As the accountancy industry becomes increasingly crowded, you need to be able to differentiate your firm from the competition and present yourself as the solution your customers need, and digital marketing can help you to do just that. Today we will be looking at 5 ways your accountancy firm can make the most of your digital marketing, using examples from some of the biggest names in the industry to demonstrate exactly how it’s done.
Email marketing
A key benefit of email marketing is that it is one of the few online assets you have complete ownership of, meaning you won’t be caught off guard by unexpected account closures or rises in advertising costs. For an accounting firm, email marketing is a useful tool to help build relationships and encourage loyalty from customers, and can also help increase leads and improve sales. So, if you’re ready to start reaping some of the benefits of email marketing, check out our latest email marketing blog post which offers tips on how to create a successful email.
Your website
Along with email, your website (domain and the content on it) is the only other digital channel that you have total ownership of and is what can make or break your reputation. A successful website will be easy to navigate, compatible with a range of different devices and most importantly, offer value to your audience.
Demonstrating what a good website should look like is KPMG. Whether you are accessing their site via computer, mobile or tablet, you are assured to get the same great experience thanks to their responsive website design. They make use of colour, graphics, photos and other visual elements to break up large amounts of text and make their site more user friendly and visually appealing.
KPMG ensures their user experience is an enjoyable one with an easy-to-use navigation bar which clearly segments their site and makes key information easily accessible. They also post content regularly to inform and educate their audience and help them to keep up with important industry trends. Updating your website regularly with high-quality content is not only great for SEO, but also for business, as in the words of Andrew Davis (a best-selling author and ‘marketing guru’): “Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue.”
Search engine optimisation (SEO)
It’s all very well having an amazing website, but if no one is going to see it, what’s the point? An effective SEO strategy is what is going to get your website seen by the right people at the right time and get your accountancy firm ranked above your competitors. When thinking about SEO, the trick is to not think about SEO… Essentially, you need to forget about impressing Google and focus on helping your audience. To add a bit of context to that statement, the purpose of Google is to help users find solutions to their search queries, so for your website to be effective in the eyes of Google, it needs to offer content that helps to satisfy the users search intent as opposed to just trying to impress the search engine with a load of keywords.
When it comes to SEO, you will also want to consider on-page optimisation, technical optimisation and link acquisition. We’ve got plenty of blog posts offering helpful SEO guidance and have recently published an ultimate guide to SEO for B2B organisations which will help point you in the direction of success.
Social media
Social media is a great way to engage with your audience and establish relationships with them. PwC shows us how social media can be used to help boost marketing efforts, making use of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. They recognise that each platform has a different purpose, different audience preferences and thus requires a different strategy.
PwC’s LinkedIn page adopts a formal tone and shares regular informative updates, from infographics to blog posts and trend reports. Their Twitter account is used to not only promote their own content and views, but also to share other expert opinions with their followers. PwC’s Facebook page adopts a more personal approach, however keeps a fairly formal tone, publishing posts such as the ones below.
Lastly, their Instagram account adopts a less formal approach than their other social accounts, promoting company culture and bringing a more ‘human’ dimension to their brand. Their posts include stories of their employees, support for important causes and celebrations of key achievements.
Video
If you read our latest blog post on the key B2B marketing trends to expect for 2021, you will know video is going to be huge – and to be honest, it already is. But, you may be wondering how you can get involved with this trend, after all, you’re an accountant, not an actor! Well, here to show you how is Deloitte UK, who publishes regular video content to their YouTube channel, website and other social platforms.
Video is great for your audience as it helps to make information more engaging and digestible, but it’s even greater for your business. One of the main benefits of video is it’s shareable, meaning it can help increase your brand awareness and get your business noticed. Along with this, video brings in a lot of traffic and is a great way to improve your SEO. To give you some inspiration, Deloitte UK posts a range of videos, including animated explainer videos, podcasts, industry report snippets and informative videos to help their audience understand key trends.
So there’s a summary of 5 ways you can use digital marketing to help your accountancy firm get noticed by your audience and stand out from your competitors. With the industry becoming more competitive than ever before, and consumer expectations continuously rising, it’s time digital marketing came into the equation to help add value to your business and avoid any loss of your clients.
