Where should an accounting firm direct its marketing attention right now?
Should they follow the 61% of marketers who swear by ads? Or the 90% of businesses who rely on great content? Maybe there are other methods (or a mix of several).
If you want your accounting business to get ahead, your first task is to gain knowledge about marketing strategies at your fingertips.
To help you with that task, we’ve put together our top five tips for accounting firm marketing.
1. Use Online Advertising
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising has had a transformational effect on many businesses, and it’s a perfect marketing method for accountancy firms.
As the name implies, you only pay once someone clicks on your ad, making it a cost-effective way to promote your business.
But the most significant benefit of pay-per-click is that many top advertising platforms have granular targeting technology. You have a fantastic opportunity to reach the people most likely to become your next paying customers.
You can narrow by region, demographic, education, interests, or behavior (such as targeting people who recently visited your website).
The two best PPC marketing channels for accountants are LinkedIn and Google Ads. LinkedIn will help you naturally reach out to business owners and professionals as they scroll through the latest news feed.
Google ads are best for people searching for a solution. So you might want to use an ad for people searching for “best accountancy firm,” for example.
2. Build a Lead-Focused Website
You probably have a website, but do you have a lead-focused website? The latter is a way of proactively capturing the contact details of your customer leads when they first land on your website.
You can do that by putting a landing page or opt-in pop-up box at the center of your homepage and tempting people with a lead magnet (a free offer in exchange for their details).
Effective lead magnets for accountancy firms are free, unique offerings, such as webinars, phone consultations, or industry reports.
The best strategy when creating a lead-focused website is to stick with a simple design. Make it clear what you want your website visitor to do, and don’t clutter the page with distractions.
Keep it professional by investing in high-quality branded design. Testimonials are also a fantastic addition as a review (if you have a Trustpilot account, you can add your star rating to your homepage).
Having this sort of web strategy makes your marketing far more efficient.
Getting traffic to your website takes time and money, so asking for their contact details upfront might seem bold. However, it converts exceptionally well and is a far better method than people getting lost on your site exploring multiple pages.
3. Get Serious With Your SEO Efforts
You can pay to market your business on Google, but you’ll only get leads for as long as that advertising campaign is up and running.
However, there is a longer-term and more sustainable way of getting traffic on Google, and that’s SEO.
SEO takes work to set up, as you’ll need to invest in content for your website. You’ll also need some thorough keyword research to help you target the best search terms for your accountancy business.
However, once you have successfully ranked for a search term, you could get traffic from that search query for months or years.
Try focusing on the sorts of “buyer-intent” terms people are likely to type when trying to shortlist an accountancy firm, for example, “recommended tax accountant near me.”
If you want to use SEO to market your business, ensure you focus on optimizing your site. You’ll need high-quality, well-structured content and a speedy, mobile-friendly platform.
4. Transform Your Email Marketing Approach
Do you have a business newsletter? If not, it’s worth setting one up because email is a fantastic way to connect with your business leads.
Avoid using the traditional newsletter format – the one that tells your loyal customers what your business is up to this week. Instead, use this communication to entice and captivate your newest business leads with valuable, insightful information.
Focus on content relevant to accountancy, and sign off each email with a solid call to action, such as inviting them to book a consultation with your team.
The best thing about modern email autoresponder is that you can pre-write your emails and publish them at a time when it suits you.
You can even send a sequence of emails, an excellent marketing technique to engage an audience and signup more ideal clients.
5. Try Cold Outreach
Our final tip is probably one of the oldest and most tried and tested methods out there. But don’t assume age is a drawback here. This method is still as highly effective as ever.
Cold outreach is a simple marketing method that involves collating a list of businesses and emailing or phoning them to pitch your services.
You don’t have to be pushy with technique; you can take many smart and subtle approaches to make this method more successful and natural.
For example, you could pitch a special or free offer to a local business in exchange for a testimonial or case study. That’s a valuable asset that you have and well worth offering some of your services for free.
We’ve included cold outreach in our tips because you no longer have to scour websites looking for phone numbers or email addresses.
You can use social media to connect with people and form an online relationship before you make that first pitch and secure your sale.
Accounting Firm Marketing Tips You Can Try Today
You can use many exciting marketing strategies to promote your business. Use these tips for accounting firm marketing to give you a head start.
And don’t forget to connect with us for our expert growth strategy advice to help you maximize your marketing efforts. Head here to take our amplified assessment to see how we can help you reach your sales goals.
