5 Resources for Keeping Your Marketing Team Training Up-to-Date

By: Emilie Elpers

As a leader in your firm, you understand how important it is for the accounting professionals on your team to stay on top of their CPE requirements and develop new skills. But what about your marketing team? They might not need hours of continuing education credits each year, but it's just as crucial for them to stay on top of changes in technology and growth trends.

Before I joined Boomer Consulting, my prior role involved social media marketing. Since I joined the BCI team, my duties have expanded to include several different aspects of marketing, so I've been taking advantage of several resources to help me learn about messaging, marketing strategies, industry trends, and best practices. If your team is looking for resources to continue developing their skills, here are a few that I've found incredibly useful.

StoryBrand Training

At Boomer Consulting, we use Donald Miller's StoryBrand Messaging Framework to clarify our messaging and help potential clients understand how we can help them.

I read Miller's book, Building a StoryBrand, and went through the StoryBrand training to get up to speed on how we approach messaging.

Even if your firm doesn't use the StoryBrand framework precisely, the book and the training program are excellent resources to help marketers think about how to clarify the firm's message and get your website working for you.

LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning offers a vast library of courses to help professionals develop their skills and stay up-to-date.

While it has offerings for all types of professionals in virtually every industry, your marketing team can likely find courses on web content writing, social media marketing, copywriting, search engine optimization, digital marketing, graphic design, and more.

Anyone can try it for free for one month. After that, it's $19.99 per month if paid annually. You can also get a license for up to 20 team members for $379.99 per year.

I like to listen to some of the courses on the smartphone app while driving or working out.

Business Made Simple

Business Made Simple is another course from Donald Miller that focuses on all aspects of running a successful business, including leadership, marketing, sales, products, operations and overhead, and cash flow.

While some of these topics might be beyond the job description of your marketing team members, it's still an excellent resource to help them feel confident that they understand how to optimize a business for growth. And since all the modules in the course are delivered in bite-sized videos, it's easy to go through the material at your own pace.

The Association for Accounting Marketing

AAM provides a network of peers who specialize in marketing for accounting firms, access to resources to help your marketing and business development team do their jobs better, and a wide range of in-person and virtual professional development and networking opportunities.

Later this year, I'll attend my second AAM Summit, which is three days full of learning from subject matter experts. At the Summit, attendees have opportunities to learn about everything from marketing budgets to hiring outsourced consultants and building brand consistency to SEO.

Boomer Marketing & Business Development Circle

Our Marketing and Business Development Circle is a peer group of marketing and business development leaders from top firms from around the country. Members meet twice a year in person and connect virtually throughout the year to learn from marketing and business development thought leaders and each other.

Our members gain confidence in the decisions they make about the tools and strategies they use in their firm, helping them gain a "seat at the table" in their firms.

No matter where your marketing team is in their career path, there's always more to learn and achieve. Tools to continuously develop as a professional—whether through books, online courses or peer networks—are essential elements that will shape their journey and ensure every project they take on benefits from their expertise.