1. The Content Conundrum: 4 Steps for Better Consistency
By Kelly Ernest, Marketing Manager, KatzAbosch
It is a topic that comes up over and over again as a marketer – content. It is king in the professional services arena in terms
of educating your target markets and differentiating yourself as a firm. Throughout the year and due mainly to the nature of
our business, there are definite ebbs and flows in an accounting firm that hinder our ability to deliver consistent material.
Three months out of the year, we have tax season or as I like to call it the “I’m too
busy for marketing” season. Immediately following tax season, we marketers get
over‐excited at the thought of finally getting some emails answered, events
booked, and content written. Then, you blink and everyone has headed to Fiji or
somewhere off the grid for vacation all summer. By the time you re‐connect with
your colleagues, it’s August and more than half of the year has gotten away from
you. Now, I’m sure that being the creative genius you are, you’ve found a way to
stretch other campaigns (advertising, sponsorships, re‐purposed content, video,
social media, etc.) throughout the year to keep your markets engaged, right?
Well, what if I told you that there are easier ways of going about doing this by
following a process of discovery tailored to your specific practices and then
implementing it throughout your firm with ease?
Whether it be content generation, engagement or measurement that limits your
strategy to provide consistent messaging year‐round, these steps should help to streamline your efforts and deliver a more
time‐efficient solution.
1. Assessment – It pays to step back once in a while to take a pulse on everything you have going on. If you have a
website, you have the ability to measure digital campaigns on Google Analytics. You may also be measuring
campaigns from separate analytics tools that marketing automation software can provide. Either way, I would
suggest taking a look at this on at least a monthly basis. From this platform, you will be able to identify trends over
time on what campaigns are working for you. You may measure them in a few ways depending on what goals you
have set for your campaigns. Once you have established some benchmarks for qualifying a successful campaign, you
can begin to determine what type of content is working for you and also, what platform it works best on for your
target audience. This leads to purposeful planning.
2. Authenticity – I’ve seen and used my share of the cookie‐cutter canned content and I get it! Hiring a ghostwriter or
purchasing a software to deliver quick industry specific material saves time and makes our lives a lot easier. In some
cases, it makes sense to supplement this type of content for firm‐written material if the result of not using it means
no distribution at all. Although, honestly, if your rational behind content generation is to establish your experts as
relevant thought leaders in the business community, they are going to need to have a full‐bodied repertoire that not
only includes authoring articles, whitepapers and blogs but speaking engagements, community involvement and
industry niche immersion (another discussion but important to mention). Be honest with yourselves. The world we
live in today is quick to judge and fast‐paced. It leaves no room for boring canned content that your competitors are
also putting out. Where’s the differentiation that we were hired to provide? This leads to my next point…
3. Engagement – Yea, yea, I make it sound soo easy to motivate my partners to generate their own authentic content.
However, it is justly one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced as an accounting marketer. There are a few ways you
can address this lack of motivation:
a. Take inventory of your staff. Identify those who either have a specialty service or expertise they provide,
those who actually enjoy writing or those who may have presented on a topic recently that could be easily
turned into an article. Meet with these people to discuss a strategy and set some deadlines.
b. One hour a week, research hot topics in your target industry whether this be through client surveys,
association industry topics, recent industry conference topics, or if all else fails, Google. Sending your
thought leaders something that may spark an article idea will help with motivation and be well appreciated.

2. c. Outline a list of questions or the format of an article for them. We are rightfully not the technical experts
on our service offerings but we can read and write (I hope). Outlining an article or blog with leading
questions to provoke answers pretty much spells it out for them. Once you establish a template for this,
use it over and over again and tweak the questions as you see fit.
d. Pain points; all clients have them. Ask your colleagues what are some common gripes they are hearing
from their clients and then have them write about them! It’s the easiest method in the book. Use real world
scenarios to tell a story to your other clients. They’ll eat it up.
e. Using an editorial calendar has helped to keep me organized with what is going out at all times and also,
accountants appreciate the added structure. To being creating your editorial calendar, meet with some of
your department heads on services that are most popular during certain months of the year. They may also
be able to clue you in on certain industry trends throughout the year. For example, nonprofits have year
ends (3/31, 6/30, 9/30, 12/31) where they may need to start thinking about hiring an auditor months in
advance. Be proactive and calendar a time in advance to send them helpful tips on preparing for an audit
to display your firm’s expertise. Even better, if you have purchased a marketing automation software, you
can schedule content well in advance to reduce time and stress.
4. Platforms and Mixed Media – You’ve come this far. Now, it’s time to get found! Utilizing multiple platforms helps
you reach different types of users. Not everyone reads through the newsfeed on LinkedIn for content. Try using all
professional social platforms for reach and pay attention to what is appropriate on each of them. For example,
LinkedIn does not recognize hashtags so why use them? Twitter only allows 140 characters so be choosy with your
wording and don’t post a paragraph that would be cut off and thus, useless. You get the point.
In addition to multiple platforms, try multiple forms of media as a way to deliver content. Multi‐ and re‐purposing
content has made my job so much easier for the fact that you are capitalizing on every piece of information you are
putting out there. Use video, webinars and podcasts where applicable. Pictures speak a thousand words, use them.
Record live presentations and use them on your website. If you’re tracking an article that received a ton of great
feedback, try turning it into a webinar or live event. And every once in a while, send them something in print with a
handwritten note. When was the last time you’ve seen someone do that?!
For more information, please contact Kelly Ernest, Marketing Manager at KatzAbosch at kernest@katzabosch.com.
Kelly Ernest has over seven years of professional services marketing experience. She has
helped firms develop successful marketing strategies and execute targeted marketing
programs geared to bottom line results. Kelly cultivates programs to develop niche markets,
devises media positioning strategies, oversees client referral programs, and manages
marketing activities. She is also involved with planning local and regional events, inbound
marketing, expediting newsletter and press releases, and facilitating involvement and
support of local community organizations. Kelly has led vision for growth by organizing and
executing brand awareness programs, events, advertising, social media and public relations
campaigns. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a Minor in
Marketing from York College of Pennsylvania. Kelly served as Co‐Chair of the Greater
Washington Chapter of the Marketing Director Support Group and is an active member of
the Association for Accounting Marketing. In the past, she has served as Team Leader for
Volunteer Alexandria and Marketing Chair for the Arlington Academy of Hope.