Chapman Kelly Inc. is a B2B firm that provides audit services and cost containment products to Fortune 1000 companies. It previously relied on cold calling but saw success doubling its revenue after implementing digital marketing. The firm's director of strategic development, who is also its only marketer, redesigned its website, optimized it for SEO, and launched a company blog and Google Adwords campaign. This drove a large increase in website traffic and new leads, with over 80% of new business now coming from marketing efforts compared to only 20% previously from cold calling. Their targeted and low-cost digital strategy proved an effective way to generate new clients for their services.

1. 10 bestinclass { best practices }
12.30.09
BY ELISABETH A. SULLIVAN//STAFF WRITER
A WORTHWHILE INVESTMENT
marketingnews
SAVVY MARKETING TOOK THIS B-TO-B FIRM FROM
COLD CALLING TO HOT—AND PROFITABLE—LEADS
WHO: Founded in 2001, Chapman Kelly WHAT: From August 2008 to late 2009, approached his bosses about launching a
Inc. is a Jeffersonville, Ind.-based provider of Chapman Kelly nearly doubled its revenue. streamlined digital marketing campaign to
audit services and other cost-containment The company brought in $2 million worth help bring in new business. He was given
products that help Fortune 1000 companies of new business from Web-based market- a very small budget—just a few thousand
reduce healthcare and insurance costs. ing efforts alone as traffic to its Web site dollars per month, Schy says—and stuck to
jumped from an average of 10 to 15 visits it by handling most of the work internally.
per week to 1,500 to 2,000 visits per week “I guess he spoon-fed us a little bit and got
during that period, according to Michael us on the hook, so to speak,” Schy says. “He
Browning, Chapman Kelly’s director of said, ‘Let me try one thing.’ ”
strategic development. The first step was a Web site redesign.
With the help of an outside firm, Brown-
HOW: “Marketing definitely is driving ing turned the company’s simplistic “three-
where the sales are coming from,” says page [Internet] placeholder” into a more
Tony Schy, the company’s co-founder and substantive Web site that walks potential
partner. But back in 2008 when the idea customers through the steps of deciding
of adding a marketing function to the whether to conduct an audit and why they
small B-to-B firm—which previously had should choose Chapman Kelly to help them,
found customers through cold calling and Browning says. “We tried to start a bit of a
other outbound selling tactics—was first dialogue with the customer,” he notes.
proposed, Schy admittedly was hesitant. Aided by books on the topic, Brown-
“We definitely had a false impression ing worked on the site’s search engine opti-
that the type of work that we were doing mization. “[With the old site,] we weren’t
[didn’t lend itself] to marketing,” or not even in the top 20 pages [of search results
to traditional marketing, at least, “and we for healthcare audit-related terms]. Now
hadn’t given much thought to non-tradi- we’re in the top five results or high on the
“ We definitely had a false impression that the tional marketing,” Schy says. “We didn’t see
our company doing it, so we made a bad
first page,” he says. He also flipped through
industry texts to figure out how to incor-
assumption that it wouldn’t work, and we porate Google Adwords into the company’s
type of work that we were doing [didn’t lend were 100% wrong.”
One of the best business decisions that
marketing strategy. For all of these digital
moves, “I was careful to document results
itself] to marketing. We were 100% wrong.” he and his colleagues have made was to
allow Browning to invest much of his time
to show that we were getting results pretty
quickly,” Browning says.
and energy into creating the company’s first Schy and his colleagues were encour-
marketing program, Schy says. aged by the digital campaign’s early results.
Browning is the firm’s only marketer— “We got a little taste of success: ‘Hey,
and he’s a part-time marketer at that. His people are actually looking at our Web site.
full-time job is heading up the company’s Hey, we got a phone call.’ That had never
strategic development. In August 2008, he happened before,” Schy says.
COMPANY CHAPMAN KELLY INC., FOUNDED IN 2001
HEADQUARTERS JEFFERSONVILLE, IND.
MARKETING INVESTMENT FROM $15,000
AUGUST 2008 TO OCTOBER 2009*
REVENUE GENERATED DIRECTLY $2 MILLION
FROM NEW ONLINE MARKETING
INITIATIVES SINCE AUGUST 2008*
Have a good
story to tell?
TOTAL REVENUE GROWTH RATE 100%
FROM 2008 TO 2009*
In January, Best in Class will be renamed
NUMBER OF MARKETERS 1
Problem Solved. It will feature stories
of creative and effective marketing
Source: Chapman Kelly Inc.
solutions from B-to-B and consumer *Numbers are company estimates.
best practices//bc
marketers. Please send your suggestions
or stories to Allison Enright at
allisonenright@ama.org.
123009_BIC_CC.indd 10 11/20/09 3:27:01 PM

2. { best practice } bestinclass
Chapman Kelly’s home page was optimized to draw the attention of search engines.
Browning says the marketing strat- demonstrating Chapman Kelly’s credibility
egy snowballed from there. In January and subject matter expertise, the company
2009, he launched a company blog called garnered media requests and confer-
An Employer’s Guide to Health Care Cost ence speaking engagements. “That snow-
Containment featuring Chapman Kelly ball effect came into play,” Browning says.
knowledge experts’ insights on topics of Chapman Kelly also has concentrated on
interest to the company’s customer base, forming strategic partnerships.
such as coordination of benefits rules and To use another water-based analogy,
dependent eligibility audits. He used SEO Browning’s marketing efforts have turned
tactics to ensure that blog posts ranked the tide of lead generation for Chapman
high for searches relating to their content Kelly. In 2008, nearly 80% of the compa-
matter, added a link to the blog to the ny’s new business came from cold calls
company’s Web site and shared blog posts and traditional outbound selling. This
within LinkedIn groups. Browning has year, more than 80% of new business has
since tracked postings and found that the come from marketing-based efforts such
LinkedIn method drove noticeable traffic as Web site inquiries and strategic part-
to the blog, which led to more attention for ners, as well as attention generated by the
the company’s Web site. company’s blog posts and articles—and
Earlier this year, Browning extended revenues have doubled as a result, Brown-
the company’s thought leadership by ing and Schy say.
offering to write an article for the Amer- What’s next on Chapman Kelly’s agenda
ican Association of School Administra- now that its marketing program is under
tor’s magazine, The School Administrator, way? “We’ll make time for outbound calling
on how to control healthcare costs. By again,” Browning says. m
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