How to increase online enquiries and generating leads is essential for every business. When it comes to generating leads online, your consumers have probably already done all their homework online, comparing services and pricing. They have a good idea of what they want and how much they should be charged. This is why your accounting firm needs to be presented in such a way where people will understand what you’re offering, know if they can afford you, and can easily contact you.
So you have all the information available, and you’re ready for new clients, but how do you go about attracting them to your accounting firm?
1. Full Service Accounting Firms:
As a full-service accounting firm, you are probably offering a complete and very wide range of accounting services, and you may even be covering a variety of locations. So this means you need to be found in every search engine, directory, on forums and in social media networks. And don’t forget about appearing above all your competitors by fully utilising the Google Adwords. You need to be visible when people are having conversations about or specifically searching for any of the services that you provide. Sounds exhausting, right? But most full-service accounting firms will have their own marketing department who will look after all of this for you.
2. Tax Firms:
Whether you specialise in corporate or individual tax, or have a very specialised niche in looking after real estate companies or musicians, you’ll find that Inbound Marketing is a great lead generation strategy. Inbound marketing allows accounting firms to focus on all the enquiries, without neglecting those that don’t convert immediately. Essentially, Inbound Marketing focuses on creating quality content to pull clients toward your accounting firm by delivering it where and when they need it the most. By attracting the consumer through the deliver relevant and helpful information, you will naturally attract further interaction and conversation. One form of Inbound Marketing is using a series of scheduled drip emails, providing content that is 90% informational and 10% advertorial, and over time, ends with content that is 10% informational and 90% advertorial. Setting this up takes time and creativity, but once launched, can be hands-free. Also by segmenting your target audience, you can build in strategies, lead nurturing and scoring, relationship marketing, ROI and measurement to help you develop the relationship instead of solely focusing on the closing of the sale. We have more information available here if you’d like to know how Inbound marketing works, including a downloadable toolkit.
3. Audit Firms:
Whether your Auditing firm focuses on commercial, government or individuals, you’ll always be needed for the regular annual audit. But like other speciality accounting firms, Auditors may also specialise in a specific niche industry. The more niche you are, the better you can position your accounting firm above your competitors and laser target your ideal client.
In the marketing industry, we call this target client a “persona”. By identifying every pain point of your “market persona”, you can specifically target your content and offer a solution. Similar to this article, you can cover the basics, and then dive deeper into the actual problem. The more niche, the more in-depth your content, and therefore the more value you are adding to the reader. The more value the reader receives from your content, the more likely it is that they will trust your advice and become a qualified lead. We have provided a free persona builder for you to try out.
4. Risk Firms:
Because the purpose of these firms is primarily risk management – ensuring there’s a systematic set of checks and balances in place – they are the perfect candidate for content and inbound marketing. As a risk firm your client has an immediate pain point that you are ready able to address. A great way to address a pain point and provide the solution is by providing a case study. This can be delivered through a short video or a blog and then delivered through your email marketing or social media. By not mentioning any names, you can go into as much detail as required to clearly explain the problem that the client was having. Once you’ve laid out the client issues, you can then detail how your Risk firm was able to alleviate their pain point.
If you are unsure how this will work for your risk firm, or how to budget such a campaign, please make sure you download our free workbook here.
Advertising Channels That will Increase Online Enquiries for your Accounting Firm
Use Social Media Advertising to Increase Online Enquiries
In Australia, Facebook is ranked number one in social media, and Facebook statistics state that there are now approx. 15 million active Australians on Facebook – that’s 60% of the total population! While Instagram sits at 9,000,000 monthly active Australian users (FB/ Instagram data, May 2018).
Social media advertising really is an extremely useful, targeted channel to get your Accounting services in front of the perfect client in your chosen location with a budget that you’re happy to spend. And not only are you reaching your own specific target audience, but you can track and analyse your advert, making minor tweaks and adjustments as needed.
We have put together some campaign examples in our free workbook. Make sure you download your copy here.
Use Google Ads to Increase Online Enquiries
Google advertising also allows you the flexibility of selecting your own advertising budget as well as the ability to allocate it across each day, week or month as suits. While being a cost-efficient method of advertising online, by only paying when your advert is clicked on, you can track each and every dollar spent.
With an efficient campaign strategy, developed from market and keyword research, you are able to effectively target the right client for your business, knowing that they are interested in your services because of the search terms they used.
Another huge benefit is Google’s inbuilt analytics allows you to track and report on every spend, click, impression and search term used, offering you the opportunity to make changes on the fly and provide comprehensive reports for your partners.