so marketing becomes reactive. They only think about marketing when a telemarketer calls them up and asks them to buy and ad, or when a major event comes along and they must update their website pronto, or when business slows to a crawl and they start to worry about where their next new client will come from. In this case, they may get a client here or there, but marketing seems more like a crapshoot than strategic.
   
   
2. They don't execute their strategy consistently, so their message is diluted or muffled. Attracting new clients takes consistent focus. You must pick an activity and stick with it. Often, one networking event won't net you a plethora of new clients, but getting involved in the organization will eventually lead to new business. Too often, small businesses abandon their efforts for the next shiny, new marketing flavor of the month - blogs, podcasts, social media, search engine marketing, pay per click, etc - so they never get one strategy firmly in place and working before something else catches their eye. Not surprisingly, with this approach, nothing seems to work.

Why Marketing Professional Services Is Different

Marketing is even harder for professional service providers because you become the product. Your marketing must focus around proving your expertise and demonstrating your skills to the Average Joe who knows nothing about your industry, services, or expertise.

Your prospects only know they have problems they'd like to get rid of. So they do what anyone might do - they start researching their problems:

• Who else has had this type of problem?
• What did they do about it?
• Is the problem severe enough to seek outside help?
• Can they fix it by themselves?
• If not, how should they choose a service provider to help them?

It's during this process when prospects may discover your services - and it is at this point when you have a window of opportunity to set yourself apart from other service providers out there.

Unfortunately, too often, small businesses don't set themselves apart from the crowd. If anything, they are more likely to mirror their competitors than to do something different. Sadly, your prospect only sees that everyone looks the same and is even more confused about who to choose. When that happens, how do they pick? On price, of course. If all providers look identical, then why not go for the cheapest?

Differentiate Your Services from the Crowd

That's where we come in. Our services involve helping you define as clearly as possible what makes you different from everyone else and why that differentiating factor makes you the better choice than everyone else in your marketplace.

This isn't about marketing gimmicks or tricks. If you don't provide exceptional service, your clients will see right through it, no matter how pretty you package them. Instead, we focus on uncovering your strengths and talents - and the reasons why your current clients hire you - and package that "substance" and "authenticity" into something prospects can easily digest.

Visit our services page to learn how we can help you:

• business development and marketing consulting
• website and blog design
• internet marketing services