Few accounting firms actively market their services to their target clientele and, as a result forgo the opportunity to increase their bottom line. It's a fact that firms operating within the accounting industry spend less than 1% of their revenue dollars on marketing efforts. However, at Summit CPA Group, a division of Anders CPAs + Advisors, we've learned that investing in effective marketing strategies can lead to landing larger clients who bring in more revenue. That’s why we typically invest 7% of our revenue in marketing initiatives.

The first couple of steps to a successful marketing strategy for an accounting firm involve identifying your company's niche, which includes determining what services you plan to offer, what kind of clients and industries you serve. While we've seen substantial success marketing our virtual CFO services to creative agencies with revenue ranging from $1 million to $20 million, we recommend selecting a service and market that best fits your firm. From there, you can execute a few marketing strategies that are sure to put your firm on a more lucrative path.

Highlighted below are a few low-cost marketing strategies you can put into practice right away.

 

1. Go after existing clients first. Rather than spending money on beefing up your client base by offering services to potential clients within your niche, leverage your existing relationships. Offer your current clients the opportunity to try out any new services you're offering. Doing so will allow you to master and further refine the service before pitching it to new clients. For example, at Summit CPA, we provide advisory-style services. With that in mind, we initially rolled out these services to our then-current client base by adding monthly meetings to their calendar to discuss topics related to those services (e.g., cash flow meetings). The soft rollout allowed us to fine-tune our meeting cadence and determine what did and did not work well for both our clients and our team before we began advertising the service more broadly.


2. Take advantage of different professional groups and organizations. These groups and organizations may cost a relatively small fee to join but instantly connect you with a network that could contain potential clients. We recommend looking into joining entities, such as your local Chamber of Commerce, Business Network International (BNI), Vistage, and any other referral groups, as a way to connect with and target businesses in your niche.


3. Approach banks for marketing opportunities. This action may sound unusual but it can lead to a much larger client base. The idea here is to utilize a bank's business network while establishing your firm as the solution to these businesses' current accounting problems. In doing so, the companies in question will be more likely to sign on with your firm for the valuable services you're advertising. In the past, our firm has approached big banks and asked if they would gather the financial leaders of businesses that fit our niche so we could present on a topic they may find beneficial (e.g., 5 Reports You Need to Know in QuickBooks). This method is an easy and inexpensive way to market yourself and, by extension, your firm as both knowledgeable and helpful to your target clientele.


4. Position yourself as a thought leader. Potential clients are more likely to hire accounting firms that are the foremost authorities on the services they're seeking. With that in mind, showcasing your team's knowledge on the niche you've selected can help drive your ideal client to your firm. At Summit CPA, we have positioned ourselves as thought leaders on virtual CFO services and have succeeded in landing more sizable clients by doing so. You can begin categorizing yourself as a thought leader by ensuring your website tells the story of your firm's founding and continued success within your respective niche. We also recommend leveraging that story to post pertinent and helpful content for your target client. You can even seek opportunities to be a guest writer or speaker on relevant websites, blogs, or podcasts. These actions will give your firm more legitimacy and deliver the message that your team operates within a specific niche, sending the clients you want your way.

The actions listed above are just a few ways to begin actively marketing your services. They’ll put you on a path to attracting more clients within your respective niche and, ultimately, aid in your business's growth.