Hollinden Point of View

Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4: What Does it Mean?

By now, you are most likely aware that Google is implementing a major shift in Google Analytics. Effective July 1, 2023, all data and processing in Google Universal Analytics (UA) will cease and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) will take its place. GA4 is...

Inbound Lead Generation

How to leverage your firm's growth goals, marketing strategy, and marketing automation to generate qualified leads.

The Best Inbound Marketing Tools for Growing Traffic Leads and Revenue in 2021

A highly successful inbound marketing program requires the right blend of technology and strategy.

Is Your CPA Firm Making These Four Common Marketing Mistakes?

Marketing plays a larger role in accounting firms today than ever before. The role of marketing has expanded to include building awareness, filling the top of the funnel, nurturing leads, educating prospects and clients, positioning the firm as a...

Attracting Talent–Branding as an Employer They Want to Work For

What reputation does your firm have – from an employee’s standpoint? Whether you are looking for high-level CPAs to join your firm or entry-level talent, your branding and reputation play a role in attracting top talent to your firm. When people...

Is the New .cpa Domain Right for Your Firm?

You may have recently received communication announcing the new .cpa domain being offered by The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and encouraging you to protect your name.

Assumptions (aka Pigeonholing)

Each morning, I receive Inc. This Morning, a short read which highlights today's business issues. This morning's issue was called "Pigeonholing." The opening line reads: "Compared to a decade ago, more than double the number of women are leading the...

A Guarantee for Client Retention: Experience

There's a reason Starbucks can increase its coffee prices and face little resistance. Simply put, the concept is designed to make its customers feel a connection. From the people to the ambiance – it’s about the complete experience. The ultimate...

WOM: The Most Powerful Marketing Activity

Word–of-mouth (WOM) is still the number one way to increase revenues, yet many firms settle for hoping that clients will automatically spread the good word. Unfortunately, they don’t. Why? It’s not because your clients don’t like your services; it’s...

Maximize Your Marketing Efforts to Fuel Scalable Growth

Developing a holistic approach to marketing allows firms to align their efforts and achieve their goals. One such approach is to create a strategic marketing plan. This is a document that provides firms with an integrated strategy that outlines the...

Your Staff Can Increase Your Social Engagement

Whether it is a lack of time and resources, or the need to focus on other areas of your firm’s success, we can all use some help when it comes to creating engaging marketing content that will resonate with our audiences and drive social traffic....

The Challenge of Leadership

I have never met a firm or practice leader that did not find the job challenging. Being the “go to” person for answers, inspiration or motivation can be both gratifying and taxing. Add your own to-do list to the mix – how to hire the right talent,...

Making Content Creation a Priority

Your organization's content creation may have been placed on the back burner, but it actually has a lot of benefits: client retention, building thought leadership, and even new client acquisition. Here are our top tips to create better content that...

The Impact of Artificial Intelligence

There’s been a lot of talk in the accounting industry about the impact of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t just something that may impact the industry, AI is already changing the way firms implement marketing and business...

The Top 5 Email Marketing Trends for 2019

It’s hard to believe, but email marketing has been around nearly a quarter-century. Despite the flashy technologies and social platforms that have popped up within the last decade and the complaints of overcrowded inboxes, email marketing isn’t...

Running Through the Finish Line: Three Management Tips to Help You End the Year Strong

A leader’s role is to be a main contributor of driving success and profits for the company, which begins with having the right people in the right positions. Overseeing and developing employees is crucial, but we all know that everyone is unique in...

Short Form Video: A New Age

Short form video, often under 60 seconds in length, has enjoyed a significant rise in popularity, particularly among younger professionals. While it’s hard to tell a story in just seconds, interest in video content can wane after just ten seconds....

The Revenue Road Less Traveled

Upselling and cross-selling have obvious benefits for any firm, no matter the industry. The problem is, most clients can see right through the typical "You may also like… " or “Wait, there’s more...” lines, and hesitate to expand their working...

Going Organic: Three Tools to Help Refine Your Search Strategy

There's nothing quite like a sudden Google algorithm update to leave organic search results in a state of uncertainty. It almost seems like Google waits for sites to get their content optimized and then unleashes an update that sends the sites...

Responsive Search Ads Are Here - What You Should Know

Last month, Google hosted its annual Google Marketing Live event and announced several big changes, including the newly consolidated Google Marketing Platform and the newly named Google Ads. Google’s aim for these updates is to simplify their vast...

Trusted Advisor is Not Just a Catchphrase

The phrase “trusted advisor” gets tossed around a lot. In fact, a simple Google search shows more than 31 million online references to the phrase. It’s also a phrase that’s often misunderstood. The truth be told, “trusted advisor” is difficult to...

7 Ways to Use Brainstorming for Better Results

You’ve risen to a leadership position in your firm in part because of your innate problem-solving skills. You can quickly diagnose the issue and come up with the solution. You know what to do based on your experience. However, it's impossible to be...

The Importance of a Content Audit

Last month’s newsletter focused on the importance of making content creation an integral part of your firm’s growth strategy. This month, we dive in deeper to content creation including exploring the value of the right content, reviewing the basics...

How Tapping into Your Natural Instincts Can Lower Your Stress and Aid in Success

Think of a time when you had to make a decision where your head said to do one thing, but your gut was steering you in a different direction. If you went with what you learned or thought was expected, and ignored your instincts, did it work? What...

10 Resolutions for a Record-Breaking New Year

Welcome to 2018. The start of a new year is a time for reflection, focus, determination, and goal-setting. If you are like more than 132 million Americans, you probably made a new year’s resolution or two. A study by the University of Scranton...

Using Inbound Marketing to Grow your Firm

The more our world becomes connected, the greater the digital noise. A multitude of studies demonstrate the magnitude of the noise. One study states that consumers receive up to 10,000 brand messages per day (American Marketing Association). A...

The Game-Changing Benefits of Marketing and Sales Alignment

Marketing and sales teams have historically operated on separate wavelengths—and, in some organizations, separate universes. The disconnect between the two is understandable: Sales has black-and-white quotas. Marketing, however, lives in a world...

Take the Lead: Conducting a Competitive Analysis

If you watched any of the recent Olympic cycling events, you may have noticed the lead cyclist quickly turn his or her head to look for fellow racers. This move may appear to be a small twitch, but it’s an important part of a cyclist’s race...

Employee Happiness: Does It Affect Loyalty?

Recruiting and retaining top talent are critical to any company’s ability to remain competitive and we know it to be especially true for professional services firms. Of all the factors affecting turnover, does employee happiness really matter?

Humans Change: Adapt Your Brand

For those of us who can remember a time before the digital age, it’s fairly easy to pinpoint social changes brought about by new technologies: Texts now take the place of calls. Screens stand in for faces. Email is favored over water-cooler...

Resolve to Break Bad Marketing Habits in the New Year

Mistakes happen. Marketers don't always get it right. Marketing failures are often more visible both internally and externally.

Managing Social Media Risk

Now, more than ever, firms worldwide seek to maintain continuous connection with clients, prospects, employees, and other stakeholders through social media. Social media channels are often utilized to:

The Power of Video

If you haven’t done so already, explore video as part of your marketing mix. Numerous studies show that, when given a choice, people prefer video to eblasts, white papers, case studies, demonstrations, webinars, and e-books (though those tactics...

Shifting Marketing’s Focus

Finding and retaining top talent continues to be a top priority for professional service firms across the country. For the past several years, the topic of staff shortages, recruiting strategies, and succession planning have been at the forefront of...

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due: Marketing Attribution

Until recently, it was probably very easy for you to track the path of a new client—the government passed Sarbanes-Oxley and your phone rang. Perhaps you met someone at a networking event and exchanged cards. A loyal client referred you to a...

Applying The Agile Methodology To Marketing

The latest buzz in marketing is around the idea of agile marketing. However, there is still a lot of confusion about the concept and how to apply it. Agile marketing is a methodology of “real time” marketing that continuously utilizes analytics and...

Marketing Automation: Where Evolution and Revolution Collide

We are all being asked to accomplish greater results with fewer resources. Marketing is no exception. There is one way to accomplish such a feat and that is to get hyper-focused. Focused on a vision. Focused on the goals. Focused on building a name...

Selecting the Right Marketing Automation System for Your Firm

In last month’s edition of Marketing Straight Talk, we reviewed how technology has helped marketing evolve and what part marketing automation has to play in that evolution. Are You Ready for Marketing Automation? Marketing automation is an...

Content Marketing for Results

One of my favorite TedTalks was given by Simon Sinek. During that talk he states, “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. What you do simply proves what you believe.” Every firm operates in a competitive environment, an environment...

How Convincing Your Staff That They Change the World Will Improve Your Firm

We’ve all heard the famous urban legend about the discussion between President Kennedy and the custodian at NASA. The President asked the custodian “what do you do?” and the custodian said, “I’m helping put a man on the moon.” While this interaction...

What is Inbound Marketing?

At Hollinden, we are big fans of HubSpot. As some of you may know, HubSpot is an all-inclusive marketing hub that can be used to manage inbound marketing programs. The system fuses elements of a Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) and a Content...

How Native Advertising Benefits Your Firm and Tips to Help You Get Started

Native advertising offers a way to cut through the advertising noise and provide more depth to your firm's promotional materials. Native advertising refers to sponsored content placed in magazines, blogs, websites, newspapers, social media...

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