Nine Fundamentals for a Healthy Marketing Culture in an Accounting Firm

And four key ingredients.

by Bruce W. Marcus
Professional Services Marketing 3.0

How does an accounting firm become part of Professional Services Marketing 3.0?

Part of the answer resides in building a marketing culture within a firm, which means that everyone in the firm understands that he or she has an active role in marketing and practice development and understand what that role entails.

More Professional Services Marketing 3.0: What Accounting Firms Need to Understand to Grapple with Radical Change | Six Reasonable Goals for CPA Firm Marketing | The Tools of Marketing Are Not a Program – They Are Simply Tools | Is Your Marketing Program Really a Program? | Six Metrics for Marketing ROI | How to Formulate the Right Marketing Goals for Your Firm | Get Real: 15 Questions for Achievable Growth | If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, How Do You Know How to Get There? | Eight Tips for Staying One Step Ahead of the Competition (And Maybe the Client, Too) | Nine Things We Know For Sure about How to Grow an Accounting Firm | The CPA’s Castle Is Crumbling

A firm may be said to have a marketing culture when it’s professional staff:

Posted on September 25, 2012

Bruce W. Marcus

About the Author

Bruce W. Marcus remains a pioneer in the modern practices of professional services marketing even after his death in 2014 at age 89. He is the author of the seminal work, Professional Services Marketing 3.0, published by CPA Trendlines. The Association for Accounting Marketing named a lifetime achievement award in his honor.

Hall of Fame: The Association for Accounting Marketing Award, named in honor of Bruce W. Marcus.

In 1951 (with a degree in Economics and Philosophy), he joined the then-Big Eight accounting firm, Peat Marwick Mitchell to establish the firm’s library, where he developed an article writing and seminar program that successfully promoted the firm’s reputation.

He has served as a public relations and marketing executive or consultant to most of the international accounting firms, and many large and small law firms.

His book, Competing For Clients (1986) was one of the first to delineate the new practices of professional services marketing, followed by more than a dozen books on professional services marketing, real estate marketing, investor relations, and international accounting standards.

His first newsletter, The Marcus Report (1986), was followed by the award-winning www.marcusletter.com in 1995 — one of the longest-running letters on marketing for lawyers and accountants.

He served on the editorial boards of several leading professional services publications, a contributor to many publications, and has been a keynote speaker at major conferences.

He taught one of the first courses in professional services marketing at the Fordham University Graduate School of Business, and lectures frequently at the Fordham University Law School.

Click here for more by Bruce W. Marcus

TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Continue reading your article with a CPA Trendlines Pro membership.