Digital marketing is a power tool to help grow your accounting practice. We explain how each part of the marketing mix works and can help you.
Accounting and marketing do not always mix well. One discipline could be viewed as saving money, the other with wasting it. However, that does not have to be the case.
Smart, targeted and persuasive marketing can yield very attractive returns, especially as an accountant who is trying to attract new clients. Like all professionals, we are to close to the details.
What we see as critically important, our audience probably has little to no understanding of the differences. This is why it is so important that we remember that what we think is important may not be import to our prospects.
Our challenge is generate the right leads, and that can be tough when people aren't sure what they need. This is where market segmentation comes into play. It help us to narrow our focus to a core a high potentials.
It allows you to answer which client is best suited for you or your firm? It provides a means by which to identify them. Finally, it help us craft the right message to convince them to work with us.
Marketing Strategy for Accountants goes into this topic in more detail
Communication is tricky. As humans, we are imperfect senders and receivers of messages. Our environment affects, internal need, state of mind, color, font, sounds, etc. all impact how we receive messages. This is especially important as context varies by industry.
Professionals who are versed in communication struggle. It's even more difficult if you are untrained or find it less interesting. However, whether we like or not, we are communicating all the time, even when we think we are not. We need to be mindful of our verbal and non-verbal cues to ensure that working for us not against.
As we said, there are numerous visual cues to support the message that we wish to send. For accountants, the color, font, images, etc., your focus. For example, an accountant focusing on smaller businesses would want to appear more approachable than a forensic accountant would.
As a professional, you will want to ensure that your website design clearly projects a professional image. After which, your chosen target comes into play.
For example, our forensic accountant's website is going to want to look more and feel more technical in nature. Therefore, he or she will want colors, images, fonts that support that image.
Our small business accountant is likely to be quite different. He or she will want to project a professional image, but one that is more reflective of the client he or she serves.
Marketing needs to reach and connect with your target market to be effective. Therefore, your web design will need to convey your message within the right context to your potential clients.
Web Design for Accountants goes into this topic in more detail
Google’s algorithm works for one simple reason - users value the results. They value these results because they can find relevant information quickly and easily.
Bots function in three ways to achieve this.
Our job in SEO is to help the bots. We can do this through a mix of
For more advanced technical SEO, you should consider hiring an SEO agency or SEO expert.
Again, many of the questions will be dictated by your accounting focus or area of expertise. However, all accountants will likely be faced with: “which accountant is right for me?”
It is arguable that the general public’s knowledge of accounting is quite rudimentary. If you jump too quickly into specific questions for your area of expertise, you may miss out on an opportunity to educate and capture clients at the top of the funnel.
It’s important to remember, if you engage a client too late in the funnel, they are not likely to know who you are. People don’t typically do business with people they don’t know and trust. This is why you will want to have at least a few questions and pages dedicated to the top of the funnel.
SEO for Accountants goes into this topic in more detail
When it comes to PPC for lawyers, you are going to want to be cautious. The average CPC for and conversion rate (CTR) are roughly on par with the market. However, if you are not sure what you are doing, you could waste a good amount of money on attracting the wrong people.
This risk is relatively high since the general public has limited awareness of accounting and how it might impact them. For accountant, I would save Google ads for the lower end of the funnel when clients are trying to decide between which accountants are the right fit for them.
As I said earlier, people need to know you to work with you, especially in a field where there are unequal levels of knowledge. Said differently, where they are dependent on you.
For awareness building, you could choose a lower cost method like Google Display or Facebook. Instagram, Twitter, and the others are not likely your best choice given their advertising platform design.
PPC for Accountants goes into this topic in more detail
Social lets you directly interact with your audience. Social push is generally in the form of paid advertising on a social platform to a target audience. Social pull is shareable content published mainly to your social network which they value enough to share.
The Big 5 social platforms as of today are likely to stay the top 5 for the foreseeable future. But, with many of the issues arising from the 2020 election, they may change in character.
Social listening and sentiment analysis are two tools which can help you determine where your customers are and with what they are engaging. Follow the data not stereotypes of who uses what.
The key difference between push and pull is in the interaction. Push is predominantly a one-way conversation. People don’t typically interact with one-way communication for long. Pull is more a dialog.
Social Media Marketing for Accountants goes into this topic in more detail
As you can see, digital marketing offers several ways to help you boost you practice today and over time. As you also likely notices is that this is a very complex and multifaceted discipline. While it may seem overwhelming at first, with the right guidance and help, it can be a very powerful tool in helping build awareness of your practice or firm and yield dividends in lead generation.
Social media for accountants can be tricky. It’s a fine line to walk between educating and interacting and providing what the end user would perceive as financial advice.
Push and other materials where you have direct editorial control (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) are best. You can disclaim that it does not provide financial advice but rather educates others to stimulate interest in your services.
This can be a productive means to boost your credibility as an expert. As an attorney, you probably don’t need to be told, however, just to reiterate its importance, what is said in social media is public record.
Stick to education and refrain from what could be considered advice and social media can help, especially when it comes to explaining what an accountant does and how that might help them.