Accounting Businesses Stand Out Using 4 Basic Marketing Secrets

It's tough for your accounting practice to distinguish itself. We are overwhelmed by around 4000 advertisements a day and to be effective your ads need to differentiate itself from the crowd. You're quite likely telling yourself that figure sounds too high. This is absolutely understandable. We all filter what we see. When we're overwhelmed by useless information the mind has a mechanism for filtering most of it out. As an advertiser you need to find a way to get past these filters, and that's not easy to do.

There are a few tricks that can help. These are well known to the advertising industry, but not many consumers are more than peripherally aware of them.

The first thing we need to look at is your marketing mindset. Nobody has to watch your ads. Most advertisements make the mistake of demanding attention, when they should instead attempt to earn it.

The first step to earning attention is to provide a product your desired audience is going to care about.

From there you can go several routes:

Be Fun

Commercials such as the recent string of Old Spice ads have gained popularity because they entertain their audience. A good sense of humor or flair for the dramatic can take you pretty far in advertising.

You can use these tricks to help your accounting practice stand out from your competitors. Just think about viral Internet sensations such as the Bed Intruder song and Double Rainbow guy. Now look at your advertisement. Look at the YouTube videos again. Now back at your commercial. It may not have the earning power of those videos, but it can with a sprinkle of its spice.

Show Them What Can Be

This ones trickier. In order to inspire you need to connect with your audience on an emotional level. Sports relies heavily on inspirational advertising, as do sporting goods. Perhaps the best example of an inspirational ad is Nike's "Just Do It". Ads like this resonate with us emotionally, and emotional connections not only hit home hard, they last. As an accounting firm this is perhaps your best strategy, but it's also the hardest.

To connect emotionally, consider using customer testimonials and messages directly from the CEO.

Educate

Use your ad to teach your audience something important that they didn't already know. This is a lot easier for an accounting practice to accomplish than inspiration, and it's almost as effective. Some very successful websites have been built entirely on this principle. Websites like eHow and KnowHow-Now generate tons of revenue just by offering useful "How To" articles.

Insurance companies, credit card companies, banks etc. rely heavilly on educational advertising. Personally I have a problem with this since these ads are so often misleading, but it works and it's very suitable to marketing accounting firms.

Outrage

OK, this is a hot potato, and I don't generally recommend it as a strategy for independant professionals like you. I'm mentioning it though, because no article on this subject would be comprehensive without talking about the dark side of promoting accounting websites and practices. This is one of the easiest and most powerful secrets in internet marketing. Be warned, however, that it can easilly turn around and bite you in the hind quarters.

Outrage should not be undervalued. Just understand that if the fire gets out of control, and it very likely will even if you know exactly what you're doing, you'll find that when you're running an accounting practice there actually is such a thing as "negative publicity".

There is a safer way to exploit conflict and anger, however, and while the message won't spread as fast it will also be far more constructive.

Sometimes your competitors will create an environment where anger can be your best friend. Look for the signs. When your competitors start making their customers angry it's pretty safe to go for the throat.

Take the rivalry between Apple and Microsoft. You remember, a good looking and clever young "apple" character schmoozes with a dorky older "PC"? Those drew on the failures of Windows Vista to build a base for Apple's new line of Macs.

More recently, Microsoft has hit back by declaring "I'm a PC" proudly in its own commercials, so be careful with this. You might want to think twice about how much you appreciate your view before you start casting stones.

OK, these are the fundamentals. You will be able to implement these principles to your advertising and create terrific content that will be able to bypass your audience's advertising filters. Keep it dynamic. Keep your campaign unpredictable and exciting.

Brian O'Connell is the President and founder of CPA Site Solutions, one of the country's most successful web firms dedicated solely to accounting websites.