Would you rather watch a riveting Netflix series or a 100+ slide PowerPoint presentation?
Exactly. That’s the power of story. In fact, there has been research done citing that stories are up to 22 times more memorable than fact alone. This is because of how the brain processes words. On a slide presentation, the language processing area gets activated- but, that’s it. Words are decoded into meaning, and it stops there. However, when a story is told, all of the sensory areas of the brain are engaged, making the message more memorable!
Why story-based marketing in public accounting?
This profession is in the middle of a shift from compliance to advisory services.
According to a McKinsey.com report entitled, The next normal arrives: Trends that will define 2021- and beyond, “In the third quarter of 2020 alone, there were more than 1.5 million new-business applications in the United States—almost double the figure for the same period in 2019.”
These new businesses need accountants to help them survive and thrive. There are over 46,000 accounting firms in the U.S. competing for this coveted, profitable business. Today, people and business owners have many options locally and virtually. So, how are YOU going to stand out? Story-based marketing clarifies, captures attention, and draws your ideal target prospect into your world.
It starts with who your ideal target prospect or client is.
Who do you want to do business with? Who do you serve best and enjoy working with the most? What services or niche are most profitable for your firm? Regardless…this client must become the hero in your story.
I recommend reading Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller. He discusses the framework for building a story around your brand. YOU have to be the “Guide” in your brand story, leading the hero in your story to achieve success or avoid failure. You must understand what they want and give them the plan to get them there.
How do you use story in your firm’s brand?
Start by thinking of your highest level brand message. Yes, you do taxes. Probably some bookkeeping and accounting work, too. Maybe audits, preps, compilations, and reviews also. The real fun is in the tax planning and business strategy work for most accountants I know. Your firm does all the things. BUT the #1 most important thing for attracting your ideal client? GET CLEAR. Pick THE one high level, overarching thing that is most important to your ideal prospects and clients.
Tell your firm’s story in a way that makes your client the hero. You are not the hero in your story- you are the guide. You read that right…this is a tough pill to swallow, but your prospects truly do not care that you’ve been in business since 1982 or that you have X years of experience. These things make the story about you, and to get people to pay attention, the story should be about your hero client and his/her path (which you guide them down) to achieving what they identify as success.
Where do you start with story-based marketing?
Getting started building your firm’s brand story is a 3-step process.
1. It starts with you (and your partner group). You need a 10 second elevator pitch. This alone will be a completely separate blog post, but suffice it to say that your pitch needs to roll off your tongue. A good ‘one liner’ or elevator pitch can be two sentences long (or 3 if they are short). The key is for it to cover 3 distinct things: problem, solution, and result. What is your ideal client’s main problem? How do you solve it? What does it look like for them after the problem is solved?
2. Your employees. How do they perceive your brand? Your people are your best assets. You may be surprised with the ideas, sound bites, and insights that they are able to offer.
3. Your marketing strategy. If you don’t have someone on your team who can spearhead this part, you may want to consider working with a third party marketing consultant to help you create the following key components of a good firm marketing strategy.
- Your brand playbook. This is a reference guide that holds all of the marketing messaging for your firm. Essentially, the same 6 or 7 sound bites can be used to build into all of your collateral.
- A website that is ‘wireframed’ with the right content to lead your ideal prospects to act.
- A social media presence with engaging and valuable content.
- A lead generator (or more than one). This is a piece of content (checklist, guide, eBook, video, etc.) that will deliver real value to your prospects who are not quite ready to pick up the phone and book a consultation with you.
- Email sequences. I recommend using an email management tool and setting up a series of 4-5 emails that automatically go out to prospects who download your lead generator. Additionally, you can have nurture campaigns set up to deliver regular value to existing clients, or to cross sell to them. Email is extremely effective and delivers the highest ROI of all marketing channels.
To start anything, you need partner bandwidth.
As a business owner, you have to be able to be strategic about the future of your business. Accountants are extremely busy people. But, now is the time to offload compliance hours. How do you do that? One of the time sucks for partners is still getting caught up in 1040 reviews. If you are a bottleneck in your firm or you are spending time on detailed 1040 reviews, there is an easier way to liberate some of your time. TaxExact™ was designed to expedite 1040 reviews for final reviewers. Haven’t seen it in action yet? What are you waiting for? Schedule your demo today!
