How should accountants approach an online marketing campaign? Nick Lewis has some suggestions
Regardless of what business you’re in, an online marketing campaign should be undertaken in a structured, concerted effort with clear objectives and measurable goals. Given this, is there any specific that the accountancy sector should consider when it goes online?
Given that accountancy is viewed as one of the traditional professions, I would suggest that accountants look to online channels as a means of cementing their reputations as well as looking to engage with existing or potential new clients. How much or how little an accountant or an accountancy firm would be willing to do this depends on resource and inclination.
First things first; just having a website, especially a static one, does not constitute as running an online marketing campaign. As the term suggests, a campaign is a concerted effort over a period of time, and this means that accountancy firm would have to be proactive in managing and promoting its online presence, rather than just treating as one-off job.
This is not to belittle websites (far from it), as they in fact form the cornerstone of any online marketing campaign. Ultimately, if it is set up correctly, an accountant’s website remains the sole online presence over which they have complete control. Other websites and social media channels are dependent on access and their changing terms and conditions, and it is therefore foolish and short-sighted to think that you can do away with a website or not make it integral to an online marketing campaign.
The key thing to any online marketing campaign is the generation of new content, whether that be articles, images, graphs, video or audio files. The natural place where all of this should be hosted is your own website, and new content should be published here on an incremental basis over a period of time to give people a reason to revisit your website. There is no point even starting an online market if there is no intention in updating a website in accordance to what is going on elsewhere, such as on your social media channels.
Given that ongoing content generation is vital to any online marketing campaign, accountants have to be honest with themselves as to what content they can regularly generate. If an accountancy firm is planning on blogging on their website, do they have sufficient internal resources and skills to get the article written and published correctly online on a regular, disciplined basis? If not, is there sufficient budget available within the firm to outsource all or some of the content generation to an external, suitable copywriter or marketer?
As alluded to, content is not just the written word but can be visual or audible in nature. While video blogging (‘vlogging’), podcasts (downloadable radio programmes created by an individual or organisation) or infographics (attractive graphs or diagrams shared online to impart information) are all highly valuable and desirable marketing tools, they require specific skillsets, equipment and personalities to make them truly effective.
Once you have created the content, the other side of the online marketing coin is the promotion and distribution of that content. This is where social media and online advertising comes in. As with content generation, social media is an activity that once started has to be regularly maintained and supported over a period of time; it’s not a one-off activity if it is to be at all effective.
Social media management, done correctly, requires more skill and resource than it first appears. First of all, businesses need to identify which social media channels are right for their business and which ones aren’t, and focus their efforts accordingly. For accountants, I would argue that Twitter and LinkedIn are appropriate networks whereas something more personal, B2C like Facebook would not.
Be sufficiently informed
After establishing which social media channels an accountancy firm is going to be on, the resource that has been allocated to supporting those channels needs to be sufficiently informed in how to use the channels correctly. Not all social media channels are the same, and just because someone is proficient with Twitter marketing, it is not necessarily a given that they will be skilled at Facebook. The resource will also need sufficient time allocated to them to carry out the work, which will be decided on how often an accountancy firm feels it needs to post on a social network and how quickly they feel they need to respond to any interactions on those channels.
Underpinning this is the central question; what do you hope to achieve by being online? Whether it be more visits to your website, new client leads or general brand promotion (or a combination of all three), you need to figure out how this information will be captured and analysed, and this is where social media and online marketing analytics can be of assistance. Knowing what you have done and how it is working towards your desired goals is vital if a campaign is to shaped to be more effective over a period of time. Otherwise, you’re wasting your money.
• Nick Lewis is a communications professional with 15 years’ experience. He offers social media support via www.nicklewiscommunications.com
This article is taken from “Accounting Practice” the ICPA quarterly magazine. Dedicated to supporting and promoting the needs of the general practitioner. You can find us at www.icpa.org.uk or email [email protected] or by phone on 0800-074-2896.
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