Marketing Trends for Accountancy Firms

While you’re busy focusing on the day-to-day operations and management of your accountancy firm, it might be difficult to regularly set aside time to stay on top of the most effective marketing tactics for your firm. But your competitors will be doing just that. And the further marketing falls down your priority list, the further your competitors are getting ahead of you.

That’s why we’ve done the hard work for you. We’ve listed the key trends that successful accountancy firms are implementing in their marketing strategies and how you can harness them for your firm. And the best part is, they don’t need to cost the earth!

1. AI and Generative Search

These days, it is virtually impossible to use the internet without seeing at least a handful of mentions of artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on our personal and professional lives. Accountancy marketing is no different, but you don't need to know everything about AI to use it to your advantage; get to grips with what it’s good for and possibly more importantly what it’s not so good for, and then think about implementing what best suits your firm’s needs.

Generative AI

The robots aren’t necessarily coming to get us; in some cases, like Generative AI, they can even help us. Platforms like Chat GPT and Google's Gemini (formerly Bard) can be used effectively to help you market your accountancy firm by streamlining your content production efforts, providing content ideas, providing supplier briefs, and proofreading your work.

Over 70% of marketers already use generative AI tools in their marketing, with over half (51%) using them to brainstorm ideas. With the proper prompts, you can quickly and easily produce tens of content ideas for your firm's social media accounts, website landing pages, blogs, and PR efforts, activities that might have taken a handful of partners at least a few hours of their valuable time.

Generative AI is not without its quirks and errors, however, so it is key to ensure that there is some human intervention; it may be good at producing blog topics, but it doesn’t have your qualifications or years of experience, which is what your clients are looking for at the end of the day.

Tips for accountants: Be bold and play with generative AI. Why not ask Chat GPT for '5 blog ideas for an accountancy firm looking to attract start-up companies in the UK' and see what it comes up with? Then, take the best result and ask it to provide five subheadings and a call to action (CTA). Or once you’ve written a blog, ask Chat GPT to generate five social media posts, complete with links and hashtags – with a bit of proofing and tweaking, you've got reams of content in just a few steps!

Generative Search

For the benefit of its users, Google is forever changing its search algorithms, and the most significant change on the horizon is the introduction of the search-generative experience (SGE) or ‘generative search’ which is an ‘experimental update to Google’s search engine’ and is being trialled in the US before a worldwide roll-out.

The SGE deploys AI to provide users with contextual answers to search queries rather than just the list of websites and links we're used to seeing. The aim is that users are presented with a conversational, ‘comprehensive’ answer to their query pulled together using resources from across the web before they reach the traditional search engine results page (SERP).

Now, this might sound scary and overwhelming and overly technical, but the main takeaway is to make sure your content is relevant, conversational (where appropriate) and answers the questions your ideal customer is looking for to encourage the AI to utilise it in the SGE result. In turn, this is a huge opportunity for accountancy firms that get this right.

Over 30% of organisations are already sharpening their content to focus on user ‘intent’ and answering customer queries in their marketing to ready their content for the SGE experience. And this goes for all of your marketing, not just your website, so ensure your social media, blogs, digital PR, and event appearances are all relevant to the type of client you want to attract.

Which leads us on to the next trend…

2. Focusing on your ideal clients

It can be tempting to try to appeal to all audiences through your marketing efforts and get as many enquiries as possible, but this generally results in low-quality, high-volume leads, which is not the end goal for any accountancy firm and wastes more time in the long run. You may have noticed that firms that used to be ‘all things for all men’ have now focussed on one demographic or service area; successful firms are carving out their niche and making sure they're always singing to that choir.

Figuring out what your niche is isn’t hard, and you probably already have the necessary data to find yours in your CRM database; check out our handy guide to finding your niche for our top tips. Once you’ve confirmed what your ideal customers are looking for from your service, ensure your website, social media, event appearances, and other marketing collateral speak to and solve these needs.

Tips for accountants: Use your existing CRM or customer data to identify your most typical, lucrative clients and use this information to inform your niche. Clients want to know that their accountants understand their challenges and have the solutions and track record to help them.

Speaking to your ideal clients relies more on being hyper-relevant than being hyper-personalised; you don’t need to speak to each individual member of your target market by name, but to make sure everything you do say is relevant to them. Utilise your existing user-generated content (UGC), such as reviews and testimonials, to identify your clients’ common pain points and – crucially - how your firm has solved them. Use this information to create super-relevant content. What better way to attract your future perfect client than by using the example of your current perfect client?!

3. Content marketing

Speaking of content, a relevant, consistent content strategy can do wonders for your accountancy firm’s reputation, Google rankings, and in turn lead generation. Content marketing generates over three times as many leads as outbound marketing (e.g. cold calling, advertising, sponsorships, etc.) and costs 62% less, so to an accountant, this should be a no-brainer!

Content marketing doesn't just mean a monthly blog and a few social media posts; nor does it mean that it needs to take up your precious client-facing time. As we discussed before, you may be sitting on a goldmine of content ideas already; case studies and customer stories are some of the most effective forms of content for attracting new clients, with 53% of marketers saying these methods produce their best results.

Hyper-relevant content that shows off your firm's expertise, such as case studies and testimonials, also works towards boosting your website’s search engine optimisation (SEO). Since its recent update, Google has been focussing particularly on its updated E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authority, trust) framework, that it uses to rank all content to choose what is shown in SERPs. The newest addition to the framework - experience - ranks online content on whether or not the creator has the necessary first-hand or life experience of the topic in question, which you – as a qualified, respected accountant – already have in spades. Google will reward that experience with a favourable search engine ranking, which will be crucial when SGE is rolled out worldwide.

Tips for accountants: Take a look at your recent reviews and testimonials for topics, ask your top clients to provide case studies, or repurpose existing blogs or presentation decks as a series of social media posts, infographics, or even videos. Remember – make sure all of this content is relevant to your target customer!

Google doesn't just use your website to assess your firm's E-E-A-T score; it also uses your social media accounts, digital PR and any other mentions of you or your firm across the web. This is why it is crucial to get your firm and your team's names out there on relevant channels that are not just your own…

4. Thought leadership and collaboration

We’ve talked about using your existing content and data to help support your accountancy firm’s marketing efforts, but you can also use one of the best tools you have at your disposal – one that you’ve been passively building throughout your career – your professional network!

We recently covered the benefits of developing a thought leadership strategy for your firm and why collaboration is key for building the reputation and awareness of your firm and your team's expertise. Consider working with key ‘influencers’ in the industry who complement your niche and expertise; this is a great, low-maintenance way to exploit their audience to boost your own. And no, influencer doesn’t just mean TV stars selling tooth whitening strips on Instagram; in financial circles, an influencer can be any individual who has the power to affect the purchasing decisions of other people because of their authority, knowledge, or relationship with their audience.

Tips for accountants: Take a look through your ‘little black book’ or your LinkedIn connections and identify some non-competing connections who share your agenda and have an established following of their own and open a conversation about how you can work together. Do they have a podcast you could be a guest on? Do they regularly host relevant industry events that you could speak at? Can you provide unique insight to their audience by contributing a guest blog or case study.

Collaborating with other individuals and firms is a great way to boost your brand amongst your target audience and work towards satisfying Google's E-E-A-T ranking factors. Having links to your firm's website and social media pages from other reputable, relevant sites signals to search engines that your own content is high quality and trustworthy and drives further traffic to your site.

5. Get support from the right experts

Your clients come to you because, while they might know the basics, they appreciate that you have the right accountancy experience, qualifications, and skills to keep their company or personal finances healthy and up-to-date, so why not consider doing the same for your firm's marketing strategy?

In 2023, more than 42% of UK companies outsourced their marketing to an agency, with 32% citing that they did this to benefit from the expertise of external marketers and saved money as a result. Cal Partners is a small but mighty team of CIM Chartered marketers with specific experience working in-house at professional services firms just like yours.

Given our industry experience and background, we understand our clients' target audiences, giving you a head start rather than having to explain everything from scratch to your agency. We can keep on top of the latest trends in accountancy marketing and use them to maximise your marketing efforts so that you can focus on the day job.

For more information or a free consultation, call 0333 050 6015 or email hello@calpartners.co.uk.