This is how
traditional marketing principles waste your hard-earned monies
in advertising Accounting services with no results
To find potential
clients, you need to communicate to your target audience in some
way. Without such communication it isn't possible to get contacts
with prospective clients.
But why is
it that when you advertise, you get little or no results? What
makes advertising so inefficient and all but USELESS when it
comes to obtaining potential clients?
And, if advertising
doesn't work at all, then HOW is one to get potential clients?
Quite a dilemma,
isn't it?
Well, you know
what the ad agency people and media space salesmen tell you:
"It's a long-term investment to create a high-quality corporate
image..." and so on.
Quite frankly,
it's a load of rubbish.
Advertising
and marketing are normally considered to be inexact sciences,
grouped together with other subjective subjects such as art and
literature, as opposed to exact sciences such as mathematics,
Accounting, and engineering.
In exact sciences,
something either is or isn't as it should be. You cannot prove
a miscalculated equation right by insisting that in your OPINION,
it is right. An engineer's insistence of his own rightness doesn't
change bridge that doesn't have the structural strength intended.
But in art,
opinions are what really matter. An ad campaign that wins one
of those numerous awards that the advertising industry rewards
itself with is "proven" to be excellent - simply because
it's their "expert opinion" that it is. Never mind
that it didn't bring any RESULTS for the guy who footed the bill...
You don't HEAR
results discussed when advertising is evaluated. It's only the
OPINIONS of people on how it looks, how they like it - not what
it produced in tangible results!
Yet, advertising
- just like any art form - is COMMUNICATION. The purpose of an
ad message is to communicate something to the right target group.
But here's
the thing: Communication of such commercial nature is USELESS
unless it is...
- understood
- received
- accepted
- agreed upon
...by the recipients.
Unfortunately, present advertising is based on the traditional
principles of marketing and it doesn't create ANY of the above
effects. So, it doesn't really communicate, although that's the
primary goal of it.
By the way,
when I say "useless" I mean "it gets you NOTHING
in exchange for your investment."
Creating clever
messages with fantastically beautiful visual layout can have
other purposes. It is quite all right to be a patron arts and
support aesthetically pleasing works of art created - just as
long as you KNOW that your exchange will be the pleasure of it
and expect nothing of commercial value in return.
But it's NOT
all right for someone to expressly sell you a service of COMMERCIAL
value and assert / let you believe that it will bring you CLIENTS,
allowing you to expect commercial results in exchange for your
investment... and then not deliver it to you.
Whether or
not ad agencies actually follow up on what RESULTS their clients
obtain with campaigns created, whether they knowingly or unknowingly
continue to sell their services under what a cynical mind could
claim to be false pretenses... is really beside the point here.
The point is
that no matter HOW it is sold, advertising Accounting services
doesn't usually bring any tangible results.
Nothing to
deposit on your bank account.
Thus, the money
you invest in advertising is likely to be wasted, giving you
practically nothing in return. And that's the point you should
be aware of when you're offered various advertising opportunities.
Advertising
of Accounting services is inefficient simply because it is based
on wrong assumptions.
These assumptions,
defended heatedly by advertising expert, are directly derived
from the basic principles of traditional marketing.
The wrong positioning
in advertising Accounting services
The purpose
of advertising Accounting services should be to create interest
for your services. Only it doesn't - not the way it's done today.
It all comes
back to the positioning theory. Positioning is a marketing subject
in which you COMPARE the item of sale to those of competitors'
and then "position" yourself somewhere in comparison
to the rest of the field.
To do so, one
must first IDENTIFY one's service as similar to those of others,
then point out how it DIFFERS from those... and finally, claim
a position on the "product image ladder" - in other
words, state whether you're better than most or perhaps the best
of all.
To simplify
the principle, traditional Accounting service advertising says
"we're just like other Accounting firms, only better."
The normal
principle is to claim the highest position on the product image
ladder and say that you're the best.
This isn't
believable to the business owner looking for an Accounting firm.
For decades, every firm has claimed to be the best, resulting
in total disbelief in the eyes of business owners.
Continued for
decades in advertising of most every industry, these self-claimed
statements of high quality have become something of a "secret
code" proving untrustworthiness.
Instead of
creating trust and interest, these claims make most members of
your target audience suspicious. Statements of one's own superiority
are received as self-aggrandizement and boasting, experience
generally as bad manners.
And it is the
principle that's dysfunctional. It worked just great 50 years
ago when advertising was new. But today, it's worn out its
effect long since.
Thus, it doesn't
work to claim you're the best - not in advertising, not straight
off, anyhow. Nobody believes it. Thus, you're left with "we're
just like any other Accounting firm," giving absolutely
NO reason for the business owner to CHANGE Accountants, see?
Now, there
are many creative people producing very clever ways of stating
these claims in a different and new manner. Some of these are
very high quality indeed. They're clever, witty, interesting,
funny, and absolutely fabulous.
The only problem
is that they don't work!
See, it really
doesn't matter how well you try to HIDE that same old
message - it's still the same old approach, not the tricks, that
produces the results or lack thereof.
That's why
advertising doesn't work the way it used to way back when.
Decades ago,
there wasn't all that much advertising. After the war, there
was a severe shortage of goods and advertising was simply a way
of letting people know something was AVAILABLE. Everyone knew
it was SCARCE and thus, if you wanted it, you had to get there
fast.
When production
started catching up with demand, advertising was the prime source
of information to a product-hungry population.
Now, the gist
of it was to give out lower price for readily-available goods.
Next came product development and now the buzz word was quality
- our product would be an improved model of this or that.
Advertising
was a novel idea. Only a few companies advertised. And there
was a scarcity of products and services.
Today, there's
an overflow of products and services offered to the public at
large. The average person is targeted by hundreds of advertising
messages DAILY.
Still today,
most advertising claims to be the BEST, the most inexpensive
- and presupposes that people will flock to buy simply because
they're TOLD where to get the products or services.
When advertising
took the wrong turn in its development
When advertising
was young, it had a novelty value. It was new and it was interesting.
People were starved for all kinds of new things and advertising
offered a free source of information on these desired items.
New retail
outlets popped up in huge numbers to supply for this demand.
And they all adopted the successful actions that lead to lots
of sales. Thus, there was more and more advertising.
Somewhere along
the line, the market reached a new level of saturation. Everybody
had gadgets and thingamajigs aplenty already.
The huge vacuum
or craving for goods got fulfilled adequately and people bought
less and chose with more care. Prices started rising. The demand
took a turn for the worse.
There was much
more advertising and its informative value was lowered. The mere
message of "we have gadgets to sell" became old news.
Advertising availability didn't bring clients any more.
New, more efficient
ways of advertising had to be created to get the same response.
Fresh ways of active selling were created to go with the advertising.
Hard-sell was born, closing techniques became the great new thing
of commercial life.
Media started
merchandising ad space more aggressively, giving bargains to
businesses on campaigns. There was yet more advertising.
The messages
started using ENFORCEMENT techniques derived from psychology.
PUSH, bend, shape the mind, implant suggestive messages... all
that jazz.
It became a
battle of wills between he who sold and he who was targeted.
A whole industry was born just to create new versions of the
same theme - how to MAKE people buy things - and
that's the road we are still on today.
Picture how
many MILLIONS of times an average business owner has been "hit"
by a commercial message like this. He knows they're trying to
overpower his own decision and free will.
By now, he
can smell it a mile away. By now, it is repugnant to him in ANY
shape or form.
Obviously,
starting on the road of FORCING people was a wrong decision.
It's easy enough to see NOW, with the benefit of big rearview
mirrors.
Now, all you
can do is to see how inept and dysfunctional the traditional
marketing principles have become. And you're left to handle the
mess they've created...
The mind-game principle doesn't work
in marketing Accounting services
Advertising
tries to use the subconscious mind of people. Making a product
appear "familiar" by all manner of hidden tricks makes
the housewife pick up this brand of product instinctively.
This may well
work with some consumer products for sale nationwide at countless
retail outlets.
But it certainly
doesn't make anyone sign onto the services of a small Accounting
firm.
Theoretically
it might be possible - but definitely not profitable. However,
you would need to invest millions into advertising before that
effect would be created.
Unless you're
one of the Big Five, I don't think you want to risk a fortune
on such a weak theory. And why would you, when there are much
more effective methods to achieve better results in small scale
and without risks?
In offering
Accounting services, there are no mind games that would get you
clients.
Changing Accountants
is a big decision for an average business owner and he won't
make it "subconsciously."
To get
him to change you need to give him a REASON to do so.
Braking out
of the status quo created by traditional marketing
To create a
reason for a business owner to change Accountants, you must work
within his own willingness and power of choice. There's no way
to FORCE anyone to use YOUR Accounting services.
Legislation
forces businesses to have monthly and yearly accounts done -
but it gives no ruling on which Accounting firm is to do the
work.
This is a small
but vitally important point.
The growth
of the Accounting Industry has, to a large degree, been dependent
on the principle of "average division of automatic clients."
With this I
mean that most firms rely on the "mandate" that the
compulsory bookkeeping and tax filing create.
In other words,
since every business is forced to have monthly and yearly accounts,
file taxes and so on, then each Accounting firm will automatically
get its share of this work.
And that's
how it USED to be - and still is, to a degree. It is commonly
known that the older your practice, the more clients it has on
the average.
But that is
changing rapidly. Accounting, just like any other industry, has
grown beyond the demand so that there's absolutely NO
shortage of Accounting practices in any area in the country.
Competing with lower price has become quite normal.
Clients are
looking for cheaper services.
Many choose
an Accounting software, thinking that's all there is to Accounting
and they might as well do it on their own.
These only
serve to LOWER THE QUALITY of Accounting services these clients
receive because they just look for ways to diminish the COST
of this mandatory keeping of accounts.
The traditional
marketing of past decades - all of us just waiting for our share
of the cake - has almost completely failed to impress the
importance and routinely use of accurate information that an
Accounting Professionals could derive from the accounts.
In fact, surveys
show that business owners hardly KNOW what benefits they could
obtain from a tailored Accounting service, let alone USE the
services to ease their burden.
And that's
not even the worst of it. Surveys also clearly point out that
there's a widespread thinking among business owners that "all
Accounting firms are the same." So - why bother changing,
right?
Today, this
"equal division of the clients" -theory only works
if there's a cartel. In other words, every Accounting
firm in one area must agree not to "rock the boat"
- just have the same message, same pricing and all that.
If there's
a single breaking out from this alliance, if one single firm
starts using MODERN marketing technology to sell its Accounting
services... it would collapse the whole principle of evenhanded
division of clients.
This careful
status quo exists only because we're all so utterly convinced
there is NOTHING EFFECTIVE to be done to actively start getting
more new clients.
Saving your
hard-earned pounds - not marketing at all - makes it easier to
make some kind of a profit even with lower hourly rates.
And that's
all thanks to the traditional marketing principles that have
so thoroughly defeated our every attempt to break out of this
uneasy union of "no marketing - no competition."
Thus, the WHOLE
industry goes up or down - and we, the individual firms, inadvertently
follow the trend. Those that don't can obtain new clients in
ANY economy, no matter which way it's going!
Let me say
put it in no uncertain terms:
If YOU want
clients, if YOU want to escape from having the industry (= competitors)
dictate the future of your firm... you've reached the end
of a road with traditional marketing of Accounting services.
Modern marketing
of Accounting services
Today and with
the help of Modern marketing of Accounting services, there's
no reason why you should wait years or decades for your share
of clients. And you don't have to bother with what the competition
thinks - you can get clients in any market, up or down.
Today, the
mere EXISTENCE of your firm and the availability of Accounting
services won't get you clients any more.
That was the
basic philosophy and idea of traditional marketing - but it has
been rendered useless years ago.
Instead, you
must utilise the needs that businesses PRESENTLY have.
To do so, you
have to ENLIGHTEN business owners on how to utilise Accounting
services to their benefit. And to do that, you must have a message
that is...
- understood
- received
- accepted
- agreed upon
...by the recipients.
Modern marketing
of Accounting services doesn't approach the target audience with
any sales-oriented message.
Instead, it
aims to establishing a dialogue with each business owner on subjects
that interest HIM, taking HIS viewpoint on issues.
The use of
traditional marketing way past its effectiveness has created
a lot of reservations toward ANY approach from an Accounting
firm.
This is what
we must recognise as the present situation and that's where we
must START if we ever wish to change the state of things.
That's where
the Modern Marketing of Accounting services starts.
First, we must
HANDLE the situation that's there - the upsets, the lack of knowledge
- and thus, create a good platform for next actions.
All you need
is the knowledge of what works today
We have surveyed
the target audience of small to medium sized businesses and found
you the exact subjects that interest the decision-makers.
We have the
likes and dislikes of these business owners, their disappointments,
suspicions and certainties concerning Accounting firms and services.
We have the
highest-valued Accounting services defined that will interest
the majority of business owners.
We have extensively
tested forth the proven methods and messages to GET a constant
flow of potential clients - to break out of that status quo of
no-marketing.
And I have
a bit of good news for you:
By actual use
of this technology in countless smaller practices, we have established
that you can DOUBLE your profits once you get the business owners
to realise what he can benefit from your services... and get
him to USE the information.
It isn't that
businesses refuse to pay for something valuable. It is that with
traditional marketing philosophy, we've always ASSUMED the average
business owner understand Accounting and knows how
to use the information we produce for him!
And does it
have advertising in the traditional sense of the concept?
Well, not really.
You don't actually
NEED advertising in this day and age of Modern Accountancy Marketing.
It's a waste of money simply because there are other ways to
achieve BETTER results at a much more cost-efficient way!
To get a briefing
on these methods, CLICK HERE to read about the Modern Accountancy
Marketing & Sales Course that gives you the complete solution
to start obtaining new clients profitably at the rate you want!
Best wishes
Harry Kafka
HDK
Consultants Ltd
32 Manning Close
Richmond Square
East Grinstead
West Sussex RH19 2DR
United Kingdom
Tel. (01342) 328 116
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E-mail: info@accountancymarketing.co.uk |