There is a common theme as to what successful accountancy firms have in their marketing toolbox. Below is the ‘must have’ list of marketing materials for accountants.
Website
Having one is crucial, keeping it up to date is vital. You have to be easy to find and you must provide information which visitors will find useful and will make them want to contact you. Take a look at your website, does it meet these criteria? If not, it may be time for a makeover.
Search engine rankings
To appear on the first page of any search engine your website must contain the keywords and phrases that people will use to find you e.g. ‘Accountants in (your town)’, ‘Making Tax Digital Support’, ‘Stress-free Payrolls’ etc. Your website will also feature higher up the rankings if you regularly update its content such as adding blogs. Do your own Google keyword searches, how well ranked is your website compared to your competitors?
Brochures/leaflets
Don’t underestimate the effectiveness of printed brochures. Not only do they give you something to hand out to remind people about who you are, but they also tend to have a much longer shelf life than emails. Furthermore, the cost of having a brochure designed and printed these days is relatively inexpensive.
Adverts in town or parish magazines
Such publications are usually cheap to advertise in and tend to stay in circulation much longer than your local newspapers, therefore giving your advert a higher chance of being spotted. I have clients who have spent £30 on such adverts and in return have scooped tens of thousands of pounds of fees from new (and existing) clients. They are also a good way of supporting local communities who put together the publications. To raise your profile even further, ask the editors if you can write an article which their readers may find useful.
Articles and blogs
If you are going to write an article for your parish magazine, also look at other outlets to reproduce it. Adding it to your website helps to demonstrate your experience in these areas, plus it will also help you to increase your search engine ranking. Posting your blogs on social media will also help to raise your profile and help to secure an online following.
Social media
Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are the preferred channels for accountants to use. However, you need to be posting at least once a week and ideally more. If you cannot commit to that I suggest you don’t go down the social media route, as your firm will be displaying out of date content.
Newsletters
Newsletters still have their place in marketing communications, particularly when they are written by the firm. Email newsletters are fine, particularly when they link to articles posted on your website. However, printed newsletters can be more personal and they tend to hang around for longer than an email thereby increasing the likelihood of them being read by other people.
As I have mentioned in many other blogs, the key to successful marketing is repetition. Those accountancy firms who stand out from their competitors do so because they use all the above tools at different times of the year, thereby helping to keep their firm at the forefront of people’s minds.
