How to get more accounting clients

5 Digital marketing tips to grow your accountancy firm.

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5 tips to get more accounting clients online

For many CPAs and bookkeepers the thought of ‘wasting’ hours at BNI meetings and other networking events hoping to find new clients just seems tiring. While those channels may work well, online marketing provides you with the opportunity to target a much larger pool of prospects. You can reach the clients you’re actually after and accurately calculate your return on investment.

Here are 5 tips to grow your practice online.

Tip #1. Get accounting clients for free on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is still a very powerful platform but largely poorly used. When used correctly LinkedIn can significantly help you get more leads for your accounting practice without spending money on ads. The only cost is your time. A few things to keep in mind:

Optimise your profile page. People visiting your profile should be able to quickly learn who you are, how you can help them, where they can find out more about you and how they can reach you. Include a link to your website or Calendly page and any free resources that prospects can download.

Learn how to do a boolean search (see LinkedIn’s guide here). Search for your target audience on LinkedIn. Send prospects a personalized, non-spammy message that very briefly identifies you, what you’re about and why you’re connecting with them.

Treat LinkedIn as a social media platform first and foremost. Avoid the temptation to try and close a deal the minute you connect with someone. Engage with them on their posts and over time find a common theme that you can connect on. Then once you’ve built some ‘know-like-trust,’ send them a personalised Inmail message.

Post consistently. Most people on LinkedIn don’t post consistently and when they do the quality of the post is poor. Post valuable content frequently that appeals to your target audience and will help you build meaningful relationships over time. Good content will help establish you as a trustworthy authority in your area. For ideas, see our page on social media for accountants.

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Tip #2. Facebook ads for accountants

Facebook ads are one of the cheaper online ad platforms with in-depth targeting options, so they’re a great place for accountants to start. The goal of your ads needs to be to first, catch a user’s attention and stop them scrolling. You do this with great artwork and copywriting. Once you’ve got their attention you need to present something of real value thats going to entice your audience to click on your ad and take the action you’re after, whether it’s traffic to your site or to generate leads.

Some ads that have worked well for our accounting firm clients:

Lead magnets. A lead magnet is a downloadable resource (like a rate calculator spreadsheet or an ‘Ultimate Guide to…’). Prospects get these resources in return for their email address. Because accounting services are not something that are consistently in high demand, it’s important to generate leads with a lead magnet and feed them into an email automation sequence where you build ‘know-like-trust’ with your audience over time.
Testimonials. At the right stage of the funnel testimonial ads can be very useful to showcase your authority, ability and like-ability to prospects who are considering your service.
Traffic ads to blogs. If you are consistently adding high-value blog posts to your site that are beneficial to your audience, then ads that direct traffic to them can perform really well. An article such, ‘BitCoin & tax, everything you need to know’ is a very current and enticing read. Once a prospect is on your site you aim to convert them into a lead via other marketing strategies.

Free tools like Canva and MailChimp can be great places to help get you started (although they will be limited until you move to a paid plan).

Facebook ads tip: Test everything. When you set up your first campaign, keep your budget at a minimum ($1/day per ad set). Test different audiences, test artwork, copy, call to actions. Once you have winning ads and ad-sets, then you can scale those.

Tip #3: Use Google My Business to get local clients

Does your business have a Google My Business listing? Is it up-to-date? Do you post regularly? Do you have at least 5 reviews?

It takes an hour to set up and minimal effort during the week but an active GMB listing can greatly improve your search results, especially when that search is local (ie, ‘accounting firm near me’).

Take the time to optimize your Google My Business listing properly. The examples below are of two mechanics. Which would you choose to contact based on their GMB listings?

The first has a 4.4 out of 5 rating from 443 reviews, images of the business, details on opening times a physical address and a link to their website. The second one has no reviews and is missing crucial information for anyone looking for a mechanic.

5 Easy things to get right on your accounting firm’s Google My Business listing:

Make sure all your contact and business info is up to date.

Include your address so you can be found on maps.
Add lots of high quality images.
Get at least 5 reviews from clients.
Post regularly with useful content that links to your site.

Ready to get started?

Take a look at our online marketing services and packages for accountants and bookkeepers.

Tip #4: How to get accounting clients via your website

Imagine you’re a 1st time visitor to your own site.

When you click on the link to your site:

Does the page load quickly (MAX 2 seconds)?
Is it mobile friendly?
Is the layout and design visually appealing / easy on the eye?
What is your site about? Who is your audience and what problems do you solve? Is that immediately clear?
What action do you want visitors to take? Is that clear?
Are there videos?
Does the site make sense? Is the order of information logical?
Can visitors easily find what they’d be looking for?
How simple is it to get in touch?
Do you have more than one contact option? A lot of visitors exit ‘contact us’ pages because they don’t want to complete a form. Include an email or telephone number.
In terms of basic SEO you could use a free tool like YOAST to help you improve your basic on-page SEO.

Tip #5: Get the right clients with a dream 100 list

The concept of the Dream 100 originally comes from a book by Chet Holmes “The Ultimate Sales Machine.”

Think of 100 ideal business connections you’d like to make. Ok, 100 is a lot. Start with 10 if it seems too much and build from there. They don’t all have to be sales. They could be influencers on social media for example that you really admire AND have a huge following of your potential clients.

Go after them but don’t be a troll. The idea is to connect with them and build genuine digital relationships over time. Social media and the power of marketing automation makes this a lot easier these days.

This technique takes time (often hours of research), possibly money and a lot of patience and determination. But on most accounts, it really delivers!

Bonus: The quickest way to get accounting clients

Digital marketing can be complex, much like accounting. The quickest way to grow your business is to work with a digital marketing agency that specializes in working with accounting clients to delivering key commercial results online. MITCO Digital is an agency that does just that. Book a free consultation with us or take a look at our accounting firm marketing services for more information.

Get more clients with online marketing

We exist to help accountants grow their businesses and annual revenue, by leveraging the real power of digital marketing.

Why would you waste money and time on strategies that don’t work and agencies that don’t understand your industry?

We know accounting. We understand your prospects. Most importantly we know what works for accountants.

FAQs

HOW MUCH DO FACEBOOK ADS FOR ACCOUNTANTS COST?

Facebook advertising for accountants doesn’t need to be expensive. Done right, you should be able to test a few ads for a $1/day/ad and then scale up when you find one that delivers results.

HOW DO YOU MARKET AN ACCOUNTING FIRM?

Accountants have lots of options online. 1. Use social media to build online authority and drive web traffic. 2. Run Facebook ads for accountants with value-based content. 3. Retarget your website visitors and people who engage with ads. 4. Use search engine optimisation to grow organic search results. 5. List on Google My Business for local search.

WHO DOES FACEBOOK ADS FOR ACCOUNTANTS?

MITCO Digital is an agency that specializes in providing digital marketing services and facebook ad management to accounting practices. They have a successful history running Facebook Ad campaigns for accountants.

HOW TO GET ACCOUNTING CLIENTS?

Digital marketing is a highly cost effective way to get clients for your accounting practice. You can choose from Facebook advertising, social media marketing, search engine optimisation (SEO) and a number of other strategies to attract and win new clients, based on your budget.