TABLE OF CONTENTS
Ok, so you’ve started up a bookkeeping business! You’ve nailed down a business plan and you’re now at the stage of getting off the ground and pulling in some clients to get your cash flowing.
But how will you be found? How will you both attract and retain clients? First things first: you’re going to need a marketing strategy to properly get the word of your bookkeeping services out there. Let’s begin…
Getting started with branding
To be on the front foot with your marketing, you’re going to need a basic set of brand guidelines. These are important as the moment you begin creating content—whether you’re building your website, or setting up business social media accounts, you’re building brand awareness and recognition.
You need to have a stable and recognisable visual brand, or you’ll end up lost in the mix and people won’t know who you are.
The look and feel of your brand will evolve over time, and it doesn’t need to be perfect or incredibly detailed when you’re just beginning in business, but to start with you at least need:
- a trading name that you can get a domain for
- a logo
- some key brand colours and design elements
- a tagline or set of words to describe and complement your branding.
Know your market
Once you’ve established basic brand guidelines for your bookkeeping business, it’s time to figure out who you’re marketing to so you can provide relevant content.
If you don’t consider carefully whom you’re looking to target, all your efforts will be ‘scattergun’ and will likely miss the mark for most people.
Look back to your bookkeeping business plan where you undertook market research and a competitive analysis. If you haven’t done these yet – do them now.
You need to have a proper profile of your target market, including:
- demographics
- business or industry types
- what services would be appealing
- business needs
- geographical area
- reasonable price points.
Target market knowledge becomes very important with online advertising such as through Google and Facebook – as they allow you to target certain people to better aim your ads.
Set up a solid website
The home base for your bookkeeping business will of course be your website. This will be where people find you online, discover your services, and hopefully book an appointment or make contact. Marketing without a website is futile, but the good news is, you can easily get your business online by building a simple and attractive in Wix or WordPress
In creating your website, there are a few key things you’ll need to consider straight off the bat:
- a domain name that corresponds with your trading name
- mobile-friendly functionality
- eCommerce if you want to take online payments
- booking system
- your contact details
- a blog
- an outline of your service offerings.
Make sure you keep it tight and clean – a cluttered and long-winded website will repel potential clients and won’t be ranked well on search engines.
Create a Google My Business account
Your Google My Business profile will be a cornerstone of your online presence outside of your website, so don’t skip it. To be easily found online, you must be sure to fill out your profile in full – don’t forget to add logos and pictures.
Once you have one, you can collect reviews, show up in search engines, have your contact details visible, and do things like advertise and collect data through Google Analytics.
Now you need to get your socials going. Don’t stretch yourself too thin in the beginning, as managing several pages can take valuable time away from your primary business tasks.
It’s best to start with the most useful and popular social platforms for businesses, such as LinkedIn and Facebook. If you like, you can always add Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok.
Once you have business pages set up, you can use these pages to run ads, add content, and link back to the blog on your website. You can also link back to CTAs that take people straight to your booking or contact page.
To increase your following, you can boost your posts with a bit of coin to make them more visible in people’s feeds.
Your social media should provide useful, informative, and appealing content that matches your services and industry. Make sure you post as regularly as possible to remain relevant. Remember to check your accounts frequently in case a potential client comments or contacts on your feed.
Create content that is informative for your ideal customer
The best content (especially on social media) is aimed squarely at your intended clients and provides value. In your communications, you’ll want to become somewhat of ‘bookkeeping thought leader’, meaning you are a trusted subject matter expert who gives out sage advice.
Think about creating regular blogs on basic bookkeeping skills or little-known tax strategies. You can also create videos on how to better use accounting software, or make simple image posts with useful titbits on compliance or running a business. Indeed, relevant content is essential to almost all your marketing efforts!
Start collecting reviews
Having taken these steps so far, you should look to cement your online reputation. Once you have a few clients, the simplest way is to do this is to simply ask them to leave you a review or score on your Google profile. Customer reviews will add serious clout to your business when people search for you online.
You can also incentivise reviews but don’t fall into the trap of bribing or unethical practices. Do a diligent job, offer great value, and take care of customer service; favourable reviews will come in time.
Keep working on SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
Google and other search engines will begin tracking your website once your website is launched, but it’s a slow burn to get ranked well in search results. The easiest way is to set your website up with relevant keywords, provide relevant content, and refresh your website often with blog content.
Along with filling out your Google profile and establishing a solid online presence through social media, grab some free or affordable SEO tools and website plugins to help you identify relevant bookkeeping keywords.
Run some online advertising
If you aren’t gaining a lot of traction online, try running some online advertising. Include a promotional offer or tantalising solution to a common business problem that you can solve. Be mindful of branding and be sure you link back to a landing page on your website with a booking form or contact page.
To keep things cheap, you can target Google or Facebook and set a limit on your budget. This way you won’t get any nasty surprises once your bill comes due.
