You can't grow your accounting firm without an effective marketing strategy

Scaling up and keeping pace isn't easy. It involves change, upheaval, and new ways of doing things. In some cases, it means narrowing your market focus to attract your ideal client and finding team alignment, as well as offering ongoing training to current team members. 

But one of the most important aspects of growing your accounting firm is an effective marketing strategy.

If your current marketing strategy doesn't effectively generate inbound leads, it's not working.

Why are leads so important when growing your accounting firm?

Your firm is a processing machine, providing services to clients. If you upgrade your machine’s components—such as standardizing and documenting your processes or refining your tech stack—you will be able to process more work, more efficiently.

But you won’t actually see growth until you give the machine more clients to process. You will simply hit a ceiling, without ever breaking through.

And that’s where an effective inbound marketing strategy comes into play.

By generating leads, your marketing efforts will essentially feed your machine, enabling you to give your new components a workout.

4 lead-generating marketing tactics for your accounting firm

There are many ways you can bring leads into your sales funnel, but not all are suitable for service-based companies, such as accounting firms. 

Here are some to consider implementing to get you started.

Tip: Make sure you have a suitable CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool to keep track of your leads before you begin this process.

1. Focus your efforts

No matter the industry your clients belong to, they will most likely need specific services that relate back to their industry, or their market segment, location, etc.

For example, if a client owns a winery, they will have specific accounting rules that apply to them. These rules won’t be applicable to another client, say, a theatre performer.

By forming a market niche, you become an expert in that particular market, boosting your referral success, making you more attractive to new customers.

2. Create helpful landing pages

One of the most valuable ways to generate leads is with effective landing pages on your website.

Your landing pages should:

• Be clear about what you’re offering

• Inspire visitors to learn more

• Direct visitors to take a specific action, such as subscribing to a newsletter or registering for a webinar

3. Create gated content

Content marketing is a valuable way to help grow your firm’s audience, establishing you as an industry leader.

And by gating some of your higher-value content, such as downloadable PDFs, you’re also generating leads.

So, in exchange for an in-depth eBook about a particular (and relevant) topic, leads will provide their email addresses. And with this email address, you can ramp up your sales efforts.

4. Host a webinar

Similar to an eBook, a webinar is an opportunity to educate your clients and prospective leads about a specific topic.

By widely marketing it across your social media accounts and website, you will attract new audiences. And on top of that, you will have the chance to engage with them through Q&A sessions during your webinars.

Again, people will offer their email address for a ‘ticket’ to your webinar, allowing you to provide even more value to them during your sales process.

You need an effective marketing strategy to grow your firm

Scaling your firm begins with understanding your practice and your perfect client, and marketing to that audience.

Without an effective marketing strategy, any effort you expend will be for little or no reward, and your machine simply won’t work to its full potential.