Logging on and cashing in
Professional services firms are finding the Web to be a natural—and profitable—ally, embracing technologies like audio, video, blogs, forums, tagging, and RSS.
In Summary:
| • | "Brochureware" Web sites are passé for services firms. |
| • | Web sites can level the playing field for midsize firms to compete with deeper-pocketed rivals and expand client services. |
| • | Many sites still don't offer content that meets prospective customers' needs. |
Riding the momentum of a successful marketing campaign that had already boosted its revenues, accounting firm PKF Texas turned to the Web as a natural next step.
When the Houston-based company revamped its Web site, it stocked it with sophisticated features such as "The Entrepreneur's Playbook," a weekly business commentary that also airs on local AM radio. The online audio segments feature the mellifluous voice of host Gregory Price, sounding every bit the crisp broadcast professional.
When the Houston-based company revamped its Web site, it stocked it with sophisticated features such as "The Entrepreneur's Playbook," a weekly business commentary that also airs on local AM radio. The online audio segments feature the mellifluous voice of host Gregory Price, sounding every bit the crisp broadcast professional.
But Price is no Edward R. Murrow. He is a certified public accountant and PKF's director of consulting solutions and IT. He's also the author of "From Greg's Head," a stylish blog replete with an edgy logo and free-flowing thoughts. The blog is a hip addition for a pinstripe business, but for PKF Texas, it's also been profitable: The firm attributes several new accounts to traffic driven from the blog to its Web site.
The Web as competitive advantage
For growing numbers of consulting, IT, law, and accounting firms, "brochureware" Web sites that simply describe the firm and its services are passé. The latest generation of Web sites features such new media as blogs, forums, tagging, RSS, and innovative ideas like virtual communities—all designed to attract and retain clients.
Failing to produce compelling Web content is frequently a missed business opportunity. Although Web sites often deliver prospective customers, few services firms produce well-organized sites, according to The Bloom Group. The Boston-based market research firm found most sites left current clients struggling to find and understand the depth of their firms' expertise, and offered no easy way for prospects to begin a dialog with experts about their business problem.
"If I'm a buyer, the question is, Do I have a clear understanding of what this firm does and can they solve my problem?" says Bob Buday, cofounder of The Bloom Group. But within most service firms, "every practice wants their real estate on the home page," he says. As a result, corporate Web sites rarely meet prospective customers' needs.
The advantages of a well-organized and eye-catching online presence seem obvious, especially for midmarket firms. Compelling video and audio content, for example, give firms a new way to demonstrate their expertise. Blogs and webinars open up opportunities to engage prospective clients and build on their comments. And clients are drawn to the ability to control when and where they interact with the material.
What's more, Web sites can level the playing field among consultants, providing midsize firms with a cost-effective avenue to expand their client services and compete with deeper-pocketed rivals. "When you're a large company, you have the resources to spend a lot of money and get it done, or to hire consultants with specific skill sets and you get it done," says Craig Dewar, director of community marketing at Microsoft. "When you're a small company, you have to rely on yourself."
Shifting to a positive digital presence
Yet until recently, even the biggest professional services firms were known for producing largely static, purely informational sites. A 2007 survey of the top 50 accounting firms in the U.S. and U.K. by Muzeview, a research firm in New York, found their Web sites way short on sizzle. Most were chock-full of text, including newsletters, issue briefings, thought-leadership surveys, case studies, and event invitations. Only a handful took advantage of audio, video, and interactive technologies. Of the U.S. Web sites studied, only four featured podcasts or RSS feeds, just two had blogs, and only 11 provided some form of webcast or video content.
A positive digital presence often requires a cultural shift at professional services firms, where marketing has traditionally been soft-pedaled. New technologies, in particular, often present a hurdle. "The real challenge for midsize firms is getting executives comfortable with using new formats like podcasts and webinars," says Paul Gladen, president of Muzeview and co-author of the study of accounting firms.
PKF Texas President Kenneth Guidry admits the idea of posting blogs and podcasts took some getting used to. Price's close ties to Houston's technology community made him a natural choice, but the firm had "some general wariness and uneasiness about the whole blogging concept," says Guidry. "We're accountants, but we're accountants trying to be good businesspeople."
Indeed, PKF Texas has made its expanded online presence a key element in its recruiting strategy. "Millennials are finding the Web site and the blog," Guidry says of the pool of twentysomethings from which PKF Texas regularly hires. "That creates a coolness factor in the conversation on college campuses."
Gladen agrees. "It's important to recognize how integral the Web is becoming to business activity. The next generation of entrepreneurs and executives is used to using the Internet, including online social networking, to find answers. If your firm doesn't have an active online presence, how will the next generation of clients hear of you or find you?"
 | Deborah Asbrand is a senior editor for Triangle Publishing Services Co. Inc., in Newton, Massachusetts. Her articles have appeared in The Industry Standard, The Boston Globe, Corporate Dealmaker, Forrester Reports and MIT's Technology Review. |
