When I was asked what are the most common marketing challenges that accountants face, I quickly listed the following:

1 Not enough time
Time to set objectives. Time to plan. Time to consider options. Time to brief anyone to help. Time to try to do it myself. Time to test. Time to review, revise and adapt. Time to follow up.

Solution: Allocate 30 mins to getting started. Involve someone who can help. If you don’t know who then ask someone who may know. (Like me! I’m not a marketing consultant but I know plenty I’d be happy to introduce to you).

2 Knowing how to do stuff 
Even when you think you know what you want to do, or think you should do, you don’t know HOW to do it.

Solution: Ask someone who knows. There’s a theme developing here!

3 Finding good content
This refers to the challenge of producing relevant appropriate content that helps to ‘market’ your firm.

Solution: Stop thinking about tactics. There are plenty of ways you can market your practice without producing good content.
If you still want to produce good content as part of your marketing effort you could always outsource this.

4 Budget constraints
This affects how much cash you feel able to invest in marketing. Maybe cash is tight. Or maybe you are reluctant to spend money on marketing tactics because you don’t yet have a clear plan

Solution: Start by clarifying your objectives and then assess your available budget. Your marketing tactics can then be planned to suit your budget. There’s a lot you can do that doesn’t cost much. Just don’t expect instant results.

5 Insufficient resources
How will you execute you plan? You fear you cannot do it all yourself, whilst also fulfilling all of your client obligations.

Solution: Almost every aspect of your marketing can be outsourced. NB: Anyone who takes your money without first clarifying your marketing objectives is more interested in your money than in your success.

6 Getting an ROI
It has often been said that ‘half the money spent on marketing is wasted. The trouble is identifying which half!’ It doesn’t have to be like this (in our world).

It shouldn’t be a challenge to secure a decent Return on Investment (ROI) from the investment of your time, resources or money IF you have chosen appropriate marketing activities.

Solution: Set realistic targets for your chosen marketing tactics that are most likely to provide a reasonable ROI.

7 Feeling too shy
This is a little shocking if it is stopping you from building your practice. There are plenty of shy and/or introverted accountants around. Shyness may be a challenge when it comes to certain marketing tactics. But there are plenty of things you can do that don’t require speaking to groups of people or attending networking events.

Solution: Choose marketing activities that play to your strengths and where your shyness won’t be a factor.

Help

You probably know that I am NOT a marketing consultant so none of my suggested solutions are intended to generate work for me. But I am happy to have an initial conversation and to see if I can point you in the right direction. Or perhaps I can identify someone would be well placed to help – depending on what help we agree you need.

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