During COVID-19, The accounting firm saw the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) program as an opportunity to expand its services. This meant helping small businesses apply for the ERC program and take advantage of this COVID-specific tax credit.
The challenge this accounting firm experienced was that the ERC program was less known on the market, being overshadowed by the more well-known PPP loan program.
The ERC program required more explanation because small businesses weren’t aware of the benefits. OneForce stepped in with its technology and frameworks to help the accounting firm scale effectively and efficiently through market intelligence, customer acquisition, and partner acquisition.
OneForce conducted a market research study for the accounting firm concluding three key observations:
This gave a clear picture of the huge market opportunity for the accounting firm to further expand on the market.
Market Segmentation
OneForce analyzed over 50 industries for their relevance to ERC. Companies in certain industries were heavily impacted by COVID and could qualify for the ERC. Other Companies in different industries had an opportunity to join a referral program to help their current customers to take advantage of the ERC.
OneForce initially used existing data sources to find relevant potential customers but quickly found limits in the current data providers. OneForce then leveraged multiple government data sources, such as public PPT data. We also deployed technology to find company websites, scrape contact information from the company websites, and identify relevant people in these companies.
The result was a comprehensive database of over 20 million businesses.
OneForce created a microsite to promote the accounting firm’s ERC and other tax credit offerings. This site was specifically optimized for lead generation - supported attribution of leads to lead sources (advertising, cold email, and other campaigns), lead qualification using a specifically designed web form, tracking of the whole funnel from ad click to form submission to a closed deal in CRM. The microsite served over 20,000 website visitors per month - potential customers and partners for the accounting firm. It became a true hub for customer engagement, driving conversions and growing revenue.
OneForce implemented its Content Studio to create informational and educational materials on the accounting firm’s website. Customer testimonial videos helped potential customers assess the accounting firm’s capabilities described by people who already worked with the accounting firm and were familiar with the company's capabilities.
The accounting firm was already taking advantage of Google Ads. But, as more competitors entered the market, the cost of acquiring leads via this channel escalated, making it unsustainable. OneForce diversified into all other advertising channels, including Meta, YouTube, LinkedIn, and programmatic ads.
OneForce implemented a nurturing system to engage people who filled out the web form and passed the pre-qualification criteria. These people were sent several SMSs and emails to provide additional information and stay in touch.
OneForce leveraged several call center vendors in the US, India, and the Philippines to set up an “inbound call center” operation. The responsibility of this team was to quickly contact leads who filled out the web forms and were pre-qualified. The objective was to answer any outstanding questions, perform an additional level of qualification, and schedule time with the sales specialist. Potential customers interested in such a meeting were handed over to the accounting firm’s sales team using warm transfer on the phone.
OneForce deployed its proprietary SmartLeads software platform to create a comprehensive data collection and analysis process. Information from advertising platforms was pulled automatically into the data warehouse, combined with lead registration from the web forms, life-cycle information from the accounting firm’s CRM system (Pipedrive), and internal the accounting firm’s data store.
OneForce’s advertising team drilled down into campaign performance, analyzed metrics, and determined quickly when to scale ad budget or shut down underperforming campaigns.
OneForce developed several landing pages for advertising. They also created supporting informational pages on the website that describe the accounting firm's partner program and its available plans, including referral partners, affiliates, and introducers.
OneForce conducted extensive advertising to reach numerous potential partners interested in the accounting firm's partner program. Their cold email campaigns specifically targeted business leaders in industries well-suited for the program. As a result, nearly half of the website's traffic consisted of potential partners, with a significant portion originating from web forms to schedule meetings.
OneForce utilized multiple call center vendors across the United States, Canada, India, and the Philippines to establish an "inbound call center" dedicated to handling partner leads. This team's primary goal was to reach out to individuals who had completed web forms, providing them with information about the partner program, assessing their potential as partners, and facilitating their enrollment into the program.
OneForce adopted third-party software to oversee its referral program. This software facilitated partner registration, allowed registered partners to submit leads, and provided essential reporting on lead conversion into clients, as well as tracking when referral fees were due for payment.
Using its Growth Engine capabilities, OneForce was able to quickly scale lead generation to a total of 120 new clients generated per month. Over 50 partners were signed up into the partner program, and about 50% of them were submitting customer leads, resulting in about 40 clients per month.
“OneForce helped us accomplish what we couldn’t do on our own. We could grow faster with the OneForce growth engine.”
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