Driving Growth of Service Firms

PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa - Jan. 23, 2017 - PRLog -- At the highest level, digital marketing and Advertising gets top priority.  High-growth service businesses in fact invest 13% more than their no-growth counterparts in digital marketing strategies and much less in traditional strategies.

The tables below show some interesting differences in marketing and advertising strategies favoured by high-growth versus no-growth firms. A quick scan of the techniques favoured by high growth firms suggests three essential skill areas for marketing teams: SEO, Content Promotion (specifically blogs), and — by implication — Web Analytics to measure all of those efforts.

Let's take a look at each of these in turn.

Marketing Skill #1: SEO   From an online search perspective, if your firm is ranking prominently in search results for important industry terms, then your opportunities for exposure are dramatically increased.

The rules of search have evolved over the years, and the SEO techniques marketing professionals used a few years ago can end up hurting more than helping in today's environment.

Marketing Skill #2: Blogging

High-growth businesses understand that blogging is an effective lead generation tactic. Because blogging helps your business in so many different ways, it is considered one of the most efficient digital marketing strategies. In terms of a specific skill set, your digital marketing team doesn't necessarily need to actually write the blog posts. Rather, they need to know the ingredients of a successful blog post and how to promote them.

Marketing Skill #3: Web Analytics   It's tough to be a successful digital marketer without a mechanism to judge your success. Web analytics tools like Google Analytics allow free access to a lot of valuable data. To the uninitiated, it can seem like too much to handle. But firms that are just starting out need to monitor only a few basic metrics. Be sure you review them on at least a monthly basis.   Here are four critical metrics:   Traffic by Source – Look to see where your web traffic is coming from. Is LinkedIn sending you visitors? Organic search? Other websites? What is the quality of those visits in terms of time spent on the site?   Conversions by Source – A "conversion" occurs when a visitor takes an action on your website that you decide is important. For example, if a web visitor fills out your contact form, your Google Analytics can be configured to register that action as a conversion. E-book downloads, webinar registrations, or newsletter subscriptions are other examples of conversions.   Page Performance – It's useful to know which of the pages on your site are performing well. Look to understand which pages are the most visited and how long visitors are remaining on those pages. Also take a look at the bounce rate for your top pages, which is the rate at which visitors leave the website after viewing a single page.   Demographics – Know your web visitors. What countries, states, and cities are your visitors from? Are they using mobile devices? Are they new visitors or returning? Demographic information will help you tailor your marketing approach through the process.​

The nice thing about these three marketing skills is that they have broad application across your entire digital marketing strategy. Whether you're looking to build your marketing engine internally or hire an outside team of experts, prioritising on these three essential skill areas will prepare your business to join the cadre of high-growth professional services firms.

Molweni helps professional services businesses grow faster and become more profitable. Our research-based strategies are designed to be implemented. Our groundbreaking Purple Cow® Program combines strategy, implementation, training, and more. Contact us by making a direct appointment at www.molwenimedia.co.za