The Vanishing Middle Market: How a Lack of Digital Visibility is Putting Thousands of Firms at Risk

Once upon a time, visibility on the Web could be achieved with relative ease. Just so long as a firm’s URL showed up after a few keyword searches, middle-market CEOs could rest easy that their customers would always be able to find them. A decade later, many thousands of middle-market firms have all but vanished. Or at least that’s how it appears to be on the Web, where SEO best practices have continued to rapidly evolve and content has become synonymous with digital visibility.

As a deal-maker specializing in the digital media space, investment banker Zane Tarence has over the years acquired deep insight into digital visibility and has gained notoriety on the Web for practicing many of the digital strategies that he prescribes for others. Middle-Market Executive recently asked Tarence about what middle-market firms need to be doing to achieve greater digital visibility and how his own content strategy seems to be working.

MME: As an investment banker, why do you think that digital visibility is so important?

Tarence: My specialty is helping digital media companies to partner with traditional companies to help them attain a larger valuation for their business. I’ve sold about 30 of these companies to strategic buyers and private equity groups in the past six and a half years. What we find is that there are many middle-market businesses that just do not have the skillset to play in this new digital environment.

It comes down to the fact that there has been a radical shift in business. The way in which consumers and businesses buy has shifted. The days of a sales rep on the phone cold-calling and setting up an appointment to demonstrate a product are over. This is just not the way that you sell anymore. The way you sell is education, education, and education.

So you’ll hear sales reps saying, “Hey, I can’t get a dang appointment with anyone,” and it’s no longer a question of how many cold calls you make. It simply isn’t working. Today, firms buy based on trust who educates them. And this leads to the question, “How do I educate? And how do I find buyer’s intent?” This approach leads to the question, “How do we become the trusted authority?” And, “How do you become the person of such value and effectiveness that your clients would be foolish to buy insurance, computers, or whatever it may be from someone else? This is done through thoughtful content publishing and the power of a second witness talking about you and your skills — this means your customers talking about you on the Web and how you deliver incredible ROI and value. But many firms can’t do this, so they are yelling “Uncle!” because things have shifted and they do not have the skillset in their company to publish compelling content on a regular basis.

MME: When it comes to education, you, as a banker, like to practice what you preach … correct?

Tarence: Unbelievably … yes! I’m a middle-market investment banker, but I need to expose my expertise in helping owners know how to achieve liquidity — that’s what they want to know. And so I’ve just created a 13-hour video course. It took me about a year. In the past, I relied on in-person seminars, but I just created a video seminar with me going through all of the questions that middle-market executives have: “How do I turn my equity into cash in a private company?” “How do I raise growth capital?” I plan to put it online in a “freemium” model. Our hope would be for it to go viral. We call it Innercirclesessions.com.

Basically, video has been the killer app for 10 years, and it’s not going away. Whether you’re selling land or real estate, video coupled with checklists of assessments and some good content is absolutely amazing, as is the ROI that can be returned for business.

I get about 25 leads a month from Internet owners who found me because of my content. Now, while most of these businesses are too small, about one in 60 leads is just right. This is really my total marketing, and that’s why I’ve now created the course.

We begin with: “What are the first three questions that you need to know how to answer when raising capital or looking for liquidity? Answer these questions the wrong way, and buyers and investors will kick you out of their office.”

MME: Managing these types of content offerings really requires some extra resources …

Tarence: What we know is that if firms are not publishing meaningful content for their constituents and building a velocity of trust, they will become invisible to their end market. Even if you’re selling bush hogs to farmers, if you are not continually producing meaningful content for your end market, you are invisible.

What we find is that many companies really don’t know how to do this, and what you see is that firms are beginning to put editorial gurus in place to help build a scope and sequence with their content.

They are beginning to think things through and say, “Here are the articles and videos that we are going to do each week for the next 52 weeks. Here’s where we’re going to put them out, and hopefully they go viral.” And once they go viral, they can do amazing things for a company.

Firms are going to be invisible if they are not continually producing and dripping this stuff out through channels other than their own email list and Web page. Once you win this battle, your velocity of trust builds.

As we advance into the second half of 2013, there are growing indications that business sentiment is improving despite nagging unemployment numbers and a shortage of merger-minded CEOs.

Cindy Crotty, middle-market business watcher and head of KeyBank’s commercial banking segment, once more shared with Middle-Market Executive the findings of a KeyBank’s middle-market business sentiment survey, which reveals that merger-minded business leaders remain a minority in 2013. Download report here.