14 marketing activities needed now more than ever

bonus: you can do most of them from home.

by marc rosenberg
the rosenberg practice management library

here are 14 common marketing activities.

more: how not to develop your practice | 6 keys to developing new client prospects | now is the time to activate your referral network | does your firm recognize all its skills? | protect and grow existing clients | the 4 marketing disciplines | 15 powerful niche marketing practices | 19 takeaways from the history of cpa firm practice development
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we’ll list them here and then drill down on each:

1. conducting seminars
2. speaking at conferences
3. writing articles
4. leading a roundtable group
5. writing blogs and newsletters
6. creating brochures
7. sending out direct mail
8. calling people to whom you sent marketing material
9. advertising
10. sending out news releases
11. conducting industry surveys
12. winning best place to work awards
13. having a useful website
14. reaching out on social media

conducting seminars

as a cpa looking to bring in business, you want to establish credibility with prospective clients and referral sources. customers of any professional service are always more likely to hire people who demonstrate their credibility and expertise, making them think: “gosh, this person really knows his or her stuff.”

public speaking and writing are two great ways to establish instant credibility with your prospects. it’s funny how this works. you can meet someone at a networking event and walk away feeling “that person was very nice but not particularly impressive.” but when that same person writes an article for a well-known publication with his or her byline on it, or delivers a speech at a conference, it creates a level of respect, credibility and admiration that can have a lasting effect on prospects. that’s human nature for you!

the goal of putting on a seminar is quite simple: assemble an audience of clients, prospects and referral sources to attend a seminar convened by your firm and dazzle them by demonstrating your knowledge and expertise. this will do one or both of the following:

• attendees will contact you to learn how the material you presented can help their company.
• more likely, you will follow up by contacting attendees and arranging for one-on-one meetings to learn more about them, positioning you to ask for their business.

speaking at conferences

the goal of public speaking, like that of putting on a seminar, is to wax eloquent in front of an audience of potential clients, dazzling them with your expertise and experience. this positions you to follow up with them to get business.

if business development in general doesn’t come naturally to cpas, they are especially uncomfortable with public speaking, as are most people in general. here’s where practice comes into play.

we’ve mentioned malcolm gladwell before. his book “outliers” illustrates the importance of “practice makes perfect.” gladwell posits that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become world class in any endeavor. gladwell writes that early in their career, the beatles played seven days a week for several years at small nightclubs throughout europe, playing the same songs over and over. those early performance opportunities enabled the fab four to amass 10,000 hours or more of playing time. that was certainly a big part of the reason the beatles became the greatest band in rock history. bill gates became the epitome of high-tech success by spending 10,000 hours or more playing and experimenting with computers beginning in his teens. of course, there is no magic in the number 10,000; the point is that if you continuously practice almost anything, over an extended period, you will get exponentially better at it than when you started.

this principle holds true for public speaking. find ways to speak wherever you can, regardless of the quality and size of the audience, the smallness of the venue and the lack of remuneration. keep practicing. the more speeches you give, the better you will become and the less anxious you will be. once you develop a modicum of effectiveness, you can then be choosier about the speaking venues you select.

in planning your presentation, carefully consider focusing on a niche or specific service line if your audience consists of people who would find this appealing.

public speaking is not for everybody, but i strongly suggest that cpas give it serious consideration as a marketing tactic before rejecting it out of hand.

writing and publishing articles

another great way to gain credibility in your market is to write and publish journal articles. as we said earlier, it’s human nature for people to read articles and assume the authors really know their stuff, even though we don’t know them and have no proof of the article’s factual correctness or of how much the editor added to it.

so publishing articles is a great way for cpas to market themselves. a cool thing about publishing is that it provides the author both short-term and long-term benefits:

• the short-term benefit is obvious: people receive and read the article shortly after it is written. authors gain recognition by sending articles to their database.
• the long-term benefit is that many articles are timeless (with the obvious exception of tax articles citing laws or practices that have changed). by timeless, we mean that the article can be sent to people long after it was written. two great examples: you can attach your article to a proposal or engagement letter or send it to conference managers to pitch yourself as a speaker.

we three authors have published more than 500 journal articles in our careers. here are some tips based on our experiences:

1. make it worth reading. sounds obvious, right? but think seriously about writing the article in a style that people will want to read. make sure you provide clear takeaways. if you are worried about writing a dull article … it will be dull. attitude is everything.
2. some pundits advise adopting a “show, don’t tell” approach to writing an article, which stops short of giving solutions. the wily strategy is to get readers hooked so they will call you for more depth and then hire you. we advise against this strategy for providers of professional services like accounting and consulting because it frustrates readers.

we have written hundreds of articles and obtained a great deal of new business from them. every one of the articles provided concrete, doable solutions to the issues we wrote on. we think people continue to read our articles because they know we will reveal our “houdini secrets.” prospects reading your article will be impressed by your solutions, but many will lack the ability and self-confidence to implement the solutions on their own. they need your help.

3. providers of technical material like accountants and lawyers often make the fatal mistake of making their article too complicated and using too much jargon. perhaps the authors are trying to show off what they know. or maybe they mistakenly feel that as high-level purveyors in a highly technical field, they are obliged to write a treatise that is suitable for an academic conference. make it easy on your readers. err on the side of “dumbing down” your prose.
4. short beats long every time. attention spans have shrunk over the years. if you want your article read in the first place, be on alert. less is more. articles should be no longer than 1,500 words. if you can hit the highlights in 800 words, better yet.
5. a time-honored practice for those wishing to publish articles is to call editors of targeted publications and ask them what topics they would like and what theme their upcoming editions will be focusing on. this is a great tip for new writers, but it does mean that they cede control over what they write. every one of our 500+ journal articles has been on a topic we are passionate about. it’s hard to be passionate about a boring topic requested by an editor.

we recommend that you select a topic you really like and write the article before you contact editors. then you can ask the editors what they want but make it very clear that you have already written an article you would like to submit to them.

6. start small. if you have never published an article before, major publications will be difficult to penetrate. there are a zillion small trade publications that are clamoring for articles written by experts. you may wish to try conquering the little guys before you attack the powerful ones.
7. in planning your article, carefully consider focusing on a niche or specific service if your audience would find this appealing.
8. a well-written article will add enormously to your credibility, but a poorly written one may damage your reputation. it’s kind of funny: most people are much better at spotting mistakes made in articles than writing one themselves. if you’re going to write an article, make sure it is well written.

• when you finish the article, put it down for a couple of days or even a week. then pick it up and review it. it’s amazing how many changes you’ll want to make and how many mistakes you’ll catch.
• find someone to edit and proofread your article. this is critical. we all know that the worst proofreaders are authors of their own material because they see it the way they meant it, not the way they actually said it.

9. it seems logical, perhaps even preferable, to co-author an article with someone else. after all, aren’t two minds more knowledgeable than one? and it splits the work up. but beware of the pitfalls of co-writing. here are some big ones:

• both authors are probably extremely busy people. they will need to coordinate their schedules, with each at the mercy of the other’s availability, exponentially lengthening the time it takes to complete the article.
• there’s a good chance that the two authors will have widely varying styles and writing skills, so one or both will have to sublimate their writing style. the result will be a watered-down treatise that fails to make the proper impact.

10. a catchy title is more important than ever. we live in a world where we are bombarded with tv, people magazine–type magazines, emails, websites and social media. short spurts of interesting material. catchy titles grab people’s attention
11. once your article is published, send copies to your database. feature the article on social media.

like public speaking, writing is a skill that many don’t possess. but it can be delegated or ghostwritten. many technical articles are written by people short on detailed knowledge of the content but long on writing skills. if you have neither the skill, desire nor time to write an article, find a skilled writer – either in your firm or a freelancer – to draft an article for you to review.

leading a roundtable group

this tactic works particularly well for niches and specialties. people always like meeting those with whom they share common interests, especially in business. here are some tips for roundtable groups:

1. meet at least quarterly for at least two hours.
2. convene the meeting first thing in the morning, perhaps with a continental breakfast. this way, members have the rest of the day to tend to their business.
3. focus on getting prospects and referral sources, not just clients, as members. it’s fine to start with existing clients to build up a critical mass but try to avoid total reliance on them.
4. get a critical mass. running roundtables is a numbers game. if you have 10 people signed up, average attendance will likely be seven or eight, and only five or six will show up on time for the meetings, which is awkward for everyone. obviously, you must start somewhere, but try to build up to at least 15.
5. plan the meetings. don’t just ask attendees what they want to talk about. come to each meeting with material you have prepared. where possible, select topics to focus on. make it worthwhile for members to join and stay.
6. as the leader of the roundtable, you should come to every meeting with current issues to discuss: articles you’ve seen in trade publications, surveys, presentations you heard at conferences and experiences you have had with other firms that the members will find relevant.
7. conduct periodic surveys and polls, mostly via email. example: a member wants to know if others have experienced a certain issue and how it was resolved. the roundtable leader emails the issue to all members, tabulates the results and sends them to the group.
8. make the group feel that, at least partially, it is their group. in advance of meetings, ask members what they want to discuss. ask them for feedback on how the group is going.

writing blogs and newsletters

blogs and newsletters are very common ways for many businesses, not just cpa firms, to stay in touch with their clients and gain name recognition with prospects and referral sources. when surveyed, clients often state that it’s important to them for their cpas to keep them updated on issues and events affecting their business. blogs and newsletters are a great way to do this.

despite what you read or are told by marketing experts, blogs and newsletters are a lot more alike than they are different.

blogs

• are always online
• are usually shorter
• are usually dedicated to one topic or issue
• may reflect the author’s opinion, not just technical information
• are published somewhat frequently
• often reside on a firm’s website waiting for people to read

newsletters

• are often online, though some firms still send paper newsletters
• are longer
• contain multiple sections and articles
• the content is mostly fact-based information vs. opinion
• often include material of a personal nature about the firm
• usually are sent to recipient’s email address rather than passively waiting to be found online

for every blog or newsletter sent to a client, you should send three or more to prospects and referral sources.

blogs do a wonderful job of creating an image of your firm as a thought leader. but firms struggle with blogs because it’s hard to find people in the firm with the talent, desire and time to write them. this is evidenced by the fact that roughly two-thirds of all firms either don’t have a blog or have a blog that is not active.

newsletters are great, but a word of caution.

the 1977 bates decision spawned the newsletter industry. because this was before the internet and email, all newsletters were of the paper variety.

the reluctance of accountants to do business development and the ineffectiveness of many cpa firm partners at bringing in business are well chronicled. with the advent of newsletters, cpas across the country mistakenly thought that sending out a quarterly canned newsletter to their clients (many did not heed experts’ advice to send to more prospects than clients) would be the answer to their prayers for revenue growth, absolving them of the need to engage in business development.

even though most newsletters have evolved from paper to electronic and the bates decision occurred over 40 years ago, to this day many firms continue to send out newsletters and expect them to generate new business. it won’t happen. the purpose of newsletters is to create name awareness, to do some branding and to communicate events and changes that clients should know about. these are noble objectives. but don’t spend the money on newsletters expecting them to bring in business.

what businesses want from their accountants

 this is from a 2016 survey by rob nixon, published in his excellent book “remaining relevant,” of 428 business owners:

• 62 percent prefer more face-to-face contact. message: don’t use newsletters as a replacement for personal contact. make sure you personally meet with your clients.
• 53 percent would like proactive communication once or twice per year. bingo! that’s what newsletters help accomplish.

what thought leadership is not

we mentioned that blogs and newsletters are a way to demonstrate your firm’s thought leadership. but it’s important to view this in the proper perspective. the following data is from a recent thomson reuters email marketing benchmarking report on cpa firm trends and statistics:

• roughly 30 percent of all newsletter emails are opened. that means that someone receives the email and clicks to open it. it doesn’t mean he or she reads it.
• once someone opens your email newsletter, 5 percent actually click to display the publication.

statistically, this means that if you email a newsletter to 100 contacts, only 30 will open the email and only 1.5 will click to open the publication.

is this the best way to demonstrate thought leadership?

newsletter tips

1. there are two types of newsletters: those that are custom written by the firm and those that are “canned.” a canned newsletter is written by an outside company but has the cpa firm’s name and logo on it to convey (usually ineffectively) to readers that the firm wrote the newsletter itself.

obviously, custom newsletters achieve a better impact than canned newsletters, but they too have many drawbacks:

• • very, very difficult to create for firms, especially smaller firms, that lack the writing skills and the time.
  • usually require two or three very busy professionals to contribute articles on a regular basis, which is very difficult.
  • often fail to meet publishing deadlines and are distributed to clients inconsistently.
  • the cost of the time to write the articles usually exceeds the cost of canned newsletters.

2. continually grow the mailing list. one tactic is to get all firm personnel to submit new names to the database.
3. some find this counterintuitive, but the newsletter is primarily for prospects and referral sources, not clients. by all means, include all your clients on the distribution list. but your database should have at least three times as many prospects and referral sources as clients because the main goal is to aid your business development efforts.
4. because most clients are not aware of all the different services their cpa provides, include a feature in every newsletter about the breadth of your firm’s capabilities.
5. your newsletter should be distinctive; no other newsletter should look like yours. it should be pleasing to look at and in color.
6. pictures and graphics enhance the look of the newsletter immensely.
7. include something personal about your firm in every edition.
8. send your newsletter to various publications.

creating brochures

as you may know, there was a time when most firms created paper brochures, some of which won awards from various cpa industry organizations. the use of paper brochures declined dramatically with the advent of the internet.

but paper brochures have not gone the way of ice trucks. they always have been and always will be an important marketing tool. when accountants make a sales call on a prospect, it’s still a nice gesture to leave something behind. it’s a good security blanket for accountants. more importantly, the prospect has something to review and refer to after the meeting is over.

marketing pundits tell us that if you really want to maximize the use of paper brochures, don’t simply conduct your two-hour meeting and then literally hand off the brochure to the prospect as you walk out the door, saying “oh, by the way, here’s our brochure.” use the brochure as a sales aid during your discussion, referencing sections of it that are germane to the points raised.

as an alternative to an elaborate color brochure that reads like a magazine, firms can produce tasteful folders with slots to insert materials:

• partner bios
• one-page fliers on various services and specialties
• copies of articles published

sending out direct mail

these periodic mailings that promote your firm may be brochures, postcards, letters or other promotional items. they may be online or paper mailings, though the latter are significantly less common today than they were years ago.

just as with blogs and newsletters, it’s important to build a large, targeted database that has many more prospects and referral sources than clients.

two major ways to enhance the effectiveness of direct mail:

• focus your mailings on niches and specialties rather than using the scattergun approach.
• your mailings should feature a call to action that leads readers to respond to your message.

of all the various discipline 4 activities, direct mail is one of the least effective and most expensive tactics.

calling recipients of your mailer

this is the hard one, the action few like doing and in fact, rarely do.

true story: a cpa firm hired us to organize a direct mail campaign. we warned them that if they were serious about making this campaign a success, the partners would have to call some of the companies receiving the direct mail. one of the partners was having difficulty getting started and asked us to coach him. so we picked one of the names on the list and called the contact. to the shock of the partner (and us), we had a great conversation with the prospect and arranged a meeting with the partner. don’t expect this kind of result every time but calling people who attended your speeches or received your mailings can yield results.

advertising and news releases

there’s not much to say here because 95 percent of cpa firms don’t do much advertising or send many news releases. there are much better ways to spend your marketing dollars and time.

industry surveys

not many firms conduct marketing surveys, but those that do find it very effective. these surveys are almost always conducted for a specific niche or specialty.

here’s a good example: dean dorton allen ford, with major offices in lexington and louisville, kentucky, has a strong specialty in the equine industry. for decades the firm has tabulated surveys of horse operations. this goes a long way to cementing dean dorton’s long-standing reputation as the authority in the equine industry, not only in the accounting and tax areas but in the consulting area as well. and for those of you skeptics who think that only big firms like dean dorton (annual revenue in the $30 million-plus range) can afford such an undertaking, it started the equine survey when it was a small fraction of its current size.

winning awards for best place to work

for starters, to win these awards, your firm actually has to be a great place to work. learn how to create an award-worthy workplace by reading our book “cpa firm staff: managing your #1 asset.”

can you name a better way to promote the excellence of your firm than by publicizing it for winning one of these awards?

having an effective website

every firm should have a website. it legitimizes your firm for those checking you out, essentially serving as an electronic brochure and providing the following benefits:

• prospective clients that are thinking of changing cpa firms may hear about you from some source and want to vet your firm before contacting you.
• referral sources may wish to learn about your firm.
• prospective staff who are thinking of interviewing with your firm will want to learn about you and see if the look and feel of your firm is compatible with their view of an ideal employer.

reaching out on social media 

social media are online technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks. here are some common features of social media:

• online social networks that connect individuals and groups to one another
• user-generated content, such as texts, digital photos and videos
• interactive internet-based applications
• service-specific profiles created by users for a website or app

social media take many different forms, including blogs; social networks such as facebook, linkedin and twitter; forums; photo-sharing sites; video-sharing sites; and virtual worlds.

posted on may 1, 2020