Whether your accounting firm is large or small, having a strategic marketing plan is a great idea. A strategic marketing plan keeps you focused, allows you to project a clear message, and helps you react to market opportunities.
That last phrase is worth repeating: A good marketing plan allows an accounting firm to react to market opportunities.
While one part of marketing is about planning (with checklists, deadlines, and schedules), an equally important part is taking advantage of the unexpected. This means your marketing plan must be able to adapt to new developments. An unforeseen, outside event (such as a new legislative act) can present a significant opportunity to build the reputation of your firm and your professionals.Unexpected events are opportunities to bring your clients value, allowing you to forge stronger relationships with your current clients and impress prospective clients.
Let's look at recent example to see how this is done:
On September 27th, President Obama signed the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010. The Act was of enormous importance to CPAs and their clients. Among other things, it provided time-sensitive incentives for qualifying purchases, established a $20 billion lending fund, and radically changed the way general business credits could be applied by individuals.
Here's how most firms responded to the passage of the Act. They shrugged and commented amongst themselves at the positive development. They watched as a few emails came in from larger competitors detailing the law. Then they sat. They waited. About a month later their newsletter provider or their accounting association provided them with content on the Act. The information was generally far too detailed for the average reader and buried any opportunities in the mind-numbing specifics of the law. Clients and prospects that were lucky enough to find their way onto a distribution list received some limited information about the Act, but most never read it.
To sum it all up: The Act was a tremendous opportunity, an opportunity that many firms missed.
That's the norm, a lost opportunity. The firm's brand wasn't built up. No one in the firm had their professional profile raised. Clients and prospects did not receive useful information, or maybe they did...from a competitor.
On the other hand, some savvy marketers recognized the opportunities the Act presented. As trusted business advisors, they consulted with their clients in a timely, meaningful way. They analyzed the Act and presented it in a way their clients could understand. This helped them strengthen existing relationships and further their reputations as experts. In the process, they built their brands and generated new work.
Respond to the opportunity. Formulate a communications, public relations, and marketing response with specific objectives. In short, develop a comprehensive marketing response to the passage of the Act.
Here is a sample plan:
Objectives
1. Be the first to tell clients and prospects of the new opportunities
2. Provide timely, relevant, actionable information that will lead directly to tax planning services
3. Maximize touches to prospects with differentiating opportunities
4. Build the brand and reputation of the firm as the tax advisor of record in their market area
5. Build the reputation and visibility of the firm-wide tax director
Response
1. Author an article from the firm-wide tax director to be published the very day the bill is signed
2. Send the article in an e-blast to clients and prospects the day it is signed
3. Publish the article in prominent local trade periodicals
4. Distribute the article for online publishing
5. Publish the article on the firm website
6. Host a webinar for clients and prospects to help them understand the opportunities in simple terms, providing them with clear directions for the actions they should take
7. Post the archived webinar on the firm's website
8. Produce a follow-up webinar for associates
9. Distribute information internally to help all staff and management identify time-sensitive opportunities for clients
The signing the Small Business Jobs Act was an opportunity. Did your firm miss it? If so, think about including plans for the unexpected in your marketing plan. You can't plan for the news, but you can certainly plan your response. The next time a major change occurs, be ready to seize the opportunities - for both your clients and your firm.
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