the 13 channels you have … but you won’t need all of them.
by sandi leyva
once you know the type of client you want to go after and the number of new clients you need to get, you can begin on your marketing plan.
more small firm growth strategies: how to determine your ideal client | build your revenue plan in reverse | 5 fast, easy ways to turn annual clients into year-round clients | how to teach financial literacy | how to keep current | 10 easy tips to boost your business cash flow | how to fire a client | how to manage client expectations
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there are simply two steps:
- deciding which channels you’ll be using, then seeing how many clients you can get per channel
- converting the number of clients you need into the number of leads you need in order to close the correct number of clients. you won’t get a “yes” for every lead you attract, so you’ll need more leads than clients to make your number. the difference is your close ratio. and it varies for each channel you use.
so that’s where we’re going. let’s start with the channels.
marketing channels or methods
when i first started my business, i didn’t know how to get clients. i had so many questions swirling in my head. should i do a mailing? should i teach some more classes? should i wait for referrals? should i put an ad in the yellow pages? should i advertise in the local paper? i was truly lost.
worse, i was getting a lot of advice from well-meaning friends, people who did not know a thing about my industry and people who were doing far worse than i was.
one of the lessons i finally learned and that has paid off in the millions of dollars for me is to make sure i listen only to people who make far more money than me, rather than the other way around.
today, there are many more marketing choices. blogs, websites and social media were unheard of when i practiced. when you’ve seen both old and new methods, there are even more questions and a lot of misunderstandings, too. the old methods do not perform like they used to.
the good news is there are a number of marketing channels that work well in the professional services industry. and we’re going to rank them in order of cost-effectiveness for the accounting industry. there will be some you won’t be comfortable doing, such as public speaking. not all accountants should give a talk in public if they don’t have to. that’s ok; you can skip that one and go to the next one if it is not a natural skill for you or if it’s just too intimidating for your personality.
i’ll show you the list in just a minute, but i want to make one more point first. the way to keep your marketing costs the lowest possible is to get as many clients as you can from the number one channel on the list. once you’ve done that, go to the number two channel on the list and get as many clients as you can. use only the number of channels you need in order to get to your “net new clients” number.
once you make your net new clients number, you’re done. you don’t need more marketing channels. you can say no to all those channels that are more expensive, that your peers are pressuring you to do, that other peers are saying they are having success with (hint: they are not taking home as much net income as you are, i can promise you that). you can choose to eliminate your guilt about whether you should do a channel, and you have my permission and blessing to stop listening to everyone else (who is probably doing worse than you are) and start listening to the spreadsheets you are making for yourself.
now that’s what i call total marketing clarity. it should give you some great relief about what to do, and perhaps even more energy-boosting, what you don’t have to do.
one more point for even greater clarity
this may be the most important point in the entire post. there is only one reason why these channels work and others don’t:
trust.
in our profession, it’s absolutely imperative that we build a certain level of trust with our prospects before we do any selling. if the trust isn’t there, neither is the sale.
that’s why many of you say your prospects insist on meeting you in person.
that’s why many of you want to get your remote services going but you haven’t yet.
in marketing, some channels build trust better than others. those are the ones we want to use first.
please remember this new saying: “without trust, marketing’s a bust.”
it will save you thousands of dollars. for example, should you place an ad in a newspaper where the readers do not know you? no – no trust, it’s a bust. should you do a website without testimonials? no – no trust, it’s a bust. should you do direct mail to a generic list where subscribers do not know you? usually no – no trust, it’s a bust.
should you send a client newsletter? yes, builds trust. should you collect and broadcast testimonials? yes, builds trust. should you ask for referrals? yes, implied trust.
hopefully you’re getting the difference between using marketing channels with no built-in trust and those with trust. earning others’ trust should be a huge factor in how you market, present and sell yourself to others.
the list
here are the channels, in summary:
client retention
the first one is client retention. it’s not really a marketing channel, but it’s a marketing “to do,” so let’s keep it here and list it first. obviously, if you can keep more of the clients you have, you’ll need to look for fewer new ones and this will keep your marketing costs and time down significantly.
referrals from all sources
the next one is referrals. i’m sure you’ve heard me say it a million times before: it’s a great idea to maximize your referrals. but i am not just talking about referrals that you get from your existing clients. there are many other ways to create referral sources.
what’s great about getting referrals is they are very close to being pre-sold, and the whole reason for that is our five-letter word, trust. the trust is extremely high when a referral comes to you because you benefit from the transferred trust of your referral partners.
reputation
building your reputation usually comes from a combination of actions that you do in numerous marketing channels. there is a core foundation you can set, however. one example is to get your biography professionally written.
when people are able to get to know you from a framework you’ve created that speaks to your reputation, it builds their trust. combine your foundation with other channel actions, and you have a winning channel. one example is to post an article on a blog that shares your point of view about something related to accounting, technology or small business.
events
there are lots of actions you can take in this channel. some examples include:
- putting on your own event
- hosting an open house
- speaking at a conference
- exhibiting at a trade show
- holding a webinar
events allow your prospects to see you in action and experience your personality. when you give a presentation at an event, prospects also see your technical expertise. what i love about event marketing is it’s leveraged. instead of getting to know one prospect at a time, it’s a powerful way to make a positive impression on dozens, if not hundreds, of potential clients, referral partners and business associates.
online marketing
having a great website is a good start to online marketing, but it’s only a start. this channel covers websites and search. your website is your foundation for online marketing success. once you have it maximized, then you can use it in two ways: as a brochure of sorts that people can visit to find out more, and sometimes, it can also generate leads for you.
leads from a website can be tricky because most often, they need to be warmed up. in other words, the trust can be really low when they come to you, and you have to increase it before you can make the sale. in this way, the channels need to work together. your website leads could opt in to your newsletter and automatically get warmed up by reading your emails. i often get calls from those of you who have been on my list for about a year and you’re ready to buy at that time.
sometimes, a lead has found something in common with you, and the trust goes up without you having to do much. i’ve had fellow pilots hire me for web work just because i was a pilot. a great bio will help you benefit from a common background you might have with your prospect.
social media
social media has exploded in the last few years, and it can be a great way to keep up with clients and reach out to new ones. setting up these accounts allows you to develop an online presence where you can stay top of mind with clients and prospects. while most social media accounts are free, the labor to keep them going is anything but.
video
video is now so important and powerful i felt like it deserved to be considered a separate channel. the beauty is hardly any other accountants are doing video, so it can leapfrog you ahead if you act fast. youtube is included in this along with the different types of videos you can create and the tools and skills you need.
email marketing and newsletters
there are many great reasons to send a newsletter: to increase client retention, to warm up leads from other marketing channels and to make announcements about new services or specials that you are offering.
newsletters are catching on with accounting firms, and email marketing is extremely underused, making it a great channel for accountants to try.
media
getting mentioned in the media can help a lot more people find out about what you do and how you can help them. it’s much harder today than it was a decade or two ago to benefit from a news media mention, but it can happen, and when it does, it can become a viral blockbuster.
in this category, you can get mentioned as an expert in the news, in an article, in a trade magazine or other media in the industry you serve, or in media in your own accounting industry.
case studies, white papers and published articles
this underused channel is a great way to transfer knowledge and build trust in prospects.
a case study describes a client’s experience working with you. a white paper is educational and explains an aspect of your service or a product you might use. and articles you write often convey your opinion or knowledge of your subject. they also have the added benefit of a third-party endorsement when the magazine or website publishes them.
this channel is leveraged too like the event channel is, in that you only have to write the report or case study once, and hundreds or thousands of prospects can download or request it.
content marketing
content marketing refers to a strategy rather than a channel, but i wanted to mention it here. it’s key to lead generation and building solid trust with your prospects in a cost-effective manner.
telemarketing
you might know this is not my favorite channel, but it does work in specific circumstances. when you target your prospects carefully and orchestrate an intelligent series of communications, this channel can be extremely powerful. it is especially effective for reaching mid-sized clients.
direct mail
since so few people are using direct mail these days, it can work. but the response rates are low, and so is the trust, unless you can build it using other marketing channels in combination with direct mail.
13 marketing channels
those are our 13 top marketing channels. combining the channels into an integrated plan will give you exponentially improved results. for example, combine email marketing with a webinar, follow up with a white paper and a telemarketing call, and you’ve got a chance for far more effective results than just using one channel at a time.
the numbers game
unfortunately, not every prospect who comes to you will turn into a client. some will hire your competitor, some will do it themselves and some will not act at all. when you create your marketing plan, you’ll need to take that into consideration.
each channel will vary as to how many prospects it will take to gain one new client. the measure for this is called the closing ratio.
closing ratio = number of new clients / number of total leads or prospects you talked to
the closing ratio for prospects who come to you via referrals will be much higher than the closing ratio for the telemarketing or direct mail channel. for example, you’ll have to send thousands of direct mail pieces to get a few phone calls. of those calls, maybe one will become a new client. the close ratio for direct mail is very, very low. on the other hand, a lot of people can close nearly every referral they speak to. the referral close ratio is very, very high.
we’ll need to add this calculation to each marketing channel we add to our marketing plan.
putting together the marketing plan
for each service you offer, such as bookkeeping and tax, you’ll want to create a separate marketing plan. you might find those clients in completely different places.
put together a worksheet that looks like this:
- list the channels in the rows.
- label three columns: net new clients needed, closing ratio and number of leads needed for the channel.
- drop in the numbers you expect to get from each channel. if you have history, create a spreadsheet showing your actuals, and compute your actual close ratios from your information. if you don’t have the history, you’ll need to guesstimate. drop in the close ratio you believe you are getting.
from there, you can calculate the number of leads you’ll need to attract from each marketing channel in order to get the number of clients you need to make your numbers. cool?
in our example above, you can see how different the close ratios are for each channel. we need 71 leads to get to 39 clients. that’s not bad at all. as you begin to change your systems to track this information each year, you will be able to get more precise with your marketing plans and keep your expenses as low as possible.
although 71 might sound like a large number, that’s only six leads per month. you can do that!
closing ratios
notice that as we move down through the channels, the closing ratio gets lower, and the number of leads you need goes up. this further reinforces my suggestion to get as many referrals as possible before moving down the channels to get more clients. the more referrals you can squeeze out of your marketing plan, the lower the costs and time.
in this example, we only need to use five channels to make our numbers, so we stopped there. your marketing plan might need more or fewer channels than our example. especially if you are starting your business, you’ll need to move down the channels to make your numbers, passing referrals and reputation that take much longer to yield results, and using events, online marketing, media, publications and even telemarketing to meet your goals.
many accountants do not like to write or speak, and that’s why they are forced to use online marketing, telemarketing, direct mail and other low-trust channels. they are better off hiring a writer or an emcee to interview them during an event or webinar, but few do.
when you get comfortable with your marketing skills, you can start to combine the channels and use them together to improve your results.