Marketing for Accounting Firms: 9 Top Strategies to up Your Game

Are you stuck in a rut with your marketing efforts? Marketing for accounting firms takes a professional approach. After all, you want clients to entrust you with their financial data, and that you'll best advise them on their business's financial decisions. Therefore, accounting firms must adopt a carefully-devised marketing strategy that conveys their expertise, professionalism, and trustworthiness.

But if you're not sure how to do this, it can be daunting. You need a plan that incorporates all of your marketing efforts, and how you'll deploy each marketing strategy. There are loads of strategies and marketing channels to choose from and ideally you will get stuck into multiple ones.

In this guide, I'm going through the top strategies for marketing for accounting firms. Using all (or most) of these strategies combined will lead you on the right path towards successful accounting marketing.

What Most Accounting Firms Get Wrong About Marketing

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Link My Books has worked with thousands of accounting firms over the years and these are the most common mistakes we see when it comes to accounting firm online marketing strategies:

Not Defining Your Target Audience and Target Market

Accounting firms marketing their business but neglecting to define their target audience is something we often see. Both your target audience and target market are important to define.

To clarify the difference, target markets are a more generalised set of qualities that exist in those you're targeting. Whereas a target audience is a segment within that market.

Not defining both these things leaves you open to marketing to people who are not interested in your services. On the other hand, you'll find it difficult to create effective campaigns that'll resonate with those most likely to hire you or outsource accounting to your firm.

Not Measuring Your Marketing Efforts' Success

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If you don't measure the success of your digital marketing campaigns, how will you know if they worked? Measuring performance will help you to hone in on the things you got right and the things you need to avoid in the future. In short, with analytics and measuring tools, you can better understand industry trends, and perfect and refine your campaigns every time so they keep getting better.

For example, you might notice social media posts about a specific topic get more engagement. In this case, you could schedule weekly posts surrounding that specific topic, and also write blog posts and newsletters covering it.

Not Digitalising Enough

When you're providing local accounting services, traditional marketing (flyers, newspapers, direct mail) definitely has a prominent place in your marketing success. However, too many accounting firms are relying too heavily on traditional marketing and are not embracing digitalisation as much as they should.

Digitalisation will enhance many of your business and marketing processes, make you more accessible and relatable, and allow you to offer additional services with not much extra effort. In a digitalised age, clients expect you to be using technology to engage with them. And using digitised marketing shows them your innovative and modern side.

Marketing Strategies For Your Firm

1. Understand Your Target Audience
2. Carve Out Your Niche
3. Leverage Social Media Marketing
4. Build and Maintain a Website
5. Search Engine Optimisation
6. Use the Right Technology
7. Get Local
8. Build Relationships
9. Join Accountant Directories

1. Understand Your Target Market and Target Audience

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Your target market is a group, or multiple groups, of individuals or businesses that you want to advertise your services to. They can often be segmented into different target audiences, with different groups of people/businesses sharing the same qualities. For example, you might target:

• Start up businesses within the UK that are only looking for bookkeeping services at this stage.
• eCommerce businesses that are based in the UK but sell worldwide.
• Small businesses in your local area that you can communicate with face-to-face.

So how exactly do you identify your target audience and understand them? Here are a few suggestions:

• Social media analytics: Social media platforms have tools where you can see who has interacted with your social media posts. Meta's Business Manager tool, for example, gives you insights like the age group, gender, and location of people following and engaging with you on Facebook and Instagram.
• Web analytics: If you have a website (and you should), ensure it has analytics software embedded into it, such as Google Analytics. Google Analytics can give you insights into interests and demographics of your website visitors, what devices they use, and whether they are business owners or employees.
• Client surveys: Surveys are one of the best methods of gathering specific information about your clients. You can email surveys to existing or previous clients, requesting information about their business and their preferences. This also shows new clients and old that you care about their experiences with you.

2. Carve Out Your Niche

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Carve out a niche for your accounting firm by offering specialised services and promoting these heavily. Your niche could be serving an industry you're interested in, one that's particularly profitable, or has optimum potential for growth. It could also be offering services in a specific area of expertise.

Here are some niche accounting ideas to get you started:

• eCommerce accounting
• Real estate accounting
• Serving SaaS start ups
• Accounting for law firms
• Healthcare and medical practice accounting

To help you hone in on your niche, consider your target clients. Also try to choose something that is not only going to be popular, but also sets you apart from competition. It will form part of your USP and is a topic around which you can convey your expertise.

3. Leverage Social Media Marketing

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Social media marketing should be on every marketing strategy list out there. It's effective at allowing you to develop your firm's unique tone of voice and building client relationships by engaging with your audience regularly. Social media platforms are relaxed channels of communication where you can share your knowledge, give advice, and answer questions.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you're probably already aware of the different social media platforms available to you. But do you know how accounting firms can use each one to their advantage?

Facebook

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Facebook's largest demographic (18%) is males between 25 and 34. But it is also a good all-round social media platform to find both males and females of different ages. Although Facebook is primarily used for B2C communications, B2B companies can also use it to their advantage. You can create posts, showcase videos, share blogs, and create stories.

How to use: Use Facebook to attract potential employees. For example, create behind the scenes stuff, 'meet the team' posts, and details about company events. You can also use Facebook ads to market your services to potential clients.

LinkedIn

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Although there are considerably less active users on LinkedIn per month than Facebook, it's a highly-target, B2B platform. On there, you'll find businesses that want to network with you and source the accounting services they need. However, it's not a place for a hard sell. You need to build relationships and grow your network.

How to use: Create posts and ads that give advice regarding your niche services. Talk about accounting and tax pain points and how to resolve them. Consider what accounting pain points business owners might have, and interact with your fellow LinkedIn members and be an active part of the community. You can also use the platform to find top talent for your firm.

Instagram

Instagram is a visual social media platform. Users can share images, and create stories and reels. Under 34s make up the biggest percentage of Instagram users. It's more suitable for B2C businesses selling visually-appealing products, for example scaling an Etsy shop that sells handmade soaps and candles. But that doesn't mean that a B2Bs can't use it too.

How to use: No, we're not suggesting you post pictures of your calculator. But there's no denying your visual options are limited as an accounting firm. You could try posting images and videos of your work space, your day-to-day operations, and short how-to videos. Showcase team pictures, travel destinations, and event days.

TikTok

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TikTok has gained a lot of traction very quickly over the last few years. It has more than a billion users every month. The majority of its users are under 24 and it is used by more females than males. On TikTok, you can create short videos about any topic you choose (with the exception of restricted topics), and potentially reach a large audience. You can also go live.

How to use: It's worth noting here that TikTok is not ideal for every accounting firm. It requires you to show your brand personality in a friendly and relatable way. It might be a good choice if, for example, you target start ups with younger owners. Use TikTok to build brand awareness as opposed to selling your services.

YouTube

YouTube is a channel where people can watch videos, long and short ones, about pretty much any topic they're interested in. It's also a place where people go to learn how to do things through tutorials. With 2.49 billion active users every month and 92% of those using the platform to acquire knowledge, YouTube is a great place to market your accounting firm.

How to use: YouTube offers plenty of opportunities for accounting firms to market their business. Since people head to the platform specifically to find answers to their questions, it's best used to communicate your expertise. Create videos about how to carry out accounting tasks, explaining different terminology, and going through tax regulations for different jurisdictions.

4. Build and Maintain a Website

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An accounting firm's website is a place to showcase your different services, communicate your expertise, and provide a way for potential clients to find and contact you. Your website should be clear and crisp, with not too much text, particularly on the home page. Ensure you have several CTAs dotted around your site. Simplicity is key because too much clutter can be distracting.

Additionally, you want to maintain consistent branding across your entire website. Think about your tone of voice and how you want your audience to see you. Professional, laidback, witty, friendly, etc.?

Pages to Have

You don't want endless pages of text. Keep things simple with valuable and relevant information, while clearly and concisely introducing your accounting firm and your services. These are the pages you should consider:

• Home page: Briefly introduce your business and your services, and place a CTA above and below the page fold.
• Services: Go into more detail about your services. Explain what each one is and how they can help potential clients.
• About us: Talk about your business, its mission, values, and vision. You can also explain who you are and introduce your team.
• Technology: This page will discuss what technologies your accounting firm uses, such as eCommerce accounting software or bookkeeping automation software.
• Testimonials: Have a page dedicated to posting genuine client testimonials. Gather these by simply asking existing clients to write one.
• Contact: Obviously, your potential clients will need to a way to contact you. Although a contact number and email address could also be added to the footer.
• Blog: It's really handy for any business to have a blog. It helps convey your expertise and address problems and challenges potential clients might face. It also shows you understand them and boosts your SEO.

5. Search Engine Optimisation

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If you have a website, you'll probably want to optimise it for search engines. In this case, you'll either need to hire an expert who does SEO marketing for accountants. Or, get to grips with some search engine optimization techniques yourself. SEO is a digital marketing strategy that encourages slow and steady growth.

Many techniques can be done for free and can help accountancy firms get found organically in search engines.

SEO Tips for Accounting Firms

• Create a Google Business Profile: This will consist of your name, logo, photos, contact information, and opening hours. It will also place you on Google Maps so that you can be found by potential clients who are local to you.
• Be a Pro Blogger: Post high quality blogs regularly and consistently for effective lead generation. Write each post with a relevant search query in mind. Answer questions, explain a topic, or tell your audience how to do something. You could also deliver industry news and updates.
• Incorporate keywords: Research and incorporate relevant keywords into your webpages and blog posts. Use keyword tools, like Google's Keyword Planner or Ahrefs's keyword tool, to source your keywords. Use a mix of high and low difficulty keywords.
• Create backlinks: A backlink is a link that leads back to your website or blog. Reach out to relevant authority websites and ask if they accept guest posts. You can also offer to review their services on your blog in exchange for a link to the review on their website.
• Internal links: Internal links are links on your website and blog pointing to other pages and blog posts. Ensure you place plenty of internal links throughout pages and posts on your site. You should link from text that describes the page it's linking to.

6. Use the Right Technology

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Using the right technology goes hand-in-hand with effective marketing strategies. Technology will maximise your digital marketing efforts by giving you unique insights that would be very difficult to observe and assess manually.

It can also take over some tasks, boosting efficiency across your marketing channels.

These are a few marketing tactics that technology can help with:

Analytics

We touched upon analytics earlier. But, it's technology that will gather critical data, and store and manage it in a useful way. Not only that, but technology will interpret your data through texts, graphs, and charts. It does so in such a way that you can clearly assess the performance of your website, social media channels, and paid advertising.

Using analytics technology, accounting firms marketing their business can make data-based decisions that will drive business growth. For example, you might A/B test two landing pages for a PPC ad and discover that one has a far lower bounce rate than the other. You can then drop the low-performing one and concentrate on the high performing one.

CRM

A CRM (customer relationship management) platform enables you to enhance client relationships with automation and communication tools. You can create customised workflows and sales pipelines that encourage business growth, lead generation, and client retention.

With CRMs like HubSpot, TaxDome, and Insightly, to name a few, clients can access their own portal. Through this, they can interact with you, send documents, and schedule meetings. You should also be able to manage your team through the software and keep track of client data and different projects.

SEO

You can use technology to optimise your blog posts and pages for search engines. Software like SurferSEO, Frase, and SEMRush can all help with this process. Many software can give you hints and tips about structuring your content, as well as what keywords will perform the best and how often to use your keywords.

There are also plenty of software and tools to help with the backend side of your SEO (off page SEO), not just the front end. Ahrefs, for example, has a valuable site audit tool to improve page rank.

Social Media Scheduling

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Set yourself up for the week ahead by scheduling social media posts and syncing them up across platforms. With scheduling tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, and FeedHive, you can write your post, and pick a day and time for it to go live.

Many software like these also have analytics so you can track progress and engagement across your channels. Plus, identify the days and times that your audience is most active on social media.

Practice Management Software

Practice Management Software is essential for accountants. It allows you to automate accounting tasks and (as the name suggests) manage your accounting practice efficiently. Carry out tasks such as job allocation and tracking, tracking time and invoices, and generate performance reports.

You can get Practice Management Software that syncs with your accounting software. For example, Xero and QuickBooks both offer a comprehensive solution. They sync seamlessly with the data in your accounting software so everything matches up.

Email Marketing

Use technology to carry out email marketing campaigns. Technology incorporates automation features so that you automatically send emails to clients when they complete an action. For example, thanking new clients for providing information. You can also use email marketing analytics to segment your audience and send different emails to different clients, depending on past behaviour, demographics, etc.

7. Get Local

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Since you're an accounting firm, you'll likely be looking to attract clients that are local to you. Although many people are happy to work with businesses remotely, nothing quite beats being able to sit down and discuss things face to face.

This is especially true when you're talking about services such as accounting. Having the opportunity to meet the people managing your accounts will be a big plus-point for lots of local businesses.

Let's have a look at some marketing strategies for targeting local clients:

• Google Business Profile: According to Statista, roughly 3/4 of people in the UK, Germany, France, and U.S use Google for sourcing information about local businesses. Make sure you set up your Google Business Profile and that all the details are correct.
• Local magazines and newspapers: Posting an advert in a local magazine or newspaper can yield tremendous results for local businesses. Have an eye-catching image to accompany a well-written advertisement of your services.
• Google Ads: Location Targeting within Google Ads is a paid advertising strategy that allows you to target specific geographical areas. You can also refine Google Ads by interests and income levels. Since Google owns YouTube, you can have your display ads appear on YouTube too.
• Direct Mail: You can try good old fashioned direct mail to market your firm. Print off flyers and either have them delivered via a distribution service or deliver them yourself. Word of caution; this can be a costly way to attract potential clients that might not pay off.
• Networking events: Go to local networking events to network with businesses in your area. Have an elevator pitch prepared to promote your services to prospective clients. Also print some business cards and be prepared to show an interest in other people's businesses too.
• Charity events: Get involved in local charity events to raise your firm's profile, get your name out there, and do some good at the same time. You could also sponsor local sports teams, for example, or volunteer for a local cause.
• Branded Materials: Get some branded materials, like pens and mugs, and hand them out to your clients. You might also choose to reward existing clients for bringing in new clients via word of mouth by giving them a branded prize.

8. Build Relationships

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Online marketing, especially when you're marketing a service-based business, relies heavily on building client relationships. Satisfied clients will come back to you time and time again rather than wasting time searching for a different accounting firm. This will save you money in the long run because you will build up a strong client base with repeat existing clients.

Building relationships with your clients also encourages word of mouth recommendations which is one of the strongest forms of marketing for accountants. When businesses interact and network, they're more likely to refer them to a service where they've felt valued and appreciated, not just sold to. Word of mouth marketing is like having free brand advocates.

Here are some ways you can build relationships and encourage word of mouth recommendations:

Gather Feedback

Take the time to regularly seek and gather feedback from your existing clients. This will show you individual opinions and could also give you insights into collective pros and cons of your business, in addition to industry insights. For example, you might get multiple clients praising your transparency and communication. Or, you might get multiple clients wanting more communication from you.

Send short surveys to existing clients via email, post polls on social media channels, and ask clients to fill in a questionnaire. You can ask open ended questions, like:

What aspect of our services have you been most happy with?

Or, you can phrase your questions as rateable ones, like:

On a scale of one to ten, how happy are you with our X services?

Be sure to ask for client input on areas that you could improve. This shows you genuinely care about making your service better for your clients and are not just interested in positive feedback. Be sure to take client feedback on board and act on it.

Show Gratitude

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Make sure your clients know that you appreciate their custom. And if they've completed a feedback survey for you, send them a quick follow up thank you email. Saying thank you is a simple thing. But it can be a very powerful word for building relationships with clients.  Not properly thanking someone for doing something will have a negative impact as well.

You can express your gratitude by simply sending personalised thank you emails when your clients have sent you a document you requested, for example. For bigger tasks, it might even be worth picking up the phone to thank your clients.

Clear Communication and Transparency

Clients like to know what's going on and what to expect from the service providers they're paying. Communicate clearly throughout your time working with each business. Send regular updates via email and telephone. And, ensure you schedule monthly meetings to discuss accounts. This also encourages clients to ask questions, which shows you care that they know what's going on.

With regards to transparency, set out clear policies, requests, and instructions for your clients before you begin. Let them know what they can expect from you and what you expect from them. This is also a good time to remind them that they're welcome to ask questions.

Be a Proactive Problem-Solver

Clients don't want to be chasing you up for every little detail of their accounts. Be proactive when it comes to sharing information and solving problems for your clients. Identifying and addressing needs before they become an issue is a skill that sets accountants apart from one another.

So for example, identify areas where your client might need extra help or advice. Tax compliance, for instance, might be a challenge for eCommerce sellers branching out into different jurisdictions. In this case, sales tax software will help.

Offer your expertise before clients ask to show you're on the ball and are someone to rely on.

9. Join Accountant Directories

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Accountant directories are a good place to get accounting firms off the ground. They connect accounting firms with potential clients according to their skills and expertise. There are lots of directories to choose from, some of which are free. You will normally, however, have to apply to get listed in a directory and criterion can vary.

Xero and QuickBooks both have an accountant directory. These are called Partner Programs and they allow collaboration between accountants and clients. You can get certified with both these accounting softwares which adds to your skillset and credibility.

Link My Books also has an accountant and bookkeeper directory where eCommerce clients can discover a variety of professional services. Potential customers can search for accountants or bookkeepers according to what sales platform and accounting software they use.

If you become a Link My Books partner, we might also recommend your firm to our users when they fill in the 'Get Matched' form. This form allows us to match customers with their ideal accountant or bookkeeper according to the details they provide us.

How Can Link My Books Can Help Your Accounting Firm Grow?

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Link My Books is a bookkeeping automation software. It is specially designed for eCommerce businesses and accountants. The powerful software connects seamlessly to your accounting software and your clients' sales channels. And, automatically transfers and categorises financial data.

You can also enjoy the following powerful features:

• Automatically calculates taxes on every item your clients sell regardless of where they sell.
• Tracks COGS on all product sales.
• Benchmarking is an analytical tool that gives you a percentile ranking of how each client is performing against industry averages.
• P & L by Channel allows you to compare the performance of clients' various channels.
• Saves accountants around six hours per month per client.
• Integrates with multiple channels, including Amazon, Etsy, TikTok Shop, and Shopify.

Ready to Put Your Marketing Strategies into Action?

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Marketing for accounting firms can be quite different from other businesses, like eCommerce for example. For one thing, it's B2B, which makes social media marketing a bit more challenging. But it also comes with more opportunities to promote your professional services through local marketing strategies, such as participating in charity events and advertising in local magazines.

An overall marketing strategy for accounting firms needs to include lots of different marketing strategies across multiple marketing channels. You need to branch out and cover numerous bases. This helps ensure you're brand is exposed to the right people at the right time.

Partnering with Link My Books puts your business on a positive footing. We've got thousands of users who rely on our software to automate their bookkeeping. Many customers appreciate the expertise of professional accountants and bookkeepers too.

Sign up for your free Link My Books trial today and transform your accounting firm.

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