Business Dev/Sales

Two Ways to Generate Niche Leads

Niche Lead Generation - image of someone drawing a circle on a chalkboard full of squares|Niche Lead Generation - image of someone drawing a circle on a chalkboard full of squares|Ingenuity Marketing Group logo

Sponsored post by Ingenuity Marketing

Niche Lead Generation Strategies

Niche lead generation is a two-way street of active and passive activities at accounting firms.

The active part is training team members to suggest additional services to existing niche clients and to be involved in the niche for professional visibility and capabilities conversations. In this way, the firm is reaching outward to potential clients.

The passive part is attracting leads through digital search engine optimization and paid ads. These tools draw more potential clients into your firm’s website for exploration and to schedule a call.

Business development conversations and digital tools work together to maximize lead generation, build the firm’s reputation in that niche and support a larger future book of business. If you are missing one side of the street or not maintaining it consistently, your competitive advantage erodes.

Develop Consistent Messaging

A critical piece of niche lead generation that is often overlooked is how your firm talks about the niche consistently through conversations as well as your digital tools. Accounting firms that focus on the deliverables instead of focusing on how the firm makes the client’s life easier are focusing too much on their “stuff” instead of the value.

To have a differentiating business development conversation, all niche team members should be equipped with consultative sales questions that help them identify the potential client’s current challenges and how the service can solve them. For example, instead of talking about the services or the technology stack that you provide for client accounting and advisory services (CAAS), you should ask potential clients if they are challenged to hire and keep good employees in the back office. Ask them about their experience of getting staff to adopt new technology. These questions pinpoint the pains of inconsistent reporting or inefficient processes that your service can solve.

When these pains are identified, they can become the messaging of your CAAS web page and your digital ad campaigns. Discussing the pains of staff turnover and constant retraining speaks directly to the visitor about their challenges. It builds the visitor’s interest and desire to get those problems fixed through your service.

Validate Niche Referrals

One more thing. If a lead is referred to your firm, about two-thirds of their research is done before they decide to contact the firm directly. By allowing their passive exploration of your website, niche blog posts, downloadable collateral or ads – all with messaging that focuses on their needs and desires – these leads can convince themselves of your value proposition. When they do call, you will enjoy a much warmer business development conversation with them.

Setting your team up for success with niche lead generation requires significant research and practice. Define your audience, develop consistent messaging around your value proposition and make sure that the conversations and digital tools you use are consistently communicating a solution to real problems. Soon, you will create a lead generation superhighway.

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About Dawn Wagenaar


Dawn Wagenaar is Principal of Ingenuity Marketing Group, LLC, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Ingenuity works with accounting firms across the country on branding, research, marketing and growth to make their professionals famous. Dawn is past chair of the AAM Conference Committee and Virtual Education Committee and past member-at-large for AAM National Board of Directors.

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