Short-term lead generation is getting a lot of play in the media and marketing funnels these days (Google AdWords, anyone?). However, if you really want to build and maintain a profitable firm, you need to take a longer term view of your prospective and existing client relationships. This is because the long-term view on client relationships will help you achieve greater ROI on your efforts. The best way to achieve this?
Use client lifecycle marketing (CLM, a. k. a. customer lifecycle marketing) to attract new clients and keep your existing customers coming back. This approach will typically provide your firm with much greater ROI than short-term lead generation because it creates deeper relationships that can lead in to recurring and more expansive relationships. For example, instead of simply having a client who buys annual tax preparation services, you can have a client who has monthly accounting and ongoing client advisory services.
A client lifecycle is the journey your target audience takes as they buy services from your firm, become a loyal client, and then eventually become a non-client (at some point whether by choice or at the end of a career, this is bound to happen).
For a deeper dive into this topic, make sure to register for our webinar "The Fail-Proof Formula for Accounting Firm Growth" on May 12 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time. You can register here.
Understanding your client’s buying journey and aligning it with your firm’s growth and business goals can help you create an effective lifecycle marketing strategy. There are typically four phases to a client buying journey:
- Beginning phase: Clients learn about your firm (awareness) and become familiar with your brand (engagement).
- Clients learn about your services and may compare with other services to determine if they want to buy (evaluation).
- Once a client buys a product or service, you can use new promotions and re-engagement campaigns as well as client engagement strategies to keep them coming back, starting the cycle again.
There are many strategies which can be employed at each phase of the client lifecycle, all of them seek to create a long-term relationship with your prospective clients and existing client base. We will dive into them on May 12, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time during the webinar, "The Fail-Proof Formula for Accounting Firm Growth."
During the webinar, you’ll learn how to efficiently create and deliver an effective, ongoing, marketing and sales campaign to support CLM for your firm with tools that make it easier than ever before. You can register here.
Ultimately, the client lifecycle marketing approach encourages you to treat the client journey like a cycle—one that repeats itself and evolves as you continue to nurture the relationship you have begun and hope to continue for as long as possible with your new and existing clients.