Q&A

Heather Robinson

Heather Robinson is a professional certified marketer (PCM) and certified digital marketing professional (CDMP). As the marketing manager for Boomer Consulting, she develops the firm’s marketing strategy and manages the execution of marketing and business development initiatives to build brand awareness and drive business results.

You were a marketer in the education and organic food industries. What lessons from those industries would benefit accounting marketers?

It might sound simplistic, but clients are clients. In education, clients wanted to better their lives, and I made sure they knew we could help them get the education to do that. In food, people wanted nutritious food they could enjoy. When we focus on what the client is looking for, we’re better prepared to show them we can help them find it.

Have your services changed in the past few years (since COVID)? Are you noticing new trends?

We’ve realized some ways we’ve been doing business are broken. We were very streamlined before, but people weren’t necessarily looking for certain services, or looking for those services in the way we delivered them. For example, many of our consulting and training engagements, which used to be entirely in person, are now being delivered digitally. And that’s not going away. We’ve also focused more on expanding our relationships with existing clients rather than constantly trying to attract new clients. We have an opportunity to provide more value for them and, in turn, grow our revenues.

Where do you get information and insight to help you grow as a marketer?

I’m always reading books and articles, attending webinars and conferences, and learning from others in the profession and outside of it. You have to be open to new ideas and learn new ways to do marketing because it’s constantly changing.

How can marketers with small budgets level the playing field to compete with better-funded firms?

The best way to market your firm, no matter your budget, is to create content. Creating content internally is free, and it goes a long way toward getting your name out there, building trust, and demonstrating authority. Look beyond blog posts. You can develop short videos to highlight your knowledge and the niches you work in. You can gather and share client testimonials and let someone highlight what’s great about you.

How can new accounting marketers get more involved in shaping their firms’ strategic goals?

It’s essential to gather data about the key performance indicators your firm’s leaders want to see. Not just metrics like pageviews, followers or likes, but more concrete KPIs like qualified leads and conversions. Use the data to tell a story about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. This helps firm leaders see the value in what you’re doing. And keep in mind that marketing should be involved in everything — your messaging, brand, the client experience, and talent attraction and retention.

How should accounting marketers be using AI, if they aren’t already?

Once you start looking into social listening, you’ll be amazed at how much information you can find about your client’s problems. Your target clients are Googling questions, asking for recommendations on social media and reading blogs on your website. Using AI and automation to find it can help you create content and develop new services that align with what they’re looking for.

What are your go-to tech tools right now?

I’m using an amazing automation platform, Active Campaign. It helps with one-off emails and the marketing automations we create weekly and monthly. It uses AI to gather information from users as they click on campaigns and show interest in content. We also use Social Bee for social media automation. It helps us keep up with a regular posting schedule and it gathers data so I know what our clients are clicking on and reading. This helps us understand where to focus our content creation efforts in the future.

Interview by Heather Kunz