AAM MINUTE
September 2026: Budgeting and Marketing Plans for 2027
Seasoned Marketer: When accounting firms merge, unifying multiple brands, budgets, priorities, and office cultures requires more than consolidating spreadsheets. Discover how Sorren brought 13 independent marketing plans into one cohesive strategy by aligning leadership, balancing firmwide and local investments and building trust before allocating resources.
Beginner’s Guide: It’s that time of year! Sweater weather, PSL Lattes, and annual planning! Dust off those planners, and get ready to audit your MarTech, because it’s organization time while the CPAs are in 10/15 mode. New to annual planning? Start here. Been through the process before? Consider this a refresher on the fundamentals that matter most.
Business Development: Budget season shouldn’t mean simply rolling last year’s event calendar into next year’s plan. Which sponsorships and events have earned another year of funding? Where should new opportunities compete for those dollars? And how much should you hold back for opportunities that haven’t surfaced yet? This article offers a practical, business development-focused approach to building an event budget around where your firm wants to grow.
Infographic: Budget season probably isn’t anyone’s favorite time of year. There’s a lot to review, a lot to question and, inevitably, a lot of numbers to explain. So, I asked AI how it could make budgeting a little easier. This infographic highlights four AI prompts designed to simplify budget development, challenge assumptions and prepare for leadership discussions.
Meet a Member: For this month’s Meet a Member, we caught up with Jeremy Shen, Chief Strategy Officer at YHB CPAs & Consultants and a member of AAM’s Board of Directors. Fresh off his transition from chief marketing officer to chief strategy officer, Jeremy shares his perspective on strategic planning, leadership, AI and the evolving role of marketing in accounting firms. Along the way, he offers candid thoughts on building high-performing teams, navigating change and why curiosity may be one of the most valuable traits a marketer can have.
August New Members
Ashley Dolar, ContentWise LLC
Cara Lewallen, Connor Group
Daniel Pals, Lauterbach & Amen
Jennifer Carroll, Blue & Co., LLC
Kimberly Schafer, Thruline Agency
Paul Carlson, Law Firm Velocity
Tanya Vergara, HW CPAs + Advisors
