Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Accountants Do The Numbers!

They are the people we entrust with our finances. All day, every day they tap numbers into their calculators reducing our taxes, finding ways to maximise our financial futures and giving us valuable advice on our financial situation.

They are a trusted advisor.

Other than the top 10 Accounting practices, many of us do not know who to go to other than who our parents use or perhaps a practice in your local area.

Today, there are many Accounting and financial advisory firms that are tailored to different demographics like individuals that earn less than $100k, over $100k, small business, large corporates, family businesses etc.

Having worked with accounting firms over the past 10 years in my business, I have had the opportunity to see all different sized firms operate in a number of different ways.

Typically they are focused on ensuring they have a logo and a website, letterheads and perhaps the odd newsletter.

The 2009/10 financial year is going to be very different to what anyone has seen before.

A number of small to mid-tiered firms have emerged and are marketing their way into the mindset of individuals and companies looking for a change, a new approach or a more consolidated effort.

Their fresh approach is capturing the market who over the past 20 years have been more receptive to areas such as financial planning and wealth creation.

Some marketing activities that the 'new look' accounting firms are undertaking include;

- Public relations - gaining media exposure in the newspaper, key trade editorials and magazines. Even Kerri-ann Kennerly's Morning Show features an Accountant.
- Re-freshing brands to re-engage the market
- New and innovative websites that are informative and tackle the issues in which people are interested in knowing about
- Web 2.0 - Twitter, facebook, linked in, youtube - you name it - Accountants are now on it for a number of reasons - brand building, recruitment, lead generation etc
- Customer relationship management - interacting with customers more frequently and in more ways than ever before.
- Customer events and seminars - allowing customers to be better informed on their finances and other areas such as superannuation and insurances.
- Alliance partnerships with other companies that have synergies and similar brand values

Accounting firms that choose to not re-engage their clients or fail to communicate more frequently on multiple levels will fail to keep clients who are actively being marketed to by other firms.

The new financial year is a new fresh start for many Accountants and Financial Planners. It gives every company an opportunity to look at their brands in an objective way, undertake surveys amongst their clients and market to see what people are looking for in a service provider and create better connectivity to clients on multiple levels.

Boutique Accounting firms that are leading the way include mutualtrust.com.au, sabergroup.com.au and thirdviewfinancial.com.au.

Watch this space. 1300 300 080

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Although Accounting enterprises are necessary and trusted for most of the people, they are like any other companies around: they need to show professionalism when it comes to run and advertise their businesses.

Unknown said...

I like the approach that this economic time, and end to the fiscal year, is important for all businesses, but most importantly the time for accounting enterprises to get known. I agree with Tercia that their campaigns will need to show professionalism, but I think you touched on the most significant point: they need to be advertising in the first place.