AccountKit: How a cohesive offline-online strategy led to doubled leads
Paul and Paula Murray know what it’s like to live a day in the life of a busy accountant.
On top of being the brains behind AccountKit – a suite of efficiency and visibility tools designed to optimise the Xero and Xero Practice Manager experience for accountants – they also manage their own accounting practice where they handle everyday accounting and taxation duties for a range of clients.
Suffice it to say that running two businesses in tandem while raising three young kids doesn’t leave much spare time to think about marketing and branding. That’s where Little Village Creative comes in.
We were introduced to newly-launched AccountKit back in 2016 by our client Business Continuum and have been with them on their journey ever since. We like to think of ourselves as a plug-in marketing department for Paul and the team, helping to grow their business while making their lives easier. Paul agrees:
“In a world where I feel like I’m keeping a million balls in the air, I can trust Carolyn and the team to take critical tasks off my hands,” he says. “It’s a massive relief. I know everything is going to be looked after properly. You can’t put a price on that.”
“I’m a self-professed perfectionist and I don’t let go of stuff easily, so handing work to Carolyn has been huge. She’s been a lifesaver.”
“She’s always open to feedback but she’s also not afraid to put forward her own thoughts and challenge me on my way of thinking, which is what I need.”
Xerocon 2018: AccountKit’s biggest year yet
Having provided marketing support for AccountKit at Xerocon in 2016 and 2017, we were excited to learn that this year they were going to be a silver exhibitor. This gave us a huge opportunity to bring fresh and creative ideas to life and drive more impactful results for our client.
We wanted to dispel the perception that the accounting profession is overly staid and corporate (we know accountants like to have just as much fun as anyone else!), and do away with the dry informational stuff you might expect to see at an industry conference.
To empower AccountKit to capture leads and build valuable relationships, we knew we had to nail the attention-grabbing factor. Industry conferences are a big investment for exhibitors, and there’s really very little point in participating unless you do something exciting to stand out. Regardless of profession, age or background, people are innately curious and naturally attracted to something different; something that piques their interest. AccountKit is an awesome product that deserves big fanfare.
With the stand presence as a whole, we wanted to give Xerocon attendees something to smile about; something they’d never seen before from an exhibitor that made them come over to the stand for a closer look.
With that in mind, we floated the idea of an AccountKit-themed tattoo parlour to Paul – an idea he loved. We’re fortunate that in Paul and the AccountKit team, we have a brave and ambitious client – you simply can’t pull this kind of project off without that enthusiasm!
AccountKit at Xerocon 2018 - stand design elements.
Then came the fun part: designing, producing and building all the elements of the stand, including temporary tattoos featuring accounting puns like “Live, laugh, ledgers” and “Balance sheets ‘til I die”, as well as a custom neon sign and parlour-style décor, right down to the temporary tattoo instruction card.
At the Xero Precon Party the night before Xerocon, we were incredibly pleased to see that our work on AccountKit’s Xero Awards submission helped secure their title as Xero’s Industry App Partner of the Year!
Between the award win and the eye-catching stand, Xerocon 2018 was a hit: AccountKit doubled the number of leads captured compared to the previous year.
“I think we had the best stand at Xerocon, in all honesty,” says Paul. “It took the world of accounting and made it edgy and interesting. We had lots of people coming up to us and saying ‘Oh man, this is the best stand here by far!’”
As part of our offline-online channel strategy, we leveraged the event to generate engagement across social media with the hashtag #accountatt, polls and other interactive content. This led to doubled impressions and engagement across Twitter compared with the previous year, record lifts in impressions and engagement on LinkedIn as well as significant click-throughs to the AccountKit website.
AccountKit at Xerocon 2018 - #accountatts in action!
What’s next?
Stay tuned, because we’re looking forward to driving meaningful results for the team at AccountKit for a long time to come.
“Working with Little Village Creative has always been fantastic,” says Paul. “They’re creative, responsive and transparent, with a team of people who have different strengths depending on what’s needed. It’s like having your own marketing department.”
“I especially like that Carolyn thinks about us when we’re nearly crying from stress, and she sends through cupcakes. It’s that human touch. She’s a magical human being – we love working with her and I think anyone else would feel the same.”
Is your business in need of a creative makeover? We love working with great people – let’s have a chat.