Marketing Leadership

An accountancy or law firm can produce a great deal of marketing activity and still be no better known twelve months later. What makes the difference is somebody senior holding the direction, week after week, while everyone else is billing.

For several firms I am the outsourced head of marketing, sometimes called a fractional CMO. A half day or a day a week, working directly with the partners.

How it starts

I meet the managing partner first, and the conversation is about the firm. Where is it going over the next few years? Is there a hope of being bought? What does growth mean here in practice?

Marketing strategy follows from that answer. What the firm says about itself, week after week, has to point at the same place the firm is going.

Then I meet the partners who want to grow. Not every partner does, and that is worth knowing early.

What the work looks like

Take a property partner who wants more clients of a particular type. We go through where he is now, what he is already doing, what is getting in his way, and what would put him in front of that market more often.

What comes out is specific to him. It might be writing. It might be the right events. Award entries, a survey, figures worth sharing, a podcast, a panel at a network conference.

The question underneath is always the same. Where is the revenue for this partner over the next twelve months, and does this point at it?

The first month

I want things finished. In the first month that usually means content moving, LinkedIn posts going out, an award entry submitted. Partners believe this is real when they watch it happen.

What firms ask for

Firms ask me for a brochure, or a service page for a particular service.

What they usually need is a proposition. For a sector, or for a type of client. The page is easy once that is settled. Without it the page explains what the firm does and says nothing about who it is for. It is the thing firms get wrong most often.

How it works

Most of my work is long term, with accountancy and law firms across Ireland, the UK and the US. My longest client relationship ran for over ten years. Others have run seven, five and four. Several are still going today.

Start with a conversation

Most managing partners want to think this through before deciding anything, and often before involving anyone else in the firm. Contact me directly here.