What Your Marketing Program Can and Can’t Do

All the marketing effort in the world will rarely produce a client. It can only produce a receptive prospect.

By Bruce Marcus
Professional Services Marketing 3.0

EDITOR’S NOTE: CPA Trendlines was privileged to have a long relationship with Bruce W. Marcus, who was ahead of his time in his thinking and practice in marketing for accounting. We are publishing some of the late expert’s evergreen work, which retains wisdom for the present.

The tools of marketing are not a program – they are simply tools.

MORE: Have You Planned How to Service Your New Revenue? | How to Set Marketing Objectives | How Marketing in Accounting Has Evolved | Accounting Marketing 3.0: New Rules | Nine Fundamentals for a Healthy Marketing Culture in an Accounting Firm
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

A marketing program, then, is not simply a catalogue of tools. It’s a plan – a strategy and a tactical plan. It’s the sum total of all relevant activities, supporting one another, and not just random activities designed without objective nor relevance to the needs of the prospective client.

Posted on April 28, 2023

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.