02/08/21 – The Marketing Fix Newsletter

FIXYR’S VIEW: Sponsored by the Association for Accounting Marketing (AAM) this study was completed in the the fall of 2020.

Growth Outlook Improving – With more time living with the pandemic and better understanding of client, employee, and firm needs, respondents of the survey had a better outlook on growth going into 2021. CPA firms are more likely to anticipate no impact to revenue or some increase in revenue due to new service opportunities. Potential opportunities and barriers to growth exist, and firms are anticipating revenue from projects like the Paycheck to Protection Program (PPP) to continue, while client retention and staffing issues could be hinderances. 

Increased Spending on Marketing Tech at the Expense of In-person Activities – Firms found themselves communicating with clients in greater rates than ever before thanks to the pandemic and related legislation. This increased their client exposure and opened them up for greater cross-sell opportunities. For some firms, this meant greater investment into marketing technology and virtual communication tools, given the nature of the pandemic, than what they’d done before. It also forced some firms to establish a content creation program if they did not previously have one in place, giving them a solid entry point into consistent client communication.

FIXYR’S VIEW: Email marketing remains a crucial channel for many organizations due to its accessibility, ease of use, and effectiveness in reaching target audiences.

Key findings:

More than three-quarters of marketers report the effectiveness of their email marketing efforts is improving or holding steady

The overall percentage of marketers who report “building brand awareness” as a key objective increased

Interestingly the adoption of fundamental email marketing tactics such as list hygiene, deliverability optimization, and A/B testing has plummeted since the last study. Less than one-quarter of marketers report having a DMARC policy in place.

Open rates are decreasing, particularly for the lowest performing campaigns.

FIXYR’S VIEW: Many firms are talking about evolving their Sales function, but use terms like Sales Enablement and Sales Transformation interchangeably. What is the difference? Or are they both the same? This blog illustrates how both functions are different but essentially work together within the overall sales process.

FIXYR’S VIEW: It’s very easy to say that a company should put the customer at the center of everything. Most companies say that but very few actually know how to do it. This article discusses using the “Jobs-to-be-done” framework, of which we’re big fans. Instead of looking at the demographic and psychographic factors of consumption, focuses on what people seek to achieve in a given circumstance, i.e. customers are looking for solutions to get a job done.

FIXYR’S VIEW: One of the key changes in 2020 with the pandemic was the evolution of digital advertising ROI versus traditional advertising.

– Nearly all ad buyers expect digital advertising to comprise more than 50 percent of their total marketing budget in two years

– Mobile users value search ads compared to others likely because they’re relevant to their information needs

– Twitter ads are 11% more effective than TV ads during live events

– 87% of video marketers reported that video gives them a positive ROI