One of the biggest mistakes accountants make when looking at marketing is not deciding who their target market is.
Often, when I ask people who they are targeting through a post they will tell me ‘everyone’.
The problem is that you end up with an unfocused and confusing message and when people are confused then they don’t call you.
Being an expert is a winner
I want you to imagine that you have a boiler in your office and it has gone ‘phut’!
You realise you need a plumber so you hit Google.
You find page 1, plumbers.
The problem is they all look the same.
Suppose there was a plumber near you
That’s a bit more interesting.
Suppose there was a plumber that called themselves ‘The office plumber’
More interesting?
Suppose there was a plumber that worked specifically for people like you – ‘The accountants’ plumber’.
This is, of course, a ridiculous example because I can’t imagine there is enough work out there for a plumber that just works with local accountants but it makes the point.
If you have a choice of two plumbers, one that works with everyone and one that works specifically and exclusively with people just like you who do you choose?
Focus is a winner
So having a clear focus for your marketing is a real winner for accountants.
Now I’m not saying that you change your practice totally just to do a bit of marketing but what I am saying is that you choose a section of society that you would most like to work with and then you design your content marketing specifically for them.
For example, let’s say you love inheritance tax planning.
You’d have a section on your website that is designed specifically to showcase this area of your talents (or ‘landing page’).
Then you write lots of content focusing on IT Planning.
And when you publicise and advertise this you direct people TO YOUR INHERITANCE TAX PAGE.
This page signposts to the content you have produced on the subject.
So to the people who have clicked on links or responded to emails the first thing they see on your site is that you are an inheritance tax planning expert.
Rinse and repeat
This is a simple formula and it works but most accountants don’t really want a practice that just does one thing.
The benefit of this approach is that it is a system.
This means it can be used again for different audiences.
So you may end up with several landing pages, each dedicated to different aspects of your business but each highly targeted to your market.
In this way you can use the learning and experience you have gained by doing 1 market and use this to target an entirely different market.
Need more information?
You can find more information about how content marketing can help accountancy practices to thrive by checking out my dedicated page here
Need more help?
I specialise in helping accountants with their content marketing
Drop me a line and we can have a chat about what you need and whether I can help