5 top tips to promote your firm in 2022

An accountancy practice can’t grow to its full potential without a steady stream of new clients who are looking for the services it provides.

But you need that stream to lead to your firm. Anywhere else is lost business. Anywhere else is a lost client.

That’s why promoting your firm is just as important as the day-to-day admin that makes it tick and the services which generate revenue.

But it's a world that sometimes seems daunting to firms with no experience in marketing, so here are five key marketing techniques to start with.

The first thing you should consider is the one of the first things about your practice that your clients will see: its website.

The days where a block of text with key information on a blank backdrop would suffice are gone. Nowadays, people are almost always put off by a poorly designed or outdated website.

This is especially so, as modern website designs are becoming the norm in the accountancy sector, meaning that eventually, you’ll be the odd one out (if you aren’t already).

A poorly made or outdated website can also convey a lack of care, professionalism and understanding about modern times, rather than what you understand your firm to represent.

With that, visitors will more often than not close the tab and look elsewhere for the service they need.

Say you’ve updated your website. It’s slick, dynamic and modern. That should keep more visitors on the website, but how do you get them on your site in the first place?

The best way to do that is by getting to the top of your local search results with a tightly-focused and effective SEO strategy – the process of improving the quality and quantity of unpaid organic website traffic from search engines like Google.

So, you’ll want to select keywords and keyphrases for each page on your website, thinking about what people looking for your services might type into a search engine.

Make sure you highlight your geography as well (“accountants in Birmingham”, for example) as many searchers will be looking for services specifically local to them.

You can use bold, italics and headings (H1 is particularly useful) to highlight keywords and phrases to the search engine. Just don’t overdo it at the end of the day – you want to prioritise readability over SEO.

Search engines take into account how active a website is when ranking its relevance and how far down the results page it will appear. A regularly updated blog is one of the best ways to keep your site in action.

A blog can also demonstrate to your visitors your expertise on tax and business issues if you choose relevant topics and write engaging content.

It also offers another way to attract organic traffic from inquisitive visitors looking for very specific information they won’t find on your services pages.

A blog can be a daunting idea for some firms, given the time and energy that needs to be invested to get the quality and quantity of blog posts you’ll ideally want.

A solution is to share out blogs among your team, divvying out topics to those who are most knowledgeable on each one so you can quickly get posts out regularly.

Alternatively, you could ease yourself from that added pressure by outsourcing your blogging. With the traffic it could bring in, it can certainly be worth the investment.

With around 3.6 billion people worldwide using social media and 2.85bn monthly users on Facebook alone, social media marketing (SMM) offers your firm a potentially rich source of extra traffic.

The numbers gathered by an industry report by Social Media Examiner speak for themselves:

• 88% of marketers in a survey said their social media efforts had generated more exposure for their businesses
• 78% noticed an increase in organic traffic after deploying SMM
• 66% said SMM had generated a number of new leads
• 52% said it improved their sales figures.

Social media can also be a more personal platform than your website to communicate with customers who comment on your posts, while the posts themselves could include pictures and even videos.

You also might want to consider platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn, which are great for those in the accountancy sector to find and build new lasting connections between firms and their ideal clients.

Email marketing is a bit more old school than the other marketing efforts we’ve covered so far, but it’s still immensely relevant and important in 2021.

If you’re not doing it yet, know it’s very cost-effective to set up, while the wide range of email automation tools out there promise simplicity and ease. All you have to do is the initial setup, and everything basically runs itself from there.

Email marketing campaigns are impactful, too. According to the Direct Marketing Association, 76% of marketeers saw an increase in the number of people opening the emails during a refined campaign, while 75% say their click-throughs are higher.

Meanwhile, just over half of businesses (51%) saw their return on investment increase.

Sending personalised emails is also a great way to make your client base feel appreciated. For instance, you could send a thank-you email when they subscribe to your newsletter.

By paying attention to the products they’ve viewed, blogs they’ve read and services they’ve purchased, you can also tailor your emails to your clients specifically, improving their overall experience.

Get in touch for strategic marketing advice, a new website or hands-on help producing engaging content. Email us on [email protected] or call us on 0117 915 0420.