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Professional Services Marketing Blog
How to Get More Business: Buyers of Technology Services in Today’s Market
Why do we at Hinge love research so much? Because it takes a lot of the guesswork away from the “artful” practice of marketing. As providers of professional services, we all want to know how to get more business. We can postulate, strategize, and execute until we’re blue in the face without any results to show for it. Unless all that action is tied to research – and while there’s never a guarantee – I’ll take data-driven strategies over guesswork any day of the week.
That’s why I’m really excited to be talking about some of our most recent research that dives into the question of how to get more business – through the lens of the buyer. Our new study, How Buyers Buy, offers analysis of what 822 buyers of professional services said about things like how they build their lists, how they award contracts, and how they want to be marketed to. Overall, an introspective guide for sellers of professional services on how to get more business. We also broke out our analysis by vertical so I’ve been particularly focused on what buyers of technology services had to say. Here are some of the highlights:
- Making the List: It’s all about your brand for buyers of tech services – 70% turn to their network of peers first to find out about tech services providers. Who does this kind of work? How well known is the firm? How good is their reputation? This clearly demonstrates the need for a good reputation and high visibility. In other words, a strong brand.
Brand Messaging: Why Strength Matters for Technology Services Firms
If you’re a tech firm, at some point in your evolution you’ve likely been challenged by the ability to tell the world who you are – in a way that resonates with the sometimes numerous and disparate audiences you serve. It can bring you to the frustrating conclusion that getting the messaging right is as likely as getting all the bugs out of version 1.0 of your recent software release.
Why should you care about getting the brand message right? Results from our latest study focused on buyers of technology services show that strong branding is king when it comes to standing out in a crowd of providers.
Consider this: when looking for alternatives, a whopping 70% of technology services buyers turn first to friends or colleagues. Who does this kind of work? How well known is the firm? How good is their reputation? This clearly demonstrates the need for a good reputation and high visibility, in other words, strong brand messaging.
Everyone Loves a Good Story
To achieve this strength, your core brand messaging needs to communicate two things:
- Your firm’s value (why it’s useful)
- Your firm’s differentiators (why you’re better than the competition)
How to Reach Professional Services Buyers
How do you reach professional services buyers? This should be one of the first questions that any professional services marketer should ask themselves. Hinge Research Institute (our research arm) has just released a new study that tackles that issue head on.
One of the questions we asked the over 800 buyers in the study was how they would go about finding a new professional services firm. The results are shown in the figure below (buyers often use multiple strategies, so the numbers add up to over 100%).
How To Differentiate Your Firm: A Case Story
Finding your firm’s differentiators, those characteristics that set your firm apart and give you a competitive advantage, can be quite a challenge for most professional services firms. As a matter of fact, it is a challenge that most firms never quite get right.
But take heart, it can be done. And when it is done well it can yield some pretty impressive results. Today’s case story is a perfect example.
Webmarketing123 is an online marketing firm based in the San Francisco bay area. Nothing unique there. They offer a suite of services including Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-Per-Click advertising (PPC) and Social Media marketing. Still nothing special. For that matter they also have great people, care about their clients results, and love puppies and small children, just like every other professional services firm.
Buying Behavior and Professional Services: A New Research Study
Wouldn’t it be nice to peer inside the brain of your potential clients and see how they select a firm? Or to see what really matters to your clients? Or what about discovering your competitors’ blind spots? Yeah, that would be useful, alright.
Well here is your chance.
Hinge Research Institute (that’s Hinge’s advanced research arm) conducted a study of 822 buyers of professional services (Buyers) and 533 professional services providers (Sellers).
In this study, Buyers were clients of Sellers. This allowed us to look at buying behavior from both perspectives. There are some real Venus vs. Mars moments to be sure.
Detailed free reports are available for each professional services industry we studied:
Tech Firms are Growing Quickly Online – But How?
By Sean McVey
Hinge recently conducted a research study on the usage of online marketing by technology professional services firms. The data shows that technology firms are one of the fastest growing industries in terms of revenue.
Additionally, out of the 49 tech firms surveyed, 72% planned on increasing spending in online marketing within the next year. On average, those firms planned on increasing spending by 121%, well more than any other industry surveyed.