Unlocking Growth: Equil Advisory’s brand story partnering with Excelerate Marketing
In the realm of financial and professional services, it's all about reputation, delivery, and exceeding your customers' expectations.
We know that business is all about relationships and most accounting firms haven't received a single inquiry from their website but are still incredibly successful. The growth of their business results from strong relationships and referrals from supplementary businesses to theirs.
Accounting firms, however, often don’t realise that they are not only running a business but building a brand.
At Excelerate Marketing, we specalise in working with accounting firms and other professional service businesses. We pride ourselves on operating a little differently from most traditional agencies. For starters, we don't sell a package without first getting to know your business, understanding how you deliver your services, what makes you great (or not great), and what the aspirations are for the business in the next 3-5 years.
The marketing strategy developed for our client Equil Advisory is designed to sustainably grow their business and these are the key objectives associated with that strategy:
Elevate their brand positioning within the industry
Add incremental value to existing clients
Attract and retain a high caliber of staff
Starting with the Why
Let's delve a little into the 'why' of Equil Advisory and then share how Excelerate Marketing act as a growth partner to elevate their brand and grow their revenue.
If you met any staff member of Equil Advisory, your first impression wouldn't be thinking they are the 'typical accountant'. They are friendly, warm, personable, and extremely passionate about the clients they work with - which is why we love visiting them at their office! They go above and beyond to deliver superior service and strategy for the businesses they work with. They are now a team of 15 after just 7 years.
Many business owners, whether turning over 500k or 50 million, experience overwhelm when it comes to tax regulations, obligations, and the daily grind of managing finances. Equil Advisory's services allow for tailored options for clients and range from your standard tax compliance work to business and tax advice, tax structures, and also their outsourced CFO model.
The outsourced CFO work they undertake for clients is incredibly unique and impactful, as it allows clients to complete their finance team, without the huge overheads but with the flexibility and insight needed to make sound decisions. They know your numbers better than you do and aren’t afraid to get in the trenches with you to get things done.
Marketing Growth Strategy
Now let’s delve into why they engaged us. Have you ever had that task you need to do but just don’t ever get around to it? For most growing businesses, it’s their marketing strategy. But why do you need one if you’ve been growing organically and successfully without one? Eventually, the pipeline will slow, the customers may become unsettled and the staff lose interest in the business they are working for. This is why marketing externally to your customers but also engaging your staff is crucial.
Where we started:
Updated their website copy to reflect the skills and expertise of their team
Revised the communications strategy and created a customer survey
Created polished, professional, and educational content shared across social media – consistently!
Created a consistent calendar of on-brand and tangential blog content
Leveraged existing partnerships and network locally
In the first 12 months, we achieved the following for Equil Advisory:
400% increase in new business revenue
50% increase in organic website traffic
More engaged customers
Helped grow the team with staff that fit the culture
Increased brand awareness online & offline
Established a wider network of established referral sources and strategic partnerships
Significantly improve engagement rates on social media.
Created an outward appearance of being a desirable company to work for
Equil Advisory has been able to maintain a consistent trajectory of growth over the last 4 years of working with them. They have not only improved their delivery and customer experience but developed a strong internal culture and are certainly a desirable company to work for. The team comprises of a select group of highly accomplished business and financial advisors. Their vision is to:
“Enable business owners to make strategic financial decisions and eliminate the daily struggle of managing their money, fuelled by the innovative spirit and collaborative ethos of our forward-thinking team.”
Is it normal for accounting firms to get an average 30% engagement rate on their social posts… no definitely not! But Equil Advisory does! Here’s the top performing over the last 6 months:
Social post 1: 63.49% Melbourne Cup
Social post 2: 49.89% Christmas Party
Social post 3: 49.87% International Women’s Day
Social post 2: 28.74% Internal Wellbeing Day
We’ll let you in on a little secret… what all these posts have in common is it’s about the team. Sure, there are educational posts about the business, and an awesome video series was created and launched recently (link) but it’s about variety as well as consistency. It’s also about how these posts are written and the message you’re sharing. It’s important to tell the story about who the business is, as well as how you serve your customers.
So, next time you’re considering you’re spending time working on the business and reviewing your growth plans, have a think about the goals you want to achieve and how your brand could be accelerated by a consistent and robust marketing strategy.
Excelerate Marketing is planning to run a small workshop for select business owners in September, so please reach out and email info@excelerate.marketing if you are interested.