6 Key Marketing Tips for Accounting Firms

It’s an unfortunate truth that accounting firms aren’t always the best at marketing. In the 20+ years we’ve been working with accountants, we’ve seen relatively few firms truly leverage the exciting marketing opportunities in our reach today.

Perhaps that’s because accounting is seen by some to be a dry subject. Regardless, it’s an important one that affects just about every modern adult. Every day, countless people turn online looking for help with their personal or business finances. The accounting firms with decent marketing strategies are the ones they are going to find.

Drawing on our industry experience and observations, we put together 6 key marketing tips for accounting firms who want to reach new clients and ultimately grow their practice.

Have an Attractive Website

If your website is not visually attractive, 38% of those who view it will not engage with it (Adobe). As simple as it may seem, hooking a potential customer with an appealing website design can significantly increase your customer base.

“Unattractive” begs to be defined in this context. When referring to an unattractive website, one should picture a hoarder’s home: things displayed everywhere with no rhyme or reason, entirely too many distracting items within the visual field, and poor prioritization of the important elements.

If you have links that you want people to click on more than others, but people are so confused and overwhelmed by the content on your site that they can’t even find these links; you’ve created an unattractive website.

Create a Business Blog

No matter what technological advances may come, the written word is never going away. Effectively written blog posts contain treasure troves of information, delivered in an easily digested manner for the intended audience. A good blog writer can make any topic entertaining and engaging for an audience (even accounting topics).

Blogs are great for SEO, which helps attract organic and relevant traffic to your website. They also provide a way to educate visitors on your service or industry, demonstrating your expertise and earning their trust. On average, companies who blog produce 67% more leads per month (SEMrush).

If you don’t have a person in-house comfortable doing this, consider hiring a specialist to help over an extended period of time.

Develop an Email Strategy

According to Campaign Monitor, in 2019, there were an estimated 3 billion people who maintained an email address. With roughly 7 billion people in the world today, if you aren’t using email marketing in your advertising strategy, you are missing out.

Emails can be used to send out regular newsletters, communicate important changes in your company, educate clients about accounting/tax news in general, or just to check in with your customer base and make them feel that you are willing to engage. If you’re wondering how you will find time to do all this, consider a practice management software like TPS Cloud Axis which offers client mass mailing and emailing.

Had more firms utilized email marketing during the pandemic of 2020 to convey important tax information, it’s likely that people would have been less confused by the rapidly changing tax considerations. We know that the overuse of emails can be a deterrent, but done judiciously they can be a great source of value communication.

Finding these marketing tips for accounting firms helpful? Download our free 7 Best Practices for Accounting Practice Management ebook! 

 

Develop a Social Media Strategy

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are household names at this point. You would be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t have at least one social media account, if not multiple. In fact, according to statista.com, about 54% of the world’s 4.2 billion people across the world have at least one social media account.

Just like email, social media use is ubiquitous. 71% of small-to-mid-sized businesses use social media to market themselves, and of those who do so, 52% post at least daily (Asset Digital Comm). If your accounting firm isn’t using social media to reach and connect with a wider audience, it’s missing out on a huge chunk of potential clients.

Don’t just mindlessly post, either. Put together a cohesive strategy and calendar. Enlist the help of an expert if you need, or see if anyone on your admin team is up for the challenges. Set aside a modest (or decent) advertising budget. Platforms like Facebook and Linkedin offer powerful targeting tools that allow you to reach just about anyone.

Experiment with Advertising Channels

The worldwide web offers a wide world of advertising channels. Google Adwords, retargeting campaigns, Youtube commercials, social media advertising, purchasing ad space from specific websites or publications.

It’s impossible to know exactly what will work for your firm until you get out there and experiment. Don’t just throw caution (and money) to the wind, but set a modest budget to distribute equally between campaigns (or ad sets) and watch the results roll in.

You may find you get great traction on one social media platform over another, or a different channel entirely. You may find certain ads work better than others, or that certain audiences respond more or less than others. These are all important observations that can help increase the efficiency of campaigns over time.

Don’t Neglect Traditional Marketing

While digital marketing is an unmissable opportunity, accounting firms should not totally write off traditional marketing methods. Mailing flyers or letters, sending gift packages, handing out business cards, and holding in-person events (once we are allowed to gather in groups again).

People love the convenience of the online world, but we still value human connection. A practice management software like TPS Cloud Axis helps you stay in touch with your clients via client mass mailing and keep the big and little details straight with our client historical logs including notes, invoices, emails, and accounting work flow.

Where digital marketing offers the power of reach (and targeting), traditional marketing efforts often have more of a personal feel to them. Combine the two and you have a well-rounded marketing strategy.

How Can I Best Manage My Firm’s Online Marketing Presence?

These marketing tips for accounting firms can and should be used by all firms looking to stay relevant and competitive in today’s marketplace.

If you’re wondering where you’re going to get the time or money to invest in a good marketing strategy, consider a practice management solution like TPS Cloud Axis. It’s a cloud-based platform designed exclusively for accountants that allows you to focus on growing the practice while it simplifies the rest.

Some of the features of TPS Cloud Axis are:

• Multiple Pricing Plans to Fit Any Budget. You don’t have to choose between a marketing budget and practice management solution with our affordable plans. Starting at only $10/month, we offer plans appropriate for small firms and sole practitioners, growing firms, and multi-office firms with many team members. Whichever plan you choose, you’ll be able to track time and billing and manage your practice effectively.
• Ability to Increase Productivity. Whether you want to spend more time on marketing or make more money to spend on marketing, increasing productivity is a step to getting there. TPS Cloud Axis makes time capture, billing, reports, and more a total breeze with its user-friendly interface and features designed specifically for accountants. With all the time you’ll save, you just might have some more bandwidth to spend time on marketing.
• Advanced Reporting. As you invest time and resources into marketing for your firm, you should closely watch both the performance of those campaigns and of the overall firm. TPS Cloud Axis offers advanced reporting that gives you a high-level view of your practice and allows you to dig deeper into the details. You can also review reports such as Time, WIP, AR, and Productivity to identify areas of improvement.
• Superlative Customer Support Available. TPS Cloud Axis is remarkably user-friendly, and it even offers an in-depth library of tutorial videos that appear exactly when you need them. Still, questions come up. When this happens, you’ll have access to friendly, competent customer support staff that will triage the issue and get you back in action quickly. Depending on your subscription level, you can access customer support through a variety of mediums including phone, email, and the available support forum.

We Hope You Found These Marketing Tips for Accounting Firms Useful.

These marketing tips for accounting firms are critical to reaching new clientele and ultimately growing your practice. If your firm’s marketing strategy is half-hearted at best, commit to buckling down and laying the groundwork for a prosperous future.

TPS Cloud Axis can help your firm be more productive and profitable, plus keep in better touch with your clients. Browse our affordable accounting practice management plans.