March 23, 2023

How to Create a Marketing Plan for Accounting Firms

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Running a competent and respected accounting firm is one thing, but accumulating the work you need to thrive is another challenge entirely. In the EU alone, there are over 1.2 million legal and accounting firms in operation, so maintaining your marketing operations is critical to ensure your services don’t get lost in the local or international markets. 

But how do you keep pace with your marketing plan in a rapidly changing landscape? In this article, we’re going to explore some of the essential channels that will formulate the start of your marketing plan, and help bring your traditional efforts into a digital world.

Digital marketing and accounting

Bringing your marketing plan into the digital ecosystem is essential, and it all starts with a website. 

If you haven’t started building a website, or if you’re looking to create a new one, consider which Content Management System (CMS) you’re going to use. A CMS is the foundation on which your website is built, transforming complex coding into easy to use interfaces like data entry, or drag-and-drop web design. There are many popular CMS platforms that you can use for your website creation that offer step-by-step guides, web templates and tick box exercises to make sure that you are including all the necessary information. The most popular CMS on the market is WordPress, which facilitates over 39% of all websites across the web, while there are others that excel in user-friendliness and all-in-one CRM systems, like HubSpot, Wix, or SquareSpace.

Reaching audiences with SEO and content marketing

Now you’ve got your website to where you want it to be, it’s time to start adding some value to it through great content. Your accounting firm should aim to make conversation in the space through regularly posted content like articles, reports, whitepapers, and more. 

There’s another reason that keeping on top of your content marketing is important in the digital world, and that is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Keeping on top of relevant trends and topics and posting content solidifies your domain authority, and keeps your business higher in the search engine results page (SERP). 

To put it simply, if a new customer was to search ‘bookkeeping tips for accountancy firms’ into the Google search bar, the higher you are in the results page, the more chance that new customer has of seeing your page, and clicking through to your site.

The more quality content around that particular topic or keyword that you release, the higher up the SERP you will appear – the traffic generated from those clicks is called ‘organic traffic’. 

There are ways to track the rankings, search volumes of the keywords and phrases that you are targeting and more through SEO tools like Semrush.

Targeted Paid Advertising

Targeted advertising takes many forms online. Essentially, the concept is paying for your advertising to appear in front of parties or prospective customers, on independent channels, that meet your targeting criteria. While expensive, targeting paid advertising is often considered the most effective way of building traffic, leads, and even sales or conversions – when it is executed correctly. 

Finding out where you should be paying for targeted advertising is the first step to implementing it as a sole, or complementary tactic alongside your content marketing. The three most common areas for targeted advertising include: 

Pay-per-click (PPC)

PPC advertising, most commonly associated with Google, involves bidding on keywords or phrases that customers are likely to be searching for through the search engine. If you are allocating enough budget to your search terms, you are guaranteed to appear at the top of the SERP, in the most probable location to gain traffic from your audience.

Social Media

Paid advertising takes many forms through social media, through boosted boats, to sponsored ads, and more. Depending on the channel you’re looking to advertise on, you can target certain audience demographic criteria, to make sure your content appears in front of the right people, at the right time. 

Programmatic advertising

Similar to traditional advertising, programmatic advertising is the method of buying media space across the web on related websites or areas. Often designed and implemented by agencies, programmatic advertising prioritises billboard-type adds that have a far reaching effect.

Developing a Digital Marketing Plan

Establishing your web presence and drawing traffic through content marketing and targeted paid advertising is a delicate balancing act that you will perfect through testing and learning. Just remember, that reaching everyone is not always the best course of action – reaching smaller amounts of a quality audience is often much more profitable.

Join INAA to network with accounting experts worldwide

Want to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and topics for your accounting marketing? The International Association of Independent Accounting firms (INAA) launched 25 years ago to promote international trade.

To make global business personal and to take personal business global, we connect accounting firms that strive to provide quality professional services. Our cooperative association of foreign companies is dedicated to participating in global accounting and sustainability discussions.

Join now to begin forming effective business connections.

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