The accounting industry is expected to grow 6% by 2031, giving accountants many reasons to learn how to find clients today to avoid direct competition. Knowing how to get clients as an accountant is important to succeed. Thanks to the internet and online marketing, accounting firms are easier to find today than ever, so knowing how to make your accounting firm stand apart from the rest is key to finding accounting clients.
How to Get Clients as an Accountant
There are many ways to get the right prospective clients as an accountant, starting with narrowing your audience and understanding your target market. Next, you’ll build your brand, show your authority compared to other industry professionals, and narrow your content strategy to find the ideal clients.
Use the following ten steps to learn how to get clients as an accountant.
Define Your Target Market
Successful accountants don’t waste time marketing to just any accounting clients. Instead, they narrow their target market and focus their marketing efforts on the audience that could help them get more accounting clients, whether individuals or businesses.
The key is to know where your clients spend time, what types of advertisements they respond to, and how they prefer to communicate to grow your accounting firm.
For example, if you primarily work with small businesses or startups, you’d target your marketing to them to get accounting client leads. But, if you work with individuals during tax season, you’d focus your digital marketing on where they spend the most time to increase your list of prospective customers.
Build Your Brand and Presence
Your potential customers want to get to know you before they talk to you, so it’s your job to show you are a confident and trustworthy character by providing relatable content online to get more accounting clients. Most business owners and individuals will look online before deciding which accounting firms to call to see if they are a good fit and to ensure they are trusted professionals. To reach your niche client, you must build a digital brand identity that viewers can identify with and remember when they need accounting services.
To build your brand and get more accounting leads, you should:
- Have a professional website whether you are an existing or new accountant
- Be present and active on the social media platforms your audience uses
- Use proper SEO tactics to get your website and social media sites found at the top of the search results
Any marketing materials you create should have the same brand presence. This allows your audience to get familiar with you and to be able to recognize you whether they find your website, social media accounts, or a flyer in the mail.
Develop a Content Strategy
A content marketing strategy is the key to getting new accounting clients setting you apart from other businesses. As we said earlier, most people use the internet to research before contacting a new accounting firm. If they can’t find you online, it’s as if you don’t exist, whether you are an existing or new business, and it will be hard to get new clients.
However, this doesn’t mean slapping together a website or making sporadic social media posts, as it won’t help you find more accounting clients.
You need a strategy or a method to your madness. Your content marketing should have a strategy with relevant topics so you become the thought leader in the industry. A few ideas to include it in are:
- Create an accounting blog – An up-to-date blog with current information helps potential clients find you. If your blog post contains relevant and helpful content, utilizes a keyword strategy, and helps current and future clients learn something, you may show up on the first page of the search engines, increasing awareness of your accounting business. Your blog posts could be on anything from basic accounting tips to complex topics that show you as a leader in the industry.
- Consider videos or podcasts – Consider implementing videos or podcasts into your content marketing strategy. Some people respond better to these materials than written blog posts, mainly to save time, giving you another avenue to get accounting clients.
- Network – Networking for accountants means talking to anyone who comes into contact with individuals or business owners who could use your services. Connect with other professionals online on LinkedIn or Facebook and individuals on Instagram. Also, attend networking events to find accounting clients and build your authority.
Engage With Your Target Audience
It’s not enough for accountants to have an official social media account; they must engage with their followers to get accounting clients. You want to show that you are the expert your audience needs.
One of the best client engagement tips to get more clients is to give your social media pages a personal touch by showing behind-the-scenes footage or pictures of you getting involved with the community. Show your audience you are a real person who cares about your accounting firm and the community, too.
The best way to do this is to interact with your audience. Most platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram make responding to comments or direct messages easy. This is another way to get personal with your audience and let them know you are responsive.
This is important for most people when choosing an accountant because they want someone they know they can communicate with easily.
Leverage Referrals
Referrals are one of the best ways to find future clients. You can get a successful referral from satisfied existing clients, other business owners, friends, family, word-of-mouth, and even social media. Never be afraid to ask for referrals.
- From existing clients – If you have happy customers, they are likely to refer you to other business owners or individuals. Create incentives for your current clients to provide a direct referral to their friends and family for your services and watch your client referrals increase.
- Business owners – Let business owners in the community know of your services. Even if they don’t use your services, other professionals may need accounting services, and they can refer you, or you can trade referrals to increase your client list.
- Friends and family members – Make sure everyone you know knows what you do and offer. You never know when they’ll come across someone who is a good fit for you and can refer them your way so you get a new client.
- Social media – Anyone can share social media posts, which will spread the word about your services without you trying. Create meaningful posts that people want to share, whether an existing client or someone who follows you, and you’ll get in front of a much larger audience without much effort and help you find new clients.
Network and Establish Relationships
The key to growing your client base is constantly networking. You can network online and in person if you attend networking events. In both areas, you want to create and maintain relationships. The key is to know your accounting clients’ contact expectations and use that to your advantage.
Here are a few ways to reach more prospective clients:
- Cold calling – Even today, cold calling is a popular way to build a new accounting business. If picking up the phone and making a cold call isn’t something you enjoy, focus your efforts on search engine optimization so your blog posts and other content marketing pieces reach the right business owners.
- Email marketing – Emails are the equivalent of cold outreach, but electronically. But just like you need a well-thought-out script for phone calls, your email marketing strategies must be strong to ensure your audience opens and engages with your emails. Just sending emails isn’t enough; without a strategy, they’ll likely end up in spam.
- Follow-up – Relationships aren’t built on one phone call or email. After the first contact with a potential client, you must keep up the relationship by following up. This doesn’t mean following up and asking for the sale. Instead, continue providing value to the prospective clients, so you become a natural choice, and they possibly hire you for the job.
Utilize Targeted Advertising
The internet and social media make it easy to target your advertisements. It’s different from the old days, when you would create an ad to throw on the radio or TV and hope it eventually reached the ideal client. With online advertising, such as Facebook or Google ads, you can target the right demographics so only the people most interested in your services will see the advertisements.
You can also watch the analytics to see how your advertisements do, making changes to ensure the right audience sees your message.
Collaborate With Strategic Partners
Become the leader in a community, company, or anywhere else so you become the ‘go-to’ accountant who provides a professional presence. For example, create partnerships with other local businesses where you handle their accounting services, allowing them to advertise for you and vice versa.
The key is to build authority to show your audience you are the accounting firm in the industry that will provide them with what they need.
Speak at Business-Focused Seminars and Industry Conferences
Take advantage of opportunities to speak at business events and speaking engagements where you can get in front of many business owners. Use the opportunity to show the value of what you offer without selling. Provide sneak peeks of your services while providing your audience with valuable accounting tips. You can also use this strategy online and offer a webinar to reach a larger audience, especially in Facebook business groups.
Be Active in the Community
Community involvement is one of the best ways to show that you care about the people around you and that you aren’t just in business to make money. Attend as many local events as possible, offering free services, providing advice, getting your hands dirty, helping the community with a common problem or concern, and showing that you have common interests.
You can use the opportunities to volunteer your time or even offer free consultations to build relationships within the community. This works best when you join groups and get active in your community.
FAQS
How Do Accountants Prospect New Clients?
Accountants have many ways to find potential clients, including email or content marketing, social media campaigns, and asking for referrals. The key to finding new clients is understanding your audience, whether you want to target small businesses, individuals, self-employed business owners, or other like-minded people.
How Many Clients Should an Accountant Have?
Successful accountants have 15 – 20 accounting clients monthly, but you can have more or less, depending on what you can handle and the type of clients you serve. The right number of accounting clients for you may differ from another accountant.
What Type of Feedback Should Accountants Seek From Clients?
The best information accountants can get from current and past clients is constructive criticism. Find out what they love and what they wish could improve to help you provide the best accounting services your audience wants.
What Are the Most Effective Ways to Market an Accountant’s Services?
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all way to market an accountant’s services. The proper method depends on the target audience. However, most accountants benefit from online marketing, including a solid content strategy and email and social media marketing.
What Platforms Should Accountants Use to Reach Potential Clients?
Most professionals find accounting clients on LinkedIn and in Facebook groups, but you can also find them on Instagram occasionally. It’s also important to focus on platforms like Google Ads to get the word out to the right audience. The key is to narrow your niche and figure out where your target audience spends their time.
Final Thoughts
Knowing how to get clients as an accountant is important as the industry grows. The stronger your marketing tactics become, the easier it is to be the authoritative figure in the industry. The key is setting yourself apart from the others and showing value to your new accounting clients to help them choose your accounting firm over the competition.
