Checkpoint® Marketing for Firms Customer Spotlight: Hoyt, Filippetti & Malaghan, LLC

“Our goal, and the key characteristic of our brand, is to partner with clients, so we are the ones they call first when making important business decisions,” says Paul R. Filippetti, CPA, one of the firm’s founders. “To achieve this, we have to frequently be in front of them. For this purpose, we combine meetings, calls and networking with a biweekly newsletter, our website and our Facebook page. Our site has a client portal, so clients visit it a lot, and it’s important for us to keep the content relevant by regularly adding fresh content aimed at helping them achieve their goals.”

HFM | Groton, CT and Westerly, RI How do you keep your name in front of more than 2,000 clients, prospects and referral sources when your firm has only a few partners? That’s an important question for Hoyt, Filippetti & Malaghan (HFM), a small CPA firm on the coast of southeastern Connecticut about two hours from New York City and Boston. The firm also has an office in Westerly, Rhode Island.

If you don’t market, you can’t grow. If you’re not out there going after new business, you’ll shrink. To market effectively, you have to share what you do and why you’re good at it and then spread the word. – Paul Filippetti, partner and cofounder of HFM

Aimee Matteson, staff associate, with Paul Filippetti, partner and cofounder of HFM

Groton Lighthouse

Groton Monument

2 CHECKPOINT® MARKETING FOR FIRMS — HFM CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Leveraging Outside ResourcesTo this end, the firm posts articles from its Checkpoint Marketing for Firms email newsletter, as well as the online Tax Planning Guide. It also uses the Timely Opportunities Widget, a “set it and forget it” feature that loads a new article every week onto the firm’s website, which was developed by Web Builder CS. In addition, the firm subscribes to Social Media Tax Briefs, which provides new tax-related information weekly to post on its Facebook page.

“The Checkpoint Marketing for Firms content is engaging and informative and enables us to share information we would simply not have time to write on our own,” says Paul. “The newsletter helps reinforce our brand, as well as tell people about developments at our firm. For example, we’ve just moved our office to a new location, and we included an announcement about it in the newsletter to get the word out.”

Although not every client is on the newsletter distribution list, HFM’s goal is to get missing email addresses and increase subscriptions. The signup form on the firm’s website is helping to do that. Bottom line: HFM considers the newsletter an important part of its marketing program. In Paul’s words: “The newsletter enables us to leverage our limited marketing resources, keep our name out there and set us apart from the competition.”

Providing Big-Firm ServicesThe firm was formed 10 years ago when Paul Filippetti and Richard M. Hoyt, Jr. split off from a regional firm. With the addition of partners Terence J. Malaghan and Elise vonHousen, HFM now has 12 professionals and a total of 18 people.

“We offer a lot of the services that big firms provide and will take on engagements many small firms can’t handle,” says Paul. “Our practice includes debt management, estate planning and merger and acquisition work, as well as the more common tax, accounting and assurance services. The main components of our client base are nonprofits, construction businesses and the hospitality industry.”

Keeping HFM Top of MindFor Paul and his partners, the key to business development is to proactively take steps to get and keep the firm’s name top of mind in its market. And that means marketing.

“If you don’t market, you can’t grow,” he says. “If you’re not out there going after new business, you’ll shrink. To market effectively, you have to share what you do and why you’re good at it and then spread the word.

“These days, if you don’t have a website or newsletter with quality content, you might as well have nothing. That’s because 100% of prospects will check out your website before they contact you. Your site has to project a good image. You don’t want it to look like a restaurant site that still has 2009 menus posted. The content we get from Checkpoint Marketing for Firms helps us put a good foot forward.”

The firm gets the majority of its business through referrals, thanks to partner involvement in a variety of organizations, including the board of a community bank. But this doesn’t mean new engagements just pour in.

The newsletter enables us to leverage our limited marketing resources, keep our name out there and set us apart from the competition. – Paul Filippetti, partner and cofounder of HFM

CHECKPOINT® MARKETING FOR FIRMS — HFM CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT 3

“Our greatest marketing challenge is price competition,” Paul notes. “Trying to figure out where to be on pricing is not easy, especially when so many individuals are actually resistant to change, not to price. People may know it’s time for a change because they aren’t getting the service they want or need from the firm they currently use. But they often need to be disappointed several times before they’re willing to switch. We try to keep our name in front of prospects, so when they’re ready to move on, they’ll come to us.”

Grooming Future LeadersPaul and the other HFM partners realize that if the firm is to continue to grow and realize its potential, it will need to bring new people into leadership positions and nurture younger staff to take on more responsibilities, including marketing. They plan to add a fifth partner soon and are grooming junior firm members to take ownership by involving them more in decision making.

“We see that a lot of firms in our area are run by older partners who would like to retire but don’t have a succession plan,” says Paul. “So they’re just shrinking their practice until they sell it off. We don’t want to be like that. Instead, we’d like our firm to keep growing long after we’re no longer involved in it. That’s why we’re big on preparing the next generation of leaders and keeping our name out there. And that’s why we’re glad to have the content from Checkpoint Marketing for Firms that makes it easy for us to do that.”

That’s why we’re big on preparing the next generation of leaders and keeping our name out there. – Paul Filippetti, partner and cofounder of HFM

Groton Lighthouse

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About Checkpoint® Marketing For FirmsDrawing on the expertise and resources of Thomson Reuters, Checkpoint Marketing for Firms offers comprehensive marketing and client communication solutions designed to help accounting firms, law firms, community banks, PEOs and payroll service bureaus achieve their client retention and revenue goals.