Getting More Mileage Out of Networking, Schmoozing and Those Horrible Meets n’ Greets

6 “Must Haves” to Make Your CPA or Consulting Firm’s 1:1 Marketing More Productive

I was talking to a partner in a CPA firm last week about why they weren’t investing more budget into marketing, and why he felt that having a website that was just an on-line brochure was good enough.

“”Why should we put more money into our website”, he asked, “when 90% of our new business comes from referrals and networking? That’s the way we’ve always done things around here!”

“Well”, I replied, “after that first contact that’s made the chances that a referral is going to check you and the firm out by scouring your website is incredibly high. And it’s pretty likely that if they have a pain or issue they’re trying to fix, they’re scoping out your competitors, too.”

“Don’t you think that an ancient, creaky website reflects badly on you? And, how are you going to differentiate yourself once you got their eyeball to your site? “

OK, so here’s the deal: you can use your website and inbound marketing strategies and tactics to make your 1:1 marketing efforts stronger and even more productive. Your website can be turned from an ordinary on-line brochure into an extraordinary part of a lead nurturing strategy, a way to hammer home differentiations, and a way to build personal brands and the firm’s brand that will allow you to close deals faster.

The takeaway here is that your 1:1 marketing efforts and your website/intent strategy aren’t mutually exclusive – they need to be considered as parts of an overall, integrated marketing system. Here’s six “must haves” that can help make this happen:

1. A website built on strategy, designed for lead acquisition and nurturing, ad presented with pizzazz and style. (See our whitepaper, “Best Kept Secrets of Successful Websites” for more guidance.)
2. Marketing technology and infrastructure that can provide state of the art functionality from blogging to lead capture mechanisms to “behind the scenes” technology for insightful metrics and analytics
3. A strong content marketing program – white papers, blogs, videos, etc. - where you can present thought leadership for purposes of differentiation
4. Lead capture landing pages, where your thought leadership can be requested via a form so you can actually track the relationship between a networking event and a marketing result.
5. Automated lead nurturing so you can have a consistent, hands free way to touch leads as they move through the sales funnel toward sales readiness
6. Bios that not only showcase your credentials, but also serve to showcase your experience, expertise and thought leadership in new and more dramatic ways. (See our blog posting, “Six Awesome Marketing Strategies and Tactics for Bios”)

When you have these pieces in place, the execution is simple. Publish URL’s on the back of your business card that will take your contact to your bio, a landing page for a whitepaper you’ve written, the firm’s website, or a blog post. Or, you can do use this same tactic with a post card that you can hand out at meets n’ greets, or after a presentation.

If you’re looking for ways to complement your 1:1 marketing with your internet presence, or a way to help your reluctant rainmakers play a bigger role in new business, these “must haves” represent powerful ways to get more ROI out of your marketing budget.