Author: Heather Townsend
Date republished: 21st May 2025
What is an accounting firm client persona? Is it a fad, or something practical and useful in marketing your accounting firm? In simple terms, it’s an exercise to understand your prospects and how you can improve your fee income.
A client persona is a simple model, or sketch, representing part of your target market. It may just be a few words, but when done well, your accounting firm client persona can help you and your team understand your prospects’ interests, livelihoods, pain points, needs, thinking, and the ways you can help them.
One Accountants’ Growth Club member, Paul during a recent Business Development Clinic session for members, even said that after doing this work, attracting the right clients felt ‘too easy. It shouldn’t be this easy’ – that’s how powerful it can be!
Why an accounting firm client persona is a great tool
Putting a name and background to the people you are talking to, whether in person, in writing, or through your marketing, helps improve the effectiveness of that conversation.
What’s more, it makes it much easier for your team to align and understand where you are taking your firm. Having a client persona (or a handful of them) for your accounting firm can often transform your marketing from vaguely focusing on your target market to being laser-focused on exactly the type of client you want to attract.
Take Paul Wareham a club member and, an accounting firm owner.
Paul would say that he isn’t a natural “creative” or marketing person, and he was reluctant to focus on a niche. But he rolled up his sleeves, going through the PS Accountants client base to identify: who they are, what they do, where they are based, if the team liked working with them. It turns out that the PS Accountants favourite clients are people who make and move things.
With this pegged, the next step was to identify where these clients find their info and deliver consistent messaging on the website, social media, pricing packages, blogs, and the Quickbooks Directory. This was all done from the client’s point of view in mind, which also led to a realisation that clients liked to call, not click the Calendly link – which was important for messaging. And guess what? It worked. New clients were calling up wanting to sign on for the middle and top packages, and the team was set up to take on the work.
Read more about Paul’s story from reluctant marketer to winning £5-10k of new business a month.
Watch Paul Wareham’s growth story of how he turned on a top of monthly £5-10k GRF of business wins:
Why bother?
There are three great reasons for understanding your clients. What’s more, you shouldn’t do all of the work in developing that understanding. Building the client personas can be a team-building exercise in its own right.
- Client personas help you get into character and communicate more effectively with prospective clients. You, and your team, can increase your understanding of how your clients think, feel and behave.
- The models can reveal opportunities for a different fee structure, or offering. You can become more relevant to your client’s needs, by understanding where your service meets client needs.
- A client persona can help align your whole team with your thinking, marketing and client service needs. Anything that unlocks the power of your team is worth considering carefully.
In the Business Development Clinic with our members we discussed different types of niches or focused. As accountants it’s easy to slip into thinking that all clients want is to save tax, make more profit and grow their business. Whereas when you really understand your clients you can get your messaging right.
We asked 2 accounting firm owners who really understood their client persona what their clients were wanting. This is what they said:
I found it ‘much easier to talk to them then in the marketing communication’ because I’d ‘created this little person in my mind’. It was them I talked to. It really helped to boost my understanding of how my clients think and what they’re looking for. And my clients are really wanting to know whether they can afford the next bit of kit or office premises. They want to be clear about how their business is doing rather than guess.
Whereas another of the club members who serviced a different audience spoke about the following:
I dug into my client list and didn’t just look at their business type, but also ‘what got them out of bed’. This helped me realise their main headache was being too ‘busy in the business, they don’t get to focus on the business’. They are not the kind of audience who are motivated by just wanting to cut their tax bill. That kind of understanding has been priceless for making my accounting firm’s services truly relevant.
What’s changed? I never bothered before!
The marketplace is becoming increasingly competitive, so understanding your prospects is more important than ever. All your marketing, whether it’s Facebook ads, great blogs, phone calls, or networking, is competing for a limited amount of your prospect’s time.
To capture their attention and energy, you must be specific. Prospects want to work with an accountant who genuinely understands their world. The more you demonstrate that you understand their world and are tailoring your services to how they want to work with an accountant, the greater the likelihood that your firm will win their business.
Online advertising, particularly on platforms like Facebook, now allows or even demands you to use advanced demographics to place your ads. Client personas help you create more targeted and relevant advertising that speaks directly to your ideal clients.
But too often accounting firms go out with generic messages. Their accounting firm client personas are not worth the paper they are written on. As Paul Wareham, owner of PS accountants found when he shifted his focus onto what his client personas wanted, his prospects would be easier to convert because:
I’ve never been spoken to like this before, or my accountant has never mentioned this before… they know you understand it’. That’s the edge you get when you prove you’re tuned into their world and tailor what you offer accordingly.”
The importance of creating client personas
The goal is to create between one and five client personas for your firm to represent the majority of your target audience. These personas should be specific enough to be actionable and provide clear guidance for your marketing strategy. Unlike saying, “We market to the owners of SMEs,” which is too broad to be meaningful, client personas dig deeper into the people who make up your niche. By doing so, you can create more focused messaging that connects with the individuals you’re looking to attract.
Client personas aren’t just about finding a niche, they’re about understanding the unique characteristics and challenges of the individuals in that niche. By creating these personas, your firm will be better positioned to build stronger relationships, improve client satisfaction, and ultimately drive growth.
What goes into your client personas?
Creating client personas helps your firm win bigger and better clients by focusing your efforts on the type of clients you truly want. A client persona represents a significant section of your target audience. The personas you create should answer most of the following questions and may include other details that are particularly useful for your firm’s marketing:
- Name – what will you call this persona?
- Job title (how they name it, not you)
- Key information about their company (size, type, etc.)
- Location: urban/suburban/rural
- The bottom line of their company (assuming they run one)
- Salary/household income (possibly different/ relevant)
- Family (involvement in their company etc.)
- Demographics (age, gender, education etc.)
- Their goals and challenges (much more than ‘to build a business’)
- Their main and secondary problems
- How you help solve these issues
- Their values and fears (lead to great pain points)
- Hobbies or interests
- Literacy: How do they work and learn?
- Where they get business advice and news
- How do you help them?
- Typical objections during the sales process
- Marketing message: What is the most relevant ‘elevator’ pitch and surrounding phrases?
- Buying Motivation: What are their biggest reasons for buying your services and why you rather than your competition?
- Buying Concerns: What did they worry about when they initially signed you up, and how did you resolve those issues (others will likely feel the same, which can improve your onboarding process too)
Where to get this information
Gathering information for your client personas comes from a range of sources. You’ll need to be creative and combine different methods to generate meaningful insights, rather than just data. Some sources include:
- Informational interviews: Real interviews with clients and potential clients. What can your team add to these insights if they frequently interact with them?
- Social media: Listen to what your target audience discusses and the style they use in their profiles. Even if they don’t use social media, this is valuable information in itself.
- Your website: Analytics data like the most viewed pages, time spent on each page, and top search queries reveal what interests your audience.
- Facebook insights: If you have a Facebook page, it can offer valuable insights about your followers, including demographics and engagement levels.
- Surveys: Tools like SurveyMonkey or informal surveys when clients call can reveal additional information that you might otherwise miss.
- Client database: What do you already know about them from your own CRM? It’s worth diving into your existing data for patterns and insights.
- Your team’s knowledge: Your team’s experience with clients can be invaluable. Don’t overlook what they already know.
How to create your client persona in 3 steps
Creating client personas might seem like a daunting task, but breaking the process down into three simple steps makes it much more manageable. Use the following steps to guide your team through the process of building accurate and valuable client personas.
Step 1: Consider broad characteristics of potential personas.
Start by defining the broad characteristics of the 3-5 client personas you might create. This helps outline the initial scope and where your team should focus their research and data collection. Be prepared to refine these characteristics as you gather more specific details. For example, a fictional firm called Smiths & Daughters, a small accounting practice in a county town, initially sees four main groups of clients:
- Farmers: Represent a significant segment of existing clients and might lead to a dedicated client persona.
- Manufacturing firm owners: This group could be segmented further if you identify that buyers vary between MDs, FDs, owners, and central purchasing groups. If these distinctions are important, each might warrant its persona.
- Local SMEs: While a broad category, breaking it into more specific sub-groups such as “ambitious start-ups” or “rapidly growing IT companies” helps refine your marketing efforts.
- Mature and growing businesses: Segmenting your client personas based on business lifecycle stages can help target those who are looking for stability and sustainable growth.
It’s crucial not to overwhelm yourself by targeting too many personas. Focus on those groups that have the greatest potential to become your ideal clients.
What are real accountants doing with their client personas?
Forget fictional examples for a moment; here’s how some real accounting firm owners have identified their client personas.
For example, one club member shared on the Business Development Clinic call that she didn’t just guess. She ‘did an analysis of my A, B, C, D, E, Z, clients’ and ‘eradicated the type of client that I didn’t want to work with’. That led her to focus on go-getting service-based consultants who ‘have a fire in their belly and they want to grow’.
Then there’s another member of the club who heads up a long standing scottish firm. And like many firms his size and age he has a mish mash of different clients. He started thinking about construction clients (as they did a lot of these but didn’t like them), then professionals services and medical professionals. But eventually realised, after winning a great construction company as a client, that his best fit was with ‘growth minded individuals’. I.e. individuals looking to grow their business, want a great and personal service but also have a growth mindset. They decided to move away from focusing on a sector. It shows your thinking and client personas can evolve!
When your accounting firm has grown organically over the years it can often be difficult to pinpoint what your accounting firm client persona should be. After all you’ve probably got representatives from all sectors and types of business owners. We had a few of these types of accounting firms on the Business Development Clinic. On this call I asked them to identify the common threads by asking, ‘if I could deliver you two great clients each week, what are some of the common threads?’. This helped them spot themes like ‘family business’ or ‘businesses needing finance to grow’.
Step 2: Break down the groups into specific buyer personas
Once you’ve identified the broad categories, delve deeper into who the actual buyer is for each group. For example, your “Ambitious IT Companies” might include different types of decision-makers:
- The founder: A hands-on business owner who is looking to grow and keep control of the firm.
- The venture capitalist-backed founder: Primarily focused on scaling the business rapidly and preparing it for a profitable exit.
- The finance director (FD): With day-to-day operations handed over to a management team, this persona makes key financial decisions.
Step 3: Pool your understanding and create short sketches
Bring together all the information you’ve gathered from steps 1 and 2 and create concise sketches of each persona. For example, Smiths & Daughters ended up with four clear client personas, each representing a unique target group:
- Tenacious Tim: Tim has built his IT company from scratch and wants to grow it as a long-standing family business. He currently turns over £1.2M with a net profit of £X.
- Fact-Driven Fiona: Fiona, the FD, is in charge of the financial decisions for a rapidly growing IT business. She has a strong focus on data and is looking for an accountant who can provide robust financial advice and reporting. Fiona represents a common decision-maker within similar-sized firms in this segment.
How to use your client personas
Once your client personas are created, they become a powerful tool that can transform your marketing strategy and client engagement. Here’s how to effectively use your client personas:
Refine your marketing messages
With detailed client personas, your marketing messages become more focused and relevant. Instead of casting a wide net, you can craft messages that speak directly to the needs, goals, and pain points of each persona.
Jump on many accountants’ websites and you will see the same bland messages repeated time and time again. Such as:
- “we are not your average accountant”
- “we speak your language”
- “We will help you save tax”
- “We will help your business grow”
With a detailed client persona for your accounting firm you can now talk directly to what your ideal clients actually care about. For example, you’ll know whether to emphasise cost savings, compliance support, or growth strategies, depending on the persona you’re targeting.
Target advertising more precisely
The psychographic and demographic data you’ve gathered will enable you to run more targeted ad campaigns. Platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google Ads allow you to target specific characteristics, making your advertising efforts more cost-effective and likely to reach the right audience.
For instance, you might create separate ad sets for “Tim, the Tenacious IT Entrepreneur” and “Fiona, the Fact-Driven FD,” each with unique value propositions.
Improve client relationships and engagement
Understanding your personas on a deeper level helps you build stronger client relationships. With a clear picture of what each persona values, you can customise your service offerings, communication style, and even onboarding processes to fit their needs.
For example, if you know that “Celia, the Compliance-Focused Owner” is worried about regulatory changes, you can proactively send her updates and resources to keep her informed.
Align your team around a unified vision
A well-defined client persona doesn’t just help in marketing, it aligns your entire team around a shared understanding of who you’re serving and what they care about. When everyone from your marketing team to your client-facing staff is on the same page, it creates a consistent and cohesive experience for your clients.
How to use your accounting firm client personas
Once your client personas are clear, you’ll know who you’re targeting, how to approach them, and where to focus your efforts for the best ROI. Each persona’s information helps refine your messaging and ads.
For example, Bert, a price-sensitive business owner, would respond to messages about discounts or cost-efficiency. In contrast, Celia, who values support and long-term relationships, would prefer to hear about stress-free compliance services and ongoing advisory support.
Using personas like these ensures your content and ads are tailored, making your efforts more effective and creating stronger client connections.
Why client personas are essential for your firm
Client personas are a vital tool for understanding and targeting your ideal clients more effectively. By taking the time to create detailed personas, you can tailor your marketing, refine your messaging, and build stronger relationships with the clients that matter most to your firm. When used correctly, client personas will help your business stand out, attract the right clients, and drive long-term growth.
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Author Bio
Heather Townsend is the author of The Go-To Expert and The Financial Times Guide To Business Networking. (both published by Pearson). She is the founder of The Accountants Growth Club and has been helping accountants and accounting professionals to win new work for the last 15+ years. Connect with her on LinkedIn