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Moving to New York from London was always going to be an exciting challenge; I knew there would be differences in how business was approached on the two sides of the pond.  However, three years of working with top UK and European accounting firms could not prepare me for the unique challenge of digital marketing for accounting firms in the US.

The difference between the two markets is remarkable in relation to:

• Email Marketing service providers – dominance of one technology provider
• Content – ‘canned’ vs. thought leadership
• The value accounting firms place on email marketing – difference in investment both in time and dollars

Firstly, the dominance of a single technology provider in the email marketing space was astonishing. Things are very different in the UK, where accounting firms partner with digital agencies who provide more than just technology and there are a few to choose from.  As such it takes savvy procurement from the firm and real consulting from an agency to kick-start a valuable, ROI-driven relationship.

Like my fellow (and slightly more successful) Brit Sir Richard Branson felt when he first looked into founding Virgin Airlines, I thought the sheer dominance and overreliance on one company is not in the best interest of accounting firms.
 
Things have to change and I hope to help accounting firms make better use of their marketing dollars! Sir Richard put it better than me when he said to airline customers, “You now have a choice!”

Secondly, what has happened to thought leadership in accounting firms, where has it gone? In the case of UK accounting firms and every single one of my US law firm clients, they produce their own marketing content.
 
In US legal marketing, one hot phrase circling online and at events I’ve been attending is ‘clients hire the attorney not the firm’.

Clients hire people they like, especially in the case of attorneys and accountants. Their opinion and expertise is worth thousands of dollars, for this reason most successful firms place a great amount of value on their marketing.
 
Rather than advising firms on the values of writing their own content, the dominant email technology vendor is actually capitalizing by selling ‘canned content’.  Opportunities are being missed to establish more valuable relationships in the world of US accounting firms.

A number of AAM members here in New York have begun attending Legal Marketing Association (LMA) events and I’m not surprised. Accounting marketers clearly are seeing the value in both the content and ideas being shared by their counterparts in the legal industry. One trend that I can guarantee will never get off the ground is law firms outsourcing their expertise, opinion and content to foster relationships with clients!

Would you ever outsource your blog posts or purchase “canned tweets”? That would be like paying someone else to attend a networking event in your place and attempting to establish real relationships. That person would be an imposter and they wouldn’t get my business or earn my trust.

Some US accounting marketers I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with are aware of the industry’s short comings and its unhealthy addiction to “canned content”.
 
Wade Clark, Strategic Growth Officer of Carr Riggs & Ingram, knows the situation all too well.  He recently told me that “9 out of 10 accounting firms are purchasing content that other neighboring firms are also using.”  To me, if I happen to be a CFO and potential client, can you imagine my reaction if I received the exact same email newsletter from 10 accounting firms, all with just a different logo?

To illustrate, imagine that you walk into a store to purchase a bottle of water but all of the different water brands and their products look the same as each other. Which one do you buy? The closest, the biggest or the cheapest.  Greater consideration is required when hiring an accountant; a firm’s marketing messages need to reflect this.

A friend who happens to be Director of Marketing at an accounting firm in Atlanta, like many purchases some canned content from his email marketing technology vendor. Right now he is unable to deliver email marketing messages to his competitors’ clients; why?  Because his firm is pushing the same message as the next accounting firm based in Atlanta.

Can you imagine the new business opportunities currently being missed?  There must be unhappy clients who are craving a better accountant and trusted advisor but they are not being communicated with.  This presents a stunning opportunity for the first few firms who begin developing their own content and thought leadership.

This leads me onto my third observation, regarding the value some US accounting firms place on email marketing.  From recent conversations I’ve had many grossly undervalue email.

I recently attended an Association for Accounting Marketing (AAM) chapter roundtable event and a number of marketers present admitted to spending a disproportionate amount of time and effort on a printed communication despite every piece eventually landing in a recycling bin compared to email newsletters and alerts.  The same amount of time and effort should be spent on email marketing for a number of reasons:

1. This arrives in your key client’s inbox, a very personal environment, one of the first things many check as soon as they get out of bed (well, after Facebook).

2. Email recipients have emotional reactions to emails in their inbox and on mobile devices. What exerts the greatest influence before any purchase of any service? The answer is emotion. Ask yourself what you feel when you receive an untargeted, generic email – personally I delete it instantly and associate a negative experience with that brand. As Wade Clark reminded me on our last call one of his 4 pillars of Sales and Marketing is brand experience combined with credibility and confidence – connecting people to the brand and its professionals (and connecting that to expertise!) seems like an add on – don’t need it here maybe put it somewhere else?

3. We receive on average 44 email marketing messages a day. The exact amount we each receive varies of course, what we do know is that our inboxes are more cluttered than ever.  More reason to spend more dollars and time on design that helps your firm stand out from the crowd and reporting analytics to gather real client intelligence.

4. Whether you’re 25 or 65 no one is immune to breakthroughs in technology, especially online. More grandparents are now on Facebook than students! And everyone wants an iPad!  Our expectations have increased when it comes to design, interaction and engagement in all channels, yet email has been left behind for some reason.

5. Email isn’t a cheap communication channel.  If you think it is you’re doing it wrong and you’re simply not getting the maximum return possible.

6. Clients want quality.  This is why the Economist is one of the only printed publications that continues to increase sales and subscriptions while other print publications struggle.  Why are so many firms satisfied with sending the equivalent of the local rag to their client’s inboxes, where they spend 90% of their day?

At the same AAM roundtable event I noticed that this dominant technology is not helping marketers generate real client intelligence. For many they simply rely on open rates, repeat views and click throughs to measure the success of email campaigns.

Knowing how many people opened your email is nice, however we all know that many repeat views are logged when a recipient simply brushes over an email in their inbox list or on their device. I wouldn’t pick up the phone or tell a partner to do so based on a client viewing an email 6 times.

What would benefit me as a marketer and benefit my partner’s relationship with his/her client is knowing that their key client spent 30 minutes reading their article (not canned content) on “Valuation and Buy-Sell Agreements”. Picture the scene:

“Mr Partner I’ve invited your favorite client and 5 others to a breakfast seminar to listen to your thoughts in person – all you had to do was help me write a short article and I did all the work!”

Should one or two new clients walk through the door based off that campaign – imagine the return on investment for the firm and marketing!

Can “canned content” or this dominant email technology vendor I’m talking about deliver a similar result? Maybe, once in a while at least as anything is possible. But I would question the value of that relationship; you reap what you sow as they say.

I urge you to ask for more…

Ask more of your technology provider for a start. I would insist on receiving strategic consultancy to get your email campaigns as effective as possible and more client intelligence not just analytics!

Ask for a digital agency who works with professional services firms with all elements of their digital marketing, including websites, email marketing, design, real CRM integration that’s live (not in development), CMS consulting and event management.

And lastly do the really hard job of differentiating yourself and the firm by developing your own content and thought leadership.  We don’t buy our accountant’s or attorney’s expertise and service because of an email – we do because of their expertise, relationship and added value… So start putting that in your emails!