Professional Services Marketing in the Post Pandemic World

A few professional services firms recently asked me: are Google Ads still worth it? 

Image of a signpost with the words Outsource and In-House
Yes - perhaps 5-10 years ago that would have been enough to get new business

Not now - if you are a small professional services firm competing with the bigger players in the market, putting ALL your (Marketing) eggs in one big basket (Google Ads) can eat up a large part of your revenue generated from these leads.

As a test, ask yourself if you are spending more on your Google Ads now compared to the past, yet not getting the results you were expecting?


If you are struggling with this, isn’t it time to consider other marketing channels that are cost effective, yet will bring you qualified leads?

I’m not saying to ditch your Google ad campaigns, I’m saying why not have a look out there to see what’s available and achievable?

There are more than a few tried and tested marketing channels, depending on your type of business, that will help you

Google Ads and a Website are just two ways to do your online Marketing. If you're planning on proactively getting new business rather than relying 100% on word-of-mouth referrals, chances are you'll need to do more.

As a professional services firm, you would have, at some point, considered LinkedIn Marketing or Lead Generation, as well as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) as alternatives to Google Ads. If you haven't, now's the time to seriously consider investing in these two marketing channels 

LinkedIn and SEO are cost effective marketing channels, and if you put in the time and investment, the benefits will stay with you in the long term. Have a look at how we can help you with LinkedIn Marketing and Lead Generation as well as Search Engine Optimisation

Digital Adoption has Accelerated since the Pandemic

An October 2020 report by McKinsey & Company (a strategy consulting company) tells us that the adoption rate of digital offerings across the Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America have accelerated by 6-10 years, which is astonishing considering the pandemic was felt barely a year ago today!

(See chart below)
Chart by McKinsey & Co showing the digital adoption rate has accelerated across the world

As a professional services firm, this is as good a time as any to embrace the digital, to explore more online ways of doing business which will allow you to automate some of your marketing processes in a cost efficient way.


And if some of these marketing processes cannot be easily automated in-house, outsourcing them to a marketing consultancy or an experienced freelancer would be an option worth considering.



Multi-Channel Marketing is No Longer a Nice-to-Have


A customer friendly business accessible via multiple touchpoints is already something consumers would expect pre-pandemic. It would be safe to assume this expectation would continue, post-pandemic.


Another piece of my favourite research illustrates this well enough:


Salesforce (a customer relationship management company) conducts a regular survey of more than 8,000 people across the world to gauge customer expectations when making a buying decision.


Consumers from the 4 demographic groups Millennials and Generation Z, Generation X and Baby Boomers were surveyed with the following insights:

Salesforce chart showing customer buying expectations across different demographics

There's quite a bit of information packed into the chart above, although what's worth mentioning is 68% of Millennials and Generation Zers prefer digital channels over traditional ones when communicating with companies.


It really is no longer enough to just have a website, phone and email address if your business sells to Millennials and Gen Z consumers, or you’ll be missing out on a huge pool of potential customers.


Unless of course, you don't need new customers and word of mouth referrals work just fine for your business.


So what can you do to get new business?


The answer is, loads!


Have a look at how we can help you with LinkedIn Marketing and Lead Generation, as well as Search Engine Optimisation. If you need help with reviewing your marketing and would like to get in touch with us, please do so here