Within its existing client base of SMSF advisers, accountants and trustees, Heffron was highly regarded. This base of Heffron fans had grown organically but needed to expand more quickly for Heffron to realise its business objectives. Additionally, Heffron knew other advisers and accountants would greatly benefit from using its services but was struggling to reach these practices.

It was time for Heffron to take its marketing strategy to the next level.

Natalie Sillar, Head of Sales and Marketing at Heffron, says, “We knew we weren’t making the most of our broad expertise and that we were missing out on an important audience because of their lack of awareness of our capabilities. So we brought in BlueChip Communication to help us reach a new audience and show them how we could help their own businesses thrive.”

The primary aim of our research program was to understand how Heffron’s clients bought. We wanted to better understand the issues that prompted an accounting or advisory practice to start searching for an SMSF provider like Heffron, who influenced the decision, where they gathered their long-list of possible suppliers, the decision criteria they would use to judge each contender, the priority attributes they would be looking for in a new supplier, and how and where they learnt about technical SMSF topics.

BlueChip interviewed a sample of Heffron’s existing and potential clients about their recent buying decisions, prompting the interviewees to remember a specific buying instance rather than just a theoretical buying process.

We triangulated our primary research from interviews with our experience in marketing to the adviser and accountant industries and desktop research covering channels and topics with which advisers and accountants engage.

Working closely with the Heffron team, we developed six different buyer personas that captured Heffron’s new target audiences and how best to engage them including a new key buyer - the Practice Manager, who acted as gatekeeper and important decision influencer at medium to largesized practices.

Once Heffron understood more about its audiences and how it could address their needs, we created the optimal path to purchase for each one.

By mapping the right content, customer value proposition messaging and channel choices for each persona, Heffron was provided with a blueprint to reach, engage and convert their ideal customer.

With BlueChip’s help, the Heffron team now has a deep understanding of its audiences, and a robust and evidenced-based strategic content marketing program.

In addition, we’re proud that our support has helped Heffron:

• Save staff time and marketing costs through more focussed marketing
• Make the most of the breadth of team expertise with new audiences
• Use the new insight into buyer personas to develop new products and services