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B2B Growth Strategies for a Down Economy

B2B media luminary shares some tips.

Via http://www.aicpalearning.org, Hank Berkowitz writes:

When it comes to B2B e-newsletters for financial professionals, no discussion would be complete without checking in with Rick Telberg, President of Bay Street Group Research in Dobbs Ferry, NY. Arguably the most widely-read journalist and analyst covering the accounting profession, Telberg is the co-author of a new research report: Beyond the Click: Maximizing Advertising ROI in B2B E-Newsletters.

Request a FREE copy of the executive summary of the report, here.

CPA Marketing Insider (CMI): Rick, it sounds like you’re not a big fan of using clicks to measure the success or failure of online ad campaigns, especially in e-newsletters.

Rick Telberg: Correct. I’m just not seeing much of a correlation between advertisers who are continually renewing their campaigns in their favorite media properties and the clicks they’re getting from those campaigns. Several media partners I’ve talked with note that some of their longest-standing clients fall into the middle and even lower tiers in terms of raw click-through rates they’re seeing.

CMI: With marketing departments and ad agencies stretched so thin these days, can media partners really expect their advertisers to develop creative specifically for their own publications and Web properties?

Telberg: I’d flip that around. Read more

Posted on April 17, 2008
Filed Under BSG MARKETPLACE - Products, Services and Vendors, BSG RESEARCH, BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | Leave a Comment

MarketingSherpa Features “Beyond the Click” Study by AICPA, BSG

Trust and believability go much further than tantalizing incentives.

Ads in third-party newsletters can generate plenty of leads. “But you should focus on an ad campaign’s longer-term effect — not simply immediate clicks,” according to MarketingSherpa, the research firm with more than 370,000 followers.

A new study by the AICPA and the Bay Street Group LLC offers four takeaways for marketers wanting to maximize the impact from e-newsletter ad campaigns.

Read more

Posted on March 19, 2008
Filed Under BSG RESEARCH, BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | Leave a Comment

Irish Accountants See Global Demand

As if more proof were required, but U.S. accountants need not wonder whether they compete in a global market for talent and services.

The Irish Association of Chartered Certified Accountants reports the demand for trained accountants has never been greater, nor have firms and employers encountered such difficulty in finding and keeping them.

The top trends will be familiar to every U.S. CPA, including:

1. The finance role is becoming more strategic
2. A war for specialist talent is raging, and
3. Demand for finance professionals is surging.

[Reported in Ireland here and in Borneo here.]

FREE DOWNLOAD: Get the ACCA report, “A Changing Profession? The Evolution of Accounting Roles, Skills and Career Aspirations,” here (32 pages, PDF).

Posted on February 1, 2008
Filed Under BSG RESEARCH, BSG [CPA TRENDLINES], FREE DOWNLOAD | Leave a Comment

EXECUTIVE PREVIEW: Fringe Benefits Choices

Join the survey, get updated results.
Read the article: Rick Telberg/On Careers, “Benefits Packages: On the Fringe No More.”
Email your comments.

RICK TELBERG / CPA TRENDLINES
Job Benefits: What Matters Most?
(Early data based on partial results, Aug. 16, 2007)

Join the survey, get updated results.
Read the article: Rick Telberg/On Careers, “Benefits Packages: On the Fringe No More.”
Email your comments. Read more

Posted on January 1, 2008
Filed Under BSG RESEARCH | Leave a Comment

EXECUTIVE PREVIEW: Home-Based Accounting Practices

Join the survey here.

Read the article: Rick Telberg/At Large, “Home-Based Accounting Practices Thrive.”

4 Key Findings:
97%: CPAs who know colleagues with “on-the-side” practices.
26%: CPAs who say they currently “moonlight.”
27%: CPAs working full-time in a home-based CPA business.
61%: Working in their home-based business year-round,” not just during busy season.

8 Top Problems for Home-Based Practitioners:
45%: Meeting clients, colleagues in a professional setting.
48%: Overcoming isolation from peers.
39%: Managing time effectively.
21%: Obtaining enough admin/support personnel.
18%: Backing up file and preparing for disaster recovery.
15%: Have the right mix of technology resources.
12%: Resolving equiment/technology breakdowns.
6%: Maintaining IT security & privacy.

10 Essential Strategies for Success:
69%: The right technology setup.
85%: The right attitude and self-discipline.
66%: A quiet, dedicated work space.
51%: Experience and maturity.
47%: Time Management: Balancing the need for new business vs. getting the existing work done.
35%: Good communications with co-workers, clients.
31%: The appropriate kind of work or tasks.
23%: Get out of the office and meet new people.
15%: Regular face-to-face meetings.
5%: Ccorporate culture of support.

Join the survey here.

Read the article: Rick Telberg/At Large, “Home-Based
Accounting Practices Thrive.”

Send in your comments
Read more

Posted on October 27, 2007
Filed Under BSG RESEARCH | Leave a Comment

SURVEY RESULTS: TAX SEASON 2008 ‘VALUE-ADD’ STRATEGIES

It all begins with personal attention…

Join the Tax Season 2008 Study Group.
Benchmark your practice. Get the best ideas. See the trends… all season long.
Take the survey; get the results.

It all begins with personal attention… More tables and verbatim comments…
Read more

Posted on October 26, 2007
Filed Under BSG RESEARCH | 3 Comments

SURVEY RESULTS: Morale and Turnover

How Engaged Are Your Co-Workers?

Executive Preview
(Early data, final results may vary)

Selected Highlights:
– Most CPAs say they work with highly committed and engaged colleagues.
– Most, too, say their offices are experiencing a chronic staff shortage.

Read more

Posted on October 20, 2007
Filed Under BSG RESEARCH | 2 Comments

AICPA/BSG Study Finds Advertisers Underestimate the Power of ‘Latent Response’

 

 

Marketers missing up to 55 percent of online ad response

NEW YORK (AICPA.org) – U.S. spending on online advertising is growing at more than 20 percent per year and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 15 percent through 2010. However, marketers are missing more than half of all responses.

In fact, 55 percent of follow up to online ads appears to occur up to 30 days after the ad has appeared, according to “Beyond the Click, Maximizing Advertising ROI in B2B E-Newsletters,” a new online advertising study by the electronic media group of the American Institute of Certified Public and Accountants (AICPA) and Bay Street Group LLC.

Download the AICPA press release: Marketers_Missing_up_to_55_Percent_of_Online_Ad_Response2.pdf

The executive summary, which includes additional notes on the research and the “Top 10 Recommendations to Marketers,” can be viewed at http://www.aicpalearning.org/profdev_news.asp?id=10360.

Read more

Posted on October 19, 2007
Filed Under BSG RESEARCH | Leave a Comment

Where to Find SMB Owners?

Hint: They like hanging out with people in their own industries.

According to new Warrillow research, four out of five small business owners have attended a business-related event in person. When asked what type of business events they attend, responses ranged from a local Chamber of Commerce meeting to a large national trade convention.

According to the small business owners Warrillow surveyed, “vertical,” industry-specific events are clearly more attractive than cross-industry, or “horizontal,” events.

The next decision is whether to go for the reach of a national event or the intimacy of a local event. Again, the research suggests there may be a happy medium in state-wide events that provide the scale and reach of a larger event, with the relevance of local issues being discussed by local industry leaders.

Warrillow cites ADP’s sponsorship of the Calfornia CPA show, produced every June by Flagg Management, as a good example of vertical focus.

Read more

Posted on October 10, 2007
Filed Under BSG RESEARCH | Leave a Comment

Will NetBooks Fly Among Truly Small Businesses?

QuickBooks founder launches SaaS startup

New York (AMI-Partners) — On September 5, the start-up NetBooks launched its suite of on-demand business management solutions for what it has dubbed “true small businesses,” or TSBs (2 to 25 employees). The suite includes sales and customer relationship management, vendor relationship management, inventory and production management, shipping, bookkeeping, and reporting capabilities. NetBooks’ offering includes functionality needed by inventory-based businesses, but it can also be used by services firms.

Available as an on-demand or software as a service (SaaS) offering, the vendor provides unlimited 24 x 7 support from staff with small business bookkeeping experience. Pricing starts at $200 per month for five users, with free access for a subscriber company’s accountant or bookkeeper. Additional user subscriptions are priced at $20 per user per month. NetBooks is also offering customers a price guarantee, which provides lifetime protection against any subsequent price increases, and no additional charge for future features.

Perspective

Ridgely Evers, Founder and CEO of NetBooks, and one of the original developers of Intuit QuickBooks (the #1 small business accounting package in the U.S.), began developing NetBooks in 2003. NetBooks launched in February of this year.
Read more

Posted on October 8, 2007
Filed Under BSG RESEARCH | Leave a Comment

eMarketer Cites Ad Study by Bay Street Group

Marketing information agency reports on “Beyond the Click, Maximizing Advertising ROI in B2B E-Newsletters”

Newsletters and Delayed Ad Clicks

Marketers are missing more than one-half of all responses to their online advertisements, according to the American Institute of Certified Public and Accountants and Bay Street Group “Beyond the Click, Maximizing Advertising ROI in B2B E-Newsletters” study.

More than one-half of follow-up to online ads occurred up to 30 days after the ads had appeared.

Readers who were exposed to online newsletter ads but did not click on them could recall the ads almost as frequently as readers who did click on the ads (22% versus 28%).

“Content-driven e-newsletters for financial professionals seem to have much longer shelf lives and reader acceptance levels than e-mail blasts and pop-up banner ads,” said Hank Berkowitz, director at AICPA, in a statement. “It’s essential that marketers grasp the power of this dynamic new medium.”

The AICPA sent online surveys to more than 2,000 readers of its most widely read online newsletter.

About eMarketer

eMarketer aggregates and analyzes information from over 2,800 sources, and brings it together in analyst reports, daily research articles and the most comprehensive database of e-business and online marketing statistics in the world. Read more

Posted on October 5, 2007
Filed Under BSG RESEARCH | Leave a Comment

SURVEY RESULTS: Email and Other Digital Distractions

Finance and accounting professionals are hooked on email. And it’s a daily problem.

The highlights from our survey so far:
• 79% of our respondents check email at least hourly.
• Web surfing and listening to music are among the top distractions.
• 60% indicate distractions are a chronic problem.
• Two of the other biggest distractions are phone calls and co-workers.

Click here to join the survey.

How do you stay focused? (Comments)
• I don’t, are you kidding! I’m responding to your e-mail!!!
• I block out time on my calendar where I don’t check e-mail or answer my phone. If I really need to focus I shut my door as well.
• Play music softly to drown out the noises outside my office; if it’s been a distracting week, I’ll work for a few extra hours on the weekend to make up for the downtime
• By planning and structure.
• try to ignore the notifications
• close my door, tackle many small tasks or find things to delegate
• Ignore the casual chatter-chatter outside my office.
Read more

Posted on October 3, 2007
Filed Under BSG RESEARCH | 2 Comments

EXECUTIVE PREVIEW: Managing the Workload

DOWNLOAD NOW: 12-page PDF

In this survey, 703 responses were gathered in the period from July 16 through August 25, 2007. The vast majority (71%) of respondents work in public accounting; 64% at firms of 50 or fewer employees; and 66% as senior or C-Level executives.

JOIN THE RESEARCH PANEL: Take the survey. Get results and updates.

KEY FINDINGS

1. The problem of overwork is pervasive.
• 57% of CPAs report “frequent” or “crisis”-like stress issues.
• It’s bad: 58% of CPAs work 50 or more hours a week.
• It’s getting worse: 43% are more stressed than a year ago.
• Busy season is the worst: 91% work more than 50 hours a week.

2. The key reasons for the heavy workload are the accelerating pace of business and a shortage of human resources.
• Trying to keep up: 58%
• Business growth: 57%
• Staff shortage: 54%
Read more

Posted on August 26, 2007
Filed Under BSG RESEARCH | Leave a Comment

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