Adding value with the Marketing and BD working group

Praxity marketers work together to achieve their aims

Marketing is not only a way of promoting your services, it also forges connections, demonstrates expertise and can lift the image of an entire industry. High quality messaging that promotes your firm and its offerings points to longer-term goals – developing new leads, building client loyalty and strengthening your firm’s reputation. With a new emphasis on leveraging data and quantifying client experience and brand image, marketing plays a pivotal role in your firm’s success, both in the public image and at the bottom line.

Within the Praxity working groups, many technical areas have their own focused forum for development. Until recently, marketing professionals lacked the same cross-firm forum to share experiences and solutions. The Praxity Marketing and BD working group now brings the many marketing experts within the Alliance together. Member firms have different approaches to marketing and business development, with the working group giving them the chance to discuss strategic initiatives, collaborate and share ideas face-to-face. This inter-firm knowledge base deepens the outstanding work that members are themselves doing.

As with all the Praxity working groups, both the rollcall and focus are international and cross-border. First and current chair, Lisa Cawley Ruiz, who is Director of Marketing and Communications at Kaufman Rossin in the US, sees this as a golden opportunity for Praxity members to align their work – “This group provides a platform for marketing leaders to learn about hot topics impacting their teams and their firms, connect with their peers through the exchange of ideas and experiences, and discuss shared challenges and opportunities in their industry.”

Lisa is joined by Vice-Chair Vandepeear, Marketing Partner at William Buck, Australia, who herself has over 16 years of experience in accounting marketing. Her key skills of strategic planning, leadership and client-centric strategy have driven growth and engagement across her career, all of which she now brings to the working group. The UK conference provides a platform for the UK BD and Marketing Group to meet in person, while North American marketers had the chance to meet this year at an external dinner at the Association of Accounting Marketing Summit in Orlando, Florida.

While each firm has its own particular focus in its region, there are many things that are true globally. For example, the value of clear, consistent and credible communication is impossible to overstate, ensuring that clients, stakeholders and the marketplace at large know who you are, what you do and where to find you.

Marketing techniques and business development strategies vary across the Alliance. Some member firms have multi-department teams to service these areas, while some outsource their work to agencies to better serve their needs. The methodology may differ, but the objective is the same, which is exactly what the working group aims to use to everyone’s advantage. Through the Praxity conferences, quarterly online meetings and one-to-one communication, marketing professionals can reach out to each other and find support and guidance when they need it.

At the group’s first meeting, attendees agreed that technology adoption is an area of focus for almost everyone. Topics of discussion included technology in the form of AI and CRM, cross-selling, digital marketing and inter-department collaboration, alongside developments in the marketing space. This included automation and making processes more efficient, as well as how to communicate the edge that new IT developments could give clients.

There was also a focus on client experience, introducing KPIs and tangibles in this area. As the first of many regular guest speakers, Eric Gregg, CEO of ClearlyRated, hosted a presentation that discussed client feedback, the value of data in business, and how it is nothing unless it is utilized effectively. Across the Alliance, marketers leverage their knowledge to deliver world class service to their clients, verifying their work through data and of course, results. The Praxity Marketing and BD working groups will meet quarterly, with the next meeting to be held in August.

Read the full article at Praxity.