Gaynor Meilke
In the dynamic landscape of Client Accounting Services (CAS), effectively communicating your firm's brand value is a strategic necessity. To stand out, firms must embark on a journey of differentiation, development, and dissemination. This blog, based on a webinar from Gaynor Meilke, Owner and Chief Opportunity Officer at Charisma Ink, LLC, will guide you through the essential steps to ensure your CAS firm's message resonates with your target audience.
Differentiate:
To begin, engage with your clients, both existing and potential. Elevate your branding and content to distinguish your firm in a competitive market. CAS leaders, known for year-round planning and strategic service packaging, should focus on creating a brand around the unique services they provide. The excellent article from business.com suggests some ways to help you differentiate in addition to those below.
Create an Actionable Framework:
Develop a framework to build and differentiate your CAS firm's brand. Consider the needs of clients preparing for tax season and strategic planning. Consult this checklist for a 30-60-90 day plan, which can aid you in branding and marketing launches, whether you are new to CAS or relaunching services.
Define Your Brand's Core:
Understand who your ideal clients are, the services you provide, and the problems you solve for them. Identify the intended outcomes for your firm and your clients. Tailor your marketing efforts to your ideal clients, avoiding a spray-and-pray approach. To do this, consider what they have in common and what pains they suffer that you can address.
Ask what your firm’s most pressing marketing priority might be, and address your needs by that priority:
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Branding
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Having a plan to follow
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Content development
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Lead generation
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Digital marketing
Finally, ask yourself a few questions:
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What problem do you solve?
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Who do you solve it for?
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Why would your client buy from you?
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How would you deploy your services for them?
One, two or three sentences under each helps you guide and develop your CAS communication.
Develop:
The next step involves developing content and a brand that resonates with your target audience. Start by defining your Ideal Client Persona (ICP). Recommended reading, such as "Building a Story Brand" by Donald Miller, emphasizes guiding your clients on a journey to solve their problems.
Engage Clients:
Engage clients through content creation, such as downloadable ebooks and free discovery calls. Share success stories, leveraging social proof to build credibility. Use existing clients for case studies, highlighting the results your firm delivers.
The process of developing content and the brand should be about collecting good leads. Target the right people, and attract them based on their pain points. Sharing either interviews with your clients (keeping them anonymous) or outright case studies are powerful ways to build social proof of your firm’s effectiveness, and provide compelling and shareable content.
Content Spider Web Model:
Implement the hub/spoke spider web model to guide your content strategy, starting with a main topic and drawing lines to possible subtopics, then extending those into even greater specifics: for example, use “Cash Flow” as a leading topic. From there, you could offer the subtopic of spend management or invoicing. You can parse these as far as needed to continue pulling your targets along the sales or marketing funnels. Be sure your content speaks directly to your ideal customer.
Develop an annual calendar for focused messaging and engagement, creating a consistent flow of information.
Disseminate:
Finally, disseminate your message effectively. Use target marketing and referral networking (see the checklist for more information). Employ a client nurturing strategy through various channels such as social media, email, and text campaigns. Remember, it takes 7 touches before people are paying attention. Consumption habits are different in each channel.
Social:
YouTube: For SEO, Google favors YouTube. YouTube has surpassed all forms of TV and streaming for customers watching videos. When creating videos, you can use AI for voice-overs with titles and descriptions.
LinkedIn: A great place for organic reach. Be specific with your content.
Google Ads: This is a science and art, and you need to be very targeted or success will be hard to find.
FB Ads: Make sure you target the appropriate ages with your ads; there are millions of school-age children on Facebook.
Email:
Create a “drip campaign” of sales emails — this involves creating a batch of different emails to be sent to the same prospects automatically over a set period of time; subsequent emails may follow based on preset time periods or whether a prospect opened your last email.
Articles, Blogs, Whitepapers:
Develop these using your spider web content model, and action them to develop leads by adding calls to action that ask for registration. You may “gate” these content pieces to ensure registration, but that could prevent a valid target from reading your content and coming back for more. You can also offer the content up for free, and ask for a registration that offers more information or access to yet another resource.
Top 5 Success Stories:
Highlight your firm's superpower – helping clients succeed. Share social stories of success through blogs, testimonials, and content creation. Focus on your top 5 success stories to build credibility and connect with your audience.
30-60-90 Day Checklist:
Provide a comprehensive action plan with checkpoints for branding, content creation, and lead generation. Emphasize the importance of SEO, email marketing with platforms like Mailchimp, and building referral sources.
In the ever-evolving world of CAS, effectively communicating your firm's brand value is a key differentiator. By following these steps – differentiate, develop, and disseminate – your CAS firm can establish a compelling brand presence, attract the right clients, and achieve long-term success.
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