Marketing for accounting firms needs to utilize digital elements and foster an online presence to stand out in today’s market.
Just like how marketers need accountants to understand how much resources can be devoted to marketing expenditures, accounting firms need marketing to attract new leads and customers.
Here, we’ll go over 5 tips for lead generation - including important website maintenance recommendations - that can help with marketing for accounting firms.
Think of Your Target Audience or a “Niche”
Marketing for accounting firms is difficult if you don’t know which clients you serve. Although it’s tempting to say “we serve everyone”, few companies do.
Ask yourself and your team the following question: Do you tend to have clients in similar fields like trades, health, law, tech, eCommerce, or food & hospitality?
Your current and historical customer data can be a goldmine to determine your target audience. Try not to go for an abstract, far-fetched idea, but rather something tangible; something that already exists. Finding a pattern to this data is essential to establish who you’re selling to.
Update & Maintain Your Website
Have you received an outside perspective look at your website before? According to Hubspot, your website is the second-most extensively used marketing channel for your firm.
A poorly designed, developed and written website is like looking for a needle in a haystack for your customers. Websites can offer too much content since it’s tempting to post every offer you have on your homepage. The reverse is also true. Accounting firm websites can post too few details as well, not providing basic information about the business, how to get quotes or pricing information, contact information, or the location of the office.
A good rule of thumb for marketing for accounting firms (and other industries) is to highlight the most important and popular services - usually the top 3.
This guideline ensures you have a clean design that’s easy on the eyes and isn’t too busy. A simple summary of what your firm is about, some contact information, and a clear call to action (ie: what action you desire your customers to take) is all you need at first. Adding testimonials and other links to pages are some extra elements you may implement too.
You can see our Webflow Showcase for some good website examples we’ve made or our blog on 3 professional Webflow showcase websites.
Client Referrals: Don’t Forget to Ask for Them
Despite the prevalence of new marketing technologies, you cannot overlook the power of word-of-mouth marketing.
Word-of-mouth sales alone account for over $6 trillion of annual global spending. This means about 1 out of 8 sales is from old-fashioned word of mouth. That’s as many as 41 million people in the United States alone!
Knowing this, wouldn’t you want client referrals? You can promote this via vouchers and discount offers through a referral program, offering mutual benefits for your accounting firm.
Social Media Marketing
Accountants aren’t exactly known for social media hype, but your firm can use certain platforms to find the right customers.
At the very least, using social media marketing will push your company’s presence and awareness. Marketing for accounting firms can be tricky on social media. What types of posts do you make? What type of media does my firm need? Which posts will perform better than others?
It’s worth considering the social media platform. LinkedIn has the majority of users that drive company decisions and is the largest B2B display advertiser in the U.S. Facebook has an extremely high rate of Daily Active Users.
There will be trial and error and testing required for social media posts to see what sticks with your audience and monitor which platforms perform better than others. Consider the following metrics to track on your social media accounts:
- Followers and/or likes
- Comments (engagement)
- Shares (engagement)
- Mentions (tags, hashtags)
- Engagement rate (Engagements / Likes)
- Post Reach
In short, people around the world are using social media. If someone in your firm isn’t posting content, you can be sure your competitors are.
Email Marketing
If you want leads and conversions, email marketing is a must-have. Email marketing is a critical component in marketing for accounting firms.
Email collection forms had a 15% conversion rate in 2020 and over 45% of businesses with effective email copywriting have a staggering open rate of 26% or higher.
Attention-grabbing content like your blog posts or additional accounting tips can get your audience interested, and later on, purchase from you. Don’t forget that a lot of people today view emails on mobile. Ensure your email marketing efforts use a mobile-friendly design. Try using small clips or article teasers that redirect to your website.
Blogging & Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
A blog shows the world - and Google - that you know what you’re talking about. Marketing for accounting firms is much easier with a regularly maintained blog. Nearly 50% of companies with content marketing leverage blogging.
Start by breaking down topics that your clients ask about. Do customers need help with taxes? Alright, then which element of taxes do they struggle to understand? Is it the amortization of assets? Filing taxes with a spouse or common-law? Or perhaps your clients are in business and they struggle with financial reporting and changes in tax laws?
As long as you can consistently keep blogging, your blog page will grant you results. Blogs directly help support and can be embedded in other digital marketing content you create like emails and social media posts.
Search engine optimization (or SEO) for your site will be improved by blogging. Climbing up to the top of search engines like google should be an element to consider when marketing your accounting firm.
Nuances of SEO like keywords, ranking difficulty, and keyword competition can get complicated. If you’re stuck or simply don’t have the time, consider hiring an agency to help out with SEO or blogging with marketing for accounting firms.
