Robert Buday, President

Bloom Group LLC

Just How Sociable isConsulting Marketing?

The 2012 Survey of Social Media Marketing in Consulting Firms

Siobhan Ford, North American Marketing Manager

Booz & Company

The ground that we will cover

Brief background on our three years of studying social media marketing in consulting firms

Demographics of this year’s participants

Social media’s place in the marketing mix and its relative potency

Governance policies: who gets to post, what do they get to post, and who must approve?

Consulting firms’ online publications: just how “social” are they?

Social media practices that are driving interest and leads 2

For the MMAG, we’ve conducted three straight years of research on an issue of rising importance

Since 2010, we have surveyed consultancies on their use of social media in marketing AMCF members and non-members

We published the studies and held MMAG seminars on them 2010: “Thought Leadership Rewired” 2011: “Marketing Consulting Through Social Media”

92 firms participated this year Filled out an online survey with 24 questions (many of

them detailed) Participation was driven by AMCF, Bloom Group and

ResearchNow Surveys were collected between March 19 and May 10 72 firms completed every question (78% complete rate)

We can now compare data over three years 2011: 85 surveys (74 completes) 2010: 93 surveys (57 completes)

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Demographics: Largely strategy and operations consulting firms

40%

22%

12%12%

14%

Q: What type of consulting firm do you work for?

Strategy

Operations

HR/Benefits

IT services

Other

4

Nice mix of marketers, managing directors, heads of service lines, and business development heads

13%12%

14%14%8%

14%

25%

Q: What is your role in your firm?

Chief marketing officer/head of marketing

Other marketing manager

CEO/Managing director

Head of practice/service line

Head of business development

Head of thought leadership content development

Other

5

Many small consulting firms, but some larger ones too

39%

16%10%5%

13%

8% 9%

Q: What is your firm’s annual revenue?

<$10M

$11M-25M

$26M-50M

$51M-$100M

$101M-$500M

$501M-$1B

>$1B

6

Nearly 50% of the people have been in the industry for some time but almost 20% are newbies

<1 year

1-2 years

3-4 years

5-6 years

7-10 years

11-20 years

>20 years

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%

8%

11%

17%

8%

9%

27%

21%

Q: How long have you been in the consulting industry?

7

About 60% spend less than $250K on thought leadership marketing; nearly 20% spend more than $1M

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

40% 19% 10% 13% 10% 1% 6% 1%

Q: How much does your firm spend annually on thought leadership marketing (content and programs?)

<$100,000 $100,000 to $249,000 $250,000-$499,000$500,000-$999,000 $1 million to $4.9 million $5 million to $9.9 million$10 million to $19.9 million $20 million to $49.9 million >$50 million

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About half say their marketing programs are somewhat effective; only about quarter say they’re strong

Not at all effective

Slightly effective

Moderately effective

Highly effective

Extremely effective

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

5%

18%

51%

23%

3%

Q: “How effective are your thought leadership marketing activities? (Effectiveness defined as their ability to in-

crease market awareness and generate leads)”

9

More than half generate 20 or fewer leads per month; 15% of the firms say they spawn more than 50 leads

0 to 10

11 to 20

21 to 30

31 to 40

41 to 50

51 to 100

101 to 200

More than 200

0% 5% 10%15%20%25%30%35%40%

37%

16%

12%

14%

5%

3%

5%

7%

Q: “How many leads/month do your thought leadership marketing activi-ties generate? (Leads defined as inquiries from prospects who ask to

speak to someone at your company about a specific issue they want to address.”

10

Social media’s role in the consulting marketing mix

11

Social media now commands a substantial part of the thought leadership marketing budget

43%

37%

22%

Q: Out of your total budget for thought leadership marketing, how much do you

spend on offline, traditional online and so-cial media?

Offline marketing Traditional online marketingSocial media marketing

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And it’s come out of nowhere in the last seven years

2005

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

70%

48%

43%

43%

34%

35%

28%

37%

42%

37%

40%

36%

2%

15%

16%

22%

26%

31%

Comparing Consulting Firms’ Thought Leadership Marketing Allocations With Our Previous Years’ Surveys

Offline Marketing Traditional Online MarketingSocial Media Marketing

This year

Projected

13

But how effective is social media vs. offline and traditional online forms of marketing?

14

Social media marketing techniques are not yet in the top tier of effectiveness

Effectiveness Ranking of Consulting Marketing Techniques

Top 10 in Generating Awareness and Leads

2012 2011 2010

Consulting firms’ seminars 1 3 1

Consultants’ presentations at third-party conferences

2 1 2

Search engine optimization (SEO) 3 7 3

Books 4 5 9

Email newsletters 5 13 7

Mentions in the press 6 6 12

Consulting firm-bylined articles in external print publications

7 2 5

Consulting firm-bylined articles in external online publications

8 4 5

Online video clips on consulting firms’ websites

9 19 11

Articles in consulting firms’ print publications

10 10 8

Offline

Offline

Online

Offline

Online

Offline

Offline

Online

Online

Offline

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The full rankings

Posting photos from events on FlickrOnline advertising (e.g., banner ads)

PodcastsE-books

Posting mentions of content on social networking sites we don't controlAdvertising (print or broadcast)

Posting content on external websites for exchanging presentations (e.g., Slideshare)Guest blogs in external media

Company blogsFirm microsites

Articles placed with white paper syndicatorsPosting questions and comments on threaded discussion sites (e.g., Quora and Focus.com)

Posting videos on YouTube, Vimeo, etc.Posting comments in discussion areas of external online publications

Posting mentions of content on pages of social networking sites we do controlWebinars

Firm-bylined articles posted on firm websiteFirm gated online communities

Articles in firm's print publicationsOnline video clips

Firm-bylined opinion articles in external online publicationsFirm-bylined articles in external print publications

Press mentionsFirm's email newsletters

BooksSearch engine optimization

Consultant presentations at external conferencesFirm seminars/events

2 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3 3.2 3.4 3.6 3.8 4

2.682.732.77

2.832.882.90

2.973.003.023.043.053.073.123.133.153.173.183.223.243.263.293.333.353.37

3.433.523.55

3.75

Effectiveness of Offline, Traditional Online and Social Media Techniques for Generating Market Awareness and Leads (Scale of 1-5)

16

But could it be that many of us are not yet proficient with social media?

Commenting on threaded discussion sites (e.g., Quora, Focus.com)

Posting event photos on Flickr

Commenting in external online pubs' discussion areas

Posting content on presentation sites (e.g., SlideShare)

Running gated online communities

Writing guest blogs for external sites

Writing articles for our print publications

Posting articles on our website

Optimizing our site for search engines

Mentioning content on pages of social networking sites we control

Publishing a firm email newsletter

Holding firm seminars

Having our consultants present at external conferences

30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

37%38%42%

47%49%

59%

81%82%84%85%88%92%96%

% of Consulting Firms Using the Following Marketing Techniques

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The full list of marketing tools and frequency of usage

Posting questions and comments on threaded discussion sites (e.g., Quora and Focus.com)Posting photos from events on Flickr

Posting comments in discussion areas of external online publicationsPosting content on external websites for exchanging presentations (e.g., Slideshare)

E-booksFirm gated online communities

PodcastsGuest blogs in external media

Articles placed with white paper syndicatorsBooks

Firm micrositesPosting videos on YouTube, Vimeo, etc.

Firm-bylined opinion articles in external online publicationsOnline advertising (e.g., banner ads)

Posting mentions of content on social networking sites we don't controlCompany blogs

Advertising (print or broadcast)Webinars

Online video clipsFirm-bylined articles in external print publications

Articles in firm's print publicationsFirm-bylined articles posted on firm website

Search engine optimizationPosting mentions of content on pages of social networking sites we do control

Press mentionsFirm's email newsletters

Firm seminars/eventsConsultant presentations at external conferences

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

37%38%

42%47%49%49%

53%59%60%60%62%

68%70%71%72%73%73%75%

79%79%81%82%84%85%85%88%

92%96%

Percentage of Consulting Firms That Use These Marketing Tools

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SOCIAL MEDIA GOVERNANCE

19

Marketing (and its PR agency) has much more latitude to promote the firm through social media than do consultants

Company blogs

Social networking sites (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)

Closed discussion groups (e.g., private LinkedIn groups)

Video/multimedia sites (e.g., YouTube, SlideShare)

20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

48%

54%

50%

28%

57%

53%

49%

28%

69%

85%

67%

69%

44%

59%

41%

26%

67%

63%

59%

44%

Q: “Who is allowed to post content in social media to promote your firm?”

PR agency HR personnel Marketing personnelOnly partners Any consultant

20

There are usually checks and balances: In 74% of the firms, someone must approve a social media comment

7%

36%

36%

19%3% 1%

Q: “Who Must Approve Social Media Content Before It’s Posted?” (One Selection Per Survey Respondent)

No one is permitted to promote the firm through social mediaMarketing functionFirm managementNo one has to approveMarketing agencyOther

21

But there’s no hand-holding for many: 44% do not train their people on social media

Other

Third-party (e.g., PR or social media expert)

Internal webinars/seminars

None

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

3%

12%

49%

44%

Q: “What kinds of training does you firm provide on how to use social media to promote the firm?”

22

And little is written down: Only 36% have explicit, codified guidelines

None

Written guidelines that are comprehensive and explicit

Written guidelines that are not comprehensive and explicit

Unwritten but spoken guidelines

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

24%

36%

27%

13%

Q: “What kinds of guidelines do you have about using social media to promote the firm?”

23

24

YOUR ONLINE PUBLICATIONS: HOW SOCIAL ARE THEY?

Firms promote less than half their online thought leadership content through social media

48.5%

51.5%

Q: “Please estimate what percentage of all the online thought leadership content your firm has published this year that your firm

promoted through social media sites.”

Promoted thru social media

Not promoted thru social media

25

And many aren’t engaging online with prospects who are reading their online publications

A place to comment on content

A button to recommend or "like" content

Ability to share content through social media

Ability to email content

Viewer polls

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

55%

45%

57%

74%

30%

What Consulting Firms Use to Get Online Viewers to Interact with Their Content

26

A great place to get prospects to “socialize” with your online content is in the very pages where you publish it

Commen

ts in your

comment

s

sections

Real-time video chats with interested

viewers

27

Most are measuring just top-line indicators of how much viewers like their content (# of views, web analytics)

Don't compile measures

Number of likes or recommends

Number of views

Number of "shares" (i.e., viewers who email, Tweet, or use other social media to share content with others)

Number of inbound links

Web analytics (e.g., Google Analytics)

How much viewers read each piece of content (e.g., # of pages clicked per article)

Number of viewer comments on content

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

12%

41%

65%

32%

39%

53%

27%

24%

How Consulting Firms Measure Viewer Interest in Their Online Content

28

Maybe it’s because those outside of marketing don’t yet realize the value of deeper content engagement metrics

Number of likes or recommends

Number of viewers who comment on content

Number of times content is shared

Number of viewers who read content

1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4

2.32

2.77

2.80

3.38

Q: “What importance do your firm’s key stakeholders (outside of Marketing) place on the following measures of

market engagement with your online content?”

Importance (scale of 1-4, 1=none, 2=minor, 3=moderate, 4=high)

29

Marketers do a little more with the metrics of online engagement (but still not much)

Determine which content to focus marketing programs

Inform consultants of market interest in their content

Determine budget allocations for marketing activities

Little or nothing

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

51%

40%

24%

28%

What Consulting Firms Do With Measures of Online Engagement With Their Content

30

A prediction: Consulting firms will discover that their online publications are a key place to socialize with prospects

31

But it will require a fundamental change in the online publishing model

From “Closed Monologue” … … to “Open Dialogue”

32

Social media marketing best practices that we heard

Q: “Over the last 12 months, what has been the single most effective strategy or tactic that your marketing function has employed using social media?”

33

Strategic Focus on Content Marketing

Type of Consulting

Firm

Direct Comments

Strategy “Provide content around fiscal calendar. Planning/strategy at end of calendar year, deployment for beginning of year, new thinking/innovation around 2nd quarter.

“Provides contextual support that seems to resonate with user community.”

Strategy “A systematic approach to writing an article and blog once a month, following it up with a webinar each month, and then running a seminar/workshop on a six-month basis as a synthesis of the articles and webinars.

“We choose a theme for the year and then do the writing and webinars around this. The posts, articles and webinars are free, but we charge for the workshops. We also invite guests onto the webinars and to participate on the workshops.

“We have succeeded in meeting several new clients in this way. The new clients have contributed to 25% of the revenue we have accrued in the last 12 months.”

Strategy “a) Storytelling on Facebook by reusing already existing content, b) produced good interaction, which has made content last longer, and c) helped to strengthen our claim of being a thought leader and to define our online agenda in that realm.”

IT services “We produced a videotape series that features short excerpts of unscripted conversations with two dozen of our consultants. Traffic on YouTube has been excellent.

“Select excerpts have augmented our online content elsewhere. The video added some needed freshness to our brand. We've had very positive feedback internally. Most important, prospects have mentioned them favorably during meetings.”

34

Using Social Platforms to Engage in and Shape Conversations

Type of Consulting

Firm

Direct Comments

Other “On a ‘firm’ level, the best luck we've had so far is executive "trolling" (although I hesitate to use that word because of all the negative connotations). Our president has built up to about 15,000 followers, targeting our industry, programmed about 50 or 60 tweets into his twitter app (TweetAdder) and has them on rotate, randomly putting out 5 a day.

“About half are ‘helpful comments’ about our industry, and half are links to high-performing thought leadership pieces or microsites. Our blog runs through his Twitter as an RSS feed.

“He sits back, lets it run, and engages with the folks who @ or DM him. It's not what the ‘true believers’ would say is great way to do it, but it has resulted in some success.”

Strategy “Networking clients in online forums.”

Strategy “We've had success lately using comment functions on the online presences of traditional media received in our PR program. Now that news media is also "social,” we can use the comment section to post addendum information, direct readers to a specific place for more information, etc.

“This has helped us cover holes in stories we wished were filled, and direct interested parties to our website.”

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Leveraging All Aspects of LinkedIn

Type of Consulting

Firm

Direct Comments

Strategy “We created a LinkedIn club to promote discussion about the industry and to also market our articles and other content. At first we started with 50 members and a year and a half later we are sitting at 2,100. It was a great opportunity for us to keep in touch with our clients and attract more prospects through them.

“We also use it as our main communication channel to talk about our events, research papers and other important occurrences within the company.”

Sales and marketing

“We decided to help a small number of key principals improve their LinkedIn profiles and presence. They knew they should have good, key-word rich LinkedIn profiles, but most didn't have time to compile good resumes and take the time to learn the LinkedIn basics to post the updates.

“We gathered resume information from the standard formats we have on file and created key-word rich bios for them. We then walked them through the process to update their profiles. In some cases principals gave us their passwords to make the updates on their behalf. We identified groups for them to join based on established criteria.

“We have since been monitoring those groups for potential participation opportunities. This was effective because all principals involved have been approached with business opportunities through LinkedIn.”

Management and IT

“Posting content to LinkedIn through both our corporate channel and having our leaders distribute it through their personal networks. Doing so increased traffic to content by more the 100% and increased meetings that were directly related to content by 50%.”

36

Using SlideShare to Extend the Life of Existing Content

Type of Consulting

Firm

Direct Comments

Strategy “Creating a slide deck that was promoted via Twitter, SlideShare, LinkedIn and Facebook, as well as personally emailed to prospects and clients.

“The deck included a ‘mini-white paper,’ plus some visuals and a worksheet to help turn the content and ideas into actions people could take in their firms immediately.

“Folks used it how we had hoped -– ‘stealing’ pages for their presentations to their teams and bosses.”

IT services “Surprisingly, SlideShare for non-presentation assets. We have generated numerous bona fide leads in key targets.

“Tweeting and Facebooking about these assets have gained relevance within Slideshare.

“Our pieces are frequently cited for being "hot" on Twitter and Facebook, and are therefore featured on SlideShare's home page.”

37

So what’s holding firms back from achieving these kinds of successes?

38

Figuring out how to use social media to develop our content

Getting marketing people within their “silos” to collaborate

Concerns about compliance

Managing consultants’ expectations of rapid results

Lack of quality content

Concerns about the ability to refresh online content regularly

Unsure how to build online followers and drive traffic to our content

Lack of a marketing plan that stages and synchronizes typically disparate marketing activities

Lack of clear understanding of the pros and cons of social media

Lack of time to commit to social media marketing

Figuring out how to best use social media to market our content

1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5

2.22

2.35

2.47

2.49

2.71

2.72

2.85

2.86

2.88

3.03

3.10

Key Barriers to Using Social Media to Improve Thought Leadership Marketing

Scale of 1-5, 1= not at all a barrier, 3= moderate

barrier, 5= extreme barrier

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In summary

Social media is now a core part of the consulting marketing mix

But social media tools alone don’t generate leads

In fact, offline and traditional online marketing techniques remain critical (even the age-old book!)

Lots of learning remains on how best to use social networking tools

Marketers’ next focus should be “socializing” their publications to engage with prospects online

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