Last fall, we asked 495 professional services firms what they were most concerned about in the coming years. Increased competition was one of the challenges they mentioned most often—coming in third, behind AI and an unpredictable marketplace.

Source: 2026 High Growth Study

This competition is coming from multiple angles. Nimble upstart firms with fresh, bold ideas and disruptive business models are giving buyers new options to consider—sometimes at lower price points. At the same time, the biggest players in the field are investing heavily in technology and top talent, making it difficult to compete at the market’s high end. Meanwhile, PE firms and expansion-minded businesses are investing in M&A, consolidating many mid-market players to create deep, multi-faceted organizations.

So it probably makes sense to get to know your competitors. As I’ve explained before, you likely don’t know them as well as you think. In fact, there’s a very good chance you only know a fraction of the firms you compete against.

But how exactly do you learn about the competition?

How to Conduct a Competitor Analysis

The first step is to uncover the full spectrum of organizations that your prospects consider when selecting a service provider. A typical firm is aware of only a quarter of its competitors.

How do you do that? You ask your clients.

Conduct a simple survey of 10-30 clients (the more, the better). Ask them who they consider your competitors. Then ask them what they believe each firm is known for and how they believe your firm compares to them. This second part should be open-ended so they can answer in any way they want. At the same time, send the same survey to your business-development and client-facing staff. You will almost always be surprised by the breadth of companies your clients list, many of which you may never have heard of.

Next, identify your top competitors. Compare the names that your team supplied against those listed by your clients. Which appear most often? To keep the rest of this exercise within reasonable bounds, try to narrow the list to three to five top competitors. Chances are, these will be familiar firms, but there might be a surprise or two in the group.

Now it’s time to dig in and learn about them. If you want a detailed understanding of what you are up against, here some things to look for:

Strategy: How is the firm positioning itself in the marketplace? Does it have a unique specialty, focus, or point of view? What big messages are they conveying about their business? Look for this information on the firm’s website. Check their homepage title tag (the text that often appears when you place your cursor over the browser window tab), the headlines and introductory text on their homepage and their About page. Keep in mind that many firms are poorly positioned and have little or no differentiated messaging.

Salient Questions: Is your firm sufficiently differentiated from your competitors? Do buyers have a compelling reason to choose you over other firms? Have you articulated that reason clearly?

Key Services: Check the firm’s website for the services and products they offer. Compare them to your own offerings. The point is not to imitate your competitors. Instead, the goal is to understand how the market may be changing and what kinds of offerings buyers are encountering as they compare firms.

Salient Questions: Are you missing any new or important services or products that today’s buyers want? Are there any offerings you could drop? Can you tailor your offerings in a way that sharpens your positioning?

Branding: Pay attention to your competitors’ visual brands. Does their logo, color palette, photography, and design distinguish them in the marketplace? Does their branding convey sophistication and position them as a premium option?

Salient Question: Is your visual brand helping or hurting your business?

Website: Bring up each competitor’s website. Now get ready to ask a fistful of questions. Does it load quickly? Is the experience as good on a phone as it is on a laptop? Is the look and feel modern, sophisticated and appropriate to the firm? Does the site look different from other firms in the industry? Is it easy to navigate? Is it easy to read? Are the services presented in a compact, logical way, or are they a sprawling, mind-numbing list of a-la-carte services? Is there an on-site blog? Is it updated often? Are the articles educational or self-promotional? Are there clear calls to action? Is there a library (or equivalent) section? Does it include a mix of free and gated (requires filling out a form) material? Are there offers throughout the site that promote some of this thought leadership material What is their Domain Authority (or similar metric)?

Salient Questions: Does your website clearly convey what makes your firm different? Is it easy for visitors to find key information? Is it authoritative enough to attract new prospects through online search? Is it built in a way that you can generate leads and nurture them over time?

Traditional Search: Over the past few years, Google made fundamental changes to its search engine, which had a dramatic effect on website organic search traffic. But SEO is far from dead. It remains an important way that people discover thought leadership content and other website pages. How does your SEO performance compare to that of your rivals? Pay particular attention to visibility metrics such as monthly organic search traffic, referring domains and number of backlinks. Then look at their top keywords, how they rank in Google, what pages they link to and how much traffic they produce. What proportion of these keywords are organic (that is, don’t contain the firm’s name) versus branded?

Salient Questions: Are people who are interested in expertise like yours finding your blog posts and website? Are they steadily turning into clients?

AI Search: AI search is a rapidly growing segment of online search. It can generate high-buying-intent leads. You can use tools like SEMRush and OtterlyAI to capture metrics like how often competitors are mentioned in AI answers, how often they are cited as sources, which AI engines are their best performers, their top prompt themes, top cited pages and where they stand on the AI search maturity scale (low to high).

Salient Question: Are you set up to succeed in AI search?

Paid Advertising: It is no secret that firms can no longer rely on SEO to drive their marketing strategy. Many firms are turning to paid digital advertising, especially on Google and LinkedIn, to fill the gap. Using tools like Semrush, Ahrefs or Google Ads’ Keyword Planner, you can see what keywords your competitors are ranking for and (in some tools) even the ad text they are using.

Salient Question: Do you need a paid advertising program to compete in today’s marketplace?

Earned Media: Using specialized tools such as Meltwater or Muckrack, you can see how often each competitor is mentioned in the media. You can also determine where they are being featured and what kinds of topics are receiving coverage. These insights help you determine how visible your competitors are and what they are best known for. AI search platforms also look to earned media for signals that a firm is an authority in its industry.

Salient Questions: Do you have an earned media strategy? Is it working?

Visible Expertise^®: How visible are your competitors’ experts? And how much thought leadership content do they generate? Begin by examining each firm’s team or leadership pages. Do their bio pages describe their speaking and or publishing experience? Do they link to blog posts or articles on or off the site? Go to the blog. Are posts regularly authored by firm subject matter experts? Are the posts well written, educational and unbiased? Is there other educational content on the site (such as webinars or courses) that both educates and exposes visitors to individual experts? You can also use PR tools (see Earned Media above) to identify media mentions and publications.

Salient Question: Are your top experts producing and delivering content in a way that raises their visibility to your target audience?

Social Media: How active and visible are your competitors on social media? Using tools like Sprout Social or Semrush, you can track a variety of social media activities, such as number of followers on each platform, what content is performing best, levels of engagement and whether clients are saying positive or negative things about each firm (sentiment). How are your competitors using social media? Do they appear to have a strategy?

Salient Question: Is social media building your firm’s credibility, visibility and trust? Is it helping you achieve specific strategic goals, such as networking, sharing content or recruiting?

If doing a comprehensive competitive assessment like this sounds like a lot, you can always scale it down. A little intelligence is far better than none. The point is that you should build the habit of relying less on anecdotal evidence or assumptions that may be out of sync with the marketplace.

Of course, you can always hire a firm or consultant to conduct an in-depth competitor analysis for you. We’ve learned that the fastest-growing firms not only track more metrics, they outsource more skills than their slower-growing peers. If you really want to understand how your firm is doing against key rivals in each of the areas and channels above, a deep-dive competitor review like this can be a worthwhile investment. If, however, you aren’t quite ready to take that step, there’s plenty you can do on your own.

The post What You Need to Know About Your Competition appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

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Yet High Growth Firms are defying these trends. These top performers reported a median growth rate of 41.3%, outpacing the industry average by a factor of 4.3. They are also 86% more profitable.

How do they achieve these results in a cooling market? Here are five key highlights from the Hinge’s 2026 High Growth Study, Technology & Software Edition.

1. High Growth Firms are Spending More on Marketing

While many firms are tightening their belts in a cooling market, High Growth technology and software firms are aggressively investing in marketing. These top-performing organizations invest 18.0% of their revenue in marketing – double their No Growth peers. This is an 80% increase in spending over the previous year, which may reflect the capital intensity required to maintain a modern, AI-driven marketing program.

High Growth firms are deploying this capital strategically. In fact, “marketing technology, AI, and automation” is their top marketing priority. They are more than twice as likely to prioritize these tools than their No Growth counterparts. This is likely because they recognize they are essential to thrive in a marketplace increasingly dominated by disruptive AI-powered competitors. By integrating these technologies into every aspect of their business, they seek a strategic advantage beyond simple efficiency.

The true differentiator for these firms lies in their ability to use these tools to capture deep-level insights. High Growth Firms are 7x more likely to prioritize marketing analytics, using AI to drive strategy, predict client needs, and tailor experiences at scale. By mastering marketing tech, automation, and data automation, they are able to counteract marketplace uncertainty and build a sustainable competitive advantage.

2. High Growth Firms Love Video

For the first time, video production tops the list of skills High Growth technology and software firms outsource most often. Over 60% of top performers now tap external specialists to execute their video production. Likely, they recognize that high-quality video is a specialized craft best handled by experts.

Video also is ranked as the second most impactful marketing technique used by High Growth firms. Increasingly, people are choosing video over reading text to learn about firms and their products and services. Video is also an important source of information for AI and traditional search results. High Growth firms know this and are investing accordingly.

3. Relationships still drive Business Development

Despite the rapid proliferation of AI and digital tools, the technology and software industry remains deeply human-centric. Personal interactions still drive the majority of new business. High Growth firms recognize that building human connections is the most efficient way to develop new clients They understand that by giving prospective buyers access to their experts, those potential buyers will be more likely to trust the organization as a whole.

A primary vehicle for building this trust is the use of free assessments or consultations, which High Growth firms rank as their most impactful marketing and business development technique (see figure above). These sessions allow firms to interact directly with buyers at the exact moment they are selecting a product, offering prospects a low-risk way to experience the firm’s expertise firsthand. Because these consultations can play a critical role in nurturing late-stage prospects and closing business, they deliver a superior return on effort despite the considerable time they demand of high-value employees.

Human marketing activity is the primary source of leads. If you combine sales and direct outreach (27.2%), referrals (23.8%), and events (12.4%), nearly two-thirds of the industry’s total lead volume results from direct or indirect human interactions. To capitalize on this, High Growth firms actively encourage key members of their team to become Visible Experts®. By supporting these thought leaders, firms establish a pathway for prospective buyers to become loyal followers of their top experts.

4. Search Optimization Is High Growth Firms’ Most Frequently Used Marketing Technique

Search optimization is High Growth firms’ most widely used marketing technique, with nearly two-thirds of top performers employing it on a regular basis. By prioritizing search, these firms ensure they remain visible to prospective buyers who are actively seeking specialized expertise to solve complex business challenges.

To prepare for a future in which much, if not all, search is handled by AI, High Growth firms are expanding beyond traditional SEO practices to also address emerging AI search technologies. Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the subdiscipline devoted to this speciality. While SEO is far from dead, savvy organizations are optimizing their content and web pages for online search today and tomorrow.

5. High Growth Firms Are Better at Using Data

High Growth firms are data-driven and far more proficient at using marketing metrics than their slower-growing peers. These top performers rely on objective data to determine the effectiveness of their marketing programs, equipping them to act on insights in a timely manner.

The figure above shows the percentage of firms that have low, some, and high proficiency in capturing and using marketing and BD metrics. Unsurprisingly, High Growth firms outperform Low Growth firms in this area. They hold a 42.8% to 11.1% advantage at the highest level of proficiency. And less than a third of the top-performers are in the low proficiency category. Meanwhile, well over half of the Low Growth firms languish there.

The fastest-growing firms are also more digitally mature than their slower-growing counterparts, giving them a distinct edge in efficiency and productivity.

Conclusion

High Growth firms offer a model for firms that want to achieve faster growth and higher profitability. While we’ve highlighted a few key findings above, there is much more to unpack in the full industry report—including practical advice to put the data to work at your firm. You can learn about and purchase the 2026 High Growth Study, Technology & Software report here.

The post 5 Highlights from the 2026 High Growth Study: Technology & Software Edition appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

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But the marketplace is chock full of content. And an awful lot of it isn’t doing any good for anyone.

Why?

First, a quick refresher on how content marketing works. When you make valuable educational material freely available online, you allow possible future buyers of your services to get access to your expertise. If you publish enough material on topics relevant to your target audience, many of these people who discover one piece will come back again and again for more.

Over time, they begin to trust the author—and by extension, the firm they work for. Eventually, some of these followers will need the services you provide. They will reach out to you. And in many cases, you will be their top choice, which gives you a distinct advantage over any competitors.

I want to point out two key words that I used: valuable and educational. Each blog post, webinar, speech, email newsletter article, or video you produce must be highly relevant to your audience and provide new insights into important business challenges. If your content doesn’t meet these criteria, it is likely to fall flat.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Below are five reasons well-intentioned content flails and fails.

1. Your content is not educational

Many firm blogs, newsletters and social media sites are little more than bulletin boards. They announce new hires. They promote awards won. They describe a new service offering. They post photos from a staff service event. So what’s wrong with these? Let me spell it out: Prospects. Do. Not. Care. And neither do most of your clients. You are filling space that could be attracting prospects with white noise. And a lot of people fall asleep to white noise. Focus instead on teaching your audience about the problems you solve. Strong content is always found at the intersection of your firm’s expertise and the business challenges your clients care about most.

2. Your content is too self-promotional

The whole point of writing* content is to establish trust and build a loyal following. Many experts, however, believe that all marketing is advertising. When they write a blog post, for instance, they fill the piece with multiple examples of work their firm did and actively invite readers to hire them. The problem with this approach is that it immediately puts the reader on guard. “Clearly the author has a self-interested motive here. Can I trust anything they say?” A far better approach is to be evenhanded and unbiased. Describe the solution as if other firms could solve it, too. Don’t worry, your readers will trust you even more for it. That said, it’s often okay at the very end of the piece to add an understated call to action to let your readers know that your firm is available to help.

3. Your content can only be discovered on your website

Publishing content on your website matters. But if that is the only place your content lives, you are asking your audience to do all the work. And people, as a general rule, do not love homework. At a minimum, optimize any blog posts you write for traditional and AI search. Also, share your articles, videos and blog posts on the social media channels where your audiences spend time and build professional relationships (LinkedIn, at the very least). Speaking of LinkedIn, it’s becoming an increasingly important authority signal for AI search. So consider publishing some of your articles natively on the LinkedIn platform.

4. Your content covers too much territory

The problem with a blank page is you can fill it with anything. Many firms publish content on a huge range of topics with no organizing principles to wrangle them. As a result, their “thought leadership” feels leaderless and lost. There is a better way. Narrow your focus to a few key “issues.” These are themes that your firm will become known for. Each issue is broad enough that it could inspire hundreds of blog posts, speeches, and podcast episodes. But they are contained enough that they impose discipline on your team and help you build a reputation for a set of ideas in the marketplace.

5. Your content doesn’t reflect how your clients want to learn

Winning new business is not a single moment. It is a journey. Prospective clients move through different stages as they learn about your firm, understand their own problem, compare options, and decide whom to trust. Not every prospect enters that journey in the same place. Some are just beginning to understand their issue. Some are actively researching possible solutions. Some are ready to buy and are comparing firms. Your content strategy needs to support all of them. That means writing blog posts isn’t enough. You need to consider each stage of the buyer journey and produce content at each inflection point that is designed to move the prospect a little further along the path.

Does your content marketing program suffer from any of these problems? If so, you have plenty of company. The good news is that recognizing the problem is often the biggest hurdle to solving it.

*I’m using the word “writing” here and elsewhere as a shorthand for “writing or speaking,” both of which can appear in various formats or media.

The post Why Your Content Marketing Isn’t Working appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

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A website audit is a structured evaluation of how well your website supports visibility, credibility, and conversion.

For B2B and professional services firms, this goes beyond technical performance. Your website plays a critical role in how potential clients evaluate your expertise, differentiate you from competitors, and decide whether to engage.

A modern website audit typically includes:

• Technical performance (speed, mobile, Core Web Vitals)
• Search visibility (SEO and content structure)
• AI visibility (how well content can be surfaced in AI-driven results)
• Content quality and depth (demonstration of expertise)
• User experience, navigation, and site architecture
• Conversion pathways and calls to action
• Trust and credibility signals (case studies, expertise, and proof points)

The goal is not just to identify issues, but to uncover opportunities to improve how your site attracts, educates, and converts the right clients over time.

Want a professional website audit? Request an audit from our team.

There is no ignoring the staggering importance of website performance. To remain competitive, you need a website that clearly articulates your value proposition, demonstrates your experience and expertise, and generates high-quality leads.

But websites have a shelf life… To keep pace with changes in technology, buyer behavior, and the competitive landscape, every business must keep a pulse on the state of its website and have a plan for its continued development. This is where a website audit can help.

At Hinge, we’ve audited and designed hundreds of websites for professional services firms. As an award-winning team of website and marketing experts, we’ve developed a structured, research-informed approach to evaluating how well a website supports visibility, credibility, and lead generation.

In this post, we’ll walk through the same core areas we assess in our client engagements – from technical performance and search visibility to messaging, content, and competitive positioning. We’ll also share some of the tools and techniques we use with our clients along the way.

The 7 Core Components of a High-Performing Website Audit

A website audit is designed to answer two critical questions:

1. How effectively is your website attracting, engaging, and educating the right audience?
2. What is limiting your site’s visibility, credibility, differentiation, and ability to convert interest into qualified opportunities?

For professional services firms, these questions carry added weight. Your website is often one of the first places potential clients evaluate your expertise, compare you to alternatives, and decide whether to engage. It also plays a critical role in reinforcing referrals and helping existing clients better understand the full scope of your capabilities. In many cases, your website is where trust is confirmed – or lost – before a conversation ever takes place.

At the end of a comprehensive site audit, you should have a clear understanding of whether your site requires targeted improvements or a more significant redesign – and, just as importantly, why.

A single issue rarely causes underperformance. More often, it’s a combination of factors, such as:

• Limited visibility in search of AI-driven results
• Unclear positioning or messaging
• Gaps in content depth or relevance
• A confusing or inefficient user experience
• Weak or inconsistent conversion pathways

A structured audit helps isolate these factors and prioritize those with the greatest impact.

Should you conduct the audit internally or engage an outside specialist?

An internal review can be a useful starting point, especially for identifying obvious issues. However, many of the factors that limit a website’s performance, such as positioning, content strategy, and competitive differentiation, are harder to diagnose from the inside.

Experienced external teams – like ourselves – bring an objective perspective, along with specialized tools, benchmarks, and a deeper understanding of how professional services buyers evaluate firms online. This allows them to uncover less visible constraints and identify higher-impact opportunities for improvement.

For firms looking to make meaningful gains in visibility, credibility, and lead generation, that level of insight is often critical.

With that in mind, here are the seven core areas we recommend evaluating in a modern website audit:

1. Technical Performance and Website Health

Before evaluating content, messaging, or user experience, begin with your website’s technical foundation. Technical issues can limit visibility, degrade user experience, and negatively impact both search rankings and engagement. If these foundational elements are not functioning properly, even the strongest content and design will underperform.

While several tools can help identify technical issues, such as SEMrush’s website audit tool, interpreting those findings and determining the most effective path forward often requires development expertise. In many cases, the key question is not just what is broken, but whether it is more efficient to fix issues incrementally or pursue a broader redesign.

A technical audit ensures your website is stable, secure, and accessible, providing a solid base for everything that follows.

Key areas to evaluate include:

• Page load speed across desktop and mobile
• Mobile responsiveness and usability
• Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS, INP)
• Broken links and crawl errors
• Security (HTTPS, SSL certificates)
• Accessibility (WCAG compliance)
• Code structure and performance optimization 

Free Resource

The Lead Generating Website Guide for Professional Services

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Technical performance also plays a critical role in how your website is crawled, indexed, and surfaced in both search engines and AI-driven results. Sites with poor performance or structural issues may struggle to gain visibility, regardless of content quality.

Key questions to evaluate how well your website’s technical foundation supports performance and visibility:

• Is my website mobile-friendly and responsive across all devices?
• Are there any broken links, errors, or performance issues affecting usability?
• Is my website secure and properly maintained?
• Is my site accessible?
• Is my website easily crawlable and indexable by search engines?
• Are technical issues limiting how my content is indexed, retrieved, or surfaced in AI-driven results?

If you’re unsure how to answer these questions – or what to do with the findings – you’re not alone. Many of the issues uncovered in a technical audit are not immediately apparent and can be difficult to prioritize without an experienced perspective.

If you’re looking for a more objective, comprehensive assessment, our team of experts can help.

2. User Acquisition, Search Visibility, and AI Discovery

Once you have a grasp of your website’s technical health, you can begin to analyze your users. An exploration of user behavior should begin with an understanding of how users land on your website in the first place.

For professional services firms and B2B, this stage is critical. It determines whether your expertise is being surfaced to the right audience during the research process, before a conversation ever takes place.

A high-performance website audit should evaluate visibility across both traditional search engines and emerging AI-driven discovery.

Start by analyzing traffic sources and search performance using tools such as Google Analytics (now called Google Analytics 4 or GA4) and Google Search Console. We recommend analyzing a range of dates between six and twelve months to account for any seasonality that may occur in your industry. For example, it is common that we see accounting and CPA firm websites experience extra direct traffic from users during the springtime “busy months” due to clients returning to their website.

GA4 can also help you understand user acquisition. Are users coming directly to your website, or are they finding you through channels like organic search or social media? Understanding how users reach website will give you insight into who your visitors are and what they may be looking for from your website.

Key areas to evaluate include:

• Traffic sources (organic search, direct, referral, social, PPC)
• Top landing pages and their performance
• Keyword ranking and search queries
• Pages with strong visibility vs. underperformance

Additionally, you want to understand your top landing pages from GA4. The most popular landing pages on your website are the ones that should demand more of your attention. For many of you this may be your homepage—but that is not always the case. Regardless of which pages are your top landing pages, you must recognize that the messaging, structure, clarity, photography, and page design of these pages are going to make an important first impression on your users.

Next turn to Google Search Console (GSC). If there is one tool that is underutilized by professional services marketers today, I’d say it is GSC. For companies serious about improving their visibility in search engines like Google, GSC is an invaluable tool for understanding exactly which queries people use to find your website. In the example below, you can see the top keywords users are searching to find Hinge’s website within a three month period.

We recommend you increase your familiarity with Google Search Console. In your website audit, it is vital to understand which pages are performing and underperforming in terms of SEO. Dive deep into the data and make a list of pages where there is opportunity to improve SEO performance. Document your changes and monitor progress from there.

In addition to traditional SEO, it is increasingly critical to assess how your content performs in AI-driven environments. Content that is clearly structured, authoritative, and aligned with user intent is more likely to be surfaced in AI-generated responses.

This includes evaluating:

• Whether key topics are clearly defined and explained
• Whether content is organized using headings, summaries, and lists
• Whether your site demonstrates depth across related topics (topical authority)

Together, these factors determine whether your website is discoverable – not just in search results, but in the broader digital ecosystem.

Key questions to consider:

• What are my primary traffic sources, and are they aligned with my goals?
• Which keywords and queries are driving visibility?
• Which pages attract the most traffic, and are they optimized to engage users?
• Are my most important services and insights easily discoverable?
• Are there gaps where my competitors are outperforming me in search visibility?
• Is my content structured in a way that supports both search engines and AI extraction?

3. User Behavior

Once users arrive on your website, the next step is understanding what they do – and whether their behavior aligns with your goals.

For professional service firms, this stage is critical. It reveals whether your site effectively guides visitors toward deeper engagement, helps them explore your expertise, and moves them closer to a decision.

Start analyzing engagement data in GA4 and Google Search Console. Look beyond traffic volume to understand how users interact with your key pages.

Key areas to evaluate include:

• Engagement rate across key pages
• Time on page and session duration
• Top-performing pages and user pathways
• Navigation pathways and drop-off points

A certain (usually large) percentage of users will not take any action. They may bounce off of the website or stay on the page without taking any action. To measure this behavior, look in Google Search Console at each page’s engagement rate. According to Orbit Media, the average engagement rate is 55%. So pages that fall below this benchmark should be added to your list of pages to study closer.

This behavior is not all that unusual. In fact, most visitors are not actively looking to engage at any given moment. Research suggests that only a small percentage of your audience is “in-market” at a given time, while the majority are researching, learning, or simply becoming familiar with your firm.

In GA4’s path exploration feature, you can visualize how users move through your website. For example, for one of Hinge’s top blog posts, I can see what proportion of users are navigating to the different links included in the blog post. In this case, most are navigating to the Marketing Planning Guide that we’ve featured at the top of that blog post.

Tools like Hotjar and similar platforms can provide additional insight through heatmaps and session recordings. These tools reveal which elements capture attention, which are ignored, and where users may encounter friction.

In many cases, user behavior highlights gaps between visibility and conversion. A page may attract traffic, but if users aren’t engaging or moving forward, it may indicate issues with content relevance, clarity, or structure. A combination of these insights can help you understand not just how users arrive, but whether your website is effectively supporting their decision making process.

Key questions to consider:

• What is the engagement rate for my key pages, and how does it compare to benchmarks?
• How much time are users spending on my site and key pages?
• Which pages attract the most attention, and are they aligned with business priorities?
• Are users navigating to pages that help position my firm’s capabilities?
• Where are users dropping off, and what might be causing them to leave?
• Are key pages structured to deliver value quickly for users (or agents) who scan rather than read in depth?

4. User Experience and Engagement

A website isn’t a static brochure; it’s a dynamic environment designed to guide visitors toward deeper engagement with your business. In this stage of the audit, we shift our focus to the kind of content users can engage with on your website. Think of it as assessing the “stickiness” of your website.

For professional services firms and B2B, this means helping visitors quickly find relevant information, explore your expertise, and take meaningful next steps.

When auditing your website’s user experience and engagement, there are a number of things to consider. One of the most important questions to ask is: “What do I want my website visitors to do once they’ve read the content on this page?” Too often, professional services websites are built to offer few if any ways to dive deeper and discover new content. 

Pages lacking these offer elements are dead ends, essentially encouraging visitors to leave your site rather than exploring further. A well-structured website anticipates user needs and proactively presents relevant content, creating a seamless and engaging journey.

A well structured website avoids this by creating clear pathways through:

• Relevant internal links
• Related content and resources
• Calls to action aligned with user intent
• Content modules that encourage exploration

Let’s use the example of a large engineering firm that has experience with building bridges. When a user lands on this page, what kind of relevant information could the firm include on this page aside from some webpage copy that says they build bridges? Here are some examples:

• Links to specific project portfolio pages that show the bridges they’ve designed
• Links to relevant thought leadership content on bridge design
• A featured expert who leads the bridge design practice
• A call to action to get in touch with an expert in bridge design

In your website audit, you need to use a combination of analytics and tools to assess how engaging your pages are for users. Part of this is intuitive. If there isn’t additional content on each one of your key pages then you’ll want to consider what kinds of modules you can develop across your website that help make your pages more interesting. These insights are crucial for identifying areas you can enhance the overall user experience.

Many visitors will not follow a linear path: they may scan for key takeaways, interact with select elements, and leave. Each page should be able to deliver value quickly while still encouraging further exploration. These elements help determine how effectively your website turns interest into engagement – and engagement into action.

Together, these elements determine how effectively your website turns interest into engagement, and engagement into action.

Key questions to consider:

• Does each key page guide users toward a clear and relevant next step?
• Are calls to action visible, compelling, and aligned with user intent?
• Am I using internal links to guide users to relevant content and resources?
• Is my content easy to scan, read, and navigate?
• Are visuals enhancing the user experience or distracting from it?
• Does my website make it easy for users to explore my firm’s expertise in depth?

5. Brand Design and Visual Credibility

First impressions matter – but in professional services, design does more than create visual appeal. It communicates credibility, professionalism, and attention to detail.

Before a visitor reads a single word, your website’s design is already shaping their perception of your firm. At this stage of the audit, the focus is on how effectively your website’s visual presentation reflects your brand and supports trust.

You will examine the quality of the site’s imagery, your use of video, and the overall visual hierarchy of your pages.  Does your website rely heavily on generic stock photography or does it feature unique, high-quality visuals that capture attention? Is video integrated strategically to tell your story and engage your visitors? Does the design feel modern and fresh or is it dated and out of touch?

Some visual elements you’ll want to pay special attention to include:

• Use of your firm’s logo, color palette, and brand style
• Readability of headlines, webpage copy, and buttons
• Featured photography and video, especially on your key pages
• Navigation design and layout clarity
• Iconography and supporting graphics
• Use of custom backgrounds or visual elements

A strong brand design goes beyond aesthetics.It should make your website feel current, cohesive, and aligned with the level of expertise you want to communicate.

Design also plays a critical role in usability. Clean layouts and clear visual hierarchy make it easier for users to gather information, navigate your site, and take action.

In many cases, design issues are not immediately obvious – but they can subtly undermine trust, reduce engagement, and make your firm appear less differentiated.

Key questions to consider:

• Does my website’s design reflect my brand’s personality, positioning, and design guidelines?
• Is my website visually appealing and easy to navigate?
• Am I using high-quality images and videos that reinforce credibility and expertise?
• Is my website’s typography clear, easy to read, and consistent with my brand?
• Does my website’s color palette align with my brand identity?
• Is my website’s design consistent across all pages and devices?
• Does my website feel modern and aligned with current expectations?
• Does my design differentiate my firm, or could it apply to competitors?

If you’re unsure whether your website’s design is reinforcing – or undermining – your credibility, an external perspective can help identify gaps that may not be immediately visible.

6. Messaging and Positioning

Your website is your most important tool for communicating your firm’s expertise and unique value proposition.

For professional services firms, messaging plays a central role in how potential clients evaluate your firm, compare you to alternatives, and decide whether to engage. It shapes not only what you say – but how clearly and effectively your audience understands it. At this stage of the audit, the focus is on clarity, consistency, and effectiveness of your messaging.

Strong messaging should make it immediately clear:

• Who you serve
• What you’re known for
• Why it matters

We analyze website copy to ensure it resonates with your target audience and clearly articulates the benefits of working with your firm.  Is the language compelling and persuasive?  Does it differentiate your firm from competitors?  Does it address the specific needs and pain points of your ideal clients?

Weak or generic messaging can cause your firm to blend into the background, failing to capture attention or build trust. In many cases, the issue is not a lack of capability, but a lack of clarity in how that capability is communicated.

It is also important to consider how messaging performs in search and AI-driven environments. Clear, well-structured messaging improves not only user understanding, but also how your content is interpreted, indexed, and surfaced in search engines and AI-generated responses.

A website audit should identify any messaging gaps, inconsistencies, or areas where your positioning is unclear or diluted.

Key questions to consider:

• Does my website clearly communicate my firm’s value proposition?
• Is it immediately clear who my services are for?
• Is my website’s messaging targeted to my ideal client profile?
• Can a visitor quickly understand what my firm is known for?
• Is my website’s language clear, concise, and persuasive?
• Am I using storytelling or examples to connect with my audience and build trust?
• Does my website’s messaging differentiate my firm from competitors?
• Is my website’s content free of unnecessary jargon and technical terms?
• Is my messaging consistent across pages, or does it vary in tone and clarity?

7. Competitive Analysis and Marketing Positioning

A website audit should not be conducted in isolation. The final step is to evaluate your findings in the context of your competitive landscape.

For professional services firms, this is where strategy comes into focus. Understanding how your site compares to others in your market helps you identify not only what is working,but where you have opportunities to stand out.

At this stage, you will analyze the online presence of your key competitors, evaluating how they communicate their expertise, attract visibility, and engage their audiences.

At Hinge, we assess competitors across several dimensions, including:

• Website design and visual presentation
• Messaging and positioning
• Content strategy and thought leadership
• Search visibility and keyword performance
• Paid advertising efforts

How are competitors positioning their services? What topics and keywords are they targeting? What types of content are they producing? And most importantly, where are the opportunities to differentiate?

Competitive analysis helps you shift your perspective from isolated improvements to strategic positioning. Solid marketplace intelligence equips you to make better, more confident decisions. We recommend you look at both your direct competitors as well as one or two large competitors who have robust marketing machines. Even though you may not be able to match industry leaders’ content output, you’ll have valuable insight into the types of content, experiences, and signals your audience expects. This all allows you to identify patterns in your market, understand rising expectations, and make more informed decisions about where to invest.

It is also increasingly important to consider how competitors are performing in search and AI-driven environments. Firms that consistently publish structured, authoritative content are more likely to be surfaced in both traditional search and AI-generated responses.

The goal of competitive analysis is not to replicate what others are doing, but to identify opportunities to differentiate your firm more clearly and effectively.

Key questions to consider:

• How does my website compare to competitors in terms of design, messaging, and usability?
• What keywords are my competitors targeting and being found for? Where are they gaining visibility?
• What are my competitors’ strengths and weaknesses in terms of their online presence?
• What types of content or thought leadership are competitors using to build credibility?
• How are competitors positioning themselves in ways that influence buyers expectations?
• What can I learn from my competitors’ website design and messaging choices?
• Are there any opportunities to differentiate my firm from competitors?

What’s Next After the Website Audit?

Once you have completed your website audit you should have a clearer understanding of how your site is performing, and what is limiting its effectiveness. In some cases, the next steps will be a set of targeted improvements. In others, the findings may point to the need for a more comprehensive redesign. Either way, the goal is the same: to improve how your website supports visibility, credibility, and conversion.

It is possible for you to conduct your own website audit, and for many firms, that can be a valuable starting point. If that is your goal, we hope this article has been helpful. However, as you’ve seen, a thorough audit spans multiple disciplines – from technical performance and search visibility to branding, messaging, user experience, and competitive positioning. They all require a structured approach across multiple disciplines to uncover and prioritize effectively.

If your website plays an important role in attracting and converting new business – as it does for most firms – having a clear, unbiased understanding of its strengths and weaknesses is critical.

At Hinge, our website audits go beyond surface-level analysis. Our team of strategists, technical experts, marketers, and designers evaluates your site against proven benchmarks and real-world best practices, identifying not just issues, but the opportunities that matter most.

The result is not just a list of issues, but a comprehensive, research-informed roadmap to improve your firm’s visibility.

How does your website stack up? Now you have the framework to evaluate it, and a clearer path forward.  And reach out if you need any help.

The post How to Conduct a Website Audit appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

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With that disclaimer out of the way, I want to introduce you to some of the legal implications of using generative AI in your marketing. If you are using an LLM such as ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Nano Banana, Claude, Midjourney, Firefly, or a similar tool to generate text, images or video, you need to understand a few legal basics that govern your rights as a creator.

1. If a Machine Created it, You Don’t Own It

Say you need an image for an ad and you don’t want to spend thousands on a custom photoshoot. You type a few thoughtful sentences into your image creation LLM of choice and, voilà, you have an image you are happy with. Great!

Now, you may think that because you came up with the brilliant prompt that produced this image that it is rightfully yours and nobody else should be entitled to use it. But you would be mistaken. In March 2026, the Supreme Court declined to take up the case Thaler v. Perlmutter, leaving in place a circuit court ruling that a copyrightable piece of art must be created by a human being. Your fabulous image is free for anyone to copy.

Of course, this rule applies to written material, too. If you use an LLM to produce a piece of writing with few if any changes, it is in the public domain. As I’ve discussed before, this is a poor practice for any Visible Expert that wants to have a unique point of view.

2. If You Significantly Modify it, You Can Protect It

If, however, you make significant changes to a piece of creative that’s generated by an LLM, you are likely to be able to protect it under US copyright law. Your changes have to be consequential—minimal edits don’t offer these protections. Exactly where this threshold lies, unfortunately, is a gray area that has not been clearly defined in the courts. But if the end product has been largely shaped by you, you are probably in the clear.

If you are concerned about someone contesting your ownership, or if you are planning to copyright the piece, you will need to be able to prove that you made changes. Again, what constitutes proof is a little unclear, so the more documentation you can assemble the better. Of course, this is far easier to do if you know ahead of time that you may need to defend the work.

3. You Can’t See What Created the Creative

Another category of risk is that it can be very difficult, if not impossible, to know what inputs were used to generate the AI output. By inputs, I don’t mean your prompts. I mean the data the LLM was trained on.

You have no idea whose intellectual property you may be infringing upon. This is particularly true of AI-generated images and video. Most recent text chatbots, at least, provide sources for some of their information. But when you generate an image with Midjourney, who knows what artist it is mimicking. This situation could potentially expose a firm to litigation. Other services, such as Getty and Adobe Firefly, use only licensed material in their training sets—providing creatives with a low-risk way to create unique images. However, in our experience these tools often produce less satisfying results than others.

Currently, numerous lawsuits are working their ways through the courts to determine what constitutes “fair use” and whether data scraped from the internet must be licensed by the LLMs. Stay tuned!

4. Don’t Expose Your Data

Did you know that your free or even $20-per-month LLM account is sucking everything you give it into its training database? If your firm is using an LLM, you will need an enterprise account that erects a wall between your team and the training bots. Unless you don’t mind your firm’s sensitive information becoming publicly available on the internet, you must make this investment. And if you use AI tools on client work, you simply have no choice.*

Make sure that your entire team understands the importance of using only these protected AI tools on sensitive data. Your investment is only as valuable as the people you entrust with it. And if you use external contractors, make sure you have appropriate controls and policies in place.

Let me be very clear that I am a proponent of AI tools. But when you use them, you need to understand that much is still in limbo. The chances of a lawsuit are probably small, but not infinitesimal—especially for large firms that might make juicy targets. Protect yourself with documentation, strong policies, and secure software. Also, talk to your insurance broker about what coverage you might need to protect your firm from AI-related claims. Because this is largely uncharted territory, not all insurance companies cover this type of claim.

AI offers a wealth of opportunities to marketers. But with all those pearls come some perils. If you open your eyes to the possibilities and plan for the risks you’ll be just fine.

*Some paid, lower-tier, non-enterprise plans allow users to opt-in to a no-training environment. But in an organization of any size, that’s not a practical or safe solution.

The post 4 Risks of Using AI for Marketing appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

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These are the questions we’ve been addressing for over a decade in our annual High Growth Study. Since we began this one-of-a-kind research project, we have tracked the evolving marketing strategies of the best-performing accounting and financial services firms. The 2026 High Growth Study: Accounting & Financial Services Edition reveals key factors that separate the industry’s fastest growing firms from their slower growing peers.

Today, we share a few of the most compelling insights from this year’s study. You can purchase the full research report here.

Meet the Fastest Growing Accounting & Financial Services Firms

Today’s accounting and financial services firms are beset by a host of pressures, such as incorporating AI and automation, a critical shortage of talent, increased competition, and generational changes in the workforce. At the same time, the median growth rate has fallen to 10%—the lowest point in five years.

Despite these challenges, an elite group of firms have achieved remarkable performance. These High Growth firms achieve a minimum of 20% compound annual growth over a three-year assessment period.

High Growth firms grow 3.5 times faster than average firms. Furthermore, these top performers are more efficient, enjoying a profitability of 37.7%—making them 22% more profitable than average growth firms.

What strategies and techniques are propelling superior growth in these accounting and financial services firms? How do they navigate the complexities of today’s market? Let’s explore some of the key insights uncovered in this year’s study.

Finding 1: High Growth Firms Invest Almost 2X More in Marketing

While the broader industry invests a modest 5% of revenue in marketing (not including compensation), High Growth firms are spending almost double that rate.

High Growth accounting and financial services firms invest 9.0% of their revenue in marketing. This represents an 80% increase in spend for the High Growth group compared to last year’s report, perhaps reflecting the capital intensity of a modern, AI-driven marketing strategy. Firms attempting to compete with lean budgets are being outmaneuvered by competitors with more to spend.

Finding 2: Developing Thought Leaders is a Top Priority

When we asked participants about their marketing priorities for 2026, the High Growth cohort produced a balanced list of traditional and digital techniques. The chart below shows the top three. Social media marketing leads the way (37.5%), and developing thought leaders is tied for second place (28.1%).

High Growth firms understand that their expertise is the most powerful marketing tool they have. They actively cultivate thought leaders—what we call “Visible Experts^®“—to set themselves apart, expand their reach, and increase the perceived value of their services. Savvy firms remove the friction between experts and the marketplace by actively supporting their thought leaders and grooming them to become engines of business development.

Finding 3: Personal Engagement and Thought Leadership Produce the Greatest Impact

High Growth firms demonstrate a clear understanding of the need for a multichannel approach. They also prioritize what works. While digital marketing remains essential for building visibility, human-centric activities top the list of most impactful marketing and business development techniques.

The best-performing firms rely on a roughly 50:50 balance of traditional and digital marketing strategies to outcompete their challengers. The chart above shows the top four techniques (see the full report for the full list). Today’s High Growth firms are using a combination of in-person activities, thought leadership and digital techniques to build visibility, trust and prestige.

Finding 4: The High Growth Advantage in Research

One of the longest-standing findings of our study is that High Growth firms are more likely to conduct formal research. This year, 78% of High Growth firms reported conducting regular research to guide their strategy.

High Growth firms demonstrate a commitment to understanding their audience across multiple categories. The three most common types of research are:

• Client satisfaction/experience research: Used to gauge service delivery and referral likelihood.
• Market research: Used to identify hidden opportunities and understand buyer needs.
• Competitive research: Used to sharpen firms’ messaging and identify service gaps.

By turning research into a strategic advantage, these firms make data-driven decisions that drive growth and enhance client relationships.

Finding 5: Most Firms Struggle with Marketing Data Mastery

A confounding finding in this year’s study is the widespread challenge across all growth categories to capture and use marketing data.

Almost two-thirds (65.6%) of High Growth firms rate their proficiency as “low,” a sentiment shared by 64.3% of No Growth firms. While High Growth firms hold an edge at the highest level of proficiency (15.6% vs 0%), the broader message is that most firms lack the skills or discipline to track performance effectively. This finding suggests there is a tremendous opportunity for firms that can become proficient in using marketing. Even small steps could provide insights that most of your competitors lack.

Go Further. Purchase the Full Study.

These findings offer a glimpse into the strategies of the fastest-growing accounting and financial services firms in 2026. The full 2026 High Growth Study: Accounting & Financial Services Edition provides a comprehensive analysis of what drives success in today’s market, from AI adoption to M&A trends. Ready to dive deeper and unlock the secrets of high growth? Get the full report here.

The post 5 Insights on the Fastest-Growing Accounting and Financial Services Firms in 2026 appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

Let’s begin by exploring different types of buyers, and why they seek out experts in the first place.

Companies use a number of criteria when selecting service providers. And of course, not all buyers use the same criteria. We’ve identified three types of buyers and their motives:

The Bottom Feeders. These buyers are very price sensitive and will always choose the lowest-cost option. They tend to have very low standards and unrealistically high expectations. They rarely make good clients unless your firm is optimized for delivering commodity work at bargain-basement fees. This type of client does not value true expertise and prioritizes cost over all other factors.

The Fence Sitters. This type of buyer lacks confidence in its ability to find the best option to solve their problem. Often they have been burned by a poor choice in the past. Their solution is to cast their net widely—often by sending out an RFP (side note: not all RFPs are created equal. When handled with thoughtfulness and sophistication, the RFP process can be very rewarding to all parties)—to solicit as many options as possible, under the belief this will make their choice easier. In fact, it becomes much harder. The chances of making the wrong decision grow in proportion to the size of the vendor pool. These buyers try to balance cost and expertise. More often than not, they reflexively throw out the high and low bidders and pick an option in the middle. What they tend to get is middling results.

The Expert Seekers. For most firms, this is the ideal buyer. They understand the value of true expertise: a partner who already knows their industry or problem and is equipped to solve it quickly. These buyers are willing to pay a premium for an exceptional outcome and experience. So they seek out the best, often looking for the experts or firms that write or speak with the greatest authority on the topic. It’s not uncommon for these companies to reach out to just a single service provider or expert.

In short, better clients are better attuned to expertise. That’s why making your expertise both visible and highly respected is so important.

But what does it mean to be a Visible Expert?

The first answer is obvious. You have to be really good at something. That means you know as much or more about a subject than almost anyone. And the narrower and deeper your expertise, the fewer professionals in your field can match your knowledge and relevant experience.

Second, you have to act like an expert. When you are in front of a client, you present your knowledge and advice with confidence and in a differentiated manner – meaning other agencies can’t quite replicate your delivery style and impact. When confronted with an objection, you can deliver a sound, well-reasoned response. As soon as you start taking orders from the client, you are lost.

Third, you have to be able to be a clear thinker and communicator. You must be able to explain difficult ideas in easy-to-understand language. And to become broadly known—to generate a following—you will find yourself becoming a teacher. I don’t mean you will teach at a university (though some do). Instead, you will become known through your writing and speaking. You might write the authoritative book on your field, or you might blog. Either way, you are freely giving away your knowledge to build a loyal, trusting audience. Some of whom will eventually hire you.

What’s your firm’s strategy to attract the best clients? If you are taking an expertise-based, thought-leadership approach you may be on to something!

The post Who Are Visible Experts’ Best Clients? appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

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If you aspire to be a Visible Expert^®, you will enjoy greater success if you are known as both a writer and a speaker. Public speaking often gets easier with time and experience. But writing—at least good, thoughtful writing—can feel like a painful chore even after decades of experience.

Luckily, all that’s changed. Thanks to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Copilot, your writer self gets to retire to Florida. (Which pool floatie will it choose today?) All those ideas that stubbornly won’t shake loose from your coconut, all those words that spill onto the page like old, crystallized honey, all that editing and rewriting, all that frustration… has vanished.

The word robots are here to save the day.

Everything in the previous two paragraphs, of course, is nonsense. The word robots are ingenious machines that love to do your bidding. And they are amazing at a lot of tasks. But ask them to draft an original blog post that doesn’t read like a cardboard box, and you’ll likely feel that old frustration on the rise again.

No bot is you. You can feed your chatbots examples of your work for style and a detailed outline for ideas and structure. But in the end, the output is, well, awkward. You’ll see all the AI tells: bullet points, bolded terms, cliches, mixed metaphors and those weird, clumsy phrases that would never have come from your fingertips. The problem is them, not you.

Bots don’t have your years of experience. They don’t know what will and won’t play with your audience. And they aren’t creative thinkers. Only you have the bottle of special sauce.

There’s nothing like engaging with the material as it forms from your head. Like clay figures, the ideas and imagery appear a little disturbing and misshapen at first. But with some tweaking here, some carving there, some burnishing here, the piece comes to life. Out of nothing appears a well-articulated idea or well-defended position!

Now, what if all this writing craft isn’t for you? What if you don’t have the time to play Geppetto once or twice a month?

Assuming you are an expert with your own ideas and a point of view, there is another approach. One that has a long history of success. You can hire a ghostwriter.

I know what you are thinking. How is a ghostwriter different from ChatGPT? They don’t have your bottle of special sauce, either.

The answer has three parts:

1. They are human like you.
2. They (presumably) can write interesting copy.
3. They can ask probing questions along the way.

You can spend a half hour briefing your writer—what you want to say, what facts you want to use to support it—and let them go off and do the hard work. Then the collaboration begins to produce a piece that presents your point of view and sounds reasonably like your voice.

A freelance professional writer isn’t cheap. Expect to pay $80 to $150 per hour for a good one. Many firms that value thought leadership will cover the cost. The benefits of Visible Expertise make it all worthwhile.

To many AI evangelists, what I’ve written will be dismissed with an eye-roll emoji. “What a Luddite!” And if I didn’t believe AI tools can play a pivotal role in writing, they would be right. In fact, AI is an exceptional tool to help writers be more productive. AI can help you come up with ideas, support them with evidence and check your work. It can be used to test your argument and strengthen your case. It can even draft short, specific passages of text—just be prepared to revise them.*

In the end, AI is a tool. A powerful tool. Like your computer. And your brain. Only don’t forget to keep using that last one.

*I’m speaking specifically here about thought leadership content like blog posts and articles. AI can produce insightful long-format pieces, such as reports and analyses, when presenting an individual point of view and style is less important.

The post Is AI the Write Answer for You? appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

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A lot of professionals are taken aback by this advice. Especially those that have invested years developing a unique, proprietary approach to the problems they solve. Their thinking goes something like this:

“My knowledge is my product. I sell my expertise by the hour or by the project. If I write detailed articles or books, explain my methodology in webinars, or speak openly about my strategies, I am essentially giving away the store. Why would anyone hire me if I tell them exactly how to solve their problems?” They also worry in the same breath that openly offering their deeply-held expertise just makes things easy for the competition.

It sounds logical, doesn’t it? It’s the “secret sauce” theory of business. If you give away the recipe, no one will come to the restaurant–or they’ll head straight to the newest competitor who copied the recipe.

But in professional services, you aren’t selling the recipe. You are selling the chef.

In my decades of working with firms, I have found that the professionals who share the most—who educate their audience freely and generously—are the ones who grow the fastest and charge the highest fees.

The “Sample” Effect

Imagine you are at a food court. One vendor is standing behind the counter with their arms crossed, promising that their food is delicious. The vendor next door is handing out free samples on a toothpick. Who gets the sale?

Public speaking, blog posts and webinars work the exact same way. They allow your audience to witness your thinking and expertise in action. Because each of these channels sets you up by default as the authority on the topic, your audience is inclined to perceive you that way. This cognitive behavior is known as authority bias, and it can give you tremendous influence over your readers and listeners.

Speaking at targeted conferences and presenting in educational webinars are proven ways to establish credibility quickly. Why? Because you are in a de facto position of authority, your words carry more weight. By giving away a sample of your knowledge on stage or on a screen, you aren’t satisfying your viewers’ hunger, you are whetting their appetite for the full meal—which is working with you directly.

Writing can be just as powerful—and reach even more people. By applying the techniques of SEO and GEO, you can expand your reach to individuals and their organizations that need to solve problems like the ones you write about. Whether they are using Google, ChatGPT or LinkedIn, these searchers are looking for answers to complex challenges. And you can position yourself exactly where they are looking.

If you are still skeptical, hear me out.

The DIY Myth

The biggest hesitation I hear is, “If I tell them how to do it, they’ll just do it themselves.”

Maybe. But it rarely happens. In the world of complex professional services—whether it’s law, architecture, consulting, accounting or some other service—learning how to do something can be very different from actually pulling it off.

You can explain the tax code changes to a CFO, but that doesn’t mean they have the time, desire, or risk tolerance to file the complex returns themselves.

In fact, educating your audience often reveals the complexity of the problem, making your audience more likely to hire an expert to handle it. And if they find your content compelling enough, that expert is likely to be you.

The other common objection I’ve mentioned is, “My competitors will just steal my ideas.” If you are really doing something that different and special, your competitors are going to figure it out pretty quickly, anyway. And if your methodology is easy to replicate, hiding your secrets isn’t going to protect you for long. (On the other hand, if you have a differentiator that is difficult to copy, most competitors won’t bother.)

What’s more important is how visible you are in the marketplace—and how people perceive you. Firms that freely give away their expertise have a huge advantage over those that don’t. You can have the most amazing proprietary process in the world, but if nobody knows about it you aren’t likely to thrive. Word-of-mouth referrals only go so far. Giving away your expertise breaks open the dam.

How to Start “Giving It Away”

You don’t have to write a book tomorrow (though a book can be fantastic for your business!). You just need to meet your audience where they are. Here are a three ways you can do that:

1. Write and Speak: Thought leaders use multiple channels to build their reputations. These might include blog posts, journal articles, speaking engagements, webinars or videos—to name just a few.
2. Use Research: Follow the lead of experts like Michael Zipursky, who conducts frequent surveys to find out exactly what his market wants to learn. This kind of data equips you with the highly relevant, evidence-based content that many of your prospects are looking for.
3. Collaborate: If writing isn’t your strong suit, work with a ghostwriter to turn your ideas into high-value blog posts or books. This practice is a lot more common than you might think. If you prefer to write your own pieces, consider enlisting an editor to give it a professional polish and catch embarrassing errors.

So stop hoarding your secrets. Open the vault. Share what you know. You will discover that the more you give away, the more you get back in trust, reputation and lucrative new business.

The post Why Free is Good appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

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Since the inception of this study over a decade ago, we have tracked the AEC industry through digital revolutions, global pandemics, and economic turbulence. Today, the landscape has shifted once again. Following a brief post-pandemic boom, the industry is undergoing a significant recalibration. The median growth rate for AEC firms has fallen for the second consecutive time to 10.5%—the lowest in eight years.

We are pleased to announce the release of the 2026 High Growth Study—Architecture, Engineering & Construction Edition. This year we surveyed 110 AEC firms, representing $42.7 billion in revenue and almost 70,000 employees. The sample included a mix of firms of all sizes.

Below, we explore five key findings from this year’s study.

Five Characteristics of High-Growth AEC Firms

1. They Grow 4.6X Faster and Are More Profitable

We define high-growth firms as those with a minimum 20% compound annual growth rate over a three-year evaluation period. This year, high-growth firms grew an impressive 40.7%—4.6 times faster than the average-growth group, which had a median growth rate of 8.9%. They were highly profitable, too. With a profitability of 37.2%, they were 62% more profitable than the average group and 266% more than firms with zero or negative growth. In fact, profitability was healthy across all three growth categories.

How does the high-growth group achieve outstanding performance year after year? The next four charts provide a few answers.

2. High-Growth Firms Invest a Lot More in Marketing

High-growth AEC firms’ marketing budgets are twice the size of their slower-growing peers. The median budget for high-growth firms, expressed as a percentage of overall revenue, was 10%, compared to just 5% for the rest of the industry.

Of course, high-growth firms aren’t just spending more, they are spending smarter. But where are they investing those dollars? We can’t go into all the places in this post, but the next chart provides an entry point.

3. They Know What Marketing Techniques Are Effective

What marketing techniques do the top-performing AEC companies use most often? In this age of the internet and AI, AEC organizations largely favor techniques that either employ their interpersonal skills or help build their reputations.

The figure below lists the top six. Networking at events has emerged as the most widely used technique, employed by 7 out of 10 high-growth firms. This provides the advantage of meeting prospective clients face to face, making it easier to establish trust and create personal relationships. This is followed by business development materials. High-quality pitch decks, proposals, brochures and similar materials can make the process of closing new business easier and faster because they present your firm in the best possible light.

Networking on social media, in the third spot, is a common and convenient way to build new connections and create interest in your services—anywhere and anytime. Think of it as the online counterpart of live networking.

Sponsoring a conference or event can build awareness of your brand over time. And public speakers, who we call Visible Experts®, can be a real asset to a firm’s business development program, often streamlining new client acquisition and commanding premium fees. Another way AEC professionals build their professional reputations is to write original thought leadership and promote it on social media.

4. They Prioritize Social Media, Technology and Thought Leadership

Like any firm, the high-growth companies in our study have limited resources and must choose where to put their time and energy in the year ahead. The chart below lists these firms’ top three marketing priorities for 2026.

This year, social media marketing has jumped to the top of the list. AEC companies often use a variety of social media platforms, but one dominates. LinkedIn is used by 9 out of 10 firms. If you could use only one, the choice would be easy.

In a tie for second place are “marketing technology, AI and automation” and “developing thought leaders.” The rapid advances in AI have forced even reluctant firms to take this technology seriously. Our only surprise was that only a quarter of respondents listed it. Developing thought leaders is entirely consistent with high-growth firms’ interest in building interpersonal relationships and polishing their reputations (see #3 above).

5. 3 Out of 4 High Growth Firms Do Research

In a tie for second place are “marketing technology, AI and automation” and “developing thought leaders.” The rapid advances in AI have forced even reluctant firms to take this technology seriously. Our only surprise was that only a quarter of respondents listed it. Developing thought leaders is entirely consistent with high-growth firms’ interest in building interpersonal relationships and polishing their reputations (see #3 above).

This year, increased competition is the number 2 challenge across the industry (after market uncertainty). Pricing research helps top performers determine if they are charging too little or too much for their services, equipping them to be as competitive as possible while protecting their margins.

Client satisfaction research is the third most common type of intelligence gathering used by high-growth companies. It is a useful tool to gauge not only how well you are delivering your services, but how likely clients are to come back and refer you. This kind of research is usually simple to conduct and requires a minimal time commitment from the client.

Dive Deeper into the Habits of High-Growth AEC Firms

We hope this data helps you make better marketing and business development decisions. High Growth AEC firms can be a model for firms like yours. These organizations have learned what works and what is a waste of time even in unpredictable times.

How can you use these findings? Compare what high-growth firms do to your own marketing program. Are your priorities in line with theirs? What adjustments do you need to make? High growth and high profitability are within reach—if you are equipped with the right information. This study can be a valuable source of reliable intelligence.

If you are interested in taking a deeper dive into the latest industry data, including practical suggestions to put it into practice, consider purchasing the full report.

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