Boom, Doom or Gloom for Your Firm in 2015?

Despite what you might think, the marketing basics apply to accounting firms. Being in the professional services sector you rely more heavily on referrals than other types of businesses, however, like any business, if you keep doing things the same way, you’ll continue to get the same results.

With so many firms flat lining or in decline it’s time to make some changes and a mentor of mine always says, “You can make money or excuses, but you can’t make both.” The time has come for a lot of firms to stop making excuses. If you have an ageing client base and your fees are flat lining or in decline then you are at the cross roads.

Traditional marketing methods have lost their shine and an ‘old’ client base simply won’t refer like they used to in the past. Marketing savvy firms have shifted their focus online while the baby boomer principals and partners are being left behind. They continue to make excuses like “websites don’t work”. They say that because they have a website that is just an ‘electronic billboard’ that lists the who, what and where of the firm. It has no real purpose and certainly isn’t a lead generation website.

They blame the economy for their lack of leads and referrals. They spend less than one percent of their revenue on marketing and if they are spending anything, it’s wasted on offline tactics like Yellow Pages, the local newspaper and mail box flyers. The future is all about online tactics including Google searches, content marketing and social media. Video is critical if you want to attract the next generation of business owners and if you’re not blogging you’re not in the game.