Project Details

Client

Caldwell Advisory

Location

Chicago, IL, US

Engagement

Brand positioning + Content + Email

Duration

11 months

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Professional Services

Brand positioning + Content + Email

How a management consultancy built its first inbound pipeline and reduced referral dependency from 94% to 61%

Client names are fictional. An anonymity clause applies to all engagements on request.

The Situation

Caldwell Advisory, a management consultancy specialising in operational transformation for mid-market manufacturers, had never needed to market themselves. Their reputation was strong, their partners were well-networked, and referrals had kept the pipeline healthy for a decade. But the firm was growing, adding new service lines, and entering industries where their referral network was thinner. They wanted to build an inbound presence, but their partners had no idea where to start, no time to write, and a healthy skepticism of marketing that had been reinforced by one bad agency experience.

What We Did

We started by building trust, not a content plan. The first month was diagnostic: understanding the firm's genuine areas of expertise, the topics their clients asked them about most, and the points of view that differentiated their thinking from generalist McKinsey-style competitors. Several of those conversations turned into the first articles. The content program was built around a monthly long-form article ghostwritten to the senior partner's voice, a fortnightly LinkedIn post series across three partners, and a monthly email briefing for their existing client and prospect network. We also rebuilt their website copy, which had been written in 2019 and hadn't been updated since, to reflect the firm they actually were. We ran an SEO strategy targeting the specific operational and transformation search terms their ideal clients used when they were early in their buying process before they asked for referrals, not after.

Identified genuine areas of expertise and points of view that differentiated Caldwell
Monthly long-form article ghostwritten, fortnightly LinkedIn posts across three partners
Monthly email briefing to their existing client and prospect network
Website copy rebuild reflecting the firm they actually were

Results

Caldwell went from 94% referral-dependent to closing two new client engagements directly from content in under a year.

61%

referral dependency (down from 94%)

inbound qualified leads in final quarter

4.1x

organic website traffic growth

The Outcome

Caldwell signed two new client engagements directly attributable to their content program: one from an article that was shared in an industry LinkedIn group, one from a prospect who'd been reading the monthly email for six months before making contact. The senior partner's LinkedIn following tripled. More importantly, the firm's partners have changed how they think about marketing. From something that happens to them to something they actively use.

“

We were deeply skeptical. We'd seen other firms embarrass themselves with marketing that felt beneath them. What Adah produced was genuinely good. It sounded like us, it said things worth saying, and it worked. Two clients directly from the content program in under a year. That's a better ROI than any business development activity we've ever run.

— Senior Partner, Caldwell Advisory

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