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الخميس, 16 سبتمبر 2021 10:16
تسويق شركتك: الاستراتيجية الرقمية حتمية
غيّر عام 2020 كل شيء عن كيفية عمل الشركات، بما في ذلك كيفية تفاعلها مع الجميع من الموظفين إلى العملاء ومن البائعين إلى المجتمعات
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المحتوى بالإنجليزية
Marketing your firm: The digital strategy imperative
By David M. Toth
May 12, 2021, 9:00 a.m. EDT
5 Min Read
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2020 changed everything about how businesses operate, including how they interact with everyone from staff to clients, vendors to communities. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a digital transformation that changed the way people purchase consumer products, goods, and services. Until 2020, only 15% of companies prioritized digital transformation. In 2021 however, 77.3% of CIOs rated digital transformation as a top priority, pushing cybersecurity to second place.
Firm leaders of today and tomorrow looking to succeed in an increasingly virtual market must lean into the momentum that has been created since the beginning of the pandemic, take those learning experiences and data points, and uncover new paths to revenue growth.
Digital presence is nothing new and has lived as a function of marketing for a long time. But as client acquisition becomes more complex and anomalies like those of the Paycheck Protection Program and CARES Act have proved to firms that opportunities do exist through virtual experiences, a sound digital strategy must find its place as a pillar of your firm’s 10-year vision.
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The ability to remain competitive in 2021 and beyond is now dependent upon an approach that engages your target audience in tailored and unique ways, either pushing them through a thoughtfully designed qualification process or grooming unqualified leads to become clients of the future. Key tools to a successful plan include:
The evolution of your website into a sales tool;
Leveraging content to answer your audience’s pain points and challenges;
Thought leadership to establish expertise and positioning in key channels;
Comprehension of the “new” client journey;
A tactical approach to keyword strategy and search engine rankings;
Leveraging email marketing that has been a proven tactic in our toolbox for 20-plus years;
Defining the conversion funnel for your firm as it relates to managing each touchpoint;
Identifying digital champions inside your firm; and,
Technology adoption across marketing and sales.
As digital strategy evolves to become an immediate and impactful portion of the client experience, the prospect-to-client journey you create (read: your digital strategy) will require the same level of attention in a virtual environment as it would in-person. The above tools combine to provide rich insight into each visitor’s online movements, interests, and interactions, allowing your firm to curate a personalized, guided experience from the moment they walk in your virtual “front door.”
In fact, prospects and clients already expect and demand a frictionless journey, shifting the traditional focus of business development from relationships in the market to virtual experiences online. Providing a frictionless experience to your prospects and clients requires your firm be able to capture data, automate their interactions, and gain insight from the time they get to your website to the time they interact with your colleagues in the local community. The ability to centralize this information into one dashboard removes the hurdles and unnecessary complexity from a rapidly evolving process.
New opportunities
Geographic boundaries have vanished, but new boundaries related to the virtual buyer’s journey and the pandemic have sprung up between firms and prospective clients. This shift has created a digital strategy imperative. Every facet of the prospect-to-client relationship is now critical to maintaining a data-driven approach to measure what must be managed.
And there are big opportunities to be had. Implementation of a digital rainmaker strategy grants firms the ability to establish meaningful relationships while building a book of business that extends beyond any one individual. Opportunities generated through a broad, sophisticated digital strategy will create an output of higher conversion rates (and more time dedicated to clients and billable hours) for partners, ultimately yielding increased cash flow and profitability for the firm.
So, what are the foundations of a sound digital rainmaker strategy?
1. Data is king. So is content. You may have seen some headlines recently about the way data is going to be collected and stored by internet giants like Google, Facebook, YouTube and Amazon. Their methods are evolving rapidly to put the user first and protect their data. What does that mean for your digital strategy? Data collection will be much more critical at the firm level versus relying on third-party sources. Attention will become a commodity and competition for users’ time on the internet will be more challenging. Strong, relatable content that shows thought leadership will pave the path to establishing an authoritative voice and a strong following.
2. Focus on one vertical at a time. Developing a source of qualified leads through digital marketing of specific verticals and practice lines is the best way to create success stories for repeatable growth. Trying to tackle and embrace the entire firm's transition to one of digital culture will have its challenges. Embracing a model that is generating traceable, repeatable, and sustained revenue comes with focus, leadership, and the ability to identify digital champions within the firm. Who will be the next partner to champion video, thought leadership creation, and a podcast with 40,000 monthly subscribers?
3. Data flow drives decisions. Visibility and accountability at all levels is critical and data flow, analytics, and dashboards connecting the path from marketing inception to sales conversion provide the insight needed to know what’s working and what isn’t. Data-driven growth is integral to the future-ready firm.
4. Adoption at all levels is critical. Why do only 30% of digital transformations succeed? Because, according to McKinsey, adoption must be endemic — and that’s a hard nut to crack. Adoption that starts at the top level and becomes part of the firm's strategic plan, goals, metrics, and key performance indicators at all levels is more likely to succeed and produce the greatest return on investment.
As client acquisition becomes ever more challenging and complex, as client experiences trend toward virtual and away from in-person exclusively, and as the prospect-to-client expectations continue to evolve, this imperative will become ever more critical to your success.
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الخميس, 16 سبتمبر 2021 10:08
أمازون والضرائب العالمية
أصبحت أمازون نقطة شائكة في المحادثات بشأن الضرائب العالمية
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المحتوى بالإنجليزية
A U.S.-driven effort to reach a global accord on taxing big tech companies’ overseas profits is getting bogged down over ensnaring one firm in particular: Amazon.com Inc.
A Treasury Department proposal, which was distributed to other governments earlier this month and has been seen by Bloomberg, would subject about 100 of the largest and most profitable companies to greater taxation in countries where the firms’ users and consumers are located, as opposed to the countries where they’re headquartered.
The idea is that the new rules would apply to any large companies that exceed certain numbers, yet to be determined, for their annual revenue and profit margin. Before Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen this month jump-started efforts that the Trump administration had opposed, the talks focused on digital and “consumer-facing” businesses — definitions countries had struggled to reach agreement on.
An employee takes a package from the conveyor belt at an Amazon.com Inc. fulfillment center in Kegworth, U.K.Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
The global talks, led by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, are trying to address many countries’ concerns that tech giants — and other multinationals — aren’t being properly taxed under the current system of rules. The OECD effort seeks to replace the digital services taxes a growing number of countries are enacting to capture more revenue from companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon.
But Amazon’s unusual status as a low-margin tech giant is emerging as a sticking point in negotiations. Seattle-based Amazon recently reported a global operating margin across its businesses of 5.5 percent; that compares with Facebook’s margin of 45.5 percent and 27.5 percent at Google parent Alphabet Inc.
The U.S. proposal called for including only “the largest and most profitable” multinational corporations. It didn’t call for specific numbers, but both revenue and profitability thresholds would have to be set high to capture just 100 companies.
Two Italian government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Amazon should be covered and there’s no reason why a global tax accord can’t capture companies with narrow profit margins but high revenue. Italy, the euro area’s third-biggest economy, has imposed a 3 percent tax on companies with overall revenue above 750 million euros ($903 million) and revenue from digital services in Italy above 5.5 million euros.
A European Commission spokesperson said Tuesday that while the U.S. proposal offers a “promising opportunity” for progress toward a deal, “we should not forget what the initial policy rationale was: a fairer taxation of the digital economy. It is essential that any proposal on the table also addresses this challenge.” A French finance ministry official said they are still examining the U.S. proposal to determine if it would cover all digital multinationals.
The U.S., however, has long opposed an agreement that singles out a particular slice of the economy, such as rules that only affect digital companies, and the new Treasury proposal is intended to make the plan’s scope more quantitative and objective.
U.S. officials are aware that other finance ministries are trying to get low-margin companies captured within the profitability threshold, according to people familiar with the matter, who said Amazon is the target of these discussions. The U.S. continues to oppose efforts to target any single company or sector, said the people, who asked not to be identified.
The U.S. Treasury and Paris-based OECD declined to comment. Amazon didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Not ‘discriminatory’
“We’ve made it very clear to our European counterparts that we will not support a tax that is discriminatory toward American companies,” Wally Adeyemo, the deputy Treasury secretary, said earlier this month on CNBC.
No matter how successful an accord might otherwise be in reshaping tax collection and satisfying calls for multinational firms to pay their fair share to governments, failing to apply it to Amazon — led by the world’s richest person, and a regular target for progressive U.S. lawmakers like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren over its low tax bill — would risk public opposition to ratification in the U.S. along with European nations.
“Ultimately, it must catch Amazon, otherwise it will be deemed a failure,” and countries might unilaterally introduce their own measures, said Tommaso Faccio, an official at the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation, a group advocating for overhauling global taxes.
Negotiators are considering the U.S. pitch as nearly 140 countries work to find consensus on both the profit reallocation plan and a global minimum tax, and present it to Group of 20 finance ministers in early July. President Joe Biden recently proposed raising the U.S. minimum tax so the country can collect more revenue from multinational firms and help pay for a $2.25 trillion infrastructure and jobs package.
Business lines
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has consistently set low profit targets, preferring to invest in the business, which also reduces the company’s tax obligations. Amazon had 2020 sales of $386 billion, more than Facebook and Google combined, yet it paid less than either company in income taxes. Amazon’s retail business, which includes warehouses around the country and delivery services, costs more to operate than digital advertising businesses run by Google and Facebook.
One method under consideration for including Amazon in the rules would be to allow taxation on specific lines of business, rather than just companies as a whole, according to the people familiar with the matter. For example, if the rules considered the lucrative Amazon Web Services business — with an operating margin of 28 percent — separately from the company’s lower-margin retail arm, countries could still see some of the company’s profits reallocated.
While the U.S. isn’t completely opposed to targeting business lines, it prefers any such practice to be limited, the people said.
In public consultations on previous iterations of the OECD plan, companies have argued that business-line segmentation will become overly complex.
Or, negotiators could also find a different way of setting the revenue and profitability thresholds that does capture the company, Faccio said. That would also risk making the rules more convoluted, after the U.S. proposal sought to simplify what had become an overly complicated determination of which companies would be covered.
“The administration clearly saw the need to inject momentum,” and decided to limit the proposal’s scope in an attempt to get an overall agreement by July, said Alex Cobham, chief executive at the Tax Justice Network. “But the politics will look less smart if the most high-profile companies in terms of public concern about tax abuse turn out to be excluded.”
— With assistance from Spencer Soper, Laura Davison, William Horobin and Nico Grant
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الأحد, 12 سبتمبر 2021 12:58
عزز التسويق عبر الإنترنت لشركتك
بينما تبنى تجار التجزئة والشركات التجارية الموجهة للمستهلكين التسويق عبر الإنترنت منذ سنوات، كانت الممارسات المحاسبية بطيئة في تبني استراتيجيات التسويق الرقمي
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المحتوى بالإنجليزية
Power up your firm’s online marketing
By Lee Frederiksen
April 02, 2021, 11:07 a.m. EDT
5 Min Read
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While retailers and consumer-oriented commercial businesses embraced online marketing years ago, accounting practices have been slow to adopt digital marketing strategies. The pandemic has hastened adoption, but for most firms the move to digital marketing remains more reactive than proactive. Many of the digital tools and techniques remain unfamiliar to senior firm management.
This issue has been compounded by decades of accounting marketing tradition rooted in the belief that new business is best developed through referrals. However, while referrals still happen, they are happening less frequently. Accounting services buyers are increasingly likely to research and conduct business online. If you want to gain their attention, you’re going to have to do it through a screen.
Fortunately, there are a number of online solutions, channels and approaches that are proven to help firms like yours effectively reach and engage target buyers. To develop your own online marketing strategy, you’ll need to focus on two fundamental lead-generating drivers: the online tools and the digital content that attract your target audience.
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Reaching new-business prospects: Online tools that work
Effective online marketing is underpinned by several web-based tools that attract prospects to the top of the sales funnel. Each of these can successfully drive lead generation if utilized correctly:
Lead-generating website: Let’s face it. Most accounting websites are not dynamic, compelling marketing tools. They’re often jargon-filled, self-serving promotional vehicles focused on telling site visitors how great the firm is. To become a lead-generating machine, your website must clearly convey that your firm understands your prospects’ problems and needs and can provide solutions to address them. By offering potential clients valuable, objective information, you’re demonstrating what it would be like to work with you.
Search engine optimization (SEO): The vast majority of business professionals use the web to research the services they need. However, they will not find you unless the web knows you’re there. To do that, you need to optimize the content on your website so search engines — and, consequently, prospects — can find you. This is referred to as organic search and is primarily driven by having useful, authoritative content available on your website. It helps if that content is original.
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising: While organic search is one of the most valuable and effective tools for attracting prospects, PPC can help you buy your way onto search engine results pages. It’s typically less expensive than traditional space advertising because you only pay when someone clicks your link and you can track and analyze your results to help make your campaign even more effective.
Online networking: This is the activity that takes place on social media. So while specific social media platforms (such as LinkedIn or Twitter) may be the actual tool, it’s the networking that happens on it that really engages with prospects. While the style of interaction may vary greatly from Twitter to LinkedIn to Facebook, it’s still about making the right connections with the right people. Just as with traditional networking, your level of success will be directly proportional to the amount of time and attention you invest in it.
Digital content: The fuel that drives your marketing engines
None of the above tools will work without relevant content to attract your target audience. Your content can take many forms, but several are particularly effective at attracting leads to your website and other online platforms:
Industry research reports: These are excellent lead generators. They attract prospects with highly valuable information while building your visibility, credibility and brand value. It’s critical, though, to choose research topics that are of exceptional interest to your target audience. As an added bonus, research reports provide an outstanding opportunity to partner with an industry trade association or a noncompeting firm. This can help reduce your marketing cost and increase your credibility through the implied endorsement by the industry group.
Webinars: Just like traditional seminars, webinars should be educational in nature — individuals will want to attend because they think they will learn something new and valuable about their issues or priorities. Webinars are typically offered free of charge. The value they provide to you is the registration information you gather from attendees, as well as market intelligence based on their questions and feedback, all of which can help you focus your marketing efforts and develop future topics.
Marketing videos: Well-produced, educational videos are excellent marketing tools for accounting firms. They can attract and nurture leads by providing valuable information about subjects of interest and helpful explanations about complex accounting and financial topics. Videos are also ideal for showcasing the expertise and experience of various members of your team.
White papers and e-books: Both of these are long-form, in-depth informational tools that make attractive pay-per-click offers and website giveaways in return for filling out a registration form. A little target audience research can quickly generate a list of appropriate topics of value that will attract your best prospects and encourage them to engage with your firm. A resource section on your website filled with e-books and white papers covering a wide range of valuable topics will go a long way in building your firm’s reputation as an industry expert and leader.
Blogging and guest blogging: Blog posts are an excellent driver of leads to your website. Blog posts are a cornerstone of almost any SEO campaign, providing opportunities to publish and distribute keyword-focused content that will boost your search engine rankings and attract prospects to your website.
Guest blogging is a great way to broaden your reach. If you have great content, it’s worth pitching it to publications or blogs that feature guest posts. This type of “earned media” can give your search engine ranking a lift and funnel readers to your site when you target high-authority online publications.
If you don’t already have an online marketing strategy, now is definitely the time to develop one. Combining online and traditional marketing to create an effective, comprehensive marketing program is an outstanding way to build your firm’s visibility and generate significant growth.
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الأربعاء, 21 سبتمبر 2022 10:43
فرنسا تضغط على فريق بايدن بشأن الضرائب الرقمية العالمية
تأمل فرنسا في نهاية سريعة للمعركة التجارية المحتدمة عبر المحيط الأطلسي بشأن ضرائبها على عمالقة التكنولوجيا
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