.png "LeadG2-logo_(2)"){kind=logo}
8 Best Practices for Capitalizing on a New Opportunity Coming from Regulatory Change
Surf's up!!
That’s what my mentor used to say whenever the Federal Government started the process of bringing a new regulation to life.
He implanted the vision of all of us in the marketing department sitting on a surfboard, looking out to sea, and waiting for a swell indicating that it was time to start paddling like crazy to catch the wave. Of course, catching the wave and riding it to shore meant hundreds of thousands of dollars in new consulting fees for the firm.
As a professional service firm marketer, that oncoming swell of the new reg means that there’s new business around the corner as clients and prospects are going to need compliance assistance. It also means that there’s an excellent opportunity to go after your competitors’ clients, as it’s likely that they’ll be slow on the uptake. Think about it this way: it’s a lot easier to get into the door when a prospect has an immediate pain you can solve than waiting for your branding to move them reconsidering their relationship with their current CPA, consulting or law firm.
A Quick Overview of the Basics of Inbound Marketing
It may be of some help for a quick refresh on the fundamentals of inbound marketing before taking a deeper dive into best practices for getting more business as a result of regulatory change.Here’s a great summary graphic, courtesy of HubSpot.
Inbound Marketing Best Practices for New Law or Regulation
There’s an underlying rationale as to why inbound marketing is perfect for a situation where a new compliance issue is at hand: people or businesses affected by the change will likely go on line searching for information or solutions. Or, they may be prompted to action by an increasing awareness of their situation or need from any number of content distribution channels, ranging from newsletters to LinkedIn groups to trade association communications.What we recommended is an inbound marketing “campaign plan” to turn prospect need and searches into inquiries, and ultimately turn those inquiries into new business. Using the term “campaign” brings structure to your effort, requiring leadership, goals, processes, tactics and an acknowledgement that a commitment of resources will be required.
Here are the basics of the key elements of the campaign
- Put together a campaign team with a committed and dedicated partner at its head who has the authority to get resources and the leadership skills to get results
- Get involvement of your sales team from the onset, include them in all meetings. And make sure that their input is solicited for strategies and tactics for turning campaign leads into sales
- Start the optimization process by doing keyword research that incorporates the new law or reg, and use these keywords when executing your content management strategy
- Write and configure a new web page based on the keyword, including all of the behind the curtain page configurations necessary for search engine optimization
- Put together and execute a comprehensive content marketing plan built around the new law or reg. This can include articles, whitepapers, videos, checklists and a lot more. Today, content is the key to search engine visibility
- Create an offer – a whitepaper for example – about the new reg or law that a prospect can download from your site after giving you their contact information. This is a critical part of the lead generation process.
- Develop and publish more than 2 blog posts on the new law or reg, making sure to incorporate your keywords. Blogging is a key part of best practices for inbound marketing, especially when it comes to getting found.
Consider Marketing Automation as another Element for the Campaign
One last “best practice” to consider is using marketing automation as part of the process of moving a prospect through your sales funnel.Marketing automation is today’s hot marketing buzzword, and CPA firm marketers – as well as those in other professional service firms – can easily get mesmerized by its promises and premises. Unfortunately, it’s a lot more than just sending out drip emails over a regular period of time seeking an appointment to make a sales pitch.
There’s art, science, strategy and technology involved in marketing automation, and most firms that we talk to just aren’t ready to go there. In the greater scheme of crawl – walk – run, marketing automation falls into the run category, and that’s why we’ll see a lot of firms stumbling in the coming years, just like we’ve seen and continue to see with CRM. This is not for the faint of heart!
But if you’re ready and you can support a new reg marketing campaign with marketing automation tactics, then it an extremely powerful way for converting a visitor to your blog or any other part of your website into a new customer.
Surf’s Up
From the perceptive of an accounting, consulting or law firm, regulatory change is the grease that keeps the perpetual billing machine in motion. The likelihood that regulatory or tax code simplification will occur is slim to none in my opinion, so they’ll always be plenty of waves coming to shore with new opportunities to solve a client or prospect’s pain.
You just need to have your surfboard waxed up and keep your eyes on the horizon, These 8 tips that I’ve provided in this blog post will get you to that wave faster, and the chances that you’ll catch it and ride it to shore a lot better.
So, as it has been written (and sung), “come on a safari with me”!
Leave a Comment