Berbay's Blog: Marketing for law firms, engineers, CPAs, architects and other professional services

At Berbay, our account managers are all relatively young, and very capable.  They were talking recently about when they meet with prospective clients, they are often meeting with people at least a decade older than them. Sometimes, they agreed, they get the feeling these prospective clients are thinking, “My kids are this age” or, “This person is just a kid; how can they know what my business needs?” After some conversation, these prospects generally realize that regardless of their age, our account managers do indeed know what they’re talking about. But first, they have to overcome their preconceived notions about the relationship between age and expertise.

Describing our younger professionals’ challenge, someone in our office said, “It’s really the same as if a 75-year-old walked into our office selling search optimization or social media services.  Would you buy services like those from a senior citizen?” What a thought-provoking example!  Our account managers know professional services marketing; their age has no bearing on the issue. So, why shouldn’t an older person know search engine optimization?

Tell me: Would you buy SEO services from a 75-year-old?

In a typical Google move, the company has redesigned and upgraded its popular place-reviews site, Google Places. By doing so, it has altered some content that will greatly affect a rated firm’s SEO. Specifically, Google Places will no longer be drawing reviews from other mass-review sites from around the web like Yelp or Merchant Circle.

Google Places allows web-users to both post and read reviews of businesses when they search for that place in Google Maps. Google’s presence on the company review landscape has enticed many savvy, SEO-oriented businesses to take an active role in shaping their Place page.

Previously, Places pulled reviews and rankings from sites around the web, allowing, for example, a Yelp review to appear as a review on Google. Now, however, evaluations of businesses must be posted directly to the Places page to appear as a review.

By eliminating reviews from third party sources, Google retains greater control over reviews posted on Places, clearly spurred on by the belief that it has enough of a presence to stop piggy-backing on already established sites.

With this new awareness, your business should add Google Places to your roster of sites that help promote your services. In addition to monitoring reviews, you should request clients to post feedback directly on your Place page, rather than simply on sites like Yelp.

Although Google Places is relatively new to the scene, its influence cannot be overlooked, as Google has proven time and time again with its many other popular applications.

This morning, I had breakfast with three professionals—an attorney, a financial planner, and a CPA, who all work with high net-worth individuals. We talked about the value of optimizing a website for search and whether high search-engine rankings are of any value particularly when targeting an older, affluent market.

Seniors Are Increasingly Turning to the Web to Search for Services

Professionals targeting this market often argue that the only reason for having a website is to establish credibility when someone is referred to them. It’s true that a site that quickly establishes a professional as an authority is very important, but as the world continues its march toward finding everything on the Web, it’s increasingly important to be found when a prospective client does a search.  The perception that older, affluent individuals may not be as likely to turn to the Web to search for someone to update their estate plans or manage their money is not necessarily true. Some six million more “seniors”—those over age 65—are using the Web than five years ago, and that demographic is now one of the fastest growing for Facebook and other social media use. It would make sense that those individuals would also use Google to search for a financial planner who works with high net-worth individuals. What is certain is that their children, those who are baby boomers and younger, will turn to the Web, even if only to run a preliminary search to see who’s out there. And, as baby boomers manage more of their elderly parents’ assets, and as the forecasted immense transfer of wealth takes place in the near future, this group’s ability to find a professional online is going to be essential.

I’m not arguing that a person with assets is going to select a provider solely through the Web. Being at the top of search-engine rankings is just the first step and achieves the same goal as all professional services marketing—it generates leads. For instance, having someone find you via an online search hopefully drives that person to your website, where you have the opportunity to make your case. Then, if that process prompts a call, you have the opportunity to begin an offline relationship. However, if someone does a search just to see what the universe of that particular profession is, and your name doesn’t come up, you’ve missed an opportunity. Then, say, someone who has done a first-level search asks colleagues for referrals. Your position is much stronger if the searcher can say, “Oh, I saw them on Google and looked at their site,” as opposed to “Well, they didn’t come up in my search, and I’ve never heard of them.”

That example also speaks to the point that some professionals claim all of their business comes by way of referral.  It still puts you in a stronger position if someone refers a prospective client to you and saw your name during a preliminary search, and/or your LinkedIn profile was at the top of Google’s results.

Building Relationships Through Online Marketing

Professionals often say that all their marketing is done through relationships because of the level of trust needed in their respective fields. Undoubtedly, relationships are important in a high-end market; however, when it comes to marketing a professional service, all marketing is done through relationships. In order to develop a relationship, there must be the opportunity to start that relationship.  If someone is searching for a provider in your area of expertise, finds you online, and calls you, you have an opportunity to build a relationship. But, if you somehow slip through the cracks at any level, you’ve lost the chance to connect.

Another aspect of throwing your hat into the search engine optimization (SEO) ring, is that every day the marketplace becomes increasingly competitive. Those who started building an online presence several years ago already have a strong foothold and are reaping the benefits. This doesn’t mean that a newcomer can’t make inroads, but creating a significant online presence takes time. The sooner you create your online presence, the faster you’ll see results.

There are those who think that shopping for a professional service provider online cheapens that profession. The philosophy being, for example, that looking for a car online is fine, but it’s not OK to look for a CPA who understands sophisticated finances. What really gives the impression of being cheap or low class is not merely that something appears on the Web; it’s the execution. A high-end financial planner’s website, blog, or other online marketing device needs an appearance and messaging that appropriately reflects that professional’s positioning.

Additionally, there is the idea that a Web presence attracts those individuals who are simply price shopping and not serious about hiring you or your firm. Unfortunately, that does happen, but that’s part of the traffic the Web generates, and is part of the numbers game that is marketing.

Overall, it’s important to understand that the world and our respective markets are evolving. To act on the belief that no one—including those in an older, affluent demographic—will search for a high-end professional on the Web is essentially ignoring where the world is headed.

Have you ever gone to a diner that had a 15-page menu? Do you remember perusing the many menu options–corned beef, matzah-ball soup, steak and eggs, 15 different salads, etcetera—and thinking to yourself, “This is too much choice”?

The sheer number of options overwhelms. To choose any one dish, you must reject the 1,500 other dishes competing for your attention. This problem—which sociologist Barry Schwartz termed “the paradox of choice”—is remarkably universal. It could even be harming your professional-services marketing strategy—or at least making it much harder than it needs to be.

At its essence, the paradox of choice suggests that adding too many choices to your plate leads to decreased satisfaction and even decreased efficacy.

Whether you market legal, accounting or financial services, when you move into the online-marketing space, be prepared to be inundated with “paradox of choice”-like dilemmas. Consider, for instance, the myriad tactics you can use to market online these days:

• Employing social media like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook
• Search-engine optimizing (SEO) a website or series of sites to generate traffic from search engines like Google
• Setting up pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns to create leads
• Developing an affiliate marketing strategy
• Building a nuanced inbound-link campaign
• Posting information about your services in relevant online forums
• Networking with the leading bloggers in your niche to generate traffic and referrals

The list could go on and on! What’s more, the number of choices will only increase in coming years as new tools arrive on the scene.

The size of this menu of options creates an equally sizable risk: It makes it easy for people to hop from tactic to tactic. If your PPC campaign doesn’t deliver results, you can simply switch to Twittering, or vice versa. You can waste a ton of time learning and re-learning tactics without making headway. And even if you do succeed, the 20 zillion other tactics you haven’t tried yet will tempt you away. The whole enterprise can leave you feeling exhausted, overwhelmed and ultimately dissatisfied.

So what’s the solution to the “paradox of choice”? One piece is to prioritize some tactics and stick with those. What are your top two tactics right now? Focus on those. Get them up and running—then add another.

To effectively use a host of online marketing tactics you cannot wake up one day and just start utilizing all those tools; you woke up one day and focus on one tactic. Once you refine it, move on to the next.

It’s not just “slow and steady wins the race”—everyone knows that trope. It’s the harder-to-grasp, but ultimately much more productive, wisdom of “less is more.” Reduce your tactics. Limit your choices. Go on what Timothy Ferriss called a “low-information diet.” You might be surprised by the cool ways your business—and even your worldview—expands and deepens.

Through a proactive campaign, astute firms can position themselves to gain market share through relatively low cost search initiatives, while competitors are losing qualified leads and busy explaining why general counsel won’t be searching for them online.

Firms marketing directly to consumers, such as personal injury, criminal defense and bankruptcy lawyers were the early adopters of search engine optimization (SEO). Some invested in pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns using Google adwords or similar programs; others relied on organic rankings, which places a website near the top of search engine results based on its relevancy to the search term, and many firms implemented both tactics.  The firms that recognized the opportunity early on captured more than their share of qualified leads with an investment in SEO/PPC while their competitors were explaining why SEO wouldn’t work for their firm.  Today, however, with more plaintiffs firms using SEO as an effective marketing tactic, it has become increasingly competitive and costly to achieve top rankings.

Firms still have an opportunity to get into the game before everyone has caught on to search’s effectiveness. Implementing a search initiative right now, does not mean that SEO will be your primary source of leads today, but its role in your business development will continue to grow as more businesses, institutions, entrepreneurs and in-house counsel turn to Google and similar search engines first. By being proactive and positioning yourself to capture top search engine rankings now, whether through PPC or SEO, you can create a solid footing to avoid chasing after other firms later.