How to Get More Digital Marketing into Your Firm’s Marketing Mix

Balancing the Traditional Versus Digital Marketing Scale in Your CPA or Other Professional Service Firm

Let’s make the assumption that balancing the scales to add more digital is a smart play. What’s next?

Here’s the secret formula to making that balance happen:

Crawl → walk → run → measure → report → communicate

You’ll never go from zero to 60 in five seconds when it comes to developing and implementing a balanced marketing program, especially if you need to do a lot more work in getting your digital marketing house in order. In professional services firms, you need to put some “show me” points up on the scoreboard before you get firm-wide commitment to making the types of changes that will get you to the right balance.

Start at the Niche Practice Level

I suggest that you start with a niche practice and a partner who can commit to finding a better balance for growing their awareness and top line. Don’t try to balance across the firm – pick your battles carefully.  

Next, get your digital marketing infrastructure and technology in place. If you want to cut to the chase with a one-stop package, then strongly consider HubSpot.

Then, execute a lead generation campaign for the niche, focused on using content to generate leads. You’ll use various digital tools like email and social media to promote your offer, and capture leads using landing pages. For the more adventurous, you might want to build a workflow and use marketing automation to move a lead you’ve captured at the top of the funnel though the sales cycle into becoming a client.

Measure everything, with a particular emphasis on leads and sales generated. Then, issue your results in a memo distributed to niche practice leaders that, in effect, shows them that they are behind the curve and may need to have their marketing program rebalanced.

The Future of Marketing in Your Firm

We’ll continue to see (and hear) professional service firm marketers push to add more digital into the firm’s marketing mix. I think that will come not as a result of persuasive and rational arguments, but rather as a result of successes achieved by those forward-looking niche practice leaders blazing new marketing paths.

That’s what leadership is all about, right?