The Client
The client was a bookkeeping management consulting firm, located in Calgary – a city just over a million people in population. Their client base was primarily split in two ways: businesses who used their services for on-going bookkeeping and corporate year-end filings; and people who used them for personal tax filing only.
The Client’s Unique Edge
The client’s unique edge in the market came from their customer-centric approach for businesses they serviced. They offered full integration of bookkeeping services with tax reporting and submission, and highly customized monthly reporting for their business clients, which made up the majority of their revenue base. On top of that, they also offered registry services, a service not offered by many other companies.
The Goal
The client wanted to increase revenue by$150,000 in 12 months. This equalled a 30%growth rate for the company for the year.
Our Approach
We decided we needed to do both primary and secondary marketing research for the client.We started first with a full review of their client base breaking down the demographics and psychographics of the clients. Next, a competitor analysis to discover how they differed with their services, digital marketing initiatives, and identify the gaps in the market where we could capitalize on the opportunity. Then we completed an audience review to reveal the best opportunities to target the marketing campaigns. Finally, the campaign strategy fully targeted to the client’s specific audience.
Our Two Surprising Finds
After completing the competitor analysis, we found that the client’s pricing structure was either below or at par with their competitor’s pricing, yet they offered a much more personalized approach.
Studies from around the world show that the majority of people are willing to pay 10 – 25%more for excellence in customer service. Based on this, our client could easily increase pricing by 10% and generate $76,000 without spending a single cent on a marketing campaign. Since the client had not adjusted the pricing structure for several years, this was certainly a warranted strategy that would be immediately executable.
The second surprising find was that none of our client’s competitors was utilizing digital marketing campaigns. This was another huge area of opportunity, which could create rapid and accelerated growth for our client, helping to reach the 30% growth quickly. If we could capture a mere .002% of the business base in the client’s demographic, we would create a$150,000 increase in revenue, and that would be over and above the $76,000 generated by the price increase to the current client base.
The client was of course extremely happy to get statistical data that showed that the goal of a 30% increase in 12 months would be a decidedly achievable objective.
The Rest of the Research
We found that 66% of the business came from the south of Calgary with 39% of the overall business coming specifically from the SE quadrant of the city.
The overall demographic was predominantly male at 68%. Yet in the business sector, Alberta has the strongest number of female business owners in Canada. This would be a good demographic to target.
Overall, 73% of the business came from clients who were between 30 and 59. The largest demographic was the 30-39 year olds taking 29% of the current business. These are people in a stage of life where career building is important.They typically work longer hours each week and have mortgages they worry about. They are also typically at the point of starting or they have young families. This data helps to narrow the target audience for a digital campaign significantly.
The 40-49 year old demographic was the next highest at 26%. They are typically much happier with life in general because there is usually less uncertainty in their lives. They are more settled into a career trajectory and have a better understanding of themselves. With growing families, they start to focus on saving money for their kids to go to college and start thinking about retirement funds. They have the luxury of being able to put more on themselves and personal growth.
Based on the information above the following factors will be of the most importance
• Money
• Time
• Family
• Relationships
• Personal development
These would be the points on which we based the marketing messages. We would split test a variety of digital ads based on these points, and focus on the ads producing the best conversion rates from the split testing.
We discovered that there were 8,121 businesses owned and operated by both men and women in the 30-49 age demographic, in the SE quadrant of the city, where our client had the highest concentration of clients already established.This marked a huge opportunity to garner more corporate clients in an area where our client was already known.
On top of that, the research showed there were 83,014 households in the SE, which is a significant target for a marketing campaign for personal tax clients, again in an area where they were known.
Added to this, in the demographic aged 30-49 for the entire city the statics were as follows
• Number of businesses in the target demographic: 25,390
• Number of households in the target demographic: 395,979
These statistics would provide the basis fora highly targeted campaign. The better the targeting, the better the conversion rates for the digital campaign.
About Bottomline Marketing
Our philosophy is: Your business is meant to stand out from the crowd.
We are a boutique marketing firm that creates tailored strategies for businesses serious about growth and wants a marketing plan to make it happen. By taking an innovative approach toward proper research, integrating it with the psychology of consumer behaviour, and collaborating fully with our clients, we effectively develop and implement customized and engaging strategies for each one. Whether it’s web design, internet marketing, traditional marketing, SEO expertise, or stunning print material, BottomLine Marketing delivers results.
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