How to Create an Effective Marketing Plan for your CPA Firm

The secret behind making an effective marketing plan does not involve any access to confidential information or specific methods. It merely comprises of three structured actions that cover everything that there is to know to market the correct way.

And yes, outsourced accountants do make an appearance in your marketing plan.

Read on:

1) Formulate an STP plan

Three words that should be important to a CPA firm owner are Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning. These three put together comprise the “holy trifecta” of marketing for an excellent reason.

Resources like your time and money are limited; therefore, an STP plan helps you to effectively allocate them so that you can get the most desired results for your CPA firm. Here’s what you need to do:

First, identify the demographics of your clients and your potential clients. Segment them using different factors such as their industry, their frequency of consultation, and their net-worth.

Once your segregation is done, target the clients you think you will be able to serve best, given your resources. These people could be your loyal patrons or representatives of firms that need a financial solution that you can offer.

Once you have decided your targets, formulate a plan to approach them the right way. Make sure you have specialized pitches for each of your prospects and position your CPA firm in the best way in their minds, especially if they are different in one way or the other.

However, you still need to know how to approach them, which brings us to the second step.

2) Choose your channels wisely

Finding the right channel to approach your potential clients used to be as hard as finding a needle in a haystack. But now we have LinkedIn which helps us blow away all the hay from the needle.

Use the premium service offered by LinkedIn to interact with people whom you think could be your potential clients. Ensure that the people you contact have enough decision-making power in their firms. If not, then try to get the right contact from them.

While online channels help you with reaching out to as many people as possible, consider using offline methods too. One way is to attend events, conventions, and parties that your targeted prospects attend. While this is relatively expensive, it is worth trying because personal interactions are always better than doing them behind a screen.

The best way to increase your chances of landing a client is to do background research on your prospects using LinkedIn premium or other means, and interact with them while keeping the person’s problem in mind. This way you can evaluate if you can give them the best service and if it is feasible for your CPA firm. After you have converted your prospects into clients, you need to keep track of everything, which brings us to the third step.

3) Keep track of important metrics

To ensure that your plan is going the right direction, you need to know if your costs justify the results. From fixed and variable to recurring and opportunity, keep track of all types of expenses, and check if your CPA firm is making the revenue that it projected.

Check if your clients are satisfied and if not, learn from your errors. Check the level of impact of the expertise of your firm to your customers and use these as a support for future marketing efforts.

If there are any gaps or defects in your plan, all you must do is revise it accordingly. If outsourced accountants can help ease your stress, then please avail outsourcing accounting services by all means.

Up your game with outsourcing

If done right, marketing will yield more clients which means your practice staff is going to drown in work that won’t necessarily comprise high-margin jobs. Therefore, keep a team of outsourced accountants to help you with tedious jobs like accounting, bookkeeping, tax preparation, and payroll.

Endnotes

The beauty of the three-step method is in the simplicity of its definition and the complexity of its application. There are many challenges you will face while trying to implement these steps, but the results are worth it if you keep your head down and focus on your end goal. Are you ready to market your CPA firm like a pro?