Following a recent data cleaning exercise carried out by Momentum for Professionals, we spoke to several accountancy firms across the South West. As part of that process we asked the person answering the phone whether they had a dedicated in-house marketing person or if they used an external agency. The size of firms we spoke to ranged from sole practitioners to 20+ partner firms.

A snapshot from the results revealed:

• 11% of firms said they had a dedicated in-house marketing person (who wasn’t a partner).
• 12% used an external consultant or agency.
• 16% said that marketing was handled by one or more partners in the firm.
• 13% stated they didn’t do marketing and had no need to do any marketing.

It was interesting to see that some sole practitioners, as well as multi-partner firms, where using either an in-house or external marketing resource.

Partners doing marketing

In 16% of firms, the Partners were the main people implementing their marketing. I would question if this is a good use of their time, or indeed if their marketing was as focused or consistent as it should be. My experience of working with such accountancy firms has shown that quite often, the marketing function is reactionary as opposed to being planned and targeted. For example, many firms’ marketing activities revolve around the following: last minute adverts at discounted prices; sponsoring/contributing towards every request from local charities; buying the latest App or ‘must have software’ to promote your practice (but then not doing anything with it) and so on. As a consequence a lot of money can be spent on marketing, with very little to show for it due to poor targeting and ineffective methods being adopted.

“No need for marketing”

I often hear that accountancy firms don’t do marketing because they have sufficient clients and are not looking to grow their practices. This is fine until you suddenly lose a large client, or several clients retire or sell their businesses in a short period of time. Without any background marketing and PR activities taking place you will have to start from scratch to replace these fees, which could take several months/years to get back to your previous fee levels.

Also, don’t assume that marketing is solely about attracting new clients – it isn’t. All firms have to look after their existing clients in order to retain them and to make sure they are providing them with the relevant services they need. Marketing has a part to play in this, although some may term it ‘client care’. How often are you communicating with your existing clients (outside of working on their accounts or other assignments)?  You should consider ways to communicate with them throughout the year so that they are getting value from you, not just when you are working on their records.

So, if you’re one of the firms that don’t have a dedicated in-house or external marketing person to plan and implement your marketing; you’re relying on expensive partner time to do it; or you don’t have a plan to communicate with existing clients, perhaps now’s the time to consider outsourcing your marketing? Call me on 01822 833300 for a free, no obligation chat, or email me on vicki@momentumforprofessionals.co.uk.