The Top 10 Content Marketing Woes for CPA and Other Professional Services Firms

We’re fiddlin’ faster but the song remains the same.

You are not alone.

Across the vast universe of accounting and other professional service marketing efforts, it sometimes helps to know that the head banging pain you’re experiencing in trying to do the right things for your firm is shared. Now that may not be much of a consolation, especially if your noggin is overloaded with bumps, but slowly and surely there will be a time when your firm makes the jump to a vibrant and productive content marketing program.

On the positive side, more and more CPA and consulting firms are doing content marketing in some form or fashion, but we’re still a long way away from making content marking a SOP, and there’s always room for improvement in existing programs.

BTW, that includes us as well .... We’re always trying new things and have a lot of content marketing ideas on the ol’ corporate whiteboard that we’re excited to try (and just as excited to can when they don’t pan out the way we expected)!

2015 B2B Content Marketing Research Just Released

How do I know that there’s shared pain? A terrific resource was just released by The Content Marketing Institute called B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America. You can get a copy from the CMI website here.

Every year, I look to the report for two things – the growth in usage of content marketing in the pantheon of B2B marketing strategies and tactics, and changes to any trends related to the top challenges that marketers face in developing and executing a content marketing program.

For 2015, 86% of all of the respondents said that they use content marketing in some form or fashion, and 70% of B2B marketers said they’re creating more content than they did one year ago. The top two goals for the content marketing program: brand awareness and lead generation.

Although there’s been some shifts in how a particular challenge is ranked, the top 10 challenges faced by firms in 2015 remains the same (for the most part) as those reported in the 2104 report. It’s about quality, quantity, and resources.

Interesting enough, when we talk to CPA and other professional services firms around the country we find that there’s little argument about the merits of content marketing as part of an overall firm marketing strategy. But when it comes time to planning and execution – particularly if partners and SMEs are being called upon to provide content – we see trouble and a lack of commitment and action.

Perhaps another challenge that CMI should investigate is that of moving from lip service to action.

A Huge Red Flag

There’s one huge red flag in the data that should be particularly troublesome for firm management – the challenge of finding trained content marketing professionals. We’re not just talking about writers here; we’re talking about professionals who are inbound marketing experts that know how to integrate content marketing across firm strategic plans, firm corporate and personal branding activities, lead generation objectives, marketing technology platforms and a lot more.

(To help with this challenge, we’ve just rebuilt our service offerings to help firms “onboard” an inbound marketing program. We can help you get up and running, and even play a continuing role. You can learn more about our revamped services and fees here.)

At some point in the future, a content marketing initiative built on best inbound marketing practices may become the norm for CPA, consulting and other professional services firms. But today, early adopter firms that are doing outstanding jobs at content marketing are building   ginormous competitive advantages in the way of competitive differentiation, getting found first, converting site visitors to leads and seeing a superior ROI on the dollars invested in marketing.

That’s the good news for professional service firm marketers who investing time and resources into content/inbound marketing. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that you still won’t be banging your head on your desk and raising new bumps that show that you care about your firm ... it just means that you’ll be able to give your local phrenologist more opportunity to predict your future.