CASE STUDY: VARNEY & ASSOCIATES
How Varney & Associates Chose a Fractional Marketing Partner Over Hiring In-House - and
Started Driving Real Website Leads
CLIENT OVERVIEW
FIRM
Varney & Associates Founded in 1959
SIZE
51-200 Employees
LOCATION
Manhattan, KS Emporia, KS
GOAL
Website Lead Generation
THE CHALLENGE & WHY RIGHTFIT
Like many accounting firms, Varney & Associates had grown successfully for
years without a formal marketing department.
Marketing responsibilities lived with the firm’s HR Director and were
primarily focused on employer branding and occasional social media posts.
While this approach helped maintain visibility, it was not driving firm growth
The leadership team began to notice a concerning trend:
- Their website was not generating meaningful leads
- Social media activity was not translating into new client conversations
- There was no clear system for attracting new, right-fit client
As Varney looked ahead to continued growth, it became clear that relying on
ad-hoc marketing efforts was no longer enough.
Strong firm. No clear marketing system to support growth
Why RightFit
Varney considered hiring a full-time marketing professional.
But that path created new challenges:
- Finding someone who understands the accounting industry
- Training them on the firm’s strategy and services
- Managing execution across website, SEO, content, and social media
- Pulling time from already busy managing partners
RightFit offered a different approach.
Instead of building a marketing department from scratch, Varney partnered with RightFit as a fractional, end-to-end marketing partner.
They needed a partner who:
- Understood accounting firms
- Could move quickly
- Could execute without requiring heavy partner involvement
- Had proven systems for website strategy, SEO, content, and lead generation
THE RIGHTFIT APPROACH
Website Strategy
Local Search Optimization
Lead Generation
THE RESULTS
More Visibility. More Leads.
Less Internal Lift.
- Increased organic traffic
- Improved visibility in local
search - More contact form submissions
coming through the website
BUSINESS IMPACT
- Varney gained a clearer system for attracting new, right-fit clients
- Website improvements began generating more meaningful inbound activity
- Local search visibility improved through Google Business Profile optimization
- Partners avoided the time and risk of hiring, training, and managing an internal marketing employee
- The firm gained access to a full marketing team without adding internal headcount
What This Means for Other Managing Partners
Varney’s results did not come from hiring more people internally
They came from having the right
partner implement proven
systems.
- Knows marketing matters but does not have a marketing team
- Relies too heavily on referrals and word-of-mouth
- Wants more right-fit clients coming through the website
- Feels overwhelmed by the idea of hiring, training, and
managing marketing staff - Needs implementation without adding more work to partners
