How to market an accounting firm: 7 Tips to consider
-
Mercia Group 
21 October 2022 10:29
Marketing your accounting firm is essential to building your customer base and your reputation for providing quality advice.
Your marketing plan should include a range of marketing strategies to help attract clients and generate leads. In this blog post we take a look at some marketing strategies you can use to make your firm attractive to prospective clients.
Key Highlights
- Make use of social media in your marketing efforts. This will help promote your firm and communicate important messages to your clients and potential clients.
- Consider using paid advertising to help target the clients you wish to attract.
- Attend networking events and spread the word in regard to your business and what you have to offer.
- Stay in the know when it comes to tax and legislation so that you can showcase your expertise to peers and utilise it when assisting clients.
- Make use of podcasts to help spread your knowledge and attract new clients.
- Send out newsletters to keep customers in the know and highlight any important tax changes that may affect them and their business.
- Build long-lasting relationships with your referrers in order to boost your client numbers.
On this page:
Build relationships with referrers
Social media marketing
In these modern times, it is essential to market your services via social media. The bigger your social media presence the more people will see your posts and content. Digital marketing should be one of your key marketing tactics, and you should consider posting infographics and information to your social media sites.
Creating content is also a good way to draw in potential clients - try writing a blog post on a topical issue. Post content when the chosen topic is trending to help to garner the biggest audience possible.
In regard to having an attractive online presence, making sure your website is mobile friendly is key. Many people browse the internet using smartphones and tablets, and ensuring your website displays accurately on such devices is vital. Consider a new website if you are looking to rebrand or revamp your firm.
You may also wish to consider your search engine optimisation (SEO) statistics in regard to your website. The higher your ranking on search engine result pages the more likely potential clients are to visit your website.
Paid advertising
Small businesses may wish to utilise paid advertising as part of their marketing efforts. You may choose to market your accounting firm on popular accountancy-related websites and sites that receive large amounts of traffic. Consider showcasing your expertise on using Google Ads, Twitter Ads, Facebook Ads and Pay-Per-Click.
Networking events
Networking events are great ways to share information and expertise amongst your peers and colleagues. Use networking events to answer people's questions about your services and your sector expertise.
Become a thought leader
Staying up to date with the latest hot topics in the world of tax and accounting is vital to show clients and potential customers that you are a leader in the industry. Consider creating opinion pieces, offering not only facts but advice on how your clients could be affected.
You may wish to create opinion blog posts that contain key terms in order to help push your firm higher up search engine optimisation (SEO) rankings. Search engines prioritise pages with keywords and terms above those that don't. The aim is for your content to appear as high up the list of results as users are more likely to scan the first page of results than scroll through multiple pages.
Writing blog posts and posting on your social media channels can help to form part of your digital marketing strategy. Your digital strategy should incorporate a range of tools, including making best use of your firm website and aiming to score as highly as possible in the SEO rankings. Google Analytics can help you to keep track of your posts and content.
Get podcasting
Podcasts are a great way of marketing your firm. Not only will they appeal to potential clients, but they can also provide existing customers with valuable information.
Keep an eye on trending issues within the world of tax and accountancy - what do your target audience and existing clients want to learn?
Start a newsletter
Sending newsletters is a great way to keep clients and potential clients up to date on both what is happening in tax law and also in your own firm. You may also wish to include local news in your newsletters to appeal to your immediate community and the businesses which operate within it.
Consider how newsletters will affect your marketing budget - will you offer printed copies or digital only? Printed newsletters will cost more to produce, and research shows a decline in popularity of physical publications. As a result, you may wish to concentrate on your digital offerings.
Marketing materials take many forms, and have become increasingly digital thanks to the popularity of social media. Consider sending your publications as PDFs so that your clients can read your updates whenever you want, wherever you are.
Build relationships with referrers
Generating positive working relationships is crucial. They are even more vital when they concern referrers. These have the ability to recommend your firm and services to other potential clients, so you should seek to maintain a positive working relationship with them. Referrers might be businesses or individuals.
If clients have expressed that they are satisfied with your services, encourage them to leave your firm a testimonial. Client testimonials displayed on your website only serve to highlight the quality of your services and advice and may help to influence potential clients looking for support.
Final thoughts
A firm's marketing strategy needs to be thoroughly thought out in order to successfully reach its target market. Successful accounting marketing aims to not only attract new clients, but provide interesting insights on topical tax and business issues.
Many firms make use of multiple marketing strategies, including search engine optimisation, digital marketing, online marketing, video marketing and making use of social media pages.
