Most firm owners hate doing their own marketing. And honestly, I don’t blame them — because the way marketing is taught to most people is completely wrong.

Marketing gets portrayed as this creative, artsy thing where you throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. Like it’s finger painting. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Marketing Is a Science

Think about it this way. If you went to your accountant and said, “Hey, my business isn’t profitable — what’s going on?” they wouldn’t guess. They’d look at your books. Revenue minus expenses. Then they’d dive into the categories to see where the money’s going.

You can do the exact same thing with your marketing.

How many leads did you get this month? How many sales did you close? Those are your top-line numbers. But then you can dive deeper into every individual step of your process. Every ad, every landing page, every email — they all have stats connected to them.

Find the Bottleneck, Fix the Bottleneck

Once you can see the numbers, you can see which steps are hitting benchmark and which ones aren’t.

The things that are working well? Leave them alone. Don’t fix what isn’t broken.

The ones that aren’t performing? That’s where you focus 100% of your attention. And here’s the thing — it’s usually just one or two things you need to fix. Not a complete overhaul. Not a brand new strategy. One or two adjustments.

That’s the difference between treating marketing like an art and treating it like a science. One approach has you guessing and hoping. The other has you diagnosing and fixing — the same way you’d diagnose a problem in a client’s books.

Stop guessing at your marketing. Start measuring it. The numbers will tell you exactly what needs to change.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does marketing feel like guessing for accountants?

Because most people teach marketing like it is an art form — throw stuff at the wall and hope something sticks. In reality, marketing is a science. Every step of your funnel has measurable stats, and when you track them, you can diagnose exactly what is broken instead of guessing.

What marketing metrics should accounting firms track?

Start with the basics: how many leads came in this month and how many turned into paying clients. Then go deeper into each step — ad click-through rates, landing page conversion rates, email open rates, and show rates on booked calls. The numbers tell you exactly where the bottleneck is.

How do I fix my accounting firm’s marketing?

Find the bottleneck. Look at the numbers at every stage of your funnel, identify which step is underperforming benchmarks, and focus 100 percent of your attention there. It is usually just one or two things that need fixing, not a complete overhaul.