How to promote an accounting or bookkeeping business online

Today, one of the major struggles many accounting and bookkeeping businesses encounter is marketing their services to the right audience.

You might be doing everything you can but often don’t see substantial results.

Why? You might ask.

There are numerous reasons why many businesses aren’t seeing significant improvements. It’s usually because they don’t have the right marketing strategy in place.

Sadly, most accounting and bookkeeping businesses still prefer traditional and outdated marketing tactics to acquire clients. And while these tried-and-tested methods may get some results, they can often be quite daunting as they require a lot of time and effort.

But thanks to digital marketing, you can easily get in touch with all kinds of business owners looking for online accountants and bookkeepers.

To help you deal with your marketing crisis, here are some practical tips you can follow to market your bookkeeping or accounting business online.

1. Set marketing goals

Goals are what help you stay focused and assist you in getting where you want to be. The key to succeeding at online marketing in the accounting and bookkeeping industries is by setting marketing goals. Whether you want more web traffic or a wider clientele, set a concrete goal and work towards it.

Break down your main goal into smaller goals to simplify the process. Then, conduct evaluations every month or two to keep a check on the progress.

These goals could be anything but should revolve around your key objectives. For example, you can focus on setting up a blog or social media account to increase brand awareness and attract more potential customers.

Once you have set these smaller goals, it becomes easier for you to monitor them throughout the marketing process, leading us to our next point.

2. Run paid advertising

Even in the digital world, ads remain the key to the successful marketing of your business. Most people spend hours scrolling their favourite social media platforms these days. If you succeed in catching their attention through a creatively designed ad, chances are you will achieve your marketing goals without much trouble.

You can organically grow and engage your audience through social media, but, generally, sponsored ads seem to have more impact. They will more often appear in the news feed of your targeted audience because you are paying to target individuals with specific interests.

You can use this to show ads featuring your bookkeeping services, accountant website or accounting firm on nearly all social media platforms.

It is important to track the results of your paid ads so that you know how well they are performing in terms of conversions and click-through rates. This will help you understand what your audience is most interested in seeing on their newsfeeds which gives you more ideas on how you can market your bookkeeping or accountant business online.

3. Choose the right place to advertise

Digital marketing offers multiple avenues for you to get the word out about your business. Try out different ad platforms such as LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook Ads and even Instagram or TikTok to see which platform works best for your particular needs.

You might find that a new platform is actually better suited for promoting your accounting or bookkeeping services than the traditional ones you or your local competitors use right now.

To successfully market your business online, you need to figure out the demographics of your audience and focus on platforms where they spend the most time. As an accountant, you might be tempted to stick to professional or more mature networks such as LinkedIn and Facebook. However, many younger or busy business owners might spend their free time on networks they enjoy the most or that are most relevant to their business – these can be what you least expect, such as Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, etc.

If you’re aiming for large businesses, try LinkedIn. However, for targeting middle-aged or senior individuals, Facebook has proven to be the best platform.

If you’re too busy to create the right advertising strategy for your business or have trouble getting the right results, you may want to engage a professional digital marketing consultants.

4. Build relationships

Try to interact and make connections with the relevant people in your niche. Look to engage with them by answering their questions and providing solutions to potential problems. You can even offer helpful bookkeeping tips free of cost.

Being helpful in your interactions helps you interact with the right audience, which is key to successfully marketing your bookkeeping business online.

There are many online forums where people discuss accountant-related topics. You can join these communities and contribute by sharing your expertise or answering questions on taxes, bookkeeping, etc.

You never know who’s watching you post useful information out there that might become your next client!

Keep an open mind on forums – although the question might be asked by a junior or fellow accountant or bookkeeper, a good answer to a popular or complicated question could be discovered by tens, hundreds or thousands of business owners and potential clients thanks to the power of Google.

5. Develop a user-friendly website

Digital marketing is all about a strong online presence, and to maintain that, you need an attractive and effective website. A professional website adds credibility to your profile and lets a wider audience into your business mechanism.

Your accountant website is your virtual office and shopfront, so be wary before using companies like Yell for website creation. Make sure that your new website has all the necessary information for potential clients to contact you, including phone number, email address and how they can set up an appointment with you.

Make it easy for visitors to get in touch with you through social media buttons on your site or blog posts. This way, people who are interested in your services can easily get in touch.

If there are multiple bookkeepers, accountant firms or accountant branches within the same business network, it is important to develop an accountant website that is consistent with the overall brand of your accounting firm. This helps clients identify your unique offering and differentiate you from competitors by highlighting what sets you apart.

If you need help, our website design and development experts can help you build a new optimised accountant or bookkeeper website.

6. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO plays a major role when it comes to effective online marketing of your accounting or bookkeeping business.

It involves curating your content around the most used keywords in online searches related to your business and your area.

SEO helps you appear higher on search results and let the right people find you easily. You can either do it yourself or hire an SEO agency to do it for you.

If you are experimenting with different keywords, make sure to track the ones that bring more traffic and conversions to your website.

The key is to write long-form content around topics that will attract your potential clientele. The longer, the better – Google loves relevant lengthy articles as they appear more reliable for users looking for information on accountant or bookkeeping services and allows Google to understand and rank your content better.

7. Break down your services for your clients

Instead of simply marketing your accounting or bookkeeping services, use your website to highlight multiple umbrella services that you offer. These could include VAT, company accounts preparation, tax advice, bank reconciliations, payroll, and financial reporting, among many others.

Many established businesses may be interested in hiring your services as a complete accounting package. However, many companies might be looking for someone just to handle a thing or two about their finances or someone who is specialised in a specific area. Thus, Googling more specific terms.

By highlighting each of your services, you can attract businesses that are looking for specialised individuals.

When you are marketing your accounting or bookkeeping services, make sure to use keywords related to the type of service that you offer. If there is a particular phrase or term that potential clients might be using when looking for someone like you, include them in your content and website.

For example: if individuals want bookkeeping help instead of an entire accounting package, they might search for “bookkeeping services near me” instead of just “accountant”, “bookkeeper” or “accounting”.

8. Early Focus on Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the best ways to market your business, today. It’s easy, fast, cost-effective and much more efficient. Email lists play a huge role in advertising your services to a wider industry audience.

Using email marketing: you can share content that provides information about your business, the service packages you offer, or your future plans for your business.

You can also use it to share industry news that might be beneficial for your clients.

If you have an accountant website, then there are many email marketing tools available online you can easily integrate into your site’s backend without much effort. When you’re ready to start, it is best to purchase a popular email marketing software like MailChimp, Sendinblue or Mailerlite which will help design and send professional newsletters and promotional emails.

The key is to keep the content engaging and make sure not to bombard users with promotional emails every single day.

If you are sending promotional emails, make sure to include some valuable content in each email so that users don’t feel the need to unsubscribe from your list.

You can easily start an email marketing campaign by building a contact list of potential clients and customers through social media platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn where you have more chances of finding them.

9. Testimonials from Your Clients

Nothing encourages businesses to hire you more than good reviews.

Focus on customer satisfaction by providing high-quality services and gathering reviews from those customers. Highlight the best ones on your accountant or bookkeeping website to develop a good reputation in the market.

You can also include them in your blog posts to provide value to the reader and create a positive image of your accountant business online. This will help potential clients identify if they would want to do business with you or not by reading what previous customers have written about working with you.

Customer testimonials are an excellent technique to build your reputation and persuade potential customers to engage with you when you do business with them. They also assist you in enhancing the quality of your accounting or bookkeeping services and resolving any issues.

Related content: How to remove a fake Google review

Conclusion

There are numerous digital marketing strategies that can help you attract more clients for your accountant or bookkeeping business. However, one thing is certain – if effective online marketing tools and techniques are used to market an accounting firm, the returns will be tenfold compared to traditional methods of advertising which require a lot of investment with no guarantee on results.

All it takes today is understanding what type of people want services like yours and where they are online so that you can reach them efficiently using platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Ads, etc.

Once there’s more awareness of your accounting or bookkeeping company, others will naturally discuss your business, link to your website, and build an understanding of your company.As such, this process will improve your SEO by helping your business be discovered online.

As such, a well-planned digital marketing strategy can make a huge difference to your accountant or bookkeeping company’s growth in 2022, so start focusing on improving online presence for increased revenue from new clients.