I’ve been working with accountancy firms for 20+ years and over that time I consistently come across the same issues, no matter what size of the practice. Below is my top 5 common accountancy marketing mistakes. How many are you guilty of?!
1. Assuming everyone knows what you do – even your clients
Trust me, they don’t.
Whilst you may have sent a mailing about your different product and services, you’ve mentioned them in conversations or you’ve sent email newsletters about them, not everyone will have been receptive to your news. Unless they have a need for your services at the point of communication it probably won’t even register or they’ll forget as soon as their next email or phone call comes in.
SOLUTION – Repetition is key. You have to keep reminding people (clients, prospects, business associates, even staff!) what it is you do and how it can help people. You can’t rely on one communication piece to create ongoing sales of that service, you have to tell people on a regular basis. However, don’t bombard them otherwise they’ll switch off totally, but also never assume that they know what you do. People need reminding. When they’re in the need for a particular service, you want to be the firm that they think of first.
2. Not confirming who your perfect client is – the “we’ll work with anybody” approach to marketing
By agreeing who your perfect client is, you’re not necessarily turning away other business (unless of course you want to) you’re just going to focus your efforts on getting more of the clients you want to work with.
SOLUTION – Less is more. Put yourselves in the shoes of your ‘perfect client’, where do they ‘hang out’, what do they read, who do they know? You’re likely to spend less money and get a better return on your budget if you choose marketing activities that will get you in front of the right people. So, do they spend time on social media? Are you likely to ‘bump’ into them at networking/social/charity events? Go where they go, make it easy for them to find you.
You will most probably pick up other clients at the same time, but that’s just an added bonus.
3. Overlooking the obvious place to get new clients
Regardless of what sector you are in, the bulk of any new work you sign up will come from clients or business associates. Word of mouth referrals will always give you better quality clients, usually who fit your ‘perfect client’ criteria. There’s just one problem, we aren’t always as proactive as should be in asking for referrals.
SOLUTION – If you don’t ask, you don’t get. But frequently we’re too afraid to ask (or we forget to ask). Invariably we’re happy to recommend other people to our business associates, we just don’t request the same for our own businesses. Ask your existing clients, business contacts, even staff, if they know anyone who would benefit from using your services. Create reminders – add to a client meeting agenda; set up reminders on your outlook to mention during any meetings you have scheduled; have ‘refer a client’ feature on your website; when giving referrals to other people, ask if they can put you in touch with anyone; create an internal referral scheme giving prizes to staff who sign up the most new clients based on their introductions. Referrals are usually the cheapest, yet most effective way of growing your business – all you need to do is ask!
4. Reacting to one-off ‘once in a lifetime marketing opportunities’
Time and time again I see this, particularly in accountancy firms, where the local papers, community groups, charities, sports associations etc. are frequently contacting you to place an advert to support a client or local group. The cost is usually quite low, but over the course of the year the cost of these ‘cheap’ adverts mount up and quite often you’ll be paying thousands of pounds and getting nothing in return.
SOLUTION – learn to say ‘No’. Unless the advert, sponsorship deal, web banner etc. is going to raise awareness of your business to your perfect client, see point 2 above, these types of marketing activities should be avoided. There will be times when you genuinely want to support a client or charity, which is fine, but I would suggest you identify one or two charities that you will be supporting each year, and tell any others that you will consider supporting them in future years. You can also set yourself a monthly budget, which might only be say £200, but it’s easier to tell a pushy advert salesperson that you are already committed to your budget this month and so can’t proceed with their offer.
5. Not tracking where your enquiries come from
The cardinal sin of marketing – putting time, effort and money into promoting your business, but not monitoring the different activities to see what’s delivering the best results for you.
SOLUTION – ask, log, monitor. First you should be asking the question “where did you hear about us” whenever you’re talking to a potential client. You could also ask, “what prompted you to call us today” or “where did you see our contact details”. However you phrase it, it’s important that you log the answer. You don’t need to have a sophisticated CRM system (but if you have you should certainly use it), a simple Excel spreadsheet can be used to log contact details, services they are interested in, likely fee (as and when you get to the quoting stage) and of course ‘where did you hear about us’. Over time you will start to see what marketing activities seem to be working best. Whilst marketing measurement is not an exact science, over time you will start to get a feel of what activities are delivering the best results and which activities you may want to stop doing.
So there we have it, 5 simple and probably obvious tips to improve your marketing. You might be doing one or two of them already, but if you implement all of these points you would start to see an improvement in your marketing ROI.
