How to Market an Accounting Firm

Marketing is a key component in launching your accounting firm successfully. Before you even begin writing your business plan, you should have a marketing plan defined. Your marketing strategy is absolutely critical to your firm's attractiveness to investors because it is absolutely critical to the success of your accounting firm.

Instructions

Define Your Service

1. Decide between marketing yourself as a full-service accountant who works with clients from various walks of life or if you will instead market yourself as a narrowly focused accountant. Experts in a specific type of accounting can sometimes charge more, but the opportunities are rarer.

2. Look into the number of accounting firms operating in your area and determine whether or not the field is too crowded for your firm to have a reasonably sized piece of the market.

3. Compare your firm's core competency with the existing needs of your market. In fact, in the development stage of your business, the needs of the market will determine how you shape your firm.

4. Locate a niche within your market that is currently underserved. If you are narrowly focused enough, you may not have any trouble with competition, but you will need to know there is enough of your type of business going on.

Reach Out to Prospective Clients

1. Generate a list of companies in your area that will require accounting help.

2. Commission business cards as soon as you know your business address and phone number.

3. Compile contact information of lawyers in your market, because where lawyers gather, accountants soon follow and the other way around.

4. Take the opportunity to get into the local yellow pages. The opportunity only comes around once a year, before the printing of the new phone book.

5. Announce your arrival in the market with a newspaper ad highlighting your accounting service.

6. Network like crazy in order to keep abreast of the kind of business going on and keep within reach of potential clients. Generosity is key to the networking process. Pay attention to opportunities to give to people, such as helping lawyers find clients in the hope the same lawyers would keep you in mind should a potential accounting client cross their path.

7. Establish relationships with your chamber of commerce for networking purposes.

Use Online Techniques

1. Explore email marketing through a newsletter. There are some third parties which can help you generate and mail out your newsletter and updates.

2. Build a website with your contact information and detailed description of the services you provide.

Tips & Warnings

• You can get a feel for how to proceed with marketing your accounting firm through asking accountants in other markets. Since you're not in direct competition, these colleagues are more likely to offer advice.