CPA Firm Marketing Strategies to Consider Adding to Your Marketing Plan

An updated accounting firm marketing plan can help you attract new leads and close deals fast. There are many ways to refresh your approach, including adding personalized content, optimizing your website, understanding your data, and more. But where do you start? Here are five marketing strategies to consider adding to your accounting firm’s marketing plan.
1. Personalize Your Content
Personalization is required in today’s marketing strategy for accounting firms. The client journey is different for everyone, yet they all want to feel like a person, not just another number. Thankfully, with today’s technology, accounting marketers can meet potential customers where, when, and how they want to be met with the right information. Here are three ways you can include personalization in your CPA firm’s marketing strategy:
Buyer Personas
If your accounting firm marketing plan does not include buyer personas, it’s time to create them now. Develop a few different types of customers you experience, including their demographics, interests, and behavioral details. Use this knowledge to send personalized messaging or targeted ads to each group.
When people talk about email personalization, they generally think of adding a contact’s name to the subject line or email copy. While this is important, it also means delivering the right content at the right time. Use automation to deliver relevant content to individuals when they need it, making the customer journey a truly unique experience.
In addition, be sure to segment your email lists. Gone are the days of mass email sends. Use your buyer personas and client knowledge to deliver content only to the people it relates to. In turn, this will help lower your unsubscribe rates and improve your email sending reputation.
Website
Some platforms, such as HubSpot, offer you the ability to tailor your website content to different visitors. Not only can you personalize a page by adding the visitor’s first name or company name, but you can also serve up content they want to see. With A/B testing, you can create different versions of a single web page, test their performance, and ultimately use the one your website visitors prefer.
2. Focus on the “Page Experience”
In 2021, Google announced an algorithm update that forced marketers to focus on improving the page experience. Essentially, Google started ranking pages higher based on factors such as fast loading time, mobile responsiveness, and page stability. While many website platforms, themes, or plugins are designed to automatically optimize these features, other issues may need manual updates.
Accounting firms can use Google Search Console to check their core web vitals and fix any issues causing poor site performance. Some changes require more technical expertise than others, so be sure to enlist the help of your website developer when making edits.
3. Utilize Data Analytics
Data and analytics help your accounting firm harness key insights and summarize critical information through simple visuals. This allows your leaders to make more informed, strategic business decisions.
Great data analytics tools you can start using today include Google Analytics (free) and Power BI (free & paid). While both will require a bit of training to fully optimize the platform, they are fairly straightforward to use and can provide a wide depth of knowledge.
The key with analytics is to keep it simple and clean. Meaning, don’t add an excessive number of data points to any one dashboard as it causes information overload. In addition, make sure you are keeping your data clean and up to date to prevent false reporting.
4. Add Video
Video continues to play a prominent role in today’s marketing strategy. In fact, according to a recent study, marketers who use video increased their revenue by 49% compared to those who did not. Also, Google has been including video in search results more and more.
There are endless ways to incorporate video into your marketing strategy, including highlighting your service lines, webinar recordings, video blogs, and more. The important thing is to see where video fits into your marketing strategy, test your content, and learn what resonates with your audience.
5. Start a Podcast
Podcasts began to catch on in the early 2000s and have since grown to become a significant source of content for businesses and individuals. These days, having a podcast is almost as common as having a social media presence. However, they aren’t for everyone, so don’t start one just because someone else is doing it. Again, take a deeper look at who your target audience is, what their interests are, and where they are seeking their information. If the shoe fits, starting a podcast could be a great avenue for brand awareness!
Build an Accounting Firm Marketing Plan That Wins
It’s time to level up your marketing game. At the end of the day, you want to be sure your clients have the best experience with your brand, and it usually starts with marketing. Refresh your approach by adding a few of the strategies listed above to help you reach new marketing heights. Learn more about related topics by visiting our blog.
About Brooke Sorensen
Brooke Sorensen is the Digital Marketing Specialist at Lutz in Omaha, NE.
Welcome to CPA Growth Trends — your source for information, insights, tools and best practices to drive growth within an accounting firm.
What a Business Development Executive Does
with Danielle Reynolds, Business Development, Manager with Whitley Penn
A business developer’s day involves a myriad of activities from external meetings with business owners and referral partners to scoping calls for initial client connections.