December 19, 2024 • 27 mins
Unlock the secrets to marketing success with our fascinating guest, James Smith, the innovative mind behind Bright Idea Marketing. From his early days as a technology-enthused child to becoming a leader in digital marketing, James shares his inspiring journey and insights into the world of accounting. Discover how his passion for website development transformed into a thriving marketing agency, focusing on leveraging platforms like Facebook for lead generation. Listen as James admires the role of accountants in business success and reveals how he's helping them attract clients in a competitive market.
Explore the untapped potential of Facebook ads for accountants, a tool that can revolutionize how firms grow and stabilize their revenue. James guides us through effective strategies that shift focus from one-off projects to recurring services, reducing financial volatility. Hear about how targeting specific industries can position accountants as experts, attracting high-value clients with minimal ad spend. We discuss the importance of creating a predictable system for lead generation, moving away from traditional referrals to ensure quality and fit for incoming clients.
As we navigate the challenges accountants face in standing out, we emphasize the critical role of specialized marketing support. Learn how firms like Bright Idea Marketing can handle branding and lead nurturing, allowing accountants to focus on what they do best. James underscores the importance of patience in marketing campaigns, advising against the costly habit of frequently switching marketing firms. We conclude with strategic growth tips, encouraging accountants to position themselves as trusted advisors and stay engaged with industry trends via LinkedIn. Don't miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights and enhance your marketing prowess.
Feeling stuck in your growth? Discover how to elevate your marketing, personal brand, and sales approach to attract clients who value your expertise.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to CFO Chronicles the secrets behind
success the go-to podcast forfractional CFOs and accounting
firm owners who want to attractmore high-paying clients and
increase their revenue.
Hosted by James Donovan fromNine Two Media, this podcast
dives into marketing strategiesspecifically designed for lead
(00:22):
generation and clientacquisition.
In each episode, you'll hearfrom industry leaders sharing
their success stories and Thankyou to your bottom line.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Super excited to have James Smith today from Bright
Idea Marketing on the podcast.
James, you and I have had thechance to connect in a couple of
different masterminds.
We've had the chance toactually live together in Mexico
.
Most recently, we were stayingat an Airbnb together for a
mastermind in Miami.
I'm so excited to have you onthe podcast.
Welcome, let's get right intoit.
(01:15):
Thanks for having me.
I'm excited, very cool.
So, james, for everyone whodoesn't know who you are, mind
give us a quick background onwho Bright Idea Marketing is,
how long you've been around andwho you help.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Yeah for sure.
So this goes back to around2000.
And in 2000, I was just alittle kid that was excited
about technology and at that ageI got really into programming.
So I went to pick up a book atthe library and it was a website
(01:51):
coding book and it basicallytaught me how to build a website
.
Of course, back then it was alot more simplistic and you had
to hand code everything, but itstarted there when it came to
the marketing space.
So from there my interest grewin the marketing arena.
Eventually, in 2010, I decidedto start my own marketing
(02:12):
company.
I had a lot of people coming tome looking to get their
websites built out, so that waskind of the beginning of the
official business, if you will.
I had done quite a few otherdeals before then unofficially,
so that's where it started 2010.
And even then we were justcoming out of the phase of lime
green websites and really badMySpace pages.
(02:32):
So definitely an interestingspace to get involved in.
And yeah, from there, as I builtout websites for people, I
realized once I was done theyhad a website, but also 10,000
other people also had websites.
And just because they had awebsite anymore didn't mean that
people were just going tohappen to appear and buy from
(02:55):
them.
So that was when I realized, ok, if I just do a website, that's
needed because we need tocollect the information, we need
to show credibility of theclient, we need to make sure
they're proving themselves.
But the next step is we need toget where the first step is
getting people to the page.
So that was where I decided, ok, we need to shift and get into
the creating opportunities space, and that would be generating
(03:17):
leads through marketing.
So from there we went intoadvertising, we did a whole
bunch of different things.
We did Facebook to Google, toSEO, to a whole bunch of
different things, and we landedon Facebook being probably one
of the best platforms.
It changed our whole agency andchanged all of our clients'
(03:39):
businesses.
So that's kind of the originstory.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Awesome.
I love how it was the prequel,first of websites and then all
right now we got to go back andmake the first movie and get
people to the website.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
So I know you've worked in a variety of different
industries before, especiallywhen we first met, I think you
were working with insurancecompanies.
It may have been solar,definitely solar at the time,
but it might have been insurancewhen we first got started.
But most recently you've joinedus on the dark side in the
accounting space.
Tell me about what yourexperience has been like in the
(04:15):
last eight months or so sincejoining this industry and maybe
a couple of the wins you'vebrought your clients since
joining the accounting space,because it's an amazing spot.
There's a couple of the thewins you've brought your clients
since since joining theaccounting space, cause it's
it's an amazing spot.
Um, there's a lot of greatclients, a lot of great
businesses.
Everyone needs an accountant,so there's always tons of
opportunity out there.
But I'd love to hear from youwhat your experience has been
like so far.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yeah.
So first things first.
Um, I love the accounting space.
I love accountants.
Accountants are truly thebackbone of every successful
business.
If somebody does not know theirnumbers, they're in trouble.
And I say that not as a rah-rahpromo.
I'm in the space, so I'm goingto have to say that.
No, I truly believe thatthey're the ones that are
running the business, becausethe entrepreneur is known to be
(05:01):
the visionary, the creative type, the one that just wants to
push the ball forward.
But if he doesn't have afoundation, if he doesn't have a
back office to make sure thathe can be supported financially
and the business is afloat, hecan be in a lot of trouble.
So it's because of accountantsthat they can stay in business
and they can continue to grow.
So that's the first thing andthat really stood out to me.
(05:22):
The second thing is we've workedwith a lot of people in the
financial services space.
So we've been in the arena anda lot of different ways.
You mentioned insurance.
They're kind of in that arena.
They work with accountants allthe time.
So I've seen that for a lot ofthe years that that
collaboration happened and themigration into accounting just
(05:45):
was a natural step for me,because you know, what we do
best is getting business ownerson the phone and getting them
closed into a deal, and if wecan help other people get that,
then that's best.
See, we always say we practicewhat we preach.
We actually run advertisementsto get to talk with accountants
(06:08):
to help them with their services, in the same exact way that we
do the same thing for them,right?
So we're in complete alignmentwith what we're doing and what
we can do for them.
We prove it every single day.
So that's another great reasonwhy we're in the space.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
That's awesome.
I love that because it's alsoso great for your own sales
calls of being like, hey, you'vealready been through our demo,
you just don't even know it.
The reason you got on this callis because what we're going to
be able to do for your businessso there's also like a huge
sales hack to that.
Tell me about some of therecent wins or what you're
(06:45):
seeing works really well foryour clients in the accounting
space.
When it comes to Facebook ads,because I think a lot of people
get nervous about running ads onFacebook and get very expensive
.
You can burn a lot of money andall those things are true, but
when done right, what sort ofresults are you seeing for your
clients?
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
So one of the first things that we always recommend
for accounting firms is, firstof all, step away from the
one-off projects.
You know, tax preparation is aneeded service, for sure, but it
should be coupled with arecurring monthly service.
That's the first thing thataccounting firms it's the
biggest hack that they can takeadvantage of.
Thing that accounting firmsit's the biggest hack that they
(07:26):
can take advantage of.
We talk with a lot of peoplewho you know they'll have
$50,000 of revenue or $100,000of revenue in a single month
during tax season.
Then it drops to $5,000 or$6,000 off season and it creates
such a big roller coaster andit's a pain.
So the advantage with Facebookads is you can get in front of
that business owner who has aneed for more than just tax
(07:49):
preparation, and that gets intomore ideal client territory,
right?
So Facebook will get you infront of the right person, and I
do get asked this questionquite a bit and I'll talk about
recent results.
Actually, we had a great leadcome in from a client yesterday,
so we'll talk about that.
But I've been asked thisquestion do business owners
(08:11):
actually hang out on Facebook orInstagram or any of the social
media platforms?
And it's a valid question, butthe answer is yes.
There's over 3 billion activeusers on Facebook.
That includes Instagram as well, and what they say is 50% of
all users are on Facebook,instagram, every single day.
(08:33):
So if you don't believe that ofthe 3 billion people on these
social media platforms are notbusiness owners, then your
numbers are off.
Yeah, so that's a huge piecefor people to realize is yes,
business owners are on there andin fact, it's how we've
(08:55):
generated our own business andhow we've generated for our
clients' businesses for the last15 years.
So it clearly shows that it'sworking.
Now, in terms of results, thegreat advantage here is we can
target whoever we want.
We can get in front ofbasically anybody in the world.
So with this targeted approach,we're not just spraying and
(09:17):
praying, we're specificallytalking to.
We recommend a specificindustry or a couple industries
to go after, and when you dothat, you can position yourself
as the expert and also put youin a position of having
authority in their space.
You know one thing I alwayslike to say you know, if you're
(09:38):
talking with somebody who is anaccountant and the accountant's
worked with you, know variousindustries and they're a
plumbing company, let's say ifthey go to that person who
charges X amount, or they go toan accountant that specializes
only in plumbing companies andhas the past 30 clients have
been plumbing and he's raisedtheir, their bottom line, by 15,
consistently, price aside.
The question is, which one arethey most likely going to work
(10:01):
with?
they're going to work with theexpert they're going to work
with the one who's done 30, 40,50 of the same for them.
So that's the advantage withFacebook Now in terms of recent
wins.
So we helped a and actually acontroller get a lead.
A lead came in yesterday.
(10:21):
We're working on getting thatthat deal closed.
But this was a in the Medicarespace or the medical space, and
this was a, a senior livingcenter, and they deal with
high-end housing for seniorliving and this person has been
around for eight years.
They have multiple locations,so really big company and it was
(10:42):
the first lead that came in.
Exactly, they spent just acouple hundred dollars to get
that person in and this is justthe first couple of days of
starting with them and it justgoes to show that the people are
out there.
The question is not are peopleon these social media platforms?
It's how do we get in front ofthem?
And that's the gap that weclose for them and that's how we
help accountants get to thoseideal clients.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
That's cool, well, I mean and we've spoken about this
before often but it's you're.
You're putting a predictablesystem into people's businesses.
So it's not a matter of when.
When am I going to get my nextlead?
Where are they coming from?
It's you are going to getanother lead and we're going to
get them on Facebook.
For you, it's just a matter ofyou continue to feed into a
(11:25):
machine that is going to producemore, more output for cash than
what you're putting in.
So you're not wondering okay,well, if I go to that networking
event, or which client of mineis going to send a referral, you
have a predictable system.
Now you don't have to worrywhere these next sales calls
coming from.
It's just a matter of time.
They're going to come through.
You put in the effort, you playthe game you pay to play.
(11:48):
They are going to come.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
That's the best thing about this.
When you know most accountantsare used to getting business
through referrals and that meansa referral is somebody who is
in their network that has eitherworked with them or aware of
them and they're talking tosomebody else about their
service, right.
And when that referral happens,it's great because there's some
(12:11):
trust built in and they say,hey, john the accountant, I know
somebody who is in need of yourservices, let me connect you.
And that's great.
But the biggest issue isthere's two problems that happen
.
Number one the accountant hasno control over the client that
comes to him, and we've seenthis many times over.
A lot of times they're not themost ideal client.
(12:31):
A lot of times they turn intothat tax prep client or maybe a
business that's doing $50,000 inrevenue a year and that's not
that ideal client that will helpthem grow their business.
So they don't have control overthe quality of who's coming in,
and sometimes it's actually afeeling of obligation.
Like I got referred to this guy, I don't want to make this guy
mad, he's my customer as well.
(12:56):
Like you've got that obligation.
So what happens because of thatis you end up getting low value
clients.
And then the second part is youhave absolutely zero control
over when you get your nextclient.
There is no predictability.
It's just hoping that somebodyis going to talk about you and
then you get that connection.
So you have absolutely zerocontrol over the quality of your
business, of when you bringcustomers in and you basically
(13:17):
get stuck.
So those are the issues withthe networking.
Now I always say continuednetwork, expand your network in
that way.
But the best way to do that isto run advertising.
Advertising is basically hiring20 salespeople on your behalf
that are going out every singleday and promoting who you are
talking about, how credible youare and the type of services and
(13:40):
how you can solve theirproblems.
There is no better system thanhaving that many salespeople
going out expanding your networkevery single day, because once
you do that, then you havenearly unlimited opportunities
to choose and pick who you wantto work with.
So it just creates moreopportunities at the end of the
day.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
I love what you're talking about with creating more
opportunities and getting infront.
You have, you know, 20 salesreps, or however you want to
word it for getting your nameout there.
A lot of firms rely on word ofmouth, but the ironic part is,
if nobody knows who you are,who's talking about you?
How's your name getting inthose mouths to talk about you,
(14:21):
right?
So buy into paid ads.
Buy into the channels that aregoing to expand your reach, your
audience, bet on yourself.
The other nice thing about paidads on Facebook, or any platform
for that matter, is you can paythat bill at the end of the
month.
You can spend money for 30 daysto bring in as many
opportunities as you want to beton yourself, and then it's just
(14:43):
a matter of you closing them,and then that bill at the end of
the month from Facebook can bevery insignificant based on the
amount of cash that has beencollected.
It's not like Facebook's askingfor five grand or ten grand up
front.
Run that for the month.
A ton of opportunities come inand I think you'd be extremely
surprised at how much cash youstart collecting and now you're
(15:05):
playing with house money all themonths following.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Absolutely money.
All you know all the uh, themonths following Absolutely.
And the best way to think aboutthis too is you know you put a
dollar in you can get $5 backout.
It's kind of like playing thelottery but you know you're
winning every time and it's it'shard to beat that.
And you know there's there's alot of accountants that um,
because they're used to doingthe referral thing.
It's kind of scary at first toyou know put cash into something
(15:30):
and you know try to.
You know hope that something'sgoing to come back from it.
But once you get there, likethe amount of control that you
have with the quality of clientthat you can bring in, you can
actually have control over andyou'll know the exact dollar
amount of how much it takes foryou to get the next ideal client
Right.
(15:55):
So having that control and thatvisibility is the best thing
about growing your business.
If somebody wants to grow theiraccounting firm, they need to
have control over getting thecustomer that will allow them to
grow.
If they don't have that control, you're not going to, you're
not going to reach those goals.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Yeah Well, and it's having the numbers that you're
more than likely giving yourclients to help them grow.
You're getting your own numberson that.
How much is it going to cost meto get a new lead, a new
appointment, a new client,what's you know?
And then from there you can youcan get as deep as you want
into the numbers, something thatcomes up a lot, and I'm sure
you've noticed it as well andnot just in the accounting space
(16:28):
, but with anyone who'sinvesting into marketing, and
not just in the accounting space, but with anyone who's
investing into marketing.
What would you say to you know afirm who's maybe tried Facebook
ads in the past.
That hasn't worked for them.
They've either run itthemselves, they've had another
company do it.
It didn't quite work.
You know as well as I know it'snot the platform that's bad,
it's not the leads that are bad,it's the resources and the
(16:50):
filters and all the complexitieswithin Facebook to get those
opportunities.
So what would you say to thosebusiness owners who have been
burned in the past or they justhaven't been able to crack
Facebook?
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Yeah.
So there's a couple of thingswhen I talk to accountants.
Not all accountants are madethe same.
Not all of them have the samequality level of work that they
can put into it, and I've talkedto quite a few of them that
will talk about their competitor, how their competitor got
business that should have beentheirs because they can do the
job better.
(17:22):
And it's a real frustratingthing when you don't have
control of your business likethat.
It's annoying when you seecompetition taking that.
But the same thing happens inthe marketing space.
Some people just get in thespace and don't really have the
knowledge to actually help.
So that's the first part.
But the second part mostmarketing companies don't pay
(17:43):
attention to the detail requiredand the level of effort
required to close a customer andthey put it on the accountant
to do all the work.
So what happens is if you havesomeone who's inquiring about a
service, if you just put them infront of a payment link,
they're not going to juststraight up and buy.
They don't know you yet.
(18:03):
They don't have any idea of whoyou are.
But does that mean that theaccountant needs to spend all
that extra time and become asalesperson and become the
marketer and try to do all thatstuff themselves.
Well, no, they shouldn't.
They should do what they dobest, which is accounting, and
they should hire a marketingcompany that handles the rest of
that right.
They should be able to do whatthey do best and delegate the
(18:24):
rest, just like they're doingfor their clients.
So that's why, for us at BrightIdea, we not only help with the
marketing side but we help addbranding.
But, more importantly, we alsoadd qualifying steps.
We have live callers that willcall on every business owner
that submits information andgatekeep for accountants.
(18:44):
That way accountants don't haveto get out of their day-to-day
and try to chase people, try tosell them, convince them oh, you
need to work with me, no,that's not a good use of your
time.
So we go that extra mile and dothat qualification and
gatekeeping.
It's basically like you haveanother front desk person that's
specifically qualified and hasexpertise in turning someone
(19:06):
into a customer.
So at the end of the day, theaccount obviously you quote the
client, you quote the prospectand give them the paperwork and
all that stuff and make surethey close the deal in that way.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
But we do everything leading up to that and the best
marketing companies know thatthat part should be taken care
of, because accountants don'twant to pay a marketing company
to have to do more work yeah,similar to to what we're doing,
and I often just remind ourclients and prospects as well,
(19:38):
especially those who arefractional cfos or the advisors
like, what you're doing in your,what you're doing is you're
jumping in, you're being thefractional marketing department
for these firms.
You, they're not.
You're not asking someone topay you to do more homework.
There's firms out there that dothat.
It, it's be it, you know, blowsmy mind that people are buying
into that.
But, yeah, you want to try totake as much of that off their
(20:00):
plate as possible so they canjust do what they do best.
And by you guys handling those,those calls getting the people
to the door.
All they have to do is open thedoor, but you got them right up
to the door, so that's massive.
What would you say peopleshould look for when testing
Facebook ads?
What is a realistic time framea business owner should look at
(20:22):
where they can finally put afinger on a pulse and say this
is or isn't working?
There's no gray area like blackor white this has or hasn't
worked.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Absolutely.
In terms of runningadvertisements, you need at
least a 90 day window to assesshow things are looking.
That's first of all, and Ialways like to ask accountants
you know if you were doingfractional CFO services or if
you're doing?
You know any type of advisory.
You know projections.
You know in the first fiveminutes, do you solve all the
(20:51):
problems?
Do you walk them througheverything, cause you already
know what's going on, or do youtake a moment to assess where
they're at, what their situationlooks like?
Do you walk throughstep-by-step?
Then the business owner has totake the steps actually, that
you recommend.
Well, obviously it.
It's that second one, right, ittakes time to build up and to
optimize, but 90 days is a goodwindow for people to get an
(21:15):
early indication of how thingsare looking.
You should have closed yourfirst deal in the first 90 days.
If not, and your marketingcompany says, well, we just need
more time, I would startlooking at that.
There should be early resultsthere, showing that we have some
promise, and then from thereit's the next 30 days or next 90
days.
Is also optimizing,capitalizing, making sure that
(21:37):
that's getting optimized evenfurther.
But you need at least 90 daysto have an idea how are things
looking, but you should haveclosed deals along that period.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Yeah, I think that's so important and there's so many
different things to look into.
Right, like you're mentioningthe qualification questions,
those things are not.
You may not get them 100% onthe first shot.
You might have like two orthree that are really good, but
that third or fourth questionyou may need to tweak, but it's
constantly tweaking and testingto get better and better results
and you can't do that in a 30days.
(22:07):
So I always like to remindpeople as well if you're only
going into this with a 30 daymindset, it's going to cost you
a lot of money because you'rejust going to jump around every
30 days to multiple companieswho are just picking up
everything from scratch.
It's the same reason.
You know business owners aren'tjumping from bookkeeper to
bookkeeper every 30 days.
It's going to reason businessowners aren't jumping from
bookkeeper to bookkeeper every30 days.
It's going to get veryexpensive.
(22:28):
It's just going to be a hugepain as well.
So just stick through it.
Trust the marketing companyyou're with and rely on the
expertise of people who actuallyhave the results right,
absolutely, yeah, cool, james.
Any final thoughts on Facebookads for those who are either
looking to try to run some adsby themselves or for those who
(22:51):
are like you know what.
I don't want to do this.
I'm not going to get the bestresults, like how could they get
in touch with you or whatshould they look for in a
marketing company.
A couple of questions in there,yep for sure.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
So first things first .
When looking at doing marketing, you're much better off finding
an expert to help you with it.
You know most accountants whenthey work with their clients.
If they were to see how theirclients operate and think about
finances, they usually wouldlaugh.
They would say, ok, theyclearly don't know how to handle
their finances, they clearlydon't know how to manage their
(23:25):
stuff and they need me.
And it's the same way too withmarketing, because marketing is
outside of most accountantsexpertise and area of knowledge.
They shouldn't try to learn awhole new skill set, create a
whole new job for themselves.
They should hire an expertthat's already done it many,
many times before.
So that'd be.
The first thing is don't wasteyour time.
There's no need to try to do itall yourself.
(23:47):
Find someone who knows whatthey're talking about.
And the second part is I'd loveto help those accountants, like
that's obviously what we doevery day.
They can reach out to me.
My name is James Smith.
You can find me on all thesocial media platforms or
bradideamarketingcom.
We've been around for almost 15years now, so I'm happy to help
(24:08):
and talk and walk through howaccountants can grow their
business, but at the end of theday, just like our business.
I don't do my own bookkeeping.
I hire someone to do mybookkeeping because I understand
the value of my time and myexpertise.
It's not there, so that's whatI recommend for accountants as
well.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
That's so good, james .
I appreciate you so much comingon.
It was great to pick your brainfor a little bit on Facebook
ads.
I strongly encourage everyoneto reach out to you.
The knowledge you've sharedwith me, what you've helped with
our own ads, has beenincredible.
You truly know what you'redoing, or else you wouldn't have
been in business for 15 years,and I'm really looking forward
(24:45):
to reconnecting again in acouple of weeks down in Mexico.
We'll talk more Facebook adsand everything accounting then
Look forward to it.
Thanks so much, james.
We'll speak to you soon.
Awesome, thank you.
Thanks for tuning into thisepisode of CFO Chronicles the
secrets behind success.
I hope you found value intoday's conversation.
As we wrap up, I'd love for youto do two things.
(25:07):
First, make sure to subscribeto this podcast so you don't
miss any future episodes.
If you enjoyed today'sdiscussion, please rate and
review the show.
It helps others discover theinsights we share here.
Second, if you're ready to takeyour business to the next level
and attract the high-endclients you deserve, head over
to accountingleadsnowcom orclick the link in the show notes
to book your strategy.
(25:27):
Call it's time to positionyourself as the advisor your
clients need.
And don't forget you canconnect with me on LinkedIn to
stay up to date on what'shappening in the world of
accounting and financial growth.
We've got more exciting topicscoming up, so stay tuned for the
next episode of CFO Chronicles.
Until then, keep pushingforward.
Your growth is just onestrategic move away.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Thanks for listening to CFO Chronicles the secrets
behind success.
We hope today's episodeprovided valuable strategies to
help you attract more highpaying clients.
Be sure to subscribe, followand share with fellow
professionals.
Connect with us on LinkedIn andleave a review or comment to
join the conversation.
Your feedback helps us bringyou the best insights.
Thank you.
Welcome to CFO Chronicles the secrets behind
success the go-to podcast forfractional CFOs and accounting
firm owners who want to attractmore high-paying clients and
increase their revenue.
Hosted by James Donovan fromNine Two Media, this podcast
dives into marketing strategiesspecifically designed for lead
(00:22):
generation and clientacquisition.
In each episode, you'll hearfrom industry leaders sharing
their success stories and Thankyou to your bottom line.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Super excited to have James Smith today from Bright
Idea Marketing on the podcast.
James, you and I have had thechance to connect in a couple of
different masterminds.
We've had the chance toactually live together in Mexico
.
Most recently, we were stayingat an Airbnb together for a
mastermind in Miami.
I'm so excited to have you onthe podcast.
Welcome, let's get right intoit.
(01:15):
Thanks for having me.
I'm excited, very cool.
So, james, for everyone whodoesn't know who you are, mind
give us a quick background onwho Bright Idea Marketing is,
how long you've been around andwho you help.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Yeah for sure.
So this goes back to around2000.
And in 2000, I was just alittle kid that was excited
about technology and at that ageI got really into programming.
So I went to pick up a book atthe library and it was a website
(01:51):
coding book and it basicallytaught me how to build a website
.
Of course, back then it was alot more simplistic and you had
to hand code everything, but itstarted there when it came to
the marketing space.
So from there my interest grewin the marketing arena.
Eventually, in 2010, I decidedto start my own marketing
(02:12):
company.
I had a lot of people coming tome looking to get their
websites built out, so that waskind of the beginning of the
official business, if you will.
I had done quite a few otherdeals before then unofficially,
so that's where it started 2010.
And even then we were justcoming out of the phase of lime
green websites and really badMySpace pages.
(02:32):
So definitely an interestingspace to get involved in.
And yeah, from there, as I builtout websites for people, I
realized once I was done theyhad a website, but also 10,000
other people also had websites.
And just because they had awebsite anymore didn't mean that
people were just going tohappen to appear and buy from
(02:55):
them.
So that was when I realized, ok, if I just do a website, that's
needed because we need tocollect the information, we need
to show credibility of theclient, we need to make sure
they're proving themselves.
But the next step is we need toget where the first step is
getting people to the page.
So that was where I decided, ok, we need to shift and get into
the creating opportunities space, and that would be generating
(03:17):
leads through marketing.
So from there we went intoadvertising, we did a whole
bunch of different things.
We did Facebook to Google, toSEO, to a whole bunch of
different things, and we landedon Facebook being probably one
of the best platforms.
It changed our whole agency andchanged all of our clients'
(03:39):
businesses.
So that's kind of the originstory.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Awesome.
I love how it was the prequel,first of websites and then all
right now we got to go back andmake the first movie and get
people to the website.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
So I know you've worked in a variety of different
industries before, especiallywhen we first met, I think you
were working with insurancecompanies.
It may have been solar,definitely solar at the time,
but it might have been insurancewhen we first got started.
But most recently you've joinedus on the dark side in the
accounting space.
Tell me about what yourexperience has been like in the
(04:15):
last eight months or so sincejoining this industry and maybe
a couple of the wins you'vebrought your clients since
joining the accounting space,because it's an amazing spot.
There's a couple of the thewins you've brought your clients
since since joining theaccounting space, cause it's
it's an amazing spot.
Um, there's a lot of greatclients, a lot of great
businesses.
Everyone needs an accountant,so there's always tons of
opportunity out there.
But I'd love to hear from youwhat your experience has been
like so far.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yeah.
So first things first.
Um, I love the accounting space.
I love accountants.
Accountants are truly thebackbone of every successful
business.
If somebody does not know theirnumbers, they're in trouble.
And I say that not as a rah-rahpromo.
I'm in the space, so I'm goingto have to say that.
No, I truly believe thatthey're the ones that are
running the business, becausethe entrepreneur is known to be
(05:01):
the visionary, the creative type, the one that just wants to
push the ball forward.
But if he doesn't have afoundation, if he doesn't have a
back office to make sure thathe can be supported financially
and the business is afloat, hecan be in a lot of trouble.
So it's because of accountantsthat they can stay in business
and they can continue to grow.
So that's the first thing andthat really stood out to me.
(05:22):
The second thing is we've workedwith a lot of people in the
financial services space.
So we've been in the arena anda lot of different ways.
You mentioned insurance.
They're kind of in that arena.
They work with accountants allthe time.
So I've seen that for a lot ofthe years that that
collaboration happened and themigration into accounting just
(05:45):
was a natural step for me,because you know, what we do
best is getting business ownerson the phone and getting them
closed into a deal, and if wecan help other people get that,
then that's best.
See, we always say we practicewhat we preach.
We actually run advertisementsto get to talk with accountants
(06:08):
to help them with their services, in the same exact way that we
do the same thing for them,right?
So we're in complete alignmentwith what we're doing and what
we can do for them.
We prove it every single day.
So that's another great reasonwhy we're in the space.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
That's awesome.
I love that because it's alsoso great for your own sales
calls of being like, hey, you'vealready been through our demo,
you just don't even know it.
The reason you got on this callis because what we're going to
be able to do for your businessso there's also like a huge
sales hack to that.
Tell me about some of therecent wins or what you're
(06:45):
seeing works really well foryour clients in the accounting
space.
When it comes to Facebook ads,because I think a lot of people
get nervous about running ads onFacebook and get very expensive
.
You can burn a lot of money andall those things are true, but
when done right, what sort ofresults are you seeing for your
clients?
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
So one of the first things that we always recommend
for accounting firms is, firstof all, step away from the
one-off projects.
You know, tax preparation is aneeded service, for sure, but it
should be coupled with arecurring monthly service.
That's the first thing thataccounting firms it's the
biggest hack that they can takeadvantage of.
Thing that accounting firmsit's the biggest hack that they
(07:26):
can take advantage of.
We talk with a lot of peoplewho you know they'll have
$50,000 of revenue or $100,000of revenue in a single month
during tax season.
Then it drops to $5,000 or$6,000 off season and it creates
such a big roller coaster andit's a pain.
So the advantage with Facebookads is you can get in front of
that business owner who has aneed for more than just tax
(07:49):
preparation, and that gets intomore ideal client territory,
right?
So Facebook will get you infront of the right person, and I
do get asked this questionquite a bit and I'll talk about
recent results.
Actually, we had a great leadcome in from a client yesterday,
so we'll talk about that.
But I've been asked thisquestion do business owners
(08:11):
actually hang out on Facebook orInstagram or any of the social
media platforms?
And it's a valid question, butthe answer is yes.
There's over 3 billion activeusers on Facebook.
That includes Instagram as well, and what they say is 50% of
all users are on Facebook,instagram, every single day.
(08:33):
So if you don't believe that ofthe 3 billion people on these
social media platforms are notbusiness owners, then your
numbers are off.
Yeah, so that's a huge piecefor people to realize is yes,
business owners are on there andin fact, it's how we've
(08:55):
generated our own business andhow we've generated for our
clients' businesses for the last15 years.
So it clearly shows that it'sworking.
Now, in terms of results, thegreat advantage here is we can
target whoever we want.
We can get in front ofbasically anybody in the world.
So with this targeted approach,we're not just spraying and
(09:17):
praying, we're specificallytalking to.
We recommend a specificindustry or a couple industries
to go after, and when you dothat, you can position yourself
as the expert and also put youin a position of having
authority in their space.
You know one thing I alwayslike to say you know, if you're
(09:38):
talking with somebody who is anaccountant and the accountant's
worked with you, know variousindustries and they're a
plumbing company, let's say ifthey go to that person who
charges X amount, or they go toan accountant that specializes
only in plumbing companies andhas the past 30 clients have
been plumbing and he's raisedtheir, their bottom line, by 15,
consistently, price aside.
The question is, which one arethey most likely going to work
(10:01):
with?
they're going to work with theexpert they're going to work
with the one who's done 30, 40,50 of the same for them.
So that's the advantage withFacebook Now in terms of recent
wins.
So we helped a and actually acontroller get a lead.
A lead came in yesterday.
(10:21):
We're working on getting thatthat deal closed.
But this was a in the Medicarespace or the medical space, and
this was a, a senior livingcenter, and they deal with
high-end housing for seniorliving and this person has been
around for eight years.
They have multiple locations,so really big company and it was
(10:42):
the first lead that came in.
Exactly, they spent just acouple hundred dollars to get
that person in and this is justthe first couple of days of
starting with them and it justgoes to show that the people are
out there.
The question is not are peopleon these social media platforms?
It's how do we get in front ofthem?
And that's the gap that weclose for them and that's how we
help accountants get to thoseideal clients.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
That's cool, well, I mean and we've spoken about this
before often but it's you're.
You're putting a predictablesystem into people's businesses.
So it's not a matter of when.
When am I going to get my nextlead?
Where are they coming from?
It's you are going to getanother lead and we're going to
get them on Facebook.
For you, it's just a matter ofyou continue to feed into a
(11:25):
machine that is going to producemore, more output for cash than
what you're putting in.
So you're not wondering okay,well, if I go to that networking
event, or which client of mineis going to send a referral, you
have a predictable system.
Now you don't have to worrywhere these next sales calls
coming from.
It's just a matter of time.
They're going to come through.
You put in the effort, you playthe game you pay to play.
(11:48):
They are going to come.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
That's the best thing about this.
When you know most accountantsare used to getting business
through referrals and that meansa referral is somebody who is
in their network that has eitherworked with them or aware of
them and they're talking tosomebody else about their
service, right.
And when that referral happens,it's great because there's some
(12:11):
trust built in and they say,hey, john the accountant, I know
somebody who is in need of yourservices, let me connect you.
And that's great.
But the biggest issue isthere's two problems that happen
.
Number one the accountant hasno control over the client that
comes to him, and we've seenthis many times over.
A lot of times they're not themost ideal client.
(12:31):
A lot of times they turn intothat tax prep client or maybe a
business that's doing $50,000 inrevenue a year and that's not
that ideal client that will helpthem grow their business.
So they don't have control overthe quality of who's coming in,
and sometimes it's actually afeeling of obligation.
Like I got referred to this guy, I don't want to make this guy
mad, he's my customer as well.
(12:56):
Like you've got that obligation.
So what happens because of thatis you end up getting low value
clients.
And then the second part is youhave absolutely zero control
over when you get your nextclient.
There is no predictability.
It's just hoping that somebodyis going to talk about you and
then you get that connection.
So you have absolutely zerocontrol over the quality of your
business, of when you bringcustomers in and you basically
(13:17):
get stuck.
So those are the issues withthe networking.
Now I always say continuednetwork, expand your network in
that way.
But the best way to do that isto run advertising.
Advertising is basically hiring20 salespeople on your behalf
that are going out every singleday and promoting who you are
talking about, how credible youare and the type of services and
(13:40):
how you can solve theirproblems.
There is no better system thanhaving that many salespeople
going out expanding your networkevery single day, because once
you do that, then you havenearly unlimited opportunities
to choose and pick who you wantto work with.
So it just creates moreopportunities at the end of the
day.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
I love what you're talking about with creating more
opportunities and getting infront.
You have, you know, 20 salesreps, or however you want to
word it for getting your nameout there.
A lot of firms rely on word ofmouth, but the ironic part is,
if nobody knows who you are,who's talking about you?
How's your name getting inthose mouths to talk about you,
(14:21):
right?
So buy into paid ads.
Buy into the channels that aregoing to expand your reach, your
audience, bet on yourself.
The other nice thing about paidads on Facebook, or any platform
for that matter, is you can paythat bill at the end of the
month.
You can spend money for 30 daysto bring in as many
opportunities as you want to beton yourself, and then it's just
(14:43):
a matter of you closing them,and then that bill at the end of
the month from Facebook can bevery insignificant based on the
amount of cash that has beencollected.
It's not like Facebook's askingfor five grand or ten grand up
front.
Run that for the month.
A ton of opportunities come inand I think you'd be extremely
surprised at how much cash youstart collecting and now you're
(15:05):
playing with house money all themonths following.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Absolutely money.
All you know all the uh, themonths following Absolutely.
And the best way to think aboutthis too is you know you put a
dollar in you can get $5 backout.
It's kind of like playing thelottery but you know you're
winning every time and it's it'shard to beat that.
And you know there's there's alot of accountants that um,
because they're used to doingthe referral thing.
It's kind of scary at first toyou know put cash into something
(15:30):
and you know try to.
You know hope that something'sgoing to come back from it.
But once you get there, likethe amount of control that you
have with the quality of clientthat you can bring in, you can
actually have control over andyou'll know the exact dollar
amount of how much it takes foryou to get the next ideal client
Right.
(15:55):
So having that control and thatvisibility is the best thing
about growing your business.
If somebody wants to grow theiraccounting firm, they need to
have control over getting thecustomer that will allow them to
grow.
If they don't have that control, you're not going to, you're
not going to reach those goals.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Yeah Well, and it's having the numbers that you're
more than likely giving yourclients to help them grow.
You're getting your own numberson that.
How much is it going to cost meto get a new lead, a new
appointment, a new client,what's you know?
And then from there you can youcan get as deep as you want
into the numbers, something thatcomes up a lot, and I'm sure
you've noticed it as well andnot just in the accounting space
(16:28):
, but with anyone who'sinvesting into marketing, and
not just in the accounting space, but with anyone who's
investing into marketing.
What would you say to you know afirm who's maybe tried Facebook
ads in the past.
That hasn't worked for them.
They've either run itthemselves, they've had another
company do it.
It didn't quite work.
You know as well as I know it'snot the platform that's bad,
it's not the leads that are bad,it's the resources and the
(16:50):
filters and all the complexitieswithin Facebook to get those
opportunities.
So what would you say to thosebusiness owners who have been
burned in the past or they justhaven't been able to crack
Facebook?
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Yeah.
So there's a couple of thingswhen I talk to accountants.
Not all accountants are madethe same.
Not all of them have the samequality level of work that they
can put into it, and I've talkedto quite a few of them that
will talk about their competitor, how their competitor got
business that should have beentheirs because they can do the
job better.
(17:22):
And it's a real frustratingthing when you don't have
control of your business likethat.
It's annoying when you seecompetition taking that.
But the same thing happens inthe marketing space.
Some people just get in thespace and don't really have the
knowledge to actually help.
So that's the first part.
But the second part mostmarketing companies don't pay
(17:43):
attention to the detail requiredand the level of effort
required to close a customer andthey put it on the accountant
to do all the work.
So what happens is if you havesomeone who's inquiring about a
service, if you just put them infront of a payment link,
they're not going to juststraight up and buy.
They don't know you yet.
(18:03):
They don't have any idea of whoyou are.
But does that mean that theaccountant needs to spend all
that extra time and become asalesperson and become the
marketer and try to do all thatstuff themselves.
Well, no, they shouldn't.
They should do what they dobest, which is accounting, and
they should hire a marketingcompany that handles the rest of
that right.
They should be able to do whatthey do best and delegate the
(18:24):
rest, just like they're doingfor their clients.
So that's why, for us at BrightIdea, we not only help with the
marketing side but we help addbranding.
But, more importantly, we alsoadd qualifying steps.
We have live callers that willcall on every business owner
that submits information andgatekeep for accountants.
(18:44):
That way accountants don't haveto get out of their day-to-day
and try to chase people, try tosell them, convince them oh, you
need to work with me, no,that's not a good use of your
time.
So we go that extra mile and dothat qualification and
gatekeeping.
It's basically like you haveanother front desk person that's
specifically qualified and hasexpertise in turning someone
(19:06):
into a customer.
So at the end of the day, theaccount obviously you quote the
client, you quote the prospectand give them the paperwork and
all that stuff and make surethey close the deal in that way.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
But we do everything leading up to that and the best
marketing companies know thatthat part should be taken care
of, because accountants don'twant to pay a marketing company
to have to do more work yeah,similar to to what we're doing,
and I often just remind ourclients and prospects as well,
(19:38):
especially those who arefractional cfos or the advisors
like, what you're doing in your,what you're doing is you're
jumping in, you're being thefractional marketing department
for these firms.
You, they're not.
You're not asking someone topay you to do more homework.
There's firms out there that dothat.
It, it's be it, you know, blowsmy mind that people are buying
into that.
But, yeah, you want to try totake as much of that off their
(20:00):
plate as possible so they canjust do what they do best.
And by you guys handling those,those calls getting the people
to the door.
All they have to do is open thedoor, but you got them right up
to the door, so that's massive.
What would you say peopleshould look for when testing
Facebook ads?
What is a realistic time framea business owner should look at
(20:22):
where they can finally put afinger on a pulse and say this
is or isn't working?
There's no gray area like blackor white this has or hasn't
worked.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Absolutely.
In terms of runningadvertisements, you need at
least a 90 day window to assesshow things are looking.
That's first of all, and Ialways like to ask accountants
you know if you were doingfractional CFO services or if
you're doing?
You know any type of advisory.
You know projections.
You know in the first fiveminutes, do you solve all the
(20:51):
problems?
Do you walk them througheverything, cause you already
know what's going on, or do youtake a moment to assess where
they're at, what their situationlooks like?
Do you walk throughstep-by-step?
Then the business owner has totake the steps actually, that
you recommend.
Well, obviously it.
It's that second one, right, ittakes time to build up and to
optimize, but 90 days is a goodwindow for people to get an
(21:15):
early indication of how thingsare looking.
You should have closed yourfirst deal in the first 90 days.
If not, and your marketingcompany says, well, we just need
more time, I would startlooking at that.
There should be early resultsthere, showing that we have some
promise, and then from thereit's the next 30 days or next 90
days.
Is also optimizing,capitalizing, making sure that
(21:37):
that's getting optimized evenfurther.
But you need at least 90 daysto have an idea how are things
looking, but you should haveclosed deals along that period.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Yeah, I think that's so important and there's so many
different things to look into.
Right, like you're mentioningthe qualification questions,
those things are not.
You may not get them 100% onthe first shot.
You might have like two orthree that are really good, but
that third or fourth questionyou may need to tweak, but it's
constantly tweaking and testingto get better and better results
and you can't do that in a 30days.
(22:07):
So I always like to remindpeople as well if you're only
going into this with a 30 daymindset, it's going to cost you
a lot of money because you'rejust going to jump around every
30 days to multiple companieswho are just picking up
everything from scratch.
It's the same reason.
You know business owners aren'tjumping from bookkeeper to
bookkeeper every 30 days.
It's going to reason businessowners aren't jumping from
bookkeeper to bookkeeper every30 days.
It's going to get veryexpensive.
(22:28):
It's just going to be a hugepain as well.
So just stick through it.
Trust the marketing companyyou're with and rely on the
expertise of people who actuallyhave the results right,
absolutely, yeah, cool, james.
Any final thoughts on Facebookads for those who are either
looking to try to run some adsby themselves or for those who
(22:51):
are like you know what.
I don't want to do this.
I'm not going to get the bestresults, like how could they get
in touch with you or whatshould they look for in a
marketing company.
A couple of questions in there,yep for sure.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
So first things first .
When looking at doing marketing, you're much better off finding
an expert to help you with it.
You know most accountants whenthey work with their clients.
If they were to see how theirclients operate and think about
finances, they usually wouldlaugh.
They would say, ok, theyclearly don't know how to handle
their finances, they clearlydon't know how to manage their
(23:25):
stuff and they need me.
And it's the same way too withmarketing, because marketing is
outside of most accountantsexpertise and area of knowledge.
They shouldn't try to learn awhole new skill set, create a
whole new job for themselves.
They should hire an expertthat's already done it many,
many times before.
So that'd be.
The first thing is don't wasteyour time.
There's no need to try to do itall yourself.
(23:47):
Find someone who knows whatthey're talking about.
And the second part is I'd loveto help those accountants, like
that's obviously what we doevery day.
They can reach out to me.
My name is James Smith.
You can find me on all thesocial media platforms or
bradideamarketingcom.
We've been around for almost 15years now, so I'm happy to help
(24:08):
and talk and walk through howaccountants can grow their
business, but at the end of theday, just like our business.
I don't do my own bookkeeping.
I hire someone to do mybookkeeping because I understand
the value of my time and myexpertise.
It's not there, so that's whatI recommend for accountants as
well.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
That's so good, james .
I appreciate you so much comingon.
It was great to pick your brainfor a little bit on Facebook
ads.
I strongly encourage everyoneto reach out to you.
The knowledge you've sharedwith me, what you've helped with
our own ads, has beenincredible.
You truly know what you'redoing, or else you wouldn't have
been in business for 15 years,and I'm really looking forward
(24:45):
to reconnecting again in acouple of weeks down in Mexico.
We'll talk more Facebook adsand everything accounting then
Look forward to it.
Thanks so much, james.
We'll speak to you soon.
Awesome, thank you.
Thanks for tuning into thisepisode of CFO Chronicles the
secrets behind success.
I hope you found value intoday's conversation.
As we wrap up, I'd love for youto do two things.
(25:07):
First, make sure to subscribeto this podcast so you don't
miss any future episodes.
If you enjoyed today'sdiscussion, please rate and
review the show.
It helps others discover theinsights we share here.
Second, if you're ready to takeyour business to the next level
and attract the high-endclients you deserve, head over
to accountingleadsnowcom orclick the link in the show notes
to book your strategy.
(25:27):
Call it's time to positionyourself as the advisor your
clients need.
And don't forget you canconnect with me on LinkedIn to
stay up to date on what'shappening in the world of
accounting and financial growth.
We've got more exciting topicscoming up, so stay tuned for the
next episode of CFO Chronicles.
Until then, keep pushingforward.
Your growth is just onestrategic move away.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Thanks for listening to CFO Chronicles the secrets
behind success.
We hope today's episodeprovided valuable strategies to
help you attract more highpaying clients.
Be sure to subscribe, followand share with fellow
professionals.
Connect with us on LinkedIn andleave a review or comment to
join the conversation.
Your feedback helps us bringyou the best insights.
Thank you.
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Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.