There’s a plethora of tasks to get your new accountancy practice off the ground.

Marketing is just one part of the start up to do list but let’s face it, there really are few businesses that can grow or survive without carrying out marketing of some sort.

The past

Historically traditional forms of marketing such as cold calling, advertising, listing in the Yellow Pages and so on would show a good return on your investment, ROI, (monetary outlay as well as time). Those days have long gone and a much better ROI can be achieved through being creative with the use of content marketing and using social media as a cheap, if not free, platform to deliver well thought out marketing plans.

Obviously the key to success is to have a good idea of what you want to achieve from your marketing efforts and budget.

Your objectives

So the very first thing when writing a marketing plan and executing it is to set out exactly what you want to achieve; just a few of the questions to address are:

How many clients do you want to get on board? How quickly can you clients? Do you want to specialise or be a generalist? Do you want to cover a specific geographical area or embrace the web to target a wider audience? What services will you be selling to clients? How will you price your services? How much time can you devote to marketing, selling, delivering and operations?  How much money do you have to put towards a marketing budget?

And finally the hardest question of all ……

What makes you different from all of the other accountants offering the same services?

Getting started

Depending on what you want to achieve, your plan can range from a very short to do list of vital tasks to kick start your marketing activity, to a well thought out and structured marketing strategy, although the latter is usually something found in the larger accountancy practices or those practices with aggressive growth plans.

Marketing is a huge area and it is impossible to cover everything; so let’s start by keeping things very simple and look at just three easy things that can be done to get your marketing started without having to fork out a fortune.

Some quick wins

1. Shout it from the roof tops

A great way to start the marketing of you new accountancy practice is to tell your friends, relations, acquaintances and social media contacts what you’re up to.

A simple social media status update or an email tailored to each person in your address book is a great place to start. Consider using the following template for your status update or email:

I just thought I would send a quick email to let you know that I am now building my own accountancy practice. You can see my webpage at [enter your web address].

The services I can provide to clients who need an accountant are  … [list services].

My fees are very competitive starting at just [enter fees] plus VAT.  I think this is a great price and works especially well for those who are [list types of clients that you are looking for].

If you or anyone you know needs help with their accounts and tax returns or is thinking of setting up on their own could you please let them know that I can help out.

I would really appreciate it.

Kind regards,

2. Put our marketing eyes on

When you have your own business you need to look at things with different eyes; start looking around for where your target clients will hang out, get chatting to them and ask for referrals and recommendations using a similar approach to the email copy above.

If you’re targeting subcontractors, consider local trade counters, bed and breakfast establishments where subbies might stay or local colleges where trades may train. Local colleges are also a great place for others in self-employment such as beauty, hairdressing, IT and so on. What about your hobbies? Do you know people through your local clubs and societies who may be self-employed or may have self-employed spouses? Parents at the school gates are a great source of referrals too often knowing someone who is self-employed. Taking a desk in a virtual office is also a great way to secure new clients and need not be too expensive; you can become “the accountant in residence” and often the virtual office will have a list of tenants and a newsletter which can provide very useful ways of marketing.

Remember that 5.2 million people in  the UK are self-employed; so you are surrounded by them if you just put on your marketing eyes!

3. Postcards rather than business cards

The key to effective marketing is to get noticed, for the right reasons of course. You need to stand out against the competition in the crowded accountancy market space. One way to do this is to disperse with the use of the usual business cards and go for a more noticeable postcard instead. Not only will a postcard stand out but it can contain much more information than a standard business card which would usually just be a bland listing of your name and contact details.

You can list your services and fees on the postcard and use it as a hand out at the school gates or when you’re at the gym, pin it to notice boards (always getting permission first of course) or leave it at trade counters. Always carry some around with you as you’ll never know just when the opportunity will present itself.

Of course the thing is to make the postcard colourful and eye catching. If you’re not a whizz at design you may want to get someone else to do this for you. Again this need not cost a fortune. Using a site like Fiverr  can hook you up with a very cost effective designer. Do always check the rating of anyone you may be considering before contracting them for the job however.

Finally …

Marketing can be rather daunting at first; the important thing to remember is that marketing something you know, understand and can explain to others can be relatively easy. The trick is to find a way to do this which is within your comfort zone or at an acceptable stretch target from that place of comfort. If you do this then the likely success of your marketing plan will increase enormously … let’s fact it there is no point whatsoever putting together a fabulous marketing plan that has no hope of being delivered because it’s just too scary!

Having over 20 years of accounting and IT experience, in 2007 Elaine Clark (MAAT) gave up her blue chip past to launch CheapAccounting.co.uk. In 2009 Elaine capitalised on the rapid growth of the brand and developed the franchise arm of the business recruiting qualified accountants as franchisees to service the ever growing client base. 

Elaine Clark is the Managing Director of CheapAccounting.co.uk.