Content for accountants is always a tricky subject.
If you believe popular opinion, the world of accountancy is dry, dull and overly technical so it doesn’t bode well for generating winning content ideas.
The truth is that many business owners see accountancy and finance as necessary evils so producing something that is going to wow them is a must if you want to get traffic to your site.
So how do you come up with winning content? Read on for my 9 favourite types.
In this post;
- Content types Vs Content topics
- What to use the different types for
- How to generate topics
- Your job isn’t finished
Content types Vs Content topics
It’s important to understand that there are different types of content that you can put out there for your accountancy practice.
These shouldn’t be confused with the topic of your content.
There is a whole series of different types of content and they vary wildly. I’m also making myself a hostage of fortune here because new forms of content seem to appear daily.
After all, two years ago no one had heard of TikTok and now it’s in the top 30 web sites by visits in the world!
But anyway, let’s give it a go.
So typical types of content for accountants may include;
- Blogs
- White papers
- Reports
- Case studies
- Explainer videos
- Podcasts
- Infographics
- Surveys
- Calculators
Notice that there are things missing from this list.
So I wouldn’t suggest that doing a 20 second TikTok is going to be appropriate content for accountants as generally speaking the format is more light-hearted and doing a silly dance to the soundtrack of a 1970s soul/funk classic might not be giving out the impression you want.
Having said that if you are a young, funky go-ahead practice then why not? You won’t have much competition!
What to use the different types for
Each of the different types of content has a different use for an accountancy practice.
It’s important to know what you want to achieve from your work because this will inform the type of content you produce and how you use it for example;
Blogs
Blogs are great for fattening up your site, providing credibility and depth for better search engine rankings.
They work really well if you want to explore a small part of one subject in-depth but you don’t want to be writing 5,000 words on inheritance tax and then try to get people to sign up to a mailing list to view.
People often use blog posts as a way to signpost and direct people to weightier, hero content that they can ask for an email address for.
Want to know what Hero content is? Click the image below
White papers
White papers are longer than blogs and shorter than reports or eBooks.
They are designed as an in-depth discussion about one aspect of a particular subject and are particularly good for sending to existing clients to introduce services that they don’t currently use.
For example, a client may buy bookkeeping services from you but not know that you do company formations or tax planning.
Sending out a link to a new white paper that explains the important aspects of owner-manager tax planning is a great way to get them thinking about it and drives enquiries.
It’s also very shareable content and works well if you link to it from a LinkedIn post.
Reports and eBooks
Reports are a great way to build your credibility and your email list.
These are chunky pieces of work and they are particularly effective if you are using them as thought-leadership and original research pieces.
These are very definitely Hero content and are something that you need to be getting something in return for, in other words; emails, links, shares.
Hero content is worth spending some money on to publicise using post boost or PPC advertising because it will be chunky linkable content that will bring traffic into your practice site.
Yes it will cost more but it will be worth it as long as you use it right.
A really good example of an eBook is my guide to content marketing for accountants which you can download for free by clicking on the image below.
Case studies
Case studies are epic pieces of content that highlight one of your services and how it has made a real difference for a real-life client.
They massively add credibility to your site and in my opinion no accountancy practice website should be without them.
Personally, I reckon you should have a menu item dedicated to case studies.
They are also really useful to send to prospects that operate in the same industry or who is looking for the same services as the case study.
Explainer videos
Accountancy topics can be really complex and boring, we know that, but a great type of content for accountants is the explainer video, especially if you are able to confidently and clearly explain your topic.
Most accountants I know hate the idea of hearing their own voice and detest having their photo taken or appearing on video so if this is you don’t worry.
I’ve written lots of video scripts which we then either film with an actor or use a whiteboard video producer and a professional voiceover to make it ultra-professional.
Podcasts
Podcasts are a great way to attract potential customers or engage with your current clients.
You choose a simple topic that you can talk about for say 30 minutes and maybe invite a subject matter expert to informally discuss with you.
Typical topics might be how to do business post-Brexit or what MTD means for SMEs.
Infographics
Infographics are a great way to produce shareable content that can generate some epic links for your company.
A lot of my clients have had great success using an online app like Canva, but if you can’t be bothered to learn how then engage a designer on Upwork or People Per Hour and let them sort it out for you.
Surveys
If you have some original insight then that’s like gold dust in the world of content for accountants.
You don’t need to go overboard but doing a simple survey into a topical subject using something like Survey Monkey can give you some great shareable content for blog posts, white papers and infographics.
OK so in itself it may not be brilliant but the value in this for clients and prospects alike is the insight you bring to the table.
Calculators
Calculators are a superb way to climb the rankings and are actually a lot easier to develop than you think.
Simple calculators like an inheritance tax ready reckoner or a National Insurance calculator can help your clients and add real weight to your site.
How to generate content for accountants topics
Deciding what to write about can be the biggest obstacle to getting content for accountants out there.
What you are looking for here is not things that are interesting to you, but things that will be helpful to your target market.
Don’t get ambitious though. Choose depth over width in this respect.
What I mean here is that you are better to write everything there is to know about paying staff expenses for hotel stays rather than writing the ultimate guide to everything you ever need to know about staff expenses.
You can find a post I wrote about deciding your topics here
Your job isn’t finished
Once you have produced your content then your job isn’t finished.
If you leave it there then you probably won’t get any hits at all because nobody knows what you have done.
The best way to publicise content for accountants is to send a link out to your existing clients by email (assuming you have your GDPR ducks ina row). It won’t cost you anything and you can ask for links and shares too.
Post to your practice LinkedIn page, Twitter account and Facebook page and make sure you share it to any groups you are a member of.
The more socials it is on, the more likely it is to get traction and if you have spent money producing your content then why not invest a little more into some PPC and paid links to make sure it really gets out there?
Content for accountants – need some help?
Look if you are a busy accountant then you probably haven’t got time to start writing witty and urbane posts about SDLT so why not outsource the job?
I’m a professional finance writer and I can help you at an nth of the cost of doing it yourself.
Why not book an initial call and let’s have a chat?
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