Professional Services – Outsourced CMO
Fractional CMO Can Be an Asset for Small Professional Services Firms
After two years building a strong client base and a successful government affairs division, a start-up mid-Atlantic boutique corporate and business law firm had hired an experienced business development director and was seeking comprehensive marketing support.
The firm’s partners worked with an established agency when it first launched to support its branding, advertising and social media, as well as an SEO firm to help drive traffic to its web site.
However, client prospecting and brand awareness remained flat and the partners determined they needed an external CMO to drive a more comprehensive marketing and communications strategy to align with their new business development strategy.
Our Role
In partnership with the new business development director, we worked to identify key industries and ideal client profiles to create a strategy that would align with the firm’s growth goals.
Advertising dollars once spent on ineffective radio ads were shifted towards branded content campaigns in media outlets with a targeted audience that reflected the firm’s ideal client base.
A comprehensive approach included increased use of social media, event sponsorship and speaking opportunities, owned content, PR and branded marketing materials to be used at events and prospect meetings.
As fractional CMO, we handled all vendor relationships including graphic designers, printers, caterers, videographers, photographers, ad sales, and SEO firm, allowing the business development director to focus on networking, prospecting and meeting with potential clients, and working with firm partners to secure new contracts.
A social media content calendar was created along with a marketing plan and calendar to keep firm leadership abreast of ongoing developments, deadlines, and budget.
We worked to create messaging and marketing materials that were consistent and reflective of the firm’s intended brand positioning.
All of the firm’s communications assets were used to work in alignment with each part of the marketing strategy from web site to e-communications.
The Solution
E-communications
Social Media
Content Marketing
Worked with partners and associates to create new content for the blog, placed content for media (ie. bylined articles), and coordinated interviews and drafted branded content pieces.
Events
Public Relations
With the support of a fractional CMO, the firm saw tremendous increase in brand recognition, awareness and engagement with prospect clients. Social media engagement consistently exceeded industry standards at 8% for Facebook and 5% for LinkedIn. The firm experienced an increase in calls and emails with every content publication. Events resulted in numerous meetings with prospect clients. The web site saw an increase in traffic, decrease in bounce rate, and increase in number of pages visited and time spent on site for each visitor with an average of 4 pages visited per session.
When marketing is valued as a complementary partner for business development, businesses experience an increase in new business growth and brand positioning.