Before the going gets tough, the tough get marketing!

CPA firms have relished the last few years of “plenty,” where new business opportunities came in regularly and without much effort. However, in many cases, this bountiful time may have caused some firms to let their marketing muscles weaken. In times of economic uncertainty, it’s more important than ever to “rev up” your marketing engine and market, market, market!

Here are a few critical factors essential to marketing success:

1. Leverage your brand image and story.
   To be successful and make the biggest impact, marketing activities should leverage your firm’s brand identity and story. Consistently integrating your firm’s logo, colors, tagline, mission, and other elements of your story with your marketing activities will reinforce the firm’s competitive differentiators with  clients, prospects, and prospective employees.
   
   
2. Integrate your marketing activities. 
   For instance, if you have been invited to speak at an event for a niche client segment (a public relations marketing activity), consider renting or buying the mailing list for the event. Send the attendees a memorable brand-building direct mail piece or e-mail that mentions your plans to attend the conference, expresses your interest in meeting them in person, and invites them to attend your session. By integrating, the marketing activities reinforce each other and both become more powerful as a result.
   
   
3. Consider activities that work for clients and prospects.
   Always evaluate your marketing activities to determine if they apply to existing clients, prospects, or both, because in many cases, the activity will apply only to one type of target audience. For example, a newsletter or e-newsletter can be a very effective existing client cross-selling tool and can be used to build brand recognition and position your firm with prospects and referral sources, too.
   
   
4. Be consistent and persistent. 
   Undertake marketing activities each month – even during busy season! And, to be effective, your activities should reach the same audience members repeatedly. Don’t give up – in most cases it takes at least seven marketing messages before your targets react to your outreach.
   
   
5. Comply with regulations. 
   There are many regulations both at the federal and state level that apply to advertising, direct mail, e-mail marketing, teleprospecting, and other activities. Check your own state’s regulations, marketing associations, and the Federal Trade Commission rules before implementing your lead generation ideas.
   
   
6. Manage your data. 
   Use a customer relationship management (CRM) system or contact management system to organize the names, addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, and other information for your existing clients, prospects, and referral sources. The more information that you maintain, the more targeted you can be in your messaging to them. It is also important to update your database with changes to contact information and remove unqualified prospects so you are not wasting valuable dollars on missed messages.
   
   
7. Measure, refine, and reinvest.
   To maximize the value of your marketing investments, be sure to measure the results of each activity and determine if you should invest more in those areas that seem to be generating real, closable engagements. When you measure and then refine your activities, you can capitalize on the activities that do well and minimize your investment or losses on the activities that aren’t as effective.

Jennifer Wilson is co-founder and partner of ConvergenceCoaching, LLC, a leadership and marketing consulting and coaching firm that specializes in helping CPA and IT firms achieve success. Learn more about her company at www.convergencecoaching.com.

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