You don't want to spend money on marketing. You have other things to do with your cash. Maybe you don’t believe CPAs should sell themselves. You might be open to marketing but won’t spend big money. But you can market. You can do it with professional dignity. You can do it with virtually no money. And you should do it if you want to grow.
First, understand that marketing different from sales. Sales involves looking someone in the eyes and asking them to buy something. It often involves face-to-face meetings and cold calls. No one really likes this. On the other hand, marketing is simply about raising your visibility—that is, getting your name out there and establishing credibility while creating a need or a desire you can address.
Six Ideas For Marketing With a (close to) Zero Dollar Outlay
It all starts with visibility and name recognition. Here are a few ideas:
1. LinkedIn and Other Social Media. Let's get the obvious one of the way first: You invest the time to build your network. Don’t send “I would like to connect…” messages. Compose each one personally and identify the context of how you know each other. This might be college, Chamber membership, neighbors, and so on. From time to time, find interesting article links to share. Post them along with a short statement explaining why they might find it interesting. Cost: Your dollar cost is zero...
Source: Bryce Sanders (www.accountingweb.com)
