Lead Generation for Accounting Firms – Grow Your Firm Fast

Lead generation for accounting firms is crucial for growing and maintaining a steady business. To be successful, accountants must understand how to get and keep their clients. And in today’s extremely competitive market, generating leads can feel like a daunting endeavor. 

Fortunately, there is a wealth of information available to learn how to generate leads for accountants. Even a brief introduction to the components of lead generation is helpful in understanding where your particular accounting firm currently excels and where you need to focus more energy.

To learn more about procuring leads for accounting firms, keep reading!

Ensure that Your Branding is Memorable

Generating leads for an accounting firm begins with establishing the firm’s brand identity. There is a plethora of reasons why a solid brand image is essential to a company’s success, but perhaps the most important thing to realize about powerful branding is that it builds loyalty. 

If your firm has a logo, message, and/or visual story that is strong enough to be remembered by a potential customer, it only stands to increase your leads. Because even though a customer’s first interaction with your firm might not reel them in immediately to your services, your image will stick with them and be first to mind when they are ready to take the next step. 

Additionally, memorable branding helps attract referral clients. Lead generation for an accounting firm can – and ideally, should – be just as simple as setting the strategy and letting the leads flow in. Part of this strategy refers back to powerful branding and what a targeted customer will remember about you. 

As stated previously, even if a consumer does not buy your services the first time around, if they remember your company’s brand they are more likely to suggest you to their friends, family, coworkers – anyone who might naturally bring up the conversation of searching for accounting services.

For example, think of the Nike swoosh. This logo was designed for just $35 in 1971 and is today one of the most iconic brand logos that exists – for good reason. Nike figured out to how generate a positive first impression, resulting in a long-lasting association between their logo and company that customers could not ignore. 

Though there are plenty of components to crafting a successful brand – which can feel overwhelming at first – it’s safe to say that it’s a great place to start. To generate more leads for your accounting firm, remember the importance of a lasting impression.

Update Your Website to Reflect Your Business

The primary purpose of any company’s website is to generate leads – and ultimately increase sales of products and/or services. In this digital age, having a well-developed website that works for your brand is a non-negotiable. That means that no matter who or what your organization is and no matter what you do, your purpose should be clear to anyone visiting your site on the web. 

In the accounting industry, having an edge over the competition is also necessary. Successful lead generation for accounting firms must begin with understanding what your firm in particular has to offer that others don’t. Since many accounting firms essentially offer similar services, this may require some serious thought. 

What many successful companies do to get ahead in their respective competitive industries is offer free content to visitors that reach the website. This has multiple benefits, but the point is that in offering free content that still has value to a potential lead will help build their trust in your firm. This trust helps to form a rapport between company and customer and will motivate leads to return to you when they need the services offered. 

This content can be offered in a wide range of formats:

• White papers
• Webinars
• Videos
• PDF or e-book downloads
• Blog posts
• And more! 

Whatever it is, make sure it highlights at least several key benefits for the customer to entice them to choose your business. Explain what it is about your accounting services specifically that will help them.

Spend Time on Your Landing Page

One of the best ways to offer this free, yet valuable, content is through a powerful landing page. A landing page simply refers to the first page that customers see when they click on your site. It serves as a greeting and most importantly, a way to capture a customer’s information and lead them deeper into what your firm has to offer. 

For example, your landing page could ask for a customer’s name and email address in exchange for a free download that explains why working with a financial advisor or accountant will be beneficial to that customer. This is also a great opportunity to capture email addresses to be added to a regular newsletter list (weekly, monthly, or whatever cadence is most appropriate for your business). 

Over time, the customer will subconsciously recognize your brand as a trusted expert in the industry, which will increase the chances of them returning to you when they’re ready to act. 

Understand – and Invest – in Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Once your website has been established, ideally with a strong landing page that captures your target audience’s information in exchange for valuable content, it’s time to think about how to attract people there in the first place. To successfully acquire more sales leads for accountants, the firm’s site has to rank high in search results. 

When you are shopping for a product or service, or simply trying to learn more about a subject, think of the terms you type into the Google search bar. Then, consider the types of keywords your target customer demographic would be searching for. The goal is for your website to come up on the first page of Google’s search results when your customer looks for those keywords. Getting your site to rank high on Google is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Google has a basic beginner’s guide to SEO in their support archives, and it can be a great first step in learning more about how to optimize your website. There are several key points to remember: 

• Write copy that is clear and easy-to-read
• Organize the different subjects of information on your website in a way that makes sense
• Consistently create fresh content to keep existing clients engaged and attract new leads
• Write for your targeted customers, not search engines

Local SEO is of particular importance for small businesses. According to an SEO guide from HubSpot, 4 out of 5 consumers find local information via search tools. That’s 80% of your firm’s potential business that could be lost if your company’s website isn’t ranking well in search results. 

However, understanding how to boost your site’s SEO rankings does not have to be complicated. Since there’s so much information out there on how to do exactly that, let’s start with two major components of your website that are helpful for improving lead generation for accounting firms. 

Get Your Business Verified on Google

If your accounting firm is not yet verified with Google Business Profile, this should be one of your first steps. Without a verified business listing that shows up in Google search results, generating new client leads will be that much more difficult. 

When you are verified by Google, potential customers are able to connect with your business via Google Search and Maps. They can also interact with your business by viewing photos and relevant promotional offers posted to your listing, and then easily call, message, or leave a review – all from one source. 

Think of how many times you’ve read a Google review of a business that pops up in the sidebar when you’re searching for something; it’s probably second nature, so making sure that you can provide this for your own targeted customers simply makes sense when trying to generate sales leads.

Create Specific Content for Local Business

The other thing to keep in mind when creating content that is optimized for search is to create not only content on broad industry subjects but specific material that focuses on your local client base. In other words, if your goal is to generate leads for your accounting firm, create content that speaks specifically to those within your service area. 

Are there local businesses that have worked with your firm before and had success? Does your firm specialize in services that would be of specific use to local residents? Could you create a guide to the city for new businesses/customers/etc. that will be of value to them before they even need your services? If your answer is yes to any of these, you have a great starting point for local content creation that should help secure leads for accountants at your firm. 

If you keep these things in mind, you are that much closer to generating leads for your accounting firm.

Use LinkedIn to Your Advantage

Successful lead generation for accounting firms can be seen with the use of LinkedIn.

In the same way that Google Business Profile adds a layer of trust and credibility to your accounting firm, so does having an active presence on social media. For businesses, having a solid LinkedIn page is crucial. With more than 700 million users, LinkedIn provides ample opportunity for marketing your services to potential leads and existing clients. 

This Forbes article clearly lists several ways that LinkedIn can work for your business. It is particularly helpful for lead generation; accounting firms can utilize the InMail function to draw potential leads into completing forms or claiming offers, much like the landing page on your website will do. 

With InMail, a customized message can be sent directly to anyone who matches your target demographic criteria, essentially delivering your landing page directly to their inbox. 

There are also lead generation forms provided by LinkedIn that automatically populate a user’s information directly from their profile. When it comes to marketing your services, this is extremely valuable since the data is more often than not of high quality, and most importantly, accurate. 

Paid Advertising is Always Worth It

Investing in paid advertising is another crucial strategy in lead generation for accounting firms. Again, LinkedIn is a major player when it comes to advertising in corporate industries. LinkedIn Ads make excellent use of filters in order to make sure that your services and/or products reach the right people. 

For example, you can filter for industry, company size, job title, and more to engage with those who would most likely need or want to make use of financial accounting services. Think about what kind of customer you want to turn into a client and use LinkedIn Ads to target them specifically. 

But What About the Cost?

Focusing your attention on SEO efforts is essential but including pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can further maximize your lead generation results. Why? PPC advertising is targeted in a multitude of ways. 

Just like with LinkedIn Ads, PPC advertising in general allows you to not only reach the target demographics of your potential clients but enables you to create multiple advertising streams to target those customers in a variety of avenues, meaning you will get both quality AND quantity. And in terms of generating leads for your accounting firm, the higher the number of potential leads, the higher the number of leads turning into dedicated clients.

While PPC advertising deters many businesses because of the cost, there are some great benefits of it that can’t be achieved with free or low-cost strategies like SEO. 

Improve Your ROI with Paid Ads

While the expense of PPC can feel overwhelming, especially if your firm is only just beginning to create a comprehensive marketing strategy to generate client leads, know that the return on investment for paid ads is worth it. Google estimates that on average, advertisers receive 8 times the profit of what they spend on Google Ads. 

Faster Results with PPC

SEO is definitely worth the time and effort it takes to implement, since over time you are likely to see big results. However, PPC advertising starts generating leads right away as long as your ads and relevant content are strong at the start of each campaign. Traffic will start flowing in quickly, meaning you can act on more leads and acquire more clients.

PPC Platforms Give You In-Depth Analysis

To truly benefit from any marketing campaign, especially one geared toward lead generation, you must understand where your traffic and potential leads are coming from. With PPC advertising platforms, you are able to look into each campaign and see not only who your clicks came from, but what they responded to directly. Having this information in your arsenal will only help you improve future campaigns and will benefit your SEO work as well.

Build, Build, and Build Your Email List

To further enhance your lead generation strategies, it’s important to remember email marketing. Even as social media becomes increasingly popular, email marketing still proves to be an effective tool for generating new leads and engaging with existing clients – and it doesn’t rely on paid advertising or Google search results. And while this strategy takes time to become truly profitable, much like SEO, you will only become more profitable as the email list gets larger. 

Remember your landing page? This is where a majority of your new email list will come through. When you offer that enticing free content, such as a PDF download or an opt-in for a regular newsletter, customers can enter their emails and receive it. 

Clients win because they’ve already received something free and valuable from your business, and you win because you’ve captured another contact to include in your email marketing campaigns.

Prospects often turn into customers through email. When this happens, keeping them on your email list will further build the relationship by offering consistent, valuable, and informative content about your services that they can continue to invest in – and will likely recommend to others.

Generate Leads and Watch Your Business Grow

Lead generation for accounting firms can seem difficult and complicated, but by parsing out each component of the overall strategy, you can focus your energies into a specific action that you know is going to be beneficial.

Solidify Your Brand

Your brand is what potential and existing customers will remember about you; having a strong image and message permeates throughout the rest of your lead generation strategies for the firm.

Build a Strong Website

In addition to your brand, a strong website ensures that anyone seeking more information about your firm will be able to access it easily and understand clearly what you offer. This is also where your landing page will capture client email addresses, which are later used in email marketing campaigns.

Invest Time in Local SEO Strategies

SEO delivers powerful results, but it’s important to remember that it’s a long game. Creating consistent content geared toward local consumers, and focusing on optimizing your website structure, links, and more, will pay off in the future and build on itself exponentially.

Use LinkedIn to Your Advantage

For professional businesses, LinkedIn provides credibility and a powerful way to advertise custom messages, promotions, and more to potential leads. 

Paid Advertising is Worth Your Money

Paid advertising or PPC campaigns are worth the cost because the results are fast, lucrative, and provide valuable customer insights that are hard to obtain otherwise. 

Don’t Forget to Grow Your Email List

Lastly, email marketing should always be a key focus throughout any lead generation tactic. Like SEO, it pays off exponentially the larger it becomes, and is still worth your while even if email seems like a lost art. 

Mediaboom Can Help You Generate Leads for Your Accounting Firm

If you are invested in generating leads for your accounting firm, take the time to learn about each facet of marketing. The work you put in now will only further your success and result in both higher quantity and quality of sales leads.

At Mediaboom, we specialize in using effective digital marketing strategies to get our clients results, whether that means boosting online traffic or generating qualified leads. No matter how we go about it, our end goal is to increase your sales. Let us help you grow your business today!