Infographic: How Online Marketing Techniques Grow Your Firm

By Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D.; Infographic by Brian Lemen

(Click image to see full-size infographic)

Just when you thought it was safe to get back on the golf course, you hear the news. A new study shows that professional services firms that use online marketing techniques to generate 40% or more of their leads grow 4X faster and are 2X more profitable. Well, now I’m listening.

This infographic tells a dramatic story — how firms are using online marketing techniques to change the professional services marketplace. Increasingly, how you use online marketing will affect how successful your firm can be. While face-to-face networking is still important, it is no longer the only — or even the best — path to new business success.

Learn which online marketing techniques are most effective and how multiple tools work together to deliver the strongest results. And find out where online marketing budgets are headed (UP!) and why your firm may want to move in that direction…  faster.

The world of professional services marketing is changing quickly. So stop driving golf balls and start driving new leads online.

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How to Develop an Online Recruitment Strategy that Works

By Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D.

How do you find new hires? Is it through employee referrals? Advertising in trade publications? Recruiters?

If you are not already using online recruitment strategies there is a good chance that you will be in the future. The reasons why are both compelling and simple.

• People are spending more time online to do a variety of tasks, including finding a new job
• Like it or not, job candidates will check out your firm online and draw conclusions
• It is arguably the least expensive form of recruiting

 
These reasons and others are driving more professional services firms to use online recruiting. The chart below, taken from our recent study of online marketing for professional services firms, shows that about 55% of firms recruit at least some employees online.

 
Further, about one in four firms gets 40% or more of its hires online. Clearly, something is working here.

Let’s take a closer look at the seven steps involved in developing an online recruitment strategy:

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Website Planning Guide Part 6: Develop a Structure

By Sean McVey

When redesigning your website, you want to establish a structure that your visitors will understand quickly and easily.  So repeat after me: 

My website structure is not the place to get creative.

My website structure is not the place to get creative.

My website structure is not the place to get creative.

Got it? Many firms don’t.

Instead of thinking of ways to make your website bigger, better and more fabulous, try figuring out ways to make it simpler and easier to use.  After all, web visitors use the internet to save time and find information quickly. Why not help them do that?

Here are three strategies to keep in mind when designing the structure of your professional services website: 

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What is a Brand? A Professional Services Firm Perspective

By Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D.

For most professional services firms, your brand is arguably your most valuable asset — and perhaps the least well understood.  It’s not too surprising, given that few professional services firms are run by executives with a marketing background.

As a matter of fact, many professionals have never had a single marketing class in their entire formal education.  Further, their advancement and promotions have been centered around their ability to close new business based on personal relationships and referrals.  Branding considerations seem far removed.  Big mistake.

Why Formal Brand Definitions Fail

Consult a marketing textbook and you are likely to find a brand defined as the sum total of a customer’s emotion and experience with your firm.  You’ll probably find the discussion abstract and not very practical.  It seems far removed from the day-to-day realities of bringing in new clients and recruiting staff.  In reality, the opposite is true. Your brand has a direct impact on building your firm.

What a Brand is Not

Let’s first peel away some very common misconceptions:

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In-house vs. Outsourced Online Marketing

By Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D.

There are a lot of very good reasons for a professional services firm to consider an online marketing program. As our recently published online marketing study shows, firms that have robust lead generation programs

• grow up to 4X faster;
• are 2X more profitable; and
• are able to effectively recruit new employees.

 
These benefits apply across all professional service industries, from accountants to management consultants to technology firms and government contractors. It simply makes good business sense to go online. The only question is how best to do it?

Outsource online marketing or stay in-house?

It’s an important business question that your firm must answer. In a previous post in this series we made the case for outsourcing your online marketing.

We also explored the typical costs to outsource online marketing. Now it’s time to pull those strands together and determine the right strategy for your firm.

Let’s walk through the decision making process step by step.

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Website Planning Guide Part 5: Determine Optimal Search Phrases

By Sean McVey

Ready to start writing the content for your new website?  Stop!

Before rushing into content creation, take a step back.  This is the perfect time to start thinking about search engine optimization (SEO) — before you commit words to your website.  SEO is the process of getting found by search engines for important words and phrases.  Before writing your content and page titles, take a little time to understand what words your audience are using to find firms like yours.

What is Keyword Research?

Keyword research is where SEO begins.  The concept is fairly simple: figure out which words and phrases people will use when they search for your firm in Google and other search engines.

The keyword research process goes something like this:

1. Brainstorm a list of keyword phrases relevant to your company
2. Research how many people search for each phrase
3. Research the difficulty of ranking for each phrase
4. Identify the phrases that have a high search volume and low difficulty
5. Create a web page for each keywork phrase you want to target

 
The content writer should work these keyword phrases into the pages of the site. In this way you help search engines understand what words you are attempting to rank for.

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