Distinguish Yourself- 4 Accounting Marketing Tricks That Really Stand Out

Your prospects are saturated by nearly 4000 ads per day, and this makes it tough for your accounting business to distinguish itself for the din. You're probably thinking that number seems too high. We have an astounding ability to see what they want to see. When your psyche is overloaded by unnecessary information it just filters most of it out. As an advertiser you need to find a way to get past these filters, and that's not easy to do.

Don't worry - we'll show you how.

The first thing we need to look at is your marketing mindset. Nobody has to watch your ads. Don't just demand the attention of your audience. Learn how to EARN it.

The first step to earning attention is to provide a product your desired audience is going to care about.

From there you can go several routes:

Be Fun

A lot of the most successful commercials in history have been just plain fun to watch. They can be funny or wacky like the new "Old Spice" ad campaigns or they can be charming like the old "Coca-Cola" polar bear ads; they can even be frightening (political ads prefer this strategy) or dramatic (car ads love drama). A good sense of humor or flair for the dramatic can take you pretty far in advertising.

You can use these tricks to help your accounting practice stand out from your competitors. Just think about viral Internet sensations such as the Bed Intruder song and Double Rainbow guy. Now look at your advertisement. Look at the YouTube videos again. Now back at your commercial. OK, I'm done with the Old Spice references, but seriously. YouTube's viral videos can go a long way to illustrating what people want to watch, and these principles can be translated into your ads pretty easily.

Inspire

This ones trickier. In order to inspire you need to connect with your audience on an emotional level. Who can forget Nike's "Just Do It" or the US Army's "Be All That You Can Be". These are brilliant examples of inspirational ads. They connected with the viewers on an emotional level.

To connect emotionally, consider using customer testimonials and messages directly from the CEO.

Teach Them Something New

Your commercial can also take on the role of educator. Some very successful websites have been built entirely on this principle. Websites like eHow and KnowHow-Now generate tons of revenue just by offering useful "How To" articles.

Insurance companies, credit card companies, banks etc. rely heavilly on educational advertising. Personally I have a problem with this since these ads are so often misleading, but it works and it's very suitable to marketing accounting firms.

Piss Them Off

OK, this is a hot potato, and I don't generally recommend it as a strategy for independant professionals like you. I'm mentioning it though, because no article on this subject would be comprehensive without talking about the dark side of promoting accounting websites and practices. It's a powerful secret, but it needs to be used very carefully or it could backfire on you.

Don't underestimate the value of outrage. Pissing off the right people is the internet equivilent to setting a brush fire on a windy day. I shouldn't need to tell you that a brush fire is a very dangerous way to spread a message. Even if you know exactly what you're doing it will get out of control. In short order you will learn, in no uncertain terms, that in the accounting business there actually IS such a thing as "bad publicity".

This doesn't mean the strategy is useless to you. There are circumstances that can make this a viable tactic.

Always be on the lookout for ways to endear yourself to another product's customer base.

A perfect example of this are the famous "apple and PC ads". You remember, a good looking and clever young "apple" character schmoozes with a dorky older "PC"? Those drew on the failures of Windows Vista to build a base for Apple's new line of Macs.

More recently, Microsoft has hit back by declaring "I'm a PC" proudly in its own commercials, so be careful with this. You might want to think twice about how much you appreciate your view before you start casting stones.

These pointers will set you on the right path to creating high-quality, filter-bypassing advertising. Keep it novel. Keep your campaign original and exhilarating.

By: Brian OConnell

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Brian O'Connell is the CEO and founder of CPA Site Solutions, one of North America's most successful website businesses oriented exclusively to accounting websites.