How Accountants Can Grow Sales Through Digital Marketing and Social Media
In your accounting business, you need to be using digital marketing and social media. In some ways it's as simple as that. You cannot afford to ignore what the digital age offers. Of course, it's not really that simple. There are seemingly limitless strategies and platforms to consider within the broader scope of digital marketing, but if you start with the essentials, you can make a great deal of progress.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is over 40 years old by some accounts1, making it even older than what we think of as the modern Internet itself. As more and more businesses have utilized digital marketing over the past couple of decades, it's clear that email has been (and still is) one of the most effective marketing channels.
If your accounting business is not engaging in email marketing, you're making a mistake. Email is a great way to reach a large number of people simultaneously. Better yet, these are people who have expressed interest (by opting into your list) in hearing from you. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that there is great potential here for sales growth.
James Daily at Insightful Accountant says, "First of all, you should select an email marketing platform which suits the needs of your accounting firm the most. You should base your choice on amount of letters you send per month and numbers of subscribers on your list. Take a look at well-known companies like SenderGrid, MailChimp, [and] Newsletter2go."
Create an email newsletter with compelling content, and always make it easy for recipients to contact you and visit your website.
Search Engine Marketing
While email is great for getting in front of people who already know who you are, search engine marketing is ideal for gaining visibility for those who may not know your business or how to contact you, but are specifically in need of your service.
Engage in search engine optimization (SEO) tactics like link building (including local link building), creating great content for your website, and making sure your business is verified on Google. Consult with an Search Engine Optimization expert for more deeper strategies that can help you outrank your competitors. You will likely also benefit from dedicating some of your marketing spend to paid search.
Social Media Marketing
Utilize social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn to help build your brand and maintain visibility, as well as connect with prospective, existing, and past clients. Like email, this can be a great way to get important information out to your followers, and like search, it can help people find you when they need an accountant. The quantity and quality of your social media connections can also help sway people's decisions about whether or not to do business with your firm.
Social media marketing is largely about visibility and reputation. From an advertising perspective, social platforms can also help you target the precise demographics you are trying to reach due to their wealth of user data.
Online Reviews
According to a 2019 BrightLocal survey2, 86 percent of consumers read reviews for local businesses, which means you need to make sure the messaging being put out there about your business is positive, or at least includes your own response in the case of negative reviews.
86% of consumers read reviews for local businesses
(including 95% of people aged 18-34)
BrightLocal, 'Local Consumer Review Survey'
While negative reviews are something most businesses simply have to deal with from time to time, you can encourage feedback from customers via your own website and/or email. By giving them a chance to let you know what they thought, they may be less inclined to air grievances in a public forum (especially if you take the time to respond in a satisfactory way).
Email, social media, search, and customer reviews cover most of the breadth of the digital marketing essentials an accounting business needs to pay attention to. If you are making a serious effort to engage in each, you should be well on your way to increasing sales.
1.https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/295509
3. https://www.brightlocal.com/resources/online-reviews-statistics-2019/
