The world of accounting marketing is complex and intricate. Knowing the right marketing channels to communicate your firm’s message is as crucial as the message itself. It’s about more than just crafting the right words or identifying the ideal clients or even picking the right kinds of media; it’s about understanding which channels will best amplify your message to resonate deeply with the people you need to reach. So let’s navigate the vast landscape of marketing channels while emphasizing a strategic approach that starts from within your organization and extends outward to carefully chosen platforms.
Table of Contents
This turned out to be such an in-depth guide for choosing marketing channels, that I thought it’d be helpful to include a table of contents. Use this to guide you through the article or to jump to a section that is most pertinent to the current context in your firm.
- Thinking ‘Inside-Out’
- External Strategies for Choosing the Right Marketing Channels
- But First, Ensure Consistency Across Channels
- Three Categories of External Channels: Owned, Paid, and Earned
- Multi-Category Channels: Social Media
- YouTube (and Video) in your Marketing Channel Strategy
- Other Marketing Channels to Consider (like Reddit and Quora)
- Amazon as a Marketing Channel for Accounting Firms?
- Sum It Up Are Your Channels Working?
The ‘Inside-Out’ Marketing Strategy
Internal Marketing Channels First
Being where your audience is located is crucial, and we’ll certainly get to that. However, I believe it’s essential to think Inside-Out when it comes to your marketing. Remarkable brands consistently adopt an ‘inside out’ approach—starting internally and then working their way out to clients and other stakeholders. This doesn’t mean you have to follow a strict sequence; indeed, you might work on internal and external aspects simultaneously. But as you plan, think, and prioritize, remember that remarkable brands are built from within. They aren’t just crafted with superficial changes or messaging dictated solely by market demands.
Building from your Brand Identity
True branding emerges from the core of who you are as a firm—your unique identity and the in-depth work you’ve done to discover what makes you remarkable. This approach should also guide your marketing strategies–including choosing your channels. You don’t stop once you’ve defined your internal brand; rather, that’s where you start. This might be an unconventional view, but I suggest considering your internal teams as the initial channels for broadcasting your brand’s message. Let’s open up this discussion—I’m eager to hear your thoughts on this approach.
Using Your Brand Values as Decision Guides
It’s essential to understand your brand’s core values and identity first and foremost. That knowledge should guide your decisions about whether or not to adopt new platforms or trends. Understanding your team and effectively communicating with them is crucial to avoid internal conflicts, such as questions about why your brand isn’t on platforms like TikTok, despite its popularity among younger audiences. Much of this confusion and chaos can be prevented by getting the foundational aspects right—establishing a strong brand identity and educating your team about it from the start.
Integrating New Hires
For instance, on their first day, new hires should be introduced to your brand through resources like a brand handbook or what we call a “remark book.” This ensures everyone is on the same page about the brand’s mission, values, and personality right from the beginning. We’ve emphasized the importance of building a solid foundation in every step of our series, from how you start to how you communicate in your marketing.
Internal Channels are Empowering
When you focus on internal channels first, such as intranets, emails from leadership, or town hall meetings, you empower every member of your organization to speak with a unified voice. This internal alignment makes external communication smoother and more consistent. The remark book doesn’t just cover logo usage; it encapsulates the essence of who you are as a firm—your story, mission, values, and the tone of voice to be used in communications.
Embedding Brand Principles
By embedding these principles in your on-boarding process, perhaps through digital content like videos or emails from leadership, and regularly revisiting them in company-wide meetings, you create a robust internal channel that reinforces your brand consistently. This approach not only educates your team but also prepares them to represent your brand effectively to the outside world.
Excitement of Refreshing the Brand
Refreshing your brand with new logos or messaging is always exciting. It’s common to want to showcase this update on various items—mugs, shirts, posters, notebooks, and pens. It’s important to choose items that will actually be used and not just discarded the next day. These are not just promotional items; they are tools for your team to use both internally and externally. When they attend events, write emails, or communicate in any form, these items help present a consistent brand image As we move from internal strategies, how should we begin to consider external or externally facing channels for our firm?
External Strategies for Choosing the Right Marketing Channels
But First, Ensure Consistency Across Channels
An overarching consideration as we explore any type of channels – whether internal or external – is consistency. It’s essential that what you communicate on these channels aligns with the broader messages of your brand. If there is a disconnect—where one part of your company says one thing and another part something entirely different—it creates a disjointed experience for customers. This inconsistency can be as stark as black and white, undermining the customer’s experience and perceive with your brand. So before jumping into channel selection, make sure you’re ready to execute your brand identity – visuals, messaging, and personality – consistently, every time, on every channel.
Three Categories of External Channels: Owned, Paid, and Earned
As we shift focus from internal strategies, how should we approach externally facing channels for our firm?
1. Owned Media Channels
Control Over Customer Experience
Strategically, the most important channels for the long-term success of your business, brand, or firm are those under your direct control. We call these ‘owned’ media channels.
Building Direct Relationships Through Marketing
You don’t want your business to be dependent on external entities exclusively to reach the right people. At some point, you need to gather enough information about potential clients to engage directly and build relationships. It’s somewhat like dating—you wouldn’t want all your conversations to be mediated by a friend forever. Eventually, you’d ask for the person’s number to connect directly, without needing someone to pass messages back and forth.
Underlying Importance of Trust and Direct Interaction
Although it’s a bit of a stretch, this metaphor is quite fitting for business relationships in marketing and sales. It’s about getting to know each other, establishing trust, and mutually exchanging value—money for services or products, not unlike making decisions based on trust in personal relationships. This analogy underscores why having direct channels like your website and email list is so crucial. They allow you to connect directly with your audience, facilitating a more personal and effective interaction, just as you would in a direct conversation.
Websites
Your website is vital because it remains the best place to control the experience someone has on their journey with your brand. It might not be the first place they find you, but it’s where they end up eventually. Owning the experience of this channel and making it resonate with your brand will be critical to the success of all your marketing efforts.
Contact Lists
It’s essential to recognize the value of owning your own list—an age-old principle that every marketer I’ve learned from has emphasized repeatedly. Owning your contacts means not relying solely on other platforms, which you do not control. This independence is crucial because if those external channels disappear or change their policies in a way that disadvantages you—like increasing costs or wholesale blocking you from access—you still have direct access to your audience. This strategic ownership ensures that your ability to connect with your audience remains stable and secure.
Consider the role of the inbox in the client journey. Iff your firm’s website lists each partner’s direct email, that’s a strategic decision to use email as a primary communication channel with potential or existing clients.
Client Portals
Similarly, your client portal is a place where you have full control and where significant interactions occur. These channels are not just for communication; they are also integral to your marketing strategy.
Owning The Client Journey
People might not go directly to your website; they could land on specific pages managed through other systems–like Hubspot or Unbounce. However you define it, you’re controlling an experience that culminates somewhere specific, even if it’s a phone call. For example, the first interaction might be a call to action on an ad in paid or earned media, but the controlled, final interaction is what truly matters.
Nontraditional Owned Media Channels
These considerations highlight that some channels, like the phone, may not traditionally be viewed as marketing channels, yet they play a crucial role. This is why focusing on owned channels is so vital. Often, we overlook the fact that the channels we control extend far beyond marketing. It’s not just about reaching new prospects; it’s about managing every interaction that contributes to the customer experience, including everyday tools like phones, which all customers use at some level, whether it’s through a direct line or a cell phone.
The Phone as a Marketing Channel
Consider this: if the call to action is for someone to phone us, then the phone itself becomes a channel. It’s important to think about how we manage this channel. How do we answer the phone? Is the response consistent? What is the experience like if our lines are busy and callers can’t reach anyone?
CRM
While your CRM might not be a traditional messaging channel, it certainly plays a critical role as it stores all the vital information about your customer relationships. You could argue that it’s an extension of your communication channels, especially important for tracking engagement and reactions. This is true whether you’re sending mass emails to a broad list or handling one-on-one interactions during sales or business development. Everywhere your media shows up is a channel you must consider, as traditional or untraditional as it might seem.
2. Paid Media Channels
Besides owned media, there’s also paid media—channels where you must pay to feature your content. This includes various forms of advertising such as sponsorships, ad networks, YouTube pre-roll ads, and even traditional methods like direct mail, where you pay for space in someone’s mailbox, or outdoor advertising like billboards. However, for many of the firms we discuss, billboards may not be the most suitable choice. Think Strategically About Paid Media Channels While paid media plays a critical role in reaching audiences, it must be strategically integrated with your other efforts. You need to create excitement and anticipation through your owned and earned content before leveraging paid opportunities. This approach ensures that when you do invest in paid media, it enhances rather than undermines your credibility. Before diving headfirst into advertising, it’s crucial to think about how all your channels – owned, paid, and earned – can work together. Instead of trying to be everywhere at once, consider concentrating on just a few channels at a time. This approach allows you to truly master and dominate these platforms, building a strong presence and owning the audience on each before moving on to the next.
Identifying High-Value Channels
For instance, in social media, identify which channel offers the most value to your brand. Focus your energy and creativity there, even though you maintain a presence on others. Similarly, if engaging with an industry association or a specific event offers significant strategic value, invest deeply in that space. Maximize your involvement as much as your budget permits to solidify your influence there.
Avoiding Channel Over-extension
Spreading yourself too thin across multiple channels can dilute your impact. Instead, owning a channel and consistently delivering varied and engaging content on it can significantly enhance your visibility and effectiveness.
Engaging Audiences with Diverse Types of Content
People want dynamic interactions with brands, not repetitive messages in the same format or location. This is why banner ads often go ignored—they’re recognized as ads and dismissed. However, mixing up your approach can capture attention and build credibility. For instance, combining a banner ad with an organic social post and boosted posts in the news feed creates a more engaging and multifaceted presence.
Incorporating Earned Media into Paid Media
Additionally, incorporating earned media, where your brand is discussed or interacts directly with the audience, further enhances your credibility and reach. This strategy of diverse content placement and interaction helps in building trust with your audience, whether it’s through social media, associations, or publications. And while we’re not discussing strategies involving an actual pub, diversifying your approach in these formal channels is crucial to making a lasting impact.
Strategic Content Combination
Think about how to strategically combine organic content and paid ads in key publications for maximum impact. Leveraging both can significantly enhance your media presence. While that wraps up my main points, it’s crucial to remember that successful marketing isn’t about quick fixes; there’s no magic bullet. It requires diligent, well-coordinated effort across a team.
Thinking Strategically about Paid Sponsorships
While sponsorships are often a standard of professional services firms’ marketing activities, many overlook strategic planning in their sponsorship decisions, sometimes choosing opportunities haphazardly—like sponsoring a local sports team because it feels good or because there’s a personal connection. While there’s value in charitable acts motivated purely by goodwill, when it comes to paid media, every investment should ideally align with your broader marketing objectives. It’s about ensuring that these paid opportunities not only resonate with your brand values but also contribute to your marketing goals in a measurable way.
Maximizing Investments in Sponsorships
When engaging in sponsorships, especially with nonprofits or community organizations, it’s important to view these as marketing opportunities and not just charitable contributions. If you choose to sponsor because it aligns with your strategic goals or because you genuinely want to support a cause, consider how to maximize that investment.
Evaluating a Sponsorship
Ask yourself: Are we getting a link on their website? Is our logo adequately displayed in their materials or at their events? Are we mentioned in their newsletter? These elements can enhance the visibility and impact of your sponsorship. Ensuring that you’re fully leveraging these opportunities helps to extend your brand’s reach and reinforce your commitment to providing value, which is essential when these activities are categorized as paid media.
From ‘Sponsorship’ to Community Engagement
Sponsorships can take many forms, from supporting a beloved nonprofit to engaging with industry-specific associations. While it’s admirable to support causes and groups important to your business, effective sponsorship goes beyond mere financial assistance. It involves integrating into these communities, which requires time, effort, and sometimes personal sacrifice.
Adding Value Beyond Transactions
Rather than merely distributing business cards at events, aim to add real value to these groups. For example, if you’re an accountant in a professional association or a vendor for restaurant owners, your role should extend beyond simple transactions. Sponsorships can serve as a platform to accelerate this integration, but it’s crucial to approach this strategically.
Enhancing the Community
Avoid being perceived merely as a salesperson at a booth. Instead, focus on how you can genuinely contribute to the group. Whether providing expert advice, sharing industry insights, or offering practical solutions, ensure that your participation enhances the group’s overall experience and offers tangible benefits.
Brand Positioning with Sponsorships
Sponsorships offer a strategic way to position your brand more prominently by paying to be front and center. When handled correctly, this can be incredibly effective. It’s about demonstrating that you’re there not just to sell, but to genuinely contribute something valuable—whether that’s knowledge, solutions, or experiences.
Creating Memorable Experiences
Creating a memorable experience and communicating meaningful insights are crucial. This approach ensures that when you invest in ads, sponsorships, or memberships to capture attention, the engagement doesn’t end there. Those efforts should lead to further interaction with high-quality owned content. Whether someone clicks on an ad and lands on your page, talks to you at a booth, or receives an email follow-up, each touchpoint should offer substantial value and encourage further engagement. This can pave the way for meaningful relationships and show that your presence at an event or association goes beyond superficial involvement.
Establishing Credibility
When you pay to speak at an event, it’s crucial to establish credibility before you even take the stage. Have you already shared a compelling message through owned media? If not, attendees might question your expertise and knowledge, making it harder to overcome initial skepticism.
Perceptions of Paid Appearances
Paying to be featured introduces a level of inherent distrust, as audiences may perceive paid appearances as less legitimate compared to earned opportunities. This underscores the importance of having a solid foundation of trusted content and a built-up reputation in your owned and earned media channels. Making It All Work Together No matter your selected paid media channels, strategically utilizing paid media channels with owned and earned channels, your brand can effectively reach and engage your ideal clients while maintaining credibility and maximizing marketing investments.
3. Earned Media Channels
Then there’s earned media, which along with owned and paid, forms the three traditional categories of media. These are essential to consider when planning your media strategy. Despite their traditional nature, I wouldn’t disregard these categories; they still hold significant value in today’s media landscape.
Inspiring Engagement Through Value Creation
Earned media involves creating value that naturally encourages engagement from your audience; you can’t force this interaction, but you can inspire it. A significant part of earned media comes from non-transactional engagements on social platforms. For instance, releasing an e-book and sparking conversations about it on social media, or sharing engaging infographics on Instagram and soliciting feedback.
Extending Earned Media Reach Through External Platforms
While it’s straightforward to publish content on your own blog or social media channels, the challenge and opportunity of earned media lie in extending your reach. Are you getting your content published on external platforms? This exposure can significantly amplify your brand’s voice and presence.
Industry-Specific Publications
Earned media often includes placements in publications that are industry-specific or part of an association’s outreach. These opportunities can significantly boost your thought leadership, but remember, they are earned, not guaranteed. You can’t simply decide to publish in these platforms; often, it’s more nuanced and may even involve some pay-to-play scenarios.
Leveraging Owned Media for Earned Opportunities
Effective use of owned media sets the foundation for earned media. If your own content isn’t compelling, offering unique insights and real value, securing earned media placements becomes more challenging. Without standout content, people are less likely to share your work, especially if it doesn’t distinguish itself from what others in the industry are offering.
Earn Credibility through Owned Media
It’s essential to have credibility through your owned media before pursuing earned or paid media. This foundational work is crucial because without it, your chances of getting published in a third-party publication or speaking at an event are significantly reduced. You need to ask for these opportunities, and when you do, your owned media’s quality and depth play a big role in the response you’ll receive.
Referral Partners and Earned Media Channels
Additionally, consider your referral partners as part of your channel strategy. They might fit more into the earned media category, helping to amplify your presence by recommending your services to others. This integration is essential in determining which channels are most effective for your strategy.
Engaging Referral Partners
Referral partner relationships require careful nurturing, which often means creating content specifically tailored for them. Consider how you’ll engage with these partners over time, especially if you don’t have immediate access like direct email addresses. How will you earn the right to be in their inbox and maintain their interest and engagement? Where do your referral partners hang out? Events, social networks, associations, and other channels where your referral partners research, talk shop, and make referrals should be considered in your channel strategy.
Long-Term Trust Building
Building your referral network is a long-term endeavor that requires trust, and above all, consistently good work. You certainly don’t want to risk damaging your reputation—or that of your referrers—by underperforming once you receive a referral.
Diverse Referral Sources
Referral partners might not always be directly related to your business; they could be other service providers or even your own clients, who act as referral partners at some level. It’s crucial to consider which channels are best for engaging them. Think about how to communicate not just with the clients themselves but also internally within their organizations. This approach helps in effectively conveying your messages and maintaining strong, beneficial relationships.
Regular Updates and Engagements
Effective communication with your referral partners often involves regular updates, perhaps through email or a newsletter. It’s common for individuals within your firm who have direct relationships with clients to send these updates. Beyond regular meetings and one-to-one communications, consider what tools or content you can provide to help them share your message more broadly, whether within their own firm or with external contacts.
Utilizing Internal Channels for Referral Partners
You should also consider the channels they use internally, such as their company’s intranet or communication platforms like Slack. How do they share information externally? Are you facilitating this with easily shareable links or resources that work within those channels?
Presenting Engaging Content Effectively
Furthermore, while many a marketer’s efforts focus on acquiring new clients through resources like ebooks, white papers, or videos, it’s crucial to think about how these are presented. Often, such content is shared in newsletters, but it might be overlooked by busy clients focused on their own tasks. This suggests a need for strategies that capture attention more effectively.
Direct Client Outreach
When you have content that could be particularly valuable, not just to your direct clients but also to others within their company or their professional contacts, it’s important to be proactive. Consider reaching out directly, perhaps through a one-on-one approach. For example, a professional in your firm could contact a client like Joe with whom you have an established relationship. You might say, “Hey Joe, we’ve been working together for a while, and I thought you might find this new report, ebook, or case study we’ve just released very useful. Do you know anyone else who might benefit from this?”
Personalizing Your Approach
This strategy not only provides valuable content but also opens the door for referrals. It’s crucial, however, to tailor this approach based on your relationship’s depth and trust level with the client. Assessing where they are in the client lifecycle can help determine the best timing and method for these engagements. This thoughtful approach can be a great way to earn additional attention and strengthen your network.
Gathering Diverse Client Feedback
Client feedback can be another fantastic way to consider which channels will get the most impact. Both in the feedback itself – what channels do they say they participate in – but also what channels facilitate gathering client feedback in a marketing-centric way. There are many avenues to gather client feedback that can boost your firm’s credibility. While Google and Yelp are the most common review platforms, consider exploring industry-specific review sites that may be more relevant to your sector – like ClearlyRated. Additionally, collecting testimonials directly from your clients is invaluable. These testimonials are a form of social proof and peer advocacy, where others vouch for your quality and effectiveness rather than it coming directly from you.
Aligning Testimonials with Brand Messaging
It’s crucial that these testimonials align with your brand’s messaging. When your clients’ endorsements reflect what you claim about your services, it reinforces your brand’s integrity and reliability. This type of content is some of the most powerful in establishing trust. Don’t underestimate their value to your overall marketing strategy as an accounting or other professional services firm.
Strategic Placement of Testimonials
Once you’ve obtained testimonials, consider how and where to use them for the most impact. For instance, if you receive a testimonial via email from a client, think about its placement. It’s likely you have an internal system or database for storing these, but how are they integrated into your marketing efforts?
Maximizing Impact Across Channels
Consider whether these testimonials have a dedicated spot on your website where someone could easily find them, or if they are strategically placed across different pages to enhance relevant content. Additionally, think about using snippets of these testimonials in other channels. For example, you could feature a quote in a social media post, highlight it in a special section of your newsletter, or use it in various email campaigns.
Building Relationships Through Testimonials
The goal is to not only showcase these testimonials but to do so in a way that builds relationships and adds value to the individuals. It’s about thoughtful placement and promotion that reinforces your brand’s message and enhances credibility while also building relationship with your clients.
Multi-Category Channels
In our digital age, some channels begin to overlap, crossing into one, two, or even all three categories—owned, paid, and earned media channels. We’ll look into these nuances, but it’s crucial to start with owned media channels because, ultimately, all paths lead back to it.
Social Media: a Multi-Category Channel
Before we dive deeper, it’s crucial to recognize that social networks are unique in that they straddle multiple media categories—owned, paid, and earned. In a sense, they involve an element of owned media when you publish content to followers who have opted to hear from you. It’s also a form of earned media, as you’re essentially earning their attention through their voluntary engagement with your content. Additionally, there’s the opportunity to enhance visibility through paid means, such as boosted posts, which are essentially advertisements in various formats.
Evaluating Social Media Networks
On another note, social media remains a dynamic and ever-evolving platform. It’s worth discussing which networks have stood the test of time and which may now be gaining relevance for brands and businesses. This could provide valuable insights into where to focus your efforts in the ever-changing digital landscape.
User Interaction and Reach Expansion
Moreover, the earned aspect of social media becomes apparent when users interact with your content—likes, comments, or shares can significantly extend your reach, even to their followers or mutual contacts. This dynamic illustrates why social media embodies all three types of media and is a critical channel for many firms.
Potential Misuse of Social Media
However, it’s also possible to misuse social media or misjudge its impact, which can lead to over-investing in certain channels. While we won’t unpack this topic fully in this guide, it’s an important aspect to consider in your marketing channel strategy.
Power of One-to-One Outreach with Social Media
In terms of social media strategy, there are two crucial elements that shouldn’t be overlooked, especially for business accounts. First, while it’s common to focus on broadcasting messages to many, the power of one-to-one outreach is immense. Platforms like LinkedIn exemplify this well. You can identify individuals by their roles at specific companies, which are listed on their profiles, and directly engage with them through personalized messages. This approach can be highly effective if done respectfully and thoughtfully.
Avoiding Spam in Direct Messaging
However, it’s important to avoid falling into the trap of spamming with aggressive sales tactics—no one appreciates being bombarded with unsolicited messages. It’s about finding a balance and using this powerful tool responsibly. Interestingly, this topic could even be the focus of an entire episode: ‘Diving into DMs’—exploring the right and wrong ways to approach direct messaging.
Building Genuine Connections Online
Digital one-to-one outreach, especially on platforms like LinkedIn, should be approached with the same mindset as face-to-face interactions. It’s about building relationships first and foremost. Think about how you would introduce yourself to someone you’ve never met at an event. This principle should guide digital outreach too, where the goal is to establish genuine connections, not just to communicate.
Leveraging Personal Social Profiles for Enhanced Engagement
Another critical insight, highlighted by one of our partners at Resound recently, involves the impact of personal accounts versus brand accounts on social platforms. Data suggests people naturally prefer interacting with individuals rather than corporations. This should be a key component of your social media strategy. While your business’s LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram page should actively post content, it’s crucial not to overlook the personal profiles of your firm’s leaders and thought leaders.
Personalizing and Amplifying Brand Presence with Individual Social Profiles
These individuals often have a more substantial network than the brand itself and should be encouraged to share content that aligns with the brand’s marketing strategies. This approach not only enhances your firm’s presence but also personalizes it, making it more relatable and engaging. It complements the one-on-one outreach efforts, which ideally should be carried out by those within your firm who are experts in their fields, using platforms like LinkedIn where their expertise can shine and resonate on a personal level.
Adapting In-Person Skills for Social Media
For professionals in fields like accounting, one-to-one interactions are natural in person—through networking, speaking at events, or representing the firm as its face. However, transitioning these skills to digital platforms can be daunting, especially for those who didn’t grow up with these technologies. It’s common to feel uncomfortable due to the unfamiliarity and the potential missteps in digital communication.
Utilizing Personal Touch-points
Maybe they recognize you from a talk you gave or because you sponsored an event where you had a brief opportunity to speak. Such moments help to break the ice, which is crucial both in-person and online. Nobody wants to be aggressively sold to during their initial interactions, whether at a networking event or through the first several messages on LinkedIn. The focus should always be on building relationships, not just making a sale.
Cultivating Meaningful Connections
It’s about adding value and creating meaningful connections, similar to how many firms approach their in-person outreach. Unless your firm thrives on cold-calling, which is its unique strategy, the emphasis should generally be on cultivating relationships first. This approach should extend to all channels, including social media. Remember, it’s social media, so engage socially—comment, interact, be part of a community.
Maintaining Authenticity
It’s crucial not to turn every interaction into a sales or marketing pitch. Be genuine in your firm’s social media interactions, whether that’s on a brand account engaging with other brands or responding to comments on your posts. Authenticity is key.
Using Personality to Enhance Engagement
When we look at successful brands on social media, several strategies stand out. They often use humor, display personality, and sometimes even snark—though always in a way that’s tasteful and aligns with their brand identity. For example, if your firm is known for its expertise in a specific locale like Houston, engage naturally in conversations about Houston, like recommending restaurants. The goal isn’t always to gain a potential client immediately but to build a presence and connect like a real person would.
The Importance for Skills Training
For firms facing these challenges, seeking partners or consultants who specialize in digital communication training can be invaluable. As marketers within these firms, it often falls to you to provide this training, ensuring your teams are as proficient in digital networking as they are at in-person events like happy hours or trade shows. Leveraging an outside firm or consultant can be an effective means to multiply your impact with professionals in your firm who need to grow in their communication, networking, and business development skills.
YouTube (and Video) in your Marketing Channel Strategy
Expressing your brand authentically can attract prospective clients who notice your engagement online. As for other channels to consider, YouTube remains a giant. Despite the buzz around TikTok, YouTube is still one of the largest search engines globally—particularly useful for professional services. People often search for how-to videos, such as tax preparation or handling specific forms like a 1099. It’s important not to just chase the easy wins but to develop a comprehensive strategy that aligns with your brand’s core values. Video content, in particular, is a powerful tool for content generation. What we’re doing right now—recording a discussion—can be repurposed in many ways, such as audio clips or video snippets. This format can be especially beneficial for those in your firm who are experts in their fields but may not have the time or skill to write blog posts or newsletter introductions.
Empowering Experts to Share Knowledge via Video
If your team members are comfortable speaking about their expertise but not writing, recording their insights and sharing them on YouTube is a viable strategy. This approach helps build your brand’s presence and authority over time. Exploring Niche Platforms for Brand Positioning
Other Marketing Channels to Consider
Reddit & Quora
There are other platforms worth considering for professional services – especially ones that showcase your firm’s thought leadership and expertise. Reddit and Quora, for example, are communities where people seek expert opinions and answers to their questions. Developing a strategy where your brand becomes a go-to resource on these platforms can be highly effective. For instance, positioning your firm as the authority on accounting questions on Quora could enhance your visibility and credibility.
Align Platforms with Brand Goals
Of course, any move to engage on these platforms should be carefully evaluated to ensure they align with your brand’s goals. If you have a partner who is already an active and enthusiastic Reddit user, leveraging their existing presence could be a strategic advantage. Encouraging them to engage on behalf of your firm can naturally extend your reach in an authentic way.
Capitalize on Internal Enthusiasm
It’s effective to leverage the enthusiasm of team members who are already active and comfortable on specific platforms. For instance, if someone within your firm is particularly engaged on LinkedIn and enjoys using it, that enthusiasm can be contagious. By supporting and facilitating their activities, you not only enhance their success but may also inspire others in the firm to follow suit.
Stick with What Works
Once you see positive results from these individual efforts, you can consider formalizing the strategy. For example, if a few team members thrive on LinkedIn, you might decide to expand this initiative firm-wide. You could then develop a structured approach, outlining how everyone can effectively use LinkedIn to achieve similar success.
Enhancing External Channels with Owned Media
Effectively managed owned media can impact other channels, including those that straddle owned, earned, and paid categories, such as Google and other search engines. By focusing on publishing quality content on your website, you establish a solid foundation for your channel strategy. Additionally, engagement on platforms like social networks, Reddit, Quora, and YouTube enhances your visibility, making your firm a more prominent, well-indexed resource for those seeking your services and solutions to their problems.
Amazon as a Marketing Channel for Accounting Firms?
Exploring Amazon’s Potential
Amazon represents an untapped channel that spans owned, earned, and paid media. Publishing your own books on Amazon is a form of owned media. While you could also offer these books on your website, placing them on Amazon leverages its vast marketplace to enhance discoverability.
Developing Strategies for Reader Engagement
However, this channel also includes an earned aspect through reader reviews. Developing a strategy to actively solicit and manage these reviews is crucial, as they significantly influence the perception of your book. Though primarily a marketing tool, your book can also generate direct sales.
Utilizing Amazon for Paid Promotion
Additionally, Amazon offers opportunities for paid promotion. You can advertise your book or related products directly on the platform, further increasing your visibility and reach.
Balancing Marketing Channel Mix and Prioritization
It’s important to think creatively about your channel mix, and Amazon could certainly be a valuable addition. However, I recommend prioritizing channels that offer the highest value over time, such as your website and email list. Consider the impact of drip email sequences that engage attendees post-event or users who download resources from your site. These sequences could be automated or manually curated, but the key is to think about how to nurture relationships with new contacts over time.
Sum It Up
Effective marketing isn’t a solo endeavor. Building a robust marketing strategy for an accounting firm, law firm, or engineering firm is like constructing a house—it requires a solid foundation. Skipping foundational steps like establishing a strong brand identity can lead to increased effort down the line with little to no return on investment. Remember, achieving significant marketing success is entirely possible, but it requires time, investment, commitment, and sometimes sacrifice. Yet, anyone can achieve it if they approach it methodically and strategically. Choosing the right channels for your accounting firm involves more than merely showing up; it requires focus, brand clarity, and a deep understanding of your audience. By starting with a solid internal foundation, carefully selecting appropriate external AND internal channels, and engaging authentically at every touch-point, your firm can establish a strong, coherent presence that resonates everywhere you go. Effective marketing is ever-changing, requiring continuous adaptation and keen insight into both current trends and timeless principles. Engage actively with your strategy and always be ready to learn and adapt to ensure that your firm remains relevant and compelling to the people you seek to serve.
Are Your Marketing Channels Working?
What channels are working for you? Where does your strategy need to be shored up? I’d love to hear from you about what’s working (or not) in your marketing strategy. Reach out to me and let me know. And don’t forget: You Are Remarkable.
