A Look at Modern Technology
Caren Rodriguez, Davenport, Marvin, Joyce & Co., LLP
I remember my first AAM Summit six years ago in San Diego,
California. I lingered in the back of a conference room sitting
on the edge of my seat as Michelle Golden’s presentation
“Blogging, RSS, and Web 2.0” had me furiously trying to keep up.
“Blogging 2.0?” I thought, “I’m not sure we’ve mastered 1.0.”
Fast forward to the 2014 Summit in Austin, Texas and technology
has rocketed far past 2.0. The question for marketers is no
longer if they should adopt technology. The assumption is that
blogging, social media, video, apps, podcasting, etc. are all
making appearances in accounting firm marketing plans. Now the
questions that arise are:
- “How do I measure effectiveness?”
- “Is my technology responsive enough?”
- “How can I do it better?”
It is not just about having the technology - it is about
optimizing it. Are you effectively using technology to tell a
story, build a brand, create an experience, or a conversation
that connects with a targeted audience?
In the realm of advertising, Bill Penczak’s session on
digital marketing ‘What Works in Digital Advertising for
Professional Services Firms’ had a slide deck worth visiting. If
accounting services are lagged by a long sales cycle, what
opportunities exist for marketers in the digital realm? Bill’s
carefully executed campaigns and industry research proved that
through careful planning, thoughtful analytics, and adjustments
along the way, marketers should give a second thought to how
advertising dollars are invested in a digital space.
It begs to ask the question - if similar methodology was
applied to other marketing initiatives, what insights could be
gained? Whether the session was technology focused or not, the
2014 Summit showed that there is great benefit to striving for
greater effectiveness, better analytics, streamlining processes,
and doing more with technology.
The Importance of Loyalty, Niche Development & Succession
Planning
Katie Farrow, Teal, Becker & Chiaramonte, CPAs, P.C.
After attending my fourth consecutive AAM Summit, I was
excited to return to my firm with strategies to help our firm
continue to achieve success. With so many fantastic topics and
presentations, it was easy to return ready to hit the ground
running.
In Andrew Rose’s presentation ‘Move to Uncover the Hidden –
How to Build a Successful Niche for Your Firm’ – I, for
starters, definitely had an “ah-ha” moment when Andrew told us
that we are the marketing director and our partners are our
business development directors. Truer words may never have been
spoken at an AAM conference! Many heads in the room nodded along
so I am sure I was not the only one who agreed with this
comment. Andrew’s presentation on niche development included his
personal transformation of growing something small into a
national dominance. He dared us to not do the ordinary
sponsorships, but look deeper and do something (perhaps an
initiative that was a fraction of the cost) to be noticed within
an industry group. His mission to expand, dominate, and defend
is one that I will not quickly forget. On the other side of the
coin, developing a niche is not just about gaining new clients
in one industry, it is about learning to let go. Shedding your C
and D level clients is not easy, but it can be fruitful. Those
clients worthy of remaining a client will pay the price.
Speaking of loyalty, the keynote speaker James Kayne, who
presented ‘The Loyalty Switch – How to make anyone loyal to you,
your organization, or your cause’, was simply amazing. As
marketers, we know that client loyalty is important but Kayne
really challenged us to look at the satisfied clients. I know at
Teal, Becker & Chiaramonte we are now analyzing the fine line
between satisfied and loyal and our goals for 2015 will now be
refocused on how to do the “loyalty switch” as Kayne calls it.
Unless you really examine it, would you know the difference
between a satisfied client and a loyal client? Many of us assume
that our satisfied clients are loyal. Kayne’s presentation was
entertaining, insightful, and extremely enlightening on this
topic of client loyalty.
And finally, Jamie Thomas brought us great perspective on why
succession planning is actually part of a marketer’s role (as if
we haven’t taken on enough?!) in his presentation ‘Succession
Planning – The Marketer’s Critical Role’. However, in all
seriousness, the number one activity in CPA firms over the last
two years has been mergers and acquisitions. We heard about this
in depth during the state of the industry update from the AICPA
earlier in the conference and Jamie’s presentation and messages
gave us marketers some actual ideas to control how well the next
generation of leadership will grow and be ready to take over as
leaders. For me, this further fueled our firm’s young
professional initiative and gave me new strategies to keep
future rainmakers on track with check-ins and evaluations, as
well as acknowledged how to work with retiring partners to
better develop a succession plan for their clients. Jamie put it
simply, “Why do we need to get involved with succession
planning? If there’s no firm, there’s no us.” For any marketer
who wasn’t currently involved in succession planning or helping
build their firm’s next generation of leadership, Jamie gave a
true wakeup call with that statement.
Branding From All Sides
Crystal Mapp, KPM CPAs, PC
Branding is such a large part of every marketer’s role. From
personal branding to branding from the inside out, understanding
both your personal and firm’s brand will continue to be a part
of your marketing strategy now and in the future. For me
specifically, this topic has been front and center so I was
excited to see that branding was a strong theme at this year’s
Summit.
One of my favorite sessions this year was Alice Grey
Harrison’s ‘Creating Brand Ambassadors to Drive Big Results.’
The content presented was so relevant to my quest of teaching
firm personnel to live and love our brand and delivered in such
a relatable way with videos clips and specific examples/case
studies. As she deduced in her presentation, PEOPLE are what
makes brands successful. She went on to share that internal
branding helps synchronize your firm’s culture, values, and
communications and harmonizes activities that influence the
brand promise and performance. Too often, we put so much work
into our brands but forget to educate those who most need to
understand the details…the individuals tied to our clients and
prospects. This presentation brought the issue front and center
and helped you understand how to make the brand education piece
an important part of your plan.
Given the accounting industry’s merger and acquisition
activity, another key branding issue relates to what happens
after a merger. Facing this issue myself, I was pleased to sit
in on ‘Fresh Ideas for Brand Integration in Mergers and Living
Happily Ever After’ and thrilled that the format included Joe
Walsh from Greenfield Belser moderating a discussion comprised
of individuals from three firms. Cheryl Bascomb, Amy Jemison,
and Scott Moore chatted about their experiences with rebranding
following a merger. What I found most interesting was the fact
that each firm approached it differently thus giving you several
perspectives.
Another facet of branding, personal branding was brought to
life by Brian Swanson and Joe Rotella in ‘Personal Branding
Through SEO: Making Partners Rockstars.’ If you have heard these
two speak, you know they can make just about any subject fun. I
myself enjoyed the fact that this presentation walked through
the process and included qualifiers for making certain the
individual you have slated as the ‘chosen one’ is the right
person. Oftentimes people believe that the individual who has
the most seniority or technical knowledge is the right person to
put front and center when in fact that is not always the case.
It is not always the best approach for every firm either as the
presentation pointed out. The most important thing is that you
do what is right for your firm.
Content Marketing is Here to Stay
Jeff Lear, Lear Communications
Over one third of the sessions available to attendees at this
year's AAM Summit touched in some way on content marketing.
Sessions like Alan Vitberg’s ‘Contextual Marketing: Making
Content Marketing Work Harder…and Smarter‘ and Marsha Leest’s
‘Making Your Story 50 Shades of Compelling’ focused directly on
content marketing, while others included content marketing as
one of the tactics attendees could use in their overall
marketing plan to help achieve marketing goals.
In addition, the selection of content marketing information
available in this year's program was evident to others,
including Lee Frederiksen of Hinge Marketing. In the Summit
recap he wrote
on his own blog, he stated, “Content marketing is coming of
age…” and further noted that the discussion has shifted from
"whether we should do it" to "how do we do it."