and why it matters.
by marc rosenberg
the rosenberg practice management library
selling cpa services can be challenging. there are many cpa firms and purveyors of financial services in most markets. many people aren’t entirely sure what a cpa firm is or what it does. it can be difficult for cpa firms to stand out against the competition. that’s where branding comes into play.
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overarching goal of branding
one of the main goals of marketing is to make it easier to sell. one way to do that is by enhancing the name recognition of your firm. and one of the best ways to do this is with branding.
when a cpa introduces him- or herself at a networking event and says “hi, i’m jane smith of dewey cheatum and howe,” it’s fantastic when someone responds, “i know your firm” or “i’ve seen your name.” the door opens faster because of the instant credibility and recognition you receive. (ideally, the branding is positive!) it’s also a great confidence booster.
definition of branding
the american marketing association says, “a brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.”
according to business dictionary, “branding is the process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product or service in the consumers’ mind. branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers.”
jean marie caragher of capstone marketing, a marketing consulting firm to cpa firms, says, “a brand increases your firm’s visibility, differentiates it from the competition, delivers consistent messages, focuses your marketing program and enhances recruiting and retention.”
two elements of branding
the physical, visible things like logo, colors, type fonts and letterhead: the consistency of the look and feel of your firm in everything produced, including financial statements, correspondence, reports, websites, social media, brochures, business cards and advertising.
differentiation: how are you different from other firms? what’s your story? what is your firm known for? the types of clients you do work for? the services you provide? what is your reputation?
let’s examine each of these.
elements of a sound branding strategy
- branding components. there is a consistent look to
- logo
- stationery
- business cards
- client reports
- correspondence
- social media
- invoices
- news releases
- type colors and fonts
- emails, including signatures
- signage
- engagement letters and proposals
- marketing materials
- tagline
- website
- screensavers
- regarding taglines, it’s very difficult to sum up a firm in just a few words. don’t force it. some firms feel they are much too complex and diverse for taglines. unless you come across something that truly captures what your firm is, you may be better off without a tagline.
here are some taglines considered to be effective:
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- “turning vision into value” – margolin winer & evens
- “heart & soul” – hood & strong
- “big firm capability. small firm personality” – bonadio
- “the big picture people” – jackson thornton
- new brands can be rolled out with a bang or a whimper. use a bang if your firm is not well known and wishes to change its image from passive to aggressive. use a whimper if your firm’s message is the same as it has been all along. in the latter case, a big announcement might imply that you are doing things for the first time.
differentiation
- be consistent. everyone in the firm should describe the firm in a similar manner, in both presentation and action. this ties into your elevator pitch.
- consistency can be achieved only if there is buy-in within the firm, especially the partners. if people don’t believe your message, then they won’t convey it consistently to other people.
- make your brand easy to remember.
- create your brand with the knowledge of what your clients are passionate about.
- your brand should convey what is unique to your firm.
- branding can work for smaller firms too, especially if the firm has a niche. clients buy experience and expertise in areas that are important to them. they don’t buy because you claim to be a better bean counter than your competitors.
your firm’s brand should tell clients wiifm: what’s in it for me? cpa firms and their personnel should focus on why clients should hire them and what benefits they should expect to receive, not just on what your firm does. it’s very important to be honest here. don’t try to be something you are not.
how cpa firms differentiate themselves
we have observed many ways cpa firms differentiate themselves from the competition.
- the most impressive way to differentiate is with a strong specialty or niche, particularly in an industry. people like to hire experts. if you have a strong niche in auto dealers and your competition is from a generalist firm, your firm has a clear leg up.
- we are a full-service firm.
- our staff are truly exceptional. we are perennial winners of best place to work awards. we have highly effective internal programs for mentoring, training and leadership development. partners can’t possibly do 100 percent of your work, so you need to be comfortable knowing that the entire team working on your projects is top-notch.
- our firm uses state-of-the-art technology.
- we have a strong audit focus.
- we are consultants, not just accountants. we are committed to helping your business be more successful. our clients value us just as much for the advice we give as they do for our skills in accounting and tax.
- we are proactive with our clients’ financial and business affairs.
- we are business connectors.
- we have multiple locations.
- our partners have long tenure; most started here as staff instead of coming from other firms.
- we help banks understand our clients’ financials.
- we offer service longevity: a large percentage of our partners and staff have been with the firm for more than five years.
- the cpa profession requires that each firm member receive 40 hours a year of continuing professional education. our people average 80.
a cpa firm’s image in its market is a differentiator
the firm’s image is sculpted both by things the firm does to create the image and by how the market perceives the firm.
here are some examples of how your firm’s markets may see your firm. warning: these examples aren’t always what you would like.
- expensive versus reasonably priced. years ago, i heard a precious comment. i met a business owner in a social setting. as is my habit, i asked who his cpa firm was. when he told me, i asked what he thought of them. his response: “they’re expensive, but they’re good.” this is a great image for cpa firms to aspire to.
- staid and conservative. not the greatest compliment, is it? but it is what it is – unless you craft a strategy to change it. if your firm has a staid and conservative image, focus on the positive aspects: we’ve been around a long time. we don’t experiment on our clients; we give them tried-and-true ideas. we believe in getting a good reputation the old-fashioned way: we earn it.
- active in the community. what a great way for partners to get name recognition while doing things that everyone admires and respects. sponsor a golf tournament. serve on civic, charitable and religious boards; ideally, chair them.
- a regular column for a community newspaper. writing such a column will keep your name and your firm’s name in front of the public.
building your brand
in addition to proactively developing more professional intimacy with your most important clients, prospects and referral sources, you must also elevate your personal brands to thrive in the knowledge-worker age. the easiest way to do this is to position your firm as the organization that somehow manages to deliver the right piece of content to the right contacts at exactly the right time. this rifle approach is significantly different from a newsletter strategy, which is tailored more to the masses.
as an example, one of the leading e-newsletter platform providers publishes an annual whitepaper to tout its product’s analytics. it boasts that its e-newsletters have an open rate of 29 percent and a clickthrough rate of 6 percent, which is evidently superior to their competitors. but if you do the math, you quickly realize that for every 100 e-newsletters that are sent out, only about 30 emails actually get opened, and only six people actually click through and read one of the articles. while an e-newsletter can easily be sent to large numbers of recipients, this isn’t exactly effective if you’re trying to get a key piece of information into the right hands, and it certainly doesn’t contribute to the development of your personal brand.
what we have found to be incredibly effective is to deploy a strategy of surgical content delivery over a sustained period of time. this is actually easier than it may sound, especially if you’re limiting your focus to the 20 percent of your clients who contribute 80 percent of your revenue. use your e-newsletter to keep in touch with the other clients but develop a cadence of robust content delivery for your key relationships. this nurture approach will yield deeper conversations and engagement because it is so narrowly focused on the needs and interests of a select population.
here is a great example of an email that provides targeted, nurturing content. it was sent to 37 clients of a cpa firm who were able to take the r&d credit for the first time:
notice how the email is crafted to make recipients believe it was sent only to them.
a big problem in cpa firm branding
one of the biggest problems is the difficulty of getting the partners to act as one. traditionally, the operating model for local firms is a group of sole practitioners practicing under one roof, sharing staff, overhead and a common firm name. beyond these basic allegiances, partners often march to their own beat. there are many ways to tell your story, both to internal personnel and to those outside the firm. often these ways vary dramatically from partner to partner, which makes it difficult for the firm to communicate one consistent brand to the world.