BWPrice's Marketing U

Make It Easy

During a recent speaking engagement to a group of business valuation professionals, I was asked about e-mail addresses on websites and the resulting spam if those addresses are hot linked. 

The questioner asked me if it was acceptable to "disguise" the addresses (i.e., priceb at mercercapital.com) on their website because that is what they had done.  The reason was because when they were hot linked from the website, firm employees got too much spam.

My answer to the question -- get a better spam filter.

My philosophy is make it easy for people to contact you.  That means hot link your professionals' e-mail addresses, put individual contact information on your professionals' CVs, and put your firm's phone number on your home page.  

Have an e-mail address and put your e-mail address on your business card. I saw my first business card in a long while that did not list an e-mail address.  I was frankly stunned.  An e-mail address is as important and vital as a phone number in today's world.  

Also, make sure that your website appears first on Google when a user googles your firm name.  I am irked when I google a firm and that firm's website does not appear on the first page of results.  It happens far too often.

Are you making it hard for people to contact you or are you making it easy?  Making it easy is easy to do so why aren't we all doing it?

ROI Measurement for Webinars

Vickie Sullivan's blog, Tips, Trends, and Tirades for Compelling Experts, pointed to a webinar ROI worksheet created by RallyPoint Webinars.

Webinars are a proven tool for many professionals and professional service firms.  I have checked out the ROI worksheet and found it pretty useful.  It's a decent way to think about and attempt to measure ROI.  You can click here to get the worksheet along with two whitepapers if you want them: "7 Keys to Running a Glitch-Free Webinar," and "Expand Reach, Grow Revenue: The Business Case for Lead Generation Webinars."

Status of Newsletter Pop-Up on Website

A recent post (We Are Testing Website Pop-Ups) talked about our efforts to increase the number of newsletter subscribers via a pop-up.  Per the post:

For professional services firms, content is an important marketing tool.  Articles, white papers, e-books, powerpoint decks, podcasts, etc. can convey expertise.  At Mercer Capital, my firm, we have four e-mail newsletters that contain very useful content for their target markets. They are free, or complimentary, as we say.  Two of those newsletters have fewer subscribers than we would like.  Add to that the marketing engine which is our website - one of the most visited, if not the most visited, sites in our profession.  The question was and is how to use our website to convert visitors into newsletter subscribers?   While we have "subscribe to our newsletters" on every page of the site, that isn't getting the job done. 

We are experimenting with a pop-up.  The pop-up asks the visiter if they have subscribed to our newsletters.  To keep the pop-up from being absolutely annoying, it does not pop on the home page (only on the interior pages) and only appears once as you navigate throughout the site.  While nirvana would be different pop-ups for different sections of the website (a BankWatch newsletter pop-up that appears when visiting our financial services valuation section, a Financial Reporting Valuation Flash newsletter pop-up when visiting our financial reporting valuation section, etc.), that isn't feasible for our site and our budget. Therefore, the pop-up is general in nature and takes the visitor to a landing page which lists all our newsletters.

I am happy to report that during the first 30 days of the newsletter pop-up, we had 55 new subscribers as compared to the prior 30 day period without the pop-up in which we had 11 new subscribers.  It appears to be working!  In addition, we haven't gotten any complaints that the pop up is intrusive.

The next piece of the puzzle is analyzing who is signing up for which newsletter, as well as tracking retention rates.  I'll keep you posted.

Posts Not To Be Missed

• FAQ Pages for Accountants or Lawyers? (Golden Practices - Michelle Golden)
• The Power of Space (or, Time to Stop Playing Whac-a-Mole) (Service Minded - Debra Helwig)
• The Social Net is Just Working a Bigger Room (Marketing Catalyst - Bruce Allen)
• Keep Your Web Site Fresh (Legal Marketing Blog - Tom Kane)
• For small PSFs, teaming and joint venturing could help ride out a recession ( - Expertise MarketplaceSuzanne Lowe)
• 25 Very Smart Business Women to Follow on Twitter (MarCom Writer Blog - Dianna Huff)

We Are Testing Website Pop-Ups

For professional services firms, content is an important marketing tool.  Articles, white papers, e-books, powerpoint decks, podcasts, etc. can convey expertise.  At Mercer Capital, my firm, we have four e-mail newsletters that contain very useful content for their target markets. They are free, or complimentary, as we say.  Two of those newsletters have fewer subscribers than we would like.  Add to that the marketing engine which is our website - one of the most visited, if not the most visited, sites in our profession.  The question was and is how to use our website to convert visitors into newsletter subscribers?   While we have "subscribe to our newsletters" on every page of the site, that isn't getting the job done. 

We are experimenting with a pop-up.  The pop-up asks the visiter if they have subscribed to our newsletters.  To keep the pop-up from being absolutely annoying, it does not pop on the home page (only on the interior pages) and only appears once as you navigate throughout the site.  While nirvana would be different pop-ups for different sections of the website (a BankWatch newsletter pop-up that appears when visiting our financial services valuation section, a Financial Reporting Valuation Flash newsletter pop-up when visiting our financial reporting valuation section, etc.), that isn't feasible for our site and our budget. Therefore, the pop-up is general in nature and takes the visitor to a landing page which lists all our newsletters.

We launched the pop-up three weeks ago.  So far, we're seeing an uptick in our newsletter subscriptions.  How much of an up-tick is yet to be determined.  I'll report back. 

If this works for us and if your site can support it, it might be something to consider.  It might also be a way to differentiate you from your competition.  As far as I can tell, we're the only firm in our profession with this type of functionality on our website.  Visit our site (www.mercercapital.com) and click to one of the interior pages and tell me what you think. 

Top 10 Mistakes of LinkedIn Users

Christine Pilch, a co-owner at Grow My Company and Marketing Director at Bacon Wilson PC, Attorneys at Law wrote a short article entitled "Top Ten Mistakes People Make on LinkedIn" for Legal Marketing Technology. 

Oops.  I see that I commit at least half of the mistakes.  Read the article while I go and clean up my LinkedIn profile, which you can access here.

Business Valuation Newsletters

Not too long ago, I received an e-mail blast from the good folks at Business Valuation Resources about their BVNewsletter Service.  I mentioned them, along with another newsletter service provider, in my recent AICPA/ASA speech. 

To refresh your memory, I believe in sending useful content to your target market on a consistent basis.  One of the best ways to do that is via a newsletter.  Newsletters aren't a new idea. They are not "sexy" or cutting edge.  What they are is effective.  I'll take that any day.

For business valuation firms or business valuation divisions of larger CPA firms, there is good news.  According to the recent BVResources 2009 Business Valuation Firm Economics & Best Practices Survey, only about a 3rd of their respondents published a newsletter (36.8%).  Approximately 20% reported publishing an e-mail newsletter or blog, yet I suspect there is not much cross over with those who publish a print newsletter.  That means that there is an opportunity to begin a newsletter program and gain ground sooner rather than later because the market is not crowded with newsletters.

Here are the two service providers you should consider.  Note: I have no financial interest in recommending either of these service providers.  This is for your information only.

Duct Tape Marketing : Twitter for Business Live Webinar

For those of you who are interested in Twitter, John Jantsch over at Duct Tape Marketing is joining with social media guru Chris Brogan to present a live webinar entitled "Twitter for Business."  Thursday, December 11, Noon CST.

For more information about Twitter, see the following links:

• My Twitter Experience and Some Twittequette (Michelle Golden)
• Five Part Series on Twitter (Jennifer Laylock)
• TweeterBlog (Jack Bastide)
• Automating Social Media Activity (John Jantsch)

Google Releases SEO Practice Guide

One of the questions I got at the recent ASA/AIPCA conference had to do with search engine optimization.  Google has released its SEO Optimization Starters Guide.

Check out the post on Steve Matthew's blog, Law Firm Web Strategy (if you are a professional services firm, this is a site to bookmark) for a great summary. 

If you have specific questions about SEO for your website, e-mail me here.

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Just finished a speaking engagement at the 2009 AICPA/ASA BV Conference in Las Vegas. I was a co-presenter (with Kevin Yeanoplos) on the topic of BV practice management and marketing (I handled the marketing topic).

As part of my handouts, I included 50+ pages of articles and blog posts. Then my husband, who is with me at the conference, reminded me that I haven't posted in a good loooooong while.  So, I'm back.  I'll be posting about various marketing techniques that the attendees found helpful. 

I'll also be posting about the Q&A.  Let's begin here:

Q:  Instead of a quarterly newsletter to reach your target market consistently, what do you think about producing a webinar quarterly and sending a link to it to your target market.

A:  Oooo, what an interesting idea.  I have to confess that I've never thought of that.  Maybe because webinars, while they can be very productive and useful, are a pain huge commitment of time to pull together professionally.  For the vast majority of firms, I would recommend sticking with a newsletter in order to assure consistent communication.  However, put webinars in your marketing toolbox.  If you're interested in how to put a webinar together, e-mail me at bwprice@bwprice.com.