Why is marketing so costly and why doesn’t any of it work?
We get this question daily from accountants who are looking to expand their client base.
400 turned to us in 2020 hoping that diversifying into business advisory would give them something else to talk about with prospects and clients, making them stand out from the crowd. Which of course, it does.
And they are right to perceive that marketing is the key to securing new clients. Whatever one is selling, the principles are always the same.
So, we start a discussion, not by making a Runagood® sales pitch, because it may not be for them, but by asking them what marketing they have done so far. All had tried some of the following, and one had tried them all, (spending 3 years of profits doing so).
Here’s what they told us, and what had happened for them:
Emailing
Easy and free of charge but where do I get the contact base from? The list brokers sold me databases made so small by GDPR as to be worthless and the overseas ones sold me junk.
If we try Companies House, we can get all the businesses in our area but only 25% have phone numbers or emails and these are usually ‘info@’. It’s too time consuming to clean them manually.
Networking meetings
‘Spot the real business’. Everyone attending is an accountant, lawyer, web designer, social media marketer, IFA. So, we are all after each other’s client bases. Waste of time.
LinkedIn
A specialist built me a contact base. Lots of new connections but no business enquiries so far. I make the odd post that gets a handful of likes.
Facebook
A specialist created and placed some ads. Several enquiries, all of whom just wanted to know about compliance work pricing.
Instagram
A specialist created and placed some ads and news. Several enquiries, all of whom just wanted to know about compliance work pricing.
Articles and blogs
A business writer had some success in getting these placed. Good for profile but didn’t produce any enquiries.
SEO
A web developer built a smart site and lined up search terms she thought businesses would use when looking for an accountant. We are now on Google Page 1 for ‘Accountants in Toytown’ and it brings enquiries, but the first question is “how much do I charge for compliance work, I’m just shopping around initially?” Then nothing.
Sponsorship
I’ve supplied shirts with my logo to a junior football team and bought a sign on a busy roundabout. Expensive, but it did get a few good clients initially – school parents mostly.
Testimonials
The business writer did some client write ups which does impress the prospects, but I can’t say it closed any sales in itself.
Trade shows
Very costly and lots of chat. It has brought the odd new client, but not worth it.
Client surveys
Not enough of them respond to make it worthwhile.
Referral programme
I offer an Amazon voucher for introductions - but have handed out very few
Newsletter
Loads of work and abandoned after a few months
Videos
I don’t think I’d come over well enough. I’m no good at presenting.
Door drops
Tried that but they finished up in the bin along with all the pizza, cabs, restaurants, window cleaners’ flyers.
Seminars and Webinars
Tried one – only 2 people showed up
Brand management
Talking to marketing consultants who want to change the practice name, design a new logo, and start again with a new website. Scary, lots of money, no guarantees of new revenue.
The bottom line
So, I have spent lots of money, mostly wasted, and I now want to know what guarantees Runagood® can give me of a stream of new clients!
Well…in 30 years of small business consultancy
…the overwhelming demand we encountered was “get me more customers and it’s urgent”. Before accepting the job, we learned the importance of taking a free look at what they had already done. It ranged from absolutely nothing (“because we used to get referrals”) to all of the above list (“and now we’re broke, because nothing worked”).
We would then look at the rest of the business, reviewing their performances with: customer retention (ie product / service quality); operating efficiency; people productivity; profitability and cashflow.
Why look at everything?
Because lack of sales was often the tip of an iceberg. There would be little point in getting more orders if the product was troublesome, systems inefficient, people incompetent, customers not paying, bank calling in loans.
So, having done so, we would often have to say “we can help you, but only if you give us a year. If you don’t have a year, we’ll have to start with an overall survival strategy to buy the time to implement the right marketing and be able to properly service the customers”.
Why a year?
Because that’s how long it takes a new business that does all the right things to get a flow of new customers. And in that regard, any business without new customers might as well be a new business, although it does have some advantages to help things to happen quicker.
The average buyer of a new service or product looks at it 10 times over the course of 6 months before deciding, unless desperate (and do you really want desperate customers?).
The finding of good new customers does not happen quickly.
So, you need a business that is operating effectively to take advantage of the orders when they do arrive and then pleases customers enough to order more, and tell their friends.
And that’s why Business Dashboard® technology was born
…to rapidly assess any business ‘across the board’ performance before embarking on a project of any sort.
If you want to see this working and have 20 minutes to spare Runagood® will assess your practice for free as a demo. Book it here
Meanwhile, why did all those accountants fail with all their marketing?
The recurring themes were:
No research into where / who is their ideal client /customer
Assumed knowledge of what they wanted
No pre-developed solutions that clients would pay for
Lack of a clear plan of how to reach, analyse, and help them
Too many random marketing tactics (no strategies)
Short lived initiatives that never embedded (the average trial period was 4 months)
Not focusing on and sustaining the few key things that really work
Not understanding the 12-month (marketing) rule and giving up too soon
No selling process - it’s very different to marketing
The Runagood® solution is 200 readymade practical action plans that fix all these and more. They cost very little time or money to implement because they are automated versions of what we did over 22 years with one million small businesses that raised UK international competitiveness from 21st to 7th place.
And once an accountant practice has mastered its own marketing in this way, it will be ready to sell this very same service to hundreds of new clients as a profitable diversification.
Duncan Collins
CEO of Runagood.com Ltd