Does your practice have any marketing staff?

Does your practice have any marketing staff?

Didn't find your answer?

We're seriously considering hiring a marketing exec and interested to know if any other firms out there have done the same and what type of results did you achieve?

Based on a number of previous experiences we've found that agency and freelancers have always fallen short of the mark. They didn't meet deliverable deadlines, were slow and non responsive, expensive and their approach was piecemeal. I think that by hiring an in-house exec (initially part-time) we can agree all deliverable's in house, we know what the overall strategy is and stick to it, we can measure and interpret results, and it's more cost effective. 

Would be interested to hear if any other practitioners have gone through the same process and what their experiences are?

Replies (12)

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Teignmouth
By Paul Scholes
04th Jun 2015 00:39

Just a thought

With a move away from number based work to say business advisory work and with marketing being the glue that holds any business together, I've always seen it as something we need to know and do ourselves, involving everyone in the firm.

For the money you'd pay for someone to come in, I'd be more inclined to spend it on marketing CPD.

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Replying to WhichTyler:
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By NHGlos
04th Jun 2015 08:08

In House Skill

Paul Scholes wrote:

For the money you'd pay for someone to come in, I'd be more inclined to spend it on marketing CPD.

Following on from that...

Whilst I don't work in practice myself, some firms I have dealt with have had staff who had specific duties and responsibilities in business development, client sourcing, lead generation etc. A previous colleague's husband was employed by a tax firm and, having some previous relevant experience, was taken on with such duties as part of their remit and I've seen practice vacancies locally looking for the same. I'm not sure how niche such skills are in accountants, but might be a consideration (and bring some flexibility) if you only require part-time marketing and are not sure yet how you will integrate this into your practice.

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By johngroganjga
04th Jun 2015 08:46

It really comes down to how big a firm you are and whether you have sufficient marketing tasks to keep such a person busy and can get a payback on the cost.

All big firms have them. Many medium sized firms also do. I doubt whether many small firms could keep such a person busy on a full time basis, or justify the cost.

"Big", "medium" and "small" are of course relative terms.  Up to you to decide how you want to define them and where your firm fits.

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Teignmouth
By Paul Scholes
04th Jun 2015 09:24

The irony is that....

most firms already have the marketing expertise, it's just that they practice it on a one by one basis rather than as a firm.

By far the best marketing for an accountant is to do the best you can for each client, assessing and anticipating their needs, spotting opportunities and deciding on which needs & opportunities  you can satisfy or perhaps helping them find other resources.  The other side of the coin is making sure that the client and their services actually suit your own needs and, if they do, to make sure you carry out the work and relate to the client as effectively as possible and, if they don't, let them go.

By doing this you engender loyalty and recommendation and a recommended prospect is worth many times more than "cold" contact.  In all the time I've been in practice, I have tried practically every marketing "task" (well described John) but over 90% of new business has come from the above marketing philosophy.

Most accountants will carry out much of the above subconsciously on a day to day, client by client, basis and their colleagues will do the same in their own way, so what needs to be done is to talk and bring this up to a firm level. What clients and work does the firm want to deal with?  Sharing ideas on, spotting opportunities, what keeps clients happy and how to decide which clients don't, and will never, fit.  Most importantly though, in a firm with staff or sub-contractors, is to let them into this and to encourage them to buy into the firm's approach.  Marketing works both ways, outwards to external markets as well as inwards to staff & colleagues.

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By Roland195
04th Jun 2015 09:29

Depends what you mean by marketing

If the intention to employ someone specifically to generate new business by sourcing new clients, I have rarely seen this work in practice or at least in the context of small firms.

Part of the trouble is that this persons success is generally measured by how many clients they bring in. You can end up with clients who have been promised a service level you can't commit to for an unrealistically low fee.

I tend to agree with Paul that it is something that all the senior staff such look to become active & aware of.

 

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By exceljockey
04th Jun 2015 09:56

I have often considered this but,
I always come to the conclusion that if client referrals and the work I do are not generating referral leads then its pointless hiring a marketing executive. Having said that there are accounting firms out their that seem to do very well from their marketing initiatives. I may be wrong but I think a large part of the success of crunch.co.uk is their significant marketing spend. Whilst I'm sure their service is good and people I have spoken to that use the service don't seem to complain, I don't think that their service is any better than many contractor accountants out there who are far smaller and don't have the marketing budget.

I think for marketing to be worthwhile in an accounting firm it needs to be a significant initiative. So hiring a marketing executive without the consequential budget for Google Adword campaigns, Facebook campaigns, twitter campaigns and other activities could be a waste of time.

I think in compliance based firms and based on the success of crunch.co.uk and others, a significant budget can generate significant returns. The problem is defining 'significant' for a smaller accounting firm.

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AS
By AS
04th Jun 2015 10:15

How big is your firm?

We used to have part time marketing staff but it was not effective.

In the last 2 years we have taken on a full time marketing person who has raised the profile of the firm substantially in the areas we specialise in. The marketing is with existing clients, potential clients, lawyers, bankers, etc. that has led to more client referrals.

This has worked for us as we are a niche practice and are big enough to be able to afford a full time specialist marketing person. The amount of new work generated directly by the marketing is probably not enough to cover the additional marketing costs. Most new clients come from existing client referrals, but the raised profile has made it easier to convert prospects into clients.

As Paul Scholes says: "by and far the best marketing for an accountant I to do the best you can for each client". No amount of marketing effort is as valuable as good client service.

 

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By Tickers
04th Jun 2015 14:08

Fundamentals

I agree with most of what is said above and agree that referrals are great source of business however, I think that there are alot of fundamental marketing principles that accountants don't get right and although someone mentioned about spending money on marketing CPD, I do this anyway but when it comes to the implementation I don't have the skill level to execute marketing ideas and my time is better spent meeting clients and producing accounts which I can invoice for rather than spending an entire morning logging into WordPress to update keywords or interpreting Google analytics data which can be done much faster by a marketing exec for a much better rate than what I'm losing out in lost fees.  

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By Maslins
04th Jun 2015 15:36

"Based on a number of

"Based on a number of previous experiences we've found that agency and freelancers have always fallen short of the mark. They didn't meet deliverable deadlines, were slow and non responsive, expensive and their approach was piecemeal"

Unsure why an in house marketing bod would be any different...other than being much harder to get rid of it they're no better than the external bods?

Not saying marketing people are bad...but unsure why you think if one was an employee for some reason they'd be much better?

As others have said, very much depends on the size of your business.  We have a team of 5 staff, all accountants at varying levels.  Can't imagine how many staff we'd need to have before having an in house marketeer...but it's certainly not something on the horizon.

I don't personally share the view that all accounts should be doing their own marketing...in the same way we shouldn't all create our own websites.

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Replying to guardian:
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By Tickers
04th Jun 2015 17:12

Horse for courses

Maslins wrote:

"Based on a number of previous experiences we've found that agency and freelancers have always fallen short of the mark. They didn't meet deliverable deadlines, were slow and non responsive, expensive and their approach was piecemeal"

Unsure why an in house marketing bod would be any different...other than being much harder to get rid of it they're no better than the external bods?

Not saying marketing people are bad...but unsure why you think if one was an employee for some reason they'd be much better?

As others have said, very much depends on the size of your business.  We have a team of 5 staff, all accountants at varying levels.  Can't imagine how many staff we'd need to have before having an in house marketeer...but it's certainly not something on the horizon.

I don't personally share the view that all accounts should be doing their own marketing...in the same way we shouldn't all create our own websites.

 

There are no guarantees but if we have an in-house exec at least we are setting our own deadlines, strategies and deliverables and we know what is being done. With agency and freelance you get an email every month, with little feedback and any questions are extra.

Also, considering the time of year, we could hire a part time marketing exec just after college to cover the basic digital marketing strategies and at the very least get everything rolled out and set and see how it goes for the next 3-4 months for the same price as what we're currently paying and losing in fees.

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By allenlunn
05th Jun 2015 13:27

Yes...

I am the accountant and marketer for my company. I look at the marketing mix and set down the plan analyzing strengths and weaknesses and capitalizing on opportunities against any threats - the marketing audit if you like.

I've tried direct marketing, websites, advertising and promotion; all of them work to a certain degree if used properly, but none better than personal recommendations from existing clients. These are our backbone and life-blood [quote from the 70's] of our small organisation.

As mentioned previously, lots of accountants take on the role of marketer without realizing it. Hiring a marketer to back-up the drive toward goals and invest in different types of strategies can only be a worthwhile manoeuvre: such as segmentation or competitive positioning, niche etc..

Dr allen lunn

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Your website and marketing tools in one.

We design websites for accountants globally, and we hear this all the time!

Content marketing can be highly effective. A regular monthly blog post, email newsletters out to current clients, using social media to drive traffic to your website, adding an eBook for lead generation - there are some great strategies to achieve marketing momentum in an affordable way. 

Your website CMS should make this easy for you to do. We specialise in websites for accountants and would be happy to advise further. Feel free to check us out at www.practicepl.us

Michelle

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