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Marketing an accounting firm is a great way to let people, especially your target audience, know your firm, the services you offer, and what you represent (your values). It projects your firm and increases your visibility in the accounting industry.
Besides letting people know what your firm is all about, marketing is a great tool for growing your business. Studies carried out by Hinge research institute show that the difference between fast-growing firms and average-growing firms is marketing.
The study revealed that 174% of fast-growing firms invest more in marketing. That is to say, if you are looking towards growing your accounting firm, investing in marketing should be a priority for you, alongside developing your business.
You cannot successfully market an accounting firm without evaluating your business for the best marketing approach. Only then you can develop a productive marketing plan for your accounting firm to help you achieve your marketing goals.
An ideal marketing plan for accounting firms should highlight and cover the unique selling points of the firm, its weaknesses, strengths, opportunities, and risks.
Not just these, it should also look out for the target audience, the most profitable services that can attract clients, SMART marketing goals, and marketing approach or strategies to employ.
Developing a marketing plan reveals the current growth situation of your accounting firm, which helps you to develop strategies that aligns to your marketing goals. It will also give you direction and help you to stay focused in achieving productive results.
Over time, marketing has evolved from traditional methods (including print and other forms of mass media) to digital marketing approach (online marketing).
Although digital marketing is the new marketing trend, new approaches are coming up with each passing day. Hence, to stay on top of your game, it becomes necessary to acquaint your CPA firm with the trending marketing strategy in the accounting industry.
Here are 5 ultimate marketing strategies that can catapult your firm to your desired growth level. These strategies have recorded tremendous success for accounting firms, which proves that they work.
According to Statistics, there are about 4.66 billion active internet users in the world as of January 2021. If the world’s population is 7.9 billion, and there are 4.66 billion of active internet users, it means that a greater percentage of your target audience can be reached online.
Creating an online presence simply means positioning your accounting firm on the internet, so that you can easily be accessed by people all over the world. It includes creating a company profile through your website, or leveraging social media platforms.
Create a website with an eye-catching layout, and a topnotch user experience.
No user wants to waste time navigating through a confusing page. Hence, you ensure that the page is easy to navigate. Also, make sure to create an optimized mobile version of your site because records show that most users surf the internet more with their mobile phones.
Remember to keep the designs and use of color minimal to give your page a classic but sophisticated look. This will improve the impressions that visitors have about your page.
Asides from creating a website, leverage social media platforms. Create accounts, and join communities where your existing and potential clients’ hangout.
Social media platforms create engagement avenues for your firm and clients, whether potential or existing clients. It is a proof of social engagement, which helps to validate your brand.
Examples of social media platforms and communities to leverage as an accounting firm include LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
Besides people being able to reach you, establishing an online presence gives customers a positive impression of your accounting firm, builds trust, and provides a platform for you to build your brand.
Branding is a broad term. Some people define it as packaging, while others define it as building a unique selling point. Whichever definition you choose to go with, is correct. However, combining the two definitions is more accurate.
Branding is simply packaging your unique selling point such that it imprints your firm in the mind of people. It places your accounting firm on the top list in people’s minds whenever the service or services you offer is mentioned.
Branding silently creates awareness of your brand in people’s minds.
A common example of branding is placing your logo or brand design on your products and contents. As an accounting firm, creating informative contents that are helpful to people and imprinting your brand logo or design on somewhere visible in the content (maybe the top or bottom of the content), the eyes of your readers subconsciously captures it.
Whenever the need for something related arises, the first thing that will come to their mind is your firm because your content already shows that you know what you are doing.
When using colors or creating logos and designs, ensure that you employ minimalism; simple and classy. Also, ensure that they are flexible enough to adjust to any size; whether big or small.
Other approach of branding you can adopt includes using a distinct tone and style for your contents, paid adverts, search engine optimization, corporate philanthropy, promotion, and email marketing.
Content marketing involves creating educating and informative content such as texts, videos, or photos, and distributing them online via your website, blogs, social media platforms, and emails. It is a form of branding and marketing that projects your firm to the top list of your industry.
When creating and sharing contents, employ search engine optimization (SEO) content strategy to ensure that your contents are optimized on search engines. SEO content strategy ensures that your content pops up at the top of search engine’s results.
The contents you create and distribute should reflect your accounting firm’s values, tone, style, language, and services as you educate and inform your audience.
A key factor that contributes to the success of content marketing is consistency. Create and share contents regularly across your online platforms. If the workload of your workers is bulky already, you can hire professional freelancers such as writers to create the contents for your firm.
A study on business to customer email marketing show that 80% retail professionals reveal that email marketing is a great strategy that helps to retain customers. It also shows that 77% of people prefer to get promotional messages via emails when compared to direct messaging, mail, or social media.
Aside from helping to retain customers, email marketing is effective in reminding and keeping your clients updated on the services you offer; it is also a good way of generating leads and conversions.
The good thing about email marketing is that it does not have to be every day. You can schedule it for once a week or once every month but make sure you are consistent.
The content of your email could be newsletters, promotional messages, updated information about your services, new offers, and other valuable and helpful information about the industry.
Ensure that the contents are not plagiarized, and that they reflect your brand tone, style, and language.
Email marketing content should be simple, concise, and have catchy headlines. Also include hyperlinks that link users back to your websites.
Promotion helps to attract people to your accounting firm. It increases people’s interest in your firm, initiates buying, generates new leads, and turns in conversions.
There are various ways of carrying out promotions. It could be offering services on discount prices, offering guidance for free, hosting free webinars, seminars, and workshops.
The secret spice for a successful promotion is offering value for free, but in a strategic way that draws the attention of people to your firm.
For example, when you host free webinars, seminars, or workshop, dish out mind blowing values that will hook the attendees to want more, then offer them your services in a suggestive but compelling approach such as discount price.
The value you offer is a bait that draws the attention of the people to your business, and the services you proposed is your way of initiating purchase.
Asides from the five strategies listed above, referrals are effective in marketing your accounting. That is to say, your existing clients play a vital role in the marketing of your firm.
Hence, you need to ensure you offer them top-notch services. To offer excellent services, adopt technologies and software such as Client Hub to help you serve and communicate with your existing clients better.
There are various marketing strategies for businesses today, however, not all of them are effective for marketing accounting firms. We have made a list of 5 effective marketing strategies for accounting firms that can help your firm achieve its marketing goals.
Choose the marketing strategy that best suit your firm’s budget, develop plans on how to carry out the strategies, and dive straight into action.
You can market an accounting firm by posting valuable content on blogs and social media platforms, newsletters, offering free or discounted services, and paid adverts. Choose any of the above approach that suits your firm’s budget and ensure that you are consistent.
Marketing accountants analyzes and report the outcome or results of marketing, whether offline or online. They track sales, evaluate marketing activities, and distribute funds for carrying out marketing activities.
Yes, accounting firms need marketing. Marketing is an effective tool for growing your accounting firm; it attracts new customers and investors to your firm, which leads to expansion and growth. Marketing also projects your firm, what you stand for, and the services you offer to the industry market.
An accounting firm should spend between 1.5 to 3.1 percent of its revenue on marketing. It however, depends on the size of the firm, the amount of services offered, and the number of strategies employed. A big firm, or one that offer more services and adopt more than one strategy is likely to spend more on marketing.
