Making Your Message Memorable
We understand that financial professionals, while being good with numbers, often struggle with PR, namely promoting themselves and their services. When it comes to marketing your services, you need to ensure that your message is more than memorable, but provokes action (namely, contacting you and scheduling a consultation). As competition to secure prospective clients increases throughout the recession, you need to sharpen your marketing skills and learn new ways to enhance your messages. Kim T. Gordon, in her Entrepreneur.com article entitled “How to Make Your Message Stick,” shares four tips designed to move prospective clients to action.
1. Evoke emotion
We’re all moved by emotion. Whether it be joy, fear, sadness, or happiness, we often make key decisions based upon how the potential outcome will make us feel. Your call-to-action will likely be more successful if it follows an emotional appeal. It’s important, however, that you avoid marketing ploys that are heaven-handed, crossing the line from emotional appeal to manipulation. When done correctly, however, an emotional appeal can move prospective clients to action faster than any other marketing strategy.
2. Earn referrals.
Gordon claims that when researchers ask American consumers what influences their buying decisions most, referrals from families and friends always top the list. In order for current clients to actually refer your services to their family and friends, you must ensure that you’re providing stellar customer service. And you don’t have to wait for your clients to spread the word on their own. If you time it right, you can ask them if they have anyone to refer; be sure to offer incentives for sharing this information.
3. Create “ah-hah” moments.
When you enable prospective clients to understand something new for the first time, you create an “ah-hah” moment that makes your services more appealing. If that “ah-hah” moment enables potential clients to see that retaining your services may make them more profitable in the end, you can help them have an epiphany that drives them to your practice faster than anything else.
4. Offer significant savings.
Everyone likes a deal. When you can offer significant savings for introductory services, you’re more likely to attract new clients. It can be a first-time, returning or seasonal offer. Whatever the case, it should be considerable enough to attract quality clients that will return even when your fees normalize.
Build Your Practice
UAC’s Universal Practice Builder (UPB) program has helped other accountants like you grow their practices beyond their wildest dreams. Designed to train you how to market your services effectively, the UPB will share more than 12 proven marketing techniques that will enable you to secure 15 to 25 qualified leads per month. In fact, this course is guaranteed to make you more than $30,000 in increased annualized billings in just 12 months. That’s nearly 17 times the cost of the course! That’s quite the ROI. But don’t take our word for it. Listen to our graduates share how this program has changed the face of their practices. Visit Universal Accounting Center today!
Resources
Gordon, Kim T. “How to Make Your Message Stick.” 11 Feb. 2009 Entrepreneur.com