By “act accordingly,” I mean they give you the permission to conduct your engagement on your terms, not theirs. They take your advice. They work collaboratively with you, and they do it enthusiastically. In short, they view you as a true expert in your discipline.

Clients like these are not born. They are made.

And ideally they are made long before you ever meet them.

Let me explain.

There are a number of ways that prospective clients discover professional services firms. They can be referred to you by current and former clients. They can be referred to you by partners in adjacent businesses—those that serve clients like yours but which don’t compete directly with you. For instance, lawyers and accountants often refer clients to each other. Prospects can meet you at a tradeshow or conference. Or they can see your advertising at the very moment they have a need.

All of these marketing techniques work, but they come with a built-in problem. Even though marketing tactics like these can put you on a company’s radar, the prospect doesn’t really know your firm. You still have to convince them you are worth taking a chance on.

That can mean responding to RFPs, along with dozens of your competitors. Or it can mean preparing elaborate pitches that involve a platoon of expensive team members. And at the end of the day, after the client has selected you, they begin the relationship crossing their fingers that they chose wisely.

Most firms of any size will (and probably should) use some, if not all, of these techniques. But there is another way—one that the most successful firms understand sidesteps this problem entirely. This strategy is not new, but it is widely misunderstood.

The strategy I’m describing is thought leadership. Most firms think of thought leadership as a nice-to-have, a supplement to their “real” marketing program. Often firms take this view because they know creating high-quality content is hard and distracts top talent from lucrative billable client work. These firms may do thought leadership but they implement it haphazardly. They simply don’t recognize its true potential.

When thought leadership is done right, however, you attract a different kind of prospect. These folks have been following you for months or years. They read everything you write. They attend your webinars. They fly to conferences to hear your experts speak. And when they finally raise their hand, they are ready to buy. From you—often only from you.

This approach involves educating your audience and sharing, for free, some of your expertise. At its best, your thought leadership—the topics you write and speak about—has a distinct point of view. It is this distinction that makes your work so compelling and separates what your experts say from other firms in your industry.

Over time, you not only build up a following, you establish deep credibility and trust. By the time these prospects reach out to you, they are bought into your firm and your system. This alignment not only makes the sale easy and quick, it sets up the engagement for success from the very start.

If, on the other hand, you enter an engagement and the client isn’t 100% convinced of your expert status, they can be hyper sensitive to any mistakes you make. Even the smallest error adds friction to the relationship and erodes trust. The engagement can still be salvaged, but that can take heroic measures from (and a toll on) your team.

To sum up, the best clients are those who got to know you long before they engaged you. They learned from your experts, and they came back to the well again and again. When they are ready to buy, you are at the top of their list. And when they engage you, they trust you implicitly, so you can do your best work.

That’s the power of a well-conceived thought-leadership strategy. Is your marketing strategy designed to attract your best clients?

The post How to Create Great Clients appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

Only there is a gaping hole in this way of thinking. One so big you could drop a conference table through it.

It ignores how buyers—real people—behave.

While it’s true that many buyers may ultimately want a provider that can deliver a wide range of related services, that’s not what most are looking for when they first select a firm. Usually, they need to solve a very specific problem. And they want the fix done fast, expertly and right.

Buyers also want one more thing. They want to avoid getting burned. Every firm has at one time or another hired the wrong provider or partner, spending vast sums of money on a firm that lacked the skills, attention to detail or follow-through to get the job done.

So how do these two desires play out in the buying process? And what are the implications for a professional services firm that wants to reach more buyers and build deeper relationships?

Buyers Prefer Specialists

One way that buyers avoid this problem is to seek out providers with a reputation for solving the very problem they have. In short, they seek out specialists.

Specialists make sense for several reasons:

They focus on a particular thing, whether it’s a type of problem, service, industry, or buyer role. Focus gives them a deeper understanding of the thing they are specializing in. As a result, they are more likely to have more experience and insights into solving a problem that falls within their area of specialty. Where a generalist might say, “we can learn about your problem (or business),” a specialist can say with confidence, “we already understand your problem (or business).” That’s a powerful message.

They are faster, too. With a longer track record of relevant experience comes mastery. Identifying the cause of a problem and solving it is simpler when you’ve seen it before. Meaning they can deliver high quality work at speed.

They are seen as true experts. The problem with generalists is that they often lack the foundational background to support the advice they give. They are more likely to be ignored by the client. The specialist, equipped with deep knowledge and experience, has earned the gravitas to command the room. Clients listen to their advice. And that means their recommendations tend to be taken seriously—and are more lasting.

What’s in it for You?

There are tangible benefits for the specialized firm, as well.

Buyers are willing to pay more. In the professional services marketplace, specialists are usually more expensive. Because specialists are seemingly sacrificing something—access to a wider market—and because they are assumed to be more skillful, buyers are willing to pay a premium for their services. Another way to think about it is that buyers consider generalists commodities, while specialists are rare and more valuable.

It’s easier to grow. This may sound counterintuitive, but by narrowing your target audience, your growth potential increases. In fact, in our research we see a consistent correlation between specialization and growth. For one thing, marketing is easier. You can deliver more focused messages to a smaller, better-defined audience. Also, as your reputation in your area of expertise grows, you tend to get more “invisible referrals.” And differentiating your firm from the beige wheat field of competitors is a cinch. While not always the case, even very narrow specialties are usually large enough to support a firms’ growth ambitions.

You’ll become better at what you do. The world perceives specialists as more capable, but there is more to it than mere optics. When you specialize, your team—through repetition and exposure to variations on a limited number of themes—build deeper expertise. So when you walk into a new client, you can quickly diagnose the problem and have a good idea how to tackle it. You know what can go wrong and how to minimize those risks.

We operate our businesses in a time of continual, accelerating change. Specialists thrive under these conditions. Undifferentiated firms struggle to keep up with challenges and innovations that affect their broad customer base. But specialists can focus on just those that apply to their small corner of the marketplace. Growth and profitability come easier because their business models are inherently more efficient. And they are positioned to be perceived as an authority in their domain.

The post The Strategy that Most Firms Get Wrong appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

Further, many professionals still hold the mistaken belief that the only way to generate new client leads is through referrals and networking. Hello… the world is changing! A new model of business development is already generating significant flows of qualified leads for many professional services firms using online lead generation techniques.

What is Online Lead Generation?

Online lead generation (sometimes called digital lead generation) is a collection of online tactics designed to attract interest in—and business development conversations with—your business. There are a vast number of online tactics that your team can deploy, many of which we will cover in this post. The key to effective online lead generation is understanding your target audience, their interests, and, importantly, their pain points. A common way to get these insights is by conducting ongoing research on your target audience (such as surveys or interviews). Once you understand what your audience needs, it will become clearer which strategies you should focus on.

Online Lead Generation Techniques that Work

Like traditional lead generation, the new model is founded upon demonstrating expertise and building trusting relationships — but now these goals are accomplished online. While online marketing will continue to evolve, here are ten proven online lead generation techniques that work for most professional services firms today.

1. Search Optimization

Many potential clients want to learn how to solve the challenges they face, or at least understand how an expert might approach it. To find out, they conduct a search for their question, problem or issue on platforms like Google or ChatGPT. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) gives you the tools to match queries like these with your relevant online content. If you play your cards right and produce the kind of valuable expert content they are looking for, you might end up on their short list when they are looking to purchase services.

2. Pay Per Click Advertising

Sometimes, there is just too much competition for you to rank organically in Google’s results for important search terms. Another proven way to get on your prospects’ radar is to buy your way onto search engine results pages for relevant keywords through pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. This technique gives you greater control over your keywords and where your “results” (actually paid ads) appear. As the name pay-per-click implies, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Many times, PPC leads are of higher quality because the potential client is often searching for a specific solution. In addition, PPC is completely trackable and typically less expensive than traditional print advertising. That’s an attractive combination.

3. Lead Generating Website

Most professional services websites are not designed to generate leads. As a matter of fact, many are almost “anti-lead generators.” Jargon-filled, firm-centric websites abound in the professional services industry — and they are completely passive and unhelpful. If visitors cannot understand what you do or what problems you can solve for them, they will go elsewhere. Contrast this with a lead generating website that is designed to make it easy for clients to understand your value proposition, download valuable information, and request a proposal. The impact on online lead generation can be dramatic.

4. Online Networking

I could have called this technique “social media,” but I wanted to make a point. The essence of social media is not which platform you choose. It’s the quality and reach of the networking you do. While the style of interaction may vary greatly from LinkedIn to X to Facebook, it is still about making the right connections with the right people. Online networking can produce the reputation and referrals associated with traditional business networking. Expect to get results in proportion to the level of your investment of time and attention.

5. Webinars

A webinar is the online equivalent of a seminar or educational class. The lead generating webinar is typically offered free of charge. Because it requires registration, you can collect basic information on a session’s attendees. Like its offline cousin, a webinar should be educational — not a thinly-veiled sales pitch. The key to a successful webinar is to select topics that are of great interest and value to your ideal target client. Over time, attendees come to trust your firm and will be likely to consider you when they have a relevant need.

6. Research Reports

A proven online lead generating strategy is to offer research reports on topics of interest to your target audience. You benefit in two ways. First, these pieces are powerful lead generators—your buyers love data-driven insights. Second, they boost your credibility and strengthen your online brand. In addition, research studies can be an excellent vehicle for partnering with a trade association or a noncompeting firm to reduce your marketing cost and increase your credibility.

7. Online Marketing Videos

Video is everywhere today, and for good reason. It is an ideal marketing medium for professional services firms. Nothing builds credibility like a high-profile client explaining how your firm solved their problem. It’s almost like automating the referral process. Video can be used to present your firm, explain complex services, or introduce your team (to name just a few ways video can be used). In each of these roles, video can play an important lead generating and lead nurturing function.

8. White Papers, Guides and Ebooks

One of the most common online lead generating techniques, white papers and executive guides can establish credibility and generate qualified leads. You can offer these in-depth pieces on your website (often placed behind a registration screen to capture contact info), or you can distribute them through third-party services. White papers and guides also make great pay-per-click offers. A variation on these formats is the ebook. Typically longer than a white paper or guide, it serves a similar function. An ebook doesn’t have to be as long as a traditional business book, but it should dive sufficiently deep into a topic that it gives a reader a solid understanding of the problem and solution.

9. Email newsletter

Email newsletters may sound old-school—and in fact, they’ve been in use for decades. But they still have a place in a modern online marketing program. But not all newsletters are the same. If you think they are a place to celebrate new hires, promotions, and firm events, you’ll need to recalibrate your expectations. Those old-style newsletters are destined for people’s spam folders and will slowly degrade your list. Instead, an email newsletter should be practical and useful—a vehicle to distribute valuable expert content to your audience and turn your contacts into admiring fans. To build your subscriber list, offer a free newsletter subscription on your website or in your email signature block.

10. Blogging

I left blogging for last because of its unique role in online lead generation. To be honest, blogs don’t generate a lot of direct leads. But blogging is probably the most effective tool to drive leads to your website. If you write your blog post with a strategy in mind, you can produce a wealth of educational content optimized for relevant keywords, helping interested people find your posts. Many of these readers are well aligned with the services you offer. Over time, as they follow your blog, they will come to associate your firm with the area of expertise they are interested in. And when they are ready to buy, you are likely to be the preferred provider. You can support your blogging by promoting your posts on LinkedIn.

These ten online lead generation techniques alone could become the cornerstone of a robust marketing plan. Add in traditional marketing tactics, such as face-to-face networking and tradeshow marketing (if appropriate), and you have a formidable strategy for building preference in the marketplace. Online marketing and traditional marketing make a powerful combination.

Lead Generation Tools

Using lead generation tools can provide a number of benefits for B2B firms. One of the most significant benefits is that these tools can help businesses reach out to a wider audience and generate more leads. By using tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Salesforce, or HubSpot CRM platforms, businesses can identify potential clients based on specific criteria and then create targeted marketing campaigns that resonate with these prospects. This can result in higher conversion rates and more sales.

Another benefit of using lead generation tools is that they save time and resources. Without these automation tools, businesses would need to manually search for potential clients, create marketing campaigns from scratch, and try to manage all of the data. By using lead generation tools, firms can automate many of these tasks, which frees up time and resources that can be devoted to other areas of the business. In addition, lead generation tools often provide valuable analytics and reporting features that allow businesses to track the effectiveness of their campaigns and adjust their strategies as needed.

B2B Lead Generation

While the goal of lead generation is the same for B2B and B2C businesses—to attract prospective buyers and convert them into clients—there are several key differences in how the two types of businesses approach lead generation.

One of the biggest differences between B2B and B2C lead generation is the audience itself. Because the B2B and B2C audiences are different, they require different messaging and tactics. B2B businesses may focus on creating content that speaks to their buyers’ needs and pain points, while B2C businesses usually focus on creating emotional or aspirational messaging that resonates with individual consumers. Conducting research on your target market is a helpful way to make sure that your lead generation messages are on point.

Another difference between B2B and B2C lead generation is the length of the sales cycle. In general, the sales cycle for B2B firms is longer than for B2C firms, ranging anywhere from two to 12+ months. Because B2B purchases often involve more stakeholders, more complex decision-making processes, and higher price points, it often takes longer for decisions to be made. As a result, B2B lead generation efforts may need to focus more on building relationships and providing value over time, rather than trying to make a quick sale.

Key Takeaways

• Highlight Expertise Online: Demonstrating expertise online is essential for effective online lead generation techniques.
• Implement Diverse Tactics: Use a variety of online lead generation techniques, such as SEO, PPC, webinars, and content marketing, to attract qualified leads.
• Leverage Automation Tools: Employ lead generation tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Salesforce, and HubSpot to automate and optimize your outreach.
• Tailor Your Messaging: Differentiate your approach for B2B or B2C audiences by tailoring messaging and tactics to each segment’s needs.
• Combine Multiple Strategies: Integrate online lead generation techniques with traditional marketing for maximum impact and reach.

Conclusion

Online lead generation techniques provide professional services firms with the ability to attract and nurture qualified leads, build trust, and grow their businesses more efficiently than ever before. By embracing a mix of digital strategies and leveraging the right tools, firms can position themselves for lasting success in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

FAQ

What are the most effective online lead generation techniques for professional services firms?

The most effective online lead generation techniques include SEO, pay-per-click advertising, lead generating websites, webinars, research reports, videos, white papers, email newsletters, and blogging. Each tactic helps firms attract and engage qualified prospects.

Where can I find resources to implement online lead generation techniques?

You can find guides, research reports, and tool recommendations on websites like Hinge Marketing, as well as through CRM providers such as HubSpot, Salesforce, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

How do I start using online lead generation techniques for my business?

Begin by understanding your target audience, selecting the most relevant online lead generation techniques for your industry, and using automation tools to streamline your campaigns. Track results and adjust strategies as needed.

How do online lead generation techniques compare to traditional marketing methods?

Online lead generation techniques typically offer greater reach, better targeting, and improved tracking compared to traditional marketing. Combining both approaches can create a more robust and effective marketing strategy.

The post Online Lead Generation Techniques for Professional Services Firms appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

This fundamental truth is why so many “proven” lead-generation tactics fall flat in our world. A flashy giveaway or a generic email blast might generate clicks, but it rarely generates a qualified conversation with a C-level executive who needs sophisticated accounting, legal, or consulting advice. The result? The marketing team sinks time and budget into campaigns that fizzle out, and firm leaders wonder why the pipeline isn’t growing.

The problem isn’t the desire to grow. It’s the lack of a disciplined, repeatable system. A successful lead-generation campaign isn’t a one-off marketing sprint. It’s a carefully architected engine that works in concert with your business development teams, experts and leadership.

What Is a Lead-Generation Campaign?

A lead-generation campaign is a process firms use to generate interest in a service or product with the goal of capturing leads. Some campaigns will go further and nurture these captured contacts until they become marketing qualified leads. (More on this in a moment.)

This post will walk you through the four essential phases of building and running that engine—from foundational strategy to post-campaign analysis—so you can move from random acts of marketing and “just checking the box” to a predictable source of high-quality leads for your firm.

Phase 1: Build a Strategic Foundation – Before You Write a Single Word

Too many campaigns begin with tactics (“Let’s do a webinar!”). This is the marketing equivalent of building a house without a blueprint. The most successful campaigns are won or lost long before they go live.

1. Define “Success” with Precision

The first question shouldn’t be “What should we do?” but “What does a win look like?” For professional services, a “lead” is a slippery term. A thousand downloads of a whitepaper means nothing if none of them are from your target buyers or if your business development team deems them all unqualified.

So let’s explore the three types of leads you will encounter (note: some firms define these terms slightly differently):

• Raw Lead (or New Contact): Any person who is added to your list for the first time. You may know nothing more about them than their name and email address. They may or may not be a good long-term prospect.
• Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL): A contact who fits your ideal client profile (ICP) and has taken a meaningful action (e.g., a director of finance at a mid-market manufacturing firm who downloads your M&A readiness checklist).
• Sales Qualified Lead (SQL): An MQL that has been vetted and accepted by the business development team as worthy of direct, personal follow-up. They have a potential need, and they appear to be ready to buy from a firm like yours.

Your Goal: Your campaign goal shouldn’t be “Generate leads.” It should be something like: “Generate 75 MQLs and 15 SQLs from the biotech sector in Q4, leading to at least 5 initial discovery calls.” By being specific, you can budget for the activities you believe will be required to achieve this outcome. More importantly, specific goals provide real numbers your business development team can target—and which you can use to measure the success of the campaign.

2. Develop Your Ideal Client Profile (ICP) and Personas

You know your target industries, but have you gone deeper? Your ICP is the firmographic description of your perfect-fit client (e.g., privately held construction companies with $50M-$200M in annual revenue in the Southeast).

Buyer personas are the people you are targeting within that company. What is the Head of Operations at that construction company worried about? Is it supply chain disruption, labor shortages, or new compliance regulations? What questions is she typing into Google at 10 PM? Where does she get her information—industry journals, LinkedIn groups, peer-to-peer roundtables?

Your entire campaign—the offer, the messaging, the channels—must be laser-focused on solving a specific problem for this specific person.

Phase 2: Building the Campaign Engine – The Core Components

With a solid strategy, you can now build the assets. The key is to create a frictionless journey from initial interest to conversion.

1. The Compelling Offer

This is the centerpiece of your campaign. It cannot be a thinly veiled sales pitch or a brochure in PDF form. It must provide genuine value and showcase your firm’s unique expertise—typically a piece of thoughtful educational content. It should answer a burning question for your target persona. And ideally, it should provide a perspective that is unique to your firm.

Examples of high-value offers:

• A Benchmark Report: “The 2025 State of Cybersecurity Readiness for Regional Financial Institutions.”
• A Diagnostic Tool or Calculator: “Calculate the True Cost of Employee Turnover in Your Consulting Firm.”
• A Deep-Dive Whitepaper or Guide: “The General Counsel’s Guide to Navigating New Data Privacy Legislation.”
• A High-Value Webinar: Host a discussion with a client and another industry expert (not a sales pitch!) on a pressing topic.

The goal of the offer is to make your prospect think, “This firm understands my world.”

2. The High-Conversion Landing Page

This is where your prospect “pays” for your offer with their contact information. It should be ruthlessly simple and focused on driving the user to perform a single action: fill out the form. This simple action builds your targeted list.

• Headline: Must have a clear connection to the ad or email they clicked on and explain the value of the offer.
• Body Copy: Keep it short. Don’t hesitate to use bullet points to highlight the key takeaways or benefits. What will they learn?
• The Form: Only ask for what you absolutely need. Name, company, title, and business email are usually sufficient. Every extra field you add will depress your conversion rate. In some cases where you plan to build engagement over time—an email newsletter, for instance—name and email may be enough.
• Social Proof: Include a testimonial or logos of recognizable clients, if appropriate.
• No Distractions: If possible, remove the main website navigation and any other links that could lead the visitor away from the form.

3. The Promotion Channels

How will you drive your target audience to the landing page? A multi-channel approach is almost always best if you have the budget and bandwidth to pull it off.

• Email Marketing: Segment your house list and send a targeted email to the most relevant contacts.
• LinkedIn: This is the main social media channel for B2B professional services. Consider using a combination of organic posts from your firm’s subject matter experts and paid ads targeted by job title, industry, company size, and (if appropriate) geography.
• Partner/BD Enablement: Equip your partners and business developers with a simple “toolkit” (pre-written email and social media copy) so they can easily share the campaign with their personal networks.
• Strategic Partnerships: Co-host a webinar or co-author a report with a non-competing firm that serves the same audience.

Phase 3: The Nurture Sequence – Where Most Lead-Gen Campaigns Fail

Getting the download is not the finish line. In fact, it’s the starting line. The vast majority of leads are not ready to buy the moment they download your guide. The follow-up is what separates successful campaigns from expensive exercises.

This is where the MQL-to-SQL handoff protocol you established in Phase 1 becomes critical.

1. The Instant Delivery: The moment someone fills out the form, they should receive an automated email that delivers the asset. This is a basic expectation.
2. The Nurture Sequence: This is your secret weapon. Create a short, automated series of 3-4 emails spaced out over the following 2-3 weeks. The goal is not to pester people for a meeting. The goal is to build trust by providing more value. Here’s an example of what a nurture sequence might look like (I’ve simplified the messaging for clarity):
   • Email 1 (Day 0): Deliver the asset.
   • Email 2 (Day 3): “Hope you found the guide useful. Here’s a short blog post that dives deeper into Section 3.”
   • Email 3 (Day 8): “We recently published a case study on how we helped a company just like yours solves [name a business problem]. Thought you might find it relevant.”
   • Email 4 (Day 15): The “soft” call-to-action. “If you’re currently wrestling with [name the business problem again], I’ve opened up a few 20-minute slots on my calendar for a no-obligation strategy discussion. No sales pitch, just a chance to brainstorm.
3. The Handoff Trigger: Define what behavior elevates a lead from a “nurture” track to needing a personal touch. Did they click through on multiple emails? Did they visit your firm’s “Contact Us” or service pages after downloading the asset? When this trigger is hit, your marketing automation platform should alert the designated business development team member for direct, personalized follow-up.

Phase 4: Measure, Analyze, and Optimize

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. At the end of your campaign’s active period, conduct a “post-mortem” to analyze performance and extract lessons to improve your next one.

Track these key metrics:

• Landing Page Conversion Rate: How many visitors filled out the form? A good starting benchmark is 20-25%.
  • Conversion Rate = Total Landing Page Visitors / Number of Form Submissions ​× 100%
• Cost Per Lead (CPL): Total campaign spend divided by the number of leads generated.
• MQL-to-SQL Rate: What percentage of the leads you generated were accepted by the BD team? This is a crucial indicator of lead quality.
• Lead-to-Client Conversion Rate: The ultimate test. How many of these leads eventually became paying clients? (In the long professional services sales cycle, this can take months or even years to track).
• Campaign ROI: This is the metric your partners truly care about.
  • ROI = (Gain from Investment − Cost of Investment)​ / Cost of Investment × 100%

Don’t just look at the quantitative data. Talk to your business development team. Which leads were the best conversations? Why? What titles or industries were a waste of time? This qualitative feedback is gold. Use it to refine your ICP, your personas, and your messaging for the next campaign.

From Cost Center to Revenue Driver

Running a lead-generation campaign this way—with strategic discipline, a focus on value and a tight process for follow-up and measurement—transforms the marketing function. You move from being a “cost center” responsible for brochures and the firm’s holiday party to a strategic partner who is building a predictable, scalable engine for growth. It takes work, but the results can drive a healthy pipeline and exceptional growth.

The post How to Run a Successful Lead Generation Campaign appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

You may be wondering why I–and my team–go to all that trouble. And in this world of LinkedIn and TikTok, aren’t email newsletters a bit, um, old school?

In actuality, Pivot has been an unqualified success on every front. I write Pivot for five reasons:

1. I can speak directly to Hinge’s most engaged audience—people who have already joined our list.
2. It allows me to write about a wide range of topics relevant to people interested in what we at Hinge think.
3. It starts conversations. When I send out a new edition of Pivot, I often get emails from readers who have follow-on questions or comments. Some simply want to appreciate what I wrote.
4. It keeps my firm top of mind. When one of my readers is ready to buy marketing or branding services, Hinge is at the tip of their tongue.
5. It drives new opportunities and real revenue. It’s not uncommon for readers to reach out and begin business development discussions or request a proposal. Sometimes this interest is spurred by a specific article topic. Other times it comes from the accumulated trust built up over time after reading Pivot and other publications we produce. And here’s the really amazing thing: more often than not, there aren’t any competitors in the picture. We’ve been pre-qualified!

If there is one takeaway from this experience, it’s this: Teachers are marketers, and marketers are teachers.

Your clients are always on the lookout for answers to their business problems. When you freely share your expertise with the world, amazing things can happen. You establish good will and establish trust—and your revenue grows. It’s a smart way to invest your time.

Is a newsletter a good fit for your organization? That depends on whether you can commit to writing a thoughtful article on a regular schedule. Once you set a cadence for your newsletter, people begin to expect it—and even look forward to it. I’ve found that a weekly cadence works really well, but that might be too aggressive for many experts and firms. In that case, consider twice or even once a month. If you publish less frequently than that, many readers may forget about you, leading to fewer opens and more unsubscribes.

Let me pause for a moment and make one thing clear. When I say newsletter, I’m talking about a specific type—a single educational article. There are many other kinds of email newsletters out there, from company announcements to industry news to curated links of third-party content. While those may or may not have a place in your email marketing program, they don’t build long-term loyalty like an ongoing series of practical thought-leadership pieces.

You may be wondering why not simply publish the articles as blog posts? Well, you can! Newsletters articles can, and usually should, be repurposed as blog posts, too. That way, they target two audiences: 1) the people on your newsletter email list; and 2) people who search online for the topics you write about.

You can even take one more step and do what we do: publish the articles on LinkedIn to expand your reach even further. If you set it up as a newsletter your audience can subscribe, providing another way for people to be exposed to your expertise on a continual basis.

How Do You Publish an Email Newsletter?

Every email service provider (ESP) or marketing automation platform offers this capability. ESPs also include subscriber management tools, including automated handling of bounces and unsubscribes, as well as real-time analytics. Many will even allow you to test different subject lines when you schedule your send.

It’s often a good idea to add a subscription form to your website. This can live in the footer of your website, in offers across your site or in a popup window. To minimize friction, keep the required information to a minimum—just an email address is usually sufficient, though you could ask for a first and last name, as well.

As a reader of Pivot, you already appreciate the power of an educational email newsletter. It’s a great way to disseminate your expertise to a receptive audience, while contributing to your firm’s bottom line. And there’s no reason you can’t produce a newsletter of your own. If you can stick to the schedule you set for yourself and deliver interesting, well-written content, you’ll soon discover that there is a strong appetite out there for what you think and say. And you’ll discover, to your delight, that teaching is a fun and rewarding way to do business development.

The post Do Email Newsletters Generate Leads? appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

In this article, we explore the traditional referral. This is the kind that happens when a satisfied client tells someone else about your firm, usually after being asked for a recommendation. It can also happen when a peer, colleague, or strategic partner (say, a PE firm, accounting firm or industry association you are affiliated with) is asked.

If yours is like most professional services firms, you get a lot of these referrals. They may even be your primary source of new business.

But here’s something you may not know. On average, most firms only hear from 2 out of every 10 referrals.

Whoa! That’s an 80% whiff rate. You wouldn’t last long in the major leagues if that were your batting average.

What’s going on here?

There are multiple reasons referrals fail to reach out to you. And almost all of them are the result of indirect signals a prospect receives. For instance, the very first step the vast majority of prospects take once they’ve been referred is to visit that firm’s website. The signals they receive from this experience can be positive (“Yes, these folks look promising!”) or negative (“I’m disappointed. They don’t look like a good fit.”).

Clearly, most referrals are getting the latter signals.

While your website is usually the culprit, there can be other other reasons, as well.

Here are five common reasons referrals go unfulfilled—and how to address each problem.

1. You don’t appear to offer the services they were looking for.

This is the number one reason a referral goes awry. A person gets to your website and can’t find the service or solution they need. It may be there, but difficult to locate. Or it may be written in a way that is vague, confusing or difficult to understand. Or it’s not there at all because you haven’t updated that web page in five years.

How to fix it: Make sure your website navigation—especially in the services section—is easy to use and clearly labeled. Also be sure to describe your services in plain language, avoiding insider jargon as much as possible. Oh, and keep your services up to date!

2. You are too salesy.

Nobody likes to be up-sold. But many websites—and some business development professionals—push a solution without first making clear that they are here to help.

How to fix it: Clearly communicate that you listen, are flexible and genuinely want to be part of their success story. Do this by showcasing messaging around the problem your clients are trying to solve rather than messaging around your great people or proprietary process.

3. Your website is _____ [outdated, unimpressive, confusing, etc.].

If you haven’t gotten the memo yet, your website is the most important marketing and business development tool available to you. You only have one chance to make a great first impression, and when it comes to referrals, this is it. Don’t blow it.

How to fix it: Redesign your website. Use a reputable agency that knows your industry. This is not the place to cut corners.

4. You look and sound the same as everyone else.

Buyers don’t have it easy. When they are shopping for a service that might cost them tens or hundreds of thousands—even millions—of dollars, they can’t afford to choose unwisely. They are looking for a firm that stands above the rest. If your website and messaging look and sound like dozens of other firms in your category, you aren’t going to make a statement. Or make the cut.

How to fix it: Make sure your brand, website and messaging convey a strong, differentiated message. This isn’t always an easy task. If you aren’t sure how you are different or how to present your firm as highly credible and desirable, you may need to bring in experts to guide you.

5. They’ve never heard of you.

Hiring an unknown firm can feel risky. A referral is far more likely to reach out if your name is familiar. Think of it as a second opinion—a critical confirmation that your firm is a legitimate option.

How to fix it: The problem here is lack of visibility. The majority of small and mid-size professional services firms suffer from this challenge. You can tackle the visibility problem from several angles. First, make key experts in your organization more visible. Individual experts can usually achieve greater reach and engagement more easily than a “faceless” firm. They also allow your buyers to experience your expertise firsthand, giving you a tremendous advantage against other firms. You can also invest in advertising—both digital and traditional—and sponsorships to build brand awareness. The more people see your name and logo, the more likely they are to recognize you. And the more people recognize you, the more likely they are to consider you a trustworthy option.

Are you getting all the referral love you deserve? Then why not set your firm up for success?

The post Why Referrals Fail appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

It’s pretty commonplace to keep track of active referral sources. But what you may not know is that many referrals come from people you’ve never even met.

Wait! How can that be?

We call these invisible referrals. And they are a happy byproduct of something the best-performing firms make a priority: thought leadership. Here’s how it works:

Someone—let’s call her Sophia—follows you for months, maybe years. She reads your blog posts and books. She attends your webinars. She visits your website to learn all about you. Over time, she begins to trust you and considers you an authority on your area of expertise.

Then one day, something interesting happens. A colleague at another business—we’ll call him Matt—is having lunch with Sophia and asks if she knows of a good firm that solves a particular kind of business problem his company has. Sophia’s face lights up and she says something like, “Well, I’ve never used this firm before, but they have a fantastic reputation. They are leading specialists in that very area.”

Matt thanks her and asks for the firm’s name. When he gets back to the office, he pulls up their website and takes a look around. He sees that they have worked with some reputable clients, reads a few glowing testimonials, then dives into a relevant case study. He checks out the leadership team and heads over to the blog to see what they are writing about. He’s impressed. Sophia may be on to something.

A few weeks pass. At a team meeting, the business problem comes up again. Matt tells the group he actually may have a solution. He describes the company to the group and the team gives Matt the green light to reach out and learn more.

The next day, Matt calls the number on the website and is transferred to a friendly person who handles business development. “Where did you hear about us,” she asks? Matt pauses. Sophia was never a client of this business, so can he say she was a referral? That might be awkward. Instead, he says, “I found you on the web.”

And that’s how an invisible referral can happen.

Invisible referrals are just as powerful as the traditional kind. And they have one big advantage—they have nothing to do with how many clients you have. If you can build a large enough following (and that is a very achievable goal), you can generate as many, or more, invisible referrals as you do regular ones.

Let me call your attention to three ingredients that make invisible referrals possible:

1. The firm must have a robust and visible thought leadership program. There must be enough high-quality educational material on your website to build a following and keep them coming back. Your best experts should be actively involved either producing the content or working with professional writers to ensure each piece is insightful, contains a point of view and is accurate. Finally, SEO, promotion on social media and other techniques make your investment visible and accessible to the world.
2. Your website has to be appealing, differentiated and well organized. There’s nothing like an uninspired or difficult-to-navigate website to turn off a first-time visitor or discourage a potential referral. Your website has to inspire confidence and provide the kind of experience that makes the person referring you look great.
3. Your website must showcase proof that you are who you claim to be. This means testimonials, success statistics, client logos, and well-written case studies. Without these, a new prospect will wonder if you have the experience to deliver success.

What about you? Are you set up to support invisible referrals?

The post Invisible Referrals: The Revenue Source You Didn’t Know About appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

As someone who has organized, promoted, and produced over 100 webinars at Hinge, you can imagine that I hold some strong perspectives on webinars as a marketing strategy. When they are well-organized, promoted to the right audience and integrated into a larger marketing system, webinars are excellent opportunities for nurturing relationships with prospects, showcasing your firm’s experts and leaving a lasting impression on the products and services your company can provide.

However, the effectiveness of webinars largely depends on the approach taken by organizers. As easily as webinars can help bolster your firm’s credibility, they can also turn people away from your brand. I’ll give you an example.

Just last week, I registered for a webinar on a topic that interested me. Not even 24 hours had passed before a sales development representative emailed me to sell me their software. The webinar hadn’t even happened yet! It was clear to me that I was just another number in a large automated system.

This experience inspired me to write this article and share a better approach to producing educational webinars. So in this article, I’ll unpack everything I’ve learned over the years on how you can leverage educational webinars as a lead generator while still emphasizing the importance of nurturing relationships within your audience.

Five Benefits of Producing Educational Webinars

The webinar and virtual event industry is booming right now. With the global market value of this space projected to reach $4.44 billion by 2025, there’s no doubt that virtual events and webinars are here to stay. And for good reason!

Leading the webinar charge are the fastest growing professional services companies. Data from the latest edition of Hinge’s High Growth Study showed 41% of High Growth Firms use educational webinars as a part of their marketing strategy. Only 15% of No Growth Firms participate. The story doesn’t end there though as the data reports that High Growth Firms receive a net positive return on their investment in webinars.

So what are some reasons why educational webinars have become mainstay components of many high growth marketing programs? Let’s consider five reasons.

1. Showcasing Your Experts

The top evaluation criteria professional services buyers use to make a buying decision are industry knowledge and subject matter expertise. When conducted with the intent of educating your audience, webinars are one of the best platforms for your firm’s experts to shine. In a 45-60 minute presentation, your experts can go in-depth on a problem faced by your customers and provide them with valuable perspectives and solutions that reinforce your firm’s capabilities.

2. Interactive Environment

Educational webinars are more than just a platform for disseminating information. They serve as interactive environments where your firm’s top experts can connect directly with your audience. Webinars features like live chat and Q&A invite your prospects to interact with you in a way other marketing channels cannot. We highly encourage those who conduct webinars to prioritize taking questions from the audience as early into the webinar session as possible.

3. Customer Data and Feedback

Webinars are also a terrific medium to gain valuable insights into your audience, including who they are and what they care about most. Beyond the registration data you acquire, features like poll questions and post-webinar surveys position you to gain a deeper understanding of your audience. For example, in my post-webinar survey I always invite attendees to tell me what they wish we had covered but didn’t.

4. Highly Repurposable

Modern marketing systems continue to grow in complexity. Therefore it’s imperative that marketers prioritize creating content that is repurposable. Webinar recordings are great pieces of content that can be clipped for social media videos, turned into blog posts, etc… And after the webinar is over, the on-demand recording can be published on your website as a gated piece of content for others to find at a later date.

5. Offer Strategy

Don’t turn your educational webinars into sales pitches or product demonstrations. However, it’s okay to briefly share with your audience the solutions your firm provides and provide a next step for engagement. We’ll touch on this more below.

The benefits of producing high-quality education webinars are many. By addressing specific challenges during webinars, you not only provide value but also demonstrate that your firm offers tailored solutions. Attendees should leave understanding that your firm is highly qualified to solve a specific challenge they face.

The Primary Challenge of Conducting Webinars

If webinars are so impactful, why don’t more companies produce them? I wager it’s because of the challenge of generating registrations. No one is interested in planning an event for an empty room. And who can blame them?

While there are many techniques to drive registration to an upcoming webinar, the most reliable tool is your email marketing system. Here I’m speaking specifically about using an existing, mailable email list full of prospects who already want to hear from you (i.e, they have opted in). Purchased lists, while not totally ineffective, are far less likely to drive registrations with the caliber of prospect you’re seeking to connect with during a webinar. And because they contain contacts who have given permission to receive email from your firm, these lists also tend to run afoul of privacy laws.

So what do you do if your company does not have access to a mailable list of the right audience?

We recommend that you seek out marketing partnerships with companies who do have direct reach through their email marketing system. Webinars are great platforms for collaboration and partnership. Many firms actively seek external experts and professionals to join them as panelists on their webinars. If you and your marketing partner target the same audience, this can be a great way to build visibility and start building a list.

Webinars and the Marketing Funnel

One thing every marketing leader needs to understand is the primary role webinars can play in your full marketing system. Can they be good for building visibility? Yes. Can they function as a strong lead generator? Also, yes. However, the primary purpose of webinars is to establish trust and build credibility with your audience. Let’s unpack this with more detail.

There are many models for visualizing a buyer’s journey. The most fundamental way to visualize it is to think of it as a three-part funnel: At the top, you attract new prospects through visibility-building initiatives; in the middle, you nurture relationships with those who are already familiar with your brand; at the bottom, you sales with those who have identified themselves as interested in buying your services.

One common mistake with educational webinars is to force them to play a role that they aren’t naturally built to perform. This usually occurs when firms think of their webinars as opportunities to deliver a sales pitch to a captive audience. I’ve experienced this myself at least a dozen times, and it almost always feels like a bait and switch.

An interesting topic catches my attention in my email inbox, I register, I put it on my calendar and join the webinar—only to encounter very limited helpful information and a tight sales pitch. More egregious scenarios would be like the one I outlined in the introduction where apparently my registration data was passed to the company’s SDR before the webinar. This is a limited approach because it only targets clients who are ready to make a buying decision. Everyone else will be turned off—and many will drop out early.

We prefer a model that appeals to prospects at all stages of the funnel. This is why we put our emphasis on the middle of the funnel where webinars function as an opportunity to experience our expertise in action and receive valuable insights. We want all registrants and attendees to feel like their time was respected, that they learned something useful, and that engaging with our brand was worth their time.

Generating Leads During Webinars

Even when your primary goal is to establish trust and nurture relationships, there are still opportunities to generate leads in a way that is natural and non-salesy. When you do it right, you can generate leads both during and after the webinar.

During a webinar there are a few key ways you can position your firm and your experts to build relationships and generate leads. Let’s discuss some specifics:

Professional Opening and Speaker Introductions

Getting your webinar and its on-demand recording started with a positive momentum is essential to a good webinar. I’ve attended far too many webinars where the organizer/host either dragged out the introduction section for too long or simply brushed past the opening moments with zero context. In both cases, this is a missed opportunity. Organize your introduction, announcements, and panelist introductions in a way that is concise, easy-to-follow, and gets attendees excited.

Here are some pro tips on starting webinars:

• Start the event on time. Do not “wait for more people” to join before you go through the announcements. Some attendees will always be late. Respect the time and act as if you are presenting to a full room from the very beginning.
• Script out your introduction including panelist introductions. This should be customized to a degree for every webinar. While I repurpose some portions of my webinar introductions, I always modify them to explain the theme of the webinar.
• Encourage Q&A from the very beginning, multiple times. We like to say that we’ll take questions during the webinar, at the end of the session, or by email after the webinar. You want people to submit questions as early as possible.

Invite LinkedIn Connections

Generating leads doesn’t happen all at once. Try inviting your audience to connect with your firm’s experts directly on LinkedIn. You’ll open more doors and build relationships that extend beyond the webinar session. When you introduce your webinar speakers, provide their LinkedIn and other relevant social media accounts on the screen so that attendees can take a next step and reach out to them. We always share a slide with the expert panelists’ contact information at the beginning and end of every webinar.

Conduct Polls

When it comes to lead generation, short polls might be the most significant feature you can use during a webinar section. There are two benefits to asking poll questions.

1. The attendee responses can help guide the conversation of the webinar. Attendees are always joining a webinar from their unique situation. By conducting polls, you can understand where your audience is and tailor the conversation in ways that meet the audience’s expectations.
2. By asking the right poll questions you can collect additional data, which can help you qualify whether or not a webinar attendee might be a good lead. Sending a list of registration data to your business development team is like playing darts with a blindfold on. Polls can help separate the wheat from the chaff—so that you don’t waste time reaching out to unqualified prospects.For example, recently I asked what kind of research our audience planned to do in the near future to support their marketing planning efforts. The top response was competitive analysis research. This was an unexpected result. And it was helpful because our speakers were able to devote more time to the topic of competitive analysis. Moreover, it was helpful for us to see which of our attendees were thinking about competitive analysis. For those who were considering taking the next step with us, it was helpful to understand that competitive analysis was a priority for them.

Final Call to Action

Toward the end of the webinar, provide a clear and compelling call to action (CTA). Depending on your company’s services, this could be an offer for a consultation, a product demo, or even a simple request to connect for further discussion. We have found the most success when using another poll question to gauge interest in these offers.

While we recommend you save this final ask for the end of the webinar, you may also use the chat feature in the webinar to invite people to speak with your team directly after the webinar. A post-webinar survey is another great place to allow people to express interest in speaking further with your company.

Managing Leads and Prospects After the Webinar

Once your webinar has concluded, your team should follow up with your attendees in ways that make sense.

You’ll almost certainly want to send the webinar recording to everyone who registered for the webinar (even—especially!—those who didn’t attend). Most webinar systems can automate this process, but we recommend that you use your own email marketing system instead. That way, you can customize your message. In this follow up email, you can also include other helpful resources or offers. We recommend these emails come from one of the expert panelists.

Beyond the follow up email, there are a number of other activities you can do to maximize your investment in the webinar:

Analyze Webinar Performance

Start by analyzing your webinar’s performance data. Identify the attendees who engaged the most, those who responded to the poll questions, and read through any relevant post-webinar survey responses. Is there any feedback you need to provide to your expert panelists? Are there things mentioned you should change for future webinars? Regardless of what webinar features you’ve implemented, you always want to make sure that you analyze webinar performance data and track metrics that matter the most. In this way, you can improve performance over time.

Differentiate Leads and Prospects

Not all webinar attendees are created equal. Work with relevant team members to comb through the list of attendees and categorize them into two lists: leads and prospects. Leads are those who have expressed a clear interest in your services, either through poll responses or direct inquiries. Prospects are individuals who fit your ideal client profile but may require more nurturing.

Leads can go to your sales and business development resources for next steps and direct outreach. In many cases, these individuals may be expecting outreach from your team.

Names of prospects can go to the expert panelists for continued engagement. Perhaps they can send a short email or LinkedIn request thanking them for their engagement in the session. However your reach out, remember that the goal is to build a relationship, not close a sale.

Roles and Responsibilities

You may have a variety of different tasks after the webinar is over. Designate one person as the captain and assign specific roles to your team members. Leads can be passed to your sales development representatives (SDRs) or sales team for immediate follow-up. Prospects, on the other hand, require a more personalized approach and it is up to the organizer to understand the nature of the opportunity and determine the best course of action. One thing to note is that those who presented during the webinar as expert panelists should play an active role in connecting with prospects.

The Main Point

Webinars are a potent tool for lead generation but they should prioritize establishing trust and nurturing relationships with your audience. It’s crucial to resist the urge to turn your webinars into a production centered around your products and services. This approach will appeal to a very narrow audience and potentially turn away many of your attendees who only want to learn.

Instead, use webinars to connect with your audience, provide them with relevant insights, and bolster the visibility and reputation of your firm’s Visible Experts. Webinars should be a win-win for you and your audience. You showcase your expertise and engage directly with your attendees, and they learn in a low-pressure environment.

Want to see how we do it here at Hinge? Access any of our upcoming or on-demand webinar recordings here on our website. If you have any questions about our approach or need further guidance to make webinars a cornerstone of your professional services marketing strategy, feel free to reach out to us. We’d love to hear from you!

The post Leveraging Educational Webinars: Building Credibility, Not Just Leads appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

A professional services lead generation website presents some unique challenges. It must build trust and credibility while describing complex and technical services offerings.

If you aren’t careful, a lead generating websites can come across as pushy, eroding your credibility. So you have to take care to build the brand at the same time as you are generating new leads.

While a bit tricky, it is well worth the effort. Our research shows that firms that master online lead generation grow 4X faster and are 2X more profitable.

So how do they do it? Here are 10 tips for planning a successful lead generation website for your firm.

1. Start with a content marketing model. While there are exceptions, most professional services firms have a content marketing approach that is the model or framework upon which the lead generation website is conceptualized and designed. The model we use (see the figure below) recognizes that you must attract, nurture and convert visitors if you are going to convert them into clients. You do this with content.

2. You must have a content strategy. Your strategy will specify what type of content will be useful to your target clients at various stages of the buying process. In the early stages of engagement, that content must be optimized for search engines (SEO) so potential clients can find it. As the nurturing cycle progresses, greater involvement and interaction is needed to build trust. A content strategy lays this out and identifies exactly what is needed at each stage.

3. An offer strategy is also needed. How do you move prospects through the buying process? What types of offers are required at each stage? Where do they appear on the website to facilitate maximum lead generation? What do the offers look like and how are they worded? These are the types of questions you will need to address in an offer strategy. The offer strategy is a roadmap to convert great content into actual leads.

4. The content needs a home on your website. Typically this is a section called Resources or Library or Insights. It is a place where a growing portfolio of content can be organized so it can be easily found and indexed by the search engines. Over time, it will become the most valuable section of your lead generating website.

5. You will need a blog. Why? Because this is the easiest and best way to add fresh, valuable content to your website. Each individual post becomes its own web page that is optimized for specific keywords using SEO techniques. These posts then attract new visitors and convert them to early stage leads when they respond to offers within each post. What are those offers? Effective offers usually promote a juicy piece of content, such as a whitepaper, study, executive guide, or webinar from the resources section of your website.

6. SEO is a must. We talked above about the need to use SEO to attract visitors to your content. But before that can happen, the individual content pages of your website must be optimized. But you should not stop there. You’ll need an ongoing link building process to increase the authority of your website. This is an ongoing cost, but it is a cost that pays great dividends in new business leads. SEO requires content. But content without SEO is of little value.

7. Email is an integral part of the process. Email is the way you reach out to your prospects and make additional offers that will convert them to higher levels of engagement. Think of it as your primary lead nurturing tool. Your email marketing efforts can be closely tied to the premium, gated content you have on your website.

8. Don’t forget social media. Wondering where social media fits into the lead generating website world? It plays two important roles. First, it is a great way to share and promote content. Second it is a way to directly engage prospects. It extends the boundaries of lead generation and nurturing beyond your website. If your website is the hub of your online activity, social media tools are the spokes.

9. Design in your brand. Great design should be reflective of your firm’s brand and help drive the desired user behavior. Don’t settle for a poor image simply to get more clicks. By the same token don’t sacrifice performance simply to look pretty. You can do both. Great brand design really is a competitive advantage.

10. Analytics and automation make it possible. I don’t believe it is possible to have a lead generation website without good analytics. Without them you do not know what is happening and will be very unlikely to be successful at lead generation. While automation of the process (so called marketing automation) is not absolutely essential, it is very, very helpful. Make an effort to learn about these tools and plan to integrate them into your lead generation website. Analytics and automation will make your lead generation program more successful and consistent.

As you step back and reflect on it, one thing becomes clear. A lead generating website is much more than just a website. It is an entire marketing process. You must plan and budget for it accordingly.

Free Resource

The Lead Generating Website Guide for Professional Services

Learn More

The post Planning a Lead Generation Website for Your Firm appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

Inbound lead generation’s potential is real, but it requires a radical shift in mindset, marketing priorities and financial investment. Sponsorships and in-person networking just aren’t going to cut it anymore. Instead, start thinking about an asset you already have—your team’s expertise—and how you can use that pool of knowledge to attract and engage an audience that wants what you have to offer.

Inbound Marketing Techniques Defined

Inbound marketing is the process of helping potential clients discover your firm by making your relevant expertise and insights easy to find. It allows prospects to encounter you, in the channels they prefer, when they are ready to learn and engage. Inbound marketing messages tend to be educational in nature rather than self-promotional. 

By giving away some of your knowledge for free, you can quickly build a prospect’s trust. When they are ready to buy the kinds of services you offer, they are likely to think of you—their trusted resource—first.

Inbound marketing contrasts with outbound marketing, where you try to locate potential clients and interrupt them to gain their attention and deliver your marketing message. Outbound messages are typically more self-promotional and focused on your products or services and less focused on the client’s issues.

Advantages of Inbound Marketing

An inbound marketing strategy has many advantages over traditional marketing. Here are just a few:

• Prospects engage when they are ready, so you don’t have to convince them of a need
• Since they are self-selected, prospects tend to be more motivated
• Your content can explain your thinking and approach, so when prospects reach out, they are looking for exactly what you are offering
• Inbound leads are typically easier to close
• It’s often less costly than outbound marketing
• It expands your reach to new markets and prospects—including people you weren’t even aware of before and never would have found you otherwise

Top 21 Inbound Marketing Techniques

How do you put all the advantages of inbound marketing to work for your firm? Try incorporating some or all of the following top techniques into your marketing program.

1. Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (often just called SEO) is the process of making your online content, such as blog posts and services pages, easy to find through search engines like Google. As much art as science, SEO can involve a wide range of tactics (such as keyword research, page optimization and link building) to achieve its ultimate goal: delivering a steady stream of high-quality traffic to your website.

How you might use it: No inbound marketing strategy can ignore SEO. If you publish educational blog content, use keyword research to make your blogging more strategic. Then use on-site and off-site techniques to build visibility for your content.

2. Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Another way to drive qualified traffic to your website and generate inbound leads is to invest in pay-per-click advertising (PPC). Most commonly used on search platforms like Google and Bing, PPC allows you to appear on relevant search results pages for search terms of your choice. Unlike the traditional advertising model, you pay only when someone clicks on your ad. You have complete control over your target audiences, keywords and budget. Once you have your campaign set up, it works immediately. And you can track results in real time.

How you might use it: Many companies use PPC to supplement their SEO program. If you aren’t able to rank for certain critical keywords using SEO, you can target them with ads that look very much like organic search results. This technique is also very helpful when you need quick visibility, such as with a new product launch or rebranding exercise.

3. Lead-Generating Website

Driving traffic to your website and blog isn’t enough. You still need to convert that valuable traffic into leads. Unfortunately, most professional services websites aren’t set up to do this very well. A lead-generating website, on the other hand, makes it easy for a visitor to understand what you do, read, watch or download educational materials, and reach out if they have a need. This kind of website is not just about CTAs and conversions (though those are important). It is designed to be easy to read, ooze credibility and build trust.

How you might use it: We won’t beat around the bush: it’s almost impossible to have an effective inbound marketing strategy without a lead-generating website. If you aren’t ready to invest in a soup-to-nuts redesign, you can try retrofitting your current site with some of the features of a high-performance website. But eventually, you will probably want to rebuild it from scratch to deliver a powerful, cohesive experience.

4. Online Networking

There is still a place for in-person networking, but in most industries the spotlight has moved into the digital realm. From Facebook to Twitter to LinkedIn, there are well-established platforms where you can meet—and influence—hundreds or even thousands of potential clients. Like its analog counterpart, online networking centers on making connections with the right people, building a reputation and generating referrals, but it is far easier to scale and reach a large group of interested individuals. It has the added benefit of breaking down geographic barriers and exposing you to audiences in distant markets. 

How you might use it: Online networking is not magic. To achieve results it requires some dedication and a consistent approach. If you are new to it, or have only dabbled in the past, select just one platform and be realistic about the level of effort you can sustain. In almost every professional services industry, LinkedIn is your best bet. Try to add a few qualified new connections each week or two. Engage with other people’s content, and publish pieces of your own. When it makes sense, reach out to individual people in your pool of connections to further the relationship.

5. Webinars

Webinars offer almost all of the benefits of an in-person educational event, while adding a host of new advantages. Like an in-person seminar or educational training session, you can demonstrate your expertise, answer questions, and build a rapport with your audience. You can also collect attendees’ contact information so that you can follow up with relevant offers. But unlike in-person events, you can invite people from anywhere in the world, easily conduct live polls, include presenters from multiple locations, and record your presentation to engage people who weren’t able to attend. On top of all that, webinars are easy and cheap to produce.

How you might use them: Consider teaming up with a partner in a related industry that also serves your audience. They will bring their own audience to the presentation, expanding your reach. Or try presenting with a client who can bring a point of view that will resonate with your attendees. End each presentation with a call to action that gets people to take another step. This could be a downloadable piece of content or a free consultation. Experiment and see what works for you. 

6. Research Studies

A research study on your target client’s industry is one of the most powerful tools a firm can use to build credibility and position itself as a thought leader. Besides the valuable insights they gain, firms that use research as a marketing tool are seen as more knowledgeable and trusted for their expertise. Research studies also make exceptional lead generators. 

How you might use it: You can conduct your own original research, usually with the help of an experienced research partner. Or if that’s too rich for your budget, you can sponsor a study being conducted by a third-party. An even less expensive option is to license existing research. Whatever type of research you invest in, you can use it in many ways. You can provide reports for free download behind a contact form or, if you did custom research, you can offer it for sale. But that’s just the beginning. All that data can be used to inspire blog posts, webinars, speeches, social media posts, infographics and more. One study should provide months of material for your marketing program.

7. Online Marketing Videos

There is no more perfect inbound marketing medium for professional services firms than video. It allows your audience to see and hear your experts in a fully controlled environment. In this way, potential clients get a taste of what it might be like to work with your firm before they buy. That’s powerful.

How you might use it: Video can be used to deliver educational content, explain complex services or introduce a firm’s team of experts. High-value video content, such as how-tos, webinar recordings and short courses, can also be put behind a registration form to build your list and generate leads. You can even enlist clients to describe how your firm solved a thorny problem or contributed to their success. By the way, you don’t have to spend a fortune on video. Today, you have many options to choose from.

8. White Papers

White papers have been around for decades—and for good reason. Even today, they can be fantastic lead generation tools. People look to white papers for a serious exploration of a technical or practical topic in a compact format. And many people who need to understand an issue at that level of depth will gladly trade a small amount of personal information to access it. 

How you might use them: Promote white papers on your website, such as your homepage, applicable services pages and relevant blog posts. If you want to use them as an inbound lead generation tool, create a landing page with a short form to turn readers into new contacts for your email list. Another option is to distribute your white paper through a third-party service, expanding your visibility. The focus should be on educating your audience, not self-promotion. You are trying to build credibility and trust, not close the sale today.

9. Guides

Guides are similar to white papers, but they differ in two respects: 1) they tend to cover a broader topic in depth, often consisting of multiple chapters; and 2) they are usually less technical, speaking in plain English to an executive-level audience. A guide explores a topic in enough detail to give a senior-level influencer or decision-maker a high-level understanding. At the same time, they signal to the reader that your firm knows its stuff and would be well qualified to solve their problem.

How you might use them: Use guides to target executives similar to how you would white papers. White papers tend to have a more technical slant. Guides also make excellent lead nurturing content in email campaigns.

10. Ebooks

Like guides, ebooks explore an issue in depth, but they dive even deeper. While there is no minimum length for an ebook, most contain multiple chapters and run at least 50 pages. Many are full-length books running well over 100 pages. Works of this length have a great deal of perceived value, and people will gladly exchange personal information for a free digital copy. To increase the value of the free copy even more, you can use a print-on-demand publisher (such as Amazon KDP or Ingram Lightning Source) to produce physical copies that you sell on Amazon or at other stores. 

How you might use them: Promote your ebook in conventional on-page offers or in pop up offers. You can also market your ebook on your website like you would a traditionally published book, positioning your firm as thought leaders.

11. E-Newsletter

E-newsletters may sound like a quaint relic from a simpler time, but you don’t have to look very far to realize they are still going strong. Chances are, you subscribe to one or two or more, yourself. That’s because they work. The difference is, today you have a lot more platforms to launch yours. While many people use traditional email platforms, like MailChimp and Constant Contact, to deliver their e-newsletters, others have moved to integrated platforms such as Hubspot and Salesforce Pardot. Still others manage them on popular social media platforms like LinkedIn. Why are e-newsletters so effective? For one thing, they provide a dependable outlet for your thought leadership. And by their very nature, they keep you top of mind as new issues arrive on a regular schedule. 

How you might use them: E-newsletters should not be a vehicle for company news, new employee announcements and teambuilding pics. Only the most doting client will care about any of that. To be a truly valuable inbound lead generation technique, each issue should focus on a topic your clients and prospects care about. Usually this means educational content. Promote your newsletter on your website and social media. To minimize friction and encourage the most people to subscribe, require as little information as possible at signup. Many e-newsletters require nothing more than an email address.

12. Blogging

By itself, blogging isn’t really a lead generation technique. But as part of a larger system that includes SEO and gated valuable content, it is the most powerful driver of leads to your website. That’s because people who find your blog posts through Google are likely to be interested in other content on your website—especially if you promote a relevant free guide or whitepaper download alongside your post. That’s how you turn web visitors into leads. And if you get your SEO and blog strategy right, you’ll attract a lot of qualified prospects—people who are highly motivated and interested in your services.

How you might use it: Be sure to host your blog on your website, or you will waste all the Domain Authority “juice” it generates. Promote your posts on LinkedIn and Twitter to maximize your exposure. 

13. Guest Blogging

Your blogging activity doesn’t have to be restricted to your own blog—nor should it be. A great way to amplify your blogging strategy is to guest blog on respected, high-authority third-party sites. This strategy exposes you to new audiences and, if the blog allows it, can supply valuable backlinks to your website. It also helps position you as thought leaders in your industry.

How you might use it: Look for blogs that speak to your target audience. These could be standalone blogs, online business publications, industry organizations or businesses at the periphery of your industry (for example, attorneys and CPAs often serve the same clientele but don’t directly compete with each other). When you contribute to high Domain Authority blogs, you can often target keywords that you would otherwise have little hope of ranking for. 

14. Podcasting

Podcasts are more popular than ever, and this medium is only expected to grow. Fortunately, the cost of entry to podcasting is low—you can buy a quality microphone for less than $130 and several popular audio software apps are available for free (such as Audacity or Apple’s Garage Band). You’ll also need a podcast hosting service (many excellent low-cost options are available—we use Libsyn). A podcast is an excellent vehicle to showcase your firm’s expertise, build trust and connect, in a personal way, with your audience. If you distribute your episode to even one or two of the popular directories (such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or TuneIn), you have the potential to reach hundreds or thousands of new listeners—many of whom may never have heard of you before.

How you might use it: Use your podcast to explore current issues and trends that are important to your audience, discuss how you solve specific problems, interview other experts, or even invite clients to share their challenges. 

15. Visible Experts^®

Your firm is filled to the brim with experts. What if you could make some of them far more well known, even outside your marketplace? What effect would that have on your firm’s growth? At Hinge, we call these upwardly mobile individuals Visible Experts^®. They not only bring more visibility to your firm, they can often command higher fees. But that’s not all. Visible Experts also help your firm attract better, more profitable clients, close business faster and attract top talent. In short, they can elevate your firm to a new level of prominence. But how do you build your experts’ reputations? They can either follow a self-guided process or hire an outside consultant to mentor them and step them through the process.

How you might use it: If your firm is small, elevating even a single professional to Visible Expert status can make a huge difference. Larger firms may want to put a team of professionals through a formal program to multiply the impact.

16. Pop-up Offers On Your Website

Pop up offers aren’t just for B2C websites. They can be a powerful lead generation tool for professional services firms, too. Use them to convert your website and blog visitors into leads. If you use a flexible dedicated tool, such as OptinMonster, you can easily set up different offers that align with the content on your pages. 

How you might use them: Experiment with a variety of offers (many of these tools even allow you to conduct A/B tests) such as white papers, guides, e-newsletter subscriptions, webinar recordings, live demos and free consultations. Just be sure that each offer is relevant to the content on the page, includes clear, enticing benefits and requires the person to fill out a form to access the material.

17. Dedicated Landing Pages

An offer should always lead to a place where it’s fast and easy to complete the conversion. In most cases, this means a dedicated page with language that quickly orients the user, continues to “sell” the product and minimizes the roadblocks to completing the download or other action. 

How you might use them: Writing and optimizing landing pages is always as straightforward as you think. You may need to test different copy and visuals to optimize conversions. You can set up Google Analytics (or a CRM like Salesforce/Pardot or HubSpot) to see not only how many people reach the landing page, but how many actually follow through with the download. Some tools will even allow you to A/B test different landing page versions concurrently. 

18. Live Chat

Prospective clients are on your website every day. A live chat app gives them a way to interact with your team in real time (at Hinge, we use Olark, but many good options are available). Unlike chatbots, which rely on AI or preprogrammed responses, live chat allows web visitors to have conversations with designated employees. In marketing, responsiveness can be critical to a firm’s success. This low-friction tool allows people to ask questions and get answers right away, dramatically improving lead generation. 

How you might use it: In most cases, installing a Live Chat app is as simple as adding a plugin to your website. If you have a CRM, you may be able to integrate it with that, as well. To start, assign one or two people on your staff to monitor the chat app. Select people who are both familiar with your services and have business development skills. You’ll be surprised how often simple inquiries turn into serious opportunities.

19. Online Course

Today, more and more professionals are looking online for high-quality training and education. That makes producing an online course of your own an attractive inbound lead generation technique. Whether you hire a professional videographer or do it all in-house, producing an in-depth course on a topic of interest to your buyers can be a great way to widen your market exposure and show off your expertise. Now, producing a high-quality course takes a lot of planning, time and effort. You will need to navigate a large number of factors, including video, audio, slides and other visual aids, video hosting, quizzes (if you want them), worksheets or other supplemental materials, and the platform you will use to deliver your course to your online audience. But there are few better ways to show people how you think and solve problems. It’s not unusual for buyers of online courses to later become buyers of your services.

How you might use it: You can either give the course away as a powerful lead magnet and marketing tool, or you can sell it online as a self-serve product. Use the size and scope of your  course as a guide in making this decision. An 8-hour video course with quizzes and supplemental materials is a huge investment—and probably worth charging for. A 2-hour webinar-style training, on the other hand, is a perfect piece of valuable content to give away for the price of a name and email address. Whatever topic you choose to cover, make sure it is of real interest to your target audience and dovetails with a service you offer.

20. Email Nurture Sequences

While not technically a lead generation technique, an email nurture sequence makes your lead generation program far more effective. When you acquire a new email contact through any of the techniques described above, you can use a pre-programmed sequence of emails to send out highly relevant educational content over a period of days or weeks, as well as provide opportunities for the prospect to take a next step in the relationship. If you are a firm of any size, chances are you’ll need multiple email sequences to address different interests, service lines and audience segments. The benefits? You stay top of mind, keep your contacts engaged for a prolonged period of time and continue to provide the trust-building thought leadership that turns a casual interest in your firm into raging fandom.

How you might use them: You’ll need a tool designed to handle sequenced emails. Do you have a marketing automation platform such as Hubspot, Marketo or Pardot? Then you already have what you need. If not, look for a cloud-based tool specifically designed to deliver nurture sequences (ConvertKit is a popular option). If you have a library of educational content, look for pieces that would address a common issue or set of related issues. If you don’t have a library of content, create new content (it doesn’t have to be lengthy) or repurpose existing materials, such as blog posts, speeches and webinar recordings.

21. Digital PR

Digital Public Relations is a collection of techniques used to broaden your firm’s exposure, promote your thought leadership and strengthen your website’s Domain Authority. It can include many tactics, including publishing articles and press releases, engaging with reporters and providing expert answers to their questions, researching and addressing trending topics, building relationships with bloggers, podcasters and other influencers, developing greater social media presence, and more. Not long ago, Google’s Search Advocate John Mueller said that digital PR is even more important than technical SEO to your website. So ignore it at your own risk.

How you might use it: Digital PR can seem overwhelming at first. Start with one or two techniques and build from there. Don’t worry about churning out press releases—they’ll have little or no impact without a solid strategy behind them. Instead, try reaching out to a few influencers and see if they might be willing to publish a guest blog post or host one of your experts on their podcast. Perhaps you can arrange a joint webinar with a strategic partner. Small incremental steps can produce outsize results.

These 21 inbound lead generation techniques would make a formidable marketing plan by themselves. But if you have limited resources, you can still make great strides toward developing more quality inbound leads by picking a few to focus on. They don’t have to replace any traditional techniques that are working well for you today. In fact, high-growth firms almost always use a combination of digital inbound and traditional marketing tactics to reach a wider range of people. By accelerating your transition toward an inbound-forward marketing strategy, you will be better aligned with today’s buyers—and become an active participant in the way they find, learn to trust, vet and select their professional services partners. 

The post Top 21 Inbound Lead Generation Techniques appeared first on Hinge Marketing.