6 Reasons Why Progressive/Aggressive CPA Firms Win Marketing Battles

Survey of Best Lead Generation Practices Looks at How CPA Firm Marketing Culture Influences New Business Activities

Oh boy.

I just gave myself another bump from banging my head on the table after I heard yet another CPA firm partner tell me that, “….we’re too conservative to do any type of progressive marketing”.

Hmmmm.. A lot of the readers of this blog might remember a time when the notion of an accounting firm web site was considered a risky marketing activity. So, one of the areas that we thought might good a good subject for investigation in our Survey of Lead Generation Practices was on how firm culture affects marketing.

Here’s what we found:

Compared to firms identifying as NOT Progressive/Aggressive, Progressive/Aggressive firms are more likely to:

Use landing pages on their websites for lead acquisition (76% vs. 15%)
Use marketing automation software (32% vs. 1%)
Have a CRM for lead management (69% vs. 9%)
Increase their budget for lead generation in 2014 by more than 25% (52% vs. 18%)
Allocate more of their total budget to lead generation (54% vs. 25%)
Measure the success of their lead generation activities (68% vs. 13%

Infographic on Lead Generation

The Lessons Learned

Aggressive CPA firms don’t execute more progressive marketing strategies and tactics just for the heck of it – they do it because it delivers more leads, more new business, and more ROI from their marketing budget. Firms that only depend on networking or referrals will see new business, just not at a pace that’s the same as their peers who are investing in things like inbound marketing, content marketing. And lead generation programs.

Furthermore, in most accounting firms there are only a very small handful of partners and partner wanna-bees that have any proficiency at all in the art of the schmooze for new business. Firms that are looking for continued high growth need to find ways to give their reluctant rainmakers new and different opportunities to leverage their experience and expertise into leads and new business.

The last lesson learned: I’ve got to stop banging my head on the table when I hear a partner tell me that they’re too risk adverse to invest in a new marketing strategy. You see, I’m still not quite sure that my treatment is going to be covered under ObamaCare!