The Magic of Marketing

I see many different approaches to marketing in the many accounting firms I work with, some fantastic, some good, and some not so good.

For example, there's a sole practitioner I know who advertises on TV for delinquent tax payers to come clean and report prior years unreported income. His phone rings off the hook, and it's only a local cable channel he uses.

Another has such a powerful web site that it draws over $100,000 worth of new work in every year.

One firm has given the full time job of marketing to their most productive partner. Are they crazy? Apparently not, as he speaks constantly at business meetings, bank presentations, seminars and many other events and brings a ton of new work into the firm every year.

Other firms I have seen spend a small fortune on a glossy brochure and done nothing with it - there's hundreds of them piled up in a stationery cupboard in their office. (And they seem quite proud about it!)

Many accounting firms still don't have a clue when it comes to using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and all the other amazing tools at our disposal these days.

It drives me crazy sometimes!

I hate to see waste, and I see so many firms trying to attract new business in all the wrong ways that I could pull my hair out!

Anyway, in this article I wanted to give you an idea or two that could be easily implemented and cost virtually nothing to do!

Proof positive being that I do this myself for my own business, and it works!

Here's the concept - you probably have a video camera that you bought to film your first-born's first steps, family vacations and so on, right?

And you have internet access?

If you said yes to those two questions, you're in the video production business and you need to get a YouTube account.

That's all you need.

Now, think about a few simple tax saving tips that you could talk to camera about and record yourself talking about them.

Set up the camera on a tripod facing you, and chat away to the camera. You might feel a little self-conscious about this, but when you overcome that it'll feel quite natural.

Film about 30 minutes of tips, and then edit the footage down to less than ten minutes total and upload it to YouTube, and hey-presto, you have a marketing video.

Providing your content is good, you might be surprised when you see how many people view your little home-made video.

Now, the next thing to do is to embed the video into your own firm's website and even more people will see it.

This is a great tool to have for potential new clients to see before they decide which accounting firm they are going to call.

Have a look on YouTube - there's still very few accounting firms who are doing this, and being one of the first will give you a distinct advantage!

So that’s the first idea covered, but what is it about marketing that is so hit and miss?
Well, the secret, I believe, lies in the planning.

If you're about to start thinking about a little marketing activity in the coming months, the trick is to start with the end in mind.

Ask yourself some straight forward, but often avoided, questions:
· What do you want your marketing to achieve?
· Who are your ideal clients?
· Where do they 'hang-out'?
· What is the least expensive way to get in front of them?
· What are you prepared to do to about it?
· What goals are you going to set?
· What would you need to achieve to consider your marketing a success?

You see, the trouble is, most firms simply spend money on a marketing activity without any planning or much thought. Few set a marketing budget and allocate it to various activities throughout the year, and most fail to measure what works and what doesn't.

Many accounting professionals have tried one or two activities, had little or no success, and decided that marketing doesn't work.

Nothing could be farther from the truth – try my YouTube experiment mentioned above and see for yourself.

Well executed marketing doesn't have to be expensive. Let me give you another example.
Let's imagine that one of your goals for next year is to build a new niche market. Let's say that in addition to your regular clients, you want to build a reputation as an expert in dealing with construction companies.

So what do you do?

Google 'Construction company trade associations in Toronto' for example, if you are in Toronto, and you'll find many trade associations, trade shows and other useful sites to visit.

Many of these organizations will have a newsletter and a web site - and they need content. Some will also have annual conferences - and thus they need speakers.

See where I'm going with this?

None of these activities (providing content for newsletters and web sites or speaking at seminars) costs you anything to do! Yet many firms might first think of buying a mailing list and sending a mass mailing out to thousands of 'prospects', or producing another glossy brochure focusing on their chosen industry to mail out to people who might not be interested in what you have to sell.

However, readers of their trade newsletter or web pages, or attendees at trade seminars and conventions might well be interested in what you have to say – on their own trade association website or in their trade newsletter!

Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive – in fact, most of the best marketing I have seen can be done for free!