Top 5 Digital Marketing Tips for Accountants [2021]

Do you own an accounting practice?  Read on to see how an accounting practice marketing strategy can grow your business while adjusting to a post-pandemic world.

Private practices and small businesses are the backbone of our Canadian economy. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, entrepreneurs and small businesses employed 60-70% of people nationwide - this includes anything from restaurants to physiotherapy practices, dental offices, and accounting firms.  These small companies are essential to the healthy functioning of our economy.  The pandemic presented the biggest small business challenge in decades.  Private practitioners had to reorganize their marketing strategies overnight and change the way they communicate with customers. Many other businesses were hit hard by the sudden shutdowns and closures.  Businesses that were set up for e-commerce and online services fared better, while those who lagged behind were punished as people flocked to buy goods and services on the internet.

Here at Sparktribe, we predict that the shift to online services, work from home, and accelerated e-commerce adoption is here to stay and will leave a lasting mark on most businesses, including accounting practice marketing.  This means that a refreshed accounting marketing strategy will be a crucial investment in the post-pandemic reality.  We prepared a list of 5 accounting practice marketing strategies you can start on right now to prepare for this changing reality:

Work on your accounting practice SEO

Moving activities online has become the norm during the pandemic, and the starting point for researching these is a search engine.  Make sure you publish relevant content to your accounting practice website and update it regularly, check your site speed, and that your tags and content use properly optimized accounting and tax-related keywords.  To quickly increase paid search engine traffic to your website, run a search engine advertising campaign in Google Ads.

Focus on keeping your existing private practice customer base 

Marketing automation and newsletters can be of a big help here, with particular emphasis on the features that distinguish your offer from your other accounting practice competitors.  Focus on creating high-quality, valuable content that will be relevant to your niche.

Build brand awareness to maintain or gain greater visibility of your accounting practice

Run a retargeting campaign to reach people who already know your accounting firm. Advertise to people who have been to your website, or Facebook Page, or who have already purchased your services.  Allude to comfort and safety and keep your customers updated about how you're responding to the Covid-19 crisis and keeping them and your staff safe.  Customers will remember that you looked after everyone's best interests.

Focus on increasing the number of website conversions

Check your analytics to see if your accounting practice website has any conversion pain-points.  Also see if you're making good use of your case studies, recommendations, and customer reviews. In times of crisis, trust is king - answer the question of whether your accounting practice website supports your professional credibility and expertise.

Measure and test your marketing performance

If you don't measure, you don't manage. If you don't manage, you lose money. Define and measure your marketing key performance indicators (KPIs): sales, the number of generated leads, upsells, etc. Check your Google Analytics configuration, connect Google Search Console, measure ROI in social media.  Don't forget to test, and be fast and ruthless. This is why A/B testing exists so you can easily judge if something works or not.

If you have any questions or are interested in learning more about our accounting practice marketing services, reach out at hello@sparktribe.com.  Thank you for reading!