As an accountant, your work focuses on numbers, and building your online presence is also a numbers game. In most larger cities, there are numerous bookkeepers, accountants, and CPAs available to provide their services to clients. Whether your target client is a wealthy investor or a business owner, it’s critical that they have an easy and efficient way to find your firm. In this online presence guide for accountants, we cover the steps and strategies you need to take to make it easy to be found among the competition, creating an opportunity for you to drive more leads to your website and your business in general.
What is Your Online Presence?
Let’s start here. An online presence is the creation of numerous ways in which clients and would-be clients can find you and the services you offer. Establishing an online presence is much more than just being listed in directories, having a LinkedIn profile, and a simple website. The goal is to build up the ways would-be clients can find you, opening the door for new leads to discover your firm and invest in it.
What does building an online presence for accountants look like then? There are several components to this process.
Your actions and roles
You build your online presence through the actions you take and the content you produce for your firm. Posting on social media, building up your accountant blog, and incorporating your LinkedIn content into your digital marketing strategy allows you to build your online presence. The actions you take as a business directly impact your presence.
The Internet
The second factor that contributes to your online presence is where you stand in regard to other accountants in your area. That includes where you rank in the search engines and how well your pages are found in the social media algorithms. Your online presence is accessible or inaccessible based on the strategies you put in place to boost your presence in these areas. That incorporates both social media marketing and search engine optimization strategies.
The public
The third portion of your online presence relates to how the public perceives your accountant practice. That is, it’s not just about the content you put up yourself but the reviews people leave about your business and the recommendations they make (or do not make) on social media. It also is how the public engages with you in this way as well.
Benefits of Having an Online Presence as an Accountant
Though accountants have long relied on word-of-mouth marketing and long-established relationships within various communities to meet their revenue goals, we live in a digital society today that demands an online presence by any firm hoping to grow, expand, and remain profitable. While that may seem like a chore, there are some outstanding benefits to share with you in this online presence guide for accountants you should consider.
- Get discovered more easily. Having an online presence means that all of the people who head online to search for an accountant in your area can find you.
- Be seen as a legitimate accounting firm. Without an online presence, your firm may seem inferior to others like it simply because clients expect established firms to have an easy-to-find website and social media presence.
- Promote your firm anytime. Whether you’re targeting that wealthy client who needs help balancing their books in the middle of the night or a large firm that only operates from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., having an always-on presence online means that they can find you no matter when they are looking.
- Save money to build your presence. Having an online presence means it’s easier for people to find you, and a component of that means you have to do less marketing and advertising to reach prospective new clients.
- Earn Google’s trust. Your online presence, including your business’s reviews, quality of content, and social media presence, helps Google determine the value of your accounting firm to searchers. The more they value and trust your site and content, the higher they will rank it in the search engines.
- Nurture client relationships. As an accountant, many of your client relationships last for years, but it can take prospective clients numerous interactions or “touchpoints” to get to know your company enough to make the decision to work with you. Having an easy-to-find online presence makes that easier to do.
An online presence for accountants makes it possible to establish, grow, and manage your firm in an effective manner. Without it, your company isn’t seen as accessible, experienced, or modern. That ends up costing you prospective leads and new clients.
How to Increase Your Online Presence
Accountants could have a website and LinkedIn presence and believe that’s enough. That’s rarely the case. Not only is it essential to have a presence, but you also need to be sure it’s consistently maintained. That means engaging in various digital marketing activities on a consistent basis to continue to build your presence.
There are numerous ways you can do this. Incorporating each (or most) of these methods creates numerous opportunities to connect with prospective leads and grow your accounting firm.
Your website
Your website is the foundation of your digital marketing presence. If you haven’t updated it in more than a couple of years, it’s likely no longer meeting Google’s quality standards and algorithm updates. To improve your online presence:
- Build a modern, attractive website that showcases your firm’s brand, professionalism, and ability to meet your clients’ needs and expectations.
- Optimize your website to meet all SEO best practices, including incorporating on-page content centered around local marketing strategies and target clients.
- Publish blogs on a consistent basis to provide helpful content and insightful, supportive data while also aiding in capturing valuable keywords in the search engines.
- Incorporate visually appealing content, like photos, videos, and infographics, that make your website interesting to visitors.
- Incorporate easy-to-understand and use call-to-actions throughout your website so people know exactly what they need to do to connect with you.
Your social media
Accountant social media is core to creating opportunities to engage with your prospective clients and build strong relationships with them. Social media campaigns are meant to build your presence online but also to create opportunities to establish your firm as a leader in the industry. To achieve this:
- Be active on social media consistently, creating visually interesting posts that get people to pause, read, and engage with you. Consistency is key to making your presence known in the algorithm.
- Maintain consistency in engagement. Choose to build a presence on each of the platforms your clients are on – especially Facebook and LinkedIn, as an accountant. However, don’t establish so many channels that you cannot effectively manage them in a realistic manner.
- Show up for your audience. Provide valuable content and insights, including sharing educational content, value-added insights, opportunities to save or make money, and tools that benefit your clients. Don’t focus just on getting flowers or selling – offer value.
- Be authentic. Everything you write, share, and post should be in line with your brand goals. Ensure that people can recognize your brand every time they see your posts.
- Optimize your social media. You should incorporate SEO best practices into your social media processes, including using keywords to reach your desired target clients.
Your directory listings
Your next step is to be easy to find when someone performs a simple search. They should be able to easily find all of your contact information on directory listings for accountants. Some of the most important ways to achieve this include:
- Claim your business on all directory platforms. That should include Google, Yelp, Facebook, Bing, and any accountant-specific directories.
- Complete your listings with accurate information. These listings should have the same name, contact information, keyword inclusion, and other details within them. Matching helps Google to align each of these touchpoints with your business.
- Manage reviews. It’s always a good idea to proactively monitor your client reviews and business objectives. If you see a negative review, the way you interact and respond to it will ultimately influence the opinions of your firm.
- Maintain your listings. Be sure that all of your listings on direct sites clearly are updated routinely. Answer questions and create special offers.
Your online advertising
Your online advertising is a valuable form of connecting with clients. Work with a team to create a cohesive digital marketing strategy that allows for cost-effective, high-ROI advertising. Do this by using:
- Search ads
- Social ads
- Display ads
- Retargeting ads
Your email marketing
Once someone comes to your site and interacts with your accounting firm, it’s time to stay top-of-mind. To do that, use email marketing. Get into their email inbox in several ways:
- Provide firm updates when you have them
- Offer new packages for new clients
- Provide insight and helpful content when tax laws or other factors impact your clients
Each of these steps allows you to build out your online presence, and every one of these steps is another rung in the ladder you need to climb to build your firm.
Attend a Surefire Local Marketing Platform Demo for Help
Here’s the bottom line. Accountants need to be present online to reach their clients. Creating an online presence is essential but time-consuming for a busy professional. We can help you.
With our business intelligence marketing software, we can help you handle virtually all of these tasks at a fraction of the cost the others charge. Set up a demo now to learn more about why having our online marketing tools all on one platform can change the way you build your presence.