Key Online Tactics of High-Growth Professional Services Firms

High-growth professional services firms tend to place more emphasis on blogging, SEO, and social networking—and they generate a higher proportion of their business leads via online sources—than do their peers, according to a study by Hinge Marketing.

High-growth businesses are defined in the study as those growing at least 20% per year over two successive years.

Among the 500 professional services businesses participating in the survey, high-growth firms were found in all professional services sectors; however, some sectors had a higher proportion of high-growth firms than others.

An index was calculated to show how likely a high-growth firm would be associated with a particular industry. A value of 1.0 implies that a firm would have an average chance of finding itself in the high-growth category. Similarly, a value of 0.5 indicates that a firm in that industry would be half as likely to be a high-growth company.

High-growth firms were most likely to be in the technology (1.70), management consulting (1.41), and marketing/communications (1.19) industries:

Below, additional findings from Hinge Marketing's new report titled "Online Marketing for Professional Services Firms, Marketing Communications Edition," based on a survey of 500 professional services companies.

Key Online Tactics Among High-Growth Companies

Participating firms ranked various online marketing tactics according to how much focus their firm places on each one. (The ratings are on a scale of 0 to 10 with a rating of 0 indicating the firm does not use the tactic and a 10 indicating a heavy reliance on the tactic.)

Compared with all marketing/communications services firms, high-growth firms (from all surveyed sectors) reported somewhat heavier use of most digital marketing tactics such as blogging, SEO, and social channels, including Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. A notable exception was is in the areas of email marketing and company e-newsletters.

Higher-growth firms also place more emphasis on publishing whitepapers and e-books, as well as usability testing and PPC advertising.

High-growth firms are also more likely to conduct other marketing activities, including the following:

Website updates: 75% of high-growth services firms update their websites as often as once a week, compared with roughly one-half of all marketing/communications companies.

Website redesign: More than 80% of high-growth services firms undertook website redesigns within the last year, compared with 68% of marketing/communications firms.

Use of online contact forms: Nearly 80% of high-growth firms use online contact forms as their primary form of contact, compared with 36% of marketing/communications firms.

Online Lead Generation

Among the businesses surveyed, 77% generate at least some new-business leads online; most (62.4%) generate 39% or less of total leads online, and 14.8% generate 40-100% of their leads via online sources.

Marketing/communications firms rank highest in online lead activity, generating 31.4% of leads online. Tech services firms rank second with 20.2%, followed by management consulting (15.9%), accounting services (11.4%), and A/E/C services (architecture, engineering, and construction) (8.3%):

Across all sectors studied, professional services firms that generated at least 40% of business leads via online sources tended to be higher-growth companies, reporting two-year median growth rates of 53% on average:

*Given the potential of very large and very small firms to skew the results, median values were selected as the most stable measure of central tendency.

About the data: Findings are from a survey of 500 professional services businesses consisting of five primary industry groups: architecture/engineering/construction; marketing/communications; management consulting; and accounting/finance. Overall, respondents hold senior-level positions, working in companies with an average of 319 employees and earning $54 million in annual revenues. In addition, the third quarter of 2012 Hinge interviewed an expert panel of 20 online marketing leaders about their views on online marketing techniques.

Source: MarketingProfs

Google's Top SEO Tips for Start-ups: If you want your startup website to rank well on Google, why not start with Google's own advice?

As SEO credibility goes, it doesn't get much better than Google's Developer Programs Tech Lead Maile Ohye. In a 10-minute video, she adopts the role of a consultant to deliver all the advice she'd give to a startup whose website has no more than 50 pages of primary content, and a desire to rank for a handful of keywords.

Here are a few highlights of Ohye's tutorial. If your startup business seeks to quickly rank, consider taking these steps:

• Decide if you want visitors to see the www or non-www version of your domain. Major companies like Google and Facebook tend to use the former, but it's up to you.
• Verify ownership of your site in Webmaster Tools. Also sign up for email forwarding, so Google can alert you to potential problems.
• Perform a background check on your domain. If spammers previously owned your domain, it won't rank well.
• Include analytics code. Whether you use Google Analytics or another provider, it's good to start collecting data, even if you're not ready to use it.
• Use strategy in your site design. You'll get different types of visitors—customers, investors, press. Your site should offer an excellent experience to each persona.
• Define your conversion. Make a relevant conversion possible on every page; don't force users to make extra clicks.
• Be smart about your copy. Use keywords in your text that people normally use to find information about your product or service.
• Check on your ranking. Ideally, you'll rank number one for your company name. But also examine how you rank for other terms.
• Play to authentic strengths. If your CEO likes to tweet, if an engineer is on Google+, or if a salesperson enjoys Facebook—encourage their ongoing activity.

Source: Marketing Profs & Google

7 Elements of a Great Lead Gen Landing Page

What's the key to crafting a B2B landing page that grabs attention—and loads of leads? It needs to be well-written, and offer real value to visitors. It needs to be eye-catching, to grab attention in those first critical seconds. But we all know these basics, right?

So which specific elements work best to draw prospects in?

According to Oli Gardner at Unbounce, there are seven elements that a lead gen landing page needs to have to get the job done.

Let's start with the top three:

1.     A concise headline. The headline is the most important element of the seven, Gardner notes. "Your headline is your hook," he reminds us. Take time polishing it.

2.     An image or video. To effectively showcase a product, you'll need to show "context of use," Gardner says. Either demonstrate the product in a video, or take a photo of someone using it. To effectively showcase a service, find a way to demonstrate how it will bring value to viewers. To showcase a whitepaper or book, offer a preview.

3.     A core benefit statement. These are the sentences that "reel them in," says Gardner. Make them easy to read and quickly persuasive.

The next four elements: Your request for data; a strong call to action; trust elements (i.e., testimonials); and social sharing devices (best placed on a secondary page, like the link page for your call to action.)

 

 

Source: MarketingProfs

Open Source vs. Closed Source Software

We are often asked why we use a Closed Source CMS in designing and developing websites for our clients.  Let us start by first providing a brief explanation of the differences.

Open Source means there are a lot of people working on the software.  Documentation is usually easy to find and there are plenty of people out there offering their support input, which may make development a little easier, depending on your skill level.  Regular updates may be provided that are on-going attempts to improve and secure the product.  Open Source systems let you see all the internal components of the software, and, if you have the skills, you can often change it to suit your needs.

However, because many people have access to Open Source code, this access creates a higher risk for hacking.  If you choose to design in an Open Source system, your development team is going to need to put continual time and work into preventing third-party tampering.  This difficulty of this effort is dependent on many factors such as how many people need to have access to sensitive areas of the site, how frequently are security patches updated, and where is your website hosted.

Closed Source software usually equates to better security and support.  For an e-commerce site, it isn’t necessarily more secure to go with a closed source system, but unlike open source systems, developers don’t have to spend as much time securing code.  If a developer runs into any issues using a Closed Source software, providers are readily available to offer you support.  This is a true convenience, because it cuts down on the development time and cost.

With Closed Source, the barrier to entry may at times be higher.  Although this is not always the case, you may have to pay for the software or service.  On the other hand, using a Closed Source CMS quite often eliminates the need for on-going support or website maintenance.

Bottom line, it all boils down to the abilities of your in-house tech staff, if you have one, and your budget.  Some enterprise companies design with open source because they have qualified developers.  If you don’t feel that your team is ready to take on extra challenges of working with an Open Source software, then Closed Source (and its built-in support) typically is the best route.

Reference: Mashable

Terradon CommunicationsGroup selected to work with the Kentico CMS because of its reputation for security, ease of use, quicker development time, and lower development costs.  In addition, TCG has licensed the Kentico CMS source code and can provide our clients with any custom programming requirements.  TCG does not charge our clients a licensing fee for the use of the closed source Kentico CMS and offers our clients exceptional website design, development, and on-going support services. 

Source: Brent Pauley