21: Marketing Journey: From Hesitance to Strategy

 I'm Beth Whitworth, race car driving, quilt making, CPA firm owning, wife, mom, and boss. I'm here to help you build a business you love by sharing all of the good, the bad, the ugly, and the excellent sides of working in this industry. It's not always easy, but after many years, I can finally say it's worth it.

Let me guide you on your journey to accounting with confidence. 

Hi, welcome to accounting with confidence. I'm your host, Beth Whitworth, and today I am here to catch you up on what has been going on with my marketing. So a couple of years ago, I did an episode that was related to the accountant's marketing mindset, which for those of us in the industry, marketing has always been something That most of us are unsure of, maybe a little annoyed with mostly out of our comfort zone.

And at that time I took a class and it was right around the time I was launching this podcast and I was so excited about starting the podcast, but I was also learning what I should be doing as far as marketing and creating a plan and a strategy and all of those things. And that was in the winter of 2022.

So I did launch the podcast and I did finish the class and did all my homework and worked really hard. And I'm just going to give you an update on how things went. So, first of all, in my original podcast, when I talked about mindset, I talked about kind of three or four different concepts relating to why accountants struggle with marketing.

And like I mentioned, you know, it's something that most of us have some sort of love hate relationship with love that if we did marketing, it might bring us more clients.  Bring us some recognition, maybe some, you know, desire to kind of be that expert in the field, but it also comes with that hate of, okay, I need to learn how to do social media.

I need to put myself out there. I need to tell my story. I need to get cohesive on what I'm trying to say and that for accountants sometimes can be very intimidating and what feels very time consuming. So I struggled with it. I've always struggled with it, but this year I have made a decision that my big goal going into and during 2025 is going to be to get.

A cohesive, branded marketing strategy, and implement it. And as I'm implementing it, I am going to make sure that I am creating something that is sustainable for me. That means I have to get a plan and I'm excited about it, but I'm also a little nervous. So what I have, I've been doing in the last couple of years, while I have not been getting that strategic marketing plan together and implement it, I've worked on building some referral relationships.

I have worked on being more present with my community and at the Chamber of Commerce. And have, I've asked clients for referrals. I've sent out some email marketing. But I haven't really done anything that has been super organized, and mostly it has not been consistent. And the lack of consistency is something that makes it very difficult to be able to have someone else help me.

You know, I can't have someone help me with my social media, postings, and graphic design if I don't have a plan on what I'm going to be working on. And so I have finally gotten to the point where I know I need to make this happen.  After I did some of that, the networking, which I'm still doing and, and building up some of my referral relationships by meeting, you know, my referral partners for lunch or for coffee, or even to meet them and see their facilities.

And a lot of those people for me are financial advisors, their other business owners, maybe other public accountants that are in the area. And that has really helped in forming a relationship with the person so that they know how I work with clients. And so that's been great. But what hasn't been back behind the scenes is when that person would go look me up, they would not see a consistent message.

And they're not seeing, um, consistent activity, whether it's blog posts or, uh, podcast episodes, et cetera. So, after I did all these things, I decided that I was going to, uh, work with, The person who taught the marketing class that I attended in 2022 to have him do a marketing audit for everything that I have out there, whether it's my Facebook business page, whether it's Yelp or Google reviews, my websites, all of the things, and he went through and did a complete audit and gave me feedback on where things need to improve right away, where things could improve.

And really, he was the one that brought it all together for me and said, you really need to get this into a system that works for you, that your podcast and your accounting practice work together. They're not separate things. By having a podcast, I can. Get out there and put my expertise out there. I can connect with people who aren't currently clients.

I can connect with people who could refer me clients. And by having those be two completely separate type of activities, where I'm marketing for the accounting firm and then I'm also marketing for the podcast. It was one, too much, too much for me to do, too much time. And two, it was. Not creating the sense of people knowing, liking, and trusting me by having these two separate things.

So what's, I think that was a huge insight from him and I appreciate it. And you will see as I move forward in the next few weeks and months that I will be working to integrate. The two things a little bit more clearly, and that means I'm not maybe just talking to other firm owners, although firm owners can learn from me on, you know, how to run their accounting practice.

And there will be some things that are very specific to accounting firms. But it will also be for other businesses who can also learn from my experiences. Things are not specific to my industry. Hiring, that's not specific to my industry. You know, vetting clients, I've talked about that in the past.

That's something that every business owner probably needs to Have a handle on and I am going to work more towards making the podcast a little bit more open and attractive to those customers who, and clients who might be interested in learning about that for their business, even if it's not bookkeeping or accounting related.

So I've really been working hard to figure out what it is I need to get out there. And most of it is relating to just defining those areas that I can help with. Whether that's on the accounting side or on the business building side, whatever that is, and I've been working pretty hard at it. I've finally gotten some major milestones under my belt, and now I'm hoping that that will translate into a kind of a methodology that I should be able to have someone help me, meaning, you know, I've been doing all the tech myself.

I've been doing. All of the, um, graphic design myself, oh my gosh, I'm sure if people have looked at my stuff, they're like, oh my gosh, who's your graphic designer? Well, that's me. I am not a graphic designer, but I am designing all of the things that happen in all of the places on my Facebook page, Instagram, YouTube.

All the things, so forgive me if it's not great because I'm an accountant by trade and not a designer. So, but I've always been doing it myself and mostly because I could not guarantee that I would have work for someone because I was so inconsistent. So things that I have learned in the last two years, maybe not so much the hows of how to do all the things, but it is that marketing and Branding and all of those things are so very, very  termined by consistency and understanding that this is a long term approach.

It is not something that is short term, you know, you're not going to see quick results. You've got to keep working. And I realized that for me, I want instant gratification. That's not going to happen. But what I can do to make that happen is to start building some systems that make this more consistent.

You know, so that I have a schedule that I have the tasks and the steps that I need to do in order to produce a podcast episode or get an email out or any of those things. And figuring out that consistency is key. I'm pretty sure that that was told to me in the marketing class that I took two years but haven't quite gotten the handle on that until very recently.

The other thing that has moved me forward is that I have think I have finally connected with the things that light me up in my business, things that don't stress me out, things that make Me happy and I am excited to talk about those things, you know, finding, finally understanding what those things are has made creating the messaging around what my firm does or what my podcast does way easier to do.

I'm able to kind of put into words what I have been trying to define for a very long time. So once you are able to really kind of hone in on what it is that lights you up, you should be able to really dig in and start to Manage your message and deliver your message and start to get a little cohesive.

And one of the big things that a poor of who did my marketing audit said is the focus on what makes you different and why that's important to your customers. Why is it important to my customers that I run a business that is public accounting and doesn't involve anybody? Working overtime. Why do I do that?

I do that because we give better service if we're not overtired. We give better service if we have a balanced life, you know, where we are spending time with our family and don't feel like we are sacrificing day after day for get to get client work done. So I built a firm that is based on permanent part time employment, and I've built a firm that's based on subscription pricing.

No hourly billing. And a poor Vermont, he said, you need to highlight those things. What makes you different is what is attractive to other people as far as wanting to work with you. And that was super important lesson to learn. I feel like I've really started to address all those things that make us different and why that's important.

And we're not being different just to be different. We're being different because. It makes the work feel less like work, and it gets me back to my passion of being able to help people by relieving stress by, you know, the things that stress people out about their accounting is that they feel like it's time consuming or it's hard or it's confusing, or they're so scared to get it wrong, and those things are things that don't stress me out.

They don't stress my team out. We work with numbers and aren't scared of getting it wrong because we have the training and the expertise. And so we are so happy when we get to a client and they say, Oh my gosh, I was so stressed out about this and now I'm not. You know, so relieving their stress so that they can have A more balanced life and have, you know, feel like they're not sacrificing things just to get their accounting done.

That's where we come in and we love it. So those are the types of things that need to be in my marketing messages. How are we helping? What makes us different? And why is that important? So here it comes. We're going to try all the things now, you know, I talked about this two years ago and I talked about those modern.

Marketing approaches, probably not considered modern and a lot of people stand just because they've, that's all they've really known is that you market via social media when you have a website presence, you have email marketing now websites and email marketing. I have had, I did get my website updated, but it is going to go through another update now that I have better message to relay.

So the modern marketing approaches are still. Again, inconsistent in my world, they have a long way to go. I know that it's going to involve some scheduling. It is probably going to involve some outsourcing and it needs to get to that consistency level. And I honestly believe, which is hard for me to say, from someone who is coming from an anti marketing position and anti marketing background for so, so long, for me to say that I think I see the value.

You know, I am finally, it's finally sinking into this hard head of mine that there are things that make sense that I've been told over and over and I am finally grasping and I think it's going to make a difference and I think it's going to be very important to the growth of my company. And to the services that we provide and essentially the position we are as far as being an expert in the area of accounting and QuickBooks and Xero and all of those things.

So. I'm happy that I finally feel like I've turned a corner relating to the marketing. I am excited to kind of put this plan together, although I know it's going to be hard. I, there's no doubt about it. It's going to be hard. Now, I know that one of the things I said a couple years ago was I need to set aside some focused time to do all the things.

And I'm taking that in baby steps. I didn't do it two years ago. I did not start it did not set aside that focus time. And what I have done this year already is to move forward into at least first quarter of next year and schedule some times and my content of what I'm going to be talking about. It started calendar blocking.

So at least it's out there. I see it. I can say, Oh yes, I need to be ready for that. And I'm not just trying to squeeze it in in between all the other things that life throws at me. So I realized that is not working and I need to schedule the time. I need to stick to the schedule and I need to be prepared for when that scheduling scheduled time shows up.

And I'm ready to go. So the focus time, I think, will be really important. And I think if I stick to it, I'm gonna see results faster, which, like I said, I want instantaneous gratification. And I know this is a long term plan, but taking those steps to say, Okay, I've got some time scheduled to do all the things in the midst of everything else that happens should hopefully make this much easier.

The last thing I remember that I talked about in the original accounting accountants marketing mindset podcast was around progress over perfection, and I am still a firm believer in that. So you have to take steps. You have to move forward. They don't have to be huge steps. They can be small steps. But you cannot wait for everything to be perfect.

And that's where I am. I am ready to kind of jump in and get things done and get things scheduled and get things marketed and get some branding kind of defined. And I know that it's not going to be perfect, And I'm not going to beat myself up over that.  I'm one person. I am not skilled in every single area that marketing challenges me on. 

So I will make sure that I push forward and be uncomfortable, but get it done. Move forward because if there's nothing out there, then there's nothing out there for anyone to be able to know, to see you, to know that what, what are you doing? What are, what do you stand for? What services do you provide? If you don't do anything because you're worried about perfection, you're never going to get out in front of anybody.

And that doesn't isn't good either. So I really feel like this year is going to be maybe one of those turning points. On the marketing thing, we are focused as a firm on growing and really defining a team and a system that kind of is untraditional in the accounting world. And I want to leverage that to really Help me get clients that really want to work with us, but also to share what I'm doing with other business owners that if they're in a place where they feel like they're doing things a little different in their business or in their industry, and it's okay.

Get out there, do it, talk about it, share it, build a marketing plan around it, and see what happens. That's what we're going to do here, so look forward to in the future, maybe you're going to see some, maybe some new graphics, maybe some more posts from me. Maybe some emails from me, maybe a new website layout.

I'm not sure. I don't have all the things in the plan, but I do know that the plan is going to be one, uh, the marketing plan is going to be one of the biggest things that I'm going to work on in the next 12 months. So it has to become something that is front and center. Something that is, I was going to say part of my DNA, but I'm sorry, I don't think marketing is ever going to be part of my DNA.

No offense to marketing people out there, but it is just one of those things that has always just felt a little difficult for me to grab onto. But I'm going to try, I am going to try. So to 2025 marketing, here I come. Now it's been two years in the making. So it took two years for that information that was passed on to me to kind of finally settle in and take root and maybe, like I said, get through this thick skulk.

So I plan on, you know, giving you some updates occasionally. And like I said, you may see some, some new and exciting things coming. And I look forward to sharing them with you. But what I want you to do is to go forward with Anything that you are feeling passionate about know, you know, latch onto it and know that if it lights you up, it is something that is going to light up other people because when you're excited about it, they're excited about it.

And that's what I want to be sharing with everyone is that it makes everything easier around marketing. If you have figured out what it is that you are excited about, and I'm excited. Maybe not about the marketing, but about helping those people relieve their stress, to build a firm that my team is not full of stress, and that we are helping other people understand their numbers.

It's all very important to me, and I'm so excited to get the message out. It's going to be a lot of copywriting, and there's going to be, there's going to be a lot of pieces to it, but I'm pretty excited about it. So hopefully that excitement holds up and I will keep you posted. I hope you enjoyed this episode on my marketing updates, and I hope that maybe it has sparked you to think about things that you might want to do in the coming year to get your message out there and maybe, um, work on that marketing.

So for those of us in the accounting industry, You know, the mindset is still a little hard to get past, but once I do it, I think I'm going to really enjoy it. Okay. That's all I have for now. I will talk to you next time. Bye for now. 

Thanks for listening to another episode of Accounting with Confidence. My hope is that my experiences can help you navigate the realities of owning and operating your business. Please subscribe or follow the podcast on your favorite podcast listening platform so that you never miss an episode. Feel free to leave me a text by using the send us a text message link in the show description and let me know how I'm doing.