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Over 6 out of 10 partners I talk to turn down the offer of a free monthly “Practice Growth Tips Newsletter”. The fact is the vast majority of accountants either “don’t do marketing” or aren’t very good at it.

Lucky you! How many of your clients work in such an uncompetitive marketplace? Marketing is no different to any other discipline: good marketing works, bad marketing doesn’t.

The firms that grow the quickest, organically, share the same approach to marketing accountancy services. They test and measure what they do. They learn from every failure and constantly strive to improve their returns.

The return from your first activity be it direct mail, telemarketing, SEO whatever, is only the start. The more activity you carry out the better a return you should get.

Try different methods, improve your performance and above all continually measure and test. I have worked with clients that have doubled the effectiveness / returns on their original performance over time.

Measure the new business you win accurately. If you take on a client paying you £2,000 how much are they really worth to your practice. It’s the lifetime value of the client that you need to know. If your average client stays with your firm for 10 years, and they need the same service every year, they are worth £20,000 to you. When you are calculating the return on different marketing initiatives always measure new business by the lifetime value.

The Rules

1) Think of marketing as an investment that must deliver the best possible return, not as a budget or expense.

2) Only invest in marketing that can deliver a clear measurable return in fee income (Leave “building the brand” or “increasing awareness” to the major firms).

3) Find out the average lifetime value of a client and the profit they generate for you.

4) Once you know the profit your average client delivers, you can decide how much you’re prepared to pay to generate a client.

5) The amount you spend on generating new business is dictated by how much and how quickly you want to grow.

6) Try a variety of lead generation marketing. Measure the value new fee income you generate from every £1 you spend.

7) Persevere with activity that delivers the best return. Continually test and refine what works best and see how far you can reduce the percentage cost of new revenue generated.

Patrick McLoughlin is the founder of Accounting for Growth (A4G), a marketing agency specialising in helping accountancy practices grow through attracting their ideal clients. All A4G accountancy marketing campaigns work to revenue targets. A results based marketing service for Uk accountants.