Content marketing is so important for accounting firms. It allows you to show prospective clients that you understand their needs and can help them out in ways beyond simple bookkeeping.

If you run an accounting firm, you might need more experience with content creation. But digital marketing is a promising way to get new business in this day and age.

When it comes to content marketing for accounting firms, it might need to be clarified how to use it to your advantage.

But giving your target audience relevant and useful information can help you find new leads and get new clients. How you approach your content makes all the difference. 

Also Read: How to meet Tax season challenges as an accountant or bookkeeper with ProcessWurks 

How do you Create Content and do Content Marketing for an Accounting Firm?

Content marketing is a way for businesses worldwide to promote themselves.

It’s an essential strategy for getting people to know about your brand, making it easier for leads to become customers, and establishing thought leadership, among other things. 

That’s why we’ve made a simple 7-step process to show you how to make an effective content marketing strategy: 

1. Define your goals

2. Establish your target audience

3. Figure out keywords by listing the problems your business solves.

4. Do a content audit

5. Decide which types of content you will use.

6. Make a content schedule and publish it.

7. Measure results 

In 2020, Hubspot predicted that almost 70% of businesses would invest in content marketing.

This means that retaining your authority on SERPs(Search Engine Results Pages) and maintaining your status as an industry expert is more crucial than ever before,

so let’s get started!

Also Read: How to Create a Marketing Plan for Accounting Firm?

1.  Define your goals for Content Marketing

Every piece of content you make should help you reach a goal or objective in some way.

Your goals should be S.M.A.R.T., which stands for “specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.”

When you know what you’re working for and what you want to achieve, the steps you take to get there are much more straightforward.

If your main goal is to get more MQLs, you should increase how often you release gated content. I

n the same way, let’s say you want to move up in the SERPs.

In that case, you need to look at your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts and research how to improve your current content. Think about keywords, meta descriptions, H-tags, backlinks, etc.

Most likely, your goals will have something to do with your customers or prospects.

Make sure you know where your leads are in their lifecycle stage so you can give them the right content. 

2. Establish your target audience

Marketers today make content for different types of audience segments  

• Interests 
• Behavior 
• Demographics

 You don’t push content just to throw it out into the world; you create content for a specific purpose and audience. So it’s essential to know your audience and what content they want. 

A great way to visualize your target audience is by conducting market research and creating buyer personas.  Buyer personas are made-up versions of your company’s ideal customer. They show you how to reach the right people and why.

When marketers make personas, they include important details like age, job title, gender, income, potential pain points and touchpoints, challenges, behavioral motivations, etc.

Then, they think about how the business can meet the needs of this ideal customer and offer solutions.

Once you know who you are trying to reach, creating content that gets better results will be easier because it is more valuable and relevant.

Look at the analytics for your website and social media to see if there are any patterns.

For example, what do people do when they visit your website or profile? It’s vital to do personal research regularly. Experienced marketers will tell you that your target audience can change, or you can decide whether you want to target new groups or expand into different markets.

3. Figure out keywords by listing the problems your business solves.

Creating content that doesn’t directly relate to your product or service wastes time.

If the audience you draw with this content is not interested in what you’re selling, then all your hard work will have been for nothing.

Start by telling people what your business is and what you sell. This will be the basis for the main keyword(s) and phrases you want to target and the main idea of your content.

Using the right keywords and phrases in your content will help you rank high in search engine results pages (SERPs), which will help the right people find you. You need to tell your target audience how they can benefit from your business, what you can do for them, and why they should choose you over your competitors. 

4. Run a content audit

A content audit is a process in which you look at the content you created and marketed.

Auditing your content not only shows you where your strengths lie but also highlights the areas where you can improve.

With this knowledge, you can utilize the metrics you’ve gathered to inform how you create future content. Audits also allow you to discover what needs to be updated, rewritten, or deleted.

You can automate some content auditing processes with tools like Screaming Frog, SEMrush, or Google Analytics. They tell you about the most popular pages on your website, how people use them, how long they stay there and improve things like SEO. 

Also Read: How ProcessWurks is Revolutionizing the Bookkeeping Industry with the power of Automation?

5. Decide which types of content you will use.

After you’ve defined your goals and established a target audience, identified keywords for search engine optimization. You can complete an audit, it’s time to determine the types of content you will create.

• Blogs  Blogs are online content in the form of informational journals that can help build an online presence, connect with audiences, bring in leads, and improve SEO. 
• Guides: Digital guides are similar to ebooks, but they usually come in PDF format and don’t have a physical version. Guides are often more in-depth and on-brand than blogs, and they are often gated, so they can be a great way to get leads. 
• Videos: Hubspot says that 54% of audiences who support a brand want to see more videos from that brand. Video content is great because it can be used in many different ways. For example, you can make animated videos, explainer videos, interviews, how-to videos, short snack videos, or long guides, etc. 
• Infographics: An infographic is a fun, easy-to-understand way to share information with your audience. Infographics are great for content marketing because they are cheap, easy to make and catch people’s attention.
• Podcasts: Podcasts are audio files you can listen to online, usually through an app or website.
• Case studies: Case studies are an excellent way for people who are interested in your business, product, or service to learn more about it from the people who know it best: your customers.
• Pillar pages: Pillar pages are long pieces of content covering a whole topic. You’ll find smaller, more focused pieces like blogs, infographics, videos, etc., inside them. 

6. Make a content schedule and stick to it for your content marketing to work, you need to know what you want to publish when you want to post it, and how you want to publish it.

Therefore, how you organize your content is very important.

Content calendars, also called editorial calendars, are like visual workflows that help content marketers plan their work for the day, week, or month.

Some brands also have social media content calendars that tell them what to post on their social media channels and when. 

7. Measure the results of your Content Marketing

The best way to find out what kind of content your audience likes is to look at how it performs. Measure results will help you make better content in the future.

You can learn a lot about your audience’s actions, motivations, pain points, and touchpoints by using tools like Google Analytics, your social media analytics, and (if you use them) the analytics that comes with your marketing platform or CRM software. 

How Do I  Market My CPA  Business?

If you want to take your CPA marketing to the next level, growing brand awareness, attracting the right customers, and scaling your accounting business is important.

1. Make a Good SEO website with a strong CTA

Since many buyers use Google to research online before buying, having a website is no longer a “nice to have.” It must be done.

An SEO-friendly website does three things: 

• Search Engines Send Organic, Qualified Traffic

          Sick of cold emails or leads who have no intention of signing up for your services?

By putting all of your efforts into SEO and focusing on the keywords your potential customers use, you can bring the right customers (who are ready to sign a contract) to your website.

Need to know what SEO is and how to do keyword research?

• Makes visitors into leads

When someone is doing a lot of research, a website that looks professional goes a long way in helping them decide. With a strong call-to-action (CTA) on your homepage, you can stop people from leaving your site without scheduling a call or filling out a form to learn more. 

• It Sets you a go-to expert.

Once your website ranks for the right keywords on Google (words and phrases that your customers use), it shows the user that you’re an expert and raises brand awareness.

When someone sees you as a thought leader in your industry, it builds trust. This shows one of the most basic rules of business, which is that people do business with people they know, like, and have confidence in. 

2. Make a blog for your website

Creating a blog is a very effective way for CPAs to market themselves. Why?

Your blog posts will show up in searches.

When you’re on the first page of Google, you get more visitors to your website and more qualified leads.

Blogging is helpful for your customers because it answers their questions, gives them quick wins, and helps them find answers to their problems.

How do you start writing blog posts that show up on the first page of search results?

First, you need to find out what problems your audience is trying to solve by doing keyword research. Take the search term “hiring a tax accountant.” Here are some blog posts from the first page of Google from CPA firms. By blogging as these CPA firms do, you can find out what problems your clients are having and write blog posts that solve those problems and turn visitors into clients.

3. Start Using LinkedIn for Content Marketing

Do you have a page on LinkedIn?

You are probably one of two types of the 774 million working professionals who use the platform:

1. Yes, you have made a profile, but it only gets a little use.

2. No, and you don’t want to sign up for another social network.

But LinkedIn is more than just a social networking site. It’s one of the best places to meet potential clients and find work. 80% of B2B marketers say that LinkedIn is the best place 

To attract paying clients to your CPA business, follow these steps to spruce up your LinkedIn profile.

• Change your profile to help with SEO

Yes, SEO is more than just search engines.

You want to make sure that your profile is optimized with the keywords that your potential clients use to find you. If your LinkedIn SEO is good, you’ll show up higher in search results. 

• Post on LinkedIn

Creating content on LinkedIn, like status updates, sharing business news, or writing thought pieces, is a great way to get leads. You can get more people to see your posts by using hashtags, and the algorithm will show your content to a wider audience the more people interact with it. 

Also Read: Top 5 Features to Look for in Operations Management Software

4. Make videos for YouTube Content Marketing

You don’t like to write? Are you a better speaker? Then you should make a content marketing plan for YouTube.

People come to the platform, which has more than 2 billion users every month, to learn, get ideas, or have fun.

What makes YouTube so valuable is that you can search for its content on Google.

In 2016, the world’s biggest search engine bought the video-sharing site and added it to its search results. 

To succeed on YouTube, you need to use keywords that are relevant to your audience—just as you would in SEO.

• your speech (YouTube scans your words)
• video title
• video description
• tags

5. Claiming your Google Business Page

Google My Business can help your CPA business be more visible in local search results.

According to a study by BrightLocal, 84% of searches are discovery. That’s a lot of chances for your next client to find you. Let’s say someone searches for “CPA in New York.”

If you have set up your Google My Business page correctly.

6. Start an email list.

Even though having a presence on YouTube and LinkedIn is a good way for CPAs to market themselves, these sites could go away tomorrow. If that happens, you won’t be able to reach your audience anymore.

How to fix it? Adding people to your email list.

Make a lead magnet and use it to get people to register on your website. The focus of your lead magnet should be a problem that your audience wants to solve and a quick win.

Some other ideas for lead magnets are:

toolkits\sreports\swhitepapers, e-books and cheat sheets for case studies.

Once you have attracted subscribers to your email list, you can nurture the relationship by sending a monthly newsletter that promotes your offers and tips.

How do Accounting Firms Get More Clients?

If you’re an accounting firm looking to get more clients, this article will give you some tips on how to do it.

The first thing you need to do is identify your target market. If you want to attract new clients, then the best way to do that is by identifying the kind of people who are likely to need your services in the future.

Once you know who these people are and where they hang out online, it will be easier for you to reach them with your message.

The next step is to create a strong brand identity that represents who you are as an accounting firm and what makes your business unique.

This will make it easier for potential clients to remember what they like about your company and why they should choose it over another one that’s similar in size and scope.

Finally, make sure that all of your marketing materials reflect this brand identity so that people see consistency across all platforms when they visit your website or social media accounts.

How Can I Promote My Accounting Business?

It can be hard for accounting firms to stand out from the crowd of other businesses trying to get clients’ attention.

But there are a lot of ways to promote the services of your accounting firm that don’t take a lot of time or money. 

Here are the best tips for promoting an accounting firm. 

• Promote your firm on social media.
• Use email marketing to connect with clients.
• Create a newsletter for clients and prospects.
• Host events that let you connect with potential clients in person.
• Send holiday cards to your contacts, and include a promo code for a discount on future work done by your firm.
• Create an online presence with a website or blog that showcases your services and attracts new clients who are looking for someone like you!
• Ask current clients if they know anyone who could benefit from working with you! You can also ask them to introduce you to people they know through their networks (social media groups, LinkedIn groups).
• Make sure all of your social media profiles are up-to-date, so potential clients can find you easily when searching for “accountants” or related terms on Google or other search engines like Bing/Yahoo/Bing etcetera… there’s nothing worse than having outdated information about yourself out there where anyone can see it (especially if it’s negative!)
• Keep your accounts and records up-to-date – this will help you avoid errors and make it easier to find information when needed! 

Conclusion:

After you’ve set up your content marketing plan, all that’s left to do is get to work.

Planning and research are important, but the best way to find out what works for you is to try things out and see what works and what doesn’t.

Therefore, You’ll have a better idea of where to go and take further steps ahead.

Visit https://www.processwurks.com/now to get support on all account-related issues.

Editor’s Choice:

• How ProcessWurks Simplifies Operations Management for Accounting Firms
• Top 5 Features to Look for in Operations Management Software
• 6 Steps to scale your Accounting Firm
• Business ideas for Accounting Firms of next generation
• Essential Workflow Automation For Accountants