There’s a common misconception that B2B marketing should focus on functional benefits because buyers in this market make purely rational decisions. Of course, this is untrue. Like their B2C counterparts, today’s B2B buyers are more concerned with who they are doing business with as opposed to simply what they are buying. Emotional factors play a key role in purchase decisions (whether your customer is wearing a suit or not) so shifting your focus from features and benefits to stories and culture will give your brand an edge and ensure your accounting firm makes an impact. 

Not only will it help to drive sales and build stronger, more meaningful relationships with your clients, having a strong set of values which are reinforced throughout your firm will also offer you a competitive advantage. There are thousands of accounting firms providing the same services for similar prices, so the real differentiator is your core competency: what is it that sets your accounting firm apart from the rest?

If performed correctly, your business analysis will allow you to clearly define your core competencies. To really nail them, you need to be addressing the following: 

• What are your defining strengths; the thing (or things) that set you apart from any other accounting firm?
• What matters most to your target customer?
• Are there any niches in the market or areas you feel are being neglected by your competitors?

Your core competencies will provide focus and clarity throughout your firm, and enable you to cut through a crowded accounting market. Traditionally, your core competence would focus on one key area, but due to the market being so saturated and the competition incredibly high, you need to be bringing together two or three complementary traits to really set yourself apart.

Next, you need to define your ‘why’ (the purpose of your accounting firm) – and it needs to be authentic, or your clients will see straight through it. Again, if you have completed a thorough business analysis, this will be very straightforward. Think about what your firm is trying to achieve (i.e. what problem are you helping to solve) and how you will be benefiting your clients. Your purpose should provide a vision for your brand and guide your business decisions, creating ambition and clarity throughout your firm.

Now you can move on to creating your brand identity. To ensure you are covering all areas, it’s useful to use a framework such as the one created by David Aaker outlined below: 

Brand as a product

This is where you’ll want to focus on the functional/ rational benefits of your brand. Think about the key features and benefits that define the services offered by your accounting firm; these benefits can be broken down into three categories: emotional, self-expressive and rational. 

Brand as a person

To personify your brand effectively, you need to be getting down to the nitty-gritty. Think: if your business was a person, what would they look like? How would they act? How would they speak? At the end of the day, people buy from people, and what better way to humanise your brand than quite literally turning it into a person. Defining the personality of your brand will not only allow you to connect with your audience on a much deeper level, but will also provide consistency throughout your communications by establishing a clear tone of voice.

Brand as an organisation

This is where your company values should be defined and embedded throughout your business. You should also consider the organisational attributes that best describe your brand; this could be anything from innovation to trustworthiness.

Brand as a symbol

When you mention branding, this is what will spring to most people’s minds: your visual identity. It includes everything from your typeface and colour palette to your logo and user imagery. Although most commonly thought of as the core of branding, your visual identity usually comes last and should only be focused on once you have clearly defined the above elements. 

After establishing the above, you can define your value proposition; this is essentially what will tell your audience why they should do business with you. Here, you should communicate the key benefits of your firm, whether functional, emotional and/or self-expressive. To enhance your value proposition, you will need to build credibility to support it. This can take the form of things such as case studies published on your website.

Lastly, to communicate your brand identity and value proposition, you then need to consider where you want to position your firm in the market. The simplest way to think about brand positioning is: what you do and who you do it for. While the ‘what you do’ has been addressed by your core competencies, you still need to define who you will be doing it for. Thinking back to your audience analysis; is there a particular industry you want to focus on or are you segmenting your audience more on company size, for example? Your brand positioning will not only help to reinforce your core competencies, but will also give your firm a competitive advantage and provide even more focus and direction to your strategy.