how specializing makes marketing easier.
by marc rosenberg
the rosenberg practice management library
our profession loves to use certain terms interchangeably without fully realizing the important distinctions among them.
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let’s clarify the terms specialization, niche, and niche marketing.
specialization. generally, this means the cpa’s expertise in an industry, a service or both. in common usage, the term “specialty” usually refers to a service like estate planning, business valuations or technology consulting. some use the term “specialist” while others prefer “expert.”
niche. this usually, but not always, pertains to an industry such as retail, auto dealers or real estate. it’s important to distinguish between a niche and a mere group of clients in the same industry.
- a group is a somewhat casual or random accumulation of clients from the same industry (say, auto dealers) by different partners. the firm obtained these clients without exploiting its collective expertise in the industry. the partners with the auto dealers often don’t really work together to promote the group.
- a niche is everything a group is. also, the firm markets specialized expertise about that niche in a formal way as a firm to attract clients. internally, the niche is championed, usually by a partner who forms a team and provides regular training in the niche to team members.
niche marketing is a firm’s use of various planned, designed, organized tactics to market the niche or specialty.
the importance of having niches and specialties
one of the main purposes of cpa firm marketing is to make selling easier. it’s been well documented that business development is a critically important skill that is also the hardest skill to develop. if you are a partner in a vanilla, generalist firm that does 95 percent compliance work, you are no different from dozens of other firms in your market. this scenario makes it more difficult for the partners to bring in business.
specialties and niches make selling easier. how?
people like hiring experts. demonstration of knowledge in a special area is a great way to get credibility with prospects and referral sources. as a result, it’s easier to sell to these groups. in fact, if you do a great job establishing a widespread reputation as an expert, prospects actually call you. this lets cpas practice their favorite form of marketing: sitting at their desk, answering the phone and replying “yes, i’ll be happy to take your order.”
you can beat the competition. the generalist, compliance-oriented cpa has the most competitors. but when you have a specialty, you can focus your marketing on a smaller segment of the market with far fewer competitors. the best way to beat the competition is to have fewer competitors.
you can charge higher fees. if you are perceived as a top provider in your niche, you no longer compete on price. people who hire experts are willing to pay a premium for that expertise.
throw away your shotgun. when you are a generalist/compliance firm, your market is as large as it can possibly be. this makes both marketing and sales more difficult. we refer to this as the shotgun approach to marketing because you aim at a large area, hoping you’ll hit something, regardless of what it is. but when you are a specialist, you focus your marketing and selling efforts in your niche, making marketing efforts more efficient and cost-effective. the specialist stops trying to be all things to all people.
specialization spawns synergy with staff development. when the firm develops a meaningful specialty, staff are needed with experience in that specialty. eventually, a team is organized with training focused within that specialty, making team members even more valuable to their clients.
growth begets more growth. the laws of economics work to the niche marketer’s advantage: the larger your niche, the easier it is to continue attracting new business because the specialty makes your firm famous.
if these paragraphs have not already persuaded you to move your firm in the direction of specialization, read this: the 2017 aam/hinge marketing survey asked 84 cpa firms to list their most effective marketing programs. the highest-rated activity was specialization: 24.4 percent of the firms followed this practice. that was nearly double the second-place finisher! clearly, specialization and niche marketing can be game-changers for your firm.
myths about specialization
some people believe that specialization means you must give up all or most of your clients outside of the specialty. not necessarily true. it simply means that your marketing will be focused on the specialty.
some believe that when the firm develops a specialty, the partners who already have clients within that specialty will have to give up their clients to the specialty team. again, not true.
15 powerful niche marketing practices
- make yourself a “famous person” by doing the things below.
- compile and maintain a database of niche market clients, prospects and referral sources.
- use a niche blog or newsletter and social media to get your name out there.
- conduct and publish an industry survey.
- create a specialty website on the firm’s general site or a separate website altogether.
- send out targeted mailings.
- join trade associations in the niche and play a leadership role.
- give speeches at niche conferences.
- write journal articles for niche publications.
- form industry roundtable groups.
- put on a niche conference of your own or with other providers.
- subscribe to journals in your niche and send links and clipped articles to your target audience.
- train/cpe in your niche.
- develop a niche team whose members develop special skills and knowledge within the niche.
- create specialty brochures and advertise in niche publications.
the ultimate specialist
you may have concluded that a cpa firm has either a service specialty or an industry concentration, that they are mutually exclusive. sorry if we gave you that impression, but it couldn’t be further from the truth.
the combination of specialty services provided to specific niche industries is very powerful. here are some examples.
health care
- tax reporting methods
- benchmarking
- fixed-asset reviews
- mergers
- it systems
- cost segregation studies
- business valuations and litigation support
- forensics
construction
- claims and disputes
- benchmarking
- it systems
- project cost and overhead analysis
- tax reporting methods
- cost segregation studies
- business valuations and litigation support
insurance companies
- claims and disputes
- business valuations
- business valuations and litigation support
- it systems
- benchmarking
- forensics
accounting today’s lists of top niches and specialties
i’m sure you are familiar with the stalwart cpa industry publication accounting today. every year, it publishes a special edition on the industry’s largest firms that includes numerous statistics and metrics. also included every year is a list of top specialty services and niche industries. here are their recent charts:
