As the end of the tax year approaches, people are looking for accountants. Is your accounting firm making the most of that traffic with your content marketing? It may seem like an extra task on your to-do list, but content marketing can provide real benefits. It can even be fun!
This article will explore the benefits of content marketing for accountants, provide creative content marketing ideas, and share best practices for your content marketing strategy.
Benefits of content marketing for accountants
First of all, it’s crucial to understand what content marketing is. Put simply, content marketing is about creating informative, relevant content that matches the needs of your audience, often answering a question or providing them with valuable information.
Rather than simply promoting a business, its products, or services, content marketing delivers online material such as social media posts, videos, or blogs. This content is designed to pique the interest of potential or existing customers like Sage does with their Making Tax Digital software content. The aim is to provide helpful resources for customers looking to learn more about MTD, including short, engaging video clips and links to in-depth articles.
Screenshot taken from Sage.com
By doing this, Sage puts their services in front of an engaged audience when they’re most receptive. They also offer a way for undecided customers to get more information about functions like invoice management automation without leaving the Sage website.
So how is content marketing for accountants beneficial as part of their digital strategy?
Content marketing is cheaper than adverts
One of the biggest benefits of content marketing is that it’s often cheaper than traditional advertising methods. While running ads on television, radio, or print can be costly, creating and sharing content online is cost-effective.
This means that you can reach a larger audience without breaking the bank. In addition, many customers see content sharing via social media and other channels as less intrusive than traditional advertising.
Image Sourced from HubSpot.com
Content marketing increases brand visibility
By creating and sharing relevant, valuable content, you can increase the visibility of your accounting firm. When people see your content and find it helpful, they are more likely to share it with their own networks, which can help to expand your reach.
What’s more, search engines favor websites that produce fresh, high-quality content. So regularly creating content for your website increases your chances of ranking in search results. How your content ranks in search engine algorithms will be the main factor that determines your visibility.
Content marketing improves website traffic
Besides increasing your brand visibility, creating and sharing content can improve your web traffic. As we mentioned above, search engines tend to favor websites with high-quality content.
When people search for keywords related to your firm, they are more likely to find your website if you have strong search engine optimization (SEO).
Content marketing improves customer engagement
Content marketing provides a way for you to connect with your audience and establish your firm as a thought leader in your industry. When you share valuable, informative content, your audience is more likely to engage with your brand and feel more connected to it.
Content marketing builds authority
When you consistently create and share content that users want to read and other sites want to link back to, you can establish your accounting firm as a trusted authority in your industry.
If people see your firm as a go-to source for information and advice, they are more likely to turn to you for help with their own finances.
Fun content marketing ideas for accounting firms
Content marketing for accountants doesn’t have to mean writing white papers and producing how-to Excel videos. While those may be valuable, there are plenty of other creative ways you can create content for customers.
Utilize finfluencer content
One fun way to engage with your audience is to leverage the power of “finfluencers”. Simply put, these are financial influencers who have a large following on social media.
By partnering with a finfluencer, you can tap into their already established audience and reach a new group of potential clients.
Create financial podcasts
If you’d rather do the influencing yourself, podcasts are a great way to connect with your audience. In fact, 37% of respondents to a survey listened to a podcast in the past month. You can share valuable financial information in an engaging way with a topical show. Consider creating a financial podcast where you discuss trending topics and answer listener questions.
Image Sourced from Statista.com
Use images and video
Visual content is highly engaging and can be an exciting way of sharing information with your audience. 63% marketers say new and up-to-date video content generates the most engagement. Consider creating infographics, video tutorials, or other types of visual content to help break up long blocks of text and make your content more visually appealing.
Share financial advice
Another way to engage with your audience is to share financial advice and tips. Whether you create a regular blog post series, social media posts, or a newsletter, sharing financial advice can be an excellent way of establishing your firm as a trusted resource.
Take advantage of tax day
Tax day is an annual event that can be a great opportunity for your firm to engage with your audience and share relevant content. Plan your content schedule around events like these and maximize the traffic to your relevant content and services.
Best practices for your content marketing strategy
So you’re convinced that content marketing for accountants is incredibly valuable, but you don’t know where to start. Follow these five best practices to get your content marketing strategy up and running.
- Decide your main goal
As with most strategies, it’s important to decide on your main goal. Do you want to increase brand visibility? Improve website traffic? Improve customer engagement? Knowing your main goal will help you create focused, effective content.
- Define your target audience
To create content that resonates, you need to know who your target audience is. Consider factors such as age, location, interests, and financial needs to define your key demographics. This will help you create content tailored to your core audience.
- Perform a content audit
Before you start creating new content, it’s a good idea to review your existing content. Analyze the material on your website and social media channels to see what works and what doesn’t.
This will help you identify gaps in your content and tell you what your audience responds to best. Create more of the content your audience wants to see and try optimizing older content with keyword research, internal links, and so on.
- Determine what type of content you need
Once you’ve identified your main goal and target audience, the next step is to determine what type of content you need to create. Consider what types of content will be most effective in achieving your main goal and resonating with your target audience.
Keep in mind that while certain content like videos may be trending or work well for some accountants, they may not be the best fit for you or your audience.
- Map content to the customer journey
To create an effective content marketing strategy, it’s important to create content that addresses each stage of the customer journey, from awareness to consideration to decision.
By creating content that speaks to your audience at each stage, you can guide them toward becoming a customer. Sage does this with their self assessment software content.
Screenshot taken from Sage.com
They don’t just feature a page with a link to buy their software. Instead, on-page content explains everything from what a self-assessment tax return is to why software can help with invoice management automation.
The content is formatted to appeal to users in the initial stages of research and encourages them to move through the customer journey to a decision.
Conclusion
Content marketing can be fun, exciting, and inspiring if you approach it with the right mindset and develop an effective content marketing plan.
By leveraging the benefits of content marketing, such as increased brand visibility, website traffic, and customer engagement, you can create a successful content marketing strategy for your accounting firm.
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