If you think that posting new content onto your website and social media pages don’t achieve anything, think again! Your website is more than just an online brochure. Here’s why regular blogs and posts DO matter to the success of your firm.
Identifies you as the local/national/sector specialist
A key aim of many accountancy firms is to become trusted advisers. Whilst this title is often achieved as a result of building close working and effective relationships with clients, regular blog posts can also help to demonstrate this to potential clients and other third parties. By posting regular blogs, client case studies and sector-specific content you can prove your skills and experience and how you can help individuals and businesses.
Increases website traffic
The more times you post new blogs, update pages on your website, add new services etc. the Google search engine optimisation (SEO) algorithms are more likely to pick up on these changes and identify your website as one which is very active and producing quality content. In doing so your website is more likely to climb up the SEO rankings and be found by potential clients, employees and other stakeholders. Google also prefers longer articles of 600+ words, so ensure you write engaging and relevant content that your audience will find useful, but which isn’t too short.
Helps to keep in touch with clients
A regular supply of blogs not only helps to raise your profile with potential clients and third parties, but they can also be an excellent way of keeping in touch with your existing clients. Not only can this give them peace of mind that you are the ‘go-to’ person/firm to handle their tax and accounting affairs, but also it can help to cross-sell other services to them.
Maximises existing content
To get the most mileage out of your blogs, adopt a ‘write it once, use it often’ policy. So think about where else you can use the blog contents which will maximise the time you have invested in writing the piece (or paid for it to be written). So, could the blog be also used in a local newspaper or magazine, in your newsletter, on your social media pages, as part of a letter or email marketing campaign etc. Try to get as much mileage as possible from one blog.
Improves social media presence (and gets more people to your website)
Time and time again when I’m looking at website statistics, I see an increase in traffic onto clients’ websites which have been initially generated from a link on their social media pages. Your social media pages can really help to drive traffic to your website and so any new blogs, case studies, etc which you load onto your website should also be shared onto your social media sites. This helps to keep your firm’s name appearing in your followers/connections news feeds and also demonstrates the quality and variety of posts that your firm is highlighting. This could be technical articles, news about the firm, or perhaps your involvement with local charities and community events. Adding a variety of topics to your blogs and social media posts helps to create your online personality and can increase your reach to a much wider audience.
Helps to recruit quality employees
Having a regular supply of business and tax-related news on your website, together with feedback on activities the firm and its employees are involved with, helps to showcase what type of firm you are to work for. With recruitment continuing to be a major headache for accountancy firms, having regular updates on your website and social media pages can help future candidates identify if you are the firm they’d like to be working for. It is also sensible to post your vacancies on your website and social media to try to appeal to as many target candidates as possible.
How often is ‘regular’ posting?
How often you write blogs and update your website and social media pages will largely depend on the time you have available for doing so. Larger firms are likely to benefit from having more partners and managers who can share the blog writing load. Larger firms are also likely to have in-house marketing people who can write content or ghostwrite on behalf of partners.
As a general rule and a realistic approach to how often to write blogs, I would suggest sole practitioners and small accountancy firms should aim for 1 – 2 blogs per month. 3+ partner firms should be aiming for 3 – 4 blogs per month. And 10+ partner firms should be looking to post something once or twice a week.
In terms of topic ideas, below is a (non-exhausted) list of the types of things which you could write about:
- Changes in tax rates or new legislation.
- Tax planning tips (split into two separate articles to cover individuals and corporates).
- Linking to current media stories and mentioning things such as: how your firm is getting involved; how it can help; what your thoughts on the subject matter are etc.
- New or updated services you are now offering.
- Forthcoming events your firm is organising or attending.
- Fundraising events you are holding and linking with the nominated charities.
- Staff, partner, firm news (qualifications passed, awards shortlisted for or won, promotions, new appointments, retirements, etc.).
Further suggestions on how to write a blog can be found here: Blog writing tips for accountants.
The key to writing the blog is to make it relevant to your target audience/reader, bearing in mind that this may change depending on what the topic is. So a blog about an accounting apprenticeship opportunity at your firm should be written in a different way than a blog explaining the domestic VAT reverse charge for the construction sector. The language and tone of what you write would need to be very different in these two scenarios.
It also might be worthwhile considering whether your firm needs to update its current website. My blog, ‘New Year, New Website’ identifies how to review your website and decide whether it is time for a refresh.
If you need assistance with writing copy for your website or social media posts, I can help. It is something that I get involved with for most of my clients. Drop me a line at vicki@momentumforprofessionals.co.uk or call me on 01822 833300 for a free non-obligation chat. We can discuss what you would like to achieve and the best ways for you to do so.
