Accounting Marketing

Online Marketing for CPAs

“Online marketing” and “inbound marketing” have become familiar terms to progressive accounting firms. They understand that many prospects want to interact with accounting professionals via the Internet. Prospects and clients decide when they will instigate a search to learn more about a financial topic, to assess a CPA firm and to begin a dialogue. I can help your CPA firm have that 24-7 presence via your website, email news blasts and social media outposts like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Inbound marketing graphic
  • Ghost blogging. The news or blogging section of a CPA website may be the most important part. Timely, well-written posts will be attractive to searchers and search engines. I can write the posts as a ghostwriter for individuals or on behalf of the firm.
  • Email marketing. An email newsletter is a great way to stay in touch with your customers and prospects. I can help you choose the best email tool for you (I like MailChimp, especially for beginners), plan your editorial content, write the articles and manage the distribution.
  • Website content. Need exceptional content for your accounting website? I can write informative and persuasive copy that is also search engine optimized. Remember, the search engines are crawling your words, not the design (although design is important, too).
  • Case study writing. People love stories, and you should share your success stories with prospects and customers. Let me help you write your firm’s case studies in a concise manner that is also SEO friendly.
  • Pay per click advertising. Google Adwords, the popular pay-per-click (PPC) online advertising tool, can be an efficient and quick way to enhance your accounting firm’s visibility. I can help you create PPC ads by determining key word phrases, target audience appeals and creating the ads.
  • SEO writing. I understand the way search engines work, how to find the best keywords and keyword phrases for your CPA firm. With this knowledge, we’ve keyword optimized your content to help you rank higher on search engines. We make a large portion of the content on each site we launch unique and targeted to the specific local market the accountant is serving.

Traditional Marketing for CPAs 

Gary Lofstrom served as director of marketing for a local practice office of an international CPA firm

Is there a place for traditional marketing within the accounting profession? Since many of the concepts behind online or inbound marketing are the same for certain traditional marketing tactics, I say, “Yes, of course.” Before (and after) the dawning of the Internet, smart CPAs were performing soft-sell marketing by interacting with those in their target audiences. I have helped accounting professionals leverage the most appropriate traditional marketing tools, and still find many of them useful in the modern era.

  • Strategic marketing planning. Planning isn’t really so much a traditional marketing practice as it just a good business practice. Together, we can take a mile-high view of your business and create a strategic plan with sensible objectives and a balanced use of appropriate marketing tactics.
  • Direct mail. With less direct mail being sent, it opens up the opportunity for your accounting firm’s mail piece to be noticed.
  • Branding. I enjoy helping CPA firm’s create or reinvent their logo, tagline and market positioning.
  • Capabilities brochure. The printed brochure still has a place in your person-to-person marketing. Smaller firms can enhance their brand when going against larger firms, that will no doubt have a smart capabilities brochure.
  • Service/Industry brochure. Sometimes it helps to have a brochure that screams a CPA firm’s expertise in certain areas, both service line expertise and industry expertise.
  • White papers. White papers have been a great tool for a long time, allowing accounting professionals to share their knowledge and insight on specific topics. Sometimes it’s simply a matter of purposing a white paper for print and electronic sharing.
  • Response to proposals (RFPs). Proposals take a lot of valuable time. I recommend that firm’s have a strategy on how to choose which RFPs to respond to, and which RFPs to ignore. With my training to respond to proposals via a Big 4 firm, I can help you create a smart, persuasive proposal document.