If your search traffic is in decline look for solutions that will solve the problem in the short-term and position your firm for better things in the long-term.
Search, as a means of generating inbound leads, has gone the way of the dodo. I wrote about it over a year ago and again five months ago. Rand Fishkin did a white-board video about it last July. Even the WSJ has covered it.
When I first started writing about this 12 months ago it was a small kitchen fire being fought by the digital marketing team. Now, for most firms it’s a four-alarm fire that’s spreading problems across the entire business.
It’s something you have to deal with … but what should you do?
Look Outside Professional Services … to CVS
One of my favorite listens is the Jump Podcast. Each week, the show’s hosts, Dev and Michelle of Jump Associates, talk about corporate strategy through a distinctly future- focused lens.
This past week they discussed how to use solutions to short-term problems as opportunities to build towards your long-term vision.
And…they used CVS as an example.
As it turns out, in 2015-2016 CVS was facing a significant problem. E-commerce had eroded foot traffic to their stores. In fact, large portions of the store were going under-utilized by customers – they were ignoring whole aisles and sections.
CVS needed a way to get people back into their stores.
A short-term fix could have been to run some promotions or do some advertising. Buy some traffic. Get people back “by hook or by crook” as they say.
Another option was to entice them with something else entirely – add a Starbucks? Heck, Kohl’s partnered with Amazon to allow consumers to bring their online returns into the store. Maybe that would work?
As it turns out, the best option was to use the under-utilized space to take a step towards the company’s long-term vision. To be more to the customer than just a place to “pick up their prescriptions.”
The solution the company chose was to open a series of Minute Clinics. These “doc in a box” spaces took advantage of the company’s under-utilized real estate, brought consumers back into the store, and took CVS one-step down the path towards playing a larger role in consumers’ healthcare journey.
Applying the “Minute Clinic” Strategy to Professional Services
To be clear, I’m not suggesting you launch a teledoc program on your website. What I am saying is that you should ween yourself off self-publishing content for the stated purpose of generating inbound leads through organic search.
But what should replace it?
Ultimately, you have to give potential clients a reason to expressly SEEK YOU OUT. Not just “stumble upon you” while seeking for your expertise.
We’ve seen two approaches work to solve this problem:
- Branded Content Experiences – Focus on a specific issue you’d like to own in the market and build a repeatable research program that positions your firm as the expert on the topic. Examples include the Tercera 30, the Middle Market Indicator, and Scott Brinker’s Martech Landscape.
- Elevated Experts – Focus on building a very personal relationship between a few of your key people and the market through a combination of short videos, a branded newsletter, and an earned media push. Examples include Rand Fishkin and his “5-Minute Whiteboards”, Dev Patnaik and his “Future-Focused Weekly Letter”, and John Dick and his “What We’re Seeing” Newsletter.
Regardless of which approach you choose the key is to use this moment to take a step towards your long-term vision.
Don’t just plug the hole with more LinkedIn or Google ads. Think long-term and ask yourself a few questions:
- If we could elevate our reputation around one issue in the market, what would it be?
- What approach to doing that connects best with our culture?
- Becoming known through substantive, repeatable research?
- Becoming known through the personalities and gravitas of a few key people?
- Perhaps both?
