Home / Latest News And Updates / Why digital marketing for accountants is important
13 Oct 2023
Are you an accounting professional looking to integrate digital marketing into your firm? You may be struggling with the time or resources to implement a strong, worthwhile strategy.
There are many benefits to running effective digital marketing, but there is one in particular that stands out. Namely, client and prospect growth.
This article looks at digital marketing for accountants and we discuss how 20:20 Innovation can support accountants and auditors like you in this area.
Read on for more information about digital marketing for accountants, including websites and social media. If you would like more information about becoming a 20:20 Innovation member, why not book a free 30-minute demo with our team today.
This refers to the strategic use of online channels, technologies and techniques to promote your firm and accounting services. It can also build brand awareness, generating both new leads and clients.
Digital marketing includes a wide range of activities aimed at reaching and engaging prospective clients, enhancing the online presence of your accounting firm, and ultimately driving business growth.
There are numerous benefits to accountants enabling you to thrive in the digital age and stay ahead of the competition.
Let's explore how the ways digital marketing can help you:
Cost-Effective Marketing: Compared to traditional marketing methods, digital marketing is often more cost-effective. Online advertising, email, and content marketing campaigns can be tailored to fit various budgets, making it accessible for practice's of all sizes.
Content Marketing: Creating valuable content such as blog posts, ebooks, and webinars can establish you as the expert in your field.
Enhanced Online Visibility: Strategies such as search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay-per-click advertising (PPC) can improve your accounting firm's online visibility.
Targeted Marketing: You can target specific demographics and audiences. Through techniques like audience segmentation, you can tailor your marketing efforts to reach the most relevant prospects, ensuring your messages resonate with the right people.
Lead Generation: You may be able to create free content (e.g. free tax planning guides), landing pages, and email capture forms can help capture contact information from interested prospects.
Client Engagement: Social media platforms and email marketing enable accounting firms to engage with existing clients and keep them informed about important updates, changes in tax laws, and new services.
Data Analytics: Viewing the data and results on any activity allows for continuous improvement and refinement of marketing strategies. Using tools such as Google Analytics, can measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, track website traffic, and gather insights.
Competitive Advantage: If you embrace the digital landscape, you're more likely to stay relevant and attract tech-savvy clients (and staff).
Accounting and digital marketing careful consideration and planning to ensure a successful and effective strategy. Any accountancy firm, or indeed business, should consider the following factors:
Setting the right goals is crucial for success. Goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).
Consider objectives like increasing website traffic, generating a certain number of leads, or growing your social media following.
Your goals should be aligned with your accountancy firm's overall business objectives and client needs. Regularly track and analyse your progress using key performance indicators (KPIs) to make data-driven adjustments.
Identifying your target audience is essential for a successful strategy for any business.
Start by analysing your current client base to uncover common characteristics, industries, and needs. Which clients make you the most money, who do you want more of…and who do you want less of!
As mentioned above, utilise online analytics tools to gather demographic and behavioural data on your website visitors. This all helps tailor content, messaging, and advertising to resonate with your target market.
Outlining a budget in any company involves careful planning, it should always be a part of any business plan and strategy.
You should also break down the costs for various marketing channels, including website maintenance, content creation, paid advertising, and marketing tools.
You should regularly review and adjust your budget as needed to maximise ROI and make sure you are not spending money in areas that are adding no benefit ensuring you're getting the most out of your expenditure.
Selecting the right marketing channels is vital, it needs to work with your strategy and your audience.
Start by identifying where your audience spends their time online.
B2B platforms like LinkedIn and industry-specific forums are often effective. For a broader reach, consider SEO, content marketing through blogs, and email campaigns.
Social media, such as Facebook and X, can also be valuable for engagement for both current and prospective clients.
It is important to use the channels that are relevant to your firm, but also your audience – whether they are small businesses or multinational organisations.
Creating robust marketing reports involves tracking and analysing key performance metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of your campaigns.
Start by selecting KPIs, such as website traffic, conversion rates, ROI, and customer acquisition costs – you want to know how much a new client costs to get in!
Utilise analytics tools to gather data consistently and measure your progress over time, always good to keep an eye on your search results.
Present the findings in visually appealing, easy-to-understand reports, highlighting areas that need improvement and successful strategies.
Having a website is a must, but making sure it reflects your firm and meets your objective is vital.
Each practice may have a different objective, it may be your shopfront, offering information about services, accounting content, expertise, and contact details.
Or, you may just want your site to generate leads for your sales team to turn visitors to new business, either way, it should match your business goals.
Whatever your objective, your site must be user-friendly, mobile-responsive, and professionally designed.
Content should include industry insights, tax resources, and blog posts to showcase expertise and build trust. This content can also help drive your social media activity, which you can link to.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is where you optimise your online presence to rank higher in search engine results (Google/Bing). This includes keyword research, on-page optimisation, quality content creation, and link building.
SEO helps increase online visibility for your brand, attract the right traffic, and ultimately drive more prospects to your site. The more you can keep your website updated with regular news and updated, the more it will help your results.
Content marketing involves creating and sharing valuable content like blog posts, articles, advice and topical news updates. Creating regular content helps showcase your expertise and can help position your firm as a thought leader.
Topics can include tax tips, financial planning, and industry insights that impact your client base, or you may use some content to show the softer side to your company.
It is important to note that you can develop your plan as you progress and grow in understanding which content will best promote your company.
Social media is a powerful tool for building brand awareness, engaging with clients, and sometimes, attracting new business. Platforms like LinkedIn, X, and Facebook offer opportunities to share industry insights, promote a service, showcase expertise, and foster meaningful connections.
You can use social media to post informative content, which may be your latest blog post, interact with followers, and participate in discussions.
It is important to not use social media as a sales tool - we all want more business, but this should be used share blogs, news, updates and how you can help – not focused on making money instantly.
You may also want to consider paid advertising, whether you use on all or just on the platform that suits you best. The advantage this brings is that you can target specific demographics, meaning you can target the industry, market or customers that suits your strategy.
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising involves placing ads on search engines, such as Google and Bing, along with social media platforms.
You bid on keywords relevant to a key service or event, paying only when users click on your ads. PPC campaigns can be highly targeted, reaching potential clients actively searching for a specific accounting service, or problem that you can help with.
You will notice that you won’t be the only business trying to push their brand or services, there will be numerous websites and accountancy firms competing for attention.
Effective PPC management includes keyword research, ad creation, and perhaps most importantly, monitoring the activity to maximise ROI. This can be a cost-effective way to increase website traffic, generate leads, and boost your position in the market.
This can be a tricky area to explore, so you may need to create a new role and add an additional team member, or look to outsource to truly succeed.
However, if you get this right, see it as an extension to your SEO service that can also link with your social media marketing, with the aim of reaching potential customers that traditional marketing cannot.
This is a strategy lead by technology that streamlines and automates tasks and workflows.
It is nothing new, in-fact as customers of both B2B and B2C will receive automated marketing on a daily basis, it is designed to make your life easier and more efficient.
With the right tools, businesses can send personalised messages to prospects, track engagement, and trigger responses based on user behaviour - it be be about your services, brand or general engagement.
While it may sound complicated, it really does not have to be as once you have set-up some automation it will save you time and allows for more targeted and effective marketing efforts.
You may not be in a position to automate everything, so start with what will make the biggest difference to your business.
Not many firms can rely on Google being the only way for prospects to find out about them. As we know, websites are key, but so is the activity to raise awareness and drive people to your site.
Email marketing is a valuable tool to communicate with customers, prospects, and leads. It involves sending targeted emails that provide information, such as tax updates, financial planning tips, services outlines or even team updates.
Email campaigns help maintain client relationships, nurture leads, and showcase expertise. Personalisation, segmentation, and automation can enhance the effectiveness of emails, the better your data, the better your response rate.
It is not always about volume with emails, it is about the content and who you send to, making sure it is part of your strategy and campaigns plan.
This also does not have to be expensive, you may use a free platform such as Mailchimp, or similar that are aimed at small business owners or an accounting firm looking to work efficiently.
Mobile marketing involves reaching and engaging audiences through mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
It encompasses various strategies, including mobile-optimised websites, mobile apps, SMS, and location-based advertising.
Given the increasing reliance on mobile devices, businesses must ensure their digital presence is mobile-friendly, so regardless of your CMS platform, websites should always be responsive.
It's crucial for any accounting firm to adapt marketing efforts to cater to the growing mobile user base for effective client acquisition and retention.
Remember, you are not just thinking about right now, but also the future…where mobile is key.
Take a look at your team, there is a good chance that a high percentage use their mobile for almost any activity, from banking to searching for solution specific to them.
This is where we also think back to social media marketing...a mobile is often where this is seen first!
To make the most of social media platforms, you need a strategic approach to social media marketing.
You should choose platforms where your target market is most active, typically that would be LinkedIn for professional connections or X and Facebook for broader reach.
Different social media platforms can provide different benefits. The key is to post valuable content, engage with followers and prospects – your ideal audience, even small business owners will be on social media.
Facebook is a leading social media platform for connecting with a diverse audience, sharing content, and running targeted advertising campaigns.
While it may not be your number one social platform, it is still worth exploring.
LinkedIn is a professional networking platform with millions of users, you should not just have your personal profile created, but also a business profile.
It can be a great platform to network with accountants or individuals with the same kind of interests, but also a great place to attract new talent to your accounting firm.
Along with LinkedIn, X is a platform that is most suitable to posting effective updates, insight or even sharing financial news to a wide audience.
This can often be where you can gain insight into both clients and prospects, understanding how you can engage and help them.
TikTok is a popular for sharing short-form videos and is one of the ‘newer’ social channels to explore.
Initially aimed at a typically younger audience, its growth has been helped by the viral challenges, creative content, and a diverse user base of all ages – something to tap into if you can post engaging on a regular basis.
The go-to for videos that help you find out more about products, services and how to do things.
YouTube can be a great tool for you to post videos relevant to your current client base answering questions that your team no longer has to.
Alternatively, you can create videos to showcase your firm, team and talent to potential customers wanting to know more.
A picture and video-based platform that allows businesses and individuals to share photos and videos, while also allowing stories and reels to share content.
If you choose to go down this route, make sure you can product visually engaging posts for your desired audience, think – why would someone view this and go from there.
Along with the above, there are different social media platforms you can explore, but these may not be as applicable when promoting accounting services - these include Snapchat and Pinterest.
However the messaging software such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger do provide alternative ways for your firm to be contacted. The easier you make it, the more business you will get.
Our expert team can help create a new website, provide website content or look after social media to help grow your firm and win more clients.
Whether you are looking for a good example of website design, topical content or engaging social media, we have worked with accountancy firms of all sizes to provide the solution you need.
If you would like more information about using 20:20 Innovation for your website or social media, why not book a free 30-minute demo with our team today or call us on +44 (0) 121 314 2020.
Simply fill in your details on the form below for a no-obligation callback.
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