Hope is NOT a strategy

‘Hope is Not A Strategy’ is a book I've read and referred back to many times. And you would have grave difficulty not agreeing with its assertions.

Robert makes an important point. It is indeed difficult to stand out from the crowd when there is little or no investment in online or indeed off line marketing. And websites are just one clear example of this.

When taking a new practice into our development program one of the first and most important tasks is to undertake a Competitor Intelligence Report (CIR).

This is an exhaustive study of an Accountants local competition. Covering keyword searches in their locality and then analysing and assessing websites thrown up by searches (we only cover page1 and 2 of Google and all sponsored ads). We then look at the major directories (Yellow Pages, Thompsons & The Phone Book) and add our findings to the web results where relevant. We also look at websites highlighted in ads even though they may not have figured in the Google Listings.

With this data we are able to record, analyse and score on the basis of marketing effectiveness. We can then from the viewpoint of our client ensure that their practice easily out performs (in a proactive marketing capacity) that of their nearest rival.

There are clearly many forms of marketing such as client referrals and joint venture partnerships that we cannot pick up on but from an outgoing marketing stance our findings are pretty accurate. And even the likes of direct mail and referral marketing by its nature will often point potential clients back to the website.

To get back to Roberts point. Having literally evaluated hundreds of accountants websites and general advertising. I can confirm that from a marketing perspective the majority are very poor and many well below average with similar websites and very similar looking Yellow Pages ads being the norm.

Interestingly Rick Page says of his title ‘Hope Is Not A Strategy'...

"The title of this book was chosen to to accentuate the difference between positive attitudes and positive actions and the flaw of counting on one without the other."

Kind Regards
Mike Smith
www.mikesmithconsulting.co.uk

The bad news is that a) clients are looking for something different and b) research on how clients buy professional services reveals they are looking for a provider that is known to them.

Unforutately, most firms look the same (with names like Jones and Co and ABC Accountants) and the majority of accountants Websites are either very poor or have same content as their competition. This is because firms just buy an off-the-shelf offering rather then invest time and money building an online presence.

And, most firms aren't well known in their market because they haven’t bothered to build their brand with tactics like PR and seminars even though this is low/no cost.

Looking the same as the competition and not being well-known means the majority of firms won’t win more than their fair share of business, even though the market is ripe. The only good news is that their competition is so poor they probably won’t lose more than their fair share.

Bob
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