Marketing and branding have become the top areas of investment for many industries, and accounting is not an exception.
By developing a comprehensive branding strategy, firms can accomplish many goals:
- gain new clients
- nurture existing leads
- improve the recruitment process through employer branding
- enhance customer retention
- improve the business’s visibility in the market place
However, because they are mostly B2B, accounting companies have a hard time developing a branding strategy that suits their needs and struggle with marketing that’s closely connected to branding.
According to B2B Marketing research, 94% of B2B companies struggle to collect meaningful insights from their marketing strategies citing poor content and low traffic. Your accounting company can become the victim of poor branding as well if you fail to choose the right approach to it.
Surely, branding goals and needs will be different for every accounting company. But today, we’ll take a look at a few universal strategies that will help you build the brand for your accounting firm.
1. Invest in a Professional Blog
The main goal of a branding strategy for an accounting firm is not just to improve its visibility but also to establish authority in the industry.
One of the most effective solutions to achieve this goal is to start a professional blog.
Blogging has become an integral part of content marketing, no matter if you own a B2B or a B2C company. Even if you’re a private Italian tutor, having a blog that helps others find out how to learn Italian more effectively already adds bonus points to your professional portfolio and makes your professional opinion heard. So, imagine what a blog can do for the entire company.
How to start a successful blog for an accounting firm?
PwC, a renowned accounting firm, has one of the most impressive blogs in this industry. On its blog, you can find numerous case studies, reports, as well as industry-specific articles:
Image credit: PwC
A blog is one of the key strategies that help PwC generate organic traffic, and there are quite a few methods they use to maximize the traffic that you can use in your blog too:
- SEO optimization. Proper keyword staffing can help you get to the top of SERPs and increase domain authority, but it is important to keep search intent in mind to make sure you get traffic that’s relevant to your website.
- Free case studies and surveys. The best feature of PwC’s blog is that they give free access to their key research, which, in return, attracts their niche audience, not to mention that it’s a great way to improve website credibility.
- Guest content. This is another way to add more authority to your blog, and PwC utilizes this method as well. Besides, almost 63% of readers perceive blogs with multiple content as more credible.
The key to a successful blog is focusing on the target audience. Your target audience will determine whether the content should be more educational or should just focus on accounting industry insights.
2. Create Gated Content
We already mentioned that you could provide free access to your accounting case studies and other materials on your blog. However, you can also make this content gated and, in return, something more than just blog post views.
Gated content usually requires a website visitor to complete a form and subscribe to your newsletter to get access to free materials, like e-books, case studies, and surveys. You must have seen Deloitte use gated content a lot on their website:
Image credit: Deloitte
Gated content can become a great strategy for your email marketing campaign, which is also essential for branding. It helps you collect new emails and grow your list of subscribers, while you also give them something valuable in return.
3. Build Social Media Presence
You cannot deny the role of social media in building brand awareness. However, there’s much more to social media than meets the eye.
Your social media presence also helps you build your brand as an employer. It’s not a secret that job candidates thoroughly research the companies they are interested in working for. This includes social media screenings that allow them to check out company culture.
So, a strong presence on social media is a must, even for the biggest accounting companies in the world. You can take a look at EY’s social media strategy as an example.
The company’s main focus is on LinkedIn, where the majority of their target audience is. There, they post industry updates, general company news, and even polls:
Image credit: EY LinkedIn
But to post most behind-the-scenes content, EY uses its Instagram account. There, you can get more insider details about the company culture and values:
Image credit: EY Instagram
But to make sure your social media strategy keeps bringing you positive results, you need to focus on your target audience on each of the social media platforms. So, monitor the data analytics on each platform to find out your audience’s demographics and content needs.
Over to You
Branding is very important for accounting companies because it is crucial in helping them stand out from the competition. But a good branding strategy is always a trial-and-error process.
Hopefully, our tips will help you understand your branding needs better and build an effective marketing strategy that will bring your accounting firm more exposure.
Ryan is a passionate writer who likes sharing his thoughts and experience with the readers. Currently, he works as a digital marketing specialist and works on online business branding, you can check his website Preply.com. He likes everything related to traveling and new countries.