At Synup, we believe that marketing for accountants needs to be simplified and strategized. Running an accounting company is not an easy task, and you probably don’t have all the time to market your company. So, we put together a guide to help simplify marketing for accounting companies and certified public accountants (CPAs).You need to focus on increasing your business’ visibility, engaging with your customers and building your firm’s name. Try these ideas out to market your CPA and accounting company better!
Consumers are always looking for business information with the intention of making a purchase. So, when they are searching for accounting services, they are going to run a search on their mobile devices and do their research. The responsibility to make sure that your accounting company shows up on these results when a customer searches is on you. To ensure this, get your business listed on all major directories and accountancy-specific listing sites. When we say major sites, we mean Yelp, Google My Business, Yellow Pages, your local Chamber of Commerce, amongst other directories. You’ll need to get your business listed on niche sites like:
When you’re creating listings, you need to make sure that your listings are consistent and accurate across all listings directories. You also need to keep in mind that your business information is not limited to NAp details; you also need to mention other important details like business category, availability of parking area, handicap-friendliness, etc.
As local search marketing experts, we believe that Google My Business always needs a special mention. If you want to begin to rank for searches in Google, you need to make sure that your CPA and accounting company has a Google My Business listing. With the Google My Business dashboard, you can add all important business information that will appear in knowledge graphs when your potential customers look for you. With the addition of Google Posts, you can even promote website content, offers and events. Learn everything there is to adding your accounting business to Google My Business here.
Something that will really help you gain reputation as a popular CPA is writing about the subject. According to the Content Marketing Institute, considering how most people don’t know much about accounting, taxes, and handling their finances, writing about this will help you get your name out there as an expert on the subject. Starting and maintaining a blog is a great way to kick-start your content marketing. Going forward, you can work on your website’s messaging and the kind of resources you’d need to inform your customers about your business. What content marketing can do for your accounting company:
What you can write about: Think about the issues that your customers face, what your target audience is usually ignorant about. For example, How to manage your finances, accounting software that business owners would want to consider, resources that can help you file your taxes, etc. In addition to blogging, you can even write guest posts for high authority blogs to build your expertise. Here’s an article we wrote about how you can use guest blogging to make a name for yourself online.
It is crucial for businesses to have a wholesome business presence these days, and having a search engine optimized website adds to it. Ideally, a good website should be informative, well-designed and optimized to appear on searches. Here are a few things you’d need to pay attention to when you’re optimizing your website with SEO:
You can read more about optimizing your website for search here. [Pro-tip: Make sure that your website showcases your CPA certification to add to your credibility.]
Of all the social media handles that you could have, a Facebook business Page will be the most lucrative. Facebook is a mammoth social media platform with a user base of 2.13 billion active monthly users. Once you create a Facebook business Page for your CPA and accounting company, you can engage your target audience with multiple channels from within Facebook. You can post content that is relevant to your business and customers, you can create events, have polls, run ads, and more. In addition to the above said, having your business on Facebook can contribute to an online citation for your business. [Here’s a Facebook Business Page guide to help you get started.]
Your existing customers are your best advertisers, so why not incentivize them with referral campaigns? A referral campaign can help you enhance your relationship with your existing customers and help you grow your business at the same time. Here are some ways you can increase referrals:
Learn more about referral campaigns from this article by Referral Rock. [Pro-tip: Make sure that your referral campaigns are simple, that is, your customers should easily be able to refer you.]
Managing your online reputation is absolutely important for your accounting business. You need to create, respond to, and monitor online reviews. This will help you grow your business with a positive brand image. Furthermore, it increases the likelihood of helping you rank higher on searches where people can find you. Let’s look at how you can scale on review generation:
Your reviewers want to be heard, and it’s up to you to gratify their needs with your services. In addition to the above said, you should consider automating review management to build your CPA and accounting company’s reputation. Once you do so, you can manage reviews from several platforms from one place, monitor “mentions” of your CPA and accounting business on these sites and analyze your performance.
Create a list of local bulletins where you can put up posters about your services. Hire a graphic designer to help you come up with a great poster. If you want to do it yourself, you can use the poster template on Canva to come up with a great design. In addition to these, get in touch with your networks of local business like bakeries, coffee shops, and grocery stores, and put up posters with information about your accounting a bookkeeping company on their bulletins as well.
A holiday calendar can help you strategize and determine how you can grow your company the best. Map out the holidays where your customers are going to need to watch their spending habits, places where they need to save. For example, you can most definitely anticipate your target audience to spend more during the holiday season like Black Friday, Thanksgiving Week or Christmas. You can plan a content plan where you dish out blog articles that will help people determine how to spend their money, and how they could use your services to plan their finances.
Dedicating a part of your marketing efforts to give back to your community and participating in charities can positively impact your brand. When you create your holiday calendar, you can even map out community events or follow charities that need your help. Here are some ideas you can try out for your accounting company:
Inconsistent and wrong business information doesn’t just affect your rankings on SERPs, but you WILL lose several potential customers. Check the status of your business listings and get a scan report now.