www.amas.ie

Presentation to the Irish

Chapter of the Professional

Marketing Forum, September 2009

Aileen O’Toole, Managing Director, AMAS www.amas.ie

eMarketing for professional services firms

www.amas.ie

Presentation overview

• The Internet’s relevance to professional services firms

• Designing, building and managing an effective website

• Achieving good search engine visibility• Using social media and other so-called Web

2.0 tools• Case study: the Ideas Campaign

• Managing your firm’s reputation online• Questions and answers

www.amas.ie

Internet trends

www.amas.ie

State of the Net: the publication

Available on www.amas.ie

www.amas.ie

Broadband use

www.amas.ie

Broadband use

www.amas.ie

Business use

Source: IAPI Business Media Survey

www.amas.ie

Ad spend: traditional v. online

www.amas.ie

Top websites

www.amas.ie

Why the Internet is important

• Fact: a corporate website is a firm’s most important calling card

• Fact: how you communicate with your audiences online will result in action (lead generation, new business development etc)

• Fact: it’s not only about the website, it’s your online footprint

• Fact: online marketing and communications enable you to reach decision-makers more cost- effectively than traditional means

www.amas.ie

B2B sites: the facts

• More than half B2B buyers start research process through search engine search

• Less than half go beyond the first results page on Google

• 90% of buyers say website content influenced their purchasing decision

• Third party validation (clients, awards) important factor in decision-making process

www.amas.ie

Designing, building, managing a website

www.amas.ie

Web project elements

www.amas.ie

www.amas.ie

www.amas.ie

www.amas.ie

Free stuff

Open source software or free tools

www.amas.ie

Share contentSocial bookmarking: powerful engines for viral and word-of-mouth referrals

Video sharing sites help raise profile

www.amas.ie

Achieving good search visibility

www.amas.ie

The power of Google...

www.amas.ie

www.amas.ie

Web 2.0 and what it means to you

www.amas.ie

Web 2.0

Social networks

VideoSyndication

Podcasts

Mobile

Customer service

Social bookmarks

Blogs

User-generated content

www.amas.ie

Social networksNot just for the Bebo generation

www.amas.ie

Twitter

www.amas.ie

Case study: the Ideas Campaign

www.amas.ie

www.amas.ie

14 January, 2009

How it all started....

RTÉ, Prime Time special on the economy

www.amas.ie

Campaign ethos and objectives

Campaign by citizens for citizens, independent and non-political designed to:

• Seek citizens’ ideas for Irish economic recovery and renewal

• Help stimulate a debate about solutions to our economic problems

• Set a challenge to people in Ireland to be innovative and creative and to play their part in planning this country’s economic recovery

www.amas.ie

Campaign countdown• February 14: decided to launch campaign, commit €10,000 budget

• February 16: registered domain, logo designed

• February 17: message to LinkedIn contacts

• February 24: Campaign Manager joins

• February 27: first approaches made to

Advisory Group

• March 3: site built within four days

• March 5: campaign launched on RTÉ’s Prime Time

www.amas.ie

Social media

www.amas.ie

The campaign in numbers

By March 31 deadline:

• 5,300 ideas logged• 48,000 site visits• Average visitor spent 4.5 minutes on site• 17% of traffic international – visitors from 117 countries• Two out of three ideas from overseas came from

Irish-born people• Significant presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

www.amas.ie

Managing your firm’s reputation online

www.amas.ie

Monitor your brand

www.amas.ie

Light touch moderation

www.amas.ie

Monitor and respond

www.amas.ie

What to do?

• Don’t ignore the Internet• Start with the basics

• Communicate what you do well on your own website• Make it easier for your audiences to find your firm’s

website• Adopt proven online marketing tactics• Integrate, integrate, integrate

• Consider Web 2.0 but....• Not every firm needs a blog or to be on Twitter• Only use the platforms and the techniques that add

value

• Monitor, measure and respond

www.amas.ie

Questions?