For Accountants Archives |

May 11, 2021May 11, 2021

Content for accountants – 9 great ideas for winning posts

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.

free guide to content marketing for accountants — Get your new Accountants Guide to Content Marketing – for free!

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?

If you have enjoyed this post then why not share it?

May 6, 2021May 6, 2021

6 reasons your blog post is not working

So your blog post is not working – what can you do?

One of the biggest mistakes people make when they start blogging is to think that all they need to do is write it, post it and then watch the hits roll in.

But that rarely (if ever) happens.

Actually if you are like most people your blog post will simply sit there in some kind of electronic limbo, waiting to be discovered.

So why does is this?

Well here are my top six reasons why your blog post is not working.

The TLDR version:

You haven’t told anyone
Your blog doesn’t match the title
You haven’t got any incoming links
You haven’t got any outgoing links
Your topic isn’t useful
Technical difficulties

You haven’t told anyone

So this is the biggest reason why nobody has read your post and the easiest to solve.

You just haven’t told anyone.

If you have a customer/client list then send out a link to your blog.

If you have social media accounts for your firm then make sure you put out some posts publicising your article.

Just don’t hide your light under a bushel, as the saying goes.

Your blog doesn’t match the title

Search engines have got smart over the last few years and your blog post is unlikely to get a high Search Engine Results Page (SERPs) ranking if your blog title doesn’t match what you are actually talking about.

Your typical search engine looks at the title, then checks for Latent Semantic phrasing to see if it matches.

For example, if you write a blog post called ‘5 ways you can save inheritance tax’ and you don’t mention tax, inheritance or death once in the body of the article then you’ll have a problem.

See this post about LSI here.

You haven’t got any incoming links

Incoming links are the lifeblood of a good blog so getting these from reputable sites is incredibly useful.

Links from customer sites are good but what you really want are links from sites that have a high Domain Authority. You can check DA on Ahrefs

Get five or ten links from sites with DA of over 50 and you’ll soon see your search placement rise and with it, your hits.

You haven’t got any outgoing links

So here’s a thing – the search engines want to know that your post is useful and relevant for the people that find it.

One of the ways that it does this is to look to see if you pass on any authoritative links to your readers.

Thinking about inheritance tax again, links to the .gov site has a DA of 93 and is very relevant to the subject in hand.

Your topic isn’t useful

It’s important to make sure you are writing about useful subjects.

It’s all very interesting to write about what you had for dinner but if you run an accountancy practice then it’s not massively relevant or useful to your readers.

Think about the sort of questions your clients ask regularly and write about those or check out questions on Answer the Public.

Technical difficulties

It’s easy to put off readers (and the search engines) by having a page that doesn’t render well or loads slowly.

You could also have technical issues that cause your blog post to be invisible to the search engines.

Make sure your site is working properly and your images are resized to be as small as possible whilst still looking good.

A blog isn’t of any use if nobody ready it

It can be the most dispiriting thing if you spend time and effort writing a blog post and yet it doesn’t get seen.

The answer is a combination of technical, SEO and content items that give you a post that will get read, shared and promoted up the SERPs.

But one final thought – don’t worry if your first post gets no readers at all. Blogging is a skill like any other that needs practice and I’m sure with a bit of time you’ll be getting readers and shares with the best of them.

April 23, 2021April 23, 2021

Does content marketing work for accountants?

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels

What’s the truth about content marketing? Does it really work for accountants?

You can spend a fortune on content marketing and it is easy to get swayed by the bold claims that marketers make (after all they are in marketing!).

But if you spend your money will you get bang for your buck or is there a better way to bring in new clients?

In this post, I am looking at the real-world issues with content marketing and at the end, I promise I’ll give you my opinion (it might not be what you think).

In this post:

What is content marketing?
Why accountants?
The problems with content marketing
Why you may not get the return you expect from your content marketing
Doing content marketing right
The ROI of content marketing for accountants
Opinion: does content marketing work for accountants?

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is the process of providing things of value for potential customers in the expectation that they will love you and buy your services.

Content can include;

Blogs
eBooks
White papers
Video explainers
How-to guides
Infographics
Podcasts and webinars

Most of the stuff is given away for free but some may require an email address if you are trying to build a list (and you should be).

Why accountants?

Because getting clients for accountants is all about two things;

Showing them that you know what you are talking about and;
Showing them that you are their kind of person

And content marketing is ideal in this respect as it is the perfect way to build your credibility by writing authoritatively about a particular subject.

If you produce podcasts, webinars or videos then people will also get to see your personality and winning charm.

I can guarantee that whatever method your potential clients use to find out about you, they check out your website before they call or email.

Be fair, you do it yourself.

The problems with content marketing

Content marketing isn’t rocket surgery or brain science and I’d argue that anyone can do it, even us accountants.

There’s one massive problem with content marketing for accountants though and some little ones too.

The massive problem is that it takes time and effort and if I know accountants (and I do) they are invariably very busy and time-poor.

Who has time to sit down and write 1000 words on IR35 or record a video about super deductions for capital expenditure? ( I have a cure for this).

One little problem is knowing what you should write about. You can get someone to work this out for you or you can check out my post on the subject here.

Another problem is that you need to have a website with blogging capabilities. Most forms of Content Management Systems (CMS or a posh word for WordPress) have this and sometimes it’s just a case of turning it on.

Why you may not get the return you expect from your content marketing

Many people end up being really disappointed with the return they get from their content marketing and the reason for this isn’t hard to see.

Often people write a post and then publish it to their website and then wait.

and wait

It’s a bit like going to a networking event and sitting in your car the whole time, wondering why people aren’t talking to you.

You see most people don’t bother to publicise their posts which means that people don’t find out about them which in turn means that people don’t read them.

Typically they get into the cycle of despair and their blog withers on the vine, they stop doing videos and then they believe that content marketing doesn’t work.

Bummer.

Want to find out what the cycle of despair is? Click on the image and download my free accountant’s guide to content marketing

But content marketing does work… if you do it right.

Doing content marketing right

There is a simple step by step process for doing content marketing right.

Understand what questions your customers are asking (try using Answer the public)
Work out how you will answer them (blogs, videos etc.)
Work out how you’ll develop hero content (see this post)
Get a list building form sorted out
Work out your keywords based on your subjects
Set up a content plan
Write your content
Publish and then put out publicity posts on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and anywhere else
Tell your clients
Rinse and repeat

Number 10 is really important because just doing one post won’t do anything. Putting out 10 posts is great but putting out 100 is epic.

BTW don’t do 100 posts all at the same time. Do them one a week for two years and watch what happens.

The ROI of content marketing for accountants

The good news is that for most accountants you only need to bring in one or two good clients to make your content marketing worthwhile.

You’ll already know the value of a client so if each client is worth say £2000k per year you probably only need to bring in 2 strong leads to make your entire year’s worth of content worthwhile.

But remember, the more you do, the better it works.

One post won’t earn you anything.

Opinion: does content marketing work for accountants?

No it doesn’t.

Shocked that a content marketer should say that?

Of course you are, because the world is full of lying liars who constantly tell lies and when someone tells you the truth it’s like getting a bucket of frozen eels down the back of your shirt.

But let me explain.

Content marketing doesn’t work for accountants because most accountants don’t work their content marketing.

They don’t focus on a tight target market.

They don’t work out a content plan.

They don’t work the plan.

And they don’t tell people what they have written.

So it fails miserably.

But there’s some really good news here – they are your competition.

Which means that you have a really good opportunity to set yourself apart and do it properly.

So content marketing can work, you just have to pick that low-hanging fruit off the tree.

Need help?

Dude – would you expect someone to be able to reconcile a bank account when they’ve had no training whatsoever?

Of course you wouldn’t.

So give yourself a break, let’s have a chat and let me show you how I can help.

Book a call now

Book a call

Contact me

September 4, 2020March 24, 2021

5 items of content marketing that every accountant must use

Two accountants content marketing discussion

For go-ahead accountants content marketing is the way to go.

If you are looking to grow your practice, or if you just want to make sure your current clients are more engaged and understand all the services that you offer, then you need to be producing content.

And there are some bits of content that are absolutely essential for your content marketing.

So here’s my list of the top 5 things you need to be doing to make sure your accountancy firm stays ahead of the game with its marketing.

#1 – Blog posts

You have got a blog haven’t you?

This the absolute number 1 thing you need.

Firstly it shows your clients that you are an up to date, current practice rather than a firm that put a website up just because it was the done thing.

Make sure you are producing useful stuff though, and make sure its relevant to your focused target market.

And if you don’t have the time then pay me to do it.

Yellow tomato - content advice for accountants — Find out why choosing your focus is so important here

#2 – Technical updates

OK so I’m not talking about technical updates in the way that you or I understand them.

What I am talking about is a digest of a technical development but presented in an easy to understand format.

The aim here is to inform your clients about changes like MTD, IR35 or RTI but in a way that makes is accessible for them.

Essentially you are saying “here’s a problem, here’s how we can solve it for you.”

#3 – Videos

OK so I know you don’t like to see yourself on the screen and you hate the sound of your own voice but 82% of Twitter users for instance consume video content.

But don’t worry. It’s perfectly acceptable to employ an actor to voice or present your videos and they can be surprisingly cheap.

You can also use things like Powtoon to produce an animated video that doesn’t even need to feature you as a talking head.

#4 – Webinars

Remember that you aren’t really selling anything on your site, as a professional what you are looking to do is to increase your credibility in the mind of the client.

Webinars on specific subjects of interest to your clients are a great way to do this.

Look at linking up with other professionals who may have more experience and pool your resources and this can be a very cheap way of driving traffic.

Just make sure you record it so that users can watch it later on.

#5 – Expert reports, white papers or eBooks

One of the first questions that academics get asked when they are looking for a job is “what have you published”.

It’s a way of potential employers understanding how much of an expert the professor or researcher actually is.

So that’s my question for you – “what have you published”?

Producing a meaty piece of content that explores a subject in depth and cements your reputation as a subject matter expert is perfect.

It’s also great for using in an advertising or link building campaign.

Use content marketing for your accountants to grow your firm

Content marketing has a great ROI and done properly it can be long lived and very cost effective.

There are tens, maybe hundreds of types of content marketing that accountants can use but you MUST have these five.

Admittedly this takes time and may need a bit of expert advice and that’s where I come in.

call now or drop me a message and let’s talk about how I can help you boost your practice marketing.

Contact Stuart Now

Let’s have a chat about your content marketing needs or motorbikes

August 10, 2020August 24, 2020

‘I hate accountants’ – common complaints and what you can do about them

A couple of months ago I decided to run a survey.

I wanted to know what people thought about accountants and I have to say I was a little bit shocked (but not massively surprised) by the results.

So I thought I’d write up some of the results in a way that will hopefully help people in practice avoid the sort of mistakes that cause people grief.

They never reply

This was a really interesting response and a common complaint.

Clients were complaining that their practice never got back to them. A simple matter of a lack of communication.

OK so we all get busy and we all have those clients who are a little bit needy but really?

The most surprising aspect of this was a number of complaints from people who said that they were looking for an accountant but their chosen practice never replied to their emails or calls!

Imagine all that time, effort and money spent on marketing and you don’t even respond to leads.

Two solutions here, first have a designated person who always fields calls from existing clients and make it a KPI that they have to be spoken to within x number of hours.

Second, for potential clients, invest some time in setting up a standardised contact procedure so that when someone mails or fills in your contact form they instantly go into a process that will email them back and get more information.

They cost too much

This was another common gripe although interestingly more than one person said that they didn’t really understand the value that was added and so couldn’t say whether it was expensive or not.

The problem here is that people don’t realise the bad things that could happen as a result of not bothering with a great accountant or of having a bad one.

The solution? Simple, communication once again.

Make sure you emphasise the tax you have saved people, the volume of work they have had, and the potential fines and penalties you have avoided.

More importantly though, if you have been providing business advice then highlight the value you have added to their company and what a bargain your fees have been.

They don’t speak my language

This is not confined to accountants, believe me!

This applies to any technical profession where there is the potential for jargon and complex concepts.

The solution is really more about the way that you communicate.

Some people are great with numbers, some not so. This means that you need to get to know your client and understand what level of detail they want, what terminology they are happy with and to an extent help to educate them a little where this is required.

They are arrogant

This is a difficult one and comes down to personal relationships and perception.

One man’s arrogant is another’s calm and confident.

A lot of the perception of arrogance comes from the fact that accountancy is a serious business and we have to act with a certain level of professionalism.

Most of the accountants I know aren’t arrogant at all, but then I would say that wouldn’t I given that I am a member of the profession myself?

The solution?

Don’t be afraid to get to know your clients. Have a chat about things other than numbers. The more you get to know them ( and they you) the less likely it is that a negative perception will arise.

One of the best accountants (and nicest guys) I ever knew often got described as arrogant.

However, his view was that he didn’t like to tell people about himself because he thought it sounded like bragging when actually it was just relationship building.

Don’t be afraid to tell people a little about yourself, it’s not a failure if you let people know you are a skydiver or like to paint watercolours.

They are slow

I was surprised to see that a lot of people didn’t like the speed with which their practice worked.

Now I’m going to seperate this out a little.

It is true to say that older, more traditional practices can be very slow in the way that they approach things.

But it was surprising that people complained about the speed of work with some of the more efficient practices.

It was almost as though they thought that the business of putting together a set of accounts or completing a tax comp was just a five-minute job.

Now I don’t want to sound arrogant here (see above) but this is often a matter of educating people as to what is involved in the work you are doing.

Letting your clients know that you will be doing the bookkeeping, producing the stats and going through a full quality control process helps people to understand why it takes so long and to an extent will also ameliorate the cost issue above.

It’s also helpful to have an FAQ section on your website and produce regular blogs that give people an insight into the life of a firm, especially around self-assessment time!

They won’t do what I want

This is a perennial problem that appears in pretty much every accountant’s forum that I have ever visited.

The client wants you to do something and for whatever reason, you can’t.

Maybe it would distort the true picture, maybe you just can’t achieve what they want, or maybe it is even downright illegal, but whatever the reason you need to be able to communicate this effectively.

I had a potential client come to me where they’d asked their current accountant to do something and he had just said “no”.

No explanation, no preamble, just “no”.

You can imagine how frustrated they were and yet when I explained that the thing they wanted to do was against VAT law they were perfectly happy.

It’s all about communication

The interesting thing for me was that the vast majority of problems that people had with their accountants were really just miscommunication.

I’ll be honest, this is where we as a profession do tend to let ourselves down a bit.

There is a simple solution though.

Invest in some training.

Often called ‘soft-skills’ or ’emotional intelligence’ the training is just a way of helping you to improve your listening and communication skills.

Sometimes the courses can be found for free with different organisations and sometimes you can find webinars, blogs and videos from coaches that will help.

That having been said, if you spend some money getting a trainer in to your practice for a day it will be money well spent because you’ll find that your conversion rate from lead to onboarding increases and your retention rate will be improved.

At the average rate for a good communication skills trainer you probably only need to retain a couple of clients to make it more than pay for itself.

And as a final piece of advice – distribute a newsletter.

You don’t have to write it, I can do that, all you need to do is to think up some interesting topics that will help your clients. You’ll be surprised what a difference it makes.

If you need help with marketing your practice then get in touch. I can give you a plan, write the content and help you analyse the results.

I admit that not everyone loves writing as much as me so if you’d like someone to take the pain away then why not drop me a line?

Contact Stuart Now

Let’s have a chat about your content marketing needs or motorbikes

July 17, 2020March 24, 2021

Do keywords matter when you are copywriting for accountants?

This is a question that pops up from time to time as I’m regularly asked if I will put some keywords into the copywriting for accountants that I do.

The problem is of course that the answer is that ‘it depends’.

So in this post, I thought I’d explore this in more detail and look at the whole issue of keywords.

Getting accountancy clients isn’t physical sales.

To my mind, the debate has been taken over by physical sales marketing, in other words, the use of keywords and phrases is all about a transactional relationship with the client.

The problem is that this is rarely the way to sell accountancy services as they rely on the build-up of trust between the client and the firm.

So simply packing blog posts with keywords is probably going to do more harm than good, especially in the eyes of Google.

So keywords are no good then?

Nah, that ‘s not what I said.

Keywords are fine for pointing people at the valuable content you have on offer.

They are a way of telling Google what is on your site but I’d argue that once the visitor is on the site it is much more about building a level of trust.

And the truth is that for trust based services like accountancy, people generally don’t buy because they saw you at the top of the search engine results pages.

I’d also say that marketing for clients works much better when it is away from the Google search pages and done on an individual basis.

In short, I think that when you are commissioning copy for an accountancy practice you are better off looking at the meat of the copywriting rather than the fluff of keywords. Treat them as a ‘nice to have’.

Copywriting for accountants – what’s the use?

Well it’s all about credibility.

Look at it this way, imagine you were wanting to find a good practice near you that was up to date and had their finger on the pulse.

You go to a website and find that the last blog post was written in 2014 and was about tax rates.

You’re pretty certain that the tax regime has changed since then (it has) so you are suddenly mistrustful of the site and it puts you off.

So you go and look at another site and you find that they have a wealth of posts about different areas of their practice.

You even find out something that you didn’t know.

So you feel much more confident about the firm, the people and about contacting them for more information.

And this is the crucial difference between selling services and DVDs.

A great set of keywords will sell DVDs directly from the site.

A great set of keywords won’t sell your accounting services, but when people hit your site, poor quality content will certainly lose you the sale.

Want more information about digital marketing?

I’ve produced an in-depth guide that you can download for free by clicking here

Contact Stuart Now

Let’s have a chat about your content marketing needs or motorbikes

July 3, 2020March 24, 2021

Copywriting for accountants – what is LSI?

When you start to think about getting some copywriting for your accountants practice you may well come across the phrase ‘LSI’ and wonder what on earth it is.

Well wonder no more. This post will tell what it is and how to get it.

Latent Semantic Indexing – LSI

OK so let’s take a walk back in time to the dawn of the internet.

If you wanted to know something about paperclips then you’d probably type into Ask Jeeves and you’d get presented with a series of results based purely on the amount of times the pages mentioned ‘paperclip’ in their text.

The problem with this is that people can game the system and so by simply using the word paperclips a gazillion times on their pages they can rank highly.

This is where things get interesting

Fast forward a few years and Google decides to stop people playing the search engines and start presenting results based, in part, on LSI.

Cut to the chase – what is LSI?

So LSI means all the words that are likely to exist around the word or phrase you are looking for in normal speech.

So for example, let’s imagine you are looking for information about paperclips.

Take two sites, one is a Will making site and one is a Paperclip supplier site.

The Will making site may have a phrase “don’t paperclip things to your original Will because they may go missing”.

Whilst the paperclip site may have a phrase “Paperclips are usually made from mild steel and plastic and are often sold in paper or carboard boxes.”

So the LSI for paperclips would be words like ‘Steel’, Plastic, ‘Cardboard’, ‘Paper’.

You wouldn’t expect these words to turn up on the Will making site.

But if you were looking for Wills then you’d expect things like ‘Testament’, ‘original’,’document’ etc.

So Google knows that one site is about paperclips because it says paperclips and because it has the words around it that make it more likely.

So how do you find your own LSI keywords?

One of the easiest ways to discover what your LSIs are is to do a Google search on your keywords.

Then just scan down the results and make a note of the words that keep appearing in the little snippets of the site.

Assess each word or phrase for whether you would naturally expect it to turn up next to your keywords.

Voila!

You have a list of LSI keywords.

Contact Stuart Now

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June 26, 2020March 24, 2021

From copywriting to SEO – the steps you need to set up an accountancy website

Copywriting, domains,hosting, building an accountancy website can be confusing.

If you are brand new to digital marketing then there are an array of terms that you need to get to understand.

Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a guide for what to do and when, until now.

This is that quick guide. The steps you need to get your accountancy website up and running.

Step 1 Choose your domain name.

Imagine this like the plot to build your house on. You can’t build your house until you have a plot of land and your domain is like the house.

Domains have a name and a suffix, sometimes called a level.

For example, a .com domain is a top-level, whereas with a .co.uk domain the .co is the top level and the .uk is the second level.

There are all sorts of different types with .com being an almost universal signifier generally denoting US based businesses.

You can go for a country (like .co.uk) or you can go for an industry type suffix like .biz, .photo, or .online

Step 2 Sort out a host

To use an other simile, hosting is a bit like renting a desk in a coworking space. You rent small to start with and often there will be a package deal with a certain amount of space and you can get your mail sent there.

With hosting you point your domain to the host, your email will come through the host’s servers and when you need more space or services then you just buy them.

Step 3 Set up your website.

I always use WordPress to produce a website. In yet another simile WordPress is like excel.

You use excel to produce a spreadsheet but all it does is produce a blank sheet, you have to sort out the numbers yourself.

Now you can use a template for excel which will make your numbers look pretty but again, you still have to produce the numbers.

In the same way you can use a selection of free or paid for templates that will make your site look cool or professional, but you have to sort out the words, images and videos.

Step 4 Sort out the content

The starting point is to produce the ‘pages’ for your site. These are the general pages that tell people about you, how to get in touch etc.

Generally speaking, I suggest to my customers that the minimum you need are Home, Services, About and Contact pages.

These will give you the bare minimum.

Then you look to produce content in ‘posts’.

They look very similar to pages to the reader but you can think of these like the individual pages of a magazine, each will have a subject and together they go together to produce the magazine.

You should use a marketing plan to decide what to write in your posts.

How great content can boost your SMEs sales — How to choose your blog subjects – click on the image

Step 5 – organise your SEO

There are two types of SEO:- on-page and off-page.

On page SEO is all about making sure your keywords are properly presented in your writing, that the text is presented in a style that is friendly for search engines and that the content is engaging for the reader.

Off-page SEO is all done in the back end. It’s not visible to the viewer but Google loves it.

Off-page SEO covers things like making sure your site loads quickly, is good for mobile, tablets and desktops and has the structural aspects needed to please search engines.

Step 6 – publicise your site

Imagine opening a shop and not bothing to put a sign up outside and not telling anyone you were open.

This is the big mistake people make with websites – they think that it is enough to get a well SEO’d site sorted and then people will flock to it.

This is not the case.

You need to get the word out by telling people what is going on.

This is done by building links to different sites, by advertising and py putting links to your posts on social media like LinkedIn.

Step 7 – Keeping it up

Step 7 is simple, it’s about keeping the content production going.

Producing regular, interesting and useful content will help your site rise through the ranking and, in turn, attract more visitors.

Doing 6 posts and stopping is pretty pointless and looks really bad.

Set up an agreement with a content producer (me) to get regular posts on your site so that you start to hit your important keywords.

Digital marketing for accountants is relatively easy

Digital marketing for accountants isn’t rocket surgery but it does take application and effort.

I’ve produced a free guide you can download that gives you all the information you need to set up your digital marketing process for your accountancy practice and you can find it here.

Contact me if you need help

I’m a digital marketing bod and I specialise in working with accountants and professional services.

I can set up your site, write the content and make sure it is SEO compliant.

Give me a shout and let’s have a chat about getting you more clients.

Contact Stuart Now

Let’s have a chat about your content marketing needs or motorbikes

June 3, 2020October 10, 2020

Copywriting for accountants – 6 ways it can help your marketing

When I say “copywriting for accountants”, many people tell me that they are unsure about what a copywriter actually does.

I thought I’d put together a post and show the ways that a great copywriter can really make a difference to the marketing output of a typical accountants practice.

Copywriting for accountants is a specialised profession and truthfully not every copywriter can do it, so we should all play to our strengths!

What is a copywriter?

Let’s deal with the word first of all. What exactly is a copywriter?

Well I suppose the best definition is that we are wordsmiths.

We work with words in the same way as accountants work with numbers.

Think about all of those little tricks and tips you have picked up over the years, dividing by 9 to see if the difference you are seeing is a transposition error, making absolutely sure that balance sheets actually balance etc.

All of these tips go towards making you a brilliant accountant and much better and quicker at doing the work for your clients.

Copywriters are the same.

A good copywriter for accountants will have a basket full of techniques that they can bring to bear to help your marketing shine.

Now not all copywriters are equal, we all have our strengths and weaknesses and some might specialise in a particular area whilst others are more generalist in nature.

So here are the ways that using great copywriting for your accountant’s practice can really help.

Tip #1 – They will professionalise your website

This is probably the first thing that any potential client will look at when they are checking you out.

A great copywriter will refine your content so that it speaks directly to your target audience.

They will tease out the points of difference that will help you compare very favourably to the opposition.

They will also be able to make sure that your on-page SEO is up to scratch and that your website ranks as high as it should do.

Do you need a freelance financial copywriter — **Wondering whether you need a financial copywriter for your firm? Click the image to find out more.**

Tip #2 – Developing your tone of voice

It may seem odd to suggest that writing on a page has a ‘tone of voice’ but it does.

Check out these two examples one from Virgin wines here and one from BMW here.

Both completely different businesses, both very successful but with totally different language and manner.

A great copywriter will be able to work with you to make sure you are speaking your client’s language.

For accountants this is really important as if we are being hones, we can get a bit technical at times. A copywriter for accountants will understand this and ensure that the copy is accurate and accessible but not dumbed down.

Tip #3 – They will write outreach mails that work

If you receive enquiries or if you buy mailing lists then you will need to speak to your potential clients.

A great copywriter will be able to craft a mail, whether that be snail mail or email, that will really resonate with the recipient.

Personally, I’d estimate that getting a copywriter to write your outreach emails will at a minimum double the response rate.

Tip #4 – They will be able to write content that really works.

Whether you are posting to your blog, adding content to social sites or sending out hard copy newsletters, a great copywriter will be able to produce the goods.

Truthfully, there’s no point in putting stuff out there that doesn’t deliver and one of the best ways of achieving a ROI for your marketing budget is to get great copy right from the start.

Writing copy for accountants is an important part of the marketing mix so make sure that you have someone who knows what they are doing.

Tip #5 – Copywriting for accountants will increase engagement with your current clients.

Everyone loves to feel like they belong and one of the best ways of ensuring that you retain your clients is by giving them that sense of belonging.

A great copywriter for accountants will be able to produce content that really speaks to your clients and lets them know that they are valued and an important part of the practice family.

Tip #6 – Copywriting for accountants will increase your per client revenue.

One of the easiest ways to increase revenue and profit is to sell more to the same group of clients.

Having a specialist accountancy copywriter on board will give you the ability to introduce new services to clients who wouldn’t ordinarily take advantage of them.

By using carefully crafted case studies, white papers and ebooks a copywriter will weave in stories of how your services can really help add value for your clients.

Want a free guide to content marketing for accountants? Click the image.

Copywriting for accountants really does make a difference

You only get a sense of how good a copywriter is for an accountancy practice once they start producing really good content.

You’ll start to see enquiries increase, engagement take off and per client billing rocket.

After all that’s what we want, happy clients and more of them.

Using the services of a specialist copywriter for accountants mean that you can forget about your marketing and concentrate on your day job.

Now where could you find one?

Contact Stuart Now

Let’s have a chat about your content marketing needs or motorbikes

May 28, 2020March 24, 2021

What happened when I bought some cheap writing

Anyone who runs a business will have heard the phrase “we’ve found someone who can do it cheaper”.

It’s annoying but understandable.

After all, it takes a lot of work to earn money and you want to know that you are getting full value for your Pounds, Euros or Dollar.

But I thought I’d have a go and see what it goes like when you buy cheap writing.

I decided to use one of the most popular freelance sites (I won’t say which one) and set a project.

I posted a project that asked for people to write a 600-word blog post called “6 things to think about when choosing a payroll system” and chose three writers to work with.

The replies began to ping into my inbox almost instantly which gave me a first clue.

Not all the people offering to do the work were writers!

I posted the project and within seconds I got proposals.

From graphic designers

And WordPress developers.

Now don’t get me wrong. They might well have been cruising the site and just pinged off an application but I’m suspecting not.

In fact I think they have a really clever bot that sends a standard application the moment a vaguely matching project gets posted.

Which means that the vast majority of applications I got were from people that weren’t really writers at all.

Frankly, if I wanted to get someone to do some copywriting for my accountants practice I’d want someone who did it at least part-time!

What content did they provide?

There were three different outcomes from the people I chose.

The first guy sounded the best and so I held out high hopes for him and sure enough 600 words arrived on time.

It was well written, made complete sense and I could tell that it was written by someone who really understood the subject.

Which is understandable because he’d stolen it off a website.

I put it through my plagiarism checker and guess what? He’d not even bothered to change a word.

Imagine the damage that would do to your business if you posted this and the original owner found out.

Content marketing is like a hot air balloon — **Find out why marketing is like a hot air balloon – click the image**

Number 2 was a lady who looked like she knew what she was doing. I sent off the brief and then waited.

Nothing.

So I sent her a message and asked what was up.

“Oh yes, some problems but I’ll get it to you tomorrow”

Nothing.

I sent another message but got no reply. Ever.

When you are working to a marketing plan it’s very very inconvenient if copy you expected doesn’t turn up.

I had high hopes for number three. After all we can’t have three duds in a row can we?

So this guy was a day late with the work, but at least he actually did it.

It wasn’t plagiarised and I could see why.

It included such gems as;

” So before making the system fully functional it’s functionality check should be carried out so that when it gets deployed in practical there are no chances of errors the working goes smooth.”

Or this

“There are a lot of advantages a Payroll system have like it gives much accuracy , saves time and all the things become automated so human resource is saved.”

What you can’t be doing is paying good money for content that you have to essentially re-write or constantly have to speelcheck (just my little joke).

Why quality copywriting is important for accountants

Any content you produce as an accountant (or for any professional service) is designed to show your competency in a particular field.

So if you are paying for content that isn’t accurate, well researched and grammatically correct then you are becoming a hostage to fortune.

Quality content does cost more, but employing an expert financial copywriter means that you’ll get work that you don’t have to check for accuracy and that will show your practice in the best possible light.

A great financial copywriter will also understand on-page SEO, which means that your posts are more likely to rank highly on Google.

Buying cheap is rarely the best option.

Want to talk about financial copywriting?

Mail me, call me, fill in the form and let’s have a chat.

Contact Stuart Now

Let’s have a chat about your content marketing needs or motorbikes