B2B Echo Chamber Report
Professional services are a big player in the UK economy, with more than 417,000 listed on Companies House.
INTRODUCTION
In 2024 alone, these businesses contributed almost £12 in every £100 of the country’s economic output (The City UK, 2025).
With professional services being such a large contributor to the UK economy, we wanted to analyse the landscape to understand the relationship between these companies - how do they all stand out from each other? What makes them unique? And most importantly, why should a buyer choose one over the other?
For prospective buyers, it quickly becomes clear that the definition of ‘professional services’ is nebulous at best, incorporating everything from architects to software developers to marketing agencies. Even searching for businesses via Companies House is unhelpful: businesses listed as providing ‘professional services’ aren’t covered by a single SIC code, but six different ones.
So how do you pin down a useful definition of the term?
The fairest and most impartial solution was to analyse a completely random sample size drawn from across the six available SIC codes: 69109, 69201, 70210, 70229, 70221, and 73110.
The total sample size was 1007 active companies registered on Companies House during the twenty-year time period between 2004 and 2025 (naturally, companies that had been dissolved, had overdue confirmation statements, or active proposals to strike-off were not included in the analysis).
To isolate this further, our research looks exclusively at the headlines of each company website in the sample to understand why they think people should buy from them, what they think makes them worth buying from, and how they’re different to their competitors.
But why only the headlines?
It’s a good question, and the reason is very simple: it’s the first thing a potential buyer sees when they land on the site. If they like it, they might look for more information, if they don’t like it, they’re likely to leave right away. In 2024, Forbes reported that the average amount of time people spent on websites was just 54 seconds - which means they’re deciding whether or not you’re right for them very quickly.
Another factor the research looks at is the We:You ratio. This represents the number of times a company refers to itself versus the number of times it refers to its reader. ‘You’ is one of the most powerful words in marketing due its ability to draw the reader into the message and make them feel like the only person being spoken to - a technique known as the ‘audience of one’ (Media Marketing, 2017).
Here’s the ‘too long; didn’t read’ version of what we learned from the report:
The most used words in company website headlines, in this order, are:
17.25%
BUSINESS
17.25%
SERVICES
11.47%
LEGAL
55.01%
of companies analysed don’t address the reader at all - opting for neutral and descriptive or generic statements such as: 'Expert financial advice made personal.', '[...]specialises in delivering cutting-edge digital tools for people who work in challenging physical environments and regulated industries', 'We guarantee that … Services' solicitors meet our stringent standards of legal excellence'.
1:1
The ratio of we/our/us to you/your (number of times companies talk about themselves vs addressing the reader directly) is 1:1. It should be 1:3 with companies addressing the reader three times for every time they talk about themselves.
Anonymised examples of genuine website headlines are included throughout the report, so you can see what this looks like in practice and not only in theory.
WHAT MAKES THIS RESEARCH WORTHWHILE
This report demonstrates the simple mistake that all professional services companies - big and small - are making when it comes to winning new customers online.
Any Chief Marketing Officer or CEO worth their salt will quickly recognise the wider problems our study shows: that the proliferation of the same words and phrases across completely different industries is diluting brand salience, impacting customer retention, and even weakening category distinction as a whole.
But by learning what the other companies in your sector are doing, you’ll learn how to stand apart from them. In fact, as you’ll see, by simply avoiding the words ‘business’ and ‘services’ in your headline you can immediately put your business a step ahead of the 417,000 other professional services companies in the UK.
As you read this report, consider the headline on your business’ website: how many of these words does it contain? And most importantly: what can you do about it?
Why it matters, in real terms
Differentiation (being seen to be different from your competitors) can make or break a business (The Marketing Centre, 2018). Showing a meaningful distinction from competitors can allow businesses to increase their prices and build strong customer loyalty - which means more repeat business (IE University, 2018).
If you’re an accountant, law firm, PR / marketing agency or management consultant, the services you offer are likely to be more or less identical to those of your competitors. Having an offering that conforms with your category isn’t necessarily detrimental to your long-term business growth (just look at Coca-Cola and Pepsi), but looking, sounding, and feeling identical to your competitors is (again, Coca-Cola and Pepsi - strikingly similar products, but with completely different approaches to market). By contrast, differentiation allows you to increase your prices, build loyalty, and makes you easier to buy from.
In short: the more differentiation, the less competition, and the less competing on price to win customers.
A sic-code-by-sic-code analysis of the research
Each SIC code houses a number of different company types (with some exceptions, such as accounting). Because of this, the repetition of language is more interesting - companies that are relatively diverse in what they do (such as law firms or accountants) are using exactly the same language as each other to explain their services to prospective buyers.
Beyond the statistics, the biggest finding from our research is the extent to which the headlines of professional services vendors conform to one another. For example, in the SIC code that represents accountants and accounting (69201) the single most used word is ‘Accounting’ with almost one-third of companies using it. The same is true across each of the SIC codes and categories analysed.
In principle this makes sense, and clarity of offering is far from a bad thing. But website headlines are as versatile as they are valuable - as well as informing the prospect of the services on offer, they can also persuade the prospect that this particular service is the right one for them.
As we’ll see, a reliance on telling the prospect where they are, but not why they’re in the right place, has led to widespread homogeneity amongst professional services companies across all categories.
SIC Codes 69201 (Accounting and Auditing), 69202 (Bookkeeping) and 69203 (Tax consultancy)
Analysis shows that within this SIC code, ‘accounting’ is the most commonly used word, appearing in 27.5% of company headlines. ‘Business’ and ‘services’ follow closely behind, with 25.6% and 25.03% respectively (again, this makes sense - it’s important to tell your reader what you do). ’Accountants’ rounds out the top four at 23.1%.
While this tells us what these companies do - and partially who they’re for (‘businesses’) - it doesn’t tell us why we should choose one company over the other. In fact, even if the headlines all said ‘accountancy for business’ you wouldn’t know which one is right for your business - because what’s exactly right for a business of £30,000 annual revenue is unlikely to be exactly right for a business of £3 million. Yet based on the headlines in the table below, both businesses would need to take the time to meet with each accounting firm to know if they’re a good fit.
The second most common word across accounting firm website headlines was ‘services’ (25.3%). Again, the issue here is vagueness - the headlines are relying on the reader to have prior knowledge of the services that accounting firms offer and why they - the reader - might need them.
The writer of the headline clearly understands what they do, but they’ve made the error of believing this is true for the reader as well.
The box below shows six genuine website headlines from companies in the dataset. Beyond copy structure and superficial elements, it’s plain to see how similar these headlines are, and how little substance they offer to prospects.
Expert Bookkeeping & Accounting Services For Businesses in the UK
Efficient, Practical and Affordable Accountants. Give us a call now.
Your Accountancy and Business Partners
Local Accountants for small businesses and individuals
Licensed accounting firm
Professional Bookkeeping Services for Your Business
We:You Ratio for this SIC Code
The We:You Ratio counts the number of times a company refers to themselves versus referring to the reader. Think of it like going on a first date: if all you talk about is yourself, it’s unlikely you’ll get asked to go on a second one.
These ratios are calculated to help you understand how often professional services companies are talking about themselves and what they do, compared to how often they talk about the benefits of their services and address the reader’s pain points.
Across this report, the research has definitively shown that professional services companies talk about themselves and what they do more than they talk about anything else, including how the prospect stands to benefit from using them.
As a final step in understanding this approach and the impact it has on the potential buyer, the headlines were analysed for the you/your:we/our ratio. The marketing theory (Resolution Design, 21) suggests that for every time a business talks about itself (‘we’ or ‘our’), it should address the reader three times (‘you’ or ‘your’).
The ratio of ‘you/your’ to ‘we/our/us’ for this SIC code is 1.01. The ideal you/your to we/our ratio is 3:1.
Interestingly, the majority of firms in this SIC Code (64.24%) don’t use any personal pronouns in their headline at all - meaning they’re not addressing the reader.
SIC Code 69109 (Patent & Copyright Agents, Other Legal Activities)
Our research surfaced similar trends amongst the companies in SIC code 69109, who again opt for neutral, descriptive, language that states only what they can do. They don’t indicate the benefits their clients can expect from working with them, or which prospective clients should approach them.
This SIC code, which largely covers legal and legal activities, very closely conforms to the trends shown across the wider dataset, with ‘legal’ appearing in 41.4% of instances, ‘law’ appearing in 24.5%, and ‘services’ appearing 19.2% of the time. While it is possible to construct a perfectly serviceable headline with only these terms - such as ‘legal services’ - it doesn’t provide the prospective client with a reason to purchase.
The table below shows six of the headlines from this SIC code, from which we can see that the sector (unknowingly or otherwise) follows a very simple formula to write its headlines.
Where the reader should expect to see the problem identified with a solution or benefit, the formula we see is this: [modifier] + [service] + [audience]. In practice, this manifests in phrases like ‘Full-service law firm for business’, or ‘Specialist law firm in London’.
These headlines are relying on the modifier to do the majority of the heavy lifting - essentially hoping that the reader will read it and think ‘A specialist law firm, perfect! Hopefully their specialism will be the right one for solving my issue.’
The box below shows six genuine website headlines from companies in the dataset.
[Name] is an international legal consultancy firm that is located in the heart of London.
[Name] is a specialist legal practice helping individuals and families plan for the future.
We are a [City]-based legal consultancy firm providing tailored solutions to our clients.
An independent boutique law firm dedicated to your success
First-class Immigration, Litigation, and Family Law Solicitors In [Area].
A Leading [Area] Law Firm
We:You Ratio for this SIC Code
The We:You Ratio counts the number of times a company refers to themselves versus referring to the reader. Think of it like going on a first date: if all you talk about is yourself, it’s unlikely you’ll get asked to go on a second one.
These ratios are calculated to help you understand how often professional services companies are talking about themselves and what they do, compared to how often they talk about the benefits of their services and address the reader’s pain points.
Across this report, the research has definitively shown that professional services companies talk about themselves and what they do more than they talk about anything else.
As a final step in understanding this approach and the impact it has on the potential buyer, the headlines were analysed for the you/your:we/our ratio. The marketing theory (Resolution Design, 21) says that for every time you talk about yourself (‘we’ or ‘our’) you should address the reader three times (‘you’ or ‘your’).
Here is how this SIC code performed.
The ratio of you/your to we/us/our for this SIC code is 2:3 ('you/your' : 'we/us/our'). The ideal you/your to we/our ratio is 3:1.
Almost half of companies in this SIC code (49.05%) do not use any pronouns at all, and are therefore not addressing the reader at all, let alone their pain points.
SIC code 70210 (Public Relations & Communications)
The SIC code that covers Public Relations and Communications (70210) continues with the same trends shown in the law and accounting industries - neutral, descriptive headlines that don’t provide a reason to buy, but instead assume that their reader already knows exactly what they’re looking for.
Unlike other categories, we find a far greater level of self-identification amongst the businesses here. Where we saw accounting (in all its variations) and legal leaning on what they do and the services they provide, public relations and communications firms are eager to tell readers that they are, in fact, agencies.
Indeed, ‘PR’ appears across 24.4% of their headlines, followed by ‘agency’ at 23.1%, and ‘Communications’’ at 19.2%.
From this a simple, functional, headline format presents itself, and looks something like: ‘communications agency for business’. We’ve seen this formula of ‘[modifier] + [service] + [audience]’ before, in Copyright, Patents, and Other Legal Activities.
While we can safely conclude that the headlines of comms firms have been optimised for SEO purposes, it’s clear that they are not optimised for people to buy from them - the reader can see what these companies do, but not why they should be chosen over the others they may be considering.
The box below shows a selection of genuine headlines from the dataset.
[Name] is a global communications agency based in [City].
A leading PR, marketing and design agency based in [City].
[Company name] is an integrated, global communications consultancy headquartered in [area] specialising in public relations, design, digital, and social media marketing.
A strategic communications agency for the best brands, projects and people.
We’re a PR and content agency working with clients in [area] helping deliver strategic marketing communications plans that build engagement and deliver results.
We:You Ratio for this SIC Code
The We:You Ratio counts the number of times a company refers to themselves versus referring to the reader. Think of it like going on a first date: if all you talk about is yourself, it’s unlikely you’ll get asked to go on a second one.
These ratios are calculated to help you understand how often professional services companies are talking about themselves and what they do, compared to how often they talk about the benefits of their services and address their prospects’ pain points.
Our research has definitively shown that professional services companies talk about themselves, and what they do, more than they talk about anything else.
As a final step in understanding this approach and the impact it has on the potential buyer, the headlines were analysed for the you/your:we/our ratio. The marketing theory (Resolution Design, 21) says that for every time you talk about yourself (‘we’ or ‘our’) you should address the reader three times (‘you’ or ‘your’).
Here is how this SIC code performed.
The ratio of you/your to we/us/our for this SIC code is 1.18. ('you/your' : 'we/us/our'). The ideal you/your to we/our ratio is 3:1.
An incredible 52.4% of the companies in this SIC code don’t address the reader at all with no use of pronouns in the headline.
SIC Code 73110 (Advertising agencies) and 73120 (Media representation)
The similarity between these two SIC Codes means that they’re bundled together as a subject, but not as a set of results. Despite that, you’ll see that the results are the same: like companies in every sector, ad and media agencies talk about themselves, not about the reader of the website and, most importantly, do not give the reader a compelling reason to buy from them.
Following a similar pattern to Public Relations and Communications, Advertising Agencies and Media Representation both have the word ‘agency’ topping their lists of most used words at 18.92%.
Unsurprisingly, Advertising Agencies diverges from Media Representation in its second-most frequently used word, ‘marketing’ (20.27%) as well as its third-most, ‘digital’ (16.22%).
A perfectly functional, but inadequate, headline using a combination of these three words would read something like this: ‘Digital Marketing [and] Advertising Agency’. We could take this one step further, and say ‘Digital Marketing [and] Advertising Agency for Business[es]’.
The box below shows genuine headlines from the SIC code sample, as you can see, there isn’t much difference between them.
An honorable mention must be given to SIC Code 73120: Media Representation, which manages to buck the trend by introducing the first usages of ‘campaigns’ (66.67%). This divergence from the norm is short-lived, however, as ‘PR’ (33.33%) and ‘agency’ (66.67%) round out the list.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that the headlines here seem sensible enough; after all, they clearly state the business type and the services on offer. But remember: we’re not looking for descriptors of what these companies do, we’re looking for whether or not a buyer can immediately tell why this company is for them.
These word combinations, from these headlines, show us that - as with companies in other sections of this report - agencies are big on telling you who they are, but not why you should buy from them.
Digital Marketing Consultancy & Agency in [Area].
[City]’s leading digital marketing company
We are [name] a creative design and digital marketing agency
Expert marketing that connects with your customers.
Award Winning Digital Marketing Agency.
We:You Ratio for this SIC Code
The We:You Ratio counts the number of times a company refers to themselves versus referring to the reader. Think of it like going on a first date: if all you talk about is yourself, it’s unlikely you’ll get asked to go on a second one.
These ratios are calculated to help you understand how often professional services companies are talking about themselves and what they do, compared to how often they talk about the benefits of their services and address the reader’s pain points.
Across this report, the research has definitively shown that professional services companies talk about themselves and what they do more than they talk about anything else.
As a final step in understanding this approach and the impact it has on the potential buyer, the headlines were analysed for the you/your:we/our ratio. The marketing theory (Resolution Design, 21) says that for every time you talk about yourself (‘we’ or ‘our’) you should address the reader three times (‘you’ or ‘your’).
Here is how this SIC code performed.
The overall ratio of 'you/your' to 'we/us/our' pronouns in the headlines for companies with codes 73110 is 1:1.43 and 73120 is 0:2. The ideal is 3:1.
In fact, 52.7% of advertising agencies and 66.7% of media representation services don’t use pronouns in their headlinesat all (they don’t talk about themselves or address the reader).
SIC Code 70221 (Financial Management Consultancy)
Financial Management Consultancies follows exactly the same trend as the other sectors in this research, with companies opting for neutral and descriptive headlines over headlines that give the reader a reason to either:
believe they are better than the competition
buy from them because they solve specific problems that their competitors don’t.
The most commonly used terms for the Financial Management Consultancy category are: ‘financial’ and ‘finance’ tied with 25.4%, and ‘business’ coming in third at 16.4%. The change here - with business being relatively lower down the list compared to other SIC Codes - could be attributed to Financial Management being targeted less at businesses and more at high net worth individuals.
What we can say with certainty is that following our top three words are ‘advice’ (14.9%) and ‘services’ (11.9%) which is a further reflection of a common headline pattern: financial services [for] business, or financial management services, or business finance services.
This table shows genuine headlines from the dataset.
At [name], we provide bespoke wealth management advice to private and corporate clients.
We provide bespoke advice and wealth management to individuals and business owners tailored to meet your goals.
[Name] - For all your business finance solutions
[Name] is a full-service independent broker dealer with an emphasis on financial and retirement planning.
We:You Ratio for this SIC Code
The We:You Ratio counts the number of times a company refers to themselves versus referring to the reader. Think of it like going on a first date: if all you talk about is yourself, it’s unlikely you’ll get asked to go on a second one.
These ratios are calculated to help you understand how often professional services companies are talking about themselves and what they do, compared to how often they talk about the benefits of their services and address the reader’s pain points.
Across this report, the research has definitively shown that professional services companies talk about themselves and what they do more than they talk about anything else.
As a final step in understanding this approach and the impact it has on the potential buyer, the headlines were analysed for the you/your:we/our ratio. The marketing theory (Resolution Design, 21) says that for every time you talk about yourself (‘we’ or ‘our’) you should address the reader three times (‘you’ or ‘your’).
The ratio here is 1:2.16. The ideal ratio is 3:1. While only 32.8% of the companies in this category don’t use pronouns in their headline, we can see from the ratio that the majority that do are referring to themselves.
SIC Code 70229 (Management Consultancies)
If you’ve read this far, you won’t be surprised to learn that the SIC code related to management consultancy follows the same patterns as the ones before it: the headlines used here all focus on what the companies do, but not how their clients will benefit from working with them.
The top three words for Management Consultancies are: ‘Consultancy’ (25.3%), ‘services’ (17.3%), and ‘business’ (17.3%). ‘Management’ (14%) and ‘expert’ (10.7%) round out the top five.
If we were to construct a formula for these headlines based on our findings, it would be ‘consultancy services [for] business’ - perfectly functional, in that these would likely score well for SEO, and they do make clear to the reader what the company does. What they don’t do, however, is make the companies who follow this formula distinct from each other.
Below is a selection of genuine company website headlines for this SIC code:
[company name] is a global investor and consultancy firm dedicated to advancing education and healthcare.
We are a law and auditing company that offers legal assistance in running a business in the UK and overseas, as well as conducting audits, business training, and Corporate Security Intelligence.
[Name] is an independent consultancy with emerging market expertise.
We are professional services firm specialising in Management Consultancy.
A global network of leadership consultants specialising in financial services, professional services, and technology.
We:You Ratio for this SIC Code
The We:You Ratio counts the number of times a company refers to themselves versus referring to the reader. Think of it like going on a first date: if all you talk about is yourself, it’s unlikely you’ll get asked to go on a second one.
These ratios are calculated to help you understand how often professional services companies are talking about themselves and what they do, compared to how often they talk about the benefits of their services and address the reader’s pain points.
Across this report, the research has definitively shown that professional services companies talk about themselves and what they do more than they talk about anything else.
As a final step in understanding this approach and the impact it has on the potential buyer, the headlines were analysed for the you/your:we/our ratio. The marketing theory (Resolution Design, 21) says that for every time you talk about yourself (‘we’ or ‘our’) you should address the reader three times (‘you’ or ‘your’).
Here is how this SIC code performed.
The overall ratio of 'you/your' to 'we/us/our' pronouns in the headlines is 1:2.29 with the ideal ratio being 3:1 (each time you talk about yourself, you should address the reader three times).
In total 36% of companies don’t use pronouns in their headlines.
What can you learn from this?
This research has shown one thing definitively: right across the professional services sector, companies all use the same words in the same way. These companies don’t address the problems the reader faces and often leave it up to the reader to work out for themselves why they should buy from one company over another - not an easy task when all their options sound exactly the same.
The good news is that separating your company out from the pack is easier than you might think. Simply by addressing the reader’s problems and showing the benefits of working with you, you can break out of the deadlock that’s evidently gripping the professional services sector.
To further illustrate that point, below is a selection of headlines taken from a mix of companies from the dataset. As with the previous headlines these have been anonymised, but they have not been edited.
Our Quest...
Numbers made easy
Where sharp minds meet
Move forward with confidence
A leading business recovery, financial advisory and property services consultancy
It's all about people
Trust us to make a real difference
Consider two things: 1) can you match these companies with the service they provide? 2) which of these companies would you buy from based on the headlines alone?
Here’s another example from outside of our dataset, which shows that this problem isn’t unique to professional services companies, but also B2B manufacturing companies and suppliers.
These headlines are perhaps the worst offenders. They are taken from the world’s four biggest malt companies: Soufflet Malt, Malteurop, Viking Malt, and Boortmalt.
If you were a buyer for a brewery, which of these companies would you choose? These four headlines all manage to say nothing at all - they don’t address the reader’s problem, they don’t offer a compelling reason to buy, and they don’t differentiate four great competitors.
In fact, even with the company names, you probably couldn’t match the headline with the company.
Masters of Malt
The farmer-maltsters
More Through Malt
Unleash the Power of Malt
Conclusion
The research has shown that across the UK professional services sector there are a series of ubiquitous words that, together, lead to some repetitive and generic phrases.
It has also shown that when you lay these companies side-by-side, it’s impossible to tell them all apart - so without meeting the sales people at any of the 1007 companies in the dataset, why should you choose one over the other?
This tendency to blend in with each other is having the knock-on effect of making these companies harder to buy from. If people can’t tell them apart then these companies cut their options down to referrals and competing on price.
They use the same language to talk about what they do, they try to convince people to buy from them using the same benefits and feature sets, and when you jumble up their website headlines it’s hard to know who is who, even across industries.
Ultimately, this makes the majority of these companies very hard to buy from, but for the companies themselves, it makes it even harder for them to advertise their services and win new segments of the market - crucially those segments who are not part of the CEO’s network or aren’t coming through some kind of referral channel.
It’s clear that if UK businesses want to compete they need to look at what their competitors are doing, and do the exact opposite - because at the current rate, there are many different companies to choose from, but there’s no reason for anyone to choose any of them.
Which leaves one final question: if your prospective buyer could easily mistake you for a competitor, what good does that do you?
References
IE University. (2018, 02 21). Being Better vs. Being Different: What’s More Helpful When Competition Intensifies? IE University. https://www.ie.edu/insights/articles/being-better-vs-being-different-whats-more-helpful-when-competition-intensifies/
The Marketing Centre. (2018, 03 15). Brand Differentiation: How it can make or break a business. The Marketing Centre. https://www.themarketingcentre.com/blog/barriers-to-growth-and-how-marketing-can-help-differentiation#:~:text=The%20benefits%20of%20differentiating%20your,the%20brand's%20momentum%20and%20growth
Media Marketing. (2017, 05 22). The Thirteen Most Powerful Words in Advertising. Media-marketing.com. https://www.media-marketing.com/en/opinion/the-thirteen-most-powerful-words-in-advertising/#:~:text=You%20%E2%80%93%20In%20its%20rightful%20first,or%20service%20is%20something%20owned
Methodology
Data Collection from Companies House
The list of professional services companies (legal, accounting, consultancy, PR, advertising, financial management, etc.) was systematically scraped from UK Companies House using targeted queries:
Selection Criteria: Incorporated companies with matching Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes (e.g. 69109, 69201, 70229, 70210, 70221, 73110) were filtered to exclude dissolved entities, subsidiaries, and micro-entity accounts.
Additional Filters: Included only active companies with more than 10 employees and annual accounts exceeding £632,000, removing those below threshold or reporting micro-entity filings. Sampling restricted to companies registered between 2004-2025.
Batch Processing: Data was collected in batches (typically 13 or more per round) until a desired sample size (400 companies) was reached, ensuring representation across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Key Fields Collected: Company name, address, SIC code, Companies House identifier, CEO or director names, staff headcounts, and registration dates. If available, trading names, rebrands, and regional domains were tracked to match each registered entity to its principal business website.
Headline and Website Extraction Process
For each verified company, the main trading website was located. Web extraction combined manual search and automated scripts to resolve trading name variations and domain matches.
Homepages and landing pages were scraped for headline content, marketing language, and descriptive phrases. Where no website could be found after reasonable efforts, entries were clearly marked 'website not found' to preserve transparency.
Data validation steps included cross-checking web domains against Companies House registration details and confirming headline accuracy using manual review where automated scraping was inapplicable or ambiguous.
Buzzword and Phrase Analysis
Phrase Extraction: Headlines and prominent marketing text were split into components (words, short phrases) using natural language processing and rule-based string parsing.
Keyword Cataloguing: Generic buzzwords ('solutions,' 'cutting-edge,' 'innovative,' 'best,' etc.) were catalogued and mapped to each company. Both frequency (raw count) and occurrence as a proportion of all analyzed companies were calculated.
Sector Mapping: Phrase-use statistics were computed sector-wise (accounting, legal, consultancy, IT, PR, and advertising) and aggregated for comparison.
Calculation of 'We/You' Ratios
This was a central part of the analysis to examine the orientation and tone of headline language:
● Definition: The 'we/you ratio' measures the relative frequency of
We/Us/Our: Terms indicating inclusive, company-focused language ('We offer,' 'Our expertise,' etc.)
You/Your: Terms indicating direct addressing of the reader/client ('You can,' 'Your success,' etc.)
● Counting Algorithm: For each headline, the following was performed:
Headlines were scanned for the presence of each pronoun; if both types appeared, both were counted.
Total instances for each pronoun type across all companies were summed sector by sector, and overall.
Raw counts were converted into usage percentages: (
count of ’we’/total companies
count of ’we’/total companies) vs (
count of ’you’/total companies
count of ’you’/total companies).
● Ratio Calculation: For the dataset, the 'we/you ratio' was calculated as
● We/You Ratio=Total We/Us/Our InstancesTotal You/Your Instances
● We/You Ratio=
● Total You/Your Instances
● Total We/Us/Our Instances
● This yielded both aggregate ratios (across all sampled headlines) and breakouts by sector.
● Contextual Analysis: Some companies used both pronoun types. Their proportions were separately noted to identify hybrid messaging styles favoring balanced or inclusive vs. directive headline language.
Statistical & Comparative Analysis
Word Frequencies: All extracted headline words and phrase components were counted to produce absolute and percentage usage statistics (e.g., 'solutions' used by 22% of firms in legal sector).
Identical Terminology Review: Companies using exactly matching buzzwords or almost identical sentences were flagged, and side-by-side sector tables were constructed for in-depth reporting.
Export Formats: All processed data was compiled into CSV and Excel tables for downstream reporting, audit trail, and reproducibility, with fields for company identifiers, website status, headline text, phrase-frequency metrics, and 'we/you' ratio fields.
Data Validation and Output
Scraping output was cross-verified for errors (misspelled domains, duplicate sites, missing headlines).
Every company in a batch was re-checked for missing websites and marked appropriately if unresolved.
Summary tables and frequency stats were created for stakeholder presentation, including sectoral trends, repetitive phrasing, and outliers in 'we/you' orientation.