{"id":21488,"date":"2012-07-30t08:24:08","date_gmt":"2012-07-30t12:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/48e130086c.nxcli.net\/?p=21488"},"modified":"2024-09-01t14:49:26","modified_gmt":"2024-09-01t18:49:26","slug":"if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/07\/30\/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there\/","title":{"rendered":"if you don’t know where you’re going, how do you know how to get there?"},"content":{"rendered":"

the essential first step for any growth strategy.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

by bruce w. marcus<\/em>
\n professional services marketing 3.0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

because an accounting firm’s marketing program must do more than accumulate clients, and because it must function in a dynamic world that\u2019s constantly in flux, an effective marketing program can\u2019t be a static list of activities that use a static list of marketing tools.<\/p>\n

more professional services marketing 3.0 by bruce w. marcus:<\/strong><\/p>\n

— eight tips for staying one step ahead of the competition (and maybe the client, too)
\n— nine things we know for sure about how to grow an accounting firm<\/a>
\n— the cpa\u2019s castle is crumbling<\/a>
\n— my address in space: the dynamics of change at accounting firms<\/a>
\n— six quick reasons why cpa firms will never be the same<\/a>
\n— 14 steps to find the right \u201cvalue price\u201d<\/a>
\n— it\u2019s not just accounting anymore. today, everyone\u2019s in marketing<\/a><\/p>\n

instead, it must have clear objectives that are flexible enough to accommodate the dynamic nature of the market. it must focus on specific aspects of a practice, predicated on the distinctive needs of each aspect of the prospective clientele. for example, a marketing program to attract high asset individuals is different from one to attract corporations. a program to attract real estate developers is different than one to attract builders.<\/p>\n

and while it\u2019s commonly assumed that the idea is to sell the firm, experience shows that marketing accounting services works best when it focuses on individual market segments. obviously, then, a clear understanding of each market served is essential.<\/p>\n

in other words, no one-size-marketing-program-fits-all. how, then, recognizing the foregoing differences, can marketing programs be devised that are focused, effective, and competitive?<\/p>\n

the answer resides in formulating objectives for each program, based on the distinctive characteristics of each market.<\/p>\n

start by setting clear objectives. if you don’t know where you’re going, how do you know how to get there?<\/p>\n

absent clear goals, marketing efforts become random, diverse and expensive. with clearly delineated objectives, marketing programs and marketing activities become relevant and focused. they offer a test against which all activities are measured. if a marketing activity doesn’t clearly serve to meet a specific objective, it’s usually wasteful, inept, and not cost-effective.<\/p>\n

two things about planning that are immutable:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. firm and marketing plans are intertwined. you can\u2019t have one without the other. the objectives for the firm and the objectives for the marketing program must closely relate to one another, simply because no serious firm plan can be viable without the marketing thrust to make it so, nor can any marketing program be effective if it\u2019s not relevant to the firm plan.<\/li>\n
  2. both plans begin with a realistic assessment of the market to be served, and with an understanding of the skills necessary to reach and serve the market.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    it\u2019s important that objectives be realistic and achievable, and not just wishful thinking. setting objectives, then, even for the smallest firms, is not an abstract exercise. and therefore, all firm plans and their objectives must begin with a clear understanding of the market to be served. <\/em>not to recognize this is to court meaningless and irrelevancy in all planning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    the essential first step for any growth strategy…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1340,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2254,5],"tags":[564,79],"class_list":["post-21488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-growth","category-outlook","tag-growth-strategy","tag-marketing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nif you don't know where you're going, how do you know how to get there? - 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"actionable intelligence for tax, accounting, and financial professionals\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/07\/30\/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"if you don't know where you're going, how do you know how to get there? - 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"actionable intelligence for tax, accounting, and financial professionals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/07\/30\/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cpatrendlines\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-30t12:24:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-09-01t18:49:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cpatwpe.s3.amazonaws.com\/cpatrendlines\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/cpa-trendlines-logo-square-e1467216200269-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"136\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"bruce w. marcus\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cpa_trendlines\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cpa_trendlines\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"bruce w. marcus\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"article\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/07\/30\/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there\/#article\",\"ispartof\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/07\/30\/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"bruce w. marcus\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cc438e42bae7d615d1a87ffcc9b1e97f\"},\"headline\":\"if you don’t know where you’re going, how do you know how to get there?\",\"datepublished\":\"2012-07-30t12:24:08+00:00\",\"datemodified\":\"2024-09-01t18:49:26+00:00\",\"mainentityofpage\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/07\/30\/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there\/\"},\"wordcount\":552,\"commentcount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"growth strategy\",\"marketing\"],\"articlesection\":[\"growth strategies\",\"outlook & analysis\"],\"inlanguage\":\"en-us\",\"potentialaction\":[{\"@type\":\"commentaction\",\"name\":\"comment\",\"target\":[\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/07\/30\/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"webpage\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/07\/30\/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there\/\",\"url\":\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/07\/30\/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there\/\",\"name\":\"if you don't know where you're going, how do you know how to get there? - 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间\",\"ispartof\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/#website\"},\"datepublished\":\"2012-07-30t12:24:08+00:00\",\"datemodified\":\"2024-09-01t18:49:26+00:00\",\"description\":\"actionable intelligence for tax, accounting, and financial professionals\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/07\/30\/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inlanguage\":\"en-us\",\"potentialaction\":[{\"@type\":\"readaction\",\"target\":[\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/07\/30\/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"breadcrumblist\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/07\/30\/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemlistelement\":[{\"@type\":\"listitem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"home\",\"item\":\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"listitem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"growth strategies\",\"item\":\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/category\/growth\/\"},{\"@type\":\"listitem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"if you don’t know where you’re going, how do you know how to get there?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"website\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/\",\"name\":\"卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间\",\"description\":\"actionable intelligence for the tax, accounting and finance community\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialaction\":[{\"@type\":\"searchaction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"entrypoint\",\"urltemplate\":\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"propertyvaluespecification\",\"valuerequired\":true,\"valuename\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inlanguage\":\"en-us\"},{\"@type\":\"organization\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research\",\"alternatename\":\"cpatrendlines\",\"url\":\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"imageobject\",\"inlanguage\":\"en-us\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cpatwpe.s3.amazonaws.com\/cpatrendlines\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/cpat-header-logo-with-blurb-7118_cpat_masthead-copy.jpg\",\"contenturl\":\"https:\/\/cpatwpe.s3.amazonaws.com\/cpatrendlines\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/cpat-header-logo-with-blurb-7118_cpat_masthead-copy.jpg\",\"width\":1600,\"height\":350,\"caption\":\"卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameas\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cpatrendlines\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/cpa_trendlines\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/groups\/115382\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/cpatrendlines\"]},{\"@type\":\"person\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cc438e42bae7d615d1a87ffcc9b1e97f\",\"name\":\"bruce w. marcus\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"imageobject\",\"inlanguage\":\"en-us\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cpatwpe.s3.amazonaws.com\/cpatrendlines\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/marcus-100x100.png\",\"contenturl\":\"https:\/\/cpatwpe.s3.amazonaws.com\/cpatrendlines\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/marcus-100x100.png\",\"caption\":\"bruce w. marcus\"},\"description\":\"bruce w. marcus remains a pioneer in the modern practices of professional services marketing even after his death in 2014 at age 89. he is the author of\u00a0the seminal work, professional\u00a0services marketing 3.0.\",\"url\":\"\/\/www.g005e.com\/author\/bruce-w-marcus\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ yoast seo plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"if you don't know where you're going, how do you know how to get there? - 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间","description":"actionable intelligence for tax, accounting, and financial professionals","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/07\/30\/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there\/","og_locale":"en_us","og_type":"article","og_title":"if you don't know where you're going, how do you know how to get there? - 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间","og_description":"actionable intelligence for tax, accounting, and financial professionals","og_url":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/07\/30\/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there\/","og_site_name":"卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cpatrendlines","article_published_time":"2012-07-30t12:24:08+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-09-01t18:49:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":200,"height":136,"url":"https:\/\/cpatwpe.s3.amazonaws.com\/cpatrendlines\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/cpa-trendlines-logo-square-e1467216200269-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"bruce w. marcus","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@cpa_trendlines","twitter_site":"@cpa_trendlines","twitter_misc":{"written by":"bruce w. marcus","est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"article","@id":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/07\/30\/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there\/#article","ispartof":{"@id":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/07\/30\/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there\/"},"author":{"name":"bruce w. marcus","@id":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cc438e42bae7d615d1a87ffcc9b1e97f"},"headline":"if you don’t know where you’re going, how do you know how to get there?","datepublished":"2012-07-30t12:24:08+00:00","datemodified":"2024-09-01t18:49:26+00:00","mainentityofpage":{"@id":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/07\/30\/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there\/"},"wordcount":552,"commentcount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["growth strategy","marketing"],"articlesection":["growth strategies","outlook & analysis"],"inlanguage":"en-us","potentialaction":[{"@type":"commentaction","name":"comment","target":["\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/07\/30\/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"webpage","@id":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/07\/30\/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there\/","url":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/07\/30\/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there\/","name":"if you don't know where you're going, how do you know how to get there? - 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间","ispartof":{"@id":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/#website"},"datepublished":"2012-07-30t12:24:08+00:00","datemodified":"2024-09-01t18:49:26+00:00","description":"actionable intelligence for tax, accounting, and financial professionals","breadcrumb":{"@id":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/07\/30\/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there\/#breadcrumb"},"inlanguage":"en-us","potentialaction":[{"@type":"readaction","target":["\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/07\/30\/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there\/"]}]},{"@type":"breadcrumblist","@id":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2012\/07\/30\/if-you-dont-know-where-youre-going-how-do-you-know-how-marketing-can-get-you-there\/#breadcrumb","itemlistelement":[{"@type":"listitem","position":1,"name":"home","item":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/"},{"@type":"listitem","position":2,"name":"growth strategies","item":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/category\/growth\/"},{"@type":"listitem","position":3,"name":"if you don’t know where you’re going, how do you know how to get there?"}]},{"@type":"website","@id":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/#website","url":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/","name":"卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间","description":"actionable intelligence for the tax, accounting and finance community","publisher":{"@id":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/#organization"},"potentialaction":[{"@type":"searchaction","target":{"@type":"entrypoint","urltemplate":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"propertyvaluespecification","valuerequired":true,"valuename":"search_term_string"}}],"inlanguage":"en-us"},{"@type":"organization","@id":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/#organization","name":"卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research","alternatename":"cpatrendlines","url":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/","logo":{"@type":"imageobject","inlanguage":"en-us","@id":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cpatwpe.s3.amazonaws.com\/cpatrendlines\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/cpat-header-logo-with-blurb-7118_cpat_masthead-copy.jpg","contenturl":"https:\/\/cpatwpe.s3.amazonaws.com\/cpatrendlines\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/cpat-header-logo-with-blurb-7118_cpat_masthead-copy.jpg","width":1600,"height":350,"caption":"卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research"},"image":{"@id":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameas":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cpatrendlines","https:\/\/x.com\/cpa_trendlines","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/groups\/115382\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/cpatrendlines"]},{"@type":"person","@id":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cc438e42bae7d615d1a87ffcc9b1e97f","name":"bruce w. marcus","image":{"@type":"imageobject","inlanguage":"en-us","@id":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cpatwpe.s3.amazonaws.com\/cpatrendlines\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/marcus-100x100.png","contenturl":"https:\/\/cpatwpe.s3.amazonaws.com\/cpatrendlines\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/marcus-100x100.png","caption":"bruce w. marcus"},"description":"bruce w. marcus remains a pioneer in the modern practices of professional services marketing even after his death in 2014 at age 89. he is the author of\u00a0the seminal work, professional\u00a0services marketing 3.0.","url":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/author\/bruce-w-marcus\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21488"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1340"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21488"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130322,"href":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21488\/revisions\/130322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}