It’s not uncommon for accounting firms to experience a dip in new clients after a certain while. This is often because they start relaxing their efforts or they rely too much on word of mouth, returning clients, and referrals. You also have firms that have always struggled with getting clients, or new firms that don’t know how to market their services. Unless you’re in a doomed area, there is no reason for you to not be able to get clients unless you’re incompetent. All it takes is a little bit of imagination and knowing some of the time-tested accountancy marketing techniques. Here’s what you can do to get more clients for your accounting firm.
One of the quickest ways to get more clients for your practice is to buy an existing one. You have to be very careful when doing this, however, as you might end up with a practice that doesn’t fit your style, skills, or brand. You might not want to go for a practice that deals mainly with businesses if you are dealing with regular clients, for instance. You also have to look at the services the practice in question is offering and if you would feel comfortable offering them.
If you want to buy a firm, we suggest that you go with an accountancy firm broker like Poe Group Advisors. Good brokers have large databases and will allow you to know the specifics of each practice at a glance. This will allow you to quickly see if a firm would integrate into your current practice well or not.
Branding is something a lot of accounting firms struggle with. Some don’t even think about branding at all. But there’s a reason why firms like H&R Block are so popular. People trust them because they make the average person feel comfortable and are great at making accounting and taxes seem very simple.
You will have to find your brand as a firm and consider changing your name if needed. Look at who your current clients are and what your ideal type is. You can then create one or multiple client personas and look at what they would look for in an accounting firm.
What would the perfect office look like for them? Do they have kids or not? What about their profession? Do you attract a lot of young professionals, or older people trying to stay on top of their finances? These are all things that will help you shape a powerful brand that will connect to them.
Content marketing is one of the most powerful tools any accounting firm can use and can also help you build a strong brand. One of the best things about content marketing for accounting firms is the sheer number of subjects you can talk about.
You can talk about personal finance and how to avoid tax trouble, for instance. You can provide tips for businesses trying to save money and manage their cash flow better. You can inform people about changes with the tax code, or you could simply teach young families how to budget better or save for a new house.
Your expertise will make you credible, and if you can manage to get your content on the right outlets and set them up so they can direct traffic to your site, you can expect to get a lot more inquiries as a result. Not only that, but your search engine rankings will improve as reputable incoming links are a major ranking factor, and you will get free exposure as a result.
So, start creating content and reach out to high-level blogs in the accounting niche or any niche that is related to accounting. Try to build a relationship with the owner by making comments and providing valuable insights. Then, try to approach them for guest blogging opportunities once you’ve established a rapport. If you do that long enough, you will eventually find someone who will accept.
Also, know that you can create all sorts of content. You can start a channel on YouTube and advise viewers on all things tax and personal finance related. You can also create a course or courses targeted at various demographics. All of this will allow you to disseminate your brand and get more visibility.
PPC marketing is one of the most powerful tools any accounting firm can use to get new leads. However, you have to be careful there as you can easily go overboard on your budget. If you don’t know what PPC is, it stands for pay-per-click marketing. This technique allows you to bid on certain keywords and have your ad appear over, next to, or under organic search results on search engines every time someone conducts a search for that term, and you only pay when someone clicks on the ad. The competition can get fierce, however, and the more competition there is, the more you’ll have to pay per click. So, you need to know how valuable news leads are to you and consider looking at smaller search engines like Bing and Yahoo for cheaper clicks.
These are all things that you could do starting today to boost your accounting firm’s clientele. If you are willing to put the effort in and consider all your options, then you should see an increase pretty quickly.