Image by Muhammad Ribkhan
Today, accounting companies who wish to win and retain more clients need to do more than put an advertisement in a community program. The Covid-19 pandemic forced businesses to reach out to clients in new ways, and threw into relief marketing methods that were outdated or impractical.
Marketing for accounting firms can be especially difficult, but with the right foundation, it can lead to immense success. Already we are seeing companies investing significantly in digital marketing. For example, large companies can spend between 10,000 to 20,000 USD every month on SEO.
There’s a good reason for this – only about a fourth of people scroll past page 1 on Google. That is, the vast majority of people will never discover your pages if they have not made it to page 1 of the search engine.
With that, let’s dive into how to get more people to discover your company – and become repeat customers.
Table of Contents
Introduction
You could offer the best accounting services, from automated reconciliation to payroll processing, but without the right accounting marketing, you may not find success.
Using market research and a full marketing strategy program will provide you with a strong foundation. However, let us assume you have already done the very basics, that is, determined your niche, described your ideal client, and identified your USP. How do you now get your message out there?
Top 7 Tips for Marketing for Accounting Firms
1. Marketing Channels
Your accounting firm needs to be seen by many potential clients that can be brought into the sales funnel and nurtured.
Using various marketing channels can help you gain visibility among many buyers at once. However, note that channels are meant to work in tandem with referral sources, not replace them.
2. What to Include on Your Website
Your website needs to grab your customers’ attention and also help them to easily decide to buy from you. You do this by showing clearly that:
You provide the services they require
They can afford your services
You are thoroughly familiar with the relevant sector
You are both experienced and qualified
Hence, your content should include:
Service pages – what you do & who you do it for
Fee pages – how you charge for your services
Case studies & testimonials
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
If people can’t find you when they search on Google or another search engine, your other efforts could be largely wasted.
SEO is what will help people find you on a search engine. It is part of search engine marketing (SEM) and is often used along with pay-per-click (PPC) ads. There are advantages and disadvantages to both SEO and PPC.
SEO is, generally speaking, cheaper than PPC, and offers better long-term benefits, but requires a lot of patience and investment of time and energy. Think of it a bit as a long-term content plan. PPC will cost you more in the short run, but will also get you more immediate results.
If you aren’t certain how your company is performing in a search engine, try this quick test. In a web browser, select private or incognito mode, and then search for the following:
Your speciality, such as “accountants for banks”
Your region, such as “accountants in New York”
A combination, such as “accountants for banks in New York”
If you are not on the first page of results for all or at least some of those terms, your SEO needs work.
4. Media Attention/Going Viral
This is one of the most difficult parts of marketing, especially for accounting firms.
There are many ways to conduct viral marketing, but the general idea is to launch a campaign focusing on a topic that is currently trending.
You may, for example, announce in a press release that your accounting firm is the first one to accept cryptocurrency, or that you have created a reconciliation automation software that works far better for large amounts of data than existing software. This will give you a lot of media attention and help generate buzz on social media.
5. Networking Meetups
This one’s a little old fashioned, but it still has its merits. For marketing for accounting firms, it is a staple.
It will help you to maximize your marketing efforts, and you will be able to add reliable contacts to your database.
6. Include Lead Magnets
“Lead magnets” are incentives you offer on your website to potential customers in exchange for data such as contact information or email addresses. Some examples of lead magnets are PDF toolkits, eBooks, downloadable videos, and so on.
7. Partner on Webinars
Webinars are a fantastic way to reach a larger audience.
Ideally, you will get partners from other companies who share your target market or have an audience within it. This is so that you can introduce your accounting services to them.
For example, let’s say your accounting firm has carved out a niche in construction. Perhaps you could approach a construction association or company that is already running webinars, and propose a webinar that you think would be helpful for their audience. Ensure that this topic is also relevant to what services you offer as well.
Pitch ideas for valuable webinar content to firms, partners, organizations or associations in your target market. Many will be happy to accept guests, and others are even on the lookout for them.
Conclusion
We hope that this article has given you an insight into digital marketing for accounting firms. Accounting marketing is a specialization that often has no easy answers, but with a solid foundation, you should be able to crack it.
NextGen Accounting’s management team has decades of experience and includes former executives of Barclays Bank, Bank of America, and ICBC. We may not offer marketing services, but we do take care of your daily reconciliation for you, which will help you focus your resources on marketing and running your business.
We offer credit card reconciliation services, bank reconciliation services, reconciliation automation, and consulting services. Our services are specially tailored to large firms or firms dealing with massive amounts of data.
To give you the most accurate and fastest reconciliation, we use our patented software CrushErrors, which you can also obtain as a product if you’d rather conduct reconciliations in-house.
Contact us today for reconciliation services or book a free demo if you’d like to get CrushErrors!