Accountants, like most small businesses, are always looking for new clients to grow and sustain their business. New clients are the lifeblood of accounting firms for their own accounting work and for referrals to their contacts. In the past, accounting firms relied on referrals and traditional advertising to find prospective clients. However, with sophisticated internet technology, new, more cost-effective marketing channels have emerged. The collective group of online marketing channels, digital marketing for accountants, has become the go-to media for accountants to find new clients.
What is Digital Marketing for Accountants?
Digital marketing encompasses several things, but at its essence it is establishing a brand online, marketing that brand through digital channels, and driving new business to your accounting firm without ever meeting or talking to potential clients. You can target your online marketing to specific demographics that you determine are most likely to need your services. And these methods work for personal accountants or accounting firms that deal solely with commercial clients.
Digital Marketing Benefits for Accounting Firms
Accountants find that digital marketing offers several benefits, such as:
- Establishing and promoting your brand to a wider audience
- Increased authority and credibility
- Making it easy for new clients to find you
- Qualifying clients before contacting them
- Efficiently answering FAQ new clients ask
- Cost-effective marketing
- Using search engines to drive potential clients to your firm
- Educating visitors about accounting and your firm
Promoting Your Brand to a Wider Audience
People are increasingly using search engines to find information, whether it is where to have dinner or how to cook a turkey. If you want to grow your accounting business, having a distinct presence online is necessary. A minimal website can establish your brand online, and list your contact information. And that is okay if you are just working with existing clients and are not interested in growing your business.
But, if you want to find new clients to grow your business, a website can be so much more. You can engage potential clients with relevant content by giving them the accounting answers they are searching for, and begin to qualify them as the right clients for you. By the time they are ready to contact you, they know about you and your accounting firm and the type of accounting work you specialize in.
And since the internet is global, you can draw in clients who are in other parts of the country or possibly even from other countries who do business in your regional area. There is literally no limit to how many potential clients will visit your website.
Increased Authority and Credibility
Authority and credibility are extremely important for working with clients in the accounting industry. Your clients need to feel comfortable enough with you to share the intimate details of their personal or business income and expenditures. You need to build trust with them. Even if your potential clients are referred to you offline, having a website that displays your authority and credibility will help you establish trust.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is one of the key strategies for building trust with website visitors. Content marketing is creating and promoting educational content that prospective clients are interested in. Using techniques like search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, and email marketing, you can draw in potential clients who will already be searching for the accounting information you have on your website.
Easy to Find
Digital marketing for accountants makes it easier for new clients to find you. Nearly one-third of consumers throughout the United States search the internet to find a local business every day. And when they search, they expect to find a credible website that confirms both your firm’s legitimacy and authority in your area of expertise. With a digital marketing strategy in place, your accounting firm will easily show up in an organic search on Google.
Qualifying Prospective Clients
One of the reasons that word-of-mouth referrals net a high percentage of clients is that the person making the referral already trusts you and their referral is for someone who needs your accounting services. By the time you contact them, they are ready to decide if your skillset meets their needs.
A digital marketing strategy can qualify your prospects in a similar fashion. If you create content that engages them and answers their initial questions, they will be interested in working with you when you contact them. Partnering with a digital marketing firm for accountants will ensure that you create the best content to attract your ideal clients.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Having a FAQ page on your website with links to more in-depth answers is beneficial for a prospect and for you. The answers are a good starting point to determine if you are the right accountant for them, and you save time answering them. You also benefit from the knowledge that they are sincerely interested in.
Cost-Effective Marketing
Digital marketing is much more cost-effective than traditional marketing. With traditional print or TV marketing, you pay for the ad up front without knowing how well the ad will work. With digital marketing, you can choose your audience and track the responses. Using the metrics, you can better target your marketing to your ideal clients.
Search Engine Optimization
Google is a powerful tool that you can use to drive traffic to your website. Google currently holds a major majority of the search traffic conducted throughout the world, with 92% of the worldwide search engine market share. This can be broken down further into 72% of searches conducted on desktop computers, and 92% of those conducted on mobile devices.
With organic search engine optimization and high-quality content, you can use the power of Google to find an unlimited number of new clients on an ongoing basis.
Educating Potential Clients
With the help of a digital marketing agency, you can educate visitors to your website about your accounting firm, your expertise, and if you can help them with their accounting needs. High-quality content on your website can do the work for you, saving you the time and money you would have spent otherwise.
You can answer questions in-depth and link to resources for new clients. You can create content for them to download and read, and make videos to demonstrate your work. By the time the clients meet you, they will be ready to get started. It’s a win-win scenario for everyone.
