Marketing Your Accountancy Firm
When you’re setting up an accountancy practice, marketing is a key consideration. You’ll need to ensure your business can be found online, and that potential clients can not only access your services easily but also recognise you as an authority in your field.
But marketing is a complex practice that requires time, effort and strategy, and when you’re tied up with the day-to-day running of your business, it can be difficult to know where to start. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of bases that need to be covered when you first start marketing your accountancy firm.
Key Questions
Before you dive into the deep end, you’ll need to ask yourself some questions about your target audience. What does your practice specialise in, and which individuals or organisations do you primarily deal with? Ultimately the way you market your accounting firm will be determined by this. For example, businesses might find you on a different social media platform to high net worth individuals, and the way you communicate with these two groups may have significant differences. So to get started, ask yourself:
- Who is it you’re talking to?
- How will they find you?
- What are their needs?
- How much can you afford to spend to get their business?
Creating a Brand Identity
Once these questions have answers, you can shape your brand identity. This is the first step towards successful digital marketing for accounting firms. Your name, logo, tone of voice and imagery are all critical parts of the presentation of your brand. If you’re targeting large corporations, for example, you’ll want to use a professional tone of voice and muted colours. If your key audience is younger individuals, you can take a more relaxed approach with a focus on making your brand appeal to those who are encountering the world of accounting for the first time.
Part of creating your identity is coming up with brand values and USPs. What does your brand stand for? Are you aiming to be net carbon neutral? To be inclusive? And what makes your practice stand out from others? Think about your elevator pitch, and how you would secure a client’s business if you only had 60 seconds to get them on board, and incorporate that into your brand documents. Then you can keep referring back to this in your marketing content, which will create a joined-up approach across all your channels.
Get Online
These days, being online is arguably more important than having a physical office, as consumers head to the search engines to find the things they want or need. According to a survey of US shoppers conducted in October 2021, 43% of consumers always look for bricks-and-mortar businesses online before visiting for the first time. And 23% are unlikely to visit a business that doesn’t have an online presence.
So with that in mind, a website is critical to your success. The best way to get up and running with a professional-looking website is to employ a professional to create one. As we’ve mentioned, marketing for accountancy firm can be pretty complex, and a web expert knows all the tricks to ensure your site gets picked up by Google when it goes live. Things like meta data and title tags, keywords and Schema markup may be a mystery to you, but a web design and development professional will be able to ensure all these elements are in place, so you can hit the ground running.
It’s also essential to launch your site with lots of great content in place. Make sure the copy on the pages accurately reflects what you offer, establishes your tone of voice, and above all, is not copied from another firm. Your website is your shop window, and if the copy is at odds with everything else you’re putting out there, you’ll lose consumers’ trust quickly. Make sure you use high-quality images too and make them original where possible. Stock imagery is fine in small quantities, but if you want your audience to engage with your brand, you’ll need something a bit more personal on there too.
Next Stop, Local SEO
Assuming you now have a functional website that has all the relevant SEO basics and is filled with great content, the next thing to do is make that site easy to find on local searches. Many businesses underestimate the importance of local SEO – to their detriment. You only need to consider the statistics referenced above to understand how important it is that consumers can find you online.
Most people, when looking for accounting or bookkeeping services, are going to go online first. They might search ‘accountant near me’ or ‘bookkeeping services in [location]’. And you want to be there when they do. Set up a Google Business Profile, which presents all your key information in an accessible way in the Google search results, and puts your firm on Google Maps for those searching locally. There are myriad ways you can optimise your profile, which we’ve covered in more detail here, and doing so will pay dividends when it comes to putting your brand in front of local businesses and individuals.
Invest in PPC
If you have the means to do so, investing in Pay Per Click (PPC) can be a really beneficial form of marketing for accounting firms. Most consumers only pay attention to the results on the first page when they make a search, and PPC can ensure you get there. If your budget is limited, stick to your brand name and related brand terms, as these will be cheaper to bid on. If you have a little more to spend, consider going after local keywords for your key services. For example, if your primary specialism is Inheritance Tax and estate planning services, research what people are searching for with regard to these services, and tailor a campaign that includes terms that are relevant to your location (such as Canterbury, Ashford and Tunbridge Wells if you operate in Kent).
Get Reviews
Finally, a less time-consuming way to ensure your business is regularly promoted is to ask happy customers for a review. Collecting reviews can be as simple as sending out an email asking for a client’s feedback, or getting them to scan a QR code and fill in a Google review while they’re on-site. The more positive reviews you have, the more trustworthy your practice becomes in the eyes of potential clients, and the more business will come your way. Google also gives weight to organisations with lots of reviews, so having plenty of them on your Google Business Profile will help your visibility in the search results.
If you’re looking for help with online marketing for your accountancy firm, get in touch with Whitefish Marketing today. We specialise in marketing for accountants and can help your business reach the next level.
