Copyright 2006 Daniel ScheffIntroduction
Big4.com faces the same challenges as most small businesses
on the web. There is always more works than people to do
it. Growth often takes a back seat to rote operation, and
every small business is worried about cost. Most small
businesses can succeed on the web if they are able to make
big challenges manageable and tackle them one at a time.
By taking a look at Big4.com?s approach to writing more
content for its website, you can learn fro their pain ? and
apply their success to your own business.
Content, on the web, is king. If you do not give your
visitors something to read, watch, or do, they will have no
reason to return to your site. Give them a reason to stay!
Big4.com explored this exact problem and found that
focusing simply on creating more content ? more material
for visitors to enjoy ? kept visitors on their site longer,
attracted more new readers, and syndicated their content.
You can use this case study to understand how beefing up
the amount of content on your website can attract and
retain visitors, yield viral marketing, and ultimately help
your business generate more revenue.
Case Background
To understand the importance of content in growing your
online business, let?s take a look at Big4.com. Big4.com
is an online publication ? deriving most of its revenue
through web advertisements and online fee-based services.
Like any online business, Big4.com relies on visitors for
revenue. Growth, therefore, would come from increasing
traffic to its site, as well as getting visitors to view
more pages.
Big4.com focuses on the current employees and alumni of the
Big Four accounting firms and their related consulting
firms. The Big Four are Deloitte, Ernst & Young,
PriewaterhouseCoopers, and KPMG. Consulting firms related
to the Big Four ? through mergers and acquisitions,
divestitures, or group hires ? include BearingPoint, Cap
Gemini, and Accenture. The Big Four excel at alumni
management; online and personal networks ? both formal and
informal ? thrive among former Big Four employees.
Few companies leave such a pronounced impression on their
employees, even years after they have moved to new firms.
Having worked for one of the Big Four is like being
initiated into a business fraternity. Former employees
keep in touch with each other ? cultivating relationships
that lead to new jobs and future business deals.
The market for current and former Big Four employees is
substantial. The Big Four have a total of approximately
100,000 current employees during any given year. With an
annual turnover of about 30%, 30,000 new alumni are created
every year in the United States ? and 30,000 new Big Four
employees replace them. ?Big Four Alumni? is a demographic
that grows rapidly, consistently, and predictably, making
it a great venue for an online community. Big Four alumni
and employees tend to have professional positions, almost
universally some form of higher education, and starting
salaries that exceed US$50,000.
Big4.com wants to become the focal point of the broad Big
Four alumni community by offering content specific to Big
Four alumni, as well as services and merchandise that would
appeal to this demographic, Big4.com has focused on
building a network that can be monetized effectively at a
future date.
Big4.com?s Challenges
The most substantial challenge faced by Big4.com comes from
its own audience. The Big Four firms already do an
effective job of managing their alumni networks. Further,
these firms have access to information from themselves
first ? detailed and confirmed information about their
former employees as well as internal news that has not
reached the public. These factors provide for a much
richer online community. While Big4.com has broad appeal
across the Big Four, it does not have the nascent
information advantages of the alumni websites for Deloitte,
KPMG, Ernst & Young, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
This problem is common among small businesses. Often, we
struggle to differentiate ourselves from larger
competitors. Their sheer size can overshadow our
differences ? and competitive advantages ? despite the fact
that what we offer is unique and more appropriate to our
audiences. Big4.com?s problems were not unusual. It
needed a way to stand out, but the competition was
overwhelming in its size and presence.
>From a web marketing perspective, specific problems have
resulted from Big4.com?s competitive environment: 1. A low
number of monthly unique visitors 2. Few page views per
monthly unique visitor 3. Infrequently updated content
Monthly unique visitors are the web equivalent of print
circulation. Consequently, there is a direct correlation
between monthly unique visitors and the ability to garner
advertising revenue. With only 10,000 monthly unique
visitors, Big4.com?s share of the Big Four alumni market
was quite small. Big4.com needed to find ways to attract
new readers.
In addition to needing to find new readers, Big4.com had
the derivative challenge of needing to keep visitors on the
site. The average visitor did not spend much time on the
site per month. Generally, readers left after only two
page views. This tendency resulted from a dearth of
content, with new articles appearing only monthly.
The lack of content not only resulted in a lower level of
reader engagement ? it also had a search engine impact.
Big4.com did not receive prominent search engine results
placement, which limited the publication?s ability to
attract new readers.
New Content for Big4.com?s Readers
Big4.com needed to act quickly to keep from being
overlooked in a large, competitive marketplace. To
rejuvenate itself, Big4.com executed a content-centered
strategy. For most companies, this is an effective way to
grow on the web. New content allows you to use your
business expertise, putting your business knowledge to
work. Also, it is less expensive than other approaches to
web marketing.
Big4.com has doubled both its key metrics ? monthly unique
visitors and page views per unique visitor. While the
publication?s market share is still small, it is growing
quite rapidly. Big4.com facilitated this growth with t a
web marketing strategy that focused on new content.
Big4.com started as a monthly publication. Generating
approximately five articles per month, though, did not give
readers a reason to return to the site throughout the
month. To remedy this problem, Big4.com moved to a weekly
publication model ? publishing five articles every week.
Further, Big4.com has continued to grow this number,
reaching approximately ten articles per week with plans for
more.
The increased volume of content has made Big4.com a premier
destination on the web for Big Four alumni. The website
now attracts 20,000 monthly unique visitors ? double its
previous number. Big4.com has also doubled its other key
metric, page views per monthly unique visitor. Big4.com
was able to affect this transition over six months.
Big4.com was able to leverage its readers for the increase
of content volume. Many readers, committed to the Big Four
alumni community, were eager to submit their own content.
As a result, internal writers became editors, and Big4.com
was able to increase its pace and volume of publication
with little increase in cost.
The proliferation of content yielded an additional benefit
? syndication. Other online publications around the world
took an interest in Big4.com?s content, and they carried
the articles themselves ? while preserving Big4.com?s
bylines. This implicitly increased Big4.com?s readership
while functioning as advertising for Big4.com on other
sites. The consistent republishing of Big4.com?s content
with attribution resulted in the acquisition of many new
readers as well as a long-term, no-cost strategy for
website promotion.
Conclusion
Think about your own business on the web. You may have
many of the same problems that Big4.com did. Larger
competitors get in your way without even noticing you.
While you get a fairly steady flow of visitors to your
website, you would be happy with more ? in fact, you need
more traffic. But, your budget just cannot handle
expensive or sophisticated web marketing efforts.
Big4.com?s experience demonstrates that strengthening your
presence on the web does not have to be expensive. Simply
putting more content on the website yielded substantial
results for Big4.com, and these results have gained
momentum. With little expenditure, Big4.3com has earned a
great return.
You can take advantage of Big4.com?s experience. Online
growth does not have to be expensive, time-consuming, or
sophisticated. You can leverage your business expertise to
grow. Increasing your content consistently and regularly
helps you promote your business, educate your customers,
and attract new business.
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Dan Scheff provides customized solutions for small
businesses with tested marketing strategies and systems.
Learn more about his full-service web company at:
http://www.BackstageDevelopment.com
