Today’s accounting industry bears little resemblance to the landscape of a decade ago. Private equity (PE) groups are gobbling up independent practices at a brisk clip, and not just smaller firms: 2024 brought PE investments in major players like Baker Tilly and Grant Thornton. Lured by the capital to invest in talent and technology—and the economies of scale needed to reduce costs and become more price-competitive—many mid-sized accounting firms have made the PE plunge or are weighing the option. 

BUT…many others prefer to stay independent.  

If that sounds like your business, you need to understand how a consolidating market and a whole new buying process have altered the world of accounting business development. And prepare to leverage the 4 marketing strategies that will drive your growth despite these headwinds. 

Lots of Deep Pockets Are Pursuing Your Accounting Clients 

PE-backed accounting firms have the capital to invest in a sizable marketing staff, typically made up of a highly paid Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and a host of team members who each bring very specialized marketing expertise. They have the talent to develop a go-to-market strategy and plan based on data and research, and the capabilities to execute it on a massive scale.  

With the resources to stay in front of the very prospects you’re targeting, these rollups make it tough to compete for new business. Especially because… 

Your Buyers Are Venturing Beyond Their Backyard for Accounting Services 

Ten or 20 years ago, you could count on most buyers of accounting services to stick to the local market. The industry was hyper-localized, so referrals went a long way toward building the business. 

Then the Internet broke down geographic barriers, encouraging businesses to buy from companies within a much wider radius—even for professional services like accounting. Now, if the buyer believes a firm in a different region has the experience and capabilities they need, location is a non-issue. 

Meanwhile clients have latched on to the idea that hiring an accounting firm with expertise in their industry offers tremendous value. Unfortunately, that’s encouraged many firms to promote themselves as experts in every niche under the sun. Buyers looking for industry-specific expertise are at best confused; at worst, duped. 

These 4 Accounting Marketing Strategies Will Drive Your Growth 

Between a consolidating market and a buyer pool that’s willing to look outside their own backyard, mid-sized accounting firms that want to remain independent need to be on top of their game when it comes to marketing. In our experience working with premier mid-sized accounting firms, the following strategies are a must for firms that are serious about ramping up growth. 

1. Articulate and commit to your accounting firm’s brand. 

Few accountants wake up thinking about the firm’s brand. But in the professional services world, your brand IS your product. Your people, processes, and culture set a tone for what it’s like to do business with your company. And those are some of the very elements that get lost in the shuffle when firms are rolled up into large PE platforms. 

Growth-minded accounting firms can seize this opportunity by differentiating themselves with a solid brand that resonates with buyers. It’s about creating clear and impactful messaging that communicates what your firm stands for and what makes you unique, along with a comprehensive marketing program to support the brand.  

Maybe you have true (not aspirational) expertise in certain sectors, and that translates to better solutions to your clients’ challenges. Whatever your differentiation, your marketing needs to demonstrate it in a compelling way. It’s job #1 for firms that want to attract more new clients and create the stickiness to retain more existing business. 

2. Rethink how you staff your accounting firm’s marketing function. 

A mid-sized accounting firm can’t afford to staff marketing the same way as a big PE-backed firm. Nor should you try. 

Many firms are achieving much better results by adopting the fractional marketing approach. Fractional marketing gives you access to the precise skillsets and resources your marketing plan requires, without a big overhead commitment—leaving more budget for execution that drives growth. It’s a much more effective approach than assigning it all to a single in-house generalist who doesn’t have the experience to set strategy or the specialized expertise to execute a comprehensive marketing program.  

A fractional marketing team, led by a Fractional CMO, will develop and execute a strategic marketing program that helps you gain greater penetration in the industries you already serve and plant seeds in additional sectors you can realistically target. You’ll level-up your marketing, optimize your spend, and accelerate your growth. 

3. Integrate AI into your accounting marketing. 

Only about 16 months after ChatGPT launched, we’re already hearing that AGI (artificial general intelligence) will be ready for prime time in 3-5 years, able to think better and faster than the smartest human. As AI transforms knowledge work as we know it, you’re probably evaluating how it will change the way you deliver accounting services. It’s time to think the same way about your marketing. 

Accounting firms that leverage AI as a strategic marketing advantage will outperform competitors that don’t. If your marketing plan still revolves around tactics that are becoming less effective in the age of AI, like traditional inbound marketing, or you’re creating high-level top-of-the-funnel blogs that sound like everyone else’s, you’re wasting valuable budget. To compete with firms flush with PE cash, you need to evolve your marketing to deliver measurable results in a new AI-dominated world. 

4. Cross-sell your accounting services the right way. 

As traditional accounting services like tax and audit become commoditized, many firms are diversifying their offerings by building an advisory practice that offers HR support, business valuation, or transaction advisory services. And they see a powerful opportunity to cross-sell these new offerings to their tax and audit clients. 

Sure, it’s low-hanging fruit. But unless you take a strategic, methodical approach to cross-selling, it won’t happen.  

You can’t expect partners and associates to morph into salespeople who know how to cross-sell new services to existing clients. It takes an investment in people and infrastructure to diversify your solutions. And it will only pay off if you develop a strategic marketing program that incorporates proven cross-selling techniques that generate measurable results. 

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If you’re ready to drive more growth for your accounting firm in 2025, Marketri is ready to help! We’re the fractional marketing experts that help professional services firms generate new revenue. 

Schedule an introductory call with Marketri President Deb Andrews to learn more.