CPA firms spend two percent of gross revenues or less on marketing. Your clients probably spend eight percent to 12 percent.

Celia Rocks, Web partner at INSIGHTS for Marketing and author of Brilliance Marketing Management: Let Your Strengths Outshine the Competition, says 10 percent of gross revenue is about right. Spend less and you risk too little exposure; spend more and you negatively impact profits. Of course how you spend budgeted money makes a difference. You must offer value to the right people using the right message. More spending doesn’t guaranty results.

New marketing initiatives should be tested on a small scale and put into practice only if testing proves positive.

From Partner’s Report—the Monthly Update for CPA Firm Owners, March 2006, p. 6. For subscription information contact Institute of Management & Administration, Inc., 3 Park Avenue, 30th Floor, New York, NY 10016-5902. One-year subscription $349. 212-244-0360, [email protected].