Translating numbers into enterprise success is the holy grail of business, and accountants are at the helm of this century-old yet reputable practice. These unsung heroes, although typically absent from enterprise brochures, are the backbone behind extracting meaningful insights. As expected, the demand for high-quality accountants continues to rise.
The global accounting market is growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.5% and is projected to reach a valuation of USD 1,738 billion by 2031. This means accounting firms, regardless of their capital and size, must undergo a marketing transformation to remain relevant and thrive in the digital realm.
First things first,
What is digital marketing for accounting firms?
Digital marketing for accounting firms refers to the end to end strategy and implementation of campaigns to promote accounting services. This includes B2B, B2C and B2G marketing campaigns with a focus on building a brand and attracting business.
Tailored specifically for the accounting industry, the digital marketing landscape covers a comprehensive range of activities. These include but are not limited to –
- website optimization,
- search engine optimization (SEO),
- pay-per-click (PPC) advertising,
- content marketing,
- social media marketing,
- email marketing,
- online reputation management,
- and analytics and tracking.
- thought leadership,
- community building
- PR
These strategies collectively enhance brand visibility, attract and nourish qualified leads, establish thought leadership, engage with the target audience, and make data-driven decisions for continuous improvement.
5 marketing mistakes that accounting firms make
From neglecting basics of digital marketing such as SEO to overlooking targeted outreach, Accounting firms are one of the most ignorant sectors. These often lead to critical mistakes and ultimately missed growth opportunities. Here are 5 marketing mistakes that accounting firms make.
#1 Not Advertising full range of services
You’ll never know what your visitor wants. Accountants don’t publish a comprehensive portfolio of services. They don’t break down their services into smaller components that the lead could hand-pick. In the digital realm, don’t underestimate your customer. They might be looking for you using a diverse range of search queries. You’ll never know what your visitors want until you land up on all search results.
For example, a potential lead looking for tax preparation may or may not search with the phrase ‘tax accountants’ or ‘best accountants’ etc. You have to keep advertising all your services, through different search queries.
The digital user is too impatient to make a guess that you might be offering everything. Those who appear take the slice away.
#2 Not Targeting Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
In the pre-covid era, local search listings had limited traffic until everybody was locked indoors. 93% of consumers turned to digital search for hunting local businesses. Guess what? Businesses those who had a local seo strategy in place experienced massive growth versus others who missed the opportunity.
When businesses don’t include local SEO keywords in their strategy, they are actually missing out on users hunting for services in a specific area. Even though a firm may want to focus on overseas business, excluding local means losing easy, incoming business.
Overlooking local seo can be detrimental especially for accounting firms that majorly trade on trust and face value. Such an oversight might cost them valuable revenue.
Start with registering your accounting firm on Google and Google maps.
#3 Not Taking UI/UX Seriously
Even though accounting firms have no direct business with UI/UX, they still can’t survive without it. Just because they don’t understand this skill doesn’t mean they don’t need it. What most businesses think wrong is that UI/UX and the complete website in fact is just a glamorous component to attract users. In reality, this is one of the major differentiators for search engine rankings, bounce rates and conversion rates. Visually unappealling landing pages are most likely to create confusion and face high bounce rates.
On top of it, most accounting firm websites are not all optimized for mobile users. Those who didn’t take the desktop version seriously, are miles apart from positioning their business for millions of users over the mobile.
If it hurts to hire in-house professional website experts, then outsource to a partner agency. Don’t wait long enough to see your business crumbling in lieu of a poor website. All it requires is a simple yet timely execution.
While we are at it, your accounting firm website doesn’t have to be the most attractive thing over the web. It should provide all information, in less space, less time, and less effort.
#4 Underutilizing Content Marketing
Despite a decade of existence, firms, especially accounting firms, end up ignoring content marketing. Try and search websites of these companies and you’ll see most of them have generic landing pages and a few blogs. Why? Because they think content optimization and distribution is not for serious businesses like accounts.
Bursting the myth, content marketing is actually a game changing practice. Content marketing is a potent yet often overlooked strategy by accounting firms. Producing educational content establishes an accounting firm as an industry thought leader.
- Blogging: Maintain an informative blog to showcase expertise, address pain points, and attract organic traffic.
- Thought Leadership: Publish whitepapers, research reports, and industry studies to position the firm as a thought leader.
- Video Content: publish video series to simplify complex concepts, provide tutorials, and engage audiences visually.
- Webinars and Podcasts: Host interactive webinars or participate in podcast interviews to share expertise and engage with a broader audience.
- Social Media Engagement: Utilize platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to share insightful content, engage with industry influencers, and participate in discussions.
And most importantly,
#5 Not experimenting with multiple channels
Accounting businesses are often locking horns with a question – should they be advertising physically or digitally? Should they focus on SEO or social? Does a local strategy work or global? Should they publish content on platform A or platform B?
The answer is – all of them!
If your marketing is happening either on Linkedin or google or selective platforms, you are prone to put your digital presence to risk. There’s a large pool of audiences looking for services like yours across a wide range of platforms.
When you don’t diversify your target platforms and strategies, you are not experimenting enough with campaigns across channels.
A lot of accounting firms make this mistake and end up with lackluster results and slow growth. Your marketing plan should include several channels to give you the best possible chance of beating your competition and achieving your company goals.
What to do? – Embrace Omni-Channel Marketing Strategy
To put it simply, an omni-channel is an all inclusive marketing strategy wherein a business signs-up on all platforms, and utilizes all channels. Omnichannel marketing is an ocean of opportunities for accounting firms to generate, warm and engage with leads seamlessly across multiple channels. Not only does it put your brand’s presence everywhere but also establishes a strong foundation for the longer stint.
Among many others, accounting firms can avail the following benefits from omnichannel marketing –
- Integrated CX across multiple channels.
- Enhanced brand engagement through reaching customers at various touchpoints.
- Personalized and targeted messaging as per customer behavioral data.
- Lower bounce and higher conversion rates.
- Valuable data and analytics for optimizing marketing strategies
- Fostered growth and long-term customer relationships.
20 Point Checklist – Effective marketing tips for accounting firms
While there is a plethora of marketing strategies available, we present a quick rundown of 20 actionable tips that will empower accounting firms to effectively reach their target customers.
- Create pillar pages: Also known as power pages, pillar landing pages usually have details about your product in the form of long content. For accounting it includes tax preparation, book-keeping, finance modeling, raising capital etc. These pages not only address the pain points of the customers but also educate about your product thereby producing qualified leads.
- Publish case studies and testimonials: In the digital realm, it is important to generate trust through compelling success stories from the customers. This also advocates for the diverse portfolio you have and illustrates the confidence that your customers have bestowed in you. Better to have a dedicated section just alongside blogs on the website. Not to miss, Case Studies account for an important prefix in SEO keywords.
- Position yourself as a thought leader: Another important content marketing hack is to produce thought leadership content. Publish downloadable resources such as guides, financial planning, budgeting spreadsheets and other important topics of your domain. Offer these resources in exchange for contact information through form-fill-ups on the website.
- Fire Paid Ads on Linkedin: 89% of B2B marketers utilize LinkedIn as a primary lead generation channel. Linkedin is a powerful platform to reach targeted customers. It enables you to filter your target group based on industry, designation, location and others. If done strategically, Linkedin ads enhance the visibility of your accounting services among relevant professionals.
- Offer trial period consultations: Free services for a limited initial time are a great way to generate trust. Although a traditional marketing technique it performs well in the digital landscape though social influencing. A confident account firm is able to demonstrate expertise to a larger audience across borders.
- Host webinars, podcasts on tax planning and other topics of consumer interest. Apart from advertising your COE in the domain, this is a great way to capture trending questions and requirements from potential leads and then further curate your digital marketing strategy accordingly. Establish yourself as a dependable advisor, offering critical insights to manage enterprise taxes.
- Publish qualitative blogs: Even though it’s an unsaid rule, most accounting firms take it lightly. Don’t cover generic explainers and topics that everyone is doing. Focus on pointed, technical subjects that answer questions and offer a solution. Your blog section should perform like a knowledge library and not just a collection of SEO articles.
- Live Chat: Correct! A live chat option is a marketing hack to answer visitor questions about the website. Most times, it may generate leads instantly. There’s a swathe of live chat options and with ChatGPT APIs, it is becoming even more important. Deploy live chat options to offer immediate assistance, trigger real-time engagement and ultimately increase conversion rates.
- Don’t ignore local SEO: The temptation for global reach shouldn’t affect your local SEO goals. Target location-specific keywords and optimize the website accordingly. Produce content that caters to issues of finance management topics of local or national importance. Include local key-phrases in the metadata, web content, business listings, forums and other forms of off-page SEO submissions. This will attract more prospects towards your website.
- Partner with peer companies: Partnerships are a great marketing hack that brings on-board like-minded enterprises for mutual growth. Engage with industry finance advisors, legal consultants, fintech companies and others in the industry. Advertise the scope of partnership through social channels. This creates an opportunity wherein partners refer to each other and gain from each other’s communities.
- Consistent video marketing: 91% of consumers prefer video content from brands. Produce informative videos covering complex topics in accounting. Tutorials are even better that provide practical tips on financial management. Videos garner more social impressions, are highly shareable and enable you to connect directly with audiences. Plan a video series calendar as a part of your thought leadership program.
- Participate in accounting forums and communities: Engage in online accounting forums and actively contribute to discussions. Provide valuable insights, answer questions, and establish yourself as a thought leader. Active participation in forums helps build credibility, expand your network, and attract potential clients.
- Engage in accounting software partnerships: The explosive rise of digital money is an opportunity for accounting firms to broaden their network and target new customers. Check with popular accounting software providers and offer services such as integrations, references and others.
- Roll-out newsletter subscriptions: Provide regular updates and tax tips in the field of accounting through beautifully crafted industry newsletters. Encourage website visitors to subscribe to the newsletters by including them in regular CTAs. This nurture leads and helps you stay in touch with potential leads. Moreover you can track the activity of the visitors on the newsletters through CRM tools.
- Organize workshops: Host virtual workshops on relevant topics such as bookkeeping best practices, tax compliance for SMEs, or financial planning for startups. These workshops offer a valuable opportunity to educate the audience about your industry experience and attract potential leads.
- Optimize digital profiles such as Google My Business: Google My Business is an important listing that features reputed businesses in a specific area and industry. If optimized as per marketing standards, it boosts visibility in local search results. Create an updated profile that provides key details about your accounting services including operational hours, customer reviews and contact information.
- Publish authoritative content on LinkedIn Pulse: The publishing feature on Linkedin allows CXOs to share opinionated articles and valuable insights for their network. If the article goes popular then it in turn results in a growing network and perhaps greater opportunity of generating leads.
- Attend industry conferences and events: Participate in virtual conferences, webinars, and industry events as a speaker or panelist. By sharing your expertise with a targeted audience, you can enhance your visibility, network with peers, and attract potential clients. Most importantly, advertise your presence in the event across channels.
- Optimize email marketing: Many firms communicate regularly with clients via email, but they often miss the full potential. Maximize your email marketing by sending regular updates and captivating content focused on business strategy and financial tips, not just accounting matters. Remember to design mobile-friendly emails and avoid lengthy content. Instead, provide teasers with hyperlinks to your website to encourage readers to visit for more engaging content. Your website is where clients can engage with your services effectively.
- Get mobile friendly: With 60.67% of web traffic coming from mobile devices in Q1 2023 (and expected to rise), your website must adapt seamlessly to smartphones, tablets, and computers. Ensure a cross-channel experience that allows users to easily find, read, and navigate your site. Think of your website as a roadmap to your business – if it’s not user-friendly, visitors may seek accounting services elsewhere.
Level-up your marketing game today
This was just a jist of the key marketing tactics that every accounting firm should follow. Since your consumers are moving online, it’s time that you build a reputation in the parallel world and stay relevant.
Comment below for details or questions regarding any of the above discussed marketing strategies.
FAQs
How can specialized landing pages benefit my accounting firm’s digital marketing strategy?
Specialized landing pages can benefit your accounting firm’s digital marketing strategy by targeting specific services, increasing conversion rates, and attracting qualified leads.
Should accounting firms invest in paid advertising on LinkedIn?
Yes, investing in paid advertising on LinkedIn can help accounting firms reach a highly targeted audience of professionals, increasing visibility and generating potential leads.
How can hosting webinars on tax planning help attract potential clients?
Hosting webinars on tax planning allows accounting firms to educate clients and prospects, demonstrate expertise, and position themselves as trusted advisors in the ever-changing tax landscape.
What are the key advantages of optimizing my accounting firm’s Google My Business profile?
Optimizing your accounting firm’s Google My Business profile enhances local search visibility, improves online reputation, and increases the chances of appearing in local search results.