Hinge Marketing, which provides marketing expertise for professional services firms, has just released a new book entitled The Visible Expert, which is based on their research into how reputations are built and what they contribute to a firm’s bottom line.

Their extensive research has shown that thought leadership -- i.e., visible expertise -- is a significant driver for business development in professional services firms.  Hinge conducted an exhaustive survey of more than 1,000 purchasers of professional services as well as 130 thought leaders.

When it comes to the impact of thought leadership on firms, 66% of respondents said that firm leaders who were highly visible had a measurable impact on business development and firm growth:

The research broke visible experts into five levels, with Level 1 being a local expert and Level 5 being a globally recognized authority.  It probably won’t surprise you to learn that Level 5’s command a much higher hourly rate than Level 1’s, but the difference is still pretty staggering:

Hinge also looked at how buyers of professional services evaluate providers.  The top source is your firm website, followed by an online search, personal referrals and social media:

The Hinge research also found that the marketing tools and techniques with the greatest impact -- those that deliver the highest ROI -- include (in order of importance):

• Books

• Speaking engagements

• Firm website

• Blogs

• Articles

• Email marketing