Case Studies – HB Publishing and Marketing Company LLC

Wealth management research, training and consulting firm

Hank Berkowitz — Mon, 27 Mar 2017 13:39:47 +0000

CLIENT: Wealth management research, training and consulting firm

CHALLENGE: Nation’s largest training, coaching and consulting firm for elite financial advisors needed to expand client base, particularly among high net worth wealth managers and top producers at leading financial institutions

SOLUTION: Overhauled the organization, formatting and site navigation for the “Press” landing page on the firm’s Web site. We fine-tuned the headline and deck copy for news releases and article mentions, search-engine optimized the copy, filled in gaps in the firm’s news release timeline and drafted two to three fresh news releases per month about major developments at the firm.

RESULT: Within six months, the firm has doubled the traffic hitting its “About Us” landing page on its Web site. It has picked up several new institutional client engagements and HB-crafted news releases have resulted in press coverage in Financial Planning, Smart Money and Wall Street Journal (print and online editions).

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Consulting and marketing communications firm

Hank Berkowitz — Mon, 27 Mar 2017 13:38:46 +0000

CLIENT: Consulting and marketing communications firm

CHALLENGE: Firm serves niche professional market and must rely heavily on its principals to develop business and serve clients. Firm’s business was not scalable because principals had a finite number of “billable” hours and work product too specialized to be outsourced or completed by junior staffers.

SOLUTION: After conducting an audit of firm’s intellectual capital we discovered a treasure trove of customer surveys, polls and market studies that had never been aggregated or monetized. We developed a strategy for re-packaging the firm’s existing research into timely 10-20 page white papers and market research reports that are now being marketed to the firm’s 80,000+ professional mailing list and are being sold exclusively via e-commerce engine on the firm’s Web site.

RESULT: The firm now has a 24/7 revenue stream that generates up to 10% of its monthly income even when principals are traveling, on vacation, at client locations or have no more available billable hours to offer.

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Venture-backed, early-stage business intelligence software company

Hank Berkowitz — Mon, 27 Mar 2017 13:38:08 +0000

CLIENT: Venture-backed, early-stage business intelligence software company

CHALLENGE: Complex business intelligence software was developed by company’s tech-trained founders before testing its feasibility in the marketplace. Early marketing collateral and sales materials were laden with tech-speak rather than on benefits for its target customers global pharmaceutical, medical device and bio-tech companies. Suffered from big disconnects its technology team and its sales, marketing and client support teams.

SOLUTION: After working closely with founders, technology team and sales team, we developed robust, but plain language descriptions (and pictures) of the software and its real-world applications that customers , journalists, analysts and the sales team could easily comprehend and communicate.

RESULT: A four-fold increase in sales appointments and demos within six months. Company now has 100+ employees. Installed base increasing at double digit rates, including 12 of 20 largest pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

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Technology-oriented weekly television program

Hank Berkowitz — Mon, 27 Mar 2017 13:37:21 +0000

CLIENT: Technology-oriented weekly television program

CHALLENGE: A nationally syndicated public television program, could not rely exclusively on sponsor underwriting to cover staffing and production costs.

SOLUTION: We worked closely with producers and show marketing director to develop a paid-subscription companion newsletter that featured bonus coverage and behind-the-scenes commentary from popular show host and guests and detailed reviews of products/topics featured on the broadcast.

RESULT: Generated tens of thousands of paid subscribers, hundreds of weekly orders at show’s product warehouse and boosted weekly viewership up to five percent in major metro markets.

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E-commerce portal for financial professionals

Hank Berkowitz — Mon, 27 Mar 2017 13:36:35 +0000

CLIENT: Newly launched e-commerce portal for financial professionals

CHALLENGE: Needed qualified traffic ASAP to national professional association’s organization’s multi-million dollar investment in the portal which had nearly 1,000 compliance guides, manuals and continuing professional education products to sell.

SOLUTION: We negotiated low-cost broad-right content licensing agreements with leading news, information and data providers. Negotiated for portal to sell content providers’ subscription offerings, software and services in lieu of cash. We also developed a suite of targeted e-newsletters whose headline articles drew from the Web site and account for more than 50% of its weekly traffic and 30% of e-commerce.

RESULT: Portal now profitable, with nearly 100 full-time employees. Cited as Internet Retailer Top 500 Web site with over 250,000 monthly unique visitors (representing 50% of all U.S. certified professionals in its niche). The niche newsletters, while developed as traffic driving mechanism, now reach more than 200,000 registered users of the Web site weekly and generate over $1 million annually in in-newsletter display advertising.

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B2B publisher, Web site and event company

Hank Berkowitz — Mon, 27 Mar 2017 13:35:54 +0000

CLIENT: B2B publisher, Web site and event company

CHALLENGE: Publisher covers a variety of complex finance and technology topics that are undergoing dramatic change as a result of global financial crisis, mergers and rapidly changing product offerings. Due to recent restructuring, company’s sales team generally young or new to the financial/technology marketplace and needed to be brought up to speed quickly without feeling patronized or sitting on long training sessions.

SOLUTION: By working closely with senior editorial, sales, marketing and research department heads, we developed for the sales team a series of quick- read internal white papers on the publisher’s key editorial (and conference) topic areas. The papers helped sales reps get quickly up to speed on complex endemic topics and helped them uncover hidden leads and product categories that had been previously overlooked.

RESULT: Produced nearly 10-fold increase in qualified leads; improved initial lead to RFP time by 70% and helped publisher maintain ad page count during 2008-09 recession when peers were down on average 15% to 30%.

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Publisher of magazines, directories, Web sites, newsletters and events

Hank Berkowitz — Mon, 27 Mar 2017 13:34:58 +0000

CLIENT: Startup publisher of B2B magazines, directories, Web sites, newsletters, events

CHALLENGE: Needed professional business plan, operating plan and financial projections in order to obtain early stage financing.

SOLUTION: In close consultation with founders, we drafted original business plan, including operating strategy, financial projections, management discussion and analysis and non-legal portions of private placement memorandum. Over past decade, provided company with services in marketing, business development and corporate strategy.

RESULTS: Company raised nearly $3 million in angel and venture capital financing but founders still maintain majority control. With over 60 employees in six cities across North America, the company has made several acquisitions financed primarily through organic growth.

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Financial magazine with related Web sites, custom research and conferences

Hank Berkowitz — Mon, 27 Mar 2017 13:32:34 +0000

CLIENT: Financial magazine with related Web sites, custom research and conferences

CHALLENGE: Publisher (and parent company) with global reputation for journalistic excellence and C-level audience demographics anchored to print-based, brand-oriented sales model. As a result, its ad page rates were significantly higher than its nearest rival and roughly 10-times higher than its own digital and live event sponsorship fees. We were brought in at height of 2008-2009 financial crisis with company’s core advertiser base -– technology and financial services –- turning over at more than 30% year-over-year, and less than 10% of advertisers running in company’s non-print channels.

SOLUTION: Working closely with the sales, editorial, marketing and technology teams, we developed several cross-platform sponsored content offerings –- such as sponsored research, polls and landing pages, executive roundtables and thought leader profiles –- that gave the company competitive intermediate advertising price points.

In addition to training the sales force on cross-platform opportunities, we provided sponsors with creative direction that they wouldn’t normally have received from the agencies or in-house marketing teams.

RESULT: Publisher held on to half a dozen small and mid-size advertisers who otherwise would have gone “dark” during the 2008-09 economic downturn and enabled the sales force to get several new or smaller non-print-advertisers into the magazine for the first time who would have previously found it too expensive and too hard to demonstrate return on investment.

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Weath advisory firm’s video blog

Hank Berkowitz — Mon, 27 Mar 2017 13:29:55 +0000

CLIENT: Wealth advisory firm ($500m AUM)

CHALLENGE: Firm’s longstanding weekly video blog had excellent production values and covered hot topics. But, viewership and engagement had been disappointing.

SOLUTION: By working closely with the firm’s senior partners and marketing team, HB developed a text-based companion to the v-blog that quickly summarized the video content without repeating it. We also introduced key takeaways and keyword optimization for easier scannability by readers/viewers.

RESULT: After introducing the text-based companion piece viewership of the video blog has tripled with a substantial increase in comments, shares and likes.

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