Your clients have encountered business challenges like never before this year. Are you asking yourself how you can help your professionals services clients prepare for 2021? The Hinge Research Institute has published some findings that can help.

Retain Existing Customers

As the online marketplace has grown more crowded in 2020, it’s tough for your clients to position themselves properly. Whether your clients are selling accounting or recruiting services, they’re fighting hard for customers. In 2013, 71.4% of buyers said they’d stay with the same service provider for two to three years. Now, only 56.3% same the same thing, according to Hinge Research.

One reason behind this decrease in loyalty is that your client may not be staying current with industry changes. And, if they have rolled out new services to stay relevant in the changing world, clients and prospects are not aware of that detail. This situation calls for your clients to increase their visibility with marketing campaigns to existing clients.

More Loyalty Marketing

Your clients may already be part of another trend in their attempts to retain existing clients. If they’re not, you should work with them on ways to increase loyalty. According to Forrester, “Already, media money is shifting into retention methods such as email, customer service, and the creation of products that drive growth: We predict that spend on loyalty and retention marketing will increase by 30% in 2021.” If your clients aren’t offering their professional customers rewards for their loyalty — such as free training or webinars for experts or access to industry research — they should get started.

Help Your Professional Services Clients Prepare

To attract new customers, your professional services clients can always rely on recommendations. But they’ll need to do more than that. According to Hinge Research Institute analysts, when buyers encounter challenges in their business, they research as follows, on a scale of 1 to 10:

• Do a web search 7.7
• Check out social media 6.4
• Read articles and blog posts 6.4
• Watch a video/​attend webinar 6.0
• Read research reports or e‑books 6.0

As you help your professional services clients prepare for next year, show them how to get their content in front of the right people. Buyers are interacting with content produced by and for professional services businesses regularly. If your clients aren’t producing content that positions themselves as experts, they’re missing out. Our research shows that B2B buyers vet potential new suppliers based on, among other factors, customer ratings, experience in the same line of business, and articles written by them.

As more decision-​makers move into the ranks of native social media users, the reliance on that channel as an information source will increase. Currently, LinkedIn rules with 81% of buyers, but Facebook (37.3%), Twitter (26.5%) and YouTube (21.4%) continue to be factors.

To learn more about how to connect with your professional services clients’ buyers, review the B2B audience information in the Local Account Intelligence Reports on AdMall by SalesFuel.