8 Actionable Digital Strategies to Grow Your Accounting Firm this Year

1. Optimize Your Firm’s Website

Your digital strategy should start at home – your firm’s website. Is it optimized and SEO-friendly? Does it have a clear, strong call to action (CTA)?

There’s a good chance that your website could be better optimized to ensure that search engines and visitors know exactly what you’re offering and who you are as a firm.

Along with the usual optimization efforts, consider adding a chatbot to your site. Chatbots can answer questions and capture leads who aren’t quite ready to make an appointment with your firm.

2. Add Content Marketing into the Mix

Leverage the power of content marketing to:

• Educate and inform your audience
• Build brand awareness
• Generate new leads
• Establish credibility and authority
• Build trust

A diverse content marketing strategy can help you reach more of your audience and better engage with your ideal clients.

In addition to blogging, your content marketing strategy can also include podcasts, social media, video marketing, infographics and more.

3. Be More Active on Social Media

More than 3 billion people are active on social media. As daunting as it may seem, social is just something your firm cannot ignore if you want to grow your client base and brand.

Being active on social media means:

• Creating and posting social media content.
• Engaging and connecting with your ideal clients. Start conversations, answer questions and establish yourself as a credible advisor and firm.

You don’t necessarily have to be on every platform. When trying to dephicer what platform or platforms to focus on, consider these questions?

• Where does your audience spends most of their time? Maybe it’s Facebook and LinkedIn, or maybe it’s just Twitter. Focus on the platforms that matter most to your ideal clients.
• Which platforms support your content preferences? For example, if you’re not a fan of video content, maybe you avoid YouTube. If you prefer text posts, Twitter or Facebook may be your ideal platforms.

Figure out which platforms will work best for your firm and your audience, and make an effort to be more active on them.

4. Claim Your Google Business Profile

Have you claimed your Google Business Profile yet? If not, it’s time to get started.

There are two ways to find your Business Profile:

• Visit http://business.google.com/add, and search for your business by entering your firm’s name and address.
• Search for your business on Google Maps or Search, and click the link to “Claim this business.”

If you can’t find your business, you can create a new profile.

A Google Business Profile will allow you to rank in the local search results and be seen by your local audience. It also allows you to collect Google Reviews.

5. Get More Google Reviews

If you’re not making an active effort to collect Google reviews, you should be. Research has shown that 91% of people read online reviews and 84% trust these reviews as much as a trusted recommendation.

Reviews help build trust and credibility. If your firm has zero reviews on Google, prospects and leads may question whether you have any clients at all, and if you do, why they aren’t raving about your service.

Make a conscious effort to get more reviews on Google this year.

• Ask clients to leave a review if they are happy with your service.
• Ask for reviews in your newsletters.
• Link to your Google reviews on your testimonials page.
• Display reviews from existing clients in your newsletters and marketing materials.

Through your Google Business Profile, you can create a special link that visitors can use to quickly and easily add a review on Google.

Make it as easy as possible for clients to add reviews, and you’ll have a much easier time getting them.

6. Collaborate with Industry Leaders

Collaborating with the right people can help you build your brand and establish authority.

Entrepreneur Russell Brunson’s Dream 100 concept really illustrates the power of collaboration. The idea is to partner or collaborate with 100 leaders who share your audience but aren’t competitors. For example, the host of a business growth-related podcast may be interested in collaborating with your firm to educate their audience on tax planning or preparation.

Your firm can also collaborate with masterminds, platform owners, and other influencers or leaders who have access to your audience.

Find opportunities where you can serve as the expert guest and speak to your audience directly. You’ll establish credibility and start building trust while (hopefully) generating prospects.

7. Join the Conversation

Where does your audience spend their time? There’s a good chance that they’re on forums and Facebook groups asking questions and looking for advice. These are valuable opportunities for you to:

• Engage with your audience
• Answer questions
• Demonstrate your expertise
• Build credibility

Find forum threads and Facebook groups where you can contribute to and add value to the conversation.

8. Leverage Marketing Automation

Marketing automation will save you time and money while helping your firm grow. The right tools can help you capture and nurture leads and retain clients.

It’s difficult to generate and nurture leads manually while providing your existing clients the high level of service they expect and deserve. With marketing automation, you can build a robust system that ensures no leads ever slip through the cracks. Best of all, these tools do all of the work for you, so you can focus on more important things.

To grow your client base, consider using automation to:

• Follow up with prospects and leads
• Nurture your leads
• Book appointments
• Send appointment reminders
• Keep in touch with clients

You have a lot on your plate. Automation ensures that you follow up with prospects and leads in a timely manner and that existing clients feel valued.

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Katie Thomas, CPA is the owner of Leaders Online, where they help professionals in the accounting industry increase their impact, influence, and income through thought leadership marketing. If you need help with your marketing system, feel free to reach out to her.