Marketing

December 2021 Virtual Campfire – Looking Back, Looking Forward

January 11, 2022 | Amanda Sturdevant | Marketing

December 2021 Virtual Campfire - image of a bonfire|December 2021 Virtual Campfire - image of a bonfire

Happy New Year, AAM Rockstar Marketers!

Virtual Campfires are an AAM member benefit where we jump on a video chat each month to share information, best practices and challenges surrounding a topic. Intended to simulate the learning we get when we have the opportunity to be face-to-face, these sessions focus on how we can crowdsource improvement and build community.

December’s topic encouraged attendees to look back on the year, share their challenges and successes, as well as their goals and exciting projects on the agenda for 2022. Below are the top 3 takeaways from the discussion, but this doesn’t compare to being there firsthand!

Recruiting and Talent Development

This topic continues to dominate the minds of accounting marketers. Many marketers are engaging with the HR department and candidate audience for the first time and are still finding their footing. Others have much more experience marketing to potential hires and shared what is working for them. One thing is for sure, as we look ahead to 2022, recruiting and talent development will continue to be at the top of our priority lists.

Websites, Websites, Websites! There’s a “website years” and “dog years” comparison here somewhere…

Whether it’s our internal intranet website, or market-facing brand site, many website overhauls and refreshes happened in 2021 and are on the agenda for 2022. Showing our SMEs and cultures on our websites is more important than ever since we’ve been unable to do much in-person marketing due to COVID-19. Showcasing thought leadership, sub- or affiliate brands and career opportunities are some of the areas members are focused on.

Story Brand Method/Client Stories

Many of you are creating campaigns rich with stories and making your clients the “heroes” of those stories. This was awesome to hear – we can’t wait to see examples! If you’d like to learn more about Building a Story Brand, read this book by Donald Miller.

Thanks so much to everyone who attended December’s Virtual Campfire and shared their successes, challenges and ideas. We love hearing news from your firms.

Mark your calendars and register for next month, January 19, 2022 at 1pm CST/2pm EST as we share about Marketing Management!

AAM Virtual Campfires are co-hosed by Raissa Evans, Marketing Senior Manager at Weaver and Amanda Sturdevant, Marketing Director at True Partners Consulting. Together, they have 30 years of accounting marketing experience – both in-house and as consultants. Connect with them on LinkedIn!

Posted in Marketing

About Amanda Sturdevant

Amanda is a marketing strategist and project manager with more than fifteen years of experience in accounting marketing. For the past seven years she’s served as Marketing Director and department of one at True Partners Consulting (TPC), a national tax-only accounting firm with nine offices across the U.S. To say ‘she wears many hats’ is an understatement. Alongside her awesome team of outsourced partners, Amanda provides strategic marketing counsel to the firm’s management team, manages all forms of marketing communications, plans conferences and events, trains firm professionals on marketing and business development topics and more. During her time at True Partners, she has created awareness of and increased respect for marketing’s value. She strongly believes that the most important thing an accounting marketer can do is build trust with the partners and professional staff by learning and understanding their business. Amanda earned her MBA in Marketing Strategy & Planning from DePaul University’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business in Chicago. She is also a proud alumna of the University of Wisconsin – Go Badgers! She works remotely from her home in Connecticut which she shares with her husband and two sons. Amanda is a new co-host of AAM’s Virtual Campfire video conference series and looks forward to facilitating conversations on topics that help AAM members contribute to the growth of their firms.