video marketing

New Storytelling Mastery Course: How to Tell Better Stories

Phil Ebiner — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 14:54:15 +0000

Phil Ebiner — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 12:15:02 +0000

Phil Ebiner — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 20:31:37 +0000

Why Referrals Fail

Elizabeth Harr — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 13:33:30 +0000

In the last few weeks, we wrote about invisible referrals—interest in your services that you either receive and attribute to the wrong source, or aren’t getting at all because you are not equipped to support the high expectations set by the referral.

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.

Understanding Brand Identity

Aaron — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 12:00:56 +0000

Brand identity is a frequently misunderstood concept. Much of this confusion comes from the loose and inconsistent use of brand terminology in the popular press—and even in the marketing industry itself. But “brand identity” not only has a very specific meaning, it is a powerful tool you can use to influence the way people think about your firm. The sooner you understand brand identity and what it can (and can’t) do, the sooner you can start improving your identity and changing how people perceive your firm.

Let’s start with a definition.

What is Brand Identity?

Your brand identity is the visual—and to a lesser extent, verbal—expression of your brand. It comprises eight components:

Company name
Logo
Tagline
Color Palette
Typography
Graphical Elements
Imagery
Voice

When used to support a brand strategy, your brand identity provides important visual cues that convey positive qualities and help allay concerns people may have about your brand. These qualities can be difficult to put into words, but they can be psychologically persuasive. For instance, a clean and modern identity can communicate a firm’s attention to detail and credibility.

When your audience combines these cues with other information—say, the messaging on your firm’s website or a presentation given by one of your principals—they begin to develop positive feelings about your brand. They start to trust you and associate your firm with particular things, such as specific expertise, a service offering or successful outcomes.

Each of a brand identity’s components should contribute incrementally to these associations and positive feelings. When thoughtfully designed, these elements build upon each other and communicate a coherent visual message. (We’ll explore each of these components a bit later in this article.)

Another critical role brand identity plays in a brand strategy is differentiation. Professional services firms have a hard enough time separating themselves from similar competitors—a distinctive identity can compel prospective buyers to notice you and perhaps take a second look.

Download the Rebranding Guide

How is Brand Identity Different from a Brand?

If brand identity is the visual part of your brand, your brand is the way people perceive and experience your firm. Think of your brand identity as an input and your brand as the output. Brand identity is not the only input, however. It works in concert with your differentiators, brand positioning, brand personality and brand messaging to influence the way the brand is perceived in the marketplace. Other influences on your brand include your customer service, online reviews, positive or negative press and how well the experience you produce matches the one you promise (your brand promise).

Jeff Bezos may have been the first to describe a brand like this: “A brand is what other people say about you when you aren’t in the room.” This is a useful way to think about your brand—and what it will take to shape what those people say about your firm. Brand identity is one of the best tools you have to sculpt those perceptions.

Elements of Brand Identity

Now, let’s examine the components of brand identity. Each plays a different role, but they deliver their greatest impact when deployed together. When they are conceived as part of a system that supports a firm’s brand positioning, the resulting brand identity speaks more loudly and with greater authority.

Of course, many firms develop their visual brand with little regard to strategy. They either cobble together a dog’s breakfast of mismatched components over time, or they copy the firms around them, choosing the false comfort of blending into the crowd.

But you can do better. Each component of your identity is an opportunity to influence the way people perceive your firm. And if you understand how these elements can deliver a unified experience, you can build an extraordinary, persuasive brand identity.

1. Name

Nothing is more essential to a brand than its name. Without a name, you can’t do marketing, and without marketing you can’t do business. Your name is your chief identifier and proxy for your firm. When someone thinks of your business, they express it first as your name. So it pays to choose your name carefully.

Naming has become a complicated process in which you navigate an archipelago of hazards—including trademark conflicts, originality, pronunciation, spelling, URL availability, and semantics—to arrive at a moniker that perfectly represents your firm. It’s a bewildering but rewarding journey.

Strong names tend to be short, memorable and easy to say and spell. They look and sound different from your competitors. Usually they are abstract or evocative, rather than literal descriptions of what you do.

Weak names are often long, prone to abbreviation, confusing or generic. In the professional services, for instance, firms are fond of stringing together partners’ names. What stokes their egos, however, chokes their brand. Clients, who have little patience for complexity, inevitably drop all but the initial name or, worse, collapse the whole kit and kaboodle into a sterile, impossible-to-protect acronym.

If you are considering renaming your business, hire a professional or agency with the experience, tools and good taste to steer you toward a powerful, differentiated name. It will put a sharper tip on your marketing strategy and stick more readily in the minds of prospects.

2. Logo

Your logo is one of the most visible and instantly recognizable components of your brand. And because it incorporates your name, your logo can, on occasion, stand on its own (for example, on the side of your building or on a sponsor board).

A logo has three jobs: 1) identify you; 2) differentiate you; and 3) help people remember you. That means it has to represent your firm visually, set you apart from competitors’ logos and do all this in a way that is interesting and easy to recall.

Most logos consist of two parts: a logotype (the name) and a symbol (the mark). Some logos don’t have a symbol at all. And at least a couple of brands have had success using a symbol alone (hint: think swoosh and partly eaten fruit). But unless you have millions to dump into advertising, don’t try that last one at home.

Many firms are reluctant to change their logos, even when they know they aren’t great. They believe that replacing it now would erase all the brand equity they’ve built over the years. But what they fail to realize is that their brand identity is much weaker without an inspiring admiral at its helm. An otherwise wonderful identity with a lousy logo is dragging an anchor: it will never get up to speed.

These firms also don’t understand what a wonderful opportunity a rebrand provides. It is one of the few times you can do something and people will actually take notice! This window of caring is brief, but it’s real. If you promote your new brand properly, prospects will look at you with fresh eyes—and perhaps with renewed interest.

3. Tagline

Not every firm has a tagline, and to be honest not every firm needs one. In fact, many firms use taglines that provide no value at all. But in many circumstances, a tagline can be a helpful tool, especially if serves one of these four functions:

Clarifying what you do
Expressing an important brand attribute
Articulating your positioning
Helping people remember you

Rarely, however, does a tagline achieve more than one of these functions.

Most often, a clarifying tagline is what we call a descriptor—a straightforward description of the services you provide. Accounting firms are particularly fond of descriptors (“CPAs & Advisors” and its variants is a common one). Descriptors can be particularly useful when a firm is trying to break into a new market where they aren’t yet known.

Some firms want to call out a salient attribute of their brand, and a tagline can be an excellent place to do that. Here are two examples that take this approach:

Prodigy: Bold ideas. Brought to Life.
Accenture: Let There Be Change

If you have a narrow or easy-to-express positioning, a tagline can be a terrific place to spell it out. For instance, one law firm that has a strong land use and zoning focus calls themselves “The land lawyers.” It doesn’t get clearer than that.

Finally, there is the category of taglines that are written to be memorable or help differentiate the brand. These may feature a clever play on words, a provocative question or a catchy phrase. Nike’s “Just do it” springs to mind. Capital One asks, “What’s in your wallet?” IBM delivers “Solutions for a small planet.” And accounting firm Cherry Bekaert runs with “Your guide forward.” What do these all have in common? They are simple and stick in the mind like bubblegum.

Download the Rebranding Guide

4. Color Palette

Of all the components in your brand identity, color is the most emotionally engaging. But be careful. While there has been plenty of research into how people react to different colors, you are probably better off looking to strategy rather than psychology when you choose which colors to associate with your brand. And please, don’t choose colors based on your CEO’s personal preference!

Why? Because color is critical tool you can use to differentiate your firm and set a mood for your brand. It’s an opportunity to take your identity in a fresh direction. How do you think UPS came to “own” the color brown? Brown, after all, is not exactly everybody’s first, second or even third favorite color. In fact, the company chose the color way back in 1916 to reflect “class, elegance and professionalism,” like a fine Pullman car. Today, the company has completely embraced the color, turning it into their most iconic identifier and making it the focus of their marketing slogan: “What can brown do for you?” In 1998, they trademarked their signature hue of brown to prevent competitors from adopting it. In short, strategy—not emotion—drove their color decision.

Try this: look at the logos and websites of the firms you compete against most often, then see if you can spot any trends and opportunities: what colors are used most often? Is there a color could you own that none of these competitors has taken? Or is there another color strategy—such as a multi-hued approach—you could employ to differentiate your logo and brand identity?

Though one color often plays a dominant role, most brands don’t rely on a single color alone for their identity. Instead, they develop a palette of colors, which gives them the variety they need to create compelling marketing materials. While some brands work with a very limited color palette (as few as two or three), most prefer the flexibility that comes with a wider color selection.

5. Typography

Unlike color, the typefaces you choose for your brand may be barely noticed. But making tasteful, subtle choices is the key to sophistication. At the world’s leading firms, selecting the right typeface (also commonly but not quite correctly called a font) is a big decision.

Beyond choosing between serif and sans serif typefaces, you’ll have to wrestle with a host of decisions:

What personality do you want to convey?
Are you trying to be buttoned up or approachable?
Is it more important to be distinctive or readable?
Do you want to look modern or traditional?
Do you need more than one typeface?

On that last point, consider that you may want a unique, and perhaps highly customized, typeface for your logo, but you may need a more practical face to use in your marketing materials. You may even choose multiple typefaces—for instance, a sans serif for headlines and a serif for body copy.

Then there is the issue of electronic formats. If you don’t want to pay annual licensing fees to use your firm’s typeface on your website, you can choose to substitute a similar face from a free online resource (for instance, Google offers a large, high-quality, free library of type options).

But it doesn’t end there. You may need to choose yet another substitute typeface for electronic documents that you will distribute to clients and the outside world. While Microsoft provides a way to embed certain fonts in their documents, this technique has enough limitations that we don’t recommend it. Instead, you should assume that your typeface won’t be portable and choose a substitute font from those that are commonly distributed with Microsoft Office (you can find a list here).

Despite the significant compromises imposed by digital typography, type still has a lot to contribute to your brand’s storyline.

Figure 1. Typography is often featured in a firm’s brand style guidelines.

6. Graphical Elements

Some brands use a major graphical device to deliver a distinctive, easy-to-recognize look across a wide range of materials and media. The best way

Marketing Financial Services: The 2025 Forecast

Kelly MicKey — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 13:23:06 +0000

How are the most successful accounting and financial services firms achieving remarkably higher growth compared to the industry average?

This is the question we’ve been addressing for over a decade in our annual High Growth Study. Since we began this one-of-a-kind research project, we have tracked the evolving marketing strategies of successful accounting and financial services firms. The full 2025 High Growth Study: Accounting & Financial Services Edition reveals key factors that separate today’s fastest growing firms from their slower growing peers.

In this blog post, we’ll share a few of the most compelling insights from this year’s research on the accounting and financial services industry. You can purchase the full research report here.

Meet the Fastest Growing Accounting & Financial Services Firms

Accounting and financial services firms are navigating a landscape marked by intense pressures: commoditized services that erode fee structures, rising compensation costs, the complexities of transitioning to advisory services, and a generational shift in leadership. Simultaneously, the rise of AI and a perennial talent shortage are reshaping the industry, demanding innovative strategies for growth and sustainability.

Despite these challenges, a select group of High Growth firms have achieved remarkable performance, demonstrating a minimum of 20% compound annual growth over a three-year assessment period. These High Growth firms constitute slightly less than 30% of the 210 firms surveyed in this industry group.

With an impressive growth rate of 33.2%, these High Growth firms grow 3.7 times faster than the Average Growth cohort—a slight year-over-year decrease in the high growth rate.

What strategies are propelling superior growth in these accounting and financial services firms? How do they navigate the complexities of today’s market? Which marketing tools and strategies are most effective? Let’s explore some of the key insights uncovered in this year’s study.

Purchase the Full Industry Report Here

Finding 1: Marketing Spend is Decreasing in the Financial Services Industry

A notable trend has emerged in the accounting and financial services sector: marketing spending is down. For the second consecutive year, firms are allocating a smaller percentage of their revenue to marketing activities, hitting a low not seen since 2019 in our study. This year’s investment is particularly striking, falling to less than half of the previous year’s figures, effectively returning to pre-pandemic levels.

This raises some intriguing questions. Has the industry discovered new technology efficiencies, allowing them to achieve growth with less marketing spend? Are marketing staff becoming more skilled? Are firms reverting to their historically conservative spending habits? Is this a cautious response to the prevailing market uncertainties? Or, as firms grow, organically or by acquisition, are marketing activities being scaled at the same rate? For firms seeking to grow at a high rate, it’s crucial to understand this shift in relation to the industry’s current challenges and priorities.

Finding 2: Developing Thought Leaders is a Top Priority

While content creation remains a top priority for both High Growth (33.3%) and No Growth (37.5%) financial firms, High Growth firms prioritize thought leadership significantly more than their No Growth counterparts (31.4% vs. 16.7%, respectively). High Growth firms believe that showcasing their expertise can drive growth, and it’s hard to argue with their success.

High Growth firms understand that amplifying the visibility of their experts is crucial for establishing trust and differentiating themselves. They actively cultivate thought leaders by publishing insightful content, speaking at industry events, and participating in webinars and podcasts. This strategic approach positions their professionals as authoritative voices, building credibility and attracting potential clients.

The data further highlights the importance of social media marketing, with High Growth firms (25.5%) again outpacing No Growth firms (16.7%). When thought leadership content is amplified through social media, it creates a powerful, interconnected marketing ecosystem. This approach maximizes marketing ROI by leveraging expertise to drive engagement and generate leads.

Consider your firm’s strategy: Are you actively nurturing thought leaders? Is your content strategy aligned with this goal, and are you amplifying it through social media? The data clearly indicates that High Growth firms recognize the strategic advantage of developing and promoting their experts.

Finding 3: Multichannel Marketing is Necessary

High Growth accounting firms demonstrate a clear understanding of the need for a multichannel marketing approach. If content creation remains a cornerstone priority of marketing, then it also appears that these firms recognize the importance of strategic distribution and engagement across multiple platforms. Their most utilized marketing techniques reveal a blend of traditional and digital strategies, reflecting the diverse ways clients consume information and engage with their service providers.

Developing high-quality business development materials, such as proposal templates and pitch decks, tops the list at 65.4%. These materials play a crucial role in shaping client perceptions and driving business growth. Similarly, speaking at targeted conferences (63.5%) remains a time-tested method for showcasing expertise and building thought leadership. Networking on social media (59.6%), primarily LinkedIn, facilitates direct engagement with potential clients and industry peers. Providing assessments and consultations (57.7%) offers a personalized approach, while email marketing campaigns (53.8%) enable targeted communication and lead nurturing.

Notably, this mix of techniques delivers a balance of offline and online activities. According to our research, a roughly 55:45 ratio of digital and traditional activities tends to yield the best results. This multichannel approach ensures that firms are reaching their target audience across various touchpoints, addressing the diverse ways they learn and buy services.

In today’s interconnected world, repurposing content across channels is essential. For instance, insights shared at a conference can be transformed into blog posts, social media updates, and email newsletters. This strategy maximizes the impact of content and reinforces brand messaging across multiple platforms.

Purchase the Full Industry Report Here

Finding 4: The High Growth Advantage in Research

One of the longest standing findings of previous editions of the High Growth Study is how High Growth firms are more likely than their slower growing peers to conduct formal research on their clients and prospects. This year we decided to dig a layer deeper and identify what kinds of marketing research firms conduct the most—and the findings were eye opening.

High Growth accounting firms are not only more likely to conduct research, they are more likely to do so across a broad range of categories.

High Growth accounting firms demonstrate a clear commitment to understand their audience and market, with 78.4% engaging in regular research compared to 66.7% of No Growth firms. This commitment translates into actionable insights that drive strategic decisions and enhance client service.

Client satisfaction research was most common. It allows firms to gather direct feedback on client experiences. This simple, cost-effective method helps firms improve their service and client perceptions. Additionally, client research, which focuses on clients’ evolving habits and preferences, informs strategic planning, service offerings, and marketing initiatives. Understanding what clients truly value and how their needs are changing is crucial to stay ahead in the competitive accounting landscape.

Marketplace research, which encompasses everything from demand analysis to focus groups, helps firms identify new opportunities and stay attuned to industry trends. Competitive research and SEO research, both of which are used by nearly 40% of High Growth firms, provide critical intelligence on competitors and online visibility. In addition, knowing your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, as well as optimizing for relevant keywords, are essential for differentiation and attracting new clients.

If you are wondering which is right for you, client research can be a powerful starting point. It can reveal key audience challenges, what clients perceive as your strengths and weaknesses, insights that can inform your competitive positioning, and where your buyers go to learn about the kinds of problems you solve. What you learn is invaluable to improve your business strategy, improve client service, and enhance marketing effectiveness. In short, research equips financial services firms to make data-driven decisions that drive growth and enhance client relationships.

Finding 5: All Financial Services Firms Struggle with Marketing Data

A new addition to this year’s study was a question asking firms to rate their proficiency in capturing and using marketing and business development metrics. The data tells a clear story: This is a massive challenge for the marketers at accounting and financial services firms.

About 3 out of 4 firms rated proficiency as low—a higher percentage than every other professional services industry we studied this year—and High Growth firms were not better, and arguably worse, than their Low Growth peers. Despite rating themselves as more digitally mature than the slower growing firms (another point we measured this year in the full study), that additional digital maturity was not reflected in this data on marketing and business development metrics.

We asked a followup question to those who rated themselves with low proficiency what challenges they face. Here are a few of the responses we received:

“Time constraints”
“We do a good job of capturing data. Our challenge is putting the data to work. What story does it tell and where do we go next based on insight that comes from the data?”
“We don’t dedicate time to this, and even when we do, we’re not very good at utilizing the information.”
“Long sales cycles and multiple touchpoints across the lead lifecycle coupled with networking and referrals makes it difficult to capture true attribution.”
“Understanding CRM system’s capabilities well enough to know which reports are to be utilized to analyze the metrics.”

While the specific hurdles cited by firms vary—from time constraints and CRM complexities to the fundamental challenge of translating data into actionable insights—the overarching message is clear: the accounting and financial services industry is grappling with a significant metrics proficiency gap.

This gap, however, represents a substantial opportunity. Firms that are willing to address these challenges and invest in the necessary tools, training, and strategic frameworks will be positioned to benefit from the insights and power of data.

Go Further. Purchase the Full Study.

These findings offer a glimpse into the strategies of the fastest growing accounting & financial services firms in 2025. The full 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.

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.

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.

How to Master Strategic Marketing for Professional Services Firms

Lee Frederiksen — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 12:00:30 +0000

Strategic marketing sounds like it would be a good idea for a professional services firm.

And in fact, it is. Whether you are an accounting firm or a technology powerhouse, you face a lot of competition from many directions. New technology, commoditization, and unrelenting price pressure add to the fun.

The way to escape this pressure is to develop a sustainable competitive advantage. A strong competitive advantage can help you win more business and command premium fees. It even increases the value of your firm.

But how do you pull it off? That’s where strategic marketing comes in.

What is Strategic Marketing?

Strategic Marketing is the use of marketing disciplines to achieve organizational goals by developing and maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage. It addresses high-level considerations such as what markets to target, which services to offer, and how to price and promote them.

Download the Marketing Planning Guide

The strategy and its associated tactics are often documented in a marketing plan. Marketing management is the process of implementing that plan — delivering the strategy at the tactical level.

In our experience, most professional services firms focus on marketing management and rarely engage in big-picture strategic marketing. The results are predictable: their so-called “marketing strategy” is a series of poorly planned, opportunistic activities that do little to establish a true competitive advantage.

Strategic Marketing Examples

To help you understand how strategic marketing works, let’s take a look at an example of non-strategic marketing and then compare it to a well-executed example.

Strategic marketing, gone bad.

Imagine a mid-sized accounting firm. They are eager to grow but have no real plan for how to accomplish it.

Their “marketing plan” is little more than a list of activities and their associated costs. There is no overall strategy that ties these activities to their growth objectives. They have tried a variety of marketing ideas drawn from conversations with peers and trendy techniques they have read about. There is no systematic strategy or process that guides their use of marketing resources.

The firm offers the services their clients routinely ask for, and they look to competitors to gauge the effectiveness of their pricing and marketing materials. They believe that superior client service is why clients choose them, but they have never done any systematic research to verify this assumption.

This follow-the-herd marketing mentality, of course, does nothing to differentiate the firm from all the other mid-sized firms out there. Sadly, this way of thinking is all too common.

Now, let’s contrast this approach against a similarly sized firm that has taken a strategic approach to its marketing.

Strategic marketing done right.

Now imagine another mid-sized accounting firm. They also want to grow organically. But they have decided to do that by differentiating themselves from other accounting firms to gain a sustainable competitive advantage.

They start by conducting systematic research into their best clients. This knowledge allows them to identify existing strengths they can build upon. Based on this business analysis, they decide to specialize in the hospitality sector — an industry where they have a solid track record of success and a handful of high-profile clients.

As their understanding of the sector grows, they begin to offer specialized bundled service/software packages to complement their full suite of traditional audit, tax, and consulting. Their fastest-growing segment is their new, high-value operational consulting practice for hospitality businesses.

The firm identifies topics of intense interest to their target clients, and they write and speak on these issues regularly at industry events. Their superior knowledge of the industry and specialized services give them a distinct advantage when they speak with prospects.

Today, the firm offers regular industry-focused webinars and has clients all over the country. They command premium fees and are growing at about 5X the industry average.

As these two examples show, strategic marketing can affect many aspects of a firm’s policies, priorities, and operations. These changes can transform a firm’s fortunes.

New Marketing Strategies for Higher Growth

Professional services buyers are changing. As consumers, we have grown accustomed to searching online to educate ourselves and find products and services. We expect transparency online, and we are used to finding exactly what we are looking for. Many of us also rely on social media and peer reviews to validate our choices.

It’s no surprise, then, that these changing expectations are transforming B2B sales. Potential clients are looking to solve their problems and determine who has the specific expertise they need. To get answers, they search online, consult a variety of AI platforms, attend webinars, talk with peers and attend conferences. Because online research is quicker and easier than soliciting advice and referrals the traditional way, it is becoming increasingly popular.

So what do these changes mean for professional services marketers? Simply put, our marketing strategies need to reflect the new realities of buyer behavior.

Let’s look at ten of the most promising new marketing strategies to consider for your marketing plan. Some involve new technology, while others are a fresh take on an evergreen idea. Each of them addresses some part of the new normal and is worth considering.

Increasing the visibility of your expertise

Expertise is the fundamental product that your clients buy. It is the top selection criterion and drives the final firm selection in three out of four new firm searches. But expertise is invisible. You can’t see it, touch it, or measure it directly. A potential client must experience it.

While some experts have become highly visible in their fields, their rise to prominence is often a gradual process over the course of their careers. In our research, we have learned how prospects come to encounter and judge expertise — and we uncovered specific strategies and tactics that dramatically accelerate the visibility of true expertise. Many firms use strategic marketing to build the visibility of their experts.

Niche specialization

Professional services have always had specialists and generalists. But practical limitations such as geographic location and marketing reach have limited specialists’ advantages in the past.

That is changing. New communications technology (such as free video) and the widespread adoption of remote working have changed the playing field. Niche specialization has gained the clear upper hand.

360˚ marketing

“Be everywhere potential clients look for help” is more than a slogan. It’s the foundation of most marketing strategies. But where clients look is changing. Increasingly, they are looking online — so the obvious conclusion is that you need to be online, too.

Our research has shown that firms that use a balance of both traditional offline and online digital marketing techniques grow the fastest and are more profitable than those that employ only traditional marketing strategies. So while face-to-face marketing should be part of your marketing equation, an uninformed belief that “our clients don’t go online” can be dangerous to the health of your firm.

Product/service bundling

Clients need to find solutions to their challenges. Sometimes that solution takes the form of a software and services combination. Increasingly, professional services firms recognize that by pre-packaging a product/service combo they can create a lot of value for their clients.

Of course, you don’t have to bundle software with a service. It could be hardware or training, just as easily. The key is to come up with an integrated solution that saves the client time and money or produces another important benefit.

Sub-branding

Perhaps you’ve noticed another market segment that you could serve easily and profitably. But there is a problem. Serving that market would dilute your brand positioning. What do you do?

For an increasing number of firms, the answer is to develop a separate brand devoted to the new market segment. Often, these new brands have some relationship to the parent brand, hence the sub-brand label. While common in other industries, this marketing strategy is now gaining more traction in professional services.

New business models

Advances in technology have created the opportunity for new business models. In fact, technology has reshaped entire industries. From music to retail to transportation, the Ubers, Airbnbs, and Amazons of the world are redefining how business is configured.

Professional services are ripe for similar innovations. Artificial intelligence offers the possibility of dramatic changes in the cost and availability of services. Alternative pricing structures are obvious areas for experimentation, though there are many other avenues for creative exploration. The key is to think in terms of value to the client.

Marketing automation

This is another area where technology has dramatically altered the marketing playing field. Firms now have access to a rapidly growing set of tools that can automate big chunks of the marketing process. The big challenge in professional services marketing has been to balance the need to remain billable with the need for personal attention to business development.

Marketing automation is addressing that challenge. With proper planning and preparation, the lead generation and nurturing process can be largely automated. This changes everything, including the individual professional’s role in the business development process. Marketing is evolving from an individual event to a team sport.

Outsourced marketing

Stick with your core. Concentrate on what you really do well. For many firms, that area of competence does not include marketing. While many industries have already been deeply involved in outsourcing, professional services have lagged behind. Some firms are still warming up to the whole concept of marketing.

This makes outsourcing an interesting alternative. Firms that lack a well-established marketing function can adopt outsourced marketing with relative ease. And because modern marketing demands a wide range of specialized skills, outsourcing to a sophisticated marketing agency can deliver a strategic advantage.

Hyper-targeted advertising

Historically, advertising has not worked well for most professional services firms. Many B2B markets are difficult to target, and traditional ads have not been good at conveying expertise. But all of that is changing.

Today, online advertising can target specific companies or positions within well-defined niches. And, of course, you can easily link to downloadable content that demonstrates your expertise. This means that you can hyper-target a message that communicates your firm’s expertise. New strategies are emerging that would have been impractical even a few years ago.

Signature content

Signature content refers to content that is unique to your firm and of high value to potential clients. Examples include annual industry surveys or a ranking of companies in your target industries. Many firms have also been built around a best-selling book. A few firms have even published their own print magazines or journals.

More recently, we have seen the emergence of specialized series, such as podcasts or webinar series, as another route to signature content. And while blogs have become quite common, some firms have gone above and beyond to make their blogs “must-reads” for their prime targets.

The key to using signature content as part of your marketing strategy is to make sure that it is truly valuable to your target audience.

Next, let’s turn our attention to how you turn these new ideas and insights into a coherent strategic marketing plan.

Creating Your Strategic Marketing Plan

Creating a strategic marketing plan can be daunting, especially if you are new to it. In a previous post, we broke down the marketing planning process into seven essential steps. Here’s a summary of those steps:

Understand the business situation your firm is facing

Marketing should help you achieve your business goals. If you don’t have a clearly defined set of goals, then your marketing is likely to be unfocused and unproductive.

If you haven’t yet identified your business objectives you can use techniques such as SWOT analysis and various types of market research to uncover the opportunities available to you.

Once you have goals in your sites, you can use them as a compass to steer your marketing program in the optimal direction.

Research and understand your target clients

It’s all too easy to fool yourself into believing that you already understand your clients’ needs and priorities. But like so many things in life, clients are in a constant state of change. Last year’s top challenge can easily be trumped by some new disruptive force. The only way you can find out what’s going on between the ears of your target audience is to conduct periodic research that’s designed to uncover these insights.

Without this kind of research, you might build your marketing strategy around a flawed set of assumptions — with potentially disastrous consequences. And client research almost always uncovers a few surprises. Often these can play a pivotal role in your market positioning or messaging. So think of research as the foundation upon which you build your entire plan.

Position your brand in the marketplace

Positioning is about staking out a place in buyers’ minds. It’s about creating a connection between your firm and an idea — for instance, a specialty or some other distinctive quality of your business. At the same time, it’s about creating a contrast between your firm and competitors who might otherwise be perceived as similar to you. In the end, positioning is a boon to buyers, giving them a reason to pluck your firm from a poorly differentiated pack.

Your positioning begins with a set of differentiators, which your research can help you identify. A differentiator must pass three tests. It must be:

True — Clients can smell a made-up differentiator a mile away.
Provable — It must be supportable with evidence.
Relevant — Your clients must care about it. There’s no room for differentiators that offer no obvious value to clients.

Once you’ve got a list of differentiators (most firms can identify 3-5), you can develop your positioning statement — a short paragraph that cooks your brand down to its essence. It should describe who you are, who you serve, how you are different, and why clients choose you. As you move forward, your positioning statement will be your brand compass, providing guidance as you talk and write about your firm.

Define and refine your service offerings

If your clients are changing, then your services need to evolve with them. That’s how you create and maintain your competitive advantage.

This could mean revamping existing services or creating all-new ones based on your research findings. You might even automate some of your processes so they can be delivered more efficiently and at a lower cost.

Download the Marketing Planning Guide

Identify which marketing techniques you will use

Research can help you understand not only what challenges your clients to face, but how they consume information, as well. Insights like these can help you select what channels you use to promote and distribute your expert content. This powerful strategy, which we call building visible expertise, leverages your firm’s natural expertise to create greater exposure and generate trust.

Achieving a high level of visibil

Public Speaking: The Superpower That Keeps Giving

Elizabeth Harr — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 12:00:34 +0000

We have written before about what it takes to become a Visible Expert® in your industry. In this article, we will focus on the one skill we believe can accelerate your Visible Expert journey faster than any other. Call it a superpower, if you like.

But this superpower affects more than the professionals who wield it. It elevates their firm, too. How do we know? Because we did the research.

What the Research Says

In our 2025 High Growth Study, the best-performing professional services firms identified which marketing and business development techniques deliver the greatest impact. Here are the top six:

One thing that struck me right away: Two of these top six techniques involved speaking to a live audience. Speaking at conferences and presenting in webinars involve similar skills. And both are part of a thought leader’s playbook.

This data also backs up what we learned in our research on Visible Experts. Here are the top three impact ratings from that study:

Clearly public speaking—in all its guises—not only has value, but true impact on the visibility and reputation of firms and their experts.

Why Public Speaking Works

Speaking in-person or online offers a few advantages that are not available in, say, written content.

First, as a presenter you are automatically in a position of authority. Your words, opinions and advice carry more weight than they might in another setting.

Second, it’s more personal. Whether you are speaking to a packed room or an invisible group of webinar attendees, your audience can associate a face (or, in some cases, a voice) with your expertise. That’s a powerful connection.

Third, your audience gets to sample your thinking and expertise in action. Even though your message is delivered in a controlled environment, that experience is enough to generate feelings of trust.

Fourth, if you are participating in a live event, you can leave time for questions and answers—and address a few of your audience’s real-world challenges.

Download the 2025 High Growth Study Executive Summary

How Experts Become Speakers

Now, I know that public speaking is not for everyone. Even the best speakers started out tentatively, but their confidence grew with every experience. Most people can conquer their natural anxiety and become capable, even inspiring, public speakers.

The trick is to start small. Some novices join an organization, such as Toastmasters, that helps people learn the craft. Others play a supporting role in a few webinars, then build experience until they are ready to host a webinar on their own. Still others deliver short speeches at local groups such as chambers of commerce.

The most important thing a firm can do is support their experts in this journey. Leadership should encourage their experts to seek out speaking opportunities—even provide resources to help find, reach out to and negotiate with them. Give your experts the time to prepare their presentations and, if they like, to practice in front of a few friendly colleagues.

Where Do Experts Speak?

Below are some of experts’ most common speaking channels. Most of these can be used to increase visibility and nurture relationships.

Conferences. Your goal should be to secure speaking opportunities, not just attend the conference. If you can, try to incorporate research data into your presentations to make them more informative and persuasive. Public speaking can expose you to new audiences as well as deepen your engagement with those who know you.
Webinars. Webinars are today’s digital version of seminars. One nice feature is that you can record the presentation then offer it later on an on-demand basis. This gives your webinars a long shelf life. Webinars are an excellent way to nurture people who already know who you are. At the same time, they can be a powerful tool to impress newcomers, as well. And with the right partnering and promotional strategy, they can also be an excellent way to expand your visibility.
Podcast and radio appearances. These two mediums are great ways to increase your visibility. You can either establish your own podcast, as many experts have, or seek out guest appearances on other people’s podcasts. Running your own podcast is a large undertaking, so you may want to start out as a guest. Then there’s radio. Just because it was invented over a century ago doesn’t mean it’s irrelevant. Today, most radio talk shows are not only broadcast live but recorded and made available to listeners on demand. Sounds a lot like a podcast!
Videos and video blog posts. Videos can be used in a variety of ways. They can become video blog posts, arranged as channels on video platforms such as YouTube or included in relevant places on your website. Videos are also critical to establishing your speaking credentials.

How many experts in your firm are presenting to live audiences? The more you can make your experts known in the marketplace, the faster you’ll grow.

Download the 2025 High Growth Study Executive Summary

The post Public Speaking: The Superpower That Keeps Giving appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

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Phil Ebiner — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 02:37:12 +0000

The State of Legal Marketing in 2025

Karl Feldman — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 14:00:34 +0000

What drives growth at today’s fastest growing law and legal services firms?

For over a decade, we’ve been asking this question and finding the answers in our annual High Growth Study. Since its inception, this research project has tracked the evolving marketing strategies of successful law firms. The 2025 High Growth Study: Law Firms & Legal Services Edition reveals the primary factors that separate today’s fastest growing legal firms from their slower growing peers.

In today’s blog post, we’ll share some key insights from this year’s research report on firms in the legal space. You can purchase the full research report here.

Meet the Fastest Growing Law & Legal Services Firms

Today’s law firms find themselves confronting a multitude of persistent challenges, including heightened price sensitivity, ongoing talent acquisition difficulties, evolving generational workforce dynamics, and the imperative to cultivate new skill sets.

Despite these considerable obstacles, a select group of High Growth law firms has achieved remarkable performance, demonstrating a minimum of 20% compound annual growth over a three-year assessment period. These high-performing firms constitute slightly more than a third of the 84 legal practices surveyed in our study.

With an impressive growth rate of 41.7%, these High Growth firms have outpaced the average by a factor of 5.2—a notable increase over the previous year’s median growth of 29.6% for this top-tier cohort.

What strategic insights can be gleaned from these rapidly expanding legal practices? How are they adapting to the demands of today’s market? Which specific marketing tools and techniques do they use? Let’s delve into some of the key findings from this year’s study.

Purchase the full report here

Finding 1: Downward Price Pressure on Legal Services Has Spiked

In recent years, marketplace uncertainty has consistently ranked as a primary concern for law firms, claiming the top spot in the previous year’s survey. However, this year reveals a significant shift, with marketplace uncertainty dropping over twelve percentage points and plummeting to the ninth position.

Dominating the list of current concerns is the mounting pressure to reduce fees, a sentiment echoed by four out of ten participants. This development is particularly noteworthy given the recent rise in legal fees, particularly within larger firms, as well as the industry’s upward trend in both growth and profitability.

What factors are contributing to this heightened concern over fees? Many firms may be reacting to the growing commoditization of specific legal services. They may also be worried about the growing impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, which now ranks third among concerns. While these technological advancements enhance productivity, they also exert downward pressure on service pricing.

Furthermore, the fourth-ranked concern (not shown)—intensifying competition from emerging firms, including disruptive online legal service models—further contributes to the downward pressure on fees.

Finding 2: Search Engine Optimization as a Top Priority

With AI-powered search and content generation tools reshaping how people access information, search engine optimization (SEO) remains a cornerstone of high-growth law firm marketing strategies. SEO was listed as the second highest marketing priority behind content creation. Our research reveals that top-performing firms are keenly focused on enhancing their reputation and visibility, with SEO playing a crucial role in achieving these objectives.

In an era when potential clients increasingly turn to search engines like Google to find legal representation, being easily discoverable is paramount. While AI-driven summaries and zero-click features may alter the search experience, they underscore the need for a strong online presence. Even in this environment, High-growth firms understand that SEO continues to drive valuable, high-quality traffic to their websites.

For smaller law firms or those with a regional focus, regional SEO becomes particularly vital. Optimizing for local search terms, such as “personal injury lawyer [city name]” or “real estate attorney [county name],” ensures that these firms appear prominently in local search results. This targeted approach allows them to connect with potential clients in their immediate geographic area, fostering stronger relationships and driving local business. Moreover, maintaining up-to-date Google My Business profiles with accurate contact information, client reviews, and relevant content further enhances local visibility.

Creating content directly supports a firm’s SEO efforts. Producing educational blog posts, articles, and other forms of content that address common legal questions not only builds thought leadership but also improves search engine rankings. By incorporating relevant keywords into their content, law firms can attract organic traffic from highly motivated individuals seeking legal information and services.

In short, SEO remains an indispensable tool for high-growth law firms, enabling them to navigate the evolving digital landscape and connect with potential clients seeking legal expertise.

Finding 3: High-Growth Law Firms Invest Heavily in Digital Ad Campaigns and Video

Unlike other professional service sectors, the fastest-growing law firms are making significant investments in digital advertising campaigns. This strategic focus underscores the highly competitive nature of the legal market, where visibility and rapid lead generation are critical.

To achieve meaningful results, law firms are committing substantial resources to digital ad initiatives. This includes rigorous testing and optimization, ensuring that campaigns reach the right audience with compelling messages. The legal industry’s investment in digital ads reflects a need to quickly acquire clients in a competitive online space where search results pages are often crowded.

Video blogging is the technique requiring the third-highest level of investment for high-growth firms. This willingness to put time and money into video content reflects the growing importance of visual communication in the legal field. Video blogs allow law firms to showcase their expertise, project a personal image to potential clients, and address complex legal topics in an accessible format. While producing high-quality video content requires a collaboration of strategists, subject matter experts, writers, and designers, the payoff in client engagement and brand building can be significant. Even with the rise of accessible, “low-fi” videos, high-growth firms understand the value of polished, professional video content in establishing credibility and trust.

Their focus on digital ads and video blogging highlights the legal industry’s embrace of the digital age. These investments signal a commitment to modern marketing techniques—and the rapid growth and competitive edge they can deliver.

Finding 4: High-Growth Law Firms Prioritize Strategic Research

A defining characteristic of high-growth law firms is their commitment to conducting formal research. Our findings reveal that an impressive 9 out of 10 of these top-performing firms engage in regular research activities, demonstrating a data-driven approach to their business strategies. Data equips them to gain critical insights into their marketplace, client perceptions, and other factors that contribute to effective marketing and client service.

Client satisfaction/experience research leads the pack, with 71.4% of high-growth firms using this method. This typically involves post-engagement surveys, providing valuable feedback on client experiences. Its ease and affordability make it a popular tool.

Marketplace research, employed by 50% of these firms, encompasses a broad spectrum of activities, from assessing demand for new services to conducting focus groups. This research helps firms stay attuned to market trends and identify emerging opportunities.

Client research, at 46.4%, enables firms to track evolving client habits and preferences. This intelligence informs strategic decisions, service offerings, and marketing initiatives, ensuring alignment with target audience needs.

Other notable research areas include SEO/keyword research (42.9%), competitive research (39.3%), and pricing research (25%). Notably, only a small fraction (10.7%) of high-growth firms report not conducting any form of formal research, highlighting the role of data-driven decision-making in their success.

Finding 5: Many Firms Are Not Adept at Tracking and Using Marketing Metrics

A new addition to this year’s research was a question asking companies to rate their proficiency in capturing and utilizing marketing and business development metrics. The data tells a clear story: This is a massive challenge for the legal marketing industry.

The High Growth group is over twice as likely to use metrics with high proficiency. However, four out of five firms in this group have only some or low proficiency. The No Growth cohort fares even worse, with 9 out of 10 in one of these two lower categories.

When firms reported low or some proficiency in tracking metrics, they cited a set of familiar hurdles: insufficient time, a shortage of dedicated staff, budget constraints, outdated technology, and the persistent challenge of integrating data from disparate systems. While every professional services marketer acknowledges the importance of metrics, our data highlights a significant gap between recognition and effective implementation.

Dive Deeper with the Full Report

These findings offer a glimpse into the strategies of the fastest growing law firms in 2025. The full 2025 High Growth Study: Law & Legal Services Edition provides a comprehensive analysis of the factors driving success in today’s market. It offers detailed insights, data-driven recommendations, and actionable strategies. This report is an invaluable resource for any law firm that wants to thrive in the face of change. Ready to dive deeper and unlock the secrets of high growth? Get the full report here.

The post The State of Legal Marketing in 2025 appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

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Phil Ebiner — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 17:32:11 +0000

How AI Has Rocked Professional Services

Elizabeth Harr — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 14:15:21 +0000

Each year, we ask our High Growth Study participants to list their top business challenges. Since a global pandemic turned the world upside down in 2020, one theme has dominated the professional services landscape: uncertainty.

A lot changed in a short period of time—and five years later, we’ve adjusted to some of this change. Remote and hybrid work policies are now commonplace across the professional services. Many firms have either completed a large digital transformation or are well into the process. And organizations are finding ways to move forward in a topsy-turvy political landscape.

None of this is to say that we now live in a predictable world. But we may be adapting to its variability.

Why do I think this? Because that’s the story we’re seeing in this year’s High Growth Study. We’ve already discussed the top challenges facing professional services firms in this article:

Today’s article is dedicated to the single biggest shift we witnessed across professional services over the past year—and what it means for you.

In last year’s study, unpredictability was the strongest headwind buffeting the professional services marketplace. Four out of ten firms listed it as a top challenge. In this year’s results, those winds are still with us, but the gusts are a bit weaker.* It has dropped sharply from first place into third.

That’s an interesting development on its own. But just as fascinating is what’s taken its place.

The Rise of AI

In November 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT. AI had already been on the minds of some professional services leaders for a number of years, but its heyday seemed a long way off. ChatGPT changed everything. Suddenly, here was a mature AI product that could do amazing things—write computer code, draft high-quality emails, summarize long technical documents, even draft screenplays!

To say the world wasn’t expecting this level of sophistication would be an understatement. Quickly, other companies entered the fray, including Google and Meta, rolling out similar products of varying quality. By the spring of 2023, AI was dominating the news. Of course, it wasn’t all good news. Journalists, researchers and users discovered that the results weren’t always reliable, and occasionally the output was pure fantasy.

But the business world was warming to its promise. AI began appearing in more and more technology products, including many major platforms used by professional services firms. And a lot more was in the pipeline. Its promise seemed limitless. In our 2024 study (which explores the 2023 marketplace), we documented this rise. AI and its close cousin, automation, rose from an also-ran to become the second biggest business challenge of High Growth firms.

This year, it shot into the top spot—by a significant margin. Over half of firms in the sample cited AI and automation as a top challenge, compared to 37.3% for the next item on the list. That’s a whopping 35% difference!

Whatever your feelings about AI, one thing is for sure: it’s no passing fad. Billions of dollars are being invested in it, including major server and power generation infrastructure to support it.

What’s Next?

At Hinge, we believe that soon AI is going to become an organic part of the way firms like yours deliver their services, run their operations and market themselves. That’s why we are advising our clients to start experimenting and using this technology now.

Even today’s imperfect AI and automation tools offer tremendous potential to do things more efficiently and to make sense of the immense amounts of information that is available to us. Firms are using AI in ways that save countless hours on big tasks: uncovering patterns and trends in data, optimizing supply chain routes, identifying potential risks in workflows and predicting buyer behavior.

These tools are only going to get better. And new ones will enter the market that handle even more complex tasks. Those firms that embrace this revolution early will be positioned to profit from it most.

Want more data? Download the 2025 High Growth Study Executive Summary

Okay. But What Can You Do Today?

How do you get started? The same way you handle any unfamiliar situation: You ask lots of questions.

If you are using technology platforms to run your business, chances are they either have AI functionality already included or they are available as add-on modules. Look at every part of your tech stack—from marketing and CRM to core operations and project management software—and determine where you have opportunities to add AI.

Talk to the developers about what these features can do. Ask about use cases: Explain your business and find out where AI can improve workflow, efficiency or even customer satisfaction: find out what new insights you can glean about your customers, and how to use that information to your advantage and theirs.

When you adopt AI, all the little efficiencies you gain can really add up. Easy-to-use tools like Gemini (Google’s AI chatbot), Copilot (Microsoft), ChatGPT (OpenAI), Perplexity (Perplexity) and Claude (Anthropic) can save minutes or hours on common tasks. If you have privacy concerns, many of these platforms have sandboxed versions that protect your data so that it won’t be exposed to their training algorithms.

At Hinge, for instance, we use a protected AI environment that is fully integrated into our full suite of office applications. While we have a policy that we never use AI to write thought leadership pieces (including this one, thank you), we encourage our team to apply it to tasks like drafting meeting outlines or summaries, analyzing complex data sets and even brainstorming ideas. We’re still learning ourselves, but for many on our team Gemini has been a revelation. We also make extensive use of our CRM’s marketing automation tools, from customized tagging and reporting to automated email sequences. Many of these tasks would be impractical or impossible without these tools.

The biggest thing you can do is make a commitment. A commitment to embrace AI, even if it isn’t always great right now. A commitment to invest in the training to deploy the software or features fully and to get your team up to speed. And a commitment to stick with it.

Organizational change is always hard. And adopting AI in a meaningful way is no different. But we believe making this investment today will set you up to thrive in a very different tomorrow.

*Keep in mind that each year’s study represents data collected in the previous calendar year. For example, the 2025 study presents a snapshot of the marketplace in 2024.

The post How AI Has Rocked Professional Services appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

Elements of a Successful Brand 6: The Logo

Aaron — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 13:58:00 +0000

A brand is a complex organism. This is part six in a series of articles in which we examine a successful brand’s component parts.

Ah, the poor, misunderstood logo. People put a lot of pressure on its narrow shoulders. Let’s begin by sweeping away a couple of common misconceptions. Your logo is not your brand. And it’s not a portrait in miniature of your business. So don’t expect it to communicate much, if anything, about what you do. Those disclaimers aside, a logo can be the anchor of a firm’s visual identity and a critical component of a successful brand.

As part of an overall brand approach, firm logos serve three primary functions:

Identification
Differentiation
Aiding recall

Let’s look at each of these attributes in turn.

1. Identification

A logo exists to represent and identify a company or product. The brand name tells us what it is called. The mark (if there is one) helps us recognize the brand the next time we encounter it.

2. Differentiation

An effective logo visually separates a firm from the rest of the field. Perceptions are built little by little over time, and a logo that takes a different tack from the competition will contribute to the distinctiveness of a firm’s brand image. In addition, a logo design sometimes can convey aspects of a company’s personality or attitude (for instance, fun, warmth, or energy).

3. Aiding Recall

A distinctive logo is a memorable logo. Being noticed and remembered is the first step a firm must take en route to eventual selection and brand preference. The logo’s mark, if any, provides a shortcut that helps us identify a company or product in a hurry. We are all in a rush these days, and a well-conceived mark makes recognition easier.

Logo Anatomy

Most firm logos can be broken into two parts: the name and the mark (sometime called its symbol or icon). The name is obvious enough: it’s the company or product name rendered in type. Skillful logo designers will spend a great deal of time choosing a typeface, often customizing its letter forms to make the name more personalized and proprietary.

The mark, usually separated slightly from the name, supports the brand name and offers a visual dimension to the brand identity experience. Some marks have become so well known that they’ve practically replaced the brand name itself (think Nike’s swoosh and Apple’s apple).

Download the Rebranding Guide – Second Edition

Not all firm logos have marks. In fact, many successful businesses do just fine without one: Deloitte, IBM, and Oracle, for instance. This type of identifier, in which the name is the logo, is called a logotype. Logotypes do have a couple of drawbacks. Because they have to be read, legibility is critical, whether they appear on the web or in the distance on the side of a building. Logotypes also have a generic quality to them, so if a competitor were to adopt a similar-looking typeface it could create confusion in the marketplace. Nevertheless, many great brands have dispensed with marks and still gone on to do great things.

The Redesign Dilemma

So is a logo redesign worth the effort? If you care about giving your business every advantage in the marketplace, you should consider your logo as a starting point. We live in a visual world, and every prospect that you contact is likely to see it. So pull up your website and ask yourself these questions about your current logo:

Does it reflect your firm’s personality?
Is it different from other logos in your industry?
Is anyone going to notice it and remember you because of it?

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, you may want to think about revisiting your logo and taking your brand image in a new direction. A logo redesign is not a small undertaking — it will affect every piece of collateral and signage you have. But it takes an upfront investment to reap long-term rewards.

Download the Rebranding Guide – Second Edition

Classifying Logos

Logos can be sorted into a few basic categories. The five categories below will give you a way to think about your current logo and what you might want your new logo to be.

Logotypes | A company name rendered in distinctive typography is the primary graphic element in these logos. Successful logotypes are bold and easy to read. Accenture, Deloitte and Exxon are good examples.
Monograms | A monogram is a mark made up of a company’s initials (think IBM, McDonalds and GE).
Abstract Marks | Nonrepresentational marks that accompany a business’s name. (Sometimes, however, these marks can reflect a company’s name or other non-service-related attribute: Apple, Cisco, Dewberry.) Examples of abstract marks include Chase, BP and PWC.
Descriptive Marks | Iconic representations of a company’s products, services or defining character. The professional services don’t lend themselves often to concrete imagery, they are relatively rare in these industries. Descriptive marks are quite common in the consumer world, however. Think Burger King or Dominos Pizza.
Seals | Type and an icon are contained inside a shape, usually a circle, oval, shield, or rectangle. Because of their limited legibility and dated appearance, seals are becoming less common. Many state and federal agencies still use seals, but they are rare in the business world.

Read Other Posts in this Series:

How Hinge Can Help

Develop rebranding strategies that better connect with existing clients and prospects. Hinge’s Branding Program can help your firm stand out from the competition and build a brand that drives sustained growth.

The post Elements of a Successful Brand 6: The Logo appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

Is Writing a Book Worth the Pain?

Elizabeth Harr — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 13:00:14 +0000

In the past, Hinge has explored the way public speaking can build an expert’s reputation. In fact, in our study of 220 Visible Experts, speaking was the number one most impactful marketing technique for individual experts:

In this post, Liz explores the technique in second place: writing a business book. In her experience—and that of many high-profile experts—writing a book can be just as effective as speaking, and maybe more so. As the co-author of three marketing books (and three children’s books), including The Visible Expert Revolution, Liz has seen them pay dividends again and again. Keep reading to hear more of her insights.

Books Build Experts’ Reputations

In fact, writing a book can be the tipping point for many experts, shaping the way they think and talk about themselves. When Rhondalynn Korolak wrote her second book, it helped her develop her revolutionary way of thinking about cash flow.

“I highly advocate writing books,” she told me. “For me, writing a book has two benefits: One, you get your message out. Two, you codify what you think you know.” This is a powerful combination. And because a book requires you to delve deeply into your topic, the process of structuring, researching and writing is almost guaranteed to sharpen your expertise.

“A book is a place where you can assimilate all your knowledge,” adds Rhondalynn. “You have to put things down in a way that you can communicate them to anybody. As you write, you start to formulate new systems and processes.”

Sarah Susanka was already a successful Minneapolis architect when she wrote The Not So Big House. Almost overnight, however, she was launched into the spotlight, fielding media requests and being interviewed by heavyweights like Oprah, Charlie Rose and Diane Rehm. Through her books, Sarah has found a way to define her career and build a cultural movement.

Books Drive Firms’ Revenue

A book not only raises the profile of its author, it can elevate a whole firm.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard something like this from a prospect: “Our management team has read your book, and it really reflects what we would like to do…. So obviously you are already at the top of our short list.”

I’ve had a prospect walk into my office with one of my books, post-its sprouting from its pages.

I’ve even had clients choose our firm on the strength of our book alone.

That’s powerful stuff.

8 Tips for Writing a Successful Business Book

I can’t sugar coat this. Writing a book is hard work. It takes a lot of time. So you want the end result to be something you are not only proud of but also creates true value for your and your firm. Below are a few lessons and tips I’ve learned along the way.

1. Write the Definitive Book on Your Area of Expertise

You know your stuff. So why not produce THE book on the subject you know most about? If others have written on the topic before, do the due diligence and read their work. If it’s outdated, produce the modern guide. Or find a new, maybe even controversial, angle. If the standard text on a subject is dry and technical, write a book that cuts through the complexity and explains the issues in simple, easy-to-understand language.

2. Write in an Entertaining Style

As much as I hate to acknowledge this, attention spans aren’t what they used to be. So write your book in a style that’s engaging and fun, and easy to digest–but equally authoritative. Most bestselling business books are written in this style. Books written this way can be real page turners that deliver “aha” moments on almost every page.

3. Use Real-World Examples

Books come alive when they include real-life examples, stories, and quotes to illustrate the points you make. These can come directly from your experiences working with clients. If you feel you still need more oomph, you can supplement them with case studies of well-known projects, situations, or issues. And if you are able, interview key clients or experts to get new perspectives and quotes that will make your points more relevant and practical.

4. Keep it Short

Aim for between 40,000 and 60,000 words—200 pages or less. Most business readers are busy and often choose shorter books over long ones. So give them what they want.

5. Hire an Experienced Book Editor

You may be a talented writer, but most people are not. An editor can take an okay manuscript and make it engaging and fun. It can take a thick skin to work with an editor. Your ego may take a hit. They may reorganize your material and rework whole passages. But that’s how average books become great ones.

6. Co-Write It

All three of my business books were written with others. It’s a great way to share the burden. However, this approach can come with serious drawbacks. If one writer is a procrastinator or doesn’t execute at a high level, it can sour the whole project. In my experience, it helps if one person takes the lead, with the others contributing chapters, gathering supporting materials, or conducting interviews.

7. Hire a Ghost Writer

Most experts will never write a book because the task is simply too daunting. Using a ghost writer is a common way to dramatically reduce the strain on you, the book’s author. You will still need to spend time preparing outlines, collaborating with the writer and pulling together case stories, data and proof points. But this approach can cut the author’s project hours by 60 or 70 percent. Expect to pay a premium for the convenience, however.

8. Decide What Your Goals Are Up Front

Are you hoping to produce a best seller? (And how do you define “bestseller”? An Amazon bestseller is not necessarily the same as a New York Times bestseller.) Or is a book aimed primarily at clients and prospects sufficient? Are you trying to maximize sales and income, or is your main goal to build your visibility and reputation? Will you use a traditional publisher, or will you self-publish your book? Will your book be digital or paper, or both? How you answer these questions will affect your timeline, budget and how much effort you need to put into promotion. If you are targeting the New York Times or Wall Street Journal lists, you will almost certainly need to hire a book promotion expert—and while that can greatly improve your chances, there are no guarantees.

I hope this article spurs at least a few readers to consider embarking on this challenging but rewarding journey.

Happy marketing!

The post Is Writing a Book Worth the Pain? appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

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