Do All Accounting Firms Need Marketing?

If you don’t have a marketing strategy in place, and business is humming along, you may be wondering if your accounting firm even needs marketing. It’s a fair question. After all, for small to mid-sized accounting firms, you may have limited capacity for new clients, so an investment in marketing may seem unsustainable or unnecessary. But, marketing is not just about lead generation.

We encourage accounting firms to think about marketing as far more. Beyond generating leads, marketing is about:

• Staying top-of-mind in the industry
• Maintaining your brand image and reputation
• Optimizing your internal resources
• Educating clients
• Building trust and loyalty
• Increasing revenue (up-selling/cross-selling)
• Attracting new talent

Start by asking yourself the following questions:

• What sets my firm apart from the competition?
• Does the external perception of our firm match the internal reality?
• Do our clients look to us as an expert advisor?
• Do our clients know about all the services we provide?
• How often do I engage with my clients?
• Are we having the right types of conversations with our clients?
• Why would a prospective client or new hire choose our firm?

Defining Marketing for Accountants

Marketing is a process that encompasses the creation, communication, delivery, and exchange of offerings that hold value for customers, clients, and partners. It involves identifying and meeting human and social needs through the strategic promotion and positioning of products, services, and brands. This includes both non-digital marketing and digital marketing tactics.

In the accounting world, especially for small to mid-sized firms, marketing may be better defined as relationship management. It’s less about generating a large funnel of prospects and maximizing sales, as you might do in a larger firm, and more about strengthening connections with select contacts.

Join us as we delve into three critical ways in which marketing can strengthen your accounting practice. By the end, we hope you’ll agree that marketing should be an integral part of your firm’s overall strategy.

Three Key Uses of Marketing

This section will highlight three ways marketing benefits accounting firms; specifically differentiation, building brand trust and loyalty, and driving growth.

1) Differentiation

One of the most effective uses of marketing in the accounting industry is for competitive differentiation. With accounting firms, where services and pricing often mirror one another closely, a marketing strategy can be the tipping point that makes people choose your firm over another.

Your marketing can:

• Emphasize your unique knowledge, insights, and personality
• Create a distinctive brand identity centered on specific themes or attributes
• Help you stand out by telling stories that highlight your expertise or philosophy

Whether demonstrating your unique value proposition or industry expertise through web design, branding, or digital communication. Marketing can help create an emotional connection that goes beyond the numbers. This connection can become a deciding factor for clients seeking trusted financial advisors who offer more than just generic services but provide tailored advice that aligns with their specific financial vision and goals.

2) Building Brand Trust and Loyalty

Becoming a trusted advisor should be the goal of every accounting firm – it’s how you build a reputable business over time. Through marketing, firms can establish themselves as authoritative voices in their specialty fields by publishing insightful thought leadership articles, whitepapers, webinars, and more. Marketing is one of the most effective ways to transform one-off transactions into lasting relationships characterized by deep loyalty.

Here are a few ways to use marketing to build trust:

• Post to social media: showcase helpful tips and timely advice, and show your human side
• Share your thought leadership: demonstrate your expertise and authority in the industry through articles, videos, webinars, and podcasts
• Leverage email marketing: provide consistent, useful, and relevant information to reinforce your connections

3) Driving Growth

Growth is a word very commonly associated with marketing. The acquisition of new leads, customers, and retention of existing customers all fall under the umbrella of marketing. Even if you’re not actively looking to grow your client base, a healthy marketing plan at your firm ensures you’ll have a continuous flux of new clients through all stages of business. Even if you intend to stay small and selective (no judgment here), marketing can help you cross-sell and upsell existing clients to maximize your revenue.

A few ways to use marketing to drive growth include:

• Search engine optimization (SEO) to make your website more visible to potential clients and new hires through online searches
• Networking through industry events and online forums
• Sending email marketing sequences to nurture leads and upsell current clients
• Harnessing data analytics to refine marketing strategies and measure ROI

If you want to drive growth with minimal financial investment, digital marketing has great ROI for small businesses because it’s inexpensive and has few barriers to entry. And with 98% of consumers currently using the internet to connect with local businesses, simply having a unique and engaging web presence is a great place to start.

Marketing is essential for accounting firms of all sizes. It’s about creating and nurturing relationships, distinguishing your firm from the competition, building trust and loyalty, and driving business growth. By strategically implementing marketing tactics, your firm can attract high-quality clients, retain valuable talent, and ultimately increase revenue. If you’d like to learn more about how the Marketing by Numbers Platform could benefit your firm, don’t hesitate to schedule a demonstration or contact our office.