When developing a business’ marketing and PR campaigns, it’s often wise to involve team members who may not necessarily belong to marketing or PR departments. Sometimes, however, business owners and managers overlook certain team members who could contribute valuable insights during the process.
For example, if your business has a corporate accountant (whether they be an outside party or an employee), you should strongly consider allowing them to participate the next time you’re developing new campaigns with your marketing and PR teams. An accountant can help marketers and PR specialists design campaigns that yield ideal results without costing more than your business can afford to spend.
This is also worth keeping in mind if you aspire to provide a business with accounting services in the future. Along with taking basic steps, such as attending networking events and taking classes to optimize your performance on the CPA exam, if you’re currently a student or recent graduate, you can improve your chances of making the right impression on potential employers in the future by learning about the ways your skills can overlap with other components of a business.
To better understand why a corporate accountant should be involved in the process of developing a business’ marketing and PR campaigns, consider the following essential points:
Accountants understand budgeting
The goal of marketing and PR teams shouldn’t merely be to attract customers. They must also attract customers while adhering to a reasonable budget.
That can be difficult when the U.S. Small Business Administration recommends businesses earning $5 million or less in sales annually shouldn’t devote more than 8% of their gross revenue to marketing. Marketers and PR specialists need to ensure their campaigns cast a wide net without costing too much money. Naturally, an accountant can assist in this process, reviewing past data to better determine how certain types of campaigns deliver stronger returns-on-investment than others.
Promoting moderation
Marketing and PR are, to some extent, creative endeavors. Thus, sometimes marketers and PR team members can become enthusiastic during the campaign development process. If their enthusiasm isn’t reined in, they may devote excessive time to developing ideas that eventually prove to be less-than-feasible from an economic perspective.
A business’ time is among its most significant resources. You don’t want your marketing and PR teams wasting time on ideas that end up being axed later when it’s discovered that executing them would be too costly.
This is another reason it’s advised to include your accountant during discussions regarding potential future campaigns. An accountant will perhaps be more budget-conscious than other team members, letting them know early on when they’re beginning to develop campaigns that they won’t be able to pay for without making unreasonable sacrifices. As a result, there’s less of a risk of your marketers and PR specialists spending their time unproductively.
Setting concrete goals
A common mistake marketers and PR teams make involves setting vague goals when planning campaigns. For instance, instead of stating that you’d like a campaign to “increase sales,” you should determine precisely what degree of increase you want a campaign to deliver.
Your business’ accountant can help in this capacity. Their familiarity with the business’ financials will help your marketing and PR teams establish goals that are specific and realistic.
Again, these points are worth remembering whether you own a business or wish to offer accounting services to one. It’s easy to forget that an accountant can play a valuable role in planning PR and marketing campaigns. These are just a few examples of how they may do so.
