Hollinden

Hollinden At Hollinden we are Bold | Experts | Thinkers | Marketers. We are part of your team, dedicated to achieving your goals.

We are your marketing
team, dedicated to achieving your goals. We are the spirited side of professional
services marketing, where left-brain meets right-brain. From strategic marketing
plans and branding to websites, social media, marketing automation, and
everything in between, our marketing services identify market opportunities,
develop solid strategies, create scalable processes, build stronge

r teams, and
produce measurable, business impacting results. We are more than a marketing
firm—we are your marketing partner.

There is a meaningful difference between a firm that does concentrated work in an industry and a firm that has built a d...
06/02/2026

There is a meaningful difference between a firm that does concentrated work in an industry and a firm that has built a defensible position in it.

A genuine specialty practice has documented systems designed around the niche, staff trained in it with bench depth that is not dependent on a single partner, a referral network mapped to the specific vertical, and a market presence that makes the expertise visible before a prospect initiates contact. Firms that have claimed a specialty without building that infrastructure tend to discover the distinction quickly when a sophisticated client or referral source examines it closely.

According to https://hubs.ly/Q04jrrXz0's State of the Profession data, firms with clearly defined target markets grow 23 percent faster than generalists. That differential compounds. The practical question worth putting to your leadership team: where is your firm already billing above its average rate, and what does that reveal about where the real specialty lives?

We wrote about what it takes to formalize that position and build the platform around it.

https://hubs.ly/Q04jrplM0"

Prospective clients are asking AI assistants the same questions they used to ask search engines.""What is a quality of e...
05/28/2026

Prospective clients are asking AI assistants the same questions they used to ask search engines.

""What is a quality of earnings report?"" ""What should I look for in an advisory firm?"" ""Who handles M&A due diligence for mid-market deals in my city?""

The firms that show up in those answers - whether through organic authority or paid presence - are the ones clients find first.

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of structuring your content so AI systems cite and surface it. It is real, it is measurable, and it is one of the clearest competitive separators we are seeing right now between firms that have invested in it and firms that have not.

The question worth asking this week: when a prospective client asks an AI about firms like yours, does your firm come up?

One of the most direct pieces of advice we have heard from AI researchers at the university level: "Firms that aren't pr...
05/26/2026

One of the most direct pieces of advice we have heard from AI researchers at the university level: "Firms that aren't practicing BI shouldn't be focused on AI."

AI does not create insight out of thin air. It surfaces what already exists in your data. If your client records are inconsistent, your pipeline is managed in someone's head, or your CRM has not been meaningfully updated in two years - AI will not save you. It will amplify the gap.

The firms building competitive advantage with AI right now invested in clean, organized, and consistently maintained data before they started experimenting with the tools.

The infrastructure conversation is not glamorous. It is foundational.

Is your firm's data ready for what AI can do with it?

Read more here: https://hubs.ly/Q04hmmmF0

Today, we pause to honor and remember the brave men and women who gave their lives in service to our country. Their sacr...
05/25/2026

Today, we pause to honor and remember the brave men and women who gave their lives in service to our country. Their sacrifice, courage, and dedication will never be forgotten.

This Memorial Day, we reflect with gratitude on the freedoms we enjoy because of those who served and made the ultimate sacrifice.

"Do you use AI?" used to be a curiosity question. It is becoming a client evaluation question.The firms that handle it w...
05/25/2026

"Do you use AI?" used to be a curiosity question. It is becoming a client evaluation question.

The firms that handle it well are not the ones with the most sophisticated tools. They are the ones who have thought through what they use, where it adds value, and how to say that clearly without overpromising.

Mid-market and regional firms have genuine advantages that large platforms cannot replicate: senior attention, long-standing relationships, and local context that a global platform cannot systematize.

Those advantages deserve to be named and positioned deliberately - not left implicit and unspoken.

What does your firm say when the technology question comes up?

On April 7, EY announced the global rollout of enterprise-scale agentic AI across its assurance practice. 130,000 profes...
05/22/2026

On April 7, EY announced the global rollout of enterprise-scale agentic AI across its assurance practice. 130,000 professionals. 160,000 audit engagements. 150 countries.

The question we keep hearing from mid-market firms is: What does this mean for us?

The honest answer is that it depends entirely on how your firm frames the moment. Dismissal is a mistake. Panic is also a mistake.

We wrote about where the strategic opportunity actually sits - and why this is a positioning problem more than a technology problem.

https://hubs.ly/Q04hmDx-0

Tax season gives you a rare look inside your clients' businesses. Cash flow gaps. Structures that no longer fit. Success...
05/21/2026

Tax season gives you a rare look inside your clients' businesses. Cash flow gaps. Structures that no longer fit. Succession questions nobody has answered.

In most firms, those observations get noted and forgotten because there is no time to act during busy season.

May and June are the time to close that loop. A direct, specific outreach to your top 20 clients - not a pitch, just a check-in - opens advisory conversations that never happen on their own.

The insight is already there. The only missing piece is the follow-through.

What advisory opportunities did this tax season surface for your firm?

Most mid-market accounting firms wait until Q4 to start thinking about the year ahead. That timing is exactly why most s...
05/20/2026

Most mid-market accounting firms wait until Q4 to start thinking about the year ahead. That timing is exactly why most strategic plans do not produce much.

By November, the year has already half-decided itself. What gets called a plan is usually a budget conversation with better language.

Right now, you have something rare: time, bandwidth, and enough runway to actually execute on whatever decisions you make. We wrote about why this window matters - and what a serious planning process actually looks like.

https://hubs.ly/Q04hmpgj0

Tax season is over. The returns are filed. Now what?Most firms spend the first two weeks of May exhaling. The ones that ...
05/08/2026

Tax season is over. The returns are filed. Now what?

Most firms spend the first two weeks of May exhaling. The ones that grow spend those weeks doing something different.

In our May newsletter, we break down exactly what the next 60 days offer that the rest of the year does not: clients who are accessible, prospects who are ready, and competitors who are standing still.

If you lead an accounting firm and you want the back half of the year to look different, read our latest article: https://hubs.ly/Q04fYx620

Client needs are changing, and accounting firms are rethinking how they create value beyond traditional audit, tax, and ...
05/05/2026

Client needs are changing, and accounting firms are rethinking how they create value beyond traditional audit, tax, and compliance work.

At BDO Evolve, Christine Hollinden co-moderated “From Pain Points to Profits: Real-World Strategies from Accounting Innovators” with Steve Ferguson of Tax Protection Plus.

This fireside-style panel explored how accounting firms are expanding beyond traditional CAS, addressing higher-value client pain points, and developing new revenue streams. The conversation will focused on practical experiences, lessons learned, challenges, and real examples from firm leaders who have implemented new strategies, services, or structures.

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