Marketing Trends: The New and the Tried-and-True

Source: The CPA Journal

It's been years since legal restrictions on CPA firm promotion were lifted. But despite a struggling economy and highly competitive environment, many CPAs remain averse to marketing their services. In this article, consultant Mary Kay Copeland outlines recent trends in CPA marketing, advertising, and promotion and takes a fresh look at several traditional marketing tools that continue to be highly effective.

Cutting-Edge Strategies

• Websites. CPA firm websites should be uncluttered, professional-looking, and easy to navigate. They should provide valuable information for potential and existing clients, as well as for employees and the general public.
• CRM. Few CPA firms are using customer relationship management software, despite research showing an ROI of 16 percent to 100 percent. CRM can boost productivity and efficiency, improve customer service, identify clients' and prospects' needs, and generate direct-mail lists and other marketing tools.
• Social networking. Tools like blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter provide a cost-effective way for CPA firms to reach a wide audience for both marketing and networking. Blogs can be particularly effective. For example, research shows that linking a blog to a website can result in 17 times as many site visits.

Time-Tested Tools

• Brand modernizing. This can be expensive, but it can provide significant benefits in a competitive marketplace.
• Seminars. This continues to be an effective way to plug your firm and provide valuable information to clients and prospects. Modern technology – including social networking tools and webinar services – enables firms to promote and conduct seminars at a very low cost.
• Direct mail. Direct mail has been around for a long time, and with good reason. It offers “an almost certain return on investment,” the author says.
• Niche marketing. Firms that develop industry or service niches tend to have an edge over the competition and enjoy higher profit margins.

Other traditional tools include media advertising and networking. The author also emphasizes that even the best marketing plan will fail without quality services and high professional standards to back it up.

For the complete article, read “Marketing and Advertising for CPAs: Leading-Edge Strategies” on page 58 of the August 2010 issue.

From The CPA Journal, A Publication of the New York State Society of CPAs, August 2010.