Generated by All in One SEO Pro v4.9.4.2, this is an llms-full.txt file, used by LLMs to index the site. # Boma The Digital Marketing Tool & Content Library for Busy Accountants & Bookkeepers ## Posts ### [Marketing Resources](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/) **Published:** April 26, 2017 **Author:** BOMA --- ### [The Ultimate Marketing Solution for Accounting Firms: BOMA vs. the Top 5 Competitors](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/digital-marketing/the-ultimate-marketing-solution-for-accounting-firms-boma-vs-the-top-5-competitors/) **Published:** August 23, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## Table of Contents - [**Accountant-specific content library**](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/the-ultimate-marketing-solution-for-accounting-firms-boma-vs-the-top-5-competitors/#content-library) - [**AI-powered content creation**](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/the-ultimate-marketing-solution-for-accounting-firms-boma-vs-the-top-5-competitors/#ai-powered-content-creation) - [**Multi-channel campaign management**](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/the-ultimate-marketing-solution-for-accounting-firms-boma-vs-the-top-5-competitors/#multi-channel-campaign-management) - [**Campaign Scheduling**](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/the-ultimate-marketing-solution-for-accounting-firms-boma-vs-the-top-5-competitors/#campaign-scheduling) - [**Campaign Analytics**](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/the-ultimate-marketing-solution-for-accounting-firms-boma-vs-the-top-5-competitors/#campaign-analytics) - [**Lead Capture Forms**](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/the-ultimate-marketing-solution-for-accounting-firms-boma-vs-the-top-5-competitors/#lead-capture-forms) - [**Integrations**](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/the-ultimate-marketing-solution-for-accounting-firms-boma-vs-the-top-5-competitors/#integrations) - [**Support and Training**](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/the-ultimate-marketing-solution-for-accounting-firms-boma-vs-the-top-5-competitors/#support-and-training) - [**Managed Marketing Services**](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/the-ultimate-marketing-solution-for-accounting-firms-boma-vs-the-top-5-competitors/#managed-marketing-services) - [**Website Builder Service**](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/the-ultimate-marketing-solution-for-accounting-firms-boma-vs-the-top-5-competitors/#website-builder-service) - **[Conclusion](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/the-ultimate-marketing-solution-for-accounting-firms-boma-vs-the-top-5-competitors/#conclusion)** ## **Outline** In today’s ever changing business environment, accounting firms need to have effective marketing strategies in place. Marketing is not only about attracting new clients, but also about nurturing and strengthening relationships with existing ones. By keeping clients informed about changes in the market, policy, regulations etc., that could impact their business accounting firms can position themselves trusted advisors and ensure their clients come to them for answers rather than searching elsewhere. By educating and engaging with prospects accounting firms can also position themselves as the obvious choice when those prospects are looking for an accountant to work with. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Person-in-crowd.png) Luckily firms are spoilt for choice when it comes to integrated marketing platforms. These platforms act as a marketing hub for your firm and allow you to manage your outbound marketing activities such as managing your contacts in a CRM, sending email campaigns, posting to social media channels and more. In this blog, we evaluate six prominent platforms: HubSpot, Mailchimp, Buffer, Constant Contact, Active Campaign and BOMA. We’ll assess each platform based on key elements that are essential for successful accounting firm marketing. Our comparison will focus on the following aspects: - **Accountant-specific Content Library:** Does the platform offer a content library tailored to the accounting industry? - **AI-powered Content Creation:** Are there AI-powered tools to help you create high-quality content? - **Multi-channel Campaign management:** Can you manage campaigns across multiple channels, including email, social media, and blog posts? - **Campaign Scheduling:** Can you schedule campaigns to send at a future date and time? - **Campaign Analytics:** Does the platform allow you to review campaign performance across email and social media? - **Lead Capture Forms:** Can you create lead forms to capture contact information on your website? - **Integrations**: Does the platform integrate with other applications especially common accounting apps? - **Support and Training:** What level of support and training does the platform offer? - **Managed Marketing Services**: Can you get additional marketing support to run the campaigns on your behalf and manage your marketing activity? - **Website Builder Service**: Can you get a website built from scratch or have your current website refreshed by specialists? By evaluating these platforms based on these crucial elements, we aim to identify the platform that best aligns with the marketing requirements of accounting firms. ## **Accountant Specific Content library** “Content is king” is an oft quoted adage in marketing and reflects how critical it is to have great content to share with your audience. Content is an invaluable resource, helping to establish a strong online presence and build meaningful relationships with clients and prospective clients. For many accounting firms however, sourcing top notch written content can be a real challenge and often is a massive blocker to getting started with marketing activities. Of the six platforms we reviewed, BOMA is the only one with an integrated accountant-specific content library packed with ready-to-share articles that can be distributed via email, social media and website blog. The [BOMA content library](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/content-libraries/) is a treasure trove of industry-specific articles, insights, trends, information, updates and reminders covering a wide variety of topics (including Tax, Compliance, Management, Strategy, Marketing, Sales, Technology, HR and more) and industries. ![Rich content library for accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Content-Library-1.png) The articles are written by BOMA’s own in-house subject matter experts and technical experts at our renowned accounting industry partners including [Wolters Kluwer](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-wolters-kluwer-cch/), [Xero](https://bomamarketing.com/xero/), [The Gap](https://bomamarketing.com/gap/), and [Tradify](https://bomamarketing.com/tradify/). The articles are country specific for Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand and are updated weekly. The articles provide a wealth of accounting-specific content that can be effortlessly customised to your firm’s unique brand and voice. Each article comes in three different formats including email, social media post and blog post enabling you to distribute the information seamlessly across your digital channels. Simply select the content that resonates with your target audience, customise it to align with your firm’s tone of voice and perspective, and hit send. The benefits of having an accountant specific integrated content library are twofold. First you won’t be stuck writing the content yourself, or asking a colleague to do it. This is time consuming and creates the opportunity cost of not working on client specific tasks in the meantime. Secondly, it will save you on the cost of outsourcing. External copywriters charge hundreds per article which quickly adds up. Not to mention that they often aren’t subject matter experts which means you’ll still need to extensively brief and then review their output, again this can be a time consuming affair. With access to a vast repository of accounting-specific knowledge and expertise, BOMA enables you to deliver valuable insights to your clients and prospects that position your firm as a thought leader in the industry. To learn more about BOMA’s content library [click here](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/content-libraries/). ## **AI Powered Content Creation** Artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed marketing, empowering businesses to easily craft more personalised and impactful campaigns. For accounting firms, leveraging AI can streamline marketing efforts and deliver superior outcomes. With the exception of Hubspot all the platforms we reviewed came with some form of generative AI for content creation. BOMA, with its [AI-powered generative AI tool, Content Assist,](https://bomamarketing.com/create-or-customise-the-power-is-yours-with-content-assist/) is a prime example of this. ![Customise our content with BOMA's AI Content Assist](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Content-Assist-2.png) With Content Assist, you can create unique and compelling content that resonates with your audience. Simply enter a prompt, and Content Assist will generate email and blog content that you can then personalise to your liking. You can also use Content Assist to customise and edit content library articles to match your firm’s unique branding and tone of voice. To learn more about Content Assist [click here](https://bomamarketing.com/create-or-customise-the-power-is-yours-with-content-assist/). You can also review our AI ‘prompt library’ which has a selection of effective prompts for creating content. ## **Multi-Channel Campaign Management** In today’s increasingly digital first environment having a marketing platform that enables you to easily send multi channel marketing campaigns is a must. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-23-at-12.39.36-PM.png) The majority of the platforms we compared did enable email and social media campaigns however, there were two outliers. The first is Buffer, which does less as a social media platform only with no email capability. The second is BOMA which does more – in addition to email and social campaigns BOMA also enables users to post content directly to their WordPress websites via a Zapier integration. And because BOMA comes with the integrated content library, sharing articles via email, social media channels and a website blog takes only a few minutes. To learn more about BOMA’s multi channel campaign management [click here](https://bomamarketing.com/multi-channel-marketing-campaigns-made-easy/). ## **Campaign Scheduling** With Campaign Scheduling you can create and schedule email and social media campaigns days or even weeks in advance, ensuring that your marketing efforts continue seamlessly, even when you’re busy or away from the office. All the platforms in this comparison came with campaign scheduling in relatively easy-to-use interfaces which simplify the process. You can select the exact date and time you want your campaign to go out and the platforms will automatically send the campaign at the required date and time. The only difference between the platforms was that some limited the number of campaigns you can schedule in advance based on your subscription plan whereas BOMA provides unlimited scheduling on all plans. This means you can plan and execute your marketing activities without any limitations. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-23-at-12.46.33-PM.png) These simple types of automation will free up your time to focus on other important aspects of running your accounting firm. To learn more about BOMA’s campaign scheduling [click here](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-library/email-and-social-scheduling/). ## **Campaign Analytics** Having easily understandable campaign metrics is crucial for evaluating the effectiveness of your email and social media campaigns and for making informed decisions to optimise future efforts. All six platforms we reviewed give users access to detailed campaign analytics, tracking email performance and [social engagement metrics](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/understand-and-improve-social-media-analytics/). ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Analtyics-4.jpg) Key metrics to consider for email campaigns include Send Rates, Number of Opens, Open Rates as a % Number of Clicks, Click Through Rates as a %, Unsubscribed. Key metrics to consider for social media posts include Impressions, Clicks, Shares, Likes and Comments. To learn more about BOMA’s campaign analytics[ click here](https://bomamarketing.com/features/customer-knowledge/campaign-analytics/). ## **Lead Capture Forms** Lead capture forms are a critical tool for converting website visitors into leads for your accounting firm. With the exception of Buffer the remaining platforms all come with capability to create custom lead forms that capture the exact information you need from potential clients. The information you can gather includes key fields such as their first name, last name, email, phone numbers, company name and any free text messages they wish to leave. Lead forms can also be tweaked to allow visitors who complete them to access gated content such as downloadable whitepapers, research, insights or even client specific documents such as a client onboarding form. BOMA’s lead forms have additional functionality. They can exist as standalone landing pages or embedded on your website. They can be customised to ensure they match your brand, offering a seamless and cohesive experience that builds trust with visitors. And they have the benefit of analytics so you can see form submissions in real-time and learn more about how your users are interacting with your forms. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-3.36.54-PM.png) BOMA offers enhanced integration too, with popular CRM platforms such as HubSpot and Salesforce, via Zapier. This integration ensures a smooth flow of captured lead data into your existing CRM and sales systems. By centralising your data, you can streamline your workflow, eliminate manual data entry, and gain a holistic view of your lead management process. This integration enables you to nurture leads effectively, track their progress through the sales funnel, and ultimately drive business growth. To learn more about BOMA’s Lead capture forms [click here](https://bomamarketing.com/features/growth/lead-capture-pages/). ## **Integrations** All of the platforms we reviewed integrated with Zapier allowing you to send information to and from the marketing platform into another platform allowing users to automate more processes. BOMA also comes with integrations to some of the most popular accounting apps including [Xero](https://bomamarketing.com/xero/), [Quickbooks](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/intergrations/integrate-quickbooks-to-boma-with-zapier/), [Karbon](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/intergrations/integrate-karbon-to-boma-with-zapier-2/), Ignition, FYI and IRIS as well as popular CRM’s like [Hubspot](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/intergrations/integrate-hubspot-to-boma-with-zapier/) and [Salesforce](https://zapier.com/apps/salesforce/integrations?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=gaw-gbl-nua-evr-search_brand_alldev_prospecting_integrations_core_d1-ads&utm_term=zapier%20salesforce&utm_content=9122082&utm_ads_campaign_id=17613359694&utm_ads_adset_id=139730160698&utm_ads_ad_id=630157948778&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjww5u2BhDeARIsALBuLnMJUNx2BunXNGWtDiixy9iDTxQGdOrohNhC8ov_sw1pLOtUVJZjvaQaAi8JEALw_wcB) and [WordPress](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/intergrations/integrate-wordpress-to-boma-with-zapier/) to enable you to post articles directly to your website blog. ![BOMA Zapier integration](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Zapier-integration.png) To learn more about BOMA’s integrations [click here](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-integrates-with-zapier/). ## **Support and Training** While it’s all well and good to sign up to a shiny new marketing platform it’s important to remember that if you or your team aren’t able to utilise the technology effectively then it may well end up being a wasted investment. While all of the platforms we looked at offered customer support in some form it’s important to note that for most this was only the case for the higher cost plans. Mailchimp offeres email support only for the first 30 days on their free plans. When it comes to onboarding and training all the platforms made documentation available that users could access however direct training and onboarding support was more varied. Again some platforms only offered these services on their more expensive plans while at others, like Hubspot, it was available only as paid for add-ons costing thousands of dollars. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-23-at-12.49.21-PM.png) While BOMA’s user-friendly interface makes it easy to manage your campaigns without having to worry about the technical details, we also believe in fully supporting our users. BOMA offers all users comprehensive onboarding assistance and account setup as well as ongoing training and support free of charge. Whether your question is about how to tag contacts in BOMA, create a lead capture form or a more general marketing question every user gets ongoing access to our fantastic support team 24/7 for chat, email and online video call support. We also run regular webinars and workshops covering a range of marketing related topics specific to accountants. So whether you have questions about marketing your firm via social media, email best practice, AI in marketing or how to market and sell your advisory services you’ll find all the [resources you need here](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/). ## **Managed Marketing Services** Accounting firms often sign up to marketing platforms with good intentions only to find they are unable to fit in the hoped for activity alongside their existing client facing work. So marketing ends up the ‘too hard basket’, activity stops and the time / money invested so far is wasted. Some of the platforms reviewed can help firms with marketing but only BOMA is expert in the field of marketing accounting firms. ![marketing for accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Final-CTA-1.svg) At BOMA, we understand the challenges of running an accounting firm and therefore offer our managed marketing service to those firms who need someone else to do the heavy lifting for them. We’ve crafted exclusive packages to enhance your firm’s online presence, ensuring you stay ahead in a competitive digital landscape without having to lift a finger. Depending on the plan, these BOMA packages can include SEO optimisation, review generation and BOMA campaign management, so you can focus on what you do best – serving your clients. - **Save Time and Resources** BOMA’s done-for-you services save you countless hours, allowing you to focus on your core business activities while we handle your digital marketing. - **Expert Strategy and Execution:** Benefit from our expertise in digital marketing specifically tailored for the accounting industry. BOMA’s strategies are designed to maximise your online presence and engagement. - **Consistent and Quality Content:** With BOMA’s service, your digital marketing content will always be fresh, relevant, and engaging, ensuring that your firm remains top-of-mind for your clients and prospects. - **Measurable Results:** BOMA’s comprehensive analytics and performance tracking provide you with actionable insights, allowing you to see the direct impact of our services on your business growth. - To learn more about our managed marketing service packages click here or book a discovery call with BOMA. INPUT URLs To learn more about BOMA’s Managed Marketing Services [click here](https://bomamarketing.com/bomas-managed-marketing-service-let-us-handle-your-digital-presence/) or you can [book in for a discovery call here](https://meetings.hubspot.com/charles-clark1/managed-marketing-service-discovery-call?uuid=f8bdde29-3fad-4c98-92dd-883c3b3cfea8). ## **Website Builder Service** A strong online presence is crucial for businesses, especially for professionals like accountants and bookkeepers who are looking to expand their reach and connect with potential clients. Mailchimp and Hubspot, have website building capacity within their platform however both require a relatively high level of comfort with design so are not suitable for the inexperienced. Buffer, Constant Contact and Active Campaign have no website builder service. Recognising the need of many accounting firms, either launching or upgrading their website, BOMA offers a full-service website design and build service, designed to help accountants establish a robust online presence. - **Tailored Solutions** Our website expertise ensures that accountants receive a website that is not only visually appealing but also resonates with their target audience. We create websites that effectively communicate your services and value proposition in the short and long run. - **You OWN Your Website:** Sounds strange, right? But there are some companies that build websites for accountants, don’t give you access to them, and don’t hand the keys over if you cancel your subscription to them (often at $200+/mo). With BOMA, you are not held hostage. Your website is yours, forever. - **Seamless Integration:** BOMA’s websites come pre-built with BOMA’s digital marketing toolkit, allowing you to easily manage your social media, email campaigns, and more. This integration ensures that your marketing efforts are streamlined and effective. ![Website build service for accounting firms](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Website-build-e1712922405968.png) - **Cost-Effective Packages:** With BOMA’s unique referral structures, clients can benefit from ongoing discounts, ensuring that you get the best value for your investment. Whether you’re a new client or an existing one, our packages are designed to provide maximum benefits. - **Lead Generation:** Combining BOMA’s done-for-you content with BMR’s lead generation tactics is a powerful combination, do more and be better than your competitors at a more competitive rate. - **Continuous Updates:**The digital landscape is ever-evolving. BOMA’s website service ensures that your website remains updated with the latest trends, compliance guidelines, and advisory content. Combined with the latest articles from the content library your website will always stay relevant.\\ Learn more about BOMA’s website builder service [here](https://bomamarketing.com/build-your-website-with-boma/) or [book a consultation here](https://meetings.hubspot.com/charles-clark1/website-services-meeting?__hstc=8316845.0eb181064cf7f7a6c1c570e7e90fe615.1710970948105.1724191336680.1724370140984.131&__hssc=8316845.61.1724370140984&__hsfp=3995838916&uuid=f8bdde29-3fad-4c98-92dd-883c3b3cfea8). We will guide you through the process, give you a clear understanding of the investment required, and show you the final outcome you will receive. ## **Conclusion: Why BOMA Is the Best Choice for Accounting Firms** While all the platforms we reviewed are great in their areas, their one-size-fits-all approach aims to capture a huge variety of businesses, often retail and B2C focused.However, BOMA is tailored to the unique challenges and opportunities of the accounting industry. This means that you get a comprehensive suite of marketing tools that are designed to help accounting firms succeed. BOMA’s extensive library of content, created specifically for accountants, helps you engage your audience with the right content at the right time. BOMA’s AI-powered content creation tools make it easy to create custom content that’s unique to your firm. With BOMA, you can create marketing campaigns that resonate with your clients and prospects, helping you build trust and a strong brand. BOMA’s multi-channel campaign management capabilities make it easy to manage and execute campaigns across multiple platforms. This centralised approach ensures consistency, efficiency, and a unified brand voice, helping accounting firms connect with their audience effectively and consistently. Plus, BOMA’s user-friendly interface and comprehensive training resources make it easy to get started and get the most out of the platform without needing specialised technical expertise. By choosing BOMA, you’re choosing a marketing partner that can help you grow your firm, increase your visibility and establish your firm as a leader in the accounting industry. With BOMA, the possibilities are endless and you can take your marketing to the next level. Harness the power of BOMA and transform your firm’s marketing and client communications today. BOMA is the gold standard for accountants, offering a comprehensive marketing solution that seamlessly integrates an accounting specific content library, AI-powered content customisation and creation and multi-channel campaign management. Experience the future of digital marketing and unlock the true potential of your firm with BOMA. Sign up for a trial now and discover the power of tailored marketing that drives results. ## **Don’t just take our word for it—here’s what BOMA’s satisfied customers have to say on Xero Marketplace:** “Boma has been awesome to help me with my email newsletters, blogs and social media content! A platform that is easy to use and they send out the new content often so we know what new information we can post or send to clients. Also the team are really helpful! Cheers Boma team!” **Stacey Armstrong, Manage My Cashflow** “I am a newby to Boma and I got to say FINALLY there is an easy way to market accounting services. YAY. Thank you BOMA.” **Louise Stodart, Quantum Link** “Boma allows me not only to provide super relevant content to our clients but also allows us to compete with any accounting firm in the country. Having a resource like this and the time required to prepare and set up the content in house would costs thousands which a firm our size just couldn’t do! It frees me up to focus on small adjustments and working on our clients creating real value on both fronts. Thanks Ian, Cat and the team as they have been super helpful with the whole process as well!” **Stuart Ruddel, JBM & Associates** “Get into it!!! Boma is SUPER, super easy to use and intuitive, I LOVE IT! It’s a timesaver platform for me, incorporating all of our social media (Facebook and LinkedIn) and our newsletter in one platform. Hip Hip Hooray for Boma!” **Michelle Fox-Bishop, Rural Accountants** “We have been talking about client communication for a long time, but never had the time or resources to do this properly. Boma has enabled us to start a regular newsletter. The value for us was in initially in lowering the threshold – i.e. knowing that pre written content was available. However we also love the extensive image library, easy to use interface, and, last but not least, the most fabulous customer experience team who bend over backwards to assist in making Boma work for our practice. Highly recommend (though selfishly we would prefer to hold this to ourselves!)” **Linda Hodgson, Frank HQ** See [more customer reviews at our Xero Marketplace listing](https://apps.xero.com/nz/app/boma/reviews). If you’re in need of an accounting-specific marketing platform to propel your business forward, BOMA is the answer. [Register for a trial today](https://app.bomamarketing.com/register) and witness first hand how we can assist you in achieving your marketing aspirations. **Categories:** Digital Marketing, Accountant and Bookkeeper --- ### [People + Platforms: Building a Marketing Engine That Runs Itself](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/people-platforms-building-a-marketing-engine-that-runs-itself/) **Published:** February 25, 2026 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Most accounting firms aren’t struggling with marketing because of a lack of ideas, they’re struggling because there’s no reliable system to get it done, week in, week out. In this session, Charles Clark (Marketing Director, BOMA) and Scott Findlay (Co-Founder, The Back Room) break down the four-component marketing engine that turns stop-start effort into consistent, compounding output, without adding to your partners’ workload. You’ll learn: - Why platforms alone don’t fix the problem (and what does) - The “execution gap” that kills most firms’ marketing momentum - How to structure people, platforms, and process so marketing runs itself - What a working marketing engine actually looks like in practice and how little time it takes to run Whether you’ve tried marketing tools before that didn’t stick, or you’re still waiting for the right moment to get started, this session is built for you. *Part of the Future Ready Accounting Firm webinar series, presented by BOMA and The Back Room.* **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [The Marketing Guide for Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/the-marketing-guide-for-accountants/) **Published:** February 13, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Welcome to this fast paced guide outlining the strategies, tactics, and best practices for communicating with clients and marketing your accounting firm. We’re so glad you’re here and excited to help you on your journey to digital marketing success. In today’s media and information saturated world, accountants have a unique challenge: how to adapt their marketing strategies to effectively reach their audience and engage clients. This guide will help you navigate the world of digital marketing using actionable tips and proven strategies to help you connect with clients, build lasting relationships, and grow your practice. Get ready to take your accounting practice to the next level. ## Table of Contents 1. Why digital marketing is key for reaching and engaging clients 2. Building trust through regular and relevant updates 3. Using educational content to connect 4. Tips for creating engaging and informative messages 5. Leveraging email and social media 6. Best practices for high-impact email campaigns 7. Creating an online social presence 8. Managed marketing services 9. Website builder service 10. Why BOMA is the marketing and content platform of choice for accounting firms 11. BOMA’s key features 12. Additional features 13. What our clients say about us ## 1. Why Digital Marketing is Key for Reaching and Engaging Clients. We live in an increasingly digital world and in the fast-paced world of accounting, [marketing is no longer a maybe, it’s a necessity](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/do-accountants-really-need-marketing/). Therefore it’s crucial that accountants understand the importance of digital marketing in reaching and engaging both current and potential clients. The way that people go about looking for a new accountant has evolved, meaning offline marketing isn’t as effective as it used to be and you can’t just rely on traditional word of mouth. Having a strong online presence is a crucial component of your marketing strategy, no matter the size of your firm. The benefits of digital marketing are vast and can transform the way you connect with your audience. Unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing allows you to reach a much wider and more targeted audience, helping you to grow your audience and client base. By targeting specific demographics, you can tailor your marketing messages to resonate with your ideal clients. This [personal touch builds trust and engagement, increases client satisfaction](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/marketing-to-your-existing-clients-the-key-to-better-engagement-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers/), and ultimately drives business growth. ## 2. Building Trust Through Regular and Relevant Updates. You can harness the power of technology to stay connected with your clients, providing valuable industry insights, sharing relevant resources, and sending personalised newsletters. By consistently delivering high-quality content, you establish yourself as a trusted advisor, staying top-of-mind for your clients’ and fulfilling their financial needs. Communication isn’t just about what you say. It’s about how you say it. That’s why it’s important to respond to client inquiries and feedback promptly and professionally. By doing so, you can show your clients that you’re committed to providing them with the best service possible and that you value their time. Not only will this help you build stronger relationships with your clients, but it will also help you earn their trust and loyalty. In addition, personalised communication is a powerful way to humanise the accountant-client relationship. Whether it’s a birthday greeting, a note of congratulations, or a holiday card, these small touches show your clients that you see them as individuals and care about them on a personal level. This approach can help you build stronger, more meaningful connections with your clients, making them feel appreciated and understood. By investing in these relationships, you can create a foundation of trust and loyalty that will help you achieve long-term success in your business. ## 3. Using Educational Content to Connect. Creating compelling content that resonates with your accounting clients is crucial for elevating your marketing efforts and establishing your expertise in the industry. To achieve this, it’s essential to understand your target audience and tailor your content to their needs and interests. Provide valuable insights, share industry knowledge, and offer practical advice that can help your clients make informed financial decisions. This can include blog posts, articles, videos, infographics and webinars that offer insights, advice, or solutions to common accounting problems. Here are some example topics you could provide updates on: - Government or State changes to business, regulations and tax - Due dates for GST/FBT/Income tax - Advisory or Upskilling Events you are running - Practice changes (new office, new team members, updated branding etc) - How to guides (Xero/Mileage Claiming/Receipts etc) - Answers to common Accounting Queries or Mistakes - Ways to minimise their tax liabilities - Strategies to grow and improve their business By consistently delivering high-quality content, you can position yourself as a leader in your field and build trust with potential clients. ## 4. Tips for Creating Engaging and Informative Messages. Break down complex financial concepts into bite-sized pieces and use clear, jargon-free language. Bullet points, numbered lists, and short paragraphs can make your content more digestible and visually appealing. And don’t forget to include relevant images, infographics, or videos to keep your audience engaged. With financial information, accuracy is your watchword. So, be sure to triple-check your facts and proofread your content to avoid any errors. Your clients count on you for reliable and precise advice, so maintaining a high level of trustworthiness is key. By consistently delivering valuable and accurate content, you can build trust with your clients and position yourself as a leader in the accounting industry. Remember, your content should be more than just a sales pitch. It should provide value, educate, and help you build a strong relationship with your clients. When you create content that resonates with your audience, you’ll not only attract new clients, but you’ll also retain your existing ones, creating long-term loyalty and success for your accounting practice. [Click here to read more about creating engaging content.](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/content-marketing-for-accountants-how-do-i-make-my-firm-stand-out/) ## 5. Leveraging Email and Social Media. With people interacting with a plethora of online channels and platforms accountants need to be able to reach and engage their target audience in a variety of ways. By integrating various channels, such as email and social media, you can create a more comprehensive marketing strategy that will help you get the results you’re looking for. Email marketing is a powerful way for accountants to maintain relationships with clients and communicate valuable information. Personalised email campaigns that speak to the specific needs and interests of your clients can significantly increase engagement and conversions. By using email automation tools, you can streamline your email marketing efforts and deliver timely, relevant content to your clients. Social media is a powerful tool for accountants to connect with clients and showcase their expertise. By sharing industry insights, providing valuable tips, and engaging with their audience, accountants can establish themselves as leaders in the accounting industry. Responding to comments, running targeted social media ads, and [sharing content from your website](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/website/the-art-of-developing-an-effective-website-for-accountants-bookkeepers/) can help drive traffic to your site, generate leads, and expand your professional network. By integrating email and social media marketing, you can create a powerful one-two punch that will amplify your marketing efforts. Promoting your social media content in your email campaigns, and promoting your email campaigns on social media will maximise your reach and ensure that your message is seen by a larger audience. To ensure the success of your integrated marketing strategy, you should continuously [monitor and analyse your performance across different channels](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/email-marketing/the-4-most-important-email-marketing-metrics-how-to-understand-analyse-and-improve-them-for-your-accounting-firm/). By utilising analytics tools, you can gain valuable insights into campaign performance, audience engagement, and conversion rates. This data-driven approach empowers you to optimise your marketing efforts, allocate resources effectively, and achieve your business objectives. Mastering integrated marketing channels is the key to a robust digital marketing strategy that will help you foster client relationships, generate leads, and drive business growth. With the right approach and a commitment to continuous improvement, you can unlock the full potential of your marketing efforts and thrive in the competitive accounting landscape. ## 6. Best Practices for High-impact Email Campaigns. This section will help you create and send an effective email campaign that will capture your recipients’ attention and drive them to take action. We’ll cover everything from creating a compelling subject line to segmenting your email list, optimising your design and using persuasive language. Follow these best practices to ensure your emails are effective and help you take your marketing to the next level. ### **Subject Line** - The email subject line is the first thing people see when they receive your email, and it’s what they use to decide whether to open it. - A good subject line is short, attention-grabbing, and relevant to the recipient. Personalisation can also help increase open rates. - Remember to keep it clean and avoid spam triggers so your email doesn’t end up in the spam folder. - These triggers include words such as credit, debit, cash, discount, password, free and large attachments or attachments with executable formats such as .exe, .zip and .swf. ### **The Message** - Your [email content should be written with purpose](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/email-marketing/email-content-for-accounting-firms-easy-as-a-b-c/). Use language that speaks to your audience and encourages them to take action. - Keep your messages short and sweet, focusing on the needs and interests of your recipients. - Whenever possible, personalise your emails to create a sense of connection and trust. - Your emails should do more than just inform. They should tell a story, evoke emotions, and encourage your recipients to engage with your practice. ### **Design** - Design is crucial to a positive user experience. - [Make sure your emails are visually appealing](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/email-marketing/the-importance-of-email-marketing-design-and-how-to-get-it-right-in-just-five-steps/), easy to read, and optimised for different devices. - Use a consistent design that reflects your brand identity so you maintain a professional and cohesive image across all your communication channels. - Think about adding visual elements like images, videos, or interactive content to make your emails more engaging and help them stand out. ### **Audience Segmentation** - Your email list is made up of a variety of people, each with their own unique interests and needs. - By [segmenting your list](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/email-marketing/how-do-i-build-an-effective-email-database-for-my-accounting-firm/), you can send more targeted, personalised emails to specific groups of people. This can help you improve engagement and results. - You can segment your list based on a variety of factors, such as demographics, past interactions, or service preferences. - This allows you to send more relevant emails that resonate with your subscribers and make them feel like you’re speaking directly to them. [Click here to read our 10 tricks to sending great emails.](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/email-marketing/dont-send-another-email-until-youve-read-these-10-tricks/) ## 7. Creating an Online Social Presence. With billions of active users across various platforms, social media provides a unique opportunity to build a strong online presence and foster a sense of community. To harness the power of social media, you should start by creating a content calendar that maps out the topics you’ll cover, how often you’ll post, and which platforms you’ll use. This will help you maintain a consistent and engaging presence. You can also use social media analytics to gain insights into your audience, see how your posts are performing, and make adjustments to your strategy. [Check out this list of seven hacks to boost your social media engagement](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/seven-social-media-hacks-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers/). Now, let’s talk about the importance of community. Engaging with your followers is key. It’s not just about posting content; it’s about creating a dialogue. Show your audience you’re listening by responding to comments, questions, and messages. This is how you build relationships and demonstrate your commitment to excellent service. And don’t forget about targeted ads. By segmenting your audience based on demographics, interests, and behaviours, you can deliver personalised messages that resonate with your ideal clients. If you’d like more [insight on what content accountants should be posting to their social media channels click here](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/what-should-accountants-be-posting-on-their-firms-social-media-pages/). Contests and giveaways on social media are another powerful tool to spark interest, gain new followers, and boost brand recognition. Offering valuable prizes and encouraging participants to share their views and experiences. By embracing these social media strategies, accountants can forge a robust online presence, cultivate a community, and draw in new clients. BOMA’s expertly curated content library ensures accountants can simplify their social media marketing endeavours and attain heightened success in the digital era. ## 8. Managed Marketing Services. Accounting firms often sign up to marketing platforms with good intentions only to find they are unable to fit in the hoped for activity alongside their existing client facing work. So marketing ends up the ‘too hard basket’, activity stops and the time / money invested so far is wasted. Some marketing platforms offer 3rd party marketing services to help businesses with marketing but only BOMA is expert in the field of marketing for accounting firms. At BOMA, we understand the challenges of running an accounting firm and therefore offer our managed marketing service to those firms who need someone else to do the heavy lifting for them. We’ve crafted exclusive packages to enhance your firm’s online presence, ensuring you stay ahead in a competitive digital landscape without having to lift a finger. BOMA packages can also include SEO optimisation, review generation and BOMA campaign management, leaving you free to focus on what you do best – serving your clients. - **Save Time and Resources:** BOMA’s done-for-you services save you countless hours, allowing you to focus on your core business activities while we handle your digital marketing. - **Expert Strategy and Execution:** Benefit from our expertise in digital marketing specifically tailored for the accounting industry. BOMA’s strategies are designed to maximise your online presence and engagement. - **Consistent and Quality Content:** With BOMA’s service, your digital marketing content will always be fresh, relevant, and engaging, ensuring that your firm remains top-of-mind for your clients and prospects. - **Measurable Results:** BOMA’s comprehensive analytics and performance tracking provide you with actionable insights, allowing you to see the direct impact of our services on the success of your campaigns and your business growth. [Learn more about our managed marketing service packages here](https://bomamarketing.com/bomas-managed-marketing-service-let-us-handle-your-digital-presence/). ## **9. Website Builder Service.** A strong online presence is crucial for businesses, especially for professionals like accountants who are looking to expand their reach and connect with potential clients. Recognising the need of many accounting firms, either launching or upgrading their website, BOMA offers a full- service website design and build service, designed to help accountants establish a robust online presence. - **Tailored Solutions:** Our website expertise ensures that accountants receive a website that is not only visually appealing but also resonates with their target audience. We create websites that effectively communicate your services and value proposition in the short and long run. - **You OWN Your Website:** Sounds strange, right? But there are some companies that build websites for accountants, don’t give you access to the backend, and don’t hand the keys over if you cancel your subscription (often at $200+/mo). With BOMA, you are not held hostage. Your website is yours, forever. - **Seamless Integration:** BOMA’s websites come pre-built with BOMA’s digital marketing toolkit, allowing you to easily manage your social media, email campaigns, and more. This integration ensures that your marketing efforts are streamlined and effective. - **Cost-Effective Packages:** With BOMA’s unique referral structures, clients can benefit from ongoing discounts, ensuring that you get the best value for your investment. Whether you’re a new client or an existing one, our packages are designed to provide maximum benefits. - **Cost-Effective Packages:** With BOMA’s unique referral structures, clients can benefit from ongoing discounts, ensuring that you get the best value for your investment. Whether you’re a new client or an existing one, our packages are designed to provide maximum benefits. - **Lead Generation:** Combining BOMA’s done-for-you content with BMR’s lead generation tactics is a powerful combination, do more and be better than your competitors at a more competitive rate. - **Continuous Updates:** The digital landscape is ever-evolving. BOMA’s website service ensures that your website remains updated with the latest trends, compliance guidelines, and advisory content. Combined with the latest articles from BOMA’s content library your website will always stay relevant. [Learn more about our website builder service here](https://bomamarketing.com/build-your-website-with-boma/). ## 10. Why BOMA is the Marketing and Content Platform of Choice for Accounting Firms. Unlike many generic marketing platforms in the marketplace that cater to a range of business, often retail focused, [BOMA is tailored to the unique challenges and opportunities of the accounting industry](https://bomamarketing.com/uncategorized/the-ultimate-marketing-solution-for-accounting-firms-boma-vs-the-top-5-competitors/). This means that you get a comprehensive suite of marketing tools that are designed to help accounting firms succeed. BOMA’s extensive library of content, created specifically for accountants, helps you engage your audience with the right content at the right time. BOMA’s AI-powered content creation tools make it easy to create custom content that’s unique to your firm. With BOMA, you can create marketing campaigns that resonate with your clients and prospects, helping you build trust and a strong brand. BOMA’s multi-channel campaign management capabilities make it easy to manage and execute campaigns across multiple platforms. This centralised approach ensures consistency, efficiency, and a unified brand voice, helping accounting firms connect with their audience effectively and consistently. Plus, BOMA’s user-friendly interface and comprehensive training resources make it easy to get started and get the most out of the platform without needing specialised technical expertise. By choosing BOMA, you’re choosing a marketing partner that can help you grow your firm, increase your visibility and establish your firm as a leader in the accounting industry. With BOMA, the possibilities are endless and you can take your marketing to the next level. Harness the power of BOMA and transform your firm’s marketing and client communications today. BOMA is the gold standard for accountants, offering a comprehensive marketing solution that seamlessly integrates an accounting specific content library, AI-powered content customisation and creation and multi-channel campaign management. Experience the future of digital marketing and unlock the true potential of your firm with BOMA. ## 11. BOMA’s Key Features. - **Content Library:** Welcome to the future! With [hundreds of country specific articles](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/content-libraries/) added to weekly you’ll always have great content to share with clients and prospects. - **Generative AI:** [Content Assist revolutionises email and blog creation](https://bomamarketing.com/create-or-customise-the-power-is-yours-with-content-assist/). Effortlessly customise and edit articles from the content library or create emails and blogs from scratch in minutes. - **Multi-Channel Campaigns:** All your [digital marketing channels in one platform](https://bomamarketing.com/multi-channel-marketing-campaigns-made-easy/). With a few clicks, you can easily create your own content, or use articles from BOMA’s huge content library, and share it via email, social media channels and your website as a blog. - **Integrations:** BOMA’s [Zapier integration allows](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-integrates-with-zapier/) you to connect BOMA with some of the most popular accounting industry apps so that you can automate the sending of data into and out of BOMA. ## **12. Additional Features.** - **Email Templates** - **Free Image Library** - **Lead Capture Forms** - **Campaign Scheduling** - **Campaign Analytics** - **Manage Contacts** ## 13. What Our Clients Say About Us. *“Boma has been awesome to help me with my email newsletters, blogs and social media content! A platform that is easy to use and they send out the new content often so we know what new information we can post or send to clients. Also the team are really helpful! Cheers Boma team!” **Stacey Armstrong, Manage My Cashflow** “*I am a newby to Boma and I got to say FINALLY there is an easy way to market accounting services. YAY. Thank you BOMA.” **Louise Stodart, Quantum Link** *“Frankly I’d be lost without Charles and BOMA. Makes communicating with clients exceptionally easy.”* **Janet Xuccoa, Green Lion** *“Get into it!!! Boma is SUPER, super easy to use and intuitive, I LOVE IT! It’s a timesaver platform for me, incorporating all of our social media (Facebook and LinkedIn) and our newsletter in one platform. Hip Hip Hooray for Boma!”* **Michelle Fox-Bishop, Rural Accountants** **Categories:** Marketing **Tags:** Customers, Nurture --- ### [What Is BOMA? The Digital Marketing Platform Built for Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/accounting-bookkeeper/what-is-boma-the-digital-marketing-platform-built-for-accountants/) **Published:** June 3, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Despite their expertise in numbers and compliance, many accounting firms struggle to differentiate themselves, communicate their value, and engage clients effectively in an increasingly digital and competitive marketplace. [Common challenges](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/digital-marketing/the-3-biggest-marketing-and-communication-challenges-for-accountants/) include a lack of time, uncertainty about what marketing activities actually work, difficulty producing relevant content, limited resources, and the absence of clear systems or strategies. As the accounting sector becomes more competitive and [client expectations shift towards proactive advice and digital engagement](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/small-business/modern-business-owners-want-an-accountant-who-goes-beyond-the-numbers/), firms need practical solutions to stay visible and relevant. ## **Who is the BOMA marketing platform for?** BOMA is designed specifically for accountants, bookkeepers, and professional services firms who want to strengthen their marketing without the need for specialist skills or a large marketing budget. Whether you’re a sole practitioner or a multi-partner practice, BOMA enables you to reach new clients, nurture existing relationships, and build your brand – all from a single, easy-to-use platform. ## **What are the key features of the BOMA platform?** BOMA offers a comprehensive suite of features tailored to the needs of accounting professionals: - **Specialist Content Library:** Access [hundreds of expertly written, region-specific articles](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/) covering compliance, advisory, and business growth topics. Content is regularly updated and can be customised to reflect your firm’s expertise and voice. - **Multi-Channel Campaign Management:** Create and distribute campaigns across [email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and WordPress blogs](https://bomamarketing.com/multi-channel-marketing-campaigns-made-easy/). BOMA automatically reformats your content for each channel, ensuring consistency and saving time. - **AI-Assisted Content Creation:** Our ‘[Content Assist’ feature helps you quickly generate or tailor content](https://bomamarketing.com/create-or-customise-the-power-is-yours-with-content-assist/), making campaign creation efficient and accessible. - **Drag-and-Drop Email Builder:** [Design professional, branded emails using a simple drag-and-drop editor](https://bomamarketing.com/features/email-templates/), with a library of templates to match your firm’s branding. - **Extensive Free Image Library:** [Access millions of high-quality images](https://bomamarketing.com/image-library/), automatically optimised for different platforms. - **Lead Capture Forms and Landing Pages:** Build and customise lead capture forms to grow your email list and attract new prospects. - **Campaign Scheduling and Automation:** [Schedule emails and social posts to go live at optimal times](https://bomamarketing.com/features/email-and-social-scheduling/), and automate routine marketing tasks. - **Analytics and Reporting:** Monitor [campaign performance with clear, actionable analytics](https://bomamarketing.com/features/campaign-analytics/) – track open rates, clicks, and social engagement to refine your marketing strategy. - **Third-Party Integrations:** Seamlessly connect with [Xero, Zapier, Salesforce, HubSpot, and WordPress](https://support.bomamarketing.com/articles/5518949-what-you-need-to-know-about-zapier-for-boma) to streamline contact management and automate marketing processes. - **Contact Management and Segmentation:** Import and segment contacts for targeted campaigns, and manage your audience with ease. - **Permission-Based Marketing:** Stay compliant with privacy regulations through built-in unsubscribe links and permission checkboxes. - **Managed Services:** Don’t have time to operate BOMA yourself? We can [manage it for you with our done-for-you marketing packages](https://bomamarketing.com/bomas-managed-marketing-service-let-us-handle-your-digital-presence/). - **Website Solutions:** We also offer [website design services for accounting firms](https://bomamarketing.com/build-your-website-with-boma/), helping you generate leads and communicate your value effectively. ## **How does BOMA help accounting firms?** Our features translate into tangible benefits for accounting firms facing today’s evolving market conditions: - **Save Money:** Avoid the costs of complex marketing platforms or hiring external copywriters. BOMA’s all-in-one solution is cost-effective and tailored for the accounting sector. - **Save Time:** With a ready-made content library and AI-assisted tools, you can [launch campaigns in minutes, freeing up time for client work and strategic planning](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/user-success-stories/boma-plays-an-integral-role-in-our-marketing-inspire-accounting-business-services/). - **Multi-Channel Efficiency:** [Share your message across multiple platforms from one place](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/user-success-stories/marketing-advisory-services-and-business-growth-woottons-chartered-accountants/), with content automatically formatted for each channel. - **Enhance Your Professional Image:** Consistently share high-quality, relevant content to [position your firm as a trusted advisor and industry leader](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/user-success-stories/connecting-with-clients-through-highly-relevant-content-compass-business-partners/). - **Grow Your Audience:** Use built-in lead capture forms and landing pages to attract new prospects and build your email list. - **Data-Driven Decisions:** BOMA’s analytics help you understand what resonates with your audience, so you can refine your approach for better results. - **No Specialist Skills Needed:** The intuitive platform, onboarding support, and training resources make it easy for anyone in your firm to use. - **Region-Specific Content:** All articles are tailored to your local market, ensuring your communications are always relevant. - **Centralised Management:** Handle all your marketing activities – content creation, distribution, analytics, and website management – from a single platform. ## **Why choose BOMA as your firm’s do-it-all marketing platform?** For accounting firms looking to overcome the most common marketing hurdles – lack of time, uncertainty about what works, limited resources, and the need for consistent, high-quality content – BOMA offers a practical and effective solution. By streamlining digital marketing and providing access to expertly written, relevant content, [BOMA helps firms stay visible, build authority, and attract the clients they want](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/user-success-stories/helping-businesses-grow-and-succeed-alluvia-financial/) in a rapidly evolving marketplace. ## **What if I don’t have the time to manage BOMA myself?** For firms seeking a completely hands-off approach, [BOMA offers a managed marketing service with done-for-you packages tailored specifically for accounting practices](https://bomamarketing.com/bomas-managed-marketing-service-let-us-handle-your-digital-presence/). These packages are designed to elevate your firm’s online presence without requiring your direct involvement, allowing you to focus fully on your core business activities. This service ensures your digital marketing content remains fresh, relevant, and engaging, keeping your firm top-of-mind for clients and prospects. It includes comprehensive analytics and performance tracking, providing clear insights into how marketing efforts contribute to your business growth. ## **Help, I need a new website?** Recognising the importance of a strong online presence, [BOMA provides a full-service website design and build offering tailored to accountants and bookkeepers](https://bomamarketing.com/build-your-website-with-boma/). Whether you need a brand-new website or a refresh of your existing site, BOMA’s team creates visually appealing, user-friendly websites that effectively communicate your services and value proposition. Unlike some providers, BOMA ensures you retain full ownership of your website – no ongoing subscriptions or “hostage” arrangements. The websites come pre-integrated with BOMA’s digital marketing toolkit, allowing seamless management of social media, email campaigns, and more from one place. Additional features include integration with Google Reviews, making it easy to showcase positive client feedback prominently on your site while managing negative reviews privately to protect your reputation. This approach not only enhances trust but also improves SEO and helps differentiate your firm in a crowded market. **Categories:** Accountant and Bookkeeper --- ### [Connect HubSpot CRM with BOMA Marketing Platform](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/integrations/integrate-hubspot-to-boma-with-zapier/) **Published:** August 5, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **Does BOMA integrate with Hubspot?** Yes, BOMA integrates with HubSpot via Zapier. The integration automatically syncs contacts from BOMA lead forms to your HubSpot CRM in real-time. Setup takes approximately 10 minutes and works with free Zapier accounts. You’ll need a BOMA account, HubSpot account, and Zapier account to begin. The HubSpot-BOMA integration automatically synchronises contacts from BOMA lead capture forms directly into your HubSpot CRM. This eliminates manual data entry, ensures no potential client is overlooked, and creates a seamless workflow between your marketing automation and client relationship management systems. ### What This Integration Does When someone completes a BOMA lead capture form (newsletter sign-ups, content downloads, webinar registrations), their contact details are instantly added to your HubSpot CRM with customisable tags and segmentation. This allows accounting firms to: - **Capture leads automatically**: Every form submission flows directly to HubSpot - **Maintain data accuracy**: Single source of truth with automatic synchronisation - **Segment intelligently**: Tag leads based on the form they completed - **Nurture systematically**: Trigger HubSpot workflows based on BOMA form submissions - **Save time**: Eliminate manual CSV exports and imports ### Who This Integration Is For This integration is designed for accounting and bookkeeping firms who use: - BOMA for content marketing, email campaigns, and lead generation - HubSpot CRM for client relationship management and sales workflows - Zapier for connecting cloud applications (free and paid plans supported) ## WHY CONNECT HUBSPOT WITH BOMA ### For Accounting Firms Using Both Platforms: - **Eliminate double data entry**: Contacts flow automatically from marketing to CRM - **Faster lead response**: Sales team sees new leads instantly in HubSpot - **Better attribution**: Track which BOMA campaigns generate HubSpot opportunities - **Unified client view**: Marketing engagement + sales conversations in one system - **Scalable growth**: Handle 10 or 1,000 leads/month without additional admin work ## How to Set Up HubSpot-BOMA Integration ### Requirements Before starting, ensure you have: - An active BOMA account with API access - A HubSpot account (free or paid) - A Zapier account (works with free plan) - Your BOMA API key (found in Settings > Integrations) Integrating HubSpot with BOMA through Zapier allows accountants to seamlessly sync contacts from BOMA lead capture forms to their HubSpot account. This integration ensures that leads who complete a lead capture form is automatically synced to your HubSpot CRM, eliminating the need for manual data entry and ensuring that no potential client is overlooked. By connecting BOMA with HubSpot, you can enhance your lead management, streamline your marketing efforts, and focus on building strong relationships with your clients. Follow the steps below to enable this integration. ### Step-by-Step Guide First you will need to create a **Lead Form** in BOMA. Navigate to the Lead Form page in the BOMA menu and click on **New lead form**. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-3.34.07-PM.png) Give the lead form a name e.g. Newsletter Sign Up and click on **Create**. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-3.34.42-PM.png) Next fill our the **Form page heading** and **Form page** body and the **Form Fields** you want to capture e.g. First Name. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-3.35.44-PM.png) Then specify the **Headline** and **Message** you want people who complete the form to be shown. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-3.36.15-PM.png) Finally, tick the check box labeled **Send to Zapier**. **Assign a tag** to the people who complete the form e.g. newsletter sign up. Add the **website domain** where the form will be hosted. Then click **save**. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-3.36.54-PM.png) Now once a lead form has been filled out, the contact will be sent to Hubspot. Next, you will need to go to [**www.zapier.com** ](http://www.zapier.com)and log in to your account. To create a Zap click on **Create** in the left-hand menu. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-01-at-3.17.21-PM-1.png) Click on **Trigger.** ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB3-1.png) Find the App you want to use, in this case **BOMA 1.1.0.** If you can’t find BOMA, connect manually via [this support link](https://support.bomamarketing.com/articles/4702557-connecting-zapier-and-posting-to-wordpress). Or click on a link from BOMA to add it, and then you will be able to find it in the Apps. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-4.13.02-PM.png) Then, you will need to link your BOMA account to the Zap. Click on the Account and choose **Sign in** ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Untitled-design-2.png) A popup will appear. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/K15.png) Enter the **API key** and the **email** you use to login to BOMA and press the **Yes continue** button. A connection will open the Zap with the **Action** field ready to edit. Select **Fetch Contacts From BOMA**. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-4.23.11-PM.png)` Once you have connected the account, click on test. Next, you will need to connect your Hubspot account. Select **Hubspot** in the search pop up that appears. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-4.27.50-PM.png) Choose the event by selecting **Create Contact**. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-3.22.34-PM.png) Now, **Sign in** to your Hubspot account. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Untitled-design-1.png) You will then need to select the different information that you would like to be transferred to Hubspot from your BOMA account. You will need to at least add the email of the contact, but we also recommend you add the First and Last name fields (so you can identify who the contact is). ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-4.10.54-PM.png) It will appear on the right hand side. Click on **Account**. You will need to connect to your Hubspot account. Click **Sign In**. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Untitled-design.png) Click on the Orange **Connect** **app** button to connect Zapier to your Hubspot account. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-3.18.44-PM.png) Finally, test the trigger – the Zap will find a recent new Lead Form contact in BOMA online to confirm the trigger is set up correctly. Click on the **Test trigger** button. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-3.21.03-PM.png) A successful test will display the below message. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-5.26.11-PM.png) You will also see the new contact record that has been sent your your Hubspot account. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Untitled-design-5.png) Click the blue **Publish** button to save your zap or **Retest step** if necessary. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB21.png) Congratulations! You’ve successfully connected BOMA Lead Forms to Hubspot CRM using Zapier. ## FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ### Does this integration work in real-time? Yes. When a lead completes a BOMA form, they’re sent to HubSpot within seconds via Zapier. There may be a brief delay (typically under 1 minute) depending on your Zapier plan. ### Can I sync historical BOMA contacts to HubSpot? The integration only syncs new form submissions moving forward. To import existing BOMA contacts, export them as a CSV from BOMA and import to HubSpot manually as a one-time setup. ### Which HubSpot properties can I map from BOMA? You can map any standard BOMA form fields (First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone, Company) to corresponding HubSpot properties. Custom fields require manual mapping in Zapier. ### Does this use my Zapier task quota? Yes. Each form submission counts as one Zapier task. On Zapier’s free plan (100 tasks/month), you can sync 100 leads monthly. For higher volumes, upgrade your Zapier plan. ### Can I add leads to specific HubSpot lists or workflows? Yes. In the Zapier action step, you can specify which HubSpot list to add contacts to. You can also use HubSpot’s workflow automation to trigger actions when contacts with specific BOMA tags are created. ### What happens if a contact already exists in HubSpot? Zapier will update the existing contact record rather than creating a duplicate, based on email address matching. Existing data is preserved unless you specifically map fields to overwrite. ### Do I need a paid BOMA plan for this integration? The Zapier integration is available on all BOMA plans. Check your specific plan features or contact BOMA support to confirm API access. ### Can I use this without Zapier? Currently, Zapier is the only supported integration method between BOMA and HubSpot. BOMA’s API and HubSpot’s API could be connected via custom development, but this requires technical expertise. ## RELATED INTEGRATIONS FOR ACCOUNTING FIRMS - **Karbon + BOMA Integration** – Sync practice management data. [Learn more](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/integrations/integrate-karbon-to-boma-with-zapier-2/). - **QuickBooks + BOMA Integration** – Connect accounting software. [Learn more](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/integrations/integrate-quickbooks-to-boma-with-zapier/). - **Xero + BOMA Integration** – Link cloud accounting platform - **WordPress + BOMA Integration** – Publish to your website automatically. [Learn more](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/integrations/integrate-wordpress-to-boma-with-zapier/). **Categories:** Integrations --- ### [The Growth Equation: Balancing Talent, Tools, and Time](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/the-growth-equation-balancing-talent-tools-and-time/) **Published:** January 30, 2026 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this webinar, Ian Christie (Founder & CEO, BOMA) and Scott Findlay (Co-Founder & Director, The Back Room) reveal how leading accounting firms are solving the talent shortage crisis using a practical framework: The Growth Equation. Discover how automation and offshoring work together to free up partner time, boost team capacity, and shift focus from billable hours to high-value client growth—without burning out your team. Learn the exact steps firms are taking to identify bottlenecks, standardise workflows, and measure real impact. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Marketing Role - To Freelance, Outsource, or Offshore?](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/marketing-role-to-freelance-outsource-or-offshore/) **Published:** December 9, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this webinar Ian Christie, CEO of BOMA, and Scott Findlay, CEO of The Back Room, what no longer works for accountants’ marketing, what does work now, and how to be more strategic and authentic in your messaging while staying consistent over time. They then cover the pros and cons of doing marketing in‑house versus using freelancers, outsourcing or offshoring, and shows you how to choose the right blend of local, automated, and offshore support so you can scale efficiently and profitably. This session is designed to help accounting firm leaders decide how to resource their marketing function and get better-fit clients, without burning partner time. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [The Future-Ready Accounting Firm: Thriving in 2025 and Beyond](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/the-future-ready-accounting-firm-thriving-in-2025-and-beyond/) **Published:** November 25, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Ready to reshape the future of your accounting firm? Join us for “The Hybrid Advantage: Combining Smart Tech and Offshore Talent to Scale Smarter”, a power-packed webinar series from BOMA and The Back Room. This is not your usual future-of-accounting talk. Forget the old humans-vs-machines debate. We’ll show you why the future is a collaborative force of offshore specialists and cutting-edge technology, built for growth, efficiency, and sanity. ### What’s in it for you? - Get expert, actionable guidance on: - Future-proofing your firm in 2025 and beyond - Choosing the right mix of freelance, offshore, and in-house roles - Real world stories from accounting firms already scaling with hybrid success - Making marketing work—without doing it all yourself - Leveraging strategic partnerships for credibility and new clients - Using AI and automation to work smarter, not harder You’ll walk away with checklists, templates, and practical playbooks to implement straight away. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Advisory Momentum: Mindset, Marketing & AI for Accountants and Bookkeepers (AU/NZ Edition)](https://bomamarketing.com/uncategorized/advisory-momentum-mindset-marketing-ai-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers-au-nz-edition-2/) **Published:** October 23, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this fast-paced 45-minute session, discover how to confidently market, sell, and deliver advisory services that resonate with small and medium-sized business owners. Hosted by BOMA and The Gap, this webinar will help you adopt the right mindset, embrace time-saving tools, and leverage AI without losing your brand identity. Learn how to maintain a consistent marketing message that builds trust and drives engagement – without blowing yourself apart. Whether you’re just starting with advisory or scaling up, this session will give you practical insights to move forward with clarity and confidence. Points of Value: 1. **Mindset Shift** – Learn how to position advisory as a core part of your firm’s value. 2. **AI Without Losing Your Voice** – Use AI tools to save time while keeping your brand identity intact. 3. **Marketing Made Easy** – Discover how BOMA helps you stay visible with consistent, client-relevant messaging. 4. **Advisory Delivery Tactics** – Explore how The Gap’s tools streamline delivery and deepen client impact. 5. **Client-Focused Growth** – Apply what you learn to help your clients grow, adapt, and thrive. Join BOMA and The Gap to learn winning strategies, discover time-saving tools, and see how AI can boost your firm without losing your brand voice. **Categories:** Uncategorized --- ### [Advisory Momentum: Mindset, Marketing & AI for Accountants and Bookkeepers (AU/NZ Edition)](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/advisory-momentum-mindset-marketing-ai-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers-au-nz-edition/) **Published:** October 8, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this fast-paced 45-minute session, discover how to confidently market, sell, and deliver advisory services that resonate with small and medium-sized business owners. Hosted by BOMA and The Gap, this webinar will help you adopt the right mindset, embrace time-saving tools, and leverage AI without losing your brand identity. Learn how to maintain a consistent marketing message that builds trust and drives engagement – without blowing yourself apart. Whether you’re just starting with advisory or scaling up, this session will give you practical insights to move forward with clarity and confidence. Points of Value: 1. **Mindset Shift** – Learn how to position advisory as a core part of your firm’s value. 2. **AI Without Losing Your Voice** – Use AI tools to save time while keeping your brand identity intact. 3. **Marketing Made Easy** – Discover how BOMA helps you stay visible with consistent, client-relevant messaging. 4. **Advisory Delivery Tactics** – Explore how The Gap’s tools streamline delivery and deepen client impact. 5. **Client-Focused Growth** – Apply what you learn to help your clients grow, adapt, and thrive. Join BOMA and The Gap to learn winning strategies, discover time-saving tools, and see how AI can boost your firm without losing your brand voice. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Advisory Momentum: Mindset, Marketing & AI for Accountants and Bookkeepers (UK Edition)](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/advisory-momentum-mindset-marketing-ai-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers-uk-edition/) **Published:** October 8, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this fast-paced 45-minute session, discover how to confidently market, sell, and deliver advisory services that resonate with small and medium-sized business owners. Hosted by BOMA and The Gap, this webinar will help you adopt the right mindset, embrace time-saving tools, and leverage AI without losing your brand identity. Learn how to maintain a consistent marketing message that builds trust and drives engagement – without blowing yourself apart. Whether you’re just starting with advisory or scaling up, this session will give you practical insights to move forward with clarity and confidence. Points of Value: 1. **Mindset Shift** – Learn how to position advisory as a core part of your firm’s value. 2. **AI Without Losing Your Voice** – Use AI tools to save time while keeping your brand identity intact. 3. **Marketing Made Easy** – Discover how BOMA helps you stay visible with consistent, client-relevant messaging. 4. **Advisory Delivery Tactics** – Explore how The Gap’s tools streamline delivery and deepen client impact. 5. **Client-Focused Growth** – Apply what you learn to help your clients grow, adapt, and thrive. Join BOMA and The Gap to learn winning strategies, discover time-saving tools, and see how AI can boost your firm without losing your brand voice. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Better Software, Better Advisory: How Accountants Can Stay in the Game](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/better-software-better-advisory-how-accountants-can-stay-in-the-game/) **Published:** February 27, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Accountants can’t afford to sit on the sidelines when it comes to software changes. A new system isn’t just about flashy features—it’s about fixing broken processes and making the business run better. But that only happens when accountants, clients, and software implementers work together. Join Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA, as he hosts Courtney Wilson and Josh Wilson of The Software Coach for a discussion on why accountants need to be involved from day one, what happens when they’re left out, and how misalignment between key players can derail an entire project. Most importantly, we’ll cover practical strategies to keep everyone on track and ensure software actually delivers better business outcomes. If you want to level up your advisory services and avoid software disasters, this is a must-watch session! **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [10 Steps to Rank Your Accounting Firm Higher for Local & “Near Me” Google Searches](https://bomamarketing.com/uncategorized/10-steps-to-rank-your-accounting-firm-higher-for-local-near-me-google-searches/) **Published:** September 16, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Mobile and voice search have revolutionised how clients find accountants. With “near me” queries rising by 200% in just two years and 85% of adults using search engines daily, ranking high locally is essential for growth. Here’s a practical blueprint to help accounting firms improve visibility, attract new clients, and stand out in their city. ## **1. Create and Optimise Your Google Business Profile** A complete Google Business Profile drives an average of 7x more clicks than an incomplete listing. Set up your profile with accurate business name, address, phone, website, hours, and a well-crafted description. Add professional photos and update your services (“Chartered Accountant,” “Payroll Specialist,” “Xero Gold Partner”). **Pro tip:** - Use Google’s “services” field to list offerings like “GST Returns Wellington,” or “Business Advisory Auckland” ## **2. Get Client Reviews and Always Respond** Reviews are vital with 82% of local consumers reading reviews before approaching a business, and Google’s top-ranked results average 404 recent reviews. Ask clients for feedback after every engagement, and reply to every review (even the critical ones). Firms that reply to just 25% of reviews see conversion rates increase by 4.1%. **Pro Tip:** - Request reviews via email after filing, or add a review link to your thank-you notes. - Mention specific services in your replies for SEO (“Thank you for choosing us for your end-of-year tax review”). ## **3. Optimise Your Website for Mobile** 84% of local “accountant near me” searches happen on a phone, and 76% of mobile users will visit a business within a day. Ensure your website loads fast, looks crisp, and is easy to navigate on all devices. Test forms and click-to-call buttons regularly. **Quick wins:** - Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test - Place your contact form and “Book Consultation” button in top, visible locations ## **4. Ensure Accurate Business Info Everywhere** Mismatched information (NAPW: Name, Address, Phone, Website) is a major reason firms miss top rankings. Check all listings on Google, LinkedIn, Yelp, Xero Advisor, and Facebook. Update changes across all platforms immediately. **Pro Tip:** - Use local tools ([Moz Local](https://moz.com/)) to audit listings. ## **5. Add Schema Markup** Use schema markup so Google easily identifies your hours, services, and reviews. Businesses that add LocalBusiness schema show more info—and star ratings—in search previews. **How-to:** - Use [Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper](https://www.google.com/webmasters/markup-helper/) - Update your schema monthly, and test with [Google’s Rich Results Tool](https://search.google.com/test/rich-results) - Australian city example: “Schema marked up for ‘AccountingService’ targeting Melbourne tax queries” ## **6. Increase Reviews on All Key Platforms** Besides Google, maintain reviews on platforms like Facebook, Yelp and accounting-specific directories. 91% of consumers look for positive local reviews before choosing a business. **Checklist:** - Set up alerts for new reviews - Reply promptly - Ask happy clients to post on multiple platforms ## **7. Use Local SEO Heatmaps** Heatmaps reveal which pages and elements users click most. Shift high-engagement buttons (like “request callback”) to hot zones for more conversions. **Tools:** - Try [Hotjar](https://www.hotjar.com/) or [Microsoft Clarity](https://clarity.microsoft.com/) ## **8. Audit and Sync All Review/Directory Listings** Google factors in accuracy and duplicates across directories. Fully synchronised listings are 2.7x more likely to convert local searchers. **Pro Tip:** - Regularly remove outdated profiles and phone numbers - Use a checklist to audit Yelp, Xero Advisor, LinkedIn, and Google ## **9. Add User-Generated Content and Local Keywords** Feature testimonials, case studies, and FAQs using natural language and city/service terms: “GST specialist Christchurch,” “Business advisory in Cambridge.” Authenticity beats keyword stuffing. Read more about [SEO optimisation here](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/website/seo-for-accountants-get-found-by-more-local-clients/). ## **10. Optimise for Voice Search** Nearly half (46%) of users now search by voice for local services. Write FAQs and answers conversationally. Keep hours and address visible on your site and in your profile. ## **Bonus: Fix Broken Links Regularly** Broken links hurt your reputation and drop your rankings fast. Scan your site monthly using [Google Search Console](https://search.google.com/search-console/about). Businesses see a noticeable jump in engagement and rankings after regular maintenance. ## **Summary Table: 10 Steps for Accounting Firm SEO Success** **Step****Benefit****Action**Google ProfileMore clicksComplete & update monthlyReviewsHigher trustAsk & reply—Google, Facebook, XeroMobile WebsiteLocal visitsFast loading, call-to-action on topAccurate InfoBetter rankingSync NAPW everywhereSchemaRich resultsAdd LocalBusiness schemaReviews (All Sites)Referral trafficMonitor, reply, expand reachHeatmapMore conversionsOptimise hot zonesDirectory AuditHigher visibilityRemove duplicatesUGC/KeywordsNiche rankingReal stories, cities, servicesVoice SearchTop answersFAQ, conversational copyReal-world results confirm that these measures drive more visibility, calls, and conversions for accounting firms. 76% of local searchers visit a business within a day, and 80% of local searches lead to customer conversions. Use these strategies to make “near me” searches work for your firm and turn active local searchers into loyal clients. Get your accounting firm listed and optimised with BOMA, learn more about our SEO and Managed Marketing Services [here](https://bomamarketing.com/bomas-managed-marketing-service-let-us-handle-your-digital-presence/). **Categories:** Digital Marketing, Uncategorized, Website --- ### [Human Meets Machine - Making AI Work in your Workplace](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/human-meets-machine-making-ai-work-in-your-workplace/) **Published:** July 24, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Discover how AI is transforming accounting practices worldwide! Join Charles Clark, BOMA’s Marketing Director, as he hosts Rachel Bruce, Head of the Accounting CPD Learning Catalogue, for an insightful session tailored for forward-thinking accountants. Rachel brings a global perspective, having observed thousands of accounting firms either embrace or hesitate with AI adoption. Her expertise helps shape CPD courses that empower accountants to leverage AI ethically and mindfully. What we cover: - Real-world stories of AI successes and mishaps in accounting - Practical tips on how to avoid common pitfalls with AI implementation - Recommendations for CPD courses to guide your AI journey Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to implement AI the right way and future-proof your practice. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [How Often Should I Post on Social Media Platforms? The Definitive Guide for Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/how-often-should-i-post-on-social-media-platforms-the-definitive-guide-for-accountants/) **Published:** June 26, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Consistency and quality matter more than posting every day. Most accountants achieve the best results with 2–3 posts per week per platform, tailored to their audience and resources, and prioritising value over volume. Social media is a cornerstone of modern accounting firm marketing, enabling you to build authority, nurture client relationships, and generate leads cost-effectively. Yet, the most common question remains: **“How often should I post?”** Many accountants worry they must post daily to stay relevant, but the reality is more nuanced. You don’t need to be everywhere or post all the time—what matters is a sustainable, consistent approach that aligns with your goals and capacity. ## The Golden Rule: Consistency Wins Algorithms on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and X (Twitter) reward engagement and relevance, not sheer volume. Posting too often can actually decrease reach by overwhelming your audience or diluting your message. For most professional services firms, especially accountants, daily posting is unnecessary and unsustainable. ## Engagement Drivers: Myths vs. Reality - **Myth:** More posts always mean more reach. - **Reality:** Consistent, high-quality content builds trust and visibility. Erratic or excessive posting can confuse followers or trigger algorithmic penalties. ## What Works Best - **Consistency builds brand recall and trust.** - **Quality content prompts more meaningful engagement.** - **Suggested minimum:** 2-3 posts per week per platform is optimal for most accounting firms, balancing visibility with realistic workload. ## Tailoring Frequency by Platform Not all platforms are equal – each has its own culture and best practices. Here’s how to adapt your posting schedule: ## LinkedIn - **Best for:** B2B, thought leadership, professional updates. - **Recommended:** 1-2 posts per week. - **What to share:** Tax tips, regulatory updates, blog articles, client wins, industry commentary. ## Facebook - **Best for:** Community engagement, local updates, behind-the-scenes. - **Recommended:** 2-3 posts per week. - **What to share:** Office news, team milestones, client stories, event photos. ## Instagram - **Best for:** Visual storytelling, brand personality, culture. - **Recommended:** 2-3 posts per week (if your firm has visual content). - **What to share:** Infographics, team photos, quick tips, short videos. ## X (Twitter) - **Best for:** Real-time commentary, news, quick tips. - **Recommended:** 3-5 updates per week. - **What to share:** Financial news reactions, deadline reminders, micro-insights. ## What to Post (So You Don’t Run Out of Ideas) - **Tax and compliance reminders:** GST, PAYE, EOFY deadlines. - **Client FAQs:** Answer common questions in short posts. - **Repurpose content:** Turn blogs or newsletter snippets into social posts. - **Testimonials and case studies:** Build trust with real results. - **Video snippets:** Quick tips, team intros, or explainer clips. - **Leverage BOMA’s content libraries:** [Access country-specific, prewritten articles and visuals to save time and stay relevant](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/). ## Tools to Help You Stay Consistent - **Scheduling tools:** marketing platforms like BOMA, Buffer, and Hootsuite allow you to batch and automate posts across multiple platforms. - **Content libraries:** BOMA’s [accountant-focused, region-specific content](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/) makes posting easy and compliant. - **Content calendar:** Use a simple spreadsheet or downloadable template to plan posts by week or month, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks. ## Final Tips - **Aim for helpful, not perfect:** Authenticity and relevance matter more than flawless graphics or copy. - **Let data guide you:** Use platform insights to see what resonates and adjust your strategy accordingly. - **Even once a week is valuable:** If that’s all you can manage, make it count—consistency is more important than frequency. ## Summary You don’t need to be everywhere or post every day to succeed on social media. Start with a manageable schedule, focus on delivering value, and stay consistent. Download a free content calendar or try BOMA’s marketing platform to simplify your social media marketing and ensure your accounting firm stands out, week after week. **Categories:** Social Media --- ### [What Are The Most Effective Way to Market Accounting Services: A Proven Framework](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/what-are-the-most-effective-way-to-market-accounting-services-a-proven-framework/) **Published:** June 26, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Marketing accounting services successfully in 2025 means combining strategy, automation, and trust-building—always tailored to your target audience. Whether you’re seeking small business owners, high-net-worth individuals, or specific industries, these steps will help you attract, convert, and retain the right clients. ## 1. Nail Your Niche **Why:** Specialists grow faster and command higher fees. **How:** - Focus on a specific audience – such as medical professionals, eCommerce businesses, trades, or farmers. - Tailor your website, service offerings, and marketing language to address their unique needs and pain points. - Use case studies and testimonials from similar clients to reinforce your expertise. **Example:** “Accounting for trades” or “Tax planning for medical practices” are more compelling than generic messaging. ## 2. Build a Strong Online Presence **Why:** Prospective clients almost always Google you first. **Tactics:** - **Google Business Profile:** Optimise for local SEO so you appear in searches like “accountant near me” or “tax accountant \[your city\]”. - **Professional Website:** Ensure your site is modern, mobile-friendly, and includes clear service descriptions, testimonials, and calls to action. - **SEO:** Use relevant keywords (e.g., “small business accounting services”, “bookkeeping for startups”) in your site content and metadata. - **Schema Markup:** Add structured data to help Google understand your services and display rich results. - **Analytics:** Use Google Analytics 4 to track visitor behaviour and refine your marketing. **Tip:** With BOMA’s [managed website packages](https://bomamarketing.com/build-your-website-with-boma/) we can build you a new website built from scratch or update your current website to ensure it looks modern and professional. ## 3. Use Content Marketing to Build Trust **Why:** Accounting is a trust-based business – content demonstrates expertise and builds credibility. **Tactics:** - **Email Newsletters:** Share timely tax updates, tips, and industry news to stay top-of-mind. - **Blog Posts & Articles:** Cover topics like tax deadlines, compliance changes, and business strategy. - **Video Content:** Short, helpful videos on LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram can simplify complex topics and boost visibility. **Tip:** The BOMA platform comes with [country specific content libraries which are packed with customisable articles](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/) on topics including tax, compliance, technology, management and strategy, HR / people etc. Articles can be shared [via email, social media channels and your website as a blog](https://bomamarketing.com/multi-channel-marketing-campaigns-made-easy/). ## 4. Ask for and Use Social Proof **Why:** Testimonials and case studies increase trust and conversion rates. **Tactics:** - Request Google reviews after positive client interactions. - Share client stories and testimonials (with permission) on your website and social media. - Develop case studies or “before and after” stories to showcase real results. ## 5. Leverage Referral and Partner Networks **Why:** Word of mouth remains the #1 source of new clients for accountants. **Tactics:** - Build relationships with lawyers, financial advisors, and industry associations for mutual referrals. - Reward existing clients who refer new business. - Co-host webinars or create joint content with strategic partners to reach new audiences. ## 6. Use Paid Ads Strategically (Optional) **Why:** Paid ads deliver quick visibility, especially during key seasons like tax time. **Tactics:** - Run Google Ads targeting specific services (e.g., “GST returns Sydney”, “accountant for tradies”). - Promote downloadable guides or checklists to grow your email list. - Use retargeting ads to stay top-of-mind with website visitors. - BOMA’s team can advise on best practises and run ad campaigns on your behalf with our [managed marketing service](https://bomamarketing.com/bomas-managed-marketing-service-let-us-handle-your-digital-presence/). ## 7. Focus on Retention Marketing **Why:** Retaining a client is 5–7 times [more cost-effective than acquiring a new one](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/accounting-bookkeeper/client-expansion-the-fastest-road-to-more-revenue/). **Tactics:** - Send regular updates, reminders and client-only content via email. - Offer exclusive webinars or planning sessions for existing clients. - Automate touchpoints for birthdays, year-end planning, or business milestones. - Use BOMA’s email platform to send regular updates, reminders. **Bonus: Use Automation and Analytics** **Why:** Automation increases efficiency; analytics drive smarter decisions. **Tactics:** - Use marketing platforms like BOMA, HubSpot, or Mailchimp to automate campaigns and segment your audience. - [Track open rates, clicks, and conversions](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/frequently-asked-questions-marketing-analytics-for-accountants/) to continually optimise your efforts. - Segment your communications by client type, industry, or service needs for greater relevance. **Tip:** BOMA is the only marketing platform designed specifically for accountants and includes [country specific content libraries.](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/) ## Summary: Best Marketing Strategies for Accountants ### **Step** ### **Why It Works** ### **Key Tactics** Nail Your NicheHigher fees, faster growthSpecialise, tailor messaging, use case studiesStrong Online PresenceFirst impression, SEO leadsGoogle profile, website, SEO, analyticsContent MarketingBuilds trust, educates clientsNewsletters, blogs, videos, automationSocial ProofIncreases conversion, builds trustReviews, testimonials, case studiesReferral Networks\#1 source of new clientsPartnerships, rewards, co-marketingPaid Ads (Optional)Quick, targeted visibilityGoogle Ads, retargeting, lead magnetsRetention MarketingCost-effective, boosts loyaltyEmail, webinars, automated touchpointsAutomation & AnalyticsEfficiency, data-driven improvementsCampaign automation, tracking, segmentation ## Final Thoughts The best way to market your accounting firm is to specialise, show up where your ideal clients are searching, build trust through valuable content, and nurture relationships – using automation and analytics to scale what works. Tailor every step to your audience, and you’ll stand out in a crowded market. With BOMA’s marketing platform built specifically for accountants, you can focus on what matters most: delivering value to your clients and growing your practice. **Categories:** Marketing, Accountant and Bookkeeper --- ### [The Complete Guide to Marketing Analytics for Accounting Firms: Tracking ROI Across All Channels (Made Simple)](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/the-complete-guide-to-marketing-analytics-for-accounting-firms-tracking-roi-across-all-channels-made-simple/) **Published:** June 24, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## Table of Contents - **[Why do marketing analytics matter for your accounting practice?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/the-complete-guide-to-marketing-analytics-for-accounting-firms-tracking-roi-across-all-channels-made-simple/#why-marketing-analytics)** - **[What are the three essential numbers every accountant should track?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/the-complete-guide-to-marketing-analytics-for-accounting-firms-tracking-roi-across-all-channels-made-simple/#three-essential-numbers)** - **[How do you set up your marketing tracking system?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/the-complete-guide-to-marketing-analytics-for-accounting-firms-tracking-roi-across-all-channels-made-simple/#tracking-system-setup)** - **[How do you measure email marketing success?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/the-complete-guide-to-marketing-analytics-for-accounting-firms-tracking-roi-across-all-channels-made-simple/#email-marketing-analytics)** - **[What social media metrics actually matter for accounting firms?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/the-complete-guide-to-marketing-analytics-for-accounting-firms-tracking-roi-across-all-channels-made-simple/#social-media-analytics)** - **[Why is client retention more important than acquisition?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/the-complete-guide-to-marketing-analytics-for-accounting-firms-tracking-roi-across-all-channels-made-simple/#client-retention-importance)** - **[How do you track client communication effectiveness?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/the-complete-guide-to-marketing-analytics-for-accounting-firms-tracking-roi-across-all-channels-made-simple/#client-communication-analytics)** - **[What common analytics mistakes should you avoid?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/the-complete-guide-to-marketing-analytics-for-accounting-firms-tracking-roi-across-all-channels-made-simple/#common-mistakes)** - **[How do you make data-driven marketing decisions?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/the-complete-guide-to-marketing-analytics-for-accounting-firms-tracking-roi-across-all-channels-made-simple/#data-driven-decisions)** - **[How does BOMA compare to other marketing platforms?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/the-complete-guide-to-marketing-analytics-for-accounting-firms-tracking-roi-across-all-channels-made-simple/#platform-comparison)** - **[Ready to transform your accounting firm’s marketing?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/the-complete-guide-to-marketing-analytics-for-accounting-firms-tracking-roi-across-all-channels-made-simple/#transform-accounting-marketing)** ## **“Why do marketing analytics matter for your accounting practice?** **Marketing analytics help accounting firms measure which activities generate the most valuable clients and highest return on investment.** Just as you wouldn’t run a client’s business without understanding their profit and loss, you shouldn’t run marketing campaigns without knowing which ones bring in paying clients. Recent research shows that [high-growth accounting firms spend 2.1% of their revenue on marketing](https://accountingmarketing.org/the-fastest-growing-accounting-firms-spend-twice-as-much-on-marketing-new-research-reveals-what-high-growth-firms-do-differently/), while slower-growing firms allocate only 1%. These high-growth firms achieve [revenue growth rates of 38.5%, up to seven times faster than their peers](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/05/21/3085724/0/en/The-Fastest-Growing-Accounting-Firms-Spend-Twice-as-Much-on-Marketing.html). However, [only 36% of marketers can accurately measure ROI, with 47% struggling with attribution tracking](https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-benchmarks-by-industry/). **What does this mean for your practice?** Consider this simple example: if you spend $2,000 monthly on marketing and gain three new clients worth $20,000 each annually, you’re looking at $60,000 in revenue from a $24,000 investment. That’s a 150% return. Without proper tracking, you won’t know whether that $2,000 should go toward: - Online marketing platforms - Google advertising campaigns - Content creation - Email marketing - Social media marketing - Local networking events ## **What are the three essential numbers every accountant should track?** \#three-essential-numbers **Before implementing complex analytics systems, focus on these three metrics that directly impact your bottom line: cost per client, client lifetime value, and marketing ROI.** 1. **How much does it cost to acquire each new client?** Calculate this by dividing total marketing expenses by new clients gained. If you spend $1,000 on marketing and gain two clients, your cost per client is $500. The average [B2B customer acquisition cost is $536.](https://userpilot.com/blog/average-customer-acquisition-cost/) This gives you a benchmark for evaluating your performance. 2. **What is the total value of each client relationship?** Don’t just count first-year revenue. A client paying $20,000 annually who stays five years generates $100,000 in lifetime value. This metric helps justify marketing investments and identify your most valuable client segments. 3. **What return are you getting on marketing investment?** Use this formula: (Revenue from new clients – Marketing costs) ÷ Marketing costs × 100 Example: ($3,000 in new client revenue – $1,000 marketing costs) ÷ $1,000 × 100 = 200% return **Why simple tracking beats complex systems** Many accounting firms get overwhelmed by marketing software promising to track everything. Start with these three core metrics using a basic spreadsheet. You’ll capture 80% of the insights needed for smart decisions. Complex attribution systems can wait until you’ve mastered the fundamentals. [BOMA provides intuitive analytics](https://bomamarketing.com/features/campaign-analytics/), avoiding the complexity of general marketing platforms. ## **How do you set up your marketing tracking system?** **Create a marketing ledger similar to your financial records, tracking all activities, costs, and results systematically.** **Step 1: Build your marketing ledger** Set up a spreadsheet with these essential columns: - **Date**: When the marketing activity occurred - **Activity Type**: Google ads, networking, social media, referrals - **Cost**: Direct expenses plus your time at hourly rate - **Leads Generated**: Number of inquiries received - **Clients Converted**: Inquiries that became paying clients - **Client Value**: Annual fee value of new clients Update monthly like any other business record. This transforms marketing from guesswork into measurable data. **Step 2: Systematically track client sources** Ask every new client: “How did you first hear about our services?” Provide specific options: - Google search results - LinkedIn connection or post - Referral from \[specific person/firm\] - Local networking event - Facebook or other social media - Email campaign or newsletter - Professional directory - Other (specify) Record responses consistently. After six months, clear patterns emerge showing which activities generate valuable clients. **Step 3: Calculate monthly performance metrics** At month-end, determine: 1. **Monthly Client Acquisition Cost**: Total marketing spend ÷ New clients 2. **Average New Client Value**: Total annual value ÷ Number of new clients 3. **Monthly Marketing ROI**: (Client value – Marketing spend) ÷ Marketing spend × 100 Track these like monthly revenue. Look for trends in costs, client value, and seasonal patterns. ## **How do you measure email marketing success?** **[Email marketing delivers $36 to $42 for every dollar spent](https://optinmonster.com/email-marketing-statistics/), making it the highest-ROI marketing channel for accounting firms.** ### **Essential email metrics for accounting firms** 1. **What open rates should you target?** Accounting firms should aim for[ 20-25% open rates, compared to the industry average of 16.19%](https://accountingmarketing.org/email-marketing-for-accounting-firms-key-metrics-and-best-practices/). Track monthly to identify engagement trends. **2. How do you measure click engagement?** Industry averages show 7.42% click-through rates for accounting firms. However, 3-5% represents a realistic target for most campaigns. This metric indicates content relevance to your audience. **3. When should you worry about bounce rates?** Keep [bounce rates below 12.22% (industry average)](https://accountingmarketing.org/email-marketing-for-accounting-firms-key-metrics-and-best-practices/). Higher rates indicate list quality issues requiring immediate attention. **4. How do you track actual business results?** Most importantly, monitor email inquiries converting to clients. High engagement without client acquisition indicates content misalignment. **Calculate email marketing ROI:** (Revenue from email clients – Email costs) ÷ Email costs × 100 Example: Spending $200 monthly and generating one $3,000 client = 1,400% ROI. ### Email marketing best practices **How should you segment your audience?** Track performance by: - Existing clients vs. prospects - Service types and specialisations - Client company size - Geographic location BOMA allows easy audience segmentation with customised content for different groups. **What testing should you implement?** Test these elements systematically: - Subject line variations - Send times and days - Content formats and length - Call-to-action placement Ready to improve your email marketing? **[Work out your ROI when using BOMA’s platform via our ROI calculator](https://bomamarketing.com/bomas-email-roi-calculator/).** ## **What social media metrics actually matter for accounting firms?** **Focus on business results rather than vanity metrics—likes and shares don’t pay bills, but client inquiries do.** Social media success for accounting firms means tracking activities that generate actual business. **LinkedIn** – Average engagement rate for professional services is **2.3–2.4%**, with multi-image posts reaching **6.6%** and videos about **5.6%**. **Facebook** – Accounting-focused pages typically record **engagement rates** (likes, comments, shares) around **1–2%** of total followers, aligning with general small-business averages of **1.5%**to **3%**. **X (Twitter)** – Engagement for B2B firms averages **0.5–1%** per post, reflecting lower interaction rates on that platform. **Instagram** – while less commonly used by accountants, when deployed, engagement ranges **2–3%** for educational content. **Why LinkedIn Is Your Primary Platform** [LinkedIn holds unparalleled value for accountants](https://www.accountantsgrowthclub.co.uk/linkedin-for-accountants-a-guide-to-winning-new-clients) as the main professional networking platform with over 790 million professionals. It typically generates higher-quality leads than Facebook or Instagram for B2B services. **BOMA supports LinkedIn Personal, LinkedIn Business, Facebook, and X (Twitter) posting directly from their platform, with content designed for professional audiences.** **Key LinkedIn metrics to monitor** Track these business-focused metrics monthly: - **Profile Views**: Professional visibility indicators - **Quality Connections**: Growth within your target market - **Content Engagement**: Meaningful interactions on posts - **Direct Inquiries**: Messages requesting services - **Website Traffic**: Clicks from LinkedIn to your site **How Do You Calculate Social Media ROI?** Use this formula: (Revenue from social media clients – Time investment cost) ÷ Time investment cost × 100 Include your hourly rate when calculating time costs. If you spend 10 hours monthly on LinkedIn at $100/hour ($1,000 investment) and generate one $2,500 client, your ROI is 150%. **BOMA’s [Social Media ROI calculator automates these calculations and shows time and cost savings](https://bomamarketing.com/bomas-social-media-roi-calculator/) from using ready-to-share content versus creating everything from scratch.** **Platform-specific analytics** **How do you track engagement quality?** Monitor engagement rates across platforms. [Professional services see higher engagement on LinkedIn compared to Facebook or Instagram](https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-benchmarks-by-industry/). BOMA’s accounting specific content typically achieves better engagement than generic business posts. **Which platforms generate the best leads?** Document inquiry sources and track conversion rates by platform. This identifies where to focus limited time and resources. **What content performs best?** Educational content about compliance and advisory services outperforms promotional content for accounting firms. BOMA’s library includes extensive educational content covering tax, compliance, strategy, HR, technology, business management and more topics. ## **Why is client retention more important than acquisition?** **Acquiring a new customer costs >5 times more than retaining an existing one, making client retention the most profitable marketing activity for accounting firms.** For accounting practices specifically, [acquisition costs are approximately 6-7 times higher than retention costs](https://www.invespcro.com/blog/customer-acquisition-retention/), depending on the service offered [e.g. individual tax preparation vs business advisory](https://focus-digital.co/accounting-firm-customer-acquisition-costs-by-service/?utm_source=chatgpt.com). **The financial impact of retention** Professional services firms enjoy an 84% average customer retention rate. However, [small accounting firms often see retention rates around 60-70%, while larger firms achieve 75-85%](https://www.venasolutions.com/blog/average-customer-retention-rate-by-industry). This difference reflects the resources dedicated to client relationship management. The revenue impact is substantial: - Companies have a 60-70% chance of selling to existing customers - Only a 5-20% chance of selling to new prospects - Increasing retention by 5% can boost profits by 25-95% **Why keeping clients informed protects your revenue** **If you’re not proactively sharing important business information with clients, they’ll seek it elsewhere—potentially from your competitors.** This creates opportunities for other firms to establish relationships and demonstrate value. Regular client communication serves three critical functions: 1. **Competitive Protection**: Proactive information sharing prevents clients from seeking updates elsewhere 2. **Revenue Growth**: Creates natural upselling opportunities for additional services 3. **Cost-Effective Marketing**: Retention of a client costs a fraction versus the cost of acquiring new clients BOMA’s [content library includes hundreds of compliance updates, advisory insights, and business growth articles](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/) specifically designed to keep your clients informed and engaged. **The economics of client retention** **Client communication impact** Regular communications and updates create natural opportunities to introduce additional services and grow revenue per client. [Existing customers are 50% more likely to try new products and spend 31% more than new customers](https://www.businessdasher.com/customer-acquisition-vs-retention-cost/). **Revenue growth through upselling** For accounting firms, this translates to opportunities for advisory services, compliance consulting, and specialised business guidance. BOMA’s platform makes it easy to segment your communications and target specific services to relevant client groups. ## **How do you track client communication effectiveness?** **Newsletter and client update performance** **What engagement rates should you expect?** Existing clients typically show 25-35% open rates, higher than prospect emails. BOMA’s content library provides compliance updates and industry insights that keep clients engaged. **How do you measure upselling success?** Track additional service inquiries generated by client communications. This directly measures upselling effectiveness and return on communication investment. **Which clients are most at risk?** Compare retention rates between clients engaging with communications versus those who don’t. Engaged clients show significantly higher retention rates. **Measuring revenue impact** **How much does client communication increase revenue?** [Clients receiving regular updates typically show 20-30% higher annual value](https://www.salesforce.com/blog/customer-lifetime-value/). BOMA’s content helps position your firm as a trusted advisor, creating advisory service opportunities beyond basic compliance. **What’s the ROI of client retention activities?** Monitor these quarterly metrics: - **Service Expansion Rate**: Percentage of clients purchasing additional services - **Revenue Per Client Growth**: Annual value increases over time - **Cross-Selling Success**: Clients buying complementary services **BOMA’s segmentation features allow targeting specific services to relevant client groups based on industry or business needs.** ## **What common analytics mistakes should you avoid?** **Most accounting firms make predictable analytics mistakes that lead to poor marketing decisions and wasted resources.** **Mistake 1: Tracking vanity metrics instead of business results** **What are vanity metrics?** These metrics look impressive but don’t drive revenue: - Website page views without conversion tracking - Social media followers who aren’t prospects - Email subscribers who never engage - Blog traffic from irrelevant audiences **What should you track instead?** Focus on metrics tied to business outcomes: - Inquiries from qualified prospects - Conversion rates from inquiry to client - Revenue per marketing channel - Client lifetime value by acquisition source **BOMA’s analytics focus on business-relevant metrics rather than vanity measurements.** **Mistake 2: Ignoring time investment costs** **Why this matters** Many accountants underestimate marketing costs by ignoring time investment. If you spend 10 hours monthly on social media at $100/hour, that’s $1,000 in marketing investment—not free marketing. **How to calculate true costs** Include these time investments: - Content creation and curation - Social media management and engagement - Email campaign development and sending - Analytics review and reporting - Client communication and follow-up **BOMA’s [ROI calculators include time savings in their calculations](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-roi-calculator/), showing how the platform reduces required time and resources investment.** **Mistake 3: Expecting immediate results** **Why marketing takes time** Marketing works like compound interest—results build over time. Consistent content creation or networking efforts may take months to generate clients but produce steady long-term results. **Realistic timeline expectations** **Month 1-3**: Foundation building, minimal direct results **Month 4-6**: Initial lead generation and relationship building **Month 7-12**: Consistent client acquisition and referral generation **Year 2+**: Compounding effects and sustainable growth Track results over 6-12 month periods rather than month-to-month for accurate performance assessment. **Mistake 4: Neglecting client retention analytics** **The retention vs. acquisition imbalance** While acquisition metrics are important, retention metrics often provide higher ROI insights. Many firms focus exclusively on new client generation while ignoring existing client satisfaction and engagement. **Essential retention metrics** Track these client retention indicators: - Client satisfaction scores and feedback - Communication engagement rates - Service expansion and upselling success - Retention rates by client segment - Revenue growth per retained client Retention activities typically offer 5-25 times better ROI than acquisition efforts. **Mistake 5: Using generic industry benchmarks** **Why accounting firms need specific benchmarks** Generic business benchmarks don’t reflect accounting industry patterns. Tax season volatility, regulatory compliance requirements, and professional service dynamics create unique performance characteristics. **Where to find accounting-specific data** Use benchmarks from: - Accounting industry association reports - Professional services marketing studies - Accounting practice management survey - Platforms like BOMA that specialise in accounting firms **[Book a 1-on-1 demo with BOMA](https://meetings.hubspot.com/cripepi/product-demo-anz?uuid=846fc0f5-ff6e-4e1d-882c-5f272143d257) to see how your firm’s performance compares to accounting industry benchmarks.** ## **How do you make data-driven marketing decisions?** **Transform analytics data into strategic business decisions that drive sustainable practice growth and improved profitability.** **How to use ROI data for budget decisions** Treat marketing budget allocation like any investment decision. If networking events generate clients at $300 each while Google ads cost $800 per client, allocate more resources to networking—unless ad-generated clients have higher lifetime value. **Client quality vs. quantity analysis** Consider these factors when evaluating marketing channels: - **Average client lifetime value by source** - **Payment reliability and speed** - **Referral generation potential** - **Service expansion opportunities** - **Retention rates by acquisition channel** A channel generating fewer clients, but higher-value relationships may be more profitable long-term. **When to stop, continue, or expand marketing activities** **Clear decision criteria** **Stop activities when:** - Cost per client exceeds client lifetime value - Consistent failure to generate qualified inquiries over 6+ months - Excessive time investment with poor ROI - Channel performance declining despite optimisation efforts **Continue activities when:** - Positive ROI with stable or improving trends - Strong client quality even if volume is lower - Activities complement other successful marketing efforts - Performance meets industry benchmarks for accounting firms **Expand activities when:** - Strong ROI with potential for scaling - High-quality client generation with good retention rates - Clear opportunity for optimisation and improvement - Channel aligns with long-term business strategy **Retention vs. acquisition decision framework** Prioritise retention activities because they typically offer 5-25 times better ROI than acquisition efforts. BOMA’s platform excels in retention through regular, valuable client communications. **Retention priority indicators:** - Client satisfaction scores below 8/10 - Retention rates below industry averages (75-85%) - Limited upselling or service expansion success - Competitor pressure in your market **Strategic planning integration** **How to integrate analytics with business planning** **Quarterly Business Reviews**: Include marketing performance as a standing agenda item **Annual Strategic Planning**: Use marketing data to inform service development and market expansion **Client Advisory Services**: Leverage your analytics expertise to help clients with their marketing measurement **Partnership Decisions**: Evaluate referral partner performance using systematic tracking **Long-term growth strategy development** Use analytics data to inform: - **Service line expansion decisions** based on client demand patterns - **Geographic expansion** based on digital marketing reach and success - **Target market refinement** using client profitability and satisfaction data - **Competitive positioning** based on differentiation opportunities identified through analytics ## **How does BOMA compare to other marketing platforms?** **BOMA is the only marketing platform designed exclusively for accounting firms, providing industry-specific content and integrations that general platforms lack.** **Marketing platform comparison** ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Comparrison-Table-USROW.png) **Key BOMA differentiators** **Industry-specific content library** BOMA provides the only integrated accounting-specific content library with ready-to-share articles. Content comes from renowned industry partners including: - [Wolters Kluwer](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-wolters-kluwer-cch/) - [Xero](https://bomamarketing.com/xero/) - [The Gap](https://bomamarketing.com/gap/) - ACPD - [Tradify](https://www.tradifyhq.com/nz), [The Software Coach](https://www.thesoftwarecoach.co.nz/for-accountants), [Lightspeed (Vend)](https://www.lightspeedhq.com.au/vend/) and [Spotlight Reporting](https://www.spotlightreporting.com) Unlike the other marketing platforms, BOMA includes a comprehensive content library with hundreds of accounting-specific articles updated weekly. These articles can be customised and shared across a variety of channels including email, social media and your website blog. This eliminates content creation costs that can exceed $300 per article when outsourced. **If you don’t have the time or internal resource to run your own marketing then BOMA’s managed service packages can offer you:** - **Done-for-email and social media campaigns** - **SEO-optimised blog posts** - **Regular analytics and performance reports** - ***See*** [***BOMA’s Managed Service packages***](https://bomamarketing.com/bomas-managed-marketing-service-let-us-handle-your-digital-presence/) ***for total hands-off digital marketing, starting from AUD $199/month.*** **Accounting-specific integrations** [BOMA integrates with popular accounting applications](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-integrates-with-zapier/): - **Practice Management**: Xero, QuickBooks, Karbon, Ignition, FYI, IRIS - **CRM Systems**: HubSpot, Salesforce - **Communication Tools**: Various accounting-specific platforms **Dedicated support and training** Most general platforms offer limited support on lower-tier plans. BOMA provides comprehensive onboarding, account setup, and ongoing training free for all users. **Experience the difference of an accounting-focused platform. [Start your 14-day free trial of BOMA today](https://app.bomamarketing.com/register).** ## Ready to transform your accounting firm’s marketing? Marketing analytics success doesn’t require becoming a marketing expert—it requires consistent tracking, smart analysis, and data-driven decisions. The accounting firms mastering marketing analytics today will dominate tomorrow’s competitive marketplace. **Start your marketing journey with [BOMA’s 14-day free trial](https://app.bomamarketing.com/register).** Experience industry-specific content, multi-channel campaigns, and analytics designed exclusively for accounting firms. **Want personalised guidance? [Book a 1-on-1 demo](https://meetings.hubspot.com/cripepi/product-demo-anz?__hstc=8316845.d0fc401fe43ed1d2964294acece6c59a.1749600654281.1750190238790.1750197612018.10&__hssc=8316845.13.1750197612018&__hsfp=3535010220)** to see how BOMA can help your firm’s marketing without the complexity of general business marketing platforms. Your analytical skills as an accountant are perfect for marketing analytics—you just need the right tools and systematic approach to succeed. **Categories:** Marketing --- ### [Frequently Asked Questions: Marketing Analytics for Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/frequently-asked-questions-marketing-analytics-for-accountants/) **Published:** June 18, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Understanding how to measure and optimise your marketing efforts is essential for accounting firms looking to grow in today’s competitive landscape. Marketing analytics empowers accountants to make data-driven decisions, refine strategies, and demonstrate the value of their marketing investments. Whether you’re a solo practitioner or part of a larger firm, leveraging analytics can help you attract high-quality clients, improve campaign performance, and ensure your marketing budget delivers real results. This FAQ page addresses the most common questions accountants have about marketing analytics—from tracking both online and offline activities to integrating analytics tools with accounting software. You’ll also find guidance on handling client privacy, interpreting your data, and making the most of analytics regardless of your firm’s size. Explore the answers below to gain clarity on marketing analytics best practices, tools, and strategies tailored specifically for accounting professionals. If you’re new to marketing analytics or seeking to enhance your current approach, these FAQs will provide actionable insights to help you grow your practice with confidence ## FAQS ### **How long before I see reliable marketing analytics data?** Expect 3-6 months for initial trends and 12 months for reliable seasonal patterns. Accounting firms need longer tracking periods due to seasonal volatility and longer client decision cycles. ### **Should I track offline marketing activities like networking events?** Yes, include offline activities in your analytics. Calculate costs including time investment and track resulting client inquiries. Many accounting firms find networking generates high-quality clients despite being harder to measure than digital channels. ### **What’s the difference between marketing analytics and practice management reporting?** Marketing analytics focus on client acquisition, campaign performance, and marketing ROI. Practice management reporting covers operational efficiency, client satisfaction, and service delivery. Both are essential but serve different strategic purposes. ### **How do I handle client privacy when tracking marketing performance?** Use aggregate data and avoid sharing client-specific information. Track overall trends and performance patterns rather than individual client details. BOMA maintains professional-grade security and GDPR compliance specifically for accounting firms. ### **Can small accounting firms benefit from marketing analytics?** Absolutely. Small firms often see the biggest impact from analytics because they can quickly adjust strategies based on data. BOMA’s platform is specifically designed to work for solo practitioners and small firms without requiring dedicated marketing personnel. ### **What marketing analytics tools integrate with accounting software?** BOMA integrates with major accounting platforms including Xero, QuickBooks, Karbon, Ignition, FYI, and IRIS. This integration allows comprehensive client lifecycle tracking from initial marketing contact through service delivery. ### **How do I track ROI for referral marketing?** Create systematic referral tracking by recording referral sources, following up on outcomes, and calculating the lifetime value of referred clients. Many accounting firms find referrals generate the highest-quality clients despite lower volume. ### **What should I do if my marketing analytics show poor performance?** First, verify data accuracy and ensure sufficient tracking duration. Then analyse individual channel performance to identify specific problems. Consider factors like seasonal timing, message relevance, and target audience alignment before making major changes. ### **How often should I review marketing analytics data?** Review basic metrics monthly and conduct comprehensive analysis quarterly. Annual reviews should inform strategic planning and budget allocation for the following year. BOMA’s dashboard provides automated reporting to streamline this review process. **Categories:** Marketing --- ### [SEO for Accountants: Get Found by More Local Clients](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/website/seo-for-accountants-get-found-by-more-local-clients/) **Published:** May 27, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **Why Local SEO Matters for Accountants** When someone searches for “accountant Auckland” or “tax agent Melbourne”, they’re looking for a local expert. If your firm isn’t visible in those searches, you’re missing out on high-intent clients ready to engage. Local SEO connects you with people who are actively seeking your services, often with immediate needs. - **Local SEO delivers qualified leads**—people who are ready to act. - **Search engines prioritise local results** for service queries, especially on mobile. - **Smaller firms can outrank national brands** by focusing on their region. So how do you make sure your firm stands out in local searches? Below, we’ve outlined 10 practical, proven strategies to boost your visibility and attract more high-value clients in your area. Whether you’re just getting started or want to refine your current approach, these steps will help you get results—without needing to be an SEO expert. ## **1. Don’t Miss Out—Claim and Optimise Your Google Business Profile** Your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is essential for appearing in Google Maps and the “local pack”. It’s free, powerful, and often overlooked. **How to Claim and Optimise:** - **Claim your profile:** Go to [Google Business Profile](https://www.google.com/business/), search for your firm, and claim or create your listing. If you’re in Australia, also claim your Apple Maps listing. - **Complete every field:** - Business name (use your legal name, e.g., “Smith & Partners Accountants Auckland”) - Address and phone number (must match your website exactly) - Website URL - Opening hours, including special hours for public holidays or EOFY - Service areas (e.g., “serving Christchurch, Rangiora, and Canterbury”) - Services and service descriptions (e.g., “GST returns, Xero setup, payroll”) - **Write a keyword-rich description:** Example: “Chartered Accountants in Wellington specialising in small business tax, GST, and Xero advisory.” - **Add photos and videos:** - Office exterior and interior - Team photos (with permission) - Logos, certifications, and awards - Short videos introducing your team or explaining your services (Businesses with photos get 35% more click-throughs to their websites.) - **Encourage and respond to reviews:** - Ask happy clients to leave reviews after you complete work for them. - Respond to every review—thank clients for positive feedback and address concerns professionally. - **Promote your profile:** - Link to your Google Business Profile from your website (embed a Google Map). - Share your Google Business Profile link in email signatures and on social media. - Mention your profile in email newsletters and client communications. **Pro tip:** Use Google Business Profile “Posts” feature to share updates, events, or offers—just like a mini social feed. **Example:** “Book your free EOFY tax planning session—available in June and July!” ## **2. Use Location-Specific Keywords Strategically** The right keywords help you reach clients searching for your services in your area. Here’s how to use them for maximum impact: **Where to Use Local Keywords** **Website Area****Example Keyword Use**Page Titles“Tax Accountant Wellington”Meta Descriptions“Business accountant in Dunedin”Headings“Payroll Services for Auckland SMEs”Service Pages“Xero Setup for Small Businesses in Perth”Blog Articles“How to Choose an Accountant in Tauranga”Google Business Profile“GST advice for Christchurch businesses”**How to Find and Use Keywords** - Use [Google Keyword Planner](https://ads.google.com/intl/en_nz/home/tools/keyword-planner/) or [SEMrush](https://www.semrush.com/) to find local search terms with good volume. - Focus on combinations like “accountant \[city\]”, “tax agent \[suburb\]”, “BAS agent \[region\]”. - Include keywords naturally—avoid awkward phrasing or “stuffing”. - Tailor keywords to your specialisms: - “GST accountant Auckland” - “Xero advisor Melbourne” - “Payroll services Christchurch” **Example:** Instead of “Welcome to our firm”, use “Smith & Partners: Chartered Accountants in Hamilton, NZ—Specialists in small business tax and GST.” If you need help generating content, try [AI Content Assist](https://bomamarketing.com/create-or-customise-the-power-is-yours-with-content-assist/) from BOMA. ## **3. Optimise Your Website for Local Search** A well-optimised website is your SEO foundation. Here’s how to make yours stand out: **Website Essentials** - **Unique titles and meta descriptions:** - Every page should have a unique, location-specific title and description. - Example: “Business Accountant in Wellington | GST, Xero & Payroll Specialists” - **Location pages:** - If you serve multiple cities or regions, create a separate page for each (e.g., “Accounting Services in Hamilton”, “Tax Planning for Brisbane Startups”). Each page should include: - Local keywords - Testimonials from clients in that area - Local contact details - **Mobile responsiveness:** - Over 60% of local searches come from mobile devices. Your site must look and work great on smartphones and tablets. - **Fast load times:** - Compress images, use efficient hosting, and minimise unnecessary plugins or scripts. - **Clear contact details:** - Display your address, phone number, and a clickable map on every page. - **Schema markup:** - Use structured data to help search engines understand your business and location. - Example: Use [org/LocalBusiness](https://schema.org/LocalBusiness) markup for your contact page. For more website tips, see [How to Build a Successful Accounting Firm Website](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/how-to-build-a-successful-accounting-firm-website/) or [watch our webinar on Website Optimisation](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/getting-your-website-sorted-for-2024/). ## **4. Track Your Results and Adjust Early** SEO is measurable. Tracking lets you see what’s working and where to improve, so you can invest your time and budget wisely. **Tools to Use** - **Google Analytics:** See how many visitors come to your site, which pages they view, and where they’re located. - **Google Search Console:** Check which search terms bring people to your site, monitor site health, and spot technical issues. - **Google Business Profile Insights:** Monitor how often your listing appears in searches, what actions people take (calls, website visits, direction requests), and which search queries lead to your profile. - **BrightLocal or Moz Local:** Track your local rankings and citation accuracy. **What to Watch** - Increases in website visits from your region. - Growth in enquiries or calls from your site or Google profile. - Which pages or keywords are driving the most traffic. - Actions taken on your Google Business Profile (calls, direction requests, website clicks). **Example:** If you notice most website visits come from “tax accountant Auckland”, create more content or service pages for Auckland businesses. For more on measuring marketing success, see [The Accountant’s Guide to Digital Marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/the-accountants-guide-to-digital-marketing/). ## **5. Build Local Citations and Directory Listings** Citations are mentions of your business’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) on other websites. Consistency is key for local SEO. **Where to List Your Firm** - Google Business Profile - Apple Maps - Bing Places - Yellow Pages (NZ and AU) - Industry directories: Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, CPA Australia, NZICA - Local business associations or networking groups, for example [Auckland Chamber of Commerce](https://www.aucklandchamber.co.nz/), [Melbourne Business Network](https://www.melbournebusinessnetwork.org.au/) **Best Practices** - Ensure your NAP details are identical everywhere. - Regularly check and update your listings. - Remove or correct outdated or duplicate entries. - Add a link to your Google Business Profile from your website and social media profiles. **Example:** If your website says “Level 2, 123 Queen Street, Auckland” but your Yellow Pages listing says “Suite 2, 123 Queen St”, update one so they match exactly. For more on building your digital presence, see [How to Build a Successful Accounting Firm Website](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/how-to-build-a-successful-accounting-firm-website/). ## **6. Encourage and Respond to Client Reviews** Reviews are a powerful trust signal and a ranking factor for local SEO. **How to Get More Reviews** - Ask satisfied clients to leave a review on Google or Apple Maps after you finish their work. - Make it easy by sending a direct link to your review page. - Include a review request in your email signature or after a successful project. **How to Respond** - Thank clients for positive feedback. - Address any concerns in negative reviews professionally and promptly. - Use reviews as an opportunity to highlight your firm’s values and responsiveness. **Why Reviews Matter** - Positive reviews improve your visibility in local search results. - They help persuade potential clients to choose your firm over competitors. - They provide valuable feedback for your practice. **Example:** “Thanks for your kind words, Sarah! We’re glad we could help your Wellington business with GST compliance.” For more on building trust and credibility watch our webinar on how to [Transform Your Firm’s Online Reputation with Expert Strategies](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/transform-your-firms-online-reputation-with-expert-strategies/). ## **7. Create Content That Attracts Local Clients** [Content is one of the most effective ways to demonstrate your expertise](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/content-reigns-supreme-in-land-of-seo-still/) and connect with potential clients in your region. However, many accountants struggle to produce regular, high-quality content—especially content that’s relevant to New Zealand or Australian regulations, tax updates, and business conditions. **Blog Ideas for Accountants in NZ and Australia** - “GST Changes for Small Businesses in Wellington” - “EOFY Tax Planning for Sydney Startups” - “How to Choose an Accountant in Tauranga” - “Xero Tips for Christchurch Business Owners” **Local References to Include** - Use terms like “IRD”, “ATO”, “BAS”, “GST”, “KiwiSaver” to show local expertise. - Mention involvement in local events, charities, or business networks (e.g., “Proud sponsor of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce annual awards”). **Example:** Write a blog post answering “What does the IRD require for GST returns in New Zealand?” or “How can Melbourne startups prepare for their first BAS?” ## **8. Why BOMA’s Country-Specific Content Library Is a Game-Changer** BOMA makes it easy for accountants to stay visible and relevant with a [country-specific content library](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/) designed for New Zealand and Australian firms. This [library is packed with up-to-date articles written by human subject matter experts](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/ai-content-vs-human-content-what-accountants-need-to-know/) covering tax updates, compliance, business advice, and more—all tailored to your region’s terminology, regulations, and client needs. **Key benefits:** - **Always local and relevant:** Every article is written for your country, so you’re never sharing generic or overseas-focused advice. - **Saves time:** Simply select, customise, and publish—no need to start from scratch. You can personalise articles, add your own insights, or use them as-is. - **Multi-channel ready:** Share content across your email, website, and social media with just a few clicks. - **Consistent updates:** New content is added weekly, keeping your communications fresh and timely. - **Builds trust and engagement:** Sharing timely, relevant information strengthens your client relationships and positions your firm as a proactive advisor. **Real-world example:** If there’s a change to BAS reporting in Australia or new GST rules in New Zealand, BOMA’s library will have a ready-to-share article you can quickly customise and send to your clients—demonstrating your expertise and responsiveness. BOMA’s content library makes marketing effortless for accountants by providing a vast collection of ready-to-use, country-specific articles tailored for New Zealand and Australian accounting firms. Instead of spending hours writing blogs, newsletters, or social media posts—which are often non-billable and time-consuming activities—[accountants can easily customise](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/content-marketing-for-accountants-how-do-i-make-my-firm-stand-out/) and share expertly written content that resonates with their local audience. ## **9. Build Local Backlinks** Backlinks from trusted local sources help search engines see your relevance and authority. **How to Earn Local Backlinks** - Sponsor community events, sports teams, or charities (e.g., [Auckland Chamber of Commerce](https://www.aucklandchamber.co.nz/), [Melbourne Business Network](https://www.melbournebusinessnetwork.org.au/)) and request a mention on their website. - Collaborate with local businesses for joint content or referral partnerships. - Submit articles or expert commentary to local media or business blogs. - Join local business associations and ask for a directory link. **Example:** Write a guest blog for a local law firm about “Tax Tips for Small Businesses in Wellington” and include a link back to your site. For more information on building backlinks for your accounting website [click here](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/website/without-backlinks-your-website-will-suffer-here-is-an-easy-guide-to-link-building-for-accounting-firms/). ## **10. Avoid Common Local SEO Mistakes** - Inconsistent business info across directories. - Neglecting mobile optimisation. - Ignoring or mishandling reviews. - Forgetting to update your Google Business Profile. - Overusing keywords or writing unnatural content. **Example:** If you change your phone number, update it everywhere—website, Google profile, Yellow Pages, and all directories. For more on best practices read our article on [Easy SEO Tips For Your Accounting Firm’s Website – In 5 Minutes](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/website/easy-seo-tips-for-your-accounting-firms-website-in-5-minutes/). ## **Ready to Attract More Local Clients?** Don’t let your competitors take the lead. Start by claiming your Google Business Profile today to appear in high-intent local searches. Or talk to BOMA about how we can help with our [managed marketing services](https://bomamarketing.com/bomas-managed-marketing-service-let-us-handle-your-digital-presence/). The sooner you act, the sooner you’ll connect with high-value local clients. By following these steps, your firm can become the go-to choice for local clients—without needing to be a digital marketing expert. Start now, and watch your local presence grow. For more practical marketing insights and tools, visit [BOMA’s Marketing Resources](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/). For a broader digital marketing overview, see [The Accountant’s Guide to Digital Marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/the-accountants-guide-to-digital-marketing/). **Categories:** Website --- ### [AI Content vs Human Content: What Accountants Need to Know](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/ai-content-vs-human-content-what-accountants-need-to-know/) **Published:** April 23, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **The Allure and Pitfalls of AI-Generated Content** In the fast-evolving world of artificial intelligence, the temptation to automate every aspect of business is strong – and content creation is no exception. For accountants who are time-poor but still want to maintain a regular stream of communication with clients, AI-generated content might seem like the silver bullet. However, while the allure of quick and easy content creation is tempting, it’s essential to consider the potential pitfalls. AI-generated content often lacks the nuance and expertise that human-written content provides. This can lead to issues with accuracy, relevance, and overall quality, which are critical factors for effective communication in the accounting field. ## **Google’s Stance on AI-Generated Content** In January 2025, Google updated its [Search Quality Rater Guidelines](https://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/hsw-sqrg.pdf), instructing human reviewers to assign the lowest possible quality rating to content primarily created using generative AI tools, especially when it’s mass-produced or lacks originality. Google’s position is clear: content that does not demonstrate originality, expertise, and a clear human touch is no longer considered valuable. This update is crucial for accountants and firms that rely on blogs, newsletters, and web content to attract and educate clients. It emphasises the importance of human oversight and expertise in content creation. ## **The Risks of Relying on AI for Content Creation** While AI-generated content might save time, it comes with significant risks, especially for accountants: 1. **Search Engine Rankings May Suffer:** If Google detects your content is AI-generated and not meaningfully reviewed or enhanced by a human, it may not show up in search results – or worse, be penalised. This is a significant issue if you’re relying on content marketing to generate new leads. 2. **Your Reputation and Credibility Are on the Line:** Clients look to you for clear, accurate, and trustworthy advice. AI can regurgitate information from across the internet, but it doesn’t always understand nuance, local regulations, or accounting best practices. Errors in AI-generated articles can quickly undermine client trust. 3. **Compliance and Ethical Concerns**: Accounting firms have a duty to ensure the information they provide is accurate and complies with ethical and regulatory guidelines. AI tools aren’t trained on your firm’s ethical code or jurisdictional requirements. Without human oversight, there’s a higher risk of publishing non-compliant content. ## **Why Human Expertise Matters in Accounting Content** Human expertise is irreplaceable when it comes to creating accounting content. Professionals with years of experience and deep understanding of the field can offer insights and nuances that AI simply cannot replicate. This expertise ensures that the content is not only accurate but also [relevant and valuable to the audience](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/how-to-write-for-your-ideal-clients/). Human-written content reflects the thought, care, and understanding of the audience, which is essential for building trust and credibility with clients. This is particularly important in the accounting field, where precision and reliability are paramount. ## **BOMA: Combining Human Expertise with Intelligent Tools** BOMA provides a [massive library of human-written, accountant-specific content](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/) created by topic experts with years of experience in compliance, advisory, and business best practices. This approach offers several key benefits: - **100% Human-Written Content**: Unlike generic AI-generated articles, BOMA’s content is crafted by real people with deep expertise in accounting and business advisory. This ensures it’s factually correct, up to date with regional changes, and tailored for the accounting audience. - **Fully Customisable to Your Brand**: Even though the content is ready to use, you’re not locked into one version. You can edit the tone, insert your firm’s personality, and align it with your communication style – all within the BOMA platform. And if you want to use AI for tweaks or rewording, BOMA’s [Content Assist feature](https://bomamarketing.com/create-or-customise-the-power-is-yours-with-content-assist/) is available to help you do it safely and efficiently. - **Save Time Without Sacrificing Quality**: Instead of starting from a blank page, you’re starting from a professionally written piece that can be adapted in minutes. This means you save time without putting your firm’s reputation, compliance, or client relationships at risk. To calculate your potential savings try our [ROI calculator](https://bomamarketing.com/bomas-content-writing-roi-calculator/). ## **When It Comes to Content, Credibility Counts** There’s a lot of hype around generative AI – and it certainly has a role to play in speeding up workflows and supporting creativity. But when it comes to marketing your accounting firm, building trust with your clients, and protecting your online presence, there’s no substitute for accurate, human-written content. Google’s latest move reinforces what many professionals already know: content should reflect thought, care, and a human understanding of the audience – not just a machine’s ability to string words together. ## **Summary** AI can help with content editing and repurposing – but relying on it for full article generation comes with risks. Google now explicitly discourages low-effort, AI-written content, especially when it lacks originality or a human touch. Accountants, who are trusted for their precision and reliability, cannot afford to publish content that might be factually wrong, ethically questionable, or penalised in search results. With BOMA, you can rest easy knowing your content is written by professionals – and enhanced by AI, only when and how you choose. Start your free trial with BOMA and see the difference expert-written content can make. **Categories:** Content Marketing --- ### [What UK Accountants Shared Most in March 2025 — And What It Tells Us](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-insights/what-uk-accountants-shared-most-in-march-2025-and-what-it-tells-us/) **Published:** April 3, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Following the January Self Assessment deadline and the Spring Budget announcements, UK accountants used March as an opportunity to re-engage clients with a mix of compliance updates, practical advice, and wellbeing-focused content. The most shared BOMA articles reveal a deliberate shift from tax deadlines to planning, digital transformation, and human connection. In this blog, we break down the top-performing content, explore what it says about the priorities of UK accounting firms, and share ideas to help you stay ahead in Q2. ## 1. HMRC is Sending Letters re MTD for ITSA **Why accountants shared it:** - To proactively inform clients about upcoming Making Tax Digital (MTD) changes. - To ensure clients didn’t overlook important correspondence from HMRC. - To reinforce their value as a compliance guide and trusted source of updates. **Strategic use:** ✅ Demonstrate awareness of HMRC developments ✅ Encourage clients to get ahead of MTD readiness ✅ Build trust as a proactive advisor Tip: Use this article to prompt a checklist or quick “MTD-readiness” assessment session. ## 2. Work/Life Balance Tips for Business Owners **Why accountants shared it:** - To show empathy and acknowledge post-tax season fatigue. - To strengthen personal connection and trust. - To offer lighter, supportive content after a compliance-heavy period. **Strategic use:** ✅ Humanise your brand and messaging ✅ Boost engagement during a quieter period ✅ Keep your firm top-of-mind between deadlines **Tip:** Pair with a message like: “Now that Self Assessment is behind us, here are a few ways to reset.” ## 3. Keeping Your Cashflow Strong in Tough Times **Why accountants shared it:** - To help clients refocus on business health after tax season. - To open the door to cashflow forecasting or advisory conversations. - To stay relevant during a period when many businesses are reviewing Q1 results. **Strategic use:** ✅ Position yourself as a year-round financial guide ✅ Promote planning services for FY24/25 ✅ Show you understand operational pressures **Tip:** Use this content to lead into a new-year business check-in. ## 4. The Spring Statement: The Impact for Small Businesses **Why accountants shared it:** - To deliver a quick, relevant breakdown of government announcements. - To stay ahead of the curve by providing clients with practical interpretation. - To prompt strategic planning or tax reviews. **Strategic use:** ✅ Reinforce your firm’s advisory value ✅ Offer client-specific insights off the back of the Statement ✅ Use to drive bookings for Spring planning sessions **Tip:** Include a simple message: “Here’s what the Spring Statement means for you – let’s talk.” ## 5. The SPIN Cycle of Cloud Software: Solving Issues with Integration **Why accountants shared it:** - To position themselves as technology-savvy advisors. - To raise awareness of common cloud app issues and promote integrated solutions. - To start conversations about tech stack reviews and digital efficiency. **Strategic use:** ✅ Offer app advisory or digital process audits ✅ Show leadership in modernising client systems ✅ Strengthen your brand as forward-thinking **Tip:** Use this content to promote tech stack reviews or introduce workflow automation services. ## Content Themes & Strategy Takeaways - **Compliance & policy changes** – Show awareness of HMRC comms, MTD, and Spring updates - **Transition to planning mode** – Help clients move from tax compliance to future business focus - **Personalised engagement** – Rebuild rapport after Self Assessment season with empathetic messaging - **Digital efficiency** – Position the firm as a partner in cloud integration and tech simplification ## Where to Focus Next - **Continue proactive education on MTD for ITSA** — clients need clarity and timelines. - **Blend empathy with insights** — use wellness content to support relationship-building between technical updates. - **Promote your role as a digital advisor** — especially if you offer app advisory, integration support, or automation guidance. - **Use Spring Budget and Statement content** as anchor points for planning sessions and FY24/25 prep. **Categories:** Content Insights --- ### [What New Zealand Accountants Shared Most in March 2025 — And What It Tells Us](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-insights/what-new-zealand-accountants-shared-most-in-march-2025-and-what-it-tells-us/) **Published:** April 3, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** With 31 March marking the end of the financial year, March was a key month for New Zealand accountants to guide clients through last-minute prep, tax changes, and forward planning. The most shared BOMA articles show a strong focus on financial year-end readiness, cashflow support, and positioning accounting firms as proactive business advisors. In this blog, we take a closer look at the top content and how firms used it to add value, build trust, and strengthen client relationships during a critical time of year. ## 1. How Your Accountant Supports Business Development **Why accountants shared it:** - To highlight the advisory value of accounting services. - To reinforce that they offer strategic insight, not just tax returns. - To start conversations about growth, systems, and planning. **Strategic use:** ✅ Reframe the accountant-client relationship as collaborative ✅ Use in EOFY planning to promote advisory meetings ✅ Position your firm as a proactive business partner **Tip:** Use it as a lead-in to a “Planning for FY25” session or business improvement workshop. ## 2. Keeping Your Cashflow Strong in Tough Times **Why accountants shared it:** - To offer practical advice and reinforce their role in helping businesses manage uncertainty. - To show they understand the operational pressures their clients are facing. - To promote cashflow forecasting and budgeting services. **Strategic use:** ✅ Link to service offerings (cashflow management, reporting, advisory) ✅ Share pre-EOFY as clients assess working capital and upcoming liabilities ✅ Offer to review cashflow position before 31 March **Tip:** Use with a CTA like: “Let’s review your cashflow before year-end – book a session.” ## 3. Work/Life Balance Tips for Business Owners **Why accountants shared it:** - To take a more empathetic and human approach to client engagement. - To acknowledge the challenges of business ownership during a high-pressure time like EOFY. - To foster trust and personal connection. **Strategic use:** ✅ Soften your messaging between technical updates ✅ Build long-term loyalty and relatability ✅ Show your brand cares about the person, not just the numbers **Tip:** Include a friendly message: “Running a business is tough — here are a few ways to stay balanced during busy season.” ## 4. Financial Year-End: Are You Ready? **Why accountants shared it:** - To help clients stay organised and prepare for the 31 March deadline. - To prevent last-minute scrambles or non-compliance. - To demonstrate leadership and foresight. **Strategic use:** ✅ Send as a checklist or prompt for EOFY reviews ✅ Pair with a booking link for review meetings or compliance wrap-ups ✅ Encourage proactive document collection and planning **Tip:** Bundle it with related tools (e.g., tax planning guides or FY wrap-up emails). ## 5. Four Tax Changes to Consider Before 31 March **Why accountants shared it:** - To ensure clients are aware of important compliance updates. - To add value through education and reinforce their role as the tax expert. - To prompt early action where required. **Strategic use:** ✅ Share alongside your FY24/25 planning emails ✅ Reinforce the need to stay current and seek expert help ✅ Offer to review how these changes affect the client’s situation **Tip:** Include a summary with “What this means for you” to drive clarity and action. ## Key Content Trends – What NZ Accountants Focused on in March - **Business advisory** – Shift client mindset toward long-term strategy, not just compliance - **Cashflow & EOFY prep** – Help clients stay financially fit and ready for the year-end - **Empathy & well-being** – Build trust through personal connection during a stressful time - **Timeliness & tax compliance** – Stay ahead of deadlines and regulatory changes with proactive communication ## What to Focus on for April and Beyond - **EOFY wrap-up + FY25 kickstart** – Use content that transitions clients from tax prep into strategic planning. - **Advisory messaging** – Keep highlighting services like cashflow forecasting, budgeting, and business planning. - **Blend education with empathy** – The most successful firms are balancing practical advice with personal support. - **Repurpose popular content** – Use high-performing pieces in multiple formats: emails, LinkedIn posts, checklists, video summaries. **Categories:** Content Insights --- ### [What Australian Accountants Shared Most in March 2025 — And What It Tells Us](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-insights/what-australian-accountants-shared-most-in-march-2025-and-what-it-tells-us/) **Published:** April 3, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** As the third quarter wrapped up, Australian accountants were already looking ahead — helping clients prepare early for EOFY, stay on top of cashflow, and respond to key updates like the Federal Budget. The most shared BOMA content in March 2025 shows a clear intent to inform, support, and engage clients before the year-end rush begins. In this blog, we unpack the top-performing articles, what they say about accountant priorities, and how you can use these insights to guide your next campaigns. ## 1. Federal Budget 2025–26: What It Means for Your Business **Why accountants shared it:** - To position themselves as informed and responsive advisors. - To show clients they’re across key developments and proactively sharing practical insights. - To start relevant conversations around tax, cash flow, or business strategy. **Strategic use:** ✅ Establish authority on policy changes ✅ Initiate planning discussions (e.g. “How the Budget affects your business”) ✅ Reinforce your value beyond compliance **Tip:** Add a CTA like: “Let’s review your strategy in light of the Budget” ## 2. Understanding Your Balance Sheet **Why accountants shared it:** - To support clients in building financial literacy. - To shift the client mindset from reactive to proactive — encouraging more informed decision-making. - To strengthen client confidence in their business numbers. **Strategic use:** ✅ Educate clients to pave the way for deeper advisory work ✅ Offer training, reporting packages, or regular check-ins ✅ Reinforce your role as a guide, not just a tax technician **Tip:** Use as a lead-in to a “Know Your Numbers” campaign or business health check. ## 3. Reducing the Uncertainty: Key Ways Your Accountant Can Assist **Why accountants shared it:** - To demonstrate their proactive role in navigating economic or operational challenges. - To highlight the value of strategic guidance and forecasting services. - To reassure clients that their accountant is not just reactive — but a partner in planning. **Strategic use:** ✅ Start conversations about cash flow, forecasting, or risk planning ✅ Showcase service offerings beyond tax compliance ✅ Position the firm as calm, capable, and client-focused **Tip:** Include a message like: “Let’s reduce uncertainty together — here’s how we can support you.” ## 4. Making Your Business Work for You: Securing Your Future **Why accountants shared it:** - To encourage long-term thinking and business continuity planning. - To elevate conversations beyond the day-to-day — into succession, structure, or future-proofing. - To promote advisory capabilities with strategic depth. **Strategic use:** ✅ Introduce succession planning or risk reviews ✅ Create touchpoints for long-term growth conversations ✅ Differentiate your firm as a strategic business partner **Tip:** Pair this with an invitation to a strategic planning session or mid-year review. ## 5. Work/Life Balance Tips for Business Owners **Why accountants shared it:** - To show empathy and human connection beyond the numbers. - To demonstrate understanding of the pressures business owners face. - To reinforce that they care about the wellbeing of their clients, not just their finances. **Strategic use:** ✅ Add warmth and trust to your brand ✅ Use between technical topics as a “lighter” engagement piece ✅ Support retention through relationship-building **Tip:** Include a personal note or video: “We know business is full-on — here are a few ways to protect your energy.” # Key Content Themes & Strategic Takeaways - **Budget & policy updates** – Show expertise and relevance; generate conversations on planning and tax - **Financial education** – Empower clients; lay the groundwork for deeper advisory services - **Uncertainty & planning support** – Reassure and demonstrate strategic capability during complex or changing times - **Long-term advisory** – Shift client mindset toward growth, succession, and long-term thinking - **Empathetic client care** – Build brand trust, loyalty, and relatability # Your Next Steps - **Mix technical and emotional content** — It builds well-rounded trust and stronger engagement. - **Share timely commentary with actionable follow-up** — Use news pieces like the Budget to anchor planning services. - **Invest in educational content** — It creates more confident, loyal, and advisory-ready clients. - **Highlight strategic advisory capabilities** — Show that you’re more than just a tax solution. **Categories:** Content Insights --- ### [Integrate Your Wordpress Website to BOMA with Zapier](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/integrations/integrate-wordpress-to-boma-with-zapier/) **Published:** August 5, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** We’re here to help you streamline your workflow by connecting your WordPress website to BOMA using Zapier. Integrating your WordPress website with BOMA through Zapier offers a seamless way for accountants to share blog posts automatically. This powerful connection streamlines your content distribution by seamlessly publishing articles on the BOMA platform to your WordPress website blog. This integration not only saves you time but ensures that your website blog will be kept up to date with the latest insights and valuable information for your readers. If you don’t have a paid Zapier account you can find the guide for content delivery via a free Zapier account [here](https://support.bomamarketing.com/articles/5518964-zapier-one-step-instructions-for-image-content). Follow these simple steps to get started and automate your Blog posting process. ### Step-by-Step Guide Go to [**www.zapier.com** ](http://www.zapier.com)and log in to your account. To create a Zap click on **Create** in the left-hand menu. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-01-at-3.17.21-PM-1.png) Click on **Trigger.** ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB3-1.png) Search for BOMA ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB11.png) If you can’t find BOMA, connect manually via [this support link](https://support.bomamarketing.com/articles/4702557-connecting-zapier-and-posting-to-wordpress). Or click on a link from BOMA to add it, and then you will be able to find it in the Apps. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB12.png) Choose the type of event you want to create **New Content Post**. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-7.47.27-PM.png) Then, you will need to link your BOMA account to the Zap. Click on the Account and choose **Sign in** ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Untitled-design-6.png)![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-7.46.37-PM.png) A popup will appear. Enter the API key and the email you use to login to BOMA and press the **Yes continue** button. A connection will open the Zap with the **Action** field ready to edit ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB15.png) In the **Action Event** dropdown choose **Upload Media** then click **Continue.** ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-8.00.03-PM.png) In the following **Set up action** step choose the **File** dropdown, choose the **Image** field from the BOMA post. You may need to click **Show all options** in the menu. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-7.51.55-PM.png) Next run a **test** to ensure that the media file can be uploaded to Woredpress. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-7.52.05-PM.png) A successful test will display the following message. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-7.52.22-PM.png) Now that we’ve successfully completed the upload step, we can add the **Create Post** action step. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-7.59.13-PM.png) Now you need to map the information from BOMA to specific fields in the WordPress post. We will connect the fields for the WordPress Title, Content, Excerpt and Status fields. The remainder of the fields are optional and do not necessarily map to any content in the BOMA post. In the **Title** dropdown, choose the **Title** field from the BOMA post. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-7.34.55-PM.png) In the **Content** dropdown, choose the **Content** field from the BOMA post. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-7.35.11-PM.png) In the **Excerpt** field, choose the **Summary** content from the BOMA post. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-7.35.37-PM.png) Next is the Featured Media, for this option you will choose the ID that was generated from Step 2 in your process. This will have an ID that is unique to your test run, and will be updated by WordPress/Zapier each time it runs. It will look similar to this with a different ID, the ID is unique to your account and your test run: ![Featured Media](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/boma.featured.media_.png) The **Status** field should be changed to the status you would like the post to be in when it’s created by the Zap. We recommend setting this to **Draft** so you can review the post in the WordPress Admin before you publish it manually. If you are confident in how the Zapier workflow is working you can change this field to **Published** to have the post published automatically. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-7.36.50-PM.png) When you are ready to test open the Content Library in your BOMA account and select an article to share for the test and click the **Send to Zapier** button. Return to Zapier and then click on **Test Step**. This will test the integration with WordPress and create the Post (in Draft or Published format depending on your selection), so now is a good time to check the WordPress admin for the new post. A successful test will return this message. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-05-at-7.38.07-PM.png) Click the blue **Publish** button to save your zap or **Retest step** if necessary. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB21.png) Congratulations! You’ve successfully connected your WordPress website to BOMA using Zapier. You can now send content from the BOMA platform to your WordPress website as a blog post. **Categories:** Integrations --- ### [Social Media Filming Guide for Accountants: Create Professional Videos with Your Phone](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/social-media-filming-guide-for-accountants-create-professional-videos-with-your-phone/) **Published:** November 14, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Incorporating video content into your social media strategy can help accounting firms build connections, increase visibility, and humanise their brand. Videos and photos can make your firm more relatable, showing clients that you’re more than just numbers on a page. And the best part? You don’t need a professional setup or camera crew to make a big impact. With just your phone and a few filming best practices, you can create engaging social media content that resonates with your audience. Here’s a quick cheat sheet to help you film high-quality videos and photos for social media. If you’re new to social media marketing, start with our [Social media 101 for accountants webinar](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/how-to-market-your-accounting-bookkeeping-firm-on-social-media-101/) for tips on optimising your strategy. ## 1. Hold Your Phone in Portrait Orientation For social media, always hold your phone vertically (portrait orientation). Unlike YouTube or other video platforms where landscape is preferred, social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn are optimised for portrait videos that fill the screen on mobile devices. A vertical orientation looks cleaner and keeps the focus on you and your message. **Pro Tip**: Avoid using the “portrait mode” setting on your phone’s camera, especially for photos. While it can create a blurred background effect, it may sometimes interfere with essential details. Stick to regular photo mode for best results. ## 2. Keep Your Phone Steady A shaky video can make your content look unprofessional and distract viewers. To avoid this, hold your phone with both hands and keep it as steady as possible. You can also rest your elbows on a table or lean against a stable surface. If you’re filming regularly, consider investing in a tripod or stabiliser to keep your camera steady, especially for longer clips. **Pro Tip**: If filming yourself, set up your phone on a tripod and use the timer to start recording so you have time to get into position. ## 3. Stick to 1x or 2x Zoom Avoid zooming in and out while filming, as this can distort image quality, making it appear pixelated or blurry. Use either the 1x or 2x zoom option on your phone (you’ll see these options in the bottom left corner of the camera app). Select your zoom setting before you start filming to keep your footage crisp and consistent. **Pro Tip**: If you need to get closer to your subject, move your phone closer rather than using digital zoom. This maintains image quality and keeps your video sharp. ## 4. Keep Videos Short: 15-30 Seconds Social media is fast-paced, and viewers have short attention spans. For most platforms, aim for videos between 15 and 30 seconds—perfect for quick tips, introductions, or highlighting specific services. For more in-depth topics, consider breaking them down into a series of shorter videos rather than one long clip. **Pro Tip**: Start with a hook to grab attention within the first few seconds and end with a call-to-action, like “Contact us for more info!” or “Follow for more tips.” Choosing the right platform can make a difference. Our guide on [Selecting the best social media platforms for accounting firms](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/which-social-media-networks-should-i-choose-for-my-accounting-firm/) can help you make strategic choices. ## 5. Use the Back Camera for Photos (But Skip ‘Portrait Mode’) When taking photos for social media, use the back camera rather than the front (selfie camera), as it generally has a higher resolution and captures finer details. Avoid using the “portrait mode” setting to prevent unnatural blurring. Using the back camera without portrait mode gives you clear, professional-looking images ideal for social media. ## 6. Tips for Selfie Videos Selfie videos can add a personal touch to your content. Follow these tips to keep them professional and polished: - **Lighting**: Make sure you’re in a well-lit area with soft, natural light. Facing a window is an easy way to achieve this. - **Background**: Keep it clutter-free to avoid distractions. A clean background keeps the focus on you and your message. - **Consistency**: If your firm has examples of selfie shots or framing guidelines, use these for consistency. On-brand visuals reinforce professionalism. **Pro Tip**: Hold the camera slightly above eye level to create a more flattering angle, and look directly into the lens to engage your audience. If you’re still unsure about the benefits of social media for accountants, read our blog, [Social media is for accountants too](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/social-media-is-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers-too/). ## Additional Tips for Filming Success - **Lighting Matters**: Natural light from a window is usually best, but if filming indoors and extra light is needed, consider using a ring light for even, flattering illumination. - **Audio Quality**: Film in a quiet space to reduce background noise. In noisy environments, a small clip-on microphone can significantly improve audio quality. - **Backgrounds Count**: Aim for a clean, uncluttered backdrop that complements your message. For a branded look, consider filming in your office with a logo or branded material in view. ## Wrapping Up Creating social media videos and photos doesn’t require a professional camera setup; a few best practices can elevate your content significantly. By holding your phone in portrait orientation, keeping it steady, using 1x or 2x zoom, and keeping your content brief and to the point, you’ll be well-prepared to create impactful social media content that resonates with your audience. Start experimenting with these techniques and remember: authenticity is key. The more genuine and approachable you appear, the more clients and prospects will engage with your content. So grab your phone, get filming, and let your expertise shine on social media! **Categories:** Social Media --- ### [Understanding LinkedIn's Unique Value for Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/uncategorized/understanding-linkedins-unique-value-for-accountants/) **Published:** March 19, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Navigating the digital landscape can be daunting for accounting firms, but LinkedIn stands out as a vital tool for growth and networking. Unlike other social media platforms, LinkedIn is specifically designed for professional interactions, making it an ideal environment for accountants to build their brand and expand their network. With over [1 billion users worldwide](https://columncontent.com/linkedin-statistics/), LinkedIn offers a significant opportunity for accounting firms to connect with potential clients and industry peers. Moreover, 80% of professionals consider LinkedIn a trustworthy source of information, which is double the trust level of platforms like Facebook, according to a study by LinkedIn. ## **Building a Strong Professional Profile** Creating a [compelling LinkedIn profile](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/linkedin-business-pages-digital-word-of-mouth-for-accountants/) is the first step in establishing a strong online presence. Your profile serves as a digital business card, showcasing your expertise and the services you offer. Ensure that your profile is complete and up-to-date, highlighting your skills, achievements, and the unique value you bring to your clients. Incorporate relevant keywords that potential clients might use to find services like yours, enhancing your visibility in search results. Remember, your LinkedIn profile is often the first impression you make on potential clients, so make it count. ## **Creating Engaging and Value-Driven Content** [Content is king on LinkedIn](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/social-media-is-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers-too/), and for accounting firms, sharing insightful, high-quality content can position you as a thought leader in your industry. Focus on creating posts that provide real value to your audience—whether it’s advice on tax planning, financial management tips, or updates on regulatory changes. According to LinkedIn data, posts with valuable insights receive higher engagement, with longer shelf lives than on other platforms. Aim to post regularly as companies that maintain active LinkedIn pages and post content weekly [experience 5.6 times more follower growth](https://www.cognism.com/blog/linkedin-statistics) compared to those that post less frequently. As always though ensure each piece of content is crafted to engage your audience thoughtfully. ## **Strategies to Expand Your Network** [Growing your LinkedIn network requires strategic effort](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/grow-your-accounting-firms-network-on-social-media-7-key-ways/). Start by connecting with current clients, colleagues, and industry peers. Then, expand your reach by joining relevant LinkedIn groups and engaging in discussions. Use LinkedIn’s search feature to find potential clients or partners within your industry. Additionally, after meetings or events, follow up with new contacts by sending personalised connection requests. LinkedIn’s QR code feature can also facilitate on-the-spot connections during networking events, ensuring you never miss an opportunity to expand your professional circle. ## **Leveraging LinkedIn Features for Greater Visibility** LinkedIn offers several features that can enhance your visibility and engagement. Utilise the platform’s article publishing feature to share long-form content, showcasing your expertise and insights on industry-specific topics. Incorporate hashtags to categorise your content, making it easier for users to find your posts. Additionally, LinkedIn’s analytics tools provide valuable insights into how your content is performing, allowing you to refine your strategy and improve engagement over time. ## **Engaging with the Silent Community Effectively** On LinkedIn, a significant portion of the audience belongs to the “silent community”—users who view content but rarely engage with it. [78% of LinkedIn users consume content to keep up with industry news, and 73% to discover new ideas](https://www.cognism.com/blog/linkedin-statistics). To reach this audience, focus on creating content that resonates on a personal level. Share client success stories, behind-the-scenes glimpses of your firm, and thought-provoking insights that encourage silent followers to reach out when they’re ready. Understanding and acknowledging this audience can lead to unexpected opportunities and connections, as they may become clients once they feel a sense of trust and understanding. ## **Measuring Success and Optimising Your Approach** To ensure your LinkedIn efforts are effective, it’s crucial to measure success and adjust your strategy accordingly. LinkedIn [analytics provide detailed insights into who is viewing your profile](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/understand-and-improve-social-media-analytics/), engaging with your content, and how your posts are performing. Use this data to identify which types of content resonate most with your audience and which areas of your profile might need improvement. Regularly reviewing and optimising your approach will ensure that your LinkedIn presence continues to drive growth and engagement for your firm. ## **Integrating LinkedIn with Other Marketing Tools** LinkedIn should be a key component of your broader marketing strategy. Integrate it with other tools like BOMA to streamline your content creation and distribution. BOMA’s content library offers customisable articles that you can share on LinkedIn, saving you time while ensuring your content is relevant and engaging. Additionally, by integrating LinkedIn with your email marketing campaigns, you can reach a wider audience and reinforce your messaging across multiple platforms. This integrated approach will help maximise your firm’s visibility and enhance your overall marketing efforts. In conclusion, LinkedIn offers a unique opportunity for accounting firms to grow their network and establish themselves as industry leaders. By understanding the platform’s value, building a strong profile, creating engaging content, and leveraging LinkedIn’s features, your firm can unlock new opportunities for growth and success. **Learn more about how to use LinkedIn better in [this webinar](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/stop-lurking-on-linkedin-and-start-using-it-to-grow-your-accounting-firm/).** **Categories:** Uncategorized, Social Media --- ### [The Best Xero HQ Apps for Accountants and Bookkeepers](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/technology/the-top-8-apps-curated-by-xero-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers/) **Published:** September 27, 2017 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** Accounting and bookkeeping are all about managing data, so it’s no surprise that technological advances and cloud systems are being designed for, and adopted by, practices all over the world. But which apps will really make a difference to productivity and success for your accounting firm? Xero are already connected to 500 apps but with their new [Xero HQ](https://www.xero.com/blog/2016/09/xero-hq-announcement/) platform, Xero offers full integration with the best of breed apps for accountants and bookkeepers. Here’s a short list of the Apps you should be using… [**Fathom**](https://www.fathomhq.com/) Management reports and financial reporting are clear, easy and appealing with Fathom. It will integrate, analyse and report on your data efficiently, creating attractive and digestible dashboards and presentations. Your financial analysis, reporting, benchmarking and consolidation are taken care off enabling you to assess business performance, monitor trends and identify improvement opportunities. [**Futrli**](https://www.futrli.com/) The forecasting and reporting tool that gives you cash flow forecasting, KPI dashboards, PDF reporting, white labeling, scenario modelling, business planning and more. Futrli want to future-proof your business and give you confidence in where you’re headed from a thorough understanding of where you are and helping to measure performance. Printed reports and online dashboards are at your fingertips. Futrli also provides an industry-approved business advisor certification program. [**NowInfinity**](https://www.nowinfinity.com.au/) For NZ and Australia accounting practices, NowInfinity plugs you straight into a comprehensive library of legal-reviewed accounting and tax documents. The cloud-based platform for documentation and corporate compliance is integrated with government services/agencies including ASIC, ABR and the NZ Companies office. Create, collaborate and manage client entities with ease. [**Practice Ignition**](https://www.practiceignition.com/) Workflow and payment management, ie actually getting paid, can be challenging. Practice Ignition will handle secure client payments to help manage cash flow as well as producing smart proposals, managing scope, process and compliance. Thousands of accountants and bookkeepers are already benefiting from digitally signed proposals to onboard clients, process their payments, automatically raise invoices and deploy workflows. ![hq-apps-family](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/hq-apps-announcement-NOT-FEATURED_800x480_acf_cropped.png) [**Receipt Bank**](https://www.receipt-bank.com/) All the receipt information you need with the click of a smart phone. Receipt Bank saves time, cuts data entry and leaves you free to handle more clients and improve your service. Client data flows seamlessly to Xero and a secure, compliant archive. Foreign currency support and sms notifications keep you on top of all your client’s invoices and expenses. [**Spotlight**](https://www.spotlightreporting.com/) Cloud-based, integrated reporting and forecasting designed by accountants for accountants. Spotlight imports financial and non-financial data, making it easy for you to share with and advise clients while scaling across the business, sharing templates and data. Helping you work smarter, not harder. [**SuiteFiles**](http://www.suitefiles.com/) Making it simple to store, manage, control and backup your files on the cloud, SuiteFiles is also integrated with your favourite Office 365 and Xero HQ functionality, you can even drag and drop from Outlook. Searches and staff collaboration on documents are easy at your desk or from your smartphone. [**Boma**](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/) We are really proud to partner with [Xero](https://www.xero.com/nz/marketplace/app/boma/) and excited to have developed a bespoke self-drive marketing platform for Xero users. Taking care of your firm’s digital marketing from social media to email, Boma makes building and distributing campaigns including digital advertising easy and will analyse the campaign results using advanced machine learning to suggest better, more targeted, campaigns for the future. It makes enterprise marketing expertise available to all businesses leaving you to get on with the accounting and bookkeeping business. You don’t necessarily need a full house of these apps to transform your firm, just start adding what will best suit your needs and aid growth. **Categories:** Technology --- ### [Artificial Intelligence: An Opportunity Not a Threat for Your Accounting Firm](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/technology/artificial-intelligence-an-opportunity-not-a-threat-for-your-accounting-firm/) **Published:** April 16, 2019 **Author:** Steve Ash **Content:** The media is full of sensationalist stories of how ‘[a robot will replace your job](https://www.wired.com/2017/02/robots-will-soon-taxes-bye-bye-accounting-jobs/)‘. But developments in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and software automation offer a much bigger opportunity for most accountancy firms than they do a threat. An algorithm is far more likely to *help* you get more work done than it is to *replace your role* as an accountant. And it’s this synergy of software efficiency and human expertise that’s driving the adoption of AI and machine learning in accounting and fintech platforms. So, if you’re in the dark when it comes to the benefits of AI, here’s our lowdown on how AI can transform your accounting processes, your customer service and your practice marketing. ## The Opportunity for Accountants [Artificial intelligence (AI) software mimics the way humans think](http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/artificial-intelligence-ai.asp), allowing software to learn through experience and perform basic tasks. By processing large amounts of data and recognising patterns, AI can make recommendations or spot issues. And because these algorithms process larger amounts of data in less time than we can, AI has become a hugely powerful tool for analysing and automating low-level business functions. When Netflix suggests a show you may like, based on your previous viewing, or your bank queries a transaction that doesn’t fit your usual spending pattern, it’s AI that’s powering this. So, how can this be applied to accounting? What’s the AI opportunity for accountants? What AI and machine learning can do, [and already does do in platforms like Xero](https://www.xero.com/blog/2017/02/artificial-intelligence-machine-learning-transform-accounting/), is carry out a lot of the basic bookkeeping, financial housekeeping and CRM admin jobs – the kind of coding, data-entry and repetitive admin tasks that software excels at, and humans find less interesting. But AI can also process and analyse client data at speeds no human can achieve, and this is where the key advantage of AI comes into play – helping you to spot patterns, trends and issues in data and accounts, leading to deeper, more proactive interactions with these businesses. We’ve broken this down into four core benefits of adopting AI in your firm. ## 1. Automation and the Push for Efficiency Improving the efficiency of workflows and practice systems is a key goal of any aspirational accounting firm – and AI-driven automation can be a huge driver of this productivity. The machine learning capabilities of AI – the ability for software to automatically learn and improve through experience and the input of data – make it possible to automate many of the low-end elements of your bookkeeping tasks. [Automatically coding your transactions](https://www.fd-works.co.uk/insights/customising-xero-codes/), for example, speeds up the input of receipts and reduces the error levels in your bookkeeping. So the job gets done more quickly, the quality of your data is higher – and your junior staff have more time available for higher value work. ## 2. Diving Deep into Your Client Data An algorithm eats, sleeps and breathes data. It doesn’t get tired and it never has a ‘bad day at the office’. Your AI-based software tools are constantly, and tirelessly, processing, analysing and deconstructing your client accounting data, 24/7. By taking the outputs from this data analysis, AI can offer insights into the numbers and then suggest proactive ways for you and your team to work more closely with business clients. Software can flag up potential cash-flow issues, suggest a conversation about expense variances or even remind you that a client’s VAT return is due and hasn’t been filed. ![machine-learning-chart](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/AdobeStock_122936123.jpg) ## 3. Driving a More Proactive Client Relationship [AI’s ability to dive into the data](https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tech/accounting-software/what-artificial-intelligence-means-for-accountants), to pull out the hidden pearls of wisdom and to then flag the important issues, opportunities and actions makes it more than just a passive piece of software. Increasingly, your algorithms are becoming a vital part of your firm. They’re not going to replace a team of qualified, experienced accounting professionals any time soon, but AI is allowing your people to move away from the mundane and routine elements of accounting. With less focus on compliance work, your people can focus their time and expertise on working directly with clients. This helps to cement your important client relationships, improves the commercial experience of your junior staff and allows clients to improve their business finances. ## 4. Enhancing Marketing Through Real-Time Analysis AI has the potential to revolutionise your financial processes and client conversations. But algorithms don’t just help with accounting – [AI also helps you market the firm more effectively](https://bomamarketing.com/2019/04/12/6-reasons-why-you-need-to-market-your-accounting-bookkeeping-practice/). Your digital and social marketing can be improved by applying exactly the same benefits of AI, algorithms and machine learning, helping you to specifically target your ideal clients. This enhanced targeting and analysis of your marketing involves three key stages: - **Collect** – client and target data is collected through your marketing campaigns and lead generation activity, and stored in your CRM system. This then becomes an incredibly valuable data source, that can be processed by your AI marketing systems. - **Reason** – algorithms in your marketing software analyse this lead data in real time, looking at the behaviour and engagement of your audience. This reasoning process can then segment the audience and suggest productive ways to re-target these businesses. - **Act** – in a fully automated AI-driven system, your marketing software then uses its reasoning capabilities to take action. This could mean sending specific emails to one audience segment, or refining a campaign to make it more effective next time around. [The average small business spends 20 hours per week on marketing](https://smallbiztrends.com/2014/05/small-businesses-spend-20-hours-per-week-on-marketing.html) – but for many busy accountants, finding 20 hours to focus on non-fee-earning work may be a struggle. The answer is to use AI based smart technology to drive your marketing, by updating your CRM data, running your campaigns and providing key analytics and recommendations. With AI, you’ll remove the complexity from your marketing decisions and you can get on with being that trusted advisor. Boma’s advanced machine learning capability continuously crunches your campaign data, suggesting new ideas and opportunities to better engage with your audience ## Embrace an AI-Driven Accounting Firm [35% of our existing work skills will change in the near future](https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-10-skills-you-need-to-thrive-in-the-fourth-industrial-revolution/), according to the *The Future of Work* report from the World Economic Forum, and accounting is an industry where real change and reskilling will be needed to help firms meet the new challenges of the digital age. Machine learning is automating the lion’s share of the bookkeeping, and AI-driven analytics tools are providing deeper client insights and giving your marketing the edge. The real task now, for a modern accountant, is coming up with a strategy for optimising these AI tools – delivering high-level financial and business advice to a truly targeted audience of business clients. With ‘complex problem solving’ highlighted as the number one occupational skill by 2020, it’s time to let the software do the number crunching work, and let you and your team do what you do best – coming up with human solutions to your clients’ financial issues. **About the Author:** Steve Ash is a specialist in accounting, marketing, business software and fintech apps. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Technology **Tags:** Accounting, Artificial Intelligence, AI --- ### [Modern Business Owners Want an Accountant Who Goes beyond the Numbers](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/small-business/modern-business-owners-want-an-accountant-who-goes-beyond-the-numbers/) **Published:** May 8, 2018 **Author:** Steve Ash **Content:** ## The Real You: How to Engage with Your Firm’s Clients [What business owners want from their accountant](https://www.sage.com/en-us/blog/5-things-clients-want-from-their-accountant/) has evolved over time. Modern business owners want someone who does more than just their accounts and tax returns. They want a long-term collaborative relationship with someone who can act as their trusted adviser – and that’s easier to achieve when you present a personal, open and human face to the world. People buy from people, after all. Being seen as the kind of person that clients want to work with is central to engaging with these clients and prospects. But what’s the key to making this work? We’ve pinpointed 5 key elements of building a more human face for your practice. ## 1. Relationships require work [Building a relationship of any kind takes time](https://smallbiztrends.com/2015/06/build-lasting-business-relationships.html). Moving from being a casual business acquaintance to a trusted adviser requires hours of effort and hard work to achieve. So it’s important to present the most open and honest view of you and your team to the wider world. [85% of business success comes from having great people skills](https://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/04/20/the-secret-to-successful-networking-is-a-four-letter-word/#1e09b37f2e3a) according to research by Harvard University. So working on your personal interactions, your listening skills and your individual brand is not just a ‘nice to have’ – it’s actually critical to the success of your firm. - **Connect with clients more regularly** – relationships evolve through frequent contact and that won’t happen if you only see clients twice a year. Make a point of increasing those touch points and get proactive about being a more regular presence. - **Find out more about their business** – listening to your client and understanding their pain points helps you to learn more about their business. By increasing your holistic knowledge of the client and their business goals, you increase the opportunities to offer practical help and advice – making it far easier to upsell your services. - **Become part of the client’s team** – the more embedded you are as an adviser, the more invaluable you’ll be to your client. Becoming a part-time FD or strategic adviser is one way to add real value, while also getting to know more about your clients. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/AdobeStock_528945390-470x290.jpeg) ## 2. Drop the mask and show the real you [It’s time to up your relationship game](https://www.intheblack.com/articles/2016/05/01/return-on-relationship-how-accountants-can-build-client-engagement). Instead of being a distant technical presence in your client’s lives, open up and drop the formality. Build a firm culture where you can share more about yourself, interact with clients on a more personal level and see the impact it has on enhancing your relationships. A large part of that culture is about developing a friendly and approachable ambience, where clients feel comfortable. As Paul Bulpitt, co-founder of The Wow Company, [highlighted in a recent post](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/05/01/scaling-your-practice-8-key-tips-for-success-from-the-wow-company/), your people need to build customer relationships, based on the core values and vision of the firm: *“A scalable firm is all about people – so you absolutely need the right people on board. When your purpose is to have a positive impact for small businesses, your vision has to be central to your firm culture.”* Rather than providing a one-dimensional, functional service to clients, turn yourself into a rounded individual who can deliver that positive impact and experience. To reveal more in your relationships with clients: - **Let go of the ‘professional mask’** – being aloof and detached doesn’t make you a better finance professional. In fact, it make most people feel uncomfortable. So drop the mask and let your genuine human side come to the fore. - **Don’t just talk about finance** – talking clients through their figures is important, but don’t JUST talk about the numbers. Get topical, go off piste and discuss things outside of business and finance. All work and no play makes Jack/Jill a dull adviser! - **Get closer to clients on a personal level** – customers love to feel special and ‘front of mind’. So remembering clients’ birthdays, enquiring about how their holiday went and knowing more about their day-to-day lives helps you bond and get talking. ## 3. Speed up relationship-building via social media [Social media accounts for 1 in every 3 minutes users spend on the internet](https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/social-media-statistics). With that potential online audience out there, social provides a brilliant way to raise your personal (and brand) profile in the digital space. It’s easy to follow and interact with the right people, and it’s an area where you can quickly build 1-2-1 engagement. [Increasing trust with targets, prospects and existing clients is time-consuming](http://trustedadvisor.com/articles/does-trust-really-take-time) but also a vital part of engaging properly with these audiences. Having a high profile on social media allows you to very quickly connect with people, and to then use the two-way channels of Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook to communicate more rapidly and regularly with your key audiences. To make the most of your online presence: - **Embrace social media and get posting** – set yourself up with personal social accounts and don’t rely on just having a firm-wide presence. Make sure you post your own updates and content on a frequent basis, but also take the time to reply to followers and to share the posts that you think will be useful to your network. - **Interact don’t sell!** – your social media accounts are not a sales channel – [they’re a place to chat and interact](https://blog.bufferapp.com/social-media-is-for-branding), not a platform for shouting loudly about your latest discount. - **Build a network of social contacts** – by being smart with your social use, you can quickly build up a ‘digital network’ of targets, peers and ex colleagues – and that network is likely to be invaluable when looking for new business and project work. ## 4. Share the right content with the right people An effective way to build your personal profile is to share advice, tips and topical news that’s relevant to your audiences – [and that’s where the value of marketing comes to the fore](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/04/09/why-market-my-accounting-or-bookkeeping-firm-if-i-dont-need-new-clients/). [Providing useful content and thought leadership is a vital as an adviser.](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/04/22/how-to-find-your-advisory-niche-as-an-accountant-or-bookkeeper-via-thought-leadership/) Not only do you provide practical help for your target audiences, but you also position yourself, personally, as an expert in the field – and that’s great for bringing clients and prospects the assurance they need. **To make your content marketing work harder:** - **Write regular blog posts** – and share your key thoughts, opinions and practical advice on the topics and pain points that matter most to your clients and industry niches (and make these are fresh, honest opinions, not regurgitated content). - **Share valuable content with clients** – make existing clients feel valued by sharing exclusive how-to guides and thought leadership with them. Giving clients the tools to improve their business performance cements their perceived value of your working relationship – and that’s a boost to client retention. - **Promote your content through social** – [get busy with your social media activity](https://bomamarketing.com/2017/09/21/social-media-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers-getting-started/) and share your valuable content with your followers and online networks. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/AdobeStock_224602448-464x300.jpeg) ## 5. Measure success and refine your targets [Getting the best return on your marketing investment is important.](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/02/28/marketing-for-accountants-understanding-the-return-on-your-investment/) But knowing if your marketing and PR was working – i.e. that your audience was actually getting value from it – used to be largely guess work in the pre-digital days. That’s changed in these software-driven times. [Marketing apps like BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/) now give you clear analytics and stats to measure your content and social marketing performance – and that makes it easier than ever to see where you’re having an impact and getting the right engagement levels as an adviser. Using software tools, you can send out blogs, social campaigns, emails or newsletters in one hit – with personalisation that reinforces the perception of your individual and firm brands. To improve the impact of your content and nurture the right relationships: - **Refine your profiling and target the most valuable people** – profiling your audience means you can target the ideal client types and niche industry sectors. By getting more granular, you increase the potential return on your marketing investment. - **Increase your interactions and touch points** – using a tool like [BOMA](https://www.bomamarketing.com/) your campaigns are automatically re-formatted for email or social posts, allowing you to instantly reach a bigger targeted online audience, without the time-commitment that’s usually needed to nurture your prospects. - **Measure your success rates and ROI** – looking back at the performance of your online campaigns is critical, giving you the chance to spot the most receptive audiences, refine your targeting and make the return (ROI) on your marketing time more effective. What digital marketing technology allows you to do is speed up the whole process of laying the foundations of engagement, while also giving your interactions a more personal feel. Rather than spending hours of 1-2-1 time working on new prospects and retaining clients, you can warm them up, make them feel continually valued and raise their engagement with your personal brand, and the firm’s wider brand. ## Show the human face of your firm [Building deeper relationships with clients is vital for your firm](https://www.accountingweb.com/practice/clients/why-you-should-build-deeper-client-relationships). The days of being a pure ‘number cruncher’ as an accountant or bookkeeper are over, with relationships, customer experience and advisory now king – and that means reassessing how you connect with your customers. By becoming a more rounded and human presence in your clients’ lives, and using marketing tech to speed up engagement times, you move away from the traditional stuffy perception of accountants and morph into a trusted and valued adviser. We’re not going to suggest this is a straightforward and simple ‘caterpillar transforms into butterfly’ process – but by getting proactive about building better relationships you will see the results in the long-term. By revealing the real you, you encourage a more genuine and long-lasting kind of engagement. And that’s great news for the long-term retention of clients, and the future of your firm. ## Download The Digital Marketing Guide For Accountants BOMA’s guide tells you everything Accountants need to know about Digital Marketing with easy explanations, tips and simple steps to follow. **[Click here to learn more](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-guide-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers/).** **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Tips & Advice, Business **Tags:** SMB, Advisory, Accountant --- ### [The 3 biggest marketing and communication challenges for accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/digital-marketing/the-3-biggest-marketing-and-communication-challenges-for-accountants/) **Published:** September 12, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **If you’re struggling to get started or find the time, you’re not alone** Digital marketing runs much deeper than sharing the odd post on your social feed; it’s about intentionally nurturing relationships with your clients, supporting them to navigate business challenges and positioning your firm as the go-to for their accounting and bookkeeping needs. While you probably know all this is essential to take your firm to the next level, it can be hard to find the time or even know how to get started. Between investing in a marketing specialist for your firm and spending valuable (billable) hours learning marketing 101, you need to find a middle ground. Our recent BOMA User Survey showed this was a challenge faced by many accountants. Here’s a look at what the survey revealed… ## **Time struggles** With [almost 90%](https://financesonline.com/business-blogging-statistics/#:~:text=As%20such%2C%20they%20can%20be,2021%3B%20GrowthBadger%2C%202021).) of content marketers using blogs as part of their marketing strategy and the average blog post taking [just over four hours](https://www.orbitmedia.com/blog/blogging-statistics/) to write, keeping at the top of your content game is time-consuming. That’s compounded if you suffer from a bout of writer’s block, struggle to get ideas down on paper and also need to deliver on other content marketing essentials like social media and newsletters. It’s almost a full-time job. So, it is no surprise that 37% of our User Survey respondents said that simply finding the time to invest in digital marketing is their biggest challenge. Enter BOMA – with a vast [content library](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/content-libraries/) geared specifically toward accountants and bookkeepers, BOMA makes it easy to support your clients and prospects with a variety of advisory and compliance articles that you can customise or use straight out of the box. BOMA articles are written from the ‘Accountants voice’, so the work is done, but you can customise each article for your firm and your audience. The user-friendly software allows you to easily schedule posts in advance, employ existing email templates and track how your communication and marketing activity performs. Our users reckon it “cuts down your admin for marketing ten-fold”. ### **“It’s content marketing without having to do the work myself.”** ### BOMA User survey respondent, 2022 ## **Getting started is the (second) hardest part** For accounting and bookkeeping firms, swapping the Excel document for a social post scheduling tool doesn’t always come easily. Often just knowing how and where to get started is a major obstacle. According to our User Survey, almost a third of accountants don’t know where to start when it comes to digital marketing. Simply not doing it isn’t an option, because you can be sure your competitors are. Digital marketing is such a huge part of the marketing landscape now that consumers expect businesses to have an active [social media presence](https://bomamarketing.com/2022/06/01/what-should-accountants-be-posting-on-their-firms-social-media-pages/) at the very least, and they rely on digital marketing to learn about your brand. The good news is that [digital marketing doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/08/28/what-is-digital-marketing-online-marketing-made-easy/), and it’s fantastic for levelling the playing field within your industry. BOMA takes the learning curve out of digital marketing and presents you with “plug and go” content tools at your fingertips. ### **“A very quick and easy-to-use marketing tool for your business. If you don’t know how to blog on LinkedIn or tweet on Twitter, this is the tool for you, as it automatically does it all for you.”** ### BOMA User survey respondent, 2022 ## **Getting the right content to the right people** A big part of a successful digital marketing strategy is the consistent quality of content you’re delivering. A quarter of our survey respondents struggled when it came to sourcing or producing great content, which can significantly impact the value of your efforts. If the content you’re producing isn’t resonating with your clients and prospects, then it’s not doing its job particularly well. The right content will help with: - **Support your clients** – providing the right advice at the right time helps them thrive and makes you an invaluable business partner - **Positioning your firm as an industry leader** – relevant content builds your authority online and creates trust. - **Boosting your social offering** – content gives you another string to your bow when it comes to posting on social media. - **Cost efficiency** – content marketing, in particular, is one of the [most cost-effective strategies](https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2016/08/content-marketing-stats/) for driving results. - **Driving conversion** – content gives you an avenue to connect with your clients and prospects. Providing prospects with consistent, valuable content can help get them across the line sooner. - **Lead generation** – content with calls to action (CTA) can generate new leads or promote action. Content marketing can generate [three times the leads at a 62% lower cost](https://www.demandmetric.com/content/press-releases-news-coverage) than other digital marketing channels. - **SEO** – consistently produced, high-quality content helps with your search rankings. That’s why we created BOMA. With a vast content library targeted specifically to accountants and bookkeepers, you’ll never have a shortage of things to talk about. And more importantly, it’s content your clients and prospects want to read. From content to templates, scheduling tools and easy to understand analytics, BOMA has everything you need to make a successful digital marketing strategy simple. ### **“It provides credible marketing articles, making life easier to keep our name in front of customers and prospects.”** ### BOMA User survey respondent, 2022 **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is the digital marketing toolkit and content library for busy accountants and bookkeepers. With a few clicks, you can easily create your own content, or use articles from BOMA’s huge content library, and share it via email, social media channels and your website. BOMA’s library is a great source of news and information including general business and financial advice, compliance, tax, management, HR and training. This allows you to bring real value to your clients by highlighting issues that may affect their business and sharing insights to help them grow. BOMA allows you to nurture clients with timely advice, giving you a headstart in business mentoring and thought leadership. **Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/).** **Categories:** Digital Marketing --- ### [How Do I Build an Effective Email Database for My Accounting Firm?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/email-marketing/how-do-i-build-an-effective-email-database-for-my-accounting-firm/) **Published:** December 13, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **Why Do I Need an Email Database?** An email database gives you the ability to connect directly with clients and prospects, providing them with valuable updates, regulatory information, and advisory insights tailored to their needs. It’s one of the most effective tools for accounting firms to nurture relationships and grow their practice. By 2025, there are expected to be [4.6 billion email users worldwide](https://www.radicati.com/?p=17245), making email a powerful channel to reach a vast and engaged audience. Email is also one of the most direct and personal ways to communicate, providing accountants with the ability to stay relevant and front-of-mind with clients. Building an email database allows accounting firms to: - Share critical tax updates, compliance deadlines, and advisory insights. - Segment audiences for tailored communication (e.g., small business clients vs. individual clients). - Use email as a cost-effective way to drive engagement, build trust, and position your firm as a proactive advisor. ## What Is an Email Database?** An email database is a collection of client and prospect email addresses, often accompanied by additional information such as names, locations, or business types. This list can be built organically by collecting emails from clients or prospects who actively opt in. For accounting firms, an email database might include: - Existing clients receiving compliance or advisory services. - Prospective clients who have expressed interest in your firm’s expertise. - Leads captured through events, webinars, or website sign-ups. Your email database is typically stored in a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool or email marketing software, enabling bulk emails and targeted campaigns. The BOMA platform comes with a built in CRM which [integrates with a variety of platforms](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-integrates-with-zapier/) including Xero HQ, Salesforce, Hubspot, Karbon and more. ## **Why Is an Email Database So Important for Accounting Firms?** [Email marketing remains one of the most effective tools for accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/email-marketing/dont-send-another-email-until-youve-read-these-10-tricks/). It’s a proven way to: - **Build stronger client relationships** by sharing relevant and timely updates. - **Drive engagement and growth** through newsletters, tax tips, and advisory services. - **Retain clients and generate referrals** by demonstrating ongoing value and expertise. A study by Litmus in 2023 showed that email marketing generates an ROI of $36 for every $1 spent, making it a vital channel for accountants. Additionally, email offers benefits such as: - **Personalised communication:** Tailor messages based on client segments (e.g., tax clients, small businesses, or large enterprises). - **Mobile reach:** Emails are easily accessible on mobile devices, ensuring your communication gets seen. - **Longer shelf life:** Unlike social media posts, emails remain in inboxes for future reference. ## **How to Capture Email Addresses for Your Accounting Firm** Building a robust email database involves capturing client and prospect emails through multiple touchpoints. Here are some strategies tailored for accounting firms: 1. **Website Opt-in Forms:** - Add a [sign-up form](https://bomamarketing.com/features/lead-capture-pages/) on your website offering a newsletter, tax updates, or financial tips. - Use pop-ups to encourage visitors to subscribe. 2. **Webinars and Events:** - Host webinars on topics like tax planning, compliance updates, or business advisory. Collect attendee emails during registration. 3. **Social Media Links:** - Share links to your sign-up form on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram. 4. **Client Onboarding:** - During the onboarding process, ask clients if they’d like to receive regular updates or newsletters. 5. **Referral Incentives:** - Encourage existing clients to refer others by offering incentives for providing email addresses (with their consent). 6. **Networking Events:** - Collect business cards or digital contact details from prospects and ask for permission to add them to your mailing list. ## **How to Drive Engagement and Retain Clients Through Email Marketing** Once you’ve built your email database, it’s time to put it to work. Here are some email campaign ideas tailored for accounting firms: 1. **Regulatory Updates:** Keep clients informed about important tax changes, compliance deadlines, or new regulations. 2. **Advisory Insights:** Share articles on business growth strategies, cash flow management, or tax planning tips. 3. **Seasonal Reminders:** Send timely reminders for tax filing deadlines or financial year-end planning. 4. **Case Studies:** Highlight how your firm has helped clients solve complex financial challenges. 5. **Special Offers:** Promote advisory sessions, workshops, or additional services your firm provides. BOMA makes sourcing high quality content for your email campaigns easy with our [content library containing hundreds of expertly written and country specific articles](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/content-libraries/) which are ready to be shared with your clients. ## **What Type of Information Should Be in Your Database?** To make your email campaigns more targeted, consider storing the following information in your database: - Client name and business name - Contact information (email, phone) - Business type and industry - Services provided by your firm (e.g., tax, payroll, advisory) - Engagement level (e.g., new client, long-term client) ## **Leverage BOMA to Build and Manage Your Database** BOMA makes email marketing for accountants effortless. With pre-written content on tax, compliance, and business advisory topics, BOMA allows you to create and send professional emails and newsletters in minutes. ## **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing platform designed specifically for accountants. Communicate effortlessly with clients and prospects by sharing hundreds of expertly written articles via email campaigns, social media post and website blogs. BOMA has everything you need to grow your firm and support clients. 👉 **Find out how BOMA can help your accounting firm thrive.** **Categories:** Email Marketing **Tags:** database, Email --- ### [Understand and improve social media analytics](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/understand-and-improve-social-media-analytics/) **Published:** October 10, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **Learn which metrics will help you improve the effectiveness of your campaign** Like it or lump it, social media is here to stay. But just like accounting, once you understand the data and a few metrics, it’s easy to find your groove. If you regularly check what’s working and what’s not, your social media efforts will start paying off. In this blog, we help you understand social media analytics and how to track results so you can improve them. ## **What is social media analytics?** Social media analytics deciphers whether or not your investment is getting good returns. Collecting data and analysing it against certain metrics can accurately measure your performance. Are your campaigns resonating with your audience? Are you targeting the right people? How high is engagement? These are all questions that social media analytics can answer. BOMA will give you a complete picture of performance with [campaign analytics.](https://bomamarketing.com/features/customer-knowledge/campaign-analytics/) Even on multiple social platforms, BOMA will analyse data, trends and consumer insights to give you a single view of the results. ## **The S.M.A.R.T way to track social media analytics** Understanding social media analytics is as easy as tracking a client’s financial data. The hard part will be tracking the right metrics and doing it regularly. With clear goals and relevant data, you’ll know exactly how to improve your results. Here’s how to start: ### **Outline your goals** Social media analytics should always begin with clear goals. Otherwise, how can you know if your campaign has hit or missed? You’ll need a single sentence that specifies what you want to achieve with your campaign. At BOMA, we use the S.M.A.R.T outline to make sure we have everything covered. - **Specific** Along with an action – like generating leads, onboarding clients and driving traffic – it’s important to outline specifically what you need to accomplish. Clear, numerical targets will help you measure the success of your goal, for example, doubling your followers or improving engagement by 20%. - **Measurable** Decide how you’re going to measure the goal. For example, are you tracking likes, clicks, shares or views? - **Attainable** It’s tempting to shoot for the stars, but setting realistic, achievable goals improves long-term motivation. - **Relevant** Make sure the goal aligns with your business objectives. If you want to enhance your connection with current clients, engagement and customer service are key. But if you want to grow your business, generating leads may be more important. - **Time-bound** The final step is to give your goal a deadline. Without one, there’s no urgency and goals can easily be forgotten. ## **Decide which metrics will help to achieve your goal** With limitless capability to track data, it’s crucial to find a few key metrics that will let you track your progress towards your goals. They can be categorised into four groups: 1. Engagement – how many people who see your campaign or post are interacting with it? 2. Awareness – how big is your current and potential audience? 3. Loyalty – how do your customers feel about your services? 4. Conversion – how many people who see your post are getting in touch? Here are some ideal examples of social media goals matched with specific data metrics: ### **Goal 1 – Generate 20% more leads in one month** Generating more leads through social media is about growing your audience and making sure target customers are interested enough to contact you. So, while you can easily count the number of leads you get each month, you’ll need to know how, where and why those leads are coming through to improve upon that. Here are the key metrics you’ll want to be tracking: - **Audience growth rate –** how many new followers you get on each platform in a certain period - **Click-through rate –** how many people see your posts on each platform and click on the link to learn more - **Conversion rate –** how many new clients you get through social posts on each platform - **Website –** how many people visit your website in a certain period - **Google traffic –** how many people click through to your website from a Google search ### **Goal 2 – Improve customer (client) satisfaction by 50%** Providing your current customers with valuable content and information is a huge driver of lasting satisfaction. Measure your goal specifically and then look to other metrics to work out how to improve it. To make sure you’re on the right track, we recommend using this insightful metric to measure progress: - **Customer satisfaction score –** This determines how happy your clients are with your service and information. ### **Goal 3 – Increase traffic to your website from your social platforms by 100%** The number of people who visit your website becomes the number of opportunities you have to gain a new customer, so it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on. To improve it, you can track how successful your social content and targeting are by measuring: - **Reach –** Monitor the total number of people who see your posts on each platform. - **Impressions –** This will tell you the number of times people viewed your posts on each platform and can help you understand if something isn’t working. - **Click-through rate –** Monitor how many people see your post and click through to your website. - **Audience growth rate –** Count how many new followers you get on each platform in a certain period. ## **Check regularly** As with any goal in life, success depends on your commitment to the process. Social media analytics is not something you can set and forget. It takes regular checks to make sure you’re not missing any opportunities for improvement. Even though social media have their own analytics tools, they can be tedious and confusing to analyse one by one. BOMA will work as your all-in-one tool, giving you regular custom reports of your analytics. With understandable insights and expert advice, your social media activity will have the best chance of smashing your targets. [Learn more about how BOMA can help your firm today.](https://bomamarketing.com/) **Categories:** Social Media --- ### [Getting the Most from Your Tech Stack: Uncover the Secrets of Implementing Process Automation (UK Edition)](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/getting-the-most-from-your-tech-stack-uncover-the-secrets-of-implementing-process-automation-uk-edition/) **Published:** February 12, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Join Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA, as he hosts Jackson Brigg, Head of Sales at FuseWorks, for an exclusive webinar designed to help you maximise your tech stack and harness the power of process automation for your firm. In this session, you’ll learn: - The top five tips for implementing process automation effectively - How to bring your team along for the journey and ensure buy-in - Why imperfect data is okay and how to work with what you have - The importance of planning for both short-term wins and long-term success - Real-world strategies for testing, training, and evolving your processes This is your opportunity to gain actionable insights and set your firm up for success in an ever-evolving tech landscape. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Better Software, Better Advisory: How Accountants Can Stay in the Game (UK Edition)](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/better-software-better-advisory-how-accountants-can-stay-in-the-game-uk-edition/) **Published:** February 28, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Accountants can’t afford to sit on the sidelines when it comes to software changes. A new system isn’t just about flashy features—it’s about fixing broken processes and making the business run better. But that only happens when accountants, clients, and software implementers work together. Join Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA, as he hosts Courtney Wilson and Josh Wilson of The Software Coach for a discussion on why accountants need to be involved from day one, what happens when they’re left out, and how misalignment between key players can derail an entire project. Most importantly, we’ll cover practical strategies to keep everyone on track and ensure software actually delivers better business outcomes. If you want to level up your advisory services and avoid software disasters, this is a must-watch session! **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [How to Market Your Accounting & Bookkeeping Firm on a Budget](https://bomamarketing.com/uncategorized/how-to-market-your-accounting-bookkeeping-firm-on-a-budget-with-heather-smith/) **Published:** October 15, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Marketing is a massive opportunity for Accountants & Bookkeepers to help nurture and support current clients and grow their firms. But how do you get started? Join Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA, and Heather Smith, FCA, FCCA, FICB, as they share cost effective marketing tactics that will help drive your firm’s growth. During this webinar we cover: – Why do you need to do marketing? – Website best practice – Testimonials and case studies – Making it easier for people to find you online – Content marketing – Thought leadership and social media – Emails & newsletters – Winning video content – How to stage an event – Using online directories – Advertising online **Categories:** Uncategorized --- ### [Digital Marketing Explained - What Are Hashtags and When Should I Use Them?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/digital-marketing/digital-marketing-explained-what-are-hashtags-and-when-should-i-use-them/) **Published:** November 7, 2018 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** It all started with Twitter and now hashtags are widely used across social media. But what are they and how do you use them to improve your visibility online? In this blog, we give you the #lowdown and some tips on how to use Hashtags to amplify your social media impact. ## **What is a Hashtag?** A hashtag is a keyword or phrase written without spaces or punctuation and preceded with the #sign. Hashtags are now used across social network platforms to group content together and sometimes as a funny comment or summary after a tweet or post. Used primarily on Twitter but also on Instagram, Flickr, Google+, LinkedIn and Facebook, hashtags are a bit like little search engines. When you type in a hashtag on Twitter, you can search for all the content related to that topic (using that hashtag). If you click on a hashtagged word in Twitter you can see other messages that include that hashtag. On Instagram, you can now follow a hashtag that interests you in a similar way to following a friend. ## **Who invented them?** [Chris Messina](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashtag), an American technology evangelist chose the # symbol (because it was easy to use on his Nokia phone) back 2007, as a way for people to search for content and find specific relevant updates. The practice then took off during the 2007 San Diego Forest Fires with the hashtag #sandiegofire. This grouped the news and updates and made it easier for news organisations and people to find and distribute new information. Two years later Twitter began to hyperlink hashtags so that users could search for topics. And now hashtags are added almost everywhere. **Hashtag examples** - \#metoo – The #metoo hashtag became a way for me and women to share stories of harassment and abuse. [Between October and December 2017, the hashtag was used on Twitter and Facebook more than six million times.](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-42251490) - \#Covfefe – It started with a typo in a tweet by President Trump but within 24 hours the hashtag #covfefe had been used 1.4 million times - \#gameofthrones – for fans of the show, this hashtag brings together everything from fancy dress, images of actors or news on the show. - Hashtags can relate to almost anything such as #eatinggreen, #melbournecup #doglife or a celebrity figure. And speaking of celebrity… Here is Jimmy Fallon talking ‘hashtags’ with Justin Timberlake! ## **Using Hashtags on Social Media** Joking aside, Hashtags can actually broaden your reach online and help increase the chance of people finding you. Bear in mind the more popular the hashtag, the harder it will be to gain visibility though so, sometimes a niche approach is better. Let’s look at how to make the most of hashtags for your social media activity: **Research** – Look at what your audience is interested in, as well as the trending topics, and the hashtags your competitors or key influencers in your industry are using in their posts. On Twitter, you can see what is trending under ‘Trends for you’ on the left of your Twitter feed. You can also use tools like [Hashtagify.me](https://hashtagify.me/) or [Brand Mentions hashtag tracker](https://brandmentions.com/hashtag-tracker/) to find and analyse the popularity of hashtags on Twitter and Instagram, plus related terms. **Create your own** – Hashtags are created by users. You can create a hashtag for your brand or for the advisory niche you specialise in. When you use this regularly, it can help people find other content written by you e.g. #BomaMarketingTips **Let others tell your story –** user-generated content campaigns is when your customers and fans share their images and content with your hashtag. It helps build the story and your community. For example, hashtags are a great way for attendees at an event to share images and commentary e.g. #xerocon ## **Follow some basic rules:** **Don’t overdo it** – Results in a study by Agorapulse showed that Instagram posts with hashtags [receive 70% more likes](https://www.agorapulse.com/social-media-lab/hashtags-instagram-likes). But you don’t need to add hundreds to each post. Start with a couple and follow the tips below. **Do some research** – It’s worthwhile spending a minute or two to find out the popularity of your hashtag and check that the existing use relates to your topic and not something totally different. **Keep it readable** – Short and easy to read will have more impact and be more memorable. For longer hashtags, you can make the first letter of each word a capital letter in order to #MakeItMoreReadable **Make sure they are relevant to the topic** – Loading your tweet or post up with random irrelevant hashtags looks like spam. Keep to the topic to add value. **Strike a balance between broad and specific** – Go for hashtags that are specific to your industry and you will have a higher chance of being seen by a more relevant audience. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate and nurture clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written ready-to-share content and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. You can also create landing pages to capture new leads and run social advertising to promote your firm to new audiences. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). Download Our Digital Marketing eBook The Digital Marketing Guide For Accountants & Bookkeepers Get the full picture. This guide tells you everything you need to know about marketing online with easy explanations, tips and simple steps to follow. [Learn More](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-the-small-business-guide/) **Categories:** Digital Marketing, Tips & Advice --- ### [Managing Your Team in the Uncertain Times Ahead](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/managing-your-team-in-the-uncertain-times-ahead/) **Published:** May 7, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** The impact of Covid-19 has been severe and even as restrictions are gradually lifted in New Zealand there is still much uncertainty for businesses around recovery planning from an HR perspective. Join Jason Ennor, Co-Founder & CEO of [MyHR](https://www.myhr.co.nz/), and Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA, as they address some of the key elements businesses should be considering. We cover: – The differences between making temporary employment changes to cope with the lockdown levels v.s permanent changes – Effective labour planning when revenue is uncertain – When to consider redundancies – Alternatives to redundancy – Recovery, from a staffing perspective **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [BOMA + Spotlight Reporting - Digital Marketing for your Practice](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/boma-spotlight-reporting-digital-marketing-for-your-practice/) **Published:** June 13, 2019 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Discover the secrets of marketing your Accounting firm from the pros. Join Ian Christie and Richard Francis as they discuss a lifetime of marketing lessons and how they can be directly applied to marketing your accounting practice. Ian Christie is the Founder & CEO of BOMA, previously CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand, Co-Founder of ChannelFlip and CMO of Findly. Richard Francis is the Founder & CEO of Spotlight Reporting, previously the GM of Workpapers for Xero, and a trusted advisor with over 20 years of advisory experience. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [How to Market Your Accounting & Bookkeeping Firm on a Budget](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/how-to-market-your-accounting-bookkeeping-firm-on-a-budget/) **Published:** September 15, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Marketing is a massive opportunity for Accountants & Bookkeepers to help nurture and support current clients and grow their firms. But how do you get started? Join Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA, and Liz Studholme, Content Marketing Manager for BOMA, as they share cost effective effective marketing tactics that will help drive your firm’s growth. During this webinar we cover: - Why do you need to do marketing? - Website best practice - Testimonials and case studies - Making it easier for people to find you online - Content marketing - Thought leadership and social media - Emails & newsletters - Winning video content - How to stage an event - Using online directories - Advertising online **NB: You can also read a full transcript of this session below.** ## ‘How to Market Your Accounting & Bookkeeping Firm on a Budget’ Transcript **Charles Clark:** Welcome to today’s webinar on how to market your accounting or bookkeeping firm on a budget. So glad that you can join us. My name is Charles Clark. I’m the marketing director at BOMA, and I’m joined by Liz Studholme. Hi Liz. **Liz Studholme:** Hi everyone. Thanks for joining us. Yeah. Look forward to talking marketing with you. **Charles Clark:** Thank you to everyone so much for joining us. In particular, thank you all so much for your responses. We know that we asked some questions when you registered. I was just reviewing them early this morning, and the response is really overwhelming, and for us incredibly insightful and a lot that really resonates with Liz and I. We were discussing the best way to, I suppose, package it or maybe talk about it, but there’s such just a wide variety of things that we thought, “Okay. We’ll probably do a poll at the end of this and we’ll actually ask you specifically if there are things that we can cover in future webinars and we’ll get your views on that.” There was one person’s response which really, really stood out. This was, I suppose, alluded to by some other people, but I thought this really nailed it and I’ll just read it out. It says, “I really don’t know how to market my business effectively. There is so much information out there and I get confused where to start.” I thought that’s perfect because it can be confusing. There is a lot of information out there. There’s a lot of different things you need to be thinking about. I thought just as a starting point we are all on this journey together, and hopefully today, while we are covering ostentatiously things that are cost-effective, also all of these things that we’re going to be talking about are also pretty much the things that one should be considering when it comes to marketing. Hopefully we’ll cover both sides of that. **Liz Studholme:** I’m going to kick off with why you should do it, and we’re all going to have different answers to that. I think the first thing is that marketing is not necessarily just sales. It is also about the way you communicate with your existing clients to nurture and support them. It’s very much about retention as well as sales, and retention is also though somewhere where you end up helping with referral because happy clients are going to refer new business to you. It might also be positioning your firm as the obvious choice. With an accounting or bookkeeping firm, you’re not necessarily going to drive change immediately. People might be looking for a new firm in the future, and you are the obvious choice because they’ve seen something that you’ve written on your blog. They might have seen something on social media. They may have joined your newsletter database and started to get some information from you and you are starting to build yourself as the obvious choice for them. What you do in your marketing is going to link to your overall business strategy, whether it’s business growth, you want new clients today, whether it’s profit, you want to stay with your existing group of clients, but you actually want to improve your revenue. It might be building awareness of some of the other services that you offer, and particularly now, while businesses are facing so many challenges. Or you’re building awareness of your firm so that over time you get yourself into a position where you can choose the clients you want, not just take on every new inquiry that comes your way. Marketing has obviously changed. Long gone are the days where you just booked something in the local newspaper or a yellow pages ad, for example. However, it’s also some of those things are still very valid and a lot of the options that we have now give us a little bit more control. With radio, television, newspapers, et cetera, you went through an advertising salesperson. Now you actually control what you put on your website. You control what you put on your social media pages. You control what you send out via email. **Charles Clark:** That’s probably one of the challenges. **Liz Studholme:** Sorry. Yeah. **Charles Clark:** I was just going to say, that’s probably one of the challenges is that you’re both in control- **Liz Studholme:** That is the big challenge. **Charles Clark:** … but also you have to do it. **Liz Studholme:** That’s true. There is also a lot that you can without significant resource and using your in-house team, the internet allows you to kind of also overcome those distance barriers. We’re all now working … A lot of us, Charles and I are working from home. We don’t necessarily need to go into the office, although we really like doing that, actually. You don’t have to necessarily have clients that are in your local area, but the internet allows you to overcome those barriers and reach people in a much wider area, and one or two more things. It gives you flexibility to do things quite quickly. It also gives you the ability to analyse what you’ve done. If you have started doing something on social media, you can see how people have engaged with that. You can see if you’re getting clicks, likes, shares, et cetera. You can see if people are opening your emails and if they’re clicking on the links within them, if there are. We will go obviously into aspects of marketing. There are some things that will really resonate with you and some things that are not so important, but most of what we’re covering today will be things that are really vital for your firm. **Charles Clark:** As we do go along, if you have any questions, do just pop them into the chat box. We’ll try and get to them as we go along because I’m sure they’ll be relevant probably to what we’re covering at the time. **Liz Studholme:** This is the one thing I want you to do. It can be a fun exercise. Get your team together, if you have a team, or if there are people that are helpful, other colleagues or people that you know that you can sit down and talk to about this. Obviously with marketing people say write a marketing plan to begin with, that’s a great idea, but it can be time-consuming. If you don’t have much time and you really want to get started, then I would say, at least just ask these two questions. One is, who’s your ideal client? That might be someone that you have already, or it might be someone that you would like to have that you know is out there. It could be based on their industry, their location, their size, their needs. Think about all the things that make them an ideal client for you. Then you will know who you are talking to, and that’s going to really help you understand the messages that you’re going to say and where you’re going to say it. The second question is, why would they choose you over anybody else? What is the thing that makes you unique? What’s your unique selling point? Or a single-minded proposition to use marketing speak. It could be your service offering. It could be the way you work with clients. It could be your specialism, your expertise, client care, et cetera. It could be a number of different things, but once you know that and who you’re talking to, it’s going to inform every single marketing decision you make. What content that you write, the offers that you put out there and where you spend your time. Ask those two questions and then everything else will flow from there. I think the thing with marketing, yes, it’s changed, but the fundamentals are the same. Know who you’re talking to, understand what you’re offering and be authentic. **Charles Clark:** If you’re not sure, if you’re really struggling on creating that ideal client, you might even look at some of your own clients, because I’m sure you will have some of those ideal clients already within your client list. You can say, “Look, I’m going to do a bit of an investigation on these couple of clients.” Maybe even speak to them and understand why they chose you. Really deep dive in say, “Right, this is from the horse’s mouth, so to say, this is my ideal client. I know what attracted them to me in the first place.” Then you can use that as a method to move forward. **Liz Studholme:** Good idea. **Charles Clark:** We thought we’d start, I suppose, in one of the most obvious places, which is your website. Probably everyone has one. Most of the accountants and bookkeepers that we deal with, they either have one or they’re updating one. I don’t think we’ve ever met one who doesn’t have one. That’s not to say that if you don’t, that’s terrible, but I think it’s just an indicative of the fact that really in this modern age, it’s your online shop window. You really need to have one, and so if you don’t have one, you’re really missing a trick. That’s for a couple of reasons. It only takes the average user, a third of a second to get a first impression about you as a business, which is pretty cruel to say, but it does give you some opportunities. Alluvia Financial is one of our clients and they do this really, really well on their website. I’ve just highlighted in the yellow boxes some of the things that I really like about their website. You can see there on the top left-hand corner, they’ve got their brand. That’s critical. You want your brand on your website just as you’ll have it across your social media channels, any letterheads that you have emails and so forth. On the right-hand side, they’ve got ways to contact them and ways to follow them online, so Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and also a way to basically sign up to their blog. You can see in the middle, they’ve got a picture of their team. That’s great. It’s showing the viewer who they are, what they stand for, so a bit of an indication about what it might be like to work with them. Then they have a really nice proposition, which is, we help you discover your richness, along with a call to action, which is let’s chat today. Really easily you’re starting to give the viewer a sense of what it would be like to work with you and also, some easy ways to get in touch or take that next step. They also do a really nice job on using their accreditations and awards. You can see there, the fourth box down, they have everything that they are accredited and have been awarded. Nice, and it’s above the fold as well. The user will always see that. Then lastly, they’ve some social proofs. They’ve done this quite easily, so they don’t necessarily have testimonials, but they’ve got a whole lot of brands and logos of companies who are their clients. Because they’re a local accountant in Bendigo if you were in that area, you would know most of these clients. You’d be like, “Oh yes, I know those people. In fact, I might be even give them a call and ask them what their accountant’s like.” Then you get to that word of mouth referral element. As I said before, your website is your shop window. The image on the right is basically the whole homepage. What I like about this is that they really easily give the information that the visitor needs. They’ve also done this in a very nicely visual way. They’re not too heavy on the text and you can see there that they have different sections and the sections use a lot of color and imagery and logos to divide up the sections. If you’re scrolling through either on your phone, which is obviously very important that it’s mobile responsive, or on your laptop or desktop, each section is presented with a piece of information, a small piece of information, which will lead them to either ask a question, get a little bit of information that they can use, and it’s going to be highly relevant for them. They also do a nice job where then using a testimonial. They have a testimonial in the first box and then also a further one with a video. That’s the other thing, you can use different forms of media. It doesn’t just have to be text. Imagery is really important. Video is fantastic. That’s just a really nice way, whether it’s you speaking directly to your viewer or you have an interview or you have a case study where one of your clients is given a testimonial, that’s a really nice way to basically give an insight that is maybe a little bit more difficult to give just through the written word. There’s also another thing. If you find it difficult to write, or if it’s you don’t have the time to write, you can just make a recording, whether it’s on a cell phone or a budget video camera, and you can get people to say, or you might be able to say things in a way that you would struggle to write. You get the added benefit of being able to show your warmth and your communication skills, which are really, really critical. We actually did a webinar in the UK with Practice-Web using their research. They did research on the most important skills and characteristics of a successful accountant. They asked small businesses in the UK, but it would be pretty similar in Australia and New Zealand and the number one most important skill and characteristic post-COVID was communication. Communication obviously starts on your website that goes through, into obviously emails, social media, and obviously picking up the phone. Lots of different ways. Linda, it’s Alluvia Financial in Bendigo if you’re searching for them. **Liz Studholme:** I was going to just go back to that slide, Charles, for a minute on keywords. I’m sure people are aware of what keywords are, but they’re quite a critical thing for your website. A keyword is the thing that people put into the search bar when they’re searching for something online. In order to provide a good result, the Google bots go out and look for those keywords. When they find content that has that keyword, they bring back the results for the search engine results page. Keywords are important for your website because you’re responding to people’s requests for information. Make sure if you are the accountant or bookkeeper for trade and construction, you’re writing content on there in your titles, your blogs, your headers, your metadata, which is the data behind your website people don’t see, and using those keywords naturally within the text, and that will help improve your ranking on Google. Testimonials. Yeah. If you’ve got people that are happy with the way they’re working with you, make sure that you’re asking them to write that content down. You can either use that on your website, or you can get them to write their review of you themselves on … If you turn on your testimonials on your social pages and you can put it on Google My Business on your Google listing. They’re really powerful ways, because we are much more likely to listen to somebody else rave about your business than you rave about your business. It’s a really powerful way to promote your firm. Look, you’d be surprised if you sent a note out and said, “We’re asking for Google reviews.” Or anytime you get a positive comment from someone, put a little note to them say, “Would you be happy to write that on?” And give them the link to your social pages. Or, “Would you be happy for us to write that on our website?” Most people totally are. **Charles Clark:** That’s, as you say, using that social proof and I think we’ll cover that in the online directories later on, but having four or five stars given by a user. People will check you out. They’ll look at your website but they expect social media pages pretty much these days. It’s pretty standard for business when people do their research. We’ve found that even if you get a word of mouth referral, 80% of potential clients will look at your website, will look at your social media pages. Really, really critical to both have good content and up-to-date content on there. But if you’ve got content from clients, whether that’s testimonials, referrals, or even comments on maybe social posts you’ve made, pictures that you’ve put up. I mean, all that engagement will help, I suppose, tell a story about the sort of firm that you are. **Liz Studholme:** Case studies, similarly, social proof, but longer form where you probably write it rather than them make the quote, you using their quote, really much more powerful that someone else sings your praises than you sing your own. A case study also tells a reader about the sorts of problems that you resolve successfully for people. Think about a simple overview. In fact, I would go back to number one at the very end. Write the problem at hand, the work that you undertook, the outcome, why they’re happy. Make sure that you have a conversation with your client about that so that you can put quotes throughout it, and then go back and write your overview at the beginning. It’s always easier to write the summary at the end. Share those around. Publish that on your blog, share it on your social pages with a link back to read more to your blog, get them to share it and link to them in that copy so that those links through the internet are powerful for your search engine optimization. **Charles Clark:** Also quite a nice idea when you write that case study about the problem you solved. If you used a specific say product or service that you offer, nice then to link it in. We solved their problem through our X or Y service and which we offer. Obviously if you’re using links within your website or on a blog post, then you could link it so that a user could read or click on that and go through to that other page within your website, which is also good, because that does also help from an SEO perspective, which I think is where we’re about to head now. Getting found online really, really is important because people will often type in if they know your name directly, that’s fantastic, or they might even just type in the name of an accountant and a location. As Liz said, that is quite an involved process, but it doesn’t need to be difficult. When we talk about having keywords on your website, so keywords could be things like Xero specialist tax compliance, your location, all those sorts of things. There are natural places where you can fit them onto your website. That could be, you have a contact us page or that would have your address, your location, your phone number. You’d have a services or a product page. Well, that would have the sorts of things that you specialise in, which would obviously mention taxation compliance, maybe trusts, superannuation, all the types of things that you specialise in. You can then write naturally. That’s the key is that you can’t really write to fool a search bot. You have to write it naturally. That’s what the Google search boxes are basically looking for, is, would it be valuable for someone real to read where they get valuable information? If you write it normally as you would for someone to read, that’s the better way of writing from an SEO perspective, rather than just having a page with 50 different keywords but that don’t actually make sense when a human reads it. In terms of content, and we will talk about this a little bit in content marketing, but there’s also the opportunity for you to be obviously writing about your products and services, but also what is happening out there in the marketplace? What are things that would be relevant to your users? I suppose hacking back to what Liz said a minute ago, when you write that piece on your ideal client, part of that is thinking, “What’s going to interest them?” Where that then leads to is, “Well, I should write about what’s going to interest them, because that will help me attract them down the road.” **Liz Studholme:** Content marketing. Now, it’s a buzzword and so is inbound marketing, but it’s a really, really valuable tool for your business. A lot of what we’re talking about today is long-term strategy in that it’s a slow play in a way. You can spend a lot of money and get some businesses contacting you tomorrow but as soon as you stop spending that money, that interest has disappeared. Long-term SEO is about building solid foundations that really help improve your ranking. Content marketing is also often called inbound marketing because it’s about attracting people and based on things that interest them. It helps improve your rankings on search. It’s giving those Google bots more stuff to look at. It’s like it’s looking at things that are the links between your site, the length of time people spend on your site reading, et cetera. It helps grow your brand and tell your story. It strengthens client relationships because you’re often writing about things that are helping them, giving them useful, valuable advice and increases your referrals when that content is being shared. Now it includes a gamut of different things, but it’s basically about producing regular interesting, valuable content and giving it away kind of for free or if not for free then in exchange for an email address. That picture down the bottom says after social media posts, e-books and white papers, now podcasts as well could come into there. You could write a small book on tax or a small book on something relating to one of your specialisms or whatever, and have that hosted on your site and people download it using a lead-capture form, which We can talk about in a minute. In return for their email address, in which case you get an interested lead, you can give them that e-book and that’s a really valuable thing for their business. I think on the next slide, we talk a little bit more about content marketing. I think that the best way to think about it is 80/20 rule. Like most things in life, give first, sell second. Make 80% of that content about them and the challenges they face and the problems they need solving. In that 20%, you can talk about you and the services that you offer, but you are going to find that people are really interested in content that is about them and the stuff that they need to find solutions for. Think about again, your ideal client, what do they want to know, or what would they find useful? There are a number of ways you can find things out. For example, if you have a LinkedIn company page, and we are going to talk about social media in a minute, we really recommend that if you’re going on social media you have company pages and there’s a lot of reasons for that, which we’ll talk about in a minute. On a LinkedIn company page, you can actually go and you’ll find in the top header a note that says content, and under there, you can choose an audience and you can find out what content they’re engaging with. That helps build an idea of what sort of content to write about. You can focus on your expertise, your niche, your industry specialisms. For example, there might be information out there that’s critical at the moment. Obviously with COVID restrictions, there’s subsidies, all sorts of things that can help businesses at the moment. Work with influence partners. Now, whether that’s a bank or it might be an association, a trade association, manufacturers association, retail associations, whatever it is, work together. You could write a guest blog for them, or they write a guest blog for you. You provide those links or potentially you could do a joint webinar where you’re both reaching an audience that you’re both interested in talking to. Your audience obviously gains a lot from that and you get that cross-referral. The image on the right here is from BOMA. Charles and I both work for BOMA, which is a digital marketing tool designed specifically for accountants and bookkeepers. The reason I’ve included that image is that it shows you some of the content in the content library. We’re not really going to go into huge detail about BOMA today, but we will make sure that you have an opportunity to do a free trial with BOMA. The thing that BOMA does is give you that library of content, there’s over 400 pieces you can choose it and make it your own. Ah, so, okay. We talk about in the next one. There’s over 400 expertly-written articles and they’re updated every week. They cover compliance management and strategy, HR, sales and marketing, tax, technology. You can choose and customise it. Now, I know from my point of view and I’m sure many of you are the same, it is much easier to critique, get out the red pen when someone else has written something than it is to write from scratch. BOMA gives you that opportunity. You don’t need to send it as it is. You absolutely can. We write the social post. We write the email, et cetera, or you can change it and write exactly what you would like and add a personal greeting. We have BOMA content, but we also have partner content by Xero, The Gap, Vend, Wolters Kluwer CCH, MY HR, Spotlight Reporting. We are often talking to and adding other partners. It’s based on your region. If you are in Australia, you’d hear about JobKeeper, in New Zealand and you’d hear about the Wage Subsidy, and not the other way around. You can create emails, newsletters, and social posts in minutes. When you connect to BOMA, you link your Facebook, your LinkedIn, your Twitter account, also, in fact, your Instagram for advertising and you upload your contact so that can email them. That’s just really in a nutshell what BOMA is, but we also have lead-capture forms. You create a form where you can ask people’s name and email address for downloading things or registering for a webinar, for example, and signing up for a newsletter. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. Because one of the things about content is that it enables you to, I suppose, position whether it’s yourself personally, or your firm as a thought leader. I know that thought leadership is another one of those buzzwords which has bandied around and many of you think of thought leaders as only the most notable people in your industry. Steve Vamos from Xero, we all know he’s a thought leader. He’s also the head of a big company, but that doesn’t mean that in your individual situations, you can’t be \[inaudible 00:27:00\] things going and they are desperate for someone to reach out and give them some information and help, I suppose, support and shape their business in the best of times, through normal times and in current times through a really, really challenging period. You can use thought leadership basically to support your clients and hopefully to reach new clients, because it does a couple of things. It promotes your credibility. If you’re giving out reliable, insightful, expert information on certain topics that maybe your clients didn’t know you had, or maybe people just who’ve come across your website or your social profile read about, they start to see that you are credible. You are an expert in these areas and also trust. Whether it’s to your own clients, that helps build up that trust because they see that you are going the extra mile, you care about them. You want to give them information that will help. Also, when it comes to, I suppose, on the lead side, and that was a number of you talked about in your responses about gaining leads that is that connection. How do you take someone who is just a lead or has just seen your social profile or your website, how do you build that relationship? Trust is a really key element. Obviously credibility goes alongside that as well. If you can get them to trust you, then when you have that conversation about them becoming a client, or if they already are a client about them stepping up to maybe taking more services from you, the fact that they trust you will make a huge difference. Just in terms of your overall marketing, if you are a trusted brand, that makes all the difference. If you think of some of … And nothing really \[inaudible 00:29:03\] but in terms of like Volkswagen around Dieselgate, they had done great marketing for years, and then suddenly Dieselgate comes out and people don’t trust the brand. You can see how it can undermine it, a lack of trust, and so versa. If people trust your brand, then it’s as equally as powerful in a positive way, in terms of how impactful and effective all your other marketing actions are. **Liz Studholme:** We’ve had two questions I just wanted to respond to on this content. One of them was, will we have content for Canada? We have a lot global content. Our main content markets are the UK, Australia and New Zealand, but we are building on that so watch this space, but yes, there is an awful lot of global content. The other question was, should I be sharing content that somebody else is sharing? Absolutely. Yeah. You want to have a little bit of uniqueness. What we say to people is that when you take your piece of content from BOMA, you customise it and make it your own. Now there’s also 1.7 million images within BOMA to choose from, and they’re free to use. The other thing I think is that the reason that we created BOMA, knowing all of that is that to create your own content, not only takes an awful lot of time, it takes a huge amount of expense. Bespoke good content costs a lot of money. That’s where BOMA provides a really cost-effective solution to go in and choose a piece of content that is really relevant in your area right now to make it your own, to change the image. We are providing a solution that our users find incredibly valuable because it’s providing that useful way to support their clients, but also to tell their own story and kick start their content marketing. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. I think that’s an important point. Every piece of BOMA content, whether it’s in an email or in a social post, you have a hundred percent control over. As Liz said, you can change the image, but you can also change all of the copies. If a piece of content is talking about five tips for hiring a person and you want to make it four, or you want to make it seven, it’s completely up to you. I think in terms of the content side of things, the things that we’re talking about are absolutely critical. Something’s announced in government policy, we usually have something out in a day or two. Really if someone’s asking about the latest JobSeeker or superannuation changes, there’s only really so many ways to write about that. What you really need is the impactful, insightful, correct facts. Then you could have some commentary alongside of that. I do remember when we first launched BOMA in 2017 and there were quite a few accountants who said, “Oh, yes, but I write my own content.” Then six months later they’d come back and they said, “Oh, yes. We tried to do it, but I don’t have six or eight or nine hours a week to write content. I’m too busy supporting my clients.” Yeah. I think there’s that trade-off in terms of if you have that amount of time to spend on marketing, that’s absolutely fantastical writing content. But if you are up against it from a time perspective and also trying to live your life outside of your firm, then efficiency is really a key point here. **Liz Studholme:** What we’ve also noticed is that people that are new to marketing suddenly become much more confident on social media. They might start with a few posts that come from BOMA and more and more, they create their own because it becomes easier and quicker. **Charles Clark:** On that point, social media. What I’ve got here are just a couple of examples of a firm in the UK and Lielette in Australia. Social media is like your website really is. It’s a bit of a non-negotiable. We’re not saying that you have to have all the channels, but you should definitely, in addition to your own personal LinkedIn channel, you should at least probably have Facebook because clients will go on or prospective clients will go and look for you. If you don’t have any social media channels that immediately for most clients will say, “Okay. Well, that’s a certain type of person. They may be not up with all the latest technology.” If you think of the way that accounting is going with cloud accounting and all the add-ons and amazing technological advancements in the last 10 years, a little bit difficult for you to be singing that tune on one hand. But on the other hand, you don’t have the modern communications tools yourself. Definitely a non-negotiable. If you can start with just one, that’s fantastic and as you get more comfortable, you could always consider broadening it out. Like on your website, it gives people a chance to connect with you. The great thing about social media is that it’s two-way. Whereas a website is a one-way communication, you put up the content and people go and visit it, social media allows you to have engagement, and have a conversation. You can put up comments, you can put up videos, you can put up photos, you can put up information. We did a social media webinar recently, and a huge amount of accountants and bookkeepers are putting up educational and insightful commentary on things that are impacting their clients, but it’s not all serious. You don’t have to just think, “Oh, it only can be work-related.” It’s also a place where you can, I suppose, show off your personality, show off a bit more personal side and I suppose start building that relationship with people. **Liz Studholme:** Charlie, I just noticed there that if we look at sort of, for example, Facebook and LinkedIn, you have the ability to have a business page on both of those. We mentioned it earlier. The reason for that is if you think about Facebook, if you’re using Facebook personal for your business, people have to be your friend. They have to know what your relationship status is. They have to know about their birthday, and they have to share that with you. Whereas a business page gives them the ability to just follow or unfollow. It also provides the ability for them to write reviews. There’s a lot more functionality if you do business pages. Yes, you probably all have your own personal Facebook page. Make sure for your business, you have a business page and fill out all that information. Likewise, for LinkedIn as well as Facebook, because you’ll find the functionality on there and the functionality to advertise. You won’t have that on just a plain personal page. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. No. That’s a very good point. Have we talked about getting more people following us, Liz or is just responding to a question? **Liz Studholme:** Yeah. No. We haven’t. That’s really important. Obviously, if you’re going to start posting on social, you want people to see it. The more people that you have on there, and then when they engage, the more likely … It obviously works like a web. We have got a blog post on that actually for more detail on our BOMA marketing website. But start with the people that you know, invite them. Also, your colleagues or staff, and make sure that you are also acting as your page on those social media platforms. When you go into Facebook and you look at someone’s post, you can actually use the dropdown and act as your page when you comment so your page starts gaining traction as a name out on those social platforms. There are lots of different things you can do. I recommend that you do … I think it’s called grow your fans and followers on Facebook. I think there’s a similar one for LinkedIn on a blog on our BOMA marketing website under resources that will tell you how to grow those, because obviously that’s a really fundamental thing. Once you’ve got an audience, a small audience, you can start growing that. **Charles Clark:** The point here is that obviously why do you have a social media page? It’s also ultimately to drive leads and traffic to your website which you can then hopefully convert and to grow your business. Liz talked earlier in terms of content marketing, putting out piece of content research. You can do this again on social media and again, it can link back to your website as well. You can either capture lead page. You can capture those leads if you have it gated, or you can have it open so that they can just land on your website and read it. Some tips on social media. I think the clue is in the name social. It is social and don’t, in a rush blood, start up a Facebook page and then neglect it. The point is that you have to be active to it to a small extent. We’re not saying you have to be on there all hours of the day, but at least a couple of times a week post something, if you have time. Being regular is pretty key. I suppose if you could make it a bit of a non-negotiable part of your day or maybe one of your colleague’s day. Need only take sort of 10/15 minutes just to post something on there, maybe check out if people have responded to your posts. Always make sure to respond to anyone who comments on your post. It’ll drive that engagement up. We talk about using the @ sign. If you were maybe doing a post and you were referencing a client and you were friends with them on Facebook, you could go @ their name or you could do the same with their business. That’s quite a nice thing if you were maybe celebrating the success that they’d had. Maybe they had won a contract, or maybe they’d had a really good year, you could join in the celebration and congratulate them. That’s quite a nice personal touch. From a cynic’s point of view, it obviously serves the purpose of, one, it shows the client that you are aware of what they’re doing and that you care, but also it has the effect of other people out there who might come across that post says, “Goodness me, that accountant or bookkeeper, they’re up to date with what their clients are doing. They’re celebrating their success and they care.” I mean, obviously you do care. I’m just trying to make a point that it’s all very well caring and just giving that person a call, but it can be very effective from a marketing perspective if you make it public. It’s a public celebration alongside maybe the more personal one which you might make via an email or a phone call. You can also do other things. We’ll go into this a little bit more detail later on, but you can boost your posts. If you’ve had a post with great engagement and you’ll know that if you come back up for a couple of days and you see that it has some likes or comments, if you think that that post is a message that you really want to promote further, and maybe it’s because you’re running a webinar or an event, or it’s a service or product that you’re offering, you can then on Facebook and Instagram actually put a little bit of budget behind it. This is a really, really effective way of helping your post gain visibility and traction within a really crowded, I suppose, social media universe. The nice thing is that you can also target your audience. When you boost the post, you can say, “Look, I want to target, for example, people who live in my area, or I want to target a specific type of person.” Maybe they’re a tradie or they’re retail, or maybe they’re a professional between certain ages and maybe they live in a certain area. There’s lots of options you have where you can really think about back to your ideal client, and then bring that into your targeting and think, “Yeah, I want to go after that concept of my ideal client.” **Liz Studholme:** Hashtags is another way to link your content. If you’re not familiar with hashtags, simply put the hashtag in front of a word, no spaces, no punctuation. They’re often used. In fact, it was invented, I think because of the San Diego fires, I don’t know, 20 years ago now, in order to group conversations so that you could find them. They’re like a miniature search engine. Events often use them like Xerocon for example, so that all conversations that use that hashtag could be grouped together. It provides a really useful way to find all that information on a trending topic. You make sure that you put your own business name as a hashtag at the very least. If you’re in a specific niche, use that hashtag to help your content kind of reach a wider audience so that people searching under that hashtag can find the content that you’ve shared. Again, there is a blog on hashtag. Someone’s asked for the link to the last blog. We’ll make sure that we send out some links to some of these blogs so that you can have a look and find out a little bit more as to how to do that. Charles Clark: Cool. I’m just aware of the time. We’ve got a few more slides to get through. We’ll just go through these quite quickly, but obviously ask questions as we go. In terms of what can you share on social? The nice thing is that you can really share anything. It could be reminders of specific dates for clients. It could be news, whether that’s your news or news out there in the industry, it could be changes within the industry. Industry publications are often a good place to start. You might be getting those anyway in your email inbox. If you see something that might be relevant to your clients, it’s pretty easy to take the link and then share that as well. If you’ve got an event coming up like Kinder Pocock, we’re promoting this webinar, you can do that. Or if you’re going into an event, obviously Xerocon is not happening this year, but Xero On Air is happening. You could always say that you’re attending, or as Liz said, use that hashtag. We’ve talked about promoting clients’ brands, but it also goes for your own firm. If you’ve got some great news to share, maybe it’s a new starter, you’ve won an award or you’ve been recognised within the industry. Those are all really fantastic and worthwhile things to share and on that last point, will go to helping build that trust and credibility, both within your clients, but also within the wider industry with your colleagues and peers. **Liz Studholme:** If you can think of things that will invite engagement, the more engagement that you have on social, the wider your reach is. Anytime someone comments or posts or shares, the people that follow them, get to see it. If there are questions or a survey that you could post, questions that you can ask, and then just make sure that when you post that you’re ready to engage with people that respond and use the @ sign to tag them so that you’re broadening that reach and keeping the conversation going. **Charles Clark:** Getting onto emails and newsletters. Obviously we love these because emails are free and you can do them as often as you like. Obviously accepting that you don’t want to necessarily bombard your client list, but there’s a couple of ways that you can get started. In terms of getting started, if you’re not sure who you could be sending your emails to, if you’re thinking, “Goodness me, I don’t have a database.” Well, you could start with your client list because you definitely will have clients and you could think about them. You could also, as we’ve shown before on some of the examples, make it really easy for people to sign up on your website, make it easy for people to sign up on your social pages as well. Always really important to make sure that you have permission. In these current times, the laws are changing. When you get people to sign up, make sure that there’s a tick box that they basically give their permission for you to market them. On the BOMA lead pages, which you can embed on your website, or it can just be a form, we always have that tick box there so you can obviously get their permission. In terms of what to write about, and we covered this in content marketing, but it goes again back to those principles, what’s in it for them? What would be worth their while? Much better to only send one email a month rather than two or three, and just make sure it’s sort of the highest quality. Really quality over quantity is key when it comes to emails. If you are only sending one email a month, I highly recommend that that’s a newsletter. In that newsletter, you can be really creative. You can have links to webinars, you could have links to blogs. You could have insightful information, educational information. Your newsletter is really a menu of content options that your readers can then go through and pick out in their own time, the pieces of content that interest them. Really, really highly recommend if you don’t have a newsletter at the moment that you really strongly consider doing it. It’s a basic one that you should be thinking of. Some tips to make the most from your emails. Think about the last couple of emails that you got. What took you from reading basically the subject line to clicking on it? Think of an impactful subject line that will make them open the email. It doesn’t matter how good the email content is, or the offer in the email is, if they haven’t opened the email, they’ll never get to read about it, so make sure you have an impactful subject line. **Liz Studholme:** Stay away from April newsletter and go into that newsletter and choose the most important thing that you are writing about. You might be writing about three or four little short paragraphs of different topics. Take the one that you think is going to be of most interest to your clients and go back and write and prospects and write your subject line at the very end. I think the other thing there is that we all read online in a very different way to the way we read a newspaper or read a book. We skim. Make it short, easily readable, introduce the topic, why it’s important, use bullet points and heading so that you can skim through and read and take out. If your content is really readable and great to read, that’s why I think why BOMA has been successful is that that’s what our content absolutely is, is that they’re more likely to open the next email and the next email and the next email, and potentially even share that with somebody else. Including your personality is really important. You may be known to be someone who always cracks a joke or something, make sure you do that in your email, because it’s about building that relationship with prospects and clients. Use images, white space, and have a call to action. Again we are saying, when people get to your website, make sure they always know what they’re going to do next. Same, understand what you want them to do next in your newsletters as well, whether it’s you want them to go to your website or whether to a book a time with you, or to take up an offer or to call you or whatever it is that you think you’d like them to do, make sure you include that in your newsletter. There are some examples on the right-hand side image, whether it’s more info, read more, book a time, et cetera. **Charles Clark:** In terms of content, one item we really want to cover was video content. If like me, you spend a lot of time looking at video content you’ll know just how engaging it is and how as a format for understanding information and taking that in and doing research, it really is, it’s one of my favourite forms these days. YouTube have basically said that on average people are spending about 16 hours a week watching online videos and nearly 85% have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a related video. The nice thing is that you guys have a lot of things that you could be talking about in your videos. Where we are now in 2020 is very different to 15 years ago, it doesn’t cost much money to make a video. You’ve got your cell phone, you’ve got your laptop or your desktop, and that’s really all you need. We’ve got a couple of tools down the bottom that we use. Loom is a really great mobile and desktop tool. That allows you to create and edit short videos which you can then send out. It might be that you send that to one client, or it might be that you send that out to lots of your clients via email or social media. We’re obviously using Zoom today for this webinar, but they also allow you to record videos too. The main thing in a video is they’re amazing to create, a way to convey stories. We talked about, I think in one of the earlier slides, as a really nice alternative to writing, video allows you to really capture the emotion and sentiment and energy behind a story that maybe is more of a struggle to do when you write it. In terms of video ideas, so it could be you could be announcing something that’s happened in an industry. You might be announcing a new hire or that you’ve won an award. Training videos are fantastic. You guys have so many things that you could talk about in terms of training up your clients, whether it’s on Xero or doing accounts or cash flow or basically so many things that, again, are simple for you but for your clients will be super, super valuable because- **Liz Studholme:** They don’t need to be long, do they? **Charles Clark:** No. **Liz Studholme:** You could do honestly a four-minute or less than segment where you say, “This is my one tip of the day or one tip of the week.” There is so much knowledge in the bookkeeping accounting community that you take for granted, but that your clients you may think is common sense and quite well-known, but that on a specific day, your clients and prospects are just like, it’s an aha moment for them. It might just be even some of those complicated accounting concepts explained. What’s the difference between cash versus accrual accounting in a nutshell? Or you could create a series based on some of that stuff that helps demystify accounting and bookkeeping for businesses or clients. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. I mean, a series is a great idea. Then they can live on your website, they can live on your social channels. Again, when people go and visit those places, if they’re not a client, but they’re just looking to understand more about you, they can take themselves through those videos. Obviously not to forget YouTube, I know that was a question we had from one of you when you registered. YouTube is another great channel to put your videos on. It also is great to host videos. If you’ve got a lot of videos on your website, I would recommend hosting them on YouTube. Then you can insert the link on your website, because that means that basically YouTube pays for the hosting and you just have the link coming through to your website. It doesn’t cost you any time in terms of loading speed or money. How to stage. We put the online in brackets because obviously pre-COVID, we’d be saying how to host just an event, but at present, a lot of us will be having to think about how we still maintain those sorts of connections and opportunities, but through an online manner. Look, we’re doing a webinar and you can very much copy this format. Couple of, I suppose, tips and tricks that we found work well. Timing. Unless you know that your particular audience or segment of your audience is only available very early or very late, usually in the middle of the day works well. People could prefer around their lunch hour or something like that. Again, earlier in the week is slightly better. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday’s all good. People we found seem to start tuning out and thinking about the weekend later in the week. Numbers. It’s a great way to basically reach a lot of people. If you think maybe a year ago, if you had something to announce, you might send a couple of emails or ring people, or have coffees with them. Obviously that’s not possible these days for that social distancing purposes, but also just in terms of shared time, can you afford to spend an hour having a phone call or a coffee conversation with 50 clients? You can speak to 10 or 20 or 30 clients on a Zoom webinar. Get across all the information you want. Then they’ll give you a call back or an email with the specific questions and actions that they want to take from that webinar. **Liz Studholme:** Actually, one of our users has used online webinars as a useful way to nurture and support clients, but also kind of, I guess, thought about it in the following way. That an hour of their time could be spent helping a number of clients at the same time with giving away some information and advisory. But it can also then really build awareness of that advisory service that they’re offering and drive more business from those existing clients. Gone are the days where you heard from your accountant or bookkeeper once a year. Now, I think there’s very much a need for businesses and people to hear more frequently and to have that, even if they’re not at that time tuning in, but being able to sign up and then perhaps watch it later, be supported with an advisor that is really there to help them and offer advice. **Charles Clark:** There is a bit of a method in terms of how you go about the process of getting out the invites and reminders. We’ve just detailed it on the left. This is obviously best case scenario that you would send the first invite four weeks out. Look, if you only have time to do it a week or two weeks out, that’s absolutely fine. The idea is that you send the first invite out and then you follow up again. You email everyone on your list who hasn’t signed up, because people often they’ll have looked at the email and they may have thought, “Oh, that’s great, but I’m just a bit busy and I need to rush out.” But you give them another invite. You remind them about it, can be like, “Oh yes, that is something I want to see.” And they will click on it. For example, we had 70 people sign up this morning on our reminder invite. With less than four hours’ notice we got 70 people who said, “Actually that is worth my time. I was meaning to do that. We’re going to sign up.” To that point, reminder. Whether it’s an hour before or the day before, if it’s maybe an in-person event, always make sure that you send the reminder and have the specific details. If it’s an online event, make sure it has the time, the link to login, any other information that you might want them to have. Today we sent a workbook so that you guys could take notes. Maybe that’s something that you could think of doing. If it’s in person, obviously you might want to give them a map, the address, maybe tell them about parking and things like that. Also, if you do happen to speak to a client or prospect by the phone, you bump into them, again, you can say, “Oh, look, we’ve got this event coming up. When I get back to the office, I’m going to send you an invite as well.” Online directories, Liz. **Liz Studholme:** Yeah. Yeah. Well, look, along with your website, make sure that you are also on all these free directories out there. Now, the first one is Google My Business. If you go and type in Google My Business, type in your own name and your name, and you haven’t already claimed and verified your business, make sure you do that. Google is often a place where people start when they’re looking for a business in their area. If someone has typed in accountants in my area or bookkeepers in my area, you want your business to pop up. You get to put your address in there, obviously your hours. That’s something that you can manage over time. Say for example, you are closed for a number of days over the Christmas break or something, you can change your hours. You can also put reviews on there and get five stars as Alluvia Financial have managed to do, which is fantastic. I think Charles I’m writing saying that once you’ve claimed it, they will send you a letter to verify it. That’s still the case, but whatever you go on there, claim your listing. Now, Google’s not the only place. Of course if you’re a Xero partner, you should make sure that you’re in the Xero advisor directory, because people can actually go onto Xero businesses that are using Xero and find an advisor there. If you’re a member of one of the industry groups like Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, CPA, et cetera, or industry associations, chamber of commerce, manufacturers, all those, all specific industry associations that you have connections with. Think about the directories where people might go and it obviously all helps to broaden awareness of your firm. Also, I guess gives you a bit of credibility when you’re listed on these other directories. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. Again, just hacking back to that social proof element, nothing is as powerful as seeing someone else who’s rated a business highly that just gives people the feeling that they can take that step and give you a call because from what they have seen in terms of other people’s experiences, they’re going to be looked after as well. Be really important. We put this one on the end and I think the reason we’ve included this is because obviously advertising online does cost money. We’re talking about AdWords, Facebook ads, LinkedIn, display ads, things like that, but done right it can be cost-effective and you don’t need to spend a huge amount of money. You can see an example on the right-hand side. I just put in accountant in Manly, Manly in Sydney, and up came three ads with three people, three accountants in there. Obviously you can see down the bottom, there’s the map showing them all. The nice thing is that even with a small budget, so I’m talking a couple of hundred dollars a month, you can do AdWords as a place to start, but because advertising online is all trackable. You can know exactly what your ROI is. You can know if you have the right tracking links. You can speak to your webmaster about that. If you’re looking for what pixels you should have or UTM parameters, make sure you have those in there, but you can say, “Okay. Well, I spent a hundred dollars. How many people came through to my website? How many people clicked on a link and maybe came through and downloaded a lead-capture form to get access to a piece of valuable content?” The same goes for obviously Facebook ads and LinkedIn display ads. You’ll know exactly how many people clicked on a link and where they ended up and so you might be able to say, “Well, look, I spent a hundred dollars and I can track that I got two emails or two leads or two people filled out a form and I got their information so that I can follow up with. Each lead costs me $50.” That’s just a really basic example of looking at it. I would definitely say that if you’re doing everything else that we’ve talked about and you’re still thinking that you would like to maybe expand your marketing a little bit further, whether you do it yourself or you have someone help you do it, I would definitely say, look at advertising online. There’s just a couple of things to think about in terms of, I suppose, what mediums to use. The point that we’ve made first about AdWords, which is, are people already searching for your services? If they are, that’s a really good opportunity to use AdWords. If they’re searching for, as an example on the right, accountants in Manly and you’re in Manly and you’re an accountant, fantastic, you can put some AdWords up there. Obviously it’s not just that you would say you’re an accountant in Manly, you would put a whole range of keywords that you wanted to rank for. They may also include your services that you offer, what you specialise in. You can see here, Beany has tax, GST, small businesses. They’ve got a whole lot of different keywords in there. If you’re looking to target people who may not be looking specifically for your services, but are looking for general accounting and bookkeeping services, then it’s quite a good idea to use more of a display channel. Such as Facebook ads or LinkedIn or the display networks. You can then create an ad with an image and some copy and a link that then linked through to somewhere on your website. Think of that link as going through to a place on your website where they can take an action. That might be that they go through to a calendar page where they can book a call with you would be a really easy one, or they can watch a video or they can read a case, study something that will give them some insightful information or help them begin that relationship building process with you. If you just take them to your homepage, then you’re saying, “Hey, here’s the homepage, but it’s up to you what you do next.” Make it really easy for them to take the next step. Say, “Here’s this case study, you should read this case study or here’s a video, or give me a call. Let’s book a time to chat.” Just be really straightforward, clear calls to action and make it obvious what you’re asking them to do. Look, we’re just about to finish up and I just wanted to launch this poll. Just if you have time just in the last minute or two, if there’s any topics that you’d like us to cover in future webinars, we’d love it if you could cast your vote. It won’t take more than just a couple of seconds. If you see a topic there that we haven’t mentioned, please do just type it directly into the comment section if you don’t see it in there and we will tell you the results and then put that into our webinar calendar for the coming months. **Liz Studholme:** Likewise, there were a couple of questions about BOMA. We will send out a link so that you can do your own free trial. If you are interested in looking at a demo before you do that, you can book a demo with us. If there are a number of you that do want to do that, we could actually run it as a group demo so that you’re on together. Again, in the content section, that comment section, would that be the place to put it, Charlie, that you’re interested in a demo, a group demo? Put group demo and we’ll make sure that we send something out with a link so that we can bring you back on for a short demo and we’ll run through what the product offers. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. Well, then so thanks so much everyone. We know we’ve gone a few minutes over time. Really, really appreciate your attendance. Your question, your interactions. Just leaves me to thank Liz so much for her time. Thanks, Liz. **Liz Studholme:** Thank you. Nice to be involved. **Charles Clark:** Thanks so much everyone. See you next time. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [BOMA + The Gap: Leveraging Content to Launch Advisory](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/boma-the-gap-leveraging-content-to-launch-advisory-au-nz/) **Published:** September 23, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** With compliance being rear-facing, your clients may not know you provide services that create enduring value for their business. Having an effective marketing campaign is essential in positioning your value. This webinar features Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA and Nat Eady, General Manager of The Gap. **Webinar Agenda:** - How to execute a simple marketing campaign for advisory services - How to apply WIIFM (what’s in it for me) principles when marketing ANY of your services - Taking the guess work out of your marketing efforts - Planning your marketing campaigns for the rest of this year - Q&A **NB: You can also read a full transcript of this session below.** ## ‘Leveraging Great Content to Launch Advisory’ Transcript **Charles Clark:** Okay. Well, look, let’s kick off, guys. Just a bit of housekeeping before we kick off officially. We’re using Zoom today. We’d love to take your questions as we go through. You can see there’s a Q&A chat box. That’s the best place to put your questions. If we can, we’ll answer them as we go by text, otherwise we’ll save them up till the end where there’ll be time for Q&A, and if at the end you have additional questions that you haven’t asked, please just note them down then, and we’ll do our best to answer them. So introductions, my name is Charles Clark. I’m Marketing Director of BOMA, and thrilled to be joined tonight by Natalie Eady, General Manager of The Gap. Hi, Nat. **Natalie Eady:** Hi, great to be here. **Charles Clark:** So we’ll keep it rolling fairly quickly through, because we’ve got 45 minutes, and we will be covering the following elements, including a bit of pre-work that you all very kindly participated in. In terms of the recording, we’ll be sending that out tomorrow, so if you can’t stay for the full amount of time, or you get interrupted, don’t worry, we’ll send you out the recording tomorrow. So if you haven’t heard of us, and there might be some of you who are Gapees or BOMA users and haven’t heard of maybe the other company, so BOMA is basically a powerful digital marketing platform designed for accountants, and The Gap is an amazing business development system, also, again, designed for accountants. **Charles Clark:** So with The Gap content in combination with BOMA’s digital marketing tool, it’s a really unique way for you to enhance your client relationships, drive growth, and also maximize efficiency, and today, we’re going to be showing you, I suppose, how to do that using the content from The Gap and BOMA, and how that can be leveraged to launch and drive your advisory services. So just again, thank you so much for filling in the pre-work questions. What we’ve done is just taken all the answers you gave, and collated them really quickly into a few graphs just to give us some insight. It’s quite useful just to give you, I suppose, a sense of how you compare to some of your peers in the industry. It’s quite nice to sort of benchmark where you might be, and also, I think it’s quite useful to set the scene as we move further into this webinar. **Charles Clark:** So the first one we talked about was how many social posts are you posting each week? And this is mostly to your business channels, if you have them. So really great to see that over 50% of you are posting at least once to twice per week, and a significant proportion of you, over 20%, are really consistent. So you’re posting upwards of three times per week, which is really great to see, and that’s across multiple different platforms as well. So I was just counting. If you said that you posted the same post over a couple of different platforms, I would just count that as one. So that was great to see. **Charles Clark:** The interesting thing for me in this graph, or sorry, pie chart, was that there’s about 28% of you who said that you weren’t posting at all. And, look, I know it can be difficult to find the time, or to know what to say with social. I know it’s also it’s a new medium to get comfortable with, but it really is a big opportunity for you, and perhaps a bit of a wakeup call when you see how many people are posting to social. Social media is where a lot of your clients are active. They may be active personally, or they may be active in their business. So it’s a great place for you to engage with them, because they’re already engaging with a lot of other companies and brands out there, so it’s something they’re really used to doing, and they really like seeing information from companies they trust and follow. So really can’t recommend enough getting involved, if you have the time. **Charles Clark:** Then we moved on to EDMs, and I realized when I went through the sponsors that, again, some of you weren’t sure what EDM stands for, and its electronic direct mail, which in essence is just an email campaign. So this isn’t the emails that you send out to your clients in terms of client-based ones. These are sort of more marketing, or nurture, or education-based. So if you have a look at the graph, where does your firm fit in? Are you in the group of 37% who aren’t doing any, or are you in one of the groups of the remaining 63% who are? Again, I think it’s really like social. If you’re not active in your email campaigns, you’re missing a golden opportunity to nurture and educate your clients and prospects. **Charles Clark:** And I think it’s also you can see here that well over half, nearly two-thirds, are doing this. I think something to just take away from this slide is if you’re not educating your clients and prospects, someone else might be. So just something to think about. But we know that it does take time to write emails. We know it takes time to write social posts, and so we asked the question of how much time is your firm spending writing the content each month? And no surprise that around 29% aren’t spending any. That kind of reflects what we saw in terms of the email usage and the social usage, but everyone is spending… well, the majority of nearly 70% are spending a fairly significant time. **Charles Clark:** You can see there that 20% of you are spending actually over six hours a month. Some of you are also outsourcing this entirely, and there were a few people who also outsourced this within their own firm, so they had a special marketing person, or they had an administrator who was doing it for them. Interesting to see that a few of you didn’t know, and that’s fine. You might be in a larger firm, and someone else is doing this for you. So completely understandable that you may not be across to how much time it is. And lastly, we asked you what your challenges are, and thank you very much for being so open, because this is something. It’s quite vulnerable to be open about challenges that we’re facing, and some core themes came through, and the biggest one here was really about time. So having the time to do it, finding the time to write and create content whilst also running your firm and providing compliance services was a common one. **Charles Clark:** When we looked at content, it was what do I write? Ideas that I can talk to my clients about that they’re not going to find uninteresting or boring. How do I be engaging and relevant? Also, some of you were just starting out, so you knew that you needed to do this, but you were at the beginning of your sort of marketing and marketing education journey, which was great to see. One thing that did come across a little bit as well was a confidence, and one person said that they lacked the conference in their delivery. I think that can be quite a common theme when sort of starting to sell your advisory. And there’s just a couple of other quotes I’ll run through, because they really do set the scene. **Charles Clark:** And so one person said, “My challenge is conveying what we can actually do for them, and another said, “Having my clients see the value, especially when they’re hesitant to pay.” And then another said, “Communicating to our clients that we now offer these services.” Followed up by, “Looking like we’re not selling.” So all really common themes, and I think what we’re going to be able to do here today is give you a process and a mechanism which is going to enable you to overcome some of those challenges, and do it in a way that doesn’t take a lot of time, and also you’re going to feel good and sort of not stressed about doing, because all the work is sort of done for you between Gap and BOMA. Right. Thanks, Nat. Is my screen coming through? **Natalie Eady:** Great. **Charles Clark:** So here we are again, also in BOMA, and we’re actually in The Gap Library, so if you’re a Gapee, you get access to The Gap Library in BOMA. Now, there are tons and tons of articles in here. What Nat showed you was sending sort of a specific email to someone that showed some interest in business planning. What I’m going to show you here is sending a campaign, so an email and social campaign, and this is also on planning, but it’s much less targeted. So it’s about getting people interested, warming them up, introducing them to the concept of planning, and what you can see here is the different elements. So we’ve got the image at the top, we’ve got some social text in the middle, and then you can see here, we’ve got the content down here. **Charles Clark:** So I’m going to click delivering campaign. You can see here, I could choose email, social, or both. For our purposes I’ll choose both, and that is just the title that you see in BOMA, and it’s just for your own needs, and no one else will see it. So here’s the content here. I’m going to do one thing. I’m going to add our huge accounting hashtag. I could obviously adjust it further if I wanted to, but I’ll click on continue, and now we’re going to go through into the channel page, and this will show all my social channels as well as my email channel, and you can see here that change I made has come through, and if I click on preview, I can see what it would look like in LinkedIn, and you can see here down the left hand side, I’ve got LinkedIn personal, and you might want to in LinkedIn personal even add a little bit more text, because you might want to sort of have say a slightly different messaging personal than you do on your normal LinkedIn page. **Charles Clark:** You can see here Twitter, and then lastly, Facebook. So Facebook will always appear blank if you’re using content from the content library, and that’s just because Facebook doesn’t allow us to post on your behalf as a third party, so if you just click on this link here, and then that will actually bring in all the text, including the new hashtag that we added, and I can preview it, and there’s the social post. Obviously, social is one thing, but let’s think about email. Sorry. Nat showed you earlier how you could sort of specify who you might want to send it to, so in BOMA you can select contacts manually. So you might have had a meeting with some people, and then you want to send it to those two people. **Charles Clark:** You could also filter using tags, so these are tags that you set up, and they could be specific to your firm. So they might be related to the industry that your clients are in or your prospects. Maybe they also specify who are clients and who are non-clients. It’s really up to you to build out these campaigns and user segmentation, or you can deliver it to all, which is what we’ll do now. The email template is the next step. So here you can see some previous emails I’ve sent out, and I can use those again. If I have a favorite template, maybe for a newsletter or for an update, but most of the time I’m going to start with this empty template here. And when I say, “Empty,” it actually does come with your logo linked to your social pages, your website, your address, and an unsubscribe button, so that’s always going to be there, and then you can see on the right hand side here, we’ve got different versions of the content. **Charles Clark:** So these short versions are really useful if you’re building out a newsletter, and you want to take content from other articles in the BOMA Content Library or other Gap articles, and you can just drag and drop those in, but we want to send them the full article. So all we do is drag and drop it in. You can see it brings in all the text, and it also brings in the image. We’ll personalize it by adding a merge tag, and that basically pulls in the first name of each of your contacts. And now as I scroll down, everything in here is editable. So you can edit, change it if you want to. You can make your own comments. You can basically stamp your mark on it and deliver it in the tone that is relevant to both you and your audience. **Charles Clark:** Obviously, we can do a sign off, so like, “Kind regards, Charles,” but let’s also not forget to add a call to action button. So really, really important always to be clear about what it is that you want them to do next. Don’t just expect them to know that they should get in touch with you. Have a call to action button, and this could be something like a webpage, so it could be your contact us page, or maybe it links through to your business planning page on your website, where you actually talk about the service in more detail. You can also get it to send an email. So it would be you would basically put in your email address or some relevant person’s email address. The subject would be, “Business planning,” and the body would be, “Please contact me about business planning,” and that can just be automated to happen as soon as they click contact us. **Charles Clark:** If you’ve got clients and prospects who spend a lot of time on their mobile phones, you could also instruct it to make a call or send you a text. So once you are happy with it, it’s just a matter of saving and closing, and that’ll take us back to the channel page. The last thing we need to do is review the subject line. Now, we’ve written it for you. Again, you can edit that if you want to do it. We’ve also given you a short description of the email. Again, you can edit that, send yourself or a colleague a test email, just to double check, and then schedule delivery. So when you schedule it, you can schedule it for now, or you can schedule it for a time in the future. So I’ll schedule it for a couple of weeks away, and then that campaign is scheduled. **Charles Clark:** Just quickly before we hand back to Nat, so while we have Gap content in the library, which is fantastic for, I suppose, business development, and especially going on to that advisory front, there is a lot of other content in BOMA. You can see we’ve got categories down the side, and this content is all about supporting and nurturing your clients. So we have content from, obviously, The Gap in here, Xero, BOMA, Wolters Kluwer, and some other partners as well. So the important thing here is that it’s all unique to the UK, and you can send it out either as an email or a social post, just in addition to maybe other content that you’re sending out. **Charles Clark:** You can also do lead capture forms. So this might be your newsletter signup form on your website, or it could be a lead capture form that you promote on social and email, which then people sign up to your lead catcher form, and they get something valuable in return. So again, as Nat was saying, it’s that value exchange. You’re giving them something valuable, and it might be a report or some insight that you’ve produced. And in return, they’re happy to give you their email address and contact details, which obviously comes into BOMA, and enables you to then start that nurturing and engagement process. **Charles Clark:** As Nat said, marketing isn’t sort of an instant return, unless you’re doing maybe Google ads, which are kind of you switch them on, you switch them off, but once you have the flywheel spun up, and once you’re starting to reach these people, it does become easier, and it becomes less work, especially if you have systems in place like NAT has talked about, and then you will start to see the leads and the inquiries coming through, but you just have to be consistent and persevere. **Charles Clark:** Just the last thing to mention is that, obviously, you want to check how your campaigns have done. So when you go into BOMA, you can click into any of the campaigns, and this is obviously just a dummy one that we’ve done, but you can see here we’ve put all the information, emails as well, who opened it, click through rates, and when it comes to other social channels, how many people saw it, liked, shared, engaged with it. So, Nat, I’m just conscious of time, so I’ll hand back to you. **Natalie Eady:** Awesome. **Charles Clark:** Yeah, and I completely agree, and the nice thing about it, and I know sales is a dirty word for many accountants, but if you can construct your marketing activity in such a way that it delivers value, and it’s consistent, and it’s delivering, I suppose, things that often your clients didn’t know they needed. I think that’s a classic one is sometimes your clients will be sitting there thinking, “Ah, it’s great. My accountant does my cashflow for me and a couple of other things,” and then you’re able to come along, and using the content marketing that we’ve been talking about, especially in our webinar, and you talk about an aspect of their business that A, maybe they didn’t know you delivered, but B, they didn’t know that they needed. So it’s kind of providing that surprise and delight. **Charles Clark:** And that’s really, I suppose, the benefit of marketing, is that you are able to, if you are consistent, and you are constant, you are able to touch them a number of times, and you never know what… Is the first time you touch them? Is it the fifth or the 15th? That time when they say, “Great. I believe in what you’re saying. The things that you’ve been saying recently are problems that I have, and you’ve demonstrated how you can come in, and solve them, and provide sort of a strategy to move forward.” It’s sort of like many things in life. You don’t expect to succeed on the first try necessarily. You have to work at it, and it’s very similar with your clients, just as they will tell you with their own businesses. You need to be consistent. **Charles Clark:** Leveraging your time. So the last 18 months has been an absolute roller coaster, and a lot of accountants that we spoke to in the early days, but I’m sure it’s continued, said they just did not have the time on the one hand to support their clients, because a lot of them were doing phone calls, and on the other hand still be providing the services that clients needed to get through the early days and into longer days of the pandemic. Technology is the answer. So a webinar, an email system, or a system like BOMO, which does email and social plus The Gap content, it just enables you to communicate one to many. And so with a few minutes a day for your marketing, and maybe a little bit more of your time to sort of deliver a webinar campaign, you are able to deliver all the things that we’ve been talking about, but it’s going to be a minimal uptake on your time, so you can still provide the support that both your colleagues may require, but also your clients. **Charles Clark:** And then just to finish off, as Nat said when you have created this moment, this connection with your leads or clients, maybe it’s as small as they have liked something on social or commented, right up to they have been in touch after a webinar and said, “God, that’s amazing.” Don’t let it drop. These are as hot a leads as you can possibly get, and whether you sort of just take them through that nurture process a little bit more, or you feel like it’s the right time to sort of start that conversation about the services you can offer. Don’t put in all the hard work only to then not capitalize on it at the end. **Natalie Eady:** While we wait for questions, I thought that’s a really good point you raise, Charles, about the need to talk to your clients on mass and leverage your time, because that’s actually where we really launched our initial webinar offering for our members was back in COVID. Our clients were all scrambling to get information out there, so we put out there the business recovery plan, and a whole body of content around that, but also the webinar that helped them deliver what that was about to their clients, and gave some free value to those who were really suffering, but for those who want to take it a bit further and engage in a high level service, they can do that after the webinar. So with webinars, you are giving those who perhaps just want some support a low cost or no cost offer, and then others might go, “We’ve got the budget to really go home and do that full advisory service.” Alright. **Charles Clark:** So we’ve got lots of questions. **Natalie Eady:** Yeah. So we do. **Charles Clark:** So, Nat, this is one for you, “The marketing plan, is that example in the marketing bridge, in The Gap?” **Natalie Eady:** Oh, this one is actually a bit of a hybrid, which I’ve developed specifically for this webinar, but everyone will get a copy of this and can utilize it across whatever they want to use it for. I think to the other question around… Linda, I’m pretty sure, if you want to give me an email after the session, I can help you speak specifically to your other question around The Gap content there, if you like. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. In terms of importing contacts into BOMA, so there’s two ways to do it. Yes, you can do it manually. Well, actually, there’s three ways. You can do it manually. You can also do it through Zapier, so we’ve got a Zapier integration, which means that you can sync that up with your CRM, and that will then pull the contacts in, or the third way is that you can sync them to Xero HQ, and that updates automatically every day. Another one was… Okay, this is an interesting one, because it really speaks to social, “So when I do a social post in BOMA, and I go and I look at reach, and it says, ‘It’s reached zero people,’ why?” So this is from an anonymous attendee, so without knowing the specifics of your Facebook channel or your social channel, there’s a couple of reasons why this might be, and the first could be a really common one, which is you may have a very small number of people following you. **Charles Clark:** If you don’t have many or very few people following, you can do as many posts as you want, but because of the algorithms of social, the networks will only show it to a small proportion of your followers. If it begins to get a bit of engagement, that could be sharing, or commenting, or things, or people reading it, then it will be shown to more. The way around this is to do social ads. So we talked about it a little bit, that you could do this in BOMA, so create a post that you want to get out there, put it into BOMA as a Facebook ad, put $15 or $20 behind it, target the people that you want to target. So this might be what they do for a job, what they’re interested in, where they live in New Zealand or Australia, and then go after them. And then you’ll be guaranteed that you will reach a certain number of people, and often it’s in the sort of thousands or tens of thousands, depending on your budget. **Natalie Eady:** While you’re finding the next question to answer, I’ll just remind everyone that \[inaudible\] you get a copy of the recording after the webinar. We weren’t planning on providing the slides, but if you feel like they’re of value, we could, but I think the webinar recordings are probably better. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. And just another question from Mina, “Is there a way to monitor posts in each social media platform to see which is likely to have higher engagements?” So a really easy way to do that is to do a post out to all the social channels that you have via BOMA, or if you don’t have BOMA, just to do the same post out through your social channels, and then see which ones get the most engagement. While I suggest doing it, it’s not always perfect, because you could put something out on Twitter, and because of the deluge of just sheer number of tweets coming through Twitter, it’s very easy for people to miss it. Whereas on Facebook or LinkedIn, there are far fewer posts. People spend a bit more time, so the likelihood of maybe people sort of coming across it and engaging with it are slightly higher. But once you do put it out there, and then after a week or so have a look back, combine the analytics, if you’ve got separate platforms, or from BOMA they’re all in the same campaign, and you’ll be able to see what the engagement was. **Charles Clark:** Yes, Sam. In terms of email analytics, you can look at open rates and click through, if you just go into an email campaign, and you’ll be able to not only see what the rates were for those, but you’ll also be able to see who opened them, and who clicked on them, so by name. So that could be quite useful in terms of seeing which of your clients or your audience actually clicked on that. **Charles Clark:** Another one from Mark, “Social media, vanity metrics aren’t always the best thing to track. Are you able to track the amount of that people read or looked at a post without liking or commenting?” So oftentimes you can look at, I suppose, reach or impressions, and that’s how many people saw a post. It doesn’t necessarily tell you how many people read the whole thing. A click through would, so that would be if you had a social post, and it would track, okay, 50 people clicked on this, and then, ideally, you would see that if they clicked on that post and came through to your website, you’d be able to track that if you’re using Google Analytics. That’s actually a good point. **Charles Clark:** If on your website you don’t have Google Analytics, whether that’s you’ve put it in yourself, or you want your web developer to put it in, I highly recommend doing it, because if you are doing email campaigns, and you want to track how many people not only opened your email, which you can do in BOMA or another service, but you want to track did they then come onto your website, and to the pages that you were wanting to send them to? Google Analytics will be able to help you track those. So tip of the day from an analytics perspective is get Google Analytics, if you don’t already. **Natalie Eady:** Awesome. **Charles Clark:** Another one, “Does BOMA link to MailChimp?” No, we don’t. **Natalie Eady:** I would say you’re a fantastic alternative to MailChimp, because you do so much more. **Charles Clark:** Yeah, I think the difference between ourselves and MailChimp is that MailChimp is really it’s aimed at small businesses. So they have no idea if you’re an accountant, or a bookkeeper, or a flower shop down the road, whereas we’re built for accounts and bookkeepers. And so everything that we’ve done, we’ve tried to make it, I suppose, unique and easy to use for you. And the biggest part of that really is the content, and that’s why we’ve partner with The Gap is because it’s having the content, it’s having something to say, it’s being able to upsell your services to promote services that your clients maybe don’t know that you have. That’s what’s going to drive your business growth and value. Whereas for a small business, you’re promoting consumer goods, and it’s just a very different proposition. **Natalie Eady:** Awesome. **Charles Clark:** Do we have any other questions, guys? I know we’ve gone a couple of minutes over time, but happy to take more if anyone does have any more. **Natalie Eady:** Are there any more questions in the chat pane? Mostly thanks and goodbyes. So see ya, if anyone has to leave, thanks for coming today. I really appreciate that, and obviously we’ll follow up after this with the recording. I can’t speak to that last question, Charles. I’m not sure if you can. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. So the question was, “How can we capitalise free software support grant offered by the Queensland?” I assume it’s Queensland local government. So in terms of getting net clients, I’m not exactly sure how you would do that. What I can say is that whenever in Australia or New Zealand new government policy regulations updates, news about grants, budget, policy, anything that comes out, you will able to find it in BOMA within the next few days. So that’s either because one of our partners like The Gap has done it, or Wolters Kluwer, or we’ve written it ourselves. So keep an eye up for that, and that should give you a stare. Oftentimes in terms of it’s a place to then send out to your clients to educate them, and then hopefully then you can link that back into maybe a service or a product that you offer. Trial duration and cost. Nat, do you want to go first? **Natalie Eady:** So we’ve got a 30 day trial, and so then the price per month is a 12 month fixed term price per month, depends on the size of your firm, and starts at $395 per firm per month, and goes from there, and we scale it that way because of the size of the opportunity for bigger firms. Yeah. So you’ve got a 14 day trial, don’t you, Charles? **Charles Clark:** Yes. Yeah. Yeah, we’ve got a 14 day trial. If you get to the end of your trial, and you need another couple of days, just reach out to us, and we can extend it a little bit. Ours starts at $99 New Zealand for absolutely everything, and $79 Australian. If to get The Gap content in BOMA, you obviously need to be a Gap member, and so, basically, if you are a Gap member already, and you don’t have access, or you become a gap member, they will give you the discount or the coupon code, which will unlock The Gap content in BOME, and then it will be accessible at no extra cost. **Natalie Eady:** Cool. And there’s a question here about whether BOMA can appear on website blogs? **Charles Clark:** Yeah. So some BOMA content can, and it really depends on… So a lot of the content that we have written ourselves, or we’ve employed journalists and accountants to write it for us, that you can put on your blog, and we’ve actually got a Zapier integration. So it’s a one button click, and it will then post it to your blog, and at the moment, that’s only for WordPress, but we’re looking at rolling it out to other blog or website hosting platforms. Some partners prefer that you do not have it on your blog, and you’ll see when you are actually in BOMA, they’ll have the rights will be stated for each piece. So it’s very clear. Is it email? Is the website? Is it social, or is it all three? **Natalie Eady:** Yeah. I think the best thing about BOMA too is you can always take some of that content, and kind of create your own blog with a bit of this and a bit of that across your normal blog. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. Yeah, exactly. **Charles Clark:** And so a lot of people when they do it, they will get it to post as a draft to their website, and then once it’s on there, or they will actually just copy and paste it. If your website is not supported with Zapier at the moment, copy and paste it, and then you can really customise it. And it’s all about adding your tone of voice, your perspective. You know your clients best, your audience best, and you want to have it in your language, and that’s the great thing with all the content in BOMA that we’ve shown you is that it’s all editable, so you can make it your own, and make it unique to your circumstances and your client’s circumstances. **Natalie Eady:** Perfect. Awesome. Alrighty. I think that’s probably the last of the questions. So from me, thanks, everyone, for joining and have a great rest of your day. **Charles Clark:** Thanks, Nat. Thanks, everyone. See you next time. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [The Crucial Role of DMARC in Email Authentication for Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/email-marketing/the-crucial-role-of-dmarc-in-email-authentication-for-accountants/) **Published:** May 15, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In today’s digital landscape, where email communication is ubiquitous, ensuring the security and authenticity of your messages is paramount. One fundamental aspect of email security that often goes overlooked is Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC). This powerful protocol plays a crucial role in safeguarding your organisation’s email domain against phishing attacks, spoofing, and unauthorised use. In this article, we’ll delve into the importance of setting up DMARC for email authentication and explore how it enhances your organisation’s cybersecurity posture. ### **What is DMARC?** DMARC is an email authentication protocol that enables domain owners to specify how email messages sent from their domain should be handled by email receivers. It works by leveraging existing email authentication mechanisms—Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)—to authenticate incoming messages. Additionally, DMARC provides domain owners with visibility into email traffic and allows them to specify policies for how unauthenticated messages should be handled, such as monitoring, quarantining, or rejecting them outright. ### **Why DMARC Matters** - **Combat Phishing and Spoofing**: Phishing attacks, where malicious actors impersonate legitimate entities to deceive recipients into divulging sensitive information, remain a pervasive threat. DMARC helps combat these attacks by verifying the authenticity of incoming messages and allowing organisations to take appropriate action against fraudulent emails. - **Protect Brand Reputation**: Unauthorised use of your domain in phishing or spoofing campaigns can tarnish your brand’s reputation and erode customer trust. By implementing DMARC, you establish greater control over your domain’s reputation and safeguard against potential damage to your brand image. - **Enhance Email Deliverability**: DMARC empowers domain owners to set clear policies for handling unauthenticated emails. By specifying actions such as quarantining or rejecting these messages, organisations can improve email deliverability and ensure that only legitimate communications reach recipients’ inboxes. - **Gain Insights and Visibility**: DMARC provides valuable insights into email traffic, including who is sending emails on behalf of your domain and whether authentication mechanisms like SPF and DKIM are properly configured. This visibility allows organisations to detect and mitigate unauthorised usage of their domains effectively. ### **How to Implement DMARC** Implementing DMARC is like setting up rules for your email domain to protect against phishing and spoofing attacks. Here’s how it works in simpler terms: 1. **Configuring DNS Records:** Think of DNS records as the rules you set for your email domain. With DMARC, you publish these rules to specify how email should be handled. 2. **Start with Monitoring:** At first, you can set a “monitoring policy” (p=none), which means you’re just watching the email traffic without taking any strict actions. This helps you see who’s sending emails on behalf of your domain. 3. **Move to Enforcement:** Once you’re confident about the legitimate senders, you can switch to a stricter “enforcement policy” (p=quarantine or p=reject). This means emails that don’t meet the rules might get quarantined or rejected. 4. **Keep an Eye on Reports:** It’s crucial to regularly check DMARC reports, which show you what’s happening with your email traffic. You can then adjust your policies based on these reports to find the right balance between security and making sure your emails get delivered properly. In layman terms: if you immediately turn on a stricter policy (quarantine/reject) it likely will cause some legitimate emails from you to be rejected and not reach their recipients – which is the opposite of what you want, so make sure you implement it gradually and have someone monitor the success of the policy. ### **Conclusion** In an era where email threats are increasingly sophisticated and prevalent, implementing robust email authentication measures is imperative for organisations of all sizes. DMARC serves as a powerful tool in the fight against phishing, spoofing, and unauthorised use of your domain, offering enhanced security, brand protection, and email deliverability. By setting up DMARC for email authentication, organisations can fortify their defences, mitigate risks, and maintain trust and credibility in their communications. For detailed instructions on setting up DMARC for your organisation for your BOMA account please send us a [support request](mailto:support@bomamarketing.com) and we will take you through the steps required. Stay secure, stay authenticated. **Categories:** Email Marketing --- ### [Email and social media campaign analytics](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/campaigns/email-and-social-media-campaign-analytics/) **Published:** December 12, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we will cover email and social media campaign analytics, including the key lingo such as open rates, click through rates, impressions, shares, likes and comments. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Campaigns --- ### [Contacts Tags - how add and use them to create audience segments in email campaigns](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/email/what-are-contacts-tags-in-boma-how-to-add-them-and-use-them-to-create-audience-segments/) **Published:** November 17, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll cover Contacts Tags in BOMA. How to add them and use them to create audience segments in your email campaigns. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Email --- ### [Improve your Email Deliverability - The How-to Guide for Accountants on SPF and DKIM](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/email-marketing/improve-your-email-deliverability-the-how-to-guide-for-accountants-on-spf-and-dkim/) **Published:** February 18, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** **Improve Your Email Deliverability: The How-to Guide on SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for Accountants** Did you know that you can have a great email delivery rate but still experience deliverability issues? For accountants and accounting firms, ensuring that important client communications, tax updates, and newsletters actually reach your clients’ inboxes is essential for maintaining trust and professionalism. ### **What?!** The reason is that these two metrics are different. Your email delivery rate is the percentage of your emails that are received by your recipients’ mail servers. However, delivery doesn’t guarantee that the email won’t end up in a spam folder. That’s where **email deliverability** comes in—ensuring your carefully crafted email actually lands in the inbox. In 2024 all major email client providers made these records crucial for delivery – more on this in a moment. In most cases if you don’t have authentication, or it’s configured incorrectly, you will have issues with delivery, deliverability or both! If you think you may have email deliverability issues, it may be due to missing or incorrect **SPF, DKIM, and DMARC** records. These three authentication mechanisms help protect your emails from being marked as spam or rejected altogether. Let’s break them down. ## **Why This Matters for Accountants** As an accountant, your clients rely on your emails for crucial information like tax deadlines, compliance updates, financial reports, and industry insights. If your emails don’t reach them, it can cause confusion, missed deadlines, and damage your firm’s reputation. Setting up **SPF, DKIM, and DMARC** ensures that your emails are trusted, professional, and secure. ## **What is SPF?** **Sender Policy Framework (SPF)** is a security mechanism designed to prevent spammers from sending emails from your domain. Adding an SPF record to your domain’s **DNS (Domain Name System)** helps recipients’ mail servers verify that emails claiming to be from your domain are genuinely from an authorized sender. This improves deliverability by: - Preventing spammers from spoofing your domain. - Ensuring your emails pass authentication checks, reducing the risk of being marked as spam. - Meeting the latest authentication requirements from major email providers. ## **What is DKIM?** **DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)** provides an additional way to prove to recipients that your email is legitimate and has not been tampered with during transmission. DKIM works by adding a cryptographic signature to your emails: - A **private key** is used to generate a unique signature in your email header. - A **public key** is published in your DNS records so recipients’ mail servers can verify the signature. Setting up DKIM ensures that your emails maintain integrity and credibility, which is especially important when sending confidential financial updates to clients. ## **What is DMARC?** **Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC)** is a policy layer that builds on SPF and DKIM. It allows you to specify how email providers should handle emails that fail authentication checks. A DMARC record: - Defines whether unauthenticated emails should be rejected, quarantined, or allowed. - Helps prevent phishing attacks and email spoofing. - Provides reporting on email authentication results, helping you monitor and adjust your email security settings. ## **Latest Updates from Major Email Providers** As of 2024, major email providers such as **Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft** have implemented stricter email authentication requirements: - **Google**: Requires bulk senders (5,000+ emails per day) to have **SPF, DKIM, and DMARC** configured. Emails must pass **DMARC alignment** (the domain in the ‘From’ header must match the domain authenticated by SPF or DKIM). A **one-click unsubscribe** feature is also required for marketing emails. - **Yahoo**: Enforces similar authentication standards, requiring SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to ensure deliverability and combat spoofing. - **Microsoft**: Microsoft operates its independent receivers based on organisation settings, in our experience most do require SPF and DKIM. Microsoft itself strongly recommends implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to improve email security and deliverability. ## **How to Set Up SPF/DKIM with BOMA** BOMA makes it easy for accountants to implement these email authentication protocols. Follow these steps to ensure your domain is correctly configured: 1. **Send your domain name** to **support@bomamarketing.com**. For example, if you send emails from **John@acmeaccounting.com**, your domain name is **acmeaccounting.com**. 2. **BOMA will generate and send your DKIM and standard SPF records** for this domain. 3. **BOMA will provide step-by-step technical support** to help you set up the records on your domain. 4. **Once setup is complete**, reply to the support ticket to notify BOMA. 5. **BOMA will test and confirm** that your authentication records are working correctly. 6. **BOMA will notify you when the process is complete** or provide any necessary adjustments. ## **Secure and Professional Email Communication for Accountants** As an accountant, your email communications are critical for client relationships and business operations. Implementing **SPF, DKIM, and DMARC** not only aligns with the latest requirements from major email providers but also significantly improves your email deliverability, ensuring your messages reach your clients’ inboxes. Need help? Reach out to **support@bomamarketing.com** today! **Categories:** Email Marketing, Tips & Advice --- ### [Getting the Most from Your Tech Stack: Uncover the Secrets of Implementing Process Automation](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/getting-the-most-from-your-tech-stack-uncover-the-secrets-of-implementing-process-automation/) **Published:** February 11, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Join Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA, as he hosts Jackson Brigg, Head of Sales at FuseWorks, for an exclusive webinar designed to help you maximise your tech stack and harness the power of process automation for your firm. In this session, you’ll learn: - The top five tips for implementing process automation effectively - How to bring your team along for the journey and ensure buy-in - Why imperfect data is okay and how to work with what you have - The importance of planning for both short-term wins and long-term success - Real-world strategies for testing, training, and evolving your processes This is your opportunity to gain actionable insights and set your firm up for success in an ever-evolving tech landscape. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [7 Social Media Hacks - Make your Firm’s Social Accounts Work Harder](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/7-social-mmedia-hacks-make-your-firms-social-media-accounts-work-harder/) **Published:** February 4, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Your social media business pages are up and running, you’re posting regularly, you’re creating great content – but the comments, likes and shares you expected aren’t rolling in, nor are the new clients. Are you doing something wrong, or do you simply need to do things differently? As with other businesses, the key to successful social media for accountants and bookkeepers is all about user engagement. Here’s how to draw people in and give your social presence a boost. ## **1. A one-sided conversation won’t cut it** Have you ever had a one-sided conversation and loved it? Probably not. It’s crucial to remember that social marketing isn’t just scheduling a post and moving on. When a potential client interacts with, replies or comments on your posts, it’s essential to respond – promptly. According to [this study](https://clutch.co/pr-firms/resources/how-social-media-transforming-pr-consumer-business-relationship), more than 80% of social media users expect companies to respond within a day or less, and this expectation climbs to 90% for millennials (in fact, 40% of millennials expect a response within the hour!) What’s more, research shows that [over 70% of customers](https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/social-media-customer-service/#:~:text=If%20you%20give%20a%20positive,to%20them%20through%20social%20media.) will recommend a brand that responds quickly to their enquiries on social media. Not only does responsiveness show that you are genuinely interested in clients, but it is also one of the easiest ways to improve engagement levels – by starting a conversation. Our best responsiveness tip: prove to your followers that you’re not a bot by addressing them by name when you respond to comments. Even [McDonald’s](https://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/how-mcdonalds-wins-social-ranking-number-one) takes the time to do that! ## **2. Get engaged – with questions, that is** Following the importance of starting a conversation, including questions in your posts is a great marketing tool. When people read questions, their minds naturally begin to answer them, creating an inner dialogue that is much more difficult to ignore than reading a statement. You can also use questions to nudge people toward making contact. For example, “Started a small business and confused about your tax obligations? We can help you navigate your requirements – get in touch today.” While not every post should contain a question, pepper them through your feed and you’ll notice a lift in engagement. ## **3. Sneak into their subconscious via groups** If you’re struggling to get your following off the ground, joining relevant groups and forums is a fantastic tool to generate awareness amongst your target clients. There are numerous virtual communities for accounting and bookkeeping on social media. It pays to identify any groups where you can add value – for instance, a small business support group. The key to success within groups is to focus on talking about topics, rather than shilling your brand. Since you’ll be posting from your business page, there’s no need for further self-promotion (which can also be against group rules). Followers of the group will soon become familiar with your business name and associate it with expert advice – so next time they have an accounting issue, guess who will spring to mind? ## **4. Borrow influence** Social media influencers are a relatively recent addition to the marketing arsenal but have [proven to be worth their weight in gold](https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/20-influencer-marketing-statistics-that-will-surprise-you) when used correctly. Choosing the right influencer is just as important as what they post, as you’ll want someone who aligns with your firm’s values and personality, and is a natural fit for the topic at hand. How does it work? By having a person outside of your firm promoting your business, you extend your reach beyond your immediate network and potentially gain followers. If you choose the right person, you can also build credibility by aligning your brand with a trusted, familiar face. Note – each influencer has unique expectations. While some may be happy to talk about your firm at no cost, offering something in return such as a discounted or free service makes them feel like they are in a win-win partnership. Well-established influencers with large followings often work via agencies and charge fees for their services. ## **5. Embrace the power of visuals** Humans are visual creatures – and that extends to social media. Scrolling through a purely text-based social feed would be a dull experience, as the eye looks for photos, images and anything that stands out. That’s why including visuals alongside your content gives it a better chance of being read, liked/favourited, commented on and shared than a text-only post. And there are some staggering stats to back that up – according to research, [posts with relevant images get up to 94% more views than those without](https://www.quicksprout.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-creating-visually-appealing-content/). So, if you can find a stock photo, take some product shots, use an existing GIF or create a video, it’s a sure-fire way to get your social channels working harder. ## **6. Timing is everything** Despite what you might think, social media users aren’t online ALL of the time. If you happen to schedule a post when your followers are offline, it could get lost in the social media shuffle. There’s no magic formula for when to post – as it does vary across different social media channels and what sort of schedule your clients (or prospective clients) work to – but getting it right can make a big difference. The best way to get a handle on the perfect time to post is a combination of trial and error and referring to [one of the many studies available online](https://research.com/tutorials/the-best-times-to-post-on-social-media). With trial and error, try and narrow it down by considering who you are targeting and when they are likely to be on social media – for instance, are small business owners more likely to be checking socials first thing in the morning or the evening? Are you targeting 9-5ers who check social on their lunch breaks or on Friday at 3 pm? ## **7. Understanding and using hashtags** Often neglected by social media newbies, hashtags can have a big impact on your firm’s reach and engagement levels, depending on how you use them. So how do they work? Hashtags serve as an indicator (for both social media users and algorithms) that your piece of content relates to a specific topic or category. It makes your content easily searchable on the platform and essentially helps you reach people outside of your existing followers. Tools like [HashtagsforLikes](https://www.hashtagsforlikes.co/) are a great way to find trending hashtags relevant to your firm that you might be able to jump on. Just don’t overdo it. Some examples of relevant hashtags include #smallbusiness #smb #accountants [\#XeroCertified](https://twitter.com/hashtag/XeroCertified?src=hashtag_click) and make sure to have one for your business. ## **Remember, a social media presence is only part of the picture** Promoting your brand through social media is vital, but to feel the benefits, you need to drive engagement and extend your reach beyond your followers. There’s no foolproof formula for success, but implementing these simple hacks is a great place to start. ***Watch our webinar on Social Media 101 for Accountants*** [***here***](https://bomamarketing.com/2020/09/10/how-to-market-your-accounting-bookkeeping-firm-on-social-media-101/)***.*** **Categories:** Social Media **Tags:** Customers, Nurture --- ### [The 4 Most Important Email Marketing Metrics. How to Understand, Analyse and Improve Them for your Accounting Firm](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/email-marketing/the-4-most-important-email-marketing-metrics-how-to-understand-analyse-and-improve-them-for-your-accounting-firm/) **Published:** February 4, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In today’s highly trackable, measurable and targeted marketing landscape, it seems there’s a metric for just about everything. This is great if you know what to keep an eye on, but not so great if you’re experiencing paralysis by analysis. In this blog, we look at which email analytics you need to understand and track, and how you can improve them – so you can confidently create an email marketing strategy that gets results for your accounting firm. ## **1. Keep a close eye on open rates** The most basic measure in email marketing analytics, open rates are the percentage of people who opened your email. But what does a good open rate look like? According to [this article](https://www.digitalmarketing.org/blog/what-is-a-good-open-rate-for-email-marketing), around 15-25% is the average marketing email open rate. However, this varies widely by industry, and over time, you’ll get a feel for what a good open rate looks like for your firm. It can be disheartening to have a marketing email that you’ve spent hours crafting only opened by a handful of your subscribers, so it’s important to dive deeper into the reasons why they didn’t click. This is generally down to one of three things: 1. **You don’t understand your audience** – while your content may be well-written and look nice, it’s worthless if it’s not speaking to your client’s pain points or adding value. Make sure you’re clear on who you’re writing for and what pushes their buttons. Our blog ‘[How to write for your ideal clients](https://bomamarketing.com/2022/03/31/how-to-write-for-your-ideal-clients/)’ will help define this. 2. **Subject lines aren’t cutting through** – subject lines hold a lot of weight in email marketing. The average office worker [receives well over a hundred emails a day](https://www.lifewire.com/how-many-emails-are-sent-every-day-1171210), so will make a split-second decision on whether to bin or open your email. And that’s largely driven by your subject line. You’re off to a great start if it’s compelling, speaks to the audience, is concise and avoids email host spam triggers. Over time and with experience, you’ll be able to spot trends and build a picture of what subject lines work particularly well for your clients. 3. **Emails are going out too often, or at the wrong time** – the time of day you send marketing emails, and how often, can often impact open rates. Once again, this varies by industry and will come down to finding what works for your firm over time. ### **How to improve your open rates** Put the hard yards into your subject line and inject as many of these key ingredients as possible: - **Personalisation** – can you address the recipients by name? - **Pique curiosity** – make them really want to open your email, without being deceptive. - **Include numbers** – where relevant, subject lines with numbers have up to a [57% better open rate](https://blog.influenceandco.com/5-easy-email-subject-line-tricks-to-increase-your-open-rates) than those without. ## **2. Not all clicks are created equal** A click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who click on one of the links in your email. While this is an effective and common metric used to judge the success of email marketing communications, relying solely on this measurement tool is only valid when you’ve specifically asked for people to act. A call to action (CTA) in your email communications is an invitation to click – whether that’s to download an eBook, read more about a subject in your email or simply to get in touch with you. These are the clicks that are worth counting. ### **How to improve your click-through rates** Place the focus firmly on the CTAs in your email and consider: - **Limiting your links** – too many buttons or links can become confusing. If you ask recipients to do just one thing when they read your email, you’ll have a much better chance of getting them to act. - **Placement is important** – [studies have shown](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/figure/10.1080/13527266.2016.1147485?scroll=top&needAccess=true) that CTAs placed in the left region of an email are more effective than those placed on the right. ## **3. Are your actions converting?** Your audience is opening the email and clicking on the links, but are they converting? Conversion rates are the percentage of people who perform the specific action you’ve asked of them after reading your email. What counts as a conversion will come down to your goals. For example, are you trying to acquire new business? If you’ve asked potential clients to fill in an online form for a free health check of their current cash flow, and they’ve done so – that’s a conversion. Conversion rates give you a clear, tangible and direct understanding of how your firm’s email marketing delivers on your goals. ### **How to improve your conversion rates** [Segmenting your audience](https://bomamarketing.com/2022/03/31/how-to-write-for-your-ideal-clients/) (dividing your subscribers into smaller groups based on similar characteristics) is a sure-fire way to improve your conversion rates. It allows you to tailor your content further so that it better aligns with the group of contacts you’re sending it to. ## **4. Check for unsubscribes** A small percentage of clients unsubscribing after you send an email is completely normal – however, large spikes are not. Unsubscribe rates are calculated by taking the total number of unsubscribes from a given email and dividing it by the total emails delivered. Generally, an unsubscribe rate below 0.5% is considered ok, but ideally, you’ll want to be more around the 0.1-0.2% mark. If you’re well above this, it’s usually an issue with your database – you’re probably sending communications to people who don’t genuinely want them. This can occur if your contacts haven’t proactively opted-in to get your emails or have opted-in just to receive a sign-up offer. ### **How to improve your unsubscribe rates** Remove the guesswork and simply ask people why they are unsubscribing. It’s usually because they’re not happy about something, so by finding out what it is, you can tweak and adapt accordingly. In some cases, you might also be able to win them back – sometimes, people have a change of heart based on a simple ‘we’re sorry to see you go’ message. ## **Education, experience and time** Understanding email analytics and industry averages are one thing, but it takes experience and time to create benchmarks of what success looks like to your firm. Set your email marketing campaigns up for success from the outset with BOMA. With easy-to-use and understandable campaign insights, and many of the most common email marketing mistakes removed by default, *find out how BOMA can help your firm today.* **Categories:** Email Marketing **Tags:** Customers, Nurture --- ### [Build Trust with Clients by Showing your Personality](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/build-trust-with-clients-by-showing-your-personality/) **Published:** February 4, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Your clients love coming to see you in person. They trust your advice and leave your office – or Zoom calls – feeling confident about their businesses. But is this great rapport translating to your marketing efforts? For content to be truly effective, it needs to feel relatable on a human level. The more you bring your personality to the fore and tailor the content to your clients, the more they’ll listen to what’s important, stick with you and recommend you to others. This article looks at how and why you should create a tone of voice that represents your brand and what you stand for. BOMA will kick-start your email, social and blog content with expert articles, free images and ideas. But the best part? The articles can be easily customised to show your unique brand and perspective. Here are some easy tips on how to do this. ## **Make it clear what you stand for** Your tone of voice should represent what you stand for. Beyond making money, what ideals are you committed to? For example, Nike doesn’t just make sneakers – it stands for athletic excellence and inspires its customers to achieve their dreams. At BOMA, we’re not just about marketing – we stand for better client relationships. To articulate your true core values, start by asking your customers why they chose you over a competitor and what they say when recommending you to others. Check-in with your team – what do they think your company stands for? You may find a common theme in the answers – it might be how you do business, a particular quality of your service or your attitude. ## **Add a personal touch** Are you friendly, knowledgeable, professional, caring or a jokester? We like people for their personalities, and the same is true for businesses. If your clients know you to be quick with a joke, include your sense of humour in the introduction of each BOMA article. If you’re a more thoughtful, deep thinker, make sure that’s reflected too. Here are two great tips to get you started: - **Imagine you’re talking directly to your client and put that in words*.*** This makes the content more friendly and enjoyable to read. - **Read everything aloud before posting*.*** Your ear and tongue will highlight when the tone is a bit off so you can ensure the language flows nicely. ## **Speak to your client** Think about your particular clients and target that niche. If your firm works predominantly with an industry or type of business, tailor your advice for the specific challenges. It helps to think about things from their perspective. What do your clients truly want for their businesses? What worries them? Provide solutions, insight and empathy for the problems they face. For example, if you only work with trades businesses, give them helpful ideas on how to manage cash flow with all the supply chain issues. If you work with companies that are expanding, find out how best to soothe those inevitable growing pains. To find the right tone for your target audience, it helps to create a client avatar. Build a persona – name, age, location, family life, hobbies, goals, clothes – everything. You might like to [start this process by thinking of one of your clients](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/how-to-write-for-your-ideal-clients/) and modelling your avatar on them. By taking the time to do this, you’ll begin to understand what will get their attention and how to make your content more relevant. ## **Embracing your tone of voice is smart business** As an accountant, your knowledge and expertise can help people, but only if they’re listening. A well-suited, consistent tone of voice reflects what you stand for, connects with your clients on a deeper level and makes you more likeable. By harnessing your tone of voice, your clients are more likely to trust you and, therefore, to take your advice on board. [*Learn how to customise BOMA articles for your marketing today.*](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/) **Categories:** Marketing **Tags:** Customers, Nurture --- ### [How to attach a PDF file in the BOMA email editor](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/email/how-to-attach-a-pdf-file-in-the-boma-email-editor/) **Published:** December 1, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we explain how to attach a PDF file in the BOMA email editor so your clients and contacts can download it. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Email --- ### [Using the Content Tile in BOMA email campaigns](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/email/using-the-content-tile-in-boma-email-campaigns/) **Published:** December 8, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll show you how to use the Content Tile to create and edit your BOMA email campaigns. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Email --- ### [How To Attract New Clients In The Digital Age](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/accounting-bookkeeper/how-to-attract-new-clients-in-the-dgital-age/) **Published:** December 12, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** If you’re good at your job, new clients will come naturally. But with millions of potential clients out there, if you’re relying on word-of-mouth alone, you’ll hit a ceiling. At that point, you’ll need to start taking advantage of *all* the marketing opportunities available to you. It’s the law of attraction – the more energy you put into your marketing, the more clients will come. Here are our top five ways to expand your loyal following in the digital age: # **1. Client praise goes a loooong way** Did you know referrals have lifetime values [twice as high as a non-referral client](https://www.mention-me.com/blog/referral-marketing-increased-customer-lifetime-value)? Word of mouth will always be a huge win for your firm. Not only do good clients attract good clients, but you go into each new relationship with a pre-established level of trust. To make this train go faster, why not make it easy for clients to refer your service? Whenever you send them an email, add a referral request above your signature. A tool like [BOMA](http://www.bomamarketing.com/) will make it easy to be consistent. By customising BOMA’s valuable content, you can send subtle requests to your community each week, incentivising them with a discounted session or gift if they follow through. # **2. Create a website as good as you are** Your website has the power to make or break your credibility with new customers. No matter how good your referral system, [70-80% of people](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/76-of-consumers-look-at-online-presence-before-physically-visiting-a-business-301272462.html) will do their research before they call. So it pays to check – [is your website showcasing you effectively](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/website/the-art-of-developing-an-effective-website-for-accountants-bookkeepers/)? Can you optimise to impress potential clients, have them stick around for a while and ultimately find your contact details and call you? Here’s a good checklist to make sure your website is working as hard as you are: - **Updated webpages.** Make sure your contact information is up to date, the layout is intuitive and the content is relevant. - **Professional photography.** There’s nothing more off-putting than seeing blurry or stock photography on a company webpage. Invest in some quality photos – it’s an important way to give the impression that you run a professional shop. - **Compelling copy.** It’s not just about having content – people engage more with your information if it’s well-written and speaks directly to their pain points. - **Testimonials.** People will trust your clients much more than they trust a hard sell. Get in the habit of asking your clients for feedback so you can add their testimonials to your website. - **Client logos.** Show off the companies you work with to boost your street cred. If potential clients see a brand they know, they’ll feel more inclined to trust you. - **Use calls-to-action.** Every page should have a great call-to-action, encouraging the audience to get in touch. “Subscribe to our newsletter for insider accounting tips” and “Call now for a free consultation” will work wonders. # **3. Unlock a new level of reach with socials** Social media will expand your reach while revealing new analytics to help grow your business. Before you choose between Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and TikTok, you’ll first need to do a deep dive into your audience. Get to know your [target clients](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/how-to-write-for-your-ideal-clients/), what they like, which socials they use and their main problems. Then you’ll know how to create content that engages them. Here’s a great to-do list when planning your social media strategy. **Identify your audience.** Build a persona based on your real clients. **Decide on the content.** What will your target audience find interesting and useful? **Create a schedule.** Social media work best when you’re consistent. Planning a content calendar helps you do that. **Automate posts.** Set and forget using in-built scheduling or third-party software. **Analyse the data.** Look at the performance of each post to learn more about your audience. # **4. Use email campaigns to align with your target audience** There’s something to be said for good old-fashioned email, especially when it comes to professional services like accounting. [Email remains the favourite form of communication](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/email-marketing/the-5-email-marketing-questions-you-need-to-understand/) used by businesses, making it a great platform to engage with prospective clients. Fortunately, [BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/) makes it easy to implement an email strategy that firmly establishes you as the expert. With a [massive library of relevant, up-to-date industry content](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/content-libraries/), you can add your unique tone of voice without having to write content from scratch. # **5. Make helpful video content and gain a following** Establishing a reputation as an expert on accounting problems will work to your advantage. Of any online marketing channel, video wins in effectiveness and reach. For example[, 92% of videos watched on a mobile are shared with other users](https://www.yansmedia.com/blog/mobile-video-statistics#:~:text=On%20average%2C%20adult%20American%20users,are%20shared%20with%20other%20users.), and clients are [181% more likely to call if they’ve first watched a video](https://www.responsiveinboundmarketing.com/blog/video-marketing-statistics-for-2021) explaining your services. With all the great tech out there, even absolute beginners can create professional videos that are valuable sources of information for the audience. All you have to do is speak to a common accounting problem and how to solve it the right way. The audience will appreciate your generosity with your expertise and will likely share with friends when they need similar help. Read more about the power of video content and how to create and use it, [here](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/digital-marketing/video-marketing-for-accountants-how-to-create-good-video-content-and-attract-more-clients/). # **Get out of your comfort zone** If you want to attract more clients to your firm, you’ll have to do things you’ve never done. From video content to emails, building a loyal digital following is the most effective way to reach a wider audience. If you’re open to prioritising it, you’ll have a great advantage over your competitors. But remember, remaining top of mind is a never-ending process. Want to get started? [*Try BOMA for free today*](https://app.bomamarketing.com/register)*.* **Categories:** Tips & Advice, Accountant and Bookkeeper --- ### [Marketing to Your Existing Clients: The Key to Better Engagement for Accountants.](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/marketing-to-your-existing-clients-the-key-to-better-engagement-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers/) **Published:** April 16, 2018 **Author:** Steve Ash **Content:** Keeping your existing business clients happy is a key factor in retaining these clients and ensuring your accountancy or bookkeeping practice is stable and profitable. Even if your firm has no plans to win new clients, there’s considerable value in marketing to your *existing clients*. By using content marketing and social media marketing effectively, you can share practical advice, keep clients informed about compliance/tax changes and raise their opinion of you as a trusted adviser. According to a Bain & Company report [a 5% increase in customer retention produces more than a 25% increase in profit](https://www.accountingweb.com/technology/trends/increasing-returns-of-client-retention-and-technology). So if retaining clients is a key aim of the firm, how do you use modern marketing to achieve this? We’ve outlined 5 key ways to market to your existing clients, and increase engagement. ## **1. Build Long-term Relationships With Existing Clients** [Building great client relationships drives the success of your firm](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/05/08/modern-business-owners-want-an-accountant-who-goes-beyond-the-numbers/). When there’s a trusted and valued relationship between you and your business clients, that helps retain these clients – and that gives you stability in your revenues, cashflow and profitability. But professional relationships don’t appear overnight – as with any one-to-one relationship, they come through repeated contact, an eagerness to listen and a desire to help your clients overcome their current business challenges. To enhance the relationships with your clients: - **Run regular events and webinars** – meeting clients in person (or online) helps to increase those touch points, while also sharing meaningful advice. Whether this is a monthly business breakfast event, or a regular webinar for valued customers, it’s a way to increase your perceived value, while also learning more about these businesses. - **Market exclusively to clients** – run direct campaigns that focus on the specific pain points experienced by your clients. By targeting your existing client base, you can go deeper with your advice, upsell more services and provide the help that clients need. - **Make the most of your external marketing channels** – external content marketing isn’t just for bringing in targets and new prospects. It’s also a way to provide the kinds of content that resonates with your current client base. ## **2. Improve Client Communications by Using Social Media** [Social media is one of the most critical elements of client engagement](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/09/21/social-media-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers-getting-started/), providing a cheap, simple and effective way to increase your touch points with key clients in your network. [Social encourages two-way interactions](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/11/15/grow-your-accounting-firms-network-on-social-media-7-key-ways/) and boosts your ability to communicate directly with your existing clients. This helps the firm to build a rapport, share useful links with your niche audiences and (believe it or not) actually have some fun. To get the most from your social media: - **Find the channels that work best** – [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/), [X (formely know as Twitter)](https://twitter.com/) and [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/) are generally the main platforms to focus on, but [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com), [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com) and even [Snapchat](https://www.snapchat.com/) or [WhatsApp](https://www.whatsapp.com/) are useful options if video, images and chat functions will add value for your clients. - **Post regular social content** – post at least once a day through your main social accounts and remember that social is not a sales channel. Keep the tone light and conversational, and share links and content that’s useful to your audiences. - **Respond, share and interact** – social media is a two-way street, so it’s vital to respond to messages and @mentions, to share and retweet interesting posts and to communicate directly with your clients and targets. - **Use analytics to measure performance** – using analytics tools, like those in BOMA, helps you track and measure the engagement level of your social posts, and refine which clients and audiences are engaging most effectively with your content. ## **3. Upsell Your Services Using an Effective Website** [Creating the most effective website for the firm](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2018/03/08/creating-an-effective-website-for-your-firm-the-five-key-steps/) is a crucial step in achieving the goals you’ve set for your marketing – whether it’s raising your firm’s brand profile, or engaging with your clients. A well-constructed website is the ‘shop window’ for the business, but can also function as an online hub for returning clients and regular viewers. In short, your site is there not just there to generate sales leads, but also to share valuable content and upsell to existing clients. To make your site deliver: - **Highlight client’s key pain points** – put topical business issues at the heart of your site content, with simple explanations of how you help clients to overcome these challenges. - **Give clear overviews of your services** – explain your services in simple terms and show how your team works with business clients to negotiate the business journey. - **Use effective calls-to-action** – drive your viewers to the desired end destinations on the site, whether that’s your contact page, your blog or a new service landing page. - **Track who’s engaging with the site** – [use Google analytics to track engagement](https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/) with your services content, so you can refine and adjust how you market your offerings. Clear service offerings and effective calls-to-action help to drive your clients through the site. By increasing engagement, you raise awareness of additional services (advisory, tax, software integration etc.) and can up-sell these value-add services to your existing clients. ![Free price tag for advice](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AdobeStock_112821423-1-e1523576251517-450x300.jpeg) ## **4. Share Practical Advice and Tips for Free** [Free guides and eBooks are downloaded 20 times more than gated versions](https://www.verticalresponse.com/blog/why-you-should-give-your-content-away/) – so hiding your valuable content away behind a lead generation or paywall page can damage your chances of hitting the right audiences – especially when your aim is to retain clients. [Giving away useful content for free](https://www.singlegrain.com/blog-posts/content-marketing/giving-away-free-content-reaps-big-rewards/) gives your existing clients some genuine practical advice, and reinforces their perception of your brand, your people and your value to their business. - **Share helpful guides and tips** – use your website, blog and social media channels to share content that gives your existing clients some genuine practical advice. - **Focus on the most valuable topics** – listen to your clients, find out where they most need your knowledge and expertise, and then write content that gives them practical step-by-step advice for resolving their issues. - **Encourage sharing and comments** – get a conversation going by engaging clients through your social channels and sharing links to free advice and top tips. By helping existing clients to improve their cashflow, or choose the best apps or understand their tax year-end better, you reinforce your role as a trusted and experienced adviser. ## **5. Position Your Partners as Experts in Their Specialism or Industry** [Position yourself as a trusted adviser](https://bomamarketing.com/2022/05/27/boma-the-gap-delivering-business-planning-to-your-clients/) by targeting your marketing spend on personalised content – helping to underline the value of your core expertise as a finance professional. Ultimately, accountancy and bookkeeping are people industries – your clients stick with you because they enjoy working with you and see the worth in this client relationship. Tailored use of marketing helps you to reinforce and enhance this level of trust. To elevate your standing as a trusted adviser: - **Raise your personal profile** – increase your team’s individual profiles (and the firm’s brand) through personal blog posts, featured articles and proactive use of your own personal social media accounts. - **Take on speaking engagements** – appearances at events and conferences, or guest spots on webinars, are a great way to get your name known in the marketplace. And being seen as ‘the expert’ strengthens the perception of your professional skill set. As well as positioning the firm positively in the market, raising your partners’ individual profiles reassures existing clients that they’re working with leaders in your field – and that adds real confidence in the worth and merit of building a relationship with your firm. ## **Retain Your Clients Through Effective Marketing** By keeping your marketing activity regular, carefully targeted and providing genuine value, you set the foundations for the best possible long-term customer relationships. When your existing clients feel they’re being looked after and educated, that reinforces their perception of the firm as a valuable partner – and that’s great news when it comes to retaining those clients and increasing the services you offer to them. [Find out more about managing your firm’s digital marketing with Boma](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/features/) **About the Author:** Steve Ash is a specialist in accounting, marketing, business software, and fintech apps. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Marketing **Tags:** Marketing, Accountants, Engagement --- ### [How to Nurture Prospects from First Contact to Long-Term Client](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/how-to-nurture-your-customers-from-first-contact-to-sale-2/) **Published:** December 13, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **Why Nurturing Prospects Is Critical for Accounting Firms** Nurturing prospects is one of the most important functions for any accounting firm. It involves creating a strategic process to guide potential clients from their first interaction with your firm to becoming loyal, long-term clients. It’s not just about securing a one-time engagement—it’s about fostering trust, demonstrating value, and building relationships that encourage clients to return to your firm for their financial needs year after year. For accounting firms, nurturing is especially critical due to the nature of the services offered. Prospective clients often take more time to decide, requiring assurance of your expertise and reliability. Your firm’s ability to nurture them through this process not only sets you apart but also positions you as a trusted partner for their financial success. This comprehensive guide outlines the steps your accounting firm can take to nurture prospects effectively, moving them from initial contact to loyal clients while enhancing retention and client satisfaction. ## **What Is Prospect Nurturing?** Prospect nurturing is the process of engaging with potential clients by providing relevant, valuable, and personalised communication at each stage of their decision-making journey. It includes tailored actions designed to help prospects feel supported and confident in choosing your firm over competitors. For example, a small business owner might download a tax planning guide from your website. You can then engage them through a series of follow-up emails that offer practical advice, invite them to a free webinar on compliance, and highlight case studies of how your firm has supported similar businesses. The goal is to maintain a steady connection, addressing their needs and questions until they are ready to engage with your services. Nurturing extends beyond the initial sale. It also involves delivering consistent value to existing clients, encouraging them to rely on your firm for additional services such as advisory, bookkeeping, or financial forecasting. ## **Why Is Nurturing Important for Accounting Firms?** The client acquisition journey has evolved significantly. Today, prospective clients often conduct extensive research before committing to a service provider. Without a structured nurturing process, your firm risks losing prospects who are overwhelmed by options or hesitant to act due to uncertainty. Key reasons why nurturing is crucial include: 1. **Building Trust and Credibility:** Prospects need to feel confident in your firm’s expertise and ability to address their specific financial needs. 2. **Differentiating Your Firm:** Personalised and meaningful interactions help your firm stand out in a crowded market. 3. **Increasing Conversions:** A well-nurtured prospect is more likely to engage your firm for services compared to one who receives minimal or generic communication. 4. **Fostering Client Loyalty:** Consistent nurturing builds long-term relationships, reducing client attrition and encouraging repeat business. 5. **Encouraging Referrals:** Satisfied clients are more likely to recommend your firm to others, expanding your reach organically. ## **Steps to Nurture Prospects Effectively** While the specifics of nurturing may vary depending on your firm’s services, the overall process typically involves the following steps: ### 1. **Initial Contact** Prospects first encounter your firm through various channels [such as your website](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/website/the-art-of-developing-an-effective-website-for-accountants-bookkeepers/), a referral, a networking event, or a social media campaign. This initial interaction sets the tone for future engagement, so it’s important to make a strong first impression. ### 2. **Follow-Up Communication** After the initial contact, follow up with a personalised email, message, or phone call. For example, if a prospect downloads a compliance checklist from your website, send them an email thanking them and offering a consultation to discuss how your firm can help streamline their compliance processes. ### 3. **Ongoing Engagement** Regularly provide prospects [with relevant and valuable content that addresses their needs and pain points](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/why-accountants-and-bookkeepers-should-embrace-education-marketing/). This could include: - Newsletters with industry updates or tax tips. - Invitations to webinars on topics like “How to Maximise Deductions” or “Year-End Tax Planning.” - Case studies showcasing how your firm has helped similar clients overcome challenges. ### 4. **Conversion to Client** When a prospect is ready, ensure the transition to becoming a client is seamless. Offer a [clear value proposition](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/the-key-to-successful-marketing-is-a-unique-selling-point-how-to-create-a-value-proposition/), provide detailed onboarding materials, and make their initial experience with your firm exceptional. ### 5. **Retention and Upselling** Once a prospect becomes a client, nurturing doesn’t stop. Maintain regular communication, proactively identify opportunities to support their evolving needs, and introduce additional services such as business advisory or financial planning. ## **Understanding Your Ideal Clients** To nurture prospects effectively, it’s essential to [understand who they are and what they need](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/how-to-write-for-your-ideal-clients/). This involves gathering insights such as: - **Industry Focus:** Are they in retail, construction, or professional services? Each industry has unique financial and compliance challenges. - **Business Size:** Are they sole traders, small businesses, or larger organisations? Their size often determines the complexity of their accounting needs. - **Common Pain Points:** Are they struggling with cash flow, tax compliance, or regulatory changes? Tailor your messaging to address these concerns. - **Decision-Making Process:** Who makes the final decision? Understanding whether it’s an individual or a team ensures you engage the right person at the right time. ## **What Are Personas and How to Build Them?** A persona is a fictional representation of your ideal client, designed to help you personalise your marketing efforts. For accounting firms, personas might include: 1. **The Sole Trader:** Seeking straightforward, affordable tax compliance services. 2. **The Growing SME:** Needs advisory services to navigate expansion challenges. 3. **The High-Net-Worth Individual:** Values personalised financial planning and tax strategies. To build personas, use data from: - Surveys and client interviews. - Analytics from your website and social media. - Insights gathered during client onboarding. Personas help you create targeted campaigns. For example, a sole trader may appreciate email tips on expense tracking, while a growing SME might prefer a consultation on financial forecasting. ## **Creating Engaging Content for Prospects** Content is at the heart of any nurturing strategy. It allows you to showcase your expertise and build trust with prospects. Examples of effective content for accounting firms include: ### 1. **Webinars** Host sessions on relevant topics such as: - “Navigating Financial Compliance in 2024.” - “Tax Planning for Small Businesses.” Webinars position your firm as a thought leader while providing an opportunity to address specific client concerns. Our partner The Gap offers a variety of pre built webinars that you can deliver to clients and prospects. [Click here](https://bomamarketing.com/gap/) to learn more. ### 2. **Infographics** Use visuals to simplify complex topics such as: - “5 Steps to Improve Cash Flow.” - “How to Navigate VAT Regulations.” ### 3. **Case Studies** Highlight [success stories that showcase how your firm has helped similar clients](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/social-proof-leveraging-testimonials-case-studies-for-accountants/) overcome challenges. Include metrics and testimonials to build credibility. ### 4. **Videos** Short, professional videos can introduce your team, explain your services, or share quick tips. For example: - A two-minute video on “Top 3 Tax-Saving Strategies for 2024.” ### 5. **Podcasts** Share in-depth discussions on accounting trends or industry insights. Invite guest speakers to provide additional perspectives. ## **Using a Content Calendar** A content calendar is an essential tool for planning, organising, and executing your marketing strategy. It helps ensure consistency and alignment with key dates, such as tax deadlines or industry events. Click here to [download your customisable content calendar](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-content-planner-calendar/). ### **Benefits of a Content Calendar** 1. **Consistency:** Maintain regular communication with prospects and clients. 2. **Alignment:** Coordinate campaigns with important milestones, such as the end of the financial year. 3. **Efficiency:** Spot gaps in your content strategy and ensure resources are used effectively. ### **How to Create a Content Calendar** 1. **Identify Key Dates:** Plan campaigns around tax deadlines, quarterly reporting periods, or client review cycles. 2. **Repurpose Existing Content:** Update blogs, guides, or case studies to align with current trends. 3. **Track and Analyse Performance:** Use analytics to refine your approach and improve future campaigns. ## **Tracking Prospects Through the Sales Funnel** A sales funnel maps the journey of prospects, from their initial interaction with your firm to becoming a loyal client. The stages include: 1. **Awareness:** Prospects learn about your firm through marketing campaigns or referrals. 2. **Interest:** They engage with your content, such as downloading a guide or attending a webinar. 3. **Consideration:** They explore your services further, often scheduling a consultation or meeting. 4. **Decision:** They commit to your firm and sign an engagement letter. Using CRM software, you can monitor each stage of the funnel, identify bottlenecks, and optimise your strategy for higher conversion rates. ## **Identifying Qualified Prospects** Not all prospects are equally likely to convert into clients. To focus your resources effectively, qualify leads by assessing: - **Authority:** Does the prospect have decision-making power? - **Need:** Are they facing challenges your firm can address? - **Budget:** Can they afford your services? - **Timeline:** Are they ready to act, or are they still in the research phase? Tailoring your approach to qualified leads ensures your efforts yield the best results. ## **Closing the Deal** When a prospect is ready to commit, ask for their business with confidence. Provide clear calls to action, such as: - “Let’s schedule your free consultation.” - “We can start improving your cash flow today.” Ensure your messaging reinforces the benefits of choosing your firm, such as personalised service or specialised expertise. ## **Conclusion** Nurturing prospects is a long-term investment that delivers significant returns for accounting firms. By understanding your audience, creating tailored content, and tracking their journey through the sales funnel, you can build trust, drive conversions, and foster lasting client relationships. Effective nurturing doesn’t stop after the first sale—it continues through exceptional service and ongoing engagement that ensures your firm remains a trusted partner. Invest in nurturing strategies today to unlock sustainable growth and solidify your firm’s reputation as a leader in the accounting industry. **Categories:** Marketing **Tags:** Customers, Nurture --- ### [An Introductory Guide to Branding Your Accounting Firm – The Key Steps](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/an-introductory-guide-to-branding-your-accounting-firm-the-key-steps/) **Published:** December 13, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **The Importance of Branding for Your Firm** Branding is the cornerstone of how your accounting firm is perceived by clients and prospects. It encompasses more than just a logo or a tagline; it is the identity of your firm, representing the trust, professionalism, and expertise you bring to the table. For accounting firms, branding plays a crucial role in differentiating yourself in a competitive market, building trust, and fostering long-term client loyalty. A strong brand enables clients to instantly recognise your firm, understand its values, and feel confident in choosing you. Whether your firm specialises in tax compliance, financial advisory, or a niche sector like agriculture or tech startups, branding establishes credibility and attracts the right clients. This guide will provide a step-by-step process to help you build an effective brand for your accounting firm, from defining your identity to implementing it consistently across all client interactions. ## **What Is Branding?** Branding is the process of creating a unique identity for your firm—essentially, its “personality” in the minds of your clients. It includes the visual elements like your logo and colour scheme, your messaging, and the overall experience clients associate with your firm. For accounting firms, branding helps to: - Differentiate your services from competitors in the market. - Build trust and establish your firm as a professional, reliable partner. - Communicate your unique value proposition. - Position your firm as a trusted expert in the financial field. Branding allows you to connect with clients on a deeper level, ensuring they choose and stay loyal to your firm based on trust and expertise rather than pricing alone. ## **Why Is Branding Crucial for Accounting Firms?** Branding is not just an aesthetic exercise; it’s a practical tool for growing your accounting firm. Here’s why branding matters: 1. **Clear Messaging** Branding ensures that your services and expertise are communicated consistently across all platforms, helping clients understand why they should choose you. 2. **Credibility and Trust** A professional and cohesive brand reassures clients that your firm is reliable, experienced, and capable of handling their financial needs. 3. **Client Connection** Branding is about creating an emotional bond. Clients are more likely to remain loyal to a firm they feel aligns with their values and understands their challenges. 4. **Client Loyalty** A recognisable and consistent brand [fosters long-term relationships](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/accounting-bookkeeper/whats-better-than-acquiring-a-new-client-retaining-one/), encouraging repeat business and referrals. 5. **Competitive Edge** In a crowded market, branding helps your firm stand out, making it easier for clients to remember and choose you over competitors. ## **Do Accounting Firms Really Need Branding?** While branding benefits all businesses, it’s particularly vital for accounting firms, where trust and professionalism are paramount. Clients need to feel confident that your firm can handle their finances competently and ethically. Here are some scenarios where branding is especially important: 1. **Differentiation in a Competitive Market** With many firms offering similar services, your brand communicates what makes your firm unique. It reassures clients that you are not just another accounting firm but the best choice for their needs. 2. **Premium Pricing** A strong brand highlights the quality and value of your services, helping justify higher fees. Clients are often willing to pay more for firms they perceive as professional and reliable. 3. **Niche Expertise** If your firm specialises in a particular industry, such as farming, trades, or tech startups, branding can highlight this expertise, attracting clients seeking tailored solutions. 4. **Building a Reputation** Branding builds recognition and trust, ensuring your firm is top of mind when clients or prospects think of accounting services. ## **How to Build a Strong Brand for Your Accounting Firm** Creating a successful brand involves understanding your audience, defining your value proposition, and maintaining consistency across all touchpoints. Here’s how to get started: 1. **Understand Your Audience** - [Identify your ideal clients](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/how-to-write-for-your-ideal-clients/): Are they small businesses, individuals, or corporations? - Understand their needs: Are they seeking compliance assistance, tax planning, or broader advisory services? 2. **Define Your Brand Identity** - **Mission and Vision:** Clarify your firm’s purpose and long-term goals. - **Value Proposition:** [Highlight what makes your firm unique](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/the-key-to-successful-marketing-is-a-unique-selling-point-how-to-create-a-value-proposition/)—whether it’s personalised service, niche expertise, or innovative solutions. 3. **Create Key Branding Elements** - **Logo:** Your logo should reflect your professionalism, values, and expertise. - **Tagline:** Develop a memorable slogan, such as “Your Trusted Tax Advisors” or “Guiding Your Business to Success.” - **Website:** Your [website should be easy to navigate,](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/website/the-art-of-developing-an-effective-website-for-accountants-bookkeepers/) visually appealing, and clearly showcase your services. 4. **Maintain Consistency Across Channels** - Use cohesive visuals, messaging, and tone across your website, social media, email campaigns, and printed materials. ## **Key Branding Components for Accounting Firms** 1. **Logo Design** Your logo is the face of your brand and often the first impression clients have of your firm. It should be: - **Simple:** Clean and uncluttered designs are more professional and memorable. - **Versatile:** Ensure it works across digital and print media. - **Durable:** Avoid trends that may become outdated. 2. **Slogan** A well-crafted slogan captures the essence of your firm and stays in the minds of clients. Examples include: - “Numbers You Can Trust.” - “Your Partner in Financial Clarity.” 3. **Marketing Collateral** Your branding should be evident in all client-facing materials, such as: - Brochures, newsletters, and proposals. - Business cards, letterheads, and email signatures. 4. **Digital Presence** - **Website:** Your site should be optimised for user experience and reflect your brand’s professionalism. - **Social Media:** Use platforms like LinkedIn to share insights, highlight services, and engage with clients. 5. **Outreach Materials** Consistent branding should extend to all client interactions, from email campaigns to blog posts, ensuring a cohesive and professional impression. ## **How to Strengthen Your Brand Over Time** Branding isn’t a one-time activity; it requires ongoing effort to stay relevant and consistent. Here’s how to maintain and strengthen your brand: 1. **Engage Through Content** [Share valuable content like blog posts, newsletters, and guides](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/why-accountants-and-bookkeepers-should-embrace-education-marketing/) to showcase your expertise and provide value to clients. 2. **Solicit Feedback** Regularly gather feedback from clients to understand how they perceive your firm and identify areas for improvement. 3. **Monitor Your Online Presence** Keep your website and social media profiles updated with fresh content and consistent branding. 4. **Adapt to Change** As your firm evolves or market conditions shift, be prepared to update your branding to reflect your current values and goals. ## **Why Branding Is a Growth Tool** A strong brand does more than attract new clients—it enhances every aspect of your firm’s operations. Branding builds trust, supports client retention, and drives referrals, all of which are crucial for long-term growth. - **Client Acquisition:** A recognisable brand attracts clients by showcasing your expertise. - **Client Retention:** Consistent branding reinforces trust, ensuring clients return for your services year after year. - **Referrals:** Satisfied clients are more likely to recommend your firm if they associate your brand with quality and reliability. ## **Conclusion** Branding is more than a logo or slogan—it’s the essence of your accounting firm. A strong brand sets you apart in a competitive market, builds trust with clients, and positions your firm for long-term success. By taking the time to define your brand and maintain consistency across all channels, you lay the foundation for sustainable growth and lasting client relationships. **Start building your brand today to secure your firm’s future success.** **Categories:** Marketing **Tags:** Business, Branding, SMB, Tips --- ### [Making Paid Search Pay Off. How Google Search Ads Can Work For Your Accounting Firm](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/digital-marketing/making-paid-search-pay-off-how-google-search-ads-can-work-for-your-accounting-firm/) **Published:** December 12, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** You’ve seen Google Search Ads (previously called Google AdWords) before. When you search for anything using Google – a local plumber or brown leather boots – the first few results that pop up are marked as ads. Unlike organic search results, which match website content with search terms, these are paid for by the business owner. But just because they’re paid, doesn’t mean they’re not an effective tool. Google is all about relevancy, so paid ads only appear if they match the browser’s search terms. Clients are looking for your product or service, you’re looking for clients – it’s a win for everyone. ## **Smart search technology** Google is, well, Google, so its search algorithms are obviously leading the pack. In the split second between typing the search term and the results appearing, the algorithm searches through every paid advertiser and picks out the ones with keywords that best match the query. Paid ads appear at the top of the search list, while organic results are further down. The algorithm generates results based on millions of data points and uses machine learning to pinpoint the right results for each searcher. Factors like keyword relevance, previous searches, websites the searcher has visited and the likelihood of converting all go into the mix, making it more probable that the searcher will be interested in your product or service. Because you only pay when a searcher clicks on your ad, this type of marketing can be surprisingly affordable for advertisers. ‘Cost-per-click’ (CPC) lets you control the amount you spend on search advertising by setting a maximum CPC per month or by letting the algorithm adjust as your campaign reaches its goals. ## **Making the most of Google magic** It sounds almost magical – but [getting great results from a Google Search](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/digital-marketing/boma-our-guide-to-advertising-with-google-search-ads/) campaign isn’t automatic. As with any type of ad campaign, the more thought you put into it, the more you’ll get back. Well-designed campaigns include a target audience, considered copy in the ad itself and smart keywords. Many businesses make the mistake of doing this hastily, throwing in a bunch of the most obvious keywords and giving it little thought. This could mean missing potential leads and wasting clicks on the wrong type of client. **Here’s how to pick the right search terms:** - Put yourself in your client’s shoes and think about how they would search for your product or service, e.g., ‘accountants near me’ rather than ‘Auckland accountancy services’. - Use a mix of specific technical terms and generic phrases – people don’t always use precise language when they search, e.g., ‘high-grade glued laminated timber beams’ and ‘building supplies’. - Consider the problem, not just the product – consumers may search for solutions to their issues, not the actual item you’re selling, e.g., ‘best way to clean shower tiles’ vs ‘non-bleach shower cleaning solution’. - Think about different ways to phrase the search, and include them, e.g., accountant, accountants, accountant near me, accounting services. ## **Consult an expert** Google Search Ads can be an effective way to reach out to clients – but they need to be done well. That’s how working with an expert can add value. You’ll get help to target your messaging, pinpoint the right keywords and analyse your results to make sure you’re maximising your ROI. Digital marketing requires a whole new set of skills – that’s why we put together our e-book, Digital Marketing: For Accountants and Bookkeepers. It’s designed to help you make the most of marketing opportunities in a way that makes sense for your business and your brand. [*Download it for free today*](http://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/BOMA-Digital-Marketing-Guide-for-Accountants-and-Bookkeepers.pdf) **Categories:** Digital Marketing --- ### [Video Marketing For Accountants. How To Create Good Video Content And Attract More Clients](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/digital-marketing/video-marketing-for-accountants-how-to-create-good-video-content-and-attract-more-clients/) **Published:** December 12, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** With [mobile video consumption doubling every year](https://www.yansmedia.com/blog/mobile-video-statistics#:~:text=On%20average%2C%20adult%20American%20users,are%20shared%20with%20other%20users.), video content has become the crème de la crème of advertising. But does it work? Absolutely. People who watch a video for the service they’re interested in are [181% more likely to commit than non-viewers](https://www.responsiveinboundmarketing.com/blog/video-marketing-statistics-for-2021). It’s undeniably effective if you’re looking to attract more clients. If you’ve been avoiding it because you don’t like the idea of getting on camera, not to worry, infographic videos are a great alternative. And for those who don’t think they have the time or skills, it’s much easier than you think – we’ll prove it. ## **Video for growth and conversion** A video is a form of marketing content that can inform, educate and entertain your target audience without actually feeling like a sell. When done right, a marketing video can increase conversions, explain your service more thoroughly and improve your credibility and traffic to your website. To attract more clients, serve the people what they want. Video content is hands down the most popular way to learn about a new company, with [54% of consumers preferring it](https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/content-trends-global-preferences?_ga=2.242889606.505938919.1588335762-1773951929.1505418950) over all other marketing media. [In 2021, 86% of marketers said video content helped bring in new leads.](https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/content-trends-global-preferences?_ga=2.242889606.505938919.1588335762-1773951929.1505418950) It will increase your engagement and help educate your audience. ## **Choosing the right genre** As an accounting firm, you offer your target client advice, expertise and confidence in your service – video content lets you do that. We recommend starting with these three video styles: ### **1. The explainer** [96% of consumers](https://www.wyzowl.com/video-marketing-statistics/) say they have watched video content to learn more about a company. An explainer video does just that. Try detailing a solution to a common accounting problem your clients deal with. If you don’t like being on camera, why not try an infographic explainer video with an app like [Doodly](https://www.doodly.com/) or [Vimeo](https://vimeo.com/)? ### **2. The demo** A demo is a step-by-step video guide explaining how your accounting service works. Walk viewers through the process of becoming clients and what they need to do on their end so you can help their business thrive. It’s a great place to subtly explain why becoming your client would benefit their bottom line. ### **3. Client testimonials** [Recent statistics](https://www.wyzowl.com/testimonials-statistics/) show that after watching positive testimonials, two out of three people will be more likely to become clients. Show real clients and how you solved their problems. When [nine out of ten people](https://www.wyzowl.com/testimonials-statistics/) say they trust a customer’s opinion over a standard campaign, asking your clients for feedback is always worth the effort. ## **How to make video content** You don’t have to be a fancy videographer to create stellar video content. Online tools such as [WeVideo](https://www.wevideo.com/) or [Vimeo](https://vimeo.com/?vcid=42496&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=seat_plan&utm_term=nonbrand&gclid=CjwKCAjw-L-ZBhB4EiwA76YzOcMJ9pMbM0vqO2FZHXN73v1qLYsGTExBTqoD-EUupYFicV5AKaR95RoC_5MQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds) are great for beginners and let you focus on the content. Once you’ve chosen a platform, here’s a step-by-step guide to get started: ### **1. Plan, plan, plan** ### **If your goal is to gain more clients, decide how you’re going to convince them you’re the real deal. Here are some points to keep in mind:** - **Write the script.** Start with a concise introduction to your firm, clearly explain how you can solve one of their main problems and finish with a good call-to-action – offer a free consultation, for example. - **Keep it short.** Attention spans are getting shorter, and nearly two-thirds of consumers prefer videos under 60 seconds. - **Keep it interesting.** Whatever the topic, your script will need to be engaging. To do this, speak directly to your target clients about issues you know they’re facing. ### **2. Choose a suitable template** ### **Online platforms offer many amazing templates so you can choose by aesthetic, layout and rhythm.** Check out this [brand introductory video on Vimeo](https://vimeo.com/create/templates/brand-intro-warm-toned-aesthetic-3740) (especially handy if you’re not keen to be on camera). Once you’ve chosen, you can get creative and personalise the copy, colour, fonts and music. ### **3. Record the video** If you’re going to do a recording of yourself, we recommend using a tripod, microphone and good lighting. Then dress to impress, check your teeth and try a few takes. Once you’re happy, upload your best cuts. ### **4. Edit the video** To make your video more appealing, add branding, graphics, music, subtitles and a great call to action. Then, go back and remove any unnecessary wordiness to keep it engaging. Double-check that the video flows nicely and that your central message comes across. ### **5. Share your video** Once you’re happy with your video, save it as an .mp4 and upload it to your social media platforms. Fortunately, because of video’s popularity, all social apps have made this super straightforward. To boost engagement even further, why not embed the video on your website and include it in your next email marketing campaign? ## **Capturing the lead** So many potential clients could benefit from your expert advice – video is an effective way to get it to them. Thankfully, online platforms have made it easier than ever to create professional videos. By linking video content with BOMA email campaigns, you’ll have consistent, quality engagement with clients for minimal effort. [*Try BOMA for free today.*](https://app.bomamarketing.com/register) **Categories:** Digital Marketing, Tips & Advice --- ### [The Top 5 Marketing Mistakes Accountants Should Avoid](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/the-top-5-marketing-mistakes-accountants-should-avoid/) **Published:** December 12, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **Improve the quality of your marketing with a few simple tweaks** If your accounting firm relies 100% on referrals, eventually, that will cap your growth and you’ll need marketing to keep growing. You’ll also have a better foundation to grow your reputation and expand your reach. To help you on your marketing journey, here are the five most common marketing mistakes accountants make and how to avoid them. ## **1. No clear target audience** To convince people you’re the right partner, you need to show that you understand them. [Learn about your ideal client](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/tips-advice/know-your-target-audience-clients-will-follow/) and their goals to make your marketing more effective and create a more meaningful, ongoing relationship. Go too broad, and your message will be so vague it will speak to no one. ### **How to define your ideal clients** While client demographics like age and gender can create part of a picture, a definition should go much deeper than this. You need to understand what motivates them, their business problems and how they consume media. Defining a buyer persona based on an existing, highly valued client is a great place to start. What are their: - **Needs and goals** – saving time? Money? Or do they value communication? - **Pain points** – how can you provide solutions or answers to their challenges? - **Buying process** – what is their typical process for engaging with a product or service? - **Interests** – hobbies, family life and the media they like to consume - **General information** – their current role, industry and demographic Once you’ve got this information, use it to create different personas, AKA fictional representations of your target clients that bring them to life. Unless you only deal with one kind of client, you’ll need to create more than one persona. ## **2. No unique selling proposition (USP)** A [unique selling proposition](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/the-key-to-successful-marketing-is-a-unique-selling-point-how-to-create-a-value-proposition/) highlights your competitive advantage to win the right clients. It’s where your strengths meet their needs and wants. With a clearly defined USP, it’s easier to cut through the noise and grab their attention. If you’re unsure what sets your accounting firm apart, start by asking yourself what you do best. For example, do you love helping small businesses grow? Are many of your clients in a particular industry, giving you expert-level knowledge? Whatever you’re good at, pinpoint it and curate content that highlights your specialities. ## **3. You give nothing away** Never be afraid to share your secrets. You may think that when potential clients know how you do what you do, they’ll do it themselves. But in reality, it helps them understand why they need you. Clients appreciate expertise and openness, especially when the [tips and advice genuinely benefit them.](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/why-accountants-and-bookkeepers-should-embrace-education-marketing/) The key is to put your client’s interests above your own and trust that you will get back as much as you give in marketing. [BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/) has created an efficient way to provide your clients with useful content. Check out our extensive [content library and digital toolkit](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/content-libraries/) that make it easy for busy accountants to build their businesses. ## **4. No strategy** Every marketing act costs time and money, so you need to be careful you’re spending it wisely. If your marketing has no overarching strategy, it’s almost certainly a waste. Instead, approach marketing as systematically as you would a client’s accounts. First, decide who you’re targeting and be clear on your goals. Only then can you think about how to achieve them. You’ll also have ways to measure your marketing, so you can tweak or pivot as needed and understand what ROI you’re getting. ## **5. No digital footprint** While referrals are the bread and butter of accountants, marketing can help you drive the right leads and go beyond your existing networks. It’s crucial to have a great website, a [Google My Business](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/digital-marketing/how-to-claim-your-accounting-firms-page-on-google-to-help-people-find-you-online/) listing with as many reviews as possible, and well-maintained social media pages to boost your referral game and grow your reach. Cover your bases so that when potential clients do some extra digging, they’ll be impressed. It’s also important to ask for online reviews. Approach clients directly and make it easy to submit one. ## **Marketing matters** Marketing is an effective way to reach new clients, engage them and help them decide to hire you. As a business owner, you need to define your target client, generously give away your expertise and leave a digital trail for referrals. If that sounds like an impossible task with your already busy schedule, BOMA makes it easy. Ready to ramp up your marketing game? Sign up for a [free trial with BOMA today.](https://app.bomamarketing.com/register) **Categories:** Marketing --- ### [Attract More Clients In Less Time For $30k Less Per Year.](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/accounting-bookkeeper/attract-more-clients-in-less-time-for-30k-less-per-year/) **Published:** December 12, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **BOMA allows accounting firms to work smarter, not harder** When your taxes are a mess, you hire an accountant. When your computer stops working, you call a technician. But knowing when to get help with content? That’s a little less black and white. If you want to better connect with target clients or make your content more cohesive, the time and resources you’ll spend in-house getting the words just right could cost much more than you think. And even after you or your staff spend hours (on the clock) generating ideas, researching, editing, proofing and making the content SEO-friendly, can you guarantee it’ll be the quality you need? If you’re serious about growing your business, a smart way of going about it is better for the books, and you can focus on providing a premium service for all your new clients. Let’s break down the costs. ## **The real cost of DIY marketing content** To help you understand the overall cost of in-house vs. outsourced content writing, we’ve used industry insights, surveys and client usage figures for BOMA. We found that content writing in-house, including social posts, blogs and eDMs, can take an inexperienced staff member a full day to write. This time doesn’t cover the idea stage, which can take just as long for some staff. Does that seem a good way for qualified accountants to spend their time? Wouldn’t it be more efficient if you could go to a premium content library created especially for your industry? Our thoughts exactly. In the [BOMA content library](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/content-libraries/), you’ll find meaningful and valuable content gathered from our industry partners including [Wolters Kluwer CCH](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-wolters-kluwer-cch/), [The Gap](https://bomamarketing.com/gap/), [Tradify](https://bomamarketing.com/tradify/), MyHR and [Xero](https://bomamarketing.com/xero/). The platform also lets you speed up your database segmentation and add your touches to the content, so you can tailor your communications to your audiences and brand. ## **Here’s why quality content costs you less with BOMA** Your clients need your expertise to help grow their businesses. Mediocre content won’t improve relationships, but specialised information that genuinely helps your clients will. Luckily, quality and a low price no longer have to be mutually exclusive. With BOMA, you’ll have access to exclusive industry insights, expert advice and insider tips for a fraction of the cost you spend now. With BOMA’s library with hundreds of well-written articles from industry experts, you can choose what will add value to each of your clients. And instead of researching changes to tax legislation or GST updates, you can summarise all this and more in under ten minutes. Whether it’s general business, financial advice, compliance, tax, management, HR or training, you’ll have it all at your fingertips for a [fraction of the cost](https://bomamarketing.com/pricing/). By outsourcing your blog writing, you’ll be able to: - **Build your brand with high-quality content** When your clients hire you, they want your expertise to help them grow their businesses. And when you subscribe to BOMA, you can expect the quality of your content to go up. Select insightful articles from trusted content partners, easily adding your perspective or other tweaks if you choose. You can become a trusted thought leader for prospective clients, boost your reputation and grow your brand. - **Provide premium service with scheduled content** In your line of work, getting regular industry updates to your clients is critical to their success, but it can be time-consuming. If you want to be consistent, BOMA acts as your external motivator. It already has these updates written and waiting to be used in the content library. - **Make more time for your bread and butter** Growing your business is hard work. By using content that’s already written, you can focus on the work that you’re in business to do. And when BOMA does its job attracting new clients, you won’t have to worry about working overtime to juggle new work and marketing. **Save up to $30K a year with BOMA** The [BOMA ROI calculator](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-roi-calculator/) was created to show managers the real cost of in-house marketing and how much you stand to save by switching strategies. Here’s an example from a growth-driven accounting firm with an average output of: - **Four informative emails or newsletters every month.** Each will take around four to five hours of research, writing, editing and proofing. - **Ten social media posts each month.** These require image sourcing, creative writing and proofing, taking around two hours. When you add it up, that’s aro[https://www.google.com/url?q=https://bomamarketing.com/boma-gap-roi-calculator/&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1733969915443311&usg=AOvVaw2r4d3J92cKF1pA1TnEbtxo](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-gap-roi-calculator/)und 264 hours of content creation each year. And when you consider the average wage of an accountant is about $106 an hour, you’re spending a whopping $27,772 on content. With BOMA costing only $84 per month, you’d save $26,764. Check your potential savings on the [BOMA ROI calculator](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-gap-roi-calculator/) here. ## **Grow your firm efficiently** Aside from finding new clients, growing your accounting firm takes efficiency. When things ramp up at the end of the financial year, can you justify pouring precious hours every week into your marketing? You should save your time for serving your client’s needs and going above and beyond when you can. So for consistent, quality content that will build your brand and give you more efficiency, the answer is BOMA. Interested in seeing the BOMA articles for yourself? Sign up for a [free trial with BOMA today.](https://app.bomamarketing.com/register) **Categories:** Content Marketing, Accountant and Bookkeeper --- ### [5 Ways To Personalise Your BOMA Content](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/5-ways-to-personalise-your-boma-content/) **Published:** December 12, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** It’s easy to send out BOMA content to your clients as is, but why not add a touch of personality? By customising our content with your unique perspective and expertise, you’ll reinforce your brand while improving your relationships with clients and prospects. BOMA’s personalisation tools give you plenty of opportunities to make them your own. Here’s how: ## **1. Choose new images** Each article has prepopulated images, but sometimes you might want something different. In BOMA, add or change the image by selecting one from the four million options in our library or uploading your own. BOMA will automatically reformat the content across your email and social channels. ## **2. Rewrite using your voice** While you can share the articles as they are, it’s a good idea to tweak them to suit your brand tone. You’ll form a more authentic dialogue with your audience and let them get to know your brand. In BOMA, editing an article, post or email is as easy as clicking a button and making the changes or you can instruct BOMA’s [generative AI tool Content Assist](https://bomamarketing.com/create-or-customise-the-power-is-yours-with-content-assist/) to rewrite and repurpose the content for you. Whether you realise it or not, your company has a personality, and your tone is part of that. When your emails portray this well, your audience tends to get closer. Here are some examples of tone for inspiration. - ### **Formal example:** *“Thank you for partnering with (company name). We greatly appreciate your ongoing support.”* This style of writing is necessary when talking about serious topics with serious people. - **Conversational example:** *“Thanks for trusting us with your books. We’re working hard every day to make your life (at least a little bit) easier.”* Many companies nowadays like to use a conversational tone like this when writing content, making them sound more human. Try to write in the first person for this style and use contractions and parentheses. - ### **Casual example:** *“Woohoo, another year done and dusted! Cheers for trusting us with your books. We love being on your team.”* Fun, light and super friendly – if this is how you’d talk to your clients in person, it could also work well in your marketing materials. ## **3. Create a custom email template** Under the setting tab in BOMA, go to ‘branding and emails’ and make sure you’ve uploaded your logo. Then choose your email’s background and the colour of your call-to-action buttons. Once you’re happy with the colours, start creating your custom template. BOMA walks you through the process step by step in [this video.](https://youtu.be/xUtFAjv7xcM) ## **4. Make the formatting your own** Did you know you can update and edit the formatting in any BOMA content? While font choice, size, colour and spacing may not seem that important, they give a lasting impression of your brand. The design will set your brand apart from competitors and give clients more confidence when choosing you. ### **How to tweak your formatting** Look at the font, type size, colour and line space used on your website, Word docs and other marketing materials, so you can tweak your BOMA emails to match. Also, make sure you’re treating things like headlines, subheads and quotes the same – are they bold, underlined or italicised? Connected Apps > Zapier** in your Karbon account to find your Connection Token. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/K5.png) Choose **Zapier**. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/K6.png) Click **Connect**. It will give you a connection token. Copy this to your clipboard. Return to the Zapier integration page and paste this in, then click **Continue to Zapier**. Zapier will have a green tick on Account now ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/K8.png) Press **Continue** down the bottom. Click on **Test your Trigger** to run a test. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/K9.png) A successful test will show one of your records. Click on the **Continue with selected record** button to continue. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/K10.png) The system will automatically take you to the Action. Find the App you want to use. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/K11.png) If you cannot find BOMA, you may have to connect with it manually, you can use this [link](https://support.bomamarketing.com/articles/4702557-connecting-zapier-and-posting-to-wordpress). Or click on a link from BOMA to add it, and then you will be able to find it in the Apps. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/K12.png) Choose the type of event you want to create **Send Contacts to BOMA**. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/K13.png) Click the **Continue** button down the bottom. Then, you will need to link your BOMA account to the Zap. Click on the Account and choose **Sign in**. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/K14.png) A popup will appear. Enter the API key and the email you use to login to BOMA and press the **Yes continue** button. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/K15.png) A connection will open the Zap with the **Action** field ready to edit. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/K16.png) **Step1:** Choose the BOMA form you want your new contact to be a part of. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/K17.png) **Step 2:** Map the fields in the Form to the Contact. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/K18.png) When you are ready, click **Continue**. It will be ready to test. Click **Test Step** to continue. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/K19.png) A successful test will return this message. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB20-1.png) Click the blue **Publish** button to save your zap or **Retest step** if necessary. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/K20.png) Congratulations! You’ve successfully connected Karbon Online to BOMA using Zapier. Your new customer data will now be automatically sent to BOMA, making client management easier than ever. **Categories:** Integrations --- ### [Integrate QuickBooks to BOMA with Zapier](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/integrations/integrate-quickbooks-to-boma-with-zapier/) **Published:** August 1, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** We’re here to help you streamline your workflow by connecting QuickBooks to BOMA using Zapier. Integrating your QuickBooks with BOMA through Zapier offers a streamlined solution for accountants to manage client information efficiently. This integration automatically adds new clients from QuickBooks to your BOMA Contacts, ensuring your contact list is always up-to-date without manual data entry. By connecting these platforms, you can enhance your client management, improve communication, and save valuable time, allowing you to focus more on providing exceptional service to your clients. Follow these simple steps to get started and automate your client management process. ### Step-by-Step Guide Go to [**www.zapier.com** ](http://www.zapier.com)and log in to your account. To create a Zap click on **Create** in the left-hand menu. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screen-Shot-2024-08-01-at-3.17.21-PM-1.png) Click on **Trigger.** ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB3-1.png) Find the App you want to use, in this case **Quickbooks Online.** ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB1-2.png) It will appear on the right hand side. Click on **Account**. You will need to connect to your Quickbooks account. Click **Sign In**. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB4-1.png) A pop-up will appear. Click **Yes, Continue**. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB5.png) If you are already signed in, the connection will show and you can click the Green **Connect** button. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB6.png) If you are not logged in, enter your login credentials, then click **Connect**. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB7.png) Choose the event **New Customer**. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB8.png) Finally, test the trigger – the Zap will find a recent new customer in quickbooks online to confirm the trigger is set up correctly. Click on the **Test trigger** button. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB9.png) A successful test will display a new customer record. Click **Continue with selected record**. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB10.png) Click on **Action.** Find the App you want to use. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB11.png) If you can’t find BOMA, connect manually via [this support link](https://support.bomamarketing.com/articles/4702557-connecting-zapier-and-posting-to-wordpress). Or click on a link from BOMA to add it, and then you will be able to find it in the Apps. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB12.png) Choose the type of event you want to create **Send Contacts to BOMA** ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB13.png) Then, you will need to link your BOMA account to the Zap. Click on the Account and choose **Sign in** ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB14.png) A popup will appear. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB15.png) Enter the API key and the email you use to login to BOMA and press the **Yes continue** button. A connection will open the Zap with the **Action** field ready to edit ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB17.png) **Step1**: Choose the BOMA form you want your new contact to be a part of. **Step 2**: Click into each field to map the QuickBooks data into the BOMA fields: ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB18.png) When you are ready, click **Continue**. It will be ready to test. Click **Test Step** to continue. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB19.png) A successful test will return this message. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB20.png) Click the blue **Publish** button to save your zap or **Retest step** if necessary. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/QB21.png) Congratulations! You’ve successfully connected QuickBooks Online to BOMA using Zapier. Your new customer data will now be automatically sent to BOMA, making client management easier than ever. **Categories:** Integrations --- ### [Elevate Your Email Campaigns: An Interactive Workshop for Accountants (UK Edition)](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/elevate-your-email-campaigns-an-interactive-workshop-for-accountants-uk-edition/) **Published:** July 25, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Are you ready to take your email marketing to the next level? In this webinar, designed specifically for accountants, discover how to harness the power of email to engage your clients and boost your ROI. We cover: - Why email remains the go-to channel for client communication - Crafting the perfect email - Audience Segmentation Followed by an interactive workshop: - Email formatting tips and tricks - Leveraging BOMA’s AI for your emails - Answering your email related questions Don’t miss this opportunity to enhance your email marketing skills and learn how to make the most of your campaigns. Whether you’re new to email marketing or looking to refine your strategy, this webinar has something for everyone. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Elevate Your Email Campaigns: An Interactive Workshop for Accountants (AU / NZ Edition)](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/elevate-your-email-campaigns-an-interactive-workshop-for-accountants-au-nz-edition/) **Published:** July 25, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Are you ready to take your email marketing to the next level? In this webinar, designed specifically for accountants, discover how to harness the power of email to engage your clients and boost your ROI. We cover: - Why email remains the go-to channel for client communication - Crafting the perfect email - Audience Segmentation Followed by an interactive workshop: - Email formatting tips and tricks - Leveraging BOMA’s AI for your emails - Answering your email related questions Don’t miss this opportunity to enhance your email marketing skills and learn how to make the most of your campaigns. Whether you’re new to email marketing or looking to refine your strategy, this webinar has something for everyone. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Why you should be using social media. From connections to content, here’s what you need to know](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/social-media-is-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers-too/) **Published:** February 24, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** With over 5.07 billion people active on social media globally (representing more than half of the world’s population), it’s little wonder that businesses around the world have jumped on board. With [74% of consumers’ decisions influenced by social media](https://awario.com/blog/how-social-networks-influence-74-of-shoppers-for-their-purchasing-decisions-today/#:~:text=The%20Statistics,help%20with%20their%20purchasing%20decisions.&text=According%20to%20a%20Hubspot%20report,based%20on%20social%20media%20referrals.), businesses can’t afford to ignore the platforms. While most businesses understand they are important marketing tools, knowing how and where to start is one of the biggest challenges. But it’s easier than you think! Here’s how accountancy firms can ride the social media wave. ## **Understand your goals** To truly maximise your presence on social, you first need to understand and define your goals. Here’s what social can do for your business: - **Increase brand awareness** – if your marketing focus is all about getting your firm’s name out there, this should be reflected in your social media goals. Brand awareness can be boosted by [encouraging followers to share your content and expertise](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/11/15/grow-your-accounting-firms-network-on-social-media-7-key-ways/), and collaborating with influencers (e.g. a local business association) or relevant brands. - **Drive connection** – social media allow you to give your firm a unique voice and personality that can help followers feel more connected to your brand. This connection can pay dividends later on as you build closer relationships with them. - **Secure client reviews** – with almost [90% of consumers reading online reviews](https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/) before engaging with a business, social proof has become a key driver of new business. Online reviews build trust, but they also help with decision-making and can provide your firm with priceless feedback. - **Generate new business** – whether it’s driving traffic to your website, generating new leads or growing revenue, social media followers are a great source of business. By providing things like a discounted offering to new clients or a free financial health check, you’ll see leads turn into real results. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/AdobeStock_283709163_Editorial_Use_Only-450x300.jpeg) ## **Which platform is best?** From Facebook to TikTok, [keeping on top of emerging platforms and trends can be challenging](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/10/16/which-social-media-networks-should-i-choose-for-my-accounting-firm/). We recommend you start by finding out where your current and prospective clients are most likely to be, and picking one or two platforms to focus on initially. Here are our top three picks for accountants: - **LinkedIn –** as a professional networking platform, LinkedIn is more business-oriented than its peers. With the majority of users in the [46-55 age group](https://www.statista.com/statistics/246172/share-of-us-internet-users-who-use-linkedin-by-age-group/), well-educated and in a higher income bracket, it’s a must-have for your social media strategy. - **Facebook –** with over 3.07 billion monthly active users, Facebook remains the most-used and engaged-with social platform. With a relatively equal gender split, the platform skews towards the 25-34 age group but also attracts a large number of [baby boomers, with 60% now having accounts](https://qz.com/1707287/use-of-facebook-among-senior-americans-has-doubled-over-recent-years/). - **Instagram** – means images and video, making it ideal for connecting emotionally with your audience and building your brand story visually. Because Instagram is owned by Facebook, its advertising tools are equally as effective for reaching and building your network. - **X (Twitter) –** the home of short, quippy and to-the-point content, X skews slightly towards [males in the 46-55 demographic](https://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics/). It’s the perfect platform to share content and drive discussions, but advertising options remain limited. **Expert Tip**: If you’re not sure which social networks your clients or prospects are using, search for them or their businesses to see which channels they are active on. Or if you know them well enough, just ask them directly. ## **What to post** The key to thriving on social media is consistency – regular posting without compromising on quality content. It’s all about giving your followers a reason to be engaged with your business. For example: - **Upcoming deadline reminders** – while EOFY and other tax deadlines may be top of mind for you, it’s unlikely they are for your clients. They will appreciate the heads up and it will prompt them to reach out. - **Provide value –** tailor your social media communications to your target clients with tips and insights that can make their lives easier from an accounting perspective – for example, information about tax breaks and legislative changes, tips on planning for a tax return or interesting industry news. This approach will position you as knowledgeable and help build trust in your business. - **Content that injects personality** – social media posts let businesses develop unique voices so they connect with customers and differentiate themselves from competitors. Accountants can sometimes be seen as stuffy and boring – so don’t be afraid to add a bit of fun and personality to your feed. - **Positivity and inspiration** – if you’ve written some great case studies or received feedback from a happy client, social media are the perfect places to shout about this success. For more examples on what to pose to social media [click here](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/what-should-accountants-be-posting-on-their-firms-social-media-pages/). ## **Focus on quality over quantity** It’s easy to get caught up in recommendations of the optimal number of posts each day or week, but sticking to quality over quantity is the best approach when getting started on social media. Think carefully about your content strategy, choose your platform wisely and commit to spending some time responding to questions every day. For a more detailed look into social media for accountants, take a look at our [Social Media 101 for Accountants webinar](https://bomamarketing.com/2020/09/10/how-to-market-your-accounting-bookkeeping-firm-on-social-media-101/). Ready to get started? Find out how BOMA can help by placing powerful social content at your fingertips. **Categories:** Social Media --- ### [The Top 5 Marketing Secrets to Fast-track Your Firm’s Growth](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/the-top-5-marketing-secrets-to-fast-track-your-firms-growth/) **Published:** July 19, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **Learn how to fast-track your success with BOMA** Running your own accounting firm is exciting — you get to be your own boss, set your own hours and offer services to a wide range of clients. But how can you fast-track growth in this highly competitive field while building a solid reputation? Once you’ve nailed your processes, it comes down to good marketing. Identifying, attracting and retaining clients through good old-fashioned communication. Here are the top five most effective techniques to market your accounting firm: ## **1. Maximise referrals** When your customers feel supported, not only are they more likely to stick around, but they’ll refer you to friends and family — the most organic form of marketing there is. As an accountant, it’s all about being proactive with your guidance and always staying responsive. Don’t wait for clients to nag you — treat everyone like they’re your number one priority, and always go the extra mile. It can be a challenge to manage everyone’s needs, but it’s crucial to building a loyal client base who want to refer your services. ## **2. Leverage your network** From clients and vendors to professionals in *every* field, start building strong relationships with as many people as possible and watch new opportunities land on your lap. Get out to industry events and conferences, and don’t forget to exchange business cards — you’ll get a lot more traction if you follow up. You can also join professional accounting organisations and attend those meetings and events. Check out the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), or visit your local organisations to get started. The more you get out there, the more chance you’ll be top of mind when someone needs an accountant. ## **3. Get online** When as many as 80% of referrals look at the company website before contacting you, every accounting firm needs a great website — that’s the bare minimum. Just remember, [when creating an effective website for your firm](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/03/08/creating-an-effective-website-for-your-firm-the-five-key-steps/) you’ll need to define your target audience, write content to match, use simple design, make it usable and watch it’s performance. But to continually improve its effectiveness — be consistent with content. And that brings us to our next point: ## **4. Offer valuable content** Establishing your firm as a go-to resource for all things accounting-related is a great marketing pull. You’ve got the knowledge to inform everyday people on how to better handle their finances, and that is *incredibly* valuable. Here are a few great ways to start: - **Use social media.** Your reach on social media is huge. By signing up to platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, you can create a whole new network of people interested in the advice you have to offer. [Learn more](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/grow-your-accounting-firms-network-on-social-media-7-key-ways/). - **Send a weekly newsletter.** By emailing out industry updates, accounting tips and expert advice, you’ll keep your client base engaged and put yourself in a position to expand your reach with shared content. [Learn more](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/email-marketing/the-newsletter-guide-how-to-get-started-and-keep-it-up/). - **Host seminars (or webinars).** Creating and marketing a seminar is a great way to pull in a new audience and meet potential clients. - **Start a blog.** Reuse content from your socials, newsletters and seminars and create a blog for your website. Not only will fresh content optimise your webpage when people are searching for accountants on Google, but it will make your website more engaging. [Learn more](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/website/the-ultimate-guide-to-blog-writing-for-your-accounting-website/). ## **5. Invest in BOMA** Wondering how you’re going to find the time to create all this content? It might be time to check out [BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/). Designed as a marketing tool for Business Advisors, BOMA provides expertly written business advisory and compliance articles and high impact imagery so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. By partnering with thought leaders like [The Gap](https://bomamarketing.com/gap/), [Wolters Kluwer](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-wolters-kluwer-cch/) and [Xero](https://bomamarketing.com/xero/), BOMA has an up-to-date library of valuable articles ready to make your own. Beyond content, the platform drives all your marketing from one easy place. ## **Boost your firm’s success** By focusing on great service, networking, and lots of great content, your accounting business has no choice but to thrive. But it can be hard to find the time to create consistent content when trying to focus on doing an excellent job for your clients. That’s why it’s better to take the pressure off and invest in a tool that does all the time-consuming marketing for you. [*Find out how BOMA can help your firm today*](https://bomamarketing.com/)*.* **Categories:** Marketing, Accountant and Bookkeeper --- ### [The art of developing an effective website for Accountants & Bookkeepers](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/website/the-art-of-developing-an-effective-website-for-accountants-bookkeepers/) **Published:** July 1, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **An accountant’s and bookkeeper’s guide to building a stand-out online presence** As the digital storefront to your accounting or bookkeeping firm, your website is often the first-place potential new clients connect with your business. With 80% of people visiting a business website after reading an online review, its highly likely that even with a word-of-mouth referral that their next port of call will be your website. So, it needs to make a good and lasting impression. But your website should do more than just look pretty. Nail your website design and it’ll help attract and generate client leads – and ultimately win new business. Websites designed with user experience in mind are proven to [increase conversions and sales by up to 200%.](https://medium.com/redotglobal/10-characteristics-of-a-good-website-2bdd0749be20) When planning and designing your accounting or bookkeeping website, make sure you consider these core elements: ### **Choosing the right web platform** Crafting a website is like building a house. Before you think about ‘painting the walls’, you’ve got to get the foundations right. That means carefully selecting the software to build your website. Not all platforms are made equal or have the same level of functionality. The best platform for your accounting or bookkeeping business will depend on how your website will be used by your firm and your clients. It should keep your site running smoothly and efficiently, allow you to edit and update your content and have robust security too. Start by doing your due diligence. Research user reviews, focusing on performance and usability. Working with a web developer will ensure you find an option that meets your budget and has appropriate customisation and integration capabilities. Here are a few options to get you started: - [WordPress](https://wordpress.com/) - [Wolters Kluwer Web Manager](https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en-nz/solutions/cch-web-manager) - [RocketSpark](https://www.rocketspark.com/) ### **A compelling homepage** Studies have shown it takes people 1/20 of a second to make up their minds about the quality of a website – and that doesn’t change the longer they spend browsing. At that pace, people will judge your site by its homepage. Here’s what a good homepage should have: - **Clear branding.** Your website should reflect your business identity – [logo, colours, tone and style](https://bomamarketing.com/2021/05/21/branding-the-foundation-of-any-successful-accounting-or-bookkeeping-business/). - **Impactful messaging.** Your homepage should say who you are, what you do and why someone should choose your accounting or bookkeeping firm. Simplicity is king – be clear and concise and avoid any jargon. - **Provide proof.** Showcase your expertise, industry certifications and qualifications and customer testimonials to further persuade visitors they are making the right choice. - **Call to action.** Make it clear what you want people to do next with a strong CTA – these are what will help convert visitors into clients. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-01-at-4.06.41-PM.png) ### **Simple navigation starts with the menu** If you’ve ever landed on a website, only to quickly become frustrated that you can’t find what you’re looking for, then you already know the importance of intuitive navigation. Make sure that getting around your website is straightforward. Don’t overcomplicate the structure of your pages – people have come to expect standard page names like ‘About us’, ‘Services’, ‘Blog’ and ‘Contact us’. Also, ensure the menu bar is visible at the top of every page. ### **Mobile responsive** Internet browsing by mobile has surpassed desktop in recent years. Search engines like Google also rank mobile versions of sites first, [so optimising for mobile is essential](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/website/if-your-website-doesnt-work-on-mobile-prepare-to-lose-customers/). A mobile-friendly website is designed to adapt its size to a user’s device, ensuring visitors get the best viewer experience. Non-mobile-friendly sites tend to look unfinished or like pieces are missing – which will have people hitting the back button. Most good website software these days is mobile responsive, so if you’re not sure, ask your web developer. ## **Key elements that make good web pages** Now that you’ve got the foundations in place, think of your web pages as the different rooms in a house. Each page will have its purpose, content and layout, but certain design elements must stay the same for everything to work cohesively. ### **Key messages are ‘above the fold’** Eye-tracking studies by usability guru Jakob Neilson found that people tend to focus on ‘above the fold’ or the portions of a webpage that are visible without further scrolling or clicking. On all pages, ensure visitors can read the main messages straight away – especially on mobile devices. ### **Engaging, useful content** [38% of people will leave a website](https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/compelling-stats-website-design-optimization-list) if the content is unappealing, so [encourage visitors to stay on your site by providing interesting and useful information](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/website/the-ultimate-guide-to-blog-writing-for-your-accounting-website/). Rather than headlines like ‘introduction’ or ‘welcome to our website’, tell visitors exactly what they’ll find on your site – and why it will help them. Use blogs and videos to demonstrate your accounting or bookkeeping expertise and knowledge. All of this will help build trust and establish you as an expert in your field – and ultimately convert visitors into clients. ### **Visually appealing images** Pictures paint a thousand words – literally! Images are processed by the human brain [60,000 times faster than text](http://visualteachingalliance.com/). Use professionally designed brand imagery and photography to add authenticity and credibility to your website. If you need to use stock imagery, avoid anything that doesn’t align with your brand. ### **Always include calls to action** Think of CTAs as wayfinding posts – use them to tell your visitors what they should do next. Rather than the standard ‘sign up’ button, focus on the action you’d like your audience to take. Here are some ideas: - Encourage people to sign up for a monthly newsletter or [webinar](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/). - Let visitors know how they can get in touch with you to book a meeting – we recommend embedding a calendar app like [Calendly](https://calendly.com/) on your ‘Contact Us’ page. - Provide a free download, e.g. how to minimise your tax bill. - Or simply, ‘ask for a quote’ or ‘find out more’. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-01-at-4.04.05-PM.png) ## **Website – the ‘shopfront’ to your firm** Most importantly, your website should focus on the needs of your clients – new and prospective. It’s the first – and in some cases, the only – place where a potential customer may engage with your brand, so putting your best accounting or bookkeeping foot forward should be a top priority. - Be clear on what you want people to do – direct them to your chosen endpoint, e.g. your contact page. - Use clear, visually appealing website design and copy. - Put your main messaging ‘above the fold’. Can you explain this concept more – e.g. this could include the firm tagline / purpose etc? - Ensure your site is mobile responsive and uses the right platform. - Create a great homepage with a clear menu. ## Download The Digital Marketing Guide For Accountants Digital marketing requires a whole new set of skills – that’s why we put together our e-book, *Digital Marketing: For Accountants and Bookkeepers*. It’s designed to help you make the most of marketing opportunities in a way that makes sense for your business and your brand. **[Download it for free today](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-guide-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers/?preview=true#section6)**. **Categories:** Website --- ### [AI in Marketing - Leveraging the BOMA Platform for Accountants (AU/NZ Edition)](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/boma-webinar-ai-in-marketing-leveraging-the-boma-platform-for-accountants/) **Published:** May 6, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Join Viv Brownrigg, Co-founder and Director of Marketing and Strategic Partnerships of The Gap, in conversation with Andy Baird, Head of Engineering at BOMA and Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA as they take you through opportunities, challenges, and implications of AI and discuss how accounting firms can utilise this technology, now available in the BOMA platform, to drive business growth while still ensuring compliance and professionalism. Key take outs: - Being comfortable with technological change - An understanding of what AI is - What AI means in the marketing space - BOMA’s generative AI in action - The goal is to empower you with the knowledge and insights needed to leverage the power of AI marketing in your firm. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [AI in Marketing - Leveraging the BOMA Platform for Accountants (UK Edition)](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/boma-webinar-ai-in-marketing-leveraging-the-boma-platform-for-accountants-uk-edition/) **Published:** May 17, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Join Viv Brownrigg, Co-founder and Director of Marketing and Strategic Partnerships of The Gap, in conversation with Andy Baird, Head of Engineering at BOMA and Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA as they take you through opportunities, challenges, and implications of AI and discuss how accounting firms can utilise this technology, now available in the BOMA platform, to drive business growth while still ensuring compliance and professionalism. Key take outs: - Being comfortable with technological change - An understanding of what AI is - What AI means in the marketing space - BOMA’s generative AI in action - The goal is to empower you with the knowledge and insights needed to leverage the power of AI marketing in your firm. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Transform Your Firm's Online Reputation with Expert Strategies](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/transform-your-firms-online-reputation-with-expert-strategies/) **Published:** May 30, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In an era where online reviews can make or break your accounting firm, it’s essential to stay ahead. Join us as we speak with Tom Wilson, Director of BMR, for an exclusive webinar on gaining positive review for your firm. We cover: - Expert Techniques to Automate 5-Star Reviews: Learn how to set up systems that encourage satisfied clients to share their positive experiences effortlessly. - Safeguard Against Negative Feedback: Discover strategic methods to address and keep negative reviews private, ensuring they don’t affect your firm’s reputation. - Actionable Strategies for Immediate Impact: We’ll provide you with tools and tactics that can be implemented right away to enhance your online presence. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to elevate your firm with the power of positive reviews. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Understanding Email Domain Authentication: Enhancing Deliverability and Security](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/email-marketing/understanding-email-domain-authentication-enhancing-deliverability-and-security/) **Published:** May 15, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In the digital age, email has become an integral part of communication for businesses and individuals alike. However, amidst the vast landscape of emails, ensuring deliverability and security remains a pressing concern. One essential aspect of email management that addresses these concerns is domain authentication. In this blog post, we’ll delve into the significance of email domain authentication, its role in improving deliverability and security, and how businesses can implement it effectively. ### **What is Email Domain Authentication?** Email domain authentication refers to a set of protocols and techniques used to verify the authenticity and integrity of emails sent from a particular domain. It involves the implementation of various authentication methods to validate the sender’s identity and prevent email spoofing, phishing, and other malicious activities. ### **Why is Email Domain Authentication Important?** - **Enhanced Deliverability**: Email domain authentication plays a crucial role in improving deliverability by reducing the likelihood of emails being marked as spam or blocked entirely. Authenticated emails are more likely to reach recipients’ inboxes, ensuring that important messages are received and acted upon promptly. - **Mitigation of Spoofing and Phishing Attacks**: By authenticating the sender’s domain, email authentication helps prevent spoofing and phishing attacks, where malicious actors impersonate legitimate entities to deceive recipients into divulging sensitive information. This enhances security and protects both senders and recipients from potential threats. - **Maintaining Brand Reputation**: Authenticated emails contribute to maintaining a positive brand reputation by ensuring that communications are genuine and trustworthy. Consistently delivering authenticated emails reinforces brand credibility and fosters trust with customers and stakeholders. ### **Implementing Email Domain Authentication** Implementing email domain authentication involves configuring authentication mechanisms such as SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance). These protocols work together to verify the authenticity of emails and establish trust between senders and recipients. - **SPF**: SPF allows domain owners to specify which IP addresses are authorised to send emails on behalf of their domain. By publishing SPF records in DNS settings, organisations can prevent unauthorised senders from spoofing their domain. - **DKIM**: DKIM adds a digital signature to outgoing emails, verifying that they originated from the claimed domain and have not been tampered with during transit. Domain owners generate public and private keys, with the public key published in DNS records for validation. - **DMARC**: DMARC provides an additional layer of authentication by allowing domain owners to specify policies for handling unauthenticated emails. By monitoring and enforcing DMARC policies, organisations can detect and mitigate email fraud effectively. ### **Conclusion** To recap, email domain authentication is a critical component of email management that enhances deliverability, security, and brand reputation. By implementing authentication protocols such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, organisations can establish trust with recipients, mitigate the risk of email fraud, and ensure that important messages reach their intended recipients. In an era where email threats are increasingly prevalent, investing in robust email domain authentication measures is essential for safeguarding business communications and maintaining trust with customers. For detailed instructions on setting up DMARC for your organisation for your BOMA account please send us a [support request](mailto:support@bomamarketing.com) and we will take you through the steps required. Stay secure, stay authenticated. **Categories:** Email Marketing --- ### [Customising Content Library Articles in BOMA Using Our Generative AI Feature 'Content Assist'](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/content-assist-ai/customising-content-library-articles-in-boma-using-our-generative-ai-feature-content-assist/) **Published:** May 2, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll show you how to use our generative AI tool ‘Content Assist’ to edit and customise articles and share them via email. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Content Assist AI --- ### [2024 FBT Season - Compliance Updates](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/2024-fbt-season-compliance-updates/) **Published:** March 20, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** As the due date for the 2024 fringe benefits tax (FBT) return approaches, it is once again time to review the FBT return preparation process and changes brought on by taxation laws during the FBT year. Each FBT year, changes are introduced or implemented which in turn change the required sets of information and methods that must be adopted when finalising an FBT return. Join us for this webinar with special guest Navneet Multani, Content Management Analyst at Wolters Kluwer. We will summarise the key changes that you may need to consider and how they may impact your business for the 2024 FBT year. We also provide key 2024 FBT return dates so you can prepare and collate all necessary information and documents well before the lodgement due date. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [BOMA + Wolters Kluwer Webinar Excerpt: Strategic Goals and Challenges Facing ANZ Accounting Firms](https://bomamarketing.com/uncategorized/boma-wolters-kluwer-webinar-excerpt-strategic-goals-and-challenges-facing-anz-accounting-firms/) **Published:** March 15, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** As the coalition government passes its 100th day in power businesses are set to navigate a series of rapid changes and legislative proposals even as the old rules remain in place for now. However, with so much information to take in, many businesses are ill-prepared. This presents an opportunity for ambitious firms to increase their level of client engagement and deliver additional business advisory services to clients. In this webinar we delve into the strategies that can help you strike that delicate balance, ensuring your clients stay informed and confident amidst the sea of changes. In this webinar excerpt we look at the strategic goals and challenges facing ANZ accounting firms taken from the 2023-24 Wolters Kluwer Accounting Evolution Report. **Categories:** Uncategorized --- ### [BOMA + Wolters Kluwer Webinar Excerpt: Navigating Change](https://bomamarketing.com/uncategorized/boma-wolters-kluwer-webinar-excerpt-navigating-change/) **Published:** March 14, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** As the coalition government passes its 100th day in power businesses are set to navigate a series of rapid changes and legislative proposals even as the old rules remain in place for now. However, with so much information to take in, many businesses are ill-prepared. This presents an opportunity for ambitious firms to increase their level of client engagement and deliver additional business advisory services to clients. In this short clip we explore effective ways to keep your clients updated on legislative proposals and changes that may impact them, even before they become official. **Categories:** Uncategorized --- ### [Drive Revenue Growth: Engage Clients and Help Them Navigate Policy Changes](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/drive-revenue-growth-engage-clients-and-help-them-navigate-policy-changes/) **Published:** March 12, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** As the coalition government passes its 100th day in power businesses are set to navigate a series of rapid changes and legislative proposals even as the old rules remain in place for now. However, with so much information to take in, many businesses are ill-prepared. This presents an opportunity for ambitious firms to increase their level of client engagement and deliver additional business advisory services to clients. In this webinar we delve into the strategies that can help you strike that delicate balance, ensuring your clients stay informed and confident amidst the sea of changes. Here are some key topics we cover: - Challenges Facing Firms: Explore some commonly faced issues for accounting firms trying to maximise their productivity while also nurturing valuable client relationships. - Navigating Change: Explore effective ways to keep your clients updated on legislative proposals and changes that may impact them, even before they become official. - Timely Responses: Gain insights into handling client queries in a way that is both timely and time-efficient, ensuring your staff is not overwhelmed by an influx of inquiries. – Database Segmentation: Discover the benefits of segmenting your database to tailor communications to specific groups. - Planning ahead: Understand the upside of implementing a simple marketing plan in your firm and why it’s so powerful **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Stop Lurking On LinkedIn and Start Using It To Grow Your Accounting Firm (UK Edition)](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/stop-lurking-on-linkedin-and-start-using-it-to-grow-your-accounting-firm-uk-edition/) **Published:** March 13, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Social media has changed….a lot! What used to work just doesn’t anymore. What worked a year or two ago isn’t bringing the same results! So what can you do about it? There’s a not-so-new but high performing place that is working right now, and that is LinkedIn. Learning to use LinkedIn rather than lurking on the sidelines is the best way to confidently be part of the LinkedIn community and take advantage of this platform to grow your network and leverage it for business opportunities. Join us for this webinar with special guest Leeann Bassett, Founder of Face Up Now, and LinkedIn Coach and Trainer. What we will be covering: - What content works well on LinkedIn (compared to the other social media platforms) - Simple and easy ways to expand your network on LinkedIn that anyone can do - Unknown LinkedIn features that are free for all account types that you should be using to grow your business. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Stop Lurking On LinkedIn and Start Using It To Grow Your Accounting Firm (AU/NZ Edition)](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/stop-lurking-on-linkedin-and-start-using-it-to-grow-your-accounting-firm/) **Published:** February 14, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Social media has changed….a lot! What used to work just doesn’t anymore. What worked a year or two ago isn’t bringing the same results! So what can you do about it? There’s a not-so-new but high performing place that is working right now, and that is LinkedIn. Learning to use LinkedIn rather than lurking on the sidelines is the best way to confidently be part of the LinkedIn community and take advantage of this platform to grow your network and leverage it for business opportunities. Join us for this webinar with special guest Leeann Bassett, Founder of Face Up Now, and LinkedIn Coach and Trainer. What we will be covering: - What content works well on LinkedIn (compared to the other social media platforms) - Simple and easy ways to expand your network on LinkedIn that anyone can do - Unknown LinkedIn features that are free for all account types that you should be using to grow your business. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [The Top Marketing Questions That Plague Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/the-top-marketing-questions-that-plague-accountants/) **Published:** September 27, 2023 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** When it comes to Marketing, it’s not uncommon to be referred to as a ‘dark art’ or ‘black box.’ How do you measure ROI? What software do I use? What is SEM, SEO, do I need them? What are others getting as an ROI for their investment? How? Then you get 5 emails per day from Marketing experts who were mowing lawns last week and are digital marketing experts this week. All suggesting different strategies. You’re left with a lot of questions & no clear direction. For the first time, we’re getting three experts into one webinar together, who have been working with Accountants on their marketing for over 10 years individually, and over 40 years combined. We address the following attendee questions: - Where is time best spent, for minimal cost? - How do I avoid price driven enquiries? - What is something unique that a small number of accountants are doing well? - News/media- where do we draw the line as to what to post/not post? - Does anyone read our blogs and newsletters, I know I don’t read the ones I receive? Are they effective as I am not seeing their fruits. - How to attract new clients using social media? - Accounting content ideas, for both email and social media? - How can I reach out to prospects and gain new clients? - Do you think ‘word of mouth’ is still as prolific in generating new clients today as it was 5 years ago? - Keen to hear how people are integrating AI into their marketing - I’m used to big marketing teams, with big budgets, and a large number of customers. How do I easily identify opportunities for quick wins that can be actioned by one person? - What is the best way to market accounting services? **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [The Top Marketing Questions That Plague Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/the-top-marketing-questions-that-plague-accountants-2/) **Published:** February 5, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** When it comes to Marketing, it’s not uncommon to be referred to as a ‘dark art’ or ‘black box.’ How do you measure ROI? What software do I use? What is SEM, SEO, do I need them? What are others getting as an ROI for their investment? How? Then you get 5 emails per day from Marketing experts who were mowing lawns last week and are digital marketing experts this week. All suggesting different strategies. You’re left with a lot of questions & no clear direction. For the first time, we’re getting three experts into one webinar together, who have been working with Accountants on their marketing for over 10 years individually, and over 40 years combined. We address the following attendee questions: - Where is time best spent, for minimal cost? - How do I avoid price driven enquiries? - What is something unique that a small number of accountants are doing well? - News/media- where do we draw the line as to what to post/not post? - Does anyone read our blogs and newsletters, I know I don’t read the ones I receive? Are they effective as I am not seeing their fruits. - How to attract new clients using social media? - Accounting content ideas, for both email and social media? - How can I reach out to prospects and gain new clients? - Do you think ‘word of mouth’ is still as prolific in generating new clients today as it was 5 years ago? - Keen to hear how people are integrating AI into their marketing - I’m used to big marketing teams, with big budgets, and a large number of customers. How do I easily identify opportunities for quick wins that can be actioned by one person? - What is the best way to market accounting services? **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting announces a new collaboration in Australia to provide accounting firms content through the BOMA digital marketing platform](https://bomamarketing.com/news/wolters-kluwer-tax-accounting-announces-a-new-collaboration-in-australia-to-provide-accounting-firms-content-through-the-boma-digital-marketing-platform-3/) **Published:** February 5, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** *Award-winning CCH iQ premium content library will now be accessible through BOMA with exclusive content for accounting firms**.*** [Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting Asia Pacific](https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en-au/about-us/organization) a leading provider of expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge and local expertise with advanced technology and services to help tax, accounting, audit, and finance professionals make critical decisions every day today, announced its new collaboration with [BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-wolters-kluwer-cch/). Together, Wolters Kluwer and BOMA will deliver a toolkit that allows firms to provide real-time business advisory and accounting marketing content to their respective clients. The Wolters Kluwer CCH iQ research library will now be available on BOMA’s marketing platform, specifically designed for accountants and bookkeepers. The Wolters Kluwer award-winning CCH iQ premium library scales from small firms to multinational businesses. It supports accounting firms, bookkeeping professionals and their clients by highlighting issues that may affect their business and giving them a head start on actionable topics. The trusted content, written by CCH Tax experts, differentiates accounting firms as they access deep industry insights and thought leadership — helping to create business mentoring opportunities for their clients and to grow their business as well. As an industry resource, the CCH iQ platform has built a reputation for delivering exceptional outcomes for accountants. It offers a seamless integration of resources to help professionals in the tax, accounting, audit, finance and legal sectors make critical and superior decisions. BOMA is tailor-made for accountants to reduce the time, cost and complexity challenges of their own digital marketing. Subscribers have access to expertly written content in a practical toolkit with ready-to-share everyday formats, such as emails or social media. The ‘mix and match’ capabilities of the BOMA platform allows subscribers to combine premium library content from Wolters Kluwer with in-house content from BOMA, together with their own content in newsletters, social posts and website blogs. “This is an inspiring collaboration for busy accountants and bookkeepers. Combining the actionable, event-based insights of CCH iQ with BOMA’s easy to use digital marketing toolkit makes it easier for accounting firms to deliver value and create business development and revenue opportunities. It’s a win-win for nurturing clients and driving business growth,” said Izzy Silva, Managing Director, Wolters Kluwer Tax and Accounting, Asia Pacific. “Over the last couple of years, staying on top of legislative changes and actionable events has proven to be particularly challenging. Now being across the changes for the entire tax landscape as they happen — and having them at your fingertips is a game-changer.” Wolters Kluwer subscribers get exclusive access to selected CCH iQ premium content library when they subscribe to BOMA. Non-Wolters Kluwer subscribers can access this premium content for an additional charge in a BOMA subscription. [More information can be found here.](https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en-au/solutions/cch-iq/content-partnership-with-boma) **About Wolters Kluwer** [Wolters Kluwer](https://wolterskluwer.com/) (WKL) is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the healthcare; tax and accounting; governance, risk and compliance; and legal and regulatory sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with advanced technology and services. Wolters Kluwer reported 2019 annual revenues of €4.6 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,000 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands. Wolters Kluwer shares are listed on Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices. Wolters Kluwer has a sponsored Level 1 American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program. The ADRs are traded on the over-the-counter market in the U.S. (WTKWY). **About BOMA** BOMA is the world’s leading digital marketing tool and content library, designed for busy accountants and bookkeepers. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and blog posts in no time. Support clients with newsletters, email updates, social media posts using hundreds of ready-to-share and customisable compliance and advisory articles, available in the BOMA content library. And now you can access Wolters Kluwer CCH content in BOMA. Our partnership allows you to provide value to your clients by addressing the issues that affect them and providing insights to help them grow. For more information, visit [bomamarketing.com](https://bomamarketing.com/), follow us on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Boma_Marketing), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/bomamarketing), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/boma-marketing/), and [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA_4yuHs5KlzyD8ndQ6Iggw). **Categories:** News, Technology --- ### [Marketing ROI for Accountants – why you need to understand this golden metric](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/marketing-roi-for-accountants-why-you-need-to-understand-this-golden-metric/) **Published:** September 12, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **Ensure your marketing efforts are on track and profitable** ROI – it’s likely a term you’re familiar with, but how it relates to your firm’s marketing efforts can be a grey area. Sometimes marketing outcomes aren’t as tangible or straightforward as an instant sale that can be attributed to an ad campaign, and often the time you spent working on it isn’t accounted for. While marketing is a crucial element in business growth, without looking at marketing ROI (MROI), it’s almost impossible to know where to best channel your efforts. Here’s everything you need to know about the benefits of MROI to inform your marketing efforts, what returns and investments you should be tracking and how exactly to measure them. ## **What is MROI?** MROI involves tracking the money your firm spends on marketing campaigns against the revenue generated by these campaigns. The goal of MROI is to make more than a dollar of revenue for every dollar you spend. ## **Defining ‘returns’ and ‘investments’** To measure MROI, you need to have a clear picture of what returns you’re seeking from your marketing efforts and what success looks like. This can vary hugely depending on your firm’s goals but can include things like: - New client acquisition - Incremental sales from existing clients - Duration of engagement – for example, time spent on a website or engaging with your content - Lead generation Your investment in achieving marketing goals extends far beyond the cost of placing an advertisement. Be sure to account for costs such as: - Time that went into creating a campaign - Production expenses - Any paid analytics tools used ## **How MROI should inform your marketing efforts** Given that the core purpose of marketing is to increase revenue, measuring MROI will help you determine the success of your strategy and which elements of your marketing efforts are most effective. The benefits of tracking MROI include: - **Allocating marketing budgets** – by understanding revenue generated from different campaigns and marketing channels, you’ll gain a clear picture of where to best allocate your marketing budget. - **Justifying spend** – marketing budgets are often viewed as superfluous or ‘nice-to-haves’, but hard data (MROI) to support the spend validates the direct and tangible impact it has on the bottom line. - **Measuring campaign effectiveness** – analysing the success of individual marketing campaigns allows you to adjust your efforts accordingly. It also provides a valuable baseline to forecast what can be expected from future campaigns. ## **Calculating MROI** From unique promo codes to powerful web analytics and CRM systems, it’s easier than ever to correlate money spent and revenue generated. But with so many analytics tools to hand, it can still be confusing. The simplest way to calculate the ROI of a marketing campaign is to look at sales growth during the period of the marketing activity, subtract the marketing costs and then divide this by the marketing cost. **(Sales growth – marketing cost)/marketing cost = % ROI** However, it’s rarely so simple, and typically you’ll have multiple marketing activities running simultaneously. It’s important to look at each at a standalone level to determine what’s working well for your firm. That’s why BOMA has created specific ROI calculators for different marketing activities: [Content writing ROI calculator](https://bomamarketing.com/bomas-content-writing-roi-calculator/) considers the number of content pieces you write each month, the time you spend creating this content, any outsourcing costs involved and the time and money spent on sourcing images. [Social media ROI calculator](https://boma.outgrow.us/social-media-roi-calculator) considers the number of times you post on social each month, the time you spend crafting your social posts, any outsourcing costs involved, the time and money spent on sourcing images and social media marketing software costs. [Email ROI calculator](https://bomamarketing.com/bomas-email-roi-calculator/) considers the number of emails you send each month, the time you spend writing and sending these, any outsourcing costs involved, the time and money spent on sourcing images and email marketing software costs. ## **Make it measurable and targeted with MROI** Implementing and tracking a ratio will provide a golden metric for all of your marketing activities. It will take the guesswork out of the equation, allowing you to stay focused on the desired outcomes while continuously tweaking and improving your efforts along the way. This measured approach will ultimately deliver the best return on your marketing dollar. *Are your marketing efforts not quite getting the returns you’d like? BOMA can swing the ROI balance in your favour by placing a vast content library, templates, scheduling tools and analytics at your fingertips.* [***Find out how.***](https://bomamarketing.com/) **Categories:** Digital Marketing, Marketing --- ### [How to create a winning content plan for your accounting firm](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/how-to-create-a-winning-content-plan-for-your-firm/) **Published:** October 20, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **Why a content plan should be central to your communications and how to create one** When you’re establishing a great business or building your dream home, things can often go wrong or fall entirely off the rails without a robust plan. Similarly, growing your accounting or bookkeeping firm with email marketing is much more effective and easier to keep on top of with a detailed content plan to follow. It gives your communications a decisive direction – whether that’s nurturing prospects or building a solid reputation and relationship with existing clients. Here, we look at how a content plan helps your email communications hit the bullseye every time and how to create a plan that will keep your firm on track. ## **The importance of a robust content plan** Without a plan, you’re bumbling along. You might strike it lucky and occasionally resonate with your audience, but your content will likely be more miss than hit. When that happens, your subscribers quickly turn into unsubscribers. A great plan needs to: - **Help you hit business goals** – you need to have clarity on the business goals you’re trying to meet with email marketing – for example, are you trying to drive enquiries or gain new clients? - **Have your clients’ needs at the forefront** – email marketing is nothing without your emails being read. A content plan ensures you deliver helpful content and add value to your clients’ lives. Businesses often make the mistake of using email marketing purely as a sales opportunity – this will likely head straight to their virtual bin. ## **Creating a plan for your firm** By understanding your goals, who you’re talking to and what you can offer them, a content plan will quickly fall into place. Here’s how to get started in three easy steps: ### **Step 1 – do some homework** Before you dive into creating a content plan, you’ll need to do a bit of background work to steer you in the right direction: - **It all starts with goals** – whether you’re trying to expand into a new specialisation or prompt enquiries for the end of the tax year, knowing which goals you want to achieve from email marketing will not only help you measure your success, but also inform your choice of content. - **Remember your ideal client** – as we covered in ‘[Writing for your ideal client’](https://bomamarketing.com/2022/03/31/how-to-write-for-your-ideal-clients/), think about exactly who is reading your content. What are the needs, goals, pain points, key drivers and challenges they face? ### **Step 2 – get dreaming** Once you’ve got goals firmly in mind, know who you’re communicating with and what they want to hear, it’s time to dream up some content ideas. Keep a list of topics on hand so you’ll never be stuck scrambling for ideas the day before you’re due to hit send. It will also ensure your content stays laser-focused on your business goals and clients’ needs. Here’s some topic inspiration to add to your arsenal: - Share your expertise with tips, advice or guidance on topics of interest. - Remind and support clients with key dates – things like tax deadlines and paperwork requirements. - Share any industry (or general) news that may affect your clients. - Share news from your firm and your people. - Share testimonials or case studies that showcase how your firm has helped existing clients. - Run a survey to find out exactly what your clients want to hear from you. ### **Step 3 – schedule it in** Finally, put that plan into action and put some dates in the diary. Decide how often you want to communicate with your clients (make sure it’s achievable with your current resources) and stick with it. Remember, it’s best to start with a manageable frequency that you can build on later. ## **Plan + action = results** Keeping your client’s needs and your firm’s business goals front and centre makes it easy to develop a succinct and focussed content plan that gets results. *Got a great plan but struggling to keep the content fresh and relevant? Using BOMA saves time, headaches, money and writer’s block. With a vast content library, templates, scheduling tools and analytics, BOMA has everything you need to make a successful email marketing strategy simple. Find out how.* **Categories:** Content Marketing --- ### [BOMA + Wolters Kluwer CCH: How Growth Focused Accounting Firms Can Provide Value To Clients in 2022](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/boma-wolters-kluwer-cch-how-growth-focused-accounting-firms-can-provide-value-to-clients-in-2022-2/) **Published:** October 7, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Staying on top of all the legislative changes in the current Australian tax landscape can be challenging. Changes to multiple areas of tax can occur daily and might significantly affect your clients. In addition, clients don’t always understand highly tax technical information. Being able to absorb these changes and provide simple but effective advice to clients is an essential strategy for accountants who want to support clients and drive business growth. The content in the CCH iQ premium library, coupled with BOMA’s digital marketing platform, delivers exactly that! With a few clicks, you can easily choose an article, and share it via email, social media channels and your website. CCH iQ’s actionable, event-based insights, combined with BOMA’s easy-to-use platform, make it easier for accounting firms to provide value for clients and attract and engage new business through curated content. In this session you’ll see: – - BOMA and CCH iQ’s ready-to-share content and customisation options - Content combination & formats (emails, social posts, blogs, etc.) - How to support and educate clients with minimum hassle **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [6 ways accountants can improve their relationships with clients](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/6-ways-accountants-can-improve-their-relationships-with-clients/) **Published:** October 10, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **Marketing your way to better client relationships** As an accountant, you’re in an excellent position to help your clients build better businesses. But are you offering your services in a way that makes them feel truly supported? After all, it’s not just about the numbers. By improving your relationships with clients, you’ll set yourself up to become an irreplaceable component of their success. Part of that equation is to share good information and updates, but finding the right balance can be tricky. You want your clients to feel informed and confident, but not bombarded. So how can you deliver the right information at the right time? Here are six places to start. ## **1. Build rapport** Many people find finances overwhelming, and speaking with an accountant daunting. So, drop the formality. You can be personable while still being professional. By taking the time to put your clients at ease, you’ll create the foundation of trusted, long-lasting relationships. Regular face-to-face meetings provide a sense of connection that’s hard to replicate via email or a video call when you need to talk through key points. The personal touch will go a long way to strengthen your relationships. ## **2. Build your brand** Create a trusted reputation and lasting relationships by providing so much value to clients that they start to associate your name with business success. Aside from great accounting, you can offer exclusive industry insights, expert advice and insider tips. The [BOMA content library](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/content-libraries/) makes it easy to do that. Select an insightful article and then customise it to add your perspective. This lets you provide genuinely useful thought leadership without having to write something from scratch. ## **3. Know your customer** Once you get to know your clients and where they are in their business journey, you’ll be able to [segment them into specific groups](https://support.bomamarketing.com/en/articles/1516998-what-is-a-segment-how-will-it-help-me). Your marketing and support efforts will be much more effective – each group can engage with unique advice and information. For instance, one group may need more data-driven analysis, while another is hungry for basic business tips. BOMA’s built-in analytics give you a clear picture of each segment’s response, making it much easier to tailor content to suit. ## **4. Set-and-forget updates and reminders** Industry updates are essential for your clients but time-consuming to create, especially if you want to be consistent. Most of the communications you’ll need – such as updates on changes to tax legislation or regulatory changes – are already written and waiting to be used in the BOMA content library. Just add your touch and send. For more transactional reminders – about GST periods or the end of the financial year, for example – you can set and forget, offering exceptional service to clients without adding admin to your day. ## **5. Share business advisory content** Nurture your clients with timely advice, mentoring and thought leadership. If that sounds like a lot of extra work, you’ll be blown away by how easy BOMA makes it. BOMA’s library includes over hundreds of well-written articles from industry experts. You can choose what will add value to each client and then put your take on it. Whether it’s general business, financial advice, compliance, tax, management, technology, HR or training, you’ll give your clients an extra boost to grow their businesses. ## **6. Understand communication channels** When communicating with your clients, should you stay traditional or keep up with all the new technology options? It’s about knowing which channel is right for which information. Here are three ways to contact clients, with benefits and recommended uses for each: - **Email (EDM):** Emails are professional, scalable, targeted and cost-effective. In back-and-forth communication, they’re great for maintaining clear and friendly language. When sending emails as marketing materials, it’s important to include a clear ‘call to action’. - **Social media:** Posting updates, interesting insights and tips to your social media accounts means you’ll stay top of mind. It will also work to boost your awareness and find new clients. - **SMS:** AKA text messages. Clients may try to reach you via their mobile phones simply because it’s convenient. But an SMS can fit into a cohesive, professional marketing strategy. Save it for times when a simple response is required. ## **The friendly approach to finance** Generic content won’t improve relationships but specialised information that truly helps your clients will. You know better than anyone what your clients need to grow their businesses – and technology like BOMA can make it easier than ever to help them. BOMA connects with your digital channels and lets you create your content when it’s convenient for you. While face-time with clients is irreplaceable, there are other ways you can support them and, in doing so, strengthen your relationships: getting to know your clients, set-and-forget business reminders, sharing timely business advice and, of course, quality content. To get started on this list, sign up for a [free trial with BOMA today.](https://app.bomamarketing.com/register) **Categories:** Marketing --- ### [Attracting small business clients to your accounting firm](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/attracting-small-business-clients-to-your-accounting-firm/) **Published:** October 20, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **How to get a ‘jack-of-all-trades’ to see you as a trusted advisor (and where to find them)** Small business owners are great at what they do, taking an idea that they’re passionate about (or they can see a need for) and building it into a business from the ground up. They’re often required to become a jack-of-all-trades – particularly in the early days – and are responsible for everything from sales to accounting. When it comes to the paperwork, many small business owners are left floundering, resenting the amount of time it takes them to tick the accounting box when they’d rather be building their company. While many may not think they can afford to engage an accountant, it’s up to you to explain to them just how much better off they’ll be with one on their side. Once you know how to make yourself indispensable to small business clients, you’ll want to find more of them. BOMA explains how to do both. ## **Explain how you’ll make their lives easier** Saving time, stress and money are three major drawcards for small businesses, and as an accountant, you can help them with this trio. Often, small businesses assume that accountants are only needed at tax time, so it’s crucial to explain to them how you’ll make their lives easier when it comes to: - **Managing cash flow** – revenue often comes in ebbs and flows for small businesses, and so do expenses. Explain to them how you’ll help them manage these so there’s always money in the bank to cover both expected and unexpected costs. It’ll help ease their cash flow woes, a major stressor for small business owners. - **Budgeting** – often small business owners won’t have the time or the know-how to sit down and work out a detailed budget. Run through the benefits of having a robust budget in place – not only will it give them a better understanding of their bottom line, but it’ll help identify how much money they can reinvest in the business and, importantly, what salary they can draw from it. - **Getting debts in order** – not all debts are bad, and as their trusted advisor, it’s up to you to give their current debts a once over, recommend the best options for repayments and ensure they’re not paying too much in interest. This is an area where your assistance is invaluable, as it can lead to significant cost savings. - **Streamlining workflows** – creating and sending invoices, chasing unpaid ones and keeping track of expenses are often tasks small business owners dread. Offer to take this headache away from them by recommending smart, automated systems that relieve much of the strain. As an accountant, you’ll understand what systems will work for each unique business. - **Looking at the bigger picture** – flying by the seat of your pants isn’t a sustainable long-term strategy, but for small business owners who are knee-deep in operations, it’s often difficult to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Explain how you can help them set realistic goals for their business’ future and stay accountable. ## **Where to focus your marketing efforts** Big-budget ad campaigns aside, several more affordable avenues effectively attract small business clients. Here’s where to start: - **Referrals** – with most small business owners being time-poor, they’re less likely to spend hours researching accounting firms and, instead, rely heavily on word of mouth. If you have current small business clients who are happy to advocate for your firm, consider offering them a small incentive for any referrals they make. - **Social media** – use your social media channels to showcase your small business expertise. Post helpful, relevant content like industry trends, regulatory changes that impact small businesses and targeted articles. This helps build your firm’s profile as a small business specialist. - **Email marketing** – email marketing remains one of the most cost effective digital marketing tools and delivers an impressive return on investment – [$42 back for every dollar you spend](https://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2020/10/26/email-marketing-still-the-most-powerful-tool-to-take-your-business-to-the-next-level/?sh=7e79e3fa34bf). It can take a bit of time and effort to build a subscriber base and plan your content, but the rewards are yours for the taking. Learn more about how to kick start your email marketing with our [10 Tips for Sending Clients and prospects better emails](https://bomamarketing.com/2020/02/13/10-tips-for-sending-your-clients-and-prospects-better-emails/) webinar. - **Get networking** – attend local events and seminars for small businesses and build your network. While it might be uncomfortable to approach these as an opportunity for your sales pitch, make them a way to understand the difficulties faced by small businesses so you can better serve their needs. If a new client comes out of it, that’s a bonus! - **Tailor your website** – whether through a bespoke package for small business clients, useful blog content, a page showcasing the services you can offer them or testimonials from other small businesses, make sure you are using your website to its full potential. - **Partnerships** – small business owners often need assistance from other specialists like investment brokers or lawyers. Partner with local businesses so you can offer small business clients a one-stop solution. ## **Understand the value you can add and promote it** Overall, it comes down to promoting the value you can offer to small business clients. If you can show them that you’ll make their lives easier, save them money and help them grow their businesses over the long term, you’ll quickly become an indispensable and valued part of their operation. *Great marketing starts with a plan. Download BOMA’s* [*Digital Marketing Guide for Accountants and Bookkeepers*](https://bomamarketing.com/get-started/) *and learn how to promote your value like a pro.* **Categories:** Marketing --- ### [Meet BOMA’s best-in-class partners](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/meet-bomas-best-in-class-partners/) **Published:** November 9, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **Valuable content for your clients from 4 thought leaders** As an accountant your priority is better financial solutions for clients, which often means marketing takes a back seat. That’s where BOMA comes in. As an all-in-one content library and marketing tool for accountants, it lets you build your business without all the extra work. How does BOMA do this? By partnering with the best minds in the game to offer you world-class content. Our partners are renowned for their insights, research and opinions. By using this content, you give your clients the inside scoop, allowing their businesses and yours to stay one step ahead. Here are our best-in-class partners that help BOMA create valuable content for your business. - ### **The GAP – business development experts** [The GAP](https://www.thegapportal.com/) is an accounting advisory business based in New Zealand, Australia and the UK. It provides fully systemised processes and education to accountants. Its advice is practical, easy to follow and proven to impact revenue. By using its services, accountants are better equipped to market, sell and deliver business advisory services to their clients. [BOMA’s partnership with The Gap](https://bomamarketing.com/gap/) lets you take the best of its content to share with clients. This engages your clients and attracts new ones by giving them the insight and information they need to improve their businesses beyond compliance. - ### **Wolters Kluwer CCH – deep knowledge in tax and compliance** [Wolters Kluwer](https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/tax-and-accounting) is a leading global source of professional information. It provides customer-focused tax, accounting and audit information alongside software and services. Accounting businesses use its real-time insights to make critical decisions and stay up to date. [BOMA works with Wolters Kluwer](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-wolters-kluwer-cch/) in Australia and New Zealand to create expert content for your customers and offer timely advice. Your clients will begin to rely on these emails or posts, creating [more long-lasting relationships. ](https://bomamarketing.com/2021/08/02/understanding-content-marketing/) - ### **Xero – thought leaders in SME success** As a leading online accounting software, [Xero](https://www.xero.com/id/) supports small business owners to manage their finances. Armed with everything it’s learnt, Xero has become a thought leader in the SME space, focusing on helping owners drive their success. This includes writing insightful articles, developing research and sharing reports – information so valuable it’s often quoted by the media. [BOMA makes it easy to share these articles with your clients](https://bomamarketing.com/xero/). Access the content library and use BOMA to distribute it in a way that suits you and your customers – by email or social media, your clients will appreciate getting excellent information curated by you. - ### **MyHR – experts in people management** Finding and retaining great employees is one of the hardest parts of running a business. [MyHR](https://www.myhr.works/nz/platform/?gclid=CjwKCAjw2rmWBhB4EiwAiJ0mteFRftUmnXbF2s7bQ-tZaMggOai1JskRf9U4wXtoJ14dCLuEiVLtbxoCIkMQAvD_BwE) was created to help make it easy. As a complete, outsourced human resource department, its hybrid service gives clients a specialised digital platform, fully supported by a team of experts. MyHR has over 20,000 individual employment relationships in more than 1000 businesses across New Zealand and Australia. Its expertise means it has a deep understanding of employment law and HR best practice. It uses plain language to provide expert HR advisory content in BOMA. This includes policy changes and common issues small businesses face when hiring. ## **Smarter marketing** Growing your accounting firm doesn’t have to be about working harder. It’s about how you manage your time, resources and mind, working together for a better output. By partnering with best-in-class thought leaders, BOMA has built a library with hundreds of articles, updated every week. You can easily create thoughtful emails, social posts and website blogs in just a few clicks using this content which is also customisable so you can add your perspective, tone of voice etc if you wish. It’s designed specifically for accountants to be a simple answer to your digital marketing challenges. The platform works hard to engage your customers while you focus on what you’re good at. If you want to drive long-lasting business growth without putting in overtime, [start your free trial with BOMA today.](https://bomamarketing.com/) **Categories:** Content Marketing --- ### [The importance of email marketing design and how to get it right in just five steps](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/email-marketing/the-importance-of-email-marketing-design-and-how-to-get-it-right-in-just-five-steps/) **Published:** November 9, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **First impressions count** You’ve built up a database, worked hard on identifying who your clients are and put together a solid content plan – and now that all the background work is done, you’re eager to start sending marketing emails to your accounting clients and leads. But before you whip one into a bulk email on your desktop email server and hit send, there are a few things to consider. First impressions count when it comes to marketing emails – you only get one opportunity to capture your readers’ attention, and getting it right can be the difference between your email getting opened and read or hastily deleted. So, save that draft and read on for five simple steps to nail the design of your email marketing communications: ## **Step 1 – Use an engaging, impactful subject line** With [the average office worker receiving 121 emails each day](https://www.lifewire.com/how-many-emails-are-sent-every-day-1171210), your subject line must capture the recipients’ attention. Avoid generic subject lines such as “… ‘insert your firm’s name’… newsletter” and use it as an opportunity to pique their interest so they can’t resist opening the email. A great subject line should: - - **Be concise** – shorter is better for the subject line, particularly as many recipients will be viewing their emails on a mobile device. Most marketers recommend this be limited to around 50 characters. - **Avoid spam triggers** – excessive punctuation, special characters, capitals or phrases like ‘free’, ‘act now’, and ‘credit’ can cause your email to be flagged as spam. - **Be consistent** – make sure your subject line doesn’t stray too far from the content of your email. If you’re not delivering what’s been promised, recipients will lose trust in your firm. - **Be the last thing you write** – leave writing the subject line to last. That way, you’ll have a solid understanding of the content it’s summarising and the value it can offer your readers. ## **Step 2 – Craft the right content for the platform** People consume email content differently from website content and typically expect short, punchy text that is easy to read. Numbered and bulleted lists help get points across effectively. If you have a lot of information to share with recipients, include a compelling introductory paragraph that links to your website for them to read more. Keeping your email marketing communications clear and concise will show recipients that you value their time, making them more likely to read future emails from your firm. ## **Step 3 – Inject personality and keep it consistent** Your firm’s unique personality sets you apart from competitors and is a key to why clients engage in your services. Allow this personality to shine through in your email marketing communications, making them feel less generic and more reflective of your firm. It’s essential to keep this personality consistent across all your client communications. This should be reflected in your tone, any imagery used, colours, fonts, logos and links to your firm’s website and social media accounts. If you’re using BOMA, a consistent email template is at your fingertips. Fonts and colours will be drawn from your firm’s logo to create a colour palette for your emails. ## **Step 4 – Timing is important** While emails can be opened any time, day or night, sending an email at the right time can play a huge part in open and click-through rates. Unfortunately, there isn’t one magical ideal hour for all, as it varies depending on your audience, your business and the content of your email. Finding the ideal time to send marketing emails for your firm will come down to trial and error and comparing your open rates over time. ## **Step 5 – Final checks** Before you fire off your perfectly crafted, consistent and engaging marketing email, don’t forget to: - **Check external links** – ensure these are working correctly before hitting send. - **Ensure your email is optimised** – it should display correctly and read well on any device. BOMA will automatically optimise your content for all devices. - **Send a test email** – always send a test email and get a second set of eyes to check it over before sending it to your database. ## **Ready to hit send?** What with subject lines, consistency and templates, ticking all the boxes for an effective email marketing campaign can seem like a lot. Let BOMA take some of the strain. BOMA’s content library has hundreds of ready-to-share business advisory and compliance articles. The articles can be injected into your email templates, customised to add your brand tone of voice or perspective and shared with clients and prospects. We have templates, scheduling tools, content and analytics to make a successful email marketing strategy a breeze, *so* [*find out how BOMA can help your firm today.*](https://bomamarketing.com/) **Categories:** Email Marketing --- ### [Supporting clients made easy with BOMA & Wolters Kluwer Business Fitness](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/boma-wolters-kluwer-cch-supporting-clients-made-easy-with-boma-wolters-kluwer-business-fitness/) **Published:** November 21, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this session we show you how CCH Business Fitness content combined with BOMA’s easy to use communication platform developed especially for Accounting firms, will help you engage and educate your clients. Knowing what to send your clients in the lead up to Christmas can be tricky. While it’s always good to send a seasons greetings type email, with BOMA and Wolters Kluwer you can do more by adding some real value to your Christmas message. In this session you’ll see some of the Wolters Kluwer CCH content ready for you to send in BOMA such as: - Claiming expenses on client entertainment/ gifts etc - Holiday pay sorted? - Five things all employers should consider in early December **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [The pros and cons of using Chat GPT and AI to write for your accounting firm](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/technology/the-pros-and-cons-of-using-chat-gpt-and-ai-to-write-for-your-accounting-firm/) **Published:** February 17, 2023 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** In recent months, the media has been full of stories about [ChatGPT](https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/), the AI tool that is going to change the way we work, including content creation. Chat GPT, which has Microsoft backing, and the newly announced rival Google ‘Bard’, are artificial intelligence (AI) tools and the war is on between the tech giants to provide the next big efficiency tool. But do these AI content-writing tools live up to the hype? And what’s the best way to balance using a solution like ChatGPT and Bard with the core skills of good human-powered advisory? ## **What is AI content writing?** Let’s take ChatGPT, as it was the first to market. This tool is an AI chatbot model from [OpenAI](https://openai.com/) that can produce complex, well-written responses to a prompt you give it. It uses a huge database of sources to provide you with blog posts, articles, emails, etc. For example, you could ask ChatGPT to ‘write me a 200-word email to my customers, explaining why we are raising our prices by 10%. Tell them it’s due to rising costs and the current supply chain crisis, but explain that we still greatly value their business’. When ChatGPT was set up it read a huge amount of internet information which it uses to write the email text for you. This is why some AI tools can’t accurately comment on recent events because their knowledge is limited by when they were set up, however some AI tools continue to read and learn new information. ## **How does it work?** Tools like Chat GPT are conversational AI systems. Unlike a normal search engine, Chat GPI offers a continuous conversation that remembers what you asked it previously. For this reason, experts believe these AI tools will change the way we search the internet, as they could refine what they show us based on previous searches and behaviour. When you have submitted your brief, these AI tools will search for information in their database and create paragraphs in minutes by predicting what word will come next in a sentence. The result is a body of text that appears as though a human wrote it. In fact, one of the risks with these impressive new AI tools is our willingness to trust the answers they give us. But, it won’t always be accurate. You may be able to find information about your new outfit being tax deductible online, but that doesn’t mean it is! While the internet has become our source of all knowledge, it has also become increasingly cluttered with fake news, spam links, and content created for SEO. In fact, Chat GPT and Bard will be contributing to this clutter, by producing SEO blogs that are purely designed to try and place a business’s website above others in search engine results. In its first public demo, Bard wrongly attributed the discovery of an exoplanet to a telescope that didn’t exist at the time of the discovery. The cost of this mistake for Google’s parent company, Alphabet, was a USD $100 billion drop in share market value. If the AI tool is writing about accounting, you’ll want to ensure the information is 100% accurate for the sake of your clients, but also your firm’s reputation. ## **So how do you make the tools work for you?** There’s no denying that these new AI tools are super useful and the applications will be wide-ranging. AI can produce a page of text in a fraction of the time it will take you to write it, but it will depend on the quality of your brief and will still need to be reviewed thoroughly. You can get the rough text for a blog, and write emails even, but content writing is as much about having good ideas as it is about writing well. So, a detailed brief is vital. Essentially, what you input as your prompt to the AI, is just as important as the text that the software spits out. You’ll still need someone to come up with the ideas, write intelligent prompts for the AI and edit the output so it not only sounds more human and personalised, but also ensures accuracy. The best way to ensure you’re getting great content that is accurate and useful for your clients and prospects is by bringing your own voice and perspective to the words written by the AI tools. At BOMA, we work with specialist writers and accountants to create and proofread content for you. Our content partnerships are with subject matter experts such as [Wolters Kluwer CCH](https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en-nz/solutions/business-fitness), [The Gap](https://www.thegapportal.com/trial-the-gap/), and [MyHR](https://www.myhr.works/). A human will always be involved in all stages of creation and review, before you see an article in the library. We do recommend that BOMA subscribers take a few minutes to add their own unique voice to the content to help it resonate with your clients but the majority of our content is designed so you don’t have to. And, if you have ideas on topics you’d like to see more of in the BOMA library, we are always open to your requests. It will take you less time than writing a detailed brief for Chat GPT. **Categories:** Content Marketing, Technology --- ### [Content Marketing for Accountants. How do I make my Firm Stand Out?](https://bomamarketing.com/uncategorized/content-marketing-for-accountants-how-do-i-make-my-firm-stand-out/) **Published:** March 29, 2023 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** We know that it is much easier to edit a piece of content than to write it from scratch. Content marketing such as writing blogs, social posts, and emails takes time and resources. BOMA was designed to solve this issue specifically for accountants and bookkeepers. Everything you need in one platform – timely and relevant content, and the tools to share it with clients and leads via email, social media, and your website blog. You can choose from hundreds of customisable articles in the content library, plus you can create your own content. If you are trialing BOMA you might be wondering, ‘*How do I make my firm stand out from others who are also using BOMA?’* There are a number of reasons why this is not an issue for our users. 1. The content library has hundreds of articles available to choose from. Content is updated weekly so there are lots to choose from. Use the filters or search bar to find specific topics. 2. Most people have one accountant so your clients will only be receiving your email or following your social pages. (In our experience it’s only accountants who follow multiple accountants on social media). 3. BOMA provides you with easy ways to customise your content to make it relevant for your audience, and for your firm. ### **So, how can you customise the BOMA content?** The BOMA content library articles are written as though an accountant, bookkeeper, or business advisor (like you) wrote them. But no one will sound exactly like you, so here’s where you add your brand voice, your perspective, and your personality. Once you have chosen an article you’d like to share, you can start customising. - Change the image – BOMA has over 4 million to choose from in our image library – or upload your own. This immediately makes your social post look different. If you are sharing a tax legislation update, it is possible that other accountants or bookkeepers are too but the information is still relevant and valuable to your followers. - Change the heading or title of the article for your social post and/or email subject line. - Customise the text – add an introduction that addresses your unique audience. Apply your own tone of voice. Add insight and examples to ensure the text represents your business, your services, your client base, and your region. The more you personalise the content, the more it will reflect you and be of value to your audience. ### **Busting the myth around duplicate content** [Experts believe that 30% of the content on the Internet is duplicated](https://www.greengeeks.com/blog/are-you-being-penalized-by-google-for-duplicate-content/). This is likely to become more common with AI content writers. While Google recognises the original source of the content and rewards them, you are not penalised. By sharing content on your site you are providing useful information to clients and prospects who visit your page. You can link your social posts back to your website for people to read more on a topic. To make your content more unique, and optimised for search, think about the types of phrases your clients and prospects would type into a search engine when they are looking for your services. These are called keywords. Keywords to consider ranking for on your website: - Your profession – e.g. Accountant or Bookkeeper - Key industry phrases – eg Tax, GST returns, compliance, accounts receivable, Payroll, Superannuation, Bank Reconciliation, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Payroll Tax, Single-Touch Payroll, BAS, Cashflow forecasting, Business Success Review, annual Budget, performance targets, key metrics etc - Your plans, packages and services - Your expertise niche for e.g. rural, small business, agricultural, professional or technology - Your business name - Your location including town/city and country - Accreditations and integrations e.g. Xero Partner. ### **Other SEO Tips for your business website** There are over 200 factors that affect a website’s ranking. Google looks at the overall quality and having some duplicate content is a small part of the overall picture. Important factors to consider are: - Performance: page load speed & having a mobile responsive website - Quality: even spelling & grammar is taken into account - Popularity: how much traffic is coming to your site. Do you have links to other websites and/or others linking back to your site? - Relevance: keyword search, page titles matching the content on the page - Navigation: how easy is the site to navigate or browse - Bounce rate – give them a reason to stay on your site As an accountant, your website content should already be working hard to drive great SEO. In other words, your website copy should include specific keywords that you want to rank for. Great content will give your readers something of value to engage in when they land on your website. For more inspiration, read our [Ultimate Guide to Blog Writing for Accountants.](https://bomamarketing.com/2020/09/23/the-ultimate-guide-to-blog-writing-for-your-accounting-website/) **ABOUT BOMA** – Did you know that BOMA has a library of hundreds of articles that are updated weekly? BOMA is designed specifically for accountants and bookkeepers so you can create relevant, useful, and compelling emails and social posts. Simply choose an article, customise it, and send it as an email, blog, or social post. BOMA kickstarts your digital marketing. [Trial for free today](https://bomamarketing.com/) **Categories:** Digital Marketing, Uncategorized, Content Marketing, Website, Accountant and Bookkeeper **Tags:** SEO, Accountants, Digital Marketing, Content Marketing --- ### [How to Promote Your Accounting Firm Without a Marketer](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/how-to-promote-your-accounting-firm-without-a-marketer/) **Published:** March 14, 2023 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** As we approach peak Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) reporting season, it’s important for accounting firms to be across the latest FBT developments and updates in order to stay compliant. As you’ll need to be in contact with your clients at this time, it also creates the chance to touch base about opportunities for their business before the end of the financial year. Knowing what to send to your clients can be tricky, especially if the team is time-poor and may not have the in-house marketing expertise required to navigate sharing content via digital marketing and social media channels. The partnership between Wolters Kluwer’s CCH iQ premium content library and BOMA’s digital marketing platform means in a few clicks you can easily: - Select premium and relevant tax content to share with your clients - Share it via digital marketing channels including email, social media channels and your website In this session, you’ll see some of the Wolters Kluwer CCH iQ content ready for you to send out via BOMA’s digital marketing platform, including: - Electric vehicles now exempt from FBT - 20 per cent bonus deduction available for technology investment - Training your staff can get you a 20 per cent bonus deduction This session is suitable for accountants in practice, tax practitioners and bookkeepers. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [What is working well for Accountants in the marketing space?](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/what-is-working-well-for-accountants-in-the-marketing-space/) **Published:** March 28, 2023 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** With 2023 well underway now is the perfect time to review your firm’s marketing activity. In this session we’ll be looking at what elements are working well for accountants including real-life examples and best practice advice. Join Charles Clark, Co-Founder & Marketing Director of BOMA and Tom Wilson, Founder of Better Marketing Results for this 45 minute webinar. In this session they cover: - Websites - eWOM (Electronic Word of Mouth) - Keyword ranking - Blogging - Social media - Email - Content Marketing - and more **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [BOMA + Gap Webinar - Start Simple: The Improvement Meeting](https://bomamarketing.com/uncategorized/boma-gap-webinar-start-simple-the-improvement-meeting-uk/) **Published:** April 13, 2023 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** The simplest way to build advisory momentum, is to get your clients on the first paid rung of the value ladder: a low-cost meeting. Whether you’re kickstarting your advisory journey or looking to generate more interest in your existing high-value advisory services, join us for a 45 minute webinar; Start simple: The Improvement Meeting. Charles Clark, Co-Founder of BOMA and Natalie Eady, General Manager at The Gap cover how to: - Market and monetise a simple improvement meeting - Deliver an hour of value – and define actionable improvement strategies - Kickstart your advisory journey - Nurture the right clients to drive high-value advisory outcomes - Get more of your clients on the Advisory Value ladder **Categories:** Uncategorized --- ### [9 Tips to Skyrocket your Client Referrals](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/accounting-bookkeeper/9-tips-to-skyrocket-your-client-referrals/) **Published:** April 19, 2023 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** **Maximising Referrals: A Client-Centric Guide for Accountants** In the realm of client referrals, trust is the currency, and conversions become almost a certainty. However, clients don’t refer lightly; it demands a strategic approach. Explore practical tactics such as incentivising clients through loyalty programs, strengthening relationships, creating shareable content, leveraging LinkedIn, showcasing your value through reviews and testimonials, aligning with clients’ values, seeking feedback, and reciprocating referrals. This guide aims to transform your client-centric mindset, ensuring that referrals flow naturally as a testament to the exceptional service your accounting firm provides. ## **9 client-centric tips to improve your referral rate** When a client refers you, you already have the prospect’s trust, making conversions (almost) a sure thing. It’s the pinnacle of effective marketing. Unfortunately, clients don’t refer lightly. Why? Because it ties their reputation to you and uses up social currency. So what can you do to bolster their confidence and make it worth their time? Aside from continuing to provide a premium service, here are nine easy tricks that make all the difference: ## **1. Incentivise clients with a loyalty program** Let your biggest advocates earn rewards for each referral, with bonus points for successful ones. With rewards and VIP tiers, you’ll incentivise referrals while building stronger relationships with your customers. Check out the loyalty program platforms that allow you to integrate a referral program with your client journey seamlessly. As software tracks their progress, all you’ll have to worry about is providing a great service. ## **2. Improve relationships with existing clients** Let’s face it, your marketing should always focus on retention first and acquisition second. If you have an amazing long-term client, they’ll also look pretty attractive to your competitors, so it pays to invest in keeping them happy and engaged. The easiest way is with helpful, informative content via email or social media. This promotes loyalty in another way, too – keeping your accounting firm top of mind makes them more likely to think of you when their friends mention an accounting problem. ## **3. Create content that’s easy to share** Did you know that [nearly half of your leads will view three to five pieces of your website content](https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics?_ga=2.176125794.1932816757.1626975978-1975966398.1626975978&hubs_post=blog.hubspot.com%2Fservice%2Fhow-to-get-referrals&hubs_post-cta=three%20to%20five%20pieces%20of%20content) before contacting you? And yes, that includes referrals. That’s why it’s essential to arm your existing clients with convincing marketing material. If an opportunity arises for them to refer you, your content is there for them to share. Make sure every email, LinkedIn post or Instagram has a button to ‘Share with a friend’ while also linking to your loyalty program. ## **4. Make the most of LinkedIn** Just as prospects use the internet to research your business, you can do homework on them, too. LinkedIn is a free resource for potential referrals, networks and connections that may be interested in your services. Fortunately, the Advanced People Search feature can filter your contacts by industry, title, keywords and location. You’ll quickly find qualified second-degree connections that existing clients could introduce. ## **5. Remind them how good you are** When asking your clients to spread the word about you, have you given them the opportunity to experience your full value? Clients are much more likely to enthusiastically recommend you when they see you increase their monthly revenues or save them on tax. Send your clients regular updates, letting them know how positive their progress has been. Without these reminders, it’s too easy for them to take you for granted. ## **6. Use reviews and testimonials** According to Big Commerce, 72% of consumers say that good reviews and testimonials give them more trust in a business. Testimonials give prospects even more confidence in your services and are a great backup for referrals. Luckily, those fantastic clients who refer you to their friends are the perfect candidates to review your practice. Ask them if they would be comfortable sharing their client experience, and write up an article that is easy for them to share on their platforms. ## **7. Align with your customers’ values** When asking your clients for a favour, it helps to speak their language. What are their interests and goals? Can you customise your messaging to encourage them to help you? For example, if a client gives to the SPCA once a year, could you offer to donate in their name? Gestures like this go a long way to show how much you appreciate their efforts to help you. ## **8. Ask for feedback** Another excellent opportunity to ask for referrals is after a satisfaction survey. Survey Monkey is online survey software that can easily be linked to your BOMA content. Its surveys are super easy to create and have the added benefit of showing you how to improve your service. Make sure to add a question and link at the end – ‘Would you like to refer us to a friend?’ ## **9. Refer their companies too** If you want your clients to recommend your service, you should be ready to do the same. However, it’s always risky to recommend an untried company to other clients. Try them out by showing your support – buy their products as corporate gifts, sponsor their events and use their services. This lets you do your research first so you can confidently recommend them. ## **A client-centric mentality** Ultimately, great referral rates come to the firms that truly deserve them. These tips aim to give your existing customers a better experience so that referrals come naturally. From improving your service to showing clients you care, keep a customer-centric mindset, and you can’t go too wrong. *Sign up for a [free trial today](https://app.bomamarketing.com/register?_ga=2.118553353.1015243593.1681876069-2057840244.1670792155) to see how BOMA can help increase your referral rate.* **Categories:** Accountant and Bookkeeper **Tags:** SEO, Accountants, Digital Marketing, Content Marketing --- ### [Leveraging the 'SME Advantage' to find and retain talent. How accountants can advise clients in changing and challenging times.](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/boma-gap-webinar-start-simple-the-improvement-meeting/) **Published:** May 22, 2023 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Your small and medium-sized businesses clients can feel at a disadvantage when competing with large organisations for talented people but size isn’t everything. In this session we’ll show you how accountants can help advise their clients on how to leverage the “SME Advantage” to attract and retain skilled staff. This means helping clients play to their strengths, identifying the smaller but more meaningful perks that employees and job seekers value, and tailoring a package to their needs. This webinar is perfect for accountants and business advisors and will include a Q&A at the end of the session. Join Sylvie Thrush Marsh, Chief Evangelist for MyHR, for a discussion on how to advise your small business clients on strategies for better recruitment and retention. Key insights: - How to find top talent in a hot market and keep them engaged - How to build a meaningful remuneration package for each of your employees - Ensure important hygiene factors – basic people and compliance issues – aren’t overlooked - How to build a direct connection with your team through company culture, support, and honest, ongoing conversations - How to take a flexible approach to development and retention **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Marketing 101 for Busy Accountants with BOMA and Business Fitness](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/marketing-101-for-busy-accountants-with-boma-and-business-fitness/) **Published:** June 16, 2023 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Marketing is a massive opportunity for Accountants to help . But how do you get started? Join Charles Clark, Marketing Director BOMA, Liz Studholme, Content Manager BOMA, and Michele Morgan, Content Manager Wolters Kluwer NZ as they share effective marketing tactics and advice to help drive your firm’s growth. During this webinar we cover: - The importance of a Marketing Plan - Website best practice - How to be findable online - How to use social media - Email marketing - Solving the content issue **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Easy SEO Tips For Your Accounting Firm's Website - In 5 Minutes](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/website/easy-seo-tips-for-your-accounting-firms-website-in-5-minutes/) **Published:** June 6, 2018 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** ## **Unlocking SEO: A Guide for Accountants** Delve into the world of SEO and its paramount importance for accountants. SEO, or search engine optimization, revolves around enhancing your website’s search ranking. With [89% of customers initiating purchases through online searches](https://biznology.com/2014/12/37-facts-future-social-selling-vs-cold-calling/), securing a prominent position in search results is pivotal. Our guide focuses on demystifying SEO, shedding light on its workings, importance, and the factors influencing your website’s performance. As an accountant, understanding the nuances of SEO enables you to craft a digital presence that resonates with your audience and boosts your visibility. Explore the realms of performance, navigation, quality content, relevance, popularity, backlinks, bounce rates, and mobile responsiveness, and elevate your online presence with strategic SEO insights. ## **What is SEO and why is it important?** SEO or search engine optimisation is all about increasing your website’s ranking in search results. So achieving a prominent position in search results is obviously hugely beneficial. SEO aims to place your company on the first page or at least near the top top of the results for a relevant keyword. The click-through traffic falls off dramatically on subsequent pages. It’s worth getting to the top. Research from Sistrix shows that listings on the first page on Google receive 88% of organic traffic, with the top three rankings accounting for 55.2%. Google may not be the only search tool for the internet but it is the largest, processing over 3.5 billion searches a day. However, all search engines are designed to deliver the best results for a user. As Google puts it, ‘*search engine optimisation is about putting your site’s best foot forward when it comes to visibility in search engines, but your ultimate consumers are your users, not search engines’.* And this is important – any changes and updates you make to your website should be based, first and foremost on what is best for the visitors to your site*.* ## **Paid vs Organic search methods** Pay per Click (PPC) and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) are different. PPC refers to buying paid or sponsored ad listings in order to boost web traffic. It can be expensive to hold the top ranking for popular keywords but can give you immediate traffic. In comparison, SEO methods take longer to show results but they improve a site’s ranking and credibility via organic (free) techniques. SEO is therefore accessible to all companies and extremely popular with small businesses and start-ups, that don’t have big budgets for promotion and advertising. SEO is a crucial tool in your company’s marketing mix and many of the techniques are easy to achieve. A combination of both techniques will build your prominence in search results. As a digital marketing strategy, SEO focuses on optimising your websites for inbound traffic by making changes to content, display, site architecture and links in order to get a higher rank in the index and ultimately deliver a better experience for visitors. SEO sounds complicated but there are easy things you can do to improve your website. Read on! ## **How does SEO work?** Search engines want to deliver the best results for their user. When a user types in a search word or phrase, a search engine’s search ‘bots’ trawl the internet, tracking and categorising websites. The better your site delivers on ranking factors, the higher you will appear in search results. Here’s how it works: 1. Users types in a search word or phrase (keywords) 2. Search bots crawl websites, based on what people are searching for. 3. Search engines create an index for the websites they encounter and the location where they are found 4. Websites with high index rankings will appear higher on the search engine results page (SERP) There are over 200 factors that impact your index ranking. But some matter more that others. In the list below we have focussed on the main ones. Some of the changes will be small modifications but when combined they could have a noticeable impact on your site’s user experience and performance in organic search results. **Review your site based on the following factors:** **1. Performance**: This is your site’s ability to function properly and at an acceptable speed. [40% of people will leave a site if the loading time takes longer that 2 seconds.](https://blog.kissmetrics.com/leave-a-website/) Do a speed test using a tool like [pingdom](https://www.pingdom.com/) or [Google pagespeed insights](https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/) which will identify areas that need improvement such as leveraging browser caching or compression of photos and video. - **Tip:** The first load on a speed test tool, may be slower, so run the test a couple of times and take an average of the results. **2. Ease of Navigation** – Your website should have a logical and intuitive directory structure that makes it easy for visitors to find what they are looking for. Use URLs for website pages are concise and relevant to the content with brief but descriptive titles that are unique to each page. - **Tip**: If your pages headings make sense, you will make it easier for consumers to type the URL into their web browser. Using numbers is discouraged, instead use hyphens and underscores to separate the words. Here’s an example from our website: **3. Quality Content:** Keep your existing customer engaged and bring new visitors in with well written and easy to follow content and keep updating it regularly. [95% of B2B buyers consider content as trustworthy](https://insights.newscred.com/content-marketing-statistics/) when evaluating a company and its offerings. - **Tip:** Create content that is specific to your target audience and provides them with something that interests them. Then promote your digital content on social media. **4. Relevance:** The themes of your site and information found on the pages, should match the keywords being searched for. The page’s titles and descriptions should also correspond to the search. **5. Popularity:** The amount of organic traffic a site experiences is proof of it’s value. Grow your traffic, by extending your reach, and offering users a reason to visit your site. For example, share your blogs as a Facebook post, a tweet or as an article on LinkedIn. **6. Backlinks** – Essentially these are links from other sites. If the sites that link to you are high quality, these are like a vote of confidence and they provide evidence for search engines of your authority. - **Tip:** Read [BOMA’s guide on building backlinks](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/05/29/how-to-build-links-for-your-small-business-website/) **7. Bounce rates** – This is the percentage of visitors who leave a page immediately after selecting it. The lower your bounce rate, the better for SEO. - **Tip**: Give your visitors a reason to stay with interesting and unique content. **8. Mobile responsive** – With the rise of ever more powerful and user friendly smartphones [more than half of Google searches are now made via mobile](http://searchengineland.com/its-official-google-says-more-searches-now-on-mobile-than-on-desktop-220369) and recently, Google announced that it’s search engine will begin ranking and indexing pages on the mobile versions of sites rather than the desktop one. So ensuring your [website is optimised for mobile](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/04/22/if-your-website-doesnt-work-on-mobile-prepare-to-lose-customers/) is key for SEO. ## **Understand Who is Visiting Your Site** Determining what visitors do on your website will help you when analysing the efficacy of your SEO marketing efforts.Traffic analysis tools such as [Google Analytics](https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/) can provide detailed metrics relating to traffic on your website including: - Where your traffic originates geographically. - How long they stay on your site - What pages perform well and which ones need improving - What outside sites or links are being used to redirect visitors to your website. Once you have a good handle on the behaviour of your website’s visitors, this information can guide your SEO efforts. ## **Keep up the good work** Designing your website around your end user’s needs will ensure the pages are well written and easy to follow and this is SEO gold. The art of successful SEO is to continue to keep your site looking naturally good with fresh relevant content . Once you’ve addressed some of the factors above don’t stop there. Keep it up so that you encourage your visitors to come back to read more. Be patient, SEO can take time. But the really positive thing about SEO is that, as you improve your online offering, the positive effect this has on visitor numbers will also improve your ranking and vice versa. The technology might be new but the same rules apply as with your bricks and mortar business, be authentic and offer value. This is what will continue to give you an edge. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is the digital marketing toolkit and content library for busy accountants and bookkeepers. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles which can be customised so you can create emails, social posts and website blog posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA for supporting clients and marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Website **Tags:** Google+, Search, SEO --- ### [Business Valuations: Essential Insights for Accountants Supporting Clients in the Sales Process](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/business-valuations-essential-insights-for-accountants-supporting-clients-in-the-sales-process/) **Published:** August 18, 2023 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** For many business owners the process of selling their business can be fraught with risk and challenges. As their Accountant, you are in a prime position to offer vital support during this process. But how exactly can you assist them? Join Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA as he hosts Tony Van Camp, Associate Director of Bayleys Business Sales, for this 45 minute session. Tony is expertly placed to discuss business valuation with over 18 years experience selling businesses. Having been through countless due diligence processes Tony has finely honed his valuation process and prefers “to measure three times and cut once – so that the valuation accounts for the risks around the future maintainable earnings of the business.” Key insights that Tony will share with you: - Is your client’s business actually saleable at your valuation - What if you were on the buy side? - Are you seeing the risks in the same way an independent due diligence team will? - Is it appropriate to rely solely on historical financials to arrive at a market valuation? - Why is it that two almost identical businesses can value very differently? - Normalised EBIT – what the market will accept? **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Tradify and BOMA Forge Strategic Content Partnership to Empower Accountants and Tradies](https://bomamarketing.com/news/tradify-and-boma-forge-strategic-content-partnership-to-empower-accountants-and-tradies/) **Published:** October 24, 2023 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Tradify, a leading provider of job management software for tradespeople, and BOMA, the digital content library and marketing platform for accountants, announced today their strategic content partnership. This collaboration will see Tradify’s invaluable trade focused content seamlessly integrated into BOMA, providing accountants with region-specific expertise and insights applicable to tradespeople across the US, UK, AU and NZ. Tradify’s content is designed to empower accountants with resources to assist their tradie clients in optimising their businesses. It encompasses a wealth of tips and industry specific advice, ensuring that accountants have access to a library of content in BOMA that is specifically created to appeal and deliver value to their tradie clients and leads. Accountants can easily customise and share this content through various channels, including email, social media, and their website as blog posts. BOMA believes that the addition of Tradify’s content to its library will be a game-changer for accountants in the trades. With the incorporation of Tradify’s high-quality, region-specific content, accountants can now deliver even more valuable and expert advice to their clients. This partnership aims to enhance the capabilities of accountants and empower them to become trusted advisors in the dynamic and ever-evolving world of trades. Tradify’s Director of Marketing, Jesse Logan, expressed enthusiasm for the partnership, stating, “We are excited to collaborate with BOMA and make our high-quality content readily available to a broader audience. We believe that this partnership will be mutually beneficial, as it equips accountants with the resources they need to support their tradie clients effectively.” BOMA’s CEO, Ian Christie, shared similar sentiments, saying, “The inclusion of Tradify’s content aligns perfectly with our mission to provide accountants with the expert knowledge and distribution platform they need to thrive. We are confident that this partnership will empower our users to stay ahead in the industry.” This partnership marks a significant milestone in the journey of Tradify and BOMA, as they continue to drive innovation and support the growth of accountants and tradespeople worldwide. For more information about Tradify and BOMA, please visit [www.tradifyhq.com](https://www.tradifyhq.com/nz) and [www.bomamarketing.com](http://www.bomamarketing.com/). **About Tradify:** Tradify is a leading job management software designed specifically for tradespeople. It streamlines operations, simplifies administration, and empowers tradespeople to succeed in their businesses. With tens of thousands of users, Tradify is trusted by tradespeople across the world. **About BOMA:** BOMA is a content library and marketing platform that equips accountants with the tools and knowledge they need to support clients and grow their business. BOMA’s mission is to empower accountants to become trusted advisors and deliver exceptional value to their clients and audiences. **Categories:** News, Technology --- ### [Getting Your Website Sorted for 2024](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/getting-your-website-sorted-for-2024/) **Published:** December 8, 2023 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Your website is an accounting firms online ‘shop window’ and plays a key role in enabling business growth and success. Join Charles Clark, Co-Founder of BOMA and Tom Wilson, Director of Better Marketing Results as they discuss the essential elements of a great accounting specific website along with specific advice, tips and real-life examples that you can apply to your own website. They also cover how to make your website ‘dynamic’ rather than just ‘static’ – so that it updates and changes to be more relevant, without your constant manual input. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting announces a new collaboration in Australia to provide accounting firms content through the BOMA digital marketing platform](https://bomamarketing.com/news/wolters-kluwer-tax-accounting-announces-a-new-collaboration-in-australia-to-provide-accounting-firms-content-through-the-boma-digital-marketing-platform-2/) **Published:** December 18, 2023 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** *Award-winning CCH iQ premium content library will now be accessible through BOMA with exclusive content for accounting firms**.*** [Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting Asia Pacific](https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en-au/about-us/organization) a leading provider of expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge and local expertise with advanced technology and services to help tax, accounting, audit, and finance professionals make critical decisions every day today, announced its new collaboration with [BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-wolters-kluwer-cch/). Together, Wolters Kluwer and BOMA will deliver a toolkit that allows firms to provide real-time business advisory and accounting marketing content to their respective clients. The Wolters Kluwer CCH iQ research library will now be available on BOMA’s marketing platform, specifically designed for accountants and bookkeepers. The Wolters Kluwer award-winning CCH iQ premium library scales from small firms to multinational businesses. It supports accounting firms, bookkeeping professionals and their clients by highlighting issues that may affect their business and giving them a head start on actionable topics. The trusted content, written by CCH Tax experts, differentiates accounting firms as they access deep industry insights and thought leadership — helping to create business mentoring opportunities for their clients and to grow their business as well. As an industry resource, the CCH iQ platform has built a reputation for delivering exceptional outcomes for accountants. It offers a seamless integration of resources to help professionals in the tax, accounting, audit, finance and legal sectors make critical and superior decisions. BOMA is tailor-made for accountants to reduce the time, cost and complexity challenges of their own digital marketing. Subscribers have access to expertly written content in a practical toolkit with ready-to-share everyday formats, such as emails or social media. The ‘mix and match’ capabilities of the BOMA platform allows subscribers to combine premium library content from Wolters Kluwer with in-house content from BOMA, together with their own content in newsletters, social posts and website blogs. “This is an inspiring collaboration for busy accountants and bookkeepers. Combining the actionable, event-based insights of CCH iQ with BOMA’s easy to use digital marketing toolkit makes it easier for accounting firms to deliver value and create business development and revenue opportunities. It’s a win-win for nurturing clients and driving business growth,” said Izzy Silva, Managing Director, Wolters Kluwer Tax and Accounting, Asia Pacific. “Over the last couple of years, staying on top of legislative changes and actionable events has proven to be particularly challenging. Now being across the changes for the entire tax landscape as they happen — and having them at your fingertips is a game-changer.” Wolters Kluwer subscribers get exclusive access to selected CCH iQ premium content library when they subscribe to BOMA. Non-Wolters Kluwer subscribers can access this premium content for an additional charge in a BOMA subscription. [More information can be found here.](https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en-au/solutions/cch-iq/content-partnership-with-boma) **About Wolters Kluwer** [Wolters Kluwer](https://wolterskluwer.com/) (WKL) is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the healthcare; tax and accounting; governance, risk and compliance; and legal and regulatory sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with advanced technology and services. Wolters Kluwer reported 2019 annual revenues of €4.6 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,000 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands. Wolters Kluwer shares are listed on Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices. Wolters Kluwer has a sponsored Level 1 American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program. The ADRs are traded on the over-the-counter market in the U.S. (WTKWY). **About BOMA** BOMA is the world’s leading digital marketing tool and content library, designed for busy accountants and bookkeepers. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and blog posts in no time. Support clients with newsletters, email updates, social media posts using hundreds of ready-to-share and customisable compliance and advisory articles, available in the BOMA content library. And now you can access Wolters Kluwer CCH content in BOMA. Our partnership allows you to provide value to your clients by addressing the issues that affect them and providing insights to help them grow. For more information, visit [bomamarketing.com](https://bomamarketing.com/), follow us on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Boma_Marketing), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/bomamarketing), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/boma-marketing/), and [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA_4yuHs5KlzyD8ndQ6Iggw). **Categories:** News, Technology --- ### [Deciphering Digital Marketing for Accountants: A Definitive A to Z Handbook](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/digital-marketing/deciphering-digital-marketing-for-accountants-a-definitive-a-to-z-handbook/) **Published:** February 5, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In the dynamic realm of digital marketing, where the language can often seem like a code of its own, accountants and accounting firms find themselves facing a unique set of challenges. Whether you’re a seasoned financial professional or a firm looking to enhance your online presence, grasping the intricacies of digital marketing terminology is pivotal. Our comprehensive guide is tailored specifically for accountants, unraveling 47 essential online marketing terms from A/B Testing to Wiki. Join us on a journey through the alphabet as we demystify the language of digital marketing, providing you with the key insights needed to navigate the digital landscape successfully. ## 47 Online Marketing Terms You Need to Know **A/B Testing** – Comparing different versions of the same campaign to see which one performs better (*ie using two different email subject lines to see which one earns more opens*). **AdSense** – Google’s platform that allows companies to earn revenue from traffic on their websites. **AdWords** – Google’s Pay-Per-Click advertising platform that helps you place ads on search engine results pages. **Anchor Text** – The ‘clickable’ text holding a hyperlink to another page or site, usually blue and underlined. For Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), it is best practice for the anchor text to be relevant to the page it is linking to. **Backlink** – A link from one web page to another web page. Inbound links or backlinks from another website to your own pages will help increase your search engine ranking if they are from a quality source and relevant to the content. **Blog** – Usually informal and conversational in tone, a blog is a regularly updated content that should be engaging or informative. The collection of articles or posts can act as a resource centre on a subject or industry. Blogs are usually added to frequently, with the most recent post displayed first. Companies use blogs to tell others more about their services or information related to their services, but the style is informative or fun rather than a hard sell. **Bounce Rate** – The percentage of website visitors who leave after a single page view, straight from the landing page. A high bounce rate shows low engagement from visitors. **Channel** – In marketing, the method of distribution or media used to reach potential clients, such as your website, blog, or [social media](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/06/19/the-essential-guide-to-social-media-marketing-for-small-business/) pages, email, [digital advertising](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2018/01/23/its-time-to-kick-start-your-digital-marketing-well-show-you-how/). **Click-thru Rate (CTR)** – The percentage of people who click on an ad or link after seeing it **Content** – Any text, image, audio, video, or other media that’s intended to be used by your audience. Blogs, white papers, e-books, infographics, videos, sound bytes, and hard-copy collateral all count as content. **Conversion** – The moment when a lead or prospect takes action, such as filling out a lead form or making a purchase **Conversion Cost** – The cost of taking an individual from a prospective lead to their conversion **Conversion Rate** – The percentage of people who take a proscribed action after visiting your site or interacting with your content. **Copy** – The text portion of an advertisement or web page **Cost-Per-Acquisition** – The number of leads or conversions you gained divided by the total amount spent on a campaign. **Cost-Per-Click** (CPC) – Also known as pay per click (PPC), it’s a form of paying for digital advertising. You can calculate CPC by dividing the number of clicks an ad receives by how much you spent on the ad campaign. **CPM** (Cost per thousand) – Another form of paying for digital advertising. You pay when your ad is viewed by 1000 people. **Frequency** – The number of times a unique viewer sees your ad during a campaign. **Header** – Head-line text in content describing the subject of the content. Headlines are significant for SEO **Hyperlink** – A clickable link that takes the viewer to another web page. **Impression** – The moment when a viewer comes in contact with your advertisement or web page. **Keyword** – A term or phrase that users are most likely to use in search engines, using keywords in your content will help SEO **Keyword Density** – The number of times a keyword appears in a blog article or web page. Aim for 1-2% keyword density (10-12 keywords per 1000 words). **Keyword Proximity** – The distance between keywords in a search term as they appear in the content. Placement of keywords within the content. **Landing Page** – The page visitors first land on after taking a particular action, such as clicking on an ad. **Lead** – A prospective customer who has shown some engagement, exact definitions (level of engagement required to qualify as a lead) varies. **Link Farm** – A website, or group, designed specifically to provide links to content. Link farms are not favourable for search engines, engaging with link farm websites is likely to damage your SEO. **Meta Description** – Text summarising a page’s content that is displayed with the heading by search engines. Optimising the meta description with keywords is good for [SEO](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/01/19/why-small-businesses-need-to-improve-their-seo-game/). **Microblog** – A special media platform that consists of short, punchy, frequent posts, similar to Twitter’s format. **Native Advertising** – A paid advertisement that looks natural in the surrounding content. **No Follow** – A link where the html code has been written to prevent search engine bots from following it. **Organic** – Referring to events that occur naturally, without advertising or payment. Organic web traffic reaches your website without prompting or clicking through paid links or advertisements. **Paid Search** – Paid advertisements within search engine results, likely to be [PPC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay-per-click), pay per click. **Podcast** – Digital audio content, usually updated regularly like a blog and available by subscription. Podcasts are made available online for download via iTunes or other app store, through a website or direct email. **Pop-up** – An advertisement or call-to-action page that appears spontaneously in a separate window. **PPC** – Pay Per Click, this form of advertising payment means you are charged for each time someone clicks on your ad. **Ranking** – Where you appear on a list of search engine results. **Reach** – How many people see your advertisement or content. **Retargeting** – Tracking visitors to your site to target them with ads when they are on-line again **Search Engine Marketing** – Also known as [SEM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_marketing), this is activity aimed at improving your website’s search engine ranking through optimisation and paid searches. **Search Engine Optimisation** – Also called [SEO](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/01/19/why-small-businesses-need-to-improve-their-seo-game/), this practice primes your website and other content to be found by search engines and improve your ranking for specific searches leading to increased traffic to your website. **SERP** – ‘Search engine results page’ **Site map** – A list of pages within a website that is meant to attract search engine crawlers to help correctly index those pages, also available to site visitors. **Social Advertising** – Paying for advertisements on [social media ](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/06/19/the-essential-guide-to-social-media-marketing-for-small-business/)channels **Social Media** – Web based applications hosting website ‘communities’ with user-generated content that allow for a free-flow exchange of ideas, content creation and sharing. Some of the best known include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and LinkedIn. **User-Generated Content** – A piece of content created by a user of a website or social network that is used for that website’s purpose. Wikis are a good example of user-generated content. **Webinar** – An online seminar-style session that usually allows the virtual attendees to interact and ask questions. **Wiki** – Informative internet ‘documents’ that are created collaboratively by and made available to the public. Wikis usually take the form of ‘how-to’s or help to answer questions. These documents are typically created by multiple people and can be edited by others, not just the creator of the [Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki). **Categories:** Digital Marketing **Tags:** Tips, Digital Marketing, Glossary --- ### [An Accountants Guide to Hosting a Successful Event](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/small-business/your-guide-to-hosting-a-successful-business-event/) **Published:** February 4, 2019 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** Events give you an opportunity to showcase your accounting firm’s expertise, build a strong relationship with your clients as well as helping clients in more areas of their business. They can involve a bit of time and cost but also deliver new business and stronger connections with your clients. If you are considering an event, here are some tips to help with the planning process. ## **It all starts with your goals** The first priority is to think about what you would like to achieve with your event. Nothing beats face-to-face time but make sure your event also delivers on two things: - **Value for your audience** – you’ll want to create an event that your attendees want to come to, and when they do, they learn something useful or gain knowledge and insight for their own ventures. You will have added value for them! - **Value for your business** – events can be expensive and time-consuming, so before you start, think about what you want it to deliver to your firm. You might want to highlight other services you offer that clients aren’t aware of and therefore grow average revenue or you might be looking to grow your client base. Your event might have short term goals such as attracting new clients or longer-term goals such as building your reputation as a thought leader or specialist in a niche area. Understanding your end goal will help clarify the best way to achieve a return on your investment. It will also shape what your event would look like and help you to make decisions on the specifics, such as: - **What do you want attendees to do?** Is there an action you would like attendees to take and how will you encourage them to do this? - **What is the event topic or theme?** This might be your area of expertise or a session that supports your clients in an area of their business. - **Who is your target audience?** Is it existing clients or new prospects and how many attendees do you need to cater for? - **Where will you host it?** Can you host at the office or do you choose somewhere more interesting? Make sure it’s set up for the numbers and if the final numbers are small then can you close off areas to make it more intimate? Is there easy parking? If your location and timing make it difficult for people to get there, your attendance will suffer. - **When is the best time?** You will know what will suit your audience best, based on their business week; whether it’s morning, midweek or after work. - **What equipment might you need?** If someone is speaking at the event, will you need sound and visual equipment? Have you got someone who can take photos for your social feeds or a newsletter? - **What else will you need?** Event materials, catering, staffing, signage, audiovisual equipment, insurance etc - **A budget** Your event should deliver a return on your investment so set your budget around what you would like to achieve. ## **You don’t need to do it alone** Combining with others can help you reach a wider audience, as well as giving each business an increased credibility by association. It also helps to share the event planning, marketing, and costs. It’s worth thinking outside the square about other businesses you could partner with. For example, if you were targeting clients in construction, you could partner with a building supplier or construction lawyer. ## **Tell people about it** Get in early with a ‘save the date’ so that you give people enough time to block the time in their diary. Keep it simple and give them a reason to attend. Make sure you focus on ‘what’s in it for them’. You might want to offer an incentive such as a free guide or something they can take away from the event. If your event is invitation only, send the details via email and include a link to register. You can use BOMA’s [landing pages](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/11/26/capturing-new-leads-or-promoting-your-business-explore-the-many-options-with-bomas-easy-landing-pages/) to collect registrations and then follow up with reminders closer to the date. For open events, post on your social channels: - Use your event’s key benefits to create posts over the weeks leading up the date, to build awareness. - Ask people to share your posts on their feed with others you may be interested. - Introduce the guest speakers if you have one, and link to their social pages - Write a blog on the topic to post on your website and share across your social pages. - Create a [landing page](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/11/26/capturing-new-leads-or-promoting-your-business-explore-the-many-options-with-bomas-easy-landing-pages/) in BOMA to collect registrations and capture details. - Give your attendees some homework before the event so they really make the most of the information you are going to share. - Create a Facebook group and invite attendees to join and communicate with each other about shared experience and knowledge (remember to check in to accept people wanting to join, and to keep the conversation going). - Send a reminder in the week before and any information about getting there or what to expect. ## **Event follow up** Thank people for attending – you might want to include topic materials, such as checklists and guides or offer a time to discuss in greater detail for their specific business needs. Your attendees are great prospects and they will be a receptive audience in the days following the event, particularly if you have given them something to think about. Make the most of this opportunity and use your event as the springboard to the next conversation or to help them on a deeper level with their business. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Accountants and Financial Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Tips & Advice, Business --- ### [Getting ready for a holiday?  Don’t forget your out-of-office note](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/tips-advice/getting-ready-for-a-holiday-dont-forget-your-out-of-office-note/) **Published:** December 11, 2018 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** If you are getting ready for some time away from the office, your ‘to do’ list is probably pretty long. But it will be all worth it when you can down tools and get that well-earned break. And, while you never truly leave the emails behind, (which will continue to flow on our mobile devices) it’s important to be able to take a break from them and the demands of your business. So before you walk out the door, make sure you set up your out-of-office or email forwarding so that your contacts know that you may not respond as quickly as usual. You can make this as simple as a short sentence that says you are away and will respond on your return but if you can add some humour, it can be a powerful thing for your brand. You could use the opportunity to show your personality, make someone smile, share some news or simply encourage them to join your mailing list by adding a button with a link to a[ landing page.](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/11/26/capturing-new-leads-or-promoting-your-business-explore-the-many-options-with-bomas-easy-landing-pages/) We found some examples of a few humorous options…like these out-of-office emails by Canadian actor and owner of Aviation Gin, Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds has become known for his funny auto-response emails. He’s even given his email out on [The Tonight Show](https://youtu.be/VbJwX6aG8Uc) and then received 20,000 emails. That’s a pretty clever way to build an email database! Here are some of them from [Bill Murray’s column on Inc.com ](https://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/ryan-reynolds-just-shared-his-email-address-out-of-office-reply-he-set-up-is-brilliant.html) **February –** *Thank you for your email and interest in Aviation American Gin! I’m away from my desk at the moment but will respond the moment they give me a desk. … I don’t know whose idea it was to allow me into the gin business, but I can assure you, there are smarter, more reasonable people in charge.* **July –** *I will be out of the office celebrating Canada Day (July 1), World UFO Day (July 2nd), Tom Cruise’s Birthday (July 3rd) and July 4th (July 4th.) It’s also National Picnic Month so let’s just reconnect in August, shall we?* **August –** *Thanks for your email but unfortunately, I am out of the office on official business. I really can’t say more than that. It’s official. It’s business. And that’s that.* Whether you decide to opt for humour or to stick with the details in a professional message, it is still worthwhile including something extra, that builds your connection with your emailer. It could be a handy and topical guide or useful article on your website. Most of us expect a boring note in the out-of-office email auto-response so this is your opportunity to stand out from the crowd, offer something more and be more engaging. Oh, and don’t forget to tell them how long you are away, when you will be back and who to contact if they need a response before that. Happy Holidays. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Tips & Advice --- ### [Why Market My Accounting or Bookkeeping Firm If I Don't Need New Clients?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/why-market-my-accounting-or-bookkeeping-firm-if-i-dont-need-new-clients/) **Published:** April 9, 2018 **Author:** Steve Ash **Content:** ## How Marketing Benefits Your Accounting or Bookkeeping Firm. 84% of firms agree that accounting needs to embrace digital marketing as a means of attracting new clients but if your accounting or bookkeeping practice is turning a decent profit without adding new clients, why would you put time, money and effort into marketing the firm? For many successful accounting and bookkeeping practices, having a core (and unchanging) client base allows them to meet their workload targets, keep those clients happy and remain profitable. And these practices can sometimes be reluctant to grow their client numbers. So if you don’t want new clients, why would you invest in marketing activity? We’ve highlighted 5 key ways that marketing adds value, without necessarily generating new clients if you don’t want them. ## 1. Marketing Isn’t Just About Leads [Marketing isn’t a pure lead generation activity](https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/dynamics365/2018/03/22/relationship-sales-isnt-just-for-selling-how-marketing-can-make-an-impact/) for your accounting or bookkeeping firm – and that broader reality is something that’s vital to understand from the outset. Good marketing doesn’t just find and win new clients, it’s also equally about raising the firm’s profile, building relationships and retaining your existing clients. If you currently have a client base that values your expertise and services, it’s vital to keep those customers and to market the firm’s experience, knowledge and advisory capabilities directly to these valued contacts. ## 2. Good Marketing Keeps Your Existing Clients Happy [Keeping clients happy is a key factor in retaining their business](https://karbonhq.com/accountant-resources/articles/client-satisfaction-strategies-progressive-accounting-firms). And a significant part of this comes down to good client communication and frequent interactions with your core contacts. [Giving helpful content without expectation](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/salma-jafri/why-giving-away-free-cont_b_9728134.html) is central to increasing these interactions and maintaining your position as a valued adviser. Good of use of content marketing and social media marketing keeps your existing clients happy by keeping them informed and up-to-date with the latest business issues. Here are some productive ways to add value for your existing clients: - **Post regular blog content** – and write about the topics that are most relevant or pressing to your existing client base, or your chosen client niches and industries. - **Keep clients up-to-date through social media** – using Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn etc. to post regular social updates around the topical events and issues of the day. - **Give away practical guides and content** – and offer step-by-step advice on key issues, such as improving cashflow, accessing finance or dealing with new technology. - **Run events and webinars** – where you can meet clients, whether in person or online, and share your expertise with them in the most direct and effective ways. In essence, it’s about ***helping*** your clients and keeping them happy, rather than ***selling***. ![Why marketing keeps accounting clients happy](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AdobeStock_143110026-e1523408405341-451x300.jpeg) ## 3. Social and Digital Marketing Enhance Your Brand Profile Regular digital marketing helps your firm to retain a high profile in the market, and positions you as a practice that clients and prospects can trust as an adviser. This isn’t a direct approach aimed at increasing leads, enquiries and sales, but a way to put the firm’s people, expertise and services into context in the marketplace. Raising [‘brand profile’](https://bomamarketing.com/2017/01/18/an-introductory-guide-to-branding-your-business/) has a positive effect on customer loyalty but also on your firm’s staff retention. These are a few core ways to boost your brand: - [**Create an effective website**](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2018/03/08/creating-an-effective-website-for-your-firm-the-five-key-steps/) – and make an online ‘shop window’ for the firm that makes it clear where you provide help, assurance and assistance for your clients. - [**Embrace the benefits of digital marketing**](https://tax.thomsonreuters.com/blog/business/marketing/how-to-market-an-accounting-firm-in-the-digital-age) – and use regular content and campaigns to raise awareness of the firm and your people with your target audiences. - [**Up your social media game**](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/06/19/the-essential-guide-to-social-media-marketing-for-small-business/) – to engage more directly with your business audiences and create a two-way communication channel with clients, prospects and peers. ## **4. You Learn More About Your Ideal Client** With the tracking and analytics tools that modern marketing software provides, you can track and measure the engagement levels of your marketing to refine your ideal client type. With digital marketing, you can easily profile and [target a very specific audience](http://www.experian.co.uk/assets/marketing-services/white-papers/wp-the-art-of-customer-profiling.pdf). And this makes it easier than ever to ensure you’re attracting and keeping the right kind of clients for the long-term health of the practice. [Defining the ideal client for your firm](https://bomamarketing.com/2022/03/31/how-to-write-for-your-ideal-clients/) helps you get a concrete idea of the businesses that will add the most value. Knowing this ideal client type is fundamental to making the your whole practice more efficient and profitable. [80% of your results will come from the top 20% of your clients](https://blog.receipt-bank.com/cloud-accounting-profitable), according to the Pareto Principle. So it’s vital to review your client base and to identify the clients who bring in the revenue in the most efficient ways, and those that are just eating into your fee-earning time. By profiling your perfect client (and knowing what makes a bad client), you can then target your content, your social posts and your campaigns at very specific business audience for the long-term health of your business and future opportunities to grow. You’ll also be able to track how well this marketing performs in engaging these ideal client types. ## **5. It Keeps the Firm’s Thinking and Knowledge Fresh** Accountants are seen as highly trusted advisers by many businesses, and that level of trust comes down to building relationships, creating a partnership and sharing the most useful advice. Accountancy has developed beyond compliance, with clients now looking for deeper strategic guidance and advice. And advice has far more value to clients when it’s current and fresh. Marketing isn’t just a one-way street. By researching new topics, writing new content and engaging through social media you will keep your own thinking fresher, more up to date and more in tune with the mindset of your ideal client – and that’s great for client advice. ## Marketing as the Driver of Client Relationships Translating the complexity of running a modern business is what business owners want from their adviser. And careful use of marketing helps your firm to offer advice, provide practical guidance and build more meaningful relationships with your clients. So even if new clients are not your primary goal, there’s still a place for carefully planned and targeted marketing of your firm. Using modern marketing techniques helps the firm to: 1. Share helpful advice and content with existing clients 2. Strengthen your relationships with business owners 3. Raise the brand profile of your firm and team in the market 4. Provide the analytics and data you need to understand your clients Client relationships are central to the long-term success of your firm. And marketing is a key driver in starting, cementing and nurturing those relationships. **About the Author:** Steve Ash is a specialist in accounting, marketing, business software and fintech apps. ## Download The Digital Marketing Guide For Accountants BOMA’s guide tells you everything Accountants need to know about Digital Marketing with easy explanations, tips and simple steps to follow. **[Click here to learn more](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-guide-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers/).** **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Marketing **Tags:** Marketing, Accountants --- ### [Does My Business Need a PR Agency?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/small-business/does-my-business-need-a-pr-agency/) **Published:** January 19, 2017 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## What Does a PR Agency Actually Do? If you want to know whether to instruct a public relations agency, the short answer is maybe. The concept of public relations covers a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organisations and their stakeholders, including customers, shareholders and the media. It has been defined by the [Public Relations Society of America](https://www.prsa.org/aboutprsa/publicrelationsdefined/#.V6xFIjefGqR) as encompassing the following: - Anticipating, analysing and interpreting public opinion, attitudes and issues that might impact, for good or ill, the operations and plans of the organisation. - Counselling management at all levels in the organisation with regard to policy decisions, courses of action and communication, taking into account their public ramifications and the organisation’s social or citizenship responsibilities. - Researching, conducting and evaluating, on a continuing basis, programs of action and communication to achieve the informed public understanding necessary to the success of an organisation’s aims. These may include marketing; financial; fund raising; employee, community or government relations; and other programs. - Planning and implementing the organisation’s efforts to influence or change public policy. Setting objectives, planning, budgeting, recruiting and training staff, developing facilities — in short, managing the resources needed to perform all of the above. ## What to Consider Before Engaging a PR Agency This all sounds great, but the answer to the surprisingly complex question ‘Should I get a PR agency?’ could still be no, or at least not yet. Before you consider calling a public relations firm, here are the four questions you need to answer: 1. Have you nailed your [value proposition](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/01/18/what-is-my-business-value-proposition/) and business objectives? Does your product or service really stand up? There is no point in shouting about something that’s mediocre and doesn’t work well. 2. Are you ready to scale up? Ensure your on-line and operational systems are running smoothly. A public relations firm will get press coverage for your business and we know that all press is good press right? Well yes, but if the coverage you receive results in a spike in sales or interest you need to be able to respond to this and fulfil demand. Make sure that you are prepared with appropriate on-line functionality (including international sales capability if appropriate) and sufficient inventory before going live with a campaign. 3. Can you afford an agency? This is an especially important consideration for start-ups. An agency will cost thousands of dollars per month and if your cash flow is limited, being tied into such a significant outgoing can be dangerous. According to Mark Cuban, start-ups are better off handling their own press and PR in the early stages. A new-business owner is best placed to communicate with media about his/her brand, not least because briefing PR’s can be a time-suck. 4. Are you ready to listen, and share your business plan? It may seem a little obvious but you will never see a return on your investment in a PR agency if you don’t take their advice – it can be hard to let go. You will also need to share your business plan, goals and any data/analytics that you already have. If this worries you, consider having them sign a non-disclosure agreement. There are plenty of benefits to hiring a PR agency, too. Modern agencies are equipped to provide a suite of functions for your business – including media relations, social strategy, content strategy and production. This can achieve third-party influencer endorsements that are so important for building trust and sales in the modern market place as well as just getting your name out there. ## The Four Rules for Working with a PR Agency If the time is right for your business to invest in dedicated public relations support it is important to make the right hire and go into this new relationship with your eyes open. Be ready to make the most of your agency by applying these four rules for working with an agency: 1. Define what you want to achieve and how you will measure success 2. Allot resources to managing the agency and a spokesperson/people that will represent your company and respond to calls from the media 3. Choose an agency, and a manager, that fits your business; trust and chemistry are crucial to getting the best results. You should integrate the agency’s efforts with your overall marketing strategy so that they work together. 4. Relinquish the comfort zone, you should feel the agency is pushing you with their ideas and even making you uncomfortable on occasion or they are not giving you value. The right agency will bring you access to key journalists and media in your sector. They will be honest with you about the [best approach](http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/10/5-reasons-why-hiring-a-good-pr-firm-is-smart-business/) and help find a way to communicate your brand to the media in the most effective way. An agency also brings the background and ability of a whole PR team whose combined experience delivers value. While no PR agency is a silver bullet, and committing to an agency can be costly, answering the questions above and considering agency support will help you understand more about your business and its outreach. So, should you hire a PR agency? Maybe, maybe not – but either way it’s good practice to keep asking the questions. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Business **Tags:** PR, Public Relations --- ### [Ideas and inspiration for things to do in isolation ](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/small-business/ideas-and-inspiration-for-things-to-do-in-isolation/) **Published:** March 27, 2020 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** Needing ideas on how to stay sane, with the family home in isolation? We’ve gathered together a few thought-starters to help keep everyone in the family entertained. ### **Stories, activities and learning for kids** - Elevenses with the world of David Walliams – Every day at 11 am, you can listen to one of David Walliams’ World’s Worst Children stories, so sit down, take a break, and enjoy 20ish minutes of pure fun! - Listen to a story on Audible – free for a limited time. Kids can stream on desktop, laptop, phone or tablet, including titles across six different languages. - Educational games for kids in maths, reading, problem-solving and literacy. - Hours of Seussian ideas to engage your child in playful learning. ### **Learn something new** - Keep learning wherever you are with an online education platform for adults set up by a group of British Universities, Explore online courses to continue studying, build professional skills, and connect with experts. - Coursera is offering free classes from leading universities and companies. Choose from content covering business, technology, data science, and more. ### **Learn a language** - Duolingo has 48 languages online for Free: Spanish, Chinese, English & More. the lessons are bite-sized and gamified with points and levels. - download language lessons from Open Culture. ### **Visit a gallery from home** - You can’t go out but there are some amazing websites for most museums and galleries around the world. Some even have a virtual tour. ### **Learn about arts and culture around the world** - Google’s arts and culture website contains loads of content from around the world, including history art, people, and amazing places. Take a virtual tour of Machu Picchu, learn who invented the internet or learn about famous artworks. All the things you’d love to know but never had the time! - Explore New Zealand through stories, photography, videos and even virtual reality tours of amazing places around NZ. ### **Go to the zoo from home** A number of zoos around the world have live stream webcams so you can watch the animals. The staff won’t be moving the cameras so you may have to be patient for some to come into view and remember that the animals on the other side of the world might be asleep unless they are nocturnal! - Melbourne Zoo and Werribee Open Range Zoo - The Edinburgh Zoo - Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute ### **Do an exercise class in your living room** Circuits, Yoga, Pilates? There are lots of online resources available to choose from in the app store or on video streaming services like [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/) and [Vimeo](https://vimeo.com/watch). If you can, support your local gym, physio or personal trainers. They’ll no doubt be setting up online and glad to have you with them while they are not earning. ### **Engineering and science challenges to do with the kids** - Are you ready for a challenge? Dyson engineers have designed these challenges specifically for children. Ideal for home or in the classroom, they encourage inquisitive young minds to get excited about engineering. Can you skewer a balloon without popping it? Coat a nail in copper? What happens when you plug a clock into a potato? There are 44 challenges to try. [CHALLENGE CARDS](https://www.jamesdysonfoundation.co.uk/content/dam/pdf/JDF_with%20cover%20challenge-cards_DIGITAL.pdf) ### **Listen to a podcast** - Tune in is free internet radio. Listen to a podcast, music or news that is local to you. ### **Learn to draw** - This one is great for kids. Award-winning author/illustrator Rob Biddulph posts a draw-along video for our and your kids every Tuesday and Thursday at 10 am GMT. [http://robbiddulph.com/draw-with-rob](https://t.co/07mAdoeAx6?amp=1) ### **Looking for a book recommendation?** - Create a profile on the Goodreads website. List the titles or genres you’ve enjoyed in the past, and you’ll get recommendations. You can also link to friends and see what they have read. ### **Get into the kitchen** - Follow your favourite chef or cook on Facebook or Instagram. They’ll probably be sharing great recipes. Try soda bread from Jamie Oliver. And finally, stay connected with friends and family through calls, messaging and video apps. Stay at home and stay safe. **Categories:** Tips & Advice, Business --- ### [What Are Mobile Apps and How Do I Build One for My Business?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/technology/what-are-mobile-apps-why-does-my-business-need-one-and-how-do-i-build-it/) **Published:** January 19, 2017 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Mobile devices have become ubiquitous with[ Smartphone ownership approaching saturation point](http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/29/technology-device-ownership-2015/#fn-14935-1) among young Americans, and topping 68% of all adults in the USA, according to Pew Research Centre. Marketers have come to recognise mobile devices as a vital channel to reach customers, but should your business go further and develop dedicated software applications or ‘apps’? Here’s what you need to know before taking the plunge. Mobile apps (short for ‘application software’) are computer programs specifically developed to run on mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets, taking into account the features particular to mobile devices such as less physical space and less powerful operating systems than a desktop computer. Functionality can include device operating systems as well as programs to access email, calendars, mapping functions and programs to buy music and other consumer items. Native mobile apps are separate from those designed to run on desktop or mobile computer operating systems and are typically sold through native distribution platforms or ‘app stores’ run by major providers like Apple or Amazon.com. An increasing number of people will have used at least one app before they reach their desk in the morning. Whether they have checked the weather or messages, logged an early workout, got directions to a morning meeting or just contacted a friend or colleague – reaching for a smartphone is one of the first things many of us do every day. In Q4 of 2015 there were nearly 179 million [unique users of smart-phone apps](https://www.statista.com/statistics/553631/us-smartphone-app-audiences/), and 70% of total app usage is down to the top 200 apps. The modern consumer has grown accustomed to finding answers at their fingertips. Being accessible in what Google describes as the ‘[micro moment](https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/app-and-mobile/how-micromoments-are-changing-rules/)’ when your potential customer wants to ‘know’, ‘go’, ‘do’, or ‘buy’, through mobile accessibility and an appropriate app, can ensure your brand is there to meet client’s needs, a digital first responder. ## What Makes an App Successful? Popular apps typically offer users functionality to make consumer’s lives easier or amuse them in some way. Other apps allowing users to play games or interact with others, such as the messaging service SnapChat, have also had great success. There is a huge appetite for apps and over 3 million are available to download according to Statista but the market is dominated by a few big players, Facebook and Google own more than half of the 10[ most popular apps](http://time.com/4156902/most-popular-apps-2015/). There are different methods for measuring an app’s success, so determining which apps get the best results can be difficult and subjective. Some apps may not be as popular as others, but still earn more income for their developers because of their price structure or the profitability of the services they offer. Other apps may be less profitable themselves but still provide a beneficial extension to a brand by driving engagement and brand loyalty. Apps can be a powerful tool for building deeper and stronger relationships with customers. A September 2014, Google/Ipsos Media CT survey canvassing 8,470 individuals between 18 and 64 years of age has demonstrated how important[ mobile app use](https://think.storage.googleapis.com/docs/mobile-app-marketing-insights.pdf) is today. The average app user will have 36 apps installed on their phone but only 26% will be used daily and 1 in 4 app downloads are never used so maintaining engagement and avoiding app abandonment are critical to success. Use incentives and discounts to maintain engagement as well as focusing on user-get-user promotions, friends or colleagues using an app is likely to spark renewed use from lapsed customers and engage new ones. ## What You Need to Know Before Developing an App Does your business need and app? The answer to this question depends on the type of business you operate as well as its customer base. Although any type of business may find it useful to offer an app, a company appealing to baby boomers is less likely to need one than a company appealing to millennials who are digitally motivated and already regular app users. What is the purpose of an app for your business? The first area to focus on when answering this question is utility. Ask how an app will improve your customer’s experience. For instance, in the case of a retail establishment, the ability to offer coupons, directions, locations and the like can make a strong case for having an app. If your company is in the gaming industry, providing an app version of your game is logical, given the frequency with which people play games on their mobile devices. Whatever industry your company is in, make sure that you are able to identify the specific function your app will serve, whether to promote the business or to generate revenue. If you are not clear about its purpose and benefits then building an app may not be appropriate for your business. No not neglect research, having devised a core concept search the market for competitors How accessible is your data? Many apps function by providing easier access to relevant data. Designing an app to do this is easier if your company’s data is held on an online database that is readily accessible by app design tools. Mobile app or mobile website? Mobile apps often provide more streamlined access to data found on a company’s website. The data they provide is optimized for delivery on a mobile device by the app. However, “responsive” website design allows for website’s layouts to be adjusted for mobile device viewing when they are accessed by mobile and tablet users. If your website is already responsive then offering an app may be unnecessary if it doesn’t offer functionality that can’t already be experienced via the website. The cost of hiring developers to design and continually update your app can exceed the cost of designing a website so before moving ahead with app development consider the app’s utility to your company from a strategic planning standpoint. How can an app promote your business? If your app isn’t intended to be a profit centre for your company consider how effective it is likely to be in spreading the word about your business. By offering consumers helpful information or functionality your app can help boost your business – if the cost of building the app isn’t excessive, an app’s use as a promotional tool can make it a wise investment. ## How to Get My App Seen? The explosion in app development, while providing consumers with a wide variety of engaging apps to choose from, also makes it harder for your app to get noticed in the crowd. While there is no magic button you can press to get your app in front of people, there are a number of ways to increase your app’s exposure. Recommendations are the biggest driver of app downloads so social media and influencers are key to success, enlist influencers in your industry to spread the word about your app to their followers. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are excellent platforms for promoting your app. If people on your network find your app valuable, news can spread virally. Social media also offers the opportunity to interact with your market and gain useful information for upgrades and improvements. Email marketing is another great way to reach users efficiently, potential customers can click through to download the app immediately. Before deciding on an advertising approach, first determine what your marketing budget is. Once this is set, you can evaluate different methods of advertising your app. ## How to Develop an App for My Business? A number of do it yourself (DIY) tools exist allowing you to build an app for your business without outside assistance. However, it may still be more efficient to hire an app developer to build your app unless you are comfortable working with DIY software solutions. DIY programs are generally not suitable for complex or highly customised apps, so, depending on the functionality you’d like your app to have, bringing in a good app developer may still be preferable, even if you feel comfortable using a DIY tool. If you are interested in using or trying out DIY app development tools, there are a number you can use to develop an app. These include: - [AppMakr](http://www.appmakr.com/), an iPhone app maker on the web - [SwebApps](http://swebapps.com/), another iPhone app builder - [BuildAnApp](http://www.buildanapp.com/turbo/home) allows for the use of multiple platforms at once - [Socialight](http://socialight.com/) and [AppInsitute](https://appinstitute.com/) for building geo-location apps If you plan to use an expert for your app design, there are a variety of routes you can take. App design firms or IT firms with divisions specialising in such products are one option. You can find these via referrals from your existing network or by checking in local or national business listings by category. You can also look to hire a freelancer on job sites such as: - [Upwork](https://www.upwork.com/) - [Softensity](http://www.softensity.com) - [StackOverflow’s career section](http://careers.stackoverflow.com/) - [LimeExchange](http://www.limeexchange.com/) Building a mobile app involves a variety of considerations, from selecting app functionality and a development timetable to drawing up a budget. Some of the factors to consider include: Keep it simple to start: Feature creep can dramatically increase the expense of an app. Launching with a simple version of your app can advantageous as it allows you to get feedback on the functionality and to keep costs down, at least initially, while you gauge reaction to your app. Limit functionality to speed development: To get your app up and running quickly, limiting its functionality is often necessary. Select the 4 or 5 features that are most likely to boost the app’s appeal and add further ones in later iterations. Design the app with your customers in mind: When considering what functionality to add to an app, start from your customer’s point of view. Ask how the app will help them achieve their objectives or make their life easier. Focus on results rather than details of use, such as what button a customer would press to activate a particular feature. Outline the concrete benefits for your customers and then look at suitable features to achieve them. Sketch out the app: Drawing sketches of your app’s pages is an excellent way to get a feel for how the app will look to consumers. You can also draw up a flow chart showing how the user will progress through the different app pages to evaluate the user experience. A number of tools are available to help with the app design process by allowing you to generate mock-ups and diagrams of your planned app. These tools include: - [LucidChart](http://www.lucidchart.com/) - [Proto.io](http://proto.io/) Test both design and functionality thoroughly: With staff, friends, focus groups and crowdsourcing make sure that your app works smoothly and is fit for purpose before going to market. A poor user experience is as likely to go viral as a good one and could harm your brand. ## How to Brief an App Designer To make the app building process as smooth as possible, you should do as much conceptual work as possible in advance of bringing in a professional. This can include the following: - Specify desired app function(s) and platform: What will your app do? This simple but fundamental question should be answered before deciding to go ahead with an app, let alone bringing in-app builders. Their job will be to figure out how to design your app so that it supports the functionality you have in mind for it. iOS, Android, and Windows devices have distinct operating systems – your target market and go-to-market strategy will determine which platform you should use. - Outline design characteristics: While your app developer should be able to evaluate the feasibility of your desired app design, for best results it is beneficial for you to have at least an outline of how you would like your app to look prior to bringing in a professional app builder. - Draw up a projected budget and development timeline: While budgets and timelines may be subject to change, it is highly recommended to have at least provisional figures and schedules drawn up before bringing in an app builder. App development can be costly if strict guidelines are not in place, making it important to consider this issue in advance of hiring an app builder. ## Costing an App Build Most mobile apps are free, or nearly free, and we use them without any thought for what has gone into developing and building them. It can be a longer and more costly process than you think and one worth getting right. Though it can be hard to know in advance exactly how much it will cost to design various types of functionality for an app, a very basic app can be built on a budget (in the range of $1,000 to $6,000 according to a variety of sources) but you are likely to get what you pay for and sometimes getting a worthwhile return means making a greater investment. Shortcuts can lead to costly delays and bugs. Designing apps with more features or more complex functionality can raise the price tag significantly, with some sources citing figures ranging from $35,000 to $150,000 for building a higher quality and sophisticated app. A variety of factors are involved when it comes to costing an app build. These include: - App functionality: Will your app need to access a database? If so, this functionality must be designed in and will add to the cost. Will the app allow users to play games? Designing gameplay for the app will be an additional cost. - Graphics: Designing an app with the best graphics, while certainly desirable, will add to the cost of the app. - Programming time: When hiring a programmer or development firm to build your app the complexity of your app plays a factor in the time it takes to build it. More complex apps generally take longer to build, increasing the overall cost of the app as a result. - Infrastructure: Servers and back-end support functions will add to the cost of offering the app on an ongoing basis. - Social media integration: Offering this functionality adds to the cost of an app. - In-app purchasing: Allowing consumers to purchase goods using your app also increases development cost. Once your app has been developed, further costs still apply, including: - Testing: Releasing a buggy app can have a significantly negative impact on its reception and potentially on your company’s reputation. As a result, your budget should include a certain amount of time and money for testing the app. - Launch: Both the App Store and Google Play charge a fee to add your app. - Maintenance: updates and debugging are important to keep your position in a competitive market. Your mobile app may be a game but it should not be a gimmick. These software applications are designed for one of the most significant technological innovations in a generation and can be an invaluable tool for modern businesses, whether for revenue generation or brand building and client engagement. We carry our office and our social life on our smart phones and tablets so to be successful and earn a place on your customer’s mobile device an app must maintain perceived value. Make your app discoverable (easy to search, active on social media), make it invaluable, whether for work or play, and make sure that it works. Then an app can ensure your brand never leaves the customer’s side. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Technology **Tags:** Mobile, SMB, App --- ### [Creating an Effective Website for Your Firm – the Five Key Steps](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/website/creating-an-effective-website-for-your-firm-the-five-key-steps/) **Published:** March 8, 2018 **Author:** Steve Ash **Content:** It’s never been more vital for your accounting or bookkeeping firm to have an effective website. [80% of referrals look at a firm’s website first](https://hingemarketing.com/blog/story/3-huge-reasons-why-you-should-care-about-online-branding) when looking for an adviser, so your site must be a ‘shop window’ that quickly and effectively tells business prospects who you are, and where you add value for their company. And as growing numbers of visitors will view your website on a mobile device, your website must also function equally well on their smartphone as it does on their tablet device, laptop or desktop computer. ![](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/1205-Boma-Drawings-v4-03-470x293.jpg) ## So How Do You Go About Creating This Ideal Website? We’ve identified five key steps that will help you to build a site that’s effective, easy to use and creates the best level of engagement with your target audience. ## Step 1: Decide on Your Target Audience and Specialisms Your website should be written and designed to appeal to your ideal business client. So the first step is to consider who this target audience is – and to define whether the firm wants to appeal to a particular niche, or be a more generalist practice that caters to a broad client base. - **Who is your ideal viewer and potential client?** – whether you’re a brand new practice, or an established firm, it’s vital to [define what your ideal client looks like](https://gocardless.com/guides/posts/the-ideal-client-1/). Are you aiming at start-ups or established companies that are ready to scale? Do you want to specialise in construction businesses, or are property companies your industry niche of choice? With a clear outline of this ideal client, your site can be built to target these businesses. - **Tailor your services, content and advice to fit your client base** – once you’ve drawn up who your perfect client will be, this forms the foundation stone for site content. The way you present your core services, the blogs you write and the advice you share have to reflect this ideal client type – whether that’s a narrow niche industry, like creative agencies, or a broader customer base of local small businesses and sole traders. ## Step 2: Write Your Key Page Content and Consider Your Value Central to your site will be demonstrating where you add value for your chosen audience. So it’s important to know the client challenges you can solve. Do your homework, research your target audience and ensure your site clearly explains how the firm helps business to meet their specific issues, challenges and business needs – defining the key value you add for their company. - **Draft your content as rough key points**– writing good web content means making the maximum impact with the minimum number of words. Draft ideas in a Word or Google doc gives you a basic idea of your messaging and helps you flesh out your wording, and define which pages you want to include on the site. - **Get a web developer involved early** – the sooner you begin talking with an experienced web developer, the easier the process of building your content will be. Building a site using a [platform like RocketSpark](https://www.rocketspark.com/uk/), gives you page templates to work with, coupled with helpful advice from developers and a support team. - **Make it clear what you do** – your website viewers have limited time to find what they’re looking for on your site. So stick to the point [and quickly explain your core proposition](https://www.enchantingmarketing.com/writing-for-the-web-vs-print/), and make sure your call-to-action (usually your contact page) is very easy to find. - **Share helpful, practical content** – remember, your content is not just about you. Your site is also a content hub where you should be sharing blog posts, news updates and business news that’s relevant and helpful to your chosen client audience. BOMA’s [content library comes with hundreds of articles](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/content-libraries/) which you can customise and post to your website via our Zapier integration. ## Step 3: Make Your Design and Messaging Really Simple Unless you’re already a website expert, there’s huge value in working with professional content writers and website designers when it comes to building your site. They will be able to take your rough page text and turn it into workable layouts that make the most of the content and space. - **Keep it simple!** – if you can describe your tax services in 25 words, don’t use 250 words. The more concise and succinct your web copy is, the quicker your viewers can engage with the content and find the pages or advice that they need. - **Make your site responsive and mobile friendly** – [more people now view websites from a mobile](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/04/22/if-your-website-doesnt-work-on-mobile-prepare-to-lose-customers/) than a desktop machine. So your website needs to be ‘responsive’ – in other words, it must automatically resize and reformat when viewed on a mobile device. - **Bring your branding into your design** – if the firm has a logo, brand colour palette and tone of voice, make sure these are reflected in your website content and design. These are are quick, visual representations of your brand’s message. But [your brand is also what your firm stands for](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/01/18/an-introductory-guide-to-branding-your-business/) and why this matters in your target audience’s mind so keep your online presence consistent with this. ![](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/1205-Boma-Drawings-v4_Artboard-12-419x300.jpg) ## Step 4: Ensure Your Site Delivers the Best User Experience For your website to do its job, it needs to be easy to use. That means having an effective [user interface (UI)](http://searchmicroservices.techtarget.com/definition/user-interface-UI) – the elements of the site design that viewers interact with to use the site – and providing them with the best possible [user experience (UX)](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/definition-user-experience/), so there are no hurdles, confusing menus or slow downloads of images that stop them finding what they want. Jargon aside, the changes you make can be relatively straightforward. *‘If you do the basic things well you’ll have a highly effective website that will set you apart from the ordinary. Business owners often put off attempting to improve their websites, but if you review your site and make recommended changes, you’ll see good increases in the time people spend on your site, the number of pages they view and ultimately more leads. Then its over to you to woo them as clients’.* Grant Johnson, Co-founder at [Rocketspark](https://www.rocketspark.com.) What do you want them to do? From the moment viewers land on your home page, or click through to a blog post, you want to push them to your chosen end point – whether that’s your contact page, your team page or the landing page for your latest webinar. - **Have a simple menu** – aim to have around five key areas in your top menu. This makes the site as straightforward and easy to navigate as possible. Having more pages is good for SEO, but a simple menu architecture simple helps the viewer find your key content. - **Put your key message ‘above the fold’** – make sure your main proposition can be seen at the top of the page, without scrolling down. Tell your viewer what they are about to read and help keep them engaged (and less likely to ‘bounce’ off the page). - **Be strategic with calls-to-action** – think carefully about the positioning of links, buttons and calls-to-action. If you want viewers to contact you, put this ‘Contact us’ button at both the top and bottom of the page (you can’t be sure people will scroll to the end). ## Step 5: Measure Performance, Customer Feedback and Return on Investment A website is an evolving and changing beast. So once your site is live, you must continue to update it, post fresh content and review how well your pages are performing. This helps to refine the effectiveness of your content and keep your SEO performing well. - **Use analytics to measure site performance** – [track and review the performance and ROI of your online content](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2018/02/28/marketing-for-accountants-understanding-the-return-on-your-investment/). Use the insights function in BOMA on [campaign engagement](https://bomamarketing.com/features/customer-knowledge/campaign-analytics/) and stats from [Google Analytics](https://www.google.com/analytics/) that allow you to quickly view and analyse how your pages are performing over time – and update the content accordingly. - **Display customer feedback and authority ratings** – demonstrate your trustworthiness through backlinks to outside sources, such as independent customer ratings sites e.g. [TrustPilot](https://uk.trustpilot.com/), [Choice](https://www.choice.com.au/), [Yelp](https://www.yelp.com/) or by including testimonial quotes from your valued clients. ## Keep Evolving: Your Website Is Never Finished Your website is one of the firm’s most valuable assets, so it’s important to nurture it and ensure you’re always looking for [new ways to improve effectiveness](https://bomamarketing.com/2021/07/01/the-art-of-developing-an-effective-website-for-accountants-bookkeepers/). Pressing ‘publish’ isn’t the end of the website creation process – in fact, it’s just the beginning. To make your site truly add value for the practice, it’s critical that you measure your online performance, post frequent new content across the site and do your best to evolve to meet any new online challenges and opportunities. BOMA helps you drive your online marketing – [find out more here](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/) About the Author: Steve Ash is a specialist in accounting, marketing, business software and fintech apps. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Website **Tags:** website, Accounting --- ### [There’s Never Been a Better Time to Advertise Your Business on Instagram. We’ll show you how](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/theres-never-been-a-better-time-to-advertise-your-business-on-instagram-well-show-you-how/) **Published:** July 18, 2018 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** Instagram has created a social media community that now totals 400 million accounts from every corner of the globe. The mobile photo and video sharing app, which launched in October of 2010, now boasts over [500 million daily active users and 4.2 billion likes per day.](https://www.socialpilot.co/instagram-marketing/instagram-stats#:~:text=Instagram%20has%20over%202%20billion,visited%20website%20in%20the%20world.) It is a lovely place to be because it’s about everyday people sharing images of their lives and the things they love. For businesses, Instagram offers a place to reach a wide audience and show them what you do in a creative way. The more striking or appealing your images, the more people you reach. Instagram users are there to be inspired and discover, which means they are a very engaged audience. In [Instagram’s survey of users](https://business.instagram.com/), 60% say they discover new products on the platform and 75% take action after being inspired by a post. More and more brands are using Instagram to engage with larger audiences. Instagram users are also more receptive to branded content so it’s a great time for you to start promoting your business. ## **Audience targeting** Advertising in Instagram works in a similar way to Facebook. In fact, the channel is owned by Facebook. Targeting your ad allows you to reach the exact audience you want. Choose your audience based on location, demographics such as age, gender, and interests (their interests are based on the accounts they follow and other activity). ## **What to post** Brands that sell products will find this easier. The most active brands are automotive, media, fashion and home design but you don’t need to have a physical product to tell a brand story. Virgin post inspirational quotes and images and ASB Bank uses the channel to post photos from events they sponsor. And even the product brands like Fitbit or Red Bull post lifestyle images that demonstrate their brand attitude rather than just product shots. ![instagram images](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Screen-Shot-2018-07-04-at-2.54.22-PM-e1530675539248-450x300.png) ## **High quality images and video** Instagram is a great place to promote your business, but don’t make every post an ad. Share other people, other things and images that relate to your brand but are not all sales. If your business is service-oriented, think about images that show your brand identity and company culture. You can post videos up to one minute long and these could include tips, guides, and advice. Go behind the scenes to show the process or your company culture and the personalities behind it. Try different posts such as product photos, design sketches or your vision diagram scribbled on a whiteboard. View the results of different posts and see what type of post gets the most engagement. Find the balance between stunning and authentic. Glossy stock photography will do less to build your brand than images of real events, products, and people. Try to capture these ‘real’ subjects in striking images. ## **Written content** Instagram is visual but you can include captions too. Use them to write relevant and useful comments. Include a call to action or a link back to your website. You can mention others using @mention. This links your post to other accounts and is a great way to amplify your message through their following but don’t spam other users. Make sure it makes sense in the context of your post. It might be a charity you sponsor, a commercial partner or a spokesperson connected to your brand. ## **Use hashtags** Hashtags were developed by Twitter in 2007 and are used to categorise content and sum up the main theme of a post. Adding hashtags to your posts makes it easier for people to find you. Your post will also be found on the page of the corresponding hashtag. A hashtag allows users to search for posts under that heading. Instagram posts with at least one hashtag tend to [receive 12.6% more engagement](https://influencermarketinghub.com/most-popular-instagram-hashtags/). Hashtags can be used to encourage participation and action. Here are some examples: - A ski-field promotion asks skiers to take a photo of themselves on the mountain and post with the name of the field in the hashtag to go in the draw for a ski pass. The result is a dramatic rise in posts relating to the brand and a wider reach and following. - A clothing store asks customers to take shots of themselves wearing a new outfit for the chance to win a store credit. - A sports drink company asks people to post a pic of their favourite sport. The drink company benefits from consumer engagement and builds an image gallery relating to their core proposition. - At an event, organisers publicise a hashtag so that attendees can track all the social posts related to the event. ## **How to write a hashtag** Hashtags start with a # sign to categorise the content on social media channels. The words that follow have no spaces or special characters like $ or %, but numbers are allowed. Here’s an example – a home insulation company could include the hashtag #WarmDryHomes but not # warm dry homes. By making the first letter of each word a capital, the hashtag is easier to read. Make sure your hashtag is relevant to the content that you are sharing and it’s memorable. You can create your own hashtag, based on your brand, a new campaign or an event, or you can take advantage of popular ones in order to reach an existing audience. To get some ideas for hashtags that are trending you can use [RiteTag,](https://ritetag.com/) which also gives you suggestions for Instagram or [Hashtagify.me](http://hashtagify.me/popular) which shows what’s trending on Twitter. Your video or photo won’t post if you add more than 30 hashtags in the post. However even if you can post 29, less is probably more here. A few succinct and relevant hashtags will have more impact than trying to fill each post with everything you can think of. ## **In the platform’s own words** *“Advertising on Instagram has the power to move people – inspiring them to see a business differently or take action.”* ## **Social Ads in BOMA** You can create [Facebook](https://bomamarketing.com/features/growth/facebook-advertising/) and [Instagram](https://bomamarketing.com/features/growth/instagram-advertising/) ads via the BOMA app, alongside organic posts on your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter pages plus the ability to send email campaigns. BOMA delivers your ad directly to Facebook and Instagram, keeping all your digital marketing under one roof! When your campaign is underway you can look at the performance insights on likes, shares, and clicks to understand the effectiveness of your ads. About the Author: Liz Studholme is the Marketing Content Manager at BOMA. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Social Media --- ### [Growing Your Accountancy Business? 5 Key Ways to Achieve Growth](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/small-business/growing-your-accountancy-business-5-key-ways-to-achieve-growth/) **Published:** December 5, 2017 **Author:** Steve Ash **Content:** [Practices grow significantly faster when they move to digital](https://www.xero.com/uk/campaigns/digital-or-die-report/). But making the switch to a cloud platform won’t automatically result in growth. To grow fast, you need to reassess your workflow, revisit the services you offer and consider the kinds of relationships you build with clients. If your firm is keen to expand, we’ve highlighted five core ways to achieve this growth. ## 1. Attract the Right Kind of Client 80% of positive results usually come from your top 20% of clients. So it’s vital to understand your client base and to rate targets based on the value they bring to the firm. Working with demanding, disorganised clients, is inefficient, so aim to work with businesses that fit your ‘ideal client’ mold. To promote the best client growth: - Build long-term relationships with the right clients (and lose the bad clients) - Target companies that are tech-savvy, organised and ambitious - Make sure clients and targets understand the value you bring to their business [In short, attract your ideal client](https://gocardless.com/guides/posts/the-ideal-client-1/), and make the firm more productive. ## 2. Grow Revenue by Improving Efficiency [Digital practices see a 34% increase in revenue-per-employee](https://www.xero.com/uk/campaigns/digital-or-die-report/). Using cloud technology allows greater efficiency, by automating client’s bookkeeping, streamlining their payment options and cashflow, and improving client communication through 24/7 access to their numbers. To grow your revenue through efficiency: - Use software to reduce data-entry time and improve workflow productivity - Allow your team to service a greater number of clients, in a shorter time - Increase fees by servicing a bigger client base, without additional staff [Use tech to make your firm more productive](https://www.cpaaustralia.com.au/professional-resources/public-practice/sustainable-firms/technology), and see the increase in revenues. ## 3. Expand Your Services Beyond the Basics [AI and digital efficiencies](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/11/09/artificial-intelligence-an-opportunity-not-a-threat-for-your-accounting-firm/) offer an opportunity to reduce compliance tasks and increase your advisory work. Accounting insight by [Accountex UK](https://www.accountex.co.uk) claims that business advisory services will soon make up 80% of revenue, so it’s vital to expand beyond being a ‘number cruncher’ and to offer a wider range of value-add services. To create the most valuable service offerings: - Listen to clients, understand their business and find out their pain points - Refine the specialisms, talent and key skills of your staff - Use your people and tech to offer services that cure clients’ pains Offer the services your clients demand and bring in higher-value fees. ![business, technology and office concept - smiling female boss talking to business team](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/AdobeStock_106692927-1-970x620.jpeg) ## 4. Become a Virtual Fd to Your Key Clients [Hiring an FD is a big investment for any business](https://www.fd-works.co.uk/insights/hiring-an-fd/). So there’s value in offering a ‘virtual FD’ or CFO service – becoming a part-time financial director on clients’ boards and offering the kind of forward-looking strategic advice, scenario-planning and decision-making they need. To boost growth through a virtual FD/CFO service: - Identify the entrepreneurial clients who will benefit most from FD-level advice - Upsell a virtual FD role as part of your advisory and financial support packages - Increase your fees by delivering this high-level strategic role at board level. Take on the CFO role with top clients, and strengthen your business partnerships ## 5. Use Digital Marketing to Raise the Firm’s Profile [Marketing strategies have changed in the digital age](https://bomamarketing.com/2019/04/12/6-reasons-why-you-need-to-market-your-accounting-bookkeeping-practice/). Mailing out an occasional newsletter no longer cuts the mustard, so it’s important to focus on online marketing that uses business blogging, social media and email campaigns to attract new clients. To get your marketing up to speed: - Update your website so it’s mobile-friendly, modern and easy to use - Write regular content that highlights your specialisms and key advisory niches - Use social media to widen your audience, increase engagement and add followers [By marketing your firm’s unique selling point](https://www.xero.com/ie/resources/accountant-bookkeeper-guides/marketing/marketing-accounting-firms/), you carve out a more profitable niche. Boma’s digital marketing solution takes the hassle out of creating and managing your online content – giving you back time to focus on your other practice growth areas. [Find out how Boma helps you grow your practice](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/xero/?gclid=CjwKCAiA9MTQBRAREiwAzmytwxR3LWOR9BWBfW2uPGud14N9yt6dT6r0_dkP6Eq43rIrATbMcqhR5hoCsNkQAvD_BwE) **About the Author**: Steve Ash is a specialist in accounting, marketing, business software and fintech apps. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Tips & Advice, Business **Tags:** Accounting, Growth --- ### [Five Accounting Firms, One Tool, Greater Engagement](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/technology/five-accounting-firms-one-tool-greater-engagement/) **Published:** May 21, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **BOMA does the heavy lifting so you can focus on your clients** There’s been an undeniable shift in the accounting industry. While the fundamental concepts arguably remain the same, technology has introduced unlimited opportunities – everything from cloud-based systems and tools to digital marketing strategies. We spoke to five accounting firms – ranging from one-woman shows to teams of 20 – about their digital marketing, and how using [BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/) has helped them support their clients. ## **Using smart tools to maximise efficiency** [Sharon Crocombe-Woodward](https://bomamarketing.com/2020/01/28/empowering-business-with-the-right-tools-cw-chartered-accountants-ltd/) from CW Accountants has many years’ experience in accounting, but before starting her own business, she had very little marketing know-how. She’s a sole trader, so her time is worth every penny – and marketing isn’t something you can charge for, she says. “Starting with a tool like BOMA is helping me put the foundations in place. I can get things out quickly and easily which helps me grow my advisory business.” Shortly after Sharon started using BOMA, she saw increased engagement on her social media posts. “It’s helpful having Facebook and LinkedIn in one place along with the content. I can use one article for LinkedIn and then access another resource for Facebook,” she says. ## **Nurturing and educating existing clients** Marketing isn’t always about attracting new leads – sometimes it’s about taking care of existing clients.[ Scott Murray](https://bomamarketing.com/2019/09/30/tester-porter-steeped-in-tradition-focused-on-the-future/) from Tester Porter says BOMA’s ready-to-share articles and email templates allow him to engage with his clients more frequently – and the quality is consistently high. “I’m able to send two or three newsletters per month – rather than just one – as well as introducing regular social media activity.” [Jo Doye](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/08/06/helping-businesses-grow-and-succeed-alluvia-financial/) from Alluvia Financial dreaded sending out her firm’s newsletters. But she also knew it was a missed opportunity. They now use BOMA to share articles and guides with clients instead. “The [content library](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/content-libraries/) gives you so many options to discuss with clients each week and the Facebook ads let you quickly and easily connect with your audience,” she says. ![Alluvia financial team photo](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Team-with-sign-e1533518945791.jpg) ## **Building relationships to grow the business** Widening your network of clients and peers is critical for any growing business. [Kelly Portelli](https://bomamarketing.com/2019/09/05/boma-plays-an-integral-role-in-our-marketing-inspire-accounting-business-services/) from Inspire Accounting & Business Services explains that streamlining their marketing activity saves the partners a lot of the “heavy lifting” involved with securing new work. Woottons Chartered Accountants have had their doors open for 60 years, and recently identified a new growth area for the firm. “We wanted to be sure that we can communicate with clients and prospects, no matter what channel they prefer to use. BOMA has helped us achieve this,” says [Luke Sawyer](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/08/13/marketing-advisory-services-and-business-growth-woottons-chartered-accountants/). ![Inspire Team photo](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Inspire-Team-photo-1.jpeg) ## **Branching out into social media** For many established firms like Woottons, social media is uncharted territory. [BOMA’s huge content library of hundreds of articles](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/xero-content-library/), curated specifically for accountants and bookkeepers, has given the firm confidence to adapt and evolve. The library covers all types of content, from business strategy and compliance to tax reminders, market trends, and news articles. Then there’s the [Image Library](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/image-library/) with over 5 million free images, to help you repurpose the content for your social media channels. “We had been reluctant to create Facebook and Twitter accounts because of the extra work required to maintain each channel, but BOMA pushes the campaigns we create for email out to our social pages too,” Luke says. Kelly adds that a strong social presence has been key to their firm connecting with new audiences in a less formal, more personal setting. “With regular, multi-channel campaigns…we are reaping the rewards of greater engagement. It’s helped us stay relevant and top of mind in a fast-paced and evolving business environment,” she says. ![Woottons - header image](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Woottons-Boma-e1533600454665.png) ## **Added value – keeping on top of trends** Accountants and bookkeepers are in the business of making life easier for their clients. While that means providing valuable business advice and accounting services, it’s also about keeping them updated with trending news. Creating that type of content requires time and effort that many firms don’t have. “I was reviewing some new legislation getting passed in support of single tough payroll, and just jumped into BOMA to find a relevant article. I shot it out straight away because it was timely, and it created a connection straight away,” Scott says. ## **The all-in-one digital marketing tool for accountants and bookkeepers** BOMA combines email and social media marketing with a huge library of articles, making it easy to share great content with your clients and prospective customers. It streamlines your digital marketing and makes communicating with your clients simple. That way, you can focus on what you do best: supporting your clients and growing your business. **Ready to give BOMA a try? Click [here](https://app.bomamarketing.com/register?_ga=2.57144298.1376466863.1620866986-1911221469.1620080227) for your free 14-day trial or [book](https://meetings.hubspot.com/cripepi/product-demo-anz) a 45-min online demo.** **Categories:** Tips & Advice, Technology --- ### [Don’t Panic! GDPR, Data Protection and How to Safeguard Client Data](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/technology/dont-panic-gdpr-data-protection-and-how-to-safeguard-client-data/) **Published:** March 26, 2018 **Author:** Steve Ash **Content:** ## How the New EU-Wide Law Affects Your Firm The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) becomes EU law on 25 May 2018, meaning there’s a real imperative to review the ways you obtain, store and process client’s personal data. But this imminent GDPR deadline needn’t be a reason to panic. What’s needed is a clear plan that shows how your firm will meet the GDPR requirements. And, to help get your data ticking all the right compliance boxes, we’ve outlined the main requirements of the new law and the key actions you’ll need to take as a firm. ## What is GDPR? With so much business now carried out in the digital domain, personal data has never been as widely shared, used and stored as it is in 2018 – and that raises questions around data security. [The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/) has been created to bring existing data protection regulations in line with the changing ways businesses use individual’s data. It’s an EU-wide law that expands on the existing [Data Protection Act](https://www.gov.uk/data-protection) to harmonise individual’s data privacy laws across the EU, significantly tightening the regulations and compliance around data. In short, GDPR is the EU’s way of giving individuals, prospects, clients, contractors and employees more control over, and better access to, their personal data. ## Will My Firm Be Affected by GDPR? On the whole, GDPR applies to companies with over 250 employees. But there are stipulations within the legislation that mean firms with less staff are almost certainly going to be required to meet the stated guidelines around data protection. [GDPR identifies both ‘controllers’ of data and ‘processors’ of data](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/key-definitions/) in Article 4 of the GDPR rules, with both equally liable to data subjects (that’s your clients, in plain English). **Controller** = “the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data” **Processor** = “the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which processes personal data on behalf of the controller” When an accountant carries out work on a client’s behalf they’re [classified as a data controller under GDPR](https://www.accountancyage.com/2017/12/05/demystifying-gdpr-accountants/). Your firm can also be classed as a processor, so it’s possible to be both controller and processor, depending on how your client data is stored and then processed. In either circumstance, you’re bound by the GDPR rules and must make moves to comply with the new law. ## What Do I Need to Do? As an accountancy/bookkeeping firm, and as a data controller/processor, it’s important that you know what’s expected of the firm – and what your next steps should be to meet GDPR. Gary Bell, partner at [FLB Accountants](http://www.flb.co.uk/), has already started contacting their clients to spell out the high-level data protection changes that will be needed, as he outlines: *“The protection of client data is of paramount importance to us, and for this reason we’re making a number of changes internally to protect the data we hold. We’ll also be changing the way we exchange sensitive data with clients to enhance our processes.”* Penalties for non-compliance by firms could be significant – €20M or 4% of company turnover. But knowing exactly what’s required can be a challenge, given the open-ended nature of some of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) guidelines. This lack of clarity is something that Richard Suswain, partner at [Tyrrell & Company](https://tyrrellandcompany.co.uk/), encountered when investigating GDPR for their firm. *“From the GDPR guidelines that I’ve read, certain areas seem a little ambiguous. It all comes down to how you choose, as an accountant, to interpret the legislation, so it seems like further guidance from the ICO needs to follow. Some of the best [guidance is coming from the ICAEW](https://www.icaew.com/en/technical/information-technology/cyber-resource-centre/general-data-protection-regulations) where the institute is more specific around what accountants should be doing to comply with GDPR.”* ![General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) date](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/AdobeStock_188105530-e1522018939630-451x300.jpeg) And although that 25th May deadline is coming around fast, what’s important is to have planned ahead for GDPR and to be working towards making your data processes compliant. *“There is a lot of concern about meeting the 25th May 2018 deadline for GDPR, but the important thing at this stage is to have a plan in place for getting compliant and to start documenting, for instance, where and why you’re holding personal data. Firms are trying to get engagement letters out there with new terms and privacy policies, but if you look at the institutes – whether it’s the CIOT, the ACA or the ICAEW – none of them will have new engagement letter templates or guidance ready until Summer 2018.* *So let’s not panic about GDPR, let’s use it as an opportunity to review your processes and the way you handle personal data and to make sure you’ve got a clear plan. For me, the important thing at the moment is to document what you’re doing around data flows and protection and to start taking action.”* ## 10 Key Steps for Your Firm to Action With the May 2018 deadline getting ever closer, now’s the time to get your plan in place and to start getting ready for the GDPR changes. So, if you’ve not already started your GDPR compliance processes, what are the key things you’ll need to do as a firm? ![General Data Protection Regulation To do list](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/AdobeStock_182240366-e1522018885356-451x300.jpeg) **Here are 10 fundamental steps for your firm to action:** 1. **Audit and document your data flows** – map all personal client data that comes into (and out of) the firm. And note down where that data is stored, who can access it and whether there’s any potential risk element to that data source. 2. **Update engagement letters and client communications** – you’ll need to revise your engagement letters in line with your institute’s new guidance. This will also mean updating your privacy policies and any GDPR-related agreements with clients around data protection and consent to be contacted electronically by the firm. 3. **Encrypt your devices and servers** – making your IT hardware secure is a key element to get right. If you’re a Windows 10 user, you automatically have a tool called [BitLocker](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/information-protection/bitlocker/bitlocker-overview) which provides a simple way to encrypt your PC – and Mac users have access to [third-party encryption tools that do the same job](https://alternativeto.net/software/windows-bitlocker/?platform=mac). You also need to make sure the servers you’re using are encrypted too, making your hardware storage as secure as possible. 4. **Review how you transmit client data** – look at the ways you’re transmitting client information from your laptops or PCs. That means looking at email encryption and how you share information with clients, or moving this process to a document-sharing portal to remove the need for attachments in emails etc. 5. **Clean up existing client data** – only store the data you need for engagement and compliance purposes. If you’re holding out-of-date or unnecessary personal data, now is a good time to delete this and clear down your systems. 6. **Use 2-factor authentication for cloud apps** – with your cloud apps and solutions, it’s vital to know where the data is stored and to ensure you have [2-factor authentication (2FA)](https://www.securenvoy.com/two-factor-authentication/what-is-2fa.shtm) enabled for these apps. Security encryption tools like [Authanvil](https://authanvil.com) sit across all your systems, allowing you to assign 2FA policies, single sign-ons and bring-your-own-device policies for staff to all the cloud apps you’re using in the firm. 7. **Train staff on good data practices** – your whole practice should be up to speed on best practice when it comes to managing data, but GDPR provides an incentive to get formal training in place and to enhance your staff’s understanding of data security. 8. **New contracts for all employees** – whether you run your HR in-house or have outsourced to a third party, you’ll need to update your employment contracts to cover privacy and employment data under GDPR. 9. **Appoint a Data Protection Officer** – If your firm has over 250 employees, you’re legally bound to appoint a [Data Protection Officer](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/accountability-and-governance/data-protection-officers/), but there’s value to defining this role whatever size your firm – giving you a senior person to oversee the whole process and ensure the firm’s compliance. 10. **Have a clear plan in place** – get your GDPR compliance plan in place as a matter of urgency, so you can clearly demonstrate that you’re taking action. By taking clear, decisive action now, keeping your firm compliant with the GDPR legislation needn’t be a headache. It’s a great chance to review your data processes, educate your staff and enhance the overall security of the practice – while ticking the right compliance boxes. There’s more guidance on meeting your GDPR requirements on the [ICAEW website](https://www.icaew.com/). ### How Boma Protects Your Personal Data Boma abides by strict privacy rules governing the use of your data including your client details. For GDPR we are well advanced in our preparations for the introduction of the new regulations on the 25th May and we’ll be posting an update to our blog on this topic in the coming weeks. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Technology **Tags:** GDPR, Data --- ### [The Key to Successful Marketing is a Unique Selling Point. How to Create a Value Proposition](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/the-key-to-successful-marketing-is-a-unique-selling-point-how-to-create-a-value-proposition/) **Published:** July 24, 2018 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** A value proposition is a promise. It describes the value you deliver to your customers. Usually captured in a short statement, it clearly defines what your company does, how you meet customers’ needs and why they should choose you over a competitor – A great value proposition clearly states your unique point of difference. It’s not easy to capture all of this in one proposition but when you have done this, it provides you with a powerful tool for converting prospects to customers. Your value proposition gives prospects the reason to buy from you, it brings your internal team together behind your unique selling point and forms the basis of consistent marketing communications. To write one for your brand you’ll need to think about the following questions: - What are you selling ? - Who is it for? - What do they get? - Why is your product better? The following guide will help you formulate yours. ## **Start with your customers** The better you understand your target audience, the more relevant your value proposition will be, because they are at the centre of it. Consider their age, buying power and geographical location. Identify the customers you want more of and use them to build a picture of the audience you are targeting. What kind of language do they use and where they go for information about the products and services you offer? Answering these questions will help your view your product from their point of view. ## **How do you solve the problem for them?** The reality is that people aren’t just buying a product or service, they are buying a solution to a problem. Make a list of all the benefits your product offers customers. For example, [Amazon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com) made purchasing online easier while [Uber](https://www.uber.com) is improving the on-demand car service. Your customers may be comparing your products and services with those of a competitor so your value proposition should focus on the unique qualities of your product or service. It could be price, speed of delivery, unique features or stand out service. ## **What does your product or service do?** List the key features of your product or service offers. Features are different to benefits. Features are the facts about your product that provide enough detail in a clear concise way so that prospects can quickly understand what you are offering and how it will help them. ## **What sets you apart from your competitors?** Why are you different and better than others – essentially, why customers should choose you? There might be a number of reasons why your product is better, however there is probably one that your customer cares most about. Think about the following questions: - I**s the market underserved currently?** In a highly competitive market, your value proposition might look different from one in which there are few competitors. Benefits like service and brand identity might be stronger differentiators than features, if there are many similar products to yours already being offered. - **Are you cheaper than other products on the market?** This is a super easy proposition to explain but there are obvious disadvantages in being the lowest cost product if you need to continue to sacrifice profit for market share. - **Is your product uniquely different?** If there are no products like yours on the market you might emphasise the innovative factors of your product. These could be either based on your unique features or your brand. - **Do you offer great customer service?** If you make things much easier for your customers you’ll build a loyal following from people who would rather buy from you, even if it costs more. - **How urgent is solving the problem?** Understanding the element of urgency in demand for your product is important to building your value proposition. If there is a high degree of urgency, your value statement should mention your speedy and efficient turnaround for delivery. - **Are you a partner in their business?** In B2B, your expertise may be a vital and integral part of your clients’ businesses. ## **Including images** Images can be a powerful way to tie it all together. But only if the image adds value to the message. Avoid irrelevant pictures and aim for something that emphasises the benefits to your specific audience ## **Value Proposition Examples** A value proposition is not a marketing slogan but it may include one. A great slogan will sum up the value you offer in a line. Here are some examples: ### **Dilmah Tea** ![Dilmah brand proposition](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Screen-Shot-2018-07-06-at-3.38.56-PM-470x169.png) The Dilmah brand is now the third largest tea producer in the world. Dilmah founder, Merrill J. Fernando pioneered the concept of ‘The Single Origin Tea’. The product is ‘picked, perfected and packed’ at source. The company has built a loyal customer base around the values of ethics, integrity, passion and quality (summed up in the image above from their home page). Every box of tea has a personal message from Fernando about his lifelong commitment to tea, his family involvement, the care that goes into creating the finest tea in the world and the ethical way the company cares for the plantation staff. ### **Ikea** ![Ikea Value prop](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Screen-Shot-2018-07-25-at-9.31.23-AM-470x192.png) Ikea was founded in the 1940s by Ingvar Kamprad to sell good quality furniture and home furnishings at affordable prices. Ikea describe their value proposition [“To create a better everyday life for the many people”. ](https://www.ikea.com/)The business idea is “to offer a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them”. In Ingvar’s words, ‘We have decided once and for all to side with the many. What is good for our customers is also, in the long run, good for us.’ Ikea has successfully marketed ‘self assembled’ furniture as a consumer benefit rather than a hassle and the successful brand now has stores in 32 countries. ### **Shopify** ![Shopify value proposition](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Screen-Shot-2018-07-16-at-10.10.37-AM-470x261.png) Shopify’s value proposition in summed up in the simple statement: “Shopify is everything you need to sell everywhere” It’s simple and clear, Shopify provides you with the tools to sell online. End of story. ## **Use your Value Proposition in all your communication** When you have established your value proposition (and ideally captured it in a compelling statement!) make it the first thing your prospects read: 1. **Website Homepage** – Put it front and centre on your website’s home page and in your websites meta data. Metadata is the short description that explains the contents of your page. It helps people in their internet search to scan the information you provide and also helps search engines rank you. 2. **Social Media** – Use your value proposition in your social media pages both in your page description and in your posts, ads and tweets. 3. **In Print** – Use it in your printed material such as sales brochures information flyers and print advertisements 4. **PR and Comms** – Back it up with every comms going forward, such as annual reports and presentations. 5. **The Team** – Make sure your company personnel such as sales and customer services staff are be familiar with the proposition and can give the ‘elevator pitch’ with ease. ## **The value of ‘difference’** Your value proposition serves as a foundational idea that underlies your business and can set you apart in the long haul. Research company, Millward Brown, found that the magic ingredient in their BrandZ Top 100 survey is ‘difference’.[ The 50 brands that score highest on difference grew their value by 124% over 10 years, while those in the bottom 50 (also strong brands) boosted their value by just 24%](https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2015/jul/10/great-marketing-requires-strong-brand-proposition). Take the time to thoroughly analyse what your company’s purpose is and what you it can do for customers and how your product or service differs from others. Then use this idea across all your marketing communications to give your prospects the reason to choose you. About the Author: Liz Studholme is the Marketing Content Manager at BOMA. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Marketing **Tags:** Business, Strategy --- ### [The Cost of Digital Marketing for Accountants and Bookkeepers. What Does It Really Cost?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/digital-marketing/the-cost-of-digital-marketing-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers-what-does-it-really-cost/) **Published:** August 21, 2020 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** Marketing fuels your business. And it is not just about attracting new clients, it is vital for maintaining your current client relationships. Marketing is just one of the many hats small business staff need to wear, regardless of whether they are marketers by training or not. 71% of small business owners, including accountants and bookkeepers, [do their own digital marketing](https://www.bluecorona.com/blog/29-small-business-digital-marketing-statistics). For many, marketing can be pretty challenging. In fact, [66% of small business owners report that they face marketing challenges.](https://digital.com/blog/small-business-statistics/#ixzz5TTgBA4xu) And marketing can be time-consuming. Not including video or premium long-form content, the average small business spends 10 hours per week on their digital marketing. - 2.5 hours per 500 word blog - 2 hours on social media - 3.5 hours on email campaigns - 2 hours on analytics and reporting *Sources: BOMA User Insights 2018,* [*IRIS*](https://www.iris.xyz/) ## **So what does this cost your business?** If we take an average annual salary of $85,000 and convert to an hourly salary of $42.50, those 10 hours equate to $425 per week. **Annually that’s a marketing spend $21,250!** And this doesn’t include image costs, designers, writers and multiple marketing communications platforms. The hours (and cost) also goes up if you are managing lots of channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Email etc. Business owners could do quite a bit with an extra $20,000. The options are endless: - A [brand new Hyundai Hatch](https://www.hyundai.co.nz/small-cars/i30) with money spare to fill the tank for a few years! - [11 Electric bikes](https://www.evocycles.co.nz/electric-bikes), or buy 2 and have money spare for a solar system to charge them! - 710[ Skydives over Wanaka, NZ](https://www.skydivewanaka.com/prices-and-packages/) - 5,420[ coffees](https://friendlyfinance.com.au/blog/australia-coffee-index) in Sydney - [44 Apple watches](https://www.apple.com/nz/watch/) And what about those extra hours. With an extra 10 hours per week you could have: - more advisory time with clients - more clients! - more time ‘on’ your business rather than just ‘in’ - more time with family - more time for exercise ## **So what’s the solution?** In an age where everyone is online, your business needs to be too. [70-80% of people research a company online BEFORE visiting the small business or making a purchase with them](https://www.bluecorona.com/blog/29-small-business-digital-marketing-statistics). And while it can be time-consuming and costly, almost [90% of marketers](https://www.vendasta.com/blog/157-stunning-social-media-stats-to-savor/#generalstats) say their social marketing efforts have increased exposure for their business, and 75% say they’ve increased traffic. There’s no denying that digital marketing is great for your business. Posts to social networks and emails can add value for your existing clients, build loyalty and promote your advisory services. Regular updates online improve your ranking by search engines and helps to raise your profile with new prospects. BOMA was developed for accountants and bookkeepers to make it easier and reduce the time and cost you spend marketing online. BOMA brings all your communication channels together in one easy-to-use platform -Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter and Email so that you can send a campaign out in a matter of minutes. Stuck on what to say? BOMA gives you a library of ready-to-share business advisory and compliance articles written for your audience. Plus you get access to over 1.7 million free images and every communication is automatically formatted for the channels you choose. BOMA helps drive better marketing results and gives you more time to focus on your business. ## Use the BOMA ROI Calculator to work out how much time and money you can save by using BOMA The calculator reflects the potential ROI that you could realise by using BOMA to conduct your Digital Marketing. Enter your answers for each question below and it will calculate how much you could save. [Click here to try the calculator ](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-roi-calculator/) ## Keep Reading [Save Time and Money on Marketing for Your Accounting Firm](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/09/28/what-is-boma-digital-marketing-made-easy/) **Categories:** Digital Marketing, Tips & Advice --- ### [Writing a Newsletter This Christmas? This Checklist Will Help You Get Started](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/email-marketing/writing-a-newsletter-this-christmas-this-checklist-will-help-you-get-started/) **Published:** November 27, 2017 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** It probably sits on your ‘to-do’ list…..send an email out to clients to wrap up the year, thank them and share some of the year’s milestones. And, with everything else that this time of year throws at you, the chances are that your Christmas Newsletter is still waiting to be written. So here’s a quick guide to help you achieve it. ## Who Are You Sending It To? Before you start, consider your audience. Talk to them directly, as you would if you saw them in person. Your clients work with you because they trust you and you understand them. So be human in your marketing and communications with them. The content you create will not only be more engaging, but you are also more likely to send them something that is ‘them focussed’ not ‘you focussed’. ## **Subject Line** This is the first thing your recipient will see, so make sure you are inviting them to open your email. Try to stay away from obvious titles such as ‘Christmas Newsletter’. In fact, emails including the word ‘newsletter’ in the subject line may be less likely to be opened. In an email marketing study by Adestra, that compared open rates based on the subject line, the emails headed ‘Newsletter’ saw a 40% decrease in click rate. Other [studies](http://www.convinceandconvert.com/content-marketing/a-marketers-guide-to-the-perfect-headline/) have shown that 35% of email recipients open emails based on the subject line alone. Try a more engaging heading or be clear about the benefits you offer in the email. TIP: Write your subject line at the end, you’ll find it easier to create a title that sums up the content you have written and focuses on the most important point. For example, replace ‘Christmas Newsletter’ with ‘Worried about cashflow over the holiday period? Read on for tips and more’ ## **Preview** Most inboxes are set up to preview the content of the email. If you add nothing here, your recipients will see the top couple of lines of copy and this may not make sense. Using digital marketing software like BOMA will automatically produce or allow you to write up a short preview that your readers will see first. It only needs to be a couple of lines but it gives them a teaser and should convince them to open your email. ## **The Body Copy** Break it down into scannable sections. You will find it easier to write and your audience can zero in on the information they are most interested in. Once you have decided on your topics, these could form the basis of your next email communication. In fact, it will give you a template for your ongoing email marketing to make the whole process much easier. TIP – BOMA’s content library has new articles every week covering general business & financial advice, compliance, tax, management and news. Simply choose an article, customise it, and deliver it. You can build a newsletter in minutes using articles from the BOMA Content Library and simply adding your own personal touches. Here are some ideas to include in your end-of-year newsletter: - **An introduction** – Open the newsletter in a personal way. Keep it short and sweet and don’t be afraid to be different, such as starting with a question or a strong statement that demonstrates your understanding of the issues or opportunities faced by your clients. - **Stories from your staff** – Tell them about an event you attended, profile one of your partners or introduce a new member to the team – and remember to focus on what this means for your reader (more support, more expertise, more insights). - **Tips for businesses at this time of year** – Whether that’s compliance dates or how to manage temporary shut-downs. - **Client success stories** – By showcasing the achievements of one of your clients, you are supporting and sharing in their success. - **Highlight on your Practice** – Use this section to share something of value such as expert opinions, industry news advice on changes in an industry. This could be an opportunity to briefly talk about a service your firm offers that some of your clients may not be aware of. - **Lifestyle** – A great book you recommend your clients read on holiday or some advice in their planning for next year, - **Important Information** – At this time of year you could let your clients know when the office is closed over the holiday period. ## **Design and Images** Bring your company branding to the fore by including your logo and background colours. BOMA makes email design easy by pulling through your brand colours and providing a choice of templates. The software ensures your newsletter is formatted for whatever device it is read on. For longer-form content, add a ‘Read More’ button or use a URL link, that directs readers back to a blog or News page on your website. Your email is not the same as a print brochure but images do sell. Including images will make your email more engaging to the reader. BOMA gives you access to over 600,000 free images to use in your emails. Don’t overdo it, but use a couple to break up the text. What differentiates your firm from others is your people and the personal connection you have with your clients so don’t be afraid to use photos of the team, either a staff shot or photos you took at a recent event. ## Follow the Rules If you are sending a large group of contacts make sure you have your contacts’ permission to email them. Include an **unsubscribe** link at the bottom of each email and it’s a good idea to tell them why they are receiving it. ## **Send a Test** Finally, before you send it out to your clients and prospects, send a test to yourself and someone in the office. Do a final read through to check for grammar and spelling and you are ready to go. TIP: In BOMA you can add your completed newsletter to social media channels to further broaden your reach with clients and prospects. Well done. There is one less thing on your Christmas ‘To-do’ list! **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is the digital marketing toolkit and content library specifically for accountants and bookkeepers. Choose from hundreds of customisable business advisory articles in BOMA’s content library and share them via email, social media channels, and your website. Content is specific to your region. Plus free images, lead capture, and custom website build service. BOMA saves you time and expense and makes engaging with your clients or prospecting for new leads very simple and easy! Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Email Marketing **Tags:** Newsletter --- ### [BOMA + Gap Webinar - Start Simple: The Improvement Meeting](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/boma-gap-webinar-start-simple-the-improvement-meeting-au-nz-edition/) **Published:** April 13, 2023 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** The simplest way to build advisory momentum, is to get your clients on the first paid rung of the value ladder: a low-cost meeting. Whether you’re kickstarting your advisory journey or looking to generate more interest in your existing high-value advisory services, join us for a 45 minute webinar; Start simple: The Improvement Meeting. Charles Clark, Co-Founder of BOMA and Natalie Eady, General Manager at The Gap cover how to: - Market and monetise a simple improvement meeting - Deliver an hour of value – and define actionable improvement strategies - Kickstart your advisory journey - Nurture the right clients to drive high-value advisory outcomes - Get more of your clients on the Advisory Value ladder **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Create a contact record in BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/contacts/create-a-contact-record-in-boma/) **Published:** April 5, 2023 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we explain how to add a new contact to BOMA manually. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Contacts --- ### [The Ultimate Guide to Blog Writing for your Accounting and Bookkeeping Website](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/website/the-ultimate-guide-to-blog-writing-for-your-accounting-website/) **Published:** September 23, 2020 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** Blogs can drive traffic to your website. Why, because one of the key attributes Google and other search engines, judge your website on is.. words. If the words on your accounting or bookkeeping website provide useful information that responds to what someone is searching for, you provide more opportunities for them to find you. Plus, if your information is informative, relevant, and useful, this not only keeps people on your website longer which is good for SEO but also differentiates you from your competitors. People trust blogs. In [research by Evernote](https://www.forbes.com/sites/ajagrawal/2016/03/28/building-trust-how-blogging-can-improve-customer-relationships/#44c574b34eeb), 81% of US consumers trust the information they read on a blog, making them a powerful tool to start building a relationship with prospective clients. Trust is the first buying filter! But if writing fills you with dread and gets pushed off your ‘to-do’ list each day, we’ve got some tips to get you started. ## **Put yourself in the shoes of your reader** This will help with what you write about and how you write it. What will they want to know or find useful? Imagine you are having a conversation with them. If you are explaining technical accounting concepts, can you put it in plain-English and use examples that apply to their specific situation? Showing you understand your reader establishes you as the right choice for prospects when they need your services. You’ll also be supporting your existing clients and fulfilling your role as a trusted advisor. ## **Write about what you know** There is so much information in your accounting practice that might be common sense to you but is highly valuable for your clients. Give away some advice to demonstrate the value you can add for them. Great content should give first and sell second. Here are some ideas: - Plain-English guides to complex accounting principles - Seasonal or event-based information such as EOFY or the holiday season. - Specific advice in the areas of specialty in your accounting practice - Helpful tips and tricks to make tax compliance easier and more efficient - News – informed commentary on finance and accounting news or budget announcements, new tax laws and business subsidies - Insight – offer a new and different opinion to cut through. - ‘How -to’ guides on anything, whether it’s on payroll, setting up a feature in cloud accounting software or how to sell your business. - Templates to download like checklists and tax calendars etc - Case studies with existing clients - Look at your inbox – are there questions that you often get asked by clients that you can provide helpful answers to? ## **Start with a plan for your writing** Approaching any task with a plan makes it easier to complete. You don’t need to write the final blog in one day, it may take a few days. The time in between your writing will help to solidify your thoughts and the end result will be better. Try the following steps: ### **1. Write down three or four headings to frame your blog** - Introduction – Why is the topic/subject important? - Key things your reader needs to know – the salient points. - Your recommendation or a call to action (‘we can help’) ### **2. Write without editing** Jot down the key points you want to cover under each heading. At first, just get something down and the body copy will follow. Write your introduction last – Try to stick to short introductions that get to the point. Simple can be sophisticated. ### **3. Go for a walk, grab a coffee or get on with other work** A good piece of writing takes a while. Once you have the first points down, give yourself the headspace to think. ### **4. Bringing it together** Pull out your key points as bullets – If you are writing for Internet readers, be aware that they read differently to offline readers. They scan. Give them strong headings to guide them through and easy take-outs. Do a read through and edit it. Is it easy to read? Break up long sentences into shorter and cut out extra words. Write your headline last. Make it clearly about the topic and consider what your audience might be searching for, if they want information on the topic. ## **Optimising your accounting blog for search engines** The content you publish on your accounting website is useful for your existing clients but it also improves your ranking by a search engine. Keywords are the words that someone uses in a google search. The more of these words on your site, the higher your chances of being on the search engine results page. Use keywords naturally in your blogs and the pages of your website. For example, if you have expertise in succession planning, write about this, if your firm is the farm accounting specialist, make sure you cover the questions that relate to this industry on your website. Use the related words through your blog, the title, the URL and the meta description. ## **Share your content** Once you’ve hit publish on that blog, make sure you share it. Send it out in your newsletters or share it on your social media channels with a link back to your website to read more. You can also offer your content as a guest blog for an industry website. If you are using [BOMA, ](https://bomamarketing.com/)simply paste the URL of your blog into a new campaign and BOMA takes care of the formatting to create a social post or email for you. ## **Useful tools** Check out these useful tools to help you with your writing. **Hemingway –** Paste your finished blog into Hemmingway or write in the app. Hemingway gives you suggestions to make your writing clear and bold. You’ll see text highlighted when the app suggests you shorten the sentence or make it clearer. [Find out more about Hemmingway here.](http://www.hemingwayapp.com/) **Google Docs** – Google Docs is great for collaboration. You can invite others to review your writing and make suggestions or comments for you to accept or reject. You can also review version history if you want to revert to earlier versions. [Find out more about Google Docs here.](https://docs.google.com/) **Grammarly –** Grammarly is a writing app that goes beyond your usual spell check. The free plan gives you corrections to spelling, grammar, and punctuation and you can use it on your social media channels, in emails, and in documents. Paid versions include more features such as a plagiarism checker, readability, fluency, word choice, etc. [Find out more about Grammarly here.](https://www.grammarly.com/) **Theasurus.com** – Searching your brain for the right word? Thesaurus.com will provide alternative suggestions for the word you type in. [Find out more about Thesaurus.com here.](https://www.thesaurus.com/) **Otter.ai – Otter ai was designed to create captions for live speakers, and generate written transcriptions of the speeches. The app uses AI to turn voice to text so can be a useful way to write a blog if you prefer to do it this way. [Find out more about Otter.ai here.](https://otter.ai/)** **ABOUT BOMA** – Did you know that BOMA has a library of hundreds of articles that are updated weekly? BOMA is designed specifically for accountants and bookkeepers so you can create relevant, useful, and compelling emails and social posts. Simply choose an article, customise it, and send it as an email, blog, or social post. BOMA kickstarts your digital marketing. [Trial for free today](https://bomamarketing.com/) **Categories:** Content Marketing, Website --- ### [Navigating the BOMA Dashboard](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/getting-started/navigating-the-boma-dashboard/) **Published:** November 16, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll cover the Dashboard, the launchpad for all your BOMA activity. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Getting Started --- ### [Edit, duplicate, archive and delete a campaign in BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/campaigns/edit-duplicate-archive-and-delete-a-campaign-in-boma/) **Published:** December 12, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** I’m this video tutorial we will cover how you can edit, duplicate, archive and delete your email and social campaigns. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Campaigns --- ### [Sending an email from the Content Library in BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/email/sending-an-email-from-the-content-library-in-boma/) **Published:** December 8, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll walk you through how to send an email using content from the Content Library in BOMA. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Email --- ### [Add (or inject) content article to an email template](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/email/how-to-add-or-inject-content-to-an-email-template/) **Published:** November 17, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll cover how you can take inject content from the BOMA content library into an email template. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Email --- ### [Add or remove users to your BOMA account](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/how-to-add-or-remove-users-to-your-boma-account/) **Published:** November 17, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll show you how to add or remove users to your BOMA account. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Video Tutorials, Settings --- ### [Add a Coupon Code to your BOMA account](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/settings/how-to-add-a-coupon-code-to-your-boma-account/) **Published:** November 17, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll show you how to add a Coupon Code to your BOMA account. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Settings --- ### [Update your credit card details in your BOMA account](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/settings/how-to-update-your-credit-card-details-in-your-boma-account/) **Published:** November 17, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll show you how to update your credit card details in your BOMA account. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Settings --- ### [Set up 2 Step Authentication and GDPR Compliance in BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/settings/how-to-set-up-2-step-authentication-and-gdpr-compliance-in-boma/) **Published:** November 17, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll show how to set up 2 Step Authentication and GDPR Compliance in BOMA. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Settings --- ### [Set up your email branding in BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/settings/how-to-set-up-your-email-branding-in-boma/) **Published:** November 17, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll show you how to set up your email branding in BOMA. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Settings --- ### [Connect your Social Media accounts to BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/settings/how-to-connect-your-social-media-accounts-to-boma/) **Published:** November 17, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll show you how to connect your Social Media accounts, such as Facebook Business & Personal, LinkedIn Business & personal, Instagram and Twitter to your BOMA so you can start posting to social. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Settings --- ### [Sync BOMA with your Xero HQ account](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/settings/how-to-sync-boma-with-your-xero-hq-account/) **Published:** November 17, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll show you how to sync BOMA with your Xero HQ account. This will bring in your Xero HQ into BOMA and keep them up to date. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Settings --- ### [Manage your email contacts in BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/contacts/how-to-manage-your-boma-contacts/) **Published:** November 17, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we explain the different ways that you can manage your contacts in BOMA. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Contacts --- ### [Import and export contacts in BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/contacts/how-to-import-and-export-contacts-in-boma/) **Published:** November 17, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll show you how to import and export contacts in BOMA. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Contacts --- ### [Segmenting your contacts in BOMA using tags](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/contacts/segmenting-your-contacts-in-boma-using-tags/) **Published:** November 17, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll show you how to segment your contacts using tags so that you can create specific segments and groups that you can then send emails to. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Contacts --- ### [Sync BOMA with your Xero HQ account](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/contacts/sync-boma-with-your-xero-hq-account/) **Published:** December 1, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll show you how to sync BOMA with your Xero HQ account. This will bring in your Xero HQ into BOMA and keep them up to date. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Contacts --- ### [Review your BOMA Lead Form submissions](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/lead-forms/how-to-review-your-boma-lead-form-submissions/) **Published:** November 17, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll show you how to see and review submissions to your BOMA lead forms. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Lead Forms --- ### [Create a Lead Form in BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/lead-forms/how-to-create-a-lead-form-in-boma/) **Published:** November 17, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we show you how to create a Lead Form in BOMA so you can capture leads. Examples of lead forms include Newsletter Signups, Contact Us, Downloadable Lead Magnets and more. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Lead Forms --- ### [Embed a BOMA Lead Form on your website, social media post or email](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/lead-forms/how-to-embed-your-boma-lead-form-on-your-website-social-media-post-or-email/) **Published:** November 17, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we show you wow to embed your BOMA Lead Capture Forms on your website, social media post or email. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Lead Forms --- ### [Switch your social channels 'On' or 'Off' in BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/social-media-tutorials/switch-your-social-channels-on-or-off-in-boma/) **Published:** December 1, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll show you how to switch your social channels ‘On’ or ‘Off’ in BOMA so you can add or remove them from your social media channel. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Social Media --- ### [Sharing articles from the Content Library on Social Media](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/social-media-tutorials/sharing-articles-from-the-content-library-on-social-media/) **Published:** November 17, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll show you how to share articles from the Content Library via your Social Media channels. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Social Media --- ### [Share a blog post (or any URL) via social media](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/social-media-tutorials/how-to-share-a-blog-post-or-any-url-via-social-media/) **Published:** November 17, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll show you how to share a blog post (or any URL) via your social media channels in BOMA. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Social Media --- ### [Create and send a social media blog post](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/social-media-tutorials/how-to-create-and-send-a-social-media-blog-post/) **Published:** November 17, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll show you how to create and send a social media blog post from scratch in BOMA. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Social Media --- ### [Schedule a social media post in BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/social-media-tutorials/schedule-a-social-media-post-in-boma/) **Published:** December 1, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we explain how to schedule a social media or email campaign in BOMA allowing you to queue up campaigns to be sent in the future. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Social Media --- ### [Premium Libraries in BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/content-library/premium-libraries-in-boma/) **Published:** November 16, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll look at how you can access the premium content libraries in BOMA. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Content Library --- ### [Content categories in the BOMA content library](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/content-library/content-categories-in-the-boma-content-library/) **Published:** November 17, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll take you through the different content categories in the BOMA content library and how to navigate through them. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Content Library --- ### [Schedule an email campaign in BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/email/how-to-switch-your-social-channels-on-or-off-in-boma/) **Published:** November 17, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we explain how to schedule a social media or email campaign in BOMA allowing you to queue up campaigns to be sent in the future. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Email --- ### [Email subject lines and preview descriptions](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/email/email-subject-lines-and-preview-descriptions/) **Published:** November 17, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll cover email subject lines and preview descriptions. What they are and how to create them. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Email --- ### [Email sender details and sending a test email](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/email/email-sender-details-and-sending-a-test-email/) **Published:** November 17, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll explain what sender are, how to change them and then how to send out a test email. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Email --- ### [Preview an email in BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/email/how-to-use-the-rows-tab-in-the-boma-email-editor/) **Published:** November 17, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we’ll explain how you can preview an email before you send it. This is useful as you can see the layout and design from the end readers perspective and also test out any links or buttons. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Email --- ### [Settings in the BOMA email editor](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/email/creating-an-email-newsletter-in-the-boma-email-editor-2/) **Published:** December 1, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we explain the different Settings in the BOMA email editor which will allow you to further customise your email. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Email --- ### [How to use the Rows Tab in the BOMA email editor](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/email/how-to-use-the-rows-tab-in-the-boma-email-editor-2/) **Published:** December 8, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we explain how to use the Rows Tab in the BOMA email editor to add in different layout structures and additional content to your email. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Email --- ### [Creating an email newsletter in the BOMA email editor](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/email/creating-an-email-newsletter-in-the-boma-email-editor/) **Published:** December 1, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this video tutorial we explain how to create an email newsletter from scratch in the BOMA email editor. Was this video helpful? **Categories:** Email --- ### [7 pieces of festive-season wisdom to share with your clients](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/tips-advice/end-of-year-wisdom-to-impart-to-your-clients/) **Published:** December 10, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **Christmas cheer aside, here’s how to help your clients start 2023 right** As the end of another challenging year approaches, it’s tempting to send out good wishes and hope for a fresh start in 2023. But instead of hope, how can you help your clients plan for a more prosperous and predictable year ahead? According to a recent [PracticeWeb and Insight 101 report](https://bomamarketing.com/2020/08/27/the-shift-in-sme-expectations-of-their-accountant-what-the-research-says-the-impact-of-covid-19/), communication skills rate as the number one characteristic SMEs want in an accountant in the wake of COVID-19 – so now’s the perfect opportunity to hone your communication skills and impart some end-of-year wisdom. Here’s what to tell your clients as they head into another year of business: ## **Undertake a financial health assessment** Encouraging your clients to undertake a financial health check or a more thorough independent review is a great place to start, as it places a business in the best possible position to navigate the year ahead. Many businesses may have already reduced discretionary and non-essential expenses, but stopping, reflecting and assessing these at year-end can have a significant impact. With the help of an accountant or business advisor, they should be able to spot potential savings they may not have considered, such as costs (e.g. insurance) that can be spread out over a year rather than paid as a lump sum. ## **Embrace the cloud** If a business isn’t already using cloud-based services, getting systems up and running for the new year should be a priority. Cloud systems ensure that the business can keep running, even if lockdowns or other restrictions make it difficult to come into the office. The details will depend on the business, but options include storing records in Dropbox or another cloud storage device, running virtual audits or through Zoom, using cloud accounting software or even switching to a completely cloud-based business management platform. Of course, some of these choices are more complex and costly than others – it’s about looking at a range of options and working out what will be most helpful for a specific business. ## **Consolidate online offerings** We’ve all [scrambled to get our products and services online](https://fortune.com/2020/07/15/ecommerce-online-shopping-coronavirus-business-trends-covid/), as what was planned to be a gradual digital transformation was forced to happen almost overnight. While that responsive entrepreneurial spirit is something to be applauded, it’s now important for businesses to stop and take stock of how this has worked for them and how to move forward. This could mean assessing new overheads involved in eCommerce such as an increase in product returns, shipping costs or online advertising, making sure that any apps and sales platforms are delivering and streamlining processes that may have been created in a rush. ## **Amplify the good** With [87% of consumers](https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/) reading online reviews for local businesses and [almost 30% of the global population](https://www.oberlo.com/statistics/how-many-people-shop-online#:~:text=As%20it%20stands%20in%202021,you%20is%20an%20online%20shopper.) shopping online in 2021, it pays to make the most of any positive feedback or reviews. For your clients, this could be as simple as requesting reviews on Google or their websites, or as complex as recording video testimonials or writing case studies. Whatever is involved, putting positives to work can have a significant impact on the bottom line. Practice what you preach – don’t forget to encourage your clients to give you feedback too! ## **Revisit pricing** While it can be nerve-wracking to make pricing changes amid a global pandemic, inflation hasn’t slowed. If some of your clients haven’t updated prices in the last 12 months but have changed the way they operate, they could be undercharging and subjecting their businesses to unnecessary strain. Encourage them to get help from an accountant, so they can review the prices of products and services, meet the market and factor in any operational changes. ## **Forecast for a range of scenarios** With more than a degree of uncertainty ahead, it’s never been more important to forecast for all four seasons. Urge your clients to factor in things like domestic and international border closures, lockdowns and supply issues, and how these will impact their businesses. While no one has a crystal ball for the year ahead, planning for different scenarios will help businesses maximise growth and ride out difficult periods. Don’t forget to keep track – forecasting shouldn’t be set-and-forget, so ensure your clients can easily track key performance indicators. This could be looking at sales, the value of orders or cash balance – which will allow them to identify trends and react accordingly. ## **Reassess resources** Businesses that have pivoted or experienced a decline as a result of COVID-19 may need to reassess their human resourcing. This could mean changes to the roles required or a reduction in staff numbers. If any restructuring needs to take place, they need to be sure to bring in specialist support. ## **Reflect, reassess and act. But don’t forget to recharge** The Christmas and New Year period is always a time of personal reflection, and it should be equally one of reflection for businesses. It’s an important time for businesses to consolidate changes that have been made through the year, keeping hold of those that have served them well and refining and reassessing those that haven’t. It’s also an opportunity for business owners to take a break, recharge and dive into 2023 reinvigorated with the knowledge (and your guidance) to tackle whatever the new year throws their way! **Looking for more ways to communicate with your clients? [Talk to BOMA for help](https://bomamarketing.com/).** **Categories:** Tips & Advice --- ### [It’s Time to Kick Start Your Digital Marketing. We’ll Show You How](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/digital-marketing/its-time-to-kick-start-your-digital-marketing-well-show-you-how/) **Published:** January 23, 2018 **Author:** Anna Lawrence **Content:** One of the biggest challenges in creating a successful business, whether you are an accountancy firm, bookkeeper or coffee shop, is obtaining and keeping customers. Having a strong digital presence is now essential. The internet is usually the first place customers go, to search for a product or service. Google alone, processes [over 105,000 search queries](https://earthweb.com/how-many-google-searches-per-second/) every second. To succeed in this new era, businesses need to be found, liked, shared and engaged with online by their current and prospective customers / clients. So where do you start? Who has the time to create custom content on a regular basis, and how do you make sure it’s high quality as well as helpful for your clients? BOMA was developed to remove the complexity from digital marketing. While digital marketing requires a whole new set of skills, the fundamentals are actually unchanged from traditional marketing. Customers still look for credibility, authenticity and social proof (positive recommendations from others). BOMA makes it easy to create and send effective digital campaigns that will engage your audience and it does this in a number of ways: - BOMA brings all your communication channels together. Email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram. Easily created and distributed with a couple of clicks. - Share a blog post you’ve written or an article you’ve read online. Simply paste the link and BOMA creates the campaign for you with images and introductory text for email and social posts. - Expertly written articles – Users gain access to a custom-built library filled with high-quality articles on a range of topics that support your clients. - Create emails and social posts from scratch in minutes. Intuitive email templates, plus you can choose from over 600,000 searchable and free images. - Design once – BOMA automatically reformats the content and images to fit the channel you send it to, whether it’s email or a social media post. No more painful editing or calling in the design team. BOMA does it for you. - When your campaign has been delivered BOMA delivers straightforward performance analytics. BOMA is self-drive marketing and we want to give you the best functionality to support your business. So here are some ways to make the most of BOMA in order to add value for your clients and market your firm. ## 1. Gather Your Followers Digital Marketing always starts with your audience. Upload your contacts to BOMA via a CSV file import. And when you do, you can add a tag, so that your communication is always targeted. See more on tags below. ## 2. Make It Easy for People to Sign Up Wherever your prospects find you, whether it’s on your website or your business’ social pages, make it easy for them to sign up for news and updates by providing a form for them to enter their name and email. You could also provide something of value in exchange for their email address such as an industry report or a guide on tax. If they have sought you out, they are probably keen to hear what you have to say. Put this upfront and centre on these pages or include a pop-up form to capture email addresses. ## 3. Beautifully Branded Emails and Posts Every communication you send out builds awareness of your practice and represents your brand values through the use of your brand colours, style and tone of voice. BOMA gives you the tools to easily create an on-brand look and feel for your campaigns. All you need to do is upload your logo. BOMA then pulls out the brand colours for use in hyperlinks, buttons, borders, backgrounds etc. You don’t need to know the colour Hex codes or RGB values! ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Screen-Shot-2022-11-02-at-9.47.25-AM-382x300.png) ## 4. Use Tags in Your Contact List Your clients work with you, based on your expertise, and the relationship you establish by showing you [understand their particular pressures](https://www.accountancyage.com/aa/feature/1808157/marketing-don-t-spray-pray). Not every client is the same and they may not all be interested in the same content. Using tags in BOMA allows you to segment your contact list so that you send information they are genuinely interested in, or surprise them with something they didn’t know, but are glad you told them. If your campaign is not relevant, you increase the chance they won’t open your next email or read the next post. Your tags could be based on their industry sectors, such as construction or retail. You can also create tags based on their location or what business stage your contacts are in (eg growth vs established). Sending relevant information that offers useful insight, will establish your firm as uniquely positioned to help them in their business. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Screen-Shot-2022-11-02-at-9.48.25-AM-296x300.png) ## **5. Post to Social** Social media channels such as Facebook may have started as a place for people to keep in touch but the [impact of social media on buying decisions is growing fast.](https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/getting-a-sharper-picture-of-social-medias-influence) And businesses of all types are using it to engage with customers. Social media is a more immediate and less static platform that your website. You can share an industry comment on Twitter, an expert opinion piece on Linkedin and more of your personality and team news on Facebook. On these sites, you can connect with a broader audience and the communication is two-way, unlike the more traditional channels such as newspaper ads or radio. If your posts are liked and shared, they are amplified and you benefit from the word of mouth. This is powerful. In a [study by Nielson](https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/2353-consumer-ad-trust.html), 92% of people trust recommendations from people they know. Compare this to the extent that they trust ads in the Newspaper – only 46%. That’s why BOMA gives you more than just email marketing. With each campaign, you can reach new and existing clients through email and across all your social media pages. Simply choose the channel and BOMA will reformat your campaign so it is compatible as an email, a tweet, or a post! ## 6. Use the Content Library Not sure where to start? One of the biggest impediments to digital marketing for most businesses is creating content. We know this because it is the most common reason we are given when we ask this question. Many firms are held back because they lack the time for the planning and creation of content, and the cost of specialist staff can be high. BOMA was designed to solve this problem and make the content creation effortless. BOMA gives you access to a library of content that is regularly updated and covers the full range of business advisory. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Screen-Shot-2022-11-02-at-9.51.40-AM-470x298.png) This content is designed to help you in your role as business advisor to your clients by engaging and nurturing them with valuable information. With a few simple steps, you can send a campaign out in minutes or use it to kick start for your marketing by adding your personal touch. Choose from a range of content covering a variety of topics including Retail, Construction, Events, Small Business Advice, Security, Cloud Software, Cloud Accounting, Accounting Basics (invoicing, payroll, cash flow) and more…. And it’s written for your specific location. Select the content that is relevant to your audience and then personalise it in the campaign flow. ## **7. Use the Image Library** No more searching the internet for stock images with creative commons usage rights, or paying for usage rights, the BOMA image library has over 600,000 free images to choose from. Just type in your search term and choose from the selection. If you want to customise the image you can do this in the email editor. And now you can let your creativity rule with frames, overlays effects, lighting or simply leave it as it is!. [Visual content is more engaging than text alone](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/catriona-pollard/why-visual-content-is-a-s_b_7261876.html), choose an image that is going to appeal to your audience. If you prefer to use your own images you can upload these directly into the editor and customise them as well. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Screen-Shot-2022-11-02-at-9.53.29-AM-444x300.png) ## 8. Customise Your Campaign *“Incorporating humanity and personality in your content is one of the most important things you can do as an accountant. Even when you have great provided content, it’s still a ‘one size fits all’ until you make it your own”****.*** says Karen Reyburn, Managing Director of creative agency [The Profitable Firm](https://theprofitablefirm.com/). Add your own personal touch, such as a personal greeting, an introductory paragraph, expand on the content with complementary information or share your views and opinion. Your clients work with you because of your brand and personality. If you are known for your sense of humour or turn of phrase, use these in your campaigns. Your communication with clients and prospects grows your relationship and builds trust. ## 9. Create Your Own Campaigns from Scratch Whereas marketing is about driving sales, content marketing is about offering clients something that will help them and their business. In the long run, it’s still about driving business growth but rather than directly asking for something, the practice of publishing articles and advice gives your readers something of real value. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Screen-Shot-2022-11-02-at-9.55.02-AM-470x297.png) The end goal is to establish you as an advisor and trusted expert (and this helps your ranking on search engines). Karen Reyburn suggests *“Write out exactly what you would say to a client aloud, without worrying about the written ‘professionalism’ that can often feel quite boring. Once you have that first draft, you will either be surprised to discover it’s perfect as is, or you’ll make a few small edits and it will be good to go. That will make it a lot more interesting – and best of all, helpful and relevant to your clients!”* Great content strengthens your relationship with existing clients and builds awareness of your firm for prospects. ## 10. View the Insights Use BOMA’s campaign insights to understand what content resonates with your clients. BOMA helps to supercharge your practice with multi-channel digital campaigns and there’s no need for any creative or marketing skills. But we are pretty sure you will develop some of these skills in the process. You know your business and your clients best so you are best placed to understand what they would like to hear. When you combine this with the data on how your campaigns performed, you have all the information for engaging and effective digital marketing. ## Digital Marketing Made Easy Marketing with content builds awareness for your firm, establishes you as an expert in your field and provides useful information and advice for your clients. Getting started can be challenging but BOMA offers the tools to create and send campaigns with ease. Think of it as an extension of the relationships you have already with your clients. BOMA is self-drive marketing. But you are still in the driver’s seat and you can choose how you use the platform to best support your firm. So what are you waiting for? Send a campaign today. **Categories:** Digital Marketing **Tags:** Digital Marketing --- ### [The Digital Marketing Glossary Every Marketer Needs to Know](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/digital-marketing/the-digital-marketing-glossary-every-marketer-needs-to-know/) **Published:** January 11, 2017 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** It doesn’t matter what language you speak, the digital marketing industry has a lingo all its own. We’re decoding some of digital marketing’s most important terminology in this handy A to Z guide. ## 47 Digital Marketing Terms You Need to Know **A/B Testing** – Comparing different versions of the same campaign to see which one performs better (*ie using two different email subject lines to see which one earns more opens*). **AdSense** – Google’s platform that allows companies to earn revenue from traffic on their websites. **AdWords** – Google’s Pay-Per-Click advertising platform that helps you place ads on search engine results pages. **Anchor Text** – The ‘clickable’ text holding a hyperlink to another page or site, usually blue and underlined. For Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), it is best practice for the anchor text to be relevant to the page it is linking to. **Backlink** – A link from one web page to another web page. Inbound links or backlinks from another website to your own pages will help increase your search engine ranking if they are from a quality source and relevant to the content. **Blog** – Usually informal and conversational in tone, a blog is a regularly updated content that should be engaging or informative. The collection of articles or posts can act as a resource centre on a subject or industry. Blogs are usually added to frequently, with the most recent post displayed first. Companies use blogs to tell others more about their services or information related to their services, but the style is informative or fun rather than a hard sell. **Bounce Rate** – The percentage of website visitors who leave after a single page view, straight from the landing page. A high bounce rate shows low engagement from visitors. **Channel** – In marketing, the method of distribution or media used to reach potential clients, such as your website, blog, or [social media](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/06/19/the-essential-guide-to-social-media-marketing-for-small-business/) pages, email, [digital advertising](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2018/01/23/its-time-to-kick-start-your-digital-marketing-well-show-you-how/). **Click-thru Rate (CTR)** – The percentage of people who click on an ad or link after seeing it **Content** – Any text, image, audio, video, or other media that’s intended to be used by your audience. Blogs, white papers, e-books, infographics, videos, sound bytes, and hard-copy collateral all count as content. **Conversion** – The moment when a lead or prospect takes action, such as filling out a lead form or making a purchase **Conversion Cost** – The cost of taking an individual from a prospective lead to their conversion **Conversion Rate** – The percentage of people who take a proscribed action after visiting your site or interacting with your content. **Copy** – The text portion of an advertisement or web page **Cost-Per-Acquisition** – The number of leads or conversions you gained divided by the total amount spent on a campaign. **Cost-Per-Click** (CPC) – Also known as pay per click (PPC), it’s a form of paying for digital advertising. You can calculate CPC by dividing the number of clicks an ad receives by how much you spent on the ad campaign. **CPM** (Cost per thousand) – Another form of paying for digital advertising. You pay when your ad is viewed by 1000 people. **Frequency** – The number of times a unique viewer sees your ad during a campaign. **Header** – Head-line text in content describing the subject of the content. Headlines are significant for SEO **Hyperlink** – A clickable link that takes the viewer to another web page. **Impression** – The moment when a viewer comes in contact with your advertisement or web page. **Keyword** – A term or phrase that users are most likely to use in search engines, using keywords in your content will help SEO **Keyword Density** – The number of times a keyword appears in a blog article or web page. Aim for 1-2% keyword density (10-12 keywords per 1000 words). **Keyword Proximity** – The distance between keywords in a search term as they appear in the content. Placement of keywords within the content. **Landing Page** – The page visitors first land on after taking a particular action, such as clicking on an ad. **Lead** – A prospective customer who has shown some engagement, exact definitions (level of engagement required to qualify as a lead) varies. **Link Farm** – A website, or group, designed specifically to provide links to content. Link farms are not favourable for search engines, engaging with link farm websites is likely to damage your SEO. **Meta Description** – Text summarising a page’s content that is displayed with the heading by search engines. Optimising the meta description with keywords is good for [SEO](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/01/19/why-small-businesses-need-to-improve-their-seo-game/). **Microblog** – A special media platform that consists of short, punchy, frequent posts, similar to Twitter’s format. **Native Advertising** – A paid advertisement that looks natural in the surrounding content. **No Follow** – A link where the html code has been written to prevent search engine bots from following it. **Organic** – Referring to events that occur naturally, without advertising or payment. Organic web traffic reaches your website without prompting or clicking through paid links or advertisements. **Paid Search** – Paid advertisements within search engine results, likely to be [PPC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay-per-click), pay per click. **Podcast** – Digital audio content, usually updated regularly like a blog and available by subscription. Podcasts are made available online for download via iTunes or other app store, through a website or direct email. **Pop-up** – An advertisement or call-to-action page that appears spontaneously in a separate window. **PPC** – Pay Per Click, this form of advertising payment means you are charged for each time someone clicks on your ad. **Ranking** – Where you appear on a list of search engine results. **Reach** – How many people see your advertisement or content. **Retargeting** – Tracking visitors to your site to target them with ads when they are on-line again **Search Engine Marketing** – Also known as [SEM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_marketing), this is activity aimed at improving your website’s search engine ranking through optimisation and paid searches. **Search Engine Optimisation** – Also called [SEO](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/01/19/why-small-businesses-need-to-improve-their-seo-game/), this practice primes your website and other content to be found by search engines and improve your ranking for specific searches leading to increased traffic to your website. **SERP** – ‘Search engine results page’ **Site map** – A list of pages within a website that is meant to attract search engine crawlers to help correctly index those pages, also available to site visitors. **Social Advertising** – Paying for advertisements on [social media ](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/06/19/the-essential-guide-to-social-media-marketing-for-small-business/)channels **Social Media** – Web based applications hosting website ‘communities’ with user-generated content that allow for a free-flow exchange of ideas, content creation and sharing. Some of the best known include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and LinkedIn. **User-Generated Content** – A piece of content created by a user of a website or social network that is used for that website’s purpose. Wikis are a good example of user-generated content. **Webinar** – An online seminar-style session that usually allows the virtual attendees to interact and ask questions. **Wiki** – Informative internet ‘documents’ that are created collaboratively by and made available to the public. Wikis usually take the form of ‘how-to’s or help to answer questions. These documents are typically created by multiple people and can be edited by others, not just the creator of the [Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki). **Categories:** Digital Marketing **Tags:** Tips, Digital Marketing, Glossary --- ### [BOMA + The Gap: The Improvement Meeting: The Easiest Advisory Sell - UK Edition](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/boma-the-gap-the-improvement-meeting-the-easiest-advisory-sell-uk-edition/) **Published:** August 18, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Join Charles Clark, Co-Founder Marketing Director of BOMA and Natalie Eady, General Manager of The Gap for this 45 minute session. We show you a process to turn client conversations into valuable advisory outcomes for your clients and your firm. Join us to learn how you can: - Dip your toe in advisory - Launch a low cost / high value service - De-risk the advisory investment for you and your clients - Support your people to develop their advisory skills - Leverage your efforts through marketing - This webinar is for firms wanting a simple and effective blueprint to ‘start’ or scale up their advisory offering. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Six Reasons Why You Need to Be Marketing Your Accounting or Bookkeeping Practice](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/6-reasons-why-you-need-to-market-your-accounting-bookkeeping-practice/) **Published:** April 12, 2019 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** To compete in a tough landscape, financial professionals must now wear a new hat: marketer. Mastery of marketing – especially digital – is key to whether an accounting or bookkeeping practice thrives long term. You will have noticed how technology has shaken up accountancy, software has reduced good billable hours to the click of a button so firms are under increasing pressure to add value and price competitively to get, and keep, clients. Marketing has also changed. But the new tools have made it easier and cheaper than ever to reach out to prospective customers and engage with your existing clients. It just requires a bit of time commitment. If you are still asking yourself “do I really need to market my accountancy or bookkeeping firm” the answer is yes and here’s why… ## 1. Your Competition is Already Marketing Themselves You can check what the competition is up to for inspiration and then devise a strategy tailored to work for your business, designed around your strengths and your target market. Don’t panic, there are some simple steps to get you started 1. Sort out your website: Ensure the design is clear, easy to navigate and optimised for mobile. 2. Embrace social media: create a LinkedIn page and establish yourself/your business on other social networks like Facebook and Twitter that your ideal client base uses. 3. Create Content: consider a blogging strategy that will provide plenty of engaging content to share with prospective clients, ask for testimonials from existing clients, consider sharing their story and how you have helped their business. ## 2. Marketing Helps Attract the Type of Clients You Want Who is your ideal client? Apart from the kind that pays on time. You might focus on businesses in your area, or find it more profitable to work with the general public. Perhaps there is a special sector or industry in which you specialise, such as helping small to medium-sized businesses. Whoever you want to serve, marketing will help get your message to them. Tailor your marketing and craft campaigns to speak directly to your ideal customers through specialised content and targeted social media advertising. You can’t please, or serve, all the people all the time so it makes sense to know your ideal target consumer. If you think you’ll be attracting your chosen market at the expense of other demographics you may be right but that’s not necessarily a bad thing – it’s worked for some of the most successful brands on the planet. Take Brokerage app Robin Hood, for example. It’s taken an old school business – stockbroking – and made it accessible and appealing to the significant [Millennial market](https://www.fastcompany.com/40437888/how-brokerage-app-robinhood-got-millennials-to-love-the-market). An old product that’s presented for modern consumers by a company that understood that it was a younger segment who would be comfortable with and adopt personal trading software. As a result, they went full force in that direction with their marketing. A narrow focus worked for them and it can work for you, too. If you aren’t sure who to target, start with your current client base and see if you can identify common denominators. For instance, you might find you have several clients in the construction industry or that most of your revenue comes from a certain age range or geographic region. It pays to do a little research to discover your audience segments, then you can attract more just like them. ## 3. Marketing Encourages You to Define Your Competitive Advantage Can you explain, out loud, why someone should choose your accounting or bookkeeping firm over another one? If you have the answer ready that’s great, if not make crafting the answer a priority Theodore Levitt, one of the founding fathers of modern marketing, was a firm believer in what he called [‘differentiation’](https://hbr.org/1980/01/marketing-success-through-differentiation-of-anything). It means identifying your ‘unique selling proposition’ and he believed it to be one of the most important activities for marketers. Prospective clients are wondering which firm to chose and why so help them out. Don’t wait to be asked, be proactive about getting your message out. ## 4. Word-Of-Mouth Advertising Isn’t Loud Enough Anymore Word-of-mouth has long been an accounting firm’s best friend. It’s free, it’s simple, and best of all, it’s an effective way to attract new clients. However, in the post digital world of mobile internet, social media, and online everything, people are turning to Google and relying on online sources to guide decisions big and small. Word-of-mouth is being superseded by online evangelism. One study shows that[ 88% of consumers](http://searchengineland.com/88-consumers-trust-online-reviews-much-personal-recommendations-195803) trust online reviews as much as a recommendation from a family member or close friend and 85% of consumers claim to read up to 10 reviews about a local business. People want to know who they’re dealing with and feel secure their choices. Online reviews flow so freely on Google and social media, it’s easier than ever to see if people think an accounting firm is worth its salt, or not. There are a few things you can do to get more people talking about your firm: - Ask satisfied clients for referrals and online reviews - Engage with your clients and prospective clients online - Monitor and respond to reviews/comments on Google and social media – thanking people for positive reviews and showing a commitment to resolve issues if the review is negative - Update your content, keeping your online presence fresh and relevant ## 5. Marketing Helps Establish Your Brand Keep in mind that marketing is not another word for selling. Rather, you’re promoting your brand, values, mission, and other core features that make your firm unique. Successful marketing will help attract new clients and drive increased value from current ones. You can use your marketing strategy to present your practice to the world in a way that best reflects both its values and the unique characteristics you want people to associate with your company. ## 6. Digital Marketing Never Sleeps Digital marketing of your accounting or bookkeeping practice is working for you 24-7. Your website, social media pages, blog, and other elements are always on so you can be engaging with clients even when you’re away from your desk. Prospects will be doing their online research at a convenient time for them and online resources like [Google Analytics](https://www.hallaminternet.com/google-analytics-hour-of-day-day-of-week-reports/) can tell you exactly when this is. If they can’t find the answers they need on your website or other resources, there are plenty of accounting firms with better online visibility that are just a few clicks away. ## No Excuses Marketing doesn’t have to take a massive time and money investment to get results but it does require some time invested regularly. However, you choose to manage your marketing, understand that whether to market is no longer a choice – it’s becoming a necessity to increase your client base and maximise revenue and satisfaction from existing clients. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Marketing **Tags:** Marketing, Accountants, Bookkeepers --- ### [10 Tips For Sending Your Clients and Prospects Better Emails](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/10-tips-for-sending-your-clients-and-prospects-better-emails/) **Published:** February 13, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing techniques available. But, if you’re fairly new to it, it’s important to understand the basics. This webinar is designed to help Accountants and Bookkeepers get the most from their email campaigns to support clients and gain new business. In this webinar we’ll be covering: 1\. Why is email marketing important 2\. Marketing is not just sales 3\. Getting started – using the right tools 4\. Building a contact list 5\. How to target and segment your list 6\. Who are you talking to? 7\. What to write 8\. Planning 9\. Deliverability – avoiding the spam filter 10\. Measuring the results **NB: You can also read a full transcript of this session below.** ## ’10 Tips For Sending Your Clients and Prospects Better Emails’ Transcript **Liz Studholme:** Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining us on this webinar, 10 Tips to Sending Your Clients and Prospects Better Emails. Let’s get started. So here’s what we’re going to cover today. We’re going to talk about why email marketing’s an important tool for your business, that it doesn’t have to mean sales, using the right tools, all about registration and building your contact list. We’re going to talk about growing your audience, creating great emails, and lots of tips and advice along the way. So firstly, why is email marketing important? Well, email marketing has been around for quite a while. In fact, about probably 40 years. And the average person now gets a lot of emails, but a study by the Radicati Group found that 86% of professionals still prefer email to any other channel. And in another report, we found that a dollar spent on email marketing made $44 in return. So it is a great tool, obviously, for business communication and transaction on a day to day business, but it’s also really useful for sending further business advisory support after a meeting or a call. And email is direct, it’s quick, and it’s inexpensive in comparison to other marketing channels you might use. But because we are getting a lot of emails these days, it’s really important to focus on ways that your email can cut through and add value. So I think it’s worth noting here that email marketing doesn’t have to mean sales. Marketing is often translated to mean sales, but marketing can be anything that helps nurture your clients, which is good for your business, or build your profile amongst prospects, which is good for your business. The trick here is to make sure that you follow the 80/20 rule, where 80% of the time you are giving, and 20% of the time is sales. So 80% of the time it’s like you’re giving free advice, you’re offering great commentary, you’re sharing your views or you’re providing great advice. And then that 20% of the time you might be telling people about other services in your practise that they’re not currently taking advantage of or promoting something. Email is personal, so you can be really targeted and send something to your client or your prospect that shows that you understand the challenges that they face. You can support and build stronger relationships, whether that’s by a useful compliance reminder or an update on tax legislation, and you can build profile. So it’s good for your business in that respect that you are sending emails off to people that are currently maybe not using your services, but they’re getting a sense of who you are, so when it comes time to choose an accountant or bookkeeper, you’re the obvious choice. It’s important that you are starting with the right tools. Now, if you’re currently sending your emails through your desktop, you’re not going to have the same tools that you would. If you use email marketing software like BOMA. So email marketing software’s going to give you professional design that always going to look great. When you send it through your desktop you’re never totally sure what it’s going to look like for your recipient. It gives you security, so you’re never going to be in that position where you’ve by accident put everyone in the CC column and then shared email addresses with everyone in your network. You can manage your lists by segmenting and sending specific stuff to some groups within your contact list. Mobile responsiveness, so software will make sure that it’s viewed and read beautifully, whether it’s viewed on a desktop computer or a mobile, et cetera. It also means that you could follow permission based marketing techniques. You can allow people to opt in and unsubscribe. You’ll get clear call to action buttons with software, which you don’t get… While you can put links into your desktop email, you won’t get those call to action buttons and you’ll get analytics with software as well. So there are lots of reasons why a tool is going to make your job a lot easier, even just that sort of fiddling around with images and design access to templates, et cetera. When you are getting people to sign up, make it easy. So you want to grow your list, make the registration really simple, make sure that you’ve put that across all your online channels, your website, your social media pages. If you’re using a landing page, which is the best way to get people to sign up, landing pages is basically an online form where people are going to put their name in their email address, obviously, and any other information you need. Use that. You can create these in BOMA if you’re using BOMA, and then you use that form embedded on your website or a link to it on your social pages. So make it easy, only collect the information you need. We’ve all had times where we’ve had to fill something out and we’ve had to enter things like household income or things that you’re not necessarily… That aren’t really relevant and you don’t necessarily want to share. So only collect the information you need and then there’s no barriers to people filling out that form. Worth letting them know what’s in it for them, so you then can say, “We’re going to send you great advice on running your business, growing your wealth and prosperity, and also what they can expect.” So you could give them an understanding of how many times you’ll email them. You don’t need to be specific, but you can say, “We’ll send you occasional emails that help you in your business.” When you’re building your contact list, don’t be tempted to buy an email list because it will often end up in unsubscribes. Email marketing is always, always about building and nurturing relationships, so you’re better to connect with a smaller list of quality contexts than blasting out messages to people that don’t know you. We all get email messages like that, and our first step is often to unsubscribe. Get permission, but remember you have implied permission to email somebody if you have an existing business relationship with them. So your clients are your first step. With people that aren’t your clients, you can get them to opt in to emails from you. Use your social media. So we’ve talked about that. If you’ve got a landing page where a signup form, put that on your social media. And by sharing your great content and advice and being active on social media, you’re also giving people a sense for the sorts of information that they might get from you. Collaborate with partners. So that might be a local bank. You could write a blog post for them. Say if you work specifically in an industry like agriculture or farming, work with that agricultural specialist within the banking sector and then share blog posts or events. So on that one, run events or offer yourself as a guest speaker at an event. All of those connections that you make then give you the option to share some information with them and get them to sign up for more. Giving something in return for their sign up is a great idea, so a value exchange. This could be you’ve written a four page ebook or document that you turn into a PDF and offer on tax, for example. You offer that in return for a sign up for them to download it. This could also be a promotional offer. So sign up and then receive an hour’s free advisory with your business. And then remember to maintain that list. It’s a really valuable tool for your business. So make sure you go in. If you’ve got emails that are bouncing back, you may have errors with your email address, make sure you correct those and fix things. So once you’ve got your list up and running and you’re growing it, personalization is going to be really key. This means making the emails personal to them. By segmenting your contact list, using tags or labels, you can make sure that you’re providing really relevant advice that solves specific problems for people that are reading it. If the email feels like it’s written for them, they’re more likely to not only read it, but find it useful and perhaps share it with others. So adding tags to your group could be based on a number of different things. It could be an industry vertical. You are going to perhaps have clients that are in hospitality and in trade. They’re going to have different business challenges at different times of the year, so you can send them different information. The relationship they hold with you. So do you do their compliance work only, or do you work with them on a full service level? And there might be different things that you’re going to send to them. You might be promoting your full service to the clients that only work with you on compliance, or it might just be that I’m only going to send compliance to those clients. Company position. Are they an employer or are they a sole trader? They’re going to have different drivers and different challenges that they face. And how they subscribed could be another way that you segment to your audience. Have they signed up just for a newsletter, so they’re interested in your firm and your views, but they’re not necessarily going to be a client, but they’re part of your wider network. Or have they actually signed up for a business health check, something that you’ve offered businesses in your local area, and then there might be a series of emails that you’re going to send them. Therefore you need that tag on them in their contact list so that you can identify them when you send another email out. So the tags that you make will be specific to you and your business and your clients, and you can create them in order to send relevant emails. Next thing to think about is now that we’re we’ve got our list, we’ve got good ways for people to sign up, is think about who you’re talking to, because this is going to be helping you when you start writing emails. The best emails that you can send are them focused, not you focused. So they’re going to be focused on the things that are challenges or opportunities for your recipients, but not about what you need. And a nice little exercise to do is to build a client persona. Working out who you’re talking to is going to make it much easier to know what to say. So be specific. It’s not just all small businesses in my local area. Think more specifically about what drives them, what are their needs and goals? What are their pain points and challenges? What interests them? This level of detail is going to show that you really care about them, and they’re going to find those emails way more relevant and useful. You can also include things like demographics, the stats surrounding them, the psychographics, how they feel and think about things, their location, business revenue, et cetera, and industry. All of these things you don’t necessarily need to make up. You might choose your ideal client and go, “Right, this is the person that I need to think about when I’m writing, because I want more of this sort of client.” And there may be more than one, so you’re not necessarily going to have one client persona. You’re going to have a couple. Set some goals. So now that we’ve got to the point of going who are we talking to, what do we want to do with your email marketing? By setting some goals that’s going to help you in thinking about what sort of content you need to send out. So it could be something like strengthening existing client relationships by really demonstrating our understanding their business and our expertise and sharing useful guides for them. You might be more specific by saying we’re going to build loyalty and reduce churn by this percent. You’ve got a number of clients that over the years you feel are not as engaged. They’re not providing word of mouth referrals for you. You want to improve that. You could be talking about growing your revenue from existing clients by a certain percentage or attracting new business. Content marketing is often about positioning you so that even if you’re not looking to grow right now, when you are replacing, say, you’ve got a client who’s retired or you’re wanting to bring some new businesses and you are in a good position to choose the best client for your business, because your inquiry level is going to be based on some of the stuff that you’re starting to talk about and the thought leadership that you’re gaining. So now we’re going to start looking at content. Creating contents for its own sake runs the risk of turning into unsubscribe, so you want to really think about serving your firm’s business goals, but it must serve your customer’s needs too. So make sure that you give value more than you sell, because if every email is about selling, then your open rate might drop. So here are some ideas. You might want to share your… You’ve got unique expertise and that’s why your clients are working with you, so share that in your emails. Think about the things that your clients are often wanting help with. Remind and support with key compliance dates. Obviously that’s going to give your clients a sense of being really supported and a sense of security that you’ve got them covered, they’re not going to miss a lodgement date and face penalties. Share recent news and updates that directly affect them. This could be employment law change or tax rebates for research and development or some kind of new news that is going to be relevant to them. You could comment on updates in the industry, whether that’s immigration law change, it could be economic forecasts. Those sorts of things are showing that you are the expert and you know how these things are going to impact them. Events that you’re going to or events that you’re holding. Often these events are places where new thinking is being presented, so there may be something there that’s worth adding into your email. News from your firm, obviously. There may be new staff with specialty skills you want to share with your audience and with particular businesses that you work with. And then a newsletter can obviously be a combination of the above. A good tip here is if you’re not quite sure what sort of content people would value, think about the things that you have been asked frequently. So look at your inbox. If there is a question you’ve been asked by one client, the chances are other clients are going to be interested in that same answer. So use that as a basis for your email marketing. And ask your clients. Every time you’ve had a meeting, talk to them about the content that you’re sending out or what they would find useful. That obviously shows that you’re interested in them, but it’s going to give you some ideas as well. Now that we’re down to writing, some ideas for how to make it easier. I always think writing the subject line is quite hard and I always go back to it and write it last. Put your bullets into what you want to write and then come back to your subject line and choose the thing that is probably the most important message in that email. Try to avoid generic headings if you can, like newsletter, and actually say something that’s a little bit more catchy that motivates them to open that email. And let them know what that email’s about in a way that makes them want to open it. Let your personality shine through. So if you’ve got a reputation for a bit of a sense of humour, then use that. Talk like you would in your day to day. Try not to stay too formal. Keep it relaxed and then keep it short and easily readable. So numbered or bulleted lists are really helpful with headings. Main takeouts at the top of the email. We’re all reading emails in different ways nowadays. It might be on the bus or train on the way to work on your phone. Make sure that you’ve got that really easy takeouts in that email, rather than long essays. If you’re including links or buttons, and if you’ve got really long content, put that on your website with a link back to read the full content. And if you are using links and buttons, call to action buttons, then make sure you check those before they go. Always proofread and send a test to yourself or someone in the office and send it from you. Don’t just say admin or support or from the team at. Say it’s from John at Acme Accounting. Creating a plan, always a good thing once you are going to decide you’re going to do something and start putting some dates in the library in the calendar, I should say. So there may be certain times of year that are going to make more sense to send content out. There could be tax dates, holidays, end of year, your own or partner events or key dates for the industry sector. Put those in first and then think about how often you think your firm could send a newsletter or some kind of email communication out. Be realistic about what you can achieve and start with that and you can always build on it. And don’t worry if you say, “I’m going to send it out on the 20th of the month,” and the 20th comes around and you haven’t written it. You’re much better to send something of value than to try and send it for the sake of it. Add other topical dates into your calendar, like general elections or legislation changes or things that are coming up. And if there are specific stuff for industry, as we’ve said, then put those in, and that will start building your plan for the year. Avoiding the spam filters. Now when you’ve got your contacts are mainly your clients, then obviously your email will be recognised by them so this is not going to be as much of an issue, but I think it’s worth covering. There’s a number of things that you can do to avoid spam filters. Firstly, you’re going to really respect your email list. So by sending really good high quality emails out, it’s valued by your clients and they’re never going to be tempted or prospects are never going to be tempted to hit the junk mail button. Now frequency is going to be what’s relevant to you and your clients. So perhaps avoid sending three a day. There may be times when obviously a higher frequency is important, but once a fortnight. Try to aim for that sort of frequency. Permission based marketing techniques we’ve talked a little bit about. Including a unsubscribe button, which obviously will be in your email software. That makes it easy for people to remove themselves from the list if they want to. Spammy language, what I mean by that is if you are saying things like “get in quick” or “amazing offers,” they can sometimes be picked up by spam filters. Telling people who you are, so make sure in the bottom of your email footer, you’ve given your name and address and a way for people to contact you. And the last one sounds a bit technical, but SPF and DKIM are two security mechanisms that protect not only you, but your recipient from spam. So they’re basically a way of proving that the email is coming from you. It really is you that’s sending it. If you are unsure about these and you think that you may have had some issues, if you are also a user of BOMA, then you can come back to us, we’ve got a blog on the subject. Have a look at that, and there’s some key steps as to what you need to do in order to fix those. We’ll give you the records to put on your domain and that will help make sure that you’re protected. Measuring your results. Once you’ve started sending emails out for a while, you can start looking at what’s working and what’s not. Remember that unless your email’s asking directly for a sale, then the return might be slower burn. And it might be the result of a number of things, an iterative process. You may have met a prospect at an event. They may have heard you speak. They may have read one of your blogs. They may have visited your website and had a look at what sort of services you offer. And then they may be part of your newsletter. Those things might be adding up to going, “Yep, this is the obvious choice for me. This is the one. This is the partner I’d like to work with in my business.” Email marketing is about nurturing contacts and allowing them to come to you when the time is right. But in terms of looking at the emails that you’re sending out, it’s really worth looking at the things that you can measure. Obviously open rates. Checking on those open rates. That’s going to tell you whether the time of day you chose was right. Maybe that that needs tweaking or there may be other things. And those things might be obvious to you. If you’ve got links in your email, what was your click rate? And if those links were back to your website, then look at the traffic to your website and the engagement rates and see how those have tracked after your email went out. If you’ve got signups registrations or you’ve got promotions that you’re sending out, what was the uptake on those? And of course, ask your clients. Once you’ve started sending emails out, ask them, “Are you finding this valuable?” You’ll get great feedback from them and they’ll also be able to perhaps give you some ideas for further content. So we’ve talked about building your contact list, keeping your registration simple, using the right platform, so don’t use your desktop email, use a piece of software that you can track results, and you can also send out beautiful emails and you’ve got all that functionality, plus allowing people to sign up. Personalise your emails, make them from you and show your personality in them. Segment and tag your list so that you’re sending really relevant content out. Set some goals, create good content, and I’m going to talk about that in just a second, have a bit of a plan, and measure the results. In terms of good content, if you’re still thinking, “What am I going to write,” and you’re not a BOMA user, I really recommend that you try a free trial with BOMA. BOMA was designed specifically for accountants and bookkeepers and business advisors. It is a email marketing tool, but it also allows you to make campaigns for Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. One campaign and BOMA will auto format for whatever channel you choose. But BOMA has another point of difference that I think makes it really valuable, and particularly for email marketing. BOMA offers you access to a library of business advisory articles, and it’s added to every week across all aspects of business advisory. You can choose that content. You can edit it and customise it and make it your own. There’s a million free images, over a million free images in BOMA. You can choose images so you can use BOMA to really kickstart your email marketing. Finally, don’t forget that you have a great deal of knowledge that you can share to help build prosperity and gain efficiency. The knowledge that you have that is common sense is often really valuable to your businesses. So think about those things and how you can impart that knowledge that you have in email to not only nurture clients, but grow your business as well. Thanks for joining us. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Social Media Marketing for Accountants and Bookkeepers](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/social-media-marketing-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers/) **Published:** November 8, 2019 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Join Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA, and Kat Clark, Social Media Manager for Xero Australia, as they address ‘everything’ social media for Accountants and Bookkeepers. During this webinar you’ll learn: - Why you should be using social media - What are the different social media networks - How to approach and use the different networks - What content to use for social posts - How to build your following and engage with your audience - How to leverage social media to grow your business - Understanding social media analytics, the key terms and what’s important - Tips & tricks **NB: You can also read a full transcript of this session below.** ## ‘Social Media Marketing for Accountants and Bookkeepers’ Transcript **Charles Clark:** Hi everyone. While we’re just waiting for a few more people to join, just like to take a quick poll on how you use social media. I’m just going to launch that now. Just take a few minutes to fill it out while we’re waiting, it’ll give us some insights and then we can share them back to you as to how your fellow accounts and bookkeepers are using it, so it should pop up onto your screen about now. We’ll just give another minute or so for a few people to join. As I said, if you could fill it out, be really interesting to see how you guys are using it, and then we’ll kick off end of the presentation. This is encouraging. I can see that at the moment 90% of you are using social media for business, which is great. Facebook and LinkedIn seem to be the most popular. Facebook’s definitely the most popular. Few challenges in there, which we can talk about as we go through in a minute. Cool. Well, I’ll leave the poll running for another few minutes and we’ll get started. Welcome to BOMA Social Media Marketing for accounts and bookkeeper’s webinar. My name is Charles Clark and I’m thrilled to have Kat Clark joining me. We’re not related, just in case you are wondering. It’s just one of those crazy coincidences. Hi, Kat. **Katherine Clark:** Hey. Yeah, thanks for having me. Looking forward to sharing some tips and experiences. **Charles Clark:** Fantastic. Kat is the social media manager for Xero Australia, so really thrilled to have her on, I think she’ll add a lot of value and hopefully we’ll be able to answer any questions if you have them. If you do have any questions, feel free to pop them into the chat box and we’ll try and answer them as we go through. And there’ll be time for questions at the end as well. Also, for those of you who have accessed the workbook, you should have got that in an email in the last couple of hours. If you hadn’t, I’ll just flick it through into the chat box, so that’s coming through now. So if you click on that, it will actually take you through into the Google Doc where you’ll see the presentation and you can take notes from. Great, so let’s kick off into this. And I’m going to kick it off with really the question that I’m asked all the time by accounts and bookkeepers, which is, why should I be using social media? Really that’s just a place where lots of people go to post pictures of their pets and maybe their kids. How for me as a business owner, why should I be using it? And I think Kat, you’ve had this experience a lot and I think we were talking about it earlier and you summed it up really well I think. **Katherine Clark:** Yeah. I think social media’s obviously grown so much in the past several years, from not existing to coming into existence to now being I think very vital honestly, because people will go onto social media, look at your website to get an idea of what your business is like. I’ve heard people who say, “If that hairdresser, accountant or car service isn’t on social media, how do I know if I can trust them?” I’m sure there’s Google reviews, but seeing things like Facebook reviews or that they have a social media presence and that they are responsive is just so important, super important, which you probably know from your day to day experience. **Charles Clark:** I think that’s a great point. If you think of a lot of your clients themselves will be business owners, so they might be retail or a business or I mean it could be any number of things, and most of them will have social media presence themselves. So both they’ll use it to find that information, but also as we’ll show you in the next sort of hour, it’s a great place to share more than just I suppose your website as a place where you can talk about your products and services. Social media is where you get the opportunity to really showcase your brand, your personality, have comments, have conversations with people. So it’s fantastic for brand awareness, it’s great for networking and it’s great to really, I suppose, put a bit of personality and help distinguish you in a really crowded marketplace, what makes you and your firm interested and unique and to give people a bit of a flavour of what it would be like to work with your entity, whether you’re on a consistent basis. There are tonnes and tonnes, I mean hundreds of social networks out there, but we are going to concentrate on the big four, so Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. We are concentrating on these ones because they are the biggest and the most relevant and they’re where your clients and prospective clients will be and where you’ll get most bang for buck in terms of … we know you’ve got limited time to spend on social media, so we’re going to concentrate on the main ones that will give you the most return on your investment. So Facebook’s obviously … there were ones before Facebook, but this was the one that really sort of got global attention and really sort of started off the social network space as we know today. It’s got staggering numbers. Every month, nearly two and a half billion people log into it. So really if there was only one social network that you were on, this would be it for your business, you just really cannot go past Facebook. **Katherine Clark:** Yeah. I think one of our first points we wanted to go through was like, how do you get started? Social media is … I mean, you probably already on it or if you’re not, it can be quite intimidating to know where to start. So writing down goals at any stage in your journey is something like we really encourage. If you’re already doing it, that’s fantastic. When you approach Facebook, you can look at a few things. Are you looking to build more fans and followers? Is it reviews that you want to build? Do you want to start engaging with new people and getting business out of that? Is it clicks and building attention to your website lead to revenue? So yeah, so just starting out, this can be really helpful just to help get it clear in your mind and so you can build tactics that really fit well into these goals. Charles Clark: I think also important, whether you are just getting started or you’ve been doing it for quite a while, when you write down these goals, then you can go back in a month or couple of months and you review them. Did you achieve what you set out to do? And if you did, that’s fantastic, you can do some new goals. If you didn’t, then you can say, “Okay. Well, why didn’t I? Was I not posting enough? Was the content not quite right? Do I need to rethink which networks I’m on?” As with everything, have some goals and then you can measure them and then you’ll actually see the progress. Otherwise it’s a bit like, well, how’s Facebook going? Oh, it’s kind of going okay, we’re mumbling along with it, but you actually won’t really know where you want it to be and what success looks like unless you’ve actually stated, you’ve written down this is what success looks like, this is the goals that we want to achieve. The first place to start on Facebook is kind of also the most obvious, is update your profile. I like to think of my profile as if someone who came onto Facebook and looked at my company Facebook profile had never heard of BOMA before, didn’t know what we did, maybe they had just been told by a friend, “Look, you should go check out BOMA.” Or maybe they had come across a piece of content and they thought that looks interesting, I’ll see who BOMA. So really use this opportunity to have everything on this page that you would almost on your website, so you’ve got short bio, so we’ve got admission, so this is exactly what we do. We’ve got all our contact details, we’ve got the longer form section which is about, so it talks about our skills, our expertise, who we are targeting. Again, as an accountable bookkeeper, this is really the opportunity that you could really talk about what you specialise in and what makes you unique compared to other people out there. Also a good idea to put your phone numbers and your opening hours. I can’t tell you how many people don’t and actually it’s really useful for someone who’s looking for you to be like, “Oh, right, there’s the contact details, I’ll give them a call.” And that’s kind of an easy way for you to immediately make that connection. If you make it difficult and they have to look for the information or maybe go back to your website or sort of go to a directory, it’s too hard and they’ll probably look somewhere else. Cover photo, this is the opportunity on Facebook to really make the most of the fact that it’s quite a visual platform. The first thing that often people will see is your sort of banner ad. So you can see here on the left we’ve got our brand and this could be a photo, it could be your logo. And then on the right here we’ve got a lovely big space, which we’ve used to sort of tell people about what it is that BOMA does. But you could equally use this to have a photo of your team maybe in an event you were at recently, it’s really the sky’s the limit here. And as Kat always says, “Being creative on social is really the best place to start if you are sort of wondering what to or how to get started.” Other things you can put on here is if you ever have a website or in this case a webinar that you’re promoting or something that you want to learn through \[inaudible 00:10:33\], again, you can put that into your profile. Calls to action, so you were telling me really how important these are. **Katherine Clark:** Yeah, absolutely. So you can never assume that the person viewing your post knows what you want them to do. It can seem very obvious when you write a post, but we always like to include it at the very end just to remind people or just make it obvious. On social media there’s so much content and people don’t have as much time to read through and decipher. So having really simple call to actions like the ones here, so just register here, that’s obvious. Or if the people want to learn more about BOMA, they could learn more. Other examples are like watch this video, click this link, contact me. Just really, really clear and simple so that you save them time and encourage them to follow you on that journey onto your website or your event, whichever, whatever you’re looking to do. **Charles Clark:** Exactly. Well, sorry. **Katherine Clark:** There you go. **Charles Clark:** I was just going to say, politicians will say, they talk about the importance of hammering home the same message. So you can see here, we didn’t just have one call to action, we had two. If I could’ve, I probably would’ve fitted in a third somewhere. So just you think it’s obvious but when people are quickly flicking through their social feeds or on their phone, they might miss the first one or maybe register here, doesn’t appeal to them but they want to learn more. We’ve used a couple of different calls to action because people, sometimes different language appeals to them. So whether it’s the ones we have here or it could be contact us to learn more. Say you have a video or it was to a blog, it could be read more. There’s lots of different calls to action. And what I would say is test what works best. So if you try a post and you have one call to action, you could try another post with a different call to action and see which one got the most engagement for you. You might find that your audience likes a certain type of or set language more than others. And obviously once you’ve gone to all the trouble of setting up your Facebook page and judging by the results of the poll, it looks like 90% of you do use Facebook, which is fantastic. So you’ve gone to all that effort. Now don’t forget to tell people about it. I’ve got a couple of examples here, one is in my email, I’ve got all our social networks channels are there and if a user clicks on those, they’ll go through to the channel that they’ve clicked on. And you can also see here down the bottom, we’ve actually got on our website those same channels as well. And I know that’s when I’ve been working with a lot of accounts and bookkeepers, I’m thrilled to say that most of you do. But I just pointed out as it’s kind of really best practise. But that’s not where it stops. If you are speaking to people on the phone or you meet them in an event, you can tell them about the fact that you have a Facebook page. Similarly, if you’re sitting out a newsletter you could say, “Look, we are always posting good things onto Facebook, why don’t you follow us?” And you can actually invite people to follow you. So lots of different ways, you don’t just have to sort of wait for people to come discover you, you can help them in that process. **Katherine Clark:** Yeah. I think that you covered that one well Charles. I think, yeah, so the other thing we wanted to discuss was having an action plan. So knowing when you’re getting started, it’s a good way to form a habit as well. And once you’ve started doing a daily kind of social media suite and dedicated time, it just becomes kind of part of your everyday work life, so like checking emails. You could create a calendar invite maybe the first 15 minutes of your day just to block out some time where you can look at Facebook and start visiting other pages that you follow and you can start engaging and commenting and liking on those ones. Maybe you can spend some time following some new pages in that 15 minutes and planning your posts. I think we mentioned you can schedule posts, which is really good. We do it at Xero, I think BOMA as well a few times a week or month depending on what’s happening. And it’s a great way to get the timings right which we’ll go into more detail later. We’ve just included some examples of things. You don’t have to do them all, but yeah, for example, responding to all of the comments and your thing, so overnight you might have posted something on Facebook and maybe two people commented like, “Oh, thanks for sharing.” And then it’s always good to just engage back with them or answer any questions so that people know that you’re not just putting content out and ignoring it. Yeah, it’s not a good look if you’re just shoving content out, which I think you probably are aware of. People want to get that engagement back, they’re liking and commenting for a reason. **Charles Clark:** And as we said, I mean these are just some ideas here. People, look, you may have more time to do this, you may not have enough time. I think one of the tips we would say is be consistent. So if you, when you were setting up your goals that we were talking about just before, if your goal is to send out two social posts a week and that’s all you can do, that is fantastic. Or if it’s five, that’s great. I suppose the key is be consistent because if someone comes to your Facebook page and they see that the last time you posted was December, 2018, what would the value be for them to follow you because they know that you are not posting, they’re not going to see any interesting news or blogs or sort of insights. Even if it’s just once or twice a week, that’s fine, that’s enough to show that you are active and engaged. And it’s kind of really, you want to make social media work for you. It doesn’t have to be a chore if you sort of, as Kate was saying, almost have it set as a little meeting every day or even once or twice a week you can sort go in there and get it done. And I’ve just seen a comment from Henry who says that he posted Facebook three times a day, first thing in the morning around midday and in the afternoon, which is fantastic. So fantastic he’s got that discipline that works for him, which is great to see. LinkedIn. We’ve followed on from Facebook because really LinkedIn is sort of the Facebook for the professional world and in the past people used to think of it as a great place to have your resume and to look for jobs or to look for people that you might want to employ, but that’s kind of that used to be what LinkedIn was. But really as social media has evolved and LinkedIn has as well, it’s really now a fantastic place where you can use it to follow people, expand your knowledge, network, and obviously look for jobs and look for other people. But it’s really a fantastic professional resource for you that Kat and I just really recommend that. I’m sure most of you are on there as well, but even your business should definitely be on there as well, because if someone is checking you out as a prospective client or employee, they’ll always look at your LinkedIn profile as well. **Katherine Clark:** I think we just got a question as well. Casey, so you asked, is there a programme you use to be able to work out your posts of the week and then schedule them? And a lot of the channels let you schedule natively, so that means you can just go into them and Facebook has a scheduling system. And there are plenty of tutorials too online or you can ask us if you want help and direction on that. There are also programmes like Hootsuite or Salesforce has one or those are the main two I’ve used, I don’t know, you’re using as well. **Charles Clark**: I mean, we just use BOMA ourselves. And then BOMA you can obviously schedule everything as well. So the great thing is if you’re having trouble working out what you want to say, Xero actually has a tonne of content in BOMA as we’ve got other publishers as well. But if you’re ever wondering what should I say or there’s been a regulation change or I want to talk to my clients about a specific topic, you can always go into BOMA and choose that topic and then you can post it out on social and the social posts are already written for you in BOMA. So if you want to customise them you can. And then obviously as we’re talking about scheduling, then you can schedule them for a time in the future, whether it’s later on that week or later on in the month, that will work for that particular post. Other things you can do on here are obviously, it’s not just about having your skills there but you can also have articles. So if you’ve written articles or if you’ve got endorsements, there are great place to have, they’re great to have on your LinkedIn personal or business page. Also client testimonials, so we were talking about having reviews on Facebook, super, super powerful if you have client testimonials on your LinkedIn page. Social proof is pretty much the number one way that people will use to validate without speaking to you in person or use to sort of make sure that your business is everything that you promise. And so these could be along the lines of clients that you’ve worked with in the past, maybe they do it, maybe you ask them to do it or maybe you’ve done a case study. Really I think it’s people used to refer to word of mouth as the way to do it and I know that word of mouth is still really critical for accounts and bookkeepers. What I would say is that research has proven that 80% of times when someone gets a referral through word of mouth, they always go into your website and your social pages. So great to have it from one person but if they can go into your social pages and your website and see a whole raft of testimonials and quotes from happy clients, that’s super, super powerful, so something to consider if you haven’t got those already. So building connections. **Katherine Clark:** Yeah, very important. Building connections is both I think important on a personal level, so you can add people on your own professional network. So yeah, building them for your company page. LinkedIn, it’s a great source of endorsements for your own self. Obviously if you’re looking for a new job, that works too, but it’s also a two way thing. So if you are looking for new employees, it’s a great way to reach out to your networks or their networks and find the right people for the job. And also your clients, your clients are all on LinkedIn or most of them would be, so that’s yet another connection that you’d build out there. And yeah Grace, I’ve just seen your question, so you’ve heard of companies managing LinkedIn pages for their staff, would you recommend it or just stick to the company page and allow staff to do what they like? I think that comes down to your company yourself. I personally think it’s good to let your staff manage their own profiles and encourage them to share news about your company. So using them as a voice and further amplify of your messaging. I’ve seen situations where maybe if your staff aren’t comfortable or they don’t know how LinkedIn profile, sorry, LinkedIn works and what they should be writing you can help maybe like giving them access to BOMA is pre-written LinkedIn content. That I think is a really handy way to start becoming comfortable, like having the copy ready for them and the content ready. But I think long term strategy, you want them to learn the platforms themselves or be more proactive in accessing BOMA’s content on their own rather than you having to force feed and log in for them, that’s my opinion. But Charles I think you- **Charles Clark:** No, look I completely agree. I think ideally they would be all doing it for themselves I think, which speaks to authenticity, they will know how best to communicate to their networks. It could be that you give them some content and say, “Hey, look, here’s some great content.” Or maybe it’s a topic, like we want to talk about an event that’s coming up, could you post this to your networks so you could help give them some guidance because as Kat was saying, sometimes people are too busy or they’re not sure what’s right, so guidance is always appreciated. But I’m sure most people, they’ll always have something that they can post. Another quite useful thing is if you’ve got a fantastic blog or there’s been a success or an achievement at your firm, that’s another great thing to post out. They can post out some information that is relevant to them in their role in your business. Or if you guys won an award, a fantastic thing to be posting about. And actually the \[inaudible 00:24:19\] came out a couple of weeks ago and we were lucky enough to have a whole group of BOMA customers who are on those awards so we actually posted out congratulations and we tagged them and then they thanked us for tagging them, so there was a sort of nice communication there. So whatever way you want to do it, there’s lots of ways that you can, both you as a business page and also your employees or people within your team can be posting out on the networks too. Groups, and we were talking about LinkedIn as a fantastic place to really expand your knowledge in your industry and sort of meet interesting people. These groups are a few that I’ve taken from my LinkedIn profile, so it’s all about marketing and technology and SaaS. And obviously if I saw an accounting friends ones, it would probably be much more reflective of the industry that they’re in. This is just an example, but I use these groups to do lots of things. I use them to bounce ideas off other people, find out new ideas, often they’re advertising courses or conferences that I want to go on or events that I can attend in my area. They’re just a fantastic place to start. I suppose expanding your network and sort of using it is almost sort of an upskilling tool that doesn’t actually cost you anything. You use groups I think as well you were saying. **Katherine Clark:** Yeah. I think our Facebook group is one of the biggest group. So you might have seen Xero partner group on Facebook. And I think it’s great because it’s people who are like-minded and the same situations or maybe they can give you different perspectives on the same topics and really good way to keep on top of important information, legislation changes, changes to software, just really good kind of forum for that. **Charles Clark:** Exactly. And also, look, you’ll never know who you might meet on there, whether you meet them for the first time in LinkedIn and then you meet them at an event or you meet them at an event and then connect on LinkedIn. A great place to build out your own professional network. You never know if you’re looking for someone to employ in the future or you yourself are looking for another opportunity, so lots of different ways to use LinkedIn. And obviously one of the critical ways is to share content. I suppose one thing to keep in mind is that the sorts of content that you share across your different social networks, you have to approach them a little bit differently. This is of a blog post that we did, and to be fair we did post the blog post in very similar ways across Twitter and Facebook as well. However, if I was just posting to Twitter, I might be a little bit, if I was posting about a commentary about something, I’ve only got 280 characters so it might be quite punchy, it might be a very sort of controversial view and that’s great because Twitter’s all about a conversation. On LinkedIn, nice to have a conversation but equally it’s a bit more professional and so you might want to be a bit more measured in what you’re saying. I think things do stick around on LinkedIn and it’ll be on your profile so just be aware that you want your LinkedIn profile, whether it’s your personal or your business one, really the best example of what you personally and what your business is doing and talking about. **Katherine Clark:** I just saw another question from Darren. So the question was, what is tagging? Which I think was what you referred to a couple of slides ago. It’s just mentioning someone, so you can mention a person or a company page on LinkedIn and it’s across all channels, so it’s not just LinkedIn, on Facebook you might … If you use Facebook actually, you might see people tagging each other in Facebook posts, maybe news articles. So they’ll type the ads at and then their name and then click on the profile and it gives them a notification that you’ve mentioned them and either it can be used to draw awareness to some social media posts or it could also be used in a thank you post or an awards post like Charles mentioned, where you congratulate these people and the benefit of that is also that other people can see and they can click through to those profiles and see who the winners were and maybe start following them. **Charles Clark:** Fantastic. And like how you clicked through a little bit early into Twitter, but that’s where we \[inaudible 00:29:06\], great. Twitter, as we were alluding to in the previous sort of comments about it is, really it’s the most realtime global social platform there is. And if you open your Twitter feed at any one time you’ll just see a screen of comments and insights and links coming through. So it really is, it’s kind of the most up to date and a great place for a business to be on and a great place to share insights and commentary but also a great place for you to start to follow influences and people that might be of interest for you in your professional capacity. And so you can see here I’ve just sort of ramming home the point which is your Twitter page, which is where all your tweets will congregate once you post them is another opportunity for you to brand your business. Again, tell your story, make it really clear what it is that you do for people, what makes you unique. And again, I suppose one thing just to point out is just to make it consistent, so just that you’re branding, your logos, your messaging are all consistent across all your social channels and your website. Now this doesn’t mean that you can’t change it up from time to time and we’ll talk about that in a minute, but just to make sure that there’s a consistency of message and a brand. And again that just goes to if you are sort of a viewer going on and you see conflicting messages across all the different social channels, as a customer it just sort of says, “Well, do they really know what they’re talking about? Do they really have a clear understanding of what they are?” Whereas if you have a very defined and disciplined message, then it’s very clear for the user again to understand who you are and what you’re all about. Retweeting, this is really, really powerful, and this is a retweet that we did actually of this webinar. And although some of the numbers don’t look huge, so we got five retweets, a comment and 14 likes, we actually got over 4,000 impressions, so 4,000 people saw this. So retweeted it and I don’t care that you guys do a lot of this at Xero as well. **Katherine Clark:** Yeah. What I always do is if I see that a post is doing really well organically, so that means if we just post it as itself, then I might even boost it with some money. So you can put maybe like $40 into a post and that will get it seen by a much bigger range, much wider audience. It’ll reach people that haven’t interacted with you or people who might have clicked on your profile once. So yeah, a really good way of knowing what to boost is the content that’s performing really well on its own. And I think, yeah, so that’s one way of doing it, retweeting is the other way of getting it because Twitter’s a very noisy platform and people are going to scroll through and miss things that you post. So if you retweet it at another time or day or re-post it then yeah, that’s going to help. But yeah, I think that’s- **Charles Clark:** Yeah. And as Kat said, you’ll be reaching new audiences, you might have people who have a bit of free time in the morning and that’s when they check it. But equally you might have some people who it’s only when they put the kids to bed at sort of 8:00 a night that they actually have the chance to go through and check their feed. And this applies to all social networks. Do think about the different times that you post and we’ll cover this in a bit more detail a little bit later on, but it’s really good to be aware of your audience and when they like to engage. And I’ve just had a question from Grace who says that we’ve been sharing content, we’re quite new to it, but how do we get more followers and what are your thoughts and accountants doing the whole like and tag a friend thing? So a couple of questions in here, we’ll be talking about how to get more followers in a couple of slides so I’ll hold off onto that, and then what are your thoughts on accountants doing the like and tag a friend thing? I think all engagement is good and I know Kat’s got a few things to say about this, but there’s nothing worse than being sort of a lurker on social media where you sort of watch everything but you never get involved. So take the opportunity to like things, to comment on them whether they’re yours or clients or colleagues. And also if you have a good post or if you’ve got a social page, don’t be afraid of inviting your friends to like it, to follow you, all great ways that you can start to get the message out there. **Katherine Clark:** And I think also you asked Grace if it’d be worthwhile doing a giveaway of some sort and I think competitions are like, yeah, they are a good way to get that initial following. So yeah, definitely recommend testing it if you’ve got an idea of what you could give away, what your audience … The thing is I think you don’t want to do a giveaway which will just draw a whole range of people that might not be your target audience. So you need to think carefully about what would interest my clients or potential prospective clients. So just being really strategic about that so that you don’t end up building a following of just I guess the general public that won’t do much for you and then they after the competition will question why they’re following you and probably stop following you. So yeah, just being very careful about that. **Charles Clark:** And I think that’s a good point, and I mean one of our users is based in a rural town in New Zealand and one of her big target markets is farmers and obviously horticultural growers. So in this case, if she was going to do a competition, she could write the copy of the post in such a way that it really called out that she was higher farmers and horticultural growers out there, we’re going to do a free farm audit for you into here with your details. There it’s really clear who you’re targeting if you are a retail business or immediately you know that it doesn’t apply to you because they’ve called out the fact that it’s for farming and horticultural people. And then for the horticultural people you’ve told them what the value is. So follow our page and we will give you the chance to win a free audit. Again, you are giving them a lot of value and all they’re giving in return is following you. Obviously the benefit to you is that by then following you, you can then start to build that relationship with them, send them, have more content, they’ll see what you’re doing and ideally in time then you reach out either with a phone call or an email and start to really build that relationship up. And actually just follows into what we were saying Kat. **Katherine Clark:** Yeah. I guess with Twitter especially, but all the channels, one of a good piece of advice is just like don’t be shy. It’s good to just start off by getting involved in conversations. Some advice would be monitor your favourite hashtags, if people are mentioning you, if you’re getting notifications that they’ve tagged mentioned you, follow up on that, create some conversation around that. Yes, it’s really important to stay active as Charles has said before because people, they won’t see the value if they’re following you and nothing’s happening. So yeah, don’t be shy and it’ll help you in many ways, so it helps position you as like leader expert, if you are getting onto the trending news, you are one of the first people to talk about certain topics that they’d be interested in. I think also one more point would be if you’re getting negative comments or complaints, the approach we take at Xero is always to be really upfront. We don’t ignore them because people obviously they want to know how you respond to those kind of things and if you ignore it or shut them down, that’s going to ruin that relationship and it’s not really treating them very fairly, so that’s how we do it here. **Charles Clark:** I think that’s really good point. Obviously social media is social and so people see that. I think if people see that someone has a complaint, and look, let’s face it, at some stage everyone will say, “Look, something’s not quite right.” And it may even be something really minor, it doesn’t really matter. The important thing is that you make the effort to try and resolve it. And the key thing here is that other people will see that you tried to resolve it and they’ll think, okay, these people, they care, they’re genuine, they want to make a difference. They didn’t, as Kat was just saying, sort of just shut me down. And I think this links on to a question from Darren who said, “Can you block certain people from following?” And I would say, yes, you can block them, so on all the different channels you can block them. What I wouldn’t say is if someone has had a complaint to block them because then you are just kind of ignoring the problem. Obviously if they’re being abusive or posting inappropriate content, definitely block them. But asking questions or questioning why something happened is definitely an opportunity for you to show how engaged and the fact that you care about your clients, so actually look on as an opportunity. **Katherine Clark:** Completely. **Charles Clark:** Instagram, so we’ve saved this to last because in a way it’s kind of the most different network, it’s the most visual. And a few years ago everyone would’ve said, “Look, that’s just for the young people, the Gen Y and millennials.” Look, they’ve all gone on to Snapchat, which we’re not going to deal with today. And now really Instagram is in a place where individuals and companies and brands can tell stories in a really visual way. If LinkedIn is really the place where you can write about stories and share commentary and sort of interesting things like this, then Instagram is a really great place where you can have a bit of fun with your brand. And so as before, your profile as ever is the place where you’re able to tell people about it. What you can also do here that not everyone knows is you can see here we’ve got our website link because Instagram doesn’t allow you to put a link into … not at least a link that will automatically click through into their post, so that’s a key difference because Facebook does. But if I go onto the next slide, you can see here that we’ve actually put in here a whole different message into our bio. This one is talking about today’s webinar and then if we click on the link, it’ll go through to the registration page that all of you signed up for. The great thing about that is that I can reference that in a post, I can say, “Here’s the post and see link in our bio.” And that’s a really clear call to action that people know where to go and they don’t have to go off of the channel that they’re on off of Instagram to find out to our website, they can just sort do it all in there. This is for an event that we hosted, but again, it could be a product or a service, it could be a case study that you’ve got, it could be some research that you conducted. It could be really anything that you want to link to. This is a great spot and it’s a nice bit of real estate that you can use. Hashtags, this is Kat’s favourite bit **Katherine Clark:** Love hashtags, yeah. Hashtags are so important, especially we’ve gotten a few questions about how do you build a new following. One of the best ways is to use them, to follow them, to jump into conversations around them. So like what are they? I guess in a way they act as a mini search engine, so you click on one of those hashtags and you can see all the content, all the pictures on Instagram, all the tweets on Twitter. It’s also relevant to Facebook and LinkedIn and you can see all the images, all the posts that have been shared around that topic. So yeah, it’s a great way to get on board on what’s trending and start getting involved in those online conversations. It might be hard to know what hashtag should I be following, what hashtag should I be using in my posts? We’ve got some category examples like industry hashtags, events usually have hashtags, you might see holiday hashtags. A way to find them if you are not sure where to start is just by observing and saying, what are my competitors or peers, what are they posting? And then you can start recording, keeping a list maybe of those hashtags and then making sure that you apply them to your posts. And as we’ve said a few times, just testing them out. So if you’re finding that these 10 Instagram hashtags aren’t doing anything, maybe you need to reevaluate and just make sure that you’re not just using them for the sake of it as well, that it’s actually relevant to what your post is about. You can see in this post here. **Charles Clark:** Yeah, exactly. I mean, you can see here. So we’ve got accounting bookkeeping because that’s who we are wanting to target. We’ve got Xero because obviously we are doing it with cap from Xero. Social media marketing, that’s the topic. And then we’ve got BOMA marketing, which is our hashtag. So whenever you click on BOMA marketing on any of these social networks, up will come all the posts. So a great way for someone to see everything that you’ve posted and a really nice way for you to keep a library of everything. As Kat was saying, if you’re moving into this thought leadership space, an idea could be that you put your brand hashtag and then you could sort of say tax regulation or something like that. When people were searching for tax regulation up would come your post. And if you do it quite a few times, then up would come all of your posts and then they start to get the feeling that actually you guys are talking a lot about this, you must know what you’re talking about. If I want someone to work on taxation for me, I should find out more about you. So creating bold images and I stole this one, well, I didn’t steal it, I bought it from Adobe. But I think this speaks to Instagram particularly, but also it’s applicable across all your channels. And that is people are flicking through their social channels pretty quickly and oftentimes on a mobile device. So think about an image that’s going to be bold, something that’s going to really engage. If you have a boring image or something that’s kind of not very interesting, why would someone stop as they flick through at high speed? Whether it’s your own images, so it could be of you guys at an event, it could be of your office, could be an event you’re going to, someone else’s event. So Xerocon’s coming up, we know lots and lots of accounts and bookkeepers love to post from there and which is great because it positions you as \[inaudible 00:44:55\]. There’s lots of benefits in even image with a couple of hashtags, you don’t need to write a lot of content especially with Instagram, which is the beauty of it as it’s a very visual medium. So if you just wanted to post having a great time day one at Xerocon, hashtag Xerocon, hashtag your business name, that’s fantastic. And then that’ll be added to the library of all the other posts that have been seen for that event. What can you share? We’ve talked about all the different channels and we’ve given you some ideas and we know it’s quite hard to know what to share and obviously we talked a little bit about BOMA having all the content and all the Xero content in there. But there’s lots of other things that you could be sharing as well. So in terms of reminding clients, I know that in New Zealand there’s a GST, it’s coming up on the 28th and in Australia it’s BAS is coming up tomorrow. Great thing just to tweet out or do a Facebook post. So just reminding them of important events or maybe just it’s Melbourne Cup coming up, it doesn’t necessarily have to be related to, it’s not all worked, you can have some play in there. So that’s just sort of an idea about reminders. And then obviously news, this could be news about big events, news about changes within your client’s industry, something that would affect them, things that they will find valuable and interesting. And I know obviously Xero does a lot of that. I think you’re always posting about regulatory changes and things like that. Things that you know that your partnership base will be interested in. **Katherine Clark:** Yeah. A lot of it is about adding value to your audience’s life. So when you think about this, it’s the same to when you, I don’t know, maybe share an email out to your clients. You want to think about what information is important to them or will be interesting to them. And on the point of, you don’t have to always just share about business related things. You can talk about maybe certain holidays or cultural events. You can jump on those hashtags and create some conversation around there and maybe try and tie it into what’s relevant to accounting and bookkeeping. **Charles Clark:** And another idea is to boost your client’s brands. So if they’ve done something really interesting, whether they’ve got an event or they’ve had a big success or achievement, anything like that, obviously it’s great for you because then people know that you have lots of interesting clients and it’s good for your clients because you are helping them amplify their message and their success and you are basically spreading the word that they’re a great business. Obviously if you do it for them, more likelihood that they’ll do it for you. And that’s I really think one of the guidelines for social media is that the more you get involved, the more you engage, the more you’re active, the more people will interact to be active with things that you are posting and commenting on and liking and engaging with. And then lastly, just as much as sharing other people’s great news is important, blowing your own trumpet’s really important as well. So if you’ve had a great success, if you won an award, if you’ve changing offices or expanding, that’s fantastic. All things that people love to hear about and definitely don’t be afraid of tooting your own horn on social media. When to post, and this is kind a technical one, so I’ll leave it to you Kat. **Katherine Clark:** It is something that’s really important to consider. Timing really is everything. And once again, thinking about your audience, thinking about what they want to see but also when they can and when they might be online is really important. So for us, the different channels I think have slightly different … I’d have different suggestions for each of them. If you think Twitter, LinkedIn, probably more of the professional one. So your clients might be more inclined to check those during work hours because it’s more related to work in a way. So you could look at posting maybe in the lunch break section or maybe in the early morning when they just think about you start your day, you check your emails, you check your social media feeds, that’s a good time. I think the commuting times before and after work are also useful times, maybe 8:00 to 9:00 AM or 5:00 to 6:30 PM kind of timing. And I think that’s when you can play around more with Instagram and maybe Facebook. But I’m not saying it’s a hard and fast role as well. So really important to experiment because people who follow Xero accounts or my personal accounts are very different. So your audience might be different in that sense too. So just test out some different times and see what’s working best. And then also don’t become I guess too stuck in a way too because if you just think, okay, midday, lunch break, that’s the only time I’m going to post, it might work for a while, but then what if … People change the way, habits of using social media change, so don’t always … just keep experimenting and working out what’s working best. Charles Clark: I’d also add, we were talking about Twitter and LinkedIn being quite sort of businessy folks and professional, so highly likely as Kat said, that people are checking them during the week. Are you going to check your LinkedIn at 9:00 on a Sunday morning? Probably not. Much more fun to check Instagram and Facebook. So again, the channels do work in slightly different ways. If you wanted a general rule of thumb sort of weekday mid mornings, you can’t go wrong. But again, you need to test out, you need to find out when your particular audience is online, when they’re engaging, you might find that actually certain posts on one channel work better late afternoon when people are commuting or on the weekend. Unfortunately we can’t give you any specific rules, but as you get more used to posting and you post more, you’ll get a definite sense of what’s working- **Katherine Clark:** A kind of pattern. Charles Clark: Yeah. And then this kind of goes back I think to Grace’s question, which was, how do I grow my social following? We’ve got a couple of tips here and I’m going to cough, I’m going to let Kat- **Katherine Clark:** I think we’ve already talked about a few of these things. So setting goals across your platforms, that will mean that your tactics will be really strong and that you’ve got something to come back to and benchmark against like, am I fulfilling these goals? Am I doing my 15 minutes per day? Am I actively thinking of new content to share? Knowing your audience, I think I’ve said it a million times now, but that’s really the most important thing about social media is if you’re just posting and not looking at the results and you’re not looking at what they’re enjoying and what they’re reacting to, then you’re just going to lose your audience. Following relevant accounts, and you’ve probably noticed this on your personal, if you’ve got Twitter per se. If you follow an account, they’re very likely to follow you back, it’s the same with company pages. If you’re not following anyone else and you’ve just started out, how are they even going to know that you exist? So something like an exercise you can do in your 15 minutes per day is just maybe looking at a couple of accounts that we’ll be posting, things that you can reshare or things that you might be interested in and learning from. And another thing we suggest is adding follow buttons to your comms. Like Charles pointed out in his email format, you can have the social media buttons there because once again, people might search for your account and they probably will search for it on say Facebook and follow you. But you need to act quite active with it as well. You can also add links to your website, so at the bottom. I know myself, if I am looking up a business, I guess it’s because social media is my life, but I will always go straight down to look at what social media channels that they’re active on and how engaging are they with their followers, so I think that’s really important. **Charles Clark:** And don’t forget your newsletters as well. I mean, I know a lot of people will either send out newsletters once a month where you might send out regular newsletters. Again, you don’t just have to have the icons down the bottom. You could put up a little section saying, “Follow us on LinkedIn or follow us on Facebook.” Again, we talk about calls to action, be clear about what you want them to do. And in this case you want them to follow you to grow your followers, then ask for it. If you don’t ask in social media, you definitely won’t get most of the time. And I think the last thing we were talking a little bit about earlier was, you can do social ads. So in BOMA you can do social ads, you can obviously do social ads natively as well. And you could be specific about who you wanted to target. So if you wanted to target people who worked in retail and were interested in certain things and you might base this off what you know about your current clients and you might say, “Look, I want to choose a location around me.” And then you could actually go out and you could promote, and it could be that you promote your business or maybe you could think a bit more, sort of feel about it. And maybe it’s a competition or an event that you’re hosting. Just all the ways that you can engage people and whether you get them to follow you or they sign up to an event and then you get their email and then you can start to engage with them like that. Facebook, all the social channels are a great way for you to expand your reach and really tell people about what it is that you’re doing. Cool. So the last point is that, that all sounds great, but how do I get started? And Kat did allude to this, but before in terms of when she first started, she would observe what people are doing, build her confidence, start with liking people, maybe making the odd comment. I think that’s super, super valuable advice. You don’t have to go out all guns blazing and join up to every single network out there and be posting 10 times a week. You could start out with, in the case of most people who answer the poll, Facebook and LinkedIn, that’s a fantastic place to be as you start to grow on confidence and be used to writing copy for social, you’ll grow in confidence and before you know it, you’ll be maybe posting a bit more regularly or expanding to different channels. Do you have anything to add on that Kat? **Katherine Clark:** No, agree completely. And I think when you observe as well, you’ll notice I guess the differences in writing style for each of the channels as we kind of covered too. So seeing how other people do it can just help you get into that mindset and understand \[inaudible 00:56:46\]. I think that’s everything for me. **Charles Clark:** Well, I just think the last thing I would say, and again this comes back to a question earlier in terms of, should we run our own LinkedIn profiles or should we have them run by the company? Again, lean on your colleagues so it’s not just all down to you to be tweeting and posting and putting out videos and photos about your business. You could rely on your colleagues. So whether they see something interesting online and they flick it to you and say, “Hey, this is a really great article, why don’t you post it out?” Or they start to amplify the things that you’ve done, so you post \[inaudible 00:57:29\] business, and then they like it, they tweet it, they forward it, they comment on it. And so that’ll go up to their network. So if you’re a sole trader then it probably is all down to you. But for everyone else, if you’ve got even just a couple of colleagues, get them involved and you’ll be surprised that sharing a burn like that, it actually will become much more manageable for you. Look, and just before we go, I’d just like to share the results of the whole, just so you can all see what everyone said. So it looks at 75% of you are using social media, although some of you are just using personal use. Facebook and LinkedIn far and away the most popular. Looks like a small amount of you are using other, which I’d be very interested to know what they were. Are they Snapchat? Are they other social networks? Knowing what to post was the main issue. Obviously knowing how to use the platforms at the right time, but knowing what to post. And I think that’s where something like BOMA is so useful. You can go into BOMA, we’ve got hundreds and hundreds of articles that you can send out via all the different channels and you can customise them, you can also send them out in long form as emails. And so that really takes away that guesswork because not only do you have to know what to post than you have to craft it. And Kate and I, I know has spent merely an hour sort of crafting the content. Although to reiterate Kat’s point earlier, it doesn’t always have to be perfect. And I’m not saying that you can’t obviously have spelling mistakes on your posts, that’s not great. But don’t obsess too much over having the absolute most perfect post that you sort of spend five days going on, because by that point things have moved on. So if you’ve got something interesting and fun to say, as long as it’s spell checked and it makes sense grammatically, put it up there. **Katherine Clark:** And you’ll get better at it. The more you do it, the better. Writing for social media, it’s a skill and you just practise it and then it’ll become easier and more effective. **Charles Clark:** Exactly. Now it looks like, gosh, over 70% of you are in Facebook and LinkedIn groups, which is fantastic. And interestingly there looks to be quite a variance in terms of how often you guys are posting. We’ve got pretty much even between a couple of times per day, couple of times per week or a few times per month. I’m quite surprised by that. I thought it would definitely be a lot lower, but yeah, interesting to see that so many of you are selective, which is great. And so I just wanted to move on questions. We’ve got a couple of questions and obviously if you guys have got any more questions, we’ve still got a couple of minutes, so please do flick them through. One from Stuart, which is, “Is BOMA going to create a mobile app?” At the moment it’s not on our roadmap. But having said that, you can access BOMA through your iPad or through your smartphone. As long as you’ve got Safari or Chrome or anything like that, you can actually log in and use it just as you would on your computer. The browser experience on your mobile phone, if it’s a very small mobile phone, obviously it’s not as easy to see things as if it was on a bigger screen, but you can definitely do everything that you can on your main app. And then a question from Annette, who said, “What channels would you recommend for vlogs and short videos? Insta, Facebook, are they worthwhile?” What do you think, Kat? **Katherine Clark:** I think videos, something that all the social media channels are really pushing. They’re just really encouraging it. So video content, the algorithms in the channels seem to really preference them and put them first and make sure that they’re seen by more people. I think Instagram and Facebook are great places, you can play around though, because Twitter also has the offering and so does LinkedIn. I guess it also depends on what the content is. I think if it’s more of a fun quick update, you might want to post that on Twitter and Facebook, Instagram, but if it’s a longer more technical video, you might want to try LinkedIn. Something else to consider is there’s live videos, so you might want to do a Facebook Live or maybe a Twitter live video or even the 24 hour stories that … sorry, Instagram has a very heavy focus on now. At Xero I’ve done a few around visual events. People might want to see what you’re doing there and you can do quick vlog style snippets of people. So yeah, I guess I wouldn’t say there’s just one channel or two channels that you should use, vlogs and short videos on. It just depends on what the content is. But definitely if you are comfortable at that level, you should definitely be posting them and creating them. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. Also one place to mention that we haven’t talked about today is YouTube. So great place to upload, you can actually create a channel, so you could have … We’ve got the BOMA channel. I’m sure Xero has their channel and we put up all our webinars, all our short videos, so everything that we put up on across a lot of our social networks, we also pop onto YouTube, is just a great place. Obviously people also can search it because you’ve got tags on YouTube and it’s a really easy place for you to have all your video content and sort of one easy to find place if you don’t also have it on your website. And then one question from Nicole who says, “Is BOMA thinking about SMS broadcasting?” Actually we are, just as soon as there’s I suppose enough people who show interest then we’ll add it in. So if any of you are BOMA users and you’d like to see SMS, ping us a note on our … Yeah, you are interested, fantastic. So just ping us a note on our website and the more interest we have, the more likely it is that we can edit in. And also grace for reminders, that’s fantastic. Brilliant. Okay. Well, look, if there are no other questions and do let us know, but thank you so much for joining everyone and thanks again to Kat. Fantastic to get your insight and experiences, especially from Xero, which I know everyone is obviously probably using themselves and for their clients, so just fantastic to have you along and we’ll see you next time guys. Thanks again. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [How to Communicate & Work with Clients in Turbulent Times](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/how-to-communicate-work-with-clients-in-turbulent-times/) **Published:** March 31, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Join Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA, and Brad Turville, Business Development Consultant, as they discuss how to communicate and work with clients in these challenging times – and where to start. During this webinar they’ll cover: – Why in these times your support is more critical than ever for your clients – What kinds of support you can be giving to your clients – How should you be communicating with your clients **NB: You can also read a full transcript of this session below.** ## ‘How to Communicate & Work with Clients in Turbulent Times’ Transcript **Charles Clark:** So welcome to the How to Communicate and Work with Clients in Turbulent Times webinar. Just while we wait for a few more people to join us, I thought I would just launch a quick poll. This is just about how you’ve been connecting with your clients recently. So I’ll just launch that now and if you just take a few seconds just to engage with that, we’ll go through the results a little bit later on down the webinar. And the reason for this poll, just a bit of background, is that on social media, a lot on LinkedIn and Facebook, I’ve been seeing a lot of comments from people in the accounting and financial advisor space and a lot of them have been saying they’ve been hearing stories that a lot of small businesses haven’t been hearing from accountants. And so that was sort of one of the reasons that Brad and I decided to do this webinar is it’s a critical time and obviously, we need to think about how we can support those clients. But equally, given the difficult times we’re in, a lot of people may not quite be sure how to go about doing that. So that’s kind of the genesis for this webinar. So I think we’ll get started. I’m really thrilled to be joined today by Brad Turville. Brad has had his own accounting firm for a number of years, and now he does business development consulting to small businesses and accounting firms. So welcome Brad, great to have you with us. **Brad Turville:** Thanks, Charles. Happy to be here. And also interested in seeing some of these poll results when we get to them a little bit later because I’ve been hearing and seeing similar things about accountants not being able to get to all of their clients and also small businesses coming out of the woodwork and even reaching out to me personally saying, “Hey, I know you’re not in practise anymore but we need some help.” And one of my questions has been, “Aren’t you speaking to your accountant?” So it would be good to get into a few ideas and strategies today, some strategies of my own and some that I see a lot of other accountants doing very well. **Charles Clark:** Fantastic. Well look, we’ll dive straight in because I know everyone is pretty short on time these days. But just to reiterate that the world is looking pretty different today than it was last week or even a few weeks ago. And the paradigm has really shifted. And for a lot of businesses, especially small businesses, it is unprecedented times. And that is throughout the world, New Zealand, Australia, the UK obviously, but really everywhere throughout the world, small businesses are facing a landscape that looks very different than it did earlier in the year. And really at this time, they really need their financial advisors. So accountants, bookkeepers, advisors, they are going to be turning to you to help them navigate these times and obviously try and keep their business viable and keep it going. So that’s what we’re talking about today, and Brad has a really strong background on this, hence why he’s joined us. So Brad, as we’re both saying, we’ve seen a lot of businesses which haven’t necessarily heard from their advisors. And can you just talk us through why it is so critical that they do have that connection with their advisor? **Brad Turville:** Yeah, sure. So I don’t need to explain in too much detail what’s going on at the moment from an economic, from a social, from a health point of view and so on. Businesses, and when I say business, I’m being very broad here and this includes everyone even on the call today, advisors, accountants, bookkeepers and so on. We are all under prepared for this. No one really saw this coming or the rapid increase in what has occurred. So we’re under prepared and with that, there comes a certain amount of uncertainty and we don’t even really know a timeline at the moment. And so when there’s uncertainty, we tend to get a little bit scared because we’ll always start to think of certain things, not always best case, but more so worst case scenario. So under prepared, we’re scared. Businesses, they don’t really know who to turn to and what they’re generally going to do is turn to their accountant because that’s generally that go to person that helps them with anything business related. It could be a bookkeeper if they’ve got a strong relationship there and so on. They also don’t know exactly what to do or they don’t know what order to do things in. And that can actually be really important because things are changing so quickly. If we get the order out of whack and we’re focusing on something that’s not that mission critical, even though it might feel like it, that could be detrimental to the business. So one of the overarching lessons from what myself and Charles are going to talk about today is I don’t want you to wait for them to come to you. I want you to be proactive and go to them, and we’re going to expand on that over the next 40-odd minutes, but be proactive and go to them. And that’s going to be the way to go about that because you’re probably already thinking, “How do I speak to everyone one on one?” Well, we’re going to be looking at some more leverage strategies about how to do that. I was talking to a firm last night and they’ve got thousands of business clients. Well, it’s almost impossible for them to speak to every client one on one. And if they did speak to them all one on one, by the time they got to the last one, they literally have to go back to the first one again and start again. So we need to implement some leverage where we can think of it like a funnel. We can go one to many and educate and support on a leverage scale because there’s not only the communication, but there’s work that you already had in the pipeline before this happened. Now we’re dealing with what’s happening and there’s going to be work that’s going to come out from those conversations, whether it’s what you can access from the government, what you can access from your tax departments or your revenue departments, with your team, so on and so forth. So lot more ideas we’re going to be sharing today. Part of that is really showing a lot of empathy and if we look at empathy on a dial, I guess between zero and 10, I need you to turn it up to 100. I know 100 isn’t even on the dial, but you just need to keep turning this thing all the way up. Using sensitive language, so when you’re talking to a client, I’m even being careful here looking at some of my delivery notes, even being careful and sensitive with what I’m saying today. And whether that’s just in a conversation, could be on a Zoom call like this, it could be on a phone call, it could be maybe emails that you’re sending out to your different lists and types of clients just being sensitive when the language and maybe even getting someone else on your team just to run their eye over it. Just because things, you can have good intentions with what you say can sometimes be a little bit interpreted differently and everyone’s a little bit more sensitive right now. Also be aware of the role that you need to play for your clients. So that role is, for lack of a better word, the trusted advisor, the go-to person, the business guru, someone that knows infinitely more about the taxation system than what I do. I might be a business owner, I might be a plumber and I might be really good at… I’ve got no idea about plumbing, so I’m just going to say plumbers just fix pipes and that’s what I’m really good at. But that doesn’t make me a good financial manager, business manager, strategic marketer. It doesn’t make me good at collaborating. It doesn’t give me a thorough understanding on what all these stimulus packages mean and they’re constantly moving and changing. I mean I’m an accountant and I can’t even stay on top of what’s going on and get my head around it, let alone a small business owner that’s very far removed from working in the accounting world and industry for a long time. So just remind yourself of the role that you are playing but also this is now the role that you have, almost whether you like it or not, is that this is I guess an opportunity to stand up and to really help and support your clients at this time. With that said, this also all applies to you. So you need to look after yourself and you need to think of your family and how you can best help and be around and support them, and your extended family, which is your team members because a lot of them, you aren’t now all in the office or the factory together next to one another. We’re doing things like this. We’re looking at each other virtually. We’re having a virtual coffee together. So the lesson there is remember to put your own oxygen mask on first because if something happens to you or you start to get a little bit worn down or sleep deprived or touch wood, if you get sick, and you have got the ability to influence hundreds of business owners and even just moms and dads and individual clients, that’s the influence that you’ve got at the moment. If you are no good, then that’s now got a big impact and influence on them. So put your own oxygen mask on first. And third point I want to make here is with your business clients, there can be some mistakes that they could make through their decision making process, whether to do something or not do something that can dramatically impact the business. So again, that word sensitivity comes up, but instead of sensitive language, we’re almost talking here about if we really look at financial analysis, we’re talking about a sensitivity analysis. And the point here is that there’s going to be sensitivities to the downside. So some businesses could make a few changes. I’ve seen some business models completely pivot, go from online to offline, go from delivering to this market to that market, different pricing, different terms just to try and cater for these changes. Generally the upside, it’s not enormous. It’s more about how can we be sustainable and viable and get through this. And some businesses, we’re all going to have businesses that aren’t going to make it through this if I’m to be honest. We’re going to have a lot that we’ll get through it and some will come out the other side and it will be the same as before, but some are going to change. So they’re currently changing now and when they come out of this, they will remain changed and that will be for a number of reasons. Their consumers now may actually prefer the change that they’ve made. For you, accountants and bookkeepers, if you’ve done lots of face to face work forever just because that’s just how you’ve done it and it’s worked, if you now start to do more meetings like this and your clients love it, they might actually say in, let’s call it six months time to pick a number, that they would prefer to have meetings like this going forward. So there are going to be some changes that occur that will hang around going forward. So with the sensitivity, it’s about the downside. If I do something wrong, it can go drastically wrong versus when we’re in more of a stable economy, in a stable environment and stable consumer buying patterns and I guess consumer stability, certain decisions you make may not be as sensitive, meaning you could make… Let’s call it cash flow just to pick the topic that’s at the height of everyone’s agenda at the moment. If they make a cash flow decision that in hindsight maybe wasn’t the best decision, in a strong economy, you might be able to get away with it. Or in different times though I should say. You might be able to get away with it. You’ll have a bit of a dip, but you’ll get through it. Now you’re going to be a bit more sensitive to it. So the low will be lower and we want to try and mitigate that and I want you to try and help your business clients mitigate that by what we’re actually about to talk to next so I won’t jump ahead of myself, but a number of support and services you can offer them to try and guide them through what they’re doing, what they’re going to do, and also a little bit of a sounding board which they need, so someone, an expert to go and talk to that’s not the husband or wife or partner or friend or colleague or whatever. Someone a little bit external who’s an expert, who’s got experience and who’s got experience over a wide range. It’s a great thing with accountants and bookkeepers. A plumber only knows plumbing and generally other plumbers. You see all sorts of industries and so you can start to cherry pick different ideas, especially when they need to make changes to the business that they don’t see because it’s a blind spot that they have. So they’re probably the top three points in regards to why now is very critical for support. **Charles Clark:** I really liked your point about the sensitivity and looking after yourself because the new normal is going to go on for quite some time and you obviously want to be at the height of your abilities in terms of making sure that your own house is in order, your family’s looked after so that you can then be of a clear head and a clear mind to then be advising other people on how they should be looking after their business and their family. So that’s a really nice pearl in there. So we thought that this was quite a good image because usually in rock climbing, unless you are sort of free soloing where it’s very risky, people make it at the top and they always have a belayer, who is there supporting them and who if something happens is there to catch them and then help them get reattached so they can keep on climbing that person’s sort of mountain, which is pretty much where we are here. So I just thought there’s a nice metaphor in this image and it really talks to what some of Brad’s ideas about that support and how it’s not just necessarily going in there and teaching them about cash flow management. It could be updating them on the most recent policies and regulations that impact them. So I think Brad, you’ve got a really nice well rounded idea of what that support could look like. Can you expand on it a little bit? **Brad Turville:** Yeah, sure. So the first one is going to be top of mind for especially many tax agents and compliance orientated firms on the call. So that’s that rapidly unfolding landscape around what the government and the banks are providing. And so it’s going to be support to business clients and definitely even individuals here around what that means for them and how it impacts them and what they’re entitled to. And a guy called Sam Walton, who is the famous founder of Walmart in America, he talks about this notion of being a bit of a scrappy promoter, and part of that is that’s how a lot of your clients are at the moment is they’re really trying to grasp at what’s for me and what decision do I need to make today and should I lay off these people or should I hold off or what’s in store? And it’s a little bit of a juggle because things are being announced Australia, New Zealand, UK, everywhere around the world, plus the media is putting their own filter on it. So just a little side tip, be careful of the media and what you’re hearing. There are some great accounting support groups out there as well that are helping interpret a lot of the data and what that then means for your client. So you are in the best position to help interpret this because some of it is quite, I’ll call it accountantese, especially the legislation as it’s been released. Anyone that’s ever read legislation before knows it’s not the most riveting reading nor ability to interpret it and interpret certain, let’s call it eligibility criteria can sometimes be a bit grey. And so we need to be a little bit careful there. So I want you to take the position of being able to interpret and advise your clients and different groups of clients because you’re going to have business clients where there’s going to be specific support criteria that apply to them, which your individual clients aren’t going to really be interested in nor does it apply to them and vice versa. Let’s say something specific in Australia is around superannuation. There might be some impacts there that certain business clients that might have that type of service with you or interest in it, they don’t really want to hear about. So that ability to segment, which Charles you might be able to comment on about getting the right communication to the right people. **Charles Clark:** Yeah, exactly. And actually just harking back to a point in terms of the policies and everything that’s coming out, so I mean for those of you who might be bimodal or GAAP users, we’ve actually got a whole lot of content. So it’s updated at the moment every day or two for the UK, Australia and New Zealand with the latest take on, as Brad said, it could be anything from superannuation to unemployment benefits to tax breaks for businesses. So we are trying to give that to you as an easy, I suppose, resource for you to disseminate out to your clients and when you are going out to your clients, just be aware that you’ll probably have a variety. So to use Brad’s example of a plumber, maybe you might be an accountant or a bookkeeper who only has plumbing clients, but as Brad’s pointed out, mostly you’ll have a variety of clients. So be aware of that and then think about the information that you’re putting out there and who it would be useful to be seen by. So don’t necessarily just always send some information out to everyone because it will only be relevant to some of them or most likely it will be only relevant to some of them. So when we talk about segmenting, that’s just a really easy way to look at it is just to think of your clients in different buckets. So you might have a plumbing bucket, you might have a retail bucket and you might have an agricultural bucket. And then think about the information that would be most relevant to them in terms of those updates that Brad was alluding to. **Brad Turville:** Great. I’ve got a couple more points here that I want to make around the kind of support that you can offer. So a suggested starting point is going to be around business continuity planning. So the difference with this type of plan versus a business plan or a bigger strategic plan is this is specifically to deal with this current unfolding landscape that we’re dealing with right now. You could almost call it like an emergency plan or a emergency plan’s probably a good idea. So it’s a high level view of what you need to be aware of in these times, what you need to think about, some certain things you need to plan for. So I guess a few high level pillars within that plan would be about you. I said earlier, put your own oxygen mask on. The plan starts with this. So that’s you, your family, even just your personal budget at home or your family’s asset planning. Next, we’ve got your team. So have you got, say a COVID-19 policy in place in your team or what’s allowable? What’s not? What’s best practice? What should you be doing or not doing? And also over communicating and really supporting your team members. We’ve got a bit of a checklist later on where I share a few more tactics that you can start to implement on a regular basis. Supporting and retaining your customers, obviously our business still needs to roll on with customers. They’re the one keeping the business alive and the business rolling and the cash coming in. So what are some things we can start to think about? We might need to change some things. We might need to update some things to continue to hold onto those relationships and that sales volume preferably and help support your customers, which on the flip side is going to be your suppliers. So something that I would like to point out there is around talking to your suppliers about their stability. So if you have what I call single point sensitivity, which means if you have one supplier, so a single point and there comes that word again, sensitivity, if you are relying on them to supply a product or a service to your business, which you then on sell or repackaged to your clients, if something happens to them, that supply chain from them through you to your customer has now been impacted. So there’s a massive sensitivity on their stability and ability to provide the product or the service in a timely manner over the course of the coming months. Are there any planned interruptions? So on and so forth. Your business, again cash is going to come up because not only do we need to help our clients with cash, but you’ve got your own business. So what does our cash flow look like? Bank assistance, we’d look at potentially insurances. What can we get from our tax departments? What can we get from our government? And then we’ll put a little bit of a action plan in place. So what are the three or four high level goals we want to achieve over probably it’s going to be quite regular cycle here, so probably over the next 30 days. You might even have some clients you need to chat to weekly. What are the goals we want to achieve? Who’s responsible for them and by when? So if you’ve heard of that SMART framework around setting goals, we want to get quite specific on it’s really sort of the who, what, where, when, why, because now we’ve got clarity. What we need to do, who’s responsible, by when, here’s the actions we need to take. Now we just need to go and do it. So that’s a quick high level overview on some of the pillars of putting together a business continuity plan. Within that, and what will probably fall on the back of a meeting like this and a planning session like this, whether you do it together with the client or the client does it and then you might spend some time reviewing it or the client just wants to do it on their own. My strongest suggestion has been, as someone advising a business, I want you to do it. So that’s my number one priority is for you to do it and to get it done. Now how much support you want from me, that can come after, but I want you to do it. So what will fall from these plans will probably be some help with cash flow and forecasting the next, it’s going to be short period and it’s probably going to be a week-by-week type forecast and looking at what does our cash burn look like based on our current conditions. And if we’ve got, let’s say you’ve got a massive amount of WIP or stock or debtors that you can call on, reduce your stock, try and bill out a lot of your WIP, try and call in a lot of those debtors just to build this type of cash war chest is, you’re not going to go wrong with doing that at the moment. So you also want to have to think about when you’re looking at your cash flow, what will things look like if revenue drops? And I mean I probably wrote some notes about a week ago, so when I say if revenue drops, the way I would probably phrase it now is what does it look like as revenue drops? Because that was sort of like, if it happens, it’s really now happening to most businesses. Renegotiating lease and rents, especially I can speak for in Australia, there’s a lot of support there about being able to renegotiate lease and rents. Unfortunately a lot of businesses will be standing down team members or making team members redundant. So what does that look like? How’s that going to impact your cash flow? Plus keeping in our mind the whole legal element of standing down, redundancies, the team and so on and so forth, so being very careful there. Plan what actions you need to take on a weekly and monthly basis. You can even take the weekly and break it down to daily. I know I personally have a daily one that flows up into a weekly that then flows up into a monthly because when you look at the daily one, you now know these are the three to four things I have to do today. Let alone all the other things, these are the priorities. The focus is helping them build a cash flow war chest and by understanding what does the short term future cash flows look like and where potentially are some changes you can implement right now to try and try and bring some cash in. So that’s probably going to be the first support service that will drop from it. And you don’t have to be too fancy with doing this. We just want to see some insights and see how we can manage it and how we can get some more cash in. So it doesn’t need to be the most fanciest thing ever. I was looking at a bit of a cash forecast just yesterday and it was really just a slap together Excel worksheet, but it solved. The problem we’ve got is I need to see what it looks like. Where are the inflows outflows, where’s the wastage, where’s the bottleneck? That’s probably the two things. What’s being wasted? Where are the bottlenecks? What can I do about it now? Number two, ongoing financial management meetings. You could also call it ongoing coaching for the business owner. You need to set some goals and if you don’t want to use the word goals, use the word focus. We need to keep them focused, otherwise they will get overwhelmed. They’re going to get emotional. They might get sidetracked. That’s going to happen. Everyone’s overwhelmed. Everyone’s sidetracked and emotional. But trying to stay focused on what can I control? And that’s probably I guess a lesson we can all take from today is I can only control what I can control and there’s other things going on which are outside of my control that are impacting me. I have to adapt and respond to that. And if I don’t, well choosing not to is also a choice. And it may also be the worst choice. So some type of regular ongoing financial management coaching cadence that you can have, which not only updates them on what’s happening from a government bank tax perspective, but also they’ve got access to your smarts essentially. So instead of going it alone and making a decision based on guesswork, you are able to maybe provide some financial oversight or insights, or my next point here being… I’m jumping ahead a little bit but being a sounding board, so I’ll get to that in a sec. And then all sorts of additional support. So stock management, are they holding too much? Are there certain lines we just need to get rid of? Are there low margin lines? What to reorder? How much to reorder? Marketing expenditure, and I’m not saying stop marketing the business. I’m one of the very few accountants that always used to say, “I don’t think you’re spending enough on marketing.” Now I would look at, usually you look at a P&L and every type of marketing is lumped into one line item. I’d be looking at what’s actually in there and what should we still be spending. But there might be other areas. You might have been thinking of doing a live event in the next couple of months. You might want to pull the budget on that and allocate it elsewhere. Account receivable, get tight, super tight money policy around the tasks in your accounts receivable. CapEx, review that and obviously team size plus the capacity for the workload that you’ve got. And there might have to be some hard decisions around team size for your business clients. And to round out this topic here of what kind of support can you provide is being that sounding board. There are probably three parts to it. One, emotional, we’ve got to find that a lot. Being a commercial sounding board, so what commercial decisions can we help our clients make? And probably a professional sounding board as well, especially for businesses that need to rapidly reinvent their business model. I spoke to someone last week and they said, “We supply refrigerated perishable goods to hospitality businesses, and now no one will even return our calls or our emails and we’ve got $400,000 worth of stock sitting in the fridges. What do we do?” They have run it this way forever. They now need to change really quickly and we brainstorm a whole lot of new and different ideas that they can go about it. So that’s the point of there being is anybody is just throwing out lots of different ideas, but also being that commercial and professional and emotional support person. Last point here, use the framework, which is two ears and one mouth. So I want you to be listening twice as much as you’re talking. Now the irony is not lost on me that I’m the one sitting here doing 99% of the talking and 1% of the listening. But in this particular environment, it’s about education. But if I was working with a business owner, I’m asking questions and then I want to hear what they’ve got to say. So just a little idea is the two ears and one mouth, listen twice as much as you’re talking and that probably rounds out my ideas on the support, at least the initial support you can be providing. **Charles Clark:** And I think, look, it’s probably a really good time to revisit the poll that we did because I think that really links into how much of you guys are supporting your clients and especially the next section we’re talking about, leveraging and communicating with the clients. And Brad, I’ve got to say I’m really thrilled to see that 90% of the people on this call have either contacted all of them or most of them, which I think is fantastic. **Brad Turville:** Yeah, I think so too. We’ve obviously only got the good accountants and bookkeepers on the call today because from what I’ve been hearing firsthand, it’s been a little bit different, not from a lack of not caring though. It’s just stretched way too thin and maybe already being over capacity in January, let alone what’s going on now in March. So I’m a little bit surprised and a little bit excited to see a lot of people in the all of them or most of them category and we’ll be able to share now, well I went to your channels, but we’re going to look at some ways to maybe improve it or do it a bit more and do it a bit better. **Charles Clark:** Yeah, exactly. And look, as Brad said, it’s a busy time of year even notwithstanding the current situation, it’s year-end in New Zealand soon for example. And one of the things that we’ve heard is that an accountant will say to us, “I’ve only got so many hours in the day to reach out and speak to these people.” And as Brad was saying earlier, look, maybe this is the time that the old ways of doing things need to change. And so the first thing that we know is that there are no face to face meetings anymore. You can’t go around to your client’s office and have a coffee and have catch up. And because of how stressed your clients will be and reaching out to you probably as well, the amount of time and capacity you have to be communicating effectively is really small. So you have to really think strategically about how you’re going to do that. So what Brad and I have here, just I suppose a few ideas of how you could leverage technology so that you can communicate at scale. And what we’ve likened it down to is a bit of a funnel. At the top, you’re communicating to a lot of people, more general ideas, the updates that we were talking about earlier. And then as you move down the funnel stages, you might have emails and then you might end up on the phone or a one-to-one video chat. So the idea is to use technology to speak to a lot of people, get that information out to all your clients if it’s critical information and then those who are ready and in the right frame of mind, you can take those and have those more personal conversations, but only once they indicate that they’re in that frame of mind to be talking about a particular topic. So I think probably a good place to start off here, Brad, is the fact that you guys can use a webinar just like we are doing. It’s a super, super effective low cost and very scalable solution if you want to reach a lot of your clients. And the great thing is you can have guests or colleagues on here and you can talk about almost anything. Any particular topic that is relevant might be something that happened that day or maybe it’s just something that’s come up in the last week or two. You can tell your clients about it. You can also post it on social media. You might get a few people who maybe their accountants or bookkeepers haven’t been in touch and they’re looking for other sources of information and then they can, from the comfort of their own home realistically is probably where they’re going to be calling in from, they can come and be educated on really useful topics. And I know Brad, you’ve done quite a few webinars and I suppose Zoom meetings with your clients, haven’t you? **Brad Turville:** Yeah, 100%. And even when I was in practise, it was almost a novelty if we saw someone face to face. It was so done online. I remember I had a client that would have been, their office is probably 200 metres down the road from our office and I would’ve seen them online four times out of five and they were walking distance away. Because of the convenience of just clicking a button and you’re on and also the ability to record the meeting as well, which is sometimes helpful. So this is all about something I call modern firm practises. So your hand has now been forced a little bit to think differently and part of thinking differently is implementing these modern firm type practises, of which there are a few pillars, but we’ll specifically talk about communicating. So technology is your friend and I want you to use it. And the irony again isn’t lost on me that we’re using technology here. I’m in Australia. Charles is in New Zealand. We’ve got attendees from all over the place. We were able to collaborate to put all of this together just as you are able to do the same thing to then collaborate with a lot of your clients. So the ability to use tech to communicate and personalise communication, I mean this isn’t a recording. I’m actually sitting here talking and personalise it en masse and also efficiently. So if I look at all the attendees on the call today, if I were to call you all one on one and have this exact Zoom meeting one on one, it would take forever. But what if we just flip that around and say, “Well, what if we just invite you all in and give the exact same presentation we would have done one on one? You can still see me, I’m still here, so is Charles. You can send in questions. We can do polls and so on and so forth.” It’s now a great use of everyone’s time. Plus we’re able to record it and then make it available for future uses. At the same time, something like, I’ll use BOMA for example, is you’re able to quickly set up a message and send it out to your specific list, my business client list or my individuals list or my list of that niche plumbing clients that I’ve had. Plumbing seems to be the flavour of this webinar, but you’re not writing 50 emails and then sending them to 50 different people. You’re writing the one and you’re just selecting the group and bam, it can just go out to everyone. I want to use the phrase especially now is progress, not perfection. So your clients aren’t expecting something super polished and that can be, if we look in the marketing world, can be quite reflected well in that super polished videos have got their place, but people are very responsive to just the selfie type shoot with your camera and that’s acceptable. So what I’m trying to share here is don’t get too hung up on making this super polished or fancy. I want you to be getting out there and educating and supporting and helping. So I guess this is a time accountants and bookkeepers need to adapt as well. I used that word a little bit earlier about your business clients adapting to the change. You are also a business and you also need to adapt to the change, and our hand has been forced and all of your team now are probably sitting at home and you found a way you can work together. Some of you might have already had infrastructure in place. Some of you might have just learned about Zoom a week ago, but you are adapting. And so I want you to keep that adapting in mind. Learn about the new tech solutions that are available. The great thing is, especially in the accounting and bookkeeping community, a lot of people are getting together and talking about, “Here’s how I do it. Here’s how someone else is doing it.” You can pick and you can try things. You might try and it may not just be a fit for you. Now isn’t the time for business as usual. Again, that’s probably another lesson. So phone calls, one-on-one meetings, yes there’s going to be a lot of them, but if you can do more webinars like this, Charles just touched on it, you’re able to mass communicate the same message personalised to a lot of people at once. And that means you can just help influence and support a lot of people at once, not just the ones that pay you the most or ones that are in the most urgent need or the ones that you can just get to today before you will go home or move from your home office back to outside with your family. Webinars are great for this. There’s heaps of options available. This is Zoom webinars. The cost is nominal and you can have tens to hundreds to thousands of people on it at once communicating the one message, because most people are going to have the same questions. Now they’ll be individualised, “How does this specific thing apply to me?” But if you can start to tick off most of the educational and support questions on a platform like this, it’s going to free up your time, which is key to helping you get through this. How can I best support and be there for my clients and free up my time? Little bit of a seesaw, but doing this is going to help you with it. Another idea is what if you ran a webinar, and I’ve got an accountant that I coach and what he’s doing is he’s running a webinar twice a week on a Tuesday and a Thursday, and the first little part of it is about education and updates. So now it’s more about the new package or the change to this or they spoke about delivering this type of stimulus, but now that it’s gone through the Senate and through government, they’ve refined it a little bit more. So here’s an update and then they just open for Q&A and that could go for an hour, geez especially now, that could potentially go for two hours. But if in two hours, they get 50 questions come in from 50 different clients, the alternative to two hours Q&A on the webinar is 50 calls, which frankly they’re probably going to be half an hour each. So there’s 25 hours worth of phone calls as opposed to doing a two hour Q&A once or twice a week. You can see the massive difference in leverage. **Charles Clark:** I was just going to say, Brad on that point, during this time, a lot of businesses are tightening their belts and they may take a dim view if they call you up to ask a question and then find out that you’re billing them for it. And there’s obviously lots of arguments either way because obviously you are a business as well. But if you can say, “This webinar is an education piece and I will be giving my time to all my clients.” So they’ll be getting value and the same end result, which is they’ll have the answer to their question and they’ll appreciate that even more so because it will be a value add from you rather than they get the bill saying, “Well I spoke to you for 10 minutes and that was, I’m going to charge that to you.”, which in these days is that I suppose sensitivity and putting oneself in the other person’s shoes I think would go a long way to especially building loyalty and trust, which longer term I think would really help solidify those relationships as client relationships. **Brad Turville:** Yeah, 100% and maybe billing out that 10 minutes could quickly lose you a few clients along the journey. So it’s a good point, not only about leveraging your time but leveraging it on a complimentary basis. Now you might need to do, and you would need to judge this by the feedback you’re getting, the amount of attendees and ask them as well. If you want to know what a client wants, ask them. I mean who would have thought that you would need advice there? But you might find you need to do a little bit more right now because there’s a lot happening and it’s escalated quite quickly, but in a couple of weeks, it might start to back off. You could go maybe one call a week. You could maybe go then to one call a fortnight. You could maybe, when I was in practise, I used to do it monthly and just pick a new topic and talk on it, then open for Q&A. It was just a great way for people to get together. Also in something like a Zoom webinar, and I don’t want to focus on the tech or specific products, but the great thing with some type of webinar platform is it’s anonymous. So I can see everyone but all the attendees can’t see one another. So that might be important because you want to see all of your clients and who’s on, but people might be sensitive around privacy or they might want to ask a question but don’t want to know that everyone that oh, Charles from BOMA’s asked this question and Charles is sort of thinking, “Oh I didn’t want everyone to know about what’s going on.” So just again, you’re being sensitive and you’re being careful with your communications. Think about, I’m going to jump back to some of my points here. Think about I guess the micro communications that you’re then having. So it’s more of that ongoing centralised type support. So I know some firms have got a Facebook channel. They’ve got a Slack group. They’ve got a WhatsApp group. So it’s centralised where you can have all the questions come in and you can put an update of text, of audio or of video that might apply to some people on the call that may not apply to others, but it’s an option and I’m seeing it being used quite well. The weekly webinar I touched on, educational and open Q&A. And the great thing with doing webinars or even just if you got a group of clients together is you can have it set up where they just need to click the link. You might not want them to register. That’s the point I’m chasing here. So they don’t need to register and then it’s on in a week or whatever. You could just have it set up as a regular recurring webinar where they just literally click the link and bang, they’re in there. It’s frictionless. You want to make it easy for them as well. And sending regular reminders, so getting info out there to clients that’s up to date about what’s going on. There’s something that I love to do, which is, and I’ve been doing this for a lot of firms I coach, is every Friday I shoot a Loom video. Anyone that doesn’t know Loom, you can go Google Loom. It records your screen or just records you. And I would sit here like this and just shoot a 10 to 15 minute video talking about the week, what’s going on. If you need me, I’m here, what to think about. And the one I did last Friday from memory, it was more of a, “Hey, I’m still here and here’s an update, but there’s not really an update.” So they’re still hearing from me. I don’t have a whole lot to say, but it’s more of just a, “I’m still here. I’m still thinking of you. Reach out if you need me.” So keep in mind the update when there’s no update because your clients will appreciate it and they might not respond to that email or that outreach saying, “Oh thanks for reaching out or thanks for sending me the email even though it’s not telling me anything.” They’re not going to respond but they’ll feel it. They’ll feel the love. That’s essentially what it is. And they’re scared and worried. You’re just letting them know you haven’t forgotten about them. And the point there is you’re now over-communicating through leverage, which is like a webinar. It might be a Loom video. It might just be an email that goes out. **Charles Clark:** That’s fantastic. Look, I’m just aware of time. We’ve done a lot of the talking as Brad said. Does anyone have any questions? Just aware we have gone over, but we’re very happy to stick around for a few minutes if you guys have anything you’d like to ask. I think while you have a think about if you have any questions, Brad, should we just take a couple of minutes just to run through that checklist? And if you want to type in any questions, we can answer them as we go. So this is just the weekly to-do checklist, which Brad sent me earlier and I just thought this is too good not to cover. **Brad Turville:** Yeah, cool. All right so I could probably do a whole webinar on these points but I won’t. I’m looking at the clock as well. So point one, aggregate the overwhelming flow and complexity of information, aggregate meaning you are getting everything together and you’re going to turn it into something that the layman can understand, the average Joe Blow can read and understand. So point there being don’t talk accountantese. If you’ve got children, hand it to them if they can read it and understand it. I’m not saying your clients are children. I’m saying we want the level of understanding of it to be as basic as possible. Our point here isn’t to show off by quoting legislation and this and that. Send a weekly email of updates and here’s my comment on using Loom and even sending the update when there’s no update. Number three, run the weekly webinar with an open Q&A. If you’ve never done them before, great time to start. They’re simple, they’re easy. Just be you. I’m me. Charles is sitting at home and then he’s being him and have some delivery notes and it doesn’t need to be super polished. I really want you to do it and have a go at doing it. And you know what? You can even flick me a message if you’ve got any particulars you want to know or if you just want someone just to give you a bit of a nudge. I want to run a morning 10 minute standup meeting with your team. This is sort of a business as usual with your team in any environment, but especially now because you’re not all together in the room. So this can be done, you can do it on Zoom. Just get everyone to jump on. Three questions. What were your wins in the last 24 hours? So someone might have finished a job. They might have had a great breakthrough with the client. It doesn’t matter what it is. You still want to be able to celebrate some of the good things that are going on with the team. What are you working on today? That does two things. Number one, your team members now need to be clear because I would say run this meeting in the morning. They need to be clear on what they’re actually doing today. So by them answering that question, they have to know what they’re working on, and you as a manager can re-prioritise if you need to. So if they say something at last, I’m going to do that later. And for you that’s important. You can then say, “Oh my Charles, I actually want you to do that first and then send it through to me.” So wins in the last 24 hours, what’s on today and what are you struggling with? Don’t tell me at 4:00 p.m. I want to know now at 8:00 a.m. And also if the thing they’re struggling with is you and it’s your fault, then you need to help them there. They might be trying to check something with you or get advice from you or something from you. So keep in mind you might also be the problem. Five, run a weekly one-on-one with your direct reports. Call it like a virtual coffee. Do it over Zoom. Who cares if you’re doing it like this or if you’ve just got the phone and you’re doing Zoom or FaceTime? Don’t get hung up on the tech. As long as you can see each other and you’ve both, I haven’t got my coffee \[inaudible 00:53:57\] but you’ve got a coffee, it’s good enough. And it’s not just direct report with them as to what were your billables this week. That might be a component of how you’re going at work, but especially now, how are you going at home? How are things with you? How’s the family? Is everyone keeping well? Are you getting enough sleep and exercise? Is there anything I can do? Is there something, a question I should be asking you that I haven’t? Those sort of things. What else have we got? Yeah, free up time to run your business continuity planning sessions. You’ll have to find time for them. So if that’s going to be mission critical and super helpful for your clients, you need to give it some priority. So find the time. You might need to push things out of the way. That’s how it is. Manage your own cash flow. You need your own oxygen mask on first. So we have to be careful here. But you’re going to be chasing up late payers. Get your own invoices out quickly. Use something like a practise ignition or go proposal or go cardless. There’s a range. Anything that’s going to speed up getting it out, getting it signed, getting the cash in is going to help your accounts receivable. Build a very simple 13-week cash flow forecast, not only for your clients. They’re going to need that. You need it for yourself as well. Something I love to do is I call it plan tomorrow today. So at the end of today, I will plan tomorrow. So when I get up tomorrow, when I jump on, I’ve already got my plan for the day, meetings, schedule, to-do list, et cetera. And the last point here is take breaks. Again, it comes back to your own oxygen mask. Walk around the house, get plenty of sleep. Search Google if you want to do some yoga exercises. Go for a walk or a run. I know I’ve been going up to the bush every couple of days and I go for a run. There’s no one up there. It’s fresh air. I can tune out for a bit. It’s not only physical but it’s also a bit of mental health there. Or download a mindfulness app. Get up early. Chuck their AirPods in. Chuck it on, and listen to someone’s soothing words to just tune out of what’s going on for five minutes. And these are things I want you to do every week. Don’t just go and do them this week. I want you to review these every week because it’s going to help. If you think about these tactics and how they apply, they’re really about helping your client, helping yourself, helping your team, helping your family. That’s really what they fall under. So I hope some of them are helpful. **Charles Clark:** Thanks so much for joining us, everyone. And Brad, thank you. I think some really fantastic insights in there. It’s going to be a challenging time for all of us, but hopefully, there are some tools that we’ve given you today to both help yourself and help your clients in the coming weeks and months. So thanks again from me. Thanks, Brad for coming along and we’ll see you all again on another webinar. **Brad Turville:** Thanks, Charles. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Harness the power of digital content marketing for your accounting firm](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/harness-the-power-of-digital-content-marketing-for-your-business/) **Published:** August 13, 2018 **Author:** Richard Irvine **Content:** ## **What’s content marketing and why is it important?** You’re all set to go with a shiny new social media page or website – the big question is “what content should I share?” Content marketing is engaging potential and current clients by speaking about what matters to them. It’s not a ‘hard sell’, but genuinely winning their interest – consistently sharing valuable content helps build a long-lasting relationship with your audience based on continually showing that you value their time and attention. Relevant and engaging content also helps optimise your website for search engines too. Your content can include any articles, blogs, newsletters, pictures or video you share, and should always put your audience first, support your firm’s strategy and be planned out in advance – while making room for spontaneity on social media, where being spontaneous and human can be a real winner. Successful content marketing is: **Valuable** – aim for ‘news you can use’ and make sure it’s worth your audience’s time to read or watch your content. **Relevant** – content that’s targeted to your audience’s interests. **Regular** – follows a consistent timetable that sets and meets client expectations, whether it’s every day, week or month, without “over-communicating”. **Tips** - Ask “What’s in this for my audience?” for everything you share. If it’s not clear or compelling, re-work it until it feels right. - Define a clear outcome for each piece of content – is the goal to engage with your audience, build your brand or drive sales? ## **Tailoring content to build your audience** Traditional “one-way broadcast out” marketing has changed – “inbound marketing” is about attracting qualified prospects to your brand via Search Engine Optimisation (making your content easy to find through Google and other search engines), content marketing and social media marketing. A [Nielsen survey](https://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/nielsenglobal/apac/docs/reports/2015/nielsen-global-trust-in-advertising-report-september-2015.pdf) showed the most trusted form of advertising for 83% of consumers is recommendations from friends. If your audience likes and trusts your content enough to share it to their own Facebook page, hit retweet or post it to their LinkedIn page, this “digital word of mouth” is invaluable for your marketing campaign. So aim to tailor your content to your audience’s needs, help solve their problems and offer information they can use. **Tips** - Use the keywords that your audience is searching for on Google. Including these words and phrases naturally in your content makes it easier for them to find you and [is the first step in SEO](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/06/06/easy-seo-tips-for-your-small-business-in-5-minutes/) – your website’s Google Analytics and Facebook Insights offer valuable data and feedback on what your audience is looking for and how you can help. - What are the most common words or phrases your audience would use to search for you? Use tools like [Google’s Keyword Planner](https://ads.google.com/intl/en_nz/home/tools/keyword-planner/) or [SEMrush](https://www.semrush.com/) to do some research on keywords. ## **Promoting your content** Creating great content is just the first step – make it work harder and smarter by promoting it in the right places: - Your own website, social media sites or newsletter are your home base, and should always be up to date – telling a consistent story across all your channels is crucial. - You can dramatically increase your reach for very little investment with social media ads. [Get underway](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/07/18/not-sure-how-to-advertise-on-facebook-we-break-it-down-for-you/) and experiment with what works for your audience. - Partner up – inviting an industry figure or well-known client to write a guest blog benefits your guest, your firm and your audience. You can also pitch your content to local or industry publications to maximise your reach across broader audiences. ## **Grow your audience** Steadily building your audience through Facebook likes, Instagram followers, LinkedIn and Twitter connections or [newsletter sign ups](https://bomamarketing.com/2017/01/19/how-do-i-build-an-effective-email-database-for-my-business/) is the start of very valuable relationships for your business. By hitting ‘like’ or sharing their email address, your audience has indicated they value what you’re saying enough to share their personal data with you, and are keen to receive more in the future. Best practice is to treat your audience’s attention with care and respect by only sharing content that’s relevant and valuable – you’ll know you’ve reached marketing nirvana when they start sharing your content with their own networks. **Tips** - Reward your audience with ‘fan only’ discounts or offers. - Make it easy for your audience to sign up with clear ‘like’ and ‘follow’ buttons for your social media accounts or [newsletter sign up buttons](https://bomamarketing.com/features/growth/landing-pages/) on your website. Look for opportunities to capture client’s’ data without appearing needy or shouting. - Send a welcome email to new newsletter subscribers to say thanks and make them feel good about signing up. ## **Join the social media conversation** You’ve posted a great piece of content, the next step is joining a two-way conversation. Social media is where clients expect to be able to speak with firms directly – if you’re not part of the online conversation you’re leaving potential clients hanging. **Tips** - ‘Two ears and one mouth’ is a great ratio for social media – set aside time to listen to the conversation and get a feel for what’s important to your audience before speaking, it’s all invaluable data and context. - Check your social media pages frequently, and set up alerts for comments and likes. There’s nothing worse than an answered question on your page. If you are busy, you can use an [instant message](https://www.facebook.com/help/1615627532020480?helpref=faq_content) to let client know you will get back to them soon and to thank them for contacting you. - Have some fun – social media is literally social, so don’t be afraid to show a human side and connect with your audience person to person. ## **Where to start with content marketing?** With all the different options out there, it can be overwhelming trying to decide where to begin. The best approach is to simply get underway – pick the social media platforms you are comfortable with ([Instagram](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/07/18/theres-never-been-a-better-time-to-advertise-your-business-on-instagram-well-show-you-how/), [Facebook](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/07/18/not-sure-how-to-advertise-on-facebook-we-break-it-down-for-you/) or [LinkedIn](http://www.linkedin.com) are excellent places to kick off with), put a toe in the water and start building your audience. **Tips** - Plan out a simple content calendar to make sure you clearly showcase your business’s unique selling points and key messages. This doesn’t have to be all in one go, but you should cover all your bases over time. - Regular features like “App of the week”, “Top five lists”, Tips or sharing client content gives you repeatable formats, so you don’t have to re-invent the wheel every time. - Aim for content that your audience will want to share. In a study by [Ipsos](https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/global-sharers-social-media-sites-seek-share-interesting-61-important-43-and-funny-43-things), 61% of respondents said they primarily share ‘interesting things’ with others. - Keep it real – Share the personalities behind your brand. With so many businesses online, authenticity and originality will stand you apart. - Learn as you go – Keep an eye on likes, shares, bounce rates and other metrics to understand how your content performs. Look at what businesses like yours are doing too, you may be able to do it better. ## Story based marketing can drive results for your business It’s clear new digital and social media platforms offer marketers and small business owners a completely new tool kit for reaching clients. Once you get underway, keep an eye on how well your content performs. Measure your website visits, conversion from email, subscriber list growth or social media sharing. Digital marketing is infinitely measurable. Decide on some key performance indicators and use these to keep you on track with effective content marketing. BOMA brings all your communication channels together and automatically reformats your content for email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram, making it easy for you to spend your time where it’s most valuable: developing your story, and taking your first steps to building your audience through content marketing. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). Download Our Digital Marketing eBook The Digital Marketing Guide For Accountants & Bookkeepers Get the full picture. This guide tells you everything you need to know about marketing online with easy explanations, tips and simple steps to follow. [Learn More](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-the-small-business-guide/) **Categories:** Content Marketing --- ### [BOMA + The Gap: The Improvement Meeting: The Easiest Advisory Sell - AU/NZ Edition](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/boma-the-gapthe-improvement-meeting-the-easiest-advisory-sell-au-nz-edition/) **Published:** August 18, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Join Charles Clark, Co-Founder Marketing Director of BOMA and Natalie Eady, General Manager of The Gap for this 45 minute session. We show you a process to turn client conversations into valuable advisory outcomes for your clients and your firm. Join us to learn how you can: - Dip your toe in advisory - Launch a low cost / high value service - De-risk the advisory investment for you and your clients - Support your people to develop their advisory skills - Leverage your efforts through marketing - This webinar is for firms wanting a simple and effective blueprint to ‘start’ or scale up their advisory offering. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [BOMA + Wolters Kluwer Australia Partnership Launch](https://bomamarketing.com/uncategorized/boma-wolters-kluwer-partnership-launch-for-australian-boma-users/) **Published:** July 5, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** To celebrate the launch of our partnership with Wolters Kluwer CCH in Australia we’re running an exclusive webinar for our Australian based partners. We’re joined by Ben Miller, Senior Content Management Analyst CCH iQ, Business Fitness New Zealand and Australian tax, Research & Learning – APAC to showcase the Wolters Kluwer CCH iQ content available in BOMA. Our new partnership will provide you with actionable, client facing content on industry events, such as legislative change, to help drive growth for your firm. **Categories:** Uncategorized --- ### [Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting announces a new collaboration in Australia to provide accounting firms content through the BOMA digital marketing platform](https://bomamarketing.com/news/wolters-kluwer-tax-accounting-announces-a-new-collaboration-in-australia-to-provide-accounting-firms-content-through-the-boma-digital-marketing-platform/) **Published:** June 22, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** *Award-winning CCH iQ premium content library will now be accessible through BOMA with exclusive content for accounting firms**.*** [Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting Asia Pacific](https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en-au/about-us/organization) a leading provider of expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge and local expertise with advanced technology and services to help tax, accounting, audit, and finance professionals make critical decisions every day today, announced its new collaboration with [BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-wolters-kluwer-cch/). Together, Wolters Kluwer and BOMA will deliver a toolkit that allows firms to provide real-time business advisory and accounting marketing content to their respective clients. The Wolters Kluwer CCH iQ research library will now be available on BOMA’s marketing platform, specifically designed for accountants and bookkeepers. The Wolters Kluwer award-winning CCH iQ premium library scales from small firms to multinational businesses. It supports accounting firms, bookkeeping professionals and their clients by highlighting issues that may affect their business and giving them a head start on actionable topics. The trusted content, written by CCH Tax experts, differentiates accounting firms as they access deep industry insights and thought leadership — helping to create business mentoring opportunities for their clients and to grow their business as well. As an industry resource, the CCH iQ platform has built a reputation for delivering exceptional outcomes for accountants. It offers a seamless integration of resources to help professionals in the tax, accounting, audit, finance and legal sectors make critical and superior decisions. BOMA is tailor-made for accountants to reduce the time, cost and complexity challenges of their own digital marketing. Subscribers have access to expertly written content in a practical toolkit with ready-to-share everyday formats, such as emails or social media. The ‘mix and match’ capabilities of the BOMA platform allows subscribers to combine premium library content from Wolters Kluwer with in-house content from BOMA, together with their own content in newsletters, social posts and website blogs. “This is an inspiring collaboration for busy accountants and bookkeepers. Combining the actionable, event-based insights of CCH iQ with BOMA’s easy to use digital marketing toolkit makes it easier for accounting firms to deliver value and create business development and revenue opportunities. It’s a win-win for nurturing clients and driving business growth,” said Izzy Silva, Managing Director, Wolters Kluwer Tax and Accounting, Asia Pacific. “Over the last couple of years, staying on top of legislative changes and actionable events has proven to be particularly challenging. Now being across the changes for the entire tax landscape as they happen — and having them at your fingertips is a game-changer.” Wolters Kluwer subscribers get exclusive access to selected CCH iQ premium content library when they subscribe to BOMA. Non-Wolters Kluwer subscribers can access this premium content for an additional charge in a BOMA subscription. [More information can be found here.](https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en-au/solutions/cch-iq/content-partnership-with-boma) **About Wolters Kluwer** [Wolters Kluwer](https://wolterskluwer.com/) (WKL) is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the healthcare; tax and accounting; governance, risk and compliance; and legal and regulatory sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with advanced technology and services. Wolters Kluwer reported 2019 annual revenues of €4.6 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,000 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands. Wolters Kluwer shares are listed on Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices. Wolters Kluwer has a sponsored Level 1 American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program. The ADRs are traded on the over-the-counter market in the U.S. (WTKWY). **About BOMA** BOMA is the world’s leading digital marketing tool and content library, designed for busy accountants and bookkeepers. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and blog posts in no time. Support clients with newsletters, email updates, social media posts using hundreds of ready-to-share and customisable compliance and advisory articles, available in the BOMA content library. And now you can access Wolters Kluwer CCH content in BOMA. Our partnership allows you to provide value to your clients by addressing the issues that affect them and providing insights to help them grow. For more information, visit [bomamarketing.com](https://bomamarketing.com/), follow us on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Boma_Marketing), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/bomamarketing), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/boma-marketing/), and [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA_4yuHs5KlzyD8ndQ6Iggw). **Categories:** News, Technology --- ### [What should Accountants be Posting on their Firm’s Social Media Pages?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/what-should-accountants-be-posting-on-their-firms-social-media-pages/) **Published:** June 1, 2022 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** Wondering what to post on your social media pages? We have some ideas to get you started. Social media is a great place to build your brand and engage with your followers (clients and leads). The conversation on social media is 2 way, unlike your website, so you can engage with people here, whether that is to answer questions or pose them, or to respond to comments that people make. Your social media pages are a little less formal so you can share your personality and provide people with a better understanding of who you are, thereby building a deeper relationship. If you are using BOMA you’ll find hundreds of expertly written, ready-to-share articles that you can share on your social media page. The topics cover business advisory, compliance, news, tax etc. You can tailor for your audience by customising the text and images. But you’ll also want to add some of your own social media posts that are unique and relevant to your firm and to the clients and prospects that follow you on these pages. One challenge affecting many accountants, when it comes to being active on social media, is that they aren’t sure what they should be posting. So what should you post about? We’ve compiled a list of ideas to get you started. Use this list to plan out a regular cadence of posts to keep your followers engaged. Your posts don’t need to be wordy, a strong statement is sometimes enough. Once you get started, you’ll find it easy to continue the conversation on social media. ## Ideas for your social media posts - **Ask questions** – Ask about something topical or perhaps issues that might be impacting your clients. Offer an ‘Ask me Anything’ session. The answer to one client’s question is bound to help another! Be ready to respond when someone comments to keep the conversation going. - **Share an online article** – Use BOMA’s link share feature to post an article you have read online, and add your own commentary. BOMA formats the content for the social channel you choose. (make sure you check that the article is not behind a firewall so your readers can access it). - **Content series** – Develop a plan for day/s of the week e.g. Monday tips on cash flow. - **Turn long into short** – Use long-form BOMA articles and break them into short posts. - **Frequently asked questions** – Provide answers to commonly asked accounting questions. Share FAQ content from Xero or other cloud accounting platforms to help your clients when they use the software. - **Video content** – Record a short ‘how to’ video to help clients streamline their accounting function or give them a better understanding of their tax obligations. - **Talk about local events** – Share a link to an event coming up. If you are attending, give people information on how they can too. - **Bring the team in** – Demonstrate your expertise and what you stand for. - **Inspirational quotes** – The right quote at the right time can be humorous, entertaining or motivating. - **Today in history or National days of the year** – Whether it’s national Panda day or a commemoration of a historical event. Check out - **Create a short client survey** – Find out more about how your clients are feeling about industry changes or how they are dealing with current challenges. Use the feedback in your future posts. To learn more about using social media for your accounting firm, watch this webinar on ‘[How to market your accounting firm on social media 101](https://bomamarketing.com/2020/09/10/how-to-market-your-accounting-bookkeeping-firm-on-social-media-101/)’. ## About BOMA Did you know that BOMA has a library of over 400 articles in the content library that are updated every week? BOMA is designed specifically for accountants and bookkeepers and allows you to create useful and compelling emails and social posts. Simply choose an article, customise it and send it within BOMA. BOMA kickstarts your digital marketing. [Trial for free today](https://bomamarketing.com/) **Categories:** Social Media --- ### [BOMA + The Gap: Your 2022 Marketing Plan - AU/NZ Edition](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/boma-the-gap-your-2022-marketing-plan/) **Published:** November 3, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Now is the ideal time to create your Marketing Plan for 2022. The planning you do this side of Christmas will have a big impact on your marketing success in 2022. Join Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA and Viv Brownrigg, Co-founder, Director of Marketing (and Chartered Accountant) from The Gap for this 45 minute webinar. Viv will share with you: - 2021’s most successful marketing strategies for accounting firms. - How to ‘right size’ your marketing resources (and spend!). - What you can outsource, and what’s better retained in-house. - How to create a practical and simple Marketing Plan for 2022. **NB: You can also read a full transcript of this session below.** ## ‘Your 2022 Marketing Plan’ Transcript **Charles Clark:** Hi, everyone. Welcome to today’s session on Your Marketing Plan for 2020. Thank you for joining us. Before we get started, just one or two small housekeeping elements. So, we are using Zoom today. I’m sure most of you are really familiar with it after 18 months of remote working and lockdown. You can ask questions and we encourage you to. It’s really easy. You can just click on the Q&A button at the bottom of your browser, and we’ll go through them all on this time at the end of the session. **Charles Clark:** My name is Charles Clark. I’m the Marketing Director of BOMA and joining me today is Viv Brownrigg of The Gap. Before co-founding The Gap, Viv actually built her own accounting firm. So she really gets it. She understands the challenges you have and is really fantastically positioned to talk to you on the subject. So, welcome, Viv. Great to see you. **Viv Brownrigg:** Well, thanks Charles. Great to be here. It’s always great to talk about marketing, which is a weird thing to say as a chartered accountant, but it is a passion for me. Yes. **Charles Clark:** So just before we sort of kick off into the main guts of the presentation. For anyone here who is maybe new to Gap or new to BOMA or both of us, just a quick background on our partnership and how we work together. So we met quite a few years ago just when we were basically building BOMA as marketing tool for accountants and bookkeepers. And while we did have a content library, when we saw The Gap’s amazing business development system, we were blown away and realised that they could come together and mesh really amazingly. **Charles Clark:** So, basically, The Gap in combination with BOMA delivers a unique opportunity for you to enhance those client relationships, help you drive growth and can really help you maximise efficiency across your practice when it comes to marketing. Now, I’m going to steal this next line \[inaudible\], and that is actually, BOMA and Gap together is a bit of a marketing campaign in a virtual box. So the two of us together are going to help you save time, get closer relationships with your clients, and help you \[inaudible\]. So, that’s a bit of a heads up on how we work together and Viv, I’ll hand out to you now. **Viv Brownrigg:** Thank you, Charles. Excellent. And then we go and just give me a heads up that can see my screen. **Viv Brownrigg:** Thanks, Charles. Thanks for that lovely introduction. So, a lot of accountants and bookkeepers online, and the next 30 minutes, I’ll be chatting to you about what I’m seeing in the accounting industry doing with marketing and what we are seeing is working really well and perhaps not quite so well. This is what we’re going to cover. We’re going to talk about what marketing really is because I think there’s a lot of confusion around that. Marketing is sometimes kind of seen as this sort of arts and craft or marketing or the colouring in department. And I think that marketing gets quite a bad rap with some directors in accounting firms, where they’re looking for an instant gratification from the marketing spend. An instant ROI. So, I think it’s really important that we square that away. **Viv Brownrigg:** I talk a bit about how you can get the right sized marketing resource and therefore what you’re spending on your marketing team into your firm because each firm’s marketing needs is quite different. And, of course, we’ve got a lot of choice now in terms of what we do in-house, what we outsource, et cetera, what we buy in, what we ship in, what we make versus what we buy. Maybe have a chat about what firms are outsourcing and what they’re keeping in-house because there’s definitely some stuff that might go better if we do it, if we resource it internally. **Viv Brownrigg:** I talk about some of the successful marketing tactics that I have seen, and some of that might surprise you a little. And then main event, we’re going to get into how you can create a really practical marketing plan next year. And look, you can go onto Mr. Google and you can download thousands of templates for marketing plans. And some of them are massive and you’re going to end up with a 30-page marketing plan that you’re probably not going to use. So we’re going to share with you a one page front and back marketing plan template that comes straight out of our portal. It’s really tactical. So it’s based on action. It takes a short term view, so we are looking for an ROI and it’s extremely targeted. And of course it needs to link back to your business plan. **Viv Brownrigg:** Then we’re going to talk about your ROI on your marketing spend. And I know that Charles, you’re going to… If you get any really super interesting questions that you should be asking during the session rather than saving them up for the end, by all means, interrupt me. I don’t mind at all. **Charles Clark:** Will do. **Viv Brownrigg:** Yeah. What is marketing anyway? Well, if we get really simple about marketing and there’s a bit of feedback that came through in the pre-work such as, “I don’t really like yelling my name from the rooftop, so I don’t really like saying we are really good at something. I feel a bit bashful about that.” Marketing is just the communication of information. And if you don’t blow your trumpet, you’re not going to hear any music. So you’re not going to get the impact of marketing if you don’t communicate what needs to be communicated to your clients and to your future clients, but let’s get really specific. And you could see that stack of colouring and pencils down below. No, the marketing department is not the colouring in department, although they are very good at making things sound great, making people feel great, and making things look great, but the purpose of marketing is to create leads. So the rubber’s got to hit the road at some point. We need to see leads coming from the marketing department. So we need to make sure we have a goal in that marketing plan that is either going to generate new to business leads or it’s going to be some sort of retention strategy. **Viv Brownrigg:** And, of course, if you’ve got a marketing department or some in-house marketing resource in your firm, you need to have one marketing leader who’s obviously reporting to the GM or CEO or in some firms, that might be directly to the director group. So, marketing’s just the communication of information. It’s how we do that using our own digital voice and linking back to our purpose and linking back to our values. And if you could describe your digital voice, what would it be? For us here at The Gap, we are fun, frank, modern. So everything we write, all of our images, the way we put this session together, there needs to be a bit of fun coming through in it. We need to be Frank and we need to be modern. **Viv Brownrigg:** Thank you. We had a huge response rate. More than 400 sets of firms responding to these two pre-work questions. And the first question was pretty simple. Do you have a current marketing plan? Really fascinating because 52% of you said no, 39% of you said yes, and 9% of you weren’t sure. Now, I find that really fascinating. And that shows to me that in those firms, we’re not sure whether we have a marketing plan. Either the marketing plan isn’t written down, it’s not committed to paper, or it’s not clear, or it’s not being communicated in the right way. So, there’s something kind of broken in the communication in that 9%. **Viv Brownrigg:** But for those of you who said yes, we’ve got a marketing plan, I’d really like you to reality test that when you perhaps get off this session. Is it written down? Is it actually committed to paper or virtual paper? And does it have clear goals in the marketing plan? And do you actually… Can you remember those goals? Four to five goals, no more than that. And do you actually go back to that marketing plan at least every month? Do you update it at least every quarter? Are you refreshing that marketing plan on a regular basis, constant and consistent? If you can’t say yes to all of those questions, then I don’t think you’ve got a marketing plan. **Viv Brownrigg:** Okay. So the next question we asked was, what is your biggest marketing challenge? And we ranked these from one to 10. So standing out head and shoulders above the rest was time. Not enough time. And this is where… We don’t necessarily have marketing skillsets sitting in the team right now. So, of course, if we don’t have marketing skillsets sitting in the team, things are going to take longer. So this is why content solutions such as what The Gap provides, and lots of other organisations doing it as well. Not just us. And marketing platforms such as BOMA, we need to somehow try and take the time and the cost out of marketing because we don’t have all of that skill sitting within the team. **Viv Brownrigg:** Knowing how/getting started. The third one is execution. So we know what we need to do. Maybe we’ve got the plan in place, but we just don’t somehow get started. Coming in number four, quite a few of you said the COVID environment. And I have to say that this environment over the last 18 months, whilst people have had to really think about how they market, how respectful and ethical they are about their marketing in a pandemic, that there have been massive opportunities to help clients and future clients during the last 18 months. And a ton of firms have said to me that in the last 18 months, we’ve really realised how much our clients need us and we’ve really realised how much we need to communicate information better and sooner. So remember that definition of marketing that marketing is simply the communication of information. So this environment, when your clients need you most, and maybe when potential future clients aren’t getting the support they need, then this is an example of how you can add to your marketing gravity and actually get a better ROI. **Viv Brownrigg:** Getting good content. This is a fascinating one because a number of you wrote down… Somebody said, “I’m sick of asking my team to write content.” Now, I’m going to call you on that. Are you asking accountants to write blogs and articles? Now, some of them might be great writers. Some of them might be totally out of their comfort zone. They’re accountants. Is this what they best do? So, think about looking at reasonably priced, highly cost-effective content solutions. And there’s a number of them out there. You cannot do all of this yourself with limited resources unless you’ve got a marketing team. And, of course, now we come to budget constraints. **Viv Brownrigg:** Number seven is really interesting because a number of you said that “I believe what we need to do,” and I get the impression this was coming from some of the marketing people in some of the firms. “I know what we need to do, but I am not getting alignment from the director group.” So that’s a bit of, I guess, a warning shot where the business plan comes first. The marketing plan has got to align to the business plan for the business. **Viv Brownrigg:** Resourcing, just getting people. Getting a return on my investment in marketing. I hear you. And the last one, I’m shy. I don’t want to stand on top of the building and say that we are great when we are. But as I said, there are lots of smarter ways to market without feeling that you are somehow being arrogant or that you are making claims about yourself or your firm that you feel uncomfortable making. **Viv Brownrigg:** Okay. So, one of the questions that a number of you wanted us to talk about is getting that size of marketing department just right because each firm in the room has got a different need of its marketing department. Some of you are looking for high growth. Some of you are looking for much modest growth rates. Some of you are just looking to retain your existing client or customer set. So, what you need in-house is going to be different. The great thing is today in 2021, coming into 2022, we have a lot of choice as to how we right-size our marketing department. We can contract out. We can bring resources in-house or we can use a contracted marketing agency to facilitate a rebrand or a brand refresh, for example, to facilitate your… Establishing your core values to actually help build a website or refresh the website. There’s a number of things you can get a contracted marketing agency to do, and they can do some really heavy lifting in those sorts of departments. **Viv Brownrigg:** We can do things onshore here. We can offshore them. So, for example, here at The Gap, I think it’s Fiverr that we are using to get some particular videos, some short videos done for our website very soon. And that’s been a very cost effective way do it. And also we don’t have any spare marketing resource in-house at the moment. So with that particular skill, because that is a particular skill, so we can onshore, we can offshore. **Viv Brownrigg:** We now have the ability to buy some pretty high quality stock content solutions. I’m not sure how many different libraries you have there on the BOMA platform at the moment. I know that you have the Wolters Kluwer library, which is all things kind of tax and compliance. And then you have other providers such as The Gap in the business advisory and the business development space. There is the ability to now go and spend modest amount of money on high quality stock content solutions because the people who write that content are technical or conversational writers. So they’re qualified writers. This is what they do for a living. Your people aren’t necessarily going to be able to get that content out very quickly at all. It’s going to be potentially much more expensive for you to produce that content in-house. Viv Brownrigg: And obviously there are specialist education marketing solutions, and we are not the only ones out there. We have 25 webinar and seminar business education kits where you can go out on a one to many basis and run a webinar. For example. All the content there on how to grow your numbers, all the content there on how to grow the business, all the content there on knowing and understanding your financial reports, for example. So, you don’t have to do everything in-house is the message. So, what are you good at in-house? And what are you not good at in-house? What resource do you not have? What do you need to buy rather than make? And, of course, digital marketing platforms, this is where BOMA comes in. **Viv Brownrigg:** There is quite a bit of consolidation of cost you can make by not having to use other scheduling tools. And you can push out your posts, your articles onto social and through EDMs, and you can schedule all of that stuff. And you’re going to take quite a bit of time and cost out rather than fiddling and doing it across all your social platforms and everything else you’re doing. So, these things can really help reduce the amount of in-house marketing department you need. **Viv Brownrigg:** You might need a 0.3. And how do you get a point… You might need a 0.1 of a full-time equivalent as a marketing resource. How do you get that in-house in a way that’s cost effective? So, this is where we start to think about what we can outsource, what works well to outsource, and then conversely, what’s probably better to resource internally. **Viv Brownrigg:** Well, obviously, we can outsource strategy facilitation. If you are a larger firm wanting to put perhaps a five year marketing strategy in play, maybe you are looking for a brand strategist. These are things where we can get expertise in to help us. And branding and design is another example of that. Your website refresh is another example. And getting somebody to help with social, but there’s a couple of exceptions that I’ll come to shortly on doing social posts. There are certain things I think you should do in-house because it’s what makes you real, it’s what makes you human, and it’s what displays your digital voice, whatever that is. **Viv Brownrigg:** You can outsource your online assets so you can purchase in content. So, for example, a good example of that with our 25 webinar and \[inaudible\]. When our Gap members, and if any Gap members are in the room, I know that about half of the firm’s online today are Gapees, so hello. If any of you are not doing this when you run your webinars, make sure you do. But whenever you run a webinar… And I saw one of our firms today is running a webinar on know your numbers. So whenever you run that webinar, make sure you get a recording. You’re going to top and tail that recording. You might cut it down to five segments, short segments, and hello, boom, you’ve got some marketing assets that you can stick up on your website, and you can repurpose those in many ways. Because you were able to outsource that content, you’ve now got some marketing assets, and you can start to build up a reasonable number over time. **Viv Brownrigg:** You can outsource targeted lead generation campaigns where there is an ROI calculation and you were looking for a particular result and a minimum result, and for example, paid ad campaigns. Search engine optimisation, we can outsource this. Actually managing an event, whether it’s face to face event or whether it’s first-time when you’ve never done a webinar in-house for your clients, you can outsource these things to people who have done them and to specialise in them. **Viv Brownrigg:** And what you’re noticing now, when you look at this list, strategy facilitation, branding and design, website and social, writing content, targeting lead gen campaigns, search engine optimisation, event management, you cannot expect one person to have all of these capabilities. It’s just not possible. And this is why we’ve got spoiled for choice now. We can actually go out and we can target what we actually need and we can give a 0.001 of this and 0.1 of this and a 0.1 of that. So we’ve actually got choice now. We don’t have to have these resources in-house. **Viv Brownrigg:** There are some things that I think that are better retained in-house because this is how you build your brand. This is how you display the human side to your business, your digital voice, whatever that is. The first one is in the moment social posts. Your social post depending on your platforms that you are using. For example, if your clients are hanging out on Facebook, they should not all be about work. They should not all be about your services. They should not all be about what’s happening in the tax world. They are often about what’s happening in your firm. Special things that your team are doing. Special milestones in your business. Something special that a client has done in their business. **Viv Brownrigg:** And so, these are in the moment social posts. So these, I believe, should be done in-house. And because by the time you get that out to an external contractor or to an agency, the moment’s gone and it may not come back in your voice. So find someone young and in your team who loves social media and trust them and give them a budget. How many hours per week, maybe they post two, three times a week. That’s it. And make sure that they are going to post appropriately, make sure they understand your digital voice, and make sure they are working within the marketing departments as somebody who knows what they’re doing. **Viv Brownrigg:** Dynamic content is something that you need to post yourself. So, for example, something major happens. So here in New Zealand, two Fridays ago, as our government was announcing the new traffic light system which will come into play once we hit 90% vaccination, talked about the, I think, 40 or $50 million of SME funding for advisors. **Viv Brownrigg:** And so, one of our great firms, actually immediately later that afternoon, I think by 5:00, that was out on Facebook. And it was a dynamic post. They couldn’t have sent that out to an external agency. By the time it had come back and they proofed it, the moment would’ve been gone and it was extremely effective and that’s a very passionate organisation. And I’m sure if they were to describe their digital voice, that word passion would be in there because they actually put in their post, “This is amazing. This is so important. There’s all this new funding. Get in there, guys. We’ll help you with your business plan. Get in there. It’s going to be partially or fully funded.” They made it about the clients, but they were really passionate about the way they posted about that. **Viv Brownrigg:** So if it’s dynamic content rather than evergreen… Evergreen content, it doesn’t date. And so, this is often the content that you buy as part of a stock content solution. It’s evergreen content, but dynamic content, you need to think about creating yourself. **Viv Brownrigg:** Delivery of education. So when you are teaching your clients, know your numbers. You really want to be doing that yourself because you want to be the hero. Now, for some of your events, whether they’re online or whether they are face to face when we get to that place where we’re able to do that, sure. Bring in other speakers, but you still need to be the hero. So, don’t shy away from delivering education. And I will say to you that tons of our Gapee firms are delivering webinars now. And it is the introverts’ paradise because here I am sitting safely in my office, sitting behind my desk, I’m totally comfortable, and you don’t even have to have your video switched on for the first few. Just switch them on for the Q&A session, but this is a beautiful way to market. Absolutely beautiful way to market. **Viv Brownrigg:** Please don’t outsource to another organisation unless you are deeply involved in establishing your purpose statement, your core purpose or establishing your values. Those have to come from deep within. Those things sit beneath the surface and we can’t outsource them. Yes, we can get a facilitator to extract them from us, but they have to come from within. They have to deeply matter to your organisation, to the owners, to the board, and ultimately to your people. **Viv Brownrigg:** I just want to talk briefly about some of the tactics that have been most useful this year in 2021. And I’m not going to talk about paid ads. Some of this is not digital although I will tell you that out of a lot of these successful tactics, there’s come a lot of digital assets, which have sitting up on a lot of websites and being repurposed in numbers of ways. So, ultimately, there is a digital angle. The client experience wins every time. One of our Gap firms based in a small town near Taupo, and I’m not going to tell you where because it’s a relatively small town. And they’ve got a new office in that town that’s a satellite office. And out there for three mornings of the first month with their coffee \[cup\]. And the amount of potential new business and new business that has come across the line, the number of clients coming to see their coffee cup, the client experience absolutely wins. And that experience may be an online experience as well. So think about how your online meetings are working with clients at the moment. **Viv Brownrigg:** The COVID response has been phenomenal to see the different ways that firms have managed. All busy as hell. I know that, but the number of times I have seen, and this has been from some Gap firms. You send them an email and you get an automated response. It may be seven days before I respond to you because I’m pretty busy with COVID. Well, I think we’re all pretty due to the environment or as a result of that announcement by our New Zealand government two Fridays ago, I saw two contrasting examples of a great marketing response and perhaps a more generic marketing response. The great response was that firm I told you about, out goes a full debrief on how that funding works. “Get in. It’s wonderful. If you need help, sing out. By the way, if you need help, just sing out anyway.” Contrast that with another firm that said, “Interesting announcements today. Click here. Here’s a link.” **Viv Brownrigg:** So the client’s got to do the work. They’ve got to distill the information themselves. Isn’t that what we are for? Aren’t we the trusted advisors? So the way you respond to COVID is massive. And to your client’s needs right now is a massive opportunity to help them. And every time you help them, every email, every physical interaction, every online interaction, every meeting is a marketing opportunity because you’re helping your clients. And so, that’s a marketing opportunity. **Viv Brownrigg:** Better meetings. Because we’ve gone online… This is a really interesting thing. Because so many of our meetings are now online, whether we are in lockdown circumstances or not, what we are finding is that firms, and certainly many Gap firms because we’ve written a lot of structure and process to go around this, are getting better and better at running those meetings. So ask yourself, “What is the meeting experience like for your client?” Now, if you’re meeting online, you can’t make them a flat white. Okay, that’s not going to work, but do they get pre-work? Do they know what the agenda for that meeting is? Do they have to do pre-work? Do they have to read the annual accounts and answer some basic questions so that you know what their challenges are and what they want to achieve in their business before the meeting? How great is that meeting? Do they get actionable minutes off the back of that meeting? How can we actually make that experience better because firms who have great… Clients who have great meeting experiences, they go out and they tell their mates who are in business. And, of course, we still get a huge amount of new business from referrals. **Viv Brownrigg:** Content of value. I don’t need to say that. I’ll give you an example. For those of you who are Gap firms and have got, therefore, access to our premium library, which has got more than 450 articles and invites to events and stuff like that in there, I’ll give you a great example of a content pathway that you could drip out over the course of two, three, four or even six weeks. So, for example, content pathway is a series of articles aimed at getting your clients to take action and improve something in their business. So seven causes of poor cash flow. So an overview article and then an article on each of the seven causes of poor cashflow with some tips and tricks that they can go and implement in their business, or come back to you for help, which is going to bring work back to the firm. So, content needs to be of value. There’s way too much homogenised, generic, non-specific, non-actionable content out there. So you’ve got to ask yourself, could my client take action in their business off the back of this content? Could they do something that improved their business? **Viv Brownrigg:** And last of all, what we’ve seen this year, actionable education, whether it’s an online webinar, whether it’s a face to face event, a lot of them have been webinars this year for obvious reason where your client can go off and do something. So they must get something from that webinar and all of our webinar kits. For those of you who’re designing your own webinars and all of our webinar kits, we always suggest that the firm has a freebie. Something they give their client. If they’re doing a webinar on cashflow, it might be a cashflow improvement checklist. It might be a way to improve their data management process, for example. Give them something so that they don’t feel like they’re being sold to convert… Counterintuitively, that’ll bring them back to you. **Viv Brownrigg:** Okay. So I’m going to talk a little bit about the planning hierarchy. And then we are going to rip into this example of a marketing plan. Okay. We start with the annual business plan. Why, what, how. One year goals, 90-day goals, actions. **Viv Brownrigg:** Your marketing plan must align to that business plan. Now, a number of you don’t have a business plan. So, it’s very hard for your directors to be aligned to your marketing plan if your marketing plan doesn’t align to the business plan because there isn’t one. So, it must align to the business plan. You should have potentially a growth goal in there, and that should talk about your existing clients or your new to business clients or both. Remembering marketing to existing clients is going to grow your business as well. It’s not just about new clients. Sometimes a good strategy is to have a smaller number of clients with a greater annual spend. You may have a retention goal. You may have a rebrand goal in there. You may have a couple of other goals as well. And then, of course, we get into our activity plan, our campaigns, our actions, and our timing. **Viv Brownrigg:** So I’m going to show you a very practical marketing plan. And this is based on the marketing plan template that all of you Gapees will see in the marketing plan bridge in our portal. And so, here we have our marketing plan. And we start off with our purpose. What is our purpose statement? Leading small business owners to achieve the three freedoms. And then we’ve got our ideal client and the services that we’ll provide. And then we’ve got our… I’m just going to bring up these first six and I’ll talk to them. So purpose, ideal client. **Viv Brownrigg:** Now, a number of you in your pre-work said that you were struggling with identifying what your ideal client is. And this does come back to your purpose statement. So, think about what businesses, what they aspire to doing, and perhaps where they are in the sand pit. So that might be size of client. So, here I’ve got businesses who set goals and want to achieve them with aspirations to grow and/or improve their business. Not everyone wants to grow. Compliance services are a given, but not the main event. Gross revenue typically between 550K and 3 mil per annum. So that’s quite a broad range. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to take clients outside of that range. Of course, we are, but our marketing is targeted towards that. **Viv Brownrigg:** And our services. We’ve got accounting, tax and compliance is almost the given. It’s the afterthought. The main event is that business advisory, space planning, cashflow improvement, reporting, accountability. **Viv Brownrigg:** Our unique selling point. We want to help our clients achieve time, money, and mind freedom by providing advice and education to improve and grow their business. Our positioning and our promotion strategy. So, our promotion strategy is, how will our clients know that that is our purpose? How will our clients know that we offer those services? That we are not just a tax shop. So we’re going to do that by doing regular educational webinars and events. And some of those will be face to face events when we can. We’ll also be serving up content pathways, downloadable resources. We are going to really focus in on a couple of different meetings styles to actually really get our clients talking about how much value they get from spending an hour with us in an annual accounts review meeting, or 20 minutes with us in a momentum call to go over the management reports. We are really going to get people talking about that. And, of course, we’ll be marketing the business at the same time. We are actually going to set up a client community group because it turns out that we have a lot of clients in very different industries who do like to share their wins and their ideas, whether it’s how they look after their teams or whatever. **Viv Brownrigg:** Now, of course, you’ve all got a workbook there. I’m sure you’ve all downloaded… The workbook is in the chat pane, isn’t it, Charles? **Charles Clark:** I’ll just pop it in there now. One second. **Viv Brownrigg:** I thought you’d already done that. No worries. So, here are our goals, our 90 day goals. We’re going to reinstate our annual accounts review meeting process. Now, this particular firm hasn’t been running an annual accounts review meeting process. I’ve deliberately put this in this manufactured marketing plan. And I’ve done it because that is the most major marketing opportunity missed. So they’ve got a marketing KPI there of 30 meetings in the first quarter. And they’ve got some action that needs to be taken, who needs to do what, and by when. **Viv Brownrigg:** They’re going to complete a brand refresh, a website content refresh. And so, I’ve got some goals around some downloadable resources. They’re going to complete three educational webinars in the next 90 days. And they’ve got some modest numbers in terms of the number of registrations they expect to get. And of course not everyone turns up, so the number of attendees they expect at each event. And they’re going to get their free business review service in place for those Gapees in the room. You know what I’m talking about. That’s the complimentary client review meeting process. **Viv Brownrigg:** So you can see this is a targeted marketing plan. It’s not a 30 page marketing plan that focuses solely on brand and brand strategy and complex resources because, for me, sure. If you are a large accounting firm that is wanting to reposition its services, its product offering, the clients that are… Its ideal clients. Sure. Maybe you need something more strategic, something more high-brow that really takes a three to five year view, but honestly, for most accounting firms, I have found that this targeted dynamic approach works really down really well. And it means that you’ve got some KPIs here where you are going to be able to show your directors the return on investment on the marketing. That’s the marketing team and the external marketing spend. Whether it’s content you buy in, whether it’s platforms you subscribe to, or whether it’s external organisations that you use as well. **Viv Brownrigg:** So, on that particular note, and of course we put it all together. And on that note, talking about ROI, annual marketing plan, get that in place before end of balance state, quarterly… It must tie into the business plan. So business plan first, marketing plan second. Quarterly reviews at the absolute outset and be prepared to be dynamic because marketing is a very dynamic process. Things work, things don’t work. Three to five KPIs know more. Scheduled activities, constant and consistent wins the race, test and measure, and reset. And on that note, Charles, I think we need to go to questions. **Charles Clark:** Brilliant. Thanks, Viv. So everyone, you should see the link I shared just a few minutes ago that Viv was referring to. So a couple of questions in here at the moment. As we said, if you’ve got questions from anything that Viv has been talking about, so much great stuff in there, do let us know. So the first question Viv is, along with leads, what importance would you place on the purpose of marketing to also help grow and strengthen our organisation’s brand? **Viv Brownrigg:** Oh, totally. Marketing is one reflection of your brand. It is a complete reflection. It’s a mirror your brand. So, for example, part of your brand is your core purpose. So if your core purpose is to lead your small business clients to run a better business, and you are not marketing that. If your marketing efforts aren’t actually saying that, if you’re not saying that to the outside world, if that isn’t coming across in your website, then you’re not living into your brand. You can’t be. So, yeah. Your core purpose, your values, your brand, your digital voice, your marketing, all of those things have to be consistent and they have to be constant. **Charles Clark:** Fantastic. And then a quick… It’s a question from earlier from someone who arrived a little bit late. Yes, we will be sharing a recording of this tomorrow. And then an interesting question, and I might take first stab at this Viv, and then hand it over to you. **Viv Brownrigg:** Sure. **Charles Clark:** But this one is, does one get penalised for using stock content by Google in terms of search results? I’ve heard lots of different answers from lots of different marketers. So, in our experience, we’ve actually done quite a lot of research on this because obviously we have content in BOMA. And from what we have seen, and this includes speaking to Google contacts at Google itself, the answer is no. There is no negative penalty from it. You don’t necessarily… You are maybe then competing against other people who have posted exactly the same content that you have, but I suppose the great thing in Boma with… Or the content in BOMA is that it’s all completely customisable. So you were able to customise it. You were able to put your own perspective, your own tone of voice on it, your own opinion on a piece of content that you’ve used. And that’s not even counting the fact that you can, obviously, you can adjust the titles, you can adjust the images and anything like that. **Charles Clark**: So, there’s no negative penalty. And if you want to make sure that your copy isn’t the same as other people’s, we just suggest that you customise it. And that’s what most BOMA users do is that they put their own perspective on the sort of the factual elements that we have that we’ve sort of got in our library. And this is, I suppose, for the more factual content. For the content that maybe Viv has, which is more about invitations that’s probably not so relevant. Viv, what do you think? **Viv Brownrigg:** Oh, no, it’s totally irrelevant. First of all, the content… I’ll give two examples of Gap content. One is the 450 plus articles that are sitting up in the BOMA premium library. First of all, change the title, swap out… Change the intro, change the outro, swap out the images when you’re using the BOMA platform. Put your own spin on it and make sure your digital voice comes through. If there’s sort of a funny sort of quirkiness to your firm, make sure it comes through. Get it in there. It’s still going to be mountains quicker than writing the stuff yourself or even coming up with the topics. **Viv Brownrigg:** Another example is our webinar and seminar kits. And so, this is a common question we’ve had from our Gapee firms is, change the title, know your numbers. Change it to understanding your financials. Change it to understanding my numbers. Call it whatever you like. By the way, the interesting thing is that if small business clients are out there looking on your website to see what your webinar recordings are and comparing them to another firm and saying that you’ve run the same session because the videos look similar, then you’ve got another problem on your hands because your clients are actually surfing around looking at other websites. It’s more likely other accounting firms who notice what you’re doing. So just change the titles. Put your brand on. Swap out the images and change it up. It won’t look the same, but it’s still going to be miles quicker than actually writing that webinar kit yourself. Yeah. **Charles Clark:** I was just actually going to add to that. Oftentimes when we get asked this question, and as Viv sort of alluded to, often accountants will look at each other’s social platforms or websites of their clients. But one thing we do see is that for a piece of content in BOMA and we know what’s popular, it’s popular for a reason. And the reason is that it’s delivering value and insight and support to your readers. So if we put out something that’s talking about the new rules around property investment, which came out in the last couple of weeks, that is incredibly timely. And the fact that… As Viv said, you haven’t had to go and write it from scratch yourself, but you can get something out within a couple of days that is going to support your clients. And as we said, you can obviously put your spin on it, but it’s much easier to edit something than write it from scratch. So, a lot of marketing, as Viv said earlier, is about consistent and timely support. And so, the ability to go into a library like BOMA’s and The Gaps and find the right information for the right segment of your audience at the right clients. **Viv Brownrigg:** And that property investor tax change is a really good example because what’s more useful to a client? A long really wordy technical article that took you hours to produce or that short Wolters Kluwer piece which was really digestible because there’s a expert content writer who knows how to write that stuff in a way that a small business might have a crack at understanding it, or even worse, “Hi, there’s been some big changes to property tax investment rules. Click here.” And then they go into this bloody website where it’s really freaking complicated. **Viv Brownrigg:** Well, that’s not really helpful. And it’s not really marketing. It’s not your voice it. So if you can get good stock content and then add your voice over the top of it, then you’re doing really well. And then write some dynamic pieces yourself for those in the moment things that are happening in your own firm for special things that are happening with your clients. For client case studies, for the team member that has just started, and you put a bottle of champagne on their desk the first day. Those sorts of things. Do that in the moment stuff in a dynamic way. But I actually think that you can pick up a 400 or 500 or maybe 200, 300 word article, which a lot of our articles in the platform come at that sort of word count, and you can run your digital voice over it in 30 minutes. And you’ve got a beautiful article that you’re really happy with, but then it’s not going to look like the stock content. **Charles Clark:** I think one other thing just to add there is that a lot of… And Viv has sort of nailed it with the dynamic is that while it’s great to use BOMA and get content, you always… You know your thing best. You know your clients best, and mix and match. And the great thing is that with BOMA and The Gap, you have the controllers in your hands and you can decide how much time you want to spend writing new content, how much time you want to spend using our content. And that is all about driving efficiency and enabling you to… Whether it’s spending more time with your clients or getting new clients, or whether it’s knocking off early on a Friday because you’ve had it with lockdowns and you’d actually like a bit of a longer weekend. Because the idea here is efficiency. **Viv Brownrigg:** I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Here we are in the \[inaudible\]. Yeah, I’m sorry. Soon, buddy. Soon. Really soon. Oh, we got two of our team up there in the UK and we just really feel for everyone up there. So, our heart goes out there, guys. Any more questions before I move on. I know we are getting to time, Charles, so I just want to make sure we do finish up. **Charles Clark:** There’s one from James, but I’ll forward that onto you directly, Viv. **Viv Brownrigg:** Okay, great. Next steps for those of you don’t know enough about us and want to learn more, you can do a free trial. Jump on one of our websites. There’s an exit survey coming your way as you exit the session. Any Gap firms out there who don’t have access to our premium library, it’s because you haven’t unlocked a code. So contact us. Give us a call, drop us a line on email, and we will get that sorted for you. Parting thought to the shy, retiring ones out there who said, “I don’t want to stand out there on the top of the building and say that we are great.” You don’t have to do that. Marketing is really just about sharing your passion. What are you really, really passionate about? I know that all of you are really passionate about looking after your clients. So, how do you tell them that? You tell them that by getting the information to them that they need so that they’re getting support they need particularly right now. **Viv Brownrigg:** And this is where we’ve seen massive winners and, I guess, some losers over the last 18 months. Some who’ve responded so well to the situation we are in and have been living through for a good time now. So marketing is really just about sharing your passion. What are you passion about? Share it. If you don’t blow your own trumpet, nobody’s going to hear any music and you’re not going to hear any either. **Viv Brownrigg:** So, that’s it from us. Thank you guys. Thank you, Charles. Thank you for inviting me to come on this session. And the workbook there, it’s got the template in for those of you who aren’t Gap firms for actually coming up with that marketing plan. I know I whisked through it fairly quickly, but every marketing plan will look different. Every single one will look different and it should look different because each firm’s needs in terms of new to business leads, in terms of growth from existing clients, et cetera, is different. So, sing out if you want to know more. **Charles Clark:** Viv, thanks again so much. I really enjoyed it and everyone, we’ll see you on the next session. **Viv Brownrigg:** Great. Thanks guys. See you soon. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [BOMA + The Gap: Your 2022 Marketing Plan - UK Edition](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/boma-the-gap-your-2022-marketing-plan-uk/) **Published:** November 3, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Now is the ideal time to create your Marketing Plan for 2022. The planning you do this side of Christmas will have a big impact on your marketing success in 2022. Join Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA and Viv Brownrigg, Co-founder, Director of Marketing (and Chartered Accountant) from The Gap for this 45 minute webinar. Viv will share with you: - 2021’s most successful marketing strategies for accounting firms. - How to ‘right size’ your marketing resources (and spend!). - What you can outsource, and what’s better retained in-house. - How to create a practical and simple Marketing Plan for 2022. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [BOMA + The Gap: Delivering Business Planning to your Clients - AU/NZ Edition](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/boma-the-gap-delivering-business-planning-to-your-clients/) **Published:** May 27, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Every real business deserves a simple, actionable Business Plan. As a trusted business advisor, business planning should be at the core of your business advisory service offering. Join Chartered Accountant and Director of The Gap, Viv Brownrigg, as she takes you through the fundamentals of delivering business planning to your clients. Learn how to deliver a 4-hour planning session and make planning an ongoing and scalable service: - Your role as facilitator - The importance of client pre-work and how to manage it - Step by step, how to deliver the 4-hour planning session - How to deliver a practical and simple one-page plan - Turning planning into a recurring revenue stream **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [BOMA + The Gap: Delivering Business Planning to your Clients - UK Edition](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/boma-the-gap-delivering-business-planning-to-your-clients-uk-edition/) **Published:** May 31, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Every real business deserves a simple, actionable Business Plan. As a trusted business advisor, business planning should be at the core of your business advisory service offering. Join Chartered Accountant and Director of The Gap, Viv Brownrigg, as she takes you through the fundamentals of delivering business planning to your clients. Learn how to deliver a 4-hour planning session and make planning an ongoing and scalable service: - Your role as facilitator - The importance of client pre-work and how to manage it - Step by step, how to deliver the 4-hour planning session - How to deliver a practical and simple one-page plan - Turning planning into a recurring revenue stream **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [The Educational Webinar - Part 3: Presentation Essentials](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/the-educational-webinar-part-3-presentation-essentials/) **Published:** November 20, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Part 3 of our special webinar tri series in partnership in partnership with The Gap. In each part we’ll be covering a key element of running educational webinars including Marketing, Technology and Webinar Preparation. Webinar Agenda: - Structuring your webinar content - Crafting your slides and presenter notes, avoiding ‘death by PowerPoint’ - Best practice preparation and practise – Using scripts while retaining your ‘presentation style’ - The role of the moderator - Use of webcams to enhance connection - Presenting spontaneous polls - Mastering the ‘call to action’ - Managing Q & A sessions effectively - Creating highly engaging panel discussions - How to end the session elegantly **NB: You can also read a full transcript of this session below.** ## ‘Presentation Essentials’ Transcript **Charles Clark:** Good morning everyone. Thank you so much for joining us. Welcome to part three of BOMA and The Gaps webinar series. This is the educational webinar and introverts paradise. And today we are looking at one of the most important parts, which is presentation essentials. So my name is Charles Clark and I’m thrilled today to be joined by Viv Brownrigg. Hi Viv. **Viv Brownrigg:** Hi Charles. Good evening and good morning in the UK. **Charles Clark:** So Viv is super well placed to be leading today’s webinar. She’s got 17 years experience herself presenting via webinar. And there are some significant as well as some more subtle differences between presenting face to face versus online. And so Viv is really going to dive into these today, as well as giving you a bit of a toolbox of tips and tricks to boost interaction during your webinars, so that most importantly your listeners stay engaged. Just a little bit of housekeeping. Many of you will have been familiar with attending zooms yourself but just something to keep in mind if you are doing this to your clients, it’s always a good idea to have this slide just to explain how to use it. And the most important thing here really is that you can ask questions as we go. You can submit them by the Q&A pane. I’ll collate them. I’ll be moderating and then we’ll raise them at the end during the Q&A. So now Viv I’ll hand over to you. **Viv Brownrigg:** Thanks Charles. And great to be here. And yeah, we had an exciting little ride just before we kicked off. Didn’t we Charles? Little, little things. **Charles Clark:** I’m not sure I want many more exciting rides. That was for long. **Viv Brownrigg:** No, it was great. But we got there, just found a chord that was unplugged. Okay. So welcome everyone and a little bit of a thought for this morning session. People don’t love public speaking and a lot of people are afraid of delivering their first webinar. So Richard Branson says, “Picture yourself in a living room, having a chat with your friends. You’d be relaxed and comfortable talking to them and the same applies when public speaking.” Now in fact that’s even more so true in a webinar because you have the comfort of sitting behind your screen, most of the people listening into you are clients, you know them well, and you’re in control as long as you are prepared. So I would argue that actually speaking at a webinar is infinitely easier than public speaking on a stage in a face to face seminar type environment. So let’s get in there. Okay. Now a couple of months ago BOMA and The Gap did a survey. We asked you what your big webinar challenges were. And in the first two parts of this webinar series we dealt with the marketing anxiety. Part two we dealt with tech anxiety. Today it’s all about delivery and engagement anxiety. It’s also about how to structure your content for your webinars and how to make sure you get some sort of return on the time that you are spending. So that’s where we’re focusing today. We sent out some pre work a day ago and we’ll talk a little bit about pre work cause it’s a good engagement tool. And it was very interesting. Thank you to all the people that sent their pre work in really quickly. So we asked you how frequently are you doing webinars. 5% of you are doing them at least monthly, which is great. 39% of you are doing them from time to time and 56% of you haven’t started yet. So if you are in that 56%, don’t worry you’re in really good company. We then asked you what the number one challenge was in terms of kicking off your first webinar and 44% of you said confidence. So it’s practice guys and you’ll get super confident. Even if a weird little techy challenge does come your way and you resolve it 30 seconds before you go to air. So you just get pretty seasoned at it the more you do. Okay. So our agenda, fairly tight, but we’re going to leave a good 10 minutes for questions. So make sure they roll in and Charles will gather them up at the end. We’re going to talk about how to structure your content. We’re going to talk about how to avoid boring people with over complex slides. We are going to really spend some time on your pre webinar preparation. It’s preparation that makes you comfortable. We’ll talk about the role of the moderator. A few tips and tricks on your voice. And then we’re going to dive into five ways to increase engagement at a webinar because so different to presenting face to face. We’re going to talk about mastering the call to action so that your clients take something away from the webinar, do something to improve their business and so that you get some of your goals achieved. Maybe you’ve got some sales goals. Maybe you want to provide a new service to clients and you get the opportunity to pitch for that without coming across as a salesperson. We’re going to talk about the importance of the exit survey. So you get the feedback that you need. Then we’ll go to some questions and talk about some next steps. So let’s just talk about webinar content structure. Now this is a bit of a tried and true methodology that we use at the Gap and it works really well. And you can mix this up a bit, for sure. For example, if you are doing a webinar that’s purely a panel discussion, then you won’t have many slides and you won’t have the structure but if you’re doing a presenting educational webinar, this structure really works. First of all you’re going to have some sort of welcome content. You’re going to thank your clients for giving up their time to be at the webinar. And then you’re going to do a brief introduction of panelists. Which is why it’s good to have a second person riding shotgun as your moderator, as Charles is with me this morning, because it’s a bit weird introducing yourself. So really brief introduction of panelists, brief rundown of platform features whether it’s Zoom or GoToWebinar. It’s nice to have a thought of the day. Something’s really relevant to what you’re talking about. Something that gets people’s attention, makes them think. Then you’re going to very briefly talk about what you’re going to talk about. So into the agenda. Then you move into the learning points of the webinar. And then it’s good to then go to a short Q&A session. It’s good not to have the Q&A session at the very end of the webinar because you’re encouraging people to leave early, not participate in the Q&A and you may not get them to fill in their feedback survey, which is really important in terms of that call to action. Then you’ll present some next steps so that they do something with the knowledge they’ve gained and that you get the ability to perhaps talk about some of the ways you can help them, the services you can offer. And then you can close with a parting thought. And then we find a nice elegant way for you to say goodbye. I’ve got a particular way of saying goodbye on a webinar. It’s pretty much the same every time. And it avoids that awkward who’s saying goodbye first kind of moment at the end of the webinar. Okay. So we’re going to go and have a look at an example of that very shortly. We will go and have a look at the “Know Your Numbers” webinar pack and we’ll just look at the content, the slides. But I just want to remind all the Gap firms in the room that we’ve got 13 webinar kits sitting in the Gap portal right now. You’ve all, don’t reinvent the wheel, use what we’ve got there. It’s tried and true and it works. All of your marketing materials, all of your planning materials, all your processes and that all important slide deck with detailed speaker notes. There is everything there you would need. You don’t have to reinvent anything. So let’s go and have a look at “Know Your Numbers” and here is the title slide. This is a PDF it’s not in PowerPoint. It’s just going to be a little bit easier for me to display. Here’s the moderator, Penny. Little bit about the GoToWebinar or Zoom features. Penny’s going to introduce Adam, he’s looking pretty confident. Thought for the session and then we move into the agenda and just notice short, sharp, crisp, numbered points. Not a lot of words on the slides. Why we need to know our numbers, overview of key reports and in we go into the meat of the presentation. And you can see that wherever possible we are using some nice crisp images. We don’t want too many words on the slide and we’ve wherever possible we’ll use a diagram or two. And then we are into your next steps. What are you going to do next? And here’s how we can help you. So this is where we get the opportunity to talk about additional services we can provide. And I’ll talk to you in the session a little bit later about how you avoid coming across as a product pusher or a salesperson when you get to this point of the webinar. We can go to Q&A then. And then we thank our attendees and we elegantly close. So not a lot of stuff sitting on the slides. I’m going to go back to my PowerPoint now. And let’s talk about PowerPoint, really important. I’ve seen some hideous presentations. You’ve probably seen some hideous presentations too, where there’s just too much going on. So the first point is we want less words. PowerPoint is about crisp points. It’s not about you regurgitating your speaker notes onto the slide. It’s too hard for the attendee to focus on all of that stuff. They want to hear you talk. And so we use more images. Now for those of you who are creating your own PowerPoint presentations for webinars, we use unsplash.com. So that’s unsplash.com. Free images, beautiful photos and it’s all crowdsourced. It’s lovely. And it’s very on brand. It’s very fresh. It’s very modern and you’ll just put a word in there and you’ll get heaps of images for that particular topic and you choose away. So more images and those images could be internet photos. They could be diagrams. They could be a mindset out of the portal. So a picture tells a thousand words and it gives your attendees something to look at rather than just words. So they can look at the diagram and they can interpret the diagram. Don’t overuse animations. Don’t have things flying in from the left and flying in from the right and pirouetting all over the place. It distracts and it detracts. So just don’t, maybe use one or two animations for something super powerful, and I’ll show you one coming up, but don’t overuse it. And very importantly don’t stay too long on one slide. Now this is the opposite advice I would give you at a face to face presentation. At a face to face presentation people are looking at you all the time. You’ve got other devices you can use. You’ve got flip charts, you’ve got whiteboards, you’ve got things you can hold up and show. Things you can hand around, hand out. You haven’t got those things at a webinar. So you really want to keep the slides moving and the images moving. So don’t stay too long on one slide. Use lists, numbered or bulleted lists. And here’s a little trick for you. This slide is called “Seven ways to avoid Death by PowerPoint.” So I haven’t bulleted this list. I’ve gone one through to seven because that makes sense because we’re presenting seven ways to avoid. Speak in the present tense as I am to you right now because it’s the educational tense. It’s the instructive learning tense and use the active voice. So these are simple things that you do when you start to build your own PowerPoint slides. Okay. What about preparation? Okay. Preparation is really important. And I can’t stress this enough. Please practice your presentation three times. Now I said to you before that presenting at a webinar is much more comfortable than being on a stage and presenting in front of 30, 40, 50, 100 people. Much more. You are sitting behind the screen. You are prepared, you are in control but you are only in control if you are prepared. Now if you don’t practice what you’re going to say, then it is going to be a hideous experience for you. So practice three times. Once in front of the cat because you’re going to feel a bit weird about talking to yourself. And secondly to the team, get some feedback from them. You’re not going to get anything from the cat. And then have the last practice by yourself where you’ve made a few little refinements. Now it’s absolutely okay to have speaker notes. In fact I highly recommend it. And what I would suggest to you is this couple of different ways you can do this. You can print them out as I do and I draw all over them and highlight the real things I want to get to, and I’ll glance at them from time to time. Or you might actually have them up on a second screen if that’s your preference. And here’s a little hint. The first couple of times you do a webinar is absolutely, if you don’t have your camera on while you’re doing the presentation, if you’re just putting your camera on for the Q&A session at the end, then it’s absolutely okay to read your notes out as long as you do it in a way that it doesn’t sound like you’re reading the notes out. Just by using some inflexion in your voice and varying up the words a little bit. And I’ve heard of some Gap members doing that and being totally comfortable the first couple of times. I do hope in time you’ll get to the stage where you can have the notes to the side, glance at them from time to time and be focused on the people and focused on the slide. Now when you’re doing your practice sessions, please time yourself. If you are a great ad-libber, if you like to ad-lib a bit, please would you mentally add 10 minutes to how long you think you’re going to speak. Because I assure you that when you get in front of that virtual audience, you will ad-lib if you’re a bit of a king of wing. Now 15 minutes before kickoff without fail. Charles was there 15 minutes beforehand. One of my darling people had actually, we got new gear, new cameras, wiz bang staff. They were charging things up and they forgot to put a cable in and there’s about 20 cables in there. So we got there. That’s fine. There’s always, but be prepared 15 minutes before kickoff. Speaker notes at hand, tech check complete, glass of water within reach and you’re good to go. Let’s talk about the moderator, very important. Now I’m aware that some of you don’t use a moderator, that’s cool. I would recommend that if you’ve got an admin or marketing person, who’s a little bit interested in tech. By the way the tech on Zoom and GoToWebinar is super easy. We’ve got complex camera and audio gear here because we’re actually getting ready for online master classes. So we’ve specked up the tech a bit, but it’s super easy. Now the moderator’s role is really to open the webinar and take the pressure off the presenter. So here’s the moderator. The moderator has got the presenters back. Looking after the moderator. The moderator is also going to introduce you as a presenter because it’s fairly weird presenting yourself, particularly introducing yourself. Particularly if you’ve got future clients in the virtual room. They’re going to manage the tech, housekeeping, any chat messages that come through, the Q&A that comes through in the Q&A session. And they’re going to make sure that the webinar runs to time. Going to give you a little tip in terms of a little spiel you can use a little bit later, for if you think you’re going to be a few minutes over time. Okay. Your voice does matter. It’s far less technical in a webinar than it is in a face to face seminar. But here are my three tips. Slow down, take some pauses, vary it up a bit. Vary the speed of it. Don’t go break neck speed the entire webinar, you’ve got to take a breath. Try to think about eliminating most of those ums and ahs because that’s fairly much a sign that you are not prepared and you don’t know what’s coming up next in your speaker notes or in the slides. Most importantly just be you, don’t be anyone else. Everyone else is taken. Be you that’s really important. Okay. Let’s talk about how we increase engagement. Now webinars are fantastic from an education marketing perspective and incredibly amazing in this year, this very strange year we’re all living in called 2020. Where we’ve had to get out to people very quickly with the sort of support they need right now. So webinars are great. It costs you nothing to hold one. It costs your client nothing to get to one. And they’re pretty time efficient as well. I reckon there’s three to four hours prep as a presenter for a webinar. That’s it if you’re picking one of our webinar kits and going. It’s leveraged support, so you can create marketing assets every time you do a webinar. Take a recording and you’ve got a marketing asset that you can repurpose. So incredibly useful asset to have. The only downside of a webinar is you can’t see your clients. So how do you get them to participate? How do you get them engaged? Here’s five ways we can do that. Now the first one we can do is to send some pre work out prior to the session and you’ll notice that we did this. Charles did this a day ago and thank you for the good number of people who filled that in. Now the thing about pre work is it gets your audience to think a little bit about what they want out of the webinar before they turn up, it gets them prepped to be there. It also gives you some insights. So you can weave a little bit of that content into your webinar as I did before. So I mocked up a couple of days ago, three questions for some pre work for a “Know your numbers” webinar and I just use survey monkey. Three questions. The first one, do you understand the difference between profit and cash? And so let’s imagine that how will you use this information? Let’s imagine that 64% of your clients come back with, I don’t understand the difference between profit and cash. Use that stat because it’s powerful. So you could put another slide up and you could say to your audience, it’s really interesting in your pre work, we discovered that 64% of you don’t understand the difference between profit and cash. And if you are in that 64%, that’s totally okay. That’s why you are here. That’s why we are helping you now and that’s our job. So you immediately relaxed your audience and they don’t feel bad for not knowing that. So you can really use that pre work to engage people. Okay. At some point during the webinar I hope you will get your cameras on. So I tend to have my camera on throughout the webinar because I know I’m prepared. I’ve done three practices and I’m prepared and I’m comfortable doing that but that wasn’t always the case. I wasn’t always comfortable doing that. So when you start out, start out by turning the webcams on for your Q&A session only and then build up the confidence to have it on during the entire session. So, here’s a snapshot of a webinar that I did a couple of months ago on outsourcing. I was super confident and comfortable with the topic. So I was happy to have my mugshot up there throughout the presentation. And you get used to that after a time. Now the third situation where you should have your webcams on is when you’re having a panel discussion. Really important that your panelists have their webcams on. And I’ll talk shortly about how to prepare for a panel discussion. So it is really effective. O kay, let’s talk about in session polls. This is a really good way to actually boost interaction and get your clients to do something during the webinar. Now you can do this on Zoom, you can do this on GoToWebinar, you can run an instant poll. However, we prefer Mentimeter. And the reason why we love Mentimeter is it gives you more options. You can do a word cloud. This is a word cloud and you can see the attendees have been asked one question and a number put “few attendees.” So that’s the biggest set of words in the word cloud. So you can see what the biggest issue is. You can do a word cloud, you can do a free form, you can do multi-choice, you can do scaling. There’s a ton of options there. So let’s do a bit of an instant poll now. And I’ve just got Mentimeter minimised. I’m going to alt tab across to Mentimeter now. Here we go. So I want you to go into menti.com and put in the code 4 7 7 2 1 0 3. Maybe we’ll get one out of Charles. Charles. So what’s your ninja skill? Now we’re not going to make this technical, let’s have some fun. So a ninja skill is something you’re really good at, even if it’s pointless. For example being an expert at falling upstairs. So is somebody going to put their poll in? Not coming up. Nobody going to go and share. Nah it’s not coming up. Not quite sure what’s happening there or whether nobody, but this does work. It worked absolutely a treat this afternoon. Here we go. Standing on one leg, I love it. Here everyone’s got over their shyness now. Photoshop, beautiful. Business development, I love you, you’re fantastic. Doing webinars, love it. Okay. Slipping on ice. I wonder if Mark Telford, I wonder if that was Mark. Prep, very good. Falling over. Speaking to business owners, I love it. Fantastic. So you can see and then they start scrolling, talking to new clients. Procrastinating. You did actually procrastinate a bit but I’m sure you’re not the last one to do it. So that’s fantastic. So this is how you can really and once that screen fills up, they’ll then start to scroll over to the first ones again and you can keep replaying them. So this is just one type of instant poll that you can do. And that’s fantastic. So let’s go back to our slide deck. Okay. So instant polling, really, really good. Have some fun with it. Think in advance about what the poll’s going to be. Set up the Mentimeter in advance. You’ve got it alt tab, you’ve got that file open and minimised and you’re just going to alt tab between your presentation and Menti. Ask people to slip the code in and away you go. Okay, let’s talk about panel discussions. These can be really powerful. But there’s a few tips and tricks here. So here’s a screenshot from a panel discussion on outsourcing that I did a couple of months ago. I had, there were two presenters myself and this lovely chap down here from Connect. And then of course, Jade was our moderator and we had three panelists here. We had \[Johno 00:26:10\], Jason and Matt. So we actually practiced. Now we actually put a bit of thought into this. So the first thing I would say there’s three incredibly important tips. The first one is someone needs to manage the panelists. So, because I knew what questions we really wanted to drive out, before we went to the audience for questions. That was me. So I managed asking the questions of the panelists. When it came to opening the floor up to attendees for questions, Jade took over because she was looking at the Q&A pane. So have someone manage the panelists. Okay. So that’s typically the presenter, the chief presenter. Okay. So second tip is, please do a practice run with the panelists. And there’s two reasons why you’d want to do this. The first one is you want to do a bit of a tech check. Do they have, does their audio equipment work? Do they have a headset so that you’re not going to hear a lawnmower starting up or something else weird going on? Do their webcams work? Okay. So you just want to do a bit of a tech check. Do they know how to mute themselves, et cetera, et cetera. Second reason you want to do a bit of a practice run off the core questions you will ask them is you don’t really want some weird sort of surprise that is totally out of left field with what everyone else is thinking. So you just want to be a bit careful there. So that’s my third tip. So how I organised this is I came up with, with the help of these three panelists, six questions. Now I gave two to each of them and they actually went away, this is a week before the webinar, and they thought about how they were going to respond. And then we had a practice session and others could dive in to that question as well. So we had a core six questions and then Jade, as moderator, took it out to the floor to the attendees and said, “What other questions have you got for Johno or Matt or Jason?” And they came with extra questions. You don’t get through a massive number of questions in a panel discussion because everyone starts getting excited and talking about stuff and it goes all over the place. So it’s the panelist manager’s job to make sure you bring things back and focus on the questions. So it worked really well. And you could see Johno’s in full flight here. We actually, I don’t know, he’s a very funny guy. And he started cracking jokes about Trump and it really got quite funny. So panel discussion’s can work very well. Now what you’re trying to do here is you’re trying to tread a careful line between being totally spontaneous, where you absolutely don’t know what’s going to happen, what you’re going to say and whether you’re going to have enough time to say it. And you don’t want to be the other way. You don’t want to have this manicured studio type look where it looks like it’s all very rehearsed and it’s not very real and it’s all very practiced. You don’t want that. And that’s why you don’t need to stress about people’s backgrounds. You don’t need to worry about whether their video is fantastic or not. Look at the videos and hear the quality’s all quite variable but that’s okay. Audio and being able to hear people well, that’s super important. But you know what, in 2020 everyone’s been on Zoom a million times, everyone’s video is fairly variable. It doesn’t matter. So focus on the questions, not on the video. Okay. So that’s that on panel discussions. Okay. Chat and Q&A very, very important. I’ve got three tips for you and you can see that from time to time I glance down on my notes and that’s absolutely fine. You’re being real. You forgot something. You want to get back to it. So three important things. First of all I think it’s great if your moderator organisers and runs chat and manages the Q&A session because it’s a nice bouncing off between two people. It gives, it varies up the voice a bit and it does protect the presenter a bit. And so it’s really important. And also the moderator can help make sure you stick to time. So if you are running short of time, somebody’s asked a really long complex question or we’ve got carried away with time, which does happen. And you’re worried you’re going to run over time but you don’t want people to leave the webinar and you want them to fill in the feedback form at the end of the webinar, which is super important. Your moderator can say something like this. “We’ve got a few minutes left. We may be going over time, just two or three minutes. If anyone needs to leave the webinar, please remember to answer the brief exit questions that’ll pop up in your browser as you exit.” So you’re just reminding people to do that. Now the second tip I’ve got when it comes to chat and Q&A is it’s really good to have three backup questions for your moderator, that you’ve given to them in advance. And there’s a good reason to do this. And you pick questions that are relevant, that people will genuinely be interested in the answers. People are a bit shy at being the first one to ask the question, just like you were a bit shy being the first one to answer the poll when we ran that Mentimeter. And what you find, people don’t want to be the first one or they’re a bit bashful, is my question a bit silly? So the best thing is if you got backup questions, you start to ask the first one or two questions. You’ll find that the questions start to flow in there because people are relaxed and they’ve kind of got permission to do it. The third tip I’ve got is if you get a very obscure or highly detailed question, the question’s 15 lines long, it’s got seven ifs, buts and maybes in it, you can’t even really understand the question. Best to park that one. And the moderator can send them back a nice message saying, “Hey, great question. Quite a bit involved here. We’re going to come back to you after the webinar and give you a detailed question because you really deserve that. And we’ll do that.” And avoid asking the question because you could really turn everyone off and you’ll lose the engagement level. And make sure you do actually do that, super important. So there’s really three very important tips for your moderators for Q&A. Okay. Let’s talk about that all important “Core-to-action” next steps slide. It’s important that your clients do something with the information they learn at your educational webinar. And if you are also wanting to offer them new services so that they get the help they need in their business, you need to put it out there. But you don’t want to come across as being a salesperson. You’re not a product pusher. So the way to avoid coming across as one, is to always provide a free or a do it yourself option. And I’ll give you an example of that in a moment. If you’re wanting people to engage you in services and I know how challenging are at the moment out in the business world as countries flip in and out of lockdowns. But you can’t do everything for nothing. And if you want to help your clients and provide service, you’ve got to put the prices on your slide. And you can’t expect them to opt into a service, to ask for service in that exit survey if they don’t know what it’s going to cost. So super important that you put the price on slide. Now your opportunity to get your clients to do something new or to position those services and provide those additional services is not over once the webinar is concluded. Because you can repurpose, reuse those recordings with people who didn’t come to the webinar, who couldn’t make it for whatever reason. And of course you can follow up. So this is all about giving the choice of yes’s and really understanding the value ladder. So for example, bottom rung of the value ladder. Let’s imagine we are running the “Know your Numbers” webinar, so it’s free. So we’re on the first rung. The do it yourself option might be just simply to send them the guide to your financial reports and they can start doing some learning themselves. So that’s free. A low cost option might be, let’s just have one meeting and we’ll spend 90 minutes teaching you how to interpret your P and L and balance sheet. So let’s just have a low cost meeting, we’ll provide you with a tonne of value. Or let’s go up the ladder, deeper engagement. The relationship’s deeper, the value is much higher and let’s facilitate a business planning session. So this is the choice of yes’s also known as the value ladder. And so here’s an example. Here’s a slide out of the “Know your Numbers” webinar. And you can see we’ve started with a free meeting. Of course that’s the complimentary client review or it could be proactive accounting meeting for a future client. And up we go the value ladder. So don’t be shy but always have one or two free options in there. So people don’t think that you’re selling to them every time they come to a webinar or else they’ll be turned off. Okay. Before we go to questions, it’s really important that you have an exit survey and you can do that out of Zoom now, that’s relatively recent. So you don’t have to send a survey monkey after the fact. So it’s really important that you have an exit survey so you get feedback. And you’ll find in the Gap webinar kits, that these exit survey suggested questions are sitting in each kit. So how valuable did you find this webinar? It’s really important you get feedback. Positive feedback will really boost your confidence. Based on today’s webinars, here’s where you’re repositioning, as you did on that slide, the services you can offer and you’re putting your freebies in there. Very important. What three actions will you take? What other suggestions do you have for educational webinars? Really important. 30 seconds it’s going to take them to fill that in. So super easy. So you need that feedback. Okay. We are going to go to questions and I’m going to stop sharing now so that you can focus on us rather than that PowerPoint slide. So… **Charles Clark:** Fantastic. **Viv Brownrigg:** Charles, do we have questions? **Charles Clark:** Yes, we do. And I’m going to start with the most recent one first because it’s a relates to a slide that you just covered on the “Call-to-action.” And the question is, should you start with the free option first or the highest value? And I suspect that you might say you could give all options. **Viv Brownrigg:** You give all options. Basically you’re giving all options and people decide where they are. They decide where they are. And look, there’s two schools of thoughts, a thought on whether you should, on the slide put the free options first and then build down to the highest value option. I personally do it the other way because you really want to spend some time on explaining the value on that business planning session, for example and you’re working your way down. Now some of you are not ready for this. You are just not in a position. I understand how difficult cash flow might be for you right now. But to get you started, let’s just send this guide to you. So you’re getting them on the value ladder. So I put the freebies last personally, and that’s how we tend to do it on the slides. Yeah. **Charles Clark:** Great. And then another question from earlier on. And this one is around engagement and it’s, what is the best way to get engagement if you only have a few people on your webinar e.g. less than 10? **Viv Brownrigg:** Well first of all I really want to make this, this is super important. I want you to imagine that you’ve got a hundred people on there. I want you to imagine there are a hundred people there because for every person that, I don’t know how many clients you have, but for every person that turns up to the webinar, there’s going to be another three or four that you can send that recording to. And people like to digest the content in their own style, on their own terms, sometimes on their own time. Some people want to look at the recording in their own time. So make sure you put as much effort into the webinar as if there were a hundred. So to get engagement, what I would do is I’d really focus on pre work. Now if you’ve only got 10 people coming to the webinar, you’ve got 10 people that your administration assistant or that you can actually follow up on the pre work. Hi guys. And this is where you can use a few tips. Hey, looking forward to seeing you at the webinar. Look 80% of our attendees have filled in the pre work, I’m just waiting on yours. Okay. Would be really great to get your input. Then you can get to that webinar and you’ve got 90% participation on the pre work. So you’ve got a really good snapshot in the room. I would argue actually that it’s easier to get more participation the fewer the people attending. Yeah. And very important for that one, that you’ve got three or four backup questions for the moderator, so that you get to a point where some bright spark out of that 10 goes “I feel confident asking a question now because I’m not the only one asking questions.” So make sure you got backup questions, do pre work and get that camera on as soon as you can and do some sort of meaningful poll in session. But the pre work for a small number of people, I’d really hit that hard. **Charles Clark:** Fantastic. And then our last question, and this is around the time or the length of a webinar and… Actually we’ve just got another one come in. So I’ll just do this one. And then one more. So I remember a few years ago, webinars were all about an hour. This one tonight is 45 minutes. I know a lot of businesses are very busy and so a lot of you out there are concerned that you might be going even too long at 45 minutes, but what’s your view on 45 minutes or maybe even shorter? **Viv Brownrigg:** Yeah, totally. Look, when I first started doing webinars 17 years ago, we used this godawful platform called WebEx. The technology was horrible. The technology is absolutely beautiful now. And yeah, we used to run one and a half hour webinars. Incredible. Isn’t it? **Charles Clark:** Viv, your cameras turned off. **Viv Brownrigg:** Yep. I’ll just see what’s, I just wonder if it’s gone on to low bat actually. I wonder. I’m not going to get up fiddle it. **Charles Clark:** We can still hear you so that’s okay. **Viv Brownrigg:** Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we used to do one and a half hour webinars and then we went to one hour 15, and then we went to one hour and we’ve gone to 45. So what we are trying to do is really respect people’s time. It’s super important. Some of the webinar kits sitting in the portal, one of the governance ones we’ve just published is designed to be 30 minutes. So short and snappy, don’t labor the point. And less is often more. Let people get those short bites of information and then let them get on their way. So we are going to be producing more and more webinars that are even shorter in length and in two and three parts. So you can do a part one, a part two, a part three. So these are ways that you can get more people to come to your webinar. **Charles Clark:** Fantastic. Well, thanks everyone so much for your questions. As Viv said earlier that’s not quite the end of the webinar. We’ve just got a few slides left. So Viv if you start sharing screen again and yep we’ll. We can see that. **Viv Brownrigg:** All good. Okay. So our next steps, now I know this has been one hell of a year. Everyone’s pretty tired. It’s November and yeah, it’s been a hell of a year, but make a plan and actually start rolling out those webinars. The firms that are doing it, its working absolutely brilliantly for them. Not only is it supporting their clients right now in a time of absolute need but it’s actually bringing them new clients, which is incredible. Use your Gap webinar kit, don’t reinvent the wheel. Carefully time critical webinars and it’s got some critical webinars probably coming up in the UK around additional government support, HR support for example. You can go to air with a webinar, do the marketing for a webinar, Three days before you run the session when times are critical. A lot of evergreen topics that are sitting in the portal, so you can recycle those. You can run those every quarter. You don’t need a huge number of webinars to be able to do one a month. And keep an ear to the ground for dynamic type topics, such as software for document management for example. Now for those of you who aren’t Gap members, if you fill in the exit survey, just tick the box if you’d like access to our free webinar process guide. We’ll get that to you. And if you aren’t a Gap member, talk to someone at the Gap and we are going to make this super easy for you to roll out a webinar program. Okay. Parting thought. And this is super true. On Monday the Gap team, the whole Gap team got an email from a Gap firm in New Zealand rolling out their webinars. And they got this absolutely beautiful email from a client saying, “I can’t say thank you enough for the free webinars you are running. You’re teaching us so much about how to run a better business. We are hopefully going to be the first generation, of the first couple, generation in our family to actually own their own home.” And that was just the most humbling piece of feedback I’ve ever seen. So if you can speak, you can influence. If you can influence, you can change lives and to all the \[Gappy’s 00:45:53\] out there who are doing that. Thank you very much because you’re really making us proud. Okay guys, that’s all from us today. Thank you Charles for moderating and being your usual cool, calm, cucumber self. Thank you to everyone for being on the line. We’ll see you again soon. Bye for now. **Charles Clark:** Brilliant. Thanks everyone. Have a great day. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [The Educational Webinar - Part 2: Getting the Tech Right](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/the-educational-webinar-part-2-getting-the-tech-right/) **Published:** November 11, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Part 2 of our special webinar tri series in partnership with The Gap. In each part we’ll be covering a key element of running educational webinars including Marketing, Technology and Webinar Preparation. Part Two – Getting The Tech Right - Using the right platform - Getting great video and audio - Workbooks and handouts - The pre-webinar check - Boosting interaction - Creating the ‘call to action’ - Troubleshooting **NB: You can also read a full transcript of this session below.** ## ‘Getting the Tech Right’ Transcript **Cat Morgan:** Good morning or good afternoon, depending on where you are joining us from today. Thank you so much for joining us for part two of our series on webinars. Today we are covering the tech aspect of running a really great webinar. Bear with me just a moment. See the texts already got to me and we haven’t even started Today we’re using Zoom. Please submit your questions via the Q&A box. You can also chat to us individually and/or in a group chat, but save your questions for the Q&A box and we’ll run through them at the end. And you can also raise your hand if you need some help. And whoever of us is not speaking at the time will endeavor to assist. I’m Cat Morgan, sales and partnerships manager at BOMA. And joining me is lovely, Jade Burger, marketing and events manager at The Gap. So thank you all very much for your time. I really appreciate having you here. And let’s get straight on in. Today we’re going to be talking about which platform to use. And for today’s purposes we’re really just going to be talking about the difference between Zoom and GoToWebinar since they’re really the main platforms that people tend to use. Now, a great webinar of course starts with great audio and video. So we’ll cover some tips around that aspect and some other tech that you can use to streamline your delivery of your webinar. We’ll cover producing client work box and handouts and then some tips to boost your during webinar interaction through tools such as polls. Then we’ll cover getting the most from your call to action. Ultimately, you’re running a webinar because you want to achieve a goal. So we’ll run through some tips to ensure that you’re achieving the return on investment that you intend. We’ll run through some troubleshooting tips and then to really hopefully reduce your webinar anxiety and we’ll have plenty of time for Q&A at the end. And of course, like always, if we don’t get to your questions today, we will follow up with you separately after the webinar and the webinar of course will be recorded and we’ll send you a link to that afterwards. **Jade Burger:** Cool. Thanks Cat. I’m just going to show my screen here. So last week in part one of this webinar series, \[inaudible 00:02:43\] mentioned a survey that we’d conducted earlier this year, where we asked about your biggest webinar fears. So Cat and I thought it would be quite cool to do something like that today. So let’s just jump into MintyMeta. So if on your laptop or your phone, you go to minty.com and use the code 4796118, you’re going to be able to fire in an answer here about what your biggest concern about delivering a webinar is. So hopefully we’ll start to see some of those pop through. **Cat Morgan:** It’s interesting to see if your concerns match what we asked participants about earlier this year. **Jade Burger:** So we see attendance, nerves, tech issues. So hopefully we’re going to help you feel a bit more confident about that today. Being an expert, which, I mean, you’re delivering the session, you are the expert. You’re going to know more than anybody else on the line anyway. Like you can always feel comfortable that way. **Cat Morgan:** It’s pretty cool seeing it. I’ve never seen Minty before. It’s pretty awesome. **Jade Burger:** It’s really cool. And then I guess I’ll talk a little bit more about it later, but it’s also cool the way that you can export this and then use it later. **Cat Morgan:** Definitely **Jade Burger:** Internet failing. Definitely one of my fears today where we’ve got thunderstorms going on in the background. Okay, cool. So quite a few people talking about no one turning up an attendance. So hopefully if you were on the line last week or you need to grab a recording of last week’s session, I uploaded that up to The Gap website. I’m pretty sure it’s on the BOMA website as well. So that should hopefully help appeal to any of the marketing concerns. Hopefully, we are going to address all the tech ones today. So I’m just going to jump back in here. So the first tech thing that we’re going to cover is platform. Because what platform you start on is a really important thing and we use different platforms. BOMA, you guys use Zoom. So Cat, do you want to tell us a little bit about it? **Cat Morgan:** Sure can. I mean, we chose Zoom at BOMA really because it was a platform we were already familiar with. So on a daily basis, I’m delivering one-on-one meetings using Zoom. We did have a paid account because we wanted to do meetings that were over 40 minutes. So it just seemed natural to add on webinars for us. The price is really competitive and what we liked as well is that like Zoom meetings, it’s just a simple link to click on to join. You never have to download anything. I’ve never had anyone have problems joining Zoom. So it’s very easy to use from the end participant aspect. One of the downfalls of Zoom is there’s no integration. So it is really a bit of a standalone platform. And at BOMA the way we work is that, that isn’t really a problem for us right now. We just export the data from Zoom and import it into our other solutions as we need to. We just found as well that delivering the platform was really easy. One of the things that was missing for us initially was the exit surveys, but they’ve recently added that. So what we like about Zoom is that they’re super agile. They’ve obviously, from COVID, been through some phenomenal growth, and because of that, their dev team has really stepped up and they’re just constantly adding new features. So it’s quite exciting to see what they’ve come up with, the security things that they’ve added, and to see what they’re going to come up with next. So for us, it’s a really great, simple solution that just fit well in with what we are doing. **Jade Burger:** We have looked at Zoom, but at The Gap we still use GoToWebinar. I think we’ve been using it for about six years now. So for us, we use HubSpot as a CRM. And the integration with GoToWebinar is far superior than the HubSpot integration with Zoom. So for us, that means that we’re able to create custom registration pages, our webinar registrations automatically sync into our CRM. And that just means that it’s no must no fuss for us when we’re creating registration lists. At the end of a webinar we’re able to export really detailed attendee reports and that just helps us with our follow up. We know as a product that GoToWebinar is slightly more expensive than Zoom, but for the time that it saves us with those integrations, that just may makes it worth it to us. It is worth noting though that we’ve pulled gapes 84% of them use Zoom. And so I probably only recommend GoToWebinar to you if you are a bigger firm and you do need that extra integration ability. Cat Morgan: From my aspect I’ve used both. And it’s definitely difficult to go from one to the other, but GoToWebinar is a little bit harder to use, but it’s also got a lot more functionality. So it was a bit of a trade off, I think. **Jade Burger:** Definitely. So once you’ve made your platform decision, you’re probably going to invest in some tech. So I just want to start off by saying that at The Gap we’ve delivered hundreds of webinars using nothing more than a Logitech headset and a webcam. So don’t let tech be a barrier to getting out there and running an event. Although it’s 2020 and people are doing a lot more webinars and online meetings, so it’s pretty understandable that you might want to invest in some more advanced gear. And today I’m mic’d up with a wireless microphone and I’ve got an ear monitors in so that I can hear Cat without any feedback from my laptop. Quite a few gapes are using blue Yeti microphones, which are quite a cost effective option. And they seem to give really good sound, they seem pretty reliable without having any headphone or any monitor kind of solution. Cat, what are you using over there? **Cat Morgan:** I’ve got a little Audio-Technica AT2020 USB mic. I had a blue Snowball mic and I found it was a bit muffled sounding, so I recently upgraded to this. It’s about $250 and it’s a condenser mic and I’m not technical. I don’t know what that means, but it seems to just really be really crisp and clear. **Jade Burger:** Cool. And camera-wise there’s loads of great webcams on the market. I just recommend that you look for something that’s HD and 1080P. However, just be aware that not all webinar platforms support the 1080P resolution. So it’s still just going to look a lot better. If you want to get really fancy, you can buy a proper camera like a Canon or a Nikon, hook this up to a computer. I was supposed to be using ours today, but tech issues have prevented me, so got the Logitech webcam. And lighting, today I’ve got a ring light that I’m using, but following the footsteps of Tom Ford and Prince Charles, just get a big stack of books, put your laptop on top of it, so that the camera is in line with the top of your head and put a tall lamp behind you on your good side. I’d always recommend that you use dual screens where possible, especially if you’re moderating, it’s going to make it so much easier to be able to pop all the questions up on one screen. Always, if you can, hardwired internet, the difference is really noticeable when you’re using wifi. And I would always recommend that you have your mobile phone on hand, because that way your team’s going to be able to alert you if you’re on mute, or the screen sheet’s not working, you can alert another presenter if you’re running over time, just make sure that you’ve got your phone on silent. And I’d also recommend that you close any apps that you’ve got running in the background that you don’t need for the webinar. You don’t want your LinkedIn notifications popping up during your session being captured on video forever. And so for a really nice webinar experience, it’s a really good idea to supply attendees with a workbook. So hopefully you’ve all received yours just before the webinar today via email. This is just great for being able to jot down notes and creating something of value. So you can create a workbook in a bunch of different ways. PowerPoint has an option export your slides from PowerPoint to a word version of workbook. You have a bit less control when you do it this way, but it’s definitely the fastest option. In The Gap portal we’ve got a template in the webinar templates area of The Gap webinars bridge. So that template, you jump into PowerPoint, export all of your slides as PNGs or JPEGs and then you update the template. There’s image placeholders in there, replace them with your slides. And I prefer this than the first option, because it gives you the ability to drop slides out that are unnecessary for the workbook. So use Zoom or GoToWebinar moderation slides if you’ve got any reveals in your presentation, this way the clients aren’t going to see them before you actually do them in the webinar. You can also create a workbook in Google Docs, like we’ve done today, which is a really great option because not everybody uses Word, I guess. And Google Docs lets you either export to Word, PDF or safety or Google Drive, so you’re going to cover all of your bases. Really good idea to send your workbook via housekeeping email before the webinar, that’s going to also trigger your clients to look for their join link if they don’t have that. And then you’re going to be able to sort that out before the webinar starts and not be receiving emails and phone calls as you’re kicking off your session. In GoToWebinar you’re able to load a workbook to the handout span so that it’s available during your session. In Zoom, you can share a link to the workbook and the chat pain, just be aware that anyone that arrives after you’ve shared that link isn’t going to be able to see it. So you might need to share it a few times. And really important that you don’t think that the workbooks are redundant resource after the webinar. When you’ve loaded your recording to your website, make the workbook available as a download. If you’re a gape, you might have noticed that all of our training sprint workbooks are available in the portal. There’s a download button in the recording, which is a pretty cool feature of Vimeo, the platform that we load all of our recordings to. So now I’m going to hand you over to Cat and she’s going to take you through tech checks. **Cat Morgan:** Wonderful. Thank you so much. Just change my presentation. So it’s worthwhile doing a couple of different teach checks. And the reason why is you want to do one ahead of time so that you can catch any issues and have a chance to rectify them. So ideally a few days before the webinar, it could even be as much as a week as you want to practice the entire webinar, so a complete run through with all panelists. And particularly you want to practice moving between a presentation in another screen, as well as the handover process, because the more slick that you can get, the better it is for the people watching. And hey, I’m certainly not an expert in that regard. Sometimes I make mistakes, but that’s okay. It’s all about practice and not expecting to be perfect. Now, a little tip I learned is when you are moving between what I’m presenting now, for example, so a PowerPoint and maybe going to a web screen, where in a moment I’m going to do a little bit of a demo, there’s instead of closing one screen, opening another one, you can, on Mac it’s command Tab and on Windows it’s Alt Tab just to quickly change between screens. That’s a little great tip I learned. And now last webinar I did with The Gap. So I’m still learning years after doing webinars. So practice, as I said, how are you going to share screens, et cetera. The sound, what you want to do is you can even record yourself doing a demo or delivering a webinar, maybe practice with a couple of different mics and cameras if you’ve got just your laptop camera or you’ve got a webcam and then practice with sitting by a window. Right now I’ve got a little desk lamp shining in my face, but I’m also sitting by a window. So you can practice different things with different lighting and sound and see what has the greatest, what just looks best really. And a few days before is a great time to do that, not the day off. Another thing to check is the sound of your presenters. So you want to make sure that you are both the sound that’s feeding into your microphone is at a similar volume. You don’t want to have to adjust your sound when each presenter is talking. So you can set up your MintyMeta, your polls and write down some dummy questions as well. If you have a moment for Q&A and you’ve got no questions, you want to have some placeholders. And finally, 15 minutes before you go live is login again, again, check your sound. Check-in with you panelists, check your lighting and things like that. Disable your notifications, as Jade mentioned, close tabs that you don’t need and have ready the tabs that you do need. And finally, the last really important bit of tech is the trusty glass of water, or even two that I have, because sometimes I get a bit pouched and then as it says there, practice makes perfect. So don’t be afraid of having multiple practice sessions, even if it’s just you. The more that you can practice using the technology, and each of the platforms by the way has a practice mode. So you can go live with your co-panelists, but you’re not presenting to any attendees. So that’s a good way to practice the whole process. Okay. So now we want to talk a little bit about moderation. So ultimately, do you need a moderator? Well, ideally, yes. You can manage a loan if you’re confident with the platforms, but it does make it heck of lot easier to sort of manage all the moving pieces if you’ve got somebody else there with you. Even if it’s a co-presenter and you’re both working the moderation, but even better, if you’ve got someone dedicated to just moderating, it certainly makes it easier on the presenters. So ultimately the moderator will help set the webinar up, get started and resolve any participant tech issues, whether they can’t hear or letting them know when the webinar is about to start, et cetera, ensuring that both panelists can be seen and heard. The last webinar we did with The Gap I started chatting away and hadn’t properly unmuted myself. So if it was just me on the webinar, I might not have realised for ages until a bunch of chats came through. So having someone else on the line can just keep things like that in check. And in addition, was it last for those of you who attended webinar one on this tech issue, you know that Viv lost connectivity, was out of the webinar for a while and that Charles had to run through things. So there’s a perfect example of why having two people on the webinar makes life a heck of a lot easier. So then you want to ensure that your presenters are well supported, so you can have a bit of a script and for those gapes in the webinar platforms, there’s even the whole job scope and the moderator script, all they’re done for you. Of course, you don’t want to read the script hand in hand, just having some notes on standby will certainly make it easier. Now, the last thing that they do really is the handover. So we’ll moderate it instead of Jade and I are sort of taking over screen sharing from each other. The moderator can also manage all that process as well, which makes it a little bit easier too. And finally, coordinates the Q&A. So it all can choose which questions to address at the time and which ones we might need to leave for later. So what about keeping people entertained Jade? **Jade Burger:** Wow. Hopefully we’re managing to today. So quite a few ways to boost some interaction in your webinar. Before the webinar, you could have a survey or a field when people are registering, that’s going to create some engagement, hopefully create some dedication, I guess, to actually turn up to the webinar. You can use your survey results as they’re coming in to promote on social. And you may even find, like if you are a little bit unsure about your agenda, the results are going to help you guide on what you actually need to cover. Polls during a session, most webinar platforms have and built polls, though I do recommend that you look at tools like MintyMeta, is visually that a lot more appealing and you have a bit more control with the way that the results show. Like I know when we use GoToWebinar, the polls pretty much are bar graphs. Plus, as I said earlier, when you create a word cloud or something like that in MintyMeta you’re going to be able to download that final image and then use that asset in your blog posts or on social media to promote other upcoming webinars. \[crosstalk 00:22:12\] sorry. **Cat Morgan:** I’m really impressed with that MintyMeta. It’s just really interactive and it’s cool watching. **Jade Burger:** And we’ve seen clients use it where, because you can upload your own background images and things. So you can make a really on brand presentation and then you’ve just got your essay be ready to use. So Q&A best practise to always leave at least 10 minutes, have a few dummy questions up your sleeve in case they haven’t been a flood of them coming through. Sometimes people just need to know that their question’s going to be asked anonymously to get them to participate. If you’re moderating a webinar and the same question keeps coming through, keep asking it. There’s obviously something that’s not quite translating for the clients on the line and the presenter just needs to reframe that answer in a different way. If you get too many questions through and your allotted question time, don’t be afraid to tell your attendees that you’re going to wrap up the webinar and address the rest of the questions offline. Create a Q&A document and share this with the rest of the registrants, make it downloadable with the webinar recording. So the final interaction is a exit survey, which leads into our next slide, call to action. So exit survey, I highly recommend that you always have an exit survey set up and that you always have some service offerings available in it. A full price service offering, a low cost offering and a free option. So then you’re going to be able to use the client’s responses to segment them and adapt the process. So firstly, you’re going to want to get any proposals for your full cost and low cost services out within 48 hours is key. You need to strike where the iron is hot, then send your free resources to anyone that requested them and make sure to \[inaudible 00:24:20\] follow up with them with in a couple of weeks to see how they’re getting on. Especially if the resource is a template or a spreadsheet that the client’s supposed to fill out, often you’ll find that they haven’t done a lot with that. So if you give them a follow-up call, you might be able to sell them the low cost option, give them a bit of guidance and help get them on track. I also recommend that you follow up anyone that completes the survey, but maybe has entered that they’re not interested at this time. Quite literally, like at this time could mean this month, but next month I’m a bit freer. So always send them a follow-up email with some valuable content. Cat, this type of contents ready to go on BOMA, isn’t it? **Cat Morgan:** Indeed, it is. So that’s a really good point, Jade, is the more that you can segment that follow up, the more powerful it’s going to be. So apart from those pot leads that Jade mentioned, you’ve still got the people that attended and just not really super interested in anything right now. And you’ve got the people that registered, but didn’t attend. So don’t regard those as lost, those are still really great warm leads. So the key is that segmentation is ensuring that you can continue nurturing them with really great content. And that can be emails dedicated to the topic of the webinar that they had registered for, let’s say it’s cashflow management. So continue sharing articles around cashflow management as a topic and you just might get them another time. So that can be in the form of just general newsletters or a specific dedicated email. It might be an e-book. It might be additional webinars relevant to that topic. The more that you can continue nurturing them, chances are you’ll get them another time. And that’s really important is that conversion from email marketing is really strong because you can earn their trust by, obviously you’ve delivered some great webinar content already, but continue with more great content on that topic. And then you can maybe hit them with more of a, I guess you could say a sales pitch. So share some great advice and tips and tricks at least three times before you go, “Hey, bang, here’s our service that we’d like to offer you,” maybe not in those words. So earn that trust by sharing great content. Now, even taking that aside, you’ve also still got this great resource, which is the webinar recording. And that doesn’t have to end after the webinar. Of course, share a recording with those that attended or those that didn’t attend. But even people who didn’t register, et cetera, you can still get as many leads from the recording as you maybe got newbies that attended the webinar in the first place. And I’ll show you how to do that. So I’m just going to use my command Tab button to change to this screen. So in BOMA, for example, you can use a lead form to- **Jade Burger:** Cat, I don’t think that we’re seeing the screen just yet. We’re still on the slides. **Cat Morgan:** Okay. Let me go back. It doesn’t always work perfectly. Let’s have another go. Now? **Jade Burger:** I am not seeing. I’m still just seeing- **Cat Morgan:** I’m going to stop sharing and re-share and let’s see if this works. How does that look? **Jade Burger:** Yeah, there we go. **Cat Morgan:** Wonderful. By the fancy terms, don’t always work. But that’s okay. So lead forms basically are formed to capture leads. Now here, let’s say we recently ran the business recovery webinar. So what I’m going to do now is build a form to capture people who want to access that recording and I’m going to promote that as something of value. That’s what’s known as a lead magnet if you’ve heard that term before. A great piece of tech that you can use to attract in more leads, potentially even more leads than attended the event live. So you build your form on the left and there’s a preview on the right. I’ve customised my heading and body. You’ll see reflected here, people know what they’re leaving their details on this form for. Who’s the fields that you wish to capture and which ones are compulsory, less is more here. The more that you make people do, the less likely they are to complete it. Now, I’ve basically asked them to confirm that I can keep their details and sending them marketing email. So they’re going to access and get this resource, but I still get a chance to continue nurturing them with really great content on this topic. Now, when they click the submit button, what happens? Here we choose what we’re going to do with them. You can show them little onscreen message, but in this case we are sending them to the page on our website, where we’ve got a landing page created with the resource available for download. Now, a note, this page is not discoverable through our main menu, so they can’t go to our resources tab and then drop down to business recovery because we only want them to get access it by completing this form. Now, how do we know who they are? They’re going to be added to our database and they’re going to be tagged, so we know that they’re a prospect, so they’re going to be segmented in our database. And we know they access this business recovery webinar. And this is important for two reasons. One is that we know how they came to be in our database. So we know what marketing is working. And secondly, so that we know, hey, they were really interested in this business recovery as a topic. That means that I should continue sharing content with them that’s going to be tips and tricks on business recovery. So obviously, maybe they were a bit hit hard by COVID. So they’re looking for advice to scramble their way up. And so let’s find some additional content with tips on this area to share with them. And then I can also choose to be emailed whenever someone submits this form and downloads that resource. So that’s a pretty great warm lead because they’ve taken the time to fill out a form, they’re going to take the time to watch a webinar recording. So clearly they’re hungry for information. So that’s something we want to get onto pretty quickly. So they’ll be added to our database and so that webinar recording doesn’t have to be a one time deal. It’s a resource that can be available for a long time afterwards. Now I’m going to have a go at getting back to my preso. Can you see my preso now? **Jade Burger:** I personally am still seeing the BOMA page. **Cat Morgan:** We’ll just keep going old school. **Jade Burger:** Love it. **Cat Morgan:** Cool. Okay. So maximise, you ran a webinar because you wanted to achieve some goals. You want to return on your investment, so make sure that you’re segmenting that audience for follow up and that you’re using that resource ongoing. **Jade Burger:** Nice time to go into the troubleshooting. I know it’s step five down there, but don’t panic guys. If it’s all going to shit, it’s okay, no, one’s going to die. It’ll make for a funny story later, just keep working through, you’ll be fine. So number one, choosing the right platform, just to have a think about what you need. Do you need integrations or simplicity, either platform, and there’s heaps of other platforms out there. They’re all going to work for you and you’re going to get used to using it however you use it. So just honestly make a choice because there’s no wrong answers. Test your environment. So record yourself, check that the lighting and the sound are good, play around with different options to see what’s best. Hot tip, to not wear anything that is super patterned, thin stripes, gingham. It can all look a bit trippy on screen. Number three, practise, can’t say this enough, but practise makes perfect. And I mean, you’re probably never going to run a perfect webinar, but success not perfection and practise just really helps you get to that success plates. And with pretty much all the webinar platforms, you can run it in practise mode. So have a play with that. You as a moderator or a co-panellist makes it much more easier to handle the event in case of tech disaster, like just before, instead of having a whole bunch of people flooding Cat with messages that the screen wasn’t where it’s supposed to be, I can just interrupt her and let her know. It can also be like a really cool way to introduce some of your clients to team members that they don’t necessarily know that well, having your administrator to be a moderator. And last on the list, but definitely the most important, you’ve hopefully done enough prep and marketing that you’ve got prospects attendings. So don’t lose them now. Use the right tech to segment follow up and make use of all of your resources ongoing. **Cat Morgan:** Nice. Thanks Jade. Okay, so we’ve got a couple of questions. And by the way, I did see the MintyMeta at the front, someone mentioned about notes and hey, I’ve got my notes old school written on a piece of paper. So don’t be afraid of having notes. And ideally, you would know your content well enough that you could just have bullet points, but there might be some things that you just feel more comfortable writing out in full and the secret is hold it up close to the camera. So look up as much as you can and you can do it. **Jade Burger:** Practice over and over, so that there is a safety net. **Cat Morgan:** Good point. Question \[crosstalk 00:35:09\] can you go through how to use it linking into your webinar using Zoom? So how did you do that today? **Jade Burger:** So MintyMeta is a web page. And so all I did was go into MintyMeta and hit the present button on a presentation I had prepared and then I just out tapped between the screens. So as soon as I was showing the screen and thankfully that worked for me, then your answer started popping through. It doesn’t actually integrate with Zoom or GoToWebinar or anything. So like we’ve used it way back when we used to be able to do face to face events. We’ve used it on a big screen in a conference room as well. **Cat Morgan:** Good. And Nicole asked about, can you use a camera from your computer? Yeah, Jade mentioned she’s using a webcam, but I’m just using my laptop camera today. **Jade Burger:** And I think the only reason that we talk so much about webcams here is that we only recently got on laptops. Before it was all desktop, so needed to plug a camera in. **Cat Morgan:** Good point. And then we had a question, but I’m not sure. It says host the replays, but I think it might mean list the replays. I’m not quite sure. **Jade Burger:** Do we mean recordings? **Cat Morgan:** Host the replays. **Jade Burger:** Host the replays. **Cat Morgan:** There are some different options. **Jade Burger:** So I mean, personally for us, if we are sharing, we’re now recording with leads, we’ll always load it to the website, make it hidden behind a form so that we get those people’s details when they’re watching. I do know with some webinar platforms, once you’ve got a nice recording, you can load that up to the platform and just have multiple sessions so that people can come along and feel like they’re attending a live session. We don’t do that. We’ve done it in the past, but we don’t do that anymore, because you have to have the webinar recording finalised before you can schedule the webinar and GoToWebinar. And so for us, that meant generally, like we didn’t have the time. If we were doing a recording, we didn’t have time to have the recording all perfect before we started marketing things, otherwise it was a really old recording by the time we shared it out. But what do you guys do, Cat? **Cat Morgan:** It varies. So in Zoom you can record to the cloud. So afterwards you can just share a link and it’ll be stored in Zoom. So we often do that when we’re sharing the link after the webinar, and then we also will sometimes download them and put them in our, we have a YouTube channel. So we’ll often- **Jade Burger:** Cool. **Cat Morgan:** The more hot topics, I guess you could say, we’ll definitely put into our YouTube channel, works quite well there. **Jade Burger:** Awesome. **Cat Morgan:** I think that’s all our questions, Jade. **Jade Burger:** Actually, we got one that I answered about whether or not you can use PDFs for workbooks. And you definitely can. The only reason that I talked so much about Word and Google Docs is just that if you use a PDF, generally, someone’s going to need to print that to be able to write their notes on it. And I’m just aware that with a lot of people at home and things that they don’t always have access to a printer. **Cat Morgan:** Very good point. I don’t. Good point. Good point. **Jade Burger:** Cool. Wow. If we’ve got no more questions, then I guess we’re heading our parting thought for the day. **Cat Morgan:** Indeed. **Jade Burger:** So change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous at the end. **Cat Morgan:** I like that. So thank you so much everyone. Please join us for part three next week. **Jade Burger:** Next Thursday. **Cat Morgan:** And we would love if you would please complete our exit survey once you leave. So there’s our bit of tech. We’ll also be sending you recording of the webinar, probably first thing tomorrow morning. So watch out for that. And as mentioned, for either The Gap or BOMA please do sing out if you have any questions. And thanks, Julie, for your comment, all love that. Have a wonderful afternoon everyone. **Jade Burger:** Thanks guys. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [How to Run an Interactive Q&A For Your Clients](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/how-to-run-an-interactive-qa-for-your-clients/) **Published:** November 19, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Join Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA, and Heather Smith, FCA, FCCA, FICB, as they discuss the benefits to running virtual Q&A sessions for your clients and how best to do so. This webinar is packed with practical and proven advice. Webinar Agenda: - Understanding the purpose of a Q&A - How to select topics to cover - The tools and technology you’ll need - What sort of frequency you should be running them - Preparing yourself to present - How to run the Q&A effectively so your clients get the most from it - How to encourage participation and engagement - How to follow up effectively after the session - How you can repurpose the content from the session **NB: You can also read a full transcript of this session below.** ## ‘How to Run an Interactive Q&A For Your Clients’ Transcript **Charles Clark:** Hello everyone and welcome to our webinar today. What we’re covering today is basically how to run an interactive Q&A with your clients. It’s something that we’ve been talking about a lot, and we thought it was high time to do actually a webinar on it. I’m joined today by Heather Smith, who has run a lot of these in her time, so welcome Heather. Couldn’t think of a better person to have on today. **Heather Smith:** Thank you for having me here today, Charles, really looking forward to talking about this and speaking with the community about what their experiences are. Oh, look, we’ve got two of you now. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. Sorry, that’s just one of the technical elements. For some reason I need to be running today, the Q&A off a different computer. Don’t ask me why this hasn’t been the case before. Just ignore the SF in the background. That’s just me running the Q&A. On that point, if you do have questions, we are using Zoom today so you’ll see a Q&A chat box in there. If you’ve got any questions, pop them in there and Heather and I will do our best to answer them as we go. If there’s any we don’t have time to answer, we’ll follow up with you afterwards. **Charles Clark:** Great. The webinar today in terms of the agenda, Heather and I actually sat down and put our heads together and thought really what would be the five or 10 things that we could tell you in terms of the A to Z compendium of how to do it. And so whether you are doing this in person or digitally online, maybe through the use of Zoom or GoTo Webinar, we are just trying to cover everything that you might like to you think about, including one of the most important things, which is preparing yourself to present. Which a lot of people, understandably, not everyone, but some people definitely find a bit daunting. Just before we get started, I think it was really valuable of you to all answer some of our questions. We had questions in the registration page and it was just fantastic to see so many answers coming through. **Charles Clark:** In particular, I thought it was really interesting to see that 30% of you have actually run Q&A’s before, or 29% and 29% in you hadn’t. The majority of you, 42% hadn’t but were really keen to do it. It’s interesting that 70% of you either hadn’t but were keen to do it or have already. But you are obviously all here to learn about it, so Heather, hopefully we’ve got enough here that will cover everything thing. Also, one thing to note is that, some of your answers actually caused Heather and I to think a little bit, and actually we added… How many slides did we add in the end, Heather, two, three? **Heather Smith:** We added about three slides in response to your responses. In terms of running a Q&A, we were actually… it’s a great way to actually start the Q&A off is in the registration process, to actually open up with those open ended questions, it leads you into forming your own Q&A and what you are actually going to do with it. **Charles Clark:** Sorry, Tim. I’m just having slight technical issues. Just let me go back out. We’ll go back to slide present again, and fingers crossed that doesn’t happen again. Sorry. Well, Heather, should we talk about purpose first? Because I think that was one thing that came through really clearly is not exactly sure. It sounds great, but what really is my reason for doing this? I think that’s quite an important fact because you are taking some time yourself and you’re also asking your clients to give you some of their time, so it really has to be worth it for both sides, doesn’t it? **Heather Smith:** Yeah, absolutely. I’ve run our Q&A session almost the entire time I’ve been running a business, and it’s an opportunity to give my clients and my potential clients, an opportunity to talk to me and for me to actively listen into what their potential problems are. Now, we’ve just gone through, or we are going through an unusual black Swan event. There was a lot of tax stimulus legislation thrown upon us, whether it be in Australia, New Zealand or anywhere in the world. Many people actually ran a Q&A to actually address that tax stimulus and to provide information that way. **Heather Smith:** The purpose was rather than have 30 phone calls in the week to actually have a direct opportunity to sit in on an hour session and deal with clients that way. It’s actually a massive time saver. I know it’s putting an area outside of your business sounds unusual, but it is a massive time I’m saver and an opportunity to actively listen to your clients and learn from. So lots of different purposes there from my own perspective. **Charles Clark:** Yeah, definitely. What we’ve seen is that oftentimes it’s something that suddenly becomes achievable. During, as Heather said we’ve all been experiencing a very different way of working in the past eight, nine, 10, 11 months. One of the big challenges is that accounts and bookkeepers in some ways have never been busier, have never been more stretched. Thinking of different ways to connect with clients, different ways that they can support them. We definitely had a few and previous webinars say that look a year ago, two years ago, I used to fancy popping out for a coffee with someone. I used to do a lot of one to one phone calls, but so many of my clients are in real need of my services I just don’t have the time. Or if you are in a lockdown like South Australia is at the moment it’s not possible. **Charles Clark:** So what are the technologies in this case, talking about a virtual or sort interactive Q&A where I can speak to a lot of my clients and they’ll all get value even if they don’t necessarily ask their question. But I bet a lot of their questions will be answered, or a lot of things will be answered that they didn’t even know they needed to ask. Yeah, I think the purpose is really amazing and the nice thing about a Q&A is that it doesn’t have to be this same as a webinar. A webinar like we are doing today, it’s much more where we are talking to you guys, whereas a Q&A by it’s free nature is that it’s interactive and you’re getting much more two-way street. **Charles Clark:** As a result, you don’t have to prepare in the same way. The work that you need to do beforehand isn’t as great, maybe have some ideas on hand, maybe as Heather said, make them relevant to things that have been going on recently. But the workload for you is much smaller than if you were doing a full webinar. So Heather, you found this from Kinder Pocock? **Heather Smith:** Yes. This is a friend of mine, Sharon Pococks, and this is what she specifically to the purpose. This is her COVID 19 response webpage, and it’s very comforting. The words are very empathetic. We’re here for you. You’ll notice on the bottom left hand side, she says, join us for a free COVID 19 check in on Zoom. I’ve enlarged that so it’s easier to read on the right there. These sessions are run every Monday at 10:00 AM, and it’s all very comforting and you know exactly what’s happening and she’s running them weekly. I believe she’s been running them since about March. She’s been very proactive in supporting her community and that just gives them some comfort. They know that if they’re running through the week, when she’s going to be available, that’s when it’s going to be. If that suits you, that might be something that you too consider. **Charles Clark:** I think that actually raises a good point. We did a webinar in the UK recently with practice webinar, and we are going to do it in the new year for Australia, New Zealand. But it was looking at what SMBs are looking for from their accountants. When they did the research unknowingly but prior to COVID, the key things they were looking for was expertise and a couple of other ones. After COVID had struck, the number one thing that these SMBs were looking for was communication. Communication from their accountants was now vaulted up to the top, and yes, they still wanted expertise and all the other elements in professionalism, but communication. And Kinder Pocock’s example here is just such a fantastic way where it doesn’t have to be formal. **Charles Clark:** It doesn’t have to be one to one, but it’s just, they know that every Monday they can come on and speak to their accountant. As Heather said, they can feel supported. Times are tough out there for a lot of businesses and this is such an easy way to support your clients. It’s something that hopefully doesn’t cost you much in terms of time and hopefully nothing in terms of resources putting it on. Just such a clever way that you can use the digital technology available. So topics. **Heather Smith:** I think that this was one of the points that people actually raised in their initial responses to the actual webinar, which was a great one. I typically run a webinar which is an “Ask me anything”, and we’ll just jump in and try and respond as best I can. However, you may want to theme on a particular topic. I’m going to give you… if you’re ready in your able, why don’t you jump in the chat area and say, “Given the opportunity to run a Q&A, what topic would you actually be interested in running it on?” It can be completely open ended, or it can be themed down into something like cash flow or a tax stimulus, or any tax legislation that has come out recently, or something that you… maybe a service that you’re offering that you want to talk to them about. But why don’t you, if you have the opportunity pop into the chat area a topic that you might be interested in running a webinar on. **Charles Clark:** I think one of the other elements was if you go on, I suppose, how do you get clients maybe to think ahead about the things that they might want to talk about? Would you suggest Heather maybe having a section where they can in advance say, look I want to chat about these sorts of topics so you can do a bit of preparation or would you just let them come in and ask them off the cuff as it were? **Heather Smith:** I would drive it, I would drive how I was going to plan to run it. But if it was however, it was organised, as we have done with this one, ask them questions, ask them open-ended questions beforehand, thus leading into how you’re going to actually run the final thing. That enables you to prepare and to think about what is front of mind for them. That’s actually a gift if you’ve got those questions, but you will find that some people will have a very, very narrow, specific focus. In fact, they’re probably leading into, they actually need a consulting session, and you need to move them to a different type of, okay, we need to have a proper one-on-one meeting about this, but if it’s more general, then you’ve got the opportunity to run it as a Q&A. **Charles Clark:** That’s quite nice. Actually could be a very soft cell way of actually having a conversation where they indicate that they’re interested in a particular service and you take it offline. Then you say, well to your point, let’s have a consulting session. A nice way, I suppose, to let them present the, I suppose, their issue. Then you can come back with the solution in a different setting. **Heather Smith:** Yeah, absolutely. Because in the Q&A it’s a client Q&A, so anything that you are saying or anything you’re talking about is actually open to that community. You don’t want to specifically giving advice on Jan’s tax issues. Okay? You don’t want to be talking through that in detail. You want to be talking through it in a generic term, and you want to be careful about not referencing names and unidentifiable features. But you can talk to specific tax instruments. You can talk to the GST and things to be considered, but you can say, “Look your questions are getting a little bit complex. **Heather Smith:** For me to specifically respond to them, I need more details and maybe you need to book a meeting with me.” I’m not doing it to be salesy. I’m doing it to be informative, but they now know who you are. They have a really good connection with you. Thus it may easily flow on to a client meeting and an engaged client and booking… bringing them on as a client. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. I’ve just got a question here that’s coming. That says, “I’m a sole trader with no staff. I regularly attend webinars and many talk about the need for moderator or assistant. Is this necessary?” Heather, what do you think? Is it necessary? **Heather Smith:** Can you repeat that question? You must have got that question directly. I didn’t get it. **Charles Clark:** Oh yeah. It’s, I’m a sole trader with no staff. I regularly attend webinars and many talk about the need for a moderator or assistant. Is this necessary? **Heather Smith:** I think when it comes to this, you can keep it as simple and as small as possible. If you’re a sole trader, which very much I am myself, just keep it as simple, as small as possible. Like we’re going to show you some images of some people who’ve done some massive, massive scale webinars, etc. But that’s fine. You’re you are working small. Just throw something up there. I know the very first time I ran a Q&A, I put it up online. I said, “I’m going to run a Q&A,” and one person turned up and she actually made no comments until about 20 minutes in. **Heather Smith:** But what I did was I ran it and I said, “Well, look, this is a typical question that someone would ask, and this is a typical question that someone would asked.” And I just kept running with the flow. Then she started asking questions, but you know what, I converted it into a video, and the videos actually had a huge number of hits on YouTube. It kind of all worked out and I created marketing material from it. No, a bigger organisations, yes, a moderator is good. Smaller organisations, no. It’s not necessary **Charles Clark:** Yeah. Actually and this brings us on to the next one quite nicely because we are going to talk about their technology. Just hacking back to the previous question in terms of a moderator assistant. One thing I would recommend is if you can, if your organisation is big enough, is that you have at least a teammate on the event, whether it’s a question Q&A, or a webinar. Just because, and I was in a webinar the other day, and the person I was presenting with their screen died. Imagine if it had just been her and all the people on her webinar suddenly would’ve been over. But as it was, I was able to carry on and I presented the slides, and then she came on a couple minutes later. It was fine and we just made a joke about it and continued. **Charles Clark:** If you are in that position where you can have a teammate mate on board, even if it’s just so that you’re both presenting it, just shares the load a little bit, or one is just answering the questions, it will serve you well, if… And we saw earlier these things and technology sometimes don’t always work as planned. That’ll give you a backup that someone else can take over while you sort your stuff out. **Heather Smith:** Yeah. If you don’t have someone, don’t let that stop you from doing it. But if you do have someone leverage them. I do presentations to 3,000 people with the chartered accountants and they typically have about four people on the sidelines supporting us as we do that. But honestly, the first time you run one, you’re unlikely to get 3,000 people so just get started, give it a go and grow as you do it. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. One more quick question. Joe, and I’ll answer the first part of your question afterwards, but this part is, do you think people are being webinared/Q&A’d out at the moment? I can answer that from my perspective, and Heather maybe from your perspective. So BOMA we run quite a lot of webinars, and we’ve actually seen engagement go up in the last six months, even though we are running a lot. Having said that we do build, I suppose, natural holidays in between. We might do a series or a few in a row. Then because we’ve got Christmas coming up, that’s a really nice holiday so we won’t do any from the beginning of December, right through at least in Australia and New Zealand, right through just February. **Charles Clark:** There’s a natural break in there. We often, I suppose, follow for us anyway, at least the school year. Anytime there’s school holidays, we don’t run them. We wait for the periods when we know that people are more likely to be able to be engaged. But Heather, what have you seen in terms of, is there too much out there? **Heather Smith:** No, I would say no. I would say that people are… Some people are happy to jump in on a webinar almost daily and actually have it running in the background to support them, to have that community around them as they’re working through the day. Especially a lot of people in regional areas have said that they’re finding it extremely comforting, how they’re actually able to connect with people. Yeah, I get it that some people Zoomed out, but there’s still… I keep thinking, I run a two hour session every afternoon and I keep thinking it needs to end, but then I just get an influx of up to 50 people every day for that two hour support session talking about business topics, so some people really need it. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. Great. Let’s talk about technology. The nice thing is that while you can see here, the man on the screen who’s a good friend of Heather’s has- **Heather Smith:** This is Aaron Dunn from SMSF. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. He’s got the expert package. The nice thing is that you can have a very much less tone down version. You don’t need to have the green screen and the lights that he’s got. You can have a microphone and a light much more along the lines of what Heather has, which is quite professional than what I’ve had, which is, it’s probably a step, definitely a step below what Heather has. **Heather Smith:** Yeah. Look, I think it’s really important to get really excellent quality audio. If the audio is bad, it actually tires the person out who’s listening, far faster than if it’s not. Audio for me is really important. The natural lighting, wherever possible. I have strip lightings, but I also have a window I can open up. The webinar cameras these days, they’re so cheap. Just a really nice quality one that you can get them for under $100 that works for you. **Charles Clark:** In terms of the software itself, there are two main ones that a lot of people out there seem to use. The feedback I’ve had is that Zoom seems to be the most popular among accountants and bookkeepers, But Heather, you may have heard that actually it’s GoTo Webinar. What have you seen? **Heather Smith:** Oh, I didn’t even think you were going to mention GoTo Webinar. Microsoft Teams has had a massive increase in usage in the last year. I think it’s of the larger accounting practices, so all the meetings from the larger firms that are coming through for me are on Microsoft Teams. Google Hangout is another one that a lot of the tech savvy people are using, Zoom. Goodness, I haven’t touched GoTo Webinar for quite some time now. I haven’t actually touched it this year, but yes, that is another option. Another option that just recently came across my radar was one called BigMarker. BigMarker. That was actually a very lovely visual experience, because I think when you are doing this, you need it to be a lovely visual experience. That’s one of the things why we’re keeping away from lots of words and just showing you these visuals. It’s very comforting and easy to receive into your wherever you are. **Charles Clark:** Thank you for the question of a couple of minutes ago, you know who you are, but it was basically how often should we be running these? Here we are, we’re talking about frequency and I suppose the answer is it depends, because it depends on what you can manage and it depends on your clients, and what you think would be right for them. Heather, what’s your view on this one? **Heather Smith:** Yeah, absolutely. Do what works for you. We don’t want you to… if you’re finding it effective and that you’re enjoying it, and you’re building up on it, do it more often. If not, just do it as and when is needed. It’s okay just to run a few and then pull back from them. Yeah. Just whatever suits you, whatever… The thing is, the more often you run them, the better you will get at them, but you also want to make sure that you’ve got people turning up to them. That’s going to be, why are you running it? That circles back to the purpose. Is it disseminating information? Is it generating client leads? **Charles Clark:** Exactly. To that point, you could be regular like Sharon Pocock, or you could just do it ad hoc on the back of big, major news that would be relevant to your users. Yeah. Actually, we’ve got one more question which leads really nicely into this slide. I’ll just read it out to you because I think that’s a good one. I’m comfortable talking with people, but I’m not sure of on-screen presentation. Would doing practice runs help? I think that is quite an interesting point because when you’re talking one to one, you can see them and look, hopefully if you’re doing a panel, you will actually be able to see them because they’ll have their screens turned on as well, but you don’t get the same level of feedback as if you were standing right next to them. **Charles Clark:** Yeah, as Heather said, doing more will always help, but there are some tips, I suppose, for some of the anxiety that some people feel. I think, Heather, you are one of the people who never had a problem with it, never felt anxiety. Whereas I probably, more on the other side, I remember my school days and having to give speeches and it was always something I dreaded, but look, I think I’ve done probably 50 or 60 webinars now, and Q&A’s and speeches, and it does get easier. That’s from nothing more than doing a lot of them, and you practice and you learn what works for you. **Heather Smith:** Yeah. These client Q&A’s, they’re not there to trick you. You are running them, you’re in charge of them. It is a comfortable conversation. Those clients are your tribe, they’re your people. It should just become across as a comfortable conversation and you don’t need to run a huge one. You can just run a short 20 minute session and just have a comfortable conversation. Typically, I’ve got my coffee here and I’m sitting down, and it’s a relaxed environment. It doesn’t need to be super stressful. It is a relaxed environment. If I can’t see the person on the webinar, depending on the setup, I will imagine the person I’m talking to. **Heather Smith:** The person I’m talking to is a bookkeeper with young children at home. She’s very busy. She’s very keen on doing this, that and the other. She uses a variety of tools. I’ll be very clear on who I’m talking to. Hopefully that… and that could be at a cafe or in this virtual situation, but they want you to win. They want the best out of you and they are supporting you. They’re not there to trick you. They’re not there to throw eggs at you. The worst that happened to me as I was presenting once, my husband put a bacon sandwich here and my dog leaped up and attacked it, and the whole… everything just… I lost everything. **Heather Smith:** Look, that’s possibly one of the worst things that can happen. Things happen, people understand them, and I think now is the time to actually be doing them, because people are a lot easy year with who is running webinars. I know that I’ve done, as I mentioned, some webinars with the CAIA and said we had 3,000 people, and this guy literally was attacked by his cat the whole time while he was talking about this very serious tax issue. It didn’t matter because it was just like everyone’s going through different things at the moment. **Charles Clark:** I think actually to that point, it’s really important to actively listen. If you’re doing a Q&A, and obviously you’ve got a lot on your plate, you’re running it and you’re probably thinking about lots of things, but when they do ask the question or when they do, in this case, write it and send it to you that way, be really actively listening and make sure that they can see that you are taking the time to listen and hear what they have to say, and addressing their question because that is very much what they’re here to do. **Charles Clark:** They’ve got something that they want to talk about, hopefully something that you can help them with, so showing them that you actively listen. I think also, just in terms of that relationship that you want to have with your clients, or probably prospective clients, if you can demonstrate that you do that, that is just a massive, massive, I think, tick in how they perceive you, because they’ll be like, “God, this person, they listen to what I have to say. They give me the time. They understand me. I want to do more business with them.” It’s really important. **Heather Smith:** Yeah. Absolutely. I do just want to give you a few quick tips before you do the Q&A, in terms of presenting. Make sure you have warmed up your voice and you actually are able to use your voice, and you’ve actually talked to people and you have your voice warmed up before you have presented. Have warm tea, not hot tea, not cold tea. Have warm tea to warm up your vocal chords and have slices of tart apple, or tart pineapple around because if you eat that, it will remove that watery sound from your voice when you are actually presenting, which makes the whole thing quite a lot nicer for people who are actually listening in. **Charles Clark:** One thing I would recommend is also good idea to record them because then… and we’ll talk about why in a minute in terms of repurposing, but also, if you can bear it, watch the session back again. A little bit like nails down a blackboard hearing your own voice we all find it like that. But you’ll able to see from the viewer’s perspective, do you have any ticks? Are you saying ums or ahs a lot? Do you see anything that you think, “Ah, I might change that next time or I might make sure I try and do less pauses, or I leave better spaces in between topics.” There just might be things that you’ll see, as painful as it might be, that you can then use to do better the next time. **Heather Smith:** I get all of my presentations transcribed. I use a service called rev.com, and get them transcribed, and I recognize, and still can’t deal with the fact that I start lots of sentences with “so”, which drives me insane the number of times. I actually go and edit it all out, so it sounds like I don’t start every sentence with “so”, but that’s another way of actually… watch it or listen to it, or read the transcript, but we’re going to talk about the gems of getting everything transcribed. **Heather Smith:** Here is the signup sheet from Sharon Pocock. We were throwing this into how regular are you doing it? You can see just the very simple signup sheet there. This is the Zoom way of doing it and showing you the various sessions that she’s offering. I actually came across this because a relative reached out to me from the UK and I wasn’t in a position to help him because it was UK law, and suggested he go and contact her that way, which he has done, which is great. **Charles Clark:** Fantastic. Just so you are aware, when you set up, in this case, the Q&A, she’s added her a logo, which is great. She’s got the different times. This is all automated, so they make it incredibly easy. There’s no coding. You just have to fill out, I suppose, a couple of tick boxes and questions as to what you want to have in there. It really is simple. If you are unsure of how it looks, you can always publish it live, have a look at it, go back and edit it, and keep on viewing the live version until you’re happy with it, and then you can send it out to people. The great thing is you could have this on your website. You could have it on your social pages. You could pop it into an email. There’s lots of different ways that you could let people know that you are running this event, as we saw with Sharon’s website. **Heather Smith:** We wanted to talk about the format and the way that you can actually run the Q&A. You could do it in this webinar format, like we are, or you can have the Brady Bunch type of format happening in terms of, you can see everyone at the same time. You may… for example, some people, like the Two Drunk Accountants, they run a small business podcast and they just invite people to send questions in, and then they answer them back on the podcast. It is a slower process and they’ve got more time to think about it. **Heather Smith:** You could also create, as what Sharon did, if you looked on her website on the previous slide that we had up of hers, she created a Facebook community. You can slow it down and say, “Okay, if you’ve got questions of a general nature, put them in the Facebook community,” so you don’t necessarily have the intense doing it virtually. You can actually slow it down and deal with it that way, but you may then record it and put it up online. **Charles Clark:** A couple of, I suppose, questions that we had asked each other, but I’ll just rush off because I think they’re pretty useful is, so if you have a question hog, how do you address someone who… Because obviously you want people to engage, but equally, unless you’re doing a one to one, you obviously want multiple people to engage. How do you handle, nicely, someone who’s hogging all the question time? **Heather Smith:** Well, I think all questions are a gift and I welcome them all. Depending on your circumstances, I would just stay on and answer all the questions that that person is asking. If someone else is asking them questions around it, of course I’ll answer their questions as well, but I do consider all questions to be a gift. I remember I was in this situation and I offered to do a presentation with an organisation, and this lady contacted me and I was a bit, oh, this is a bit weird. **Heather Smith:** She said, “Look, can I phone you?” I spoke with her and she goes, “I’ve just got all these questions. You’re coming to do this presentation.” I said, “Email me the questions,” and she emailed me 20 questions. It completely changed the presentation for me, and I went in and answered all of her questions specifically, but it was actually, her questions were a lot of the questions that the audience wanted as well, so I just felt comfortable doing that. **Charles Clark:** That’s good. Yeah. I suppose to that point, in terms of, unless you were running a Q&A about a specific topic, then there aren’t really any off topic questions because unless you said, right, this is one specifically for, say, my construction clients or the retail sector. If you are doing a general Q&A, then really any topic, as long as it’s roughly relevant to what you’re doing, is going to be good, is going to be useful, isn’t it? **Heather Smith:** Yeah. If I’m doing a presentation, I will be very clear, there is a Q&A at the end, but if I am doing a presentation, I’m quite good at multitasking. If a relevant question comes up online while I’m talking about that specific topic and it’s a subtopic or it needs me to clarify something, I will address that at that particular time. That actually assists when you have additional moderators helping you, because what I have is on my second screen comes up and the moderator will come and, “You need to answer this question while you’re dealing with that,” and I can flick and see that, and bring that in as well. That’s getting into a more advanced, complex level there, so I don’t want to scare people off, but if they’re on topic, I’ll answer them at the time. Otherwise, I’ll shuffle them towards the end and make sure we get through everything that we have promised our engaged audience that we will get through. **Charles Clark:** I see. This is a new piece of Facebook. **Heather Smith:** Yes. Mark Zuckerberg was working busy over the weekend and he’s, he’s brought out this thing. You can see here, this is from my own Facebook group. When I go to make a post, I have that little red icon, which says ‘Host a Q&A Session’, and it gives me the opportunities to post that question in there and then people can ask questions of it. When I looked at it, it actually allowed me to shut it off later on during the day, if people were going to ask questions of it. Just another format, a way of doing that, to ask those questions and to open up a conversation with your clients or your community. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. This is obviously a key one, and you alluded this little bit, to this earlier, which is obviously you want people to engage. It’s not a great look if you have 10, 15 people on a Q&A, and no one is engaging. **Heather Smith:** Well, I’m going to disagree with that. It doesn’t matter. Don’t feel stressed if people aren’t asking you questions. Just feel comfortable with what you’re doing. People frequently just don’t ask questions, but if they do, that’s good, and if they don’t, that’s a challenge. **Charles Clark:** I suppose, to that point, I mean, ideally, if you’ve asked people to note down some questions before the group, you can obviously rely on those. You don’t have to rely on people piping up in the middle of something, which some of them may not feel comfortable doing. **Heather Smith:** Absolutely. To that, you aren’t asked questions as part of the registration process, which actually bulked up this webinar by about 30% in terms of the content. We are responding and dealing with questions that the clients, the community asked. The way the questions come in doesn’t necessarily matter. It doesn’t necessarily need to be in the audience. I highlight, you may want to plant what is known as a Dorothy Dixal, which is you plant… you get people in your audience who are friendly to actually ask questions. **Heather Smith:** Sometimes it’s a matter of one person asks a few questions, more people are inclined to ask questions, but I don’t want you to feel put off if people aren’t asking questions. Just go there with your purpose, deliver what you needed to deliver, pull out some questions you know are important that people will need answered, and try and warm them up. **Charles Clark:** Actually, a live poll is quite an interesting way of doing that because you could run a live poll, they can give you their feedback by clicking on a button. They don’t have to come out and say anything. Then you can use that as a topic for discussion, and having just involve themselves in that poll, that might be the nudge that they want to then follow up and maybe discuss why they voted the way they did, or what they found interesting about the results. **Heather Smith:** Yeah, absolutely, and that’s quite simple to set up, those live polls. You could put polls out on LinkedIn or Twitter before the session as well. Interestingly enough, some of the CPD requirements, not based in Australia and New Zealand, but outside actually require you to do four polls during the webinar. **Charles Clark:** That would be an easy way to make them. Afterwards, so I don’t want you to think that you do all this work and then you’ve done it, and then you can wash your hands of it. The nice thing is that these Q&A’s, or webinars in the wider sense, you’ve done all the work by getting people there, however many people turned up. You’ve got this content. A couple of things to think about is do you want to follow up with either individuals in the group who asked specific questions, or maybe you want to follow up with everyone in the group, just to get some general feedback or your thoughts, just wrapping up the group? **Charles Clark:** That’s a really nice way, because it gives you the chance to think about some of those questions a bit more deeply, and then you can write an answer that maybe then links out to something on your website or a blog that you’ve written, or something that points them in the direction of finding out some more information. Just, I suppose, again, shows the value that you can bring, not just in that immediate Q&A format, but afterwards that you’re still thinking about them. You’re still thinking about how you can deliver value. Then you ask them to open an email, hopefully, and then they can go off and get some more information. **Heather Smith:** Yeah. This takes the pressure off you. You don’t need to be able to answer everything, whether it be that you don’t have the expertise at that point in time, or whether you need to check some things specifically before you respond to them, or whether you simply run out of time. It does give you, as you said, as Charles said, the opportunity to reconnect with them, let them know, let the community know how you are going to respond afterwards. Sometimes you may run this live Q&A and then say, “And let’s continue the conversation in the Facebook group or in LinkedIn,” or somewhere like that, or even on Reddit or somewhere like that, so that they know that they’re potentially going to get an email, or if they need to follow up, it’s going to be in a forum type area. **Charles Clark:** You can also ask them… it’s nice to get a feeling for how they found the session. Whether that’s through an exit survey, or maybe you can ask them for feedback when you see them next and just say, “Did you find it useful? How could we improve it?” Just anything like that, because two things that that does. First, it gives you feedback that you can then use to improve it. Then secondly, it shows them that you are listening, that they have a chance to influence what is really a group discussion. As Heather said, yes, you are running it. You are in charge, but it’s for their benefit, and obviously, they’ll be the people who know best what will benefit for them. **Charles Clark:** It’s a really nice way to get them involved and they can understand that they can influence the structure of these, and obviously, that’s going to help them find them more useful. Great. Repurposing, and Heather, you’ve already given a couple of examples of this, but again, you’ve done this work. You’ve got this content either in the forms of the polls or answers to questions, or you’ve recorded it. Now you can use it. Heather, you were saying that you put them into YouTube videos, you put them on social. What else do you do with them? **Heather Smith:** I’m very much about repurposing, recycling all content. I would be transcribing it. I would be… I’m putting it up as blog content, checking over and putting it up as blog content so you’re improving the SEO on your website through that unique content. I might be trimming down the Q&A part of it, and having inter segments and then creating micro videos out of it. I might put the full video up on YouTube, then maybe create the micro videos, put them up on YouTube, but also put them into LinkedIn. Putting a micro video under about five minutes into LinkedIn can have a massive traction. If your audience there is on LinkedIn, that’s a really good way to attract them. If they’re not on LinkedIn, then that’s not where you necessarily want to put it. Heather Smith: Also, you may want to, from what has come out, is craft additional blog posts that may go somewhere else. If you’re talking about something, you go, okay, well, I’m going to write this blog post, but it’s quite useful, how about I get it posted on, say, another person’s website. Maybe I’m talking about accounting and the legal… accounting for lawyers. Maybe I contact the law association and see if I can get it posted on their website linking back to me. I’m getting that authority and links there, and more eyeballs on the actual content I created, pretty low effort for what you’re doing. Of course, you would follow up with newsletters as well. **Charles Clark:** That’s a great idea. Just one thing, Heather was talking about repurposing the video into micro videos. That’s a pretty easy thing to do these days. My laptop just comes with some inbuilt software that I can just basically drag and drop the file in, and then cut the different bits that I want out to edit it. I’m by no means a video editor. The technology these days will be available either on your laptop or desktop already, or you can download it pretty easily and you can edit it. It’s really not difficult. One thing I would suggest, and you may have seen it on some of BOMA’s videos before, is that we got our designer just to create a two second intro and a two second outro, and it’s just branded in there. **Charles Clark:** They’re basically the same thing. It just means that we can bookend whatever recording we have with this, basically. It’s a nice logo that appears, and that’s a super, super simple way just to brand and connect that content with your business, with your logo. Then just every piece of content that you have, you know that you can just package it in that nice brand packaging. Again, it’s not a difficult thing to do. Once you’ve done it once, you’ll see what I mean, and you’ll be aware and laughing. **Charles Clark:** Cool. We’ve answered quite a few questions as we’ve been going on. Does anyone have any more questions? I think I might have seen one more coming in. Oh, just really enjoyed this webinar. Will you guys been doing more like this? We’d love to. If you’ve got any specific, I suppose, topics around presentation or speaking, or hosting these, just let us know. I’ve seen the Slack messages come in. Yeah, if there’s any topics around this that you’d like us to do, just pop them in the chat box and we’ll take it. When we start planning, gosh, 2021’s webinars, we’ll make sure to include those. **Heather Smith:** Yeah. In terms of micro videos that we were talking about there, if you jump on and go and have a look at some of my LinkedIn posts just recently, I’ve put a lot of micro videos up there. I think I had a reach into the community of about 4,000 over putting a few of those up there. The impact of them is really useful, but your audience might be TikTok, so maybe you can convert the video into TikTok. Does your computer do that, Charles? **Charles Clark:** For those ones I use Loom. **Heather Smith:** Oh, do you? Okay. **Charles Clark:** Which look… and to be fair, which I got from you, Heather. Yeah, so Loom, if you’re not familiar with it, you can record videos either on your computer or on your phone, and then you can edit them and then as Heather said, you can pop them into the different social channels. **Heather Smith:** Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, if you’re listening in and you’re in the chat area, let’s ask them a question in the chat area. Do you think after doing this, you’re going to give running a virtual Q&A a go? Pop in the chat area, if it’s yes or no. **Charles Clark:** Well, that’s a good one. Just to look at. 29% of you had already done so. 29% hadn’t and 42% hadn’t, but intended to, and the numbers are coming in. We’re mostly getting yeses. **Heather Smith:** Yes. Awesome. Oh, that’s good. See how people didn’t put any further questions on. As we’ve done this, we have actually made it very interactive, tried to make it very interactive and answer questions as we’ve gone along. We got to the Q&A, and there was no more questions, but it was okay. We went back and asked the community questions, which hopefully were useful for them and made us feel good, because we’ve got a few more people actually going to run and do this, which is great. **Charles Clark:** Okay. Well, everyone, thank you so much for turning up. I think it’s probably useful just, I suppose, recapping just some of the reasons that we felt were good for webinars, and to my mind, it’s great because it allows you to connect with and support clients. You can find out what’s on their mind, what their challenges are. It’s super scalable and massively cost effective. The technology and tools are very widely available to everyone now. You don’t have to do them at a cadence that is going to be difficult. You can choose whatever’s right for you and your client. That’s the nice thing. **Charles Clark:** You don’t have to lock yourself in to something that you don’t feel comfortable or able to put out. As Heather said, really important to nail your purpose and have a plan for doing these. Otherwise, you might find after, the first couple might go well, but as you do more and more and more, you may run out of, I suppose, steam to do it. Heather, you’ve been running your sessions for some months now. How do you keep that going? I mean, I notice sometimes it’s questions that people have asked and you use those as the next topic. **Heather Smith:** We have put out something like 500 hours of content this year for our community chats. I constantly think I’m going to run out of steam, but then people constantly come back with new concepts and new ideas. It’s interesting. The community just keeps nicheing down and asking more detailed questions. I know we’ve got one coming up and one of the ladies actually wants to run it for the very first time. She’s like, “I just want to talk to people about pricing. I don’t want anyone to say ‘value-add’ to me. I don’t want on to say ‘set pricing’ to me. I just want to talk about pricing.” She’s just going to run a little session and they’re just going to chat casually about pricing. **Heather Smith:** It doesn’t necessarily need to be a hard topic there, but I do monitor a lot of blogs. If I see something interesting that comes up, like one of the topics recently was how to organise your home office, and I thought, okay, we should explore that. Business? Yeah, look, it is business related, removing clutter from your home office and having a clear efficient home is important. They all formed interesting topics. I did want to mention something, which I should have mentioned earlier. In terms of presenting, if you’re not feeling ready to present, you actually don’t need to be the person who does the presenting. It may be that you get someone else do the presenting. Look in your office. **Heather Smith:** Is there someone else that might relish that opportunity? I can talk under water upside down for hours on any topic. There may be other people who can do that. I know… I’ll throw back to an example, another accounting firm, and I’m not sprinting myself, because I don’t have capacity to do this now, but another accounting firm didn’t want to do it. What they did was they got me to stand up and do the talking about it, but the experts there did all the responding. I did lead the way. That might be an opportunity for you as well. **Charles Clark:** Well, actually one last question has come and then we’ll have to wrap up. It basically says, Heather, in your emails, you always have interesting people. I suppose this is the real question, which is, how do you approach people to get them on as guests, I suppose, is what he’s asking. **Heather Smith:** Oh, okay. I interview… I typically have an interview every week and for want of a better term, I’m cyber stalking them. I’m monitoring what they’re doing and what they’re saying in the community. I’m interacting with them. I will then gently approach them and say, “Look, are you open to me interviewing you?” and if they are, I actually have a form that they fill out and it gives them the… It’s a form that they fill out that I ask them various questions about their background, about what’s their favorite book, about what topics are interesting to them at the moment, and I ask them to fill that out. Some people I know will jump at that, and then other people I know were quite reserved about that. **Heather Smith:** Then I go on and say, “Look, the interview is a safe space. The conversation is a safe space, and anything that we… I’m not there to trap you. I’m there to surface really interesting insights about you, and I want this to be a wonderful experience and opportunity.” I try and make them feel very comfortable about it. I do spend the time researching them before I interview them. I typically would spend 90 minutes to two hours researching them, reading their past articles, reading their past profiles before I interview them, and then you see the interview. Hopefully that answered your questions. **Charles Clark:** Yeah, I think… and we’ve actually had a similar question in a different webinar, but in terms of, if you‘re thinking, oh, gosh, who else could I invite? If you look around your local area, and you might look at associations or different groups, whether they’re… you might get a lawyer on, or a banker, or you might get an expert in a particular niche, or a sector, and just go to them and say, “Hey, look, I’d like to do a presentation on this particular topic and you’d be the subject matter expert. Would you like to come on and join me with that?” **Charles Clark:** The nice thing for them is that they get to come on and hopefully reach and become… make your clients aware of this person, and their business and what they do. The nice thing for you is that you get a subject matter expert to come on and talk about an area which you may not know very much about, but here you are. They’re going to come on and speak for, or engage in a Q&A, or a webinar and speak to that for free, which is great. The nice thing is that these can be a real win-win. **Heather Smith:** If you’re doing that with finding an expert, ask or cyber stalk them again for past presentations that they’ve done, so that you can watch them and make sure they align with what you want to bring to the community. I know that I’ve probably coordinated and brought on hundreds of speakers over the years. Some of them said they could speak and absolutely couldn’t speak at all and did no preparation, and turned up and just wasted everyone’s time for an hour, which was unfortunate. **Heather Smith:** But if I had have said, “Look, please…” and this is one of the things as a standard I do now. I say, “Give me an example of where you’ve spoken before,” and I can just jump in and watch it for a couple of minutes and know that they can do something. However, saying that, many of the people I bring on, many of the people I organise to speak may not have professional speaking behind them, but that’s okay because I will frame up the support around them to support them, to surface their insights. Hopefully that made sense. **Charles Clark:** No. Brilliant. Well look, thank you so much, everyone. I realise we’ve gone a little bit over time, but thank you all for sticking with us. Heather, thank you so much for bringing your insight and stories from the battlefield, as it were. **Heather Smith:** Thank you so much, Charles, and BOMA Marketing and everyone who attended for coming on today. Jump over and connect with me, and say hello to me on LinkedIn, if you’d like to. **Charles Clark:** Brilliant. Have a great day, everyone. See you next time. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [How to write for your ideal clients](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/how-to-write-for-your-ideal-clients/) **Published:** March 31, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **It all begins with understanding who they are** While email marketing offers the opportunity for accounting and bookkeeping firms to have a direct link to clients, it’s great content that will set your firm apart from others in the inbox and [keep it out of the spam folder](https://bomamarketing.com/2019/11/19/improve-your-email-deliverability-the-how-to-guide-on-spf-and-dkim/). While everyone knows they need great content, delivering it consistently can be a big hurdle – which is why you need to make sure you’re writing for your ideal client. ## **Why it’s important to know who your ideal clients are** Just as you tailor your conversation depending on whether you’re chatting to your 5-year-old niece or 80-year-old grandmother, it’s crucial to understand your audience, so you can provide content that resonates with them. And once you know who they are, it makes communicating with them much easier. The three main reasons for understanding your ideal clients are that you can be: 1. **Objective –** it’s easy to assume that *you* are your target audience and write about what you would like to read. By understanding your ideal clients, you’ll provide them with more of the content *they* love. 2. **Strategic –** we all know that assumptions don’t always add up. Once you truly understand your clients, you’ll be more strategic about how you communicate with them and what information you can assist them with. 3. **Focussed** – everything is easier once you know what makes your clients tick. Your communications will have a focus and purpose, and your whole firm will better understand your clients. ## **How to define your ideal clients** While client demographics like age and gender can create part of a picture, defining your clients should go much deeper than this. You need to understand what motivates them, how they consume media and their business problems to help define a buyer persona. But how do you go about creating one? Basing it on an existing, highly-valued client is a great place to start. Think about a client you enjoy working with and who contributes positively to your firm’s goals. Now consider the client’s: - **Needs and goals** – what drives them from a business perspective? Is it saving time? Money? [Or do they value communication?](https://bomamarketing.com/2020/08/27/the-shift-in-sme-expectations-of-their-accountant-what-the-research-says-the-impact-of-covid-19/) - **Pain points** – what might trigger them to go elsewhere? How can you provide solutions or answers to the challenges they face? - **Interests** – this will help you understand them at a deeper level and can include things like hobbies, family life and what media they like to consume. - **General information** – includes things like their role, what industry they’re in, the size of the business they work in and all relevant demographic information. - **Buying process** – what is their typical process for engaging with a product or service? This will help you present the right content to them in the right way at the right time. Once you’ve nailed down this information, it’s helpful to create profiles of your different personas (you’ll usually need to create more than one to define your firm’s target clients). This can be as simple as one-page documents that outline and bring life to each persona to give you a concise overview of your ideal clients. ## **Segmentation** Now that you’ve got a better idea of who you’re writing for, you can break this down further by segmenting your email database. [Segmentation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_segmentation) is the process of dividing subscribers with similar characteristics into subgroups. This ensures you’re delivering valuable and relevant information to your newsletter subscribers. This is done by [adding tags or labels to the contacts in your database](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHFCkBnZukU&feature=emb_rel_pause) so you can group them for appropriate content. Here are some examples of how to segment your subscribers: - **Business type** – different businesses will have different challenges and needs that should be reflected in your content. For example, a tradesperson will have different needs to a retail chain or an agricultural business. You could therefore segment your subscribers into tradies, owner-operators and agricultural. - **How you work with them** – for example, do you only work with them on tax compliance or across their whole business? These two segments will require different information. - **Position they hold** – are you communicating with a business owner or an employee? - **Location** – one of the most obvious ways to segment is through geography. This can be useful for event invites. - **Content-specific** – if you’ve collected data about what they’ve clicked on or downloaded in the past, you can segment them by their interest in specific services you offer. - **Survey-based** – ask your database what information they’re interested in receiving so you can use this for segmentation. ## **Once you’re in the know, the content will flow** A clear understanding of who you’re communicating with is undoubtedly the single most significant factor in creating an email marketing strategy that gets results. You will be providing current and prospective clients with relevant content that adds value to their lives, giving them more reason to establish a long-term relationship of trust and loyalty with your firm. *Understand your clients but struggling to put pen to paper? With a vast content library, templates, scheduling tools and analytics, BOMA has everything you need to make a successful email marketing strategy simple.* [***Find out how.***](https://calendly.com/bomamarketing/walkthrough?month=2022-04) **Categories:** Content Marketing --- ### [The Educational Webinar - Part 1: Marketing for Success](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/the-educational-webinar-part-1-marketing-for-success/) **Published:** November 5, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Part 1 of our special webinar tri series in partnership in partnership with The Gap. In each part we cover a key element of running educational webinars including Marketing, Technology and Webinar Preparation. In Part One – ‘Marketing For Success’ Charles Clark, Co-Founder and Marketing Director of BOMA, and Viv Brownrigg, Co-Founder and Director of Strategic Partnerships, will walk you through the best ways to ensure great attendance at your webinars including: - The ‘Webinar Plan’ - The five elements of webinar marketing - Crafting your invites - Tips to boost attendance - Post-event marketing - Q & A - Next steps **NB: You can also read a full transcript of this session below.** ## **‘The Educational Webinar – Part 1: Marketing for Success’ Transcript** **Charles Clark:** Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us today. This is the first part in our tri-series in partnership with The Gap, The Educational Webinar – An Introvert’s Paradise. Today, part one, we’re looking at marketing for success. My name is Charles Clark, and I’m really happy to be joined here by Viv Brownrigg. Morning, Viv. **Viv Brownrigg:** Hi Charles. Not morning, it’s good night here. In fact, I just about thought about wearing my pyjamas, but I thought no, I’m going to be on video, so I’ll give that a miss. **Charles Clark:** Well, through the wonders of technology and Zoom, we’re both joining you from New Zealand, so thank you so much for joining everyone in the UK. And I know also we’ve got a couple of people from Germany and France, so thank you so much for getting up even earlier and joining us. So I’m sure that quite a few of you are familiar with Zoom, but if you’re not, just a couple of instructions. And obviously if you’re doing a webinar for your own clients, you can take these as well. So your viewer window can be expanded and collapsed pretty easily, and that’s obviously quite useful if you’re also taking notes, and we sent the workbook through a little bit earlier. **Charles Clark:** You can also view and select your audio to turn us up or down. You will be muted however, but if you want to submit questions at any time, you can do so through the Q&A or the chat pane. And so we’ll keep a note of those as we go, and then answer them as we come near at the end. So Viv, webinars is a great big topic, and I think you and I first thought of this, I suppose, series because of some results that you saw in another webinar. **Viv Brownrigg:** Absolutely. So let’s get into it. Thanks, Charles. So very interesting, major changes in the industry this year, really precipitated because of COVID. And so lockdown happened in New Zealand and around the world late March, early April, and The Gap went in to teach accounting firms and bookkeeping firms how to do webinars overdrive, because obviously we needed to be able to reach out to our clients on mass and support them as much as we possibly can. So a few months ago, BOMA and The Gap ran a survey with our firms to find out what worried them about running a webinar, where are the challenges, where’s the anxiety, and here were the results. **Viv Brownrigg:** And of course, down here, 20% said they’re really worried about getting bums on seats, will somebody show up, will they be interested in coming to my webinar. And I guess that’s what this first part in the tri-series is all about. This morning is all about marketing, marketing, marketing for webinars. Another 20% of you said, most worried about the tech failing. Totally understand that. I had a glitch myself this afternoon in New Zealand. And so part two of our webinar tri-series is going to be all things tech. **Viv Brownrigg:** And then 12% of you said, worried that I’m going to get a return on the time that I put into running webinars, presenting, learning how to do it, et cetera. 12% of you said, worried about what I’m actually going to present, what webinar topics, what’s interesting to clients. And another 36% of you said, I’m actually really worried about presenting a webinar for the first time. I can’t see my clients, and I’m not getting feedback, how will I engage them? How will I keep them interested? So this 12, 12 and 36 comes to 60% of you actually being worried about delivery, and so that’s the last part of our tri-series on the 19th of November, is going to be all about how you present, how you engage, and how you get a return from your time spent learning this new way of educating your clients. **Viv Brownrigg:** But webinars as education marketing, it’s here to stay in the industry, and well done to those of you who are doing it or contemplating it, because you’re taking the road less travelled, and you’re going to find that you get a major marketing edge as a result of educating your clients in this way. Okay. So what we’re going to go through this morning, here’s our quick agenda. We’re going to talk about having a webinar plan, just taking half an hour out before you do a webinar to think about why am I doing this webinar, what’s my client’s objectives, what value are they going to get, and therefore, what will my marketing messages be? **Viv Brownrigg:** Charles is going to take you through five important elements of webinar marketing, and I’m going to take you through crafting that webinar invite so that you actually get people to open that email and click through and register for the webinar. We’re then going to talk about some additional tips to boost attendance, and then we’re going to go into what I like to call post-webinar marketing. In other words, a webinar recording is the marketing gift that just keeps giving. So when you’ve finished the actual live webinar, your marketing has not finished. In fact, some would say it’s only just begun, because there’s a lot of ways you can reuse and repurpose that recording to actually get a great return on what you’re doing. And of course, we’re going to have a Q&A session at the end, but please put your questions in as you go so that while you’re thinking about that issue, it’s hot in your mind, get it out there. Okay. So why do we need to do a webinar plan? **Viv Brownrigg:** It’s really important that we have a webinar plan, because this is going to define our marketing and it’s going to define our marketing strategy. The first thing we want to be very clear on is, what are our clients’ objectives, what do we want to teach our clients as a result of this webinar, and where is the value for them, and then we can craft our messages around those objectives and those points of value. But at the same time, want to make sure that you get an ROI from your webinar efforts, so what are your goals? Is one of your goals to attract more leads and bring them into the fold as a result of them coming to your webinars? Is it to actually get sales outcomes, and if so, which services are we going to actually position during the webinar? And then of course, we need to define what our promotion strategy is going to be, and then we need to break it down into marketing activities. So what I’m just actually do now is, I’m just going to go into the portal, and hopefully, Charles, it works this time. You can see that. **Charles Clark:** I can see it clearly. **Viv Brownrigg:** Lovely. So I’m just going to go into… This is our webinar section in the portal. A lot of you on the line this morning are Gap firms, and so you’ll be very familiar with this. I’m just going to go into the know your numbers webinar, and I’m just going to go down and we’re going to have a look at what I mean by the webinar plan. Now in the portal, these templates are all set up for you, and it’s just a case of you populating a couple of other things in there. So client objectives, these are the things that your client learns, but the client points of value are something else. The points of value are the things that are going to make your clients more money, or help them to have better cash for low, get more time off away from the business, make better decisions, actually in some way, shape or form improve their business or improve their lifestyle. **Viv Brownrigg:** You’re going to slot in here your webinar goals. It might be sales outcomes with a dollar figure attached, it might be the number of new leads that you want to attract into your database, your target market, your positioning, your promotion strategy, local business networks, email campaigns, website, blog, and social media. And then we’re in the marketing phase, and we’re going to actually plan out our email campaign, who’s doing what, when. **Viv Brownrigg:** Now, don’t be put off by this kind of three weeks out mentality. For certain topics, evergreen topics, yes, you can and will plan a webinar two or three weeks in advance, but for very dynamic topics… And I’m very aware that the UK’s heading into lockdown this Thursday, that you may need to do a sudden webinar on additional government support, for example, you might actually do your marketing three days before the webinar, because you just want to get out there. So so on and so forth, and then of course here we have our marketing activity overview. **Viv Brownrigg:** So really, with the amount of work that we’ve put into the portal, you’re going to find that half an hour, 45 minutes tops, you’ve got your webinar plan and you know where you’re headed. So I’ll just go back to my slides. Everything worked. I’m breathing again, Charles. So over to you, Charles. And Charles is going to talk to you about the five elements of webinar marketing. **Charles Clark:** Great. Thanks, Viv. So as you saw probably in the portal, there was a line that had these elements in there, and obviously then the plans that were structured in there. The nice thing with BOMA is that you can use BOMA to send out a lot of those elements. Before we get started, what we’ve done here is basically break it down to the five key parts. I suppose the first and second one are absolutely non-negotiable, and the third one, fourth one, fifth one, obviously the more time you have, the more likely it is that you can do more of these. But as Viv said, if you are suddenly doing one in a very short amount of time, then you might only do the first two of these just in the urgency to get it out and connect with your audience. **Charles Clark:** So in terms of the first one, the registration page, the great thing about the webinar software these days is that it comes with the registration page included. So when you set up the webinar for the first time, it will automatically create a registration page for you. So this will come in two forms. Firstly, it’ll come in the form of a URL, and you can put this into your email in a call to action button, you can put it into your social posts, if you’re doing those, you can even maybe go a bit further if you wanted to, and actually embed it onto your website if you wanted to connect it more closely to your brand and what you’re doing. Other things to think about in terms of brand on that registration page, that mostly they enable you to actually upload a brand logo. **Charles Clark:** So just a nice touch if people are coming to your registration page, especially if it’s just a standalone. So it’s not actually on your website, it’s just a nice identifier for them. Communicating the key information. So likewise, compared to an email or a social post where it’s all about being super concise and brief, especially in social, on a registration page you’re able to go a little bit more in depth. So you can talk to a little bit more about what value the webinar is going to deliver, maybe talk about the agenda. Really you’re able to give quite a fullsome description of the value that they’ll be getting, so you have to really sell in the opportunity that the attendees will have. **Charles Clark:** Time and date will always be added automatically to a registration page, but we find it’s always a good idea just to manually write that in somewhere obvious, again, just to reinforce it, because people don’t always see the automatic time and date. They can be in a bit of a funny spot, depending on which software you are using. In terms of the registration fields, so our advice is always to keep this concise. So really what’s the minimum amount of information that I can ask to get what I need. So that would be first name, last name, company, and email. **Charles Clark:** Everyone is pretty happy giving these out. It’s not necessarily any personal information like a phone number or anything like that. You obviously can ask more information, but just be aware that the more information you ask for, you can create a barrier to entry. Now, the idea here is that if someone registers for your webinar, you’ll have their email anyway, and so you can then, in the future, nurture them in other ways. So don’t necessarily stress about not getting information above first name, last name, company and email. The idea here is that this is maybe the beginning of a relationship or strengthening a relationship, and there’s always time to get those future activity. So oftentimes you won’t be doing the webinar alone. So Viv and I are doing this together. **Charles Clark:** You may be doing it with a colleague, you may be doing it with a guest from another business like Viv I are doing. So make sure that you always have a bio for the panellists. So it’s a great way to make it look professional, and also serves as a useful introduction for yourself, but also any guests and other panellists that you’re having on, and also for the viewer maybe gives a bit of an insight into the background and why you’ve invited that person on in the first place, given the topic that you’re going to be covering. Now, the last thing that we… And this is something that Viv and I have really, I suppose through trial and error, found, is that when you have the registration page, it’s a golden opportunity to run, I suppose, a small poll, or just ask a couple of questions. **Charles Clark:** And the point here is that, you can gather some insights ahead of your webinar, and you can then use those insights, firstly, to maybe craft the webinar. You might get some insights that surprise you. You might need to slightly change the webinar, maybe to reflect the views that you’re getting back, maybe the state of mind that you’re seeing that your audience are having. And secondly, you can then use those answers maybe in some promotional activities, which we’ll cover in a few minutes. **Charles Clark:** So email invites. So as I said before, if you only had two days to get out a webinar, and you did the registration page, then email is absolutely the only other thing that you really need to do. Why is it so critical? So we find that we get the highest ROI of any of our promotional channels through email. So by and large, we get 90% through email. So there’s a couple of reasons why this is. Firstly, it has incredible reach, and it’s also permission-based. So you’ve got a database of people who have indicated that they’re happy to hear from you, and also they’re very willing to hear in an email message for things that you’re promoting. So they check it regularly, it’s permission-based, and they like receiving promotional messages in email. Also, you can personalise your message. **Charles Clark:** So that’s something that you can’t really do on social media. You have to be a bit more generic in your messaging. Email, you can address it directly to that person. Even better… And we’ll talk about this a little bit later in the webinar, if you’re doing a specific webinar that’s maybe only relevant to a specific section of your audience, you can then, using segmentation of your email database, make it hyper, hyper relevant for them. And one example might be with say agricultural clients, you can then, knowing that you’ve segmented your email database, make the pitch, the topic, the value that you’re adding hyper relevant to your agricultural clients, whereas if you maybe were going out on social media, you don’t know who’s going to see it, so it might be that you are not able to be as specific as an email. **Charles Clark:** So having just said that email is really the only thing that you needed to do if you were pushed for time, that doesn’t mean that social media isn’t also really effective, and there’s a couple of reasons for this. So firstly, you will have possibly one or maybe more social channels, and we know that it can be quite hard to always be having activity on your social channels. So think of a webinar and the invites that you can do, the updates you can do as just another part of, I suppose, your content strategy. So it contributes to your feed activity, it also showcases what you’re doing, that you’re active in the community, that you’re adding value, that you’re doing things for your clients and your followers, and things that will deliver them insight and value on specific topics. Also, we often find that accountants will have people who follow them who maybe aren’t at the moment clients or aren’t at the moment in their database. **Charles Clark:** So it’s a way to reach people who haven’t necessarily taken that next step and given you their email address, either through in-person or through another activity. So you can reach new audiences and maybe start to nurture them and really build up that relationship, which hopefully down the track will lead to a sales conversation. Also, you can reach brand new audiences. So we all know that you can do advertising on social media. So if you wanted to, you can actually create a post, and then boost it, or you could create an ad, and then really put some targeting behind it, and really reach out to audiences that you’re interested in. For example… And I’ll just use the agricultural one, you could then target people who are interested in the types of things that would indicate that they were in the agricultural industry. **Charles Clark:** In terms of posting and when to post, whatever social channels you have, so be it Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, you might be on some other ones as well, whatever you have, I’d highly recommend posting it across all of them. And in terms of when to post, think about your email invites, and they might go out two or three weeks in advance, and you could mimic that on social. So you can send the first invite or the first update on social out three weeks, and then you might do a reminder about two weeks out in advance of the webinar. The only thing to point out when it comes to using different channels, Facebook and LinkedIn, and I suppose Instagram, you’ve got fairly much unlimited text. Twitter, you’ve only got 220 characters, so you might need just to shorten the post. **Charles Clark:** A couple of other things that you might want to think about in terms of some tips. So if you are doing a social post, make sure that you’ve got a banner. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a super fantastically designed banner, but it should have a couple of key things. So it could have photos of the presenters, it could have the title of the webinar, it could have the date, and maybe a one liner which sparks interest. If you’re using hashtags, that could be for your own company, it could be for maybe a guest that you’re having on, you could also tag them in a post. And also think about using a link shortener like Bitly. So this, in effect, just takes a really long URL, and shortens it down to 10 or 15 characters, which if you’re using Twitter especially, but even the other channels, just makes it look a lot tidier and a lot more professional. **Charles Clark:** Also, another thing to think about is that you can also do some posts in the hours before. So if you’re doing the webinar in the mid-afternoon, you could do a couple of posts in the morning, maybe tagging the people that you’re presenting with, just counting down, I suppose trying to tease and excite, because you never know who you’re going to get in the hours before the webinar actually launches. **Charles Clark:** So in terms of blogs and articles, this is, I suppose, a little bit more of a longer play. And this is, I suppose, the opportunity to set the scene, start the conversation in advance of the webinar. As Viv said, if you are doing something super last minute and it’s two or three days out, then maybe you won’t have a chance to do this, but if you have planned it and it’s two or three weeks out, maybe a month out or five or six weeks out, you might say, well, look, I’m actually going to do some content that supports the webinar topic. So an idea here might be if you’re doing a webinar on cashflow freedom. So you could actually queue up seven causes of poor cash flow series of articles and say they’re in The Gap, and they pull through into BOMA. **Charles Clark:** You could queue those all up, and you could actually have them posted out on social, out in your newsletters in the weeks before. And the idea here is that you really start to, I suppose, sew interest levels, get the conversations started. Especially on social, people might be commenting. And then when you send out the corresponding invitations, you’ve already wetted their appetite, and you might find that there’s a bit of crossover and people start, oh yes, I’ve been following that topic for a while, now you’re going to tell me the real insights, and I’ll sign up for it. **Charles Clark:** So lastly, in terms of referral partners. So the things that we’ve talked about first, the first four steps of marketing webinar, that’s really very much all on you, but let’s not forget that you guys often have fantastic networks and great referral partners. So as we’ve said here, the banks associations, lawyers, business associations, tech providers, these are all within your network, and you will be surprised at how many of them will be interested in, I suppose, letting their clients, their database know of your webinars, if you ask them to. So the great thing here is that it will not only boost your webinar, but may also introduce leads for you into your database, which you can then nurture and have those conversations further down the track. One point here is… And Viv through, I think, a lot of trial and error and experience, has very firmly stated that you can’t rely on them to do any of the work. **Charles Clark:** So you really need to do it all for them. And look, it makes perfect sense. They’re doing almost you a favour, so try and make it as easy as possible for them. So let’s organise everything in advance for them. So send them a suggested marketing email with links to the registration page. So this isn’t an email from you to their clients, it’s an email from them to their clients about why they recommend their clients to the webinar, and why you’re a trusted partner to their company. And then after that sort of introduction, you can just do the main email invitation as follows. You might also want to talk about when you’re going to be sending out these emails and maybe social posts, have a look at your diaries, and then maybe make sure that you aren’t stepping on each other’s toes. **Charles Clark:** So if you’re going to send one out on Tuesday, make sure that they’re going to maybe wait a day or two before they send one out. And the idea here is obviously to, I suppose, try and maximise the spread. And if you do have any of the same clients, then you won’t be bombarding them on the same day. And lastly, ask if you can be added to the database so that you can see the marketing go out. Great to see, A, that they’ve done it, and also to see how they did it, because that’s always an interesting thing just to see how they’re talking about you. They may give some insights or perspective that you hadn’t necessarily considered. So Viv, I’ll hand back to you now. **Viv Brownrigg:** Thanks, Charles. Okay. So let’s talk about constructing the magic email that’s going to get the bums on seats. Really important. And the shorter, the better. People have got small attention spans now, and if you occupy a screen or three quarters of a screen, you’re just going to lose them. So less is absolutely more. So how do we construct it? We have a bit of a formula, and we do mix it up sometimes and do something a little bit off pieced, but generally speaking, we stick a little bit to this formula. Good, compelling, short subject line, really important, because you want them to open the email, and then starts off with a strong opening statement. That’s kind of your why, that’s why you’re taking a stand for this particular piece of education, why you believe this webinar is important to your business community. **Viv Brownrigg:** And then we move into the body of the email, three to five points of value, bulleted list or a numbered list points of value. Not long paragraphs, so short paragraphs. If you’re going to provide any giveaways to those who attend the webinar… It could be an ebook, could be a checklist, it could be a particular tool, then make sure you make it super clear in your email invite that those who attend will get X, Y, Z, because that just adds some marketing weight to your email. Then of course the call to action book now, and link to the registration page. Nice wrap up and sign off. So let’s just look at that in a little bit more detail, and then we’ll look at some examples. So some really simple writing rules, really simple stuff. The first one is to use what I call contractions. **Viv Brownrigg:** I’m not talking about going into labour here. We’ve got a couple of people pregnant at The Gap at the moment, so we seem to have… I think we’ve got our third Gap baby on the way in a couple of months time. So what I mean by contractions is, instead of saying you are, you are becomes you’re. And it’s just more powerful, it’s shorter. You’re trimming the words. The second one is to use the active voice, and what I mean by that is the active voice is the doing voice. So instead of saying, better business decisions will be made, that’s using the passive voice. The active voice is when you turn that around and say, you’ll make better business decisions. Now, by using the active voice, you’re actually talking to your audience and you’re putting them in the driving seat. That’s quite powerful from their perspective. **Viv Brownrigg:** Thirdly, use really short paragraphs. Less is more. Use bulleted and numbered lists, so you’re making it easy on their eye, you’re not making it hard and tiring to read this epistle of an email. And number four, add images. Now this is super easy if you’re a BOMA and Gap subscriber. You can hit that email link within the portal, within those webinar badges and go straight into the BOMA platform. You can change up those images, you can change the title, you can change the text now of that email, and you can make sure it’s sounding a bit more like you. Number six, don’t use accountanese. We need to speak in the language of small business, not in the accountant’s language. And number seven, really important, use the appropriate tone and voice, and I want you to think a little bit about what is your digital voice. **Viv Brownrigg:** Our digital voice here at The Gap, everyone knows what it is. It’s fun, frank and modern. And so whenever anyone writes something, whether it’s a blog, whether it’s a marketing piece, whether it’s an email, and it’s not in the right tone, it’s not using our digital voice, our content department rip it to shreds and fix it up. So what is your digital voice? So let’s go in and have a look now at a couple of examples. Now, this first one is straight out of our Know Your Numbers webinar, which I was in just before, and this is the initial email. Hi Tina. And here’s our why. You don’t have to be an accountant or bookkeeper to understand your numbers, just as you don’t have to be a mechanic to drive a car, but having an overall understanding of financial reports puts you in a far stronger position to make better decisions. **Viv Brownrigg:** So that’s the why. Know your numbers, you’ll make better decisions. So here’s the call to action. Join us, complimentary webinar. Here’s the five point of value. Here’s our giveaway. We’ll give you a copy of our ebook, A Guide to Your Financial Reports. Secure your seat now, and see you there. So that’s an example of the initial webinar, and you can see it’s really short and it’s really punchy, and every spare word has been trimmed out. If you can say something in seven words instead of 10, say it in seven. Here’s the next email invite maybe a week later. Want to understand… Different subject line. Now, the content, the messages are actually the same, but the words are different. So don’t miss our upcoming webinar. After attending this, you’ll be able to… So there’s different points of value just reworded slightly. You’ll also get a copy. Register now. See you there. **Viv Brownrigg:** So it’s actually the same message. It’s just written in different words. That way, you’re not just sending out the same email again. It’s a different email. Nobody’s going to go, oh, I saw that last week, delete. It’s a different one. Here’s a reminder to those who have registered. Send that a couple of days before. Now, most webinar platforms like Zoom, GoTo Webinar will do the auto reminder a day before, and I think an hour before as well, but this is, hey, you’ve registered, don’t forget to come, block it out in your calendar, download the workbook, arrive a bit early so you’re not fumbling around, figuring out how to get in, and start thinking about what questions you want answered. **Viv Brownrigg:** So you’re just priming them to get involved, to get engaged in the webinar. So those are just some examples, but really easy, if you just grab hold of The Gap emails for your webinars, and just use that as your formula, and then just dial it up a little bit with changing the images, maybe changing the title and applying a little bit more of your digital voice, so it’s kind of a bit more you. Okay, Charles, over to you. **Charles Clark:** Sorry about that. So tips to boost attendance. So what we’ve got here, I suppose, is a two part, and it’s tips to boost attendance in terms of making sure that the people who registered a couple of weeks before maybe turn up, but also taking advantage of the fact that sometimes people don’t like to plan, and if you put something in front of them that gives them a sense of urgency and immediacy, then you can actually get them to convert. And we’ve actually had real success with this. So maybe the day before, we’ll send out an email, and oftentimes we’ll see that people who, the first two emails, they didn’t sign up, the last one gets them, and that’s because they didn’t want to think too far in advance, they weren’t sure if they were going to be free, but they’re like, oh yep, I know that tomorrow I will be free, this sounds interesting, and they’ll click on the registration link. **Charles Clark:** Excuse me. So as Viv said, sending out those email invites, really, really important. And this goes for social as well. So you can do social reminders the day before, and even the morning of it, as we sort of said earlier. Email reminders the hour before are also really important. So for this morning, I sent out the reminder about half an hour before, and it had a link to the webinar, which is really important, because for those of you, maybe you registered a couple of weeks ago, maybe you just registered a couple of days ago, you may have misplaced that original email. We know how busy inboxes get, so to have the registration link right in front of you half an hour, an hour before the webinar just means that you don’t have to muck around trying to find it. And so this will actually help get bums on seats, because you don’t have then people missing out saying, oh, I didn’t know where I put that original email. **Charles Clark:** In terms of the registration polls and questions, so we talked about these earlier, they are really good if you can then include them in some of your social reminders or even invite reminders or email reminders. So you might have some insight, you might have some unexpected results, and you can actually include those in your social work, in your social place, you could even include them in a 30 second highlight video that you then post to social, just to create that interest, tease the webinar, tease the fact that actually there will be some really interesting insights that maybe speak to other members of your audience. In terms of recording that short video, look, how fantastic is it that we all have our iPhones or our Android phones? these are almost like a sort of a recording camera in your pocket, and you can do high quality or definitely high enough quality to do a 30 second highlight video and send it to social. **Charles Clark:** So you can either just record it straight to your phone, or there are some different softwares out there. We use Loom quite a lot. That’s really good, and you can just record it, and edit it, and post it to social really, really easily. And again, this is just a different way to talk about the same thing, but in a different way. As Viv was saying earlier, it just creates, I suppose, a change in the messaging, even though you’re getting them to do the same thing. And also just take a minute to remind them of what they’ll get if they come along, so whether it was an ebook or a guide or some special offer. Again, it’s just something that may just help entice them either to sign up and registering, or making sure that they do attend the webinar. So Viv, I’ll hand back to you. **Viv Brownrigg:** Thank you, Charles. Okay. So post-event marketing. So you’ve done the webinar, but your marketing’s actually probably just starting for that webinar, because that webinar recording is gold, and it’s the gift that will absolutely keep giving, but only if you do something with it. So obviously record your webinars. And the question is, how are we going to reuse and repurpose those webinars? The first natural thing to do is to email the recording to all registrants, whether they attended or not. Now, some of the people that didn’t attend, they may have lost the email, something may have happened to them in that day and they just couldn’t get there. Hopefully they’ll listen to the recording, and it may actually spark their interest. They may contact you. That could lead to them actually getting some additional service from you. And obviously include any links to any webinar giveaways as well, eBooks, tools, et cetera in that email. But I just want to point out that not all of your clients want to actually come to a live webinar. **Viv Brownrigg:** There are plenty of people out there who prefer to digest content in their own way, at their own time and on their own terms, and they don’t want to be in a live environment, and this is why it’s really important that we do repurpose the video recordings. Okay. So another thing that we can do is, we can turn that webinar recording, could be 45 minutes, into shorter segments. So break it into three natural parts, part one, part two, part three. Give each one a name, and now you’ve got three marketing assets. It might be a five minute video, and that’s just so much easier for people to digest, because it takes less time. So being prepared to give smaller videos to people who like to digest smaller amounts of content in one bite, if you like. **Viv Brownrigg:** And a little tip, if you’re presenting at a webinar that gives you this opportunity, notice where a natural segment might start and end in the webinar, make sure there’s a nice placeholder slide there, so there’s a nice natural beginning and ending, and as a presenter, just pause for a few seconds there, because when somebody comes to edit that video and cut it into three, it’s not going to finish abruptly, it’s all going to be quite elegant. So you can turn a webinar recording into three parts, or what you could do for future marketing is take some highlights out of the recording and use that as a one minute video or a 30 second video to promote the webinar next time you want to run it. Now, most of us really only have a stock of 10, 15, maybe less webinars that’s evergreen type of content that we’re recycling month in, month out. Sure, we have our dynamic webinars that we may not be able to use again and repurpose, but most of our webinars are evergreen. **Viv Brownrigg:** So you’ve got the opportunity to create a highlight reel, so you can promote that same webinar when you run it in the future. Very importantly, because this is where you’re going to get additional views, it’s really important to load that recording, if you’ve got a resources page in your website, to load that recording to your resources page. Now, if you don’t have a resources page in your website, pretty easy to set one up, and make sure that you’re constantly turning over the recording so that your most recent webinar recording is at the top of your resources page, it’s the newest content. And make sure there’s a lead capture form there. So there’s your opportunity to capture new leads, bring them into your database, bring them into the fold. They’ll come to the next webinar. Four or five interactions later, they may become a client. And of course you’ve got to remember that a lot of the people visiting your website, 90% of the people visiting your website, unless you drive an existing customer to the website, most of the people coming to your website are leads, they’re not existing clients. **Viv Brownrigg:** Obviously, share the recording on your social channels. Instagram’s starting to make a little bit of a play in the accounting industry, great for videos. Some firms have set up channels on YouTube or Vimeo, and we’re starting to see a couple of firms create a podcast series. And so they’re just repurposing their webinar recordings, audio only, and perhaps looking at Spotify as a channel. We’ve got a couple of firms doing that right now. So there’s a tonne of ways that you can keep get that marketing asset continue to give you a marketing ROI in the months and even years to come. Let’s have a look at a couple of examples of that where people have turned these recording into real marketing assets. So here’s an Auckland firm, their business continuity plan. Webinar recording up on their website with a lead capture form. **Viv Brownrigg:** Here’s an example, John Skoll from Malloch McClean in Invercargill in New Zealand, and he’s done a recording on his smartphone. Little tip here, if you’re going to use your smartphone to do a recording, hold the phone up on landscape, and you won’t get these black edges, just to look a little bit more elegant. So John posted that in Facebook as a enticement to actually watch that recording. So this was after the webinar. Here’s Pink Pig Financials. They’ve got a channel on YouTube, so they’re posting up their videos there. And here’s one of the first firms to actually set up a podcast, and they’re setting up their webinar recordings in their podcast series, and they call it Two Drunk Accountants, which I think is an absolutely fantastic name for a podcast series. **Viv Brownrigg:** So some really innovative stuff starting to happen, and it’s actually becoming easier and easier to do it. Don’t get fancy about your webinar recordings, top and tail them. Take the dross at the beginning, how to use Zoom, whatever, out, and take any chit chat at the end out. It’s really easy to do, and you’ve trimmed your vide, and don’t spend hours pouring over trying to edit out ums and ahs. Nobody cares about that stuff, do they, Charles? **Charles Clark:** No. **Viv Brownrigg:** Okay. Now, I know there’s some questions there, so Charles, what questions do we have? **Charles Clark:** Great. So a good question came in, and so it’s what is the best day, best time to send out these, I suppose, invitation emails? **Viv Brownrigg:** Yeah. Good question. Okay. So long story short, Monday doesn’t seem to work very well, end of the week doesn’t seem to work very well either, Friday doesn’t seem to work. Tuesdays and Wednesdays for us… I don’t know want you think Charles, but Tuesdays and Wednesdays for us seem to work better, and we tend to send them out around 10:00-10:30 in the morning, according to each country’s time zone, the theory being that people are having their second cup of coffee, and you might just reach them at a down moment. Now, there’s a bit of art and science behind this. **Viv Brownrigg:** The reason why we don’t tend to send them towards the end of the week is because we think that an email’s got a tail or a life cycle of about three days in it, and you’ll get most of your hits from a marketing email in the first three days, you’ll get 80, 90% of them, and then it just trails off, so the tail, so it dies, it’s past its use by date. The only exception to the rule would be if you’ve got a particular sector of clients that you think it might be better to email them in the evening. So for example, if you’ve got farming clients, they’re not going to look at it during the day, they’re out on the farm. They might be doing the paperwork, catching up on their emails at night. It just depends on your clients, but Tuesday, Wednesdays in the morning. What do you reckon, Charles? **Charles Clark:** Yeah. No, look, I thoroughly agree. I think, as you say, if you send something end of the week, by the time Monday rolls around, it’s buried beneath 400 other emails, so you’ll miss out. So I think, yeah, exactly, Tuesday, Wednesday are definitely the best. Interesting question about podcasting. So repurposing for podcasting, is this to be streamed on big platforms like Apple? And I think you mentioned obviously Spotify, Viv. Are there costs involved? Do you have a subscription? I know that we’ve done this a couple of times, and we worked with a software… And the name escapes me, but basically that allowed us to convert video files to audio, and then we had an account with iTunes, and we uploaded it to that. So we actually created a channel on Apple iTunes. But I think you said your clients are doing it as well, Viv. **Viv Brownrigg:** Yeah. Yeah, Spotify. And by the way, most editing software, whether you’re using Camtasia or the Adobe Creative Suite, when you edit that video, you can convert it to audio only. So I haven’t done it myself personally, but I’m told, Jade tells me it’s really easy to do. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. Yeah. Actually, and that’s a good point. In terms of editing your videos, as Viv said, it doesn’t need to be anything special. One thing I would recommend in terms of the topping and tailing, if you do have a designer maybe on call, and you could get them just to create a five second intro and a five second outro, and it maybe would just have your brand comes up with your tagline, and then… So you can always just put that top and tail, and then you can put the video recording in the middle. That’s just a super, super easy way to neatly package up a video webinar. And then wherever you happen to start the video, it just always looks nice because you’ve put your brand and your messaging beforehand. **Viv Brownrigg:** And just on that very… I’m not finishing the webinar right now, please don’t go, but we always put a tailing slide on all of our webinars for that reason, Charles, and the webinar kits that we’ve got in The Gap portal, for that very reason, just to… Wherever you can make life easier for yourself when it comes to editing, the better. **Charles Clark:** No, great point. Another question, really good one is, how long should the presentation be? Do we have to keep it under 45 minutes? Can it be shorter? And I think Viv, we know it definitely can be shorter, depending on what your topic is. **Viv Brownrigg:** Depends on your audience, depends on your topic. And so, for example, we’re about to publish a couple of webinar kits on governance. One of those webinars is designed to be 25 minutes long. Because when you’ve finished what you need to say, you need to stop. So there’s no rule. There’s absolutely no rule of thumb here. What I will say is that people’s appetites for long webinars is diminishing, even in the accounting profession. Now, I’ve been doing webinars to the profession for 17 years in previous business lives before The Gap, and we used to do one and a half hour webinars, and then we turned them into 75 minute webinars, and now we’re into 60 minute webinars and sometimes 45 minute webinars. So we need to say it quicker, and we need to get to the point, and we need to let people be able to get on with their lives. So shorter is a little bit better. **Charles Clark:** And then, look, I’ll just go through the two last questions. So a general question, is it possible to get printer-friendly workbooks? So Ian, in the instructions on the title page of the workbook, there should be instructions on how to download it to your laptop or desktop, and from there, you should be able to print it out without too much difficulty. And then the last one was, if we create an e-book from The Gap and BOMA content, who has the copyright? I’m just wondering how it fits ongoing usage of the material. Well, that’s a very good question. **Viv Brownrigg:** Okay. So I can answer that from a Gap perspective. I was actually having to fix a couple of little tiny things in our licence agreement. I know our licence agreement a little off by heart. IP is a really interesting issue. If the content is substantially the same, then the IP resides with The Gap. However, your licence agreement makes it super clear that you are free and able to use that IP with your clients, because that’s the whole point of subscribing to The Gap, is that we do this for you and save you all that time and money. However, when you’re no longer a Gap firm, you can’t use that IP if it’s substantially similar to the IP that we licensed to you. Does that make sense, Charles, what I just said? **Charles Clark:** Yeah, it does. And I think from the BOMA’s perspective, where we have partnerships like with The Gap or Xero, there’s obviously specific licencing agreements there. And you’ll see when you’re in the BOMA product, we actually specify where you can use it. So in the actual piece of content, it’ll say you can use this in email, social, and sometimes it will also say you can use it on your website as well. Because as Viv said, if you’ve gone in there and completely changed things and made it your own, and almost no longer resembles what we had, then obviously that’s a different kettle of fish. And our content is obviously a little bit different from The Gap’s. It’s more, I suppose, informing, whereas The Gap’s is more, I suppose, business development, and so there’s more IP in there. **Viv Brownrigg:** Yeah. But we want to encourage you to repurpose the content because that’s why you subscribe to us. I guess any customer just has to respect intellectual property. We’ve put 70,000 hours into this content, we don’t want it to disappear into all sorts of places that it maybe shouldn’t be. But enough said on that. Look, before everyone disappears, just a reminder as you exit the webinar, there’s a simple exit survey there, which you can now do in Zoom, which is a relatively new thing. So there’s just four questions in there. Please give us the feedback. It’s super important to us. No more questions Charles before I wrap up? Just one? **Charles Clark:** No, that was it. Just back to Ian in terms of getting workbooks that don’t use up all the printer ink. Well, we’ve got the images in there just so you can obviously have the context with the slides and take notes, so I’m not exactly sure, maybe if you download them to your desktop and just type the notes in, and then just keep them digital maybe would be one way to save printer ink. And then just the very last one, just because it just came in, is how do you do a poll? So look, I can answer this from a Zoom perspective. Maybe Viv, you’ve got more insight on GoTo Webinar. So in Zoom when you set up a webinar, and you can go down, and there’s basically a set of… At the very bottom of the page, you’ve got the invitation branding and survey polls and a couple of other, I suppose, subheadings. **Charles Clark:** If you go into the polls, you can actually then create a poll and you basically design it up. So you ask the question, you choose whether it’s a multi-choice, a yes or a no, or you’re wanting sort of a short text answer, and you can create multiple questions. And then when you’re in the webinar, you can actually… There’s a little button, at least in Zoom, which says polling. If you click on the button, then you can decide when you want to launch the poll. And even better, you can see the results as they come in, and then if you want to, you can actually share those results to your viewers’ live, which is really, really interesting. And also, when you finish the webinar, you can actually download those poll results. So a really interesting way to get some more insight about what your audience are thinking and how they’re viewing a particular topic. **Viv Brownrigg:** And Charles, we will definitely be covering that. That’s a nice segue into next steps, because the second part in this three part series is Getting the Tech Right on Tuesday, 10th of November. That’ll be Cat and Jade from BOMA and The Gap. And we’ll be covering things like polls, including how to do instant poles using… So you can create word clouds using things like Mentimeter. So it’s a lot of engagement tools that you can use. You don’t want to overdo it, because you can actually end up getting yourself in a bit of a pickle and distracting people, but used wisely and sparingly, polls can work really, really well. So next steps guys. For those of you who aren’t doing webinars yet, get onto that road less travelled. It really works to capture leads and to really look after your clients and to get better engagement in business development services. **Viv Brownrigg:** So get thinking about your webinar rollout plan. Make sure you use The Gap webinar kits. We’re getting one or two out there a month at the moment, and the latest one is all about reclaiming your time. Make sure you get along to the next part in our three part series. The third part is all about presentation and engagement, and that’s the one I think that scares people the most. So guys, thank you so much for coming. Charles, thank you for being my co-presenter. I really enjoyed it. And thank you to BOMA, because our partnership is a really successful one and we are growing together, which is awesome. So thanks guys. Have a good rest of the day there in UK and France and Germany and wherever else you came from. It was lovely to talk to you this morning. Bye for now. **Charles Clark:** Brilliant. And thanks again for everyone. Have a great day. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Navigating Google Search Ads for Your Accounting or Bookkeeping Firm](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/navigating-google-search-ads-for-your-accounting-or-bookkeeping-firm/) **Published:** December 2, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA, is joined by Rachel Crocket, Regional Digital Sales Manger for NZME and expert in Google Search Ads. As one of only a few Google Premier Partners in NZ Rachel is superbly placed to discuss the latest insights and best practice to help you get the best ROI from your paid search investment. This 45 minute webinar is packed full of insight and useful advice and will be covering: - Consumers in 2020 and beyond - What are Google Ads and how do they work? - How do you choose what words to use? - Doing it yourself vs hiring a professional? - Digital + Traditional media integration **NB: You can also read a full transcript of this session below.** ## ‘Navigating Google Search Ads for your Accounting and Bookkeeping Firm’ Transcript **Charles Clark:** Hi everyone. And thanks so much for taking the time to join us today. Today, we’re talking about navigating Google Search Ads for your accounting or bookkeeping firm. So I’m really thrilled today to be joined by Rachel Crockett. Who’s Regional Digital Sales Manager at NZME and a pretty expert person to have on board. So welcome, Rachel, thanks for your time. So my name is Charles Clark. I’m the Marketing Director of BOMA. I will be moderating this. So what that means is that I’ll be letting Rachel do most of the talking, but I will be filling in your questions. We will have time at the end of the webinar for your questions. So please fire them in. You can do so far in the Q and A pane. I’ll keep a note of them. And then in the last sort of five, 10 minutes, we’ll go through them all at once. So anytime you think of a question, please do fire down. So just before I hand over to Rachel, I thought it would be useful to give you guys some feedback from what you told us of how you are using Google. And you see the first one here. It’s actually a 50/50 split between those who aren’t and maybe don’t have much intention to, although, you are here. So possibly you’re curious, 18% who are using, which is great. And hopefully you’ll get some great tips today on how to use it better. And then 32% of you who aren’t using it, but would like to start. So I’m sure Rachel is going to have a whole bunch of insight as to how you can get started on Google. So the other side of things I’ve thought to look at was, what are the challenges that people have with Google Search Ads? And you can see here, I’ve collated sort of about 20 of the most common ones that we had over 120 responses. And there are some quite funny ones on there, but basically what it seems to come down to is a lack of knowledge, a lack of expertise, uncertainty over R and I, how to do it well, or a fear of maybe doing it and then doing it badly and potentially either losing money or spending money recklessly. So lots and lots of feedback in there. Thank you so much for all of that. We’ve definitely, or Rachel’s definitely taken that on board and she’ll be talking to a lot of those challenges as we go through. But look for now, Rachel. I hand over to you and keep those questions coming as we go through and we’ll talk again at the end. **Rachel Crockett:** Cool. Awesome. Thanks everyone. So this is kind of just a bit of an overview of what I’m going to cover today. So, obviously, with Google, you could talk forever, talk for hours. There’s so many kinds of ways to go into it, but I suppose I just want to take you guys through, kind of how it all fits together. How actual Google Ads actually work and how you can use them. And then the kind of how it all fits with digital and traditional. And then perks of using professionals and whatnot. But as Charles said, chuck some questions on the Q and A, and we can answer them at the end. So I mean, the first thing to really think about is, it’s important to start with how Google fits into the holistic consumer journey. Over the years, consumer behaviour has changed a lot. And I think we can probably all agree the impact of COVID is not only just changed things in terms of working, but just changed how we kind of deal with everything in general. So if we all sit back and think about our own daily patterns, you might wake up, you’ll browse the news or Facebook. Might do a few Google searches throughout the day. You might listen to the radio on the way to your work, on your way home. Look up some directions on Maps and then possibly do some more searches during the day. So Google generally refers to this as what we call the messy middle. So it’s easily defined is what do we want all of the information, but when do we want it? We want it right now. So the way people make decisions these days, it’s messy and it’s only getting messier, but still there’s lots of things we already know about purchase behaviour. It’s not very straightforward. You don’t just kind of decide today, oh, I’m going to get a new accountant or something like that. There’s lots of complicated web touchpoints that differ from person to person, by product, by service, by location, everything like that. So the important part is for businesses and advertisers to have some understanding of those touch points and then kind of make sure that their brand is within those touch points. So an easy way to kind of talk about this is that Google did a study asking some people what’s a logical search journey when you’re buying a holiday. Not that many of us might be doing that now, but it’s what they did. So the results were pretty simple. You book your flights, you book your accommodation, book a rental car, then book in some activities. Seems logical, seems sort of how everyone would kind of do to book a holiday. What it actually looked like is this lovely kind of mess on page. I like to call it. It’s not so simple, instead, it’s a web of back and forth actions, over 259, what they call micro moments. So little instances, 15 different actual touch points like websites, everything like that. And it took over 12 weeks. So this is quite a similar process to any other high-priced products or services or things that might involve a bit of change in order to move. So you can kind of get the idea that it’s actually not just a think-of-it-and-do it kind of scenario. So what we do know about consumers today are that they’re very curious about information, but we’re also very demanding. We know we can get the information and we want it and we want high quality, but then chuck in the end that we’re also very impatient. We want that information and we want it now with good user experience, no one wants to click through to our website and have a terrible user experience. And then just leave. **Charles Clark:** Actually, just on that point, something that we’ve often talked about on our other webinars, especially digital marketing. We talk about the importance of your website. We talk about the importance of your social channels, of having good blogs, of sort of doing all these things that are going to give you a great online presence. So what Rachel’s really talking about here is that sort of Google is one part of that, but all those other elements are going to be part of the overall that decision making process. So if you haven’t seen any of our other webinars covering these things, you can go to the resources page on bomamarketing.com and you’ll see a whole range of webinars covering everything from social to digital, to website best practise. **Rachel Crockett:** Yeah, it’s a good point. It’s like going into a physical store, if you have a bad interaction, there’s a chance you may not come back. And digital is no different. If anything, it’s less personal, because there’s no one there in the front. Yeah. So what are Google Search Ads? You might have heard these called AdWords, all the same kind of thing. Generally, Google Ads is the platform. And within that, there’s lots of different types of advertising units. But relatively, today, we’re just going to talk about Google search because it’s the most common. So in a nutshell, you might have noticed that when you search for something, say like accountants near me, which you can see on the screen there. You served multiple results. All of these are clearly marked ads as well. On the right hand side, you got to see an example of the screenshot. These are paid for results by advertisers, below this we’ve then got the Google maps listing. And then generally below that there’s more of the organic search results, which are non-paid. So that’s more of your SEO kind of organic results. So how do they work? So there’s generally the three Rs with Google Reach, Relevance, and ROI. So if you take anything away from this today, those three Rs are definitely one of the main ones. So every time someone does a search for an individual thing on Google, the algorithm works its magic. No matter what the phrase or words are, in that split-second Google algorithm, goes through all the possible advertisers. Weeds out the ones that aren’t relevant and shows the searcher a number of ads that it deems to be the best match with that search query. The end users then served a number of ads deemed most relevant to what they search for. So relevancy really does come into it. If Google thinks that phrase isn’t relevant to that end user, it’s going to go well, no, that ad is not worth showing to that person. Let’s show them something that hopefully they will engage with better. **Charles Clark:** And can you just explain the phrase that they’re using? So that’s the need help with GST returns. That’s what a user types in to sort of- **Rachel Crockett:** Trigger… in the thing they are searching for. **Charles Clark:** Yep. So those keywords, or phrases, anything you type into that Google box. As you can see there, I couldn’t even spell when I was trying to do it, but Google kind of came back with a, do you mean this? And it will use that to kind of determine what it’s going to show me. And so the best part of Google Ads is the high reach. So you can put your company in front of your target audience exactly when they’re searching for what you want. So you have that control over what things you want to show for, but also things you don’t want to show for. And I’ll talk about that a little bit more in detail soon. So as I talked about the relevancy, so again, it’s just going to show exactly what you’re kind of looking for. But lastly, that ROI figure is so important because if the end user doesn’t click on your ad, you don’t pay for anything. So you only pay when someone clicks on it. This is because Google Ads is known as what’s called Cost Per Click or CPC, so there’s always this jargon in there. But it just means that, again, you only pay when someone actually physically clicks on that ad. So now I know what you probably a lot of you are thinking, how much will that click cost? It’s quite a hard question to answer, to be honest, but basically it comes down to various different factors, including things like the actual keywords themselves. What regional area you’re targeting, whether it’s Auckland central versus a remote city or something like that. Your campaign budget, what your competitors are doing, what landing pages you’re sending them to. And many, many more things like that. That’s just where the campaign manager like myself at the other end, works with all of these factors to help you guys determine what is the best kind of keywords and stuff for me. So I know what you’re all thinking. It’s how does Google know what’s relevant to me and my end user? So basically what happens is with the ads that you served. Google uses, machine learning and millions and millions of data points across all its networks. So actually billions. So this machine learning is really taking on board, all interactions that happen online. So everything you do, whether you’re logged onto your Google account, especially, all comes back to Google. So they can kind of put you in different buckets, based on what you’re interested in or what you’re searching for. So that’s- **Charles Clark:** So that might be things like searching for newspaper articles on social media. You might be looking at videos. All your online behaviours, that’s what that means? **Rachel Crockett:** Yeah. Yep. Every interaction you have online, Google kind of goes, well, we think because you’ve done X, Y, Z. You potentially in market for a new car, for example. Maybe I’ve been looking at lots of cars, reading reviews, all that type of thing, and tracking with ads, boom kind of puts it together from that. So that’s where we really talk about that messy, middle. It’s all those things that you do online. So Google campaigns will also adjust according to things like goals that you set in the campaign. So do you want as much traffic through to the website, as many clicks as possible? Do you just want to show as often as you can? Or do you want as many leads, so maybe phone calls or form submissions or something like that? A good campaign will be linked to your Google Analytics for your website. And then from there we can set up any goals that are kind of a joint venture between the client and the campaign manager to agree on what those are. And then those can be pulled across to the Google ad account so that Google can then say, okay, we want more of this type of activity. Let’s drive for people who are going to be more likely to do that. And again, that’s just where that machine learning comes in. Google’s fantastic. I mean, I’m not paid to say that or anything, but Google is fantastic, but it sees copy, not images. So it’s really just using all those words and putting them together in context. So that’s just where things like human interaction from a campaign manager helps with that success of a campaign, because we can read into that context and help weed it out a little bit more. Yeah. That something is, it’s really just that machine learning and kind of taking on board, everything that’s going on. That still doesn’t mean it’s easy to get keywords and stuff like that. So let’s move into that. So in terms of a campaign, it’s very easy to set one up on your own, just chuck in some phrases, a little bit of ad copy and some budget and let Google do its thing. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t work when it’s just a set and forget. That’s when you end up wasting budget, overspending budget, and just kind of letting it do its own thing. It just won’t work till its full potential. And that’s potentially why some people think maybe Google doesn’t work for them because it hasn’t in the past. So the one thing I always say is a campaign is only as good as the information put into it. So you’re putting in rubbish, it’s going to spit out rubbish and wasted budget at the other end. So by having things like a proper structure and kind of proper goals and everything like that. The campaign will really optimise towards what we are putting into it. So that on the other end, it can spit out for you those quality leads, hopefully, and a strong ROI. And really just have that high converting campaign with less wastage. **Charles Clark:** And so when one sets up a campaign and you put in the initial keywords and the structure. From your perspective, as you say, so, you would let it run for a period of time, and then you would go back in, and then what? Would you be reviewing it? Or how often does one need to be in there, sort of looking at the performance and sort of thinking about how would we improve it? **Rachel Crockett:** Yeah, that’s a good question. I mean, a lot of people will think you can just set up a campaign. Next day everything’s going to be sweet. You’re going to get all these leads rolling. But we always really say the longer a campaign runs and the more actual data it gets, that machine’s going to learn and kind of work faster for you and learn more about it. So the longer it runs, the better kind of the results will be as well. So we always say a minimum campaign length for search is your three months. In that three months, you learn so much about what’s happening. What’s working at that particular client in that area, everything like that, it’s really that kind of three month learning period. **Charles Clark:** And some of the feedback that we had from people attending today. We asked, how much are you spending per month? And some said, look, anywhere from 50 bucks a month. A couple 100s, then we had a few sort of over a 1000. Is there any rule of thumb in your mind as just sort of under this amount is just too little to sort of really get the benefit, or is it sort of just depends on what keywords you’re chasing and how much competition there is. **Rachel Crockett:** Really comes down to keywords and competition. I mean, if you’ve got an accounting firm that has 20 different service ranges. You’ve got things like rural, commercial, personal, tax, GST, all these different things. That’s going to be spreading it quite thin. You’re almost spreading the budget way too thin. Whereas if you are just focusing on a couple of niche areas that you want to focus on, that’s going to work harder for you. **Charles Clark:** So I suppose in that case, you then need to be clear on, as you said earlier, goals. But also, what services, what products do you want to then put yourself in front of? Say you only had, say, 200 bucks a month, which is a decent amount of money. You say, okay, well, I think with that, we are going to try for three or four things to rank for, because anything less to your point, it would be too thin. **Rachel Crockett:** Yeah. Yeah. It’s really about honing in, also knowing what you don’t want to search for as well. I’ll talk about that in a minute. Everyone knows they want leads and it’s like, that’s cool. You want leads, you want these inquiries. What types of leads do you actually want? And it’s really kind of about working together in a partnership to figure out what exactly you want and then working back from there, going, okay, we’ll weed out traffic like that. And we’ll really hone in. Google is really great. The backend will say exactly kind of how much of the share of the market you’re capturing. What budgets, if you were to increase, this is the likely results and stuff like that. Starting somewhere is the best thing you can do, starting with something. **Charles Clark:** And what is share of market just for those of us who don’t know? **Rachel Crockett:** Yep. So that’s just kind of saying, it’s just a figure that, or metric that Google uses to say, of the keywords or the kind of wording that you’re targeting or the budget you’ve got on the location you’re targeting. That’s how much of the market, or how many of the searches you are capturing each day, basically. And it kind of just gives you a bit of a kind of market share analysis against competitors. **Charles Clark:** Okay. **Rachel Crockett:** Cool. Yeah. Leading on from keywords. So you can see here on the screen. There’s a couple of examples of just top. I think, it was just like 10 or 15 keywords. This is by far not as many keywords as there are. There’s a million trillion more. If we think about it on here, these are all exact spellings. So this has an account of any misspellings or anything. But you can even just see the difference between, almost five and a half thousand people a month on average in New Zealand search for accounting. Two and a half thousand, almost search for accountant. Same number of people searched for chartered accountant. And you start to see those different variations. Like I said, this is just kind of the tip of the iceberg in terms of keywords. And so I think, like I touched on earlier, consumers are demanding and impatient. So which means that our spelling and typing can be a little bit slack, especially if we’re in a hurry, we’re on our phones, for example. I’m sure many of us have gone to Google and our spelling has not been quite accurate, but you’ll notice that Google still because of its machine learning, tends to know what you’re all about. So what I tend to do was just say, think about how many different ways there are to search for a particular phrase, e.g. accountants, accountant, best accountant, accountants near me that specialise in X, Y, Z. So there’s just so many different ways. And then if we include misspellings and synonyms, there’s just no way to capture absolutely every phrase. Like I said, Google accounts, all of this. But there’s some tips and tricks in the platform to help you refine and hone in on exactly what you want. So, for example, if you don’t want to focus your spend on commercial or business accounting, that’s fine. There’s ways we can kind of work together to weed that traffic out. So my recommendation is generally to start with a mixture of quite generic searches, but also have a few tighter ones in there. So one’s around like accountant near me, best local accountant, et cetera, et cetera. And then if you’ve got a specific category like personal accounting or small business accounting or something like that you want to focus on, keep those a bit niche as well. What’s really important is to put yourself in the mind of someone who’s actually searching for you. What would they be searching for? You kind of thinking what they want. And so I always just say, think like an average Joe, if I was searching and didn’t exactly know what I wanted or needed, what would I search for? So sometimes even just asking around your receptionist or anything like that, in terms of what questions are being asked or how people describe things is kind of the best place to start. Sometimes excluding internal industry jargon, even though you as a business owner might think, well, that’s what people would search for. You’ve really got to flip it on its head and go, what would the end user, what does my ideal customer search for? Some of them maybe on that really niche, exact jargon. A lot of them will probably just search for an accountant. I need an accountant, that kind of thing. The best piece of advice here is to just kind of put yourself in the end user’s shoes. Companies like myself, NZME, we run a lot of different kinds of campaigns. So you start to know what the kind of trends are and whatnot. For ages, the trend was near me. Everyone wanted to know near me, open now. They were the kind of searches. Flashback a few months ago, spikes for delivery or online. Those kinds of searches were definitely spiking. So just keeping in mind different trends like that as well. But again, Google does kind of account for all of that type of stuff. How does it all fit into the consumer journey? So gone are the days we used to pick up your lovely old phone book to find a company. Instead, generally your phone books are at your fingertips. It’s not very often that everyone’s away from technology, so it’s generally right there for you. One simple search can lead you to exactly what you wanted to know. Whether you search the company name or a broader phrase or category, you can be found and you can be in front of your client base. So having this digital presence has really become quite a vital part of every marketing campaign. If you can’t be found online very easily, chances are your competitors are and your competitors will win against you. So research shows that around 50% of people turn to their smartphones for immediate information or advice when triggered with that kind of need or unexpected problem or situation, or even if they’re just starting to research. So Google and the web in general is really used to educate consumers on where they should start and what they need and to try and help them guide them through that process. And that’s really where Google Search Ads can come in and, hopefully help pull together a whole marketing campaign like we’ve talked about. So ensuring that someone who searches can actually find your business as well. Brand awareness, though, definitely has a strong tie with Google Ads, and users are more likely to click on a brand that they recognise and trust. So that’s why we definitely say there’s a strong correlation, a very strong correlation between Google search and more traditional mediums like radio and print. If you search for something and you read something that potentially mimics maybe your radio ad, or you have seen that brand in print or anywhere else. You are more likely going to click on it, because in your mind it’s going to register as you having heard of them before. And this is a nice little slide. I always like to use this tool. It’s a free tool. We can just kind of check what kind of volumes are of search and intent. So the red line is for lawyers. Blue line is for accountants. These are just generic kind of search terms. But what we can say is there’s all always peaks and drops. People are always going to be searching and there’s always interest. So it’s got the two different kinds of trends in there with a drop around Christmas, which is a natural kind of thing. Everyone’s shifting to more of a retail focus and same with kind of New Year. And then there’s a natural drop this year for lockdown. But otherwise I think the same take away from this is people are always searching for your kind of guys. They’re always searching. And that’s why Google ads, generally, even though we say it’s a minimum kind of three month learning period. Google Search is really always on type strategy. People are constantly searching day and night. So why wouldn’t you want to be where they are, where your audience is. So we talk a lot about kind of how it all fits together. But I think again, just put yourself in the mind of your target consumer. They’re unlikely to just consume one type of media. So you got to make sure that you are using the best tools out there to broaden your reach, grow your business, and achieve your business goals. Obviously, it’s quite hard to be everywhere and have the spend for absolutely everything. Like I talked about, it’s really about just honing in on what your key objective and your key goals are, and then identifying where your target market is and how you can best be in that moment with them. And digital marketing can definitely be enhanced when combined with traditional media. But likewise, traditional media campaigns should be shared and supported with your kind of social, digital, everything like that, just for optimise impact. Like I said, it’s not really likely, someone’s just going to see one TV ad and then go, cool. I’m sold. There’s probably so many different steps in that process, like that lovely messy mental graph at the start, that’s going to kind of spur them on. **Charles Clark:** And actually on that point. For you as an accountant, that might be that you see someone at an event, maybe it’s your local association event, or you meet them in a restaurant or bump into them at the cafe and then they come onto your website and then maybe they start following you on social media. All these things are really, really important and how it can work is you build up that relationship with them over time, even if it’s just online. And then when it comes to sort of searching during that sort of buying phase, like, right, I’m going to search for an accountant. And then your ad, maybe along with a couple of other people’s ads, comes up on Google search, but they recognise you because they’ve had all these interactions with you. They’re much more likely to then click on your ad, because, hey, they’ve met you. They’ve seen your videos, your websites, your webinar, your social media. As Rachel said, they’re really all intrinsically linked. And if you just have one and not any of the others, it’s much less efficient in making sure that it’s sort of a holistic perspective. **Rachel Crockett:** There’s been definitely lots of studies over the years. That search is the number one or radio. Sorry, is the number one driver of Google search, because it’s that kind of thing you are driving on your listening to something. For the second you can, hopefully, not when you’re driving. You’ll pick up your phone and do a search, whether it’s for that brand or that category, but they’re definitely linked together. So I’ve got a good little video. Hopefully, there’s some Tottenham Hotspur fans out there. Sorry, I couldn’t get an All Blacks video, but this one will have to do. It is relevant, trust me. It just kind of helps pull together the idea of all different parts of a marketing funnel are relevant. And there should be sound, but it doesn’t want to work, but you’ll get the idea. So basically every time one of the players touches the ball, their little face will light up down the bottom. **Charles Clark:** I think what it is representing is instead of the players, these could be different parts of your marketing funnels. So it could be that it’s your website, it’s your social, it’s an event you did. It’s bumping into someone at a cafe. It’s an email that you sent. It’s a phone call that you have. **Rachel Crockett:** All those touch points. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. **Rachel Crockett:** Come on guys. We really needed an All Blacks example for this. And they score. A round of cheers. Stop that there, we get the point from that. So would it be fair for the guy who scored to get a 100% of the team salary? No, it wouldn’t. So the whole idea with this. It’s the same kind of thing we’ve talked about for marketing channels. It’s really that whole sum of all the different parts and all those different user journeys that come together to get that end goal or that end lead. So I think sometimes, it’s quite hard to kind of put together how it all works together. But hopefully that little video kind of helps drive that in a little bit. **Charles Clark:** And there’s quite a few things that we’re talking about today that don’t cost any money. So if you are thinking of your social media, your website, having a few blogs. You own these assets. And so other than maybe a little bit of your time to keep them updated and put some content in them, they’re free. And then there are other things which cost a bit of money. So if you’re running some ads, be they in traditional radio or print or online in terms of Facebook or maybe Google. So it’s a big combination. And the great thing is, if your free or sort of owned assets are really strong and performing well, then when you do the paid ads, the paid activity. It will just make it much more efficient. **Rachel Crockett:** It all links together. So this is one of my favourite slides in this deck. So like a small child, it takes time to nurture a campaign. So you’ve got your campaign managers. You’ve got all the information, you’re kind of feeding into it. And the machine is really helping to nurture that baby and kind of get it optimised for what you want. And this is purely because it is actually a really technical skill that people like myself are trained in. Making sure to look out for specific things, knowing what kind of factors can influence and make changes and everything like that. And working together. I always kind of phrase it as you wouldn’t do your own plumbing or cut your own hair or build your own house. And I, for one, surely if I ran my own business, would not want to do my own accounting. And so you hire the professional that does that for you. So. **Charles Clark:** I was just going to say, in terms of the professionals, just a word on this. There are plenty of cowboys out there who maybe once upon a time have done a course or they used to work a while ago for an agency and they have sort of gone out on their own. And they might be based in New Zealand. You can do Google Ads from anywhere. So I know Rachel has a lot of clients in Australia. There are plenty of people in third countries who tempt people in a very cheap office. So they’ll say, oh, that looks great. I’m going to do your Google for you for a hundred bucks a month. Plus, the media costs. I’d just say, go in with your eyes open, because they’re not registered. You often don’t know what you’re getting. You’re basically giving them access to your Google analytics, your backend, and they can really do damage to your brand. And also financially in terms of wasting money. So NZME are Google Premier Partner. They’re only one of only a couple, in New Zealand. And you don’t get to kind of Premier Partner without Google placing a huge amount of trust in you. Plus they’re audited regularly. They get trained regularly. They’re all up in best practise. So just consider when you do hire a professional, there are different types of professionals. And if you are willing to invest money in Google ads, then make sure that you invest it with someone who knows what they’re doing and is going to give you a transparent and effective campaign. **Rachel Crockett:** Yeah. I always think about the Google kind of side of things as well. And the kind of relationship you have with the campaign manager, is to really think about them as a partnership or an extension of your own marketing or sales team. This really frees you up to kind of do what you do best, which is running your business and focusing on your own clients. Whereas, Google, can essentially be your 24/7 sales person. It’s working when you’re asleep, when people are still searching. As Charles touched on, so NZME are on of few Premier Google Partners in New Zealand who work strategically with Google Australia and New Zealand. There’s definitely different levels of partners. So there’s your blue badge. You can see the badge on the screen there. There’s the blue badge, which are pretty standard. They run a handful of campaigns. That’s pretty much it. They don’t get too much in the way of support. There’s then the red badge, which is the Premier Google Partner, which we are. We are kind of one tier up in that we work so strategically with Google Australia and New Zealand. It means that my team has kept to certain standards. We’ve managed certain volumes of accounts. We get specific training. It also means if there’s certain beta trials, as you know, digital likes to bring new things out every few days. If there’s a new beta of trials of products or anything like that, or something’s changing within the actual space. We’re kind of told about it first and had the opportunity to pass that on to our clients. For you guys, it just really means that you can trust the company that you’re working with, because if Google trusts them. Then you’re kind of in the right hands. So that’s just how we work. And we definitely work as more of a relationship kind of based. It’s your business. We just know the audiences and how to kind of work that algorithm. So, I mean, before we jump into questions. I just wanted to quickly just tap over, again, exactly what the kind of key conclusions or takeaways were. So definitely those three Rs, Reach, Relevance, and ROI. Relevance is the one main goal of everything Google for the end user and the advertiser to have the best experience possible. That’s kind of all it really wants. Like I said, what goes in will come out. So if rubbish goes in, the campaign at the other end is not going to churn out those leads that you want as well. **Charles Clark:** And so just on that relevance side, this is relevance in terms of things like the right keywords with the right ad copy, at the right landing page. Can you just take us through how those three, so the right keywords. Because they all have to link up to each other. Otherwise, the relevancy score goes down. **Rachel Crockett:** Exactly. So if I’m searching for something quite specific, say, I want a local rural accountant, who’s going to help me off my farm accounting or something like that. Ideally, I’m going to then be served an ad that talks about my company’s skills in rural accounting or farm taxation or anything like that. If I then choose that’s the company I want to click on, I will click on it and I’ll be taken to a landing page, which talks further about the skills. In Google’s eyes, that’s a really good customer experience. As a customer, that’s a really good experience. The bad thing would be to do is send them to just a generic home page or a generic contact page that has nothing about what I’ve actually searched for. So that’s just where identifying those kind of good match types and knowing exactly where to send people or just help that consumer journey as well. It may still be quite early on in my interest in my research. But again, it’s going to help me kind of learn more about your company and hopefully kind of put you in one of those decision making processes. Yeah. Yeah. And then, like we said, it is a technical skill, so just making sure of who you’re working with. And then lastly, your potential customers are there, so why aren’t you? **Charles Clark:** I think that’s a really good point. And as we saw in your feedback today, over 20% of you are already doing it and another sort of 18 or 30% are keen to do it. So that’s 50% of the accountants on today’s webinar are either doing it or want to be doing it. So, I mean, it is a little bit of a case of all digital. You need to be out there because your clients will be researching you online. The stats we’ve seen is that even if you get a word of mouth recommendation, 80% of people will go online to then make searches for you and they’ll look at your website, they’ll look at your social pages and all those elements. It is getting more competitive doing this, so if you are just starting now, or if you are wanting to make sure that your firm is going to be robust for years to come. You obviously need a pipeline of clients coming in. We have talked about other webinars wanting to grow purely from getting, I suppose, your current clients to sort of just spend more in areas that they didn’t know you had. I mean, there’s an argument to be said that you could be obviously advertising on Google your services. So specific things. So not just an accountant near me, but a tax specialist near me or someone who specialises in GSC or cashflow management. There are lots of things that you can advertise or put your name against that speak to specific services maybe that you want to highlight as well as yourself as an accountable bookkeeper. **Rachel Crockett:** Cool. Were there any questions? **Charles Clark:** Yep. So look, we’ve only got one question at the moment. So if you’ve got any more questions, please do keep them coming in. So this one was a really good one and it was, do you have any search data for Xero? And to me, this is sort of two parts, and one is, how would I find out the search data? And I think actually you can talk through the tools out there. And then also, if I was going out to sort of think about what keywords I should be ranking for, and Xero might be a classic one. If I was doing it, maybe, in house, I’m not using someone else. Because it’s not just someone searching for Xero. They might be searching for a couple of things. So Xero plus one or two other words. So can you talk a little bit about that? **Rachel Crockett:** Yeah. I showed a few screens with the kind of accountants trend graph. That was definitely one tool that we can send out, where you can kind of look at what kind of search volumes there are. There are other keyword planner tools within the Google ad platform itself. But what I would also be cautious of, and I say this to a lot of people when they want to example, use keywords that have competitor names or specific brand terms like Xero. Again, think about what that end user is searching it for. Yes, if it was a phrase like Xero accountant or accountant who knows Xero or something like. That would be a more tightly and relevantly aligned and worthwhile phrase for you. However, it could also be someone wanting to search for Xero for their own business or anything like that. So it’s really about trying to think, okay, why exactly do we want that branded term? What benefit is it going to add to my business and then kind of refining it based on that. And again, like I talked about, kind of focusing on, as well, what you don’t want out of it. It’s just as important as what kind of leads you do want. Just try to refine it that way. **Charles Clark:** So we’ve got a client in Keri-keri and we’ll sort of put in their terms and then we’ll see some other search ads from other local accountants. So that’s called sort of competitor bidding. So I’m a competitor and I’m going to bid on people who are searching for a particular accountant in Keri-keri. How does that work? And what do you think? Is it a good idea, bad idea. What are the pros and cons? **Rachel Crockett:** It really depends. Competitor bidding. It can do one of two things. It can perform really well for you, or it can waste your budget. It’s really kind of that polarising. I always just say again, if I’m searching for something by brand, it’s because I want that company. Generally, I’ve already kind of been sold on them or anything like that. There’s probably some different instances of indications where you can sway that person. But I think a lot of the time it’s really I’m searching for that brand, because I want it. Sometimes the thing is if they’ve got quite a generic brand name, for example, just small business accounting as a brand name. That is both someone’s brand name, but a user search query as well. So in that instance, that would be a bit more of a relevant query to focus on. It’s really, again, just thinking, is it a brand term or is it not. Google doesn’t know if it’s a brand term or not, but that’s where you’ve just got to refine it down. So really, just kind of thinking about it that way. A competitor strategy can work. I have seen it work. In some instances it could be more of a brand positioning strategy for yourself, if you’ve got a limited budget and you want specific leads. I would generally recommend if you’ve only got that specific budget focusing on those kinds of keywords rather than focusing your energy on trying to tap into someone else’s traffic. **Charles Clark:** And then we’ve put another question, which is what’s the best way to find keywords relevant to our area. And you mentioned earlier, there’s a couple of tools out there. One of them is the Google Keyword Planner. Are there any other ones that you’d recommend? **Rachel Crockett:** There’s probably lots of other free ones out there. I can definitely find some more links to them. But I think sometimes the best way to come up with keywords is just kind of looking at what your products are called or your services, for example, your service names. And also, talk to people who get your inbound queries. So your receptionist and stuff like that. Find out from them, what kind of words people are using when they’re describing what they want. So that’s really when you’re going to learn more about things. And that also kind of comes into it when you’ve got a campaign running as well, knowing what kind of inquiries are actually coming through at the other end. But there’s definitely lots of free tools out there just to kind of spit in different keywords. Sometimes it’s similar as using a thesaurus or something to get your action phrases, helps as well. But that’s where, your campaign manager, we have all those tools. It’s really up to the client to kind of give us the brief with what they want to kind of cover. And then we can come back saying, hey, this is what we’d recommend. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. I think one thing to note, it can take a huge amount of time, if you’re not familiar with this, to sort of do the research and then set it up and then optimise it. So yeah. So I’ve put one of the keyword planners in there. It’s a link. I think you’ll need a Google account to get in, like a Gmail account. If we think of some more, we’ll put them in the follow-up email, but yeah, just be mindful of how valuable is your time versus spending time on this, because it’s not like you come up with a keyword list and that’s your keyword list forever. It’s the idea that you start somewhere and then you test and evolve. So it’s a bit of an ongoing process and that’s where I think having a sort of an account manager doing this specifically for you can really optimise the investment in it. **Rachel Crockett:** Definitely. **Charles Clark:** So another question is, is there an optimal number of searches per month to look at when choosing keywords? So I think this one is if you saw like an example, that we had up before accountants, there are 5,000 searches per month. That’s obviously a great one to go, but say you were looking at a keyword and you said, okay, there are 50 searches per month, then how does one decide. Do you sort of look at things like how specific is it and how linked am I to that? If it was searches for an accountant in Kerry Kerry or Broome, or maybe 50 searches a month, that’s a great number. But if it was a different keyword, you might think, well, that’s not worth it. What are your thoughts? **Rachel Crockett:** Generally have a bit of a mixture of those really high top end, highly searched keywords, because that’s going to help your campaign get that traffic and get that traction that it needs to kind of start learning about it. But then starting to have some of those more niche phrases in there as well. Maybe ones that don’t have slightly lower search volume, but again, Google will still account for kind of misspellings and synonyms and stuff in there. But definitely, I take that approach, especially in the early days. Put in a mixture of high search volume and lower niche search volume phrases and yeah. Then let the machine do its thing for a while with some of those kind of campaign interactions and actually learn based on what results you get. Are you getting certain phone calls or certain web inquiries or any of those online actions from some of those more specific words. If that’s right, then that’s cool. You can pause and play around with some of those words to really start honing in and crafting a campaign that’s going to work for you. **Charles Clark:** And actually that gets back to your point to when you set it up to have the goals that you want to achieve, put into your Google analytics. Because Google, if you tell it to optimise to a specific goal, then it will make sure that it optimises to that goal. And so that goal, as Rachel said, might be people filling out a form on your site or downloading an ebook or something like that. You have to tell it what it should be aiming for. If you don’t give it something to aim for, it will just be doing- **Rachel Crockett:** It’ll run rogue. **Charles Clark:** Yeah, yeah. Exactly. And you’ll just waste money. **Rachel Crockett:** Yeah. **Charles Clark:** There’s another question here. So do we get better influence having Google My Business along with Google ad campaigns to get better results? So what do you think about Google My Business? Rachel Crockett: So the two, like any Google product’s, are always going to be designed to work with and each other. So Google Analytics, it’s really about Google Ads. Google My Business, definitely is important to have. It’s one of those fundamental kinds of things I think every business should have. What we can actually do as well is link that Google My Business listing to your Google Ad account. So that underneath the ad, you sometimes have little kind of snippets of coffee and stuff like that. But that means if I’m then searching from my phone and maybe I just want to ring you straight away. If I see your ad and you’ll link the Google My Business listing, I can actually just click the call. I can click straight from that Google ad to call you. I can click straight on that Google ad to find your opening hours or get directions to actually physically come and visit you. So definitely the importance of having the two of them together, because they merge and link so well. And, again, it’s another one of those kind of goals or conversions that you can work towards as well. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. Look, I’m about to get on with the last question. So we’ve got another minute, two, if anyone wants to fire them through. This one, so what is the approximate fee to have this managed? So Rachel, you can probably talk there to this, but what we’ve done with our partnership with NZME is basically create three different packages. And the idea here is that it gives you best aim for buck and the most effective use of sort of your investments. So, Rachel, do you want to quickly talk this through? **Rachel Crockett:** So there’s lots of different companies that do things in different ways. Some might have an upfront setup fee and then charge an hourly rate or something like that. What we do at NZME is we have a set management fee that is built in with all of your costs. So it varies depending on spend, but it’s generally around that kind of 30% mark is roughly where we place it. But that really means that even if we spend more time upfront doing the initial setup, it’s all kind of covered throughout the entire thing. You won’t be sprung with any extra additional bills. If Google tomorrow decides to bring out this new fun annual thing that needs to be applied to every single campaign, it means that, again, you’re not going to be sprung with an extra fee. It’s all covered. So it basically just covers all of our time from reporting back and setting everything up, those ongoing optimizations and everything. **Charles Clark:** And including that is a dashboard. One of the things, a lot of people won’t necessarily give you is live updates on how your campaigns are going. They like to sort of see how it’s going, maybe massage the figures a little bit. So NZME actually have a live client dashboard. So you can log in at any time of day or night and see exactly what’s happening, then get on the phone and have a chat about what you might be seeing and what you’d like to sort of question. **Rachel Crockett:** Transparency is key, as Google partners. It’s one of the things in our agreement with Google is to be fully transparent so that you as a client or as a customer of ours. You know how much you’ve spent and where your dollar has gone. Myself and my team are very transparent in the fact that something’s not working. We’ll come to you and say, hey, this isn’t working. How about X, Y, Z, we’re actually working with you because it is your business. And we are responsible for helping manage that dollar and getting you those leads. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. Well, brilliant. Thank you so much for your time everyone, and Rachel in particular. Super, super interesting. I just always am in awe of Google search. There’s so much that I just don’t know about it still. So really, really interesting to hear it from yourself. Everyone, thank you so much for all your time today. We’ll be sending out a recording of this webinar tomorrow. We’ll also send you out a bit more information about NZME Search Us campaign. There’ll be a little link in there and you can basically arrange to have a quick 15 minute chat with Rachel and her team. And you’ll see more information in there. I would really recommend it. We’ve been talking to you for quite a long time now about making sure your website’s up to scratch, your blog posts go in there, your social, all those other elements, your online webinars, and Q and A’s. Having good Google analytic. Sorry. Google search it’s just another great pillar in your sort of online acquisition strategy. So I really recommend you hit them up with that. **Rachel Crockett:** Cool. Thanks for having me bro. Enjoy your day. **Charles Clark:** We’ll see you next time, everyone. Thanks again. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [4 EOFY tips to give your clients (and your firm) a head start](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/tips-advice/4-eofy-tips-to-give-your-clients-and-your-firm-a-head-start/) **Published:** March 28, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **Set them up for success and watch your relationship grow** The end of the financial year (EOFY) is hectic for accountants, bookkeepers and clients alike. Still, it rolls around as sure as the sun rises and with a bit of planning, you can use this period to build client relationships as vehicles for growth and to further cement your position as a trusted advisor. Here’s how: ## **1. Help them get their paperwork in shape** Small businesses can find EOFY overwhelming and look to their accountants and bookkeepers to simplify the process and remove any unnecessary stress – that’s why they’ve hired you. From understanding their financial obligations to having confidence in their record-keeping, there are plenty of headaches that some timely advice can remove. This can be as simple as a generic EOFY checklist to ensure clients have their finances in order, or custom advice unique to their businesses. If you’re not sure what to include, source relevant information from: - Australia (FY 1 July – 30 June) – [Getting prepared for EOFY](https://business.gov.au/finance/accounting/end-of-financial-year) - New Zealand (FY 1 April – 31 March) – [Income tax for businesses and organisations](https://www.ird.govt.nz/income-tax/income-tax-for-businesses-and-organisations) - United Kingdom (FY 6 April – 5 April) – [Advice for business and self-employed](https://www.gov.uk/browse/business) ## **2. Ensure they’re up with relevant legislation and requirements** Each year, there’s a raft of legislative changes that your clients need to consider when filing their tax returns. They must understand if these will affect their businesses and, if so, to what degree. While you should be keeping them up to date with changes as they happen, it pays to remind them again as EOFY approaches. - For New Zealand businesses, this includes things like upcoming changes to the [minimum wage](https://www.employment.govt.nz/hours-and-wages/pay/minimum-wage/minimum-wage-rates/), any [COVID-19 wage subsidy](https://www.ird.govt.nz/updates/news-folder/wage-subsidy-and-leave-payments-tax-returns) scheme reporting requirement or changes to [sick leave entitlements](https://www.employment.govt.nz/about/news-and-updates/sick-leave-increasing-to-10-days-are-you-ready-for-the-change/#:~:text=The%20Holidays%20(Increasing%20Sick%20Leave,days%20of%20unused%20sick%20leave.). - Australian businesses need to be aware of mandatory use of [SuperStream](https://www.ato.gov.au/business/super-for-employers/paying-super-contributions/how-to-pay-super/superstream-for-employers/?=redirected_SuperStreamforEmployers), changes to the [National Minimum Wage](https://www.fairwork.gov.au/pay-and-wages/minimum-wages), changes to reporting of [closely held payees](https://www.ato.gov.au/business/single-touch-payroll/concessional-reporting/closely-held-payees/#:~:text=reported%20through%20STP-,Making%20a%20finalisation%20declaration%20for%20closely%20held%20payees,length%20employees%20by%2014%20July.) and [COVID-19 support measures](https://www.ato.gov.au/General/COVID-19/Support-for-businesses-and-employers/). - Businesses in the UK should be prepared for a whole host of changes off the back of [Brexit](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/brexit-guidance-for-businesses) and reforms to things like the [National Minimum Wage](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-national-minimum-wage-in-2021), [Making Tax Digital for VAT changes](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/making-tax-digital/overview-of-making-tax-digital) and the [VAT domestic reverse charge for building and construction services](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-domestic-reverse-charge-for-building-and-construction-services). ## **3. Assist them to plan for the financial year ahead** EOFY is a great time to find out where you can add value when your clients plan for the year ahead. Think about how your firm can: - **Give added value** – are there any insights you can draw from reviewing their customer data? Can you spot opportunities for the new financial year that they may not have noticed? Can you help them set financial goals and offer them tools to measure their success? - **Help them streamline internal processes** – evaluate the processes your clients are using – are there ways they could improve? Simple automations built into most cloud technology and apps could benefit your clients and make EOFY tasks easier. ## **4. Communicate with them in the right way** Are you still posting reminder letters to your clients to book in for their tax returns? While any reminder is better than no reminder, scheduling emails is a far more effective and efficient way to connect. On top of that, it’s a great idea to follow up with a good old-fashioned phone call – it adds that personal touch. By planning for EOFY, you’ll be ready with the right advice at the right time, rather than scrambling during an already busy period. ## **Give your clients a head start and watch your relationships grow** As EOFY approaches, it’s all about making the process easy for your clients. By offering timely advice, you’ll relieve that sinking feeling many clients feel at EOFY and build your position as a trusted advisor (and your firm’s reputation) at the same time. *With all the content, templates, scheduling tools and analytics on hand, BOMA has everything you need to simplify a successful email marketing strategy for EOFY and beyond. [**Find out how**](https://calendly.com/bomamarketing/walkthrough).* **Categories:** Tips & Advice --- ### [Build your firm’s email marketing database and reap the rewards](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/email-marketing/build-your-firms-email-marketing-database-and-reap-the-rewards/) **Published:** March 18, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **7 easy steps to attract and retain subscribers** Email marketing helps [build a loyal customer base](https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.471.2409&rep=rep1&type=pdf) – it’s a place where accountants and bookkeepers can share your firm’s story, build trust and promote new (and old) services. It’s also a great way to remind existing clients why they’re fans of your firm and nudge prospective clients in the right direction. But if you’re starting your mailing list from a base of zero, creating a substantial email database can feel impossible. While it does take time to grow your mailing list, it’s not difficult to achieve. Here’s how to get started: ## **Get building** While it can be tempting to cast the net wide and focus purely on getting your numbers up, being strategic and attracting the right clients to your mailing list will pay off over time. [Your goal is to cultivate a loyal subscriber base of long-term clients](https://bomamarketing.com/2022/02/24/know-your-target-audience-clients-will-follow/). **Get started by:** 1. **Using your existing network** – if you’ve got a following on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, use these as platforms to pitch your email newsletter. You can even include the option to subscribe in your email signature. These connections are already interested in your firm, making them perfect mailing list candidates. 2. **Making sign-up simple** – [place buttons in prominent locations on your website ](https://bomamarketing.com/2021/07/01/the-art-of-developing-an-effective-website-for-accountants-bookkeepers/)and emails so they can’t be missed. Often calls to sign up for newsletters are an afterthought to fill space at the bottom of the page. Putting these front and centre encourages action. 3. **Enticing them with value** – with as many as [87% of marketers using email marketing](https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2021/03/experts-thoughts-email-marketing/), competition to land in your client’s inbox is fierce. For this reason, it’s crucial to include a call to action (CTA) that makes it clear what value your clients will gain from providing their email addresses. This can range from promotional offers to exclusive content like guides and whitepapers. 4. **Making the most of networking opportunities** – recently attended an event and met prospective clients? Follow up by connecting with them on your firm’s social media channels, where they’ll be invited to sign up to your mailing list. 5. **Focusing on quality content** – if you [provide your subscribers with valuable, quality content](https://bomamarketing.com/2020/09/23/the-ultimate-guide-to-blog-writing-for-your-accounting-website/), they’re more likely to share it with friends or colleagues and, in turn, drive sign-ups for your firm. 6. **Maximising sign-ups on your firm’s website** – [the ‘About Us’ page on your website has some serious conversion potential](https://bomamarketing.com/2021/07/01/the-art-of-developing-an-effective-website-for-accountants-bookkeepers/)**.** Prospective clients wind up there because they want to know more about your firm before engaging – exactly what they can gain from signing up to your emailing list. 7. **Using the right language** – to optimise sign-ups across any of your marketing channels, as mentioned above, outlining the value you’re offering upfront is key. However, the language you use to describe this value also plays a crucial role. Terms like “Exclusive”, “Free Tips” or “Get it Now” are much more effective at inciting action than simply asking someone to sign up. ## **Separating the engaged subscriber from the unengaged** An extensive subscriber list of unengaged contacts is fairly worthless – you want people who are genuinely interested in your content and value communication from your firm landing in their inboxes. So how do you separate the good from the not so good? 1. **Get consent** – ensure only consenting recipients (i.e. clients who have opted-in or signed up to receive communication) are added to your emailing list. 2. **Make unsubscribing easy** – every communication should include the option for recipients to unsubscribe easily. 3. **Don’t mislead** – deliver on the promised value used to entice sign-up, and ensure your subject lines match the content you’re delivering. 4. **Be transparent** – marketing emails need to clearly include your company details and a genuine reply email address. 5. **Don’t buy database lists** – this is a sure-fire way to gain an email list of unengaged subscribers. Often these people haven’t consented to their details being shared and sending them marketing emails can damage your firm’s reputation. ## **Once established, your list needs nurturing** Email marketing continues to reign supreme. It’s [the number one channel for generating a return on investment (ROI) for marketers, with every $1 spent generating an ROI of $42](https://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2020/10/26/email-marketing-still-the-most-powerful-tool-to-take-your-business-to-the-next-level/?sh=6212b68d34bf). And while it takes time and a little effort to establish a valuable email database, the long-term benefits are undeniable. Once you’ve built your list, the work doesn’t end there. Subscribers need [constant nurturing with fresh, topical content to keep them engaged](https://bomamarketing.com/2022/01/24/why-accountants-and-bookkeepers-should-embrace-education-marketing/) – that way, your firm will maintain a position in their inboxes for years to come. *Let BOMA do the heavy lifting. We’ve got the templates, scheduling tools, content, and analytics to make a successful email marketing strategy simple.* [*Find out how.*](https://bomamarketing.com/) **Categories:** Email Marketing --- ### [Are Your Firm's Website’s Landing Pages Letting You Down?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/website/are-your-websites-landing-pages-letting-you-down/) **Published:** September 17, 2019 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** If you are an accountant or bookkeeper and are spending marketing budget to advertise on search engines and on social media, but not seeing any results, it may be your firm’s landing pages. Landing pages are the place on your website where your prospect ends up when they click on your advert, email or social post. If they got this far then they’ve obviously shown enough interest to find out more about you. So now’s your chance to persuade them to take the next step. **Clicks don’t always mean sales** If you have lots of clicks on your ad or post but no inquiries, purchases, or other conversions, you’ll have nothing to show for your precious marketing budget (not to mention your time). So it’s worth analysing the return on your investment by looking at your cost per acquisition or CPA. The cost per acquisition is how much it costs to convert one person from a visitor to a client for your business. If your CPA is high, you’ll want to find ways to improve it. Start by looking at your landing page. Your landing page needs to convert prospects into customers and clients. (Note, they don’t need to be solely for sales – your landing page might be a newsletter sign-up, a meeting request or an event registration). Make sure you are doing everything you can to encourage your visitors to take the next step – whether it is buying or booking a meeting time! Here are some ideas: 1. **What’s in it for them?** – Think about the one key benefit from your customers’ point of view and focus on that. It should be the first thing they see. This is your chance to explain the problem you solve for them in a compelling way. 2. **What are you actually offering?** – Describe your offer clearly and include any features and benefits that make you the obvious choice. 3. **What do you want them to do?** – Have you got a strong call to action (CTA) and strong reasons for taking that action? Choose a call to action that is motivating and ensures your prospects are clear on what to do next. For example, if you want people to sign up for a newsletter your CTA could be a ‘Subscribe to our Newsletter’ but you are likely to catch more attention with ‘Keep me Informed with the Latest Business Advice’. 4. **Keep it simple and consistent** – Is the message on your landing page consistent with the ad or post? For example, if your ad offers a ‘Free Business Health Check’, your landing page should provide the details on what’s involved and an easy way to sign-up and book a time. 5. **Beautiful design** – Using images that are relevant to your message will increase attention levels. If you are able to, use photographs of real people, as they will be more credible than stock imagery. 6. **Does your landing page (and website) work on mobile?** – Since 2015 more people now search via their mobile than on a desktop computer. If your site is not loading quickly and properly on these devices you could be losing valuable visitors. Give them the best experience by ensuring your site is mobile responsive. [You can read more on this here. ](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/04/22/if-your-website-doesnt-work-on-mobile-prepare-to-lose-customers/) 7. **Place your call to action throughout your website** – If your prospect ends up clicking through to other pages within your website to find out more, [give them the ability to take action on those pages too. ](https://bomamarketing.com/2021/07/01/the-art-of-developing-an-effective-website-for-accountants-bookkeepers/) 8. **Think about who you are talking to** – Be consistent. If your ad, or post is targeting a specific group of people, such as home-owners in your local area, your landing page should be designed to address their specific needs too. If they end up on a page that doesn’t relate to the message that they clicked on, you risk losing them. Sometimes, it’s the simple things that can make all the difference. Put yourself in your prospects’ shoes and review the journey they take to becoming a client. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is the marketing tool for Accountants and Bookkeepers. BOMA gives you expertly written ready-to-share content and free images so you can create emails, social posts and blog posts in minutes. Create lead forms to capture new leads and run social advertising to promote your firm to new audiences. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Website --- ### [7 clever hacks to boost social media engagement](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/seven-social-media-hacks-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers/) **Published:** February 9, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **Get more value from your firm’s social media presence** Your social media business pages are up and running, you’re posting regularly, you’re creating great content – but the comments, likes and shares you expected aren’t rolling in, nor are the new clients. Are you doing something wrong, or do you simply need to do things differently? As with other businesses, the key to successful social media for accountants and bookkeepers is all about user engagement. Here’s how to draw people in and give your social presence a boost. ## **A one-sided conversation won’t cut it** Have you ever had a one-sided conversation and loved it? Probably not. It’s crucial to remember that social marketing isn’t just scheduling a post and moving on. When a potential client interacts with, replies or comments on your posts, it’s essential to respond – promptly. According to [this study](https://clutch.co/pr-firms/resources/how-social-media-transforming-pr-consumer-business-relationship), more than 80% of social media users expect companies to respond within a day or less, and this expectation climbs to 90% for millennials (in fact, 40% of millennials expect a response within the hour!) What’s more, research shows that [over 70% of customers](https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/social-media-customer-service/#:~:text=If%20you%20give%20a%20positive,to%20them%20through%20social%20media.) will recommend a brand that responds quickly to their enquiries on social media. Not only does responsiveness show that you are genuinely interested in clients, but it is also one of the easiest ways to improve engagement levels – by starting a conversation. Our best responsiveness tip: prove to your followers that you’re not a bot by addressing them by name when you respond to comments. Even [McDonald’s](https://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/how-mcdonalds-wins-social-ranking-number-one) takes the time to do that! ## **Get engaged – with questions, that is** Following the importance of starting a conversation, including questions in your posts is a great marketing tool. When people read questions, their minds naturally begin to answer them, creating an inner dialogue that is much more difficult to ignore than reading a statement. You can also use questions to nudge people toward making contact. For example, “Started a small business and confused about your tax obligations? We can help you navigate your requirements – get in touch today.” While not every post should contain a question, pepper them through your feed and you’ll notice a lift in engagement. ## **Sneak into their subconscious via groups** If you’re struggling to get your following off the ground, joining relevant groups and forums is a fantastic tool to generate awareness amongst your target clients. There are numerous virtual communities for accounting and bookkeeping on social media. It pays to identify any groups where you can add value – for instance, a small business support group. The key to success within groups is to focus on talking about topics, rather than shilling your brand. Since you’ll be posting from your business page, there’s no need for further self-promotion (which can also be against group rules). Followers of the group will soon become familiar with your business name and associate it with expert advice – so next time they have an accounting issue, guess who will spring to mind? ## **Borrow influence** Social media influencers are a relatively recent addition to the marketing arsenal but have [proven to be worth their weight in gold](https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/20-influencer-marketing-statistics-that-will-surprise-you) when used correctly. Choosing the right influencer is just as important as what they post, as you’ll want someone who aligns with your firm’s values and personality, and is a natural fit for the topic at hand. How does it work? By having a person outside of your firm promoting your business, you extend your reach beyond your immediate network and potentially gain followers. If you choose the right person, you can also build credibility by aligning your brand with a trusted, familiar face. Note – each influencer has unique expectations. While some may be happy to talk about your firm at no cost, offering something in return such as a discounted or free service makes them feel like they are in a win-win partnership. Well-established influencers with large followings often work via agencies and charge fees for their services. ## **Embrace the power of visuals** Humans are visual creatures – and that extends to social media. Scrolling through a purely text-based social feed would be a dull experience, as the eye looks for photos, images and anything that stands out. That’s why including visuals alongside your content gives it a better chance of being read, liked/favourited, commented on and shared than a text-only post. And there are some staggering stats to back that up – according to research, [posts with relevant images get up to 94% more views than those without](https://www.quicksprout.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-creating-visually-appealing-content/). So, if you can find a stock photo, take some product shots, use an existing GIF or create a video, it’s a sure-fire way to get your social channels working harder. ## **Timing is everything** Despite what you might think, social media users aren’t online ALL of the time. If you happen to schedule a post when your followers are offline, it could get lost in the social media shuffle. There’s no magic formula for when to post – as it does vary across different social media channels and what sort of schedule your clients (or prospective clients) work to – but getting it right can make a big difference. The best way to get a handle on the perfect time to post is a combination of trial and error and referring to [one of the many studies available online](https://research.com/tutorials/the-best-times-to-post-on-social-media). With trial and error, try and narrow it down by considering who you are targeting and when they are likely to be on social media – for instance, are small business owners more likely to be checking socials first thing in the morning or the evening? Are you targeting 9-5ers who check social on their lunch breaks or on Friday at 3 pm? ## **Understanding and using hashtags** Often neglected by social media newbies, hashtags can have a big impact on your firm’s reach and engagement levels, depending on how you use them. So how do they work? Hashtags serve as an indicator (for both social media users and algorithms) that your piece of content relates to a specific topic or category. It makes your content easily searchable on the platform and essentially helps you reach people outside of your existing followers. Tools like [HashtagsforLikes](https://www.hashtagsforlikes.co/) are a great way to find trending hashtags relevant to your firm that you might be able to jump on. Just don’t overdo it. Some examples of relevant hashtags include #smallbusiness #smb #accountants [\#XeroCertified](https://twitter.com/hashtag/XeroCertified?src=hashtag_click) and make sure to have one for your business. ## **Remember, a social media presence is only part of the picture** Promoting your brand through social media is vital, but to feel the benefits, you need to drive engagement and extend your reach beyond your followers. There’s no foolproof formula for success, but implementing these simple hacks is a great place to start. ***Watch our webinar on Social Media 101 for Accountants and Bookkeepers*** [***here***](https://bomamarketing.com/2020/09/10/how-to-market-your-accounting-bookkeeping-firm-on-social-media-101/)***.*** **Categories:** Social Media --- ### [Connecting with clients through highly relevant content - Compass Business Partners](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/user-success-stories/connecting-with-clients-through-highly-relevant-content-compass-business-partners/) **Published:** March 4, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Accountants are sometimes seen as being focused only on financial statements and tax returns, but what most people want is an accountant who understands their business – and can help them perform better. It’s an ethos that Compass Business Partners have stood by since rebranding in April 2013. Five years later, the firm expanded its team by merging with another local firm, bringing additional experience and depth to its rural accounting and business advisory capabilities. Today, the firm is a one-stop shop for all its clients’ business needs. They liaise with all key stakeholders (think solicitor, financial planner, banker), to ensure their client’s business and life goals are realised. **Short on time, lacking measurable results** The firm has a long-standing reputation for its commitment to clients, and this often means there’s little time left to spend on things like marketing. “We like to spend as little as we can on marketing,” says Compass BP Partner Tanya Flett. “It’s more about brand awareness and getting our name out in the community, rather than results-driven marketing. We’re trying a change of focus on how we market this year – being more specific with our clients.” But there was a problem. The firm was spending too much time on creating content to share with clients, and in the world of business, time is money. “BOMA has solved the time factor that I had to put into writing those articles. Even if we draft it and outsource it to make it look pretty, we were still having to go through and edit it again. BOMA creates all the content for us – all I have to do is make it look pretty.” ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/tanya-photo-225x300.jpeg) **BOMA exceeds expectations** Tanya was invited to a Gap webinar where BOMA was being demonstrated. Straight away, it was right up her alley and as a company that embraces technology she took the opportunity to “have a play and see what the results were.” “I went in to do a Facebook post and it was so easy and efficient – and we were paying marketers a lot to do that.” It exceeded her expectations – and Tanya admits that doesn’t happen often. “Sometimes, when something is waved at me I think, ‘This is amazing’, but then it doesn’t live up to the expectations I was hoping for. But with BOMA, especially given the current situation with COVID, the content they had was great.” **Getting to know clients better using premium BOMA integrations** BOMA allows you to achieve professional, branded client communications without having to rely on internal time, resource or inspiration to make it happen. Combine that with a content integration with partners like [The Gap](https://bomamarketing.com/gap/) and[ Wolters Kluwer CCH](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-wolters-kluwer-cch/), and you’ve got curated and insightful content that you can quickly and seamlessly share with your clients. What’s more, as Tanya points out, BOMA not only makes sharing content easier, but it also helps you narrow in on what your clients find most engaging – so you can give them more of what they want. “I’ve done a lot of different things like changing images. It’s quite interesting to see what grabs people’s attention, and it’s often a cute wee kid rather than a picture of money.” The platform also gives the Compass BP team more confidence in their marketing and communication activity. “The statistics BOMA offers – who has visited our website and clicked on what – are really great. Often, the other partners would ask what we’d got back from the money we had spent, and most of the time it was nothing. “Now I can say we’ve got this many more Facebook followers or we’ve seen this much engagement from the newsletter.” **More control leads to better engagement** On top of the time saved, Tanya says they have “more control over the whole process.” She has any newsletter replies coming directly to her, and because she’s spending fewer hours crafting content, she can put aside time to respond. The result? More engaged, happy clients! Overall, she says, the platform is very user-friendly and once you figure out where everything is, “it’s straightforward”. For the Compass BP team, that’s the cherry on top, and means it can get back to doing what it does best – getting to know clients, their businesses, and what they’re trying to achieve. **Compass BP + BOMA: sharing the best content** - Less time spent creating content, more time engaging in meaningful conversations with clients - Digital marketing platform: content can easily be customised to be on-brand - Visibility of reporting gives partners confidence their content marketing strategy is working. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for accountants and bookkeepers to communicate and support clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and millions of free images so you can create emails, social posts and blogs posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA for marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Success Stories --- ### [Steeped in Tradition, Focussed on the Future - Tester Porter](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/user-success-stories/tester-porter-steeped-in-tradition-focused-on-the-future/) **Published:** September 30, 2019 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** [Tester Porter](http://www.testerporter.com.au/) is steeped in history, providing financial services in NSW, for over 100 years. But, while they have been around for a while, they are firmly focussed on the future. The firm’s client base includes many rural, retail and SME’s and they enjoy particular success with businesses “that are ready to adopt the cloud, to make things easier with their business.” For Tester Porter, state of the art software, has allowed them to provide more just than “good, old-fashioned service”. Tester Porter has enjoyed ongoing success, and as a Xero Gold Partner, they are committed to giving clients access to modern solutions to manage their financials. Scott Murray has been a Partner at Tester Porter since 2008 and has a wide experience in Rural, Business, Personal, and General Accounting. His clients benefit from his dynamic approach and knowledge of IT systems to make account keeping easier, plus his ability to adapt to client’s individually and provide support in that area. Scott is also a Certified Xero Advisor with many years of experience with Xero software. As both the company director and a competitive runner, Scott’s days are always busy. At work, he is focused on building relationships across a diverse client base and providing solutions that drive greater efficiencies and improved financial results. With limited time available to dedicate to marketing, Tester Porter was looking for a technology-based solution that was easy-to-use and would make the time spent on marketing more effective and efficient. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/headshot.jpg) ## Nurture, Educate, Inform “We like to make things better in our clients’ business. Marketing is not necessarily about getting more clients for us, it’s more about nurturing and educating existing clients for growth. We were looking for something that is easy-to-use and with all the tools in one place.” **Driving marketing efficiency with BOMA** Scott started using BOMA in early 2018. At the time they were sending newsletters and had some marketing activity in newspapers and radio but were not using social media to engage with clients and prospects. Using BOMA’s ready-to-share articles in the content library and email templates have slashed the time Scott spends on marketing every month. “BOMA’s time-saving features mean I have been able to send two or three newsletters per month rather than just one, as well as introducing regular social media activity for the first time.” A key objective for Tester Porter is ensuring their clients are kept up to date with trending news while also receiving valuable business advice. But finding the time to create this content was too time-consuming. “Prior to BOMA, I would spend 1-2 hrs at a time researching content. That’s now gone down to 15mins – that’s the time to have a cup of coffee.” As an example, “Single touch payroll has been a big focus for us. I was reviewing some new legislation getting passed in support and just jumped into BOMA to find a relevant article from Xero in the BOMA library. I shot it out straight away because it was timely and it created a connection straight away, people came back to us and started getting engaged.” As well as time-saving, Scott found the campaign creation and performance analysis easy. “I loved how the setup is intuitive especially suggesting brand colours to use for my email templates. Previously, the hardest thing for us was getting emails looking nice. Creating and formatting our own email templates was a challenge but BOMA’s email templates made it really easy and the analytics help us understand what’s working and what’s not.” ## Setting up for Continued Growth With BOMA, Tester Porter has been able to meet the challenges of developing their marketing, with marked improvements in client engagement, while saving time. “We have seen a large increase in client engagement and response since using BOMA. I often receive an email from a client in response to our monthly newsletter saying, ‘that’s great content thanks for that’. BOMA has generated phone calls, two-way communication, a greater client relationship and increased subscribers to our email database and followers on social media.” Tester Porter has a century of accounting experience and remain committed to providing top quality financial services. BOMA has allowed the firm to save time and do more to engage with clients and assist them – which sets Tester Porter up for ongoing growth. **Categories:** Success Stories --- ### [Why accountants and bookkeepers should embrace education marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/why-accountants-and-bookkeepers-should-embrace-education-marketing/) **Published:** January 24, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **Share your expertise and reap the rewards** Education marketing goes much deeper than selling the surface sizzle of your company. It teaches your clients (and prospective clients) about the value or results they can gain from accessing your services and, ultimately, positions you as an expert in your industry. Here, we explain why education marketing is such a valuable tool for accountants and bookkeepers, and outline the three best ways to make it work for your business. ## **Why education marketing is a must** As business is increasingly done from a computer screen, hard sales pitches have become obsolete. As a result, digital marketing has become more competitive, and businesses need to look at new ways to create stronger relationships and stand out from their peers. Education marketing delivers on this by providing information to potential and existing clients that builds trust and gently guides them towards engaging with your business. Accounting and bookkeeping do well with this type of marketing, as they’re often viewed as complex. ## **Implementing educational marketing in your business** Earn both your current and potentially new clients’ attention by giving them ‘no strings attached’ value through blogs and articles, practical website content and educational webinars. Value will flow back to you as a result. Here are three easy ways to get started: ### **1. Blogs and articles** You’ve probably heard that you need a blog for SEO purposes. While SEO does demand fresh content, the real power of blogs and articles is their ability to provide value to potential and current clients. This helps position your firm as a thought leader in the industry, influence purchase decisions and nurture an ongoing relationship with customers. Blogs have the added benefit of giving your business great content for social media and driving traffic to your website. ***Expert tip –*** [*Regular blogging can be a big ask, particularly if you’re not much of a wordsmith*](https://bomamarketing.com/2020/09/23/the-ultimate-guide-to-blog-writing-for-your-accounting-website/)*. A great solution is to subscribe to a quality content provider (like BOMA) and share a mix of readymade content with some of your own. We recommend customising any subscription-based content so that it fits with your unique voice.* ### **2. Practical website content** Loading your website with useful educational resources, rather than hard-sell content, allows clients and prospects to seek information on their terms and to understand how they will benefit from your services. Great examples of educational web content are: - ‘**How to’ guides** – simple guides that answer clients’ and potential clients’ pain points. For example, how to ensure you’re meeting your tax obligations or how to track business vehicle expenses. - **Checklists** – brief guides that provide instant answers. For example, thirty-six ways to improve your margins or 10 tips for contractors. - **Calculators** – easy to use calculators for common tasks. For example, a depreciation calculator or a personal budgeting template. - **eBooks** – succinct downloadable guides. For example, understanding provisional tax or mastering cash flow. ***Expert tip –*** *Be sure to vary the length and type of content to keep things interesting, and add a lead capture form to scoop up qualified leads for your database.* ### **3. Educational webinars** Video is without a doubt the most powerful tool when it comes to marketing content, with [studies showing](https://www.forbes.com/sites/yec/2017/07/13/how-to-incorporate-video-into-your-social-media-strategy/?sh=6c47e71b7f2e) that 95% of video information is retained compared to around 10% for plain text content. [Webinars](https://bomamarketing.com/2020/11/05/the-educational-webinar-part-1-marketing-for-success/) and [online Q&A’s allow](https://bomamarketing.com/2020/11/19/how-to-run-an-interactive-qa-for-your-clients/) accountants and bookkeepers to deliver meaningful (and more personalised) content directly to clients. Not only is it seen as a ‘value-add’ service to existing clients, but they can raise the profile of your business, generate high quality leads through sign-ups and allow you to communicate with hundreds of people from the comfort of your desk. ***Expert tip –*** *there’s more to a webinar than just the delivery. Choose a topic that will be helpful for your audience, and make sure you’re maximising value for yourself – with a call to action, post-webinar survey and links to other value-added content like how-tos or e-books.* ## **Give value, receive loyalty** Education marketing builds trust, brings in leads and shows potential clients that you know your stuff. The only catch is: you need digital marketing skills to get it right. That’s where BOMA comes in. In our e-book, **[*Digital Marketing: For Accountants and Bookkeepers*](https://bomamarketing.com/get-started/)****,** we share the most effective ways to develop content and reach prospective customers, while staying true to your brand. Watch our webinar with The Gap on [**Leveraging Content to Launch Advisory**](https://bomamarketing.com/2021/09/23/boma-the-gap-leveraging-content-to-launch-advisory-au-nz/) **Categories:** Content Marketing --- ### [Marketing for Accountants: Understanding the Return on Your Investment](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/marketing-for-accountants-understanding-the-return-on-your-investment/) **Published:** August 15, 2020 **Author:** Steve Ash **Content:** [In the digital age, content marketing should be a key tool](https://www.accountingweb.com/practice/practice-excellence/content-marketing-tips-for-small-firms) in any modern accountant or bookkeeper’s business strategy. With the ability to interact with clients and prospects through multiple social media channels, regular blog posts, monthly email newsletters and ad-hoc digital marketing campaigns, it’s never been easier to create the right touch points with your audience. But how do you know if your marketing is hitting the right targets? How can you track, measure and gain real insight into your marketing return on investment (ROI)? The starting point is to know WHY you’re using content marketing, and the different ways that you can monitor the performance of each digital channel. ## Why Are You Using Content Marketing? [Let’s begin by defining what content marketing is](https://www.xero.com/uk/resources/accountant-bookkeeper-guides/marketing/content-marketing-ideas/). In essence, it’s a marketing strategy where your firm produces regular content – that’s blogs, video case studies or social posts – with the aim of sharing helpful, practical advice with your audience. For accountants and bookkeepers, that means sharing your insight and expertise as a finance professional, in ways that bring real value to your clients and prospects. Examples of this kind of digital content might include: - Tweeting regular updates through your firm’s Twitter account - Posting weekly blogs with your top tips for using the latest fintech apps - Writing a short email campaign around cash-flow management for small businesses (you could collate your top tips) - Use video – either by recording a conversation with a client who has advice to share on running an agency, or by hosting a webinar and sharing advice. [Unlike traditional direct marketing](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/direct-marketing.asp), where your interaction is based solely on converting a prospect into a sale, content marketing is more of a slow-burn strategy. It’s not a pure sales strategy, but it will establish you as an industry expert and trusted advisor. This serves to strengthen your existing clients relationships (increasing your ability to upsell a wider variety of services), and helps position your brand with new prospects (allowing you to attract new clients as and when needed). ## Playing the Long Game – Raising Brand Profile So digital content marketing is NOT going to deliver an instant impact on your sales conversion stats. It’s a long-term process of raising the profile of your brand, positioning you and your team as experts in your field and – importantly – demonstrating value to your audience. [Increasing touch points through smart use of marketing](http://www.pubacct.org.au/blog/touchpoints-enhance-client-experience) allows you to keep existing clients engaged and to convert a prospect into a client. It’s not an instant transformation, but an ongoing process of sharing valuable content, offering great customer experience and delivering the best possible personal communication to your key audiences. For a prospect to move from cold target to engaged client, they may first have: - **Met you at an event** – where they saw your presentation and liked your approach - **Followed you on social media** – so they could get more updates and advice - **Read an article on LinkedIn** – having followed a link from your social marketing - **Signed up for your weekly newsletter** – putting you in a position of trusted expert Each of those steps serves to demonstrate your expertise, and warm them up to the idea of partnering with you as their business adviser. And your content marketing provides the communications, interactions and awareness that starts this ball rolling. ![Marketing ROI business Event](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/AdobeStock_120646286-450x300.jpeg) ## Tracking and Measuring Your Success If you’re going to maintain your client relationships and warm up potential prospects, it’s important to track the performance of your content over time, so you can see the impact that each marketing channel is having on the development of the practice as a whole. [Working out that ROI](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/08/21/the-cost-of-digital-marketing-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers-what-does-it-really-cost/) gives you a high-level overview of past and current campaigns, but (vitally) also helps guide your future marketing by giving you a guide on what content and channels work best, and what the overall costs and budgets are for each kind of marketing. So let’s look at a few key marketing channels and why you should be measuring ROI in these specific areas: ### **1. Website traffic and engagement** [Your website is the key online ‘shop window’ for the firm](https://www.outbrain.com/blog/website-important-content-marketing/), and the content hub you’ll be driving an audience towards with your marketing – so knowing the number of visits you’ve had to your website content is an important stat to know. [Using a tool like Google Analytics](https://www.google.com/analytics/#?modal_active=none), you can keep a close eye on how well your site, and your online content, is performing. When a viewer visits your site, that interaction can be measured in three key ways through your analytics: 1. **Acquisition** – or how successful you are in getting people to visit the site. Getting viewers to see your links and visit the site is your initial goal, and reason you need to optimise your keywords and content to deliver [the best possible SEO](https://www.redevolution.com/what-is-seo). 2. **Behaviour** – or what these people do once they land on your content page. Are they ‘bouncing’ straight off the page, or are they staying and engaging with the content. A high bounce rate is a sign you need to improve your content. 3. **Conversion** – or how effective you are at getting viewers to click on your call-to-action buttons. That might mean clicking through to your contact page, or clicking on a service landing page that you’re promoting. High conversion rates are your goal here. Keeping a regular eye on your website analytics helps you grasp which pages are getting traffic, which pages are a virtual ghost town, and where’s there are opportunities to improve the user interface, design and effectiveness of the site. ### **2. Email campaign open rates** [Email marketing is still an important way to interact with your business clients](https://www.forbes.com/sites/ajagrawal/2016/07/31/7-email-marketing-tips-for-marketers/#6ab1355478ef). And whatever email content you’re sending out – whether it’s a regular practice newsletters, or an ad-hoc email campaign – it’s important to know how well these campaigns are performing, so you can improve your targeting and follow-up with the best leads. [Using a digital marketing tool like Boma](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/features/), you can track your email open rates, measure your audience size and see conversion rates on your key call-to-action. If you’re setting up an email campaign – like the email series on cashflow management we mentioned earlier – being able to track and measure each email in the series can be invaluable. You can see which emails gain the most traction, who in your target audience is clicking through and if there’s a tail-off in interest during the course of the campaign – all of this information helps you refine, evolve and improve your next campaign. ### **3. Social media followers and likes** [Your social media channels are key tools for driving people to your site and content](https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/the-dynamic-duo-the-impact-of-social-media-and-content-marketing/) – as well as a great two-way communication channel with your stakeholders. So it stands to reason that the bigger your follower numbers are, the larger your potential marketing audience will become. [Tracking your social media numbers](https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-roi-guide/) can be done through the in-app analytics in your social account, or by using a social publishing platform like Boma to track the success of your posts. With real-time access to these social metrics, you see which social posts are getting engagement (likes and re-shares), when and how you’re gaining followers and whether you’re getting decent conversion stats for marketing posts that link back to your content. ### **4. Growth of your client base** Ultimately, your marketing, brand profile-raising and social activity are intended to bring in more clients. So measuring the impact of your marketing on lead generation, prospects list and client portfolio are key measurements of success. [Having a customer relationship management (CRM) system](https://www.salesforce.com/solutions/small-business-solutions/crm-basics/customer-relationship-management-system/) helps you manage the process of recording your customer interactions and tracking how effective they are. By tracking the emails sent, the phone calls received or the number of introductory meetings held, you build up a picture of where your marketing is driving prospects to get in touch – and where it’s falling short. ### **5. Feedback from your customers** Getting new clients to complete a customer survey as part of your onboarding process can help you understand more about why you’re now their preferred choice as an adviser – and what part your marketing activity played in that decision process. A few key questions to ask might include: - **How did you find out about our firm?** Was it through a referral, you found us online or through an existing marketing campaign? - **Do you follow us on social media?** And if you do, has our social presence influenced your decision to talk to us and discuss becoming your adviser? - **Do you read our blogs and helpful guides?** And if you do, did this content give you a favourable impression of the firm and individual experts in our team? The better you understand the impact of your marketing on your client conversation rates, the more insight you have into how your campaigns and social content are doing their job – and the more practical and refined you can make your future activity. ## The More You Know, the More Effective Your Marketing Will Be Sound financial decisions are made when you have the best possible accounting data to hand – and the exact same principle applies to your firm’s marketing. [Effective marketing strategies will be those that are informed by quality data, analytics and customer feedback](https://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/measuring-the-right-marketing-metrics). If an element of your marketing can be tracked, recorded and measured, turn it into a key metric. Whether that’s the conversion rate on your latest website campaign, the number of followers to your Twitter account, or the number of new prospects won through email marketing, the key is to have access to the right data – so you can plan accordingly in the future. Rather than wasting time and money on channels that don’t deliver the right bang for your buck, you can make informed marketing decisions, create sensible marketing budgets that don’t break the bank and be confident that you’re using the most effective marketing channels for the firm. ## Use the BOMA ROI Calculator to work out how much time and money you can save by using BOMA The calculator reflects the potential ROI that you could realise by using BOMA to conduct your Digital Marketing. Enter your answers for each question below and it will calculate how much you could save. [Click here to try the calculator ](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-roi-calculator/) **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA enables Accountants and Bookkeepers. to support and communicate with clients and prospects with ease all from one platform. BOMA also gives you a library over over 300 expertly written and ready-to-share business advisory, tax technical and compliance articles and over 3.7 million free images so you can create emails, social posts and blogs in minutes. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). About the Author: Steve Ash is a specialist in accounting, marketing, business software and fintech apps. **Categories:** Marketing, Tips & Advice **Tags:** Marketing, Accountants, ROI --- ### [Why Content is Still King for Accounting and Bookkeeping SEO](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/content-reigns-supreme-in-land-of-seo-still/) **Published:** August 16, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **The crowning jewel is consistent, quality content** Do a quick Google search of ‘content is king’ and you’ll get over 74 million hits – a number that is growing by the day. While some argue that the phrase (first made famous by Bill Gates 25 years ago!) has lost its royal standing, there’s no denying that we are all still avid users of content. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a long-form article, a short video or a product description, content is what people look for – and it’s the most effective way for brands to connect and engage with customers online. The question is, how do you get your accounting or bookkeeping firm’s content to stand out from the crowd – especially when Google receives billions of searches a day, and its algorithms are constantly getting smarter? While the answer might not be revolutionary, it’s more relevant today than ever before. The key is finding the balance between SEO factors and quality content – and here’s why: ### **People and search engines crave content** Search engines can’t rank your accounting or bookkeeping business online without content. To show up on Google’s radar, search engines need relevant, high-quality and engaging content – text, video, images – to keyword search and push organic traffic towards your website. Like search engines, people thrive on content too. Online content consumption [doubled in 2020](https://doubleverify.com/newsroom/global-online-content-consumption-doubles-in-2020-research-shows/), and it’s one of the most effective ways to generate leads and convert prospective clients. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/AdobeStock_104839636-scaled.jpeg) ### **More quality content improves your search engine ranking** People want (and expect) high-quality content that adds value, and Google’s algorithms are constantly evolving to connect users with content they’ll find most engaging and informative. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean more content is better. What will get you to the top of those search engine pages is consistent *quality*. That means creating original content that’s accurate and engaging, avoids pointless keyword-stuffing and adds value by answering questions. Other factors are involved too, but content will improve your popularity with search engines. Digital marketing requires a whole new set of skills – that’s why we put together our e-book, *Digital Marketing: For Accountants and Bookkeepers*. It’s designed to help you make the most of marketing opportunities in a way that makes sense for your business and your brand. **[Download it for free today.](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-guide-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers/)** ### **Content is crucial for optimising keywords** Keywords are the backbone of SEO, and content is how you optimise keywords. As part of your SEO strategy, you’ll have done some research on the keywords relevant to your business and industry (how your customers search for you). Your content is the only way you can make proper use of those keywords. You must consistently create and share content that is professional and well-written – *and* uses those keywords. That will increase the chances of your website ranking higher and prospective customers making their way through your front door. ### **Together, SEO and content level the playing field** Whether you’re an accounting firm that’s been in business for two decades or a bookkeeper that’s just starting, the beauty of content-driven SEO is it’s anyone’s game. There are no set criteria for content (except quality), so get creative, share your unique perspective and become a trusted authority – it’ll give you an edge over your competitors and open up opportunities to spread your content even further. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/AdobeStock_63779364-scaled.jpeg) ### **Lastly, content can be easily adjusted to meet SEO needs** These days, the world moves at an unprecedented rate. Circumstances can change in the blink of an eye, and with technological advancements, there’s always room to discuss what’s happening in the accounting and bookkeeping industry. When so much is up in the air, content can be your one SEO constant. If you need to scale your budget down (or up), content allows you to be agile – whether that’s adjusting your target audience or keywords, changing formats or adopting new strategies and tactics. ## **Go forth! Create and share quality content consistently** For many accountants and bookkeepers, time is the barrier to creating and sharing consistent, quality content. Even if you’re aware that content is still the king of SEO, client work will always win. But, as you’ve just read, if content isn’t part of your firm’s marketing strategy, you’re missing out – and your clients are too. That’s where Boma does the hard work for you. With a few clicks, you can easily create and share your own content (or use articles from Boma’s extensive [content library](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/content-libraries/)) to all your digital channels – website, social media and email. Boma’s articles can be customised to suit your online audience, and they’re full of insights that are timely and relevant, so you always have something to share with your clients (old and new). ***Ready to give BOMA a try? Click* [*here*](https://app.bomamarketing.com/register?_ga=2.57144298.1376466863.1620866986-1911221469.1620080227) *for your free 14-day trial or* [*book*](https://calendly.com/bomamarketing/walkthrough?month=2021-08) *an online demo.*** **Categories:** Content Marketing --- ### [Marketing, content and expertise in one place](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/tips-advice/marketing-content-and-expertise-in-one-place/) **Published:** January 18, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Online marketing isn’t simple. Many business owners think they can manage it on their own, but quickly become overwhelmed by frequent posting, maintaining a consistent tone of voice and creating fresh, engaging content. This is particularly true for accountants and bookkeepers: because their jobs are so busy in general, adding another weekly task can push things to the limit. Some business owners spend way too much time on marketing and neglect what makes their business tick – while others let it fall into the too-hard basket, slowing down posts and eventually ignoring the issue altogether. Neither option is great for your business. Far better: using proven tools and pre-written content to make online marketing simple – without missing out on quality. And that’s where BOMA comes in. ## **All your digital marketing tools in one place** With BOMA’s huge content library, free images, social and email campaigns, blog posts, Facebook and Instagram ads – online marketing involves more elements and moving parts than you might imagine. With BOMA, you get all these parts in a functional package ready for you to customise. Better yet, it’s all specifically designed for accountants and bookkeepers, so you know it’s relevant to your business. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screen-Shot-2022-02-24-at-5.24.18-PM-470x293.png) ## **Marketing in minutes** When you’re ready to write a social post or send out an email, you have all the tools to hand. Email templates let you send consistently formatted, professional-looking marketing emails or newsletters, and simple analytics let you assess the performance of your campaigns after the fact. Access all your social media through our platform, making cohesive social posting simple. Rather than switching between platforms and resizing images to fit different formats, everything can be posted from your BOMA account. You can set up a social campaign that covers Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter in just a few clicks, using pre-built templates customised with your branding. If you need to grow your database and collect client details, you can also create lead capture forms and embed them natively on your website and include them in your email and social posts. ## **Customised content** Content sets us apart from other marketing tools. Our free content library, with over 300 industry-specific articles, lets you share valuable insights with your followers – without the need to write content yourself. You can also customise articles to fit your business and use them as blog posts on your website. The content library can help guide your posts. Browse for interesting articles, use them as thought-starters for your newsletters or social posts then link to the article in your content. Our free photo library offers similar ease of use. Browse through 3.7 million+ images and pick the one that best suits your post. It’s all free to our users so you don’t need to worry about violating copyright or crediting images. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screen-Shot-2022-02-24-at-5.23.06-PM-457x300.png) **Stress-free online marketing** BOMA is designed to remove the stress and energy involved with your online marketing – letting you do it all through a single, accessible, intuitive platform. Want to see BOMA for yourself? [**Book in for demo here**](https://calendly.com/bomamarketing/walkthrough?month=2022-02). **Categories:** Tips & Advice --- ### [The importance of identifying your dream clients and how to reach out to them](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/tips-advice/know-your-target-audience-clients-will-follow/) **Published:** February 24, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Most accounting and bookkeeping firms build up a client base without really thinking about it. You’ll have some clients who are perfectly aligned with your firm, some mediocre, unappreciative or slow-paying clients and, sadly, some clients that you simply don’t enjoy dealing with at all. But it doesn’t have to be that way. By understanding who your ideal clients are and marketing your firm to them, it’s entirely possible to collect clients who fit. Here’s how. ## **It all starts with a clear picture of your target audience** Your target audience is a defined group of consumers or potential clients that you wish to attract with advertising and marketing. If you’re an accountant or bookkeeper, you’re likely to be looking for business clients rather than individuals, so the usual demographics of age, gender, hobbies and income don’t quite fit. Your criteria can include things like: - Minimum annual turnover - A business in growth mode - A client who is unlikely to shop around on price - A client who pays on time - A strong business network – an opportunity for referrals - Appreciates advice – scope for growth in services offered - A business that aligns with your values - Ambitious owners - Easy to deal with - Fitting within your preferred industry There may be trade-offs and compromises you need to make along the way, particularly when you are starting. You’ll need to take on some clients who don’t tick every box – it’s more about defining the ideal, so you can work towards it. ## **Why it matters** Targeting ‘anyone who needs accounting services’ is unlikely to lead to a client base you enjoy working with day in and day out, or make you particularly appealing to your audience either. By defining your ideal clients and creating a checklist of attributes, you can quickly identify which clients are worth pursuing and which aren’t such a great fit. Most importantly, having a defined target audience will determine your marketing strategy and help you develop a point of difference. ## **Know them, know where to find them** Once you’ve gained clarity on your ideal clients, [your marketing strateg](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/09/13/digital-marketing-what-is-it-and-how-do-you-get-started/)y needs to focus on where you can find them and how you will [market your services to them](https://bomamarketing.com/2019/04/12/6-reasons-why-you-need-to-market-your-accounting-bookkeeping-practice/). Consider these four options: ## **Referrals** A satisfied client or staff member could be your best salesperson. Be proactive with soliciting referrals – share your ideal client profile with your internal team, reward referrals and ask clients to spread the word too. Don’t forget to ask them for testimonials and endorsements on professional networking sites like LinkedIn, too – as this can be a great source of new clients. ## **Network at industry events** Identify and attend industry events where your target clients are likely to be. Nothing beats in-person interaction when done well, so be prepared by thinking about what kind of value you can offer to potential clients. Exchange business cards and follow up with attendees who fit your ideal client profile. ## **Partner with professionals** Establishing or improving alliances with other qualified and trusted professionals is valuable for mutual recommendations. Partner with businesses that complement your niche – they could be lawyers, mortgage brokers, investment advisors or recruiters. You’ll quickly find that mutual referrals begin to flow, and you can form a win-win partnership. **Share your wisdom** You likely have a store of valuable industry-specific information and knowledge within your firm which can be unlocked and shared with potential clients. Whether you look at social media, blog writing, webinars or seminars, make the most of your collective financial wisdom and use it to attract new clients who fit your brief. ## **Know them, net them, enjoy them** A defined target audience is more than just a marketing tool. It helps you identify your ideal client in your own mind, so you know what you’re looking for and working towards. It helps you invest your advertising budget in the right places and choose strategies that work for your audience. And best of all, it helps you work toward a client base that aligns with your business goals. ***Need help communicating with your dream clients? Talk to BOMA for help*** **Categories:** Tips & Advice --- ### [How to Market Your Accounting & Bookkeeping Firm on Social Media 101](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/how-to-market-your-accounting-bookkeeping-firm-on-social-media-101/) **Published:** September 10, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Join us as Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA, and Cat Morgan, Sales & Partnerships Manager of BOMA, discuss real life examples of how social media marketing can help Accountants and Bookkeepers nurture clients and grow their business. During this webinar you’ll learn: – Why you should be using social media – What are the different social media networks – How to approach and use the different networks – What content to use for social posts – How to build your following and engage with your audience – How to leverage social media to grow your business – Understanding social media analytics – Plus tips, tricks and real world examples **NB: You can also read a full transcript of this session below.** ## ‘How to Market Your Accounting & Bookkeeping Firm on Social Media’ Transcript **Charles Clark:** So welcome everyone to today’s webinar. It’s called ‘How to Market Your Accounting and Bookkeeping Firm on Social Media’. My name is Charles Clark and I’m the Marketing Director of BOMA and I’m joined today by Cat Morgan who’s our Sales and Partnerships Manager. Hi, Cat? **Cat Morgan:** Hello there. **Charles Clark:** Brilliant. So we’ve done this webinar and we’re really thrilled that you guys can attend because we find that social media is a really hot topic for all the accountants and bookkeepers that we deal with. So this is one that we run on a semi regular basis and we often get people coming back just to check in and maybe upscale. **Charles Clark:** Or maybe if they’ve just started just to get a few tips and tricks as they go along. So to get started, I thought it would be useful, as Cat said, we have taken some of your feedback and just to let you guys know how you said you’re using social media. **Charles Clark:** So on the left hand side there the question was how often are you posting to social media? And I thought it was really interesting that there’s a small but dedicated group of you who are posting once or multiple times a day which is pretty amazing. **Cat Morgan:** Impressive. **Charles Clark:** That’s a, yeah, real dedication. A significant amount of you are posting once or a couple times a week which is great. But possibly where probably a lot of people are is you’re posting a couple times to once a month. So we’ll have some ideas for you as to how you might lift that without actually taking too much time to keep up with your social channels. **Charles Clark:** And then the second one was basically asking what are you posting on social media? So the great thing about social media is that it’s really variable and fixable. You can post videos. It could be photos. It can be memes, commentary, educational pieces. **Charles Clark:** So just really interesting to see that you guys are really doing well on the commentary and insights, educational content and photos. I was interested that other than videos and memes, 18% was other. **Charles Clark:** So if you were one of the ones who ticked other, it would great if you could let us know what that was in the Q&A just so we can let everyone know what those other elements are. **Cat Morgan:** And we’ll certainly provide some additional tips on what to post in today’s seminar. So get your pen and paper ready because there will be some really good tips and tricks, practical advice that will be coming your way today. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. And as we said, we are going to cover questions at the end of it. So the written questions, as I said if you’ve got any questions that come up during it just feel free to ask them. **Charles Clark:** But there were three questions in particular that really struck Cat and I as we were reading through your feedback. And we thought, I just thought I would read them out now because they did inform a little bit about what we’re talking about. **Charles Clark:** And so they are: What’s the best use of social media to help develop an accounting business? The second one was what are the leading firms doing in this space? And the last one was wanting to learn about engagement tactics. **Charles Clark:** So fantastic questions and we’ll do our best to address those as we move through. So obviously you guys are all quite involved in social media to a greater or lesser extent so I don’t feel like I have to say you just have to be using it. **Charles Clark:** I think it’s just important just to recap why social is so powerful. So I think the first thing to say is that it’s really an addition to your website which is your online shop window. Social is amazing for brand awareness. **Charles Clark:** So people when they go through and do a bit of research on you, the new word of mouth, they will look at your website and then they will look at your social media channels. And if you don’t have social media channels, I’m not saying that would cause them not to dig further, but people expect nowadays. Especially younger clients, the younger generation who are digital natives. It’s just a hygiene factor that a business would also have a corresponding social profile. **Charles Clark:** The other side of things is that it can help amplify your content. So you see it in the feedback that you guys are sharing. Video and commentary and insights. You can also share blog posts. You can share white papers. You can share research pieces. **Charles Clark:** Social media is an amazing, amazing tool alongside email for you to get your information out there whether it’s to clients or prospects or your wider network. It has really revolutionised how people communicate in the modern age. **Charles Clark:** And this feeds onto the next point which is it can help position either you personally or your firm as a thought leader. So obviously there are the global thought leaders in certain topics that we all know and there are those in the accounting space. **Charles Clark:** Heather Smith, someone that we work with closely but obviously would be a name that you guys would all recognise. So obviously that’s thought leadership at the very highest levels. But you can also be a thought leadership in your area. So you could be a thought leadership on things that you and your colleagues know about that would be relevant to your audience and your clients. **Charles Clark:** So don’t think that you have to be the one and only expert. The world leading authority on something. You are the experts. And for many small business, they look at accounting and advisory and it’s a bit of a black box for them. So you are full of information that you can give to them and it will be really, really gratefully received, especially in these current times. **Charles Clark:** COVID has put a huge amount of pressure on businesses and so the more information that you can give to them that is helpful, that’s insightful, that supports them will really be amazingly appreciated by them. **Charles Clark:** And lastly, it’s fabulous for networking. So whether that’s networking with clients and prospects or it might be are networking with your colleagues or people maybe within the accounting industry. It’s a great thing to do. You’ll never know what you’ll learn and you’ll never know what sort of connections you might make which will benefit you or your firm down the track. **Charles Clark:** So in terms of the main social channels, Cat’s got a really good view on this actually. And we were thinking to include all of them. But Cat was saying no, no, no, look, there’s really these four main ones. **Cat Morgan:** Yeah, absolutely obviously sometimes it feels like there’s a new social platform coming out every week. And it’s impossible to keep up with it really unless you’re a teenager and who’s got time for that. But there’s some key ones that are really more focused on business being Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. **Cat Morgan:** So we’re cover up a little bit of the differences between them. Many of your messages can be shared across multiple platforms. But there’s some small differences which we’ll cover off surely, in fact, in the next slide please, Charlie. **Cat Morgan:** So you may have seen this meme a few times. Dolly shared this post on Twitter and it does include Tinder which we won’t be discussing today. But this is a really great way to visually understand the difference between the platforms. **Cat Morgan:** They all have slightly different audiences. But more importantly, the way that people expect to engage with you on these platforms is slightly different. **Cat Morgan:** Of course, you’ve got LinkedIn where you would portray more of your professional side. So sharing information about your services and your value, tips and tricks when it comes to maintaining a business. **Cat Morgan:** Whereas Facebook you can absolutely show more of your personality. Facebook’s probably the one that would be more well-rounded, I would say, with a little bit of everything. **Cat Morgan:** Instagram, of course, is more image driven. So team photos, et cetera. And then instead of Tinder, we can perhaps talk about Twitter which is really a great place for you to let it all hang out so to speak. Anything goes a little bit on Twitter. It’s a great place to share your views and talk with others about these as well. **Cat Morgan:** So we’ll talk a little bit about more about what kind of posts that you might share on each of the platforms. But yeah, this is just a really great visual way to get an understanding of how you should engage on each of the four main platforms that we’re talking about today. **Charles Clark:** I think an important point to wrap into that is there’s a different expectation on these different social channels about how frequently you might be posting. **Charles Clark:** So something like LinkedIn, it’s very possible that you may be just comfortable posting there once a month. And that’s very common. There’s not a need to be posting very often, very frequently. **Charles Clark:** Twitter, on the other hand, people paste … Sorry, people often post five, 10, 50 times a day. It really just depends. If they’ve got something to see or say or comment on, it’s as often as you want to post on Twitter, you really can. **Charles Clark:** Whereas on LinkedIn, fewer posting. More than even once a day is quite a lot. It’s the channels don’t work in that same way. So Twitter you can post multiple times and because there’s so much content on it, it won’t feel like you’re spamming it. **Charles Clark:** LinkedIn’s at the other end. You want to post less frequently because otherwise it would look odd in terms of your profile as to what you’re posting on. **Charles Clark:** Facebook and Instagram, a little bit in the middle. You can post fairly frequently or a little bit less frequently, it’s up to you. But just yeah. It’s just sort of \[inaudible 00:10:04\] to think about if you were going to choose one or two or maybe all of these platforms, they do have different cadences. **Charles Clark:** So just be aware of that. There’s a question that she later on asking how often should I be posting? And part of the answer to that is it depends which channel you’re on. If you’re on LinkedIn only, you can get away with posting there pretty infrequently. If you’re on Twitter, it has to be a little bit more frequently. As I said, Facebook and Instagram in the middle. **Charles Clark:** So in terms of some examples of people who are doing it well, I thought I’d use Kinder Pocock who are a client of ours. And they also happen to do fantastic work on their social channels. **Charles Clark:** So the point here is really, I suppose, making the most of social media from your perspective. So Kinder Pocock, they’ve got their business profile as well as they’ve also got their personal profiles. So for the people who work there. **Charles Clark:** The great thing about a personal, oh sorry, a business profile versus a personal profile is that you can have all the information on your profile that you really you would probably have on your website as well. **Charles Clark:** So you can have your logos. You can have your about section. You can showcase awards. You can share information about your products and services. You can tell people where to find you. You can tell them your phone number. You could even put a map in there. **Charles Clark:** So it’s really an amazing place to both work as an advertisement of your services, but also start to set that, I suppose that brand identity. So it’s really important that if you’re on multiple social channels that the imagery and the brand, I suppose, tone is the same across all your social channels. And then also has to match up with your website yourself. So consistency is really key there. **Charles Clark:** When you’re doing images, think about the sorts of images that are consistent with your business and your personal, I suppose, profile, your personality. **Charles Clark:** So if you’re a very sort of … Say you’re much more focused in the agricultural and maybe you’re from a smaller town, you wouldn’t put a photo which has a city scape because that’s completely the opposite of what you’re trying to be which is you’re a small firm in a rural setting. **Charles Clark:** And vice versa. If you were in a larger town, having a photo of some fields and a cow, again it doesn’t make sense because you’re a firm in the city. So just think about the story that your images can tell. **Charles Clark:** What I like about what Kinder Pocock has done on this, so they’ve got their name nice and center and they’ve also got the, I suppose, their value proposition which is a refreshing change. So they’re stating that they are, I suppose, the new breed of accountants. They’re moving forward. They’re offering something different to their clients that maybe some other accountants are. So a really nice way to introduce that language. **Charles Clark:** And then you can also see here just slightly cut off in my screen grab that they’re a Xero partner and a Gold partner. So really easy for them to start to showcase those awards and start to build that social proof which is a really nice element. **Charles Clark:** So on this page, we’ve got two more examples of people who are doing it really really well. So Lielette is in Australia and Glenn is in the UK. **Charles Clark:** So you can see here on Lielette. She has done an amazing job and it starts really with her profile photo. So it’s professionally taken. You can see here that she is also put all her various associations and directorships, as well as her website which is allthatcounts.com.au. **Cat Morgan:** Charles is that her LinkedIn profile? **Charles Clark:** So this is her Twitter profile. So yeah, so I’ve got a Twitter profile and a LinkedIn profile. And that’s just to show you that whether you’re doing a LinkedIn or a Twitter profile, you can really set that stage for you as a highly skilled professional. **Charles Clark:** And also if you go to Lielette’s other pages and also her business page, she has got the same, I suppose, calls to action in terms of she calls out the fact that she \[inaudible 00:14:39\] winner, she has the directorships and things like that. **Charles Clark:** Glenn, on the other hand, so he is from Avery Martin Accountants, again in the UK. So he has done a really nice job here of in his profile, he’s actually put his name and then the Xero UK Best Sole Practitioner 2018. And then underneath that on his business profile, he’s got that banner there as well. **Charles Clark:** So very, very easily he is calling out his professional expertise and the social … In this case, awarded by Xero so that’s high praise indeed and it’s not something that … He can’t just make it up. It is definitely something that everyone would recognise. **Charles Clark:** So both of them have done a really nice job of just setting the scene for themselves personally, but also for their business. Of placing themselves within that high level of expertise. **Charles Clark:** And when people come to their social pages or their social business pages, they really start to get an idea of the professionalism and the nature of these two people. **Cat Morgan:** And consider as well that Charles mentioned that social media is the new word of mouth. When people are liking and sharing and commenting on your posts, they’re visible to their friends. So when they are scoping you out, you want to make sure that your profile is kept up to date. If you could please move to the next slide. **Cat Morgan:** And so that those contacts or friends of your social followers can see who you are, what you do and what you’re all about really easily. So if someone lands on your social page, in this case you can see a screenshot of someone’s Facebook profile, you want to make sure that they can see the most important things. **Cat Morgan:** How to contact you, what your values are and how you can help small businesses that are just like your current clients. Excuse me. You’ve got the opportunity to have a short bio in your about section. But then you can create more of a … Give a bit more background in the our story section. So a little bit more abut who you are, why you do what you do so that they can understand and see if you’re like them. **Cat Morgan:** So the more that you can share yourself, the more value it will be to prospects that are scoping out your page. Don’t forget to keep all this information updated. It’s not a one time deal. So as often as you might refresh your website content, which I hope you do regularly, please do also keep your social profiles updated. **Cat Morgan:** Don’t forget as well to have links to your website from your social page as you can see here and vice versa. So ideally at least on your contact page, if not on, perhaps, the bottom of your home page have little icons that will take readers through to your social profiles. **Cat Morgan:** So there’s no point in maintaining a profile if you’re not getting traffic to go to it. And we’ll talk a little bit more about that, but the more that you can publicise your social pages, the more likely you are that you will attract some new followers. **Cat Morgan:** And combined with sharing great, regular, consistent posts, then there’s some really great reasons for people to follow you. **Charles Clark:** I think that is a really good point. If you ask people to follow you and they come to your page and there’s nothing, the last post is 2018, they would think to themselves well why would I bother because I’m not going to be getting much of value. **Charles Clark:** And I know a lot of people do or are nervous about what they should be posting or they have a couple of good ideas and then look, we understand. Life takes over. One can’t be sitting down every single day to think okay what are the five things I’m going to post. **Charles Clark:** So we’ve just got a couple of ideas here that is maybe thought starters on things that you can post that would be of use for your clients and will make your page be of value to them. **Cat Morgan:** Yeah, so don’t forget the easy things. Remind them about important tax dates. Share news that affects them directly such as legislation or compliance updates. Any changes within your industry. If you get any awards and new certifications, things like that as well. **Cat Morgan:** You can also look at other, wider industry publications, both printed versions and online to get ideas for topical issues. And then create your own summary of that. **Cat Morgan:** So don’t feel like you’ll have to always come up with new content. Don’t forget as well to promote or comment on upcoming events. Of course, if you’re going to run an event or host a webinar, you absolutely want to publicise that. **Cat Morgan:** But also it’s worthwhile sharing your attendance at events. So you can show that you’re keeping up to date or abreast with trends and news. **Cat Morgan:** Both let them know about events beforehand, but also after the event. Share an image and a little summary of the value that you gained from attending the event that’s already worthwhile. **Cat Morgan:** What else? Boost your clients’ brands. So you could do a profile one of your clients. Congratulate them on some achievement. This gives them really great exposure. **Cat Morgan:** Because, of course, amongst your own clients, you’ve got a great little network. So support your clients by having the rest of your clients get exposure to them. **Charles Clark:** Actually on that point, you could also consider doing a case study or a testimonial. So we often, that’s a great piece of content to have on your website. **Charles Clark:** And if you do have it on your website, then you can always share it on your social channels. And that might be a written case study. But often these days, people are quite happy to do video testimonials or commentary as well. **Charles Clark:** So again, that could be sharing a problem that they had and how your firm came in with a solution and have improved that situation which has led to better business outcomes. **Cat Morgan:** Nice idea. And just when you said video there it reminded me yeah, a great idea is to instead of sharing perhaps an update on Job Keeper, for example, or some kind of support package, maybe you could summarise it. **Cat Morgan:** Use Zoom or Loom to record a really short video. Ideally, you want to keep it either three, two to three, maybe four minutes. Record a video explaining the changes and the implications rather than just sharing text all the time. That’s a really great way to keep your clients engaged, show your personality as well and get them to, I guess, know you more how to build that relationship. **Cat Morgan:** But and yeah, to that point as well, share news about your firm that really helps them to understand who are. That can be things like achievements that you’ve achieved. Awards, certifications, new team members, change of location, et cetera. **Cat Morgan:** Particularly Facebook’s a really place for those kind of posts. But I guess above all, don’t forget that’s called social media for a reason. **Cat Morgan:** So people will follow on social not only to get great tips and tricks, but to, I guess, build a relationship. And you do that through showing some of your personality and telling stories. Any more thoughts on that, Charles? **Charles Clark:** Well, yeah, it’s an interesting one. I was just going to say, we, Cat and I were doing, we were helping out a client of ours a couple of years ago and they had some goals which was to increase revenue by a certain percentage. **Charles Clark:** And they said, “Look if we could just get all of our two to three thousand dollar spenders to move up to the six to eight thousand dollar spenders per annum, we would more than hit that target. **Charles Clark:** And so we said, “Oh do they know about all the products and services that you offer?” And they said, “No. I mean mostly they don’t. They might know about the ones that we have given them already, but they’re probably not aware that we can do all these other things.” **Charles Clark:** So I suppose that’s another thing you can share is that you can share the products and services that you offer and it doesn’t always just need to be as a link to a landing page where you talk about them. **Charles Clark:** We’ve already talked about case studies. You could wrap a case study within an offer for a service. Just nice ways that you can obviously utilise social to drive what is ultimately a goal for most people which is improving the revenue per client. **Cat Morgan:** And when you’re talking about your services, please make them benefits based. You don’t even have to talk about the name of the service. Just say we can help you build more revenue. Or that’s a really bad example. But talk about … I mean I’m trying to think of an example now on the fly. **Cat Morgan:** But yeah, just please try to make it benefits based that the clients that you’re talking to, they don’t care about the name of the service and the underlying, perhaps, technology that you might use to achieve that. They just care about the outcomes. **Cat Morgan:** And obviously in a social post, you’ve got a really short amount of space to capture their attention. So you might just have a couple of sentences. Do you want to achieve this? Talk to us for more information. **Cat Morgan:** So you can even sometimes, you don’t need to give them the whole story. Just tempt them with a little carrot and yeah, they might just ask for more information. **Charles Clark:** Great point. So as Cat alluded to earlier, social media is inherently social. And so, I suppose, one thing … Actually this page has quite a lot on here so I think the first thing to say is you can also share other people’s content so you can see Lielette here has tweeted from the National Retail Association and on the left. And then on the right, she’s talking about a blog post on high purchase. **Charles Clark:** And she got that, I think, one of her other, she got that from LinkedIn. So her LinkedIn post. So the thing here is that if you see a fantastic post from someone else and you think that’s worth sharing to your network, that’s absolutely fine. **Charles Clark:** Even better if you can then share it with a comment saying that this is really insightful. I agree. Or maybe I disagree and this is why. And this is … I might do something a little bit differently. The point is that you don’t always have to reinvent the wheel. If you’re spending a bit of time on social media and we’ll talk about this in a few slides, you’ll start to see people that are worthwhile following. And then you can often basically retweet and comment on their pieces if you think that would be of use for you followers. **Charles Clark:** A couple other points on this page. So at the top left hand side of the National Retail Association, you can see she has put #smallbiz. So that’s using a hashtag. And she’s done it again on the right hand post and it’s #hirepurchase. **Charles Clark:** So hashtags for social media are super, super important. A hashtag basically allows someone to search for particular hashtag. So the first hashtag you should always have is for your firm. **Charles Clark:** So at BOMA, our hashtag is BOMA Marketing. So that’s the hashtag that if you type that into social media, up would come all our posts. If you typed in small business, up would come every post for all time that had been posted with that hashtag. **Charles Clark:** So if you’re talking about topics that you want to be involved in a conversation with, and obviously you always want to have your business’s name front and center, always make sure that add a hashtag. **Charles Clark:** And it doesn’t need to just be one. Think of two or three hashtags on top of your business hashtag. So on the National Retail Association one, it could be #smallbiz, #retail, #herbusinessname. **Charles Clark:** The idea here is that basically when people start to search for these things, when the social channels start to group messages under certain topics, you obviously want your post to considered in that as well. **Cat Morgan:** So that’s a way for your posts to be visible to people that follow you. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. A couple of other things that they’ve done here really nicely. So on the right hand post, you’ll see here that she’s got an arrow which points down to a link. **Charles Clark:** So this obviously links somewhere else. So the arrow is quite nice. She could have also asked, she could have had a call to action in there as well. **Charles Clark:** So a call to action is basically a couple of words which spell out to the reader what it is that you want them to do. So there’s some really common ones and it could be read more or learn more or watch the video. Or maybe it’s give us a call. **Charles Clark:** But the idea here is just in a couple of words to tell the reader what action you would like them to take because you can’t rely, when people are just surfing through their social channels, you can’t just rely on them to understand what it is that you hope them to do. **Charles Clark:** So I like the arrow. If she could have also had a read more or click here for more information, that would have been good. **Charles Clark:** I think on the Kinder Pocock we saw earlier for that webinar that she did have a link to the call to action. **Charles Clark:** And actually on the email that you would have received to sign up for this webinar, again we had that call to action which was save my seat. So just different ways which you can really make it obvious to the person what action you’ll hope they’ll do. **Charles Clark:** Now Cat you were talking about having fun earlier. And if that video isn’t fun, I don’t know what it is. **Cat Morgan:** Yeah, I know. It’s cute. Yeah, I mean I just love coming back to that point that yeah, not everything has to be super serious whip focused. **Cat Morgan:** And while for you, you’re the voice of authority to your clients. That doesn’t mean that you can’t also have some fun with them. I’m sure you do in person and at Christmas parties and things. **Cat Morgan:** But yeah, it just makes following you on social media a bit more fun. Your clients will appreciate it. So will your colleagues and your partners. **Cat Morgan:** So some ideas is to share, okay, funny puppy videos. Now you might now do that on LinkedIn. So these kind of posts are probably better off on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. **Cat Morgan:** I guess the most and ideas for fun posts on LinkedIn might be more of a team shot. Perhaps particularly if you go to an awards event and things like that. But probably Christmas parties and things like that I would reserve for, yeah, those … Remember Dolly’s picture of the more fun sites where you can show more of your whole self on Facebook and on definitely Instagram, you can share some of this fun stuff. **Cat Morgan:** So keep it simple. Keep it as real as possible. I mean there’s nothing wrong with re-sharing videos that are doing the rounds. Memes and things like that. But the more that you can share something personal to you. If you have dogs in the office and one of them is perhaps a bit vocal one day and you catch it on video. That’s a great post that you could put on Facebook, et cetera. **Cat Morgan:** So keep it fun, but choose that platform carefully. Don’t forget and if you use BOMA as well, we’ve got 1.7 million free images and plenty of fun ones to choose from. **Cat Morgan:** So again, you don’t always have to capture your own funny moments. You can absolutely create them from the content that we provide in BOMA. Add filters. Put text over the top of images, things like that. So you can definitely create a bit of fun yourself. **Charles Clark:** I was just going to say one other consideration when it comes to social media and we’ve talked about it \[inaudible 00:31:33\] being inherently social is that, as you can see on this post here, people have commented. They’ve given thumbs up. And so that is really the Holy Grail for social media. **Charles Clark:** If someone interacts and engages with your post whether it’s a funny post or they’re commenting on a more serious post, that is absolutely brilliant. **Charles Clark:** So don’t think that just you’ve done your post and that’s it and I don’t need to look at that post again. That’s not strictly true. If you start to get engagement, so people start to write and comment on your post, that is fabulous. That’s the opportunity for you to step in and answer their comments or questions or engage with them. **Charles Clark:** They may be clients but equally they may well not be clients. And it’s an opportunity for you in a really informal, no pressure setting to start that relationship building. **Charles Clark:** Because you never know a couple of weeks or months down that track, that initial interaction which came off the back of a social post leads to you might bump into them at an event or it might lead to them giving you a phone call. **Charles Clark:** And it all started from you responding in a timely fashion to a post. **Cat Morgan:** Such a good point. **Charles Clark:** On that point, social also, there are some trolls and nasty people out there. And it’s not something that really I’d expect any of us to come across. It’s mainly reserved for hot button issues and politics and things like that. **Charles Clark:** But you might have someone who says look, I disagree with something or I had a bad experience. Again, just on the flip side of commenting and responding to people who say good things, do take the time to respond to people who have had a problem or disagree. **Charles Clark:** Again, it’s a way for you to have an interaction. And even if you can’t necessarily solve their problem to their happiness at least you’ve given it a go. And people on social media will see that. They will see that you’ve gone the extra mile to try and engage and have a conversation and resolve that person’s complaints. **Charles Clark:** So really, really important whether it’s positive or negative that you don’t ignore. That you engage with it. And that will really … That’s a good maxim to live by on social. **Cat Morgan:** Yep, nice. **Charles Clark:** Great. So we’ve talked about all about social and I can hear you thinking oh, that’s quite a lot to do. And we know that you guys have actually really started to make a go on social which is fantastic. **Charles Clark:** But equally there might be some of you who are a bit nervous in thinking what is the first step to getting them there. **Charles Clark:** So I think I would actually, if it was me, Cat I don’t know about you. But I would actually just go and follow a few people that I respected and liked and see what they’re doing. What would you do? **Cat Morgan:** Great idea. Yeah, I think that’s a really great example of where to start is I’m sure you’ve probably already go your own personal Facebook and LinkedIn profile or I hope you’ve got a LinkedIn profile at least. **Cat Morgan:** So use that opportunity that follow some of your compatriots and take a look and see what they’re doing. Stalk them for a little bit. In fact, even ongoing. Keep an eye on what’s happening in the marketplace. **Cat Morgan:** So not only your competitors, but your partners so your business partners. Your associates. The Xero’s of this world. Keep engaged with what they’re talking about. What they’re posting, et cetera is a really great way to start. **Cat Morgan:** And don’t feel like you have to become an expert in everything all at once. It might be that you’re right now considering what social channel to start with. **Cat Morgan:** And I think Facebook’s probably a really great place to start because chances are you might be at least familiar with it already. It’s probably most likely where you’ll find that your clients will be. **Cat Morgan:** Of course, that does depend on who your clients are and where they’re likely to be. So there’s nothing wrong with asking. Do a little bit of a survey or just chat to a couple of your clients or a small subset and ask them where they like to engage? Where they to find information and engage with people like yourself. **Cat Morgan:** And that will drive where you should start. I advise not to get excited and go and jump onto LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and create three accounts in one day and then try to get posting to all three in once. Start with one. Get familiar with it. Make sure you’ve got a slick profile, a great header image as we’ve shown before. **Cat Morgan:** Now before you tell people about that page, as Charles mentioned before, you need to create a bit of history. So do a few posts. You won’t have any likes or shares or comments or anything. Don’t worry. You want to have a little bit history there before you start inviting people to like your page. **Cat Morgan:** A business page on Facebook is paramount. Don’t use a personal profile. There’s a whole bunch of reasons, one of being which it’s actually against Facebook’s terms and conditions to use a personal profile for business. **Cat Morgan:** So create a business page. As Charles mentioned, be responsive. Consider it more important an email because while emails will go to you directly, Facebook, the comments and questions and things are in the public forum. So people will see that a lack of response, for example. **Cat Morgan:** So I would suggest that you consider checking on Facebook a couple of times a day just to see if there’s any activity that needs to be responded and Facebook will give you those alerts in their notifications. **Cat Morgan:** And then finally, the next steps will be once you’ve got a bit of history, you’ve got your profile is to start promoting it. Have links from your website. Have links from bottom of your email footers. That’s all automatically done for you if you’re using BOMA. **Cat Morgan:** And encourage all of your team and colleagues and your network to follow you. Make it part of your new client onboarding. Any other tips, Charles on how to increase your following? **Charles Clark:** Yeah, well I mean I think there’s quite a good moment just to go down to the goals section because look, you guys a accountants and bookkeepers like all business people probably are quite good at telling your clients how they should set some goals for their businesses. **Charles Clark:** And so I am going to take the opportunity to suggest that quite good to have some written down goals for your social. And I suppose in wider sense maybe your marketing as well. **Charles Clark:** So if we just thought about the social element, what is it that you want your social activity to achieve? Is it to connect with your wider community? Or is it to get more fans and followers? **Charles Clark:** Do you want social proof? So reviews of your business that people can look at? Are you looking to basically drive some new business and maybe drive people towards your website. **Charles Clark:** So it’s quite good, because if you go on to social and just say right I’m on it, what am I going to do? And then you do a ton of different things but they all might be five steps this way, five steps that way, quite good if you know that you have your goal is more followers or you want more reviews, it can actually be targeted to that activity. **Charles Clark:** Because we know that you’ve only got so much time in your day spend on this. So take some time and write down what is it that you want to do. **Charles Clark:** Just a word on fans and followers. It can be a bit of a vanity metric. So people will say oh look, I’ve got 5000 followers. Aren’t stats amazing? **Charles Clark:** But if 90% of those fans and followers are random people who are the wrong prospects and would never consider buying your product or service, well that’s a waste of time. **Charles Clark:** You spent all that time getting to them which is wasted and then also you have to keep them happy. So much better to get the right fans and followers. **Charles Clark:** So don’t be embarrassed if you’ve got only a couple hundred or 50, if they have right fans and followers who are going to buy things from you, that’s the number that you need. Don’t worry and don’t, I suppose, have fan envy if you look at some else and they’ve got two or three more. **Charles Clark:** I would also say when you’ve been going for a couple of months or maybe half a year, just have a quick review as you would with a client. So sit down and look at your goals that you wrote a little bit earlier in the year and say have I met them? Is this still working for me? Are these still the goals that I want to go for? **Charles Clark:** Maybe you might change up your goals and say look I’ve met those goals. I’ve met my follower goals, now I’d like to drive people to my website and try and get some more business from it. **Charles Clark**: Always important to test ad iterate. So if you’re trying something on social and you find that it’s working well or not so well, take a note of it. **Charles Clark:** Like if you’re always posting something at a certain time of day, maybe it’s 5 p.m. and it doesn’t any engagement, have a think about why that might be. Was it just the time of day? Or was it that my photo wasn’t engaging enough? Or was it that my headline, so the headline copy, maybe I could make that a bit snappier. **Charles Clark:** So when you are posting, just be really mindful of who you’re posting for and what’s going to give them the most reason to stop at your post and click on it and hopefully interact with it more. And experimenting with the copy and the imagery is really, really important. **Charles Clark:** We talk about how often to post and I don’t want to dwell on this too much more because one of you have asked a really good question on that. So I’ll just say look, we’re going to come back to that. One thing I would say is just try and be consistent. Whatever that means to you. **Charles Clark:** And as we said before, just keep in mind that if someone is following your page, you want to acknowledge that and obviously make it worth their while to follow. **Cat Morgan:** So when it comes to achieving those goals you’ve just written down, you need a bit of a plan on how to achieve it. Now it doesn’t have to be that you’re doing something every day. **Cat Morgan:** However, as I’ve just mentioned, if you are encouraging engagement and questions and things via your Facebook page, of course, you’ll need to be checking that multiple times a day. **Cat Morgan:** And as I said, regard it as more important than your emails because it’s in the public eye. So have a bit of a plan. Get it in your calendar. Make it non-negotiable. So just as though it’s an important client meeting because this is client facing activities. So it is super important. **Cat Morgan:** Consider the timing, as Charles mentioned, consider when you’re going to post. When you think people will be looking at platforms. And that might be different per platform. **Cat Morgan:** So often you’ll find that it might be during the day people are regularly scrolling through LinkedIn. So during working hours could be a great time to post to LinkedIn. **Cat Morgan:** Whereas Facebook it might be early in the morning or in the evening or perhaps around lunchtimes. Now of course many businesses are on Facebook all day every day, particularly if you’ve got retail clients, you might want to do something specifically targeting them during a time where you know they’ll be online. **Cat Morgan:** Probably not during the busy lunchtime period. So yeah. Consider your audience and when they are likely to be on each social platform. **Cat Morgan:** Visit pages that are relevant to your industry and space as well as maybe even your clients’ industries and consider when they’re posting and again, how you could maybe reuse that content too. **Cat Morgan:** So scheduling posts is a great way to take the burden down so to speak so that you don’t have to necessarily log in and create posts. Every couple of days, et cetera, you might do a plan once a week and schedule the week’s posts ahead. **Cat Morgan:** Now that’s all functionality you can really easily do in BOMA. So consider consistency as Charles has mentioned that … And for my … I’ll point to a slides ago is how to get started. **Cat Morgan:** Maybe it’s Facebook and maybe you’re going to start with one post a week. Ideally don’t get excited, do three first posts for the few weeks. Three posts a week for the first three and do nothing for three weeks. That consistency really is paramount. **Cat Morgan:** So start off with one a week and then perhaps if you can build to two or three then you’re going to really meet those expectations and those goals that you’ve ideally set yourself. **Charles Clark:** And just the last one on there I would say if you are getting good, if some posts of yours are really performing well. So that might be that they set, you get a lot of impressions. And an impression is basically when someone has seen your post. **Charles Clark:** So if someone, if you get high impression numbers or lots of people like or they comment on it. That’s basically a sign that it’s working well. And if that’s the case, you could always consider putting … Basically boosting it or sponsoring it. **Charles Clark:** And so what do I mean by that? I mean that you could, either through BOMA or through the social channel directly, you could say look I want to spend five or 10 dollars and to basically boost that post and that channel. **Charles Clark:** And the great thing about boosting posts is that you can actually say look, I want to target a specific group of people in a specific area. So you could say I want to target retailers or tradees or agricultural people in my geographical space aged between this and that who have specific interests. **Charles Clark:** And then Facebook or LinkedIn or Twitter will basically try and only show your post so those people. So a great way to reach maybe a new audience outside of your current followers who hadn’t seen you before. **Charles Clark:** And the nice thing is if you’re boosting a popular post which has a ton of likes and comments on it, people take that social proof as basically oh, this must be a really great article or a post to engage with. I’m going to click on the button, because obviously lots of people have enjoyed this post before me. **Charles Clark:** So groups. And I know that this isn’t strictly how to promote your firm or your business online. But don’t forget that Facebook and LinkedIn groups especially are really, really important from your professional or personal, professional development as well. **Charles Clark:** So there are so many groups out there and some of them are run by accountants and bookkeepers. Some of them are run by, I suppose, accounting apps. I know Xero has some. I know lots of them have them. Or maybe user apps. **Charles Clark:** And they’re basically places where you can ask questions. You can chat with your fellow colleagues. You can talk about clients and seek answers to things that maybe you weren’t sure about. **Charles Clark:** I mean ideally, it’s a place where you’ll get support. And we know that especially the last six, eight months have been pretty difficult for everyone. But all the accountants and bookkeepers we know have been really, really stretched because their clients have been really, I suppose, needing a lot of support. **Charles Clark:** So think of these are really supporting efforts as well that you can dip in and out of. You can ask questions. And most of them also do have rules that say look whatever we talk about in here doesn’t go outside of the group. **Charles Clark:** So you can feel that actually it’s a place where you can let the professional guard down a little bit and just get that honest support. And obviously, you can give support as well. That’s the nice thing about it. It’s not just all give. Sorry, take. It’s giving as well. **Cat Morgan:** That’s right. Including creating a group specifically for your clients. So there’s public and private groups. You can create one as a safe space for your client. And that’s a really great way as well to share knowledge in a one to many approach. **Charles Clark:** That’s great. Well look, I know that we’re coming to the end of it and so we’ve just got a couple of minutes left. So we got about 40 questions from you guys. And so we’ve just tried to keep it small because we know that time is of the essence. Charles Clark: So I feel like number one we’ve actually mostly covered in terms of frequency. But the second one. What should I do if I have nothing to post? **Charles Clark:** Well I hope that we gave you some ideas in terms of sharing industry news, firm updates, client news, personal news. I suppose the other thing I could say is BOMA’s got a massive content library of basically of a whole range of articles, business advisory, taxation updates. You name it, it’s on there. **Charles Clark:** And you can basically go in there and just choose an article that you want to send and it will just actually post up to your social channels. **Charles Clark:** So if you’re really strapped for ideas, there’s always the BOMA content library. Cat, we were talking, well you were talking earlier about the showing your personality alongside the content. The educational content. **Cat Morgan:** Yeah. And when you show your personality as well, you’re likely to get more engagement. What is engagement? Likes, clicks, shares and comments. **Cat Morgan:** So think about for a start, I guess, what is going to be engaging? What do you think your clients would like to see and would likely to comment on? **Cat Morgan:** So things like even adding a question into your post to encourage that engagement. Run polls or run a catch and \[inaudible 00:49:38\] competition. These are all really great ways to get that engagement going. **Cat Morgan:** And why engagement is good is because if one of your followers engages with your posts then their friends or contacts will see that engagement. So it’s giving you visibility into the network of the people that are engaging with your posts. **Cat Morgan:** So yes, think about images, video is a really great option to encourage engagement. And really just copy and images that you think will really draw them in and respond them. **Cat Morgan:** Also as Charles mentioned, you can boost the posts. So chunk a bit of money behind it show that post to a new audience as well and get engagement from some new prospects. **Charles Clark:** Now one of my favourite questions here is how to use social media for lead generation? So there’s a couple of different ways you could do this. You could go out and do ads. **Charles Clark:** So specific ads talking about this is a product or service we offer. This is why it’s great. You should come and speak to us. So that’s one way to do lead generation and I’ll talk about this in a minute when we address the sixth question. **Charles Clark:** The other side of things is that you could do something like Cat said. You could run polls. You could also run a webinar like we’re doing. So you could run a webinar and then you could talk about it on your social channels. **Charles Clark:** And when people can click through from your social posts, sign up for a webinar and then that’s fantastic. You’ve now got a lead. And then you can lead them maybe into your next newsletter or you can if you have asked for their phone number, you could even give them a call and drive those leads. **Charles Clark:** Other ideas is that you could have gated content. So basically a valuable piece of content. Maybe it would be stored on your website. But you could talk about it on your social pages and to get that valuable piece of content, people have to give you their email address and maybe some other details. **Charles Clark:** When they give you that email address, your website then gives them a link to download. And it might be a white paper. It might be something relevant, a tax research paper that you’ve put out or you have access to. **Charles Clark:** And that’s another great way to get lead generation. They have indicated that they are specifically interested in a topic. And ideally that topic would be something that your business, your firm can speak to in a good way. **Charles Clark:** So you could then follow up and say, “Hey, I saw that you downloaded this research paper. Did you know that we’ve got great expertise in this. And look and here’s a case study.” And then you start that nurturing process. You give them the case study. **Charles Clark:** They’ll see how you’ve helped other businesses like them in this situation which hopefully leads to the conversation along the lines of I didn’t realise I needed this help. Could you help me? What would that look like? **Cat Morgan:** Nice. And when it comes to posting on your individual profile of your business page, it does vary slightly. So really Facebook should be all about your business page. **Cat Morgan**: Obviously, LinkedIn you’ve got a really strong profile with both. Chances are your individual profile, you’ll probably have more contacts than your business page has followers. **Cat Morgan:** So a really great way to encourage engagement is for individuals in your business to take the company page post, like and share it. So that really helps build the profile of the company page by everyone liking and sharing and engaging with that one post. **Cat Morgan:** So that’s a really great way to boost the firm profile while making use of your individual contact database. **Charles Clark:** So the sixth question. So this was actually three or four questions and we’ve grouped them in together. So firstly, is worth spending money on ads, whether they be social or Google? Or is there a better way to reach your target audience? **Charles Clark:** So if we were talking 15 years ago when social media was in its infancy, you didn’t necessarily on the social channels have to spend money to be noticed. **Charles Clark:** Nowadays you definitely have to spend money to be noticed. Or you have to have a large group of followers who will see your organic posts. So if it was me, I would say definitely always consider Google ads. That’s basically people put in a search terms or they might put accountant in a city or a town location, maybe with tax or some other advisory relation, word. **Charles Clark:** And why not have your firm appear there? It’s a really cheap and effective way for your business to be put in front of people who are going through that research and exploration consideration phase. **Charles Clark:** When it comes to advertising on social, look if you know that your clients or prospective clients spend time on LinkedIn or Facebook, yes I would definitely recommend doing that. Just make sure that when you are doing it, you really consider strongly do you have a strong target market? Do you have, I suppose, a good offer? Some good creative. We’re always happy to help with that. **Charles Clark:** And I suppose be inventive as well. So it doesn’t always just have to be an ad. You could advertise a webinar. You could advertise an event. You could do a giveaway. There’s lots of different ways that you could get people, I suppose, to know about you. **Charles Clark:** You get their contact details. And then you can start, I suppose, that marketing and sales process which ultimately hopefully will lead them through to being a client of yours. **Charles Clark:** And the last question in terms of measuring ROI. So I suppose there’s two answers to this. If you are doing an ad, it’s really easy to measure ROI. So say you were running an ad and you spent $100 and you got 10 leads. And all those leads, so you said, okay, well it cost me $10 per lead. And all of those leads, one of them turned into a client. And you could say okay, well it cost me … Because you had to do a bit more work to get them, but maybe it cost me $100 purely from Google to get that lead, but I billed them $2000 in the first year. **Charles Clark:** Well, that’s amazing ROI. So that’s a really easy way to understand it. If you are just doing general social and looking at the ROI, it’s not as, I suppose, cut and dry. **Charles Clark:** So we’ve talked before about your website being your online shop window and your social media channels are only second in importance to that. You need to have them. If you don’t have them, you just don’t know how many leads you’re going to miss out on because people went and looked and didn’t see anything. **Charles Clark:** They didn’t see, compared to say the accounting and bookkeeping firm down the road. They didn’t see a history of you publishing interesting things. **Charles Clark:** They didn’t see you a history of you holding events and doing webinars and being interactive with your community. They didn’t see the case studies. So I suppose it’s a bit of an opportunity cost to not do social when you can do it so easily and so cheaply these days. It makes it a no brainer. **Charles Clark:** Especially if you can start to get things which are quantifiable. So if you can get reviews on your social channels, amazing. Having that social proof on there does make a massive difference. **Charles Clark:** If you can then also put links to your blog posts. And then you can actually track how many people come from your social channels to your website. **Charles Clark:** So you can actually say okay, those posts that I’m doing on Google analytics I can see that I’m getting traffic through there. **Charles Clark:** So I would say for the amount of, and I’m just going to call it time, the amount of time that’s needed to be invested in social, even if you’re not doing any advertising. So it’s only time in terms of that you’re spending. I would say you just really, you need to be on it. **Charles Clark:** If you’re not on it, you can pretty much guarantee that most of your competitors will be. And the way that the market is going is that if you think basically anyone in their mid-40s or younger has been brought up with social media at least from their 20s. **Charles Clark:** So they are completely used to and expect the firms and brands and companies that they deal with to have social media. **Charles Clark:** If you only have clients of the older demographics, that’s absolutely fine. Maybe it’s not so relevant. But then you have to think okay, well what happens in 10 or 15 years to the health of my business if I am not moving with the times. **Charles Clark:** So really, social media has become like a website now. You can’t really afford not to be involved. But you can do it in cost effective ways. **Charles Clark:** And that’s, I think, why we’re involved is that we can obviously, BOMA can help you do that in a really cost-effective way. **Cat Morgan:** Excellent. Well looks like we are one minute over now. Thank you all so much for your time. It’s been a pleasure. We will send a follow up email tomorrow with a recording of the webinar. Also, feel free to reply to that email if you have some additional questions that we didn’t cover today. **Cat Morgan**: I think we tried our best to cover as many as we could during the question time and during the presentation. Certainly, we’ll come back to you if there’s a need that we didn’t specifically cover. **Charles Clark:** Thank so much everyone for joining us. **Cat Morgan:** Thank you all. Cheers, bye. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [BOMA + Wolters Kluwer CCH Partnership Launch](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/boma-wolters-kluwer-cch-partnership-launch/) **Published:** May 11, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** We’re excited to announce our content partnership with Wolters Kluwer CCH, the world’s leading provider of tax and accounting information. In this webinar we showcase how Wolters Kluwer + BOMA will enable you to deliver real time, thought leadership content via a powerful digital marketing and communication platform ensuring you can nurture and support your clients while also driving business growth. **NB: You can also read a full transcript of this session below.** ## ‘BOMA + Wolters Kluwer CCH Partnership Launch’ Transcript **Charles Clark:** Brilliant. Well, look, I think we’ll get started everyone. So thank you so much for joining us. We realise that you’re all busy. So thank you for taking the time. I’m really thrilled to be talking with everyone today and really thrilled to be welcoming Sarah Ingram, who is product manager of APAC Wolters Kluwer. Hi Sarah. **Sara Ingram:** Hi. Thanks Charles. It’s nice to be here to talk about our new partnership. **Charles Clark:** Fantastic. And joining me as well is Liz. Start off, hi Liz. **Liz Studholme:** Hello everyone. Nice to be here. **Charles Clark:** Great. So as I mentioned a couple of minutes ago, if you do have any questions, do pop them into the chat box in the Q and A, we’ll do our best to answer them as we go through and love to hear any questions or any insights as we go through. So look, I’ll kick off and get into the first slide. So about BOMA, I mean, a lot of you may have heard about us, but maybe haven’t checked us out for a while, but we are basically the first app out there which is designed specifically to help accountants and bookkeepers, I suppose communicate and market themselves to their clients and prospects. So we’ve got a huge library of customisable content articles, again, which is written specifically for you guys. And it’s from the perspective of you talking to your clients and prospects. **Charles Clark:** So it’s written for them. It’s not written for you, it’s written for you to deliver value to them. So this can be shared via email, via social media, and also via website blog. And the aim of it is to bring real value to your clients by highlighting issues that may affect their businesses and providing insights that help them to survive and to thrive. So BOMA, as I said, is a communications tool. And what we’re doing with this partnership is marrying it with Wolters Kluwer so Sarah, can you tell us a little bit about what is clear for those of us who aren’t too familiar with them? **Sara Ingram:** Yeah, sure Charles. I know many of you on this webinar, would’ve heard of CCH, such as the CCH master tax guide, but for those of you that we are actually owned by our parent company, which is called Wolters Kluwer. And so Wolters Kluwer is a global provider of professional information and software solutions across the world for health legal tax and accounting. Yeah, those main sectors. And so we serve customers in over 180 countries and we have just over 19,000 employees worldwide. We also have three offices in New Zealand. So we have our head office in Auckland, Takapuna and Christchurch, and I’m actually based in Takapuna. So Charles, do you want to talk about the new partnership? **Charles Clark:** Yeah. So we’ve seen a lot of research coming out in the last, I suppose, 18 months. And there’s sort of a pre COVID and post COVID world. And the reality now is that the number one characteristic that clients and SME are looking for from their accountant is good communication. And pre COVID, it was all about professionalism and sector level expertise. And obviously those go still without saying, but communication is the number one thing. And so what does that mean? It’s communication that supports them, that empowers them, that helps them and their business survive in these pretty, I suppose, unique periods. **Charles Clark:** And we know that the key to good communication is always having something to say. And so BOMA has always made it easy, I suppose, to support clients. And we see this partnership with Wolters Kluwer, who are the leading expert information providers has just given you access to an additional and unique set of content articles in the library, which I suppose, going to revolutionise how you can connect them and we were talking to Sarah recently about when you first saw by which I think was, was it 2017? **Sara Ingram:** Yeah, it was about, I think the first demo I attended was in 2018 and ever since I saw that first demo of BOMA, I just realised the potential of combining. I knew our content so well. So I knew the potential of combining our specialised content with this easy to use communication platform from BOMA. And I just saw how it could revolutionise the way that accountants could connect with their clients and their prospects. **Charles Clark:** Cool. So let’s look a little bit more into who Wolters Kluwer CCH are. **Sara Ingram:** Yeah. So I just wanted to give a bit of background because sometimes people don’t realise that the different services that we provide across New Zealand. So to start with, I just wanted to mention CCH. I know which is our latest online research platform for accountants and tax advisors. Some of you may be aware of InteleConnect. So this is our new updated version of InteleConnect. We also obviously do CCH learning, which is predominantly delivering online learning webinars. Also, you’d all be familiar with our CCH books, so obviously we have the title such as the CCH Master Tax Guide, but also other really important titles out there. Finally, some of you may have heard of CCH business partners and that’s who I originally started working with out of Takapuna. We are a practical content suite, and we sit inside both CCH I know and CCH iFirm Intranet. **Sara Ingram:** And so CCH business fitness is basically a range of practical tools for accountants. So we have things like procedures, checklists, calculators, and some of you may be using our really popular and comprehensive set of work papers. I think that’s one thing that we are really known for. But something else that if we just jump to the next slide, something else that we do is for many, many years, CCH business fitness have been producing a white label newsletter service, which is currently called accelerate. And this was for accounting firms that they could customise it slightly in that traditional sort of word format. And they could then brand it as their own, put their logo at the top et cetera, and then share that with their clients. So this is the specialised content, plus some of our frequently asked questions and guides that we’ve made available in BOMA. **Sara Ingram:** And so this content within BOMA is just a few short clicks away from sharing with your clients. And I just want to talk a little bit more in detail about the content. So we actually have a team of professional writers who are continually working on creating articles based on the latest tax and business news that will impact your clients. Our articles are reviewed by our tax team to ensure that they’re technically correct, because we know that’s really important to you. We write them specifically for your clients, not you. So they are jargon free and obviously compelling to read. And most of our articles tend to include a call to action. So this is to help you engage with your clients and grow your business. So for example, when Liz does the demo shortly, you’ll see things like, come join us for a cup of coffee to discuss this further. And with no further ado, I should hand over to you Liz to do a bit of a demo for us. **Liz Studholme:** Thank you. Fiddling with my screen. And I’m hoping I haven’t…. Actually, let’s first, before we demo, let’s just quickly talk about marketing because I think it’s important to have this conversation about marketing because I think we sometimes think marketing means selling. And particularly for the accounting bookkeeping industry selling is kind of, well, a lot of your business might come through referral and selling is not something that I guess you’re that focused on necessarily. But marketing, is we know a lot more than selling it’s about communication, nurturing and supporting your clients. And it’s about positioning yourself as the right choice when a prospect is looking for an accountant or a bookkeeper. And it has changed, it used to be a kind of you’d buy an ad in the paper or an ad on the radio. For example, you’d send a broadcast message out and you would hope that you’re going to reach some of the people that you’re wanting to reach. **Liz Studholme:** Now, marketing is way more, I guess intimate, it’s personalised and you’re going to send it out via our channel and talk directly to those people that you’re trying to talk to. But it’s kind of particularly important as an accountant, I suppose that you’ve got unique specialised skills and you are going to use those to address those unique challenges of your audience. So it makes sense that you’re sending a personalised message. The other thing about marketing that’s changed is that the old methods were broadcast, but you also paid a rep to get your ad in the paper or an ad on the radio. And now you own those channels. So you own your email marketing list and you own your social media channels. So you’ve got more control. You do it yourself. With that comes a bit of work and that’s why we created BOMA in order to help you do that. **Liz Studholme:** So if we look at the next slide that just shows you, I suppose, what we’re going to look at in a minute, when I do a demo. Within BOMA, you can send Facebook posts, tweets, LinkedIn posts, and emails and BOMA auto formats for the channel you choose. You can also do social ads as well on Facebook and Instagram, but we’re going to look at these four channels to begin with. So if I share my screen and I’ll take you through a demo, so we are on the dashboard of BOMA at the moment, some of you may have come across this before and had a trial. Well, there’s a lot of things that you can do in BOMA but for the purposes of today, we’re going to show you how the world’s clear content works in BOMA. So first thing that you can do, you can create a campaign starting in here. **Liz Studholme:** You can start with the channels that you want to choose. You can send an email, social media update or send to all of those free channels in one, you can create a social media ad or a lead form. We are going to start instead, with the content library in order to build a campaign. So if I go into the content library, at the top, I can see the most recent content. There is Wolters Kluwer content in here because Wolters Kluwer are putting content into the free content library. So once you’ve got your subscription, you come with a content library. And within that, you’ll see there is some content in there. So keeping you and your staff pain-free at work. This is a nice piece of content that you could send. You can see the images there, the social poster is written for you, which is this first bit and email content you can send out. **Liz Studholme:** We’re going to go back and look at the premium libraries that we have. You can see that there are a number of partners that we work with here. I can select content based on those libraries. I can also select under the categories of compliance, general management strategy, people, which is HR, sales and marketing, tax and technology. To access the premium content you would click on this button here and it would take you into a page that talks about why we work with Wolters Kluwer CCH and why you should use that content and how to access it. So I’ve already done that in here. So I’m going to go into that premium library and I can see a whole lot of content in here that I can share with my audience. So for example, if we click on a piece of content, I can see that BOMA has created an image for me. **Liz Studholme:** So that can be the image for my social post. There is the social post. All of this will be, you’re able to customise it, change it, write it from scratch if you like, or just add to it, you might want to add hashtags. For example, I can see that this piece of content here is the content that I can send in my email. And I’ve also got a downloadable guide. And if I click on that button, and come to the side, I can see that there is a nice downloadable guide that I can send through too, which is we are posted. So when it goes through to my audience in an email, they can download the guide as well. **Liz Studholme:** So let’s go back into the main area. I want to send something for example, on provisional text, which I know is an area that’s confusing to people. So let’s click on this piece of content, avoiding the pitfalls. I’ve got a nice little bit of intro text here. Some are along, some are shorter depending. I’ve got a guide here that I can download, can look at that guide and decide if that’s what I want to send, can review all of that. I’ve decided that is content that I want to send so I’m going to deliver it. **Liz Studholme:** I can send it via email, social media. Let’s send it to both for the purposes of this demo. In here is the first step where you can change the name. No one sees that, that’s only for you, but if you were, for example, only going to send that to your trade clients for example, then you might put dash trade and then send another campaign and send something slightly different to your retail clients or hospitality or something like that. Start, and at this first stage, I’m being given a tour, but I’m just going to take that tour off. **Liz Studholme:** You can see that here is the social post. If I added something in here, let’s see, for example, anything you write here, you’ll see comes through to the next screen. Then I can see my email content here. I’m going to continue at this point. But anything you make at this point will be brought through to the next, the channel stage of the campaign, where we’re going to personalise for each channel that we are connected to. **Liz Studholme:** So when you do set up your BOMA account, all you need to do is upload your logo, add some email contacts, which is very easy to do and connect to the social pages that you have. We’ve connected to LinkedIn business, LinkedIn personal, twitter, Facebook, and there’s my email available to send because I’ve got that contact list in there. If I go up to LinkedIn and click the preview, my LinkedIn post look like, and you can that text I added there is there. I can also come in here and change all of that. I don’t want to put that bit of GoBoard text in there. I can take channels out at this point. If I look at Twitter, I can also preview there. **Liz Studholme:** And that’s what my tweet will look like. The text that I’ve added at the beginning is in there, but again, I can change it. So you might want to say, for example, be slightly different in your LinkedIn post to your tweet and your Facebook post. Facebook’s a bit different because of fake news. Facebook, won’t let a third party post on your behalf in order to combat fake news. So they work around just copy and paste, but of course you could start from scratch and you could change all of this text. Do you have trouble managing provisional tax, for example, in your business? **Liz Studholme:** So Facebook’s going to be a different message to LinkedIn now. If I go into email, I can also see that I’ve got a subject line written for me. I’ve got a preview description. It’s the first bit of text that you see when you open your email account is written for me, from name, which will sit at the bottom of my email and email address is there. All of that I can change if I want to, but it just makes it a lot easier that it’s already there. Then I’m going to go in and choose who I’m going to send it to. And within BOMA in your contact list, you can add your own tag. So this is something that you can create yourself based on filters that make sense for you. So depending on your client base, you might have ones that you can either. For example, we talked about trade and if I put trade in there and select that, I can send that just to my trade accounts. **Liz Studholme:** You can also select your contacts manually, save and close, and we are ready to start pulling our email together. So BOMA gives you a whole lot of templates to choose from. These are nice, beautiful looking templates that take a little bit longer. If you’re going to send a newsletter, you might want to use something like that, or we can select the basic template, which BOMA creates for you as soon as you upload your logo. When you upload your logo, BOMA pulls the colors out of that logo and creates a template based on those colors and you can choose background colors, button colors, et cetera. So wait for that to open. And you can see on the right hand side, I’ve got options as to how I pull that content in. If I want to create a newsletter, I could pull the short content in. I want to send that whole piece of content by itself because I have just had a conversation with these particular clients about prov tax and therefore I want to send them an email to follow up. **Liz Studholme:** I can see that I’ve got the guide there. If I didn’t have that button there, I might want to add something else like a button. So I could drag in a button, change that text to contact us and use where I want that button to go. It might be open a webpage, a contact us page, or send an email to me and fill in the details here. And that will open up an email for you, for them to send back to you. I can also change all of this text. And if you just click in, you can see that the text editor is opened up. I just go to the front there, even just add a personal greeting with space. Choosing a merge tag allows me to choose a first name and that pulls the first name from my database so that I get a personalised email immediately. **Liz Studholme:** I might want to take a bullet point out or add a bullet point. I’m just going to write like that. So I’m not spending too much time doing that here, but you can see that all of the content there is changeable and even the image. So you can see that I can change the image there, you get access to a huge library, free images within BOMA. So you’re not searching the web for images and they’re free to use across your channels. I can preview that email here before I go on this desktop and on mobile. See what that looks like, save and close. And when I’m happy that I’ve covered that off, just taking a little bit time to close, you can see that you can send a test email. So send an email to yourself before you send your campaign out or to someone in the office to do a final check, and then you’re ready to go. **Liz Studholme:** The final step is scheduled delivery, and you can either send it immediately. Or if it’s got really late, send it for a specific time the following day, or you might want to spend an hour in the morning on Monday morning and get your emails for the week and send it out on the following day and schedule. If I exit now, go to the dashboard and go into my campaigns. You can see that that campaign is there and it’s scheduled to go. While it’s scheduled and not already sent, I can revert to draft and change it. I can also duplicate campaigns. I’ve already sent and can look at campaigns that I’ve sent for example, and look at where I’ve sent them, email, Facebook, LinkedIn, business LinkedIn, personal and Twitter. And if I click on there, because this is a test campaign, the numbers are going to be very small, but you can see that in a normal account, these numbers are going to be better. **Liz Studholme:** And you can see that BOMA collects all the engagement data. So, how many people opened your email? How many clicked on it if there was a link, and across your social pages, your impressions clicks, shares, likes, et cetera. **Liz Studholme:** Back into the dashboard. There are a number of other things that you can do in BOMA, but we won’t cover those today. But if you do start a free trial, then everyone gets free training. You can ask questions in that because it’s a one on one video call and there will be specific things that you want to do in your company that might be different to someone else. So your marketing objectives might be different. You might want to grow, or you might want to simply tell your existing audience more about the other services in your business. So if I pass back to you, Charlie. **Charles Clark:** Cool. So BOMA pricing is super straightforward. So if you have less than 2000 email contacts, it’s $60+ GST per month. So this includes, I suppose, unlimited users. You can also do as many social campaigns as you want, feed pages, all those sorts of things. And you also get access to all our free content libraries. You can see there that if you have between 2001 and 5,000, then it goes up to $121+ GST. Those are the monthly prices. If you choose after a while to ship to annual, then you can save 15%. These are the prices for the BOMA subscription. And then Sarah, do you want to talk a little bit about how they can access the Wolters Kluwer content? **Sara Ingram:** Yeah, sure. It really depends. If you are a business fitness subscriber, we can put, provide you with an unlock code, which will unlock our premium library within BOMA. So you just need to contact us. Either you are Wolters Kluger closed solutions manager or run the team at business fitness or email us. And we can provide you with your unlock code to access that premium library, if you want to do it through BOMA. You get your BOMA subscription and you want to subscribe to the CCH premium content library in BOMA. That’s going to cost you an additional $40+ GST per month. **Charles Clark:** Brilliant. So the great thing with that is that you can take it at any time, so you could try it. You can trial BOMA free for 14 days. As Liz said, you’ll get a free demo in training and the training isn’t linked only to the start of your trial, if you are a month or two in, and you suddenly have a new team member join, or you’ve been a whole day, and you need a bit of a refresher, you can reach out to us at any time and we’re happy to take you through whatever questions you might have about an aspect of BOMA. It’s really easy in terms of sign up for trial, you can go to bomamarketing.com, click on the try now, and you can start your free trial. Once your trial is underway. If you do want to just access the Wolters Kluwer content through BOMA, you can raise a support ticket or send us an email to support@bomamarketing.com and request that the library be switched on, we’ll charge your credit card and in the library will be ready to go. **Charles Clark:** So it’s really, really easy if you do want to try the library and then after, maybe it’s not for you, that’s fine. It’s just a month to month requirement. So you can have it for as long or as little as you want. So that’s sort of, it is pretty easy to go and moving on to questions. And this is a great time actually, because Christie has asked, does BOMA integrate with Xero and other add-ons such as HubSpot? Yes we do integrate with Xero HQ. So if you are a Xero HQ or an HPM user, you can sync up BOMA to Xero HQ. And so what that will do is every 24 hours, BOMA will sync with Xero HQ and pull out the contacts that you have. And so that will update every day. So in terms of other add-ons, so we don’t integrate with HubSpot, but we do integrate with Zapier. **Charles Clark:** So in terms of Zapier integration, our first, I suppose, add-on that we’ve done is linking through to WordPress. So if you have a WordPress website, you can click on a button on some of the BOMA content, and then you can post that directly to your WordPress website as a blog. So this was a feature that a lot of our BOMA users were asking for because they were copying content and then putting onto their website. And so now they’re able to just, once they’ve integrated Zapier with their WordPress site and it takes about five, 10 minutes. Now, that’s just a sort of one, one button touch and you can either post it live immediately, or you can as a draft and then go in there and just make any changes that you wanted to do. Maybe you want to change the image or the title, or sort of add a bit of some more context to it. Suzie, great question. So how often is BOMA’s content updated and BOMA does it happen once a month? Liz, you are probably best place to answer this. **Liz Studholme:** Yeah, so I think I’ve just typed notes to that. So there’ll be new content every week in the premium library, there will be content going into the main free library that you get with your bonus subscription, but it won’t be as frequent as the premium content, which is going in every week. **Charles Clark:** And also an earlier a question from Donna, does it mean you can send accelerate articles through BOMA? So the answer is yes, there’ll be a range in the premium library, so you can create a newsletter. And so what actually a great element in BOMA is that you can actually pull in the email multiple pieces of content from the content library into a newsletter. So you could have a short introduction that you write and then pull in two or three or four pieces of content. And as Liz showed you, you’ve gotten different format choices that you can have. So you could pull in three sort of short pieces of content that then have a call to action button, a title, a bit of maybe 40, 50 words of an introduction. And then that links out through sort of reading the whole article. **Sara Ingram:** And Charles, sorry, I just like to add there that, I just think it just gives you that pick mix. So you have choice and it’s really easy to customise and obviously the newsletter is already branded as your own so you’re not having to fiddle with logos and things like that. But you know, if there’s an article that you don’t want to use, you don’t have to use it, whereas in our sort of traditional accelerate, it’s already all done for you. So yeah, I think this is a much more advanced feature that you can pick and mix and choose the articles that you want to use. **Liz Studholme:** Two questions. One is, I’ll get you to do the unsubscribes Charlie, but I’ll talk about the FAQs and iFirm if you like. Someone’s asked, can you send specific client FAQs from iFirm and to BOMA and yes, you can. And I’d probably best to share screen, to show you how to do that or explain that within BOMA. There is another way of creating a campaign and that is to share a link. So if, for example, you’ve written your own blog on your site, or you’ve got some content from… **Charles Clark:** Do you want to share that list? If you can. **Liz Studholme:** Yeah, I can share that. **Liz Studholme:** Do you want to answer the question about unsubscribe while I do that. **Charles Clark:** Yeah go on. So the question was if a client unsubscribes, are they removed automatically from a contact list or does it have to be done manually? So yes, if a client clicks, so every email that you send out from BOMA comes with an unsubscribe button. If they choose to unsubscribe, they will be unsubscribed from all future emails in BOMA. They won’t be deleted from BOMA, so you can still see what you’ve sent in the past, if they choose to resubscribe. They might do that over the phone with you. They might send you an email or they might even sign up again on a lead capture form by a bonus. So they said, great. I’d like to hear more about what you have to offer. Maybe they were just getting sort of overwhelmed with you all their subscriptions. And so they sort of canceled a few, but yeah, it’s done automatically. You don’t have to do it manually. **Liz Studholme:** Okay. I’ve just clicked into an article on BOMA’s marketing site. And if I click on, if I copy that link, I’m going to go back into BOMA, and I want to create a campaign that brings people back into my website. So click create, I want to send this as a social media update. I’m not going to worry about the title there and click start. And it’s asking me what I’d like to share. I’d like to share a link. Now this might be an FAQ for example, about iFi. And if I paste that link here, you can see BOMA goes in and finds the first text. It finds the image that’s been specified as the open graph image, just to be a bit technical. We’ve got FAQ on this. Not every website in the world has set their images for their blogs correctly, but there are ways around that. **Liz Studholme:** So I’m going to accept that and go through the next stage. I can see that a little bit of text is being pulled and I will need to just massage that a bit to make that’s right, make that right and continue to the next stage. And I’ve got an instant campaign. So this is really useful. For example, if there’s something that’s really specific to your audience that maybe isn’t in Boer, but you’ve found an article online that is not gated, and you’d like to share, then you can go in and share that using link share. So that’s a social post that we are creating. I could turn on email and create that email, but just for this quick demo, it gives you an idea of how easy that is to share a link, to create a campaign. I pass back to you. **Charles Clark:** Another question was how many articles are there to choose from? It’s always good to have a lot of varieties. So in BOMA itself, in the main library there to 300 articles, sometimes there’s more, sometimes a little bit less. The reason behind that is that we have a lot of seasonal articles. So you can imagine at Christmas or Easter, we sort of put in relevant seasonal articles go in, and then they expire after a short amount of time. And it’s the same around things like end of financial year, GST time, provisional tax time, Liz will basically upload content specific to that sort of period and then will expire it after that sort of time has moved on. In terms of the Wolters Kluwer articles, Liz… **Liz Studholme:** There’s over 40 at launch at the moment. **Liz Studholme:** But yeah, there will be more being added every week. And I think something that we do to sometimes get feedback on is, gosh, there’s so much content I don’t know where to start. So I do recommend that you use the filters either based on topics or libraries, but topics really helpful those categories on the left hand side that we looked at so that you can choose something that’s relevant because this content that if keep scrolling down every week, new content will sit at the top and you may have missed something. We do send to all our subscribers, a newsletter out every fortnight. That just as a reminder of what the latest content that’s gone at the library is that usually just covers the free to use content, not the premium libraries and you’ll know that because there, if you’re a premium library user that you know, anything new that’s in there, you can go and have a look, but it just is a nice little reminder to go, okay. I might send a campaign on that this week. **Charles Clark:** Another question, which is, does BOMA have a content management system allowing you to customise content based on database attributes? So I suppose my answer to this is that in BOMA you’re able to tag your people in your database and I think Liz demoed that. So you could have maybe some of your database who are clients and non-clients, and then be broken down further into some, sort of maybe a vertical trade or retailer or agricultural some, you can tag them based on a whole, I suppose, whatever way or descriptor that you want to use, you can tag them on. Then when you send them out an email, you can say, okay, I want to send this particular type of content to this sort of person. So based on the tag, so you might want to send everything to non-clients, or maybe it’s clients, but who are living in a specific area and you have gone and tagged them. There’s not an automated way, but there is very much a tagging system, which means that you can send, I suppose, the most relevant content to the right sorts of people in your database. **Charles Clark:** And then, sorry, Liz, another question which was directed at you, which is if I take, a little maybe also a question for Sarah, if I take the MV deduction sheet on iFi, which is a word document, does that work the same way? **Sara Ingram:** So I guess it’s asking Liz, can you upload a document as an attachment? Like a word document? **Liz Studholme:** And Charlie, I think you’d have to paste that in, but I might have to come back to you Donna, on that one. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. So you can, we do have some users who like to put in, I suppose, links to PDFs and sign their emails. Or a word document, the way that they do this at the moment is that they might create that word document and put it into Google drive. And so therefore it’s an online document. They can take a link and then they can put that link into their or email, or it could be into a social post. And then when the user opens it, clicks on that button, it will take them through to that live, I suppose cloud based document. If it’s a PDF, another way obviously you can put it into like a cloud service system. **Charles Clark:** `So you can put it into a cloud storage system and they could go through and access like that. Or you could put it on your website, load it up as a piece of media that would also generate a link. And then you could put that link into the email or social post. And then when the end user clicks on it, it will take them through that PDF. So slight work around on that one, but I hope it gives you an idea of how you can do it. **Liz Studholme:** Yeah we can find out more information on that one and come back to you. But if it is personal to that client, then you may not want to be hosting on your website, but certainly those would, those other options that Charles talked about would be good options or you’d have to include it in the email. **Charles Clark:** Good. So is there any more questions? I think we’ve done pretty well in them, but if anyone has any more questions, don’t hesitate to pop them in. We’ll also be sending out a follow-up email with a recording of this. So if you have a question after the fact and you’d like to find out more, obviously feel free just to reply to it and we’ll be in touch with an answer and more information as Liz said. **Sara Ingram:** Yeah. Thanks everyone. And don’t feel any obligation to, you can do a no obligation trial, sorry, bone demo and trial, and really get a sense of it yourself. Because, I think we really all get a better idea of how it works by doing. So yeah, do take that opportunity to have a good look and ask the questions that are specific to you. **Charles Clark:** Thanks Trish and Susie for your comments. Yeah. We really thought to be partnering with Wolters Kluwer. We think it’s going to add a ton value. So as Liz said, do come on and give us a try, do check out the Wolters Kluwer premium library and obviously do get in there and get the premium library go because the value and the level of quality of content is quite amazing really. Brilliant, I’ll wrap up. Thanks so much Liz and Sarah for joining me. Thanks everyone. And we’ll look forward to seeing you again. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [How to Market Your Accounting Firm on a Shoestring Budget](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/how-to-market-your-accounting-firm-on-a-shoestring-budget/) **Published:** October 18, 2019 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Marketing is a massive opportunity for Accountants & Bookkeepers to help grow their firms and to nurture current clients. But how do you get started? Join Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA, and Kylie Wing, Global Marketing Lead for Spotlight Reporting, share 10 effective marketing tactics to help drive your firms growth that don’t cost the earth. During this webinar you’ll learn: - The importance of a Marketing Plan - Website best practice - How to be findable online - How to use social media - Winning video content - Using testimonials to help you win business - Thought leadership - Promoting your expertise with case studies - Emails & newsletters - How to stage an event **NB: You can also read a full transcript of this session below.** ## ‘How to Market Your Accounting Firm on a Shoestring Budget’ Transcript **Charles Clark:** Hi everyone, and welcome. Thanks for your time today, really thrilled that you could join us. My name is Charles Clark and I’m joined by Kylie Wing of Spotlight Reporting. Hi Kylie. **Kylie Wing:** Hi, how are you Charles? **Charles Clark:** Really well, thanks. And I’m thrilled to have you along, you and I have worked together on partnership between Spotlight and BOMA so thrilled that you can join us for this. And I think we’ve got a really good session today. And when you and I were discussing earlier, what we should be talking about, what we really tried to head on was 10 things that people could do that would really make a difference to their practice. **Charles Clark:** How could they do the simple things that didn’t take a lot of time or necessarily a lot of money, and that would make a real difference, so that’s what we’re going to be covering today. There’s quite a lot for us to cover so we’ll be going through it at a bit of pace, but if you’ve got any questions, do shout out, type them in and we’ll do our best to answer them as we go. So first, start talking about marketing plan and the key for this really. I think Kylie as illustrated to me is you need to have one. **Kylie Wing:** Yes, absolutely. So I think with marketing, all your efforts they really do start with a marketing plan. The way I like to frame it up is to think about Rubik’s cube. This is a really fun way to understand how the plan works. So when you try and solve a Rubik cube, if you look at the video there, you can’t make each move in isolation, you need to plan for a few moves in advance. And when you have the block colors, when you solve it, those are your business goals. **Kylie Wing:** So all the individual little pieces, those are your marketing tactics and the planners to get them all lined up. So when you have a marketing plan, you need to make sure it ladders up to your business strategy and your business goals, that’s the best way to get really effective results. So the plan is a document that we can send out to you guys after this webinar and the follow-up email. It’s a template that helps you get really organised and focused. **Kylie Wing:** You can prioritise all your marketing activity and you’ll have direction on how you need to achieve your goals and objectives, who’s going to carry out what who’s going to do it by when, et cetera, et cetera. The part about making it deliberate and intentional, that’s really about making sure that your marketing activity points back to whether you’re trying to get a customer or keep a customer or generate revenue or growth. So you really need to think about what you’re doing. **Kylie Wing:** I would say with marketing plans, make sure that you’re not invisible and don’t wait for a bigger competitor to come to town because when that happens, you’ll find that if someone comes along and they’re actually putting time and effort into marketing, all of a sudden you’re on the back foot. So I would say the thing with this one is goals. If you’re broadly speaking, if you’ve got goals like business growth in your marketing plan, you’ll be really wanting to focus on new business and upselling. **Kylie Wing:** And if profit is one of your main objectives, you’ll really be wanting to focus all your marketing on attracting and retaining high profit clients. And then awareness could be a key one for your firm as well. If you are trying to go for awareness, then your key objective will just be to establish yourself in market and build on your brand. **Charles Clark:** Yeah, I think all great points and like with everything, if you don’t make a plan, oftentimes best intentions go by the wayside when life gets busy and those times of the year where it’s super busy for accountants and bookkeepers. So if you have a plan, as Kylie said, people know what they have to do, when they have to do it or you’ll find that actually instead of it being a last minute rush and a stress and a hassle, it can actually fit in with the other activity that you’ve undertaken. So yeah, once you’ve got a plan, I think that’s basically the basis of everything that we are talking about today is you have that plan and then you can move out into those of the blocks and start ticking off. **Kylie Wing:** And use it as a document to keep you really honest as well, to focus on your metrics and your results because as you do marketing, you don’t want to just do it and move on to the next thing you really want to measure and make sure you’re really focused on whether or not you’ve gotten a return from the time and effort that you’ve put into this activity. **Charles Clark:** And so you want to think about in terms of that return on your investment, what you specify as a return may be different to someone else. So have a think about what specifically that return for you. So it might be that you won an event and you get some leads come through that or it may be that you’re able to upsell some current clients to high value services. So there’s lots of different ways that you can measure that return. **Charles Clark:** So, but as Kylie says you look back at the end of a six month or a year, you can say, “Look, how effective was this? Was it worth the time and effort and resources that we allocated to it?” So one of the other places to start once you’ve got your plan is your website and I’m sure lots of people out there already have websites, but I can tell you from practice that a lot of people, maybe their website is as maybe a little bit old or hasn’t been brought into line with best practice. **Charles Clark:** So what we’ve got here are just some ideas that whether you just need to give your own website a bit of a tune-up or you’re looking to do a new website entirely, what are the things that you should be looking for that are going to drive, I suppose, the best uptake by people who come onto your website. So a couple of pointers and the first one is that when someone comes onto your website, whether it’s the first time or they’ve been there before, they’re going to make up their mind about the website in about 0.3 of a second. **Charles Clark:** So that first visual feeling that I get will tell them a lot about, or will give them an insight into you as a brand and a company. So you can see here, Alluvia financial are doing all the right things. So the top left hand corner, they’ve got a really nice brand logo and that’s repeated throughout the site and also across all their social and email activities. So that goes throughout all the marketing and con. So linking down from the logo, they also state what their mission is. **Charles Clark:** So for them, we help you discover your richness, and in the next slide, we actually look at the entire page and they actually have a client testimonial which tells the viewer how Alluvia helped them discover that richness because it’s an individual thing. So they really nicely have their mission statement. What is it that Alluvia is here to do. And then also in that same box, they have a call to action which is let’s get started and that actually goes through to a page where you can book a time to chat and it’s got an online calendar and so you can immediately log your time to chat at a time that suits you, and then you’re taking that first step on that discovery process. **Charles Clark:** So is this someone that I would like to work with and how could they help me? So immediately, we’ve set the stage with the logo and the mission statement and also the taking action and the call to action is really critical as well. Then there’s a couple of other elements. So below the call to action, we’ve got all the certifications and awards that they’ve won. And then again, below those we’ve got all the clients that they have. **Charles Clark:** So two really key elements that just in that first couple of seconds when the user first looks at your web page, they immediately can see that Alluvia are a goal partner certified with Xero advisor, they’ve won some awards, they’ve got best accounting awards, and they’ve got lots of clients. Some of whom would be relevant because this is in quite a small town in Bendigo New South Wales. They can see that, “Oh look, I’m Bendigo.” And may even know some of those clients. So it’s talking to that social proof. That means that actually these guys are real, they have real clients and these clients have felt comfortable with having their logos on here as well. Kylie Wing: Can I just add to that? So the goal of your website best practice is to try and keep people on your website for as long as possible. So you want to really stretch out that time on site, and one thing you can do is if you have access is to look at Google Analytics to try and understand what pages people are looking at on your site. What are they looking at and what aren’t they looking at and how can you bring more people? Simple things like having a contact form that people can fill out just means that they can stay in your website rather than just stating the email address that they should contact you at. That means they have to go into another tab, open up their email, fire something up and send it over to you. So just little tricks like that are quite helpful. **Charles Clark:** Mm-hmm (affirmative). And that’s a really good point. If you’re not sure how to get Google Analytics, it’s free which is fantastic. And if you run or you have someone who runs your website for you, they can definitely hook it up for you pretty quickly and easily. So this is the view of that entire webpage that I was just talking about. So you can see as you start to scroll down from the hero image where the accreditation and the clients are, and they start to break it up into sections. **Charles Clark:** And what science has proven is that if you have a whole lot of text from one of these web pages with all this fantastic information, because it’s also densely packed together, the messaging will be lost. So the best practice is to start to actually put it into sections and keep each section very, very simple and have one point per section, and really try and hammer home that point in that section as to why in this case, it’s talking about the way not you tick number crunches, what is the key piece of information that you want the user to see in that section, then you can let them scroll down a little bit further and they can take in another simple bit of information. **Charles Clark:** The idea is that through use of the sections and imagery, and just a little bit of text, you are able to impart quite a lot of information and bite size chunks that a user can … That they can understand and then actually take on board. So the idea is not to smother them with information like he would say in a blog post where it’s rich and dense text. The idea is to just in a very sectioned way, just give them only the information that they need on that page. **Charles Clark:** The other element they’ve really done is start to incorporate video. And I know Kylie is really keen to talk about video later on, but what they’ve done here is basically interview one of their clients about how Alluvia has helped them discover their richness which in their case for this particular family was spending more time at home with the family rather than having to work all the time. So just a really nice way to A, bring in some different media onto the homepage, but also be start to tell that story that not only is a client’s story as that might be for the user, they might say, “Oh yes, I’m exactly like that. I would like to have more time for my family, but it also brings it social proof element of people use this company, they trust it, and they to talk in a public forum on a website about how they found it helping them.” **Kylie Wing:** One other thing to add for visuals. If you’re looking for visuals, there are lots of different free websites that you can find on the internet. One is called unsplash.com. So going to these websites and getting free imagery, stock imagery really helps as well. You just need to type in what you’re looking for and it’ll turn a whole lot of results. So that website again was unsplash.com and there’s lots of others like that as well, but start with that one and see how you go. **Charles Clark:** Cool. So obviously once you’ve got your website, you don’t want it to be to labor and obscurity. So you want people when they go into Google and they type in your name for you to come up at the top of the search rankings that this is absolutely sort of hygiene factor 101 for your website. So how do you make sure that this happens? How do you make sure that you rank organically? **Charles Clark:** So a couple of key points I would say is one, make sure that your website address contains the name of your business. So in this case for Alluvia, it’s ….alluviafinancial.com. So there we are, the name is an email address and a website address, and so it’s starting off on that process of making sure you have the keywords used multiple times. Other ways you can do it on different pages on your website. Again, make sure you reference that key name, but also you make sure you reference elements that would support it. So it could be your location, in this case, Bendigo. **Charles Clark:** It could be the fact that you’re a Xero specialist, that you’re an accountant. All these things that when people start to search for you so they might put an Alluvia Financial Bendigo or Alluvia Financial accountant, or they might put in Bendigo accounting, all these keywords. If you had them on your website, they will actually then be pulled up by Google and ranked. And then ideally, you’ll start to go to the top of those pages. Yeah, and then obviously through my business which Kylie has done a lot with. **Kylie Wing:** Yeah, this is a good segue into Google my business. I love this one because this is a tool that allows you to manage how your business shows up on Google search and Google Maps. And for me, again, another hygiene factor, if you haven’t got this for your business or your firm, you might want to quickly Google and see if you pop up on the right-hand side, just makes it really easy for customers to find all your information about your business without having to leave the search engine. **Kylie Wing:** You just need to make sure that your details are up to date and that they have the correct information. And like Charles said, Google will prioritise businesses that share this info so your firm will be higher up and the search results will be optimised. Yeah, just highly recommend getting a head start on this one. So if you had to make a list of everything of what we’re going to talk about today, please make sure that this one is a must-do. **Charles Clark:** And one of the things that we’ll touch on in a few minutes, you can see there they’ve got five star reviews. So this is actually people who have used them, have gone on written a review. So again, we talked about social proof failure, and then Kylie I know, wants to talk about sort of testimonials just a fantastic way. There were no reviews or bad reviews, people would probably still look you up, but just want to have those reviews again, just increases that level of trust, uncertainty that when they make that connection, that they can have a slightly higher level of confidence that you are going to be a great person or a great company to work with. **Kylie Wing:** Okay. This next one on social media. The one thing I think if you want to take away anything from today when it comes to social is that social media is not one person’s job. So you might have one person who has always done the marketing. It’s just not their sole responsibility. Social is the responsibility of everyone in the firm, and the reason is because when everyone gets behind it, you get to amplify the efforts because of how algorithms work on social media platforms these days. **Kylie Wing:** So the way to think about it is that your con social, that is the fire, but the social media part is the gasoline and everyone who gets behind it will just pour additional gasoline to make your fire burn a lot higher. These are some things to think about, all these bullets here, what you want to take away from social. Do have a think about your business goals and the target audience that you’re trying to attract, because you need to be quite select in the platform that you’re using. **Kylie Wing:** For example, if you choose to use LinkedIn, are you using that because you’re going to have a targeted networking strategy or are you going to focus on Facebook because there’s lots of businesses on there? So just take a think about the platform. Majority of you will already be doing social I take it. So this session might be good for some of you guys to do an audit thinking about your imagery, your cover photo, making sure that all your details are up to date, really vital stuff guys. **Kylie Wing:** So when you’re out at events and say you’re at a XeroCon or something like that, you really want to make sure that your social media channels and your platforms, they look professional that they’re up to date, that they’ve got all the right details because you never who you’re going to meet, and who’s going to have a look. Make sure you’re prepared and yeah, just keep things up to date. Every month, just pop in and make sure that you’re looking right, but in addition to that, make sure you’re in social quite often. Sorry, you go. **Charles Clark:** Oh, I was just going to say in terms of dating things, one of the things that and we just made a notion slide is you’ve got your cover image, that cover image doesn’t have to stay the same all the time. You can change it up every couple of months. You could also put up images on a recent event that you held, maybe something that’s relevant in terms of seasonality. So think of this as a platform, it’s the first thing that people will see when they land on your social profile, and it’s a great visual way that you can tell stories. **Charles Clark:** So it could be that you are promoting just your business, or it could be an event or it could be something that you are really proud of. Maybe you’ve won some awards. So again, just make sure to refresh because obviously like with everything in social, people want to see new content and making sure that you have of those new photos up there just because of something new to look at, something you can engage with. **Kylie Wing:** Actually, one other thing I will add to that one before we jump to the next slide Charles is just around the frequency of posting. For example, at spotlight reporting, we have a small marketing team that we try, every one of us tries to post something every day. So having a really good routine is a sure far way to get the momentum going on social and then having your people within your firm to also share and repost and to like, you’ll get more engagement, you’ll get more people commenting and sharing, but you’ve got to get the whole team on board to help amplify your efforts. And also, if people are on social and they are engaging with you, be courteous and thank them for sharing things, if they like something or comment, comment back and make them feel like you’ve appreciated their time that they’ve spent for doing that. **Charles Clark:** I think that’s such a fantastic point. The more you engage with people online, as Kylie was saying about algorithms, the more engagements a post has, the higher it’ll be ranked up and hopefully the more people will see it, but also engaging shows people that you’re real which is great. And whether it’s positive or negative, a comment or anything like that, how you engage with people will be seen by other users. And if you always try and be as Kylie said, upfront, courteous, honest and try and solve people’s problems, I think that goes a long way to displaying your integrity as a company and people will take notion if they see that that’s how you respond on social media, that’s very much probably how you respond which is obviously a good thing for people to see that what type of business you are. **Kylie Wing:** And it is a two-way street as well. So just because people are commenting on your page absolutely should mean that you should still comment on this. So like other people’s posts, like other people’s pages, follow different pages and comment because when you comment, as you know, people will read on other pages, “Oh, such and such firm has commented.” They’ll click on you. And that’s another way to drive extra traffic back to your social page. So get on, get busy. **Charles Clark:** And that actually in a way links into thought leadership, which will touch on in a few minutes. The power of social media is that you can have an opinion, have a view and get it out there and share it with fans and followers, or you can engage in a conversation or it might be a group. And if you pick things that you’re really interested in and you can start to comment knowledgeably and regularly on them, that will all just go to bolstering whether it’s your personal brand or your brand as a company, your profile line as an expert and a niche or a series of niches. **Charles Clark:** And so when people start to look for topic if they use hashtags as we have on this page here, so if they searched hashtag webinar and marketing, then up would come this post and it might be a way that they would see that we are doing lots of webinars. So which actually links in directly to this. So one of the things that I think people make a mistake on with social media is that they put out a post and they don’t, or they aren’t specific with what they want the user to do next. **Charles Clark:** So, they make a comment or they put an article out there, but really, what is it that you want them to do? Do you want them to comment back? Do you want them to follow you? Do you want them to learn more and come to your website? Do you want them to sign up for an event? So I took the post that we did for this event, and I just highlighted two key bits. And the first one I highlighted are the two calls to action. So you can see at the top, we’ve got register here. **Charles Clark:** So if someone has read the first of the post, and they’re like, “That sounds fantastic. I want to register.” But if they don’t, they can continue on and read the second of the post and the banner. And if they want to learn more, they can. So the idea here is that you have multiple calls to action that a user can take. And ideally, in this case, we are wanting to get them to sign up and come to this webinar which obviously lots of people have which is fantastic. And the second element is hashtags. **Charles Clark:** And as we touched on with thought leadership, and I suppose, commenting on other things, hashtags are a really easy way to make a post searchable. And if you’re regularly using hashtags that are relevant to your business, so your business name, and then areas that you’re specialist in. So it might be just general accounting, or it might be taxation, or it might be the area or something local that you’re in every time that you had a hashtag, it just links that social post to that hashtag. **Charles Clark:** And so when people are searching for them, it’s more likely that your post will come up. So as we talk about in a couple minutes, thought leadership, if you want to, I suppose I specialise in a niche or some topics then always add hashtags because if you don’t, they’re not linked to those topics. **Kylie Wing:** And have a strategy for use as well I think throughout the year. So if you’re going to have a hashtag and you’re going to jump on that, make sure that you’re using them frequently, not just one-off and stay away from those crazy ones that really unique ones that no one’s ever going to really search for. You’ve all seen them on the internet, so. **Kylie Wing:** Ones that have six words or more, and they’re just blended into like a really long sentence. So yeah, make sure they’re really meaningful. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. Great. So I know a lot of people, one of the biggest questions that we get here at BOMA is this all sounds great, but I just never know what to share, what do I share on social? I always look at everything everyone else is doing, and it always seems like they all have it figured out, but how do I dip my toes into the water? And I suppose that’s where I’d start is if you’re just new to social media, I would look at what other people are doing in your industry. **Charles Clark:** People that you admire, people that you like to follow, see what they’re doing in terms of how they’re doing it. And then once you’ve got a little bit more comfortable with it, maybe you’ve seen some examples in terms of length of post and sentences. You’ve got a few ideas, then you can start to dip in and share your own news. And really there is a ton of things that you can share. I think a lot of it accountants and bookkeepers share that they have a huge amount of knowledge about which lots of people don’t know very much, so you guys are able to share hugely insightful knowledge that is really beneficial to a lot of people. **Charles Clark:** And so whether it’s reminders for clients about upcoming dates relevant to tax or interview finances things like that, or it could be news. So news about policy updates or sort of trends that are relevant in their industry or industry changes. Really there is almost an unlimited amount of things out there to share. Having said all that, there’s also things that you can share about your clients. So if a client of yours has a great success or win surprise, fantastic for you to share and promote that, that’s always appreciated. **Charles Clark:** And the more you do that equally, your clients will really appreciate that firstly, and then probably do the same for you. And the same goes for your own firm. If you have a new starter or you’ve won an award or an event, or you go into an event and you think you might be likely to see clients there, tell people about it, get excited, tell them what you are going to look forward to seeing or a speaker that you might really want to see and what you might be interested in learning. **Charles Clark:** So there’s a lot to say, and I suppose that the final thing I would say in here is keep the language quite simple, complex language and certain social posts never works well. If you think people are reading it on their phones, maybe as they’re on the way to work or on the gym or snatching two minutes at lunch, keep it easy, keep it simple to understand. And then if you link back to a longer blog post on your website or something like that, that’s where you can really give the full article, complex information and they can read that in their own time. **Charles Clark:** So I think we touched on this one a little bit before, and as Kylie said, having a plan is key here. As she pointed out, it’s not just one person’s responsibility. So engage with your team. I’m not suggesting that you mandate it, but maybe if you had a team of five or six and they all posted months or twice a week, or that suddenly 10 or 12 posts a week going out, they don’t all need to be from your business Facebook page. They could be from their personal ones and then you can like and comment on them as a business or vice versa. **Charles Clark:** Really the main thing is to get regular activities so that when people say go onto your Facebook page or you’ll LinkedIn page just like your website, if they go on there and they see that it’s old, there hasn’t been any regular content. No one’s posting, it’s a bit of a graveyard. That’s not going to do much to enhance their view of you that you’re modern, active, up to date with everything ,up to date with all the latest news and information. **Charles Clark:** So activity is your friend on social. And as the headline says don’t be shy. The whole point is to be social. And don’t think that you have to be perfect, you don’t always have to have the perfect comment on something. The main thing is to engage with other people, especially in groups, everyone is there to engage and have some fun and learn exactly from other people. **Kylie Wing:** I have a tip for this. This is something that I’ve seen work really well in every organisation that I’ve worked at. When you have your weekly team meetings, you can create a theme or wrap up some kind of feature that you are all going to talk about on social. The person who likes social the most or wants to take the lead on it, they can come up with a couple of posts and provide suggested wording around that with a clear call to action and provide the imagery. **Kylie Wing:** The rest of the team can then take those posts and either share them on their personal accounts and either craft them differently. So write them in the way that they would usually say it, but that helps you all get out at it in market at the same time on social and all be talking consistently about the same thing. So what I was saying before about pouring that gasoline more gasoline and more gasoline, it works when there’s more people doing it. It just takes one person to lead the way though. **Charles Clark:** And I’ve got a question from Grant which is do social posts which are not duplicated on your website help with your Google ranking? So Kylie, I’ll take a stab at this and then, and then I’ll pass it over to you. So my understanding is that yes, activity on social accounts does, or is a factor in the Google ranking. So even if it’s not necessarily a post that links to your website, Google does factor it in. Kylie, what’s your view on that? **Kylie Wing:** That’s absolutely correct because when you Google a firm, sometimes it’ll come up with their actual Facebook page. So yes, every bit helps. Also, if you have social media posts and one of the call to actions is you’ve put your posts there for more information, or to check out the story, visit our blog, or click on this link to our website when they go through to your website. There will be also additional traffic funneling through that way as well which will also help with driving those numbers up. **Kylie Wing:** The other thing lastly when you do post on social, you can tag people as well. So with the @ sign, tag other firms, that will also bump you up in the algorithms and notify other firms that you’ve tagged, that you’ve being mentioned in a post somewhere. The only tip I have around this is make it genuine because we get at spotlight reporting, we get tagged on lots of things. And when I take a good look at all of them, we find that a lot of them have got nothing to do with us at all which is a bit of a, it’s a waste of 10 seconds of someone’s time having to look. But when you don’t genuinely tag people, you just end up annoying people. So if it’s real, do it because it will be valuable. **Charles Clark:** And if that firm or that person has a large following, one retweet or one comment or share from them could be massive. **Kylie Wing:** Right, video. I’m a massive fan of video, I’ve always loved it. Personally, I really love the small bite sised videos. And I think the reason why I like them so much is because you can get so much from them in such a short time. More and more video contents being watched than ever before, and in a recent study, 68% of people said they’d or to learn about a new product or a service by watching a short video. So the key thing to remember here is that not everyone has time to read five pages because that information that often can be summed up very neatly in 60 seconds. **Kylie Wing:** So if you’re going to create videos and you don’t currently have this as part of your marketing strategy or something that you do on social, I recommend first of all finding a place to host them. YouTube could be a channel where you could host all your video content and break it up into different libraries or playlists. The other reason I like YouTube is because it is the second largest search engine in the world behind Google. So what’s not to like about that? Lots of opportunities to be found. **Kylie Wing:** You don’t have to a lot of money to do videos at all, you’ve got a smartphone. If you want to get really fancy, you can buy a microphone for better sound quality and some lighting, but just go on LinkedIn and see how many people are doing selfie video styles. So yeah, there’s no reason not to get involved. Some ideas to get you started, lots of different things that you could dabble in. Some might be introductions of new team members or even existing team members showcasing expertise. **Kylie Wing:** You might want to do videos where you’re announcing your response to an industry matter. Training videos can be really valuable as well for relationships and helping educate your clients on the basics, videos where you’re explaining a big win or a success, that’s a great way to promote your firm and build the brand. And with your client’s permission, you can even start dabbling in customer or client videos where you’re talking one on one, about a certain topic, or how the service that you provide for them helps solve a lot of their problems and helps them win. **Charles Clark:** I would add to … So like Spotlight, we use YouTube a lot and we’ve got a playlist and everything up there, as well as on our website. The other portal I would suggest using is Facebook and Facebook is really easy to do, Facebook live videos. So literally, you just grab your phone, as Kylie said, you can do it with or without a microphone. If you were going to do it at an event where it was really noisy, that would be great. But if you’re just doing it in your office, you could probably get away with just a microphone on your smartphone, but you can do basically live videos on Facebook. **Charles Clark:** So if you’ve got a couple hundred followers, it would all come the top of their feet in Facebook, and they could actually watch them real time and commenting real time and like, and chat in real time. So we’ve done them at some XeroCons and other events and they get really well-received by people who are either at the event or wish they were especially when we use those hashtags. So we hashtag them that we are at this event. So people who are searching for a particular thing, or as Kylie said, it might be an industry announcement, or it might be the budget. At those hashtags, then your video will be push up the queue as it were, and then seen. **Charles Clark:** And the nice thing is once you’ve done the video, you can both download it onto your phone and then onto your computer, you can have it on your website, but it will also sit on your Facebook page as well. And then if you want to get really advanced, you can say, “Look, that was fantastic. Let’s put $50 behind it and let’s target people on \[inaudible 00:34:50\].” So it might be retailers in our town or agricultural people in our sector, people who we think this would relate to. **Charles Clark:** So that’s one thing we haven’t touched on a lot today, but you can with a lot of these, you can boost them. I’m sure a lot of you have boosted posts on Facebook. It’s the same with videos you can boost and target as well. Just if you want to give your people a video a bit more reach than it would get organically. **Kylie Wing:** Right, testimonials. Okay, marketing gold everyone, this is one of my favorite ones alongside videos. You should definitely be using testimonials to help you acquire new clients, and this strategy is proven. It increases conversion rates, it increases trust. So people rely on testimonials and reviews for everything these days. If you remember a few slides back where we had Alluvia Finance in the Google my business section, that’s one area where you can click on reviews. **Kylie Wing:** The other thing I should point out, there are some people who won’t even go to a movie these days until they’ve seen a review. It’s just the way that we’ve all become wired living in this internet age that we are in. So if you don’t have testimonials on your website, I really urge you to start collecting them now. And to start with, you can do make it really easy. Just reach out to a number of your trusted clients, the clients that you want to attract more of, don’t go out to the clients that are okay, but you don’t want to attract more of those types. **Kylie Wing:** Get them to ask them to provide a testimonial, a written statement, something that they can email to you and ask them if it’s okay to publish it. You’ll need to explain where their testimonial is going to go and get their permission. I like this one because it’s social proof. It means that you don’t have to talk about your business and blow your own trump, but you’ve got other people doing that for you. You will receive very positive results. **Kylie Wing:** So the other thing you can do to amplify this is to ask for a headshot of the person who’s supplying the testimonial, that adds an extra layer of validity to it, and make sure when you get a whole lot of them, don’t bury them on the secondary page of your website. These are your trophies. So put them on display, front and center of your homepage if possible. And re-share these all year round on your blog, on your social posts and videos, tag the person that gave you the testimonial, get them to repost. There are so many different ways that these testimonials can blow up and get you a lot of likes. **Charles Clark:** I think that’s fantastic advice. And yeah, I think social proof is with a lot these days as you say, everyone is overwhelmed with choices. And so part of the way that they make those decisions is based on how other people have experienced that service or in the case that you made a movie. So thought leadership, and I know that this is probably a buzzword that you guys have heard a lot of and maybe sick of hearing or not sure what it means. **Charles Clark:** And the reason we’ve included this is really just to make a key point is why should I be doing thought leadership? And the main reason is that your clients or prospective clients out there value knowledge massively, and where they recognise it, they’re willing to pay for it, and they want to work with people who have it. So how do you promote yourself as someone who has that knowledge? Well, you have to then think of things that you’re an expert in and then start to, I suppose, disseminate and display and comment and talk about those topics in a knowledgeable way. **Charles Clark:** And the great benefit of this is that as Kylie said with testimonials, having someone else blow your own trumpet, by doing a lot of thought leadership work, you are actually displaying that you are an expert in something so people will read it and gradually, that level of comfortableness with you in that area will grow and then when it comes to you making those sales approaches or those marketing messages, they’ll already be a bit more predisposed to accepting them at face value because they, for example, you go to a client who’s never heard of you or they may have heard of you, but already know what you do and say, “Look, I’m an expert in taxation, and when you do the tax free business, you should use me.” **Charles Clark:** Now, imagine how that conversation would go if they had also when you went to them read three or four articles that you had written, maybe on your website, or maybe in some industry publications where you had talked expertly about this topic where you had given them a level of comfort that you knew what you were speaking. And maybe if you had been in in those two publications, you’d been recognised by other people as being an expert in that field. So those two situations so much more likely that the person who is seeing your thought leadership pieces before is much, much more likely to be predisposed to saying yes when you make the ask of would you like to work with us? What would that look like? **Kylie Wing:** And keep in mind that when people are researching your firm, they’re also researching you potentially as well, your personal brand, that’s your social currency. And so becoming a thought leader, you really have to have some thinking around what it is you want to achieve, pick some themes and for example, if you want more advisory work, don’t talk about that. Don’t talk about compliance. The other thing you can do is pick a few partners and get on the thought leadership bandwagon together. It allows you to amplify your efforts and be seen at that same level, and you’ll reach more people if you consider your format and the reach that you have together as a group. **Charles Clark:** So I know this sounds pretty technical and a bit amorphous in terms of how do I get started. So I think the key thing that I would do is write down what is it that I’m an expert and what am I passionate about? Because to be honest if you are going to continue with this longer term, you really have to be passionate about something. You really want to make a difference in terms of sharing your knowledge and expertise, and if you’re not passionate about it, it’s going to be hard work. **Charles Clark:** So find things that you’re passionate about that you’re really happy to talk about. And then that’s a great place to start, and then think about what it is in those fields that you can talk about. And then there’s lots of different ways that you can start talking about it. As Kylie said, you can reach out to influential partners. So maybe this is the bank in your local area. You’ve got a relationship with the bank manager and he’s getting in local businesses to talk about how to plan for growth, or they may tap you then to come and say, “Well, look, if you’re planning for growth, these are the things you need to have set up in your business.” **Charles Clark:** You may want to start writing. So you’ve got your blog, you’ve got your social posts, or you can obviously guest post. So you can guest post on other people’s blogs or other people’s publications, or in the case of what Kylie is doing now, I invited her on as an expert in marketing to come and join our webinar. So this is exactly something that you could be doing with other people. You could go on and be a guest on radio show, on a podcast, on someone else’s webinar, all places that you can bring credibility and to showcase your expertise and help get your name. **Kylie Wing:** And also think about the angle from your thought leadership. Don’t say the same thing that everyone else says because that’s not a thought leader when you’re repeating and just parroting back stuff that’s already in market. Try and show off a new edge, try to inspire, educate, or just show off a really progressive side. And sometimes, thought leadership means that it’s an idea that people aren’t quite yet comfortable with because it could be quite disruptive, but be brave with this and if you’re going to commit, just go in it fully. **Kylie Wing:** The other thing you can do is use with thought leadership. You can use quotes to fill the gaps on social media, talking about inspirational quotes, or you can recycle ones from other thought leaders that you really respect, but create your own quotes as well. And they will be picked up and seen in market. People will retweet or re share, so. **Charles Clark:** That’s really good too. **Kylie Wing:** Case studies, another one for marketing gold up there with testimonials, but this is quite different because case studies are a fleshed out story. Testimonials are a short sound bite from someone like a review, but these case studies, they have a bit of structure to them. Again, great way of getting other people to promote your firm without you having to speak directly about it. One of our customers at Spotlight Reporting that does this really well is WK Advisors and Accountants. **Kylie Wing:** So if you want to go and check their website out, wk.co.nz, go to the About page and click on case studies. They’ve got a mixture of written and video case studies, but in this section, we’re just going to talk about the written ones because this is what done doesn’t cost you. There’s no budget. To get started, you just need to think, compile a list of all your clients that you want to feature in a case study and get them to answer these questions in the structure. What you want to do is really show to the world how you’ve helped this client overcome some problems and that they’re very happy using their services. **Kylie Wing:** Make sure you get a variety of different case studies. Don’t just go for the same problem that you solved because you don’t want to just keep repeating the same thing. You want to show that you have breadth and depth and experience in solving problems and issues for customers. Some examples might be a case study where you’ve helped a customer get out of their business so that they can work less in it and more on it. **Kylie Wing:** Getting your clients to reduce the number of hours that they’ve worked in the organisation so they can focus more time on their passions or how you’ve helped them revolutionise internal processes and reporting growing new business turnover, forward thinking, planning, forecasting, there’s so many things. You might even have helped clients develop really smart KPIs and goals and how that’s really changed, helping them get scale under control. There’s lots of problems. Think about the problems and think about how you solve them and then package that in a really beautiful case study so that you’ll attract new clientele. **Charles Clark:** I would just add to that in terms of the breadth. While you obviously want to talk about the different problems that you solved, also maybe think about the different verticals that you worked in. So maybe if you only specialise say if you were in a small town and you only specialised in one vertical, maybe agricultural and everyone could be from agricultural town, but that’s pretty unlikely. So you may have agricultural, you have retail, you have small business. **Charles Clark:** So again, think about if I was a small business user, I came on to your website, make sure that you have a case study as well as the problem that would relate to them so they say, “Oh yes, another small business like me had this problem, makes sense.” Or another farmer like me was up against it with this issue and this is how this it’s preferred to solve it. So again, you’ll get lots of people on your website. And so think about your audience and think the types of people that they are, and then give them the content that would most resonate with each of them. **Kylie Wing:** And don’t just sit on them, share them all year round just because you’ve collected a case study and you’ve put it onto your social media or your blog post once. It doesn’t mean that in the next quarter or a few months down the track that you can’t bring it back up again as a throwback. It’s always great to keep pushing your case studies because not everyone will see it the first time you post about it on social. So just keep that in mind. **Charles Clark:** That’s a really good point. And actually, in terms of thinking about different audiences, this links in really nicely to emails and users, and they still remain one of the best ways to communicate with your clients or if you’ve got prospects as well, email is really, really powerful. And the great thing about email is that you can use it in ways that maybe were more difficult to 10 or 15 years ago. You could include video in there. **Charles Clark:** There could be links to four or five different product pages or services that you offer. There’s a whole range of things that you can do in an email now that aren’t just text, as they used to be. You can be really inventive and creative in the emails that go out. And obviously the more interested you make the emails, the more likely it is that you’ll get people engaging in them. So just a couple of basics with emails, if you have a list of people that you want email, make sure that you’ve got their permission. They actually have to affirmatively give their permission either by signing up to a seven newsletter or saying in an email, “Yup, I’m happy to get an email from you like a marketing email from you.” **Charles Clark:** So permission-based email marketing is always the best way to go and you don’t only have to promote it on your website. You can also have it across your social pages. You could have it in any other event, emails that you send up just ways that people can easily subscribe to hear more from you. And we were talking in terms of case studies about having different verticals and it’s the same with your own database. **Charles Clark:** You might want to buy them into clients or prospects or maybe they’re Xero or non Xero clients. They might be traders or agricultural. So the reason why we would want to submit them is that, sure you might once a month send everyone a general newsletter. This is the general information that we’ve been up to, general news is probably for everyone. But equally, there might be times when you’re like, “Right, there’s a specific piece of information that is only going to be relevant to my trades.” **Charles Clark:** So I don’t want to bother my retail clients or my non clients or my agricultural clients with this. I just want to focus on my trade clients and send it to them. And you’ll find that if you send segments of your audience highly relevant information, A, they’ll love it, so they’ll get value, but also you’re protecting your other database leads from getting information that isn’t relevant to them. And that’s the key with email marketing is when you’re doing it, make sure it’s relevant to them. **Charles Clark:** So if they signed up to an event, great, you can send them a couple of emails about that, but if they haven’t signed up to an event, don’t send emails about an event that they haven’t signed up to. So it’s all I suppose about context and making sure that it’s relevant for them. **Kylie Wing:** Yeah. And there’s a rule for that, it’s called show me, you know me. So keep that in mind when you’re designing emails and sending them out to. **Charles Clark:** And I think that segue is actually right into the last point here which is what is it that you were emailing them for? Why are you emailing them? And yup, you can do obviously some general newsletters, but for the rest of your emails, what is in it for them? So when they open this email, what are they going to get out of it? Obviously, as a valued advisor to them, you’re obviously wanting to give them something that’s going to benefit them, and it doesn’t have to be anything more than information sometimes. **Charles Clark:** It could be like, “I think this will be interesting for you or your business should know that this change in regulation is happening or it could be an invitation to an event.” But the main thing is that you are offering them things of value that they will come to appreciate. And that’s the great thing in terms of building loyalty. And Kylie mentioned on it right at the beginning of this webinar, if you’re not doing anything with your current clients to show them that you appreciate them, that you value them, that you want their business, someone else is going to come in and will be doing all of these things and then suddenly, your clients will go to someone else because actually, they’ll be getting shown how valued they are. **Charles Clark:** And it’s not just at the end of the day coming down to a service that you provide a couple times a year, or it might be more frequently, but it’s about what you wrap it into in terms of the holistic relationship that you have with them where you have an ongoing conversation in ways that benefits them. So just a couple of fast tips here in designing your emails. You may know quite a lot of these already, so I’ll just quickly go over them. **Charles Clark:** And the first thing is when you send an email that lands in your inbox, you have basically one small sentence to get your point across and to make them open that line, that email. So think about clickbait on some of the daily mail sites and there’s that are really tempting headline which is like, “Oh, I really want to know who’s just had Botox or who’s divorcing who or which soccer player is having an affair.” That’s clickbait and in a way is almost what you want on your subject line. **Charles Clark:** You want it to be so engaging and so intriguing that they want to open it and then they open your email and then you can tell them what it is that you’re are trying to communicate with them. Secondly, always keep it short and easy readable. So never say something and four sentences that you could say in one, just get your point across succinctly, and that will always be appreciated. People have too many emails these days, they’re overloaded with information, so be brief. **Charles Clark:** Make it personal as well. That’s always a good thing. You’re not a robot, you’re not just someone that sends out emails all the time. You’re a person expert and on the phone, they’ve probably known you for a long time. So let your personality come through in the way that you write in your tone of voice. If you’re not a particularly formal person, don’t make your emails hugely formal, just make sure that it matches your own personalities so that when people read it, it seems authentic to them. **Charles Clark:** And also, similar to a website and these last two points, use imagery, use white text to break it up. If you’re getting across points in your email, there’s nothing wrong with having an image breaking them up so that people can focus on a point and move on to another point. It’s also quite good from a visual perspective to help illustrate what it is that you’re talking about. And then always, always, always have a really clear call to action. **Charles Clark:** So having read the email, what do you want them to do? Do you want them to email you back, go to your website, sign up for an event? If you don’t tell them what you want them to do and you leave them guessing, then you’ve just wasted that opportunity. And then you have to send them another email or you have to give them a phone call. So always make it easy for them. **Kylie Wing:** Yeah, I love that one, that is so a good point. I think in this day, I delete … On a weekly basis, I delete more emails than I actually read emails, that’s the state of my inbox is like in 2019. What I like is when, if I get an email, I like three sections and that’s the guiding rule that we have as Spotlight Reporting. When we write to our customers and prospects, we say, “Why are you emailing me?” We’ll tell you very quickly why we’re emailing you. **Kylie Wing:** We’ll tell you quickly what we want to tell you and what’s in it for you. And then we’ll end it off with what we want you to do. Just keep it really punchy. Don’t have to write novels when you come to emails and always AB test as well. A lot of people, people design an email and send it out, but they won’t actually go back and check on the metrics. You need to do AB testing to know what resonates, test those subject lines, test the content, test the structure, and when you have that winning formula run with that. **Charles Clark:** And so just for those of you not familiar with AB testing, so you could send out one version email, subject line to say a small percentage of it \[inaudible 00:54:49\], and then send out a different subject line to the other percentage of your database, need to see which one resonates best. So an easy way just to as Kylie said, work out which elements are driving the most conversion. **Charles Clark:** So station and event, and I’ve divided this into two because in my experience changed a lot of accountants bookkeepers, you guys are doing both. Lots of webinars out there and, but also lots of seminars and workshops, and there are a few differences between them. There are differences in terms of when people are most likely to be willing to do them. So an online webinar, it makes you do it around the middle of the day, especially around lunchtime or very early afternoon whereas in a person workshop, sometimes on the way to work or on the way home from work is better. **Charles Clark:** So early morning or late afternoon. Days of the week, it may vary from place to place, but we usually … Our rule of thumb is midweek is usually good. Monday is a bit rushed, it’s your first day back at work, early midweek is a time where people can start to focus on learning things, going to events, things like that. Locations obviously in virtual conference is very easy, we’re doing one right now. That’s just accessible as long as you have internet. **Charles Clark:** And if you’re doing one, a live event is it going to be your office or maybe it should be somewhere else, maybe your office doesn’t have enough meeting room or the parking’s not great. So you might want to go somewhere like a local restaurant or cafe or maybe even a local room that you could rent out. The benefit of some of those other options is that they’ll often come with catering and parking and good acoustics. So it just depends on how many people you’re thinking of inviting. **Charles Clark:** If it’s just a small event of five or six, your office might be perfect. If it’s 40 of 50 people, then you might have to think of a location that specialises in hosting lighter events. And the great thing is they’ll also come with projectors and speakers and all those things that if you had to organise yourself is a bit of a nightmare from an admin perspective, but they do it all the time. **Kylie Wing:** Yeah, three things I would say to think about when you’re considering events, ROI, intimacy, and reach. So with your ROI, if you’re going to do an in-person event and invite people, there will be those costs or the catering and the venue high potentially. So you need to make sure you get your ROI on that. And then the intimacy is another factor in gauging whether or not you’re going to do a webinar or invite people locally into your office and reach because you know you can reach way more people on a webinar like this than you can face to face. **Kylie Wing:** You have to remember that when you do an event, a face-to-face event, you’ll send the invites out, but not everyone will be able to make it because there are just all sorts of reasons why people can’t attend at the last minute. So that’s another thing which can be disappointing when you’ve put in a lot of work into an event and you don’t get the numbers. **Charles Clark:** Actually, and that’s a good point. And we have a client in Kerikeri in Northern New Zealand and they do about six live events per year. And the geography that they cover is in the hundreds and hundreds of kilometers. And so that’s why they’re moving to webinars because they can equally, they can do a whole lot of webinars. And then when the people who have attended those webinars, if they can get them along to the events, they’re more likely to come. They’ve had that sort of first or second touch point and then they can have that in-person meeting where hopefully, as Kylie said, when you say what’s in it for you or what would I like you to do next? **Kylie Wing:** Yeah, and film your events as well even if you have an in-person event. You can Facebook live that so people in Kerikeri who can’t attend or can’t be there, other people can still catch up. The same thing for your webinar is that you can get the recording because right now, this webinar is being recorded and we will to everyone that’s on this line, but also the people that couldn’t make it. So we have the internet now, we can still be connected, but you just have to think where you’re going to focus your time and effort. **Charles Clark:** So just quickly, so sending out one invite isn’t enough as Kylie said, so you really need to give people a few chances to attend. People’s in boxes are super full, they’re busy. They might miss it, they might open the first one and think, “Oh yeah, I must get round to that.” But then they don’t. So send them a couple of in invites and make sure it’s far enough out that they can actually have the time to put it in their diary. **Charles Clark:** Then always a good idea if it’s a live event, send them a reminder a day before. If it’s an online event like today, you all probably got a reminder about an hour before. And in that event reminder, make sure that you always include, again, even if you send them before, where is it? What’s it about? What are they going to get out of it? And any other incidental things like, “Is it going to be parking? Is it going to be catering?” **Charles Clark:** People will often come to an event at the last minute looking on their phone for directions, they type it in. If it’s all there at the top of their inbox with all the details, it just removes any barriers they may have to getting onto your webinar or to make it to your event. So your job threes invites once you’ve got them as to make it as easy as possible for those people to attend your event. **Kylie Wing:** Hey, and don’t forget, you can send these emails out, but there’s also social. And on Facebook, you’ve seen the Facebook events, so you can set up your own events now and other people can see who’s going and when you do know people who are coming, that can be quite motivating and think, “Oh, such and such is going. Well, I’m going to go too because I haven’t seen that person for a long time. Must be pretty good if a whole bunch of people are going.” So yeah, think about extending this to social media as well to get extra amplification. So you get bigger numbers. **Charles Clark:** Exactly. And then you can use as we were talking about before, use those hashtags, use the calls to action, all those bits that we’ve touched on as you say, that can help in that \[crosstalk 01:00:48\] **Kylie Wing:** Yeah, and tagging people. Right, okay. So guys, this was the final thing we wanted to impart with you and everything that Charles and I have talked about in this hour, think Rubik’s cube to begin with, the big marketing plan at the top. Everything needs to connect up, but this is your bingo card to take away. So the top three things Charles and I, we both think that the top three that are not negotiable. **Kylie Wing:** These are the ones that you should have already nailed or already have. You might just need to refocus your efforts on how you’re doing it, but you need a website, you need to be find more online. You absolutely need social media, that’s your gasoline. The next row for me, and the bottom line case studies, those are ones that will help you drive all your extra business goals. Those are the things that you can put on your website and on social. **Kylie Wing:** Those are the things that you want to share with the world essentially. And then the bottom two, those are the channels, those are ways that you can get your messages out to the world. It’s a really good bingo card to have, and it’s just like a renovation. It might be overwhelming if there’s a lot or if there’s only one of you in your firm to do the marketing, be realistic, don’t feel like you need to smash and bash everything and do it all at once. **Kylie Wing:** Find the ones that you know that you can action quite quickly and get those ones underway first. It’s just like a house renovation. Just do one room at a time and keep going, but be consistent. Find people to help you, and if that’s not possible, I don’t know, you do need to have other people in your firm to help get behind the marketing especially social media. So use this bingo card, go with it and prosper. **Charles Clark:** Yeah, no and I couldn’t agree more. And as Kylie said, don’t go overwhelmed. My father always says, he was a lawyer, he said, “If you want to eat an elephant, take it one bite at a time.” So pick a couple of these, and if you are particularly good at hosting events or workshops, that’s a fantastic place to start. You are quite keener, who’ve got someone in your firm who loves doing video, that’s a great place to start. There’s no on those second or third lines, there’s not one has to come for the other. If you are already doing something really well, that’s fantastic, recommend that you keep on doing with it, and then there’s just some other ideas as to things that you could do to, I suppose, add extra elements to your wider marketing strategy. **Kylie Wing:** Yeah, and at the end of this webinar, I’d highly encourage you all to get a list while this is all fresh in your head, make a list of what you’re doing. Okay, but could be better. Make a list of what you’re not doing well and make a list of all those trusted clients that you should be reaching out to get testimonials for case studies to potentially film videos with. Get a list of all the people internally that should be helping and getting active on social media, make a list of people that you might want to approach to do thought leadership with. **Kylie Wing:** Just get busy, writing your lists, the marketing plan that we are going to send you, you can use that, fill in the gaps and create a timeline and just prioritise. Do not feel like you need to do everything. The other thing is I would say, keep an eye on your competition. You need to make sure know what they’re doing. Don’t wait for someone to tell you that something has happened. Make sure that you are proactive and you know what’s happening in your space. **Charles Clark:** And just answering a chat question that came through in terms of a recording of the video. So we’ll be sending a video out to everyone tomorrow. And so you can share it within your firm or to colleagues or friends of yours that you think might benefit. So that will be coming tomorrow about mid-day once we’ve done some editing to make sure that Kylie and I sound and look great. Brilliant, so I realise we’ve gone over time everyone, but thanks so much for coming. I hope you found it useful. Kylie, really appreciate your insights and really interesting stuff for everyone, and definitely I list some stuff there. So thanks again, and we’ll see you all next time. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [BOMA + SBA: 'Email and Social Media For Accountants - Best Practice Advice and Tips'](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/boma-sba-email-and-social-media-for-accountants-best-practice-advice-and-tips/) **Published:** September 14, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this webinar we discuss how effective email and social media marketing can help accountants drive awareness and engagement with clients and prospects. The webinar features Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA and Liz Studholme, Content Marketing Manager of BOMA in conversation with Craig Gardiner, General Manager of SBA. **Webinar Agenda:** - The demise of ‘Spray & Pray’ marketing and how you can take advantage - Email best practice and tips - Social media best practice and tips - How to come up with engaging content regularly - Putting it all together into a campaign **NB: You can also read a full transcript of this session below.** ## ‘Email and Social Media For Accountants – Best Practice Advice and Tips’ Transcript **Craig Gardiner:** Again, we’d like to thank Charles, and Liz, and BOMA for doing this presentation to the SBA group. I think the current climate that obviously in Auckland we’re still experiencing, but around the rest of the country we’ve had more exposure to again, with lockdowns. It just goes to show how important it is to get information out in front of our clients. That uncertainty can create anxiety. And what we’re really talking about is, “How can we actually leverage good information and good content to help and support our clients, and to share added value with them as well?” So I thought it was really relevant to have another catch-up with the team from BOMA and to talk a bit about email and social media, and how to get better interaction and better engagement with those platforms using the BOMA tools. **Charles Clark:** Cool. Well, brilliant, everyone. Thanks. I’m Charles, and I’m joined by Liz. And just a couple of housekeeping items before we get started. If you’d like to join in and ask a question, you can click on the chat button or the Q&A button. We’ll either answer them as we go or we’ll wait till the end, and there’ll be questions there as well. You also should have received a downloadable workbook in an email about 53 minutes ago. I’ve also just put in a link into the chat. So if you didn’t get the email, feel free to just click on that and you can use that to take notes for today’s session. But Liz, shall we get started and talk about, I suppose, the new reality in terms of marketing, which is that it has changed? If you think of marketing now compared to marketing 15, 20 years ago, it’s not anymore about an ad in the newspaper or a radio, or listing on the phone pages. **Charles Clark:** Not to say that those don’t still have a place, especially in the regional markets, but the way that marketing has evolved into the digital age really means that there are more and more places to connect with your audience. And the great thing is, is that these channels, I suppose we’d call them, are now able to be owned by you. So we’re talking specifically in this circumstance about email and social media. So what that means is that it’s in your hands to portray yourself in the best light possible. And while, of course, that starts with a website and obviously things like making sure that your social pages have your information on them and your contact details, and all that sort of stuff. We’re going beyond that, to think about the content that you are putting out there. “What are you trying to talk about, either directly in an email or to a wider social audience about what it is that you do and what you can offer?” I suppose the nice thing about it is that it also means that… **Charles Clark:** The old style of marketing was very broadcast. So you would put out a newspaper ad or a radio and it would be broadcast to a very wide audience, whereas with email and social, you can be much more targeted. And by that we mean you have then a ability to have high relevance to a small audience. And because it’s going to be high relevance, it should get higher engagement and then you can really start to, I suppose, build off of that and build that relationship. And I think this is particularly true for accountants, because you have unique knowledge and expertise that your clients need. And if we’ve seen it at any time, it’s been in the last 18 to 20 months, where your clients have really been on the back foot with all the things are going on with COVID. So the expertise that you have to offer them are just so relevant. So I suppose what we’re talking about today is how can you get this in front of them, even if they don’t necessarily know they need it. **Liz Studholme:** Yeah. So today we’re going to look at some good tips for email and social media. And I think, and in general, I guess it’s content marketing. It’s using information to support, engage, nurture, and interest prospects as well. And as accountants, your expertise is your greatest content, your greatest asset. I think this is quite a good quote, and it’s particularly relevant for accountants, “Sometimes people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” So your clients won’t necessarily ask for a guide to cash flow or you to explain depreciation, but they will really value it when you offer it to them. So it could be how to get paid faster or a guide to understanding revenue drivers. If you’re putting it on social media or sending it out as an email, that’s like, “Ah, that’s great. That’s just what I need. And I actually haven’t thought to ask about that, but right now that would be really valuable to me.” It shows that you understand the challenges that they’re facing, that you’re there for them. And if you’re putting it on your social, it positions you as the obvious choice for prospects. **Liz Studholme:** And I think on that point, we often think of marketing as sales. I think we’ve talked about this in the previous webinar. It’s obviously a lot more than sales, it’s about anything you do to grow relationships with your clients. And obviously that’s retention, but anything that’s good for them has a positive impact on your business. When they grow, you grow. So for example, it could be an update on tax legislation changes that you put out on social media. It’s obviously useful for your clients, which is good for you, and it builds your profile amongst the other people that have seen that post. So I think in general, a good rule is that 80/20 rule, where 80% of the time you’re talking about things that matter to them, you’re giving something away. 20% you might be talking about you saying you’ve talked about that, understanding revenue drivers or cashflow or whatever. And then you may be putting out, “Hey, make a time with us to put a cash flow forecast together,” or whatever it is. **Charles Clark:** Sure thing. It’s a really interesting point. A lot of BOMA users, when we talk to them, some of them will say, “Look, we don’t necessarily want to grow in terms of getting on new clients, but we want to grow our revenue.” So, that’s upselling or telling their clients about services that they maybe didn’t realise that they offer. And then other of our clients or other of our BOMA users will say, “Look, we’re starting out and we do want to grow our client base.” So, lots of different ways that you can use that. You can use it to upsell, you can use it to grow in terms of numbers. So, just interesting to think about even if you’ve got a full client, but you can be generating more revenue for your client if that’s something that you feel would add value. **Charles Clark:** So, email’s been around for quite a long time. I was shocked to hear it’s over 40 years. And we all know that as a result, it’s the main means of communication that we use, which means that we all get a lot of emails. However, as you can see at that top report by the Radicati Group, is that it is still the most preferred means of communication to any channel. And the great thing is, when it comes to your clients, you already have their email address. The second point to make is that for every $1 you spend on marketing, about $44 is the ROI. And that number I’ve seen anywhere from $40 to $48. It seems that $44 is roughly what people expect to get in return. So the nice thing, as Liz said, is that email is personal and it can be a direct link between you and your client or your prospect, and so it can be tailored to them. So whether it’s a direct email, one-to-one, or it’s a larger email. **Charles Clark:** So it could be to a group of your clients who maybe have similar needs or requirements, or it could be to your entire database. But then you would, I think as Liz is going to talk about in a minute, make sure that you have a wider breadth of content. If you think about the challenges that your clients have, that you might be able to help on, so easy ways to transact and communicate on a day-to-day basis. And it’s also a great place to offer further advisory support. So you may know that your clients are super busy, they don’t always have time to pick up the phone, it’s really easy to send an email. Or, if you have had that call already, you can then follow up with an email. **Charles Clark:** Also, it’s really inexpensive. So, putting an email together doesn’t have to be a hugely lengthy, expensive proposition. And if you’re thinking of communicating one-to-many, which is one of the advantages of both social and email, it’s a really effective way to get your message or messages out there to a wider audience. I was talking earlier about the fact that we get lots of emails, and this is really the point that Liz is going to lead off on the next slide, which is, because you get a lot of emails, you’re going to have to make sure that the ones that you send are really relevant to your readers. Because if you’re sending irrelevant emails, it’s more likely that over time they’re going to stop reading them because they’re just not worth their time with reading them. So, Liz, do you want to talk about personalisation? **Liz Studholme:** Yeah. I think probably firstly, well, one of the important points is that we look at the data around the emails that are sent in BOMA by our accounting subscribers, and they have a much higher average open rate than the general, I guess, industry average. So that’s obviously because of a client’s relationship with their accountant. It’s a very trusted relationship, you’re going to open your emails. But if you’re not sending information that’s relevant and personal to them, well, that’s the quickest way to get unsubscribes or unread. So maintain that preferred status by sending really informative, useful, time-relevant emails, and do it by segmenting your audience. So within a list, you can make sure that you’ve got segments, and that could be based on… Within BOMA, you can add tags to your audience. So the examples of that could be an industry vertical, it could be they’re in retail or hospitality, which right now will be really a hurting, potentially, trade. **Liz Studholme:** And they’re going to have different challenges to people in other industries, for example. It could be the relationship they hold with you. So some of your clients might be compliance only, some might be doing more of that whole business advisory work, so full service. So you might be wanting to advise those compliance-only clients about other things that you can offer them. Company positions. So different business owners will have different drivers to employees, for example. Depending on who’s opening your email and what position they hold in their business, or if they’re not business owners but they have investment properties, or whatever it is. And then, how they subscribed. So did they download a guide to a business health check, for example? And therefore you’re going to send them ongoing tips to keep that prospect warm, or sign up to your newsletter. And it might also be location. At the moment, that’s going to make a lot of difference if they’re Auckland to the rest of the country. But making sure that you tag your email database is just an easy way to make sure that you send things that are really relevant to them. And when they open them, they go, “Oh, this is great. This is exactly what I need right now.” And more likely to open the next email, and the next email. **Charles Clark:** One of the questions that we’re often faced with, and this isn’t just accountants but it is business owners, especially professional services in general, is, “How do I build up my email list?” And potentially you might be lucky in that, if you come into a business where you buy into one, there might be an existing email list. But if you don’t, just, here are a few ideas that you can either use to build one from scratch or you can use to expand your current email list. So, current clients. Whether you have a small number or a large number, they’re your first step. You already have implied permission to email them, you probably already have some sort of relationship, and so they’re a great place to start. Utilise your website and social media. So, make sure that you have calls to action. C**harles Clark:** So it could be a user to sign up form, it could be a lead capture form, or it could be something on your social page which links through to your lead capture form where they can download something of value. The key here is that, as in the next point, you’re offering something of value, and in exchange they give you their email address. This is a really well recognised and understood transaction out there in the marketing sphere. And I do it all the time, and I know lots of other people do. Whereas, if there’s some really interesting information, or even a promise of a newsletter or to be kept up to date on things that’ll be relevant to my business, I’m going to make that exchange because the value is strong enough. On that point of value, do think about what it is that you can offer that might be a little bit unique or different. **Charles Clark:** So you’re at a rural practice, you could be thinking, “Okay. Well, I’ve got lots of clients who’re in the agricultural sector, so I’m going to think about things that are going to be relevant to them.” And equally, you might be in town, and so you might have more retail or hospitality-focused clients. Again, think what would be relevant for them, and then give them the opportunity to make that value exchange. The nice thing about once they’ve made it, they’ve given you implied permission to keep on emailing them. It is important that you have a little check box where they basically tick that by downloading this, they give you their permission to contact them in the future with marketing emails. **Charles Clark:** So this is really, really important. Both because it’s sets an expectation with the person who is downloading it that you will be in touch and you’re not going to spam them. But also, a lot of rules and regulations against spam that we need to look out for. So in BOMA, we really recommend that when you use a lead capture form from BOMA, we’ve got that box which you can just insert in your lead capture forms. And just by way of an insight, we’ve got a few of these on our BOMA website and we get about five to 10 leads per week come through, just having downloaded one of our three or four lead magnets. So really, really powerful. And once you’ve put the time into creating that lead magnet, as long as it’s evergreen and relevant, it can sit on your website or your social posts for a long time and keep driving leads. **Charles Clark:** This next one’s a little bit offline, even if you did an online event, but running the events and running partnerships. So the event could be something like we are running now, so like a webinar. It doesn’t have to be something online. And obviously, for those of us based in Auckland, that would be impossible at the moment. But it could be a Q&A, it could be a webinar, it could be something that’s live at your local association, whether that’s your legal association or banking. You’ll be able to find partnerships where the information that you have would be seen of great relevance to their users, so they’re happy to run a partnership event with you. So again, that’s a great place to get leads from which you can then put into your database. The one caveat, I would say, just at the end of this, and you might have been approached over the years by someone from the web who offers to sell you a list. **Charles Clark:** And it sounds great and it doesn’t sound very expensive, and they’ll promise that they’ll target exactly who it is that you want to, please don’t do this. It’s both, in certain jurisdictions, illegal, because there’s obviously no implied permission. But also, the quality of the leads that they’re going to give you are usually really bad, because they’ve just scraped the names from LinkedIn and various of these websites and then they give them to you. So the people that you end up emailing on their lists have no idea who you are, and then will usually unsubscribe or mark your emails as spam, which is obviously really bad for your future email campaign. So, please avoid that if you can. **Liz Studholme:** So now once you’ve got your email list, you need to start sending emails. Here are some, just, little tips from us. We are going to show you a quick run-through of BOMA and how that works. BOMA has a huge content library that helps you kickstart an email campaign, so you can take an article and customize it. If you’re writing from scratch, and even if you’re using the BOMA content, here are some things, I think, that’s worth thinking about. So the subject line’s important because it’s the first thing they see in their email inbox. And you want it to be compelling, you want it to be something that makes them open their email. So if you can, I always say try to avoid generic headings such as Newsletter, because it doesn’t really tell them anything. Obviously, if you are really known for great newsletters that you send out every month or however often you’re able to do them, then that’s fine. But if you can instead put your email together, maybe write your subject line last, and find the most important thing in that email. **Liz Studholme:** Look, it might be, “Hey, changes to the bright-line test,” or something that’s really going to matter to people, and use that as your heading. Even if it’s not covering everything in your email, it should be something that’s a wee bit descriptive about what they’re going to see when they open it. Be honest, try to avoid click bait. I’m sure that you won’t do that. And concise, under 50 characters, so keeping it reasonably short. Personality is obviously important. Email is personal, it’s your relationship. Make it like a direct conversation so it’s enjoyable to read. We often are getting emails, particularly if it is tax technical or whatever, if you can show a bit of your personality. It’s about relationships. Short and easily readable. Now we’re reading emails in all sorts of various locations. We’re reading them on our phone. The way to do that sometimes is to break it up with a numbered or bulleted list. Get your point across as succinctly as possible, keep the main takeouts near the top of the email. **Liz Studholme:** And if you have a really long form content, try not to put that all in the email but use a punchy sort of introductory paragraph like, “What is it? Why does it matter? What do you need to know?” And then a Read More, and that could link back to your website or to the source. If you are including links, just make sure they works before you send it. Click on them and make sure that they still link through, because as you don’t want to send them to a 404 error page. Always proofread them, that obviously goes without saying. You can send a test in BOMA, so you can do that and send it to a colleague who’ve seen it with fresh eyes, or send it to yourself. And send it from you. So don’t just say, “From ABC Accounting or SBA Accounting,” you’re going to say from you, put your name in there. Actually, part of sending emails and part of what Charlie was talking about previously, it is important that you do do a reply address, your company details, your physical address. Not only does that mean that they can get in touch with you, but that’s also just standard practice. **Charles Clark:** Brilliant. So we thought we’d now have a look at social media. And the great thing, I went and actually had a look at a lot of your social media pages, and so all the hygiene factors you guys have covered. So you’ve got great About sections, you’ve got all the information in there. There’s nothing that I have to go in there and say, “Oh. Look, you need to have what time you open and your contact details on that.” You guys have got that, which is fantastic to see. So I thought what I’d do today is talk about why it’s important. Because a few years ago, I think there was definitely some questioning amongst accountants as to, “Sure. Twitter and Facebook is great for me to know what’s going on in the accounting sphere, but how useful is it really for my accountants?” And I think, to answer that, is to say that, look, your clients are spending their time on social media as well. **Charles Clark:** And they might be spending it on different channels, and we can talk about that in the next slide, but they are spending their time on social media. I know I am. And they will expect it. So just like they’ll expect you to have a website, they will also expect you to have a social page. It just is a natural thing that a business has, especially a service business. And that’s great because it means that they can follow you, they can go in and look at your content. It’s a really easy way for them to keep up to date with what you’re doing, especially if they’re not yet a client, if they’re maybe a prospect. They can keep an eye on what you’re doing by following you, but they don’t have to necessarily have that initial conversation until they’ve been following you for a little bit and feel more comfortable with you as a business. **Charles Clark:** What this does mean is that when it comes to your content, it’s a great place to amplify it. So it could be a blog that you’ve got there, it could be a thought piece. It could be just something that is talking about something that your particular firm was up to. Maybe talking about your clients or something, a birthday, something that you’re celebrating. The key there is that it amplifies your content and then can create engagement. And you’re obviously wanting to create engagement with current clients and also prospects, to build and strengthen those relationships. And by doing that, if you do have good content on there, what it’s going to enable you to do, and I think Liz touched on this before, is start to position you for thought leadership. So if you’re posting regularly about things that are your specialty or your niche, and relevant to your clients, they’re going to be like, “Oh, great. SBA in Tauranga,” or, “SBA in Christchurch, they really know their stuff when it comes to this element that is relevant to my business.” **Charles Clark:** And so, over time, in their mind they’re going to be like, “Great. These guys, they know what they’re talking about.” And when it comes to maybe considering getting an accountant or changing an accountant, or even talking to you, the current accountant, about a service that they maybe didn’t use in the past but they’d like to use, they’re going to look to you first because you’ve got that presence on social. It’s also the new word of mouth. So, obviously your website is key, and even if someone has said, “Look, you guys need to go and chat to SBA.” They will definitely go and look at your website, but they also probably will go and look at your social pages. Especially for the younger generations, so maybe 40 to 50 and under. Social, they are digital natives. **Charles Clark:** This is as natural for them as a website, and they would be surprised if you didn’t have one. Especially if you think of them as a business and they see themselves as modern and forward-looking, and they do their business with social media. Whether it’s just to talk about their business or they sell through it, it would be maybe a bit of a red flag that you didn’t have one. And then the last point is, it’s great for networking. So whether that’s networking with your clients or prospects and celebrating their successes, or networking with other accountants or other people in the space to, I suppose, enable you to keep up with the latest information on what’s going on. Maybe join some groups. And we’ve got some information on that and the added value. **Charles Clark:** Oh, sorry. Okay. Oh, there we go. Sorry, I missed that one. So you guys are probably aware there are loads and loads of social networks out there. There’s Pinterest, TikTok, Reddit, Snapchat, loads of them. But probably, for our purposes here, the four main ones are going to be the most relevant. So we’re talking Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. And I say that these are going to be the most relevant, because bang for buck, these are probably going to be where most of your clients and prospects are going to be. Yes, they might be on TikTok as well, but you can rest assured that mostly everyone has a Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter account. The nice thing about them is that they do differ slightly between them. And Liz, you might want to talk about, I suppose, the differences because, because they’re slightly different, you need to approach them slightly differently as well. **Liz Studholme:** I mean, I think probably we all have a fairly good understanding. But yeah, Facebook is the biggest network. We love and hate it, but it is an effective online window to your business that’s easier to update somehow than your website. I mean, obviously, I think, within the SBA, that’s not something that you do anyway. But on Facebook, it’s fluid. It’s also user-generated, so it’s your clients talking to you and you talking back to them. So it’s a great way to also leverage that network that you’ve got, because when someone you know engages with your content, it amplifies your post to the people they know. So it has that nice network effect so that you can reach new faces and new customers. LinkedIn’s obviously a bit more professional. It’s your thought leadership spot, but it doesn’t have to be. And sometimes I quite like on LinkedIn when people are actually just sending fun personal stuff, because it’s a little bit different from the dryness of LinkedIn, I guess. **Liz Studholme:** You can start conversations there, join groups, improve your knowledge, and there is actually a really nice little tool on LinkedIn. If you’ve got a LinkedIn business page, in the menu at the top you’ll see Content, if you go under Content Suggestions you can actually search for what particular people are reading on LinkedIn in order to get ideas about what to write about. So you can actually go, “Okay, I’m interested in this audience and this particular, perhaps, industry vertical, what they’re reading,” and then you can… give you some idea ideas for your content creation. Twitter, it’s little posts, it’s very fast. You can actually put your tweet up a number of times and see how people engage, because there is so much content on there. **Liz Studholme:** We noticed in BOMA that Twitter probably sits a bit behind Facebook and LinkedIn, but we see a real increase at end of financial year in our region. So, whether that’s Australia, New Zealand, or the UK. Where our main BOMA regions are, we see Twitter come up with people making comments, and it might be short quips about the workload or making funny comments about it. And then Instagram, which technically seems to be more of an image-based channel, has actually started to gain traction with news and comments as well. So, usually posted on a tile, but it’s engaging with your audience in a different way, and people are swinging to Instagram a bit more. So you can actually tell stories about your business and promote values and beliefs in there. So in terms of personality, Instagram’s a nice place to tell a little bit more of the fuller story for your clients. **Charles Clark:** So in terms of how to get started… I know that most of you guys, if not all of you, have social pages. I thought it was just worth talking a little bit about the next step, which is, “Okay, I’ve got my social pages, but where do I invest my time and my effort, and how do I build my confidence?” So a couple of good ways to do that are, if there are people out there in the industry, whether it’s in the accounting industry or related industries that you admire, it’s often worth following them to see how they’re doing it. So see what they’re commenting on, see their tone of voice, see, “Are they posting videos a lot or is it just images or is it text?” It can be quite a good way to learn by seeing how people are doing it well. **Charles Clark:** Another good tip is to, if you’re not too sure, “Should I spend all my time on Facebook or should I spend more on LinkedIn?” Think about where your clients and your prospective clients are going to be. So you could do this by going onto their business websites and researching, “Do they have Facebook and LinkedIn? Do they have Twitter?” If they’ve only got one or two of those, that’s probably where they’re going to be spending most of their time. You may also be following them personally, so that’s another good place. If you see that they’re really active on some of those channels, it’s a good bet that that’s where they’ll be spending their time. So you would obviously spend more of your time putting up posts on those channels, because that’s where they are. **Charles Clark:** Being responsive is really good. So, when it comes to, say, if you put something up on your website, and that’s great and it’s a bit more static, but when you put that same piece of content or a video or a comment that you’ve made on social, be prepared that some people hopefully are going to start to engage with it. And that could be something really low-touch, they might just like it. That’s great. Take a note of who likes it, because that means that they might be interested in that topic in the future. They may even give you a comment back, which is even better. And that comment could be hopefully positive or it could be a question, like, “I wasn’t aware of this, how does it affect my business?” That would be fantastic. **Charles Clark:** Then you’re able to go back to them and demonstrate your expertise, and say, “Look, this is how it affects your business. Why don’t you give me a call? And we’ll talk about it and I’ll see how I can help.” The key there is to be responsive. If you have lots of people commenting or liking, and you only chat socially every once a month, you’re going to miss the opportunities that will be presented by people engaging. Just one thing quick to note is that there are people out there on social, I suppose we’ll call them trolls. And not that it really is applicable to accountancy, but even on BOMA we’ve had people coming in and saying, “Oh, we disagree with something.” That’s absolutely fine. That is their opinion. The worst thing to do would be for us to ignore it. So if someone on any of the social channels says something that you disagree with, obviously you don’t get personal, but it’s completely okay for you to respond to it to give your point of view or your business’ point of view, but keep it civil. But with- **Liz Studholme:** Sometimes those moments can be the ones where you gain the most kudos. And I think it’s probably unlikely to happen, but you see where brands do take ownership and respond, and that’s where it shows the integrity of their brand. **Charles Clark:** Yeah, I think that’s a great point. Also keep an eye on what’s working. And we’ve got a slide later on about new measuring your campaigns. But if you’re doing certain campaigns that are getting lots and lots of great feedback and impressions, that’s fantastic. Or, if you’re getting some which aren’t, then think about, “What is it about the ones that are working really well? And how can I take those learnings forward and put them into my next campaigns?” And it might be something like, they had a really engaging picture or the content was really tight, and I had a great call to action and I was talking about something interesting. Whereas, the ones that maybe aren’t performing so well, maybe it was the things I’ve just talked about, like an unengaging picture or vague, not particularly strong copy. Or maybe it’s just a topic that your clients, it’s not so relevant for them. **Charles Clark:** So, that’s fine. You could be like, “Right. That’s less relevant for them, and I’ll go and talk about the things that are more relevant.” So, good to learn. And then lastly, you’re not alone in this. So if you’ve got people who work with you, colleagues, or even a partner who can maybe look over your back and you can ask them like, “Hey, does this make sense? Is this giving off the right tone?” Lean on them. Both for a bit of a proofreading, but also if you do have colleagues or a team, say, “Look, as part of your job description, I want you to maybe come up with one social post a week or one social post a month.” They don’t necessarily have to post it, but they could at least come to you and say, “Hey. Look, I think this is going to be really relevant. I’ve been talking to lots of clients about it, we should be talking about this.” So you can use your greater network to come up with ideas on what you should be posting. When to post. Liz, I think this is probably- **Liz Studholme:** Yeah. I think when you get started on social media, and I’m sure that a lot of people on this webinar have been doing a number of posts for a while or whatever, but, well, you can get a bit hung up on when should be the best time. I think really, yes, we can give you some feedback on that, but engaging content is key because that has a longer lifespan. So if you posted it at 10:00 in the morning, and then someone’s still engaging with it at 3:00 in the afternoon, your post is living on beyond the time that you posted it. The other thing I’d probably say is, so if you are late at night and it’s 10 o’clock at night, then schedule it to post the next day. If you… Now I’ve just lost my train of thought on that one. **Liz Studholme:** But yeah, the networks differ, and some of them are obviously quite… Twitter, you can get lost a little bit. Things can overtake your post if something suddenly becomes trending. But yeah, post at a time that, I suppose, is good for you, because if you’re going to get comments, you want to be around. Don’t post it just as you’re heading out of the office, maybe have someone keeping a wee eye on it. If someone’s going to respond, it would be great if you can then come back and say, “Hey. Yep, we’re here. Yes, we heard you. And yes, that’s a really good point, we agree,” or whatever it is. And think about your audience. “What’s a good time for them? Are they going to be looking at their social channels in the middle of the day? At the end of the day? Is the beginning of the week a better time to post?” So get to know your audience on that, and experiment. But yeah, I think that the general rule is, while you can Google all of that and find out, and we can give you some of those stats, it’s going to come down to your business and your clients, and some sort of basic common sense, really. **Charles Clark:** Just to Liz’s point on checking and keep an eye on responses, the nice thing is that with your smartphone, if you’ve got Facebook or the other apps on there, you’ll be able to set it up so you get a little alert. So if you are on the way home or you’re watching TV after dinner and something pings up, you can just go on there and respond. **Liz Studholme:** And you don’t need to respond immediately, but ideally within… What is it, Charlie? I think- **Charles Clark:** I’d say within an hour or two would be ideal. **Liz Studholme:** Yeah, I think Facebook does keep a record of, “This page normally responds within so many hours.” And it’s nice to have that up within a relatively short time. And I think probably, yeah, if it’s a little bit over two hours, that’s fine, but try to be responsive when you can. **Charles Clark:** So what can you share? So I think this is a really critical one, and this does apply both to email and social. So how you might share it might differ, because obviously in an email you have more flexibility in terms of… You can have more images, and so you could be sharing multiple things in the same email. But I suppose, Liz, I think you came up with this list in terms of just things that would be, I suppose, starting points that you could use. **Liz Studholme:** Yeah. It’s all fairly straightforward, really. But I think if you’re going to start making a concerted effort to do a wee bit more on your email marketing and your social, then it’s useful to have a list of, “What can I do this week? Or what can I do this month?” or whatever. So obviously reminding and supporting on compliance is your starting point. Prov tax dates, those sorts of things. Reminding them end of financial year, key tips to make your end of financial year even simpler, those sorts of things. Sharing news that directly affects your clients, whether that’s the new wage subsidy or changes to the resurgence payments, those sorts of things. Maybe the interest deductibility, those sorts of things on residential property investments. Comment on changes in the industry. So if you have a particular niche within your client base that are in certain industries, it might be, for example, I don’t know, exporting at the moment. Those sorts of things might be something that you can comment on. **Liz Studholme:** And on that, you can look at industry publications. So follow those publications about what they’re talking about, what’s becoming topical right now. If you’re running events or you’re going to an event, if it’s online, whatever, there might be something coming up that you’ve learned something from. I mean, there’s a lot of stuff on mental health, for example, at the moment. So it doesn’t have to be just accounting information, it can be that broader sense of understanding the full business picture. You can boost your clients’ brands. You can talk about their achievements, things that they’ve done, gives them valuable exposure as well. And then obviously sharing news from your firm and promoting your people and their achievements, which gives people another sense of… They may have actually only ever spoken to you on the phone, but never actually met you. I mean, I’m not sure how often that’s happening, but giving people a sense of someone new or someone that they may not have come across, and the specific skillset they have. **Charles Clark:** One other thing to note is that this doesn’t mean that you can’t also share other people’s content. So you can see here on the left it’s the National Retail Association, and on the right it’s information about Hire Purchase. So if you see something good online from an association or a newspaper or something like that, it’s very common that you might forward it or share it. And you can see here, in both cases Lielette has given her 2 cents on it and why it might be relevant. So, sharing content is a really easy thing to do. And it’s great, because someone else has already written it and then you can just share it and give your 2 cents on it. **Liz Studholme:** I think on that, Charlie, you can also on your business page follow as a business page, follow other influence partners, I guess, to broaden that reach that you have. Whether it’s local associations or banks, or legal firms or patent attorneys or something. By following other people’s pages, you get to see a bit more of their content and you’re also building those connections a bit wider. **Charles Clark:** Great point. A key thing here is to think about hashtags. And so if you’re not familiar with hashtags, basically they act as mini search engines to make your posts searchable. And so the great thing about these is if you have them on your post, and you can see down at the bottom of this one, they’ve got a whole range of things. Everything from their business one to tax chartered accountants, what they might specialise in, peril tax, super, and also where they’re located. So the great thing here is that you can use these hashtags. You can attach them to your post, and this is across all the different channels, and then it means that whenever people are searching for specific hashtag, your posts are going to be included in that search. And it works across Google as well. So that really enables your social posts to jump across onto Google’s search results, which is a really great thing. **Charles Clark:** So you can see here we’ve got some examples. So, industry hashtags, brand, this is obviously your brand, client hashtag, this is pretty obvious, awards. So I know at the moment the Xero 2021 accounting awards have just gone out, that might be one. Event hashtags, we’ve got the SBA event coming up in November, that’s another one, or local hashtag. So, whether it’s your area or there’s a local hashtag that is unique to your town or your region that people would understand. And lastly, a holiday hashtag. So it might be Christmas or Father’s Day, or just something that you can pop in there. And people do read them. And you can see in the one that we’ve got here, they don’t actually have any hashtags in their text, they’ve got it all down below. But you can, if you want to, have #payrolltax. It’s tricky. People’s eyes are used to reading hashtags now as part of a sentence, so you can actually include them in the body of your text. **Liz Studholme:** Just with those hashtags, just no spaces, no punctuation, but you can put capital letters. So, sometimes you see funny ones like #ImOverIt, or #GettingMyHeadAroundThis, or whatever it is. And just to make it easier to read, you can put some capitals in through there to make that hashtag a bit easier to read. But yeah, they can be amusing, of course. **Charles Clark:** And actually, that’s a really great point, because obviously social is a great place to have some fun. And I think, as Liz alluded to earlier, with your emails, it’s important that your personality comes through. And so you can see here, you wouldn’t necessarily think that accountants have martinis, and dogs and sunglasses, and beer across the weekends. But the point is- **Liz Studholme:** At some point, we’ve always got to have a cat, don’t we? **Charles Clark:** Yes. **Liz Studholme:** Or a dog. **Charles Clark:** But the point is here is that they, this particular… They’re actually a BOMA user in Brisbane, and they have both beer clients but also, these ladies enjoy a night out. And so their clients know this. It’s a really small town, and so it’s a running joke amongst their clients and their prospects that, “Thank God it’s Friday, let’s go and have a beer,” and they’ll go and meet up with clients and friends. And so they’re going to have fun, their personalities are coming through. You’re not automatons. We’re all people, and so just don’t forget that. Especially on Facebook and Instagram especially. LinkedIn maybe a little bit less so, but let your personality shine. It could be something like memes, as long as it’s not too many. It could be that you’ve celebrated a birthday in your office or something more personal than that. So it doesn’t always have to be, as Liz saying earlier, dry tax or accounting information. **Liz Studholme:** We’ve sort of covered this, and I am conscious that… We want to make sure that we’re making most of your time. So just very quickly, we did include, I think, this slide in our last webinar if you joined it, but as a value-add. So we thought we’d just have a quick run-through. There is a lot of information in your practice that is common sense to you but is highly valuable to your clients. So don’t forget to go even to the basics of explaining key accounting concepts in plain English ways, because that’s really helpful to the rest of us out there that are not accountants. You can look at frequently asked questions, for example. Things that you often get asked in an email, or just turn that into something and put it out on social, or send it as an email. **Liz Studholme:** There are obviously things throughout the year like seasonal content or compliance dates that you can talk about. News, insight and opinion, obviously that’s where you get a bit of engagement. How-to guides on setting up a business, selling a business, succession planning, guides to payroll. Cloud accounting, those sorts of things are useful, and checklists. Those sorts of useful things that people can download and go, “Great. That’s going to really help me end of financial year. I’ve got a checklist, done that, done that, done that.” And then obviously a newsletter, which can be a combination of all of these things, with links back to your blog or links to the IRD content, or something that’s going to be relevant for your reader. **Charles Clark:** Or a Contact Us. So, you can actually have a button that sends an email or lands on your Contact Us page, or different ways to do it. Want to see if I can get my mouse… I’m having a few issues driving. So, how to get started. And this very quickly leads on, but it is important to have a bit of a plan. And we’re not saying that you have to go and have a big, complex marketing plan. As Liz was saying, just write a few things down. So, important dates in the calendar, and we’ve got a few examples of what they could be, then you guys will also be aware of other things that are coming up. So end of financial year, general elections, legislation changes. These are all things that are going to be really relevant to either all your clients or segments of your clients. And so you could just have a calendar and you could mark, “Hey, we’ve got the bright-line test information. Legislation is coming out, this might be relevant to my property investment clients.” **Charles Clark:** And so you just make a note and say, “Hey. Well, I’m going to send out an email and some social posts when that comes out, because that’s really, really relevant.” So it doesn’t need to be necessarily any more detailed than that. Obviously, you can get a lot more detailed. And we’ll share with you a content planner, a campaign planner that you can obviously download and fill in to your heart’s content. But it’s just important to have a bit of a plan. Decide, I suppose, who within the business is going to be responsible. Is it yourself? Is it someone else within your business? Because if no one takes responsibility, as we all know, then things won’t get done. So, important just to, I suppose, have it land on someone’s desk as part of their overall, I suppose, set of responsibilities. **Charles Clark:** And when that happens, I suppose the advice that I would give, especially if you’re giving it to someone else within your business, is not just to say, “Hey. Look, we’re just doing this for no reason.” But it’s about the things we’ve talked about today. So, giving information and expertise to your current clients, and preventing churn, and hoping to upsell them. Plus, yes, it’s the marketing element as well, but if you’re thinking of improving client satisfaction rate, obviously service comes alongside that, and then that sort of expertise that you can deliver free of charge as well. And that’s obviously what we’re touching on for today. Okay, so measuring your results. So I won’t go into this in too much detail, but I’ve just got in two columns the things that you should be looking for. **Charles Clark:** So on email, things like open rates. So that’s basically, you go into BOMA or whatever email platform you use, and if your open rates are under 20%, then that’s not great. You should be hoping that 30 to 40% of your emails are getting opened. I think we touched on why they would get opened or why they wouldn’t get opened. Because you might be sending them too many, you might be spamming a list you don’t have permission for. You might not be using great calls to action and have good information in there, or it might be segmented to the wrong people. So those are all things that you can do to improve the open rates. Click-through rate and clicks. So clicks is just the number of people who clicked on it, and then click-through rate is the number of people who opened it divided by the number of clicks. So if you have a click-through rate of anywhere from three up percent, that’s pretty good. You might also want to say, “Oh. Look, did it drive traffic to the website?” I’m not sure how traffic to the SBA website is handled, but that might be something that you could tell from Google Analytics. Or it might be something like, you might say, “Look, how many signups did I get or registrations through our contact page?” Or when you’re running the promotion, how many talked about- **Liz Studholme:** Charlie, sorry to interrupt. I wondered whether we should have a quick look at this in BOMA. Just conscious of time, and helping people see the impression data and that sort of thing. That they can access account information- **Charles Clark:** Sure. Do you want to share screen? **Liz Studholme:** Yeah. So I am- **Charles Clark:** And while you’re doing that, while you’re setting up, I’ll just answer Ashley’s question, which was, “As a general rule, how often should branches post on Facebook and send out newsletters?” So, look, I don’t know if you guys have a… Craig, is there any sort of specifics from your end in terms of a rule, yourselves? **Craig Gardiner:** Not necessarily. When we’re doing newsletters, we try and do them on a quarterly basis. Social media posting, we post, I think, through… Ashley posts probably once a week, that sort thing. So, that’s more branding-specific stuff cross the line. Just keeping it in front of mind, because we’ve got a lot of clients that are annually geared. So, having more touchpoints with them more often is valuable. But we do encourage our branches to use local content so it actually has a connection between the local people in the community and the service provider and their community as well. **Charles Clark:** I think one thing on just the option of posting, especially when it comes to social, is one once a week is great. And I know lots of accountants who post once a week or less, but I know equally some who post two or three times a week. I think the important thing here is, what is the cadence that you as a business are comfortable doing? And so that might be a couple times a week, or it might be once every couple of weeks. The point is, if you have a cadence in mind and you’ve got good content going out, that’s the key thing. There’s nothing worse than saying, “Great, I’m going to post 10 posts over the next two weeks,” and then it all gets too much and then you don’t do anything for six months. So just think about what is realistic for your business, and then just try and be consistent in your posting. **Liz Studholme:** And it may be dictated by what’s happening in the world out there. So we’re on the platform at the moment. I am very conscious people’s time. I’m sorry that we’ve gone a bit longer than we intended to, but I think it’s worth having a quick look at BOMA and how that can really help with your emails and social posts. In here, you can create a lead form. Now, I know someone has asked about downloadable guides. So lead forms don’t necessarily need to be the place that you just have a newsletter signup. If I look at one of the lead forms I’ve created before, “Sign up to expert advice and news.” We’ve created that newsletter signup form, and then you can use that URL or the HTML code to embed it on your social pages. But you can also use it for a downloadable guide, so download our free checklist. And then when they submit that, the post-submit will send them to a custom page, which is your website where they can download the guide. So that’s another way, and you’ve gained their email. **Liz Studholme:** Now, obviously I’m going through it far too quickly, but we would really encourage you to set up a time with us, with Joanna, our customer success person, for some training and a little bit of a one-on-one. There’s obviously no commitment there, but you get a sense of how BOMA will work for you and whether it’s the right tool for your firm. You can create an email or social post from scratch here, but today I’m just going to show you the Content Library. So if we click into the Content Library, you can see all the content here. And it is regional-specific, so it’s only going to be information that’s valid in New Zealand, for New Zealand accountants. You can search by global categories here, you can also search by libraries, depending what your subscription gives you. **Liz Studholme:** So everyone gets BOMA, other partners include some free content from Wolters Kluwer, MyHR, Spotlight, Vend. But there are also some premium libraries by The Gap and Wolters Kluwer Premium, and all Xero partner clients get Xero library as well. If we just go into All Libraries, you can go in, you can choose a piece. We’re going to look at this piece from Wolters Kluwer. This might be a Premium piece, actually. I’ll just go into something… There’s a compliance reminder. Okay, interest rates rises are on the way. “Where can I send it?” Well, you can actually share this one on your website as a blog, as you’d like. That’s not all content, but quite a lot of content is. You can send it via email and social. You can see we’ve written the social post for you. We’ve written an email for you, and you simply, if you’re happy with it in general, you can decide to send it and then you can customise it as you deliver. **Liz Studholme:** So, send it via email or social, or let’s send it to both just to let you know how that works. Title it, so that that will be relevant to you. No one else sees that, but you might say, “Well, I’m going to send this on email to particular clients with investment properties,” or something. And send it slightly differently written to some other group within your audience. There I can see my social post. Actually, I’m going to add a bit of content there and go through, and then start editing on each channel that I’ve connected. So when you set up your account, it’s simply a matter of connecting to your social channels, uploading logo, and BOMA will pull out a template that is brand-specific for the SBA network. **Liz Studholme:** Then across each channel, we can edit and we can preview. So that’s LinkedIn, you can see that little bit of text that I added in there. Facebook, I might want to do something different, or Twitter. Twitter will obviously only allow you to work within the character limit. Facebook, just a little bit different. I copy and paste, and that’s because Facebook has fake news rules to stop a third party posting on your behalf. I’m going to take that out. I might add a hashtag. I’m probably spelling it wrong. And preview that one, and I can see my hashtag’s gone in there. On email, so obviously talking about personalisation, really important that you use tags. Within BOMA, you can select manually. So that might be when you’ve had a meeting, you’re going to follow up with that person by sending them an individual email. I’m in a test account, so I haven’t got many contacts here, but I can filter using tags. And those tags are created by you so that they’re really relevant to your audience. So, trade, for example, I’m going to send that to my trade clients. **Liz Studholme:** Once we’ve selected who we are sending it to, look at your subject line, your preview description. All of that you can change, but it’s written for you just to make it easier, and then select your template. Now, you can select a template using something you’ve sent before and you really like the way that looked, or you can use BOMA’s easy templates as well. So, let’s select one. This is the instant template. It’s using your logo at the top, it’s got your contact details at the bottom. So everything’s set up. It looks professional. It’s got an unsubscribe button and your address, and your links to your social pages. You now get an option to send your content in a number of ways. So if you were creating a newsletter, you could, for example, send that one in and then go back into the Content Library and add more content. **Liz Studholme:** I’m not going to do that. I’m going to send the full content, because I think it’s a really relevant issue that I want them to read on its own, and I want people to contact me at the end. So I’ve decided that’s the content, I can then go in and change it. Add a personal greeting. Using merge tags, I’m adding a first name so that it pulls that name so it’s really personal to the person I send it to. I’m going to go back into Content and add a button at the bottom, because I want people to contact me about this, “Contact us.” And then over on the right-hand side you can see, “Where do you want that button to go?” Do you want it to send an email? Open a web page? If it was to send an email, for example, it’s me@SBA, et cetera, et cetera. **Liz Studholme:** I’m not sure what your emails look like, but let’s imagine that it looked like that, with a subject, which is interest rates, and a body. Let’s say, “Yes, I’d like to make a time to talk about interest rates and how that’s going to affect my investments,” for example. So when you’re happy with your email, you can also preview that. Just going to move our faces out of the way. You can preview that, save, and close. And obviously I didn’t change anything for efficiency sakes, but you can change all of the content in there if you like. You can then come down here and send a test email to yourself or someone in the office, and then you can schedule. So if it’s got a bit late in the day and you want to send it tomorrow, then… I’m not sure why it’s set in Australia, but let’s set it back to New Zealand. And we’re going to send it on Thursday at 11 o’clock, and schedule. **Liz Studholme:** Once you’ve sent your campaign, BOMA also collates all the campaigns that you’ve sent under the Campaigns tab. You can see where they were sent to. So this one went to email, Facebook, LinkedIn business, personal, and Twitter. And then you can go in, and look at… Let’s have a look at another one that’s successfully gone out. Social Media Update here. Now, again, test account, no detail in here, but you will be able to see figures in here. And they’ll show you how many impressions, clicks, shares, likes, and comments you got. If you sent it via email, you’re actually able to click on some of those buttons where people opened it, and see who opened it and see who clicked on the links in it. Because this campaign didn’t go via email, I don’t have that there, but I can show you that as well. I think that’s probably enough right now on that demo. But yeah, we will give you a link to set up a time to demo one-on-one so you can ask questions that are really specific to you. **Charles Clark:** So, please do ask any questions. I think, as I said, we’ve gone over a little bit with time. I just wanted to add one more thing just before we go. So if you do want to trial BOMA, we’ve got a special deal with SBA through Craig, which is great. And you get 25% off for life if you sign up before 30th of November. After that, there’s still a discount, and that’s 15%. We’ve also got some added value slides for you here as well. Having a regular plan of action, and then the last one is just a little bit of information about getting involved in social groups. If you do have any questions, I’ll be happy to answer them before we- **Liz Studholme:** Oh, sorry. Just one here. “What if I’m already a subscriber?” Perhaps we’ll follow up directly with you, Mike, on that. **Charles Clark:** Mike, could you just pop your email address in the chat? And we’ll follow up with you directly and we’ll give you the discount code. Thank you so much for your time, we really appreciate it. And we’ll see you next time. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### ['Ask Me Anything' Focusing on Marketing and Business Development](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/ask-me-anything-focusing-on-marketing-and-business-development/) **Published:** February 11, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** To kick of 2021 join Brad Turville, of Modern Firm Practices, and Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA for a fun, informative and fast paced ‘Ask Me Anything’ session focusing on Marketing & Business Development. Some of the questions we cover include; - What are the top 2 marketing strategies being used heading into 2021? - What marketing channel would you recommend for a startup bookkeeping business? - What is your view on Google paid advertising? - Proven ways to promote webinars - How does re targeting work and what are some things you can do to retarget people? - Tips on how to make business content click worthy without being too ‘salesy’ - How to get consistency in enquiries for Strategic Planning? - Best marketing KPI’s to track and improve for Business growth? - How do you find more clients that you want to work with? - How do you sell more services to your existing clients? - When is the best time to do a client review for referrals or feedback? **NB: You can also read a full transcript of this session below.** ## ‘Ask Me Anything’ Focusing on Marketing and Business Development Transcript **Charles Clark:** Hi everyone. Thank you so much for joining us today. My name is Charles Clark, I’m the Marketing Director at BOMA, and I’m joined by Brad Turville. Hi Brad. **Brad Turville:** Hi Charles. **Charles Clark:** Oh, great. So today we are talking marketing and business development, and it’s really an ‘Ask Me Anything’. So you guys have sent in a ton of questions, which is fantastic, but also we really encourage you to put any questions that you’ve got live. So Brad’s run a lot more of these than I have. So for this first one, I’ll hand them to you, Brad, in terms of housekeeping, and then we’ll get on to the questions. **Brad Turville:** Great. Thanks Charles. I can see a lot of people piling in. Hello to all of you. Some of you might be seeing me for the first time. Some of you have maybe seen me speak before. So this is a topic and well, it’s a topic Charles and I know a lot about and we love, but it’s also a format, as Charles mentioned, that I’ve run a lot of the Ask Me Anything type format. So a little bit of housekeeping. I know people are still piling in. So follow along as you jump in. We’ve got a lot of questions that you’ve sent in. Thanks for that. Charles and I just actually had quite a good look at them. There’s great, there’s a lot of different questions, which is good. **Brad Turville:** Now, throughout the call, I’d like you to participate with any questions that you haven’t sent in or questions that come to mind, or maybe by reading out the questions and answering them, which is how it works, it might trigger a bit of little blinding flash of the obvious for a different question that you hadn’t thought to ask. So the way you do it is you can go down to the chat, that’ll be down the bottom somewhere. I’m sure you’re all familiar with Zoom by now. And you can put your question in. **Brad Turville:** Now, we’ll do our best to get through as many questions as possible, the ones that have been sent in and the ones that come in. Just so we can check that the chat is working, Chelsea, if you’re listening, can you just let us know in the chat that it’s working? I’m not going to ask you all. Otherwise, I’ll get 4,000 chat messages. Cool. Someone else has already done it. So it’s already working. Thanks Chelsea. So when you type your question in, make sure it says, to the panelists, not to panelists and attendees, because you might not want everyone to see them. We’ll ask the question out anyway. **Brad Turville:** If you want to keep it anonymous, just put it in there. Just say, “Hey, here’s my question, but don’t…” We’ll do our best not to say anything about you. But if you put it in there, I’ll say, “Hey, Chelsea asked this great question.” If you don’t even want your first name read out, that’s fine. We’re obviously here to keep everything private, private. So there’s a quick little bit of housekeeping. I’d say we’ve got most people in here now. Charles, we have 45 minutes on the clock, that leaves us with about 40 minutes now. So would you like to jump into some of the questions? **Charles Clark:** Fantastic. So I’ll start with the first question. And it’s a really interesting one and it’s quite a good place to start because it’s a very broad marketing question, but don’t worry, there are lots of other questions which go into specifics. And the question is, what are the top two marketing strategies used heading into 2021? Which is a bit like asking how long a piece of stream, because really you have to know who are you targeting and where are they, where do they hang out? And then there’s also questions along the lines of, are you a very small firm? Do you have the capacity to do a lot of marketing work or are you a one-man, one-person band? Or are you a large firm, which has maybe marketing resource? **Charles Clark:** So all of these strategies and tactics that we’ll talk about today, really, to some extent, depend on your capabilities and where your ideal client is. The more capabilities you have, the more budget, the more resources you can throw at, the more strategies that you can embark on. The fewer that you have, then obviously you want to keep it simple and easier to keep on top of it, if you are going to be the person who’s doing it all. Brad, what would you say, top two strategies? **Brad Turville:** Yeah, I agree with that. Who’s your ideal client? What are their problems and where do they hang out? That’s going to help dictate your marketing strategies. But two that I really like, especially in this sort of… I’m not going to call it post-COVID, sort of COVID settled a little bit type world. I still love collaborations and partnerships. A lot of people are trying to find new ways to work together. And then they’re open to maybe doing something with you or open to exploring that idea. So a great example there would be, if you work with a particular niche or there’s a niche you like, you could go to maybe the association for that niche, or Facebook groups for that niche, or different suppliers to that particular niche and have a chat to them about doing something together. You’ve probably got clients they would like, they’ve got clients that you would like and so on. **Brad Turville:** The other one there would be, which flows on from that, is running a client events. I know we’re all a bit zoomed out at the moment, but that’s just reality. I think as soon as we can get back to face to face, running some face-to-face events, people are going to be rushing in the door for them. So partnering with those that are complimentary to the client you would like. And secondly, running events like this online, or even running something like this offline, there’s two ideas that I see being between 2021. **Charles Clark:** Great. So next question is, tips on how to make business content worthy without being too salesy. So a great question. In my experience, it’s always good to think about the value that you can offer to the \[inaudible\]. So think about what’s in it for them. So if you make the content useful, insightful, educational, then people are more likely to engage with it. So that’s key. And if it is all those things that even if you do have a subtle sales message in there, they usually won’t mind because you’ve helped them with a problem where you’ve helped educate them. One thing to note, you obviously have to get the person to click on the email, to go through to the blog or to click on the blog or the social post. So you have to have a good title. **Charles Clark:** So think about something catchy that is going to leave the reader wanting to learn more. If you ever want to see someone who does it really well, go to the dailymail.com, they are past masters at writing clickbaity titles. So the point I’m making is, you don’t need to make yours clickbaity, but they’re very good at making the reader think, oh, that title, I want to learn more about what it’s about. So just think about what is the one key thing that your audience could learn about from the piece of content? And then you could build a title around that. **Brad Turville:** Cool. I’ll jump in there, Charles. Make sure the content is speaking to your ideal client. What I see with a lot of accountants, which is a big mistake, is the content’s actually for other accountants. It’s either way too technical or it’s way too much about tax or it’s in a certain language that your peers would resonate with, but your average small business owner or maybe mom and dad type client, they’re maybe not going to understand it or resonate with them, or it’s not going to speak to them. So just do a little check there. If you’re putting it on social media and you’re seeing the only people that like, and comment and share it, are other accountants, it’s probably speaking a bit too much accounting right there. And I’m honest, I see this one all the time. So who is your client and speak their language and try and make it as simple as possible. **Brad Turville:** And remember, accountants love tax, not every small business owner loves it, wants to talk about it every day. So what are their problems specifically on their level? And there’s probably two good ideas that you could run. Actually, one more I’ll add is in regards to not salesy, but having a call to action. It flows into my last point, which was, if you are running online or offline events and your content could be specific to it, you might run an event around how to maybe grow your business and you are putting content there around different strategies on growth, average transaction value, more often opening new partnerships and so on. You might be able to say, “We’re actually running a more extended event on this particular topic. Why don’t you come along?” It’s not salesy, it’s an invitation. Everyone loves being invited to things. So going from content into an event is much more softer than going from content to buy from me now. So there’s a little idea. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. That’s a great point. Another question is, obviously you need an email list, from Mark in Alabama, what if you don’t have a list, just starting out or only have a LinkedIn list? So we’ve often heard that people don’t have an email list. And then they say, “Well, I do have clients and I obviously email my clients.” So if that’s you, then that could be the start of your list. If you’re just starting out or just have a LinkedIn list, maybe you could get in touch with them on LinkedIn, send them a message and ask them for their email. If you feel a bit uncomfortable with that ask, you could then wrap it up as Brad was just alluding to, with a value exchange. So you could offer them something in return. So it could be something like we’re doing today, like a webinar or an Ask Me Anything, or it could be a lead magnet. **Charles Clark:** So you might offer them the ability to download a really interesting PDF that applies to their vertical, to their sector. And in reply, they can give you their contact details. The great thing about this is that you can do this across all the social media channels that you might have. You can put it on your website as well. So even late in the night when you’ve knocked off for the day and people are searching social media or they’re coming on to your website, there’s the ability for them to start making that connection with you by accessing or downloading that piece of content or registering. **Charles Clark:** Just other things in terms of making sure that you start capturing emails on your website, make sure that you always have the contact desk page that ask for their email, maybe a quick message about what they’d like to talk about. A newsletter sign up form is always great. And again, that lead magnet that we talked about on social media, you could also, as we said, put it onto your website and then have it nice and central on your homepage or some of your key product or service pages. With BOMA, you were asking in terms of an email list for marketing on BOMA. If you use the BOMA lead capture forms, they’ll actually pull that contact into BOMA and then they’ll tag them, like newsletter or contact us form, however you’ve decided to tag them. And then once they’re in BOMA, you can then email them using that tag. Brad, what’s your experience in sort of, if you’re starting out building a list from nothing, an email list? **Brad Turville:** Yep. Cool. Good question, something I’ve got a lot of experience with. The easy way is to go to someone that already has the list. So if there’s the concept of resources versus resourcefulness, if you’re being resourceful, someone else already has your client, already has the assets or a list of your clients. So I mentioned earlier associations or groups or complementary partners, maybe what Charles and I are doing today. There’s the opportunity then to do something together and a couple of ideas you could come up with. Number one would be, if you were to run a Zoom call, perhaps you would host the call, which means everyone has to register to your account, which means you get all the emails. **Brad Turville:** The other way to do it is to have a resource or a call to action for them to make, so they’re able to access something from you and capture their details. A little bit like if everyone goes to bradturville.com, goes down the bottom and says contact me, and shoots me a message, I’ll give you a free training on business development that goes over this stuff in detail. A little bit like that. I’m being a bit cheeky there, but it’s also another way of going about capturing emails. Why? Because email then allows you to communicate. It doesn’t mean you’re in a sales process yet. It’s just that you’re still in a value exchange. **Brad Turville:** The other way, in regards to LinkedIn, I’ve done that very successfully. What I see works well is, once you’ve made connections with your ideal client, LinkedIn will then usually give you their email. I find messaging on email versus LinkedIn. I’ve actually been doing it this week. LinkedIn it’s like 1000 to one to get a response. Email, I’ve closed the browser, but it was probably down at about 20% at the moment, of favourable responses, purely from sending the same message in LinkedIn versus email. Why? Just because over COVID, everyone has been smashed on LinkedIn with a million we’ll show you how to outsource messages. So there’s a couple of ideas for you. **Charles Clark:** Look, and actually this leads really well into the next question. So what marketing channel would you recommend for a startup bookkeeping business? And look, if you are right at the beginning of that, starting up your business, it might be something as simple as, well, look, you’ve got email, and as Brad said, there’s lots of different ways that you can get that list. And then obviously you might choose to do one or two social channels. I suppose we put a lot of emphasis, especially in the last year on using digital channels, but look, hopefully as we all start to move through to hopefully a new, slightly less restrictive phase of COVID, the opportunities to get out there face to face for people might become more available than they have been in the last year. So I definitely consider email, one or two social channels. And then as Brad said, get to those associations, get to those meetings, get your name and face out there and start making those connections. **Brad Turville:** Yeah, little more extended on that, Charles, contact accounting firms around there. I mean, I hear a lot of the time accounting firms aren’t always over the moon with the bookkeepers that they’re partnering with. That’s just the general feedback that I hear. So for you, that’s an opportunity. Maybe just booking a meeting and introducing yourself just might be the perfect timing that they’re sick of the bookkeeper that they’re using and they might not now want to position you. And the great thing with that is, look at how many clients and the accounting firm has that could potentially be your ideal client. It’s heaps. It’s that association analogy that I put together. That’s one person or a couple of people you build a relationship with and they can open and expose you to a lot more. **Brad Turville:** For bookkeeping as well, it depends the type of client that you want. So if you wanted smaller businesses, something that works well is in co-working spaces, what have you got? Where you’ve got a lot of businesses in the one location, co-working spaces are looking to get more businesses there and keep them for longer. And so what do they do? They look after the businesses that are there. And so they regularly run, or they’ll be open to running events where experts can come in and speak on relevant topics. **Brad Turville:** I know that because I did it before. And one work literally on the night from it. Potentially you could do that. You could contact a few co-working spaces and say, “Hey, I could come and speak on this topic or that topic.” Going to the cloud or easy ways of maintaining your books, or easy ways to collecting the cash that you’re owed. Just a couple of ideas off the top of my head that they might be open to. They’ve got a cool venue. They’re going to fill the room with people. You can get cool video, you can get photos, you can network with people. There’s an idea for you. **Charles Clark:** Nice. So a slightly different question next. So what is our view on doing Google paid advertising? So my personal view is, it’s really well worth doing if you can afford to do it. So the nice thing about Google Ads is that it doesn’t necessarily need to cost a lot of money. You’ll only pay for, or when someone clicks on the ad. And look, the reason it’s great is that you can basically put your ad, your message in Google when people are showing intent. So they’re searching for an accountant or bookkeeper maybe in their area or they’re searching for a specific accounting or bookkeeping product or service. So if you can then have your ad up on those particular keywords, that’s really a fantastic opportunity. **Charles Clark:** There’s also other things you can do. So you can have ads around your business name, your location sort of thing, sort of accountant in Auckland, or it can be really specific. So accountant in a particular suburb, also the products and services that you offer. As I see, that’s really cost effective. So if you have got $200 or $300 a month to spend, that’s great, it’s available for everyone. Don’t worry that if you only have $1000 a month, that’s only when you can start getting involved. So I definitely recommend them. **Charles Clark:** One other thing I would say is that if you are going to go down this route, do not do it yourself. As I would say, I’m in marketing, I would not do my own accounts. I would go an accountant. And likewise, Google Ads is really technical and it’s very easy to spend a lot of money and waste a lot of money or really not do a good job. So go and speak to a Google Premier Partner. I’m actually just going to put into the chat, a webinar that we did with NZME. So we’ve got a partnership with them, that’s basically us explaining how Google Ads work. And obviously if you want to learn more, I’ll quickly put in a form there, and that’s basically a link to a form. And they’ll give you a call about running Google Ads for your firm. Brad, how about you? Have you had good experience with Google Search for you and your clients? **Brad Turville:** I personally am not using it at the moment as I’m focusing on other strategies, but to riff off what you just mentioned, and I guess just for everyone on the call, a bit of a difference between say Google ad versus something like a Facebook ad is that, Charles mentioned, the Google is intent orientated and that’s digital marketing speak for, if someone’s going to Google, they are looking for the thing right now. Like I need an accountant in this area. Why doesn’t my profit equal my cash flow? How do I set up a company? They’re literally looking for it, probably because it’s a problem that they want solved. Versus Facebook, you’re on there, you’re on the couch, you’re having a good time flicking through and you’re getting ads pushed in front of you. Can you see the difference there? **Brad Turville:** You are in one place for… I’m not saying Facebook Ads don’t work, but I’m just saying that Google, they are more in a sort of I’m ready or might be open to looking to buy from someone if they can help me with my problem at that particular point. So that’s one of the benefits. Secondly, perhaps your name, as Charles mentioned, whether it’s a personal name or it’s a business name, it might sound a bit weird going, “But hang on, why would we just focus on our name?” Well, if someone’s looking you up, which we now look up everyone, you want to be at the top, especially if you’ve got maybe quite a common name or there’s some other businesses that are quite similar that are going to be up the top, that could be a little bit confusing. So betting on your own name, I’ve seen that work really well. **Brad Turville:** The third one is definitely don’t do it yourself. Please don’t do it yourself. I’ve been out of accounting for two years and I now wouldn’t even do my own work, let alone being in it for a long time. Just because you are out of touch for a little bit. The same thing goes in the digital space. Charles has got a great business over there in New Zealand. I’ve got someone great here in Australia. So if you’re interested in doing it, speak to someone first about some different ideas and there’s lots of directions you can go, from betting on certain terms through to what’s called remarketing. So if someone comes and interacts with something, easiest way to explain it is follow them around a little bit and just show your face and your name again as a bit of a reminder. So there’s a few more ideas going off what you said, Charles. **Charles Clark:** Yeah. And actually that leads on to a question someone else has asked, but before we get there, a question came in saying, would you do Google Ads for a client? So I’m assuming here that you are saying, would you recommend that a client of yours do Google Ads for their business? And yes, completely. And you can imagine, especially if they’re also in professional services or retail or anything where they need to get customers in the door or have a part or a service to sell, I would definitely recommend that you do it. And again, as a business advisor, you could then steer them in the right direction in terms of someone that they could talk to. **Brad Turville:** And Charles, on that again, I know I’m going to keep coming back to it and I’ll keep coming back to it the whole call is, who is your ideal client? If your ideal client is potentially a top executive that works in the mines, it’s then thinking on, well, where do they hang out and how would I get in front of those type of clients? And in some certain areas, certain channels will be less effective than other channels. **Charles Clark:** Cool. And sorry, just to follow on from that same person, yes, you can use BOMA, and I’ll partner to do Google Ads for you. So I popped in a jot form just below the Google Ads webinar. So if you click on that, you can fill out that form and then someone will be in touch with you to discuss your Google Ad needs. So how does retargeting work? That’s a really good question and a good point that you brought up. So the question was, how does it work and what are some of the things you can do to retarget people? So as Brad said, it’s all about, I suppose, if someone comes on to your website and then your website will drop a cookie onto their browser, I’m sure you’ve probably all heard about cookies before. It’s just a small piece of code. And then where they go around the internet. **Charles Clark:** So they could go onto different social pages, Facebook, Instagram, they could go across newspapers and other sites of interest, wherever, any of those sites carry ads, then you can, I suppose, buy ads that would then hopefully go and follow those people and target them. And as Brad said, it’s a great way to keep your brand or your business front of mind so that if they suddenly say, “Okay, well, I’ve seen quite a few ads from this firm. I think I’ll go and see what they’re all about.” Or maybe the first ad or two wasn’t quite what they were looking for, but you obviously run a number of different ads with different calls to action or propositions that you are putting in front of them, they might find one that’s like, “Oh yeah, I do need that particular service, I’ll click on the learn more button,” and they come through to your site. So if you can do some remarketing or retargeting, I’d highly recommend it. **Brad Turville:** Yep. Cool. And like you said, Charles, plenty of different platforms that you can run that on. So you might have visited a site, let’s say Xero, to pick an example, Xero accounting software. You might then go to a news site or something like that. They tend to have a lot of advertising on there. And so you see little Xero banners, square ones, rectangle ones, long ones, short ones, pop up here and there. As somewhere else, Facebook’s an obvious one. Twitter, if your clients are on there, Twitter ads are super cheap. But again, think about the ideal client, if they’re not on Twitter or they’re probably not going to interact on there, you’re just going to put money down the drain, keep that in mind. And another one is Facebook pre-roll ads, sorry, YouTube pre-roll ads. So when you go onto YouTube and watch a video, there’s sometimes a quick little video at the start. **Brad Turville:** If your particular niche client, if you know they follow some personal brand or something on YouTube, and this might be a little bit uncomfortable for accountants that aren’t wanting to get in front of camera, but if you are, use that as an advantage, 100%. There might be an opportunity every time people visit certain videos or certain channels or people on YouTube, you can make various little offers in front of them before the video starts. And those sort of ads tend to be a little bit cheaper, just because there’s a little bit more work involved, which means less people do it, which means demand and supply. Little bit less demand, more supply, prices a little bit lower. Again, I wouldn’t do any of them yourself and I would get super clear on your ideal client and where do they hang out? **Charles Clark:** Yeah. Actually, and that’s a good point on the video. So you can do… There’s a couple of different types of video formats. So you could say, “Look, I want to do an explainer. So it could be a very cheap one where you get someone to animate and you have a voiceover or you have the words popping up to tell the story, even if the person’s listening to it with the volume off. And someone can animate those or you can almost do them through third-party solutions, fairly cheaply, or you can obviously film one that would be, I suppose, more akin to seeing on a TV ad with a proper camera and live action and actors. **Charles Clark:** The third thing that you could always think about is where you use a mixture of yourself or a colleague and maybe you are explaining something. So if you use Loom for example, which is just a free software, it’s easy to use and you can actually record something that you are doing. So it might be tips on cashflow and you might be walking them through a particular technique. You could then have that on your screen, and Loom would just put a little circle of you showing your outline in the bottom left-hand corner of your screen. And even those can be really effective, just getting in front of people, you’re offering a solution to a problem that they might be having. They don’t cost you anything. They are cheap as anything. And the editing required is very, very simple. **Charles Clark:** So you could just create a little script, which you probably know if you’re talking about something that you are really familiar with and you can pop that out on YouTube and even better, then you can put it out on your social channels, have on your website, in a tips section or a how-to section. There’s lots of different ways that you can repurpose all this content. It doesn’t just have to exist in one place and you only get one part of the cherry. **Charles Clark:** So proven ways to promote webinars. So I would always say that we probably get 90% roughly of our people who register as webinar come to us via email. That’s just probably the most likely because they’re familiar with us, they’re on our list. They’ve heard from us before. They’re more trusting of if we are going to be out there talking to them, they’re more likely to want to hear what we have to say. Because going back to previous webinars and previous emails, we’ve proved that we can be trusted to tell them interesting things and without being too salesy. **Charles Clark:** We do get a small amount through social. And in terms of the cost benefit, one could say, “Well, I’ve never bothered doing social because it’s a bit of a hassle and it’s return is small.” But on the upside, you are always going to need content for your social pages and putting webinar invitations out there on social is great because it shows people that you’re active. You might also have people on your social pages which you don’t, you haven’t connected with and you don’t have their email yet. And it’s just a nice way to demonstrate your expertise or your breadth of knowledge across a particular area. So email first and then don’t forget about social, if you can. **Brad Turville:** Cool. I love this one, Charles. So promoting with email, definitely email is your best friend. People say it’s old, but it’s super effective. It works. People open them, everyone opens their account and see email and reads it. Why? It’s going to be important, always. So use that to your advantage. Don’t just send one email and say, “Why didn’t 100 people roll up?” Some might have gone to spam. They might have missed it. They might have forgotten. Their kids started crying and they got distracted. There could be a million different reasons. So make sure you thoroughly promote it using whichever way you do it. If you only use email, send heats of email. If you’re going to do social, put through a whole lot of social media posts. **Brad Turville:** Another way is again, coming back to partners, who else could you partner with to run this event to help fill the room? Especially if they’re a non-competing business, there’s going to be no reason why they won’t be open to a discussion or exploring, doing potentially an event together or inviting some of their customers and clients along to your event. And so that’s a way to have them start to promote it to their email or social media lists. **Charles Clark:** And I’m just going to add one thing onto that, when you are sending out multiple email invites, make sure that every time you send out the second or third invite that you have taken off the people on that list who have already registered, because you don’t want to keep on asking people to register when they’ve already registered. That just is a bit annoying. So it’s pretty easy to do. If you’re using Zoom or GoTo Webinar, you can just download a list of the people who have registered, pop them into BOMA or into your CRM of choice. And then you can say, “Look, don’t include these people.” And that’s just a, I suppose, good hygiene really. Don’t keep on asking people to take an action when they’ve already taken the action that you want. **Brad Turville:** And also on that, Charles, if you’ve got a few people that you really want on there, they might be maybe someone you’re talking to, but they’re not a client yet. Or they might be a client that you’d like to work a bit closer with and you feel the content that you’re going to share on the webinar and the call to action you really want them to see, jump on the phone. It’s old, but it works. And just say to them, “Hey, Charles, I’ve got this event coming up. It’s on this. I think you’re really going to like it. Why don’t you and your business partner chime along? I didn’t see your name down as being registered.” If Charles is a business guy he’s probably busy and he’s probably just missed it. **Brad Turville:** Whereas that personal touch point, you can’t go and maybe make 1000 phone calls. But if you have a slick few where you think, dude, I really love them, literally just pick up the call or if you want, maybe even get your personal assistant to do it, say, “Hey, I’m calling on behalf of Charles and he wanted me to reach out to invite you along.” People love being invited to things, webinars, mastermind dinners, events. It doesn’t matter what it is. You can’t get angry with someone inviting you to something. It’s a nice offer. Whereas if I’m trying to be pushy with something, you can see there how there can be a little bit of friction. So instead of trying to be pushy, turn it into an invitation and that might be another strategy that you should deploy. **Charles Clark:** And then someone has also… A question has just come in, and then Brad, I think we should get to the more business development focused questions. Does BOMA have a plan to be used as a CRM tool? So at the present, so BOMA, I suppose, is like a light CRM. So you can put in all the details, name, contact number, phone number, date of birth, birthday. You can see what emails you’ve sent them, any forms they’ve filled out. We are always looking as to how we can prove that. So if you are a user and you say, “Look, there are some features in it that I really love that would make the CRM element of BOMA just perfect,” reach out and let us know. You can just pop it into us support ticket, or if you are just want to do it, you can pop into the Q&A or chat here. **Charles Clark:** Otherwise, what CRM can you recommend for small business? It’s super, super personal. I mean, there are so many out there and really, it’s a case of working with, if you have a team working with them, trying to understand what is going to deliver them what they need, because it can be quite a personal preference. **Brad Turville:** All right. Let’s jump into some more business development type questions. You want me to run these ones, Charles? **Charles Clark:** Yep. Fantastic. **Brad Turville:** Cool. And Charles, please jump in if there’s something you want to add. So the first one that’s come in, I think I might know who sent this one in, but I’ll keep it to myself. How to get consistency in inquiries for strategic planning. So how you present yourself out there in the marketplace, to the market, online, to your client and to your potential clients, if you want to be doing lots of strategic planning work, you need to be known for doing strategic planning work. So what content are you putting out there when you talk about what you do, what sort of things are you saying? If you’re saying, “I’m an accountant and we can help you with your tax and this and that,” you’re going to get shoe boxed into that position. **Brad Turville:** I would also build case studies around clients you have helped with strategic planning and share them, have them on your website, share them online. You might want to interview them and talk about where they were before, they engage you for strategic planning. They might be a little bit unsure if they hadn’t done it before, but by going through the exercise, it really opened up these new opportunities, and they’re so glad they did it with you. That’s like a simple structure for any sort of case study. And then share them. If you’re going to do partnerships, coworking spaces, associations, other Facebook groups, non-competing complementary partners with the same ideal client. If you’re going to run something for them, run at something that’s around about strategic planning or it’s a topic that would flow into an obvious strategic planning type call to action. **Brad Turville:** If you become known as the strategic planning person, little bit like Dan Sullivan is the strategic coach, he’s known for that. If you want to be known and do a lot of strategic planning, talk about it a lot and make a lot of noise about it. And also, this still applies to your existing client base. So I work with lots of firms and a lot of the time, their clients don’t know all the different ways that they can help them. That I might be answering a second question that’s coming up with this answer as well. But your clients actually don’t know, and they might be going elsewhere to have someone help them with it. And then you’ll find out and feel maybe a little bit sad that, oh, I could have helped you with it. Well, the client’s going to be sitting there going, “Why didn’t you tell me? I would’ve just got you to do it.” **Brad Turville:** And that happens so often and is purely because you’re not creating awareness with the different ways that we can help you. So talk about it a lot, being known for that person, if a lot of your clients and a lot of your activities on LinkedIn, again, keep the topic around planning and strategic planning and maybe even change your title to strategic planning specialist or helping this type of client with their forward looking strategy. There’s probably about 10 different ideas in there for you. I hope they were helpful. **Brad Turville:** Number two, best marketing KPIs to track and improve for business growth. All right. I want you to keep this quite simple because there’s lots of different marketing KPIs. You could go and Google them and they’ll give you a whole lot. And you know what? If you were in e-commerce, they would probably apply. But for accounting firms, if you want to grow and you know you need to get in front of your client and a prospect, and you know once you get in front of them and you have a chat to them, there’s a very high chance they’re going to convert to a client. I hear that a lot. Once I can get in front of them, they usually they’re not being a client or if they’re really not a good fit, we go our separate ways. **Brad Turville:** The missing piece there is you to get in front of them. What does that mean? That means having your calendar full of appointments. So a marketing KPI I would be tracking is the number of new lead leads generated per month. Because if you’re generating heaps of leads and you are having a call to action to jump on a call with you, and you might want to get more granular, you might want to get calls booked. You want heaps of them, because if you fill your calendar up with people that are interested in working with you and a percentage of them are going to convert to clients, you’re going to have no problem bringing in a whole lot of business growth. And how would you go about generating that growth? Well, we’ve spoken about a whole lot of different topics today. You might want to pick one or two, don’t try to do everything. Because you’ll do a 10% job of 100 different things. I’d rather you nail a couple of things. **Brad Turville:** And how would you know if you’re nailing them? Is your calendar full? Are you getting all of those appointments booked? I would literally, if I was you, just monitor that one KPI. And when I coach firms that are bringing on a marketing resource, so a part-time or full-time marketing coordinator. And they say, “How do we know if they’re doing a good job?” This exact topic comes up and I’ll say, “They need to be helping you fill your calendar with new prospective client calls or getting prospective clients to download resources and attend webinars.” If they can’t do that, or you are not doing that, something’s wrong. And you need to change up your strategy around how to build all of that out. Charles, do you want to add anything there to marketing KPIs? **Charles Clark:** No. I mean, I just love it. Yeah, exactly. Leads is always key and then just keep an eye on how you are converting those leads. And if you can, have an idea of what it costs you. There’s always a good day, so I’m just into track. **Brad Turville:** Yeah. That’s good. Yeah. Good point. Let’s just close on that one, which is, if you are spending money on advertising, so we spoke about some different paid advertising, keep an eye on what your expenditure there is, because if you’re spending X amount, but you are only one to attract maybe smaller individual type clients, it might cost more to get them than they actually pay you. Or it might heavily dilute it. You might want to get clear then on your strategy. So if you’re heavily investing in expenditure, always then keep an eye on what’s the ROI I’m getting? If you’ve got something where you put, I don’t know, 10 grand into something for the year and you get 50 back, you need to ask yourself, is that sort of return something that I’m happy with? And if you are, cool, you might want to rinse and repeat. **Brad Turville:** That’s actually another good point. I’m going to answer a question that hasn’t been asked, which is, I see a lot… Charles, you might see this as well, accountants will execute a certain marketing strategy at works and then they never do it again and go, “We’re struggling to get leads.” If you’ve got something that’s… I know it sounds strange, but it’s very common. If something’s working, keep doing it and do it again and again and again and again and again and again. I’ll give you one idea. I was working with a firm and they run this great event. It’s like a growth type event, which teaches small business owners how to grow. And they only ran it once, they ran it well, they got a lot of calls off the back and converted a lot of them into clients. And I said, “Why don’t you just keep running that event every month or every quarter?” **Brad Turville:** Now, your existing clients won’t attend it because they’ve seen it before. And they’re already working with you one on one in that capacity. But for everyone else, it’s something you can keep inviting people to every single month. Look, you might get a little bit bored of running the exact same thing, but if it works and it’s generating leads, which generate calls in your calendar, which generate clients, hey, there’s your growth strategy sorted. So if something works, not everyone has seen a business growth presentation before, just because you’ve seen it 100 times and your clients have, doesn’t mean your potential next client has seen anything like this. So keep that one in mind. **Brad Turville:** Question next, I’m watching the clock as well, is how do you find more clients that you want to work with? Well, we’ve covered a lot of different ways today. Pick the one that’s so much relevant to you. How do you sell more services to your existing clients? Good question. I know we’ve touched on it today as well. You need to create the awareness to them. Do they all know how you can help them? Is there different type of events that you can invite them to where you are talking around about a topic that relates to a particular service that you run? Are you running, say a goal setting meeting or a future gazing meeting with a client to say, “Hey, if we were to meet in 12 month’s time from now, what would you like things to look like? Where are you now? What do you think is going to get in the way?” **Brad Turville:** And then depending on where the conversation goes, you might be able to say, “Would you know we can actually help you with that? Or would you like to see how I could help you with it? Or you might not know that we help a lot of clients with exactly this situation, would you like to hear that?” And they might go, “Oh, I didn’t know that. Tell me more.” **Charles Clark:** Actually I might just add on to that comment because it leads into another question we’ve got, which is, do testimonials and case studies… So if you’ve got a client who you help with particular issue, go out and speak to them and get them to give you their feedback, and start with what was their problem, how did you help them? What was the solution and the outcome? And then you can put that it into, it could be a video, it could be a blog. You could pop it in your newsletter. And then suddenly all these people have been like, “Oh man, this accounting firm helped that business, which is just like me with a problem which I have. I’m going to go and speak to these guys, they may or may not be my accounting firm already, but they’ve helped someone with my issue.” And that’s a great way to tell people without being salesy, which I suppose gets back to what one of the early questions was, that you’re letting your work do the talking through your clients. **Brad Turville:** Yeah. That’s an awesome point, Charles. Thanks for adding that one in. Powerful, you can share it, it’s non-salesy. You can put it anywhere and everywhere. And people love to see someone else that’s like them, that’s done it… No one ever likes going first or feel like they’re going first. And this case study proves, okay, other people have done it. I’m like it, or, “Hey, I’m in that position and I’m feeling a bit unsure about this service, but they’re saying it went well, so hey, well, then now we’re going to do it.” That’s the power with providing case studies, because you might know you’re really good and you can do what you do, but the client doesn’t know it. And you can just brag about yourself and how good you are all day long. But if someone else comes in and says, “Here’s how good it was for us,” suddenly they’re very trusting in that type of endorsement and you can use it time and time and time again. So Charles, I know we’re at 45 minutes in here. Do we want to do a couple more questions or how did you want \[crosstalk\]? **Charles Clark:** You know what? We just got two more. So why don’t we answer everyone’s questions? I think that’ll be worth doing. **Brad Turville:** Cool. All right. So the first one, this is obviously from someone that uses the Gap, which is a friend of BOMA and of myself, which is, what’s the best way to offer a CCR? For everyone that doesn’t know, a CCR stands for a complimentary client review. And it’s essentially a meeting complimentary that you can have with a client every year and discuss the future. I mentioned it a couple of minutes ago about having a future gazing meeting. What’s going on right now? What are your burning issues? What are some of your business and personal goals you want to achieve over the next 12 months? **Brad Turville:** I’d be offering that with new clients. I would be offering it after you finish year end work. So obviously year end is coming up in New Zealand. I’d be finishing year end work, and once that’s done, I’ll be saying, “Hey Charles, why don’t we have another catch up again? It’s not going to cost you anything and we’ll just talk about, what does the next 12 months look for you? The times are a bit iffy at the moment, so we could get a little bit strategic and source that out.” **Brad Turville:** There’s no real best time to offer it, but then I’d be offering them to someone that hasn’t had it before, someone that qualifies, after year end, is another good one. I’d usually say after Christmas, but that’ll apply in Australia, but in New Zealand, you have Christmas and then you have the end of the tax year. So I might wait till after that. Otherwise, there’s too much going on. And in regards to how do you offer it? Well, you can offer it at the back of an event. You can offer it in the onboarding process for a client. You can offer it once you finish year end work. So one of your accountants might finish year end doing an annual accounts meeting and they might then say, “Charles is going to get in touch with you in the next couple of weeks to book in this type of meeting.” **Brad Turville:** And the last question is, what is the best time to do a client review for referrals or feedback? Cool. So there’s a couple ways you could look at that. One would be when you’re doing the annual accounts, because you’ve got them in that right place in the right frame of mind, also doing a CCR or a goal setting type meeting. When I was in practice, what I found worked very well was having it just before the end of financial year, we ran yearly engagements. So it was not only looking at how we went for the year that went by, what they bought, how much they paid, but it was seeing how do you want to work with us next year, locking in the price, do they enjoy working with us? Do they hate my guts? What’s the feedback that you want, that they’re going to give, and then the ones that say they love us, asking for an introduction. **Brad Turville:** Now, are there two people on LinkedIn you could introduce me to? Do you have a couple of mates in your phone right now you could ping a message to? Are you talking to anyone in the next month? We’re running this event, I saw you coming along, would you be open to bringing a couple of business friends along? Just try any different angle there and doesn’t have to be once a year. Because another great time to ask is when you knock something out of the park. So if you do tax planning for them and you help minimize a truckload of tax, they’re going to love you. Great. Ask them now. If you help them buy and merge and acquire another business and you do it successfully and they’re in a good front, whenever they’re in that moment of, “My accountant is the best person in the world,” ask for a referral, because you’ve got them at the right point. It works every time. And that’s the last question there, Charles, to finish up business development questions on. **Charles Clark:** Fantastic. Well, look guys, thanks so much for staying with us. I know we went a couple minutes on time, but I think those last two, especially really rounded out the session. We’ll be running these semi-regularly going forward. I think this was the feedback that we’ve got so far, in terms of your questions were fantastic. Yes, there will be a replay. I’ll be in touch in the next day or two with a recording of it, so that’ll be sent direct to your email. So keep an eye out for that. So look Brad, thank you so much for joining us. **Brad Turville:** Great. Thanks for having me, Charles, I hope yourself and all the attendees got some value from what we spoke about today. If I didn’t answer your question personal enough or you got another question or we just didn’t get any time to cover it, jump over to bradturville.com. You can connect with me there or on LinkedIn, again at Brad Turville, happy to answer any questions that we didn’t have time to get to. But thanks again, Charles. **Charles Clark:** Fantastic. Okay. We’ll see you next time, everyone. Thanks again. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [BOMA + SBA: 'The Shift In SME Expectations Of Their Accountant'](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/boma-sba-the-shift-in-sme-expectations-of-their-accountant/) **Published:** August 5, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this informative session we focus on The Shift In SME Expectations Of Their Accountant – What The Research Says & How To Meet Their Needs. Discover what these changes mean for your firm and how you can respond to ensure you can build and maintain great relationships with clients. This webinar features Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA and Liz Studholme, Content Marketing Manager of BOMA in conversation with Craig Gardiner, General Manager of SBA. **Webinar Agenda:** - Research insights - What do SME’s value - Top five most important characteristics for accountants in 2020 - How you can take advantage - How to best support your clients - BOMA demo - Questions **NB: You can also read a full transcript of this session below.** ## ‘The Shift in SME Expectations of their Accountants’ Transcript **Craig Gardiner:** Again, we’d like to thank Charles, and Liz, and BOMA for doing this presentation to the SBA group. I think the current climate that obviously in Auckland we’re still experiencing, but around the rest of the country we’ve had more exposure to again, with lockdowns. It just goes to show how important it is to get information out in front of our clients. That uncertainty can create anxiety. And what we’re really talking about is, “How can we actually leverage good information and good content to help and support our clients, and to share added value with them as well?” So I thought it was really relevant to have another catch-up with the team from BOMA and to talk a bit about email and social media, and how to get better interaction and better engagement with those platforms using the BOMA tools. **Charles Clar**k: Well, brilliant, everyone. Thanks. I’m Charles, and I’m joined by Liz. And just a couple of housekeeping items before we get started. If you’d like to join in and ask a question, you can click on the chat button or the Q&A button. We’ll either answer them as we go or we’ll wait till the end, and there’ll be questions there as well. You also should have received a downloadable workbook in an email about 53 minutes ago. I’ve also just put in a link into the chat. So if you didn’t get the email, feel free to just click on that and you can use that to take notes for today’s session. But Liz, shall we get started and talk about, I suppose, the new reality in terms of marketing, which is that it has changed? If you think of marketing now compared to marketing 15, 20 years ago, it’s not anymore about an ad in the newspaper or a radio, or listing on the phone pages. **Charles Clark:** Not to say that those don’t still have a place, especially in the regional markets, but the way that marketing has evolved into the digital age really means that there are more and more places to connect with your audience. And the great thing is, is that these channels, I suppose we’d call them, are now able to be owned by you. So we’re talking specifically in this circumstance about email and social media. So what that means is that it’s in your hands to portray yourself in the best light possible. And while, of course, that starts with a website and obviously things like making sure that your social pages have your information on them and your contact details, and all that sort of stuff. We’re going beyond that, to think about the content that you are putting out there. “What are you trying to talk about, either directly in an email or to a wider social audience about what it is that you do and what you can offer?” I suppose the nice thing about it is that it also means that… **Charles Clark:** The old style of marketing was very broadcast. So you would put out a newspaper ad or a radio and it would be broadcast to a very wide audience, whereas with email and social, you can be much more targeted. And by that we mean you have then a ability to have high relevance to a small audience. And because it’s going to be high relevance, it should get higher engagement and then you can really start to, I suppose, build off of that and build that relationship. And I think this is particularly true for accountants, because you have unique knowledge and expertise that your clients need. And if we’ve seen it at any time, it’s been in the last 18 to 20 months, where your clients have really been on the back foot with all the things are going on with COVID. So the expertise that you have to offer them are just so relevant. So I suppose what we’re talking about today is how can you get this in front of them, even if they don’t necessarily know they need it. **Liz Studholme:** Yeah. So today we’re going to look at some good tips for email and social media. And I think, and in general, I guess it’s content marketing. It’s using information to support, engage, nurture, and interest prospects as well. And as accountants, your expertise is your greatest content, your greatest asset. I think this is quite a good quote, and it’s particularly relevant for accountants, “Sometimes people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” So your clients won’t necessarily ask for a guide to cash flow or you to explain depreciation, but they will really value it when you offer it to them. So it could be how to get paid faster or a guide to understanding revenue drivers. If you’re putting it on social media or sending it out as an email, that’s like, “Ah, that’s great. That’s just what I need. And I actually haven’t thought to ask about that, but right now that would be really valuable to me.” It shows that you understand the challenges that they’re facing, that you’re there for them. And if you’re putting it on your social, it positions you as the obvious choice for prospects. **Liz Studholme:** And I think on that point, we often think of marketing as sales. I think we’ve talked about this in the previous webinar. It’s obviously a lot more than sales, it’s about anything you do to grow relationships with your clients. And obviously that’s retention, but anything that’s good for them has a positive impact on your business. When they grow, you grow. So for example, it could be an update on tax legislation changes that you put out on social media. It’s obviously useful for your clients, which is good for you, and it builds your profile amongst the other people that have seen that post. So I think in general, a good rule is that 80/20 rule, where 80% of the time you’re talking about things that matter to them, you’re giving something away. 20% you might be talking about you saying you’ve talked about that, understanding revenue drivers or cashflow or whatever. And then you may be putting out, “Hey, make a time with us to put a cash flow forecast together,” or whatever it is. **Charles Clark:** Sure thing. It’s a really interesting point. A lot of BOMA users, when we talk to them, some of them will say, “Look, we don’t necessarily want to grow in terms of getting on new clients, but we want to grow our revenue.” So, that’s upselling or telling their clients about services that they maybe didn’t realise that they offer. And then other of our clients or other of our BOMA users will say, “Look, we’re starting out and we do want to grow our client base.” So, lots of different ways that you can use that. You can use it to upsell, you can use it to grow in terms of numbers. So, just interesting to think about even if you’ve got a full client, but you can be generating more revenue for your client if that’s something that you feel would add value. **Charles Clark:** So, email’s been around for quite a long time. I was shocked to hear it’s over 40 years. And we all know that as a result, it’s the main means of communication that we use, which means that we all get a lot of emails. However, as you can see at that top report by the Radicati Group, is that it is still the most preferred means of communication to any channel. And the great thing is, when it comes to your clients, you already have their email address. The second point to make is that for every $1 you spend on marketing, about $44 is the ROI. And that number I’ve seen anywhere from $40 to$ 48. It seems that $44 is roughly what people expect to get in return. So the nice thing, as Liz said, is that email is personal and it can be a direct link between you and your client or your prospect, and so it can be tailored to them. So whether it’s a direct email, one-to-one, or it’s a larger email. **Charles Clark:** So it could be to a group of your clients who maybe have similar needs or requirements, or it could be to your entire database. But then you would, I think as Liz is going to talk about in a minute, make sure that you have a wider breadth of content. If you think about the challenges that your clients have, that you might be able to help on, so easy ways to transact and communicate on a day-to-day basis. And it’s also a great place to offer further advisory support. So you may know that your clients are super busy, they don’t always have time to pick up the phone, it’s really easy to send an email. Or, if you have had that call already, you can then follow up with an email. **Charles Clark:** Also, it’s really inexpensive. So, putting an email together doesn’t have to be a hugely lengthy, expensive proposition. And if you’re thinking of communicating one-to-many, which is one of the advantages of both social and email, it’s a really effective way to get your message or messages out there to a wider audience. I was talking earlier about the fact that we get lots of emails, and this is really the point that Liz is going to lead off on the next slide, which is, because you get a lot of emails, you’re going to have to make sure that the ones that you send are really relevant to your readers. Because if you’re sending irrelevant emails, it’s more likely that over time they’re going to stop reading them because they’re just not worth their time with reading them. So, Liz, do you want to talk about personalisation? **Liz Studholme:** Yeah. I think probably firstly, well, one of the important points is that we look at the data around the emails that are sent in BOMA by our accounting subscribers, and they have a much higher average open rate than the general, I guess, industry average. So that’s obviously because of a client’s relationship with their accountant. It’s a very trusted relationship, you’re going to open your emails. But if you’re not sending information that’s relevant and personal to them, well, that’s the quickest way to get unsubscribes or unread. So maintain that preferred status by sending really informative, useful, time-relevant emails, and do it by segmenting your audience. So within a list, you can make sure that you’ve got segments, and that could be based on… Within BOMA, you can add tags to your audience. So the examples of that could be an industry vertical, it could be they’re in retail or hospitality, which right now will be really a hurting, potentially, trade. **Liz Studholme:** And they’re going to have different challenges to people in other industries, for example. It could be the relationship they hold with you. So some of your clients might be compliance only, some might be doing more of that whole business advisory work, so full service. So you might be wanting to advise those compliance-only clients about other things that you can offer them. Company positions. So different business owners will have different drivers to employees, for example. Depending on who’s opening your email and what position they hold in their business, or if they’re not business owners but they have investment properties, or whatever it is. And then, how they subscribed. So did they download a guide to a business health check, for example? And therefore you’re going to send them ongoing tips to keep that prospect warm, or sign up to your newsletter. And it might also be location. At the moment, that’s going to make a lot of difference if they’re Auckland to the rest of the country. But making sure that you tag your email database is just an easy way to make sure that you send things that are really relevant to them. And when they open them, they go, “Oh, this is great. This is exactly what I need right now.” And more likely to open the next email, and the next email. **Charles Clark:** One of the questions that we’re often faced with, and this isn’t just accountants but it is business owners, especially professional services in general, is, “How do I build up my email list?” And potentially you might be lucky in that, if you come into a business where you buy into one, there might be an existing email list. But if you don’t, just, here are a few ideas that you can either use to build one from scratch or you can use to expand your current email list. So, current clients. Whether you have a small number or a large number, they’re your first step. You already have implied permission to email them, you probably already have some sort of relationship, and so they’re a great place to start. Utilise your website and social media. So, make sure that you have calls to action. **Charles Clark:** So it could be a user to sign up form, it could be a lead capture form, or it could be something on your social page which links through to your lead capture form where they can download something of value. The key here is that, as in the next point, you’re offering something of value, and in exchange they give you their email address. This is a really well recognised and understood transaction out there in the marketing sphere. And I do it all the time, and I know lots of other people do. Whereas, if there’s some really interesting information, or even a promise of a newsletter or to be kept up to date on things that’ll be relevant to my business, I’m going to make that exchange because the value is strong enough. On that point of value, do think about what it is that you can offer that might be a little bit unique or different. **Charles Clark:** So you’re at a rural practice, you could be thinking, “Okay. Well, I’ve got lots of clients who’re in the agricultural sector, so I’m going to think about things that are going to be relevant to them.” And equally, you might be in town, and so you might have more retail or hospitality-focused clients. Again, think what would be relevant for them, and then give them the opportunity to make that value exchange. The nice thing about once they’ve made it, they’ve given you implied permission to keep on emailing them. It is important that you have a little check box where they basically tick that by downloading this, they give you their permission to contact them in the future with marketing emails. **Charles Clark:** So this is really, really important. Both because it’s sets an expectation with the person who is downloading it that you will be in touch and you’re not going to spam them. But also, a lot of rules and regulations against spam that we need to look out for. So in BOMA, we really recommend that when you use a lead capture form from BOMA, we’ve got that box which you can just insert in your lead capture forms. And just by way of an insight, we’ve got a few of these on our BOMA website and we get about five to 10 leads per week come through, just having downloaded one of our three or four lead magnets. So really, really powerful. And once you’ve put the time into creating that lead magnet, as long as it’s evergreen and relevant, it can sit on your website or your social posts for a long time and keep driving leads. **Charles Clark:** This next one’s a little bit offline, even if you did an online event, but running the events and running partnerships. So the event could be something like we are running now, so like a webinar. It doesn’t have to be something online. And obviously, for those of us based in Auckland, that would be impossible at the moment. But it could be a Q&A, it could be a webinar, it could be something that’s live at your local association, whether that’s your legal association or banking. You’ll be able to find partnerships where the information that you have would be seen of great relevance to their users, so they’re happy to run a partnership event with you. So again, that’s a great place to get leads from which you can then put into your database. The one caveat, I would say, just at the end of this, and you might have been approached over the years by someone from the web who offers to sell you a list. **Charles Clark:** And it sounds great and it doesn’t sound very expensive, and they’ll promise that they’ll target exactly who it is that you want to, please don’t do this. It’s both, in certain jurisdictions, illegal, because there’s obviously no implied permission. But also, the quality of the leads that they’re going to give you are usually really bad, because they’ve just scraped the names from LinkedIn and various of these websites and then they give them to you. So the people that you end up emailing on their lists have no idea who you are, and then will usually unsubscribe or mark your emails as spam, which is obviously really bad for your future email campaign. So, please avoid that if you can. **Liz Studholme:** So now once you’ve got your email list, you need to start sending emails. Here are some, just, little tips from us. We are going to show you a quick run-through of BOMA and how that works. BOMA has a huge content library that helps you kickstart an email campaign, so you can take an article and customise it. If you’re writing from scratch, and even if you’re using the BOMA content, here are some things, I think, that’s worth thinking about. So the subject line’s important because it’s the first thing they see in their email inbox. And you want it to be compelling, you want it to be something that makes them open their email. So if you can, I always say try to avoid generic headings such as Newsletter, because it doesn’t really tell them anything. Obviously, if you are really known for great newsletters that you send out every month or however often you’re able to do them, then that’s fine. But if you can instead put your email together, maybe write your subject line last, and find the most important thing in that email. **Liz Studholme:** Look, it might be, “Hey, changes to the bright-line test,” or something that’s really going to matter to people, and use that as your heading. Even if it’s not covering everything in your email, it should be something that’s a wee bit descriptive about what they’re going to see when they open it. Be honest, try to avoid click bait. I’m sure that you won’t do that. And concise, under 50 characters, so keeping it reasonably short. Personality is obviously important. Email is personal, it’s your relationship. Make it like a direct conversation so it’s enjoyable to read. We often are getting emails, particularly if it is tax technical or whatever, if you can show a bit of your personality. It’s about relationships. Short and easily readable. Now we’re reading emails in all sorts of various locations. We’re reading them on our phone. The way to do that sometimes is to break it up with a numbered or bulleted list. Get your point across as succinctly as possible, keep the main takeouts near the top of the email. **Liz Studholme:** And if you have a really long form content, try not to put that all in the email but use a punchy sort of introductory paragraph like, “What is it? Why does it matter? What do you need to know?” And then a Read More, and that could link back to your website or to the source. If you are including links, just make sure they works before you send it. Click on them and make sure that they still link through, because as you don’t want to send them to a 404 error page. Always proofread them, that obviously goes without saying. You can send a test in BOMA, so you can do that and send it to a colleague who’ve seen it with fresh eyes, or send it to yourself. And send it from you. So don’t just say, “From ABC Accounting or SBA Accounting,” you’re going to say from you, put your name in there. Actually, part of sending emails and part of what Charlie was talking about previously, it is important that you do do a reply address, your company details, your physical address. Not only does that mean that they can get in touch with you, but that’s also just standard practice. **Charles Clark:** Brilliant. So we thought we’d now have a look at social media. And the great thing, I went and actually had a look at a lot of your social media pages, and so all the hygiene factors you guys have covered. So you’ve got great About sections, you’ve got all the information in there. There’s nothing that I have to go in there and say, “Oh. Look, you need to have what time you open and your contact details on that.” You guys have got that, which is fantastic to see. So I thought what I’d do today is talk about why it’s important. Because a few years ago, I think there was definitely some questioning amongst accountants as to, “Sure. Twitter and Facebook is great for me to know what’s going on in the accounting sphere, but how useful is it really for my accountants?” And I think, to answer that, is to say that, look, your clients are spending their time on social media as well. **Charles Clark:** And they might be spending it on different channels, and we can talk about that in the next slide, but they are spending their time on social media. I know I am. And they will expect it. So just like they’ll expect you to have a website, they will also expect you to have a social page. It just is a natural thing that a business has, especially a service business. And that’s great because it means that they can follow you, they can go in and look at your content. It’s a really easy way for them to keep up to date with what you’re doing, especially if they’re not yet a client, if they’re maybe a prospect. They can keep an eye on what you’re doing by following you, but they don’t have to necessarily have that initial conversation until they’ve been following you for a little bit and feel more comfortable with you as a business. **Charles Clark:** What this does mean is that when it comes to your content, it’s a great place to amplify it. So it could be a blog that you’ve got there, it could be a thought piece. It could be just something that is talking about something that your particular firm was up to. Maybe talking about your clients or something, a birthday, something that you’re celebrating. The key there is that it amplifies your content and then can create engagement. And you’re obviously wanting to create engagement with current clients and also prospects, to build and strengthen those relationships. And by doing that, if you do have good content on there, what it’s going to enable you to do, and I think Liz touched on this before, is start to position you for thought leadership. So if you’re posting regularly about things that are your specialty or your niche, and relevant to your clients, they’re going to be like, “Oh, great. SBA in Tauranga,” or, “SBA in Christchurch, they really know their stuff when it comes to this element that is relevant to my business.” **Charles Clark:** And so, over time, in their mind they’re going to be like, “Great. These guys, they know what they’re talking about.” And when it comes to maybe considering getting an accountant or changing an accountant, or even talking to you, the current accountant, about a service that they maybe didn’t use in the past but they’d like to use, they’re going to look to you first because you’ve got that presence on social. It’s also the new word of mouth. So, obviously your website is key, and even if someone has said, “Look, you guys need to go and chat to SBA.” They will definitely go and look at your website, but they also probably will go and look at your social pages. Especially for the younger generations, so maybe 40 to 50 and under. Social, they are digital natives. **Charles Clark:** This is as natural for them as a website, and they would be surprised if you didn’t have one. Especially if you think of them as a business and they see themselves as modern and forward-looking, and they do their business with social media. Whether it’s just to talk about their business or they sell through it, it would be maybe a bit of a red flag that you didn’t have one. And then the last point is, it’s great for networking. So whether that’s networking with your clients or prospects and celebrating their successes, or networking with other accountants or other people in the space to, I suppose, enable you to keep up with the latest information on what’s going on. Maybe join some groups. And we’ve got some information on that and the added value. **Charles Clark:** Oh, sorry. Okay. Oh, there we go. Sorry, I missed that one. So you guys are probably aware there are loads and loads of social networks out there. There’s Pinterest, TikTok, Reddit, Snapchat, loads of them. But probably, for our purposes here, the four main ones are going to be the most relevant. So we’re talking Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. And I say that these are going to be the most relevant, because bang for buck, these are probably going to be where most of your clients and prospects are going to be. Yes, they might be on TikTok as well, but you can rest assured that mostly everyone has a Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter account. The nice thing about them is that they do differ slightly between them. And Liz, you might want to talk about, I suppose, the differences because, because they’re slightly different, you need to approach them slightly differently as well. **Liz Studholme:** I mean, I think probably we all have a fairly good understanding. But yeah, Facebook is the biggest network. We love and hate it, but it is an effective online window to your business that’s easier to update somehow than your website. I mean, obviously, I think, within the SBA, that’s not something that you do anyway. But on Facebook, it’s fluid. It’s also user-generated, so it’s your clients talking to you and you talking back to them. So it’s a great way to also leverage that network that you’ve got, because when someone you know engages with your content, it amplifies your post to the people they know. So it has that nice network effect so that you can reach new faces and new customers. LinkedIn’s obviously a bit more professional. It’s your thought leadership spot, but it doesn’t have to be. And sometimes I quite like on LinkedIn when people are actually just sending fun personal stuff, because it’s a little bit different from the dryness of LinkedIn, I guess. **Liz Studholme:** You can start conversations there, join groups, improve your knowledge, and there is actually a really nice little tool on LinkedIn. If you’ve got a LinkedIn business page, in the menu at the top you’ll see Content, if you go under Content Suggestions you can actually search for what particular people are reading on LinkedIn in order to get ideas about what to write about. So you can actually go, “Okay, I’m interested in this audience and this particular, perhaps, industry vertical, what they’re reading,” and then you can… give you some idea ideas for your content creation. Twitter, it’s little posts, it’s very fast. You can actually put your tweet up a number of times and see how people engage, because there is so much content on there. **Liz Studholme:** We noticed in BOMA that Twitter probably sits a bit behind Facebook and LinkedIn, but we see a real increase at end of financial year in our region. So, whether that’s Australia, New Zealand, or the UK. Where our main BOMA regions are, we see Twitter come up with people making comments, and it might be short quips about the workload or making funny comments about it. And then Instagram, which technically seems to be more of an image-based channel, has actually started to gain traction with news and comments as well. So, usually posted on a tile, but it’s engaging with your audience in a different way, and people are swinging to Instagram a bit more. So you can actually tell stories about your business and promote values and beliefs in there. So in terms of personality, Instagram’s a nice place to tell a little bit more of the fuller story for your clients. **Charles Clark:** So in terms of how to get started… I know that most of you guys, if not all of you, have social pages. I thought it was just worth talking a little bit about the next step, which is, “Okay, I’ve got my social pages, but where do I invest my time and my effort, and how do I build my confidence?” So a couple of good ways to do that are, if there are people out there in the industry, whether it’s in the accounting industry or related industries that you admire, it’s often worth following them to see how they’re doing it. So see what they’re commenting on, see their tone of voice, see, “Are they posting videos a lot or is it just images or is it text?” It can be quite a good way to learn by seeing how people are doing it well. **Charles Clark:** Another good tip is to, if you’re not too sure say “Should I spend all my time on Facebook or should I spend more on LinkedIn?” Think about where your clients and your prospective clients are going to be. So you could do this by going onto their business websites and researching, “Do they have Facebook and LinkedIn? Do they have Twitter?” If they’ve only got one or two of those, that’s probably where they’re going to be spending most of their time. You may also be following them personally, so that’s another good place. If you see that they’re really active on some of those channels, it’s a good bet that that’s where they’ll be spending their time. So you would obviously spend more of your time putting up posts on those channels, because that’s where they are. **Charles Clark:** Being responsive is really good. So, when it comes to, say, if you put something up on your website, and that’s great and it’s a bit more static, but when you put that same piece of content or a video or a comment that you’ve made on social, be prepared that some people hopefully are going to start to engage with it. And that could be something really low-touch, they might just like it. That’s great. Take a note of who likes it, because that means that they might be interested in that topic in the future. They may even give you a comment back, which is even better. And that comment could be hopefully positive or it could be a question, like, “I wasn’t aware of this, how does it affect my business?” That would be fantastic. **Charles Clark:** Then you’re able to go back to them and demonstrate your expertise, and say, “Look, this is how it affects your business. Why don’t you give me a call? And we’ll talk about it and I’ll see how I can help.” The key there is to be responsive. If you have lots of people commenting or liking, and you only chat socially every once a month, you’re going to miss the opportunities that will be presented by people engaging. Just one thing quick to note is that there are people out there on social, I suppose we’ll call them trolls. And not that it really is applicable to accountancy, but even on BOMA we’ve had people coming in and saying, “Oh, we disagree with something.” That’s absolutely fine. That is their opinion. The worst thing to do would be for us to ignore it. So if someone on any of the social channels says something that you disagree with, obviously you don’t get personal, but it’s completely okay for you to respond to it to give your point of view or your business’ point of view, but keep it civil. But with- **Liz Studholme:** Sometimes those moments can be the ones where you gain the most kudos. And I think it’s probably unlikely to happen, but you see where brands do take ownership and respond, and that’s where it shows the integrity of their brand. **Charles Clark**: Yeah, I think that’s a great point. Also keep an eye on what’s working. And we’ve got a slide later on about new measuring your campaigns. But if you’re doing certain campaigns that are getting lots and lots of great feedback and impressions, that’s fantastic. Or, if you’re getting some which aren’t, then think about, “What is it about the ones that are working really well? And how can I take those learnings forward and put them into my next campaigns?” And it might be something like, they had a really engaging picture or the content was really tight, and I had a great call to action and I was talking about something interesting. Whereas, the ones that maybe aren’t performing so well, maybe it was the things I’ve just talked about, like an unengaging picture or vague, not particularly strong copy. Or maybe it’s just a topic that your clients, it’s not so relevant for them. **Charles Clark:** So, that’s fine. You could be like, “Right. That’s less relevant for them, and I’ll go and talk about the things that are more relevant.” So, good to learn. And then lastly, you’re not alone in this. So if you’ve got people who work with you, colleagues, or even a partner who can maybe look over your back and you can ask them like, “Hey, does this make sense? Is this giving off the right tone?” Lean on them. Both for a bit of a proofreading, but also if you do have colleagues or a team, say, “Look, as part of your job description, I want you to maybe come up with one social post a week or one social post a month.” They don’t necessarily have to post it, but they could at least come to you and say, “Hey. Look, I think this is going to be really relevant. I’ve been talking to lots of clients about it, we should be talking about this.” So you can use your greater network to come up with ideas on what you should be posting. When to post. Liz, I think this is probably- **Liz Studholme:** Yeah. I think when you get started on social media, and I’m sure that a lot of people on this webinar have been doing a number of posts for a while or whatever, but, well, you can get a bit hung up on when should be the best time. I think really, yes, we can give you some feedback on that, but engaging content is key because that has a longer lifespan. So if you posted it at 10:00 in the morning, and then someone’s still engaging with it at 3:00 in the afternoon, your post is living on beyond the time that you posted it. The other thing I’d probably say is, so if you are late at night and it’s 10 o’clock at night, then schedule it to post the next day. If you… Now I’ve just lost my train of thought on that one. **Liz Studholme:** But yeah, the networks differ, and some of them are obviously quite… Twitter, you can get lost a little bit. Things can overtake your post if something suddenly becomes trending. But yeah, post at a time that, I suppose, is good for you, because if you’re going to get comments, you want to be around. Don’t post it just as you’re heading out of the office, maybe have someone keeping a wee eye on it. If someone’s going to respond, it would be great if you can then come back and say, “Hey. Yep, we’re here. Yes, we heard you. And yes, that’s a really good point, we agree,” or whatever it is. And think about your audience. “What’s a good time for them? Are they going to be looking at their social channels in the middle of the day? At the end of the day? Is the beginning of the week a better time to post?” So get to know your audience on that, and experiment. But yeah, I think that the general rule is, while you can Google all of that and find out, and we can give you some of those stats, it’s going to come down to your business and your clients, and some sort of basic common sense, really. **Charles Clark:** Just to Liz’s point on checking and keep an eye on responses, the nice thing is that with your smartphone, if you’ve got Facebook or the other apps on there, you’ll be able to set it up so you get a little alert. So if you are on the way home or you’re watching TV after dinner and something pings up, you can just go on there and respond. **Liz Studholme:** And you don’t need to respond immediately, but ideally within… What is it, Charlie? **Charles Clark:** I’d say within an hour or two would be ideal. **Liz Studholme:** Yeah, I think Facebook does keep a record of, “This page normally responds within so many hours.” And it’s nice to have that up within a relatively short time. And I think probably, yeah, if it’s a little bit over two hours, that’s fine, but try to be responsive when you can. **Charles Clark:** So what can you share? So I think this is a really critical one, and this does apply both to email and social. So how you might share it might differ, because obviously in an email you have more flexibility in terms of… You can have more images, and so you could be sharing multiple things in the same email. But I suppose, Liz, I think you came up with this list in terms of just things that would be, I suppose, starting points that you could use. **Liz Studholme:** Yeah. It’s all fairly straightforward, really. But I think if you’re going to start making a concerted effort to do a wee bit more on your email marketing and your social, then it’s useful to have a list of, “What can I do this week? Or what can I do this month?” or whatever. So obviously reminding and supporting on compliance is your starting point. Prov tax dates, those sorts of things. Reminding them end of financial year, key tips to make your end of financial year even simpler, those sorts of things. Sharing news that directly affects your clients, whether that’s the new wage subsidy or changes to the resurgence payments, those sorts of things. Maybe the interest deductibility, those sorts of things on residential property investments. Comment on changes in the industry. So if you have a particular niche within your client base that are in certain industries, it might be, for example, I don’t know, exporting at the moment. Those sorts of things might be something that you can comment on. **Liz Studholme:** And on that, you can look at industry publications. So follow those publications about what they’re talking about, what’s becoming topical right now. If you’re running events or you’re going to an event, if it’s online, whatever, there might be something coming up that you’ve learned something from. I mean, there’s a lot of stuff on mental health, for example, at the moment. So it doesn’t have to be just accounting information, it can be that broader sense of understanding the full business picture. You can boost your clients’ brands. You can talk about their achievements, things that they’ve done, gives them valuable exposure as well. And then obviously sharing news from your firm and promoting your people and their achievements, which gives people another sense of… They may have actually only ever spoken to you on the phone, but never actually met you. I mean, I’m not sure how often that’s happening, but giving people a sense of someone new or someone that they may not have come across, and the specific skillset they have. **Charles Clark:** One other thing to note is that this doesn’t mean that you can’t also share other people’s content. So you can see here on the left it’s the National Retail Association, and on the right it’s information about Hire Purchase. So if you see something good online from an association or a newspaper or something like that, it’s very common that you might forward it or share it. And you can see here, in both cases Lielette has given her 2 cents on it and why it might be relevant. So, sharing content is a really easy thing to do. And it’s great, because someone else has already written it and then you can just share it and give your 2 cents on it. **Liz Studholme:** I think on that, Charlie, you can also on your business page follow as a business page, follow other influence partners, I guess, to broaden that reach that you have. Whether it’s local associations or banks, or legal firms or patent attorneys or something. By following other people’s pages, you get to see a bit more of their content and you’re also building those connections a bit wider. **Charles Clark:** Great point. A key thing here is to think about hashtags. And so if you’re not familiar with hashtags, basically they act as mini search engines to make your posts searchable. And so the great thing about these is if you have them on your post, and you can see down at the bottom of this one, they’ve got a whole range of things. Everything from their business one to tax chartered accountants, what they might specialize in, peril tax, super, and also where they’re located. So the great thing here is that you can use these hashtags. You can attach them to your post, and this is across all the different channels, and then it means that whenever people are searching for specific hashtag, your posts are going to be included in that search. And it works across Google as well. So that really enables your social posts to jump across onto Google’s search results, which is a really great thing. **Charles Clark:** So you can see here we’ve got some examples. So, industry hashtags, brand, this is obviously your brand, client hashtag, this is pretty obvious, awards. So I know at the moment the Xero 2021 accounting awards have just gone out, that might be one. Event hashtags, we’ve got the SBA event coming up in November, that’s another one, or local hashtag. So, whether it’s your area or there’s a local hashtag that is unique to your town or your region that people would understand. And lastly, a holiday hashtag. So it might be Christmas or Father’s Day, or just something that you can pop in there. And people do read them. And you can see in the one that we’ve got here, they don’t actually have any hashtags in their text, they’ve got it all down below. But you can, if you want to, have #payrolltax. It’s tricky. People’s eyes are used to reading hashtags now as part of a sentence, so you can actually include them in the body of your text. **Liz Studholme:** Just with those hashtags, just no spaces, no punctuation, but you can put capital letters. So, sometimes you see funny ones like #ImOverIt, or #GettingMyHeadAroundThis, or whatever it is. And just to make it easier to read, you can put some capitals in through there to make that hashtag a bit easier to read. But yeah, they can be amusing, of course. **Charles Clark:** And actually, that’s a really great point, because obviously social is a great place to have some fun. And I think, as Liz alluded to earlier, with your emails, it’s important that your personality comes through. And so you can see here, you wouldn’t necessarily think that accountants have martinis, and dogs and sunglasses, and beer across the weekends. But the point is- **Liz Studholme:** At some point, we’ve always got to have a cat, don’t we? **Charles Clark:** Yes. **Liz Studholme:** Or a dog. **Charles Clark:** But the point is here is that they, this particular… They’re actually a BOMA user in Brisbane, and they have both beer clients but also, these ladies enjoy a night out. And so their clients know this. It’s a really small town, and so it’s a running joke amongst their clients and their prospects that, “Thank God it’s Friday, let’s go and have a beer,” and they’ll go and meet up with clients and friends. And so they’re going to have fun, their personalities are coming through. You’re not automatons. We’re all people, and so just don’t forget that. Especially on Facebook and Instagram especially. LinkedIn maybe a little bit less so, but let your personality shine. It could be something like memes, as long as it’s not too many. It could be that you’ve celebrated a birthday in your office or something more personal than that. So it doesn’t always have to be, as Liz saying earlier, dry tax or accounting information. **Liz Studholme:** We’ve sort of covered this, and I am conscious that… We want to make sure that we’re making most of your time. So just very quickly, we did include, I think, this slide in our last webinar if you joined it, but as a value-add. So we thought we’d just have a quick run-through. There is a lot of information in your practice that is common sense to you but is highly valuable to your clients. So don’t forget to go even to the basics of explaining key accounting concepts in plain English ways, because that’s really helpful to the rest of us out there that are not accountants. You can look at frequently asked questions, for example. Things that you often get asked in an email, or just turn that into something and put it out on social, or send it as an email. **Liz Studholme:** There are obviously things throughout the year like seasonal content or compliance dates that you can talk about. News, insight and opinion, obviously that’s where you get a bit of engagement. How-to guides on setting up a business, selling a business, succession planning, guides to payroll. Cloud accounting, those sorts of things are useful, and checklists. Those sorts of useful things that people can download and go, “Great. That’s going to really help me end of financial year. I’ve got a checklist, done that, done that, done that.” And then obviously a newsletter, which can be a combination of all of these things, with links back to your blog or links to the IRD content, or something that’s going to be relevant for your reader. **Charles Clark:** Or a Contact Us. So, you can actually have a button that sends an email or lands on your Contact Us page, or different ways to do it. Want to see if I can get my mouse… I’m having a few issues driving. So, how to get started. And this very quickly leads on, but it is important to have a bit of a plan. And we’re not saying that you have to go and have a big, complex marketing plan. As Liz was saying, just write a few things down. So, important dates in the calendar, and we’ve got a few examples of what they could be, then you guys will also be aware of other things that are coming up. So end of financial year, general elections, legislation changes. These are all things that are going to be really relevant to either all your clients or segments of your clients. And so you could just have a calendar and you could mark, “Hey, we’ve got the bright-line test information. Legislation is coming out, this might be relevant to my property investment clients.” **Charles Clark:** And so you just make a note and say, “Hey. Well, I’m going to send out an email and some social posts when that comes out, because that’s really, really relevant.” So it doesn’t need to be necessarily any more detailed than that. Obviously, you can get a lot more detailed. And we’ll share with you a content planner, a campaign planner that you can obviously download and fill in to your heart’s content. But it’s just important to have a bit of a plan. Decide, I suppose, who within the business is going to be responsible. Is it yourself? Is it someone else within your business? Because if no one takes responsibility, as we all know, then things won’t get done. So, important just to, I suppose, have it land on someone’s desk as part of their overall, I suppose, set of responsibilities. **Charles Clark:** And when that happens, I suppose the advice that I would give, especially if you’re giving it to someone else within your business, is not just to say, “Hey. Look, we’re just doing this for no reason.” But it’s about the things we’ve talked about today. So, giving information and expertise to your current clients, and preventing churn, and hoping to upsell them. Plus, yes, it’s the marketing element as well, but if you’re thinking of improving client satisfaction rate, obviously service comes alongside that, and then that sort of expertise that you can deliver free of charge as well. And that’s obviously what we’re touching on for today. Okay, so measuring your results. So I won’t go into this in too much detail, but I’ve just got in two columns the things that you should be looking for. **Charles Clark:** So on email, things like open rates. So that’s basically, you go into BOMA or whatever email platform you use, and if your open rates are under 20%, then that’s not great. You should be hoping that 30 to 40% of your emails are getting opened. I think we touched on why they would get opened or why they wouldn’t get opened. Because you might be sending them too many, you might be spamming a list you don’t have permission for. You might not be using great calls to action and have good information in there, or it might be segmented to the wrong people. So those are all things that you can do to improve the open rates. Click-through rate and clicks. So clicks is just the number of people who clicked on it, and then click-through rate is the number of people who opened it divided by the number of clicks. So if you have a click-through rate of anywhere from three up percent, that’s pretty good. You might also want to say, “Oh. Look, did it drive traffic to the website?” I’m not sure how traffic to the SBA website is handled, but that might be something that you could tell from Google Analytics. Or it might be something like, you might say, “Look, how many signups did I get or registrations through our contact page?” Or when you’re running the promotion, how many talked about- **Liz Studholme:** Charlie, sorry to interrupt. I wondered whether we should have a quick look at this in BOMA. Just conscious of time, and helping people see the impression data and that sort of thing. That they can access account information. **Charles Clark:** Sure. Do you want to share screen? **Liz Studholme:** Yeah. So I am. **Charles Clark:** And while you’re doing that, while you’re setting up, I’ll just answer Ashley’s question, which was, “As a general rule, how often should branches post on Facebook and send out newsletters?” So, look, I don’t know if you guys have a… Craig, is there any sort of specifics from your end in terms of a rule, yourselves? **Craig Gardiner:** Not necessarily. When we’re doing newsletters, we try and do them on a quarterly basis. Social media posting, we post, I think, through… Ashley posts probably once a week, that sort thing. So, that’s more branding-specific stuff cross the line. Just keeping it in front of mind, because we’ve got a lot of clients that are annually geared. So, having more touchpoints with them more often is valuable. But we do encourage our branches to use local content so it actually has a connection between the local people in the community and the service provider and their community as well. **Charles Clark:** I think one thing on just the option of posting, especially when it comes to social, is one once a week is great. And I know lots of accountants who post once a week or less, but I know equally some who post two or three times a week. I think the important thing here is, what is the cadence that you as a business are comfortable doing? And so that might be a couple times a week, or it might be once every couple of weeks. The point is, if you have a cadence in mind and you’ve got good content going out, that’s the key thing. There’s nothing worse than saying, “Great, I’m going to post 10 posts over the next two weeks,” and then it all gets too much and then you don’t do anything for six months. So just think about what is realistic for your business, and then just try and be consistent in your posting. **Liz Studholme:** And it may be dictated by what’s happening in the world out there. So we’re on the platform at the moment. I am very conscious people’s time. I’m sorry that we’ve gone a bit longer than we intended to, but I think it’s worth having a quick look at BOMA and how that can really help with your emails and social posts. In here, you can create a lead form. Now, I know someone has asked about downloadable guides. So lead forms don’t necessarily need to be the place that you just have a newsletter signup. If I look at one of the lead forms I’ve created before, “Sign up to expert advice and news.” We’ve created that newsletter signup form, and then you can use that URL or the HTML code to embed it on your social pages. But you can also use it for a downloadable guide, so download our free checklist. And then when they submit that, the post-submit will send them to a custom page, which is your website where they can download the guide. So that’s another way, and you’ve gained their email. **Liz Studholme:** Now, obviously I’m going through it far too quickly, but we would really encourage you to set up a time with us, with Joanna, our customer success person, for some training and a little bit of a one-on-one. There’s obviously no commitment there, but you get a sense of how BOMA will work for you and whether it’s the right tool for your firm. You can create an email or social post from scratch here, but today I’m just going to show you the Content Library. So if we click into the Content Library, you can see all the content here. And it is regional-specific, so it’s only going to be information that’s valid in New Zealand, for New Zealand accountants. You can search by global categories here, you can also search by libraries, depending what your subscription gives you. **Liz Studholme:** So everyone gets BOMA, other partners include some free content from Wolters Kluwer, MyHR, Spotlight, Vend. But there are also some premium libraries by The Gap and Wolters Kluwer Premium, and all Xero partner clients get Xero library as well. If we just go into All Libraries, you can go in, you can choose a piece. We’re going to look at this piece from Wolters Kluwer. This might be a Premium piece, actually. I’ll just go into something… There’s a compliance reminder. Okay, interest rates rises are on the way. “Where can I send it?” Well, you can actually share this one on your website as a blog, as you’d like. That’s not all content, but quite a lot of content is. You can send it via email and social. You can see we’ve written the social post for you. We’ve written an email for you, and you simply, if you’re happy with it in general, you can decide to send it and then you can customise it as you deliver. **Liz Studholme:** So, send it via email or social, or let’s send it to both just to let you know how that works. Title it, so that that will be relevant to you. No one else sees that, but you might say, “Well, I’m going to send this on email to particular clients with investment properties,” or something. And send it slightly differently written to some other group within your audience. There I can see my social post. Actually, I’m going to add a bit of content there and go through, and then start editing on each channel that I’ve connected. So when you set up your account, it’s simply a matter of connecting to your social channels, uploading logo, and BOMA will pull out a template that is brand-specific for the SBA network. **Liz Studholme:** Then across each channel, we can edit and we can preview. So that’s LinkedIn, you can see that little bit of text that I added in there. Facebook, I might want to do something different, or Twitter. Twitter will obviously only allow you to work within the character limit. Facebook, just a little bit different. I copy and paste, and that’s because Facebook has fake news rules to stop a third party posting on your behalf. I’m going to take that out. I might add a hashtag. I’m probably spelling it wrong. And preview that one, and I can see my hashtag’s gone in there. On email, so obviously talking about personalisation, really important that you use tags. Within BOMA, you can select manually. So that might be when you’ve had a meeting, you’re going to follow up with that person by sending them an individual email. I’m in a test account, so I haven’t got many contacts here, but I can filter using tags. And those tags are created by you so that they’re really relevant to your audience. So, trade, for example, I’m going to send that to my trade clients. **Liz Studholme:** Once we’ve selected who we are sending it to, look at your subject line, your preview description. All of that you can change, but it’s written for you just to make it easier, and then select your template. Now, you can select a template using something you’ve sent before and you really like the way that looked, or you can use BOMA’s easy templates as well. So, let’s select one. This is the instant template. It’s using your logo at the top, it’s got your contact details at the bottom. So everything’s set up. It looks professional. It’s got an unsubscribe button and your address, and your links to your social pages. You now get an option to send your content in a number of ways. So if you were creating a newsletter, you could, for example, send that one in and then go back into the Content Library and add more content. **Liz Studholme:** I’m not going to do that. I’m going to send the full content, because I think it’s a really relevant issue that I want them to read on its own, and I want people to contact me at the end. So I’ve decided that’s the content, I can then go in and change it. Add a personal greeting. Using merge tags, I’m adding a first name so that it pulls that name so it’s really personal to the person I send it to. I’m going to go back into Content and add a button at the bottom, because I want people to contact me about this, “Contact us.” And then over on the right-hand side you can see, “Where do you want that button to go?” Do you want it to send an email? Open a web page? If it was to send an email, for example, it’s me@SBA, et cetera, et cetera. **Liz Studholme:** I’m not sure what your emails look like, but let’s imagine that it looked like that, with a subject, which is interest rates, and a body. Let’s say, “Yes, I’d like to make a time to talk about interest rates and how that’s going to affect my investments,” for example. So when you’re happy with your email, you can also preview that. Just going to move our faces out of the way. You can preview that, save, and close. And obviously I didn’t change anything for efficiency sakes, but you can change all of the content in there if you like. You can then come down here and send a test email to yourself or someone in the office, and then you can schedule. So if it’s got a bit late in the day and you want to send it tomorrow, then… I’m not sure why it’s set in Australia, but let’s set it back to New Zealand. And we’re going to send it on Thursday at 11 o’clock, and schedule. **Liz Studholme:** Once you’ve sent your campaign, BOMA also collates all the campaigns that you’ve sent under the Campaigns tab. You can see where they were sent to. So this one went to email, Facebook, LinkedIn business, personal, and Twitter. And then you can go in, and look at… Let’s have a look at another one that’s successfully gone out. Social Media Update here. Now, again, test account, no detail in here, but you will be able to see figures in here. And they’ll show you how many impressions, clicks, shares, likes, and comments you got. If you sent it via email, you’re actually able to click on some of those buttons where people opened it, and see who opened it and see who clicked on the links in it. Because this campaign didn’t go via email, I don’t have that there, but I can show you that as well. I think that’s probably enough right now on that demo. But yeah, we will give you a link to set up a time to demo one-on-one so you can ask questions that are really specific to you. **Charles Clark:** So, please do ask any questions. I think, as I said, we’ve gone over a little bit with time. I just wanted to add one more thing just before we go. So if you do want to trial BOMA, we’ve got a special deal with SBA through Craig, which is great. And you get 25% off for life if you sign up before 30th of November. After that, there’s still a discount, and that’s 15%. We’ve also got some added value slides for you here as well. Having a regular plan of action, and then the last one is just a little bit of information about getting involved in social groups. If you do have any questions, I’ll be happy to answer them before we- **Liz Studholme:** Oh, sorry. Just one here. “What if I’m already a subscriber?” Perhaps we’ll follow up directly with you, Mike, on that. **Charles Clark:** Mike, could you just pop your email address in the chat? And we’ll follow up with you directly and we’ll give you the discount code. Thank you so much for your time, we really appreciate it. And we’ll see you next time. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [BOMA: 'Ask Me Anything' on Marketing for Accountants & Bookkeepers](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/boma-ask-me-anything-on-marketing/) **Published:** June 9, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this informative and fast paced ‘Ask Me Anything’ session with Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA, and Sofia Pinckard, Customer Success Manager of BOMA, we focus on everything Marketing for Accountants and Bookkeepers and answering your questions for 45mins. Here are just a few of the questions that we answer; - How should I use social media to promote my firm? - What is the best way to communicate consistently on Social Media with a very small team and little spare time. - How to get or grow an email list? - What marketing KPIs should I be measuring? - How to promote events (online and offline)? - What about Paid Google Advertising? - How often should I be posting? - Knowing where to start with marketing - How to build an audience? - How can I filter prospective clients online? NB: You can also read a full transcript of this session below. ## ‘Ask Me Anything’ Transcript **Charles Clark** So, welcome everyone. I am dialling in from New Zealand, Sophia is in the UK. So, really thrilled to be bringing this live to you. Thank you so much for sending through all your questions. Sophia and I were amazed at how willing you were to share some of your challenges and some of your questions that you might want to deal with. So we have a big list questions that we can talk to. Obviously, if you’ve got questions that you would like to ask live, feel free to click on the Q&A or the chat box. We’ll do our best to answer them as we go through. Sophia, what’s up first. **Sophia Pickford** So, yeah, I think the first one we’re going to go in with this time. So, that was a big issue that came in for a lot of people. So, yeah, making the time and just finding the time for marketing. So, I think it’s an issue most people have. The best place to probably start is with a plan. So, you can create a marketing plan and just make it a non-negotiable. So, be realistic with what you can fit in. And once you’ve created that plan and some goals of what content you want to put out, you can start with dedicating. It can just start simple with 10 minutes a day or allocating one hour per week to enact that plan as well. So, you can also share that amongst your team. So, you can delegate to a team member. So, for example, they just do one social post per week, or they do every third newsletter. **Charles Clark** And a plan doesn’t have to be, we’re not talking about a plan as if it were forward motions and you’re like, “Right, it’s going to be a 50 page plan.” The plan could be, we want to be active on social. We want to at least send our clients one user a month, and we want to run one event every quarter. That’s how simple it can be. But by the sheer act of writing it down, sharing it with your team, having it as a goal, that will really help rather than wondering, “Oh, what should we do this month?” You know what you have agreed to, whether it’s you individually or your firm, and that just having some, I suppose, goal post aim will really make a big difference in terms of finding the time, and knowing why you’re doing something. **Charles Clark** Another one we were asked to lot, and this is about eight questions amalgamated into one answer, but it’s all about social media. So, what’s the best way to do it, or how do I do it? How do I promote my firm or myself on social media? How do I do it when I don’t have very much time as Sophia was just talking about, or if my team is real stretched and we don’t have a lot of resources to put at it. So, my advice in a general social media sense, and we do run social media webinars where we talk about nothing but social media. My advice is to start up by selecting a couple of social media channels you want to be present on. So, think about where your clients and your prospects are. Are they all on Facebook? Are they all on Twitter? Maybe they’re all on LinkedIn. **Charles Clark** A really easy way to do it is to go and ask some of your clients, “Hey, what are the social media networks that you spend your time on? If you were researching things other than Google, what social networks would you use?” I would… From what I’ve seen, and I know a lot of accounts have done this, their clients are always really happy to tell them. Same thing, you could do some research. You could actually go and look at some prospects or some people that you’d like to target, and again, see where they’re spending their time. If their business is really active on Instagram, and say LinkedIn, chances are the people in that business will be too. So that’s step one is select a couple. And I say a couple rather than necessary all of them because the more channels you have, that’s just more admin to do, and then start up in them. **Charles Clark** Make sure you have a really good personal profile or a business page. So, when I say a good one, it’s not necessarily that you just want a good photo. Make sure that you also have all the relevant information about your firm. So, where you’re located, what your website address is, what your opening hours are. If you do have some good photos, that’s always correct to have as well. Make sure you have a brand, your logo on there, and make sure it’s consistent across all the social channels, and your website. People do use social media channels to research accounting and bookkeeping firms as well as websites. And even if they get a referral, 80% of people are likely to go online and do some research. So they come to a social site and doesn’t matter how good your website is. If you’ve got an all over the place social media channel, and nothing’s really been posted there, and it just looks like a bit of a train wreck. That’s probably not going to help your cause. **Charles Clark** In terms of getting started. So start by engaging with some other relevant pages. So this might be your client’s pages. So go and follow them. That’s always a good thing. Go and follow people that you’d like to be working with. Industry bodies is another great one. So whether it’s your local… Maybe it’s your local banking industry or a local charter in the town or the city that you’re in that you want to be more involved in. That’s a great place to start. Xero is another good one, and all the zero apps are great because oftentimes your clients and prospects will be using them, too. And they’re great source of information in terms of what’s happening out there and what might be relevant for you. **Charles Clark** So those sorts of conversations. So, you are going to start to see a lot of conversations out there and you can choose to get involved in some of them, if you think they’re relevant to who you are as a firm. And if you think you can add value and maybe demonstrate some of that expertise. It’s a really easy way just to dip your toe in and start to get your profile out there. People will notice you. And if you start posting really interesting comments and helpful insights, they do pay attention to them. You can obviously start posting as well. You don’t just have to comment on other people’s posts. You can start posting. So this could be your view on a particular issue that’s just come out. So, the budgets come out or it’s nearly bank holiday. **Charles Clark** There’s no reason why you can’t just start to do short posts as well, or you could do links to stories. And so, this could be stories that you’ve done. So, it could be to your blog site or for a video on your website, or it could be to something that you’ve seen out there in the industry or in the marketplace that you think your follower should be aware of. Make sure to always use hashtags to help your post be searchable. So that’s using the hashtag symbol and then certain key after it. So, like hashtag your fair name or hashtag a topic that you are speaking about. So it could be #Tax, #SMB, and these are really key to helping your post be more searchable. **Charles Clark** So, while we are talking obviously a lot about being professional because you are obviously professionals, don’t forget to keep it real to who you are. So your social media, I suppose, profile and your personality, they should be pretty similar because obviously if someone follows you on social media and then meets you in person or meets someone from your firm person, and there’s a completely 180 degrees flip, that’s a bit off putting. So, it’s great to show some personality and not always be too serious. And there are ways that you can do that. You could post an update from work and I’ve seen lots of accountants and bookkeepers who maybe if they have a pet at work and they might post that and their clients love it, or it could be work drinks. **Charles Clark** The reason why clients engage with that is because as it’s personal and it’s relatable. So, it doesn’t always have to be that you’re talking about taxation or GST. If you’re in this type of world or VAT in the UK. It’s, I suppose, showing your human side. One thing I would always say is steer clear of politics, religion, keep it in good taste. And of course, nothing inappropriate. What might seem funny at four o’clock on a Friday afternoon by the time it’s gone through a couple of people liked and commented on it, and maybe they said some harsh things and you wake up on Monday and thinking, “Goodness me, that was… Why did I do that?” If you’re thinking it’s a bit risky, it’s better not to post it. **Charles Clark** In terms of doing it efficiently, into Sophia’s point in terms of time. And how do you do social media? Because it is quite time consuming if you’re writing posts and getting them across all the different social channels. Look, I’m obviously going to push BOMA. So, BOMA has got a huge content library. It’s got all the posts written for you. It goes out across all your social networks and you can schedule it in advance and you can customise them. So whether you’re looking for an update on making text digital or the budget, or you just want to talk to your clients about an issue. Maybe it’s marketing, could be strategy. You can go into BOMA and choose the right topic. And that will just mean that you don’t have to write 100% of the post that you are sending out. We often find on BOMA that our users is about 60/40, so 60% of the time they use BOMA to send out topics that are industry wide and their clients need to know about. And the other 40% of the time is things that are really personal to them and in the moment. **Charles** **Clark** And then the last thing to do is just to think about a cadence that you and your team can handle. And if you think of this a bit like going to the gym in the first week of January, and you start off in the first week and you go 10 times, almost twice a day and you think, “Oh, my goodness, this is great.” And then you burn out. Social is a little bit like this. So think about a cadence that you guys can handle. So this might be as much as a couple of posts a day, or it might be a couple posts a week. It’s really up to you. As Sophia said, if you have a plan, then that will help determine how often you think you need to post. And also we’ll put some responsibilities beside who in your organisation might be posting. Sophia what’s next? **Sophia Pickford** Sorry, just going back to your point. That reminded me of something that someone told me last week that motivation is the Playboy of emotions. So if you wait for motivation to post, it’s going to come once a month and you’re not going to do it consistently. So, that’s where, again, going back to the plan, it’s you can have something to adhere to, and to hold yourself accountable for as well. **Charles Clark** Yeah, great point. **Sophia Pickford** So, yeah. Great. Yeah. So, next was an issue deciding on what content’s relevant to us and to you. So, as we keep going on a planner is a great idea because this is something that you have to refer back to, to make sure that your content is consistent and in line with your goals and your ideas and also your company ethos. So, it’s easy to share content that might not be relevant to your audience. So, you think at that time it’s a fun piece, but it’s just not going to be relevant. And it’s not going to be aimed at the right clientele that you want. An easy way to obviously access relevant content is joining BOMA. So we have masses of content at your fingertips and also it’s readily divided into different categories. So you have your tax compliance, HR, management and strategy. So, when you’re making your plan, you can apply this to that, which is going to help with your consistency and saving you time as well. But yeah. Do you have anything else to add? **Charles Clark** Well, I was just going to say, I’m just going to pop into the chat. So, we’ve actually going to a content planner. So, I’ve just put the link into the chat. There’s a content planner, feel free to click in there and download it from Google. It’s just hosted on Google Docs and you can use that to think about… I suppose, it’ll help you generate ideas, and whether it’s for ideas for an event or email or any of the social channels, it’s a really good way just to think about using it. And then you can actually go through and say, “Okay, how would that look on a weekly basis? And how would that look on a daily basis?” So, a really good resource there. I hope you take advantage of it. **Charles** **Clark** So, getting on our next question, and this was how often should I post content? I thought this was a really interesting question because this could mean a couple things. So, are we talking about social media channels? Are we talking about on your website? Are we talking about email because really it’s all about how many messages you trying to get out there and what channels, and who you trying to reach. So, if we are talking about social media, then always good to think about what social media channel you’re on. So, as I said before, pick a couple of channels, especially if you’re just getting started, and this will help you decide how often you could post. **Charles Clark** So, on Twitter, Twitter is the great fire hose of content. I’m sure you guys are on there on a personal level, and there are just millions and millions of tweets coming the whole time. So, if you are posting personally or as a business, you can post multiple times a day and you can post exactly the same thing if you want. And you are probably going to be seen by a new audience and new followers every time just because of the amount, the sheer overload of content that comes through Twitter. Whereas LinkedIn, I suppose it’s much more curated. So once a week, maybe twice a week is really good on LinkedIn. Even once a month is fine. Facebook and Instagram are a little bit more in between. So, you could do a couple of posts on Facebook or Instagram every day. It’s it’s easy. Or you might say, look, just once a week is fine. **Charles Clark** In terms of actually the types of content. This is kind of relevant to how often is also the types of content. So, Twitter is great for very short snappy, concise posts. Obviously, you’re limited to 280 characters. So, you have to be very, as I said, concise in what you’re saying. So, you could have a sentence or two, a couple of hashtags, and then you could link people through to maybe your website or the article that you want them to read. LinkedIn and Facebook, you obviously can write much more. So, you could write a couple hundred words and people often do, and that’s absolutely fine. Twitter and Instagram, you can also share. They’re great for photos and videos. Facebook is probably the best place to share videos just because you can upload video, which is an hour long, whereas Twitter, and LinkedIn, and Instagram, you’re limited by time. So, I think it’s limited to maybe under a minute or two minutes max. So, if you had a short video, where it was an ad or if it was a short snippet of a longer video you had done, those are good places to do it. **Charles Clark** As I said before, in terms of cadence, whatever the cadence that is right for your business is. I would always choose quality of a quantity. So, you can get into thinking, right? We always need to be posting at that cadence. So, it’s either every day or every second day. I would always take a step back, and this is where that content calendar is really good because you can say, “Okay, what are the goals we’re trying to reach?” That’s right, we’re trying to talk about this particular topic, and trying to make sure that people in the industry or clients and contacts realise that we are really experts in this. So, it makes sense that we are posting once a week on this topic, and the fact that we are not necessarily posting anymore is fine because if you over post and it’s not very relevant to your users, and it’s just you are spamming them online, they’ll just got to lose interest. So, that’s something to think about. **Charles Clark** In terms of your website blog. So, I’m already assuming that you have a website that you have about us pages, contact us pages, you have your services and products pages. So, in terms of blogs specifically, really the more, the better in terms of content out there. So, the more content that you have up there, the better it’s going to be for search engine optimisation, and your search ranking and Google and the other search engine. So, basically if you want to be ranked for specific topics, so maybe it’s you want to be ranked for accountant in your town and who deals with taxation, or maybe it’s retirement planning, or maybe it’s business continuity. Write blogs that talk to those topics and then post them on your website, and then even better, pop them onto your social media channels and post them through that and link them back to your website. **Charles Clark** So, if you currently have not many pages on your blog or you don’t have any at all, a lot of content on BOMA you can actually post on there as well. So, as with all content on BOMA, I’d suggest that you make it your own. So you can do this by adding in a little bit of opinion at the beginning or at the end. And obviously you can add your own imagery and you can edit it all as well. So customisation is always good, but if you’re looking for a place to start, especially on pretty generic topics, great place to start about that. **Sophia Pickford** Just going back to your point before as well. Don’t be shy to spread posts out. So, if you have… I know you said 60% would be content, and 40% is personal to your business. If you’ve had a busy week on the personal side of things, events and things like that, if it’s relevant to the date post it, but things like work drinks, you can spread that out over a few weeks. So, if work drinks happened two weeks ago, that’s fine. Your clients don’t know. So yeah, don’t be shy to spread content out and keep it in the back burner for a quiet week. **Charles Clark** That’s a great idea. And I suppose that’s where the idea of scheduling comes in. So, whether you just want to schedule them all at once and you can say, “Great, I’m going to schedule two for this week, two for next week, and two for the following week, then you can relax, knowing that they’re all done.” And if another one happens to pop up and you want to post it on the day, then that’s absolutely fine. But yeah, I really like that idea of metering out the content. So you’re being active, you’re peer active all the time. **Sophia Pickford** That actually goes on to the next point that kind of is related, which is getting stuff out consistently. So, that was a big thing, issue that came in is, yeah, making that consistency. So yeah, going back again to this content plan, that’s going to be really useful to have something to adhere to and hold yourself accountable for. So, make it a non-negotiable. A great tip is to mark it out in your calendar. So, find that time in the week where you’ll have… Like I said before, you can have a whole hour dedicated to it. Or even if it’s just 10 minutes a day, you can put in the morning, block that out in your calendar so you get it out the way, and don’t have to think about it for the rest of the day. But yeah, that’s our point. **Charles Clark** We had quite a few questions around, I suppose, audience building, how to start to engage with new clients and prospects. I suppose, how do you build those lists? So this might be that you’re starting out or you want to, I suppose, get new clients. So, this again is sort of a multi-part answer because there’s not necessarily any one thing that it is going to solve everything for you, but there’s lots of small things that you can do that when you put them together can be really effective. So, a good place to start is on your website. So make sure that you have, across your website you have newsletter and email signup forms. So, this could be in the footer or the header, could even be scattered throughout the main section of your website, and just ask people to sign up through updates. Also great to have a contact us form. **Charles Clark** So, the benefit of these is that they’ll help capture email addresses. And so, whether it’s someone is contacting you for a specific, I would like to talk about a specific business issue that you might be able to help you with or I’m just interested in learning more about your business and keep me in the loop. All of these are an opportunity at different levels to start that relationship building. **Charles Clark** Another thing you can do on your website is to have lead magnets. So, a lead magnet, actually, I mean, the content planner I just gave you is actually an idea of a lead magnet. So, on your website, you could have something like that and you have a call to action saying, “Hey, I’ve got this really valuable content calendar.” Obviously, you would make it specific to your audience. If you’d like to access it, please enter your details and then you can download it. And so, that’s a really clear value swap. So, there the client or the prospect is swapping their information and in return they’re getting this really valuable piece of insight. And so, this could be a research paper, it could be something to do well to their business. The idea is though, basically, you are giving it for free, and in return that you are getting their contact details. **Charles Clark** Another way to do this is running an event. So really, really popular, especially in the last year and a half as everything has changed. So, could be an online event like we are doing now. I’ve seen a lot of accountants, and a lot of bookers who do Q&As or live updates. And they just basically put this out to all their list, their email list, and they promote it on social, and this is just a great way that you can both offer value and demonstrate your expertise and in return capture leads that you can then start building that relationship with. So, can’t tell you the number of people who come to use BOMA and I’ll ask them, or Sophia will ask them, “When did you first hear about us?” And they say, “Oh, well, we went to a webinar of yours or an event that you held two or three years ago, and we’ve kept in touch ever since. And now is the right time for us to commit.” **Charles Clark** And so, that’s exactly the sort of I suppose proposition or journey that I’m talking about here is that you never know when a client might be in the room or a prospective client might be in the right frame of mind to look for an accountant or make the jump, and leave their current accountants and start looking for a new one. But you want to be top of mind in that consideration. And so, you can do this by having webinars, events, by sending the newsletters, and you gather these email addresses through those methods I’ve just talked about. **Charles Clark** Well, it’s also really good to promote these. So, especially if you don’t already have a large email list, put it out on your social channels. Put it into your blog post. At the end of your blog post, you can have a little link to your lead magnet or your webinar saying, “Hey, if you’d like to learn more information about this, download or sign up for our event.” Paid ads are great. So, think of about Google, Google AdWords, Facebook, and LinkedIn are great as well. Again, depends on where your audience is, but they’re also great for targeting people. So you could say, “Great. I want to target small business owners in this particular location who exhibit these behaviours.” And then you can target them with ads. **Charles Clark** Other things in terms of audience building, make sure, as I said before, in terms of social, that you always link through to your website, have all that key information on there. And also just make sure when you are talking to prospects or you’re out there meeting people, maybe at a function, mention that you’re holding an event, mention that you have a social page, which is full of great insights that they might like to follow, or that you run a regular newsletter, which they might find interesting. All great options to promote, and all great ways to start build that audience without also seeming too salesy. There’s one thing that is, I think, really common amongst the accounts and bookkeepers are that feedback that I’ve had is that there’s a real aversion to seeming salesy, and I understand it. **Charles Clark** The great thing about what we’re talking about here is that you are marketing to them rather than selling to them. And you get in front of them, you build that relationship, you demonstrate expertise, you give them value. And so, when it comes the time to have, I suppose, a more focused on sales conversation you’re not introducing yourself from scratch. You’re not having to build that trust from scratch. You’re not having to tell them the things that you specialise from scratch. They already know this, and they hopefully have a bit of an understanding by you as a firm. And you as a person from the fact that they feel like they’ve known you because just like we are doing now, they may have been to some of your events. They’ve seen your newsletter. They have been in your orbit and building that relationship for some time. What do we got next, Sophia? **Sophia Pickford** I was going to say, I think that leads on quite nicely to my point as well, but yeah, going back to what you said as well. I really love that point that you make that you might not get the client straight away if you’re running a webinar, but they’re going to think of you down the line. So yeah, it’s definitely well worth putting your content out there with consistency, because you are placing yourself as an expert. So, when they need an expert, you are the person they think of, and you’re not just a stranger, so that’s a nice point. But yeah, the next point and final point from me was getting interaction. So, actually having an interaction online via your emails or social media. **Sophia Pickford** So, the great place to start is with good content that’s actually going to be relevant to your clients and your audience. So it’s all well and good having high interaction rates with other accounting firms on social media. But they’re not going to make you money at the end of the day. The focus is establishing regular interactions with clients and prospects that are going to be meaningful to your business in the long run. **Sophia Pickford** Content itself could be written. You could do, even if it’s just a short 30 second video if you’re confident on camera because it’s a great way to convey a lot of information and do it quickly in a nice personal manner. Or you can put something like a poll online. So, that’s going to get people interacting with your content. You can also ask direct questions on social media. For example, what do you think about X? And readers can respond, and if they do make sure to engage as well so you can really start a dialogue, but yeah, do you have anything to add, Charles? **Charles Clark** Another great a question we had, and again, this directly relates to what you are talking about in terms of engagement. I’m directly quoting here, but how do we get “bums on sits for webinars?” Because we have talked about engagement. We have talked about running events. So, to the person who asks this, well done, it’s great that you are running webinars. I think there has been a sea change as we said in the last year. And I think it’s important to remember that although for you guys the day to day, you think that the knowledge that you have everyone understands that. Whereas, actually if you are a small business or a business owner out there, the information that you can offer them is highly, highly valuable. **Charles Clark** So, it’s just a great way to do a webinar. It is one to many as well. So you can, in that time, instead of speaking to one person face to face or over the phone, you can speak to five, 10, 15 people about a topic, and you know they’re interested because they’ve signed up. So, A, great to do webinars, and B, how to get bums on seats. So, if you are doing Facebook ads running them is one thing. What I’m going to talk about here is how do you make sure that I suppose when people see your ad, they engage with it and sign for it? Because obviously you might be working or you might be doing BOMA, but you might be doing it with a consultant. So, saying that you’ve got the targeting right. Now we’re going to talk about what is going to make someone click on that ad? **Charles Clark** So, think about first off the name and the top of the webinar. Is this topic going to be of interest to the people that you hope it’s going to be? You can find out by doing a bit of research. So, you might go out and speak to a few clients. You might do it on your Facebook page and run an informal poll. Just say, “Hey, here are some topics. I’m think you’re doing a webinar. Why don’t you vote for them?” And then find out what they really want to hear about. And then when you do write down the title, less is more. So, if you can say it in six words or five words, rather than 10, that’s great. So short and concise and punchy. **Charles Clark** Then also think about what are the two or three key points as to why they should join this webinar? What are they going to get for it? Why is it worth their time? And then also think about your call to action. So what are you asking them to do? So the mistake I see oftentimes is that people say you should come to our webinar and then they have a link and they don’t tell the reader that they should register now or click here. And it’s a mistake to think that people know exactly what you intend them to do. They’re scrolling through maybe their social feed or their Facebook ads and you just have to spell it up for them. So, book now, register here, save my seat, are all really good calls to action, and it tells them exactly what they should be doing. The second piece because just because they’ve clicked on your ad doesn’t mean that they have signed up yet. **Charles Clark** The second piece is that when they go to the registration page, again, you have to resell it to them. So, again, what are they going to get out of it? And the great thing about the registration page is that you can offer them more information. So, instead of being limited maybe to 100 and 150 characters, you can now put a couple of paragraphs in there. You can have bullet points, you can have information about who’s going to be speaking if there’s more than one of you. You might have a guest on there. You can have images, you can have the guest CV. So there’s lots of things that you can do, just make the webinar just seem like, “Yep, this is going to be fantastic.” Charles Clark Also, good to be specific about the time that you are asking them to match. So, we asked you for 45 minutes today. I would suggest that unless it’s a really specialist topic, 45 minutes is a nice length of time. Some other topics you might find that half an hour is enough and then they’ll know, “Great, I can commit to half an hour or 45 minutes including questions, and then they’ll sign up for it. So those are a couple of tips to making sure that you get bums on seats. If you do have an email list, as well as doing Facebook ads and promoting across, obviously, your website, and your social channels. Do always submit up to your email list because that is always a very good source of leads for this. **Charles Clark** A couple of great questions, and this was about how do I filter people on my website? I suppose it’s about filtering prospects, and I know a lot of people are trying to think about how do I find my ideal client or how do I make sure that the people who contact me from my website are the sorts of clients I want, and I think there’s been a great shift in thinking on this, and I’ve definitely seen it with a lot of accountants and bookers that we work with, which is I want to have more of the clients that are good for me and less are the ones that aren’t, but how I do that, especially upfront in a nice way? In a way that’s not going to annoy people? **Charles Clark** So, one good way is to on your lead capture form in your website, maybe it’s your contact us form is to have a drop down menu, and I’ve seen this done quite a few times in the last few months, and it has questions about their business and about them. So it might be questions like, what is your business size? What’s your turnover? What services do they require? The idea here is that they’ll give you answers. And then before you even email them back, you can see, is this the sort of business I want to work with? And if they aren’t, you can maybe have a stock reply or a stock script if you call them that says, “Thank you so much for inquiry, but we’re not the right sort of firm, and maybe here’s one that might serve them better. If they are the right sort of firm, you already know quite a lot about them. So you know exactly maybe some of the services they require and you can start to think about strategically how that conversation is going to go. **Charles Clark** One thing that we have seen on a few firms recently is actually on that lead capture form, if basically it does it for them. And if they select, I suppose, features or services that the firm doesn’t offer, or they don’t want to offer, then it will actually tell them on a lead capture form that they’re not the right sort of firm. And obviously they do it in very empathetic language that even stops at that one step further. So, only qualified leads come through to their email. So this is a feature quite a few people have been asking from us in BOMA. So, we’re actually building that onto our lead capture forms as we speak and actually will be ready in the next six to eight weeks. **Charles Clark** A couple of other good questions, and I know we’re getting close to finishing. So, two really good questions that sum up a lot of the questions we got, which is knowing where to start with marketing or I don’t know where to start. How do I get started? I feel like I don’t know the question I don’t know. Look, the thing with marketing that it is a bit of a journey, and we understand that you guys are accountants, and bookkeepers, and maybe it’s you either are doing maybe some of this yourself. Your firm, we have some within your firm doing it for you. The thing is to, I suppose, pick a few things that you feel comfortable starting with. So, maybe it’s social, maybe it’s getting your website up to scratch, maybe it’s starting out on doing some webinars or some social. The main thing is to get started and circling back to where we began. Always good to have a plan. And even if your plan is only five lines long, and it will just spell out what it is that you’re going to do, that’s going to help immensely. **Charles Clark** One thing I do have to share with you is actually our guide. So this is a digital marketing guide we’ve written, especially for you guys. This covers everything from social, email, website, SEO, everything in more details. So, feel free to go in there. I’ve sent you the direct download links. You don’t have to enter any more details. You can print it out, share it within your organisation. That’s a great place to start. So, like everything, it’s all about knowledge, and hopefully that will give you some more knowledge. **Charles Clark** Also, if you are a BOMA user, and I know that some of the people on here are you can reach out to us at any time. So, if you’ve got questions about any of the topics that we’ve talked about tonight, we’re always happy to give you some free advice. And we also do run lots of webinars. So, on our website, we’ve got a webinars page and there are lots of webinars talking about everything that we’ve talked about tonight in more detail. And there’s also lots of blogs on there that you can go and check as well. Sophia, have we had any questions come through in the meantime? Sophia Pickford **I can’t see any currently.** **Charles Clark** So, just, I mean, we know we’ve got a minute or two to go. If anyone has a question maybe that we haven’t addressed or would have anyone they’d like to do. Oh, good marketing KPIs. Thanks, Megan, and I actually do have some thoughts on that. So, marketing KPIs is an interesting one because… A good place to start with is social media. So, a lot of people in social media get caught up with vanity metrics. And so, by vanity metric, I mean, how many likes or shares did a post get? How many followers do I have? And it’s always better to have more, but actually you have to think about would I rather have 100 or 200 followers who are just people that maybe I bought them, maybe they’re just random people. Would I rather have 50 followers who I know are my perspective clients or my ideal clients because they’re the people who are going to buy for you? **Charles Clark** So, when it comes to things on social and email, don’t get caught up in vanity metrics and think that, “Oh, because I only got five likes on a post, that’s no good.” If you go and have a look at the people who liked your post and they’re your ideal client market, that’s fantastic. You’ve got five perspective clients who are interested in what you’re saying, and I’d much rather have five of those people rather than 50 school aged people, retirees, or a whole random mixture of people who aren’t the people that you want. So, be careful of vanity metrics. **Charles Clark** In terms of general metrics. Again, coming back to that plan. What is it that you want to achieve? And it might be that your end of year goals are like, “Right, we want to be active on two social channels. We want to be active on Facebook on LinkedIn. And we would like to have 100, or 200, or 300 followers across both of them, relevant followers. So that could be one metric. And then you can think, “Okay, as we go through the year, how are we tracking each month? Are we getting three or four or five followers per month? And are they starting to engage, and are they the right followers? In terms of specific social post metrics, if you’re doing just organic posts, do be aware that the social networks because they want you to spend money via their ad platforms. **Charles Clark** They had really clamped down on how much organic reach you will get. So, five, 10 years ago, if I put out a post, I knew that a large proportion of my followers would see it. Nowadays, it’s really small. It’s about two or 3%. So, there are some tricks you can do to increase that. So one of which is that you get engagement. As Sophia was talking about. So engagement could be a like. It could be a share, it could be a comment. And so, there are ways that you can gain this. So, if you’ve got some friendly clients, tell them that you’ve put out this post, and if you look into it, they might go in there and read it, and they might like it. You can also ask your colleagues or friends of yours to go and like it and share it. That’s another way to comment on it. **Charles Clark** The key thing there is to build a bit of momentum. Facebook and LinkedIn will be like, “Oh, this is a post, which is getting good momentum. And therefore, I’m going to open it up to some more people who might want to see it.” At that point, if you wanted to, you could even boost it. So you can say, “Great, it looks like this is an interesting post. I’m going to put 10 quid or 20 quid for five days and see if I can get some more interest in it. **Charles Clark** In terms of email. So, the rule of thumb for email is that you don’t want, in terms of unsubscribes, if you’re getting any more than 0.5 of a percent of unsubscribes from your email addresses, then something’s not right. So maybe if you’ve got two, three, 4%, then either the emails that you’re sending out aren’t relevant or they’re not right, maybe they’re too frequent. So think about how often you’re sending out your emails and this will also be reflected in the open rate. So, a good open rate is 28 to 40%. **Charles Clark** Again, if you are getting really small open rates 10%, 6%, 12% think about why that might be. So is it something to do with the subject of the email? So, if you just send out a newsletter and you call it July newsletter, that’s terrible, and it’s very unlikely that you’re going to get a lot of people clicking through because you’ve given them no reason to. Whereas, if you set it out July tax use update relevant to your firm in some way. Oh, that gives me a reason to open it. I’m going to click on this link that you’ve put in there, I’m going to open it. **Charles Clark** Click-throughs are sort of, kind of depends. So, click-throughs is basically of your email or of your social media post or ad. How many, say if I 100 people see it or open it, and 10 people click on it, then the click-through rate is 10%. So, as a rule of thumb for social ads, and emails three, 4% is really good. And that’s basically where you might have a link and an email that people might click on, or you might have of a call to action and a social post that people might click on. You might get more, which is great. Again, if you’re getting less than that, then have a think about what your call to action was. Was it compelling enough? Did you have all the right information? **Charles Clark** I suppose another, in terms of more businessy KPI, in terms of marketing the business is if you are spending some money or some time on marketing and you are getting some clients or some leads from it, a really good way to think about it is, okay, how much do I value those clients or those leads at? So you say, “Okay, well I value each client at 2,000 pounds, and each lead is a couple hundred pounds. Then you can say, “Okay, well we spent 5,000 pounds on marketing in the last quarter. We got X number of leads or clients. And so, we know what the cost per acquisition was.” **Charles Clark** So this is a really, cost per acquisition is a really key metric because if you don’t know what your cost per acquisition is, you might go and spend 10,000 pounds. And then you’re thinking, “Okay, well, we got two clients from that. Is that good or is that bad?” Maybe that’s good because your clients are worth 100,000 pounds to a year if they’re big clients, and so you are willing to spend 5,000 pounds on each of them. Or maybe that’s not great because your clients are only worth 1,000 to you each year. So, you really have to think about what is each client to each lead worth you? And then as you track your marketing activity, especially paid activity, you can say, “Okay, are we getting a return on investment?” Because I suppose that’s the ultimate goal of marketing is you want it to drive it more clients, or maybe you want your current clients to start spending more money. So, you want to educate about the services that you offer. So, cost requisition is a really good one. Really good to keep in mind. Whether it’s time that you’re spending, or money and time. That’s always a good one to have. **Sophia Pickford** Yeah, no. And just to make the point as well that digital marketing guide has analytics section as well, which is really great. Goes through everything and anything. **Charles Clark** Yeah. Well, look, thank you everyone for your time. I know we’ve been a couple minutes over the allotted 45 minutes, but hopefully it was interesting. I hope you find that content planner and that digital marketing guide really, really useful. Sophia, thanks so much for joining us. **Sophia Pickford** Thank you for having me. I hope this helps. **Charles Clark** This was your first of Ask Me Anything, and Sophia and I are going to be running a lot more of these in the UK in the coming months. So do keep an eye out for future invitations. If you follow us on any of our social channels, we also put the invites out there, so that’s another way that you can register for these. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Understanding Content Marketing - Why it Works and How to Get it Right](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/understanding-content-marketing/) **Published:** August 2, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## Why content marketing works – and how to get it right Content marketing is one of those digital media buzzwords that many use but few understand. We could go into great detail about algorithms, Google search rankings and unique content markers – but the real value of content marketing is far easier to grasp. Boiled down to its essence, [content marketing means creating regular, high-quality content](https://bomamarketing.com/2021/08/16/content-reigns-supreme-in-land-of-seo-still/) for your audience and giving it away for free. This could be a weekly blog on your website, videos showing consumers how to use or troubleshoot your product or e-books and articles that share your industry knowledge. It’s not a strategy that produces instant results but in the long run, [content marketing can be valuable for your business and your brand](https://bomamarketing.com/2019/02/04/the-accountants-and-bookkeepers-guide-to-digital-content-marketing/). Here’s how: ## 1: Rise through the search ranks Google’s search algorithm is partly responsible for the rise in content marketing. A few years ago, the algorithm shifted away from simple keyword-based rankings to a model that prioritises frequent updates and original content. In response, businesses began to focus on quality blogs and relevant articles, where keywords can be used naturally rather than shoehorned in. [Content also helps boost your ranking](https://bomamarketing.com/2021/08/16/content-reigns-supreme-in-land-of-seo-still/) simply by bringing more people to your site, keeping them there and giving them something to share. When it comes to Google, the more people are linking back to your content, the better. ## 2: Bring in new business Unlike traditional advertising or direct marketing, which often rely on shallow hooks to draw in consumers, content marketing can attract audiences on a deeper level. Rather than clicking through to your site and leaving almost immediately, they stay around for longer to look at interesting, relevant content. The longer you can keep people on your site, the better – it gives you more chances to engage them, more touchpoints to make a sale or get their details and more opportunities for them to see and remember your brand. ## 3: Bolster your brand If you can establish yourself as an authority in your sector without trying to sell anything, then customers are more likely to trust you when they are looking to buy. It makes sense: if customers have read and used your internet security tips, for example, they will see you as an expert when they’re looking for security software. On a basic level, it’s also about familiarity – if a potential buyer has come across your brand and spent time on your site, you become a known quantity rather than a random choice. ## 4: Build stronger client relationships Existing clients shouldn’t be taken for granted. [Content marketing can be a way to keep in touch](https://bomamarketing.com/2019/02/04/the-accountants-and-bookkeepers-guide-to-digital-content-marketing/) when you’re not directly working with a client, putting your brand top-of-mind and solidifying your expertise. Share articles with your database, [send links to new e-books or guides as you write them or use videos on social media to connect with your audience](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/11/15/grow-your-accounting-firms-network-on-social-media-7-key-ways/). Then, when a client is ready to rebook or rebuy, you’re still in mind as a viable option – and you’ve built a strong bond by sharing your expertise. ## **What is BOMA?** BOMA is the digital marketing tool and content library for Accountants and Bookkeepers. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you hundreds of expertly written advisory articles which you can customise and share via email, your social media channels and your website blog in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in for supporting clients and building relationships with prospects. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Content Marketing --- ### [Grow your Accounting Firm’s Network on Social Media - 7 Key Ways](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/grow-your-accounting-firms-network-on-social-media-7-key-ways/) **Published:** November 15, 2018 **Author:** Richard Irvine **Content:** Now that your business is on social media, what’s the first step to growing your professional network? A strong social network will maximise your reach to get your content in front of the people you want to reach. If you have started posting to your social pages, you’ll want to make sure that these posts are capturing the attention of your clients, prospects and other industry players. And, if you can count your social media fans and followers on one page the chances of your amazing insights or thoughtful commentary being seen are pretty low. So how do you maximise the impact of your hard work? It’s no longer enough to publish a few articles on your website and hope people will find it. Defining the right way to connect with and engage your audience is key to getting a return on your investment. Grow your audience of followers on your social channels and you will build a powerful channel to share messages, updates and build your profile. Here are **7** **Steps** to developing a strategic approach to growing your reach and maximising the time invested. ## **1. Enlarge your following through the people you already know** This gives you opportunities to connect with their networks when they like, share, retweet or comment on a post you have made. Start with the basics: - **Reach out to your own personal network by sharing your Business Facebook page on your own personal Facebook timeline** – And ask friends and family to connect and support you. In your post, ask them to like the page and share it with others. To share your page, click on the **Share** button below your cover photo. - **Invite your Facebook friends** – Click on **Community** in the left-hand column and then find your friends by typing in their name or selecting **invite** beside their names. Don’t be afraid to ask friends to also share it with their friends, who may be interested in your business. - **LinkedIn Business Pages** – Create a Business page on LinkedIn and post your blogs and articles here so that your team members can connect to the company and also share the content on their personal profile. - **Twitter** – follow influencers, retweet and comment as your page. Use hashtags in your tweets so that your activity is more easily found by Twitter users. - **Engage with other Facebook pages** – Use your page profile to comment on other people’s or businesses’ posts. You can also reference them in your posts using the @sign to tag them. e.g. @xero. By engaging with a variety of content you also broaden your reach and reach new audiences. ## **2. Social Media is a two-way conversation** [‘Being responsive’ is the number one action businesses can take on social media](https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/) to affect decision making by consumers. Show you are listening, ready to answer questions and to solve problems. The more comments and engagement on your page the better your visibility across the network. Thank the people who interact with you and offer more information. All of which shows you are client focussed and proactive. Taking the time to respond to questions and comments on your own social channels is vital, but also look for chances to expand your influence by commenting on other business’ posts (as yourself and as your business). Simply liking, sharing and commenting on other business’ content gets your name out there and shows you’re genuine about participating in and adding value to the wider conversation. Participating in [LinkedIn groups](https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/1164/linkedin-groups-membership-overview?lang=en) and [Facebook Groups](https://www.facebook.com/help/1210322209008185/?helpref=hc_fnav) is another great way to reach an audience that is very niche and therefore, highly engaged. Groups are trusted places where professionals (and others) can help and support one another so not a place to sell but to contribute and listen. Groups might be for an industry vertical or across small business. In addition to the wider network opportunity, groups are useful places to build industry knowledge. The reward for your engagement on social is the opportunity to build and grow a higher quality network and organic, genuine engagement with your business, which can be a rich source of new contacts – [79% of B2B Marketers see LinkedIn as an effective place to find business leads](https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/blog/linkedin-b2b-marketing/2017/10-surprising-stats-you-didnt-know-about-marketing-on-linkedin). ![communication - two heads sharing ideas](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/AdobeStock_108947649-e1542240738747-450x300.jpeg) ## **3. Two ears, one mouth** There’s a treasure trove of information on social networks about your industry and your competitors waiting for you to discover right now. Set time aside to look at what content is being shared and discussed online to stay across the latest industry buzz and pick up valuable ideas and tips for topical posts and tweets. It doesn’t have to be time-consuming – you can use apps like LinkedIn and Facebook on your phone to stay across the conversation in your downtime and set up [Google Alerts](https://www.google.com/alerts) to get notifications on topics related to your business. If your business is being blogged about or is in the news, make sure you share the coverage on your social pages. ## **4. Post more often** The more activity on your social pages, the higher your visibility and potential engagement with your followers. Make sure it’s relevant and useful for your audience so they’re more likely to spread the word by commenting, retweeting or sharing it. ## **5. Share your content with others** Hitting publish on an article or video is just the first step – finding the right way to promote it is next. Publish your blog or video on your business account, then share it on your personal profile to reach a wider audience. Email it to your contacts that may be interested. Post a link on a related (this bit’s important!) article online to add to the conversation. Experiment with sharing your content in different ways and find out what works best. Respecting your audience’s time and attention is key – adding genuine value for people who are likely to be interested in your goal, and will keep them engaging with your social media account. And be careful not to share content that’s irrelevant, which will turn people off! ## **6. Make sure your house is in order** Your website is your home base, the authoritative and up-to-date place where potential clients can find and learn about your business. Consistently publishing fresh content on your site not only creates credibility for your business but also drives your SEO. You can also share your social networking activity on your website – including your social media feeds on your site maximises return from the time you invest online. At the very least, make it easy for people to connect with you online by including social icons and links to your social networks on your website footer and in the [signature of your emails too.](https://support.bomamarketing.com/getting-started-with-boma/how-do-i-customise-my-brand-theme) ## **7. Advertise on social** Your posts to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn are seen by the fans and followers of those pages. Creating an ad reaches a wider group of people and pushes your content beyond your existing networks, based on a specific target audience and location. This is a useful and effective addition to your promotional budget. To showcase your best content, it’s worth the extra investment to put social media advertising budget behind it to push it beyond your existing network. [It’s simple to get started](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/07/18/not-sure-how-to-advertise-on-facebook-we-break-it-down-for-you/), doesn’t require a huge investment and can help build your network. You can set up Social ads for Facebook and Instagram in BOMA, choose your target audience based on age, location and interests, set a budget and view the insights. ![Boma Multichannel image](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/illustraiton-e1538013318235-450x300.jpg) ## **Growing your social network starts with your goals** Before you dive in, it’s a good idea to define your goals for being on social media, and bear them in mind as you [go about sharing content](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/08/13/harness-the-power-of-digital-content-marketing-for-your-business/) and joining the online conversation. You may want to generate new leads by promoting your services, establish and grow your reputation or nurture and support your existing clients. Your social strategy should support your business’ goals and clearly come through in your approach. And once you have started building fans and followers on your social pages. Keep them actively engaged with your pages by posting regularly. ## **What is BOMA?** BOMA is the digital marketing tool and content library for Accountants and Bookkeepers. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you hundreds of expertly written advisory articles which you can customise and share via email, your social media channels and your website blog in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in for supporting clients and building relationships with prospects. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). Download Our Digital Marketing eBook The Digital Marketing Guide For Accountants & Bookkeepers Get the full picture. This guide tells you everything you need to know about marketing online with easy explanations, tips and simple steps to follow. [Learn More](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-the-small-business-guide/) **Categories:** Social Media --- ### [Accountants and Bookkeepers – Here’s How to Optimise Your Website Using SEO](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/website/accountants-and-bookkeepers-heres-how-to-optimise-your-website-using-seo/) **Published:** June 14, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **Search engine optimisation best practices for accountants and bookkeepers** Search engine optimisation (SEO) isn’t a new concept – you’ve probably heard the term a hundred times. You know it’s a way of optimising your presence online, but that doesn’t make it any less complex or multifaceted, and what does that mean for accountants and bookkeepers anyway? SEO is one of many techniques you can use to increase the visibility of your accounting or bookkeeping firm online. While it takes some time and effort, it’s also free – unlike search engine marketing (SEM). Here we explain how SEO works, and what you can do to give your business the best chance of being found by prospective clients. ## **The basics of SEO** People spend a lot of time online, and these days, if you need to find a product or service, it’s a simple matter of opening a new tab in Safari. Google processes over 3.5 billion searches every day, so while there’s plenty of pie to go round, you also want to make sure that you’re the slice that gets picked first. That means coming out on top. Research shows that listings on the first page of a Google search receive over 70% of organic traffic, compared to a meagre 5.59% on pages two and three. Search engines want to deliver the most relevant and credible content possible, so they rank websites based on several factors. The better your website performs, the more likely it will appear higher on the search results page. Prominence is vital for increasing traffic and enquiries through your website. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/AdobeStock_444918811-470x265.jpeg) ## **Explaining the jargon** Before we dive into SEO strategies, let’s first decipher what all this SEO terminology means. - **Search engine.** A software system designed to search for information on the web using search bots - **Search bots** trawl websites, evaluate the information they find and add that data to an index, to deliver high-quality results for people. - **Search engine results page (SERP).** The page of web listings you see after typing in a search word in a search engine. Websites highly ranked by the search engine will appear first. - **Search engine optimisation (SEO).** Optimising your website so you get the most organic and free traffic possible from search engines, e.g. Google. - **Search engine marketing (SEM).** Paid or sponsored ads funnel relevant traffic from the search engines to your website, e.g. Google Adwords. - The words or phrases that people use to search for something online, e.g. ‘*accountant near me’* or ‘*local bookkeeping firm*’ Here is a list of [12 common digital marketing buzzwords](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/07/30/12-digital-marketing-buzzwords-you-need-to-know/) you need to know ## **Get found online, increase your search rank** **There are over 200 factors that affect how your website ranks** You don’t need to nail every single factor for your accountant or bookkeeping website to perform better. Essentially, people – and therefore search bots – are looking for unique, high-quality content that loads well, is current and can be trusted. And any changes you make to improve your online visibility will result in a better client experience – which will also push your website higher up the ranks. Here are the top factors we recommend focusing on, and tips for increasing your chances of ranking number one on a search results page. **1. Performance** A website that is hard to access – think mobile incompatibility and slow download speeds – will have people hitting close before you’ve had a chance to connect with them. You want to focus on providing the best user experience possible, which means giving people what they want and quickly. Here’s what to do: - Review your load speeds and test your website for mobile with Google’s [helpful tool](https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly). - Try reducing image sizes and compressing video files. - If your website isn’t mobile-responsive, upgrading your platform is non-negotiable. **2. Ease of navigation** This refers to how search bots and people find their way through your website. Think of a map without street names – you wouldn’t know which way to turn. It’s the same with your website. That doesn’t mean you can’t get creative, but make sure any changes make logical sense too. Here’s what you can do: - To ensure your [website is logical and has easy navigation](https://bomamarketing.com/2021/07/01/the-art-of-developing-an-effective-website-for-accountants-bookkeepers/), regularly review categories, sub-categories, page titles, descriptions, buttons and links. **3. Quality content** This is about quality over quantity. Search engine algorithms are constantly learning and evolving in a bid to deliver the most valuable and relevant search results. In the context of marketing your accounting or bookkeeping firm, that means you need to consistently create and share content that is well-written, thoughtful, engaging, useful to your clients and relevant to your business. The more valuable people find your content, the more likely they are to share it. Here are some tips and tricks: - Post new content on your website regularly – written blogs, high-quality images and videos. - Share that content on your social media channels to attract a wider audience to your website. - Boma’s [content library](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/content-libraries/) is filled with quality, ready-to-share articles that are timely, relevant and engaging. Quickly customise the content to suit your business, then easily share it with your clients through email, social media and your website. **4. Relevance** Linked to our previous point, relevance is about how closely your website content matches what is being searched for by your target audience. This is where keywords come in, but don’t get caught trying to cram them into your copy – it won’t do you any favours. Do your homework, step into the shoes of your clients, and ask yourself whether your website clearly explains how you meet their needs and how you can add value. The keywords that make sense to your business and clients will appear naturally as you write, and from there you can work to optimise them further. Here’s how: - Review page titles and descriptions – do they accurately describe the page content? - Focus on one keyword or phrase per page. Keywords like accountant or bookkeeper will be highly competitive, so consider adding your location or specialisation, for example, *Invercargill bookkeeper* or *Shopify eCommerce accountant.* - Include keywords in the text on your website, especially in headlines, sub-headers, and URL links. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/AdobeStock_448752547-450x300.jpeg) **5. Bounce rate** When users land on a website, only to hit the back button after two seconds, it’s an indication that the page they clicked on wasn’t a good search match. How often this happens, also known as bounce rate, is something you want to keep to a minimum. A high bounce rate can indicate your page titles and descriptions don’t match your content, your pages don’t provide enough information – or they’re poorly designed. Here’s how to fix that: - Use an analytics tool to assess each of your website pages – and identify any that have high bounce rates. - Then, critically reflect on your website design and copy – is your design clean and professional and is your copy clear, concise and easy to read? **6. Web traffic** The more people visit your website organically, i.e. not from an ad, the more they improve its search engine ranking. To do attract them, you need to extend your reach – [by giving prospective clients a reason to visit your website](https://bomamarketing.com/2021/07/01/the-art-of-developing-an-effective-website-for-accountants-bookkeepers/). Here’s how to do that: - Promote and share great content across your social media channels. - Grow your network by interacting online with your peers and clients and establish yourself as a thought leader in your field. - Partner with other firms to grow your reach. **7. Build backlinks to your website** When people outside of your accounting or bookkeeping business start linking their website to yours, it’s a great indication that people think your content is valuable – and will help move your website up the search engine rankings. Ideally, you want highly ranked websites with lots of traffic to link to you, and they should be relevant to your business goals. Get started building links by doing the following: - Make sure relevant business associations and online directories have your business details published on their websites – and the information is up to date. - Ask past clients to write reviews through Google My Business or on Facebook. - Reach out to professional accounting and bookkeeping organisations and offer to write a guest blog on a topical issue or host a webinar. ## **Good SEO requires continuous improvement** The most important thing to realise about SEO is it’s not a one-and-done thing. Websites are no longer the static brochures they used to be, which means there’s always room for continuous improvement. Make a regular habit of optimising your website and its content and people will more likely pay you a visit – and other businesses will too. For your accounting or bookkeeping website to rank higher for more search terms, it needs to become a trusted source of information. ## Download The Digital Marketing Guide For Accountants Digital marketing requires a whole new set of skills – that’s why we put together our e-book, *Digital Marketing: For Accountants and Bookkeepers*. It’s designed to help you make the most of marketing opportunities in a way that makes sense for your business and your brand. **[Download it for free today](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-guide-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers/?preview=true#section6)**. **Categories:** Website --- ### [Webinar Recording: Update on the new rules around property investment](https://bomamarketing.com/uncategorized/you-have-accessed-the-webinar-recording-update-on-the-new-rules-around-property-investment/) **Published:** November 2, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** **Categories:** Uncategorized --- ### [BOMA + Wolters Kluwer CCH: Update on the new rules around property investment](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/boma-wolters-kluwer-cch-update-on-the-new-rules-around-property-investment/) **Published:** November 2, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** What do the newly proposed residential property investments rules mean for you and your clients? We explored the new rules provide opportunities for accountants to: - Help clients either mitigate the risk in overall economic or benefit from these types of investments - Take advantage of the new legislation - Adapt their business strategies to the shifting environment ### Access the webinar recording First Name Last Name Email Address Profession Accountant Bookkeeper Other Country We're committed to your privacy. BOMA uses the information you provide to us to contact you about our relevant content, products, and services. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time. For more information, check out our [Privacy Policy](https://bomamarketing.com/legal/privacy-policy/) Website **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Leading Searchers to your Accounting or Bookkeeping Business](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/digital-marketing/boma-our-guide-to-advertising-with-google-search-ads/) **Published:** October 29, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** You’ve seen Google Search Ads (previously called Google AdWords) before. When you search for anything using Google – a local plumber, brown leather boots or an accountant or bookkeeper – the first few results that pop up are marked as ads. Unlike organic search results, which match [website content](https://bomamarketing.com/2021/07/01/the-art-of-developing-an-effective-website-for-accountants-bookkeepers/) with search terms, these ads are paid for by the business owner. But just because they’re paid, doesn’t mean they’re not an effective tool. Google is all about relevancy, so paid ads only appear if they match the browser’s search terms. Prospective clients are looking for your product or service, you’re looking for clients – it’s a win for everyone. ## **Smart search technology** Google is, well, Google, so its search algorithms are obviously leading the pack. In the split second between typing the search term and the results appearing, the algorithm searches through every paid advertiser and picks out the ones with keywords that best match the query. Paid ads appear at the top of the search list, while organic results are further down. The algorithm generates results based on millions of data points and uses machine learning to pinpoint the right results for each searcher. Factors like keyword relevance, previous searches, websites the searcher has visited and the likelihood of converting all go into the mix, making it more probable that the searcher will be interested in your product or service. Because you only pay when a searcher clicks on your ad, this type of marketing can be surprisingly affordable for accounting and bookkeeping firms of all sizes. [‘Cost-per-click’](https://bomamarketing.com/2017/01/11/the-digital-marketing-glossary-every-marketer-needs-to-know/) (CPC) lets you control the amount you spend on search advertising by setting a maximum CPC per month or by letting the algorithm adjust as your campaign reaches its goals. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/AdobeStock_395063047_Editorial_Use_Only-451x300.jpeg) ## **Making the most of Google magic** It sounds almost magical – but getting great results from a Google Search campaign isn’t automatic. As with any type of [ad campaign,](https://bomamarketing.com/2019/08/21/advertising-your-accounting-firm-online-where-to-start/) the more thought you put into it, the more you’ll get back. Well-designed campaigns include a target audience, considered copy in the ad itself and smart keywords. Many firms make the mistake of doing this hastily, throwing in a bunch of the most obvious keywords and giving it little thought. This could mean missing potential leads and wasting clicks on the wrong type of client. **Here’s how to pick the right search terms:** - Put yourself in your client’s shoes and think about how they would search for your product or service, e.g., ‘accountants near me’ rather than ‘Sydney accountancy services’. - Use a mix of specific technical terms and generic phrases – people don’t always use precise language when they search, e.g., ‘high-grade glued laminated timber beams’ and ‘building supplies’. - Consider the problem, not just the product – people may search for solutions to their issues, not the actual item you’re selling, e.g., ‘best way to clean shower tiles’ vs ‘non-bleach shower cleaning solution’. - Think about different ways to phrase the search, and include them, e.g., accountant, accountants, accountant near me, accounting services. ## **Consult an expert** Google Search Ads can be an effective way to reach out to customers – but they need to be done well. That’s how working with an expert can add value. You’ll get help to target your messaging, pinpoint the right keywords and analyse your results to make sure you’re [maximising your ROI](https://bomamarketing.com/2020/08/21/the-cost-of-digital-marketing-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers-what-does-it-really-cost/). ## Download The Digital Marketing Guide For Accountants Digital marketing requires a whole new set of skills – that’s why we put together our e-book, Digital Marketing: For Accountants and Bookkeepers. It’s designed to help you make the most of marketing opportunities in a way that makes sense for your business and your brand. **[Click here to learn more](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-guide-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers/).** **Categories:** Digital Marketing --- ### [BOMA Partners with Wolters Kluwer CCH NZ](https://bomamarketing.com/news/boma-partners-with-wolters-kluwer-cch-nz/) **Published:** May 12, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## Partnering with Wolters Kluwer CCH We’re thrilled to announce our new content partnership **[Wolters Kluwer CCH](https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en-nz)**, the world’s leading provider of tax and accounting information. We’ve been working with the Wolters Kluwer team for sometime and BOMA users will have seen Wolters Kluwer content available in the partner library over the past year. We’re excited to take the next step in our partnership, bringing our users access to Wolters Kluwer’s huge depth and breadth of accounting expertise in their own premium library in BOMA. Sharing helpful and relevant advice at the right time for clients has become an even greater part of an accountant’s day in recent times. Accountants are the superheroes of the small business community and in times like this they are sharing advice on government support measures or business continuity with their clients. Our partnership with Wolters Kluwer is a great way for us to jointly support the accountants and bookkeepers. “We know accountants need to market themselves to grow their business,” says Wolters Kluwer product manager Sarah Ingram. “But they don’t have time to become digital marketing experts. Specialised content from Wolters Kluwer is technically correct, easy-to-read information that’s written for clients, not accountants.” ## Wolters Kluwers’ CCH Premium Content Library in BOMA BOMA users who subscribe to Wolters Kluwers’ CCH premium content library in BOMA can access a variety of articles, guides, fact sheets, social media posts, and blog posts packed with industry insights that can bring value to clients by highlighting issues that may affect their business. Other topics that are of interest to SMEs include health and safety, wellbeing and technology. Ingram says digital marketing helps an accountant build their brand and attract new clients by positioning them as a trusted authority. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-07-at-4.24.19-PM.png) Wolters Kluwer Business Fitness Subscribers get access to the Wolters Kluwers’ CCH premium content library for **[FREE](https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en-nz/solutions/business-fitness/cch-business-fitness-and-boma)** once they are a BOMA subscriber. BOMA’s digital marketing toolbox provides accounting and bookkeeping firms everything they need to run a successful campaign efficiently. Content is ready-to-share and customisable, so firms can tailor their email and social campaigns to specific audiences. ## **The BOMA platform includes:** - Email and social media campaigns - Access to 350+ high-quality, customisable articles written for accountants including content by Xero, Wolters Kluwer, The Gap, MyHR, Spotlight Reporting, Vend and more - More than 2.7 million royalty-free images which are free to use in BOMA campaigns - Scheduling for emails and social posts - Social media ads to reach new audiences - Lead capture forms to grow your email database or provide lead magnet downloads - One-to-one training with BOMA’s friendly support team [**Learn more about this partnership**](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-wolters-kluwer-cch/) **Categories:** News --- ### [How to Find Your Advisory Niche as an Accountant or Bookkeeper via Thought Leadership](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/small-business/how-to-find-your-advisory-niche-as-an-accountant-or-bookkeeper-via-thought-leadership/) **Published:** April 22, 2018 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** There’s no doubt that the accounting industry is changing. Cloud accounting software is automating a lot of the basic bookkeeping, financial housekeeping and admin jobs, plus delivering efficiency. But this change presents a huge opportunity for accountants to do what they do best…. build trusted advisory relationships by delivering actionable insight and valuable advice to clients. In a [recent article, ](https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/98271891/accountants-not-just-numbercrunchers)Peter Vial, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand’s country head said *“There’s still compliance work to be done. There’s still numbers that have to be reported on. But they are doing more analysis, what do the numbers mean, what do they mean for the future. There’s more of a future focus”.* An accounting firms’ success is increasingly due to their people skills, rather than their ability to crunch the numbers. We look at how accounting firms can stay relevant and set themselves apart from others through: 1. Finding your advisory niche – core specialisms and areas of expertise 2. Establishing your accounting firm as a thought leader – sharing commentary, insight and strategic advice 3. Focussing on your people skills – relationships and trust are key ## **Finding Your Advisory Niche** Building your reputation for leadership in your area of expertise takes time. But you may not need to start from scratch. If you can already identify specific talents and skills in your firm, it’s simply a matter of telling people about this and sharing your expertise, opinion and advice. Like any relationship, it can take a while to build trust. If your clients and prospects consistently see the value you add, you’ll see the flow on effect of more enquiry and work. ### **1. Look at your practice** Where do you currently hold expertise? If you are a team, look at your partners, each will have their own expertise. If they offer expertise across a number of areas, finding alignment, such as ‘the small business specialists’ will amplify your message. Make sure you also look at the junior members of the team also. What can they bring in terms of understanding and advice and how can you can help them develop through mentoring and coaching?. ### **2. Look at your clients** Can you segment the clients you currently work with into industry or find a common thread?. It might be the industry they are in, the business processes they use or the problems they have that must be solved. You specialisms could be across industry or be industry specific: **Vertical niche** – such as an industry sector. For example, you may already have a number of construction clients and decide you are going to invest time in understanding the specific financial drivers or KPIs for that impact them. **Horizontal niche** – an area of accountancy advisory that relates to a wide variety of businesses across a range of industries. For example, you are good at family dynamics and have worked with a number of clients on succession planning. ### **3. Find something that you enjoy** Professional development is a constant these days. As you build on your experience to develop your specialisms, it is important to choose an area that truly interests you, whether that is developing business plans, cash-flow improvement strategies or advisory services for agricultural businesses. If is something you enjoy, you will be better at it. **Expertise stands you apart.** When you gain a reputation for your services, people will seek you out. When you have identified the area or areas you can offer specialist advice, your next step is to tell people. ## **Thought Leadership** So how build awareness of your expertise ‘beyond the numbers’ amongst clients and prospects? BOMA talked to [Viv Brownrigg at The Gap](https://www.thegapportal.com/), about finding your niche and establishing yourself as a thought leader for that specialism. The Gap provide accountants with the systems to deliver business development services that their clients will love and they can monetise. Viv gave us 4 reasons why it’s important for accountants to establish a position as a thought leader: 1. **Expertise promotes credibility** – this stands you apart and people will seek you out. 2. **Leadership inspires trust** – clients trust you when you offer good information that improves their business. 3. **Trust is the first buying filter** – businesses come to you to solve a problem and place trust in your expert advisory. 4. **Thought leadership dramatically improves your marketing efficiency** – when you have started to build your reputation in an area you’ll start to see your referrals business grow. *‘Establishing yourself and your practice as a thought leader takes time, it’s about building a reputation by proving your worth to others and providing new insights.* Viv Brownrigg ![Guest speaker at seminar](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AdobeStock_60092652-e1523578120881-449x300.jpeg) ## The Key Steps to Establishing Yourself as a Thought Leader 1. **Build your personal brand** – what’s your purpose, values, vision and how do you want to help business clients? 2. **Develop your voice** – demonstrate the areas of specialty for your firm. 3. **Start writing** – start a blog and share insights, useful information and opinion pieces. You can also share articles written by others and add your personal commentary. 4. **Build and work with influence partners** – find complementary partners to offer your clients something of value, e.g. collaborate on a seminar with a bank, or offer to speak as a guest at an industry event. 5. **Grow your network** – share your articles and blogs on social media to grow fans followers and connections 6. **Get out there** – go beyond your own blog. Offer your firm for speaking spots at events, respond online with commentary on topical issues, write guest blogs for sites that hold authority in your field. 7. **Be different** – be prepared to put some new ideas out there, offer an opinion, and challenge the status quo. With ‘complex problem solving’ highlighted as the number one occupational skill by 2020, it’s time to let software do the computing so you and your team can do what you do best – coming up with human solutions to your clients’ financial issues. *When you become the ‘go-to’ person for a specific area, you’ll find people will start saying ‘this guy knows what he’s talking about. People will seek you out’* Viv Brownrigg About the Author: Liz Studholme is the Marketing Content Manager at BOMA. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Tips & Advice, Business **Tags:** Advisory, Accountant, Thought Leadership --- ### [What Is Marketing Automation and Why You Should Be Using It?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/digital-marketing/what-is-marketing-automation-and-why-you-should-be-using-it/) **Published:** January 18, 2017 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## Marketing Has Changed The marketing landscape has changed; it’s bigger, reaching into sales and customer relations, yet it’s never been more important to micromanage your marketing and communications. And don’t forget the increasing need to demonstrate results. No return on investment equals no investment when budgets get a hair cut. Marketing automation will help, but you need to pick the right solution and use it wisely. It’s important to understand that marketing automation is not a substitute for clear marketing strategy but can be a brilliant way to apply one. One platform can manage your database, emails, social media, lead nurturing; the essential and often monotonous modern-marketing tasks that take marketing resources away from genius creativity and turn marketers into administrators. ## Any Good Marketing Automation Platform Will Run a Form Of: **Email marketing** – Sending personalised mail-shots to contacts and leads to help keep your business front of mind, share content like blogs, spread sales and new product information. **Data capture** – the lifeblood of modern marketing, key to new leads and so lead nurturing. **Landing pages** – a web page for capturing data that allows potential customers to express their interest and opt-in to being contacted by your business. **Social media campaigns** – scheduling social media (i.e. Facebook and Twitter) activity to [build your brand](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/06/19/the-essential-guide-to-social-media-marketing-for-small-business/) and communicate product or offer information and drive traffic to your website. **Campaign management** – capability to launch and run campaigns across multiple channels. **Lead generation** – initiating consumer interest in your business for marketing and sales, especially the gathering of contact information from interested parties **Lead nurturing** – the effort to develop a relationship with leads and convert interest into sales by guiding potential customers through the sales funnel. **Customer relationship management** – analysis and management of interactions with customers, including sales and service, [to improve sales and customer retention](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/01/18/how-to-nurture-your-customers-from-first-contact-to-sale/). **Analytics** – It is vitally important to recognise what your customers are engaging with so you can repeat the success and move on quickly from failure. Analytics features will gather the results of your campaigns and may interpret them for you. So much dazzling functionality, there has to be a ‘but’, and there is. Some of the more sophisticated marketing automation systems are difficult to use and could need significant coding, Html and analytics expertise to program and make the most of them. If you don’t happen to have an expert on the staff then inconvenience and cost start creeping up again. But if your business is growing – or you want it to – marketing automation can help. It will take the pain out of scaling up and do important jobs you don’t have time for as well as helping make sense of your results so you can see what works and what doesn’t. **Categories:** Digital Marketing, Technology **Tags:** Marketing, Marketing Automation --- ### [Who Are My Customers and How Do I Reach Them?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/small-business/who-are-my-customers-and-how-do-i-reach-them/) **Published:** January 18, 2017 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Successful businesses really understand their customers. Knowing your target audience is half the battle when it comes developing a successful campaign. And when you understand the specific characteristics and needs of your customer base, you can deliver your solution at the right price, in the right place and in their language. Learn more about your customers and you will be ahead of your competition in no time. This will save you time and money in the long run. It’s about going slowly now to go quickly later. By answering the following questions, you will be able to both identify and unlock the potential of your customers. ## What type of customer do you want? The type of customer you want for your business depends to a great degree on the type of business you are running and the industry it operates in. For example, a business selling products with a high price point obviously needs to appeal to customers with above average incomes. A mass-market retail business, on the other hand, appeals to a different set of customers. To determine the type of customer you want for your business, first analyse the industry you operate in and the characteristics of the typical buyers of products like those your company sells. In doing so, consider the following characteristics: Their demographics: - Age - Sex - Ethnicity - Income levels - Geographic location Once you’ve typified the customers you want to attract, now analyse the different buying behaviours and determine which are likely to be the most valuable to your business. - One-off buyers - Semi Frequent buyers - Frequent buyers Do some customers deliver more value to you business than others? In 1906 Vilfredo Pareto came up with the [‘80/20’ rule](https://www.forbes.com/sites/davelavinsky/2014/01/20/pareto-principle-how-to-use-it-to-dramatically-grow-your-business/#8c211e03901d). The rule suggests that the rule that the top 20% of your customers represent 80% or your revenue. These are likely to be the customer base you will want to focus on. ## What revenue do you want them to bring? Projecting revenue from your ideal customer helps stress test your business plan. After all, marketing is not free, as a rule it requires both time and money. Do you know how much revenue each customer brings to your business? This makes it much easier to decide how much you should spend in acquiring those clients. To work out your ROI, look at the costs involved in acquiring each client above and beyond overhead expenses. You may be spending too much or perhaps it will show you that you can justify an increase in your marketing budget. ## **Understanding your customer and the role your product plays in their lives** Marketing is easier when you have a good understanding of exactly who your customers are and how your product meets their needs. Understanding the demographics for your typical customers is valuable, but it also makes sense to perform qualitative, as well as quantitative research into their characteristics. There are a number of ways you can do this: **Understand Your Current Customers** – Look at the clients and customers that are most valuable to you. Are there common characteristics? **Use Surveys and Questionnaires** – ask for feedback on how customers use your product or what benefits they look for and value **Look at Comments or Frequently Asked Questions** – Are there are common issues that you resolve for them? **Use Social Media** – The interactive nature of social media gives you the ability to engage with people and build a picture of your customers. Understanding the role your product plays in their life is important too. And this may change with time. You could segment you customers based on this: **Casual customer**: These buyers use a product occasionally, but it doesn’t play a major role in their lives nor do they give much thought to its purchase. **Motivated customer:** Buyers of this type are highly motivated to consume your product and consider it a significant factor in their lives. As a result, they will often do extensive research into a product before making a purchase. **Lifestyle-focused customer:** These customers associate your product with the lifestyle they lead or would like to lead. Product and brand image are very important to customers of this type. ## How do you reach them – What channels are they using every day? Knowing your customers’ traits and characteristics is useful when it comes to devising a marketing campaign to reach them. Different demographic groups tend to favour different types of media, so detailed knowledge of your customer base will help you in devising a marketing campaign to reach them. Generational groups have different media consumption habits. For example: - **Baby boomers:** This group tends to consume traditional media sources such as TV, radio and printed material such as newspapers and magazines for news and information. While some use social media, it isn’t typically their primary media source as it is for many millennials. As a result, a campaign to reach this group may not be as social media focused as one targeted at a younger age group. Traditional media marketing sources should be considered as well as less interactive online marketing approaches such as email marketing, which can reach this audience at a lower cost than using traditional media. - **Millenials**: As a group, millennials are much more likely to use various forms of social media as their main source of media consumption. Some of this group has even “cut the cord,” giving up on the use of traditional media and only consuming media deliver online. This group can be reached via a social media heavy marketing campaign that uses little if any traditional media sources. - **Generation X**: This group, falls between the baby boomers and the millennials both chronologically and in terms of their media consumption habits. They keep a foot in both camps, so your campaigns with elements from both traditional media and social media can have success with them. ## How do you acquire them as customers? Your customers may reach you in a number of ways. Organic acquisition includes cost effective ways to convert strangers into customers. It might be via word of mouth, social media outreach or inbound marketing techniques such as an engaging blog post that attracts attention and positions you favourably when they are ready to buy. Organic acquisition techniques are an essential element of your marketing. The people that you are targeting find you through your blogs, search engines and social media. This means they are ‘qualified’ and the work you do on your messages and content helps to build credibility and trust. The flip side is that and while these techniques are ‘unpaid’ they can consume time and take longer to bear fruit. Your marketing goals will determine what approach you take for campaigns. Consider the following factors: **Campaign timetable**: If your campaign is designed to achieve rapid results paying for leads may be the most effective approach. Organic methods such as content marketing, building an email mailing list and social media outreach can provide powerful results over time, but these methods typically take months or even years to have a significant impact. As a result, for quick results either using paid marketing efforts such as search engine marketing (SEM), purchasing email mailing lists or traditional advertising efforts via TV, print ads or radio alone or in combination with organic efforts is likely to be the most effective approach. **Campaign budget**: If your marketing budget is limited, organic outreach efforts is a great option and should form the backbone of your marketing activity. Doing so allows you to use paid marketing efforts strategically where they are most needed while still pursuing organic efforts on a continuous basis. **Relevant audience**: If your customer base is already communicating via [social media](https://bomamarketing.com/2017/01/18/the-essential-guide-to-social-media-marketing/), your organic methods will reach more of them. Millennials especially are likely to share good experiences with products or brands online and the word of mouth is amplified when it’s shared and liked. Find the platforms that are best suited to your audience to spread the word about your products. Knowing and understanding your customers is key to successful business and can give you a profitable advantage. You can tailor your product or service to their needs, be more persuasive in your marketing and also create a more positive buying experience. Take some time to understand your valued clients and you’ll be more likely to succeed in attracting more. **Categories:** Business **Tags:** Audience, Customer, Customer Segmentation --- ### [Eleven Key Marketing Terms Every Business Owner Should Know](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/eleven-key-marketing-terms-every-business-owner-should-know/) **Published:** January 19, 2017 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** This is a good-news story. The digital age may have made things more complicated for marketers by giving consumers unprecedented choice, information and power but it provides the same opportunities for marketers with disparate markets and potential customers more readily accessible than they have ever been. ## So Why Doesn’t It Feel like Marketing Is Getting Easier? Well there is a lot going on. [Developing a brand ](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/01/18/an-introductory-guide-to-branding-your-small-business/)and reaching customers now takes more than a shop front and a print advertisement. Digital marketing is used alongside, or even instead of, traditional marketing channels as a matter of course. You should know that email, social media and search engine optimisation are now standard marketing tools. The Chartered Institute of Marketing [defines marketing](http://www.cim.co.uk/more/getin2marketing/what-is-marketing/) as “the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably”*. So,* if you have customers you are marketing, if you want more customers then you should market better – develop a marketing strategy. Your marketing strategy should ensure you deliver a coherent message across all channels, generating engagement with customers and driving sales. ## The Four P’s of Marketing ‘[The four P’s’ of marketing](http://www.investopedia.com/video/play/four-ps/) may have been around since the 1950’s, when first explored by [Neil Borden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_H._Borden), emeritus professor at the Harvard Business School, but they are still the best foundation for your marketing strategy so here they are… **Product:** What you’re selling, whether that’s goods or services. Consider every aspect of function, [branding](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/01/18/an-introductory-guide-to-branding-your-small-business/), packaging, quality, design that you’re offering. **Price:** The cost, and so potential value, taking account of offers or any other variable pricing strategies. **Place:** The distribution, or placement of your product – how it reaches the customer – and the logistics there of. **Promotion:** Communication of your marketing message including public relations (PR) and advertising. These four considerations should be centred on your target market, creating perceived value and purchase desire in customers. The basic marketing mix can be used as a template for a company’s value proposition and marketing strategy. ## The Four C’s of Marketing Like Sesame Street, modern marketing is not brought to you by just one letter. Having got to grips with P, it’s time to meet the four C’s, as introduced by R. F. Lauterborn in the 90’s. While the four P’s are about transaction, Lauterborn’s four C’s are more focussed on communication and customer engagement, which makes sense as marketers seek to tempt the often jaded palates of modern consumers. As you can see below the core areas of interest are the same but the perspective is different. **Client:** customer trumps product so it pays to start by finding the [consumer](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/01/18/how-to-nurture-your-customers-from-first-contact-to-sale/), discovering what they want and providing it to them. **Cost:** true cost is not as simple as the price of your product, ask what will the cost of purchase be in time and effort and if that still represents value? **Convenience:** millennial consumers can run their lives without crawling out from under the duvet but they are still looking for a good purchase experience, consider how and where your customer wants to purchase. **Communication:** the facility for a dialogue with your customer fosters an inclusive and club feel helping consumers to buy-in to a brand. ## The Marketing Tools You Need to Be Aware Of One of the secrets to marketing successfully is harnessing the new tools at your disposal, so once you are conformable with the 4 C’s of modern marketing ensure you’re making the most of the following: **[Social Media](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/01/18/the-essential-guide-to-social-media-marketing/):** provides a low cost, or even free, way to connect with consumers, build your brand and share information. **Content Marketing:** creating great content and using it to engage customers and enhance brand credibility. **SEO:** drive that Google ranking higher with effective [search engine optimisation](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/01/19/why-small-businesses-need-to-improve-their-seo-game/) and your business will be at the top of more consumer’s searches. **Email Marketing:** an [email marketing](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/01/19/how-do-i-build-an-effective-email-database-for-my-business/) campaign can be personal, targeted and consistently proves to be among the most effective ways of guiding potential customers through the sales funnel. Targeted and effective marketing has never been more accessible to businesses of all sizes, which only makes it more important that your company is not the only one getting left behind the curve. The excitement of really connecting with customers through effective marketing will make all your effort worthwhile, and most importantly boost the bottom line. **Categories:** Marketing **Tags:** Marketing --- ### [What You Absolutely Need to Know About Video Marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/what-you-absolutely-need-know-about-video-marketing/) **Published:** January 19, 2017 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Video killed the radio star in 1979 and it continues to increase its dominance today. Global consumer [internet video traffic](http://tubularinsights.com/2019-internet-video-traffic/) will be 80 percent of all consumer internet traffic in 2019, up from 64 percent in 2014 according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index. Luckily the explosion of internet applications in recent years has made the technology necessary for hosting and displaying video widespread and affordable. Marketers have recognised video as a useful tool and it is now commonly used in campaigns to: - Increase conversions and sales - Promote viral exposure via social sharing - Increase potential lifespan: How to videos and other educational or instructional videos can be valid for an extended period of time and become ‘evergreen’ content Vidyard have gone so far as to claim that marketers who use video outperform their peers, and they have the stats to prove that [video drives better results](https://www.vidyard.com/blog/infographic-marketers-who-use-video-outperform-their-peers/) and can also increase the marketing budget. Whether video is right for a particular campaign depends on a variety of factors, including: ## Who Is Your Target Audience? Video marketing is especially potent with younger demographics. [Millenials love video](https://animoto.com/blog/business/millennials-video-infographic/) and [Animoto’s Online and Social Video Marketing Study](https://animoto.com/blog/business/video-marketing-cheat-sheet-infographic/) has revealed: - 80 percent of millennials consider video content when researching a purchase decision - 7 out of 10 millennials are likely to watch a company video when shopping online - 76 percent of millennials follow brands on YouTube - 60 percent of millennials prefer to watch a company video over reading a company newsletter The success of video is much farther reaching than millennials though, it has been shown to improve click through rates across the board. Everything from adventure sports to cooking and DIY communicate well on video. Products with strong visual appeal are ideal for video marketing but if your products aren’t attractive visually video campaigns can still work well if the footage focuses on things other than the product itself such as the results the product achieves or lifestyle benefits. When your audience is active on social media shareable video is a great way to engage them. Consider who your viewers are likely to be so you can tailor your video content to a relevant audience, taking into account the following groups: **Customers**: Your customers already know you but should be kept engaged. They will often be interested in staying in touch after purchasing, with information about company developments such as new products and sales. **Prospects**: Those who are considering doing business with your company need encouragement to make the leap from a prospective customer to repeat customer. **Industry Influencers**: The power of social media to spread the word about your products is amplified when an authority figure or influential individual in your industry gets behind your products. **The general public**: A well made video that accurately displays the benefits of your company’s products and services can be an effective means of attracting interest from the general public. ## How to Get Your Video Seen Having created a video you need a relevant audience to view, and hopefully share, it. There are a variety of ways to get your video seen including: - Embed the video in banner ads or other content being used in your marketing campaign. - Use the video in a television advertisement - Post the video on YouTube and let your audience know it is there through social media, your website and other outreach methods - Post the video on your website if it has the bandwidth to do so - Use social media: Using social media offers the chance for viral spreading of your video as some of your followers share the video with some of their followers and so on. The ease with which content can be shared through social media means that even if only a small portion of your audience shares the material it can still spread widely through multiple networks of contacts - Make a shorter version of the video for use on video sharing sites such as Vine - Use a title designed to attract viewers - Send out an email to your contacts linking to the video In addition to getting the word out about your video, it’s also important to make sure the quality of the video is as high as possible to maximize your views and because poor quality video can damage your brand, Brightcove found that [62% of consumers](https://www.brightcove.com/en/blog/2013/11/infographic-youtube-and-high-cost-free) are more likely to have a negative perception of a brand that published a poor quality video. Internet viewers don’t expect broadcast level quality from your videos, but they do expect competence and value. Whether you hire an expert or make the video yourself, take some time to ensure that your video has clarity and sound quality. The goal should be to produce a video with technical quality high enough that it doesn’t distract viewers from paying attention to the message or lesson your video is designed to deliver. Tips for designing your video to attract viewers include: - Include valuable content - Pick a title that stands out - Create a video series: Design a video campaign that motivates your viewers to keep coming back to your website for more - An appealing splash screen that acts like a preview to the video, not just a logo or title - Consider the time of day that you post and promote your video - Keyword strategies: - - Place keywords in the titles, descriptions and tags of your videos - Target search phrases rather than simply keywords to increase the chances your videos will be found in searches ## What Type of Video Is Best? When choosing a type of video, consider first what it is that your relevant audience is most likely to want to see. Unlike a television advertisement, video outreach usually works best by providing something of value to your audience as opposed to simply delivering a sales pitch. Following are some video types to consider when selecting a topic for your video: **Produce a “how to” video**: The video can demonstrate how to use your product or it can explain how to perform a task or procedure that you feel would be useful to your audience. If the video demonstration is effective it can benefit your company by earning the gratitude and good opinion of your audience. Videos such as this are ideal for distribution via social media. **Debut new products**: When your company is ready to announce a new product to the world, video is a great way to show and tell your audience about it. Unlike a simple press release, a video announcement allows you to show potential customers the product as well as inform them about its features and benefits. **Answer questions**: Video is a great medium to answer questions about your products and services. It allows you to cover topics most likely to be of interest to your audience and to demonstrate how your products meet their needs by answering questions. **Customer testimonials and demonstrations**: A powerful way to show your product’s appeal is to produce a video featuring your customers talking about or using your product. Such videos provide powerful social proof for your products. **Take a look behind the scenes**: A video that emphasizes the human side of your company – the people behind the products – is a good way to attract viewer interest. You can show how your products are made, or interview some of the people at the company to put a human face on your business. **Screen captures or slideshows and existing images**: Instead of filming yourself, use screen captures, slideshows or great catalogue pictures to tell a story. This way you can create a video quickly and on a budget . For the former, [ScreenFlow](https://www.telestream.net/screenflow/overview.htm) is a popular Mac solution and [Camtasia](https://www.techsmith.com/video-editor.html) is commonly used for PCs. For the latter, Keynote or PowerPoint slides are common choices. **Webinars**: Videos of this type can serve as instructional classes to educate users and prospects about your products and their usage. They allow for interactive feedback, helping to establish a rapport with your audience that can help drive conversions and sales and promote audience engagement. **Microvideos**: Using services such as [Vine](https://vine.co/), which features short looping videos, or Instagram and its 15-second video service, you can engage with your audience by providing visually compelling content. Short videos of this type can be a great way to promote your brand on social media. ## How to Set up Your Own Studio at Home or the Office The rapid spread of Internet connectivity and the development of inexpensive video creation technology have made it feasible to set up a recording studio without great expense. You can certainly spend a significant amount of money to do so if you like, but it is by no means necessary. To set up your own studio you’ll need equipment including: - Cameras that shoot HD video are reasonably priced. Unless you intend to produce an extremely high quality video there’s no need to spend thousands of dollars on a high-end camera. - Tripod - Camera accessories such as batteries and cords - A separate microphone if you don’t intend to rely on the in-camera microphone - A microphone boom may be necessary to ensure that your vocal volumes are sufficient - Video editing software - A computer powerful enough to handle video editing - Lighting equipment If your studio will be a converted office or other space for temporary shooting you may want to acquire partitions to block off the space and keep out unwanted light. Proper lighting is key to producing a high quality video. To this end, investing in lighting for your home or office studio can be a worthwhile investment. Ideally, in addition to being quiet, your studio should be echo free to ensure that your videos have quality sound clarity. ## **Self-build Platforms** A variety of self-build video platforms allow you to produce high quality videos without hiring a production team to do it for you. They can provide substantial cost savings over hiring a production company or individual, especially if you produce multiple videos. **DIY and self-build platforms include:** [YouTube Creator Hub](https://www.youtube.com/yt/creators/) – Resources for YouTube [Prezi](https://prezi.com/) – Animation software [Sparkol](https://www.sparkol.com/) – Videoscribe animated software [Treepodia](http://www.treepodia.com/) – Ecommerce video solution [ScreenFlow](http://www.telestream.net/screen-flow/) – Mac screen capture tool [Camtasia](http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html) – PC screen capture tool [Jing](http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html) – PC screen capture tool (free) **Video editing tools include:** [Adobe After Effects](http://www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects.html) [iMovie](http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/) (Mac) [ScreenFlow](http://www.telestream.net/screen-flow/) (Mac) [PowerPoint](http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/) (PC or Mac) [Camtasia](http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html) (PC) [WeVideo](https://www.wevideo.com/) ## Do I Need to Use a Professional? There are times when using an expert in the field may be advisable including: - **If professional actors are involved**: A video featuring yourself or your employees can generally be created without the involvement of professional talent management personnel such as agents, producers and directors. However, when professional actors are involved in making a video, using experts who understand the intricacies involved in the hiring and video creation process may be advisable. - **When using special effects or animation**: While there are DIY solutions that allow you to create animated videos, if you are aiming for anything beyond what a basic solution can offer using an expert may be necessary. - **When filming at multiple off-site locations**: A video which involves filming at multiple locations, or any location outside of your office, may involve acquiring various permits allowing the filming to proceed. To acquire these and manage the shoot expert assistance may be necessary. - **When writing the script**: A good video usually requires a good script; if you do not have a skilled writer on your team it may be advantageous to hire a professional for best results. ## Where to Host Video **[YouTube](http://www.youtube.com)**: The dominant player in video hosting, YouTube provides an excellent resource for hosting your video where it can easily be viewed by a wide variety of consumers. Using the service’s free hosting can significantly cut the costs of your overall video marketing by saving on bandwidth costs that would otherwise apply if you hosted the video elsewhere. Now it is owned by Google is makes While YouTube is an inexpensive way to host videos, it does have some drawbacks as compared to hosting a video on your own website. It doesn’t allow for SEO optimization or control of the ads being displayed with your video. The platform doesn’t allow for complete control of the branding experience by the company that created the video. Also, no SEO credits are booked for directing viewers from your video to your website. **Your Website**: While extra bandwidth charges may apply, hosting the video on your own website is the best way to make sure that your audience has a chance to view it. If the cost of doing so would exceed your marketing budget, you may want to consider hosting a snippet of the video on your site and linking to YouTube or some other video hosting site for those who wish to view the complete video. **[Vimeo](https://vimeo.com)**: This paid hosting service provides advanced analytics and customization options for a fee. **Online Video Platform (OVP)**: One way to efficiently host videos on your website is to use an OVP. These sites can also publish your videos to YouTube, so you benefit from exposure on that platform while being able to more completely control the user experience on your own site. Some benefits of using an OVP include: - The ability integrate content management - Specifically oriented for ecommerce video creation - More efficient workflow - Functionality supporting client testimonials - Retains social activity on the company’s site With all this information you are ready to create a [video marketing strategy](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-litt/video-marketing_b_1840328.html) to keep your audience informed, engaged and amused. *The header image was created by Smart. Learn more about their photography courses [here](https://smartphotocourses.com/)* **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Marketing **Tags:** Video --- ### [There's No Business like a Small Business: How to Set up Your Own](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/small-business/theres-no-business-like-a-small-business-how-to-set-up-your-own/) **Published:** August 17, 2017 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Setting up your own business can be one of the most exciting and daunting, things you’ll do in your working life and there are many reasons for taking on the challenge. Maybe you’re escaping from the 9-5 (be warned start-ups are often more of a 5-9), exploring your creativity, or realising a dream. Yes, turning your dream into a live business will be hard work but inevitable stress can be countered by the satisfaction that you are working – and succeeding – for yourself. Before you launch, here is some sound advice to get you thinking. ## Start with a Business Plan In your excitement to get started, don’t overlook the importance of good foundations. A business plan is not about tying you down but giving you the freedom to look ahead, to see where you want your business to go and plot the best course to get there. The first draft can be on the back of an envelope but keep it clear and realistic, this will become the foundation document of your business – helping you to stay focussed on goals and review progress The first thing you should do as a prospective small business owner is to create an entire plan for your nascent company. [Business plans](https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/247575) are, at their core, simple and straightforward documents that explain the goals of a specific company, the strategies used for achieving those goals, and then a timeline for each goal. There is plenty of help available and even [templates](https://www.business.govt.nz/getting-started/business-planning-tools-and-tips/how-to-write-a-business-plan?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8_iewb7V1QIVzH-9Ch249wUMEAAYAiAAEgJjP_D_BwE) if you’re not sure where to start. Include a ‘[Value Proposition](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/01/18/what-is-my-business-value-proposition/)’, that is a clear statement setting out the benefits of your product, how it solves problems for the consumer and your unique selling point or USP. Writing your business plan will help to organise your thoughts, create a framework for your ideas, identify hurdles you’ll have to overcome and provide a starting point for marketing campaigns. It, can also be used as an important document if you are seeking investment. When you have written the first draft, bring in the team – production, marketing, accounting. And if all of these roles are currently filled by you, perhaps this is a trusted friend or advisor. Your business plan discussion will provoke ideas and clarify your direction. If you do have a team, their involvement will bring depth to the plan and ensure you all share the vision. ## **Logistics** You’ll need to set a realistic budget. Open a free business account with your bank to use for all company transactions, this keeps the finances separate from your personal accounts and will make things much easier managing your budget, and when it’s time for tax returns. Consider the specific infrastructure needs of your company. If you’re going to have a storefront, you need to identify the space and location you need, what kind of facilities will be required to do business? Online businesses have infrastructure needs too, creating and maintaining a website, complete with ecommerce functionality, can involve hiring experienced web developers although it is quite possible to operate basic sites yourself through providers at reasonable cost. **TIP**: Every business needs a website today so secure your URL right away. ## Test Your Business and Your Market Your product needs a market and you need to be sure you know what your market wants. If your business is product based get out to the local farmer’s market or other outlet and make sure that you can connect with your customers. If you are starting a service based business use local resources such as the chamber of commerce and get online to contact your target market, testing viability with minimal expense. ## **Nothing’s Impossible** Plan, test, execute, then do it again. Not everything will work first time but the lessons we learn from our mistakes can be the most valuable. The plan you wrote at the beginning is a living document. You can probably never put the final full stop on it. Your plan shouldn’t be written and then left in a drawer. Put a recurring time slot on your calendar to revisit your objectives and look at your financials. It may be that your direction changes in the ever-changing world we operate in, but you will be driving that not reacting to it. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). Download Our Digital Marketing eBook The Digital Marketing Guide For Accountants & Bookkeepers Get the full picture. This guide tells you everything you need to know about marketing online with easy explanations, tips and simple steps to follow. [Learn More](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-the-small-business-guide/) **Categories:** Business **Tags:** SMB, Start up --- ### [Wondering How to Improve Your Business' Productivity? There’s an App for That](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/small-business/wondering-how-to-improve-your-business-productivity-theres-an-app-for-that/) **Published:** September 6, 2017 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## Choose the Right Tools for Your Business and You’ll Never Look Back How productive are you really? With our smart phones, tablets and ‘always on’ attitude, getting stuff done should be easy, but we seem busier than ever without necessarily achieving much more. It’s time you made technology work for you, to save time and streamline processes. We have rounded up some of the best apps to maximise your productivity by addressing your communication, organisation, password management, performance and focus. ## **Communication** Communication is at the heart of modern business. We are all part of a team but are less likely than ever to be sitting next to colleagues as we work. Technology has given us a choice of communication methods but it becomes time consuming dialling into group calls and remembering who likes to use which channel and which information arrived in which inbox. You can end up with a dozen programs running and that isn’t efficient. To be an effective communicator it helps to know who you are dealing with too, if you want to stay ahead of the game. [Slack](https://slack.com/is) is a communication hub that has everything you need in one place – calls, instant messages, files and notifications under one roof – indexed, archived and easily searchable so project information and comms are at your fingertips on every device. Similar to email or text but specifically designed for teamwork. You can create dedicated channels for groups or individual projects and private lines for sensitive information. [Skype](http://www.skype.com/) has been around for a while and still leads in video conferencing. You can send instant messages, call Skype to Skype or Skype to phone and even patch in phone lines. With Skype you have your own number and you can share your screen for presentations etc. [WhatsApp](https://www.whatsapp.com/) may not have video capability but over a billion of us are giving the app room on our smartphones so it’s getting something right. Just like SMS (text) but using the internet not a cellular (wireless) account. Instant messaging, sharing media files, free app-to-app calls and easy to download – all good reasons to use it. And did we mention it’s free? [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/) is the professional face of social networking. Build your profile, send messages find other users and share information. Use it for networking, recruiting, checking out the competition but do use the opportunity to have your CV and recommendations available to prospective partners, clients and employees. ## **Organisation** Organisation seems to come more easily to some people than others and there is so much stuff to keep track of these days. Rather than a bunch of apps to make your life more complicated, focus on the one that will really help simplify your workload. [Evernote](https://evernote.com/pricing/?offer=www_menu) keeps a variety of notes on one subject all together. From audio or web pages to scanned business cards it can even search text in images. Not worth it for a shopping list but if you’re trying to keep project research/information together and want to be able to share with others. Evernote is a winner. [Toggle](https://toggl.com/) will help you see how productive you are really being. Whether you need accurate hours for billing clients or just want to keep track of your time management, you can track an unlimited number of projects and clients on or off-line with one click and share reports or generate time sheets. [Harvest](https://www.getharvest.com/) goes a step further and will handle timesheets, invoices and expenses. Collating time for teams and projects helps you keep track of budgets, progress and productivity [Trello](https://trello.com/) is a project management tool that integrates with Evernote. It’s your on line ‘to do’ list. Keeping track of progress, due dates etc is easy and visual for the whole team, whether that team is managing a new product launch or the busy workload at year end.. When you update a card, Trello notifies each member. [Google Drive](https://www.google.com.ph/drive/) is something you’ve already got if you use gmail. This easily integrated and shared document storage on the cloud will centrally hold files that you and others can edit in real time from any on-line device. [Genius Scan](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/genius-scan-pdf-scanner/id401818935?mt=8) will turn your phone snaps into a pdf, edit and enhance so you can keep and file documents and receipts conveniently on the cloud. ## **Password Management** Password management can become a real time suck, we all know how important it is to have strong and unique electronic passwords but that can mean a lot of time spent waiting for that ‘re-set your password’ link email to come through because you can’t remember any of them. Technology has caught up with the problem and there are a clutch of password managers to help. [LastPass](https://www.lastpass.com/) seems to consistently come out of comparisons on top. Their virtual vault holds all your passwords and is encrypted – even from them – for maximum security and works on all your devices, generating super secure passwords and making online shopping easier. [1Password](https://1password.com/) is particularly popular with Mac users and has recently introduced a ‘[travel mode](https://blog.agilebits.com/2017/05/18/introducing-travel-mode-protect-your-data-when-crossing-borders/)’ in response to users concerns about unwanted phone searches when they travel., All traces of your ‘vault’ of sensitive information are removed from your device while in travel mode so your data is untraceable. Performance is not something to feel anxious about, especially when there are easy to use apps out there to help you shine with little effort. [Charlie](https://charlieapp.com/) that brilliant assistant who briefs you before every meeting on who’s who and what makes them tick. To help you make a good impression, Charlie collates information from 1000’s of sources to give you a one-pager on their professional life and anything you might have in common. [Accompany](https://www.accompany.com/) was founded by CEO Amy Chang (formerly Google’s Global Head of Product and a queen of analytics) and it uses data to make you perform better in person. Operating as your own intelligent and adaptive chief of staff, Accompany will give you an executive pre-meeting briefing – background on the people you meet and financials on companies. It promises you will ‘never be caught flat footed again’. ## Improving Your Focus Focus, concentration, dedication to the task at hand, it seems increasingly difficult although, or more likely because, we are now ‘always on’, connected, engaged. Sometimes it helps to tune in if you can turn off. [Pocket](https://getpocket.com/) is where you can pop anything nice, or useful, you’d like to keep for later. Videos, articles etc can be stored to view at leisure, even without an internet connection so there is no excuse for being distracted by the latest gossip or sports when you’re supposed to be concentrating on finishing a tax return. [Freedom](https://freedom.to/) releases you from the tyranny of distracting sites so your devices become work tools again. Set a recurring schedule of ‘free time’ for work in advance or institute your customised block list at any time. Of course you probably don’t need any help avoiding Instagram, Twitter, or on-line shopping when a deadline looms but if you did… [Simple Habit](https://www.simplehabitapp.com/) offers guided meditation in sessions as snackable as 5 minutes to improve stress or sleeping through mindfulness. It was created by an entrepreneur with her fellow startup founders in mind. Use it on your commute, walking, before a meeting or any time you need to reboot **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Technology, Business **Tags:** SMB, Tools, Productivity --- ### [Easy Marketing Tips Every Accounting and Bookkeeping Firm Should Know](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/easy-marketing-tips-every-accounting-bookkeeping-firm-should-know/) **Published:** September 9, 2017 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Marketing your accounting firm can seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. There are plenty of easy, effective marketing tactics you can leverage that don’t require a marketing team or a massive investment. All you need is a few hours per week and this handy guide to help you market your accounting firm like a pro. There are some basic strategies of modern marketing that are easy to use and apply to your accounting business, here’s how… ## **Search Engine Optimisation** SEO is essential for your business to remain relevant in the digital age. It doesn’t matter how big or old your firm is, where your offices are or how much money you spend on advertising, if you make your website appealing to search engines it will improve your ranking, drive traffic to your site and put you in the way of new clients. The algorithms search engines use are complicated but many of the most important [SEO techniques](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/01/19/why-small-businesses-need-to-improve-their-seo-game/), including making sure your site is mobile enabled, easy to navigate, holds fresh content with useful information, links to other relevant pages and encourages visitors to linger will pay dividends in helping to convert prospects to clients once they’ve found you too. ## **Content Marketing – Be Helpful, Be Interesting** A direct email and [social media marketing strategy ](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/06/19/the-essential-guide-to-social-media-marketing-for-small-business/)needs great content to catch your audience’s attention. Good Content has the customer at its heart. It is shareable, interesting/useful to prospective clients and helps establish you as an authority in your area. It’s well worth investing in a blog, as research has proved that companies with blogs on average see [55% more site visits](https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/digital-marketing/company-reconsider-blogging-value/). Hosted on your website, a blog can be shared widely on social media or with prospects/clients by direct email. Consider covering best practices, how-to’s, industry news, insights, market analysis, expert interviews – anything that might answer a client’s interest and needs. Your ‘how to choose a good financial advisor/bookkeeper’ blog can be helping to guide a new client your way from the moment they consider hiring. In addition, you can create white papers, infographics, short videos, and other share-worthy content to share through the same channels. Consider sharing online events like webinars and training too. The idea is to use content as a branding tool to position your business in the market and engage prospects. It is a long term investment in gathering and keeping clients. Useful and engaging information builds trust and preference. ## **Using Social Media** There’s more to social media marketing than just creating a page for your business on Facebook and LinkedIn, it is important to keep working on activity and engagement. Social media is an excellent platform to promote your brand and content, targeted digital advertising can also be used to reach a particular segment or demographic. You can pay a few dollars a day to promote your posts or tweets to attract new followers and drive traffic to your website. These best practices will make your social media marketing more effective: - Make it visual, [images are popular](http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/importance-images-social-media) and more likely to be liked or shared, not just on the picture led channels like Instagram and Pinterest but Facebook and Twitter too - Consider the shareability of your posts and content, you want people to spread the word for you - Maintain a consistent brand voice, avoiding slang but allowing for light-hearted and appropriate humour - Interact by posing questions and responding to users who comment on your content or leave you a review - [Follow the 80/20 rule](http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/8020-rule-why-just-20-your-social-media-content-should-be-about-your-brand) – 80% of your posts should be engaging, helpful and informative, the remaining 20% can be promotional. Being pushy is a quick way to lose followers Try to find time to engage with online conversation in your field such as searching Twitter and open forums for relevant accounting threads where you can introduce helpful content. This ‘content networking’ can be time-consuming but is great for building visibility and trust. ![referral business network](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/AdobeStock_139384093-e1527067377166-451x300.jpeg) ## **Referral Marketing** Word of mouth remains one of the most effective and most cost effective forms of marketing. And although referrals can happen naturally, you will get more if you are proactive. A six-month survey on consumers across three industries revealed that the largest influence on purchasing behaviour was [word of mouth.](http://think.storage.googleapis.com/docs/the-path-to-purpose_articles.pdf) For 74% of people this was their top influencer. Create buzz to get people talking through impeccable customer service and a strong social media campaign. The buzz you create about your services can then build its own momentum, but don’t forget to push the process along whoever possible. Establish systems to help you collect referrals both in the office and online, using staff training and incentives. You can hold campaigns throughout the year to boost referral traffic. Promote your campaign on your website, social media profiles, in office, and via email. Make sure your audience knows what’s in it for them if they refer a new client to you. ## **Online Reviews (Real Ones!)** Online reviews are word-of-mouth marketing in digital form, [more than 88%](http://searchengineland.com/88-consumers-trust-online-reviews-much-personal-recommendations-195803) of consumers trust online reviews as much as recommendations from a family member or friend. Make it a habit to ask happy clients to share good experiences with your firm as positive reviews on Google or your social media channels. But avoid paid reviews as any indication that your reviews are not independent will be damaging. Negative or less-than-perfect reviews are not a disaster. Accounting firms who have nothing lower than a five-star rating might look suspicious. Read reviewer’s comments to see where you can make improvements, and respond to comments quickly and appropriately. This personal touch can help leave the reviewer, and anyone reading it with a better impression of your firm. ## **Analytics** Having got going with the above, you need to track and measure the success of your marketing to find out what works for you and keep improving your campaigns. Luckily there are some effective tools like Google Analytics to help you make a start, the better you are at reading the analytics the more effective all your digital marketing will become. It can take time for campaigns to bear fruit but keep mining the data and using it to make improvements to your digital marketing. It’s exciting to see how a little application can yield real results for your accountancy practice. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Marketing **Tags:** Marketing, Accountants, Tips, Bookkeepers --- ### [Content Marketing for Accountants and Bookkeepers: What Is Good Accounting Content?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/content-marketing-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers-what-is-good-accounting-content/) **Published:** September 9, 2017 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Content Marketing. Seems like a new phenomenon but humans have been telling stories to inform and entertain since the dawn of time. Unlike traditional marketing, where your interaction is solely based on sales, content marketing is a slower burn strategy. It involves creating regular interesting entertaining or useful content and simply giving it away for free. But the rewards you get in the long term are immeasurable. Great content, that is relevant to your audience can boost your audience, build preference, positively affect your SEO rankings and establish you as the expert you are! Eventually, when customers make a purchase decision, [their loyalty already lies with you](https://neilpatel.com/what-is-content-marketing/). They will purchase your product and prefer it over competitors’ options. Content marketing is giving first and sales second. It is the backbone of important marketing techniques, especially digital marketing, and is driving results for companies of all types and sizes. Yes, accountants and bookkeepers too, so here is a quick guide to the various forms of content for marketing to get you started. ![writing blog on type writer](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/rawpixel-597441-unsplash-e1527550778890-449x300.jpg) ## The Written Word: Blogs, Newsletters, Whitepapers, e-Books Whether you create them in-house, use BOMA’s content library to get your started or hire a writer, this text content will improve your website and, if done correctly, your [search engine optimisation](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/01/19/why-small-businesses-need-to-improve-their-seo-game/) (SEO) too. Think carefully about the strategy and subject matter of your content to ensure it has the maximum appeal for your audience. Here are some ideas: - **Advisory Content** – The content you create should be useful and valued by your audience. Information that helps them in their business is great for your client and helps establish your firm’s thought leadership in areas where you hold expertise. - **News and Industry Insight** – Give informed commentary on finance and accounting news and be prepared to offer a new and different opinion to cut through. The effects of budgets, new tax law or tax breaks could be significant to clients and prospective clients alike. Being a source of clear information and help will see your accounting firm gaining recognition, trust and new clients. - **Products and Services** – It is important to see your content not as a straight advertisement pushing your business, but useful advice and guides will reflect positively on your firm. Consider subjects such as ‘How to Find the Right Accounting Firm’, or specific advice such as [payroll](https://www.xero.com/nz/resources/accountant-bookkeeper-guides/payroll/marketing-payroll-services/), small business tips .succession planning or tax. - **Useful tools** – are there tools you can share that will help drive profitability or support an area of your clients business. Is there an app you have discovered that you can talk about? Such as cloud accounting or a business dashboard reporting tool? - **Case Studies and Testimonials – Demonstrating how you can and do help existing clients can be a powerful draw to others, it is also a good way to underscore your accounting firm’s strengths and specialities.** - **Seasonality** – There is a distinct seasonality for most business sectors and you should tailor content to your client’s market, be that agriculture, retail, tourism. Create great ‘evergreen’ content that will be relevant year in year out so with only minor tweaks you can repost again and again. Topics like tax deadlines, financial health checks for on and off-season times of year all work well. ![Content Strategy compass](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/AdobeStock_88422033-1-970x518.jpeg) ## **Creating Visual Content** If you are using [social media marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/06/19/the-essential-guide-to-social-media-marketing-for-small-business/) – and you should – remember that it is a visual medium. Everyone understands that Pinterest and Instagram are image-based, but [pictures get more likes](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/catriona-pollard/why-visual-content-is-a-s_b_7261876.html) on Facebook and Twitter too and they’ve redesigned their feeds to better accommodate them. You should be able to use all the methods below in a way that is relevant to your accounting firm and interesting to potential clients. - **Infographics may mean employing a freelance designer, but they are a great way to share the authority and expertise of your accounting firm in a snackable way that people can like and share.** - **Templates** or relevant timelines/calendars/checklists, with your branding, that can be used by leads and existing clients are a useful way to add value and increase your visibility. - **Photography and Images with or without text can be used to highlight your firm’s personality, amuse and engage the audience. Do use subjects that are inspiring, sympathetic and light-hearted. Consider humanising the firm by using images of staff events etc.** ## And Don’t Forgot About Video and Audio Video and audio are popular too, and they don’t necessarily take a whole production department to achieve but quality is important so don’t be too ambitious at first. The below are all achievable, in house, without Spielberg on speed dial. - **Webinars are simply web-based seminars. You can invite clients and leads to ‘virtually’ attend on-line and then share the recorded event, or an edited version of, on social media. A great way to offer training, share presentations and offer a live Q&A** - **Interviews with experts, either within your accounting firm or external guests can be audio or visual are another way to underscore your authority and share information** - **Slideshows and Presentations do not have to be boring, they are easier to produce than videos and are hosted on your website and/or social media platforms such as LinkedIn’s Slideshare or Youtube).** All of the above is achievable for your accounting or bookkeeping firm, but you don’t have to do everything at once. Your content strategy should be built on and expanded over time. Take into account the results of previous campaigns, respond to feedback and analytics and put your client at the centre of each new piece. The more targeted your content is for your audience, the more likely you will start to yield the results. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Content Marketing **Tags:** Accountants, Bookkeepers, Content Marketing --- ### [Social Media for Accountants and Bookkeepers: Getting Started](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/social-media-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers-getting-started/) **Published:** September 21, 2017 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Social media might have started as a bit of fun for students but it could be just as accurately described as networking and business media these days. While it is a great way to connect with friends, social media has now become a vital part of modern marketing and getting ahead in business. It is the digital high street of our global village and if you don’t have a shop front there you might not exist. Every business, even those with a more traditional and serious background, is getting on board so it is just as important for accountancy firms as it is for party planners to be social savvy. Here is everything you need to know to get your social media marketing started. ## Which Social Media Platform is Best? If you are going to maximise the potential then multi-platform is the way to go but there is no need to sign up to everything, pick the platforms that will work best for your business and your audience. Here’s a quick run down on three of the biggest: **Facebook** is probably the first platform you think of when social media is mentioned, it’s fun and friendly but has an increasingly serious business purpose. It’s a great place to show your firm’s personality and reach out to prospects. **LinkedIn** was created specifically with business and employment in mind, it is the ‘grown-up’ face of social media. The hundreds of millions of profiles include business leaders and decision makers, which make it the biggest networking conference ever. **Twitter** is broad spectrum, everyone from the US President to the Pope has a handle. The limited characters needn’t limit your message, it ensures you keep things short and sweet but by using links to interesting articles, blogs, stories it’s easy to share much more than the time of day. It’s also a great place to discover trending topics and commentary. ![Social network concept using paper people connected](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/AdobeStock_107721928-970x700.jpeg) ## How to Use Social Media to Market Your Practice All the social media platforms will help you to engage with clients build your brand and nurture new leads. One of the best ways to do this is by posting good quality content. It is worth spending time on content as it can improve your all important search engine ranking through SEO as well as engaging your social media followers. Check out our blog on[ Content Marketing for Accountants](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/09/09/content-marketing-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers-what-is-good-accounting-content/) for ideas. - Frequency of posts is important but complex. Certain times of the day and week will be more fruitful for posts than others, so take care to spread your posts among the most profitable times not wasting good content by dumping it all online in one go. The idea is to stay in your followers front of mind, not pester them. It is more important to focus on the quality of your posts than sticking to any twice a day rule. - Variety of content keeps things fresh and interesting for your followers. Post images, infographics, white papers, podcasts, webinars, case studies, videos and simple comments to inspire (with quotes and memes), advise (with industry insight) and amuse (with care – keep well clear of anything controversial). - Questions are a good way of prompting engagement and a conversation with your followers. By commenting they will spread your post throughout their own friends and followers and therefore increase your potential audience exponentially. - Respond to your followers quickly keep them feeling engaged and appreciated. ## Post, Repeat and Understand One of the most exciting ways that the digital world has changed marketing is our ability to quickly see and analyse a campaign’s results. With detailed analytics of your social media campaigns you can make each one better than the last – better targeted, more effective. You can learn what works for your accounting firm rather than just applying a few general rules by crunching the numbers – and that’s something accountants already understand. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Social Media **Tags:** Social Media, Accountants, Bookkeepers --- ### [What Is SEO and Why Is It Important for Accountants and Bookkeepers?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/website/what-is-seo-and-why-is-it-important-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers/) **Published:** December 19, 2017 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** ## An Easy ‘How-To’ SEO Guide for Accountants and Bookkeepers It’s an anagram you have probably heard but do you know how to optimise your online presence for maximum impact? SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is the term used to describe a number techniques you can use to increase the visibility of your company online. SEO differs from SEM (search engine marketing) because it is free. It may involve some time invested, but it is worthwhile including SEO practises to market your firm. Read on as we explain how SEO works and what you can do to give your practice the best chance of being found by prospective clients. ## Why Is SEO so Important? The internet is now the first port of call for most people when they are looking for a local business. In fact Google alone processes over [3.5 billion searches per day](http://www.internetlivestats.com/google-search-statistics/) according to Internet Live Stats. So having prominence in search results is vital to increase traffic and enquiries through your website. Plus, you are far more likely to get visitors to your website if you are at the top of the results or at least on the first page. Ask yourself: How many times have you scrolled through to page 3 to choose a result? [Research carried out by Caphyon in 2014](https://moz.com/blog/google-organic-click-through-rates-in-2014) found that the first page on Google received 71.33% of organic traffic, pages two and three a mere 5.59% and pages six to ten only 3.73%, with the top five rankings on page one accounting for 67.60% of all click traffic. ![Composite image of search engine](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/AdobeStock_184688237-970x477.jpeg) ## How Does It Work and What Do Search Engines Do? When you type a search query into the search bar in your web browser, you are effectively sending ‘Search Engine Bots’ out into the world wide web looking for results that best match your request. Search engines like Google, Bing, Duck Duck Go and [others](https://www.lifewire.com/best-search-engines-2483352) all want to deliver the most relevant or popular content possible for visitors using their services. Using algorithms, they rank websites based on a number of factors, such as how often the website is updated, whether other pages link to it, or how well it is written. The better you perform against these factors, the more likely you will be on the search engine result page (SERP). There are over 200 factors that can affect how your website ranks but some matter more than others. Spend some time improving these and you will optimise your website for search. 1. **Performance:** This is the bare essentials.Your website needs to be able to load properly and at high speed. Increasingly we are searching the net from our phones, so make sure your website is built to be mobile responsive. 2. **Quality:** The search engine algorithms even analyse your written content. Give the bots a reason to post your site on the search engine results page by ensuring your website copy is well written and up to date. - Tip 1: Quality is better than quantity – posting engaging blogs and updates will encourage visits and drive awareness. - Tip 2: Interesting and unique content will perform better. What makes you different to your competitors? It might help to put yourself in the shoes of your clients. What do you offer that someone else doesn’t? The answer could be your firm’s special expertise or the fact that you listen well and anticipate clients’ needs in advance. 3. **Popularity:** The amount of organic traffic your site experiences, along with your authority rating, is important. Authority is determined by factors such as links to other highly authoritative websites either as a reference or through information sharing. Reach out to industry organisations to link to you and ask clients for testimonials that you can share. Linking to your clients websites also helps their SEO. 4. **Relevance:** The theme of your site and the text found on each page should match the keywords being searched for. Your website pages should deliver on the promise of their page titles and descriptions, so that your visitors can find what they are looking for. Other factors: Ease of navigation is part of your ranking. Sometimes your site develops over time and the categories and subcategories no longer make logical sense. Anything that helps your visitors navigate the site is going to improve your SEO. In addition, Bounce Rates are taken into account. This is the number of visitors who leave a page immediately after selecting it. Give them a reason to stay and it’s win – win. ## Creating a ‘Virtuous Circle’ With SEO By improving your website you will get more traffic. And increasing your traffic, has a positive effect on your ranking by Search engines. And Yep, as your ranking goes up so do your visitor numbers! The more you do to improve your site and keep your content current, the more likely people will visit it, and other sites will link to you using ‘backlinks’.Your website should be seen as a trusted source of information. (just as you are to your clients). SEO is the long distance run not the 100m sprint but constant improvement to your site is worth the effort. About the Author: Liz Studholme is Content Marketing Manager at BOMA **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Website **Tags:** SEO, Accountants, Bookkeepers --- ### [New Year’s Resolutions - Make Some for Your Business](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/small-business/new-years-resolutions-make-some-for-your-business/) **Published:** January 15, 2018 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** Around this time of year, you read lots on about goals for the year ahead. [The Telegraph](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/common-new-years-resolutions-stick/) published an article on the most common New Year’s resolutions. As you would expect, top of the list is exercise. Actually, the top four most common resolutions are along the same lines. 1. Exercise more (38 percent) 2. Lose weight (33 percent) 3. Eat more healthily (32 percent) 4. Take a more active approach to health (15 percent) It seems we are fairly homogeneous in our goals to live a healthier life through diet and exercise. And no doubt this year will be no different. While you set your personal goals this year, it’s worth setting some goals for the health of your business too. If you are a business owner, this is often the time of year when you reflect on the year that’s been and think about your business goals for the year ahead. Do you want to grow your business in the year ahead through new business, or drive revenue growth from your existing client base? If you don’t currently have marketing goals. We can help. We’ve written a checklist of small goals to achieve as you head into another busy year. [Great goals are SMART](https://www.monash.edu/about/editorialstyle/planning/define-your-goals). Specific, Measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. We want you to tick them off, feel satisfied and then go for that run you have been planning! So let’s start with your Website. Make it easy for people to find what they are looking for on your site, [57% of internet users won’t recommend a site that is poorly designed](https://www.accountingweb.com/practice/growth/how-to-grow-year-round-business). ## Getting the Basics Right on Your Website ✓ **Home Page** – This is the first page most visitors will see when they come to your website, a bit like your first meeting. And first impressions count. Your home page should look professional and portray your brand values well. **✓ About Page** – If visitors are reading this page they want to know a bit about you. You could include the company history, a profile on the team and what your special areas of expertise are. Give them the reasons to choose you over a competitor. It may be your expertise in an industry or the way you work with clients. You know your company best, consider your strengths and share these. A client testimonial on this page is a great way to show evidence of this. **✓ Services/product pages** – Visitors come to these pages with a problem to solve. Make sure your content on this page is ‘them focused’ not ‘you focused’. By putting yourself in the shoes of a client you are more likely to provide the solutions rather than just talk about what you do. Be informative and helpful. **✓ Contact** – Have a dedicated page for visitors to find the ways they can contact you, in addition to the footer or sidebar of your website pages. Providing your phone, email and physical address gives visitors options on how they want to get in touch. Even if you mostly do business on the phone, your address shows you are a real bricks and mortar business. Include links to your social media channels (more on this later). You can also include a contact form on this page – so that visitors to your site can contact you directly from here. **✓ Blog/news** – By posting frequently updated and relevant content on your website you give people a reason to visit your site multiple times and the content will also help improve your search engine rankings making your site more visible. ✓ **Make sure your site is optimised for mobile** – Can you easily read it on your cell phone? If not, this fix should be a priority as the [majority of online searches](https://www.thewebmaster.com/seo/2017/may/2/60-percent-online-searches-mobile-devices/) are now carried out using our mobile phones. **✓ Cross Browser Compatible** – Simply stated, your site should look good no matter what internet browser people are searching on. **✓ Speed optimised** – With [the average attention span of falling to 7 seconds](http://www.wpbeginner.com/wordpress-performance-speed/), a website that loads slowly risks visitors clicking away before they even land on your site. To help improve the page loading speed work on the site configuration to ensure your website is optimised for speed. **✓ Set up caching** – Every time a browser visits a page it retrieves the title and content. When you are exploring the internet, you’ll notice that pages you have already visited before load faster. This is because of caching. Your computer will temporarily store the page data to speed up your website experience so make sure to leverage browser caching on your website. ![girl-holding-calander](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/brooke-lark-194254-e1516052407198-970x646.jpg) ## **Don’t Forget About the Social Media Networks** This is where your customers are, so you should be too. Unlike email, social media has a broader reach and by posting content that your audience values, and shares, you grow your reach. Here’s a brief guide to the options: **Friend based networks** - **Facebook** is the biggest social media platform. It started as a friend networking site but has quickly been a place for businesses to communicate with their audience in a less formal way than their website. Facebook provides you with a non-selling environment – it’s all about personality, casual endorsement, being a proactive and responsive company. - **Twitter** is for ‘micro posts’. This is a place to make short commentary and follow industry threads. You can use Twitter for pithy commentary or share a link to your long form content. **Professional networks** - **LinkedIn** is the business version of Facebook. It’s like a virtual networking event. LinkedIn helps you get in touch with others within an industry or across the industry. Individuals share their professional profiles and for this reason, the channel is often used to find new employment or employees. You can also have a page for your business. On LinkedIn, the opportunity exists to be a trusted authority or thought leader in your areas of expertise. **Media sharing networks** - **Instagram** is all about photos and videos. This platform is also for mobile rather than desktop. Depending on your business, this is a highly engaging platform when you use the right images. [Social media helps you reach new and different audiences.](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/06/19/the-essential-guide-to-social-media-marketing-for-small-business/) If you’re not sure where to start thinking about the channels your clients use and if in doubt, ask them! **✓ Take it in stages, get comfortable and master it –** Social Media is fluid, unlike your website. Because of this, it is more relaxed. You can be yourself there so choose the platform you are most comfortable with and dedicate some time each week to it. **✓ Create posts –** Once you have opened an account, use it to build fans and followers. You can post news, advice, commentary and share or comment on content from influencers and trusted sources. **✓ Be responsive –** If someone reaches out to you on social media you need to be there. Show that you are engaged and listening. You can post a comment back or sometimes a ‘like’ will suffice. **✓ Secure the social media accounts for your firm** – before someone else does, make sure you own the account names for your business. Let BOMA help your practice with multi-channel digital marketing and start the new year with the tools you need to grow your business. …….. And now for those Exercise Goals! About the Author: Liz Studholme is the Marketing Content Manager at BOMA. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Business **Tags:** SMB, Goals --- ### [Getting Your Accountancy Firm Ready for Remote Working](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/small-business/getting-your-accountancy-firm-ready-for-remote-working/) **Published:** February 5, 2018 **Author:** Steve Ash **Content:** Easy access to online accounting and cloud apps has made working remotely a genuine possibility for your accounting practice’s staff. So should you transition to remote working? [37 of US employees have done some homeworking as part of the role](http://news.gallup.com/poll/184649/telecommuting-work-climbs.aspx), according to research by Gallup. And in the UK, [91% of businesses have at least one homeworker on the team](http://onecom.co.uk/remote-working-from-home-surges-in-the-uk/). So homeworking and remotely dialing into an office network are now seen as standard options when it comes to offering your staff flexible work patterns and a better work-life balance. But working from home, or becoming a ‘coffee-shop worker’, comes with a whole new set of considerations. To create a team of remote workers who are productive, meet their targets and can self-manage their workload means setting the right ground rules for remote working. To get you started, we’ve highlighted the key elements it’s vital to get right. ## Use the Right Cloud-Based Software Tools and It Hardware There can be a number of reasons for adopting remote working as an accounting firm – whether it’s cutting back on desk space, offering more flexible working hours to staff or giving your team the ability to work from their client’s offices, or even the local co-working cafe space. But if you’re going to make remote working effective, you’re going to need the right hardware and software to get your team connected up and working productively. **To set the right foundations for remote working:** - **Update your team’s laptops** – so they’re using hardware with a fast processor, the most up-to-date operating system and with the speed needed for online working. - **Check they have fast broadband at home** – if your staff are using a sluggish 2Mbps connection to work from, they won’t achieve the right levels of productivity. - **Use cloud-based accounting and practice management tools** – making it easy for staff to log into the firm’s tools from home and get working as quickly as possible. ## Be Highly Conscious of Online Security As a professional services firm, your practice deals with a large amount of sensitive financial data and business information. Client confidentiality and good governance of your data sharing and storage mean it’s absolutely critical to get your security completely watertight. To keep your client data secure: - **Use a VPN (virtual private network) for remote workers** – so your staff can always access the internet remotely through the most secure gateway. - **Use two-tier authentication for online tools** – so access to your practice apps and solutions is as secure and encrypted as possible when logging in from outside the office. - **Don’t save sensitive data to local hard drives** – and store all financial records in [cloud accounting software such as Xero](https://www.xero.com/nz/) – so data can’t be lost with stolen laptops etc. - **Don’t work on classified projects in public spaces** where your screen could potentially be seen, overlooked and sensitive information compromised. ## Track Your Time and Manage Workflow Online When your team is remote you can’t keep track of their workflow in person. So it’s important that you have visibility of the projects they’re working on, the time they’re spending on client work and the overall level of progress they’re making against the deadlines for client deliverables. To manage your workflow effectively: - **Use online workflow management software** – and track the tasks, time and performance of remote workers, with tools such as [WorkflowMax](https://www.workflowmax.com/), [Karbon](https://karbonhq.com/) or [Silverfin](https://www.getsilverfin.com/en). - **Record your time against custom cost codes** – making it easy to see what time has been spent on specific client work, and where efficiencies could be made. - **Have performance dashboards for staff** – using data from your workflow tools to set targets, measure performance and create talking points for staff reviews. ## Ensure There’s Real-Time Communication and Messaging A key element that many remote workers miss is face-to-face interaction with their colleagues. When you’re no longer sat in the same office together, that can create a barrier to clear communication and transparency around project progress. But by using the right communications technology, and being proactive about keeping your remote workers in the loop, you can move these interactions to the online space. To keep your remote workers communicating well: - **Use messaging apps to promote live chat** – with options like [Google Hangouts](https://gsuite.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/products/meet/), [Skype](https://www.skype.com/en/) and [Slack](https://slack.com/) all popular with remote teams who want to talk with each other in real time. - **Keep remote staff in the loop with practice news** – and make sure you’re as inclusive as possible with all your firm-wide communications. - **Encourage remote workers to have some office time** – so they work a few days per month with the rest of your office-based team, helping to build team connections. ## Give Clear Guidance and Retraining for Staff [The motivation levels needed to stay efficient as a remote worker](https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/288418) are very different to those of traditional office-based staff. A change to a more proactive mindset is needed, so it’s important to help your people acclimatise to becoming home workers. - **Put together a guide to remote working** – and think about setting up training workshops for staff who are being offered the option of remote working. - **Explain how to self-manage their workload** – point staff to helpful blogs and online training that will help them become proactive and self-sufficient without a line manager. Sites such as [remote.co](https://remote.co/remote-work-blog/) and [remotive.io](https://remotive.io/) have plenty of tips and hints. - **Empower your team to do more** – by trusting them to work productively, complete their key tasks and meet project deadlines: all without supervision or micro-management. ## A More Flexible and Empowered Workforce Allowing your team to move outside of the office can be a truly transitional moment for your accounting firm. After centuries of accountants being tied to offices and paper ledgers, cloud technology and remote working give your firm an incredibly flexible way for staff to work. It means your people can work from home, from a local coffee shop or sit with a client at their offices. And that ability to have more face-to-face time with your business clients is a key element of [growing your accounting practice and building quality long-term relationships.](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/12/05/growing-your-accountancy-business-5-key-ways-to-achieve-growth/) There’s more advice on [hiring remote workers in this Xero guide for accountants](https://www.xero.com/uk/resources/accountant-bookkeeper-guides/business-management/hiring-remote-workers/). **About the Author:** Steve Ash is a specialist in accounting, marketing, business software and fintech apps. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Technology, Business **Tags:** Accountant, Remote Working --- ### [Hiring the Right Accounting Talent: 5 Key Skills to Look out For](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/small-business/hiring-the-right-accounting-talent-5-key-skills-to-look-out-for/) **Published:** February 20, 2018 **Author:** Steve Ash **Content:** Accounting is going through a transformational period in its history. [Technology is revolutionising the way your firm can work](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/11/09/artificial-intelligence-an-opportunity-not-a-threat-for-your-accounting-firm/?utm_content=buffer599a9&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer) with clients’ data, and your business clients now expect an increased focus on bringing them value-add services and trusted business advice. This change in your systems, services and client relationships means you need a new kind of team – a team made up of people with a much wider range of skills, software knowledge and customer service skills, who can meet the challenges of the new age of accounting. We’ve identified 5 key skills to look out for when hiring, up-skilling or restructuring your team. ## 1. Tech-Savvy and at Ease with the Cloud [45% of advisors believe practices must move to digital](https://www.xero.com/uk/campaigns/digital-or-die-report/), if accountancy is to survive as a profession in the digital information age. So there’s a real imperative for your team to be up-to-speed with the latest in financial technology (fintech), digital workflow processes and the key benefits that online accounting software platforms bring to the table. Key technology skills to look for include: - Experience with cloud accounting software and real-time financial reporting - A sound knowledge of the app ecosystem and the available cloud-based business tools - The ability to tailor and customise client’s software systems to their business needs. ## 2. Proactive and Highly Organised The days of hiring people purely for their number-crunching skills are over. With software increasingly providing the [data-input and data-processing elements of automated bookkeeping](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/11/09/artificial-intelligence-an-opportunity-not-a-threat-for-your-accounting-firm/), what your firm needs is a workforce who can work in tandem with the technology to become more organised, more efficient and (critically) more profitable. Your core accounting staff must have: - Excellent time management skills, so your workflow is efficient and productive - A proactive approach to client work and meeting the required project deadlines - An affinity with practice management tools, helping to drive the firm’s efficiency. ## 3. Driven by Quality Client Service [52% of millennial business owners want strategic insight from their accountant](http://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/news/12342266/what-millennial-business-owners-want-from-accounting-firms). Just delivering the basic ‘compliance’ accounting services is no longer enough. Increasingly, modern clients want higher-level support and financial guidance from your people – and that requires staff who understand client service and the benefits of offering a broader range of value-add services. To deliver the client service that clients expect, your team need: - Commercial knowledge and industry experience, to help tailor your advice to their niche - A skill for listening – so they understand the client’s current financial challenges - An understanding of the clients’ key needs – so you deliver the most practical services. ## 4. Forward-Looking and Creative with Their Ideas [Forecasting software is opening up new ways to interact with clients](https://www.xero.com/za/resources/accountant-bookkeeper-guides/cloud-accounting/business-forecasting/). With the latest in-cloud forecasting tools – such as [Spotlight Reporting](https://www.spotlightreporting.com/), [Futrli](https://www.futrli.com/) or [Fathom](https://www.fathomhq.com/) – your team can start advising clients on the future of their business performance. So it’s vital that your client managers can apply an analytical and forward-looking methodology to their advice and planning. For your team to deliver future-proof advice, they require: - Sound knowledge of the key forecasting and business intelligence tools - Agility with analytics, AI and the outputs from management reporting - Creativity when it comes to strategic advice and financial solutions. ## 5. Builds Long-Term Relationships with Clients [Building a strong business relationship with your clients is critical](https://www.intheblack.com/articles/2016/05/01/return-on-relationship-how-accountants-can-build-client-engagement), if you’re to successfully grow and evolve your accounting practice. As trusted advisors, there’s a need for your people to invest in each and every client relationship, and to become an invaluable part of their strategic success – helping the client’s company to grow, so you can grow too. To help these relationships flourish, your people must: - Be warm, open and engaging in one-to-one meetings with clients - Become attuned to client’s key goals, strategy and core values - Have the skills needed to nurture a long-lasting business partnership For more ideas on how to expand your firm, check out our recent post [‘Grow your accountancy business: 5 key ways to achieve growth’.](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/12/05/growing-your-accountancy-business-5-key-ways-to-achieve-growth/) ![](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/AdobeStock_126960702-1-450x300.jpeg) ## Building a Team with the Right Human Skills As accounting enters a new chapter in the evolution of the industry, it’s never been more important to have a team of skilled, talented and flexible accounting professionals in your firm. The breadth of the ideal candidate’s skillset has widened greatly in the past decade, with your perfect hire having a combination of software knowledge, client focus and analytical ability. But, more than anything, it’s the human, relational skills that really add value for your clients. [As Xero’s Gary Turner explained at Xerocon London 2017](https://gocardless.com/blog/xerocon2017-key-takeaways/), your people are actually your future: ***“People are the next frontier where we can drive real change and reshape the accounting industry. AI will absolutely have a part to play, but it’s about your people, your customers and the relationships that you have with them.”*** To take your practice to the next level, focus on hiring talented professionals who can deliver the numbers, but can also build meaningful, trusted and valued relationships with your business clients – the future is people, so it’s critical that you choose the ideal candidates for the job. About the Author: Steve Ash is a specialist in accounting, marketing, business software and fintech apps. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Business **Tags:** Accounting, HR, Hire --- ### [Analytics 101: The Beginner’s Guide To Web Analytics](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/technology/analytics-101-the-beginners-guide-to-web-analytics/) **Published:** March 20, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** These days, everyone in the digital world is obsessed with analytics. It informs the content they create, the websites they build, the changes they make, and everything down to the most minor elements of running an online business. Unfortunately, though, it isn’t the easiest subject to tackle for many businesses, leaning heavily on [countless pieces of jargon](https://www.lovesdata.com/blog/google-analytics-glossary) and generally operating in a way that makes it an intimidating prospect for those who aren’t familiar with it. As such, the goal of this article is to provide a practical, easy-to-follow outline of the basics of analytics, taking you from what it actually means to how you can use it to achieve clear improvements for your website (and your business overall). We’ve written it with accountants and bookkeepers in mind but the rules apply for all businesses. ## What Analytics Means Analytics is the process by which you collect and analyze data, looking for patterns and connections. Applied to a website, it concerns the collection and examination of information involving user activity, system performance, and anything else you care to track. For example, when you visit a website with analytics, the system will begin a timer, and then stop that timer when you leave the site; the time you spent on the site will then be recorded and added to a large databank. What’s more, information about each visitor can be stored, including location and system language, and used to track user journeys. Analytics data can show how visitors reach a website and which pages they view (and in what order), and even follow them across multiple distinct visits to the same site. ## Why it Matters Quite simply, because [information is power](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2018/02/28/marketing-for-accountants-understanding-the-return-on-your-investment/). The more a business knows about the activities of its customers, the more easily it can figure out ways to help them, get them to spend more, encourage them to provide recommendations, etc. In the case of the example we looked at (that being the time spent on a site), the business can look for correlations between that figure and the others it collects. If it turns out that the likelihood of a user getting in touch goes up dramatically the longer they stay on a site, then they can make changes to the website in a targeted effort to make users want to keep browsing. Through collecting and examining data about your business, you can find similar opportunities for building on the things that are working for you and improving the things that aren’t. ## How to Use it Fortunately for those new to the topic, it’s surprisingly easy to start collecting analytics data; you’ll mainly need to install either an add-on or a piece of tracking code to your website. If you built your site using a free builder like [WordPress or Wix](https://superbwebsitebuilders.com/wix-vs-wordpress/), or created a free online storefront through something like [Shopify](https://www.shopify.com/online-store), you’ll be able to find a free plugin or app to handle the bulk of the analytics setup. ![Visitor Analytics](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Screen-Shot-2018-03-20-at-9.54.39-AM-e1521497405268.png) *This is for Wix, but the procedure is much the same for most website builders.* If your site was a custom build, or you can’t find a free plugin for your platform, you’ll need to do some manual configuration. To set up [Google Analytics](https://www.google.com/analytics/), a free and comprehensive tool, visit the site and sign in with a Google account. You will be tasked with creating an entry for the site you want to track, then given a piece of tracking code to add to the head of each page on that site. *Note: if you have a web development team, you should pass this task to them. If you don’t have a team, consult the person who set up the website before you try to make any changes.* ## What to Monitor By default, you’ll get a tonne of information about various things, but you don’t need to worry about every last item. You should initially try to identify a few factors that you think tie in to your goals for the site, then keep a close eye on them as time goes by. For example, if you are an accountant or bookkeeper, you will want to focus on the effectiveness of your content strategy when it comes to engaging people and creating new leads for your business. You will probably want to look at creating blog content and content assets that focus on core business owner problems: profitability, payroll, bookkeeping admin, cloud software, business growth etc. Look at [Xero’s small business guides](https://www.xero.com/ie/resources/small-business-guides/) for some inspiration on the type of content that’s likely to bring you solid digital results: ![Xero small business guides](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Screen-Shot-2018-03-20-at-11.50.12-AM-970x377.png) Using [Boma’s Xero HQ](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/xero/) sync, you will have a library of content to choose from on these topics. It’s a great way to educate and inform your readers, without having to do ALL the heavy lifting. Win-win. Track and monitor things like how much search traffic you’re getting, how long people spend reading your content, and what actions they take next. If they head straight to a sign-up form, you know you have done well. Don’t forget that financial calculators and checklists are likely to be popular with your target audience. They aren’t that expensive to create, and can be great sources of referral traffic. They will also help improve key web metrics like time on page: a signal to search engines that your site is engaging. **It’s all about aligning your website goals with the metrics you track** Don’t forget that your digital marketing analysis should also take into account added value. Content isn’t always about conversions, it can also be about: - **Building loyalty and strengthening client relationships** by sharing advice, insight and useful information. You can become their go-to website for all things tax, finance, and invoicing. - **Positioning your business to attract the right client** (potentially replacing labour intensive and low value work). - **Strategic growth** : being in a position to grow your advisory service, opening up the opportunity to promote and discuss higher value services. - **Building equity in your business** by establishing your firm as an expert. *Note: Tracking conversions is useful when you want to track digital downloads, content assets, purchases, or contact forms. They can really help you build a well-rounded picture of how people engage with your content…and what they do next. While basic conversions will mostly be configured for you if you’re using a top-rated analytics add-on through a framework like Shopify or WooCommerce, they will otherwise need to be established manually. [Review the basics](https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/1722054?hl=en-GB), proceed carefully, and test before proceeding.* ## How to Interpret Data The first thing you must remember when you start to review your analytics data is that a lot of apparent trends and connections are merely coincidental—this is most commonly an issue for small websites with low visitor counts. For instance, you may look back over the course of a year and observe that you received the most support emails during the months when you had the fewest users from Scotland. Does that mean that those things are linked somehow? Well, no. If you can’t fathom how two factors could possibly be related, they probably aren’t (there are always plenty of [spurious correlations](http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations) to be found). ![Web analytics spurious correlations](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Screen-Shot-2018-03-20-at-10.23.32-AM-e1521494866839-970x474.png) You should be looking to discern patterns in the data that you think result from things you do (or can) control or exploit to your advantage. If people aren’t visiting your **About Us** page even though you put a lot of work into it, are you linking to it prominently enough? Are any of the links broken? Think of a patient going to a doctor for a battery of tests. The tests may show that the patient’s iron levels are low, but they don’t show why. The doctor must investigate from there. As such, think like a doctor. Make logical changes that you believe will have particular effects and see what happens. Are your expectations met? Subverted? Keep going until you hit upon something that works. ## How to Get Better Results Since there’s a significant learning curve to using analytics comprehensively, begin by focusing on one key element: indulging your curiosity. It might sound peculiar, but look at it this way: the more questions you ask about your website, the more answers you’ll find, and you’ll discover that each broad question soon splinters into numerous other questions that inevitably start to reveal opportunities. For example, “Where are my visitors coming from?” might give way to “Why am I getting visitors from there?” and “Where do I really want visitors from?”, which in turn could prompt “How can I make my website more attractive to the desired region?”. Answer that last question and you might just generate a decent boost in business. So keep asking questions, keep experimenting, and remember that it’s a big process. Perfection may not be an achievable website goal, but analytics equips you to chase it all the same. About the Author: *Victoria Greene is an ecommerce marketing expert and freelance writer who loves delving into analytics data and spends a lot of time polishing content. You can read more at her blog Victoria Ecommerce.* **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Tips & Advice, Technology **Tags:** website, analytics --- ### [If Your Website Doesn’t Work on Mobile, Prepare to Lose Customers](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/website/if-your-website-doesnt-work-on-mobile-prepare-to-lose-customers/) **Published:** April 22, 2018 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** Mobile First Indexing is here, making it essential that your website works on a mobile device. But what does that mean for your business? [Last week, Google announced](https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2018/03/rolling-out-mobile-first-indexing.html) that it’s search engine will begin ranking and indexing pages on the mobile versions of sites rather than the desktop one. This follows the rapid move by consumers to mobile devices. In fact [more people now search google on a mobile device than at their desktop have done so since 2015](https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/data-gallery/detail/mobile-vs-desktop-search-trends/). Google started experimenting with mobile-first indexing back in then, in order to make the results more useful to the user. The reason being that if you are searching on mobile you’ll want a result that is responsive and works on the device you are using. Google points out that web pages that only have desktop versions will still be crawled, indexed and ranked. In fact, they could still rank higher if the content is more relevant and useful for the searcher. However, with most people now searching the web from the mobile, you will be missing out on valuable traffic if your site is not loading quickly and properly on these devices. ## **So What Steps Should You Take?** Mobile friendly is not the same as Mobile responsive: Most sites now are ‘mobile friendly’. This means that they are designed to work on a mobile device with slim formatting and text blocks. The result can be that these sites, when viewed on a desktop, look a bit unfinished with a lot of blank space. So what’s the solution? A fully ‘mobile responsive’ website where the size of the elements such as images, text blocks, borders and buttons, adjust to the size of the window they are viewed on. These sites can be viewed on a phone, tablet or desktop and users won’t notice the difference. As Grant Johnson, Co-founder at [Rocketspark](https://www.rocketspark.com/), points out, *‘It’s rare for Google to give specific clues about how search rankings work but the impact of a mobile website on your rankings is one are that Google has been very clear on. If you’re serious about maximising your visibility in search engines having a mobile website is a no brainer. Websites that are optimised for mobile will also generate more business as the engagement of visitors with their website increases shown through an increase in page views and the time spent on the website’.* If your site is not currently mobile responsive it is worth investing in an upgrade. Responsive websites are more likely to rank higher in the search engine results page. And if you user experience is good, they will stay longer. [Rocketspark’s blog on responsive websites](https://www.rocketspark.com/blog/the-history-of-mobile-friendly-websites-and-responsive-web-design/) is a good place to learn more about mobile responsive websites and see if your website is maximised for your visitors. About the Author: Liz Studholme is the Marketing Content Manager at BOMA. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Website **Tags:** website, Mobile Responsive, Optimise --- ### [Scaling Your Practice: 8 Key Tips for Success from The Wow Company](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/tips-advice/scaling-your-practice-8-key-tips-for-success-from-the-wow-company/) **Published:** May 1, 2018 **Author:** Steve Ash **Content:** [Scaling your accountancy or bookkeeping practice](https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/practice/practice-strategy/become-a-ps1m-firm-what-you-need-to-know) is the key to creating a firm that has a long-term future and stable revenues. But what are the challenges you’ll face along the way? And what are the important elements to get right when you’re looking to scale up? Growing your firm at pace won’t be a walk in the park. It will mean change, upheaval and new systems, plus hiring and re-training the key people in your team. But if you’re going to evolve as a firm then there’s an imperative to scale up and take the next step in your development. We sat down with Paul Bulpitt, co-founder of [The Wow Company](https://www.thewowcompany.com/) and [Xero’s Head of Accounting](https://www.xero.com/blog/2015/08/paul-bulpitt-head-of-accounting/), to get his advice on how to make a success story of scaling your firm. So here are 8 key tips for scaling your accountancy or bookkeeping practice. ## **1. Have a plan and a vision for your firm** [Having a clear vision and plan behind your growth aspirations](https://blog.growthinstitute.com/scale-up-blueprint/one-page-vision-summary) gives you a set of values and a route map to guide your journey – after all, as the old saying goes, ‘Fail to plan, plan to fail’. Having a future plan for the practice, setting clear goals and objectives and measuring the firm’s performance against these goals puts some real drive behind your growth. Paul Bulpitt and his co-founder, Peter Czapp, set up The Wow Company in 2004, and Paul’s clear that having a high-level vision for the business was critical. *“The areas that were the most important in our original plan were the conceptual bits – the vision of creating a beautiful business and it not being dependent on the two of us, with the aim of doing something really special for small businesses.* *It’s the vision and purpose that’s really endured. So in terms of the original spreadsheets and numbers we had in the plan, it changed immeasurably over time. But the ‘Why’ of the business and the purpose at the centre haven’t changed – and that vision is what’s guided us.”* ## **2. Think like a business owner and systemise** [To scale, you need to think like an entrepreneur](http://www.excelsious.com/accounting/why-accountants-need-to-think-like-entrepreneurs/). Many smaller accounting and bookkeeping firms come into being when an experienced finance professional decides to set up on their own – and by doing so, they create a means to earn an income from their professional skills. But this approach fails generally fails to see the bigger potential of the firm as a business model – a model with the ability to grow, evolve and scale into something independent of the founders. For Paul and Peter, their approach was to think of their firm as a business from the start. *“There were two really key things we had in place from the outset. Number 1 was to have a plan that wasn’t just to replace mine and Peter’s income – that was never the goal.* *Number 2 is that we set The Wow Company up as a business, not as an accounting firm. Our goal was always that the business wasn’t dependent on us – Peter and me. So we always aimed to be a business first and foremost, with a sales function, time and resources that were dedicated to marketing and this aim of not setting up like a traditional accounting firm.”* To make scaling work, it’s important to think like a business owner – and to set up as a business first and foremost, with the structures, systems and roles needed for your business model. ## **3. Don’t do it alone – share the workload** Scaling up isn’t an instant process, and it takes time, effort and hard work to drive the firm in the right direction. So having a partner and collaborator to work alongside can be a real boost when you’re facing a long list of challenges to overcome, as Paul points out. *“Growing the firm is hard! Hard, difficult, slow and expensive. So it’s invaluable to have a right-hand person to share the workload and to bounce ideas off. And get them on board sooner rather than later so you can both shoulder the burden.* *Also, be aware that your personal income will shrink. It probably took 5 or 6 years for us to get back to a position where our income was the same as in our previous roles. So if you’ve come from a job with a decent salary, you might have to take that hit to your income for a few years. The money’s going to be going into the business and there will be less in your pocket.”* ## **4. Use software to increase efficiency** [Cloud software has changed the accounting landscape](https://www.accountancyage.com/2017/11/06/practice-ready-cloud/) beyond recognition in the past decade, bringing flexible online accounting, fintech apps, [software automation and artificial intelligence](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2017/11/09/artificial-intelligence-an-opportunity-not-a-threat-for-your-accounting-firm/) to even the smallest accountancy and bookkeeping firms. To create the efficiencies needed to scale up, it’s important to embrace this technology. Systemise the firm, set yourself up with an online accounting platform and integrate with the associated apps that can bring automation and productivity to your processes. For Paul, the tech has been a real driver in The Wow Company’s growth. *“It’s a no-brainer to have* [*Xero for the accounts*](https://www.xero.com/uk/) *and apps like* [*GoCardless*](https://gocardless.com/) *and* [*Receipt Bank*](https://www.receipt-bank.com/) *providing a platform that we can operate from as a business. The time and efficiency savings of having something like GoCardless to collect our fees automatically is insane – we’d probably have grown more quickly and earlier if we’d had Xero and Receipt Bank etc. in place sooner. “* *If you can automate your key processes, then everything happens a lot faster and with less input from your people. Everything’s being checked, the algorithms don’t go on holiday or call in sick, so you instantly increase your efficiency.”* ![](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/themes/boma-v2/theme/img/xero-mockups.png) ## **5. Get the right people on your team** When you and your co-founders start out, you’re the face, the workforce and the brand of the firm. [But as the practice grows, you need to take on more people](https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/community/industry-insights/what-is-the-accounting-talent-challenge-and-how-to-solve-it) – and it’s vital for your new employees to deliver the same vision and the same level of customer service. For Paul, having the right people on board was crucial to their success, while also being one of the biggest hurdles they faced as a practice. *“The people side is the hardest bit of growing, but it’s also the most rewarding bit in many ways. The people that we hire now are far more talented, skilled and knowledgeable than we are. It’s difficult to see that from day one, but further down the line you realise how important having a skilled team is.”* To create that ideal team, look for talented people who share your values and vision, and have the tech skills needed to work in a modern digital practice ## **6. Take your culture seriously** [Supporting the growth of your people is vital](https://karbonhq.com/accountant-resources/articles/7-ways-to-empower-your-team-to-grow). To scale, you need the best talent, but it’s also equally important to create a culture and value set that support the growth of your team. So it’s vital to have a hiring plan in place and to make sure you’re developing, training and supporting your team to create a culture that gets the very best from them. *“For us, the people element was the biggest challenge. Hiring people, retaining people and training people were all key hurdles. But a scalable firm is all about people – so you absolutely need the right people on board. When your purpose is to have a positive impact for small businesses your vision has to be central to your firm culture.”* ## **7. Work with the right clients** [Be clear about the kinds of clients you want to work with](https://gocardless.com/guides/posts/the-ideal-client-2/). If you’re trying to service business clients who don’t share your firm’s mindset, or don’t appreciate your vision for adding value, that will hold back the growth potential of the practice. Bad clients eat into your time, don’t bring in the best revenues and distract you from the gold-standard clients who will help you move the practice forwards. *“Getting rid of the ‘wrong’ clients can actually be quite a wholesome exercise. If those clients aren’t right and don’t share your vision, you’re not going to be able to build a business that’s right for them. So losing those clients is a really liberating thing.* *The Wow Company sold off 20% of our client base in 2010, and it felt very scary. But, with the benefit of hindsight, it’s hands-down the best thing that we did.”* ## **8. Market the firm to the most valuable audiences** When you know your ideal client type, that makes it far easier to market your firm effectively – and that helps you attract and retain the businesses that add the most value for the firm. Paul and Peter have always realised the importance of marketing The Wow Company, and having a clear focus on their preferred client types has helped them hugely. *“We’re pretty granular with our marketing and targeting now. Once we’d realised that creative agencies were a key client group for us, that helped us find the audience who shared our mindset. We now focus a chunk of our campaigns and marketing spend on valuable content for them, like our* [*BenchPress 2018 report for agencies*](https://www.thewowcompany.com/uks-largest-agency-benchmarking-survey-benchpress-2018/)*.”* Using the latest software marketing tools, [such as Boma](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/), lets you get highly specific around who you target your campaigns to and how you [measure that marketing return on investment (ROI)](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/2018/02/28/marketing-for-accountants-understanding-the-return-on-your-investment/). ## **Define your vision, hire the right people and embrace the tech** Big ambitions take big effort to achieve, But with the right planning there’s never been a better time to scale your firm. 1. **Have a plan and a vision for the firm** – know WHY you’re in business 2. **Think like a business owner** – set up the firm as a business first and foremost 3. **Don’t do it alone** – have a right-hand person to share the journey 4. **Use software to increase efficiency** – make the most of automation in apps 5. **Get the right people on your team** – look for talented people who share your vision 6. **Take your culture seriously** – have a hiring plan and develop your people 7. **Work with the right clients** – target the best clients, and lose the bad clients 8. **Market the firm to the most valuable audiences** – and increase engagement By having a clear growth plan, systemising your processes and applying the time-saving and automation features of modern software, it’s a challenge that your firm can meet. [Find out more advice for improving your accounting or bookkeeping firm on the Boma website](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/marketing-resources/) **About the Author:** Steve Ash is a specialist in accounting, marketing, business software and fintech apps. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Tips & Advice **Tags:** Scale, Accounting, Tips --- ### [Step into Advisory and Market Your Firm with Tools Designed Especially for Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/step-into-advisory-and-market-your-firm-with-tools-designed-especially-for-accountants/) **Published:** May 10, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** The internet, mobile devices and cloud computing are dramatically changing the way all businesses operate today. For accountants, this technology and the information processing power it provides, has brought massive efficiencies. It is also creating a new framework for the industry. Vital compliance work is increasingly being handled by software and advisory services are coming to the fore. [Current statistics for 2017-18 according to IBISWorld](https://www.ibisworld.com.au/industry-trends/market-research-reports/professional-scientific-technical-services/accounting-services.html), show that ‘advisory’ makes up 33% of the accounting products and services segment and is therefore a significant factor in the overall growth for the sector. The Sleeter Group (now Accountex) found that 72% of small business owners have changed their CPA or accounting firms because the firm [“did not give proactive advice, only reactive service”](http://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/news/11409596/what-do-small-business-owners-want-from-their-cpa?__hstc=265410640.0708629ef1fe8d2def13affbb34f4d9e.1525138254124.1525138254124.1525138254124.1&__hssc=265410640.1.1525138254124&__hsfp=3434652590). More and more, businesses are looking to their accountant to interpret the numbers and provide actionable insight and strategic advice. So while it seems a good time to embrace or look to expand advisory in your firm, we know that getting started can be hard. The good news is that technological developments have also provided tools and apps that accountants can use to grow their advisory services and become the virtual CFO. Both [Spotlight Reporting](https://www.spotlightreporting.com/) and [BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/) link to [Xero](https://www.xero.com/nz/) to provide the tools for deeper insight and better communication with clients and prospects. **Here’s what they do:** ## Spotlight Reporting – Shedding the light on performance Spotlight Reporting is an integrated cloud [reporting and forecasting](https://www.spotlightreporting.com/product/) tool that allows you to create insights for better business decisions. Designed by accountants, for accountants, SR gives you an easy tool to go beyond the historical data and focus on the future by advising your clients on their current position, future growth, strategy, objectives and KPIs. All presented in highly visual, easy to understand reports and forecasts. Spotlight Reporting is a family of four business intelligence tools including performance reporting, full three-way forecasting, easy to use dashboards and multi-entity consolidation. Spotlight’s toolset is designed to provide [progressive accountants and advisors](https://www.spotlightreporting.com/our-solutions/) with a great range of reporting options that save time and effort while delivering clarity for better business decision-making. They enable advisors to: - [Engage in strategic conversations](http://blog.spotlightreporting.com/what-is-a-super-virtual-cfo) with your clients, be their trusted advisor - Assist your business clients to stay on track by monitoring their KPI’s - Help your clients understand the data in order to [grow their businesses](http://blog.spotlightreporting.com/help-clients-look-forward-with-budgets-and-forecasts) - [Monetise the advisory arm](http://blog.spotlightreporting.com/7-effective-ways-to-monetise-your-advisory-work) of your business, grow your fee revenue Spotlight Reporting helps enable your practice to [deliver advisory services to clients](http://blog.spotlightreporting.com/delivering-quality-advisory-services). It turns the hours it takes to do management and board level reporting into a matter of minutes, so you can engage with your clients in meaningful discussions, with easy to understand visual reports and forecasts. ***“I am a newcomer to Spotlight Reporting and I have to say I love it! Being a business coach rather than an accountant, the budgeting and cashflow forecasting never came easy to me. Using spotlight I had the rest of this financial year budgeted and forecast done in 30 minutes. With the addition of the Action Plan, we can now take our quarterly priorities and add them to our reports giving a more complete picture of where we and our clients are at. Great work guys!”*** Dave Sewell, Business Coaching ## BOMA – The leading marketing app for accountants and bookkeepers You’ve established your [advisory niche](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/04/22/how-to-find-your-advisory-niche-as-an-accountant-or-bookkeeper-via-thought-leadership/), and brought in the tools to help you deliver strategic advice, now you need to build awareness of your firm’s advisory services amongst clients and prospects. BOMA was designed specifically for accountants and bookkeepers to remove the complexity from email and social media marketing. Even if your firm has no plans to win new clients, there’s considerable value in [marketing to your existing clients](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/04/16/marketing-to-your-existing-clients-the-key-to-better-engagement-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers/), who may not be taking advantage of the specialist advisory services you offer. By using content marketing and social media marketing effectively, you can share practical advice, keep clients informed about best practise and raise their opinion of you as a trusted adviser. A [5% increase in customer retention produces more than a 25% increase in profit](https://www.accountingweb.com/technology/trends/increasing-returns-of-client-retention-and-technology) so keeping your existing clients happy is a win-win. An accounting firms’ success is [increasingly due to their people or advisory skills](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/05/23/modern-business-owners-want-an-accountant-who-goes-beyond-the-numbers/), rather than their ability to just crunch the numbers. BOMA allows you to share insights, commentary and useful information within beautiful and easy emails and social posts. Email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter – all from one easy to use platform. So you can get back to working with your clients. BOMA makes it easy to create and send effective digital campaigns that will engage your audience and it does this in number of ways: - Share a blog post you’ve written or an article you’ve read online using BOMA’s URL link share. Simply paste the link and BOMA creates an email or social post for you – with images and introductory text. All you need to do is add your personal touch - BOMA is super easy to use, choose a template or create your own. Create emails and social posts from scratch in minutes. Plus you can choose from a vast array of searchable and free images - When synced with Xero HQ, accounting and bookkeeping users gain access to a custom built library filled with high quality articles on a range of topics to kick start your communication. - Design once, apply everywhere. BOMA automatically reformats the content and images to fit, whether it’s email or a social media post. No more painful editing in photoshop or calling in the design team. BOMA does it for you. - Share your campaign seamlessly across multiple channels: Email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter. - When your campaign has been delivered you can see how it performed on the insights page. BOMA’s self-drive marketing platform gives you the best functionality to support your business. ***BOMA helps me easily and regularly connect with my clients via email and social media all in one simple but powerful platform – a great time saver.*** Nikki Gilbert Enrich Accounting Australia **Stop wondering how to launch your advisory service and get started today, with tools designed to simplify the process.** ![Spotlight Reporting and Boma brands](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Stephens-Table-3-470x239.png) **[Trial Spotlight Reporting for free](http://www.spotlightreporting.com) [Trial BOMA for free](https://bomamarketing.com/xero/)** **Categories:** Marketing, Business **Tags:** Marketing, Advisory, Accountants, Tools --- ### [What Is GDPR and How Does It Affect My Business?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/technology/what-is-gdpr-and-how-does-it-affect-my-business/) **Published:** May 21, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **What is GDPR?** ***Note: this is a guide only and does not replace any legal advice for your business.*** The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force on 25th May 2018. We look at what it is and why you need to be aware of the changes. The GDPR is a regulation on data protection and privacy for all individuals within the European Union. In fact, it is not a completely new law but an update to the 1995 Data Protection Directive in order to reflect the world we now live in. The changing ways businesses use individual’s data has been an especially hot topic recently. This new regulation aims to make data protection regulations more relevant and comprehensive in today’s world, in order to protect the privacy rights of individuals. The scope of the new regulation is broader and goes well beyond EU borders, which is good reason to ensure your business practices are up to scratch. ## **Who does it affect?** The GDPR covers any company and organisation, regardless of its location, handling personal data of anyone located in the EU. If you’re a business that collects, changes, transmits, erases, uses or stores personal data, including in an email marketing list, this law relates to you. Making changes will result in greater trust, email engagement and better marketing, so it is also good for your business. ## **What is the purpose of the regulation?** The GDPR is designed to protect the rights of individuals around the use of their personal data. The new regulation enhances these rights and includes: - **The right to be informed** – your contacts are entitled to know what data you hold about them and what you are doing with it - **The right to be forgotten** – your contacts can request that their personal data is deleted, and within a timely manner - **The right to objec**t – a contact can object to certain uses of their personal data. - **The right to rectification** – the right to request that data held by an organisation is corrected. - **The right of access** – an individual has the right to know what data is held and processed by you and to receive a copy of the relevant data free of charge - **The right to portability** – the ability to transport their personal data to another company. In short, GDPR is the EU’s way of giving individuals, prospects, clients, contractors and employees more control over, and better access to, their personal data. ## **How does GDPR affect my business?** Even if you are not based in the EU, please consider, together with your legal department or advisors, whether your business will be in the scope of the GDPR when using BOMA. **Data processing**– Companies need to be open, fair and transparent about the processing of an individual’s personal data. As a business, you need to be prepared to tell customers how their data is being used and support requests for amendment or deletion. In most cases, you will not be able to charge an individual for accessing their data, unless you can demonstrate excessive processing costs. ## **To do:** 1. Assess and understand what personal data you hold 2. Have a record of how you obtained it and why 3. Ensure you have processes in place to respond to requests such as access and deletion **Get Consent –** Where companies are relying on consent as the legal basis for processing data, they must obtain individual consent for every usage of personal data including sending emails. That consent must be both specific and verifiable. **Here’s what that means:** **Specific:** Consent must require affirmative ‘opt in’ action, so no pre-checked boxes. Be clear and unambiguous in your request and explain each purpose for which you will use the data*.* **Verifiable:** This means keeping written records of when and how a person agreed to you processing their personal data, so that you are able to provide evidence of compliance for each case. **To do:** 1. Make sure you have consent from individuals to hold their information 2. Communicate clearly and openly and be transparent about why you are collecting information 3. Collect only the information you need, and only keep it for as long as you really need it. 4. Keep a record of what the individual agreed to 5. Inform individuals of their right to withdraw consent in each marketing communication 6. Gain consent from existing contacts and data lists ## **Privacy by Design** GDPR regulations stipulate that businesses must build in data privacy ‘by design’ when developing new systems. You need to be able to demonstrate that you have considered and integrated data compliance measures into your data processing activities, including the consideration of the potential impact, so you can mitigate any privacy issues before they arise. - Review your organisation’s internal processes to ensure they comply and privacy is paramount - Make sure all your employees and co-workers understand the policies **Data Privacy Officer (DPO)** – GDPR will also require some businesses to have a Data Privacy Officer to oversee internal compliance efforts – these include public authorities or organisations who activities involve systematic monitoring of personal data on a large scale. Even if you do not need a formal DPO, you should allocate a suitably senior individual to be responsible for data protection matters. ## **Some GDPR Terminology** **Personal Data** – any information relating to an identifiable living person including name, id number, online identity, location data or information about the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that person. **Data Controller** – determines the purposes and means for processing personal data **Data Processor** is responsible for processing personal data on behalf of a controller but does not control the purposes of processing. ## **More Reading on GDPR** If you’ve not already started your GDPR compliance processes, we’ve written a guide on the key things you’ll need to do as an accountancy or bookkeeping firm. [Read more](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/03/26/dont-panic-gdpr-data-protection-and-how-to-safeguard-client-data/) There’s more guidance on meeting your GDPR requirements and easy checklists [on the ICAEW website and on the ICO website.](https://www.icaew.com/technical/technology/data/data-protection/general-data-protection-regulations) ## **BOMA & GDPR** We’ve updated our Terms to reflect the requirements of the GDPR. To view our updated terms click on the links below - **[Terms of Service](/legal/terms-of-service/)** - **[Privacy Policy](/legal/privacy-policy/)** - **[Website Cookie Notice](/legal/website-cookie-policy/)** - **[App Cookie Notice](https://bomamarketing.com/legal/boma-app-cookie-notice/)** **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Technology **Tags:** GDPR, SMB, EU --- ### [How to Get More Referrals for Your Business](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/small-business/how-to-get-more-referrals-for-your-business/) **Published:** May 22, 2018 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** It’s no secret that the best marketing tool that ever existed is word of mouth. It costs nothing and spreads like wildfire. A successful, professional accounting practice often acquires most of their customers via referrals from their existing customer base. And it’s easy to understand why. For a small business, choosing the right financial partner is a big decision. As their advisor, you’ll have intimate knowledge about their company and often their personal financial goals also. So trust and an established reputation are key. Consumer proof is one of the strongest tools to give new leads the reason to move their business to your firm. And it is way more powerful for someone else to sing your praises than if you try to convey this yourself. In research by [Hinge Marketing](https://hingemarketing.com/uploads/hinge-guide-rethinking-referral-marketing.pdf), 87% of participants said they ask friends or colleagues when they are looking for an accountant. And in [Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising Report](http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports/2015/global-trust-in-advertising-2015.html) 83% of the global respondents say they completely or somewhat trust the recommendations of friends and family. But building a network and getting more referral using the old methods of attending events or joining multiple business boards can be time-consuming and inefficient. ![business network event](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/AdobeStock_141432552-450x300.jpeg) ## We look at new ways to simplify the process and up your referral business ## **1. First do great work** The better your service and delivery is for your existing clients, the more likely they will sing your praises to others. This might be as simple as improving your client communication and responding quickly to queries. Make sure you are also communicating with your clients about the work you are doing. Bringing your client into the process is empowering for them and may serve to highlight the issues you continue to solve for them, while they get on with the day to day management. ## **2. Are you ready for new business?** Assess your current capacity and work out whether you are ready to give the level of service that the new client is expecting. If your current systems and structures will suffice, it may be that all you need is an internal understanding on priorities, for when the workflow increases. ## **3. Identify the clients you would like to replicate** Good clients bring more good clients. [Researchers from Goethe University Frankfurt and the University of Pennsylvania](http://www.slideshare.net/pooya-rajamand/jm-referral-programsandcustomervalue) found that a German Bank’s referred customers were not only 18% less likely to leave the bank, but they also delivered 25% higher profit margin. The study concluded that because clients referred similar businesses who they thought would be a good fit, the bank was able to quickly understand and meet the needs for these new customers. ## **4. All you have to do is ask** According to [Texas Tech](http://today.ttu.edu/posts/2018/05/close-referral-gap), 83% of satisfied customers are willing to refer a product or service but only 29% do. So it may be as simple as asking your clients to refer others to you. Identify the best times to have this conversation. Perhaps when you have just successfully got them through year end. You may want to start the discussion with a comment about how much you enjoy working with them on their business and then ask if they know of similar businesses who are looking for your services. It may not be obvious to your client that the simple act of sharing your name with others would be hugely appreciated by you, so let them know and they are likely to be very happy to do so. ## **5. Say Thank You** From a simple phone call or handwritten note, to taking them out for lunch. Showing your appreciation for the referral (whether you end up with a new client or not) is great for your relationship and will also encourage them to refer you again. ## **6. Social proof** [89% of customers begin their purchase with an internet search](http://fleishmanhillard.com/2012/01/news-and-opinions/2012-digital-influence-index-shows-internet-as-leading-influence-in-consumer-purchasing-choices/) and this also includes your referred clients, who will check you out online before making contact. Make sure you provide evidence for the great recommendation you received. Add quotes from satisfied clients to your home page. You can do this in a number of ways: - When you thank your client for passing your details on, the opportunity exists to put that positive endorsement online. Ask for a testimonial, that you can include in the front page of your website. If they are not sure what to say or pushed for time, don’t write it for them but be prepared to have a couple of thoughts to help make the process easier. - Offer a case study of their successful business in your blog – which gives them exposure and broadens your reach to their network. - Ask them to add a review on your [Google Business Listing](http://www.google.co.nz/mybusiness) and on your [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/84082/adding-testimonials-to-the-what-we-do-tab?lang=en) and [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/help/271128916342286?helpref=faq_content) pages. Send a link and step-by-step instructions in your ‘thank you’ email so they can post their comment easily. Your positive social proof will work wonders for your referrals as well as help with your search engine ranking. ## **7. Referral goes two ways** You are in a great position to bring your clients together so refer for your clients too. This is great for their business as well as your relationship and they’ll likely return the favour. ## **8. Build your brand for more referral business** In research by [Hinge Marketing](https://hingemarketing.com/uploads/hinge-guide-rethinking-referral-marketing.pdf), 81.5% of firms said they receive referrals from people they have not worked with directly. These referrals are based purely on your reputation and brand. Thought leadership dramatically improves your marketing efficiency – when you have started to build your reputation in an area, you’ll start to see your referrals business grow. Consider the following steps to build awareness of your expertise: - Start a blog to share insights, useful information and opinion pieces - Build your social media fans and followers through great content and commentary - Find complementary partners to offer your clients something of value, e.g. collaborate on a seminar with a bank, or offer to speak as a guest at an industry event. - Grow your network – share your articles and blogs on social media to grow fans followers and connections - Keep your LinkedIn profile up to date and responsive. ## **9. Incentivise with ‘friend get friend’** More commonly used in retail, friend get friend offers can work in professional services too. For example, you could send your top clients an offer of two hours free of charge to help them plan for the year ahead and include another free advisory session for them to give to a business they know. It’s a small investment that can lead to new revenue for your firm. Your client also feels good about handing the voucher on because it’s like a free gift from them. Having a referral program can bring you high value clients who have higher potential for retention. Like any relationship, a mutual connection and some prior knowledge can help start you off on the right foot. Start by bringing some of the ideas above in to your day-to-day practise. About the author: Liz Studholme is Content Marketing Manager at BOMA **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Tips & Advice, Business **Tags:** WOM, Referrals --- ### [The Essential Guide to Social Media Marketing for Small Business](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/the-essential-guide-to-social-media-marketing-for-small-business/) **Published:** June 19, 2018 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** Social Media is the new word of mouth. The power of social networking is such that the [number of worldwide users has now reached 3.78 billion active social media users in 2021](https://firstsiteguide.com/internet-stats/), which is around a third of the world’s entire population. Through these channels, your small business can reach a broader audience, gain valuable insights and show the human side to your brand. As social media platforms like [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/), [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/?hl=en) and [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/) have become mainstream, businesses have capitalised on the opportunity they provide to build awareness and drive sales. Social media can be an amazing mouthpiece for your brand and should now be an integral tool of your marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll look at the main platforms, why your small business should be on them and what to do on each. Let’s start with some of the reasons why: 1. **Interactivity** – On social media, you can build community in a way that TV, radio or newspapers can’t. If you share an article you have written on [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/), for instance, your reader can comment, share and react. The short messaging app [Twitter](http://twitter.com/) allows users to respond in real time to tweets made by other users like a conversation and photo sharing site, [Instagram](http://www.instagram.com/) allows viewers to post comments. 2. **Improved Search Engine Rankings** – Engaging posts can help drive more traffic to your website, increase your [backlinks](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/05/29/how-to-build-links-for-your-small-business-website/) and build your authority ranking. If you publish content that gives people what they are looking for, they are more likely to link to you. Search engines view these links like a ‘positive vote’ in your favour. 3. **Help build your brand –** Social Media can help to build your [brand identity](https://bomamarketing.com/2017/01/18/an-introductory-guide-to-branding-your-small-business/). You can also show more of your personality here or a ‘behind the scenes’ video of your business which deepens your relationship with your audience. 4. **Potential for viral marketing exposure:** Your message is amplified when people interact with a ‘like’ a ‘retweet’ or a ‘share’. If you catch the imagination of your audience, the word can spread pretty rapidly. 5. **Reputation management:** Your proactive engagement on social can enhance your business’s reputation for customer service. You can respond quickly to your customer’s questions and respond to comments, both positive and negative. 6. **Audience interaction**: Your audience can add reviews and provide feedback or talk to you in real-time. This interaction brings the potential for adding new customers, it also allows you to nurture leads and generate valuable feedback about your products. 7. **Reduce overall marketing costs**: While it can take some time invested, social media channels can be a very cost-effective way to get the word out. If you are using BOMA, you only design your message once and BOMA does the rest to reformat your post for the channels you choose. You can create campaigns in minutes whether it’s a tweet, an update on LinkedIn, a Facebook post or all of these. 8. **Targeted advertising through social media** – Building a strong following takes time so it requires consistent effort to share useful content and build community. Paid advertising that specifically targets your customers is a great way to cut through and support your organic activity. You can target people based on location, demographics, interests, and age and easily measure the performance of your campaign. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Social-Media-Scrabble-with-phone-1-452x300.jpg) ## **What social media channel is best for my small business?** It is worth securing the accounts on the platforms you want to use, but you don’t necessarily need to be on all of them. Take some time to understand the platforms, where your target audience is and which suit you and your product best. We’ve put together a short summary of the main platforms and how you can use them for your small business. ### **Facebook** Facebook is first because it’s the biggest. There are a whopping [2.8 Billion Users Daily](https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/). Facebook started as a friend networking site but has quickly been a place for businesses to talk to customers in a less formal way than their website. In fact, [42% of marketers say Facebook is critical for their business.](https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/) Facebook provides you with a non-selling environment – it’s all about personality, casual endorsement, being a proactive and responsive company. Here are some ideas: - Post about the human side of your business with images of the team or an event you’ve held. - Promote new products and major sales events. - Share long-form content here with a link back to the article on your website. - Advertising – Because Facebook is the biggest, it is also the busiest. Facebook’s algorithm now works to promote friend based connection over business so advertising is now a vitally important tool to achieve your marketing goals. There are[ lots of advertising strategies you can use to build awareness, drive traffic to your website or generate leads. ](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/07/18/not-sure-how-to-advertise-on-facebook-we-break-it-down-for-you/) ### **Twitter** Twitter is strongest with millennials (18-29) and usage drops as age increases. Tweets are limited to 280 characters so they can be stand-alone comments about something topical or you can also use Twitter to introduce and link to a longer article you’ve written. If you are new to Twitter, it’s a great place to follow industry influencers and get a feel for what’s trending. Here are some ideas: - Share clever comments about something in the news. - Introduce and link to a blog post you have written. - Add an entertaining take on industry news. ### **LinkedIn** LinkedIn is a virtual networking event. It’s like the business version of Facebook. The audience is slightly older (61% are 30-64 years old) and they have higher than average incomes. On LinkedIn, you can make connections within or across industry and for this reason the channel is often used for job hunting. You can also have a page for your business so that your employees can link to it. LinkedIn is great for B2B businesses who want to establish their company as a thought leader or industry leader. - Post longer form content here that provides a new take or perspective. - Share posts that are written by others that provide something of value for your audience and introduce with your own comment. ### **Instagram** This platform is mobile rather than desktop and it’s all about photos and videos that provide your viewers with a more personal connection with your brand. 90% of users are under 35 years old but their engagement with brands is high. This is a highly engaging platform when you use the right images. Food, travel, and fashion are perfect for Instagram but images don’t have to be product based, check out FedEx, IBM and HP’s beautiful photos. Consider posting the following: - Post beautiful product shots or images that align with your brand positioning. - Use hashtags to index your posts and make them more searchable or discoverable. - Post ‘real’ images that are more engaging and authentic than stock photography. - Reach [larger audiences with Instagram ad targeting](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/07/18/theres-never-been-a-better-time-to-advertise-your-business-on-instagram-well-show-you-how/). ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/christian-wiediger-598840-unsplash-1-450x300.jpg) ### **Video sharing sites – YouTube, Vimeo and Vine** [64% of consumers make a purchase after watching branded social videos](https://www.forbes.com/sites/miketempleman/2017/09/06/17-stats-about-video-marketing/#72edaa18567f). Video is a very powerful tool for marketing. These sites are great for storytelling, product demos and sharing useful information in a creative way. **YouTube –** The most popular video hosting site, YouTube is free to use and is also the second largest search engine behind Google. Because of its popularity, it can be difficult to rank on this site so the more compelling, useful or entertaining, the better. It’s worth noting also that, YouTube keeps viewers on the channel by serving up another video to watch straight after yours, so this can make it harder to bring your audience back to your website. **Vimeo –** Not as big as YouTube but has more specialised appeal so it can be a great place to reach your niche audience with great quality videos. **Vine –** Vine is a mobile application for short creative videos. Using the in-app camera, users can record videos up to 6 seconds long. Vine is a popular place for comedy, music performance and journalists. For video sharing sites, here are some pointers on what to post: - Demonstrations on product use are great for video. - Share a webinar or podcast. - Use keywords in your video captions to help improve your visibility for people searching. - Include a call to action at the end. - Lots of people watch with the sound turned off so including captions can reinforce your message. ### **Pinterest** Similar to Instagram, Pinterest is all also about image sharing but the two platforms have different uses. Instagram is about sharing your own photos, whereas Pinterest is a place to discover, collect and curate other people’s images. So you will find more photos of people on Instagram and more products on Pinterest. In their own words ‘[People use Pinterest for helpful, inspiring ideas, whether that’s dinner recipes, home renovation tips or the perfect pair of shoes](https://business.pinterest.com/en/audience-demographics-user-stats)’. 70% of pinners are female but 50% of new signs ups are now male. Every pin has a link to the source of the image so you can use your irresistible images to drive traffic back to your website. Here are some ways to use the platform: - Use keywords in your board titles to help people find you. - Write short relevant descriptions for each image. - Add links to your home page or more information on your website. **And there are even more social media channels….** ### **Snapchat** Millennials love the Snapchat mobile app for sending photos, text, images, and drawings. Snapchat allows you to add filters like bunny ears or create crazy images by swapping your face with a friend and then sending it out like a text. Once they are sent, the messages disappear after a few seconds. Brands like Starbucks have successfully launched products in the platform by creating filters for ‘snapchatters’ to use and share with their friends. ### **TikTok** TikTok, known in China as Douyin, is a video-sharing social networking service owned by Chinese company ByteDance. The social media platform is used to make a variety of short-form videos, from genres like dance, comedy, and education, that have a duration from fifteen seconds to one minute. Video creators have all sorts of tools at their disposal: filters as on Snapchat (and later, everyone else); the ability to search for sounds to score your video. Users are also strongly encouraged to engage with other users, through “response” videos or by means of “duets” — users can duplicate videos and add themselves alongside. ## **What Next? Getting Started on Social Media** Choose the platforms you are most comfortable with and dedicate some time each week to explore, post and start building your own community. Unlike your website, social media is fluid and more relaxed. Take an honest open approach and be yourself. You’ll find it easier as you go to create posts and add comments. To help you on your way, we’ve listed a few tips for your social media activity: - **Focus on quality** – One of the best ways to build your following is to give your audience what they are interested in. This can include links to blogs and infographics as well as photos and videos demonstrating your products. - **Avoid the “hard sell”** – Seek to inform and educate your audience first, rather than bombarding them with sales pitches. A “softer” sell approach works best on social media. Let your audience know about sales and other events in conjunction with your overall communication. - **Know your audience** – By using and monitoring the same social media channels as your audience, you can gain insights into what makes them tick: what they like and dislike, the main factors motivating their behaviour. - **Be responsive** – Show you are proactive, listening and keen to help. If you get a message or comment, make sure you respond in a timely manner to thank them or provide solutions. Posts with more engagement also get more visibility. - **Measure your metrics** – Within each platform, you can measure engagement and followers. If you are using BOMA, your campaign insights are collated across all the channels and tools such as Google Analytics can provide data on how your outreach effort is doing in terms of bringing new visitors to your website and increasing conversions. - **Monitor your competitors** – Seeing what your competitors are doing in regards to social media marketing can be helpful in designing your own campaign. Social Media has provided small businesses with an amazing selection of ways to reach prospects and nurture customers. The channels you choose will depend on your business but because they have different audiences and purposes, it’s worth having more than one to deliver on multiple objectives. Once you have your channels set up, let BOMA help manage your communications across multiple social channels – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. BOMA makes sure your message is formatted for the channel you choose. Plus, you get access to a library of high-resolution images to support your marketing messages. Good luck and get social. About the Author: Liz Studholme is the Marketing Content Manager at BOMA. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). Download Our Digital Marketing eBook The Digital Marketing Guide For Accountants & Bookkeepers Get the full picture. This guide tells you everything you need to know about marketing online with easy explanations, tips and simple steps to follow. [Learn More](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-the-small-business-guide/) **Categories:** Social Media **Tags:** Facebook, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Social Media, Twitter, Vimeo, YouTube --- ### [Artificial Intelligence in Accounting - Opportunity or Threat? Infographic](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/technology/artificial-intelligence-opportunity-or-threat-for-your-accounting-practice/) **Published:** June 26, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ![artificial-intelligence-opportunity-or-threat-for-your-accounting-practice-infographic](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Artificial-Intelligence-Opportunity-or-threat-for-your-accounting-practice-large.png) Download Our Digital Marketing eBook The Digital Marketing Guide For Accountants & Bookkeepers Get the full picture. This guide tells you everything you need to know about marketing online with easy explanations, tips and simple steps to follow. [Learn More](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-the-small-business-guide/) **Categories:** Technology **Tags:** Accounting, Artificial Intelligence --- ### [The Newsletter Guide - How to get started and keep it up](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/email-marketing/the-newsletter-guide-how-to-get-started-and-keep-it-up/) **Published:** June 28, 2018 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** A newsletter is a great way to connect with your customers or prospects and it probably sits on your ‘to-do’ list. Here’s a quick guide to help you achieve it. ## **Who are you sending it to?** Before you start, consider your audience. Talk to them directly, as you would if you saw them in person. Your communication with customers and prospects builds on their relationship with your brand. So be human in your communications with them. The result will not only be more engaging, you are also more likely to send them something that is ‘them focussed’ not ‘you focussed’. ## **Subject line** This is the first thing your recipient will see, so make sure you are inviting them to open your email. Try to stay away from obvious titles such as ‘July Newsletter’. In fact, emails including the word ‘newsletter’ in the subject line are less likely to be opened. In a email marketing study by Adestra, that compared open rates based on subject line, the emails headed ‘Newsletter’ saw a 40% decrease in click through rate. Other [studies](http://www.convinceandconvert.com/content-marketing/a-marketers-guide-to-the-perfect-headline/) have shown that 35% of email recipients open emails based on the subject line alone. Try a more engaging heading or be clear about the benefit you offer in the email. **Here’s a tip**: Use the email content to create a title. Choose the most compelling point of the email and create your heading. ## **Preview text** Most email inboxes are set up to preview the content of the email. If you add nothing here, your recipients will see the first few of lines of copy which may not make sense*.* Using digital marketing software will allow you to write up a short preview that your readers will see first. It only needs to be a couple of lines but it gives them a teaser and should convince them to open your email. ## **The body copy** Break it down into scannable sections. You will find it easier to write and your audience can zero in on the information they are most interested in. Use a template to break up your text with images. If this is your first newsletter, the format you create can be the framework for the next one – making the whole process easier. Here are some ideas to include in your newsletter: - **Greeting** – open the newsletter in a personal way. Keep it short and sweet and don’t be afraid to be different, such as starting with a question or a strong statement. - **Product news** – promote and describe the key benefits. - **Special offer** – include an offer that is exclusive to these customers. - **Case studies** – you could link to a blog on your website showcasing your satisfied and happy customers. - **Stories from your business** – Tell them about a cause you support or introduce a new member to the team. - **Lifestyle** – a great holiday read, a recipe using your products, tips for work-life balance. - **Important information** – Let customers know if your business is closed over a holiday period or advise them of changes to deliveries etc. - **Call to actions and social icons** – add a call to action to encourage your recipient to visit your page, buy something or contact you and include links to your social pages to help build your community of followers. ## ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/illustration-content-design-283x300.png) ## **Design and images** Bring your company branding to the fore by including your logo and background colours. Your email is not the same as a print brochure but images do sell. Including images will make your email more engaging to the reader. Don’t overdo it but use a couple to break up the text. For longer form content you can add a ‘**Read More**’ button or use a link included in the sentence that directs readers back to a blog or news page on your website. ## **Follow the rules** If you are sending your email to a large group of contacts make sure you have your contacts’ permission to email them. Your email always needs to include an **unsubscribe** link in the bottom of the email and it’s also a good idea to tell them why they are receiving it. ## **Send a test** Finally, before you send it out to your clients and prospects, send a test to yourself and someone in the office. Do a final read through to check grammar and spelling are correct and you are ready to go. Well done. There is one less thing on your ‘To-do’ list! [BOMA’s](https://bomamarketing.com/) easy to use App makes designing your email simple. Choose from our selection of beautiful email templates or design your own using our email editor. BOMA’s emails are mobile responsive ensuring your newsletter is perfectly formatted for whatever device it is read on. About the Author: Liz Studholme is the Marketing Content Manager at BOMA. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). Download Our Digital Marketing eBook The Digital Marketing Guide For Accountants & Bookkeepers Get the full picture. This guide tells you everything you need to know about marketing online with easy explanations, tips and simple steps to follow. [Learn More](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-the-small-business-guide/) **Categories:** Email Marketing --- ### [Start the New Financial Year off Well for Marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/start-the-new-financial-year-off-well-for-marketing/) **Published:** July 2, 2018 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** Whatever your plans are for the year ahead, communication with clients and prospects will be one of them. At BOMA, we’ve compiled an easy guide for making sure your marketing is in tip-top shape. You will probably be able to tick many of these steps off already or use the guide to help get you started. So here goes.. Technology has shaken things up a bit across industries. In accountancy and bookkeeping, the software has taken over much of the compliance work, leaving firms under pressure to add value and offer more advisory services. Marketing has also changed. The good news is that digital marketing has, in fact, made it easier and cheaper than ever to reach out to prospective customers and engage with your existing clients. The bad news is that if you’re not taking advantage of that you’re being left behind. But with a bit of a plan, you can make this year your best year yet. ## **Brand – who are you and what are you really selling?** When you have established what is it that you do better than your competitors, and why they prefer you to anyone else, try to clearly and concisely articulate it. This is your brand proposition, and it will form the basis of, and help, every future marketing decision you make. By analysing exactly what makes your company stand out from its competitors, and how the company really benefits consumers, you’ll be able to establish your point of difference. This involves a bit of internal work. Think beyond the function of your product to the problem you are solving for clients and customers. Maybe you are: - the cash flow king - the trade specialist - the small business wizard. It’s all about promoting your advisory niche to establish yourself as a thought leader for that specific area of expertise. ## **Establishing your advisory niche** This takes time but if you continue to share a new insight, commentary and advice that proves your worth, you will become the ‘go-to person for that area. Practical advice and ‘know how’ on the industry-specific tools like [**Tradify**](https://www.tradifyhq.com/features/), will set you apart from your competitors. ## **Getting the message out there** Start writing, sharing and talking about your firm’s capabilities and expertise. Great content is useful, interesting or even entertaining for your audience. Here are some ideas: 1. Set up a regular blog post 2. Reach out to influencers in the area and collaborate on content 3. Speak at an event 4. Grow your network using Facebook, Linkedin and /or Twitter to connect with others and add commentary 5. Be prepared to get out there, share your opinion pieces with online and printed publications 6. Offer a different and new opinion. ![website marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/galymzhan-abdugalimov-181-unsplash-e1530497311161-449x300.jpg) ## **Brush up your website** Research shows that [89% of customers begin their purchase with an internet search](http://fleishmanhillard.com/2012/01/news-and-opinions/2012-digital-influence-index-shows-internet-as-leading-influence-in-consumer-purchasing-choices/). Even your referred clients will check out your website first. [A study by Hinge Marketing found that 43.6% of referrals won’t get in touch](https://hingemarketing.com/blog/story/referral-marketing-and-your-professional-services-brand) if your website isn’t clear about how you can help them. Make sure you put your firm’s best foot forward. **Is your home page compelling** – Keep it simple and put your 3-second pitch here stating clearly what you offer and why they should choose you. **Mobile responsive** – More people now view websites from a mobile than a desktop machine. So your website needs to be ‘responsive’ – in other words, it must automatically resize and reformat when viewed on a mobile device. If it’s not already, make this a priority for your business. **Let others do the talking** – Testimonials from your clients build trust and build credibility (and they also raise the profile of your client’s business too). Before you approach your clients, think about the areas you would like them to endorse you for, so you can discuss this with them – this will help them in coming up with a comment too. **Draw attention** – Use visually interesting images that represent your products and services. Include images of the team in the About Us section. *“Do the basic things well you’ll have a highly effective website that will set you apart from the ordinary. Business owners often put off attempting to improve their websites but if you review your site and make these recommended changes you’ll see good increases in the time people spend on your site, the number of pages they view and ultimately more leads and then it’s over to you to woo them as clients.”* Grant Johnson, Co-founder at Rocketspark ## **Use email marketing** Email marketing allows you to quickly (and inexpensively) communicate with your clients and prospects to share advice and insight, and in the process, grow your service offering and your client base. Email is still one of the most effective ways to communicate with your clients and prospects. In fact, [77% of us prefer to get messages delivered by email ](https://marketingland.com/77-percent-of-us-want-to-get-marketing-messages-via-email-theres-no-close-second-place-study-says-9420)over any other channel. Design your emails around information that is specific to the unique business challenges of your existing clients or the clients you are looking for. Great email marketing provides something of value for your audience (like giving free advice) and it puts you in a position of ‘trusted authority’. This is a great position to be in when they start looking for an advisory partner. ![content-library-smb@2x](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/content-library-smb@2x-308x300.png) ## **Embracing social media** Social Media is the new word of mouth. It’s a great way to reach a broader audience, amplify your message and establish your thought leadership. Here’s a brief summary of the main channels, and what to post: **Facebook –** The most dominant channel by far. Facebook provides you with a non-selling environment – it’s all about personality, casual endorsement and being a proactive, responsive company. - Post about the human side of your company with images of the team or an event you’ve held. - Share long-form content here too with a link back to the article online or your website. - Facebook Ads – Ads allow you to reach a defined target audience, that is more likely to be interested in your message and may not see it otherwise. You can reach more people, promote products or offers and direct people through to your website. **LinkedIn –** LinkedIn is the business version and helps you get in touch with others within an industry or across the industry. Create a page for your business and make sure your team link to it. On LinkedIn, the opportunity exists to be a thought leader in your areas of expertise. - Post longer form content here that provides a new take or perspective - Share posts that are written by others that provide something of value for your audience and introduce with your own comment. **Twitter –** Twitter is all about micro-posts on topical issues. They can be stand-alone comments but you can also use Twitter to share and comment on an article you’ve read online or add your opinion on something newsworthy. If you are new to Twitter, it’s a good place to follow industry influencers and get a feel for what’s trending. - Share clever comments about topical issues. - Introduce and link to a blog post you have written - Add an entertaining take on industry news. **Instagram –** Instagram is about beautiful images. While it is well suited to product-based businesses, there are plenty of examples of the service industries doing beautiful Instagram feeds. Images can reflect values, personality or causes you care about and sponsor. Look at GE or FedEx. - You can create ads on Instagram in the same way as Facebook. Instagram users are a highly engaged audience. 60% say they discover new products on the platform and 75% take action after being inspired by a post according to [a survey of users.](https://business.instagram.com/) **Social media for business is about community** Social media is about relationships with others. Think about what your audience is really interested in, you are there to give first, sell second. So, while your end goal may be promotion, you are doing this in a way that is useful, engaging, informative or entertaining. The more engaging your posts and tweets are the more likely your message with be shared. TIP*:*[ *BOMA*](https://bomamarketing.com/features/) *reformats and delivers your campaign to the channels you choose. Email, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram – all from one easy to use platform.* ## **Create a plan for your content marketing** Creating a plan at the beginning of a new financial year will make your marketing a lot easier, particularly in busy periods. Plus, if your plan is based on creating content for the topics within your advisory niche, you’ll find it a lot easier to achieve your marketing goals and each communication will build on the last. Create a list of topics to cover so that you always have inspiration. Here are some ideas to get you started: - Advice, guidance and new compliance rules - Industry updates - Look at industry publications both online and printed for ideas on topical issues - Events – have you been to something recently or is there something coming up? - Frequently asked questions – What questions have you been asked recently? Chances are the answers to a question asked by one client, will be useful and relevant to another. - Profiles of your customers (this gives them valuable exposure too). Share their story and how you have helped their business - News from your firm - Newsletter, this can be a combination of the topics above Finally, put some dates in the diary. Decide how often you want to send an email out. Some of this will depend on time and resource. With a plan, the task is easier. And once you get started, you’ll be able to establish what works and what doesn’t. **And on that note …** Let’s look at how to work out what works and what doesn’t! ![ROI coins](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/steve-johnson-628975-unsplash-e1530497725482-450x300.jpg) ## **Return on investment – measuring your activity** Digital marketing is much more measurable than traditional marketing but you do need to start with your business goals. Work out what you want to achieve and that will tell you what you need to measure. There are lots of ways to analyse the effectiveness of your marketing: 1. **Website traffic and engagement** – with a tool like[ Google Analytics](https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/) you’ll be able to see how many visitors come to your website and from where. You can also look at how long they stay, what they look at and what they do. You’ll be able to see what pages are doing well and which pages might need more work. If your goal is more enquiry, measure the calls and emails you get. 2. **Email engagement** – Email marketing with useful content is a way of nurturing contacts and allowing them to come to you when the time is right for them. So unless your email asks directly for a sale, the return might be a slower burn and the result of an iterative process. In BOMA, look at open rates and click rates. 3. **Social Media likes and followers** – If your post on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn is engaged with, it gets more exposure and encourages more followers and likes. 4. **Growth of your client base** – And are they the clients you are wanting to attract? If not, tweak the messaging. 5. **Feedback from your clients** – Don’t be afraid to ask your clients what they think, they may also give you inspiration for future content. Most of the time your metrics will confirm what you know already, but they will help shape the direction your content takes. Over time you will build a picture on what content works and what doesn’t. It’s important to note that content marketing is about building relationships and sharing something of value with your audience. So take a long and broad view. Your new client may have contacted you as a result of a number of marketing initiatives e.g. they may have talked to you at an event, visited your site and received an interesting email. All of these things combine to build their knowledge of you and your firm. Phew! Well, that’s the basics. We hope that the year ahead is the best year yet for your business. Good luck and go forth! **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Marketing --- ### [Not Sure How to Advertise on Facebook? We Break It Down for You](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/not-sure-how-to-advertise-on-facebook-we-break-it-down-for-you/) **Published:** July 18, 2018 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** We are delving into Facebook advertising in this blog post. For many businesses, Facebook is your main social platform. It’s the biggest by far in terms of users, with over 2 billion people active each month. Its popularity makes it a great place to showcase your brand but it also means that it can be harder to get your posts in front of the people you want to target. Facebook ads support your organic posts and allow you to reach more people, promote products or offers and direct people through to your website. If you have dabbled in Facebook advertising you will know that there are a number of ways to spend your marketing budget. But which is the best way and how do you do it? To start with it’s important that you are creating regular posts for your social media feeds to engage with your followers and build a community. Once you start advertising you will bring new prospects to your website and social pages so you’ll want to make sure that both are providing them with something that’s relevant, up-to-date and worth their while. ## **Building organic growth and brand awareness** Growing the numbers of customers and prospects that follow or like your business page on Facebook gives you a strong communication channel for future marketing messages and conversations. There are many ways to do this and a combination of the options below will help boost your social presence: 1. **Share your page on your own personal Facebook timeline** – Ask friends and family to connect and support you. In your post, ask them to like the page and share it with others. To share your page, click on the **Share** button below your cover photo. 2. **Invite your Facebook friends** – Click on **Community** in the left hand column and then find friends by typing in their name or selecting **invite** beside their names. Don’t be afraid to ask friends to also share it with their friends, who maybe interested in your business. 3. **Post more often** – The more activity on your page the higher your visibility and potential engagement with your followers. Make sure it’s relevant and useful for your audience so they’re more likely to spread the word by commenting or sharing it. 4. **Engage with other Facebook pages** – Link and comment on other people’s or businesses’ posts. By engaging with a variety of content you broaden your reach and reach new audiences. 5. **Respond to people who comment** – Make sure you’re listening and willing to solve problems, share information or thank the people who interact with you. Position yourself as customer focussed and proactive. ![facebook post of event](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/AdobeStock_182152131-e1531708904951-450x300.jpeg) Your organic social media activity, (sharing blog posts, images, comments, news, events, videos etc) is what gives you the long term presence. Advertising builds your reach by expanding it and growing your online presence more quickly. There are two main ways to do this: ## **1. Boosted posts** This is often the first thing people do on Facebook. For many, this is because Facebook prompts you to do this. If you have a well performing post, Facebook will often tell you how many more people you can reach with the same post by putting some budget into reaching a broader audience. Boosted posts can help get more people to like, share and comment on the post you have created. They can help drive more followers of your page if the content in your post appeals. From within the platform boosting a post is relatively easy. Decide on a budget, audience and a timeframe. Your post remains on your feed but will drop down as you post more. While boosted posts are relatively straightforward, they are not as action orientated as Facebook ads. Ads provide for a more customised promotion and can better deliver on your goals. So, here’s the low down on using ads.. ## **2. Facebook ads** Advertising on Facebook gives you lots of options, with a range of tools to place your message in front of a targeted audience. Facebook ads don’t sit in your Facebook page posts, instead they are delivered around the Facebook platform to ensure people see them. They will be from your page and branded as you, but they appear in many places across Facebook’s platforms. Facebook ads can be seen in more places such as: - **Feeds** – The news and updates that an individual sees when they go on Facebook. Ads in the Facebook feed perform well across a range of marketing objectives from reach and brand awareness to traffic and engagement or for event responses. - **Instant Articles** – Within the Facebook app and Messenger, Instant Articles are Facebook’s solution to ensure articles load quicker and therefore have lower abandonment and higher click through. - **In the right column** – Your ad appears to the right hand side of the main feed when viewed on a desktop. - **In the Marketplace** – Facebook Marketplace is for buyers and sellers. Your ad is seen on desktop and mobile when people are browsing. If you have a short time offer such as a sale, competition or an event, your ad will promote it for the period of time you specify. When your campaign is finished, it simply stops being delivered and seen. For more information on how ad placements deliver on your marketing goals visit the [Facebook Business Help Centre](https://www.facebook.com/business/help/279271845888065?helpref=faq_content) ## **Creating a Facebook ad** The key thing in Facebook advertising is to keep your ads concise and focused. Your goal is to encourage someone to click through to your website in order to buy something, learn more, download a white paper or get a call back etc. Make sure your ad is visually appealing, the offer is easy to understand and motivating. Bring your value proposition to the fore – this means telling people the solution you provide and why you do it better than others. Include a call to action and make sure that the page they land on, is consistent with the ad. Use of striking images or video is a great way to catch your audience’s attention. You can capture these on your phone but make sure that the image quality is high. Choose from a number of creative formats such as: - Photos of products or a carousel of images that each have a different message, call to action and link. - Videos that promote an offer or share a great customer testimonial. And remember, it may take some time to find out what works so commit to trialling different ad formats, messages and audience targeting to see what drives the most engagement. ## **Choosing a target audience** The audience you reach can be as broad or narrow as you like. If you are a local business, promoting locally will allow you to reach people in the areas around your business and make your marketing budget work harder in a concentrated area. Targeting interests is a good way to broaden your reach. To do this effectively you need to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. It’s important to remember that Facebook is where your customers are. But they are not necessarily looking for you. So you need to find them based on their profile and interests. This is different to Search Engine Marketing, where your audience is already looking for your product. Your strategy in SEM is to bid on keywords to make sure you gain a higher ranking than your competitor in search results. By contrast, on Facebook, your audience is not necessarily searching for your products and services so you need to target them based on ‘who they are and what they are into’ not ‘who you are’. Let’s look at an example: If you are a builder who specialises in home renovations, your Facebook targeting might include interests like ‘design’, ‘home and garden’, ‘family’ etc. Targeting ‘residential builder’ might be more likely to find people who are looking to work in the industry. You can also specify an age range (anything between 13 and 99 years) and gender, to improve your outreach further. ## **Setting your budget** Set a budget based on the needs of your business. The exact cost of showing your ad to someone in your audience will be determined by an auction system and Facebook will not spend over the maximum budget you set. Over the time period of your campaign you can work out a total spend in advance and then use this to establish your return on investment. Lastly all Facebook advertising is charged in US dollars. ![thumbs up symbol Facebook](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/AdobeStock_64449915-e1530685387168-450x300.jpeg) ## **Measuring your success** Digital advertising has the unique advantage of being totally measurable. Depending on your advertising goal, you can measure the results of your campaign based on the actions it resulted in. Take your total campaign spend and divide by the total number of visitors that clicked on it to give you the Cost per Click (CPC). Or look at Cost per Conversion (CPCo) to see how many people successfully met a goal you set, e.g. downloaded something, requested a callback or filled out a form on your website. If some ads performed better than others, compare the creative, the offer and the target audience you used. This information will help you to better understand your audience and the content that is most likely to deliver on your marketing goals. ## **Add the Facebook Pixel to your website** Installing the Facebook Pixel to the landing pages of your website allows you to see when a customer took action after seeing your Facebook Ad. If you have access to the code of your website you can do this yourself following [Facebook’s guide](https://www.facebook.com/business/help/952192354843755) or enlist the help of a developer. The pixel helps you understand what’s driving traffic and it also means that Facebook gets better at delivering your ads to an audience who are more likely to take action. ## **Social Ads in BOMA** You can create [Facebook](https://bomamarketing.com/features/growth/facebook-advertising/) and [Instagram](https://bomamarketing.com/features/growth/instagram-advertising/) ads via the BOMA app, alongside organic posts on your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter pages plus the ability to send email campaigns. BOMA delivers your ad direct to Facebook and Instagram, keeping all your digital marketing under one roof! When your campaign is underway you can look at the performance insights on likes, shares and clicks to understand the effectiveness of your ads. About the Author: Liz Studholme is the Marketing Content Manager at BOMA. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Social Media --- ### [12 Digital Marketing Buzzwords You Need to Know](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/digital-marketing/12-digital-marketing-buzzwords-you-need-to-know/) **Published:** July 30, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** From the cosmetics industry to construction, every discipline develops its own language, a shorthand that practitioners use to describe processes and products. Digital marketing is especially full of jargon and buzz-words, adding to its complexity and accessibility. So we’ve created an easy list of useful terms. Once you understand the terminology you’ll be ready to move on to the next level, using some of these techniques to grow your business! ## **Content Marketing** Content marketing is all about creating and sharing useful information with the aim of developing ‘leads’ or prospects. Your ‘content’ can be text, audio and visuals. And you share it via your website, through email and on your social media channels. Examples include blog articles, infographics, e-books, podcasts, and videos. Great content is designed to ‘give first and sell second’. It offers something of value, generates interest or provides useful information. Content marketing can build brand awareness, bring traffic to your site, generate new leads, convert prospects and improve retention of existing customers. ## **Social Media** While sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram typically come to mind, there are dozens of other [social media networks](https://makeawebsitehub.com/social-media-sites/), each with a unique purpose and user base. Social media platforms allow you to make online connections through the sharing of ideas and content with other users. Your social media pages are more relaxed and fluid than your website and provide an opportunity to engage with your customers and build a community. Advertising on social media platforms is a great way to reach a highly targeted audience. [Here’s a more in-depth look at social media.](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/06/19/the-essential-guide-to-social-media-marketing-for-small-business/) ## **Lead Gen** Short for lead generation, this is the process of [identifying and developing quality leads](https://bomamarketing.com/2017/01/18/how-to-nurture-your-customers-from-first-contact-to-sale/) (your prospective customers). This should form the basis of your marketing strategies – in other words, methods for attracting people that you can convert into customers. Lead Gen techniques include boosting followers on social media, offering a downloadable guide or e-book with an email address, directing traffic to [landing pages](https://bomamarketing.com/features/growth/landing-pages/) to build email contact lists. ## **Sales Funnel** The funnel is a way to describe the sales process from prospect to customer. The process, represented by an inverted pyramid, is divided into various stages from awareness of your brand through engagement/decision and then to a sale. Successful marketing works to combat a ‘leaky sales funnel’ where leads are lost before they can be converted to customers. Understanding how many prospects convert to customers will also give you a guide for your marketing campaigns, i.e. how many prospects you need to reach to meet your marketing objectives. ![sales funnel diagram](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/AdobeStock_129085602-3-1-1-450x300.jpg) ## **SEO** [Search Engine Optimisation](https://bomamarketing.com/2017/01/19/why-small-businesses-need-to-improve-their-seo-game/) (SEO) involves improving your website’s visibility or ranking on search engines, this includes optimising your website using content, keywords, metadata and design to make it more appealing to the search engine bots that crawl the internet to provide the best results for people. In digital marketing terms, organic search engine optimisation is free. The techniques involved are all about improving your online presence so that customers can easily find you without requiring paid advertisements or boosted posts on social media. While it is ‘unpaid’ it can involve resources and time to write blog posts, update web pages and manage social media accounts. [Find out more about SEO](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/06/06/easy-seo-tips-for-your-small-business-in-5-minutes/). ## **SERP** The search engine results page is the list of results you see after typing in a query online. The aim of SEO techniques is to increase your prominence on page 1 of these results. [Research carried out by Caphyon](https://moz.com/blog/google-organic-click-through-rates-in-2014) found that the first page on Google received 71.33% of organic traffic, pages two and three a mere 5.59% and pages six to ten only 3.73%. ## **Keywords** Keywords are the words that a person types into search engines to find something online. The more relevant the information on your website is, in relation to that search term, the higher you rank on search results page. You can build keywords into your web pages, blog posts, and other content as part of ‘search engine optimisation’ to improve your ranking on search engines and help prospective clients find you online. The best way to do this is to make sure you have well-written text that describes your products or services and the solutions they provide your customers. You can also write guides, advice, commentary and information that relates to your product – this is a natural way to include your keywords without forcing them into the web text. ## **Long tail keywords** Long tail keywords are simply keyword phrases typed into a search bar by someone. They tend to be much more specific than a one-word search and therefore easier to achieve a higher ranking on, e.g. ‘furniture’ will be highly competitive but ‘mid-century modern dining table’ would be easier and give you a more highly engaged audience. Long tail keywords deliver less traffic but they are much more targeted and therefore their conversion rate can be higher. ## **PPC** PPC (Pay-per-Click) or paid search involves paying search companies (usually Google, given their dominance in search) to list ads above and below organic search results. You pay to access these positions by bidding on the keywords that are relevant to your business and that people are searching for. The more relevant the better, for example, a jewellery retailer is more likely to reach motivated buyers bidding on the keyword combination ‘buy gold hoop earrings online’ than the much broader ‘jewellery’. The more popular and competitive a keyword is, the more expensive it will be to bid on. However, it’s worth noting that your ad’s position is based on more than just the amount you are prepared to pay. Google also takes into account your landing page quality and relevance, plus your click-through rates. So the work you do in optimising your website, the landing pages that your ads link through to and it’s overall SEO score will help give you a better return when you invest in PPC activity. ## **Impressions** The number of impressions is simply the number of times your online advertisement is seen. Each ad view counts as one impression. Impressions are not measured by the number of unique users, but rather how many times your ad or page is displayed and seen. **CPM** (Cost per thousand impressions) can be used as a pricing model for digital advertising as well as a reporting metric. ## **Remarketing** Many of the visitors to your site will visit and leave before they complete a sale. In 2017 research company, Statistica found that [77% of online shoppers abandoned their cart ](https://www.statista.com/statistics/457078/category-cart-abandonment-rate-worldwide/)before purchasing and that statistic goes up to 81.8% in the finance industry. Remarketing is an online marketing practice that allows your website to reach out to visitors who have already visited your site and left, or performed an action that added their information to your database. Remarketing is a tactic that aims your ads at this audience when they are searching elsewhere. ## **Cookies** Cookies come from websites you browse and are stored on your computer so that the next time you visit, it can remember small amounts of data. The main purpose of a cookie is to make things easier. Cookies can allow for items you had out in a shopping cart to be remembered when you return to the website. Cookies are also used for remarketing. For more on Digital Marketing visit our [marketing resources](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/) page. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Digital Marketing, Tips & Advice **Tags:** Tips, Digital Marketing --- ### [Marketing Advisory Services and Business Growth - Woottons Chartered Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/user-success-stories/marketing-advisory-services-and-business-growth-woottons-chartered-accountants/) **Published:** August 13, 2018 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** Chartered Accountancy Firm, [Woottons](http://www.woottons.com.au) has been around for a few years. In fact the doors opened over 60 years ago and as the accounting industry has changed, Woottons have worked hard to adapt and evolve in order to continue to provide clients with the best guidance and advisory services. Woottons prides itself on the relationships with clients, some of which have been with the firm for over 50 years. The firm was looking for ways to further support these clients by regularly sharing useful advisory content. [Luke Sawyer](https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-sawyer-au/) explains ‘*Woottons has been around for some time and we realised that to continue to grow and stay relevant we needed to communicate with our clients across the breadth of our expertise, but in our early efforts, the time spent writing and formatting great content was taking us away from our critical core tasks’.* Marketing had always been on the busy firm’s ‘to-do’ list, not only as a way to add value and communicate efficiently with their existing client base but for client growth also. The firm are seeing new work coming in for self-managed super fund clients and identified this new client base as a growth area for the firm. Woottons wanted to build awareness in the local area with an audience that is often unfamiliar with accounting. Luke says, *‘In the past we hadn’t done much digital marketing (just the odd email), It was often a very labour intensive process to make sure that the message we wanted to send, looked professional and would be delivered and displayed in the way that we intended.’* The BOMA team first met Luke at Xerocon Melbourne 2017 and he immediately saw the benefits of a platform which brings multiple communication channels together including Email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. This means that emails, social posts and ads can be created easily from one place and distributed with a couple of clicks. BOMA’s intuitive platform delivers a campaign to the right channel in the right format. *‘BOMA was exactly what a firm like ours was looking for. At Woottons we want to be sure that we can communicate with clients and prospects, no matter what channel they prefer to use, BOMA has helped us achieve this.’* Users also gain access to a [library of articles](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/xero-content-library/) in BOMA, that can be used to create an email or a social post. The articles are curated specifically for Accountants and Bookkeepers. *‘Being able to choose the content is a great time saver, it really only takes minutes to push something out to our different channels‘* And for Woottons, the content library has given them the confidence to start posting on social media. Every communication looks professional and is consistent with the Woottons’ brand. *‘We had been reluctant to create Facebook and Twitter accounts because of the extra work required to maintain each channel but BOMA pushes the campaign that we create for email, out to our social pages too and it’s formatted correctly. It’s an effective marketing tool that is easy to use.’* Woottons are embracing the ability to support and share insights with their client community through BOMA. We reckon the business is well placed to continue thriving for the next 60 years. [www.woottons.com.au](http://www.woottons.com.au) **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Success Stories **Tags:** Advisory, Accountants, Accountant, case study --- ### [Using Digital Marketing to Grow your Accounting or Bookkeeping firm with BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/digital-marketing/using-digital-marketing-to-grow-your-business-with-boma/) **Published:** August 15, 2018 **Author:** Anna Lawrence **Content:** If you own or work in an accounting or bookkeeping firm, we know you are flat out. With so much to do and so little time to do it in, there is not a lot of time left to get your head around digital marketing. BOMA was designed for you. Accounting and bookkeeping firms now need to be online to engage with clients. As internet marketing becomes more complex, many firms cannot afford the specialist help that’s required to design, create, distribute and analyse online marketing so we designed an easy-to-use tool that helps do all of that and with ease! Here’s what it does (and we’ll keep it snappy cos we know you don’t have much time!). ## **Let’s start with the challenge** Whatever your business – a gym, a mechanic, a consultancy firm or coffee shop, one of your biggest challenges is attracting and retaining customers. The internet is usually the first place customers go, to search for a product or service. Google alone, processes [over 40,000 search queries](http://www.internetlivestats.com/google-search-statistics/#trend) every second. These search queries may be from your customers who are looking for the product or service that you sell! If you are not already building your brand presence online and engaging with them on social media, you are missing an opportunity. While digital marketing requires a whole new set of skills, the marketing fundamentals are the same: - **Work out what your business stands for.** What differentiates you from your competitors. [Read more about working out your value proposition.](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/07/24/the-key-to-successful-marketing-is-a-unique-selling-point-how-to-create-a-value-proposition/) - **Think about who you are talking to**. Understand what their pain points are and what they are interested in. - **Build connections**. Turn your prospects into loyal customers and even advocates through credibility, authenticity and social proof (positive recommendations from others). BOMA was designed specifically for accounting and bookkeeping firms, to remove the time, cost and complexity from digital marketing. The platform makes it easy to create and send effective marketing campaigns via email and your social channels. Here’s what it does in a nutshell: - You can choose and customise over 300 current and topical articles in [BOMA’s content library](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/content-libraries/) or write your own emails and social posts from scratch. - BOMA brings all your marketing channels into one platform. Design once and share everywhere – Email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter. - Share a blog post you’ve written or an article you’ve read online. Simply paste the link and BOMA creates the campaign for you with images and introductory text for email and social posts. - Create emails and social posts from scratch in minutes. Choose from over [2.9 million searchable and free images](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/image-library/) – or upload your own. - BOMA automatically reformats the content and images to fit the channel, whether it’s email or a social media post. No more painful editing in photoshop or calling in the design team. BOMA does it for you. - Grow your audience with [lead capture forms](https://bomamarketing.com/features/growth/landing-pages/) that capture names and emails for your email marketing, you can also embed them on your website. - When your campaign has been delivered you can see how it performed on each channel on the insights page. Here’s how to get your digital marketing started: ## **1. Who are you talking to?** Digital Marketing always starts with your audience. Upload your email contacts into BOMA using a CSV file. Add tags to your contacts – Not every client, or potential client, is the same and they may not all be interested in the same content. Using tags in BOMA allows you to segment your contact list so that you send information they are genuinely interested in, or surprise them with something they didn’t know, but are glad you told them. If your campaign is not relevant, you increase the chance they won’t open your next email or read the next post. Your tags could be based on their purchase history, interests, location, age, or service need. Sending relevant information that offers something useful will establish you as uniquely positioned to help them. ## **2. Make it easy for people to sign up** Wherever your prospects find you, whether it’s on your website or your social pages, give them the opportunity to sign up for news and updates by providing an easy sign-up. Put this front and centre on your website and your social pages. Make it compelling, Tell them what kind of information you will send and why it will be valuable to them, such as special offers, insider news, useful guides or vouchers. [BOMA’s lead capture form feature](https://bomamarketing.com/features/growth/landing-pages/) allows you to easily create a sign-up form that updates your contact list. ## **3. Gather your followers** Build your social media presence by inviting people to like or follow your page. The more connections you make in social the wider your potential reach for organic posts. When you share something that resonates with your audience, they are more likely to share, comment or like, and this puts you in front of their network. 1. Invite people. Share your page on your own personal Facebook timeline and ask friends and family to connect and support you. Click on **Community** in the left-hand column and then find friends by typing in their name or selecting invite beside their names. 2. Include social icons with links to your pages in your email footer and on your website to encourage people to visit your pages ## **4. Create beautifully branded emails and posts** Every communication you send out builds awareness of your business and represents your brand values through the use of your brand colours, style and tone of voice. Upload your logo and BOMA pulls out the colours to create a theme for your emails. You don’t need to know the colour Hex codes or RGB values! BOMA’s email templates allow you to create amazing professional looking communications. ## **5. Use the image library** No more searching the internet for stock images with creative commons usage rights, or paying for usage rights, the BOMA image library has over 2,900,000 free images to choose from. Just type in your search term and choose from the selection. If you want to customise the image you can do this to – and let your creativity rule with frames, overlays effects, lighting or simply leave it as it is!. [Visual content is more engaging than text alone](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/catriona-pollard/why-visual-content-is-a-s_b_7261876.html), choose an image that is going to appeal to your audience. If you prefer to use your own images you can upload these directly into the editor and customise them as well. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2021-07-21-at-3.09.04-PM.png) ## **6. Grow your brand and reach through content marketing and BOMA’s Content Library** Whereas marketing is about driving sales, [content marketing is about offering prospective clients something that interests them,](https://bomamarketing.com/2019/02/04/the-accountants-and-bookkeepers-guide-to-digital-content-marketing/) is entertaining or will help them. In the long run, it’s still about driving business growth but rather than directly asking for something, you are building relationships and demonstrating you know your readers by providing something of real value. Great content keeps you top of mind in consumers heads so you are the obvious choice. BOMA users get access to a content library filled with over 300 customisable ready-to-share articles filled with insightful articles that are timely, relevant and varied ensuring you always have something to talk about in your emails and social posts to current clients and new prospects. You can also post the articles to your wordpress website via Zapier at the click of a button. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2021-07-21-at-3.20.35-PM.png) ## **7. Get Social** Social media channels such as Facebook may have started as a place for people to keep in touch but the [impact of social media on buying decisions is growing fast.](https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/getting-a-sharper-picture-of-social-medias-influence) On these sites, you can connect with a broader audience and the communication is two-way, unlike the more traditional channels such as newspaper ads or radio. If your posts are liked and shared, they are amplified and you benefit from the word of mouth. This is powerful. That’s why BOMA gives you more than just email marketing. With each campaign, you can reach new and existing clients through email and across all of your social media pages. Simply choose the channel and BOMA will reformat your campaign so it is compatible as an email, a tweet, or a social post! ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2021-07-21-at-3.10.39-PM.png) ## **8. Facebook and Instagram ads** For a relatively small investment, Social ads allow you to target your specific audience. Ads on Facebook and Instagram help to support your organic posts and allow you to place your message in front of a highly targeted audience. You can reach more people, promote products or offers and direct people through to your website. BOMA delivers your ad direct to Facebook and Instagram, keeping all your digital marketing under one roof! ## **9. Send it out or schedule it** Schedule your campaign so that it goes out to your audience at a time that suits your audience, and your business. ## **10. View the insights** Use BOMA’s campaign insights to understand what content resonates. Straight-forward analytics give you a clear picture of what your audience is most interested in, so you can create more of the same. ## **Digital Marketing Made Easy** BOMA helps to supercharge your marketing with multi-channel digital campaigns and there’s no need for any creative or marketing skills. But we are pretty sure you will develop some of these skills in the process. You know your brand and customers best so you are best placed to understand what they would like to hear. When you combine this with the data on how your campaigns performed, you have all the information for engaging and effective digital marketing. So what are you waiting for? Send a campaign today. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a digital marketing tool and content library for Accountants and Bookkeepers. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you over 300 expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Digital Marketing --- ### [Digital Marketing Made Easy For Accountants and Bookkeepers](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/digital-marketing/what-is-digital-marketing-online-marketing-made-easy/) **Published:** August 28, 2018 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** The internet has dramatically changed the way we communicate with each other and this global networking phenomenon has given birth to an entirely new way of reaching clients and customers. The last two decades have been pretty dynamic for marketing. For businesses, this has demanded new skills, but it has also democratised the industry. On the internet, the marketing channels we communicate through are managed by us. There is no TV sales rep or a newspaper agent. Online Marketing has allowed small businesses to compete with big, on smaller budgets and with better performance measurement. For accountants and bookkeepers the internet has given you new tools and that help us communicate, work and learn. Online marketing is now a necessity for your firm. But where do you start? Let’s look at the options… ## **What is digital marketing?** Digital marketing is simply using the internet to reach your target market. This can include optimising your website for search engines, email campaigns, posting on social media and bidding for the top position on search engine results pages. All of which help you to grab the attention of your target audience in order to convert them into consumers. ## **Why should you invest time in digital marketing for your firm?** Your marketing media strategy will be based on your business and your client base. A purely local business will have a different strategy to a global one. Your audience demographics, buyer journey and brand are all important factors in working out what the best media mix is. And often, a combination of traditional and digital marketing tactics will be the best way forward. Here are some of the benefits that are specific to marketing online: 1. **Low cost** – You can reach large audiences for less. While conventional marketing tends to be broadcast, your internet marketing can require less investment to create more customised impact. 2. **Highly targeted communications** – If you are advertising on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, you can set your target audience parameters to reach a specific audience based on their interests, locations, demographics. Paid search campaigns put your website in front of people who are already looking for your product. 3. **Engaged audiences** – As above, your digital marketing campaign can be tailored to the individuals that are already looking for your products and services online – giving you much higher conversion rates. 4. **Flexibility** – sharing news, product updates, new features online can be done relatively quickly without significant resource and often by your in-house team. 5. **Able to overcome geographical barriers** – As millions of people across the world use the internet in some form, it is easier to overcome distance barriers. Without expanding marketing efforts individually in different areas, you can run one campaign across each target market and localise campaigns for different geographic regions 6. **Analytics** – No extra research costs to ascertain how your marketing is working. Digital marketing is very measurable. Your performance statistics are easily available, making it much easier to understand your return on investment. 7. **Multiple marketing options** – the internet has provided for a variety of new advertising tools: email, social media, search engine marketing. You choose the techniques and channels that suit your business and use your insights to guide your next move. ![chess game](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/jeshoots-com-632498-unsplash-e1535413971484-470x194.jpg) ## **Digital marketing tactics** There are lots of digital marketing strategies that cost nothing or very little. It may seem a little overwhelming when you are getting started, so start with what you can manage and build on it. You will learn new skills as you go and become more comfortable engaging with your audience online. Here are some of the ways you can use digital marketing to meet your objectives. - **Email Marketing:** Email marketing is a great way to communicate directly with clients. In fact, [77% of us prefer to get messages delivered by email than any other channel.](https://marketingland.com/77-percent-of-us-want-to-get-marketing-messages-via-email-theres-no-close-second-place-study-says-9420) Once you receive the permission to contact consumers via email, you can send them targeted emails like product releases, sales, useful guides and newsletters. - **Social Media Marketing:** Using platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, you can connect with your consumers, build relationships and promote your products or services. These platforms allow for two-way communication and enquiry. Make sure you are posting regularly and respond to the comments and questions you receive. The more engagement on your page the better. - **Video marketing** – Moving pictures tell a story and research says it is [often the highest performer in terms of return on investment](https://motionbox.io/blog/essential-video-marketing-statistics). Video can be shared across YouTube, Vimeo among others, and on your Facebook and Instagram accounts. - **Search Engine Optimization (SEO):** SEO is the essential practice of improving your website to increase your prominence in search results. When someone types in a query or words into a search engine, search bots crawl the internet and evaluate the information they find in order to deliver high-quality results for people. Search engines rank websites based on about 200 factors. There are lots of things you can do yourself to optimise your website such as having a technically robust and user-friendly site, posting unique content, having popularity and authority (trusted sites link to yours) and use of relevant keywords. [Find out more about SEO](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/06/06/easy-seo-tips-for-your-small-business-in-5-minutes/) - **Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising:** This advertising model allows you to bid on keywords that are specific to your product and target market. You can pay search engines and social media channels to create ads and promote your brand, allowing people to click to visit your website or a specific landing page. Your ad will appear alongside search results on search engines like Google and you only pay when someone clicks on the ad. - **Search Engine Marketing (SEM):** SEM actually is the umbrella term for all internet marketing that increases your visibility in search results and it includes SEO. However, the term is often is used to refer to paid search tactics. - **Influencer Marketing:** Like social media marketing, influencer marketing is a growing trend in the world of online marketing. Brands collaborate with social media influencers to promote products to their audiences. Influencers like fashion and beauty vlogger, YouTuber, Zoe Sugg has over 10 million Instagram followers. Finding an influencer whose content is relevant to your products can help connect a much wider audience with your products through endorsement. - **Affiliate Marketing:** This tactic is where an online business pays a commission to an affiliate for promotion. Affiliate marketing is based on the performance measures of sales or traffic generated by the referrer. Among the methods above are many organic ways (which require no monetary expense ) to drive traffic to your pages, such as optimising your website for search, regularly posting on your social channels and using email marketing. Paid search boosts your organic efforts by allowing you to create highly targeted campaigns to reach qualified prospects more efficiently. Both are important in growing your client base. When a prospect clicks on an ad to visit your site, make sure you are delivering what they are looking for and offer compelling calls to action. A balance of both organic and paid digital marketing tactics will give you a solid foundation on which you can beef up your marketing. **A final note:** Whether you are marketing online for a one person bookkeeping business or a large national accountancy practice , stick to your original value proposition. Also, keep the image and values of your brand consistent. It is quite easy to lose your business’s personality among the hubbub of various online platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. On these channels, remember that the content that works best is content that looks like it comes from a friend. Be yourself and you will be more engaging. Take your time to understand the channels and the opportunities each offer. As you go you will experience the excitement of a post that is shared and commented on, the power of a paid search campaign and the buzz of a positive response to an email campaign. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a digital marketing tool and content library for Accountants and Bookkeepers. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you over 300 expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). Download Our Digital Marketing eBook The Digital Marketing Guide For Accountants & Bookkeepers Get the full picture. This guide tells you everything you need to know about marketing online with easy explanations, tips and simple steps to follow. [Learn More](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-the-small-business-guide/) **Categories:** Digital Marketing --- ### [Marketing Merchandise or Something More Meaningful?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/marketing-merchandise-or-something-more-meaningful/) **Published:** August 29, 2018 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** It’s busy in the BOMA office right now. The day to day work on simplifying digital marketing for our users continues and the dev team are working hard on new functionality. But this is business as usual here at BOMA. The extra busy vibe is coming from the team members who are off to Xerocon Brisbane. If you haven’t heard of Xerocon before, it’s like a massive conference / Ted Talk / dance party, specifically for accountants and bookkeepers. Lots of them use BOMA to share insight and advice with clients and grow their business. So Xerocon provides BOMA with a great opportunity to talk face to face with our customers and to spread the word about how easy we make digital marketing. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been getting ready, designing our stand, booking flights and making sure we have everything sorted. However, when it came to the merchandise discussion, we paused… we were choosing between coffee mugs, t-shirts, diaries and pens. And it occurred to us that we could do something better with the money… After all, we know that most conference goers only wear those t-shirts as PJs (that they forgot to pack!) Collectively, we agreed that the money we could spend on ‘swag’ would be better spent on making a more meaningful difference in the lives of others. So we approached three very deserving Australian charities. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/cure-brain-cancer-logo-charity-e1536120590596.jpg) **Cure Brain Cancer Foundation** has a time-critical mission to increase five-year survival from the current 20% to 50% by 2023. They fund research, advocacy and awareness in Australia. [www.curebraincancer.org.au/](http://www.curebraincancer.org.au/) ## [ ![The Smith Family - Everyone's Family](https://www.thesmithfamily.com.au/~/media/site/global/img_site-logo-desktop.ashx)](https://www.thesmithfamily.com.au/) **The Smith Family** believe that supporting a child’s education is the best way to help break the cycle of disadvantage. The independent [](https://www.thesmithfamily.com.au/)children’s charity is helping disadvantaged Australians to get the most out of their education, so they can create better futures. Visit their website for some truly inspirational stories: [www.thesmithfamily.com.au/](https://www.thesmithfamily.com.au/) ## **[ ![beyondblue. Depression, Anxiety - logo](https://www.beyondblue.org.au/app_themes/reskin/images/bb-logo.png)](https://www.beyondblue.org.au/)** ***beyondblue*** works to raise awareness of depression, anxiety and suicide prevention, reduce the stigma surrounding these issues and to encourage people to seek support when they need it. They provide information and support to help everyone in Australia achieve their best possible mental health, whatever their age and wherever they live. [www.beyondblue.org.au/](https://www.beyondblue.org.au/) These three charities are making a huge difference, improving and saving lives around Australia. So, instead of t-shirts, stress balls or sticky notepads, we’re using our merchandise budget to make a donation to them in support of the work they do. We’d love you to be involved too. Visit us at Xerocon (Stand 9) to help us divide the dollars. We look forward to seeing you and we still have free chocolates. And one more thing… Don’t forget to pack your PJs! **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Marketing, News --- ### [Off to Xerocon? Use it to Grow your Social Media Following](https://bomamarketing.com/news/off-to-xerocon-use-it-to-grow-your-social-media-following/) **Published:** September 3, 2018 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** Events like Xerocon, conferences and industry events offer a great opportunity for marketing your firm. With increased chatter and talk online around a big event, now’s your chance to get involved, get posting and grow your fans and followers. Here’s a how-to guide on easy ways to build fans and followers around an event: ## Before the event 1. **Let people know you are going** and what this means to you. Share this as a Facebook post, write a blog for your website or a post to your social accounts about the event and what you are looking forward to. While this event may be specific to your industry – your attendance demonstrates your ongoing commitment to staying abreast and ahead of new trends for the benefit of your clients and customers. 2. **Tag colleagues or friends** on your social post that you know are also going, this will not only help you network but also increase the virality of your post. 3. **Find out who is speaking at the event and follow them** on their social media pages. Comment on one of their recent posts or share it on your timeline. 4. **Check out Twitter** for what’s trending for content ideas 5. **Use the hashtags** for the event so that you are easily found by people following the thread. ## At the event 1. **Take photos** – Images always get higher engagement on social media. Take pictures of you and your team at the event and use them to illustrate the story you are telling. It could an insight from the event (with a picture from a presentation), a piece of news or share something fun and entertaining – your third coffee of the day or the crazy buzz of one of the many networking events. 2. **Check out what’s happening on Twitter** and retweet it with a comment of your own. 3. **Be responsive** – With your increased social activity, make sure you to keep an eye on your feeds so you can respond to any queries or comments. 4. **Give your opinion** on the topics being discussed at the event. 5. **Share a video** – of you and your team talking about the event or your take on a guest speaker or the industry as a whole. ## After the event 1. **Make connections on LinkedIn** with the people you met. 2. **Write a wrap up of the main themes** – Events are a great source of content to share with your clients and customers. Think about how you can use this new inspiration to help them. 3. **Join the industry talk on LinkedIn**. 4. **Join social media groups** – keep the learning going and grow connections. 5. **Write a blog on a new idea** you heard at the event, talk about the new learnings your team gained and why it matters for your audience. 6. **Send a newsletter** – including event news and key insights 7. **Follow the exhibitors** on their social channels. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). Download Our Digital Marketing eBook The Digital Marketing Guide For Accountants & Bookkeepers Get the full picture. This guide tells you everything you need to know about marketing online with easy explanations, tips and simple steps to follow. [Learn More](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-the-small-business-guide/) **Categories:** News, Social Media --- ### [Digital Marketing For Accountants - What Is It and How Do You Get Started?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/digital-marketing/digital-marketing-what-is-it-and-how-do-you-get-started/) **Published:** September 13, 2018 **Author:** Richard Irvine **Content:** ## **What is digital marketing?** You could call it simply marketing on the internet – but it’s so much more. The game keeps changing for accountants wanting to market their firm. How do you attract attention when prospective clients often don’t even watch TV without looking at their phone at the same time? Getting started with digital marketing may look difficult at first, but with the right attitude, and a few basics, you’ll be up and running and building your audience in no time. In this article, we’ll talk you through the possibilities digital marketing opens up for accountants, and recommend some first steps on your journey. ## **How is digital marketing different from traditional marketing and what are the opportunities for accountants?** Tried and tested marketing principles like knowing your audience, developing your brand, attracting attention and making sales haven’t gone away – in fact, they’ve been supercharged thanks to the new digital tools on our laptops and phones. For accounting firms, digital marketing offers the chance to accurately target, reach and engage customers in a cost-effective way, all from your office or couch. It’s a mindset that rewards storytelling, authenticity and experimentation, and offers the chance to build a loyal, engaged audience. ## **Digital Marketing: The top three tips** Here are our top three tips for getting started with your digital marketing strategy: **One – Tell your story where your clients (and prospective clients) are** Smartphones, search engines and social media are the new playing field for businesses to connect with customers. To win their attention, you need to be in the game. The days of taking out a billboard and hoping your audience drive past are over. Search engines like Google and social networks like Facebook or Instagram offer businesses of all sizes easy-to-use tools to target and reach customers directly and effectively. **Two – Experiment for the best results** When you’re dipping a toe in the water, it’s a good idea to experiment with different audiences, content and offers to test your approach. Keep track of key results like clicks on your links, likes, comments, replies, and traffic to your website, to learn what works and what doesn’t and adjust as you go. **Three – Research the channels and build your audience** Social media is a 24/7 conversation that offers invaluable insights into your clients, what’s important to them and how they feel about products, brand, and your competition. Customers value hearing from brands directly – IResearch by global communications firm, Edelman found that 59% trust direct communication with a brand through email or social networks, as opposed to 41% who trust advertising and marketing material. Most importantly, remember that social media is literally social. Listening to your customers and confidently having conversations online is a big opportunity – The Edelman report also found that 39% of customers say they’re unlikely to become emotionally attached to a brand unless they’re communicating via social media. ## **The Beginners’ Guide – getting started with digital marketing** Digital marketing can seem overwhelming at first, but help is at hand. Here’s a simple guide to some of the most common digital marketing platforms, why you should give them a go and the first steps you should take. ## **Website** **What is it?** Your website is your home base, where you get to tell your story and showcase what you have to offer, completely on your own terms. **Why should you try it?** Your website should be the first thing prospective clients find when they google your business and be the number one source of information on your product or service. Make it easy for your customers to find answers to any questions, and how they can get hold of you quickly and easily. **Take the first step** Have friends and colleagues visit your website and ask them the following questions: - Was it easy for them to find you online? - Could they quickly understand what you’re offering? - Did they have a positive impression? - Could they find information about why they should choose you? Honest feedback from people you trust is a valuable steer on what’s working and what needs fixing. ## **Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)** **What is it?** SEO is a set of building blocks to make sure your business appears as close to the top of a Google search as possible. **Why should you try it?** The old joke goes “The best place to bury a body is on the second page of Google, no-one ever looks there.” It’s in your interests to be near the top of search results for your business name and your industry. **Take the first step** SEO basics include using keywords people search for to find your site in your website’s headings and the content as well as publishing new content regularly. ## **Email** **What is it?** Building your own list of customers and prospects and sending them regular offers or newsletters. **Why should you try it?** It’s really effective – [email marketing has a return on investment of 122%, more than four times any other platform](https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Email-Continues-Deliver-Strong-ROI-Value-Marketers/1014461). Owning your own database of customers’ email addresses, who’ve signed up to hear from you, is permission marketing gold. **Take the first step** Before you send your first email, [think carefully about putting your audience first, and making sure your content will engage or solve their problems](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/06/28/the-newsletter-guide-how-to-get-started-and-keep-it-up/). The more value you can offer, the more likely your customers will be to open, read and act on your newsletter. ## **Paid search** **What is it?** Paid search means your advertisement appears in the most valuable real estate there is online – at the top of Google search results. You specify the search terms or target audiences you want to appear alongside and Google serves them up for a fee. **Why should you try it?** When your customers are searching online for products or services like yours (often with a credit card in hand!), your pitch and a link to your site will be right alongside what they’re searching for. **Take the first step** Get started by running a trial. Google makes it easy to set your ads up, target your audience and run a campaign for very little investment up front. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/phone-with-social-apps-e1536792065651-448x300.jpeg) ## **Social media** **What is it?** At its heart, social media is a two-way conversation – people now expect to be able to talk with a business in the same way as friends and family without leaving their favourite app. **Why should you try it?** It’s where your customers spend their time, with [42% of people globally belong to a social network](https://www.statista.com/statistics/269615/social-network-penetration-by-region/). The upside for you is building your brand, forming relationships with your customers and effectively targeting your audience for very little outlay. **Take the first step** If you haven’t already done so, reserve your business name on the major social networks like [Facebook](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/07/18/not-sure-how-to-advertise-on-facebook-we-break-it-down-for-you/), [Twitter,](https://about.twitter.com) [Instagram](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/07/18/theres-never-been-a-better-time-to-advertise-your-business-on-instagram-well-show-you-how/) and [LinkedIn, ](https://www.linkedin.com/)even if you don’t intend to use them straight away. Then listen. Get a feel for the conversations people are having, to find out what works, what doesn’t and people’s expectations before joining the conversation yourself. ## **Video** **What is it?** There’s more to video than TV ads. Product explainer videos and live video streaming are just two of the new formats customers prefer to engage with online. There are plenty of places to share them – your website, your account on a video sharing site such as [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/) or [Vimeo](https://vimeo.com/), a newsletter and your social media accounts. **Why should you try it?** [Customers are 85% more likely to buy after watching a product video](https://www.inc.com/larry-kim/visual-content-marketing-16-eye-popping-statistics-you-need-to-know.html), and they expect to be able to watch a product in action rather than simply reading about it. Video will add a new dimension to your story. **Take the first step** Most people have a camera capable of shooting HD video in their pocket. If you don’t want to call in the experts, experiment with making your own. ‘On the fly’ video can have a realness and authenticity customers react positively to. Remember, lighting and sound are key. Shoot somewhere where there’s plenty of natural light for crisp, clear pictures. Be mindful of sound, avoid wind, cars and any noisy machinery and use a microphone if you have one. If digital marketing seems a daunting task at the outset, start small. Put some time in the diary each week to research and set up social media accounts, review your website or create a content plan to share compelling emails that deliver on your marketing goals. You’ll find more advice and guides at [www.bomamarketing.com ](https://bomamarketing.com/) **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). Download Our Digital Marketing eBook The Digital Marketing Guide For Accountants & Bookkeepers Get the full picture. This guide tells you everything you need to know about marketing online with easy explanations, tips and simple steps to follow. [Learn More](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-the-small-business-guide/) **Categories:** Digital Marketing --- ### [Being Human at Heart - Xerocon Brisbane 2018](https://bomamarketing.com/news/being-human-at-heart-xerocon-brisbane-2018/) **Published:** September 14, 2018 **Author:** Cat Morgan **Content:** At Xerocon over 3,700 attendees listened to some amazing keynote speakers who addressed the changing environment we all live and work in. Gill Hicks, a London bombings survivor talked about the power of our thoughts and what is on the other side of fear. Genevieve Bell, Director of the 3A Institute told attendees that humans must be at the core of new technology and Mark Manson talked about finding happiness by focusing on what matters. Attendees also listened to talks from the Xero team, Steve Vamos, Herman Man, Rachael Powell and Trent Innes. In the exhibit hall at stand 9, the BOMA team listened to accountants and bookkeepers. For BOMA, Xerocon is an opportunity to talk face-to-face with our customers and to those who want to find out more. Over the two days, we had great conversations with attendees about their businesses, the problems they would like to solve and the barriers to solving them. One of the most common things we heard when we started talking about communication and marketing was ‘I don’t have time for marketing’. Accountants and bookkeepers are under increasing pressure to go beyond the numbers to offer insight and share advisory commentary or information. But there are only so many hours in the week. We think the problem is two-fold. Marketing and communications via email and social media does take time but, in addition, the time a business owner has put aside for marketing is often spent working out ‘where do I start?’ BOMA was designed to solve both. The platform allows users to send a campaign to multiple channels in minutes – Email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram, plus Facebook and Instagram ads are all from one platform. BOMA also gives users to a library of over 600,000 free images to use and they are formatted for whichever channel they appear on. All of this saves hours of time, taking away complexity and the need for specialist design skills. But BOMA also solves the problem of ‘where do I start?’. BOMA gives users access to a library of articles, expertly written and updated weekly to provide the starting point for your communication. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/43785321144_3d05e3e39b_h-470x268.jpg) The theme ‘Being Human at Heart’ at Xerocon is a timely response to the increasingly digital world we all grapple with. The unprecedented scale and pace of change require us to be constant learners. Having the tools to support you, helps you to get on with your core business and gives you more time to ‘be human’ and spend time with clients. Being human was not something we needed to be reminded of after a long day at Xerocon – Not because we were tired (we were!) but because of how energised we felt from making connections and listening to our community. Thanks Xerocon. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** News --- ### [What is BOMA? Digital Marketing Made Easy](https://bomamarketing.com/news/what-is-boma-digital-marketing-made-easy/) **Published:** September 28, 2018 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** BOMA is a marketing platform for professional service firms and small businesses allowing them to easily manage multiple marketing channels in one place. BOMA makes customer engagement simple and helps businesses to: - **Reach new audiences** - **Engage with and nurture existing clients/customers** - **Achieve business marketing goals** - **Save time and money and do more of what works!** Founded in 2016, BOMA was designed to take the complexity out of digital marketing and was developed in response to a gap in the marketplace. Many online marketing tools, available to business owners, require specialist skills in design or marketing and while there are a number of options out there, some are email-centric (they don’t post to social media channels) or they only do social (and don’t send emails). BOMA gives you Email, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn in one easy-to-use platform. Design once and BOMA automatically reformats for the channels you choose. ![BomaBanner](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/BomaBanner-e1537915466318-450x300.jpg) ## **Who is it for?** BOMA was designed for professional service firms and small businesses. The internet has become the first port of call now when people search for a product or service. Studies show that between [70-80% of people research a company online before visiting](https://www.bluecorona.com/blog/29-small-business-digital-marketing-statistics) or making a purchase. Google now processes over [40,000 search queries](http://www.internetlivestats.com/google-search-statistics/#trend) every second. And social media has also become a mainstream marketing channel, with [96% ](http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-marketing-trends-for-small-business/)of small businesses saying that they use social media in their marketing strategy. This means that if you are not already building your brand presence online and engaging with your audience on social media you are missing an opportunity that competing businesses may be taking advantage of. For professional services firms, there is added pressure to differentiate via thought leadership by regularly sharing articles and valuable insight online. BOMA provides businesses with a self-drive tool that takes the time, cost and complexity out of digital marketing. And all you need to get started is a logo! ## **Popular Features** **Multichannel** – BOMA allows you to send emails, post on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter as well as create social ads on Facebook and Instagram **Automatically formatted** – You choose the channels and BOMA reformats your text and images to fit, no matter where your audience engages with it **Saves you time** – You can create and publish a multi-channel campaign in minutes **Free Images** – The BOMA image library contains over 600,000 free high-resolution images. Simply type in a search term and choose an image. BOMA makes sure it is formatted to fit the channel(s) you publish it on **Email Templates** – Choose from a library of beautifully designed templates, so that every engagement looks beautiful and is consistent with your brand **Creating campaigns from your blog post or an online article** – Paste the web address of your blog or an online article into BOMA and the platform creates a ready-made campaign for email or social media **Facebook and Instagram ads** – Boost your message, grow your audience and promote services or events easily with socials ads. It’s never been simpler to find and target new audiences **New Lead Capture** – BOMA’s landing pages can be customised to collect the information you require and automatically update your contact list **Campaign Schedule** – Choose the time for your campaign based on your audience and your business **Campaign insights** – Easy analytics across every channel show you how your campaign performed. You can track email open rates and clicks as well as engagement on your social post (clicks shares, retweets, likes and comments). Look at what worked well and do more of the same! **Permission Based Marketing** – BOMA ensures your marketing complies with privacy rules including GDPR. Every email includes an unsubscribe links and BOMA’s landing pages include a user permission checkbox So much functionality in one easy-to-use platform! BOMA also partners with Xero to provide Accountants and Bookkeepers with a huge library of content to choose from. [The content library](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/xero-content-library/) covers a huge variety of topics that are great for sending to your clients and it’s a great resource to help kick-start a content marketing campaign. BOMA helps businesses achieve their goals of growing revenue through acquiring new or nurturing existing customers. And if you are wondering why we are called BOMA…The word comes from Africa, describing an enclosure for livestock where people gather around a fire to share stories. In modern terms, it also describes a social hub or a place where people go to meet. BOMA is also the name of a restaurant in London, where discussions over dinner resulted in the idea for a business tool – A tool that takes time, cost and complexity out of digital marketing. To find out how BOMA can help you in your business, visit our [website](https://bomamarketing.com/) or start a [free trial](https://app.bomamarketing.com/register). **Categories:** News, Tips & Advice --- ### [What's New in BOMA - Refined Campaign Creation, LinkedIn Personal Posts, Landing Pages & More](https://bomamarketing.com/news/whats-new-in-boma-refined-campaign-creation-linkedin-personal-posts-landing-pages-more/) **Published:** October 10, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** We’ve added new features and simplified the steps to engage with your audience and reach new prospects. Let’s take a look at what’s new in BOMA. ## **LinkedIn Personal Posts** LinkedIn is an unparalleled asset for busy professionals allowing you to reach your professional network, build your profile and establish yourself as an expert in your field. So it’s no surprise that posting to LinkedIn personal from BOMA is one of the most frequent requests from our user base. And now you can! BOMA will post to your business and to your personal page. Sharing content is even easier in BOMA. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Screen-Shot-2018-09-27-at-10.34.25-AM-970x663.png) ## **Landing Pages for Lead Capture** Never miss another opportunity to gather contact details of new prospects. Whether you are holding an event, promoting a service or simply growing a database of new leads, Landing pages collect contact details and automatically update your email list. The smart design functionality automatically works across desktop and mobile – no technical or coding skills required. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Screen-Shot-2018-09-26-at-2.59.55-PM-970x972.png) ## **Endless Images at your Fingertips** BOMA’s Image Library now gives you access to over 600,000 free images. Plus, you can upload and manage your own photos, visual assets or logos from your computer, Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote, OneDrive, Facebook, Instagram and more. Images you use in previous campaigns are stored here too. BOMA makes it easier to create visually appealing posts and emails – without the cost. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Screen-Shot-2018-10-05-at-2.26.46-PM-1-970x558.png) ## Did You Know You Can Create Facebook and Instagram Ads in Boma? Facebook and Instagram ads amplify your social media reach and get your business in front of more of the right people. Within BOMA you can create an ad, choose your target audience (by interests, age and gender), locations and budget. BOMA tracks the campaigns so you can see how your ad performs. With BOMA, everything you need for promoting your practice is in one place. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Screen-Shot-2018-09-26-at-2.53.15-PM-970x612.png) ## **Sending a Newsletter?** BOMA’s email templates take the time and complexity out of email marketing. **Instant Template****s** are quick and easy basic templates to send a short update, share a blog post or get in touch with a useful reminder. **Themed Templates** are beautifully designed layouts for more in-depth emails such as a newsletter or combining advisory information with other updates. **Previous email designs** allow you to choose your favourite layout from previous emails. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Screen-Shot-2018-10-09-at-4.09.01-PM-970x861.png) ## **Updates in the Content Library** BOMA has made it easier to choose articles for your audience. On each article, you can see if it is a short format or includes a link to more information. If the content does have a link, you will also be able to view the page/video/article. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Screen-Shot-2018-10-09-at-1.11.46-PM-970x570.png) ## **Sending Campaigns is Easier than ever before** Send a newsletter, share advice, reach new prospects, promote your business and schedule your emails and social posts for a time that suits your audience and your business. Simple. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Screen-Shot-2018-10-09-at-4.17.13-PM-970x389.png) BOMA takes the time, cost and complexity out of digital marketing. [Find out more.](https://bomamarketing.com/) **Categories:** News, Tips & Advice --- ### [Which Social Media Networks Should I Choose For My Accounting or Bookkeeping Firm?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/which-social-media-networks-should-i-choose-for-my-accounting-firm/) **Published:** October 16, 2018 **Author:** Richard Irvine **Content:** You’ve decided it’s time for your accounting or bookkeeping firm to bite the bullet and join social media. These days clients expect businesses to be available on their favourite social apps, where they spend their time – [LinkedIn found the average decision maker researched ten pieces of content online](https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/blog/linkedin-b2b-marketing/2017/10-surprising-stats-you-didnt-know-about-marketing-on-linkedin) before making a purchasing decision, so it’s in your interests to be in the shop window. But where do you start? Here’s your guide to the different platforms on offer, and some first steps to getting underway. ## **Before you dive in** Save yourself time and effort with these sense-checks before getting underway: 1. **Show me the audience!** Do some research to make sure your potential clients are on your target social networks before investing your time. 2. **Decide why you’re there**. Are you up for a two-way conversation with your clients? Do you just want to advertise your services? Take time to define a simple purpose and [content strategy](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/08/13/harness-the-power-of-digital-content-marketing-for-your-business/) before you start posting. 3. **Keep an open mind!** Social media is constantly evolving and rewards experimentation and innovation. Learn what’s best for your business by trying different content and approaches, taking note of what works and what doesn’t and refining your strategy as you go. ![linkedin people networking](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/AdobeStock_118993669-e1539215939108-449x300.jpeg) ## **LinkedIn** **Why should you be there? –** It’s the only show in town for professional social networking with an incredibly engaged user base, [40% of which log in every day](https://www.omnicoreagency.com/linkedin-statistics/). Even people that ‘don’t do social media’ will have a LinkedIn profile. Why is it important? LinkedIn is a great place to share longer-form articles and commentary, so it’s an ideal channel to establish yourself and your firm as experts in your field. And for many people, it’s the first thing you find when Googling their name, so it’s in your interest to present professional and up-to-date profiles for your whole team, as well as your business. **Here’s how –** Start with a firm’s profile page that clearly explains who you are and what you do, with branding and contact information that’s correct and current. Then work with your team to make sure everyone’s profiles have aligned with the messages about your business and are up to date. Use great photography to make sure you present a professional look when clients search for your industry and business. ![friends on facebook](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/rawpixel-411158-unsplash-e1539221426253-449x300.jpg) ## **Facebook** **Why should you be there? –** It started as a US college social network, but [with over two billion users](https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/), it’s the largest social network in the world, as well as one of the largest advertising platforms – almost [96% of social media marketers say Facebook offers the best return on investment](https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Social-Media-Marketers-Facebook-Produces-Best-ROI/1013918?ecid=MX1086) of all social media platforms. Facebook’s advertising tools are the most sophisticated and effective around, giving you the chance to grab potential clients’ attention for very little investment up front. **Here’s how –** You can [set up a Facebook page](https://www.facebook.com/business/help/104002523024878) for your business and start posting content and interacting with your audience for free. Then when you’re ready to take the next step, trial Facebook advertising – the tools are easy to use and become increasingly sophisticated as you gain confidence and experience. ![looking at instagram](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/katka-pavlickova-797153-unsplash-e1539225718125-448x300.jpg) ## **Instagram** **Why should you be there? –** Instagram means images and video, making it ideal for connecting emotionally with your audience and building your brand story visually. Because Instagram is owned by Facebook, its advertising tools are equally as effective for reaching and building your network. **Here’s how –** Start by gathering content – it could be a mix of marketing material you have now, along with ‘on the fly’ videos and photos created on your phone, to present an authentic picture of what you are offering. As you start sharing content, you’ll soon build up knowledge of what resonates with your network. ![twitter image](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/twitter-timeline-iphone-6s-hero-e1539138098805-450x300.jpg) ## **Twitter** **Why should you be there? –** Popular among politicians, journalists, sports people and celebrities. Content and controversies originating on Twitter are often picked up and shared in ‘mainstream’ media. Despite being overtaken in numbers by the larger social networks, Twitter punches above its weight when it comes to influence – if you’re confident in your ability to live by your wits and add value to a lively, often anarchic conversation online, Twitter is a great place to be part of the conversation on topical issues. You can link back to longer articles too on your website. **Here’s how –** Start by listening to the conversation, to get a good idea of what’s important to your audience, then join in. Be open and don’t be afraid to engage in two-way conversations. [64% of customers say sharing values helped them build a relationship with a business](https://hbr.org/2012/05/three-myths-about-customer-eng) – by sharing your story as openly as you can, you start building trust in what you’re offering. ![businesswoman giving online training on Youtube](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/AdobeStock_216393427-e1539227913112-449x300.jpeg) ## **YouTube** **Why should you be there? –** Four times as many people prefer watching a video than reading about a service or product – and [90% of customers say videos help their buying decisions](https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/02/03/video-marketing-the-future-of-content-marketing/#fea3f0d6b535). Getting your content on YouTube ([the second largest search engine after Google](https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/the-state-of-video-marketing-in-2018-infographic/518339/)) helps your customers find and engage with you and your offering. **Here’s how –** If you have video content, whether it’s marketing material or instructional videos, set up a YouTube channel and upload everything you have, making sure your video titles and descriptions match the keywords your clients will be searching for. Clear titles make it easier for your audience to find you. YouTube also allows you to embed videos in your website, which benefits your search engine optimisation and lets you keep track of who’s watching your videos. ## **What should you do next?** No matter which platform you choose, it’s important to remember the ‘social’ part! When it comes down to it, social media is one human being speaking to another and it is a great way to reach, engage and expand your network of people and businesses considering your services. Don’t be afraid to show your personality and set what you offer apart from the competition by doing something unique. Find a platform and an approach you feel comfortable with and dive in! *BOMA brings all your communication channels together in one easy-to-use platform – Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter and Email.* [*Find out more.*](https://bomamarketing.com/) Download Our Digital Marketing eBook The Digital Marketing Guide For Accountants & Bookkeepers Get the full picture. This guide tells you everything you need to know about marketing online with easy explanations, tips and simple steps to follow. [Learn More](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-the-small-business-guide/) **Categories:** Social Media --- ### [How to Claim Your Accounting Firm's Page on Google - To Help People Find You Online](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/digital-marketing/how-to-claim-your-accounting-firms-page-on-google-to-help-people-find-you-online/) **Published:** October 31, 2018 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** Internet usage across the globe is increasing all the time and one search engine, in particular, dominates. [Google](https://www.google.com/) has become the leader in online information with daily search volumes of [3.5 billion, which equates to 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide](http://www.internetlivestats.com/). If you want information on any subject nowadays you usually ‘google it’! Google is the search engine giant with the mission to [“to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful](https://www.thebalance.com/google-business-profile-2892814)”. It is now the most likely launching point for anyone who is researching products and companies, or your business! For this reason, it is essential to make sure your online information is accurate and up to date. An important first step for any business is to claim your free local listing on [Google My Business (GMB)](https://www.google.com/business/). This is the information that will show up in [Google Maps](https://www.google.co.nz/maps/) and Google’s Local Finder. We’ll look at the easy steps to create a robust presence for your business so that you can be found easily online. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/download.jpeg) ## Claim and Verify your Free Business Listing on Google Whether you are aware of it or not, your business probably already has a listing on Google – but it may or may not have accurate information and by claiming and verifying your listing, you can also add information as well as improve your ranking in search results. 1. **Claim your listing** – start by going to the [Google My Business](https://business.google.com/add/info) site and signing up for a new account from the “Start Now” button at the top right of the page. Begin entering your business name in the field provided. As you type, Google will suggest [possible matches](https://support.google.com/business/answer/6300717) from business listings that already exist in Google’s database. If your business is already listed you can claim your listing or, simply continue on to enter the information about your company. 2. **Fill in the details** – enter your address and be specific, so it is easy for potential customers to use Google’s Map service to visit your physical location. 3. **Place a marker on the map** – a map of the local area will appear, simply position the marker in the right spot for your premises. 4. **Choose your category** – select a category that best matches your business to help you attract customers who are searching for businesses like yours in your area. 5. **Phone and website** – add your phone number and the URL for your website 6. **Business hours** – include your normal business hours. 7. **Photos** – photos of the team, your product or location increases engagement and adds credibility – which all helps with your search engine optimisation. 8. **Claim it** – the final step is to confirm that you are authorised to manage the business on Google. Claiming your business allows you to control the listing and update information as needed. ## Encourage Current Customers to Add a Review ‘**User reviews’** appear under your google maps listing and provide valuable information about your company to potential customers. Positive reviews not only provide the endorsement that adds your perceived trustworthiness but will also improve your list ranking in search results. If your clients are happy with the service they receive from you, they won’t mind being asked to post a review. Plus, it gives their business exposure, too. Make the process easy by providing your customer or client with a direct link to your business on Google Maps and easy instructions on where to find “Write a Review.” Use a URL shortener such as [Bit.ly](https://bitly.com/) or [Google’s URL shortener](https://goo.gl/) to simplify the link. You could ask them to post a review on your Facebook page at the same time. Always take the opportunity to thank them for their review, especially as an online response, as it demonstrates the great relationships you build with clients and customers. ![google search bar](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/apple-computer-google-40185-e1524524044655-451x300.jpg) ## Maintaining your Google Listing By keeping your listing up-to-date you have an immediate advantage over those who are not. When you have completed your updates, it doesn’t end there. Check your business listing on a regular basis to make sure your information remains current. When you do, add more photos and check any reviews that may have been added. You may not realise it, but anyone can suggest an edit to your listing. Google does its best to provide accurate information about local organisations, and therefore allows for “user-generated content”, in order to create a more complete business profile. However, if you are the page manager for your business listing, Google will now notify you of the suggested edit. ## Ensure Your Information Is Correct in Other Online Directories Outside of Google, there are many other online directories that potential customers may use to search for your business. General business listings like [Yelp](https://www.yelp.com/), [Bing](https://www.bing.com/), [Yahoo,](http://www.yext.com/pl/yahoo-claims/index.html) [Yellow Business](https://yellow.co.nz) and Facebook are key listings to use, but you’ll also want to look at directories specific to your industry, such as financial services. The main goal is to make sure that your business information is listed and accurate on key sites. Search engines like consistency, so keep a master document with your company address so you can copy and paste from it. This ensures your information is the same wherever it appears. Claiming and updating your business listing in online directories, and Google, in particular, is an important first step in your digital marketing strategy. It helps your customers to locate and learn about your organisation, giving them more confidence to do business with you. Higher relevance and accuracy from a complete Google listing and positive reviews will also improve your search engine ranking – plus when you respond to reviews, it shows that you take customer feedback seriously. The small amount of work required to ensure your business is accurately represented on Google goes a long way toward improved online marketing results. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). Download Our Digital Marketing eBook The Digital Marketing Guide For Accountants & Bookkeepers Get the full picture. This guide tells you everything you need to know about marketing online with easy explanations, tips and simple steps to follow. [Learn More](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-the-small-business-guide/) **Categories:** Digital Marketing --- ### [Three Essential KPIs for Accounting Firms](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/small-business/three-essential-kpis-for-accounting-firms/) **Published:** November 8, 2018 **Author:** Richard Francis **Content:** Every credible business needs to measure what matters. In this blog, Founder and CEO of [Spotlight Reporting](https://www.spotlightreporting.com/), **Richard Francis** shares with BOMA, his valuable insights on establishing key performance indicators for your accounting firm. *“If you don’t have meaningful Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and a set monitoring and reaction regime, your measure of success becomes a stab in the dark”* [Richard Francis](https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardfranciswgtnnz/) There are three essential areas of essential[ KPIs for Accounting firms](http://info.spotlightreporting.com/smart-kpis-for-accounting-firms): Engagement, Revenue and Team. ## **1. Engagement KPIs: client satisfaction and community engagement** **Net Promoter Score (NPS)** It’s dangerous *not* to engage on satisfaction. Accountants who don’t proactively ask for feedback are missing out on useful analysis and suggestions for improvement, as well as revenue opportunities. At Spotlight Reporting, we survey and follow up customer satisfaction. We use the feedback to course-correct with clients, develop new offerings and to spark conversations that often lead to additional work. Net Promoter Score (NPS) apps like [Ask Nicely](https://www.asknicely.com/) and customer support tools like [Zendesk](https://www.zendesk.com/) make this process easy and immediate. **Marketing metrics** This is another facet of your practice that’s important to monitor and react to. A battery of marketing metrics can be tracked using BOMA’s easy-to-use digital marketing platform provides an at-a-glance dashboard with [performance analytics](https://bomamarketing.com/features/customer-knowledge/campaign-analytics/) across all your channels (social and email), so you can see what is working, and where it’s having the most influence and engagement. You should ensure this discretionary activity and investment (to engage prospects *and* existing clients) converts them into more satisfied customers, creates new revenue, longer retention and lower churn rates. If not, your methods of engagement are probably misfiring. And remember, nothing beats talking to your clients to get their feedback. **Measuring Churn** Churn (client revenue exiting your business) can be a measure of dissatisfaction and/or lack of engagement and is best measured as the value of fees lost. A single departure of $50,000 p.a. will resonate more painfully than two small churns of, say, $5,000 each – we believe a certain level of churn is not only acceptable but desirable. Every practice has uneconomic clients: bad payers, time-wasters and those who give us sleepless nights. It’s hard to imagine, but these types of clients *SHOULD* be fired. Churn for most practices is very low, largely through client apathy and a begrudging acceptance of the work as a necessary evil. If you look to exit approximately 5% of your fee base each year, while growing the ‘top end’ desirable fees from existing clients and great new additions, you’ll get the mix about right. ## **2. Revenue KPIs – tracking the fee level and balance of your clients and services** **Average Revenue Per Customer (ARPC)** Many accountants, counter-intuitively, associate higher fees with grumpy clients. I’ve found the opposite to be true, but on the critical proviso that you deliver value consistently and communicate transparently. ARPC is a great indicator of relationship depth and nuance, your ability to offer, sell and deploy a range of services. It’s the ability to grow your fees faster than the absolute growth in client numbers. **Value-Add Service Mix** This 80:20 percentage measure of Value Add (or Advisory) Fees vs. Compliance fees is a mission-critical indicator to stay true to your business model and dream of being a trusted advisor. It is a sure-fire measure of accepting the right clients – not just any old referrals, but being proactive about it (i.e. taking the time and effort to upsell and satisfaction). Clients, staff and owners all seemed to occupy a happier place when we had our eye on adding value. ![Close up of handshake in the office](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/AdobeStock_197066428-450x300.jpeg) ## **3. Team KPIs – resourcing, delivery and satisfaction** **Human Contact** If you expect your staff to have frequent face-to-face (or online) interactions with clients, my belief is that your employees will not only be happier and more engaged, but your clients *will want* *additional* services from you too. Even though *Human Contact* is a staff KPI (e.g. ten client meetings per month), it should positively ripple across the other KPIs noted here. **Revenue per Employee** This is a solid KPI that, for me, has more resonance than utilisation. You should be less concerned with ensuring that every hour was billable at a set rate. But I did want a feel for how client-facing the team had been. And whether the higher mix of value-add work had (as it should) created revenue leverage without blowing out head-count. **Report and React** Once you’ve selected your KPIs, regularly report and analyse them for insight and accountability. Program in your KPI monitoring and reaction regime and make it a non-negotiable business process. Every firm should have its own robust KPI reporting in place before it deploys a similar approach to clients. And with software like [Spotlight Reporting](https://www.spotlightreporting.com/) doing the heavy lifting for you, it’s easier than ever to ‘walk the talk’. Increasingly we’re seeing ‘smart growth KPIs’ becoming more prevalent. Some are borrowed from other industries (like software-as-a-service) but essential KPIs for the modern advisory firm take a more multi-faceted view. To find out how to implement reporting KPIs, [download a free copy of Spotlight Reporting’s white paper](http://info.spotlightreporting.com/smart-kpis-for-accounting-firms). ![Richard Francis_CEO_Spotlight Reporting](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Richard-Francis_CEO_Spotlight-Reporting-458x300.jpg)Richard Francis is a Chartered Accountant, CEO of Spotlight Reporting, ex-GM of Workpapers for Xero, and a Trusted Advisor with over 20 years of advisory experience. As the director of a ‘boutique’ professional practice in Wellington, New Zealand, Richard saw a need to improve analysis and forecasting for his clients. This led to the development of Spotlight Reporting and creating an award-winning suite of management reporting and three-way forecasting tools for progressive accounting firms and businesses around the globe. **ABOUT BOMA –** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Tips & Advice, Business --- ### [Capturing New Leads or Promoting your Business? Explore the Many Options with BOMA’s Easy Landing Pages](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/digital-marketing/capturing-new-leads-or-promoting-your-business-explore-the-many-options-with-bomas-easy-landing-pages/) **Published:** November 26, 2018 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** BOMA’s Landing Pages promote your firm’s growth by allowing you to capture new contact details, add them to your contact list and then market to them. Landing pages have lots of applications for your business. You can capture contact details in a lead generation exercise to grow your business, use your landing page to get registrations for an event you are hosting, or gather sign-ups for a promotional offer. We look at four examples of how you can use landing pages for your business to reach new prospects or simply strengthen relationships with your existing clients. ## **Newsletter sign up** Sending a periodic newsletter or regular advisory updates is a great way to showcase your firm’s expertise and build relationships. Widen your reach by growing your list of email contacts. Design a landing page for your newsletter sign-up. You’ll need to collect email, name and perhaps a company name so that you can segment your database for really relevant communications. Make sure you include ‘terms and conditions’. This allows people to opt-in for future emails from you. Create a ‘tag’ for this page so you can filter your contact list to find the new subscribers. You can also view who filled out your form in the landing page submissions. ![BOMA landing page submissions](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-26-at-11.32.59-AM-e1543185580148-470x214.png) Create buttons on emails, your website, and social media pages and connect these to the URL (web address) of your landing page. ## **Collect Registrations for an Event** Connecting with clients and prospects at an event allows you to show your genuine interest in their success, share valuable insights and advice and inform them of additional services they are not currently taking advantage of. They are also a chance for attendees to meet and network with others. Your event could be a simple breakfast seminar on a niche topic. Promote your event on your website and social media pages with links back to your landing page for registrations. When they have ‘landed’ on your page and filled in the form, you can send details of the event out and follow up with them afterward. ![BOMA landing page event registration](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-22-at-2.03.14-PM-e1543185970186-306x300.png) ## **Downloadable guides and e-books** Creating a piece of ‘gated’ content is a great way to capture new leads that are interested in that subject matter. You could write a guide on tax for small business or on how to maximise cash-flow. Publish as a downloadable PDF and host on a page on your website that is not visible without the URL. Create your landing page to capture details of people who would like the guide and set the post submit settings to send your prospect to the content page. Then simply promote your guide across your website and social media accounts. ## **Promoting your firm** Finally, landing pages can help you capture new leads. When used in conjunction with an ad on Facebook and Instagram, you can use a compelling offer to stimulate enquiry. Here’s an example: Bring in new clients by offering one hour of free advice for their small business. Promote the offer via an ad on Facebook and Instagram and use the audience target to define who you want to reach. Think about your ideal audience (you could use existing clients to help build the picture). Interests could include sports, events, lifestyle, hobbies, a business vertical such as fashion or pharmacy, etc. Use your landing page to capture enquiries about your special offer. ![facebook ad to landing page](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-22-at-2.07.36-PM-287x300.png) Landing pages provide endless opportunities for people to join your list. Run an event, promote an exclusive offer, share specialist advice or create a sign-up form for your newsletter. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). Download Our Digital Marketing eBook The Digital Marketing Guide For Accountants & Bookkeepers Get the full picture. This guide tells you everything you need to know about marketing online with easy explanations, tips and simple steps to follow. [Learn More](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-the-small-business-guide/) **Categories:** Digital Marketing, Tips & Advice --- ### [Got a Holiday Read Sorted? Here are Some Ideas](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/small-business/got-a-holiday-read-sorted-here-are-some-ideas/) **Published:** December 19, 2018 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** If you are packing your bags for a holiday and need a good book to take, we’ve compiled a list for you. We asked the BOMA team to tell us about their favourite read so that we can share it with you. ![Lee Child Past Tense](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/65895-e1545090215989-194x300.jpg) ## **Jack Reacher – Past Tense by Lee Child** What a holiday read! Ex-army MP, Jack, wanders around the USA with only his passport, toothbrush and ATM card. In this story, he stumbles upon a family connection that uncovers its own set of challenges and mystery. With remote country motels, lazy small town cops and two lost Canadians – this latest installment of Reacher’s adventures will have you riveted to the very last page! Recommended by Ian Christie. Ian is Founder and CEO of BOMA. He will be attempting to read a book this year in between work and travel. ![My name is lucy Barton](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/My-name-is-lucy-Barton-191x300.jpg) ## **My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout** *“Loneliness was the first flavour I had tasted in my life, and it was always there, hidden in the crevices of my mouth, reminding me.”* This is a story of the complexity and love in a mother-daughter relationship. It is written from the point of view of the daughter, Lucy Barton over 5 nights while in hospital after her estranged mother arrives to sit by her bed. This is a powerful and sad but beautiful book. In spite of her own experiences growing up, Lucy still knows who she is and is a loving mother. Highly recommended. Recommended by Anna Lawrence. Anna is Co-Founder of BOMA and Sales & Partnerships Director. Anna’s holiday plan is an escape to the beach with the kids – and her mum (who gave her this book). ![21 lessons for the 21st century](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/21-lessons-for-the-21st-century-199x300.jpg) ## **21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari** This book is a collection of essays (think Ted talks) and as a writer, he has been recommended people ranging from Barack Obama to Mark Zuckerberg. Harari helps us to grapple with a world that is increasingly hard to comprehend. Harari examines some of the world’s most urgent issues, including terrorism, fake news, and immigration, as well as turning to more individual concerns, from resilience and humility to meditation. He encourages the reader to solve problems by changing the question rather than answering it Recommended by Charles Clark. Charles is Co-Founder of BOMA and Director of Marketing. His book reading time will be beside a lake this year. ![let my people go surfing](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/let-my-people-go-surfing-246x300.jpg) ## **Let My People Go Surfing – the education of a reluctant businessman by Yvon Chouinard** This is a book for entrepreneurs and outdoors enthusiasts. Let my People go surfing is the memoirs of Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia (Outdoor Clothing and gear). Here’s a quote: “We have always considered Patagonia an experiment in doing business in unconventional ways. None of us were certain it was going to be successful, but we did know that we were not interested in ‘doing business as usual.’ Well, we have survived and even thrived for close to half a century.” Recommended by Andrew Baird. Andrew is BOMA’s Head of Engineering. He might get time to read a book after a spot of rock climbing. ![The heart's invisible furies](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/The-hearts-invisible-furies-195x300.jpeg) ## **The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne** By the same author as The Boy in the striped pyjamas, this novel is set in Ireland and takes the reader from the 1940s to today through the eyes of one ordinary man. Born out of wedlock, he is adopted by a well-to-do couple in Dublin. The Heart’s Invisible Furies tells of his struggle with class, sexuality, and nationality and finding his own identity. This book will make you laugh and cry but also remind you of the redemptive power of the human spirit. Recommended by Cat Morgan. Cat is Sales & Partnerships Manager NZ. Cat will be heading north this Christmas for some quality beach time. ![the alchemist](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/the-alchemist-185x300.jpg) ## **The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho** The Alchemist may already be on your must-read list, the novel is about following your dreams and listening to your heart. At the start of the novel, Santiago does not know what he should do when he is confronted by his dream. But by the end of the novel, Santiago completely trusts his heart to guide him through life. Recommended by Karli Fountain. Karli is Sales & Partnerships Manager, Au. This year, the holiday read will be Less by Andrew Sean Greer, in between lots of family adventures, festivities and sunny times outdoors. ![the illustrated history of football](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/the-illustrated-history-of-football-195x300.jpg) ## **The Illustrated History of Football by David Squires** David Squires has a weekly cartoon in The Guardian. There is plenty of new material and text in this book that covers the game of Football from caveman days (seriously) to the present day and leaving nothing out, the good, the bad and the primadonnas! plus the biggest moments in the sport. It’s funny, entertaining and may strike up some debate with your mates or family this Christmas! Recommended by William Gonzalez. William is BOMA’s Lead UI Engineer. William is catching up with old friends these holidays and will be calling home to wish everyone Feliz Navidad. ![the education of little tree](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/the-education-of-little-tree-206x300.jpg) ## **The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter** This is such a lovely little book and could be read by old and young. It’s set in the Appalachian mountains of Tennessee and tells the story of ‘Little Tree’ who goes to live with his grandparents after he is orphaned. With Little Tree as the narrator, we see the world through his eyes – his grandfather who teaches him about survival, hunting and the Cherokee way of respecting nature, and his grandmother who teaches him to read. When he is removed and taken to an orphanage be prepared to cry but this is a beautiful book that you will want to own to read again. ![I am pilgrim](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/I-am-pilgrim-194x300.jpg) ## **I am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes** This book was described as a thriller and even if that’s not your thing, you shouldn’t let this label put you off. this book is incredibly gripping and full of suspense. Pilgrim is the name of a man who used to head up a secret U.S. espionage unit. He is now retired and anonymous but when a murder is committed that shows all the techniques of a book written by him, NYPD detective Ben Bradley tracks him down to help. Now they need to save America from jihadist terrorism. An amazing book that you’ll find hard to put down. Both books above are recommended by Liz Studholme. Liz is Content Marketing Manager at BOMA. Liz is packing up tents and togs along with a book… Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. Liz might include this in next year’s list, if you haven’t already read it!. Watch this space. ## ![Unbroken](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Unbroken-194x300.jpg) ## **Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand** An unforgettable story of a man’s journey into extremity. And it’s true! In 1943 a bomber crashes in the Pacific Ocean leaving Lieutenant Louis Zamperini thousands of miles from anywhere. Unbelievably he survives with only a makeshift and failing raft and the strength of his will. Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit. And if you have seen the movie it does not do justice to the book. Sorry, Angelina Jolie! Recommended by George Coltart. George is BOMA’s Product Manager. George is heading out east for the big family Christmas and a game or two of Kubb. ![chinese cinderella](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/chinese-cinderella-e1545090918265-196x300.jpg) ## **Chinese Cinderella – the story of the unwanted daughter by Adeline Yen Mah** Kind of like the Cinderella tale, but set in China in the 1940s. This is the story of Adeline, (the author) and the childhood she survived. Her wealthy adoptive family considers her to be bad luck after her mother dies giving birth to her. When her father remarries, Adeline and her siblings are treated with disdain and cruelty by her stepmother and step-siblings. Not for the faint-hearted, this is a very sad story but well worth reading Recommended by Kevin Ye. Kevin is Full Stack Developer at BOMA. He is home for the Christmas break and this will mean lots of eating and sleeping. ![Kingdom of ash](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Kingdom-of-ash-197x300.jpg) ## **Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas.** Book number 7 and the epic conclusion to the Throne of Glass series. The one-time assassin, now Queen of Terrassen, is up against an almighty army with only a cobbled-together army of her own. Will she prevail or will it take everything she has to win against the lord of darkness? If you have loved Sarah J. Maas’s #1 *New York Times* bestselling Throne of Glass series – this is a must read and you won’t want it to end. Recommended by Caro Geelen. Caro is BOMA’s Customer Support Manager. Now that she’s read the final book in this series she is on the hunt for another great read. Plenty in this list Caro! ![calvin and Hobbes](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/calvin-and-Hobbes-232x300.jpg) ## **The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson** All the Calvin and Hobbes cartoons in one big book that is endlessly entertaining. Sweet, funny, clever and timeless. Calvin is a small boy with a big imagination and Hobbes is his toy tiger. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Business --- ### [The Accountants and Bookkeepers' Guide to Digital Content Marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/the-accountants-and-bookkeepers-guide-to-digital-content-marketing/) **Published:** February 4, 2019 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** If you own a business, we know you are flat out. With so much to do and so little time to do it in, there is not a lot of time left to get your head around digital content marketing, so this blog breaks it down for you. And, when you have read it (and are ready to tackle the world!) we are going to reward you, with a downloadable content marketing plan that you can customise and use. But before we begin, let’s look at the reasons why firms like yours are using content marketing to grow their bottom line. And the statistics are compelling, here are just three: - Content marketing is about [relationship-building, focusing on the customer versus the brand.](https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2017/10/stats-invest-content-marketing/) For professional services, this means ‘adding value’ as opposed to ‘selling’. - Content marketing [generates over three times as many leads as traditional marketing methods and costs 62% less](https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2017/10/stats-invest-content-marketing/). - [Content marketing helps with SEO](https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2018/07/03/how-seo-and-content-marketing-work-together-to-fuel-your-online-success/#59cf3ed216bf). ## **What is content marketing?** Content marketing involves sharing valuable content (including blogs, emails, videos, ebooks, white papers, guides etc) to attract new customers, convert them to clients and to nurture them. Great content is giving first and selling second. While it is not direct sales, it can result in business growth. Your content gives you the opportunity to stay top-of-mind throughout the consideration process for people looking for the services you offer. It also delivers value and establishes yourself as the obvious choice to both new and existing clients. ## **Why is Content Marketing a valuable tool for your business?** 1. Your content helps [build your reputatio](https://www.inc.com/andrew-griffiths/7-strategies-for-building-a-rock-solid-reputation.html?cid=search)n in the marketplace and establishes you as the go-to for certain products or services. 2. Regular and useful content makes it easier for potential customers to trust you and it creates loyalty in your existing database. 3. Great content puts your brand top-of-mind when a prospect is ready to engage your services. 4. You can use your content marketing to build awareness of your advisory services amongst your existing clients in order to help them in more areas and to grow your average revenue. 5. Shared wisely, great content can also positively impact your website’s SEO ranking in search results. Content brings people to your site, keeps them there longer and gives them something to share. This is critical because user behaviour is a big indicator to Google that your site is worth looking at. ## **Great content marketing has your target audience at its core** When you understand who you are talking to, you will be more targeted, persuasive and effective in all your communications and marketing. And it doesn’t need to be an imaginary person. Think about an existing ‘best’ client and build your persona around them. These are the individuals you should gear your business towards, so you can attract more of the same. - Needs and goals – what are their key drivers? - Pain points – how can you provide the solutions to the challenges they face? - Interests – how can you engage with them on their level to show you ‘get them’? - Demographics – include their age, socioeconomic level, family, work life and where they live. ## **What Content should you share?** **Use your expertise** – Think about core services or your company’s point of difference. It might be your advisory niche as an accountant, the simpler process you follow, or the extra miles you go to understand your client’s unique financial situation and business/life goals. You can go beyond your core business too, like the causes you support, case studies or amusing stories. **Look for inspiration** – Your own email inbox can be a great place to start. Chances are the questions you were asked by one client will be of interest to another. Look at social media for trending topics and even your competitors. **News updates** – Are there developments in the industry, or general news, that are important to your key audience? Share the news with commentary from your firm and advice on how it affects them. **Useful reminders and guides** – Content that addresses the needs and pain points of your clients and prospects will be engaged with and valued, helping to further strengthen your relationships. If you are using BOMA, you can choose an article from the [Content Library](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/content-libraries/) to kick-start email and social posts. **Use keywords in your content marketing** Keywords are the words and phrases that people type into the search field of a search engine to find a product or service. Search engines like Google are searching for these words in websites in order to deliver relevant results in the search engine results page. Content provides more text about your business which means more keywords and more for Google to look at. Using relevant keywords naturally in the text of your website (such as a blog) helps improve your ranking in results. A tool like Google’s free [Adwords Keyword Planner](https://adwords.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) shows you how consumers search for your products or services, so tailor your wording to suit. ## **Where should you publish your content?** You can publish your content in multiple places – it can add depth to your social media presences, share it with other online publications, post on your website or offer as a guest blog on an authority or partner site. Think about what content you could create – here are some ideas: ### **Social media ideas** - Tweet pithy commentary or regular industry updates - Share a behind-the-scenes video on your Facebook page - Create an infographic using new or aggregated research and share it on LinkedIn - Post beautiful product or brand story images on Instagram - [Find out more about social media](https://bomamarketing.com/2017/09/21/social-media-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers-getting-started/) **TIP**: Start building your fans and followers on your social platforms so that your posts are seen by more people. You can invite people to follow you, tag others to extend your exposure and post comments on other pages to raise your profile. ### **Website ideas** - Post weekly blogs on your website that talk directly to your audience’s needs or wants - Create ‘how to’ guides or useful checklists - Write a useful e-book and publish it on your site and ask users for their emails before allowing downloads, to build your database - Interview customers and post a real, behind-the-scenes review of a recent project - [Find out more about building an effective website for your firm](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/03/08/creating-an-effective-website-for-your-firm-the-five-key-steps/) ### **Email** - Create a fun series with witty commentary or light ‘how-to’ guides - Invite your readers to complete a survey - Invite your database to view a video webinar or online training - Write a monthly newsletter containing a combination of all your content (news, latest blog, webinars and product or service updates) - [Click here for a guide to creating a newsletter](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/06/28/the-newsletter-guide-how-to-get-started-and-keep-it-up/) ### **Video** - Video is a great way to tell people what you do in a really engaging way. Use it on the homepage of your website and share on social. - Host a webinar on a specialty topic - Use Facebook live at an event. ### **Syndicated content** - Write controversial industry commentary, a unique insight or perspective on a topical issue and share it with media outlets - Look for digital platforms with large readerships (e.g. other blogs or social presences) and send them an article or another piece of content to publish to their readership - Get in front of people to share your message via speaking spots, video blogs, and events ## **When and how often should you share content?** Posting regularly with blogs, and high-quality video and imagery is great for building and retaining a loyal following and for SEO. But go for quality over quantity, search engine algorithms have a number of ways to gauge the quality of your written content. Engaging blogs and updates will encourage people to visit, read and share, which introduces new audiences to your business. The frequency of your posts will depend on you, your business and your audience. - Facebook has the biggest number of users and as a general rule, Monday to Friday between 10 and 3 sees the most engagement. - LinkedIn is the business networker and posts have more engagement during the working week. - Twitter usage is often higher in the morning midweek. Your tweets have a shorter life than a post on Facebook or Instagram so ideally, you should post on Twitter more frequently. Usage peaks around events and highly topical events. A great way to do this is to repurpose. Take multiple quotes or one-liners from your article and tweet these to drive traffic back to your website. - Instagram gets more engagement later in the day, from 11 am. Users might be checking their feed at a quieter time in the day or on the commute home. - Email is often checked first thing in the morning during the week. But with an increasingly mobile reader, emails are opened at other hours and while promotional emails tend to be sent out in the mornings, some research shows that clicks (real engagement) are more likely outside of working hours when people have more time. **Take note**: These are suggestions only, sometimes going against the trend places your communication outside the clutter of more popular times. And if your audience is across time-zones, you may want to re-post occasionally. The best time to post, tweet or send an email depends on a number of factors including your business and your audience. Within BOMA you can [track email open rates and clicks as well as engagement on your social post ](https://bomamarketing.com/features/customer-knowledge/analytics/)(clicks shares, retweets, likes, and comments). Look at what worked well and do more of the same!. ## **Being responsive** If your campaign ignites engagement, make sure you there ready to respond. Publish at a time that you can be ready to respond to comments, engage and answer questions. The benefits are two-fold: more engagement on social media platforms amplifies your post to a wider audience and also shows that you care about your clients and prospects Start by putting a plan together so that it is easier when the time comes to put pen to paper. Use the[ content library ](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/xero-content-library/)in BOMA to help kick start a campaign. **[Download our Digital Marketing Content Planner ](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-content-planner-calendar/)** **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Content Marketing **Tags:** Marketing, Content Marketing --- ### [Facebook Business Page or Personal Profile for your Accounting Firm? Why Does it Matter?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/facebook-business-page-or-personal-profile-for-your-accounting-firm-why-does-it-matter/) **Published:** June 24, 2019 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** Facebook offers users two ways to create a presence on the channel, in order to connect with others. These are Facebook Profiles and Facebook Pages. The easiest way to differentiate between them is this: - Facebook Pages are for businesses and organisations. - Facebook Profiles are for people like you, your friends and family. The difference between the two is important because they are designed to do different things. One connects you with friends and the other allows customers and prospects to follow or like you. If you are currently using Facebook to market to your customers and clients, we’ve listed some of the reasons why a Facebook page is the better option, and some easy tips to building your following and engagement. **Follow the rules** – It’s actually technically against Facebook’s rules to use your profile for business. But don’t worry, if you are currently using your profile account, it’s quick and easy to set up a page. Plus, you’ll find it gives you far more functionality to grow your loyalty and engagement. **Personal Profiles are limited to 5000 friends** – Everyone has plans to grow, and every business should have the potential to grow. If you want to scale, you need to do it on a Facebook business page. **Facebook Pages are easier to connect with** – On your personal profile, you build your network by accepting and requesting friends. This works fine with your personal network but is administratively hard for a business. On Facebook Pages, people can like or follow you which is much easier for them and you. You don’t need to do anything. The people who like or follow your Page can get updates in their News Feed. **Privacy considerations** – This relates to the point above. By using a profile instead of a Business Page, you’re inviting privacy complaints from people who have to connect as a ‘friend’. Here’s why: Most people set their default privacy to reveal a lot of personal information only to their friends and may not want to share this level of information with your business. Your customers have more control and more privacy when they like or follow your business page. **Business Pages are more professional** – On your page, you can keep it business related and customer focussed. Social media is all about authenticity – so you should portray your personality but probably not the pics from your latest holiday. When you set it up as a business page, you can share information about what you do. A page has a category, a mission statement, products, awards and founded date. However, if you set up a business as a personal profile, your business non-relevant information such as a gender, a birthday and relationship status! **More functionality via Facebook Tabs** – Use the tabs to explain more about who you are and what you do. - Provide a video introduction - Feature your products - Highlight the history of your company - Provide a newsletter opt-in form if you regularly create one. On your page, you can provide your location, your business hours, and contact details. You can let customers post reviews and drive visitors back to your website. **Business relevant options** – On your Facebook Business page, you can restrict your audience by country and age. You also have access to moderation and profanity blacklists to control the conversation. **In-house marketing management** – Pages allow you to give other people in your organisation access so they can edit and update your page as well as respond to messages. **Connect with customers and reach marketing goals** – Advertising with Facebook via BOMA social ads is another benefit of business pages. You can create ads from scratch or boost high performing posts to reach an even wider audience. You can also run promotions and carry out surveys. **Encourage people to take action** – Add a call to action button to encourage people to do something such as shop now, get in touch, book an appointment or sign up. **Insights** – You have access to the metrics on how your posts performed and who engaged with it. You’ll be able to see what customers did, such as how often they like, comment or share posts. **Build Brand awareness online** – Basically the more engagement with your brand, the better chance you will be found online and have your products and services in front of more eyes. So once you have set up your business page, start posting regularly. If you haven’t already set up a Facebook Business Page for your firm, now’s the time. Click here for [Facebook’s easy guide on how to get set up.](https://www.facebook.com/business/pages/set-up) BOMA is a marketing tool designed specifically for accountants, bookkeepers, and business advisors. Choose from over 400 expertly written, ready-to-share articles, and free images. You can create emails, newsletters, and social posts in minutes. Communicate and nurture clients and prospects with ease, from BOMA’s super-smart and easy-to-use marketing platform. BOMA makes it easy to connect with your clients and add value. [Trial for free](https://app.bomamarketing.com/register?_ga=2.185726506.2071052166.1560995530-684108882.1556583644) **Categories:** Social Media --- ### [How Do I Reach More People on Facebook? 15 Ideas to Grow Your Accounting Firm's Fans and Followers](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/how-do-i-reach-more-people-on-facebook-15-ideas-to-grow-your-accounting-firms-fans-and-followers/) **Published:** July 8, 2019 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** Social Media has given small business an amazing tool to reach customers. It is more dynamic than your website and it can be a great way to bring prospects and customers back to your website for more information or to make a purchase. Your social media pages allow you to interact with customers in a way that your website doesn’t. And because it’s two way, you can use your pages to build relationships with people that follow you. But posting is not enough. If you are using a Facebook business page, the first thing you need to do is grow your audience. And here’s why: If you can count your social media fans and followers on the fingers of one hand, your amazing posts, updates and offers are not going to make much impact for your business. So how do you grow your reach and capture the attention of your target audience? There are a few easy things you can do right now to help boost your Facebook presence. ## **1. Start by building your following through the people you already know** Facebook is by far the largest social media platform with[ around 2,320 million users. ](https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/)So almost everyone you know has a facebook account. So … start with those people you know and ask them to support you. Simply reach out to your own personal network by sharing your Facebook business page on your own personal Facebook page timeline. In your post, ask friends to like your page. You can also ask them to share it with their friends, who may be interested in your business. To share your page, click on the Share button below your cover photo. Bringing your family and friends on board gives you opportunities to connect with their networks when they share, like or comment on a post you have made. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Screen-Shot-2019-07-02-at-2.31.33-PM-470x187.png) **2. Invite your Facebook friends** – Click on Community in the left-hand column and then find your friends by typing in their name or selecting ‘invite’ beside their names. **3. Share with the team** – ask your co-workers to follow your page. Make others admin too if they are happy to post and share news from the business. In general, posts that show your personality will help build the relationships you hold with customers. You may want to set some general guidelines for posting if there are a number of contributors. **4. Engage with other Facebook pages (as your page)** – Use your page profile to comment on other people’s or businesses’ posts. You’ll see a drop-down option in the comment box to choose to post a comment from your business page rather than your personal account. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Screen-Shot-2019-07-02-at-2.53.24-PM-470x268.png) **5. Join a group** – from your business page News Feed click **Groups** in the left menu. Search for relevant groups and request to join. Most groups are all about sharing knowledge and experience so you’ll have the chance to share your expertise here. Before you start just read the group rules on what you can post. **6. Engage with a variety of other content** – broaden your reach by engaging with a wide variety of pages that share a similar audience to yours. **7. Share your facebook address across all your channels** – add the details of your new Facebook page on your personal website footer and in the signature of your emails too. **8. Be responsive** – Facebook’s algorithm favours posts that have high engagement and will amplify them to a wider audience. If your post receives a comment, be ready to respond with an answer, or more information or simply with a ‘like’. Being responsive shows that you care, you are listening, and are ready to answer questions or solve problems. When you respond to a comment, use the person’s name which makes the whole interaction more friendly. **9. Prompt engagement by asking questions** – pose a question to encourage comments. **10. Use compelling visuals** – photos, images, and video always perform better than text alone. **11. Add reviews to your page** – ask satisfied customers to post a review on your Facebook business page – it gives their business exposure too! Make the process easy by providing your customer or client with a direct link e.g. https://www.facebook.com/acme/reviews/ (you can choose to have reviews on or off in the settings of your page – so you can decide if you are ready to implement this). **12. Social media is social** – not every post needs a call to action or a sales pitch. Make sure you include some posts that simply add value by being entertaining, informative or useful. **13. Hashtags** – hashtags are basically like miniature search engines that group conversations and give you an opportunity to jump onto a trending topic. By using the hashtag, you can help people that are searching for that topic. Keep them punctuation-free and relevant to the post. For more on hashtags, [read our guide](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/11/07/digital-marketing-explained-what-are-hashtags-and-when-should-i-use-them/). **14. Use Video** – with a video camera on your phone it’s easier than ever to post a video and show the human side of your company. If you post directly to Facebook (rather than sharing from YouTube) it will play automatically play for your followers. Plan to capture your viewer’s attention in the first 3 seconds and keep it short. Because many people will view with their sound off, include captions using Facebook’s editing tools – simply select ‘generate automatically’ and edit any typos. **15. Start posting** – Finally, Keep people actively engaged with your pages by posting regularly. It can be hard to cut through the noise but useful, funny, compelling and regular posts will help increase the chance of growing and keeping your audience. Your organic social media activity, (sharing blog posts, images, comments, news, events, videos etc) is what gives you the long term presence. When you need to reach a wider audience, it’s worth spending some of your marketing budget. Facebook advertising builds your reach by expanding it to a targeted audience and can grow your online presence more quickly. You can read more on [Facebook ads here](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/07/18/not-sure-how-to-advertise-on-facebook-we-break-it-down-for-you/). **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. BOMA gives you expertly written ready-to-share content and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Communicate and nurture clients and prospects with ease from one platform. You can also create landing pages to capture new leads and run social advertising to promote your firm to new audiences. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Social Media --- ### [Improve your Email Deliverability - The How-to Guide on SPF and DKIM](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/email-marketing/improve-your-email-deliverability-the-how-to-guide-on-spf-and-dkim/) **Published:** November 19, 2019 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** Did you know that you can have a great email delivery rate but still have deliverability issues? What?! The reason is that these two metrics are different. Your email delivery rate is the percentage of your emails that are received by your subscribers but delivery doesn’t guarantee that the email won’t end up in a spam folder. That’s where email deliverability comes in. Deliverability is about making sure your beautifully crafted email actually lands in the inbox of your recipient. If you think you may have email deliverability issues, it may be to do with SPF and DKIM. These two acronyms relate to email deliverability. So let’s start by explaining the jargon. **What is SPF?** The Sender Policy Framework is a security mechanism designed to prevent spammers from sending emails from your domain. Creating an SPF record within your domain’s DNS (Domain Name Service) specifies which email servers are permitted to send emails on behalf of your domain. It does this in the following ways: 1. An SPF record prevents spammers from sending emails that look like they come from you. 2. Improving your email deliverability. Some email recipients strictly require an SPF record and will mark emails as spam if they don’t have one, or worse, the email can bounce. **What is DKIM?** DKIM stands for Domain Keys Identified Mail. It is an additional way to prove to recipients that your email is safe by allowing their server to check it’s really you! DKIM is based on the use of keys: - A private key – this is unique to you and is used to create an encrypted signature in your email header. - A publish key – this is added to your DNS records so that your recipient’s server can use it to decrypt your signature. ### **What do you need to do – Adding records to your domain** Because the steps will vary depending on your domain host there is not one set of text to copy and paste. BOMA will generate records for your DNS and take you through the steps to set it up. Before you fill out the form, make sure you are familiar with the following terms: **Internet Protocol (IP) address**: These are a unique set of numbers assigned to servers, computers and devices on the internet. **Domain Name System (DNS)** – Domain names were created to make IP addresses more human-friendly. Computers use IP addresses to identify each other whereas humans use domain names. Whoever has access to your DNS management account (usually, but not always the organisation that you register your domain with) will need to add records. We can guide you through the steps required or work with your IT team. **Use the following steps to set up your SPF/ DKIM** 1. Send the domain name you want to send emails from to **** e.g. if you are sending emails from John@acmeaccounting.com, your domain name is ‘acmeaccounting.com’. 2. BOMA will generate and send DKIM and standard SPF records for this domain. 3. BOMA will send technical support steps so you can set up the records on your domain. 4. When complete, reply to the support ticket to notify BOMA. 5. BOMA will test and confirm. 6. BOMA notifies you that the process is complete or sends any changes required. **Categories:** Email Marketing, Tips & Advice --- ### [LinkedIn Business Pages - Digital Word-of-Mouth for Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/linkedin-business-pages-digital-word-of-mouth-for-accountants/) **Published:** November 27, 2019 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** Not that long ago businesses operated from a central location in the town they operated in. The geographical distance between a business and its clients or customers was never very far and we made new connections by literally bumping into each other on the high street, chatting at an event or by arranging meetings. This still happens but the networking has to stretch over larger distances and we are now connecting with a much wider audience. That’s where LinkedIn comes in. LinkedIn is the social media channel to make connections with people with a business mindset. While it’s often used for job hunting or recruitment, it’s also a great tool for businesses to build networks, and collaborate. Most of us have a Personal Profile on Linkedin. But if you own a business, then you should have a LinkedIn Business Page too. Business pages are a great platform for building your firm’s profile and your audience. ## Setting up a Business Page The more detail on your page the better. This not only allows for LinkedIn members to learn about you but completed pages get 30% more views per week. 1. Set up your business page by clicking on the ‘work’ icon in the top right corner of your LinkedIn personal profile homepage. Create a Company Page and choose the page type (small business, medium to large business, Showcase page or educational institution). LinkedIn will suggest a URL (web address) for your company page. Use an address that makes sense for anyone that is searching for you and is easy to remember. 2. Fill in as much detail as possible to describe your company and industry. This will help people find you which helps increase the activity on your page. Write a strong tagline and include the keywords that your audience uses when they search for your services. You can also upload images, blogs and white papers such as a guide on cash-flow. 3. Add hashtags – Your audience can search on topic hashtags so you’ll have a better chance of being found. Read more on [hashtags.](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/11/07/digital-marketing-explained-what-are-hashtags-and-when-should-i-use-them/) 4. Link to your profile and website. Adding a custom call to action button that you can track is a good way to measure new visitors to your website from LinkedIn. ## Now Build Your Network Individuals on LinkedIn have a much wider reach than company pages, so inviting your existing connections is a great starting point. The new connections they make will be prompted to follow you. - If you have employees, they can update their personal LinkedIn profiles by adding their role at your company and linking it to your page. - Invite your personal connections to follow you using the admin tools at the top of the page. - Make it easy for people to find and follow you by adding a LinkedIn button on your website and in your emails - Reshare your employees’ content and comment on their achievements on your business page. - Let your staff know when you post on your company page. They can tag your page in their work-related updates or reshare your content. - Post regularly and check your activity tab to see if you have been mentioned – you can reshare these comments. ## What to Share The more activity and engagement the better on LinkedIn. Organisations that post more regularly gain more followers but quality is better than quantity. The frequency of your posts will depend on your audience and your objectives. Sketching out a content plan will make it easier to know what your audience will find valuable when it comes time to create or share content. If you are not sure what to share here are some ideas. - Showcase your business expertise – Share helpful advice, tips, and commentary on recent news or events. Bring your people to the fore by celebrating team achievements, and reshare posts and articles written by employees and partners. - Images, links, and videos – Add images to your posts or bring readers back to the blogs on your website. Offer useful business tips in a short video series. Adding rich media increases engagement on your posts and can amplify your reach too. - Content Suggestions – LinkedIn’s Content Suggestions is a great tool to understand what your network is interested in. From your business page click on ‘content suggestions’. Select the audience you are interested in and LinkedIn will show you what content they have been responding to. You can review and share the content you see here or gain ideas on what you want to write next. - Follow other businesses – What are your competitors sharing or where are the gaps that you could address? - Articles – Articles sit in the LinkedIn publishing ecosystem and on your personal profile which you can then share on your business page. If you have a larger topic to address, create an article (rather than a post) via your personal profile and share it on your business page. Members that aren’t in your network can follow you from your article so that your next article will be surfaced in their feeds. - Third-party content – You don’t need to write it all yourself. If you have read something from an external source that you think is of interest to your followers, share and comment on it. - Ask questions to stimulate activity on your page – keep them open-ended so you get more interesting responses and be ready to take part in the discussion when you get comments. - Choose from over 400 read-to-share articles in BOMA – BOMA’s content library has new articles every week covering general business & financial advice, compliance, tax, management, and training. Simply choose an article, add a personal comment, and send it via email and to your social media pages. ## LinkedIn Groups Linkedin Groups are places for people to build a community around their shared interests, roles or industries. Members of a group are there to build connections, learn and ask questions. Participating in group discussion as your company can boost your profile, just make sure you are there to add value or learn about your audience and not just to promote. - If you are a member of a professional association check to see if they have a members-only group and request to join. - Search for LinkedIn groups using the search bar and request to join – you can search by name or keywords. - Read the ‘about this group’ text to understand the guidelines on what to share. - Set up your own LinkedIn group and add it as a featured group on your company page. For professional services buyers, the single [most important factor in selecting a provider is expertise](https://hingemarketing.com/blog/story/top-10-advantages-of-online-marketing-for-professional-services). LinkedIn allows you to demonstrate your firm’s expertise to clients and prospects – strengthening client relationships and helping the growth of your business. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is the marketing tool for Accountants and Bookkeepers. BOMA gives you expertly written ready-to-share content and free images so you can create social posts, emails, and newsletters in minutes. Create landing pages to capture new leads and run social advertising to promote your firm to new audiences. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Social Media --- ### [Quickly Build Engagement on Social Media or Email with Breaking News](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/quickly-build-engagement-on-social-media-or-email-with-breaking-news/) **Published:** December 16, 2019 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** When you share news that directly impacts your clients and prospects, via email or on your social channels, it is not only helpful for them but also demonstrates your firm’s knowledge and expertise. Great content marketing adds value, is helpful or entertaining. It focuses on what is interesting to your audience. If every post or email is about your services, your engagement rates might drop. The good news is that you don’t need to create everything yourself. Here’s where BOMA helps; 1. You can choose a relevant article from the BOMA content library, and customise it by adding your own voice. 2. You can also share an online article using the ‘share a link’ function. This third-party content might be an article, blog or breaking news. In this article, we’ll look at the second point. In BOMA you can create a campaign from any online content in a couple of easy steps. ## **Share a link** ‘Share a link’ in BOMA allows you to share something that is specific to your audience, your location, industry, etc. It could be a government policy announcement, technology news, industry-specific updates, or anything that you know they will find interesting, newsworthy and relevant. If you’ve read an article online or written a blog post that you want to share, all you need is the web address (URL) and BOMA creates the campaign for you. Here’s how: 1. On the webpage, copy the address from the URL bar 2. In BOMA select **Create a New Campaign** 3. Choose the channels (email and/or social) that you want to share it to and create a campaign name 4. Now choose **‘share a link**’ and paste in the webpage address (URL). Once you have pasted in the link, BOMA will pull the featured image, the heading and the first paragraph of text. Then all you need to do is adjust the social post comment, customise your email and hit send. [Watch the short video on how to share a link.](https://youtu.be/lhKaCwAYtJ0) Here are some tips: - **Make it your own** – On your social media channels, introduce the article with a comment or viewpoint. - **Personalise your email** – Customise your email with an introduction that specifically addresses your audience. Include why you are sending the article, why it’s important and any steps your clients may need to take in response. Note: In an email, you can select another image to use with your article, but please note on social media your image will be the one that is specified on the destination page. - **Gated Content** – Is the content available to all or subscribers only? Some news sites have a paywall that restricts access to content via a paid subscription. Check your link will be available to everyone. - **Check on your engagement rates** – If people comment on social media, keep the conversation going with a response or reply to questions. Engaging with people on your social media page will raise your profile above others. Across all industries, the average response rate on social is a tiny 12% so make sure you set yourself apart by talking to your followers and answering questions. The more engagement you get, the more people will see your post. **Categories:** Social Media --- ### [Empowering Business with the Right Tools - CW Chartered Accountants Ltd](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/user-success-stories/empowering-business-with-the-right-tools-cw-chartered-accountants-ltd/) **Published:** January 28, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** After thirty years working with small and medium sized businesses, chartered accountant, Sharon Crocombe-Woodward became concerned that many business owners did not understand the financial statements or tax returns, prepared by their chartered accountant. Sharon saw an opportunity to empower business owners by assisting them with the right technology, and give them a greater depth of knowledge on their business finances so they could make informed decisions. In 2017, she founded [**CW Chartered Accountants Limited**](https://www.cwcaltd.co.nz/) with a vision to empower business owners with greater understanding for self-management. Sharon established the firm with the following goals: 1. To work as passionate professionals together with clients on their business 2. To provide a link to trusted advisors 3. To empower entrepreneurs by implementing client focused technology *“It’s about giving my clients the control back. We like to make things better in our clients’ business by helping them understand their accounts, plus we try to fit people with others that can help them”* ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Sharon-e1580259162935.jpg) ## **Why BOMA?** Sharon’s experience in business advisory has been extensive but prior to starting her own business, she had not been involved in marketing. *“In my former role, the company was running at max capacity. We didn’t do marketing apart from odd newsletter, using a paid content service, and we mostly relied on word of mouth as the owner was a well known figure in the community.”* For CW Accountants, Sharon was looking for a marketing solution to help grow her new client base, but also to make sharing advisory information with clients less time consuming. “*BOMA means I’m starting with a tool that sets the scene to support my growth, it’s putting the foundations in place. I can get things out quickly and easily which helps me grow my advisory business”* ## **Removing the time, cost and complexity from digital marketing** Sharon uses BOMA to save time on creating content to support small business owner clients and estimates it saves her at least 6 hours per month, which as a sole operator/trader is worth every penny. “*BOMA provides content that is up-to-date and this enables me to know what’s important in the market. I didn’t have access to that previously. The content library saves me time in between curating my own content posts, plus it gives me diversity of content. The library article – ‘5 ways to save time with job forecasting software’ resonated really well with my clients and helps to support my business’s positioning of driving greater efficiencies for my clients.”* ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Training--e1580164007966.jpg) As a result of her campaigns, she has started seeing increased engagement on social media posts with both BOMA content and her own articles. *“It’s very helpful having Facebook and LinkedIn in one place along with the content. I can use one article for LinkedIn and then access another resource for Facebook. The ‘profit vs cash’ article wasn’t ideal for my LinkedIn contacts, but well suited to my followers on Facebook”.* ## **Looking to the future for CW Accountants** While Sharon works to empower her clients with a greater depth of knowledge and new skills, she has found that BOMA has helped to grow her own skill-set in digital marketing. “*The platform enables me to go at my own pace, and has the capability to grow as I grow. And, when I’m ready to expand to other channels and do advertising or email, I can also do this through BOMA.* *The platform makes it easy and saves me money by being able to do it myself. At the beginning, the customer support team would email me, so I knew support was available.* *BOMA has enabled me to look professional. So important to me, especially when starting out as I don’t have a lot of money and time to spend.”* **Categories:** Success Stories --- ### [Remote Working - How to Get Your Business Ready](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/small-business/remote-working-how-to-get-your-business-ready/) **Published:** March 12, 2020 **Author:** Steve Ash **Content:** During an emergency situation, where employees can no longer work from your usual office location, being able to ‘get up and running’ from a remote location is critical. Remote working allows your people to remain safe at home, allows communication between the team and customers, and – crucially – allows you to continue running your business and creating revenue. But how do you set up your team to become remote workers? And what are the key considerations to think about when working remotely in the cloud? We’ve highlighted 5 key considerations to plan for when setting up remote working. ### **Key considerations of remote working** 61% of global companies currently have some sort of remote working policy for their staff, [according to a 2019 survey](https://www.merchantsavvy.co.uk/remote-working-statistics/). But for remote working to be effective, your business needs to put some serious thought into the infrastructure, security, and culture around home-working. 1. ### **Use the right cloud-based software tools and IT hardware** To make remote working effective for your business, you’re going to need the right hardware and software to get your team connected up and working productively. To set the right foundations for remote working: - **Update your team’s laptops/tablets** – so they’re using hardware with a fast processor, the most up-to-date operating system and with the speed needed for online working. - **Check they have fast broadband at home** – if your staff are using a sluggish 2Mbps connection to work from, they won’t achieve the right levels of productivity. - **Use cloud-based tools to access company information** – making it easy for staff to log into the firm’s tools from home and get working as quickly as possible. 2. ### **Be highly conscious of online security** You’re likely to have sensitive customer and business data on your network, so it’s absolutely critical to get your security set-up completely watertight. To keep your data secure: - **Use a VPN (virtual private network) and encryption –** so your staff can always access the internet remotely through the most secure gateway, and with two tier authentication. - **Don’t save sensitive data to local hard drives** – and store all financial records in [cloud accounting software such as Xero](https://www.xero.com) – so data can’t be lost with stolen laptops etc. - **Don’t work on classified projects in public spaces** where you could be hacked via an insecure public wifi connection, or your screen could potentially be seen, and sensitive information compromised. 3. ### **Track your time and manage workflow online** When your team is remote you can’t keep track of their workflow in person. So it’s important that you have visibility of the projects they’re working on and the time being spent. To manage your workflow effectively: - **Use online workflow management software** – and track the tasks, time and performance of remote workers, with tools such as [WorkflowMax](https://www.workflowmax.com/). - **Record your time against custom cost codes** – making it easy to see what time has been spent on specific projects, and where efficiencies could be made. - **Have performance dashboards for staff** – using data from your workflow tools to set targets, measure performance and create talking points for staff reviews. 4. ### **Ensure there’s real-time communication and messaging** A key element that many remote workers miss is face-to-face interaction with their colleagues. So, it’s important to have video and online messaging tools to promote good communication. To keep your remote workers communicating well: - **Use messaging apps to promote live chat** – options like [Google Hangouts](https://gsuite.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/products/meet/), [Skype](https://www.skype.com) and [Slack](https://slack.com) are all popular with remote teams who want to talk with each other in real time. - **Keep remote staff in the loop with company news** – and make sure you’re as inclusive as possible with all your company-wide communications. - **Encourage office time (where appropriate)** – so remote workers mix with the rest of your office-based team, helping to build team connections. 5. ### **Give clear guidance and retraining for staff** [The motivation levels needed to stay efficient as a remote worker](https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/288418) are very different to those of traditional office-based staff. Training will be needed to help your people acclimatise. **Put together a guide to remote working** – and think about setting up training workshops for staff who are being offered the option of remote working. - **Explain how to self-manage their workload** – point staff to helpful blogs and online training that will help them become proactive and self-sufficient without a line manager. Sites such as [remote.co](https://remote.co/remote-work-blog/) and [remotive.io](https://blog.remotive.io/) have plenty of tips and hints. - **Empower your team to do more** – by trusting them to work productively, complete their key tasks and meet project deadlines: all without supervision or micro-management. ### **A more flexible and empowered workforce** Allowing your team to move outside of the office can be a truly transitional moment for a business. After centuries of employees being tied to their offices or workplace location, cloud technology and remote working give your company an incredibly flexible way for staff to work. In an increasingly uncertain world, having the ability to run your business remotely is a huge benefit for any company. With cloud and digital technology evolving at amazing speed, keeping pace with the world of remote working gives your business a distinct competitive advantage – and that’s good news for you, your team and the future success of your business. Embrace the remote working lifestyle and give your business that leading edge. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is the marketing tool for Accountants and Bookkeepers. BOMA gives you expertly written ready-to-share content and free images so you can create social posts, emails, and newsletters in minutes. Create landing pages to capture new leads and run social advertising to promote your firm to new audiences. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/) **Categories:** Technology, Business --- ### [Choosing the Right Video Conferencing Tool for your Accounting Firm](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/small-business/choosing-the-right-video-conferencing-tool-for-your-business/) **Published:** March 25, 2020 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** We are all having to get used to a new way of working and living. Working remotely brings new challenges for managing productivity and maintaining communication between employees. This is where technology helps. Around the world, people are downloading apps that connect them with others, whether that is to stay in contact with family and friends or to communicate with colleagues and clients. At the time of writing this blog, [seven of the most downloaded free apps for Apple ioS are communications apps](https://apptopia.com/store-insights/top-charts/). (Zoom, Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams, Messenger, Google Duo, and WhatsApp). Many of us are already familiar with the direct messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger or Apple’s Facetime but for team conversations and work, you’ll want more functionality. Video conferencing apps offer features that enable you to collaborate and work together, such as: 1. Being able to have a group chat with more than two people. 2. The ability to share your screen, so you can talk about a document you are working on or share a graph, presentation or a spreadsheet. 3. Being able to record meetings and share them for the purposes of writing up action points or to share with non-attendees. 4. Being able to invite people to a call using a URL link. There are a number of tools that offer this service and, no doubt in the current climate, more players will be entering the market. In this blog, we’ll look at the three major players in video conferencing: Zoom, Google Hangouts Meet, and Microsoft Teams. The reason we are not including Skype in this list is that Microsoft has announced an [end of life program for the integration of Skype for Business with third-party audio conferencing providers (ACPs), concluding July 2021](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/skypeforbusiness/legal-and-regulatory/end-of-integration-with-3rd-party-providers). However, Skype is still a useful tool for Skype to Skype calls. **Note:** before you download video conferencing, make sure the devices you and your team are using have a microphone and camera. Zoom, Hangouts Meet, and Microsoft Teams enable online meetings, screen sharing, file sharing, and chats. Microsoft Teams and Zoom have a free version with fewer features than the paid subscriptions and they all have free trial periods. At the moment these tools are offering extended trials to help businesses through the current period of remote working. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/zoom.png) [Zoom](https://zoom.us/) has a number of plans to suit your business. The free plan will suit many businesses. On this plan, the meeting time is limited to 40 minutes with a maximum of 100 participants. You still get support and collaboration features. Paid plans give you more features such as participants, longer meeting times and controls. Plus you get a custom personal meeting ID which comes in handy when you want to invite someone into a call on the spot. [Zoom’s website has a breakdown of the meeting plans for your business](https://zoom.us/pricing). ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/hangoutsmeet.jpeg) [Google Hangouts Meet](https://gsuite.google.com/products/meet/) works with Google’s G Suite. For example, in Google Calendar you can create a meeting and choose Hangouts Meet under ‘add conferencing’. In response to Covid-19, all G-suite customers can get free access to advanced Hangouts Meet video-conferencing capabilities including larger meetings for your to 250 participants, live streaming to up to 100,000 viewers and the ability to record and save to Google Drive. For longer-term [pricing click here.](https://gsuite.google.com/pricing.html) ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/microsoft-teams.jpeg) [Microsoft Teams](https://teams.microsoft.com/start) are offering a 6 month free trial in response to Coronavirus. On the free plan, you get limited chat and collaboration, plus meetings, calls, and security. You can have up to 300 members and storage is limited to 2GB. To get administration tools or Microsoft support you’ll need to move to a paid plan. These start from approximately US $5 per month. For more [information on the plans, click here](https://products.office.com/en-nz/microsoft-teams/compare-microsoft-teams-options). For many businesses, who are now working from home, video conferencing allows you to maintain a sense of team. Keep productivity levels up and projects on track by building in a regular catch up. A video ‘check-in’ at 9 am is a good way to start the day, identify the work in progress and keep motivation levels up. Stay safe and stay connected! BOMA is the all-in-one digital marketing platform for Accountants & Bookkeepers. Expertly written business advisory content for you to share in emails and social posts. With BOMA it’s easy. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing with a free trial](https://bomamarketing.com/) **Categories:** Technology, Business --- ### [Weekly To Do’s for Accountants & Bookkeepers in Difficult Times](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/small-business/weekly-to-dos-for-accountants-bookkeepers-in-difficult-times/) **Published:** June 26, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In difficult times it’s more critical than ever for accountants and bookkeepers to dial up their empathy and sensitivity to their clients. Most if not all businesses will be under huge pressure and owners will be looking to their advisors for assistance. Accountants and bookkeepers will find themselves in a unique position to give support, guidance and advice to their clients and as a result will themselves be under pressure. So here is a checklist of weekly “To Do’s” that will help ensure you are delivering support to your clients whilst also looking after your own practice, colleagues and yourself. ## Weekly To Do’s Checklist: ## 1. Give the key information to your clients Aggregate the overwhelming flow and complexity of information into simple layman’s terms so that your clients can easily understand it i.e. don’t talk accountantese. ## 2. Keep clients updated Send out a weekly email (or short video) of the latest updates. Even if there isn’t any specific news this will remind your clients that you are there for them and thinking of them. Consider posting on social media as well. ## 3. Connect virtually with your clients Run a weekly webinar or open forum to update clients and field their questions. This is a very effective way of engaging with your clients and far more efficient than a succession 1-1 phone calls. ## 4. Connect with your team Run a morning 10min stand up BAU meeting with your team and ask them three questions - What are your wins in the previous 24 hours? - What are you working on today? - What are you struggling with and how can we help? This can easily be done online using an online video service like [Zoom](https://zoom.us/), [Google Hangouts](https://hangouts.google.com/) etc. ## 5. Make time for 1:1’s Run a weekly 1:1 with your direct reports, a virtual coffee. Check in on a personal level e.g. how are they doing as well as how work is going. Over communicate in terms of the next steps and future plans with them. ## 6. Offer Business Continuity Planning sessions Free up time to run Business Continuity Planning sessions with your business clients. For many this will be absolutely mission critical and should be prioritised over day to day compliance which won’t save many businesses. ## 7. Look after your own business Ensure you continue to manage your own cashflow. This includes chasing up late payers (with sensitivity), getting your own invoices out quicker, making use of software ([Practice Ignition](https://www.practiceignition.com/), [Go Cardless](https://gocardless.com/en-nz/), [Go Proposal](https://goproposal.com/US/)) to speed up the engagement signing and cash collection process. ## 8. Build out cashflow forecasts Build a very simple and high level 13 week cashflow forecast for both yourself and your clients and play with a few what-if scenarios based on downturns or sensitivities such as team members needing leave or sickness etc. ## 9. Keep looking ahead Plan your tomorrow, today. Meaning that at the end of each day set out a plan for tomorrow. This could include prioritising your tasks, meetings, calls, to do list and highlight the 3 nonnegotiables that you must complete. Consider tackling the tasks that require the most focus in the morning whilst you are freshest. ## 10. Be kind to yourself Make sure to take short breaks to keep yourself fresh and focused. This could be a walk around the house or a run around the block. Utilise Google or mobile apps to practice yoga or meditation exercises, try to eat well and get plenty of sleep. **BOMA** is the all-in-one digital marketing platform for Accountants & Bookkeepers. Expertly written business advisory content for you to share in emails and social posts. With **BOMA** it’s easy. Find out how **[BOMA can help your digital marketing, trial for FREE today](https://bomamarketing.com/)** **Categories:** Business --- ### [Achieving a Sense of Control in Uncertain Times](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/small-business/achieving-a-sense-of-control-in-uncertain-times/) **Published:** August 24, 2020 **Author:** Cat Morgan **Content:** We are living in uncertain times right now. The situation changes daily with new challenges to overcome. We are all feeling the strain. So what can we do to manage the stress and regain some much-needed sense of wellbeing? ### Focus on what you can control Research shows that doing something (no matter how small) is the best way to manage anxiety. There is a lot we can’t control right now but there are also things you can do, and simply taking action can help us feel in control and therefore happier. Here are some ideas: - **Connect with others** – Helping others is good for you. Setting a client on the right path or helping to solve their current challenges and issues over a call not only gives them much needed assistance but is also great for your own sense of wellbeing. - **Achieve one thing on your to-do list** – When you’ve ticked an item off your to-do list the satisfaction of achieving something is powerful. Sometimes the tasks that you put off aren’t so bad after you put your mind to it. Aim to achieve one thing each day to shorten that list and give you a sense of accomplishment. - **Time out** – Enjoy a really great cup of tea or coffee, spend time outdoors, talk to friends, engage in something constructive – even a jigsaw puzzle! (unlike much of our normal work activities, a jigsaw rewards you with something to show for your efforts). Give yourself time to switch off and re-energise. - **Movement** – Our bodies weren’t designed to sit at a desk all day. Being active for just 30 minutes a day improves your physical and mental health. Exercise not only gives you a welcome distraction from worries by forcing you to shift focus, it also prompts your brain to release chemicals that improve your mood. - **Routine helps** – Our normal routines have changed and it’s easy to spend longer hours at your desk working and missing out on usual breaks. Try to stick to a routine each day so you control your working hours. And get a good night’s sleep. - **Reflect** – Take time to reflect on your achievements during the day. Those little mindful moments can all add up to a great sense of peace and accomplishment. Something we could do with a bit more of when we’re feeling pressure or stress. ### Stop. Pause. Breathe. Breathe deeply and appreciate the feeling for a moment. Then go about the rest of your day with a well-deserved sense of satisfaction. You deserve it! Anxiety and stress are a normal part of everyday life, but not when it takes over. If you’d like more resources for yourself or someone you know, the [Health Navigator website](https://www.healthnavigator.org.nz/health-a-z/a/anxiety/?tab=16163) has resources as well as a list of mobile phone apps for anxiety, stress, depression, and general mental health. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for accountants and bookkeepers. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters, and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Business --- ### [Branding: the Foundation of any Successful Accounting or Bookkeeping Business](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/branding-the-foundation-of-any-successful-accounting-or-bookkeeping-business/) **Published:** May 21, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **Tips and tricks for building a brand that stands out** Make no mistake – a recognised and well-loved brand is arguably the most valuable asset your accounting or bookkeeping business can have. A well-established brand forms the basis of every marketing decision you make. It’s what allows you to have a relationship with your customers and a reputation in your industry – beyond what your business does functionally. As founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos has famously said, “It’s what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” That might sound a bit abstract – so here are some stats to prove it: - [81% of consumers](https://www.edelman.com/sites/g/files/aatuss191/files/2019-07/2019_edelman_trust_barometer_special_report_in_brands_we_trust.pdf) said that they need to be able to trust a brand to buy from it. - [89% of shoppers](https://www.fundera.com/resources/brand-loyalty-statistics) stay loyal to brands that share their values. - [64% of women and 68% of men](https://www.customerthermometer.com/consumers-connecting-with-companies/) have felt an emotional connection with a brand. - Consistent presentation of a brand has been found to [increase revenue by 33%](https://www.lucidpress.com/pages/resources/report/the-impact-of-brand-consistency). In a world where customers can access hundreds of products and services with a few keywords and the click of a button, getting your brand right is now even more critical. ## Here are a few tips on how to start developing a brand for your accounting or bookkeeping business ### **1. Establish your vision** The first step is to understand what you’re really selling by analysing exactly what makes your firm different to its competitors – and how this helps your clients. Your brand is not about *what* you do, but rather *why* you do it. Think of it this way: all accountants and bookkeepers essentially have the same skillset – so why should a client choose to work with you over any other firm? To get the brainwaves flowing, jot down your answers to these four questions: - Why do you exist? - What differentiates you? - What problem do you solve? - Why should people care? ### **2. Create a brand proposition that describes why your offer is better** The next step is to articulate your brand proposition in a single sentence – what you do better than other accountants and bookkeepers, and why your clients prefer you. Language and tone are crucial – the words you choose and the way you say them will shape how prospective customers perceive you. Your brand proposition should make people feel something, so don’t be afraid to think outside the box. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/avis.jpeg) Follow this process: - Write down what you want to say, then think of all the different ways you could communicate that same message. - **Test and refine.** Pick a few options and test out your thinking with family, friends, and clients, then refine your one-sentence brand proposition. - **Consider keywords.** Use Google’s free Adwords Key Planner to research how people search for accountants and bookkeepers – and consider those keywords when writing your brand proposition. - **Use it strategically.** Once you’ve got your brand proposition, integrate it with everything your clients see – including your website, ads, and social media content. ### **4. Research your competitors** You should never copy another brand (trust us, it’s obvious), but you should understand them. Search for your competitors on Google, look at their websites, study their social media profiles and read their reviews to work out what they do well – and not so well. It’s about finding that sweet spot to help you develop a brand that resonates with people. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/tomas-horak-9bJG9FNXZ4Y-unsplash-scaled.jpg) ### **5. Define your clients’ buyer persona** Creating a buyer persona is about pinpointing your ideal target audience (or audiences) and visualising a single person to represent a group. More than just age, gender, and location, it’s about deep-diving into motivations, goals, fears, desires, and influences. When you understand who you’re talking to, it’s a lot easier to have meaningful conversations. Overall, your marketing will be more targeted, persuasive, and effective. Here are a couple of tips: - Identify your high-value clients – and consider what their key drivers are. Use these insights to inform your buyer persona. - Create a ‘day in the life’ for each persona – this will prompt you to think about where and when they might engage with your business. ### **6. Build your brand assets** Now it’s time to bring your accounting or bookkeeping business to life with a logo, colours and fonts, images, website design, content, and advertising. Keep your brand, audience, and value proposition top of mind if you’re starting from scratch. Otherwise, review your brand assets to ensure they align. Generally, the best place to start is with your logo, then your other brand assets can be built around it. Colour matters – a signature colour can increase brand recognition by 80%. Working with a professional graphic designer is always the best option for logo design, or you can keep costs down with sites like [Dribbble](https://dribbble.com/), [Logo Gala](http://www.logogala.com/) and [Logo Moose.](https://www.logomoose.com/) ## **Branding – the heart and soul of any business** Despite the complexities and opportunities that come with going digital, the fundamentals of marketing remain largely unchanged. It’s still all about connecting with people – and your brand is the heart and soul that makes those connections authentic. With a strong brand, people will find it hard to forget you. This will help increase leads and strengthen your relationship with existing clients. Digital marketing requires a whole new set of skills – that’s why we put together our e-book, ***Digital Marketing: For Accountants and Bookkeepers***. It’s designed to help you make the most of marketing opportunities in a way that makes sense for your business and your brand. **[Download it for free today here](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-guide-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers/).** **Categories:** Marketing --- ### [Tech Trends for Accountants and Bookkeepers](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/technology/new-tech-trends-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers/) **Published:** July 12, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **Different ways to leverage cloud-based technology** It can be hard to believe that once upon a time, the internet wasn’t a thing. Those accountants and bookkeepers who have been in the game long enough will remember the pre-spreadsheet days, although perhaps not fondly. Today, technology has become a critical part of the accounting and bookkeeping industry. And not just any technology – cloud-based technology, to be exact. The cloud offers faster, more timely information which for any accountant or bookkeeper is great news – it means less data entry and more time to focus on high-value advisory work. Tech moves quickly, so it’s important you understand the trends shaping the accounting and bookkeeping industry. Here we explore some of the ways you can use different online platforms to run your business better and drive more value for your clients. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/AdobeStock_322522389-scaled.jpeg) ### **Add-ons for collaboration** Accounting technology is developing at an unprecedented rate and it’s constantly increasing the availability of real-time data. For your clients, real-time data is worth its weight in gold – it enables them to make faster, smarter, more informed business decisions. But real-time financial data also needs to be communicated in real-time. Instead of reporting on what has already happened, accountants and bookkeepers can help plan and even predict the future, so long as you have an efficient way of sharing that information. That’s where cloud-based accounting add-ons facilitate better collaboration between accountants and bookkeepers and their clients. For example, Xero’s integration with Google Hangouts, which offers a direct communication channel, provides an easy way to quickly share insights to your clients in the know. ### **Connected apps that work better together** The chances of finding an all-encompassing system are slim to none – that’s why there are add-ons. But embracing different apps and add-ons that integrate seamlessly empowers you to customise your tech stack to better fit the needs of your clients. That might be apps like [Hubdoc](https://www.hubdoc.com/) (for digitising bills and receipts) or [Expensify](https://www.expensify.com/) (for tracking expenses) right through to a myriad of payroll, sales, inventory and timesheet add-ons. Combining the power of multiple applications that work well together not only enables more efficiency opportunities, but it also streamlines the way you work, saving you time which you can then pass on to your clients. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/AdobeStock_187908565-scaled.jpeg) ### **Looking outside the usual ‘tech stack’ box** It’s unusual to find an accountant or bookkeeper these days who isn’t in the cloud – some of the most popular apps have been around for years. But the tools accounting firms are using now go beyond the four walls of the accounting industry. Online platforms like Boma enable accountants and bookkeepers to drive added value for clients while supporting their own businesses to grow. Boma’s [content library](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/content-libraries/) with ready-to-share articles specifically designed to deliver added value for your clients can be easily shared across your email and social channels. It helps connect you with new clients and increase engagement within your current community of clients and followers. ## **Shift the way you use online platforms** At times, the ever-evolving world of accounting apps can seem daunting, but the right tools will ultimately help change your business for the better. Those who find new ways to leverage cloud-based technology will realise they can do more than ever before and create new services for their clients. In many ways, online platforms are enabling many accountants and bookkeepers to realise their full potential – and that’s good news overall, for their clients and the industry too. **Ready to give BOMA a try? Click [here](https://app.bomamarketing.com/register?utm_source=boma&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=tech_trends_for_acc_bkk) for your free 14-day trial or [book](https://calendly.com/bomamarketing/walkthrough?month=2021-07) a short online demo.** **Categories:** Technology --- ### [BOMA + The Gap: Leveraging Content to Launch Advisory](https://bomamarketing.com/uncategorized/boma-the-gap-leveraging-content-to-launch-advisory-uk/) **Published:** September 23, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** With compliance being rear-facing, your clients may not know you provide services that create enduring value for their business. Having an effective marketing campaign is essential in positioning your value. The webinar features Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA and Nat Eady, General Manager of The Gap. **Webinar Agenda:** - How to execute a simple marketing campaign for advisory services - How to apply WIIFM (what’s in it for me) principles when marketing ANY of your services - Taking the guess work out of your marketing efforts - Planning your marketing campaigns for the rest of this year - Q&A **Categories:** Uncategorized --- ### [BOMA + Pure Bookkeeping: Moving from Technician to Advisor](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/boma-pure-bookkeeping-moving-from-technician-to-advisor/) **Published:** June 8, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this webinar Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA, hosts Katrina Aarsman, CEO of Pure Bookkeeping, and Sharon Francisco, Bookkeeping Business Coach, as they discuss how bookkeepers can make the move from technician to advisor. What we cover: - Understand your value - Attract the right clients - Systemise your workload - Leverage your systems to move to higher value work - Position yourself as the expert **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Legal Webinar Series - Part 2: How to Market Your Legal Firm on Social Media](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/legal-webinar-series-part-2-how-to-market-your-legal-firm-on-social-media/) **Published:** December 2, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Social media marketing can help you grow your law firm and build relationships with clients and prospects. In this webinar join Charles Clark, Co-Founder & Marketing Director at BOMA, Cat Morgan, Sales & Partnership Manger at BOMA, and Rachel Crocket, Regional Digital Sales Manager at NZME, as they discuss real life examples of how social media marketing can help legal firms support and nurture clients and grow their business. What we cover in this webinar - Why you should be using social media - What are the different social media networks - How to approach and use the different networks - What content to use for social posts - How to build your following and engage with your audience - How to leverage social media to grow your business - Understanding social media analytics - Plus tips, tricks and real world examples **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Legal Webinar Series - Part 1: How to Market Your Legal Firm on a Budget](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/legal-webinar-series-part-1-how-to-market-your-legal-firm-on-a-budget/) **Published:** December 2, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Marketing your legal firm is not just about growing your business, it also helps you to nurture and support your clients and support their growth. In this webinar join Rachel Crocket, Regional Digital Sales Manager at NZME, Charles Clark, Co-Founder & Marketing Director at BOMA, and Liz Studholme, Content Manager at BOMA, as we share 10 cost effective marketing tactics to get you started. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [How to Market Your Legal Firm on a Budget](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/how-to-market-your-legal-firm-on-a-budget/) **Published:** December 2, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Marketing your legal firm is not just about growing your business, it also helps you to nurture and support your clients and support their growth. In this webinar join Rachel Crocket, Regional Digital Sales Manager at NZME, Charles Clark, Co-Founder & Marketing Director at BOMA, and Liz Studholme, Content Manager at BOMA, as we share 10 cost effective marketing tactics to get you started. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Advertising Your Accounting Firm Online? Where Do You Start?](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/digital-marketing/advertising-your-accounting-firm-online-where-to-start/) **Published:** August 21, 2019 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** Well, the answer to that is two-fold. Before you start spending money online, make sure you have brushed up your ‘owned’ online media such as your website and social media channels – they are unique to your brand and you control them. So the first part of this blog is about the groundwork. Let’s take a closer look. ### **Optimize your Website** **for Search Engines** Your site should be well designed and load quickly. Ideally, you’ll also have some persuasive proof in the form of testimonials as well as fresh, useful content (blogs, videos, information, case studies, etc) that naturally include the keywords your prospects are looking for. Optimising your website, so it ranks a bit higher, doesn’t need to be complicated. Investing a bit of time each week to improve it will give you the best chance of being found by people looking for your products and services. ![what makes a good website - graphic](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/6A956A3442C211EE0B0128163D77B0DD5634-300x300.png)Image source: [Google Adwords](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6227215?hl=en&ref_topic=6231194) Make sure you have all the information a visitor needs in order to buy from you and clear steps to guide visitors to the action you want them to take. Before you spend money bringing people to your website, think about what you want them to do when they get there. Do you want them to buy something? To sign up for something? To book something?… Whatever it is, it should be front and centre, and compelling so that your valuable advertising dollar turns into sales or leads. Add [Google Analytics](https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/) to your website so you can gather data on how many visitors you get, where they came from, what keywords they searched with, how long they stayed and much more. You don’t need to track everything but start with some straight forward metrics to help you to see the areas you need to improve, e.g. if your bounce rate on a page is high, you may need to add more compelling content. [Click here for more on optimising your website for search](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/06/06/easy-seo-tips-for-your-small-business-in-5-minutes/) ### **Build engagement on your Social Media pages** Set up your business pages on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, etc (the right channels will depend on your business and your target audience). Promote these pages across your marketing channels and encourage people to like and follow you. The more interaction with people on your page the more chance you’ll be seen by new eyes. So, make sure you post regularly and engage with customers. If you are adding content to your website, share it on your Facebook page, LinkedIn account or Instagram feed. Connect back to it in a tweet on Twitter by sharing key statements. By actively engaging with followers and fans you’ll increase the chance of being seen by more people. [Read more on growing your business on social media.](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/11/15/grow-your-businesss-network-on-social-media-7-key-ways/) Over time, you should aim to spend a bit of time adding to these ‘owned’ platforms each week, whether it’s to add a blog or post a great image of the team or your products. The point is, that when you are ready to start spending money on advertising, it makes sense to have the organic (non-paid) work done. Advertising won’t improve your organic search ranking, so when it stops so does your visibility in search results . Plus, you’ll want to ensure that the hard work of getting someone to visit you is worth it with a compelling offer or strong value proposition. ## **Paying for online advertising** The groundwork above will give your campaign the best chance of success. Now you need to choose the right campaign type for your objectives. There are a number of options to choose from. The best strategy will depend on your business, your products, who your customer is, and what you want them to do. We’ll look at 4 main strategies for advertising online. (We’ll focus on email marketing another time). ![SEM graphic image](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/AdobeStock_175101682-470x264.jpg) ### **Advertising on Search Engines** Search engine marketing (SEM) involves paying so that your listing appears on the search engine results page. These campaigns are text-based like a normal search entry and they are based on keywords. Keywords are the words or phrases that people type into the search field when they are looking for your products or services. Search engine marketing is often called PPC because it works on a **pay-per-click** basis. On Google Adwords you can decide the maximum amount you want to pay for someone to click on your ad. Depending on the search volume at any given time, within the dates of your campaign, you may pay less than the amount you specify, but you can also be outbid. You can also set an average daily budget which allows for some days to be over but your total spend is controlled. The way your ad performs is based on three factors: – the amount you set to outbid the competition – the time of the search but, importantly, – the relevance of the keywords in your ad to what the person is searching for. So it’s important to do your research into what keywords will work best for you. You can do your own online search and see what comes up. There are lots of tools you can use too, such as [Moz.com](https://moz.com/explorer). Make sure you track your performance over the campaign so you can see what’s working and what needs adjusting. PPC is a great tool for reaching prospects who are already interested in your products and services – after all, they are already searching for you! There is no minimum spend and you control the budget. However, it can be hard to compete against bigger budgets for popular search terms. A bit of research and testing on keywords is vital in order to find words and phrases that are less competitive but will still deliver a good click return. ![Display advertising - graphic](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/AdobeStock_198142195-470x264.jpg) ### **Display Advertising** When you advertise on search, you appear in the search results, whereas display ads appear across the web in the form of banners, landing pages, and pop-ups or social ads. On Google’s display network, your ads can appear on news sites, blogs, Gmail and YouTube. Search and display have different purposes. Whereas search ads appear for people who have ‘intent’, Display ads appear for people who are browsing a website or facebook, but they’re not actively looking for your products and services. In a nutshell, Search is better for conversion and Display is good for building awareness. ***‘The average conversion rate across all industries on the display network is less than one percent but the display network works to create demand rather than answer demand like the search network’.** [Neil Patel](https://neilpatel.com/blog/display-ads-versus-search-ads/)* When you set up your display ad, you set a target audience based on location, interests, and demographics. The way you measure your return will be based on your advertising objectives. - Cost per clicks (CPC) – each time someone clicks on your ad - Cost per impressions (CPM) – each time your ad appears on a page that a person views - Cost per conversion/acquisition (CPA) – each time the action you set was achieved, such as website visit, or appointment booked. - Cost per video view. Successful display ads encourage people to click on them. Display ads are used to direct people’s attention to your products and services and get them to do something, such as visit a page on your website. With increasing online advertising, we are all getting better at ignoring banners online, so your call to action message should be compelling and motivating. As with any online advertising make sure you actively manage your campaign by tracking your results and make changes to improve your cost of acquisition. ![Remarketing illustration](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/AdobeStock_275071323-470x201.jpg) ## **Remarketing** Remarketing is a form of display advertising that retargets people based on a product or service they’ve already viewed on your website. Imagine someone visited your site to look at a product you sell or service you provide, but they didn’t buy. Remarketing targets these people, using cookie technology, when they are searching somewhere else on the internet. Your ad acts as a reminder to people to come back and buy from you. While it is a more assertive way to sell, done the right way, a remarketing ad will be seen as friendly and useful. Remarketing campaigns have higher conversion rates than display ads simply because your prospective customer has already shown an interest in your products. This results in a [lower cost per conversion.](https://neilpatel.com/blog/remarketing-and-retargeting-services/) ![Laptop Screen with Social Media Marketing Concept.](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/AdobeStock_101364528-400x300.jpeg) ## **Advertising on Social Media** It’s getting busy out there on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc, so putting some budget behind your messages on social media is a good idea to ensure you get seen. With any advertising, first, decide what you want to achieve. Are you trying to raise awareness of a message, or post, build your followers or send traffic back to your website? Social Media ads are like display ads. Prospective customers are browsing things that interest them, rather than specifically looking for you. **Follow some simple rules for social :** **Choose your channel** – The channels that are right for your business will depend on your client base. Facebook is still the largest channel across a range of business sectors. Here’s a guide for [advertising on Facebook. ](https://bomamarketing.com/2018/07/18/not-sure-how-to-advertise-on-facebook-we-break-it-down-for-you/)Think about where your clients come from and the social media channels they are likely to use. You can even ask clients or partners what channels they would expect you to be active on. **Define your target audience** – Your target audience can be as broad or narrow as you like. Social Media advertising allows you to create very targeted campaigns. The more specific, the harder your budget will work. **Look-a-like audiences** – Get more ideal customers with ‘look-a-like’ audiences, where you can reach audiences who share the same traits as the people who have already shown an interest in your business **Learn from your organic posts** – Look at what is performing well in your unpaid social posts and tweets. This will guide you in creating an engaging ad. **Offer something of value** – Make it worthwhile for your audience by providing something in return for their clicks, such as a great offer, a giveaway or a chance to win. **Track your performance** – Decide whether you want engagement or impressions. Both have value depending on your advertising goals. **Test your ad** – Use that immediate feedback you get on social to create a winning campaign. Start with smaller audiences to see what drives the most engagement. **Use BOMA to simplify your digital marketing** – If you are an accountant or bookkeeper, BOMA gives you everything you need in one platform to create emails, organic social posts, and social ads. **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is the marketing tool for Accountants and Bookkeepers. BOMA gives you expertly written ready-to-share content and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. You can also create landing pages to capture new leads and run social advertising to promote your firm to new audiences. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Digital Marketing --- ### [Social Media Marketing For Accountants – What is it and why your firm needs to active on social media](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/social-media-what-is-it-and-why-you-need-to-be-doing-social-media-marketing/) **Published:** December 2, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In the 6th session in our ‘Online Marketing Made Easy’ series we take a look at What is social media and why you can’t afford to ignore it? We cover 5 key elements including: 1. What is social media? 2. Why you can’t afford to ignore it 3. Breaking down the main social networks 4. How do I get started? 5. What should I post on each network? **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [The 7 Key Elements Of An Effective Website for Accounting Firms](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/the-7-key-elements-of-an-effective-website/) **Published:** December 3, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In the 3rd session in our ‘Online Marketing Made Easy’ series we’re joined by website expert Grant Johnson, of Rocketspark, who explains the 7 key elements of an effective website. These include: 1. Be clear about what you do 2. Show them why they should choose you 3. Make your website visually appealing 4. Have a clear call to action 5. Don’t be text heavy 6. Be mobile friendly 7. Build on a robust platform **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [The Shift In SME Expectations Of Their Accountant - What The Research Says & The Impact Of Covid-19](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/the-shift-in-sme-expectations-of-their-accountant-what-the-research-says-the-impact-of-covid-19/) **Published:** August 27, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Get the insights from PracticeWeb’s latest SME research. Discover what these changes mean for your firm and how you can respond to ensure you can build and maintain great relationships with clients. This special webinar featuring Mike Crook, Managing Director of Practice Web, Phil Sayers, Founder, Proten Sales Development Ltd , and Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA. Key takeouts: - Research insights - What do SME’s value - What makes clients switch? - Top five most important characteristics for accountants in 2020 - How you can take advantage - How to best support your clients - How to engage and sell without the ‘hard sell’ **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Power Your Business Success with BOMA and The Gap](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/power-your-business-success-with-boma-and-the-gap/) **Published:** June 24, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Discover the power of BOMA and The Gap combined. A fully digital solution that delivers processes and education to market, sell and offer Business Advisory and improvement services to your clients. Featuring Cat Morgan, Sales & Partnerships Manager at BOMA and Natalie Eady, General manager at The Gap. What we’ll cover: - Why BOMA & The Gap have partnered - The amazing value of The Gap content in BOMA - Mastering the call to action - Generating leads and getting greater engagement with The Gap Webinars - See the results of your peers **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Crisis Communications and Managing Difficult Conversations for Accountants & Bookkeepers](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/crisis-communications-and-managing-difficult-conversations-for-accountants-bookkeepers/) **Published:** June 17, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** When problems arise, be they Covid-19, natural disasters, or other unexpected events, clients turn to their accountants and bookkeepers for support. An understanding of effective crisis communication and how to manage difficult conversations can assist in building trust, goodwill, and support your clients through challenging times. This webinar features Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA in discussion with Heather Smith, FCA, FCCA, FICB. Key Takeaways: - The importance of keeping clients accurately informed - How to communicate in a clear, concise and professional manner - The different modes and platforms to communicate with clients - The importance of communication in branding and long-term relationships **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [How to Market Your Accounting & Bookkeeping Firm on Social Media](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/how-to-market-your-accounting-bookkeeping-firm-on-social-media/) **Published:** June 10, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA, and Phil Sayers, Founder, Proten Sales Development Ltd, discuss real life examples of how social media marketing can help Accountants and Bookkeepers grow their business. During this webinar you’ll learn: - How Accountants & Bookkeepers are using social media - The basics for setting up a great profile page - What content you can share on social - How to get started on social media including goals and planning - Plus a special section on how to sell your services once you’ve got engagement **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Easy Social Media Marketing for Your Firm](https://bomamarketing.com/uncategorized/wk-easy-social-media-marketing-for-your-firm/) **Published:** May 26, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Join Sarah Ingram, Team Leader – CCH Business Fitness, and Cat Morgan, Sales & Partnerships Manager at BOMA, as they discuss why accountants need to be active in social media marketing along with advice, tips and insights 2 key social networks – Facebook and LinkedIn. During this webinar you’ll learn: - How to get closer to your clients via social media - Use different social channels for different audiences - How to grow your social media - How to reach a wider audience on social media - How to share Wolters Kluwer content via social media to demonstrate your advisory service expertise **Categories:** Uncategorized --- ### [How to Address a Possible Decrease in Client Base and Revenue Due to COVID -19](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/how-to-address-a-possible-decrease-in-client-base-and-revenue-due-to-covid-19/) **Published:** May 22, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In this webinar Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA, and Brad Turville, Business Development Consultant, will be discussing strategies that Accountants and Bookkeepers can employ to mitigate the financial impact on your firm and what actions to take to help drive your firm’s growth through the recovery phase. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Harnessing Your Website to Survive (and Thrive) During Covid-19](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/harnessing-your-website-to-survive-and-thrive-during-covid-19/) **Published:** April 24, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** With the current challenges caused by Covid-19 it is more important than ever for a businesses website to be effective. This webinar features Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA and Grant Johnson, Founder of Rocket Spark, and is designed for Accountants and Bookkeepers AND for their clients. They cover: – The basics you need to have on your website – How to ensure your website gives your audience the information it needs to know – How to set up ecommerce capabilities – Processes and systems for scaling ecommerce – ​Ideas for selling your product or service to help generate revenue **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [How to Stay Focused and Sane While Working from Home​​](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/how-to-stay-focused-and-sane-while-working-from-home​​/) **Published:** March 27, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Join Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA, and Heather Smith, FCA, FCCA, FICB, as they discuss some of the challenges when working remotely including; – How to stay focused while working from home? – What set up do I need when working from home? – What are strategies for working from home with the kids here too? – Dealing with feelings of being stressed, overwhelmed and anxious. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [How to Market Your Accounting & Bookkeeping Firm on Social Media](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/boma-webinar-how-to-market-your-accounting-bookkeeping-firm-on-social-media/) **Published:** March 11, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Join Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA, and Heather Smith, FCA, FCCA, FICB, as they discuss how social media marketing can help Accountants and Bookkeepers strengthen relationships with clients and grow their business. During this webinar you’ll learn: - Why you should be using social media - What are the different social media networks - How to approach and use the different networks - How to get started on social media – Setting social media goals - What content to use for social posts - How to build your following and engage with your audience - How to leverage social media to grow your business - Tips, tricks and real world examples **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Digital Marketing - What is it, why do it and how best to do it?](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/digital-marketing-101-what-is-it-why-do-it-and-how-best-to-do-it/) **Published:** May 30, 2019 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Join Charles Clark, Marketing Director of BOMA, and Bryan Williams, Head of Ecosystem Xero Australia, in this webinar as they address some of our most commonly asked marketing questions, including: - Why should I be marketing? - How can I nurture clients and prospects with content? ​ - What, how, and when should I post on social media? - How do I grow my social following? - How should I market my events? - What should a Marketing Plan look like? **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – How do I get people to find me online?](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/search-engine-optimisation-seo-how-do-i-get-people-to-find-me-online/) **Published:** November 27, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In the 4th session in our ‘Online Marketing Made Easy’ webinar series we’re joined by SEO expert Harvey Kane, of Rocketspark, who explains 5 simple techniques to implement on your website that will boost it’s presence in search results, help users to find you online and drive more traffic to your website. We cover: 1. Know the exact phrases people are searching 2. Location based searching techniques 3. Have plenty of good quality content 4. Ranking for your business name 5. Keywords need to be used multiple times **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Marketing Plan – How to put it all together into a plan](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/marketing-plan-how-to-put-it-all-together-into-a-plan/) **Published:** December 6, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In the 7th session in our ‘Online Marketing Made Easy’ webinar series we explore how to put together the elements we’ve covered in the previous session into a marketing plan for your business. We’ll cover 4 key elements including: 1. Establishing your goals 2. Creating the plan 3. Setting specific targets 4. The importance of consistency **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Thought Leadership - What is it and why is it important?](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/thought-leadership-what-is-it-and-why-is-it-important/) **Published:** November 24, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In the 5th session in our ‘Online Marketing Made Easy’ webinar series we’re joined by Viv Brownrigg, CEO of The Gap. As a CA, business owner and public speaker Viv is extremely well placed to share her insights into thought leadership and in this webinar. We discuss the key elements including… 1. What is a thought leader? 2. Why develop your thought leadership? 3. Steps to becoming a thought leader 4. How does this relate to you? **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [Branding - I’ve got a logo, now what else do I need?](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/branding-ive-got-a-logo-now-what-else-do-i-need/) **Published:** November 10, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In the 2nd session in our ‘Online Marketing Made Easy’ webinar series we explore the 5 steps that Accountants and Bookkeepers can take to go beyond having only a logo and creating a brand for their practice. We’ll cover: 1. What is a brand? 2. Why do I need one? 3. What makes up a brand? 4. How can I create my brand? 5. What’s the next step? **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [An Introduction to Marketing for Accountants and Bookkeepers](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/an-introduction-to-marketing/) **Published:** November 1, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** The first of 8 short 20 minute webinars which will help to guide Accountants and Bookkeepers through getting starting in digital marketing. Whether you’re completely new to marketing or already have some experience these sessions will help improve your knowledge as well as giving practical tips and advice. In this series we’ll be covering: - Branding – I’ve got a logo, what else do I need? - The 7 key elements of an effective website - Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – How do I get people to find me online? - Thought Leadership – What is it and why is it important? - Social Media – What is it and why you need to be doing social media marketing - Marketing Plan – How to put it all together into a plan - Analytics – The importance of Analytics and measuring ROI **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [The importance of Analytics & ROI for your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/the-importance-of-analytics-roi-for-your-digital-marketing/) **Published:** December 6, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** In the 8th session in our ‘Online Marketing Made Easy’ webinar series we take a look at why you need to track and measure your marketing efforts. We’ll cover 6 key elements including 1. The importance of marketing analytics 2. Aligning your business goals and marketing KPI’s 3. Understanding your KPI’s 4. Where and how to monitor your KPI’s 5. Setting up regular reporting 6. Understanding your marketing ROI **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### [BOMA + Xero - Website Best Practice](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/boma-xero-website-best-practice/) **Published:** June 9, 2019 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Your website is your online ‘shop window’ and plays a key role in enabling business growth and success. Join BOMA’s Marketing Director, Charles Clark and Marketing Content Manager, Liz Studholme, and Patrick Frigo, Practice App Specialist of Xero Australia as they discuss the essential elements of a great website along with specific advice, tips and real life examples that you can apply to your own website. **Categories:** BOMA Webinars --- ### ["BOMA Plays an Integral Role in our Marketing" - Inspire Accounting & Business Services](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/user-success-stories/boma-plays-an-integral-role-in-our-marketing-inspire-accounting-business-services/) **Published:** September 5, 2019 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Though founded in 2015, the [Inspire Accounting & Business Services](https://www.inspirebusinessservices.com.au/) team has worked together for the last 15 years and this young business is proud to carry a combined 50 years’ experience in taxation, business advice and succession planning. Inspire’s focus is on giving their clients strategies to improve profits, whether they are starting out, growing or existing. They recognise that building key relationships among other professionals in Queensland is an essential part of the process. It ensures they have all the right contacts to round out their knowledge and ultimately provide better outcomes for their clients. Inspire were looking for a marketing solution that enabled them to build their network, engage with clients and industry leaders, to grow their business. Gary West, Owner and Director of Inspire, saw BOMA as a great solution that could help centralise and streamline their marketing activity. ![Inspire Team photo](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Inspire-Team-photo-1.jpeg) ## **Communicate, Educate, Grow** Inspire’s Marketing Coordinator, Kelly Portelli, has a very specific brief that informs her marketing activity. Her key KPI’s are focused on “communicating to existing clients, educating them about our services and getting new business.” Before using BOMA, Inspire’s marketing activity relied on the partners having time to research and write content. As a result, marketing activities were limited to ad hoc activity on Facebook, occasional TV ads and sporadic emails, if there was a specific event or news to promote. ![](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IMG_1166-1.jpg) ## **Streamlining Marketing Activity with BOMA** According to Kelly “getting started was easy.” BOMA’s multi-channel functionality means she can “use the same platform to send our newsletter as well as doing social media activity.” Inspire’s bi-monthly newsletter has a number of objectives. It not only serves to connect Inspire with local businesses, but also helps them reach new clients while nurturing existing clients. BOMA has also enabled Inspire to create a strong social presence across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. This has played a key role in connecting them with current clients and new audiences in a less formal, more personal setting. Kelly now uses BOMA to help “activate all their marketing touch points in order to drive new business” – without partners needing to do the heavy lifting. “BOMA plays an integral role in our marketing strategy. We can not only nurture our existing clients but also reach out and engage new clients. BOMA contributes to this as we can access email and various social channels as well as advertising via social media.” ## **Reaping the Rewards of Greater Engagement** Kelly has used BOMA to build on and expand her own marketing skills and revolutionise the company’s marketing approach while meeting her performance KPI’s. “We’ve learnt it takes time to grow and get new business. Using BOMA for multi-channel campaigns along with the amazing content that’s ready-to-share has enabled us to move from infrequent and ad hoc communications to regular newsletters and social posts, which look professional and are easy to create. We are reaping the rewards of greater engagement. Clients even ask when we send out our newsletter, who are you using for that?” BOMA has helped Inspire to stay relevant and top of mind amongst clients, prospects and industry leaders in a fast paced and evolving business environment. **Categories:** Success Stories **Tags:** case study, User stories --- ### [Helping Businesses Grow and Succeed - Alluvia Financial](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/user-success-stories/helping-businesses-grow-and-succeed-alluvia-financial/) **Published:** August 6, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ***‘I used to dread sending newsletters to my clients …….* *by dread I mean, not even do’.*** This is what J[o Doye](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jo-doye-99731a71/) from [Alluvia Financial](https://alluviafinancial.squarespace.com/) said when we talked to her about marketing. Jo has been using BOMA now for a few months so we checked in with her to see how it’s going. *‘I am absolutely in love with BOMA. Now I enjoy writing newsletters each month and with the* [*email templates*](https://bomamarketing.com/features/intelligent-design/email-templates/) *they are super easy. The* [*content library*](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/xero-content-library/) *gives you so many options on what to discuss with clients each week and the* [*facebook ads*](https://bomamarketing.com/features/growth/facebook-advertising/) *let you quickly and easily connect with your audience.’* Jo grew up learning the ups and downs of business ownership through family businesses. She never thought she’d run her own. With a degree in accounting she ended up in the corporate world. Funny where career paths take you though. Jo worked for Bendigo Bank and became the go-to person, assisting the owners of the community banks. And from there she identified the desire to continue to help businesses grow and succeed. ‘*Bendigo is small area, and the economy is driven by small businesses. At a certain point in my career, I realised that’s what I wanted to do most. I had a burning desire to help business owners succeed’.* A few years on, Jo set up Cloudbooks Business Solutions. The name was chosen at the time because cloud accounting software was a real point of difference. *‘*[*Xero* ](https://www.xero.com/au/)*was a game changer. Rather than visiting my clients’ offices and sitting on their computers, it suddenly meant I could assist more businesses remotely and have the extra time to do more for them.*’ The name change to Alluvia Financial better reflects the breadth of advisory and bookkeeping expertise the firm now offers clients. The firm has also made the most of other smart tools to maximise efficiency. The team use [Receipt Bank ](https://www.receipt-bank.com/)to eliminate time consuming data entry work giving them more time to add value for the businesses they work with. *‘Now you can have a conversation, set goals and deliver a better result for clients’.* ![Alluvia Team Photo](https://bomamarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Cloud_Staff_Clr-13-3-e1533529214845-450x300.jpg) ‘Super busy’ probably doesn’t describe the level of activity that goes on at Alluvia Financial these days. But the talented team of 5 bookkeeping and accounting staff all say that relationships are key to good accounting service. *‘We have a real connection with our clients and this is important. As a business, your relationship with your financial advisor needs to be strong and confidential. We make sure we understand the ‘reason’ for our clients. You need to have a great relationship to share your vision, work to your goals and to deal with stresses of business ownership’* Jo Doye Alluvia Financial use [BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/) to share articles and guides with the businesses they work with via email or on their social channels. *‘We are numbers not words! – so while we were keen to do some marketing, we were always putting it off. Now it’s exciting what knowledge I can share and I also get great feedback from clients‘* And the business continues to go from strength to strength…Alluvia Financial have been named winner of [Xero Partner of the Year for Victoria](https://www.xero.com/content/dam/xero/pdf/partner-pages-2018.pdf). They are a finalist for the Australian Partner of the year, announced at Xerocon in September 2018. Great work Alluvia Financial and Good Luck at Xerocon! **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** Success Stories **Tags:** customer success, testimonial --- ### [Using Olympic Defeat to Get Back up Again](https://bomamarketing.com/news/using-olympic-defeat-to-get-back-up-again/) **Published:** November 19, 2017 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** Anna Lawrence is still haunted by the lowlight in her 165-test hockey career – the crucial play-off match at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Captain Lawrence and her Black Sticks side had been riding a wave towards an Olympic medal, until they were unceremoniously crushed, 7-1, by Argentina. “One million people back in New Zealand were watching the game live, and we were destroyed; our medal chances were over,” she remembers. “I was actually unable to talk to anyone for 24 hours.” But from that sporting tragedy, Lawrence learned resilience, mental toughness, optimism and the ability to reframe things. All skills that she’s employed, 18 years later, in launching her digital marketing start-up, Boma. “I look back now and realise those things that I learned in sport have been so invaluable to me in my business career. Like the resilience to get back up after a loss; we had a lot of ups and downs. When you reflect on it, you realise you use that same mental strength to get through the highs and lows of a start-up,” she says. “It’s physically different, but just as taxing. Now that I’m also a parent and in a business like this, I realise those skills from my hockey days are amazing.” Lawrence, who has built up a broad background in marketing, is a co-founder of Boma, which she describes as “a ​self-​drive​ ​marketing​ ​platform​ ​which​ ​helps​ ​take​ ​the​ ​guesswork​ ​out​ ​of​ ​digital marketing for small businesses”. She has teamed up with Ian Christie, former CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi, and marketing and advertising specialist Charles Clark, to create the marketing software, which was launched in September. But Boma truly made its entrance on the world stage at last month’s Xerocon conference before 3000 accountants in Melbourne. Cloud accounting giant Xero has taken Boma under its wing, entering into a global partnership with the fledgling company. Boma has created a bespoke model of the platform for Xero, specifically for accountants and bookkeepers, to make it easier for them to market their businesses. “Working with small businesses, we saw a lot really struggling just to create a basic email,” Lawrence says. “If you build technology in New Zealand these days, you have to think global first, because the market here is too small. We always had those aspirations, but then we found this amazing match with Xero.” Through the relationship, Boma now has clients in Australia, Asia and the United States. By the end of this year, Boma will have also released a version of their product for small businesses. ![anna-lawrence](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_5088-1-970x728.jpg) In her 12-year career in the Black Sticks, Lawrence played at two Olympics, two World Cups and won a bronze medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. Her highlight was leading New Zealand out onto the pitch at the 1998 World Cup at The Hague, in front of 30,000 fervent Dutch fans, for the opening match against the Netherlands. She is famous for scoring all three goals in New Zealand’s victory over world champions Australia on the eve of the Sydney Olympics – breaking a 15-year run of losses to the Aussies. At the height of her hockey career, Lawrence also studied and worked in marketing – women’s hockey was far from professional during her time. When she lay down her stick for good in 2002, she became sponsorship manager for the Blues Rugby franchise, joined Lion Nathan in Auckland then Sydney, and then spent three years as national communications and sponsorship director of Lion. Working on the 2015 Cricket World Cup in Auckland, developing the MyBlackCaps fan app, proved to be an ideal learning ground in tech before joining forces with Christie and Clark almost two years ago. “Five years ago, I didn’t know anything about marketing technology and here I am in a start-up, going for it,” Lawrence says. “It’s been an exciting, challenging, and sometimes daunting ride. But I love being in technology and having an opportunity to help businesses understand and navigate through this complex world.” The Boma trio saw a gap in the market for a product giving small businesses access to technology only available to large marketing teams with big budgets. “Many small businesses don’t do a lot of marketing, so we built a platform where they can create digital marketing campaigns without the need for marketing and creative skills,” Lawrence says. “It’s a simple-to-use tool that allows you to send multi-channel campaigns to clients and customers. You can quickly build an email, a Facebook post, a tweet, a LinkedIn post and an Instagram in one platform and bang that out in five quick steps.” Boma users can access a library of purpose-built marketing content which they can quickly personalise and send out on social media and email. Next year Boma will release e-commerce integration, so retailers can analyse data to see how people are behaving on their website. “Then you know what kind of messages you should send them,” says Lawrence. “If someone has bought a $150 pair of pants online one day, you don’t send them a discount voucher for 50 percent off those pants the next.” The company, which received R&D funding from Callaghan Innovation, has an interesting story behind its name. In Africa, a boma is a corral or enclosure around livestock and villages. “In modern terms, it also describes a social hub, a place where people go to meet,” Lawrence says. Boma is also the name of Christie’s favourite restaurant in London. Lawrence admits tackling a start-up has been “super challenging”, and the biggest learning curve she’s been on in sport or business. “A whole other dimension is parenthood,” says Lawrence, who has two children, aged 4 and 5. “People think I’m a bit crazy going into start-up land!” She has returned to playing hockey, albeit at a social level, and will be a keen spectator at the ​World​ ​Hockey​ ​League​ ​Final, which ​continues this week ​at the​ ​North Harbour​ ​Hockey​ ​Stadium in Auckland.​ ​The Black Sticks will be among the​ ​world’s​ ​top​ ​eight​ ​women’s​ ​teams​ ​​competing​ ​over​ ​10​ ​days​, and win or lose, Lawrence is certain they’ll be forging skills for a life after sport. **Article by Suzanne McFaddon at Newsroom – see more** [here](https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/11/19/61571/using-olympic-defeat-to-get-back-up-again?platform=hootsuite) **ABOUT BOMA** BOMA is a marketing tool for Business Advisors. Communicate with clients and prospects with ease from one platform. BOMA gives you expertly written advisory articles and free images so you can create emails, newsletters and social posts in minutes. Nothing comes close to BOMA in marketing your firm. Find out how [BOMA can help with your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/). **Categories:** News --- ### [Boma + Xero: Taking the Mystery out of Marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/news/boma-xero-taking-the-mystery-out-of-marketing/) **Published:** September 19, 2017 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** Marketing can often be one of the last priorities on your list of things to do, but if you get it right, it can have a big impact on your business success. That’s why we’re excited to be partnering with [BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/xero/). Boma is a game-changing app that takes the time and the guesswork out of digital marketing. So as a Xero partner, you can now engage effectively with new and existing clients and deliver professional, impactful campaigns. ## Self-Drive Marketing That Connects You Straight to Your Clients A campaign builder within the app guides you through a simple process to create and send digital campaigns in minutes. All you need to do is choose your message and go. The apps ‘self-drive’ approach will help you identify who you should be talking to, what message you should be sharing and how you should share it. And if you don’t know your tweets from your ‘grams, it will explain how and when to use the different social media channels. Importantly, ‘simple to use’ doesn’t mean the functionality is compromised. Quite the opposite. Boma’s app is designed to help practices with any type of marketing skill, from those who aren’t familiar with marketing at all or those who are well-versed. The well-advanced tools and analytics will take all types of marketing experience and give it a boost. And of course, Boma is fully integrated within Xero HQ – which, as always, makes things much easier for you. ## Content Created Especially for Xero Partners All the resources you need to create professional, engaging campaigns are provided within the app, such as pre-populated Xero content templates. It even gives you access to a library of images that can be used at no cost without any licensing issues. Creating a library full of relevant and timely content can be a costly exercise – and now that is taken care of too. We asked what information and support our partners needed the most, and so the content and templates have been purpose built for your practice. There’s also plenty of flexibility to customise the template so you can personalise messages for your business and clients. So whether you’re new to marketing or wanting to take it to the next level, you’ll find a solution that’s right for you. Worried about how to put it all together? The design has been taken care of – adding yet another layer of professionalism. For example, images are automatically reformatted to suit the channel, preventing awkward resizing issues when a campaign is delivered across multiple social platforms (something the uninitiated amongst us may never even have thought of). ## Track the Success of Your Message See exactly how your campaign is tracking with data insights through an in-built performance dashboard. The more you understand what your clients like and how they interact with your practice, the better placed you are to deliver the right information on the right channel at the right time. The more you know, the better the service you’re ultimately able to provide for your clients. And that is the secret to great marketing. ## It’s Easy to Get Started Xero partners can get up and running quickly within Boma’s app settings. Just [sign up for a free trial ](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/xero/)and follow a few simple steps. Once connected, you can sync Boma to your Xero HQ client list, which eliminates the need to update client data manually. Article by Craig Little – see more [here](https://www.xero.com/blog/2017/09/boma-xero-taking-mystery-marketing/) **Categories:** News --- ### [Xero HQ App Partner Boma Announces Massive Update to Their Marketing Platform](https://bomamarketing.com/news/xero-hq-app-partner-boma-announces-massive-update-to-their-marketing-platform/) **Published:** November 19, 2017 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** *Our amazing Xero HQ App partner, Boma, are going full steam ahead, and they’ve just released a host of new features to help make marketing your practice even easier. We reckon all our Boma-using accountants and bookkeepers are going to love it and if you are not on it, give it a try! Here’s some of what’s new since launch – if you’re using Boma’s amazing Xero HQ integration, or you’re just wondering what all the fuss is about,* [*check it out!*](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/xero/) ## Content Library Preview Prior to Send Boma shows you a preview of the content and how the campaign will look across multiple channels within the content library so you can decide which piece of content is most suitable prior to starting the campaign set-up process. ## Scheduling for All Marketing Channels This feature allows Boma users to plan when marketing campaigns go live. Users can choose whether to send immediately, or plan a post for a future date based on requirements and soon Boma will allow users to schedule posts at different times for different channels. In time, Boma will offer ‘optimal send functionality’ based on machine learning which will allow you to send content at the time a user is most likely to engage. ## External CSV File Upload You asked, Boma delivered. Boma now allows users to add contacts that are not on Xero HQ to their Boma database. Non-Xero HQ contacts can be uploaded via a CSV file. Boma can import up to 25,000 contacts in a single upload. Find guides and tips on adding contacts to BOMA [here.](https://support.bomamarketing.com/?q=upload+a+csv+file) ## External Image Upload Articles in the Xero Content library come preloaded with an image, but users have the option to choose a different image to accompany the text. In the “media” stage of the campaign set up, users can either upload an image from their computer, or choose from the Boma image library which has over 260,000 free and searchable professional stock images. Users can also add a text overlay to the image. This is particularly useful for social posts where the image is key to engaging the viewer’s attention. ## In-App Support Within the Boma App, users can access support from the Help menu item which offers answers to frequently asked questions, video tutorials plus access to helpful resources which cover a range of topics relating to marketing for Accountants and Bookkeepers. Boma is also connected to Zendesk. Users can type a question into the Help button to receive answers relating to that topic. ## Improved Contact Management Among other improved features, users can now add tags to contacts in Boma to allow for filtering and segmentation which allows for greater campaign personalisation . ## Features Coming in Next Few Weeks: #### Email Templates New preloaded email templates featuring the ability for a user to add multiple pieces of content, links and multiple images to an EDM. #### Email editor Boma is making further improvements to their email editor such as additional drag and drop features to streamline the email creation process. That’s it for now, but we look forward to sharing new Boma features with you again soon! If you’ve got any feedback or questions about how Boma is working for you, check out their [FAQs page](https://support.bomamarketing.com/) or [get in touch with their team](mailto:info@bomamarketing.com). If you’d like to talk to us about how Boma is working with Xero HQ, drop us a comment below. Thanks! **Article by Guy Alexander – see more [here](https://www.xero.com/blog/2017/11/xero-hq-app-partner-boma-announces-massive-update-marketing-platform/)** **Categories:** News **Tags:** Xero HQ, App Partners --- ### [NZ Marketing Software Startup 'Boma' Launches Today Today Announcing Partnership with Xero](https://bomamarketing.com/news/nz-marketing-software-startup-boma-launches-today-announcing-partnership-with-xero/) **Published:** September 5, 2017 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** ## Boma Marketing Launches the Next Generation Marketing Software Startup New Zealand software start up Boma, has created an application which takes the guesswork out of digital marketing by allowing business owners to easily create and distribute their marketing messages without the need for creative or marketing skills. Former Saatchi CEO, Ian Christie, [founded Boma](https://bomamarketing.com/about-us/founding-team/) with fellow Kiwis, former Olympian Anna Lawrence and Charles Clark after seeing a gap in the market for a product giving small businesses access to technology previously the preserve of large marketing teams with big budgets. ## Partnership with Xero Xero immediately saw the benefit Boma could bring to it’s clients and asked Christie and his team to develop a bespoke model for them. Xero’s Chief Partner Officer Anna Curzon said, “With this new partnership, its never been easier for accountants and bookkeepers to advise and educate their small business clients with highly relevant, timely, and thoughtful information and videos. With Boma, Xero accounting and bookkeeping partners are now able to reach their new and existing clients through social media and email, efficiently and at scale, with personalised Xero content to help them build even stronger relationships with their clients.” As Christie explains, “When accountants and book-keepers are connected to Xero, Boma unlocks a library of purpose-built marketing content, designed and delivered by Xero. Boma will save Xero’s partners an enormous amount of time by providing content for them they can personalise and re-distribute easily”. “Digital marketing requires very specific skill sets which many businesses don’t have, as well as being expensive, hard to measure and analyse. We identified the need for a cost-effective, cloud-based, marketing solution which enables e-commerce and digital marketing to work together,” Christie says. Co-founder, former Olympian and Black Sticks Hockey captain Anna Lawrence says many businesses are challenged by digital marketing. “They know they need to do it, but either don’t have the time or they often don’t know what’s working and what’s not. Boma makes it super easy to create, distribute and analyse multi-channel marketing campaigns which can only help businesses grow and save time,” Lawrence says. ## **Global Launch Dates** Boma is excited to launch with Xero at the XeroCon events in Melbourne (September), London (October) and Austin, Texas (December) this year. Boma will be rolled out to businesses of all sizes, globally, during that time. Callaghan Innovation supported Boma with R&D funding, which spokesman Hēmi Rolleston said recognised both the company’s potential and its fit with Callaghan Innovation’s mission to help connect businesses to the networks, capability and funding they need to make their ideas happen. “Today’s announcement is a good example of how local talent like Boma, with a little help, can develop a next-generation product and take it to the world. New Zealand is becoming recognised as a great laboratory for innovation,” Mr Rolleston, General Manager Sectors for Callaghan Innovation, said. ## **ABOUT BOMA: Boma is a self-drive marketing platform that helps small businesses take the time, risk and complexity out of digital marketing. Making the best marketing-software tools available and affordable for businesses of all shapes and sizes . - Truly automated marketing across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and email for advertising and content delivery. - Creates themed content effortlessly with smart formatting. - Knows your audience, creating rich customer profiles, segments, activity streams. - Builds performance insights with actionable analytics **Categories:** News --- ### [Digital Marketing Startup Launches with Xero Partnership](https://bomamarketing.com/news/digital-marketing-startup-launches-with-xero-partnership/) **Published:** September 6, 2017 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** New Zealand software startup Boma Marketing has created an application which takes the guesswork out of digital marketing by allowing business owners to easily create and distribute their marketing messages without the need for creative or marketing skills. Former Saatchi CEO Ian Christie founded Boma with fellow Kiwis former Olympian Anna Lawrence and Charles Clark after seeing a gap in the market for a product giving small businesses access to technology previously the preserve of large marketing teams with big budgets. ### Partnership with Xero Xero saw the benefit Boma could bring to its clients and asked Christie and his team to develop a bespoke model for them. Anna Curzon, Xero chief partner officer says, “With this new partnership, it’s never been easier for accountants and bookkeepers to advise and educate their small business clients with highly relevant, timely, and thoughtful information and videos. “With Boma, Xero accounting and bookkeeping partners are now able to reach their new and existing clients through social media and email, efficiently and at scale, with personalised Xero content to help them build even stronger relationships with their clients.” As Christie explains, “When accountants and book-keepers are connected to Xero, Boma unlocks a library of purpose-built marketing content, designed and delivered by Xero. Boma will save Xero’s partners time by providing content for them they can personalise and redistribute easily”. “Digital marketing requires very specific skill sets which many businesses don’t have, as well as being expensive, hard to measure and analyse. We identified the need for a cost-effective, cloud-based, marketing solution which enables e-commerce and digital marketing to work together,” Christie says. Co-founder, former Olympian and Black Sticks Hockey captain Anna Lawrence says many businesses are challenged by digital marketing. “They know they need to do it, but either don’t have the time or they often don’t know what’s working and what’s not. Boma makes it easy to create, distribute and analyse multi-channel marketing campaigns which can only help businesses grow and save time,” Lawrence says. ### Global Launch Dates Boma is excited to launch with Xero at the Xerocon events in Melbourne (September), London (October) and Austin, Texas (December) this year. Boma will be rolled out to businesses of all sizes, globally, during that time. Callaghan Innovation supported Boma with R&D funding, which spokesman Hemi Rolleston says recognised both the company’s potential and its fit with Callaghan Innovation’s mission to help connect businesses to the networks, capability and funding they need to make their ideas happen. “Today’s announcement is a good example of how local talent like Boma, with a little help, can develop a next-generation product and take it to the world. New Zealand is becoming recognised as a great laboratory for innovation,” says Rolleston, Callaghan Innovation sectors general manager. **Article by Lew Kai Ping at bizEDGE –** see more [here](https://bizedge.co.nz/story/digital-marketing-startup-launches-xero-partnership/) **Categories:** News --- ### [Xero Partners with Kiwi Startup to Disrupt Marketing Sector](https://bomamarketing.com/news/example-blog-post/) **Published:** September 6, 2017 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** Kiwi software start up [Boma Technologies,](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/) has created an application that allows business owners to easily create and distribute their marketing messages without the need for creative or marketing skills. It has created a bespoke model for [Xero](https://www.cio.co.nz/article/614994/duncan-ritchie-xero/), which will be rolled out in upcoming months to Xero customers across the globe. “With this new partnership, it’s never been easier for accountants and bookkeepers to advise and educate their small business clients with highly relevant, timely, and thoughtful information and videos,” says [Anna Curzon, chief partner officer at Xero.](https://www.cio.co.nz/article/600285/anna-curzon-xero-speak-up-make-difference/) “With Boma, Xero accounting and bookkeeping partners are now able to reach their new and existing clients through social media and email, efficiently and at scale, with personalised Xero content to help them build even stronger relationships with their clients,” says Curzon, in a statement. Former Saatchi CEO Ian Christie founded Boma with fellow Kiwis, former Olympian Anna Lawrence and Charles Clark, after seeing a gap in the market for a product giving small businesses access to technology previously the preserve of large marketing teams with big budgets. “When accountants and book-keepers are connected to Xero, Boma unlocks a library of purpose-built marketing content, designed and delivered by Xero,” says Christie. “Boma will save Xero’s partners an enormous amount of time by providing content for them they can personalise and re-distribute easily” “Digital marketing requires very specific skill sets which many businesses don’t have, as well as being expensive, hard to measure and analyse. We identified the need for a cost-effective, cloud-based, marketing solution which enables e-commerce and digital marketing to work together,” says Christie. Co-founder, former Olympian and Black Sticks Hockey captain Anna Lawrence says many businesses are challenged by digital marketing. “They know they need to do it, but either don’t have the time or they often don’t know what’s working and what’s not. Boma makes it super easy to create, distribute and analyse multi-channel marketing campaigns which can only help businesses grow and save time,” says Lawrence. Callaghan Innovation supported Boma with R&D funding. “This is a good example of how local talent like Boma, with a little help, can develop a next-generation product and take it to the world. New Zealand is becoming recognised as a great laboratory for innovation,” says Callaghan Innovation spokesperson Hēmi Rolleston. Boma says it will be rolling out the services at upcoming Xerocon events across the globe, starting with Melbourne next week. ***Article by Divina Paredes at CIO** – see more [here](https://www.cio.co.nz/article/626921/xero-partners-kiwi-startup-disrupt-marketing-sector/?fp=16&fpid=1)* **Categories:** News --- ### [Newcomer Boma Takes Centre Stage at XeroCon](https://bomamarketing.com/news/newcomer-boma-takes-centre-stage-at-xerocon/) **Published:** October 9, 2017 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** *Digital marketing tool BOMA was thrust into the spotlight at Xerocon after Xero CEO Rod Drury endorsed the unknown New Zealand entrant as one of Xero HQ’s preferred apps.* ![boma-xerocon-rod-drury-stage](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_183d6-970x728.jpg) BOMA features alongside more established names such as Receipt Bank, Practice Ignition and SuiteFiles as one of Xero’s nine best-of-breed tools. After BOMA’s sudden brand awareness boost, founder Ian Christie hailed Xerocon as the app’s “coming out party”. It was quite the debut for a company that was built around the deadline of Xero’s Melbourne event. Recalling the “incredible” reaction the firm received in Australia, Christie said: “What we lacked was brand awareness when we got there. Two hours later we had 100% brand awareness. We essentially had people twenty deep in the stand for two days flat.” ## How it Works The digital marketing tool sucks the client’s data from Xero HQ and enables accountancy firms to share content across email and social channels using a prepared library of customisable content and images stamped with the firm’s logo. Describing the product’s advantages for busy firms, Christie said: “\[Accountants\] can perform a marketing function without a marketing department. We’ve put the power of marketing into the hands of people who need to market but don’t either have the time, skillset or money to do so.” BOMA works in a similar way to social sharing tools like Buffer, where practitioners can select the platform through which their content is shared (eg Twitter, Facebook etc). Firms can gauge the success of their marketing through the app’s dashboard, which aggregates all the data from all the channels. “It saves you from going into Google Analytics, then going to Facebook analytics, and trying to make sense of it all,” Christie said. Amid the machine learning buzz that fuelled the Xerocon conference, BOMA’s imminent plan is to implement an AI capability that automatically reads the data dashboard and spits back recommendations for who the user should contact, where to contact them and what content to use. This is what BOMA has called ‘smart segment’, and is a form of AI that would remove an accounting firm’s need to create anything, except hitting a button to confirm the marketing campaign is correct. Informed by questions from Xerocon attendees, Christie said that a scheduling aspect to the tool is currently under construction after realising a lot of firms wanted the ability to create a week’s worth of marketing activity ahead of time. While a library of generic evergreen content, ranging from ‘discover the cloud’ to ‘protect your business from email fraud’, plugs the social responsibilities of firms, it is BOMA’s tagging system that caught the attention of Xerocon attendees looking to escalate their Xero numbers. With the client service manager working in the background with content from Xero, the app can target specific clients, whether that’s with a wave of content for Xero customers or to nudge non-Xero clients with content that encourages them to move to the cloud. ![](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Screen-Shot-2017-10-10-at-11.31.42-AM-930x1024.png) ## From Obscurity to XeroCon Prominence So where did it come from? Former Saatchi executive Christie, a neighbour of Drury’s in New Zealand, pitched the idea to the Xero head honcho after seeing how some of the heavyweight Silicon Valley systems were helping marketeers. This got Christie thinking, “Why should all the big guys have access to that? Why not the little guys,” he said. “I believe technology is a democratising force. Why can’t we take some of those smarts and make them available for the small guys?” With everything around him still a digitalised version of the old direct mail, Christie capitalised on the space and equipped with the power of machine learning the New Zealander “put power in the hands of people that only large corporations currently have”. And that was his pitch to Drury. According to Christie, Drury responded: “Where have you been all my life?” Speaking to AccountingWEB about the moment he first heard about BOMA, Drury said: “I’m usually really sceptical, but when \[Christie\] showed me BOMA it really blew me away. We were thinking about trying to solve the same problems.” **Article by Richard Hattersley, Practice Correspondent for AccountingWEB**. See more [here](https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tech/tech-pulse/newcomer-boma-takes-centre-stage-at-xerocon?utm_content=bufferbfd6f&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer). **Categories:** News --- ### [Xero Launches Biggest Number of Products in Its History](https://bomamarketing.com/news/xero-launches-biggest-number-of-products-in-its-history/) **Published:** October 18, 2017 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** Cloud accounting software platform Xero has launched the biggest collection of products in the company’s 11-year history, including a partnership that promises to offer automated marketing for accounting firms, an educational learning platform for high schools, universities and businesses and a complete re-thinking of Xero Expenses. ![rod-drury-on-stage-at-xerocon](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Rod-Drury-at-XeroCon.jpg) The features have consumed much of the company’s growing research and development spend, which is 41 per cent of revenue. The suite of products was announced by Xero chief executive and co-founder Rod Drury at this year’s Xerocon in Melbourne, which attracted more than 3300 people from 19 countries. [Mr Drury told *The Australian Financial Review* announcements at next year’s Xerocon would be even bigger.](http://www.afr.com/technology/rod-drury-sets-sights-on-nz1-billion-in-revenue-eyes-automated-future-20170808-gxrvpq) ![xerocon-melbourne-main-stage](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/XeroCon-Melbourne.jpg) “We’re really deep on machine learning and AI,” he said. “While we’ve released parts of our products to make it real, we’re focused a lot on the product side of things at the moment. “We’ve really mapped out what the next generation of accounting looks like and we’ll show that when it’s ready next year. I’m so stoked we’ve been able to drop so much product, but I’m very excited about what we’re working on at the moment … next year will blow people away.” ## Generating Enthusiasm Xerocon has grown from only 30 attendees in its first year to almost filling the main hall at Melbourne’s Convention and Exhibition Centre. The event generates such enthusiasm it can seem more like rock concert. It features DJs, a playground and a Xero hanging garden area decked out with beanbags and a fake lawn. ![rod-drury-profile-photo](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Rod-Drury-Profile.jpg) Mr Drury admits it can feel like a bit of a cult, which he loves. Products launched on Wednesday included Xero HQ, an open practice platform that provides a curated ecosystem of nine integrated apps to provide accountants and bookkeepers with a selection of best practice tools to drive efficiency in their businesses. Within this feature Xero also announced its integration with New Zealand-based marketing start-up Boma, enabling the company to offer its users marketing content that can be easily customised to suit their practice. “We can now be the virtual marketing department for accounting partners,” Mr Drury said. “They can take our videos, or we’re just doing some work around succession planning as the Baby Boomers come through, and that content they can take out and not just market to their existing customers, but using Facebook look-alike audiences or other social tools, they can attract new local customers. “We’re moving from what was just a software industry, to powering the whole industry.” ## Revitalised Product Xero also debuted an expenses feature, which includes an analytics feature to let accountants and bookkeepers see expense patterns by category, accounts and employees, and set permissions to ensure expenses are filed by the right person. “We’ve revitalised our employee expenses and reimbursement product, redesigning it for the front office, taking advantage of AI and machine learning to make the entire expense process easier and more automated than ever, ensuring employees file their expenses more frequently and directly into Xero,” Mr Drury said. The cloud accounting platform has also built an embedded communications tool, Xero Discuss, which will go live in the next few months and enables accountants to discuss financial details about a client’s business directly with the client from within Xero. The Xero Projects tool will also let small businesses in service industries monitor active projects to maximise revenue and profits, keeping track of the time and costs in real time. “We’re taking people on a journey from traditional accounting to where it goes with machine learning … where you have thousands of servers working for you overnight,” Mr Drury said. “It’s dramatically simplifying accounting for small businesses. They don’t need to do accounting anymore … because we can code things so well.” ## Reshaping Training [Earlier this year, Xero announced its first machine learning function](https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjgyNDujKHWAhXGF5QKHYNsBtAQFggmMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.afr.com%2Ftechnology%2Fbigger-than-the-cloud--xero-makes-first-move-towards-automated-accounting-20170308-gutfvs&usg=AFQjCNE0isREtdmcgZd_4dRKgvk6ubwjfQ), automating the coding of invoices and bank transactions. Mr Drury envisaged Xero’s final feature announced on Wednesday, the Lifelong Learning Platform, would help reshape training in the accounting sector. In partnership with Swinburne University, the open learning platform will deliver courses for school students through to professionals who need to re-skill. It will provide classes with working Xero applications, populated with example data for any scenario. As part of this, Xero has also developed a text-based accounting language. Mr Drury said the developments formed part of a bigger journey the company was on to transform accountants from being compliance-focused to growth consultants. Rather than being fearful of automation, he said Xero was aiming to create a world where accountants were still critical to business. “We’re actively driving it. We don’t want a world where small businesses work without their accountants and bookkeepers … we’re designing the future so that they stay very relevant, or become more relevant … turning them from compliance officers to growth consultants.” *Article by [Yolanda Redrup](http://www.afr.com/technology/yolanda-redrup-j7gdq.html) at the Australian Financial Review – see more [here](http://www.afr.com/technology/xero-launches-biggest-number-of-new-products-in-its-history-20170913-gygcaz)* **Categories:** News --- ### [New Zealand Companies You Should Know – November 2017](https://bomamarketing.com/news/new-zealand-companies-you-should-know-november-2017/) **Published:** November 8, 2017 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** Every month at the Kiwi Landing Pad, we do a monthly update that covers who is in, what’s going on, and companies we have meet, come across or talked with lately, they are in varying industries and stages and in no particular order, sometimes old, sometimes new. ## NZ Companies You Should Know – Check Them Out: [1Centre](http://www.1centre.com/) – Reinventing, streamlining and de-stressing the Trade Credit Application Process. [Tribe Sport App](http://www.tribesportsapp.com/) – Your Destination for Sport. Everything in one place… and actually nice to use! Check out the app: http://tribe.fyi/getapp (iOS & Android). [ThinkLadder](http://www.thinkladder.com/) – Thinkladder is a collaboration between, writers, therapists and creatives. Our mission is to produce engaging content for those who want to develop their self awareness, mental health and wellbeing, and to deliver that content via social platforms, and unique online experiences. [Code Lingo](https://codelingo.io/) – Code Quality that Scales [The Social Club](https://thesocialclub.co/) – The Social Club is an online platform, connecting New Zealand’s largest community of social media influencers directly with brands and agencies. [Stratamap](http://www.stratamap.co.nz/) – StrataMap is a single source of truth platform for maintaining and sharing models. Designed specifically for large enterprises, government agencies and vendors, StrataMap exists to ease the pain of change. [Vinsight](https://www.vinsight.net/) – Great web based winery software: inventory, winemaking, lab, costings, sales. Make it, trace it! [PrenoHQ](https://prenohq.com/) – Preno is a property management software created for hoteliers by an award winning hotelier. [Linc Ed](https://www.linc-ed.com/) – LINC-ED is a unique web app for NZ schools that is designed to be simple, secure and stylish. [Boma](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/)– Boma enables SMB’s to join the digital revolution by allowing them to easily create, distribute & optimise digital marketing campaigns across multiple channels. **Article by Kiwi Landing Pad** – see more [here](http://kiwilandingpad.com/new-zealand-companies-you-should-know-november-2017/) **Categories:** News --- ## Pages ### [Home](https://bomamarketing.com/) **Published:** July 22, 2025 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** BOMA is the marketing automation platform for accountants. Our content library full of expertly written articles makes connecting and delivering to clients simple. --- ### [Pricing](https://bomamarketing.com/pricing/) **Published:** September 29, 2020 **Author:** Andrew Spear **Content:** BOMA’s Smart Content Marketing Hub for Accountants is the perfect platform for accounting firms who want to grow their business efficiently. --- ### [Build or refresh your accounting firm's website with BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/build-your-website-with-boma/) **Published:** October 17, 2023 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** A strong online presence is crucial for businesses, especially for professionals like accountants and bookkeepers who are looking to expand their reach and connect with potential clients. Recognising this need, BOMA offers a full service website design and build service, designed to help accountants and bookkeepers establish a robust online presence. Or if your current website just needs a refresh we can do this as well. --- ### [Multi-Channel Marketing Campaigns Made Easy](https://bomamarketing.com/multi-channel-marketing-campaigns-made-easy/) **Published:** March 4, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** BOMA makes sending multi-channel marketing campaigns simple for accountants. Connect to your audience on email, social media & website blog. --- ### [Create or Customise with our Generative AI Writing Tool 'Content Assist'](https://bomamarketing.com/create-or-customise-the-power-is-yours-with-content-assist/) **Published:** February 29, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [See All Features](https://bomamarketing.com/features/) **Published:** April 26, 2017 **Author:** BOMA --- ### [BOMA Content Library](https://bomamarketing.com/features/content-libraries/) **Published:** May 11, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [About Us](https://bomamarketing.com/about-us/) **Published:** June 25, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## **Why we started BOMA** Marketing an accounting or bookkeeping firm isn’t easy. It requires significant resources, both internal and external to accomplish. We understand that accountants and bookkeepers are super busy running their businesses and supporting clients so often struggle to find the time to market them effectively. At BOMA we believe that every accounting and bookkeeping firm, no matter the size, should have access to leading marketing technology to help support clients and drive growth. So we developed a solution that allows accountants and bookkeepers to focus more on doing what they do best, while giving them the confidence to successfully market their businesses in today’s digital world. BOMA’s powerful yet simple to use marketing tool and content library takes the time, cost and complexity out of digital marketing and client support all within a single platform. ## **How can BOMA help you?** **Does the hard work for you** – BOMA gives users access to hundreds of expertly written advisory and compliance articles content. The articles are ready-to-share or you can customise them as you see fit. You can also ‘mix n match’ content combining your own content with BOMA’s in newsletters, social posts and website blogs. **Industry partnerships** – we have partnered with best in the business to bring you their content including The Gap, Xero, MyHR, Spotlight Reporting, Vend and more. **Saves time** – BOMA enables users to create professional looking multi-channel marketing campaigns in a matter of minutes. Reach your clients on Email, Facebook, LinkedIn, X (Twitter), – all from one easy platform. **Saves money** – there’s no need to invest in costly design resource, imagery or social media experts. BOMA lets you manage your own campaigns in-house, no specialised marketing talent or external agencies required. **Simple to use** – Say goodbye to costly and time consuming design resources. BOMA auto-formats your content and images across selected email and social media channels to ensure your campaign is delivered in the right format for each channel. **Beautiful social posts and emails** – BOMA gives you access to a huge free image library to help bring your posts to life and drive engagement with your audience. **Helps grow your business –** reach new audiences via engaging paid social ads on Facebook and Instagram and then drive potential customers to your website or branded landing pages. **Aggregated analytics** – Insights tell you what’s working and what actions to consider next. BOMA automatically aggregates data from activity across your social platforms and email campaigns so you can easily understand what’s working – from one platform. --- ### [BOMA vs. The Competition: The Only Marketing Platform Built for Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/vs-competitors/) **Published:** February 26, 2026 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [Home](https://bomamarketing.com/home/) **Published:** April 26, 2017 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** BOMA is the marketing automation platform for accountants. Our content library full of expertly written articles makes connecting and delivering to clients simple. --- ### [BOMA Reviews: What Accounting Firms Really Say](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-reviews-what-accounting-firms-really-say/) **Published:** February 4, 2026 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [Trial BOMA Free for 14 days](https://bomamarketing.com/trial-boma-free-for-14-days-4/) **Published:** December 16, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** BOMA helps **marketing get done faster and easier** by automating campaign creation, client communications, and multi-channel marketing – so your firm connects with more clients and drives real results. **Country-specific human-created content**, **integrated AI,** and **ready-to-go email templates** cut the admin so your marketing runs smoothly without constant oversight. Guided onboarding and **expert support** help your team hit the ground running, saving time and building confidence from day one. **Enter Your Email to Activate your Free Trial** I agree to the BOMA Terms and Conditions --- ### [Trial BOMA Free for 14 days](https://bomamarketing.com/trial-boma-free-for-14-days-3/) **Published:** December 16, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** BOMA helps **marketing get done faster and easier** by automating campaign creation, client communications, and multi-channel marketing – so your firm connects with more clients and drives real results. **Country-specific human-created content**, **integrated AI,** and **ready-to-go email templates** cut the admin so your marketing runs smoothly without constant oversight. Guided onboarding and **expert support** help your team hit the ground running, saving time and building confidence from day one. **Enter Your Email to Activate your Free Trial** I agree to the BOMA Terms and Conditions --- ### [Trial BOMA Free for 14 days](https://bomamarketing.com/trial-boma-free-for-14-days-2/) **Published:** December 16, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** BOMA helps **marketing get done faster and easier** by automating campaign creation, client communications, and multi-channel marketing – so your firm connects with more clients and drives real results. **Country-specific human-created content**, **integrated AI,** and **ready-to-go email templates** cut the admin so your marketing runs smoothly without constant oversight. Guided onboarding and **expert support** help your team hit the ground running, saving time and building confidence from day one. **Enter Your Email to Activate your Free Trial** I agree to the BOMA Terms and Conditions --- ### [Trial BOMA Free for 14 days](https://bomamarketing.com/trial-boma-free-for-14-days/) **Published:** December 16, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** BOMA helps **marketing get done faster and easier** by automating campaign creation, client communications, and multi-channel marketing – so your firm connects with more clients and drives real results. **Country-specific human-created content**, **integrated AI,** and **ready-to-go email templates** cut the admin so your marketing runs smoothly without constant oversight. Guided onboarding and **expert support** help your team hit the ground running, saving time and building confidence from day one. **Enter Your Email to Activate your Free Trial** I agree to the BOMA Terms and Conditions --- ### [Quick Register Example](https://bomamarketing.com/quick-register-example/) **Published:** December 16, 2025 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** Email Address I agree to the BOMA Terms and Conditions --- ### [Christmas 2025 Special Offer
Terms & Conditions:
25% Off for 4 Months](https://bomamarketing.com/christmas-2025-special-offerterms-conditions25-off-for-4-months/) **Published:** December 9, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ### PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY. #### 1. DESCRIPTION OF PROMOTION 1.1 BOMA Technologies Ltd (NZBN 94290 4216 0359) (“BOMA”) is a marketing software platform that helps professional service businesses take the time, cost and complexity out of digital marketing. 1.2 BOMA is running a promotion to provide entrants with twenty five percent (25%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first four (4) months (the “Promotion”) when they register for a BOMA account or reactivate their BOMA Account. 1.3 The promotion is valued at up to NZD$223.00 + GST, (based on 6,400 contacts) per calendar month. 1.4 In order to register for a BOMA account you must enter your credit card details on the billing page at 1.5 The Promotion will commence at 12.01 am NZDT on November 14th, 2025 (“Promotion Start Date”). 1.6 The Promotion will expire at 23.59 pm NZDT on December 31st, 2025 (“Promotion Expiry Date”). #### 2. ELIGIBILITY 2.1 To be eligible for the Promotion, you must: (a) be above the age of eighteen (18) years old; (b) not be a current BOMA subscriber or hold an active BOMA account; (c) be in possession of a valid Promotion coupon code provided by BOMA (“Coupon Code”); and (d) utilise the Coupon Code to activate your BOMA account by visiting and accessing the billing page at before 23.59 pm NZDT on December 31st, 2025 on the Promotion Expiry Date. 2.2 We may contact you to verify your eligibility to participate in the Promotion. 2.3 To be eligible for the twenty five percent (25%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first four (4) months promotion entrants must be on a BOMA trial or have an inactive account during the Promotion Period. 2.4. Entry into the Promotion is free; however, any costs associated with accessing the Promotion online are the responsibility of the person seeking access and is dependent on the internet or mobile service provider used. #### 3. TERMS AND WAIVER 3.1 By participating in the Promotion, you unconditionally accept and agree to be bound by these Promotion Terms and Conditions (“Terms”). 3.2 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we do not believe you have satisfied the eligibility requirements as outlined in clause 2. 3.3 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we believe your actions have been in contravention of these Terms. 3.4 There is a limit of one Coupon Code per entrant. This Coupon Code has limited use for entrants. The Coupon Code is non-transferable, not for resale, and for the avoidance of doubt, not redeemable for cash or credit on the BOMA platform. 3.5 The Coupon Code and the Promotion cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or discount. 3.6 The Promotion of twenty five percent (25%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first four (4) months can only be used once and is not transferable or redeemable for cash or credit on the BOMA platform. 3.7 Certain features and functionality on the BOMA platform, such as paid advertising, are subject to additional charges. These will be billed to the credit card provided when creating your BOMA account. While we will always use our best efforts to notify you of any additional charges as and when they arise, you are obligated to make your own enquiries as to the costs and fees associated with using BOMA. 3.8 If a user has more than 6,400 email contacts they will need to pay the difference between the 6,400 contact subscription and their number of contacts as laid out on the BOMA pricing page . This additional cost will be billed on a monthly basis. 3.9 Your use of the BOMA platform is subject to the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. These can be viewed at . You should take care to familiarise yourself with your obligations under the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. 3.10 At the end of the twenty five percent (25%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first four (4) months Promotion period your subscription will revert to the standard monthly price based on your number on contacts as found on the billing page here . Failure to cancel your subscription at the end of the promotional period will see it automatically renew on a monthly basis until cancelled. 3.11 In the course of providing the Promotion to you, we may collect some of your personal information or data. This will be collected in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which can be viewed at . 3.12 We make no representations, guarantees or warranties as to the suitability of the BOMA platform or any services contained therein for your needs. Our obligations to you are limited to the provision of the Promotion. These obligations are conditional upon your satisfaction of the eligibility requirements in clause 2 and adherence to these Terms. 3.13 BOMA may amend these Terms, in writing, at any time. You will be notified of any changes to these Terms as soon as is reasonably practicable after amendment. --- ### [Christmas 2025 Special Offer
Terms & Conditions:
50% Off for 2 Months](https://bomamarketing.com/christmas-2025-special-offer-terms-conditions-50-off-for-2-months/) **Published:** November 7, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ### PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY. #### 1. DESCRIPTION OF PROMOTION 1.1 BOMA Technologies Ltd (NZBN 94290 4216 0359) (“BOMA”) is a marketing software platform that helps professional service businesses take the time, cost and complexity out of digital marketing. 1.2 BOMA is running a promotion to provide entrants with fifty percent (50%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first three (3) months (the “Promotion”) when they register for a BOMA account or reactivate their BOMA Account. 1.3 The promotion is valued at up to NZD$223.00 + GST, (based on 6,400 contacts) per calendar month. 1.4 In order to register for a BOMA account you must enter your credit card details on the billing page at 1.5 The Promotion will commence at 12.01 am NZDT on November 7th, 2024 (“Promotion Start Date”). 1.6 The Promotion will expire at 23.59 pm NZDT on December 31st, 2024 (“Promotion Expiry Date”). #### 2. ELIGIBILITY 2.1 To be eligible for the Promotion, you must: (a) be above the age of eighteen (18) years old; (b) not be a current BOMA subscriber or hold an active BOMA account; (c) be in possession of a valid Promotion coupon code provided by BOMA (“Coupon Code”); and (d) utilise the Coupon Code to activate your BOMA account by visiting and accessing the billing page at before 23.59 pm NZDT on December 31st, 2024 on the Promotion Expiry Date. 2.2 We may contact you to verify your eligibility to participate in the Promotion. 2.3 To be eligible for the fifty percent (50%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first three (3) months promotion entrants must be on a BOMA trial or have an inactive account during the Promotion Period. 2.4. Entry into the Promotion is free; however, any costs associated with accessing the Promotion online are the responsibility of the person seeking access and is dependent on the internet or mobile service provider used. #### 3. TERMS AND WAIVER 3.1 By participating in the Promotion, you unconditionally accept and agree to be bound by these Promotion Terms and Conditions (“Terms”). 3.2 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we do not believe you have satisfied the eligibility requirements as outlined in clause 2. 3.3 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we believe your actions have been in contravention of these Terms. 3.4 There is a limit of one Coupon Code per entrant. This Coupon Code has limited use for entrants. The Coupon Code is non-transferable, not for resale, and for the avoidance of doubt, not redeemable for cash or credit on the BOMA platform. 3.5 The Coupon Code and the Promotion cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or discount. 3.6 The Promotion of fifty percent (50%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first three (3) months can only be used once and is not transferable or redeemable for cash or credit on the BOMA platform. 3.7 Certain features and functionality on the BOMA platform, such as paid advertising, are subject to additional charges. These will be billed to the credit card provided when creating your BOMA account. While we will always use our best efforts to notify you of any additional charges as and when they arise, you are obligated to make your own enquiries as to the costs and fees associated with using BOMA. 3.8 If a user has more than 6,400 email contacts they will need to pay the difference between the 6,400 contact subscription and their number of contacts as laid out on the BOMA pricing page . This additional cost will be billed on a monthly basis. 3.9 Your use of the BOMA platform is subject to the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. These can be viewed at . You should take care to familiarise yourself with your obligations under the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. 3.10 At the end of the fifty percent (50%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first three (3) months Promotion period your subscription will revert to the standard monthly price based on your number on contacts as found on the billing page here . Failure to cancel your subscription at the end of the promotional period will see it automatically renew on a monthly basis until cancelled. 3.11 In the course of providing the Promotion to you, we may collect some of your personal information or data. This will be collected in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which can be viewed at . 3.12 We make no representations, guarantees or warranties as to the suitability of the BOMA platform or any services contained therein for your needs. Our obligations to you are limited to the provision of the Promotion. These obligations are conditional upon your satisfaction of the eligibility requirements in clause 2 and adherence to these Terms. 3.13 BOMA may amend these Terms, in writing, at any time. You will be notified of any changes to these Terms as soon as is reasonably practicable after amendment. --- ### [Christmas 2024 Special Offer
Terms & Conditions:
50% Off for 2 Months](https://bomamarketing.com/christmas-2024-special-offerterms-conditions50-off-for-2-months/) **Published:** November 27, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ### PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY. #### 1. DESCRIPTION OF PROMOTION 1.1 BOMA Technologies Ltd (NZBN 94290 4216 0359) (“BOMA”) is a marketing software platform that helps professional service businesses take the time, cost and complexity out of digital marketing. 1.2 BOMA is running a promotion to provide entrants with fifty percent (50%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first two (2) months (the “Promotion”) when they register for a BOMA account or reactivate their BOMA Account. 1.3 The promotion is valued at up to NZD$223.00 + GST, (based on 6,400 contacts) per calendar month. 1.4 In order to register for a BOMA account you must enter your credit card details on the billing page at 1.5 The Promotion will commence at 12.01 am NZDT on November 27th, 2025 (“Promotion Start Date”). 1.6 The Promotion will expire at 23.59 pm NZDT on December 31st, 2025 (“Promotion Expiry Date”). #### 2. ELIGIBILITY 2.1 To be eligible for the Promotion, you must: (a) be above the age of eighteen (18) years old; (b) not be a current BOMA subscriber or hold an active BOMA account; (c) be in possession of a valid Promotion coupon code provided by BOMA (“Coupon Code”); and (d) utilise the Coupon Code to activate your BOMA account by visiting and accessing the billing page at before 23.59 pm NZDT on December 31st, 2025 on the Promotion Expiry Date. 2.2 We may contact you to verify your eligibility to participate in the Promotion. 2.3 To be eligible for the fifty percent (50%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first two (2) months promotion entrants must be on a BOMA trial or have an inactive account during the Promotion Period. 2.4. Entry into the Promotion is free; however, any costs associated with accessing the Promotion online are the responsibility of the person seeking access and is dependent on the internet or mobile service provider used. #### 3. TERMS AND WAIVER 3.1 By participating in the Promotion, you unconditionally accept and agree to be bound by these Promotion Terms and Conditions (“Terms”). 3.2 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we do not believe you have satisfied the eligibility requirements as outlined in clause 2. 3.3 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we believe your actions have been in contravention of these Terms. 3.4 There is a limit of one Coupon Code per entrant. This Coupon Code has limited use for entrants. The Coupon Code is non-transferable, not for resale, and for the avoidance of doubt, not redeemable for cash or credit on the BOMA platform. 3.5 The Coupon Code and the Promotion cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or discount. 3.6 The Promotion of fifty percent (50%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first two (2) months can only be used once and is not transferable or redeemable for cash or credit on the BOMA platform. 3.7 Certain features and functionality on the BOMA platform, such as paid advertising, are subject to additional charges. These will be billed to the credit card provided when creating your BOMA account. While we will always use our best efforts to notify you of any additional charges as and when they arise, you are obligated to make your own enquiries as to the costs and fees associated with using BOMA. 3.8 If a user has more than 6,400 email contacts they will need to pay the difference between the 6,400 contact subscription and their number of contacts as laid out on the BOMA pricing page . This additional cost will be billed on a monthly basis. 3.9 Your use of the BOMA platform is subject to the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. These can be viewed at . You should take care to familiarise yourself with your obligations under the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. 3.10 At the end of the fifty percent (50%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first two (2) months Promotion period your subscription will revert to the standard monthly price based on your number on contacts as found on the billing page here . Failure to cancel your subscription at the end of the promotional period will see it automatically renew on a monthly basis until cancelled. 3.11 In the course of providing the Promotion to you, we may collect some of your personal information or data. This will be collected in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which can be viewed at . 3.12 We make no representations, guarantees or warranties as to the suitability of the BOMA platform or any services contained therein for your needs. Our obligations to you are limited to the provision of the Promotion. These obligations are conditional upon your satisfaction of the eligibility requirements in clause 2 and adherence to these Terms. 3.13 BOMA may amend these Terms, in writing, at any time. You will be notified of any changes to these Terms as soon as is reasonably practicable after amendment. --- ### [Book a 30 minute strategy call with BOMA & The Back Room](https://bomamarketing.com/book-a-30-minute-strategy-call-with-boma-the-back-room/) **Published:** November 25, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Book a 30 minute strategy call with BOMA & The Back Room --- ### [Ditch the Sunday tax - Get time back for what matters Av1](https://bomamarketing.com/ditch-the-sunday-tax-get-time-back-for-what-matters-av1/) **Published:** November 25, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Alfred v1 --- ### [Local Sign Up Quick Register Form](https://bomamarketing.com/local-sign-up-form/) **Published:** July 24, 2018 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** Agree to BOMA Terms and Conditions --- ### [BOMA Premium Content Partner - The Gap](https://bomamarketing.com/premium_libraries_gap_premium/) **Published:** April 21, 2021 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** The Gap’s practical and proven business development content combined with BOMA’s easy to use digital marketing platform, fast tracks marketing results for accountants. Provide value, attract and engage clients through ‘best business practice’ content. --- ### [Christmas 2025 Special Offer
Terms & Conditions:
50% Off for 2 Months](https://bomamarketing.com/christmas-2025-special-offerterms-conditions50-off-for-2-months/) **Published:** November 14, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ### PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY. #### 1. DESCRIPTION OF PROMOTION 1.1 BOMA Technologies Ltd (NZBN 94290 4216 0359) (“BOMA”) is a marketing software platform that helps professional service businesses take the time, cost and complexity out of digital marketing. 1.2 BOMA is running a promotion to provide entrants with fifty percent (50%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first two (2) months (the “Promotion”) when they register for a BOMA account or reactivate their BOMA Account. 1.3 The promotion is valued at up to NZD$223.00 + GST, (based on 6,400 contacts) per calendar month. 1.4 In order to register for a BOMA account you must enter your credit card details on the billing page at 1.5 The Promotion will commence at 12.01 am NZDT on November 14th, 2025 (“Promotion Start Date”). 1.6 The Promotion will expire at 23.59 pm NZDT on December 31st, 2025 (“Promotion Expiry Date”). #### 2. ELIGIBILITY 2.1 To be eligible for the Promotion, you must: (a) be above the age of eighteen (18) years old; (b) not be a current BOMA subscriber or hold an active BOMA account; (c) be in possession of a valid Promotion coupon code provided by BOMA (“Coupon Code”); and (d) utilise the Coupon Code to activate your BOMA account by visiting and accessing the billing page at before 23.59 pm NZDT on December 31st, 2025 on the Promotion Expiry Date. 2.2 We may contact you to verify your eligibility to participate in the Promotion. 2.3 To be eligible for the fifty percent (50%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first two (2) months promotion entrants must be on a BOMA trial or have an inactive account during the Promotion Period. 2.4. Entry into the Promotion is free; however, any costs associated with accessing the Promotion online are the responsibility of the person seeking access and is dependent on the internet or mobile service provider used. #### 3. TERMS AND WAIVER 3.1 By participating in the Promotion, you unconditionally accept and agree to be bound by these Promotion Terms and Conditions (“Terms”). 3.2 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we do not believe you have satisfied the eligibility requirements as outlined in clause 2. 3.3 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we believe your actions have been in contravention of these Terms. 3.4 There is a limit of one Coupon Code per entrant. This Coupon Code has limited use for entrants. The Coupon Code is non-transferable, not for resale, and for the avoidance of doubt, not redeemable for cash or credit on the BOMA platform. 3.5 The Coupon Code and the Promotion cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or discount. 3.6 The Promotion of fifty percent (50%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first two (2) months can only be used once and is not transferable or redeemable for cash or credit on the BOMA platform. 3.7 Certain features and functionality on the BOMA platform, such as paid advertising, are subject to additional charges. These will be billed to the credit card provided when creating your BOMA account. While we will always use our best efforts to notify you of any additional charges as and when they arise, you are obligated to make your own enquiries as to the costs and fees associated with using BOMA. 3.8 If a user has more than 6,400 email contacts they will need to pay the difference between the 6,400 contact subscription and their number of contacts as laid out on the BOMA pricing page . This additional cost will be billed on a monthly basis. 3.9 Your use of the BOMA platform is subject to the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. These can be viewed at . You should take care to familiarise yourself with your obligations under the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. 3.10 At the end of the fifty percent (50%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first two (2) months Promotion period your subscription will revert to the standard monthly price based on your number on contacts as found on the billing page here . Failure to cancel your subscription at the end of the promotional period will see it automatically renew on a monthly basis until cancelled. 3.11 In the course of providing the Promotion to you, we may collect some of your personal information or data. This will be collected in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which can be viewed at . 3.12 We make no representations, guarantees or warranties as to the suitability of the BOMA platform or any services contained therein for your needs. Our obligations to you are limited to the provision of the Promotion. These obligations are conditional upon your satisfaction of the eligibility requirements in clause 2 and adherence to these Terms. 3.13 BOMA may amend these Terms, in writing, at any time. You will be notified of any changes to these Terms as soon as is reasonably practicable after amendment. --- ### [BOMA + ACPD Webinar Registration](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-acpd-webinar-registration/) **Published:** October 15, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [Gap Reunion 2025](https://bomamarketing.com/gap-reunion-2025/) **Published:** September 8, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** --- ### [BOMA + ACPD ROI Calculator](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-acpd-roi-calculator/) **Published:** September 5, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Accountants often say that time, cost and lack of marketing expertise are key barriers preventing them from marketing their firm. BOMA was created to solve this problem with a huge content library of hundreds of customisable advisory and compliance articles which can be shared with your clients and leads via email, social media and your website blog. From spotlighting pertinent business challenges to sharing actionable insights for growth, our curated collection equips you to provide unparalleled value and support to your clients’. Try our ROI calculator to work out how much time and money you could save by BOMA. --- ### [BOMA + ACPD Special Offer
Terms & Conditions:
6 Months Free](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-acpd-special-offerterms-conditions6-months-free/) **Published:** September 3, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ### PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY. #### 1. DESCRIPTION OF PROMOTION 1.1 BOMA Technologies Ltd (NZBN 94290 4216 0359) (“BOMA”) is a marketing software platform that helps professional service businesses take the time, cost and complexity out of digital marketing. 1.2 BOMA is running a promotion to provide entrants with one hundred percent (100%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first six (6) months (the “Promotion”) when they register for a BOMA account or reactivate their BOMA Account and enter the promotion specific BOMA coupon code. 1.3 The promotion is valued at up to GBP£111.00, (based on 6,400 contacts) per calendar month. 1.4 In order to register for a BOMA account you must enter the promotion specific BOMA coupon code along with your credit card details on the billing page at 1.5 The Promotion will commence at 12.01 am NZDT on September 7th, 2025 (“Promotion Start Date”). 1.6 The Promotion will expire at 23.59 pm NZDT on November 31st, 2025 (“Promotion Expiry Date”). #### 2. ELIGIBILITY 2.1 To be eligible for the Promotion, you must: (a) be above the age of eighteen (18) years old; (b) not be a current BOMA subscriber or hold an active BOMA account; (c) be in possession of a valid Promotion coupon code provided by BOMA (“Coupon Code”); and (d) utilise the Coupon Code to activate your BOMA account by visiting and accessing the billing page at before 23.59 pm NZDT on November 31st, 2025 on the Promotion Expiry Date. 2.2 We may contact you to verify your eligibility to participate in the Promotion. 2.3 To be eligible for the one hundred percent (100%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first six (6) months promotion entrants must be on a BOMA trial or have an inactive account during the Promotion Period. 2.4. Entry into the Promotion is free; however, any costs associated with accessing the Promotion online are the responsibility of the person seeking access and is dependent on the internet or mobile service provider used. #### 3. TERMS AND WAIVER 3.1 By participating in the Promotion, you unconditionally accept and agree to be bound by these Promotion Terms and Conditions (“Terms”). 3.2 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we do not believe you have satisfied the eligibility requirements as outlined in clause 2. 3.3 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we believe your actions have been in contravention of these Terms. 3.4 There is a limit of one Coupon Code per entrant. This Coupon Code has limited use for entrants. The Coupon Code is non-transferable, not for resale, and for the avoidance of doubt, not redeemable for cash or credit on the BOMA platform. 3.5 The Coupon Code and the Promotion cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or discount. 3.6 The Promotion of one hundred percent (100%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first six (6) months can only be used once and is not transferable or redeemable for cash or credit on the BOMA platform. 3.7 Certain features and functionality on the BOMA platform, such as paid advertising, are subject to additional charges. These will be billed to the credit card provided when creating your BOMA account. While we will always use our best efforts to notify you of any additional charges as and when they arise, you are obligated to make your own enquiries as to the costs and fees associated with using BOMA. 3.8 If a user has more than 6,400 email contacts they will need to pay the difference between the 6,400 contact subscription and their number of contacts as laid out on the BOMA pricing page . This additional cost will be billed on a monthly basis. 3.9 Your use of the BOMA platform is subject to the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. These can be viewed at . You should take care to familiarise yourself with your obligations under the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. 3.10 At the end of the one hundred percent (100%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first six (6) months Promotion period your subscription will revert to the standard monthly price based on your number on contacts as found on the billing page here . Failure to cancel your subscription at the end of the promotional period will see it automatically renew on a monthly basis until cancelled. 3.11 In the course of providing the Promotion to you, we may collect some of your personal information or data. This will be collected in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which can be viewed at . 3.12 We make no representations, guarantees or warranties as to the suitability of the BOMA platform or any services contained therein for your needs. Our obligations to you are limited to the provision of the Promotion. These obligations are conditional upon your satisfaction of the eligibility requirements in clause 2 and adherence to these Terms. 3.13 BOMA may amend these Terms, in writing, at any time. You will be notified of any changes to these Terms as soon as is reasonably practicable after amendment. --- ### [Effortless Marketing for Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/effortless-marketing-for-accountants/) **Published:** May 15, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [Content Marketing Made Easy for Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/content-marketing-made-easy-for-accountants/) **Published:** May 15, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [Custom SEO & Targeted Marketing Packages For Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/custom-seo-targeted-marketing-package-for-accountants/) **Published:** May 20, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [Email Templates](https://bomamarketing.com/features/email-templates/) **Published:** May 9, 2018 **Author:** Andrew Spear **Content:** BOMA’s email template options makes communicating with clients easy, professional and cost-effective for accountants. --- ### [Landing Page Draft (April'25)](https://bomamarketing.com/landing-page-draft-april25/) **Published:** April 30, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Insert text here that relates to the specific ad campaign messaging --- ### [BOMA Content Library](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-content-library/) **Published:** March 19, 2025 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [Privacy Policy](https://bomamarketing.com/legal/privacy-policy/) **Published:** September 19, 2017 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** # **Privacy Policy** *This version was last updated on 1st June 2022* BOMA respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit our website (regardless of where you visit it from) and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you. This privacy notice covers the specific areas as set out below. Please also use the Glossary to understand the meaning of some of the terms used in this privacy notice. 1. IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND WHO WE ARE 2. THE DATA WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU 3. HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL DATA COLLECTED 4. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA 5. DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA 6. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS 7. DATA SECURITY 8. DATA RETENTION 9. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS 10. GLOSSARY 11. APPENDIX 1 – PURPOSES FOR WHICH WE WILL USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA ## **1. Important information and who we are** **Purpose of this privacy notice** This privacy notice aims to give you information on how we collect and process your personal data through your use of this website, including any data you may provide through this website when you sign up to our newsletter, purchase our services or take part in a competition. This website is not intended for children, and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children. Please be aware that we act primarily as a data processor for our clients. This means that we do not control the collection, use and storage of personal data provided to us by our clients, other than to carry out our obligations under our contracts with them, in accordance with the terms of those contracts. Consequently, if we are processing personal data supplied to us by a client and a data subject raises a query with us, we will refer that query to our client rather than deal with it ourselves. It is important that you read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them. **Controller** In circumstances where we are not acting as a data processor for our clients, Boma Technologies Limited is the controller and responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy notice). We have appointed a data protection officer (DPO) who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this privacy notice, including any requests to exercise *your legal rights*, please contact the DPO using the details set out below. **Contact** **details** Our full details are: *Full name of legal entity: Boma Technologies Limited* *Name or title of DPO: Nigel Nguyen* *Email address: privacy@bomamarketing.com* *Postal address: Level 4 – Building A, BDO Centre, 4 Graham Street, Auckland, New Zealand* If you are a data subject based in New Zealand, you have the right to complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. If you are a data subject based in Australia, and are concerned that we have not complied with your legal rights or applicable privacy laws, you may bring a complaint internally or decide to make a formal complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. If you are based in the European Union, United Kingdom, the United States of America, or any other country, you have the right to make a complaint at any time to the supervisory authority for data protection issues of the country in which you are based, or where the processing which concerns you takes place. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach any such authority so please contact us in the first instance. **Changes to the privacy notice and your duty to inform us of changes** This Privacy Statement may be updated periodically and without prior notice to you to reflect changes in our information practices or relevant laws. We will post a notice on app.bomamarketing.com that points to this Privacy Statement to notify you of any substantive changes to the way we collect and use information. We will indicate at the top of the Privacy Statement when it was last updated. The General Data Protection Regulation is in force in the EU from 25 May 2018, and this policy seeks to meet the standards of that Regulation. The European Commission formally ruled in December 2012 that New Zealand’s privacy law provided an ‘adequate level’ of privacy protection to meet European standards. This adequacy status means that personal data information can legally be sent here from Europe for processing without special additional measures being taken by the European companies. BOMA is also bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Australian Privacy Act) as amended, including the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). The APPs are designed to protect the confidentiality of information and the privacy of individuals by regulating the way personal information is collected, used, disclosed and managed. Under the Australian Privacy Act, personal information means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information is true or not and whether the information is recorded in a material form or not. The APPs can be accessed at the website of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. BOMA may be subject to other Australian laws relating to the use of personal information. In certain circumstances, BOMA may be subject to privacy obligations under the Telecommunications Act 1997 (Cth) and to the processes for access and correction to personal data information under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth). It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us. **Third-party links** This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit. ## **2. The data we collect on you** Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. This identification can be either direct or indirect. However, it will be made possible because of information which provides a reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of a natural person. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data). We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together follows: - Identity Data includes first name, last name, username or similar identifier, title, date of birth and gender. - Contact Data includes billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers. - Financial Data includes bank account and payment card details. - Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of services you have purchased from us. - Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this website. - Profile Data includes your username and password, purchases or orders made by you, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses. - Usage Data includes information about how you use our website and services. - Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences. We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice. We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data or Sensitive Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences. **If you fail to provide personal data** Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, if you use a pseudonym when dealing with us or you do not provide identifiable information to us, we may not be able to provide you with any or all of our services as requested). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time. ## **3. How is your personal data collected?** We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through: - Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you: - apply for our services; - create an account on our website; - subscribe to our service or publications; - request marketing to be sent to you; - enter a competition, promotion or survey; or - give us some feedback. - Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. We may also receive Technical Data about you if you visit other websites employing our cookies. Please see our [Website Cookie Policy](https://bomamarketing.com/legal/cookie-notice/) and [App Cookie Policy](https://bomamarketing.com/legal/boma-app-cookie-notice/) for further details. - Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below - Technical Data from the following parties: - analytics providers such as Google based outside the EU; - advertising networks such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn based outside the EU and - search information providers such as Google based outside the EU. - Contact, Financial and Transaction Data from providers of technical, payment and delivery services (such as Stripe) in New Zealand, Australia and the United States. - Usage Data from information providers (such as Intercom, Stripe, Chart Mogul, Full Story, Drip) in New Zealand, Australia and the United States. ## **4. How we use your personal data** We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances: - Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you. - Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. - Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation. Generally we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other than in relation to sending third party direct marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us. Where the purpose for which we will use your personal data is covered by the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (“GDPR”), or the New Zealand Privacy Act, the sections of this Privacy Policy in Appendix 1 – Purpose for which we will use your personal data – apply to you, and under Schedule 1 of the Australian Privacy Act. **Marketing** We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising. We have established a privacy centre where you can make certain decisions about your personal data use. **Promotional offers from us** We may use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which services and offers may be relevant for you (we call this marketing). You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or purchased services from us \[or if you provided us with your details when you entered a competition or registered for a promotion\] and, in each case, you have not opted out of receiving that marketing. **Third-party marketing** We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any company outside of BOMA Technologies Limited for marketing purposes. **Opting out** You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by contacting us at any time. Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a service purchase, warranty registration, service experience or other transactions. **Cookies** You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see our [Website Cookie Policy](https://bomamarketing.com/legal/website-cookie-policy/) and[ App Cookie Policy](https://bomamarketing.com/legal/boma-app-cookie-notice/). **Change of purpose** We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so. Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law. ## **5. Disclosures of your personal data** We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table in paragraph 4 above. - External Third Parties as set out in the *Glossary*. - Specific third parties listed in the table in *paragraph 4* - Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice. We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions. ## **6. International transfers** If you are a data subject based in the EU, whenever we transfer your personal data to any other country outside the EEA, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented: - Where possible, we will only transfer your personal data to countries (like New Zealand) that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission. - Where we use certain service providers (for example, Amazon Web Services), we may use specific contracts approved by the European Commission which give personal data the same protection it has in Europe. For further details, see [European Commission: Model contracts for the transfer of personal data to third countries](https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/data-transfers-outside-eu/model-contracts-transfer-personal-data-third-countries_en). - We use Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) wherever possible which are validated by the European Union - Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the EEA. We may disclose personal information outside New Zealand and Australia. Whenever we do so, we will meet the requirements of the New Zealand *Privacy Act 2020* and under section 5B of the Australian Privacy Act. For example, by having data protection agreements with providers that we share data with. If you would like further details regarding any such disclosure, please contact the DPO using the details set out above. ## **7. Data security** We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so. ## **8. Data retention** **How long will you use my personal data for?** We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements. Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are \[available in our retention policy which you can request from us by contacting us. By law we have to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for \[7\] years after they cease being customers for \[tax\] purposes.\] In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see \[*Request erasure*\] below for further information. In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you. ## **9. Your legal rights** Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. Please click on the links below to find out more about these rights: - Request access to your personal data - Request correction of your personal data - Request erasure of your personal data - Object to processing of your personal data - Request restriction of processing your personal data - Request transfer of your personal data - Right to withdraw consent - If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us. **No fee usually required** You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances. **What we may need from you** We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response. **Time limit to respond** We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated. ## **10. Glossary** **LAWFUL BASIS** **Legitimate Interest** means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us **Performance of Contract** means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract. **Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation** means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to. ## **THIRD PARTIES** ### **External Third Parties** - Service providers \[acting as processors\] based \[New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom, America\] who provide \[IT and system administration services\]. - Professional advisers \[acting as processors or joint controllers\] including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers based in \[New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom who provide \[consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services\]. - Regulators and other authorities acting as processors or joint controllers who require reporting of processing activities within their respective jurisdictions in certain circumstances. ## ## **YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS** **You have the right to:** **Request access** to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it. **Request correction** of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us. **Request erasure** of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request. **Object to processing** of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms. **Request restriction of processing** of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it. **Request the transfer** of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you. **Withdraw consent at any time** where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent. ## **11. Appendix 1 – Purposes for which we will use your personal data** We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate. Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below. **Purpose/Activity****Type of data****Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest**To register you as a new customer(a) Identity(b) Contact Performance of a contract with youTo manage our relationship with you which will include:(a) Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy (b) Asking you to leave a review or take a survey (c) Managing payments, fees and charges (d) Collecting and recovering money owed to us (a) Identity(b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Marketing and Communications (a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation (c) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and to study how customers use our services) To manage our relationship with NZME Publishing Limited (“NZME”) which will include:(a) Managing payments, fees and charges (b) Collecting and remitting money owed by us to NZME (c) Sharing responsibility for support services provided to you (a) Identity(b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Transaction (e) Marketing and Communications (a) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation(b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (profit sharing purposes) To enable you to partake in a prize draw, competition or complete a survey(a) Identity(b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Usage (e) Marketing and Communications (a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our services, to develop them and grow our business) To manage our relationship with CCH New Zealand Limited (“CCH NZ”) which will include:(a) Managing payments, fees and charges (b) Collecting and remitting money owed by us to CCH NZ (c) Sharing responsibility for support services provided to you (a) Identity(b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Transaction (e) Marketing and Communications (a) Performance of a contract with you(b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation (c) Necessary for our legitimate interests (profit sharing purposes) To manage our relationship with CCH Australia Limited (“CCH AU”) which will include:(a) Managing payments, fees and charges (b) Collecting and remitting money owed by us to CCH AU (c) Sharing responsibility for support services provided to you (a) Identity(b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Transaction (e) Marketing and Communications (a) Performance of a contract with you(b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation (c) Necessary for our legitimate interests (profit sharing purposes) To manage our relationship with The Gap 2014 Limited (“The Gap”) which will include:(a) Managing payments, fees and charges (b) Collecting and remitting money owed by us to The Gap (c) Sharing responsibility for support services provided to you (a) Identity(b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Transaction (e) Marketing and Communications (a) Performance of a contract with you(b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation (c) Necessary for our legitimate interests (profit sharing purposes) To administer and protect our business and this website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data)(a) Identity(b) Contact (c) Technical (a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise)(b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation To deliver relevant website content(a) Identity(b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Usage (e) Marketing and Communications (f) Technical Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our services, to develop them, to grow our business and to inform our marketing strategy)To use data analytics to improve our website, services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences(a) Technical(b) Usage Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of customers for our services, to keep our website updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy)To make suggestions and recommendations to you about services that may be of interest to you(a) Identity(b) Contact (c) Technical (d) Usage (e) Profile Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our services and grow our business) --- ### [Free Image Library](https://bomamarketing.com/image-library/) **Published:** May 9, 2018 **Author:** Andrew Spear **Content:** With access to over 7 million images in BOMA’s photo library, you’ll always have the perfect picture at hand. --- ### [Email and Social Scheduling](https://bomamarketing.com/features/email-and-social-scheduling/) **Published:** May 14, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** With BOMA you can create email & social campaigns then schedule them at a time that is most relevant to your audience or to the operations of your accounting firm. --- ### [BOMA ROI Calculator](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-roi-calculator/) **Published:** February 27, 2019 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Accountants often say that time, cost and lack of marketing expertise are key barriers preventing them from marketing their firm. BOMA was created to solve this problem with a huge content library of hundreds of customisable advisory and compliance articles which can be shared with your clients and leads via email, social media and your website blog. From spotlighting pertinent business challenges to sharing actionable insights for growth, our curated collection equips you to provide unparalleled value and support to your clients’. Try our ROI calculator to work out how much time and money you could save by BOMA. --- ### [Website Pricing Plans](https://bomamarketing.com/website-pricing-palns/) **Published:** May 1, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** A strong online presence is crucial for businesses, especially for professionals like accountants and bookkeepers who are looking to expand their reach and connect with potential clients. Recognising this need, BOMA offers a full service website design and build service, designed to help accountants and bookkeepers establish a robust online presence. Or if your current website just needs a refresh we can do this as well. --- ### [Managed Marketing Service Pricing Plans](https://bomamarketing.com/managed-marketing-pricing-plans/) **Published:** May 7, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Elevate your accounting practice with our comprehensive, hassle-free digital marketing solutions. We’ve crafted exclusive packages to enhance your firm’s online presence, ensuring you stay ahead in a competitive digital landscape without having to lift a finger. These are total done-for-you BOMA packages. --- ### [Boma's Managed Marketing Service: Let Us Handle Your Digital Presence](https://bomamarketing.com/bomas-managed-marketing-service-let-us-handle-your-digital-presence/) **Published:** May 6, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Elevate your accounting practice with our comprehensive, hassle-free digital marketing solutions. We’ve crafted exclusive packages to enhance your firm’s online presence, ensuring you stay ahead in a competitive digital landscape without having to lift a finger. These are total done-for-you BOMA packages. --- ### [How Growth Focused Accounting Firms Can Provide Value To Clients](https://bomamarketing.com/how-growth-focused-accounting-firms-can-provide-value-to-clients-in-2022/) **Published:** October 14, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** How Growth Focused Accounting Firms Can Provide Value To Clients with BOMA’s marketing platform & Wolters Kluwer CCH content. --- ### [Xero’s content library, right at your fingertips.](https://bomamarketing.com/xeros-content-library-right-at-your-fingertips/) **Published:** August 3, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** BOMA makes it easy for Xero Partners to build relationships with clients with an in-built Xero content library full of articles that you can share via email & social media. --- ### [The Digital Marketing Guide For Accountants & Bookkeepers](https://bomamarketing.com/the-digital-marketing-guide-for-accountants/) **Published:** December 17, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Download BOMA’s guide to Digital Marketing for Accountants with easy explanations, tips & simple steps to follow and implement in your firm. --- ### [Website Best Practice for Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/website-best-practice-for-accountants/) **Published:** June 22, 2023 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** The goal of your website is to try and keep people on it for as long as possible, so they can learn about you, the services you offer, the sorts of clients you work with. So you want to have a website structure and content that encourages them to spend additional time on your website --- ### [Video Tutorials](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/) **Published:** June 27, 2019 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** A collection of video tutorials created to help accountants get the most from the BOMA marketing platform. --- ### [Trial BOMA for Free or Book a Demo](https://bomamarketing.com/choose-trial-or-book-demo/) **Published:** April 18, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** BOMA’s smart content marketing hub has hundreds of Advisory & Compliance articles so Accountants can easily create Emails, Social Posts & Website Blogs to engage and support clients and prospects. --- ### [User Success Stories](https://bomamarketing.com/user-success-stories/) **Published:** August 23, 2019 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Hear firsthand how other Accountants have used BOMA to get ahead with their digital marketing and grow their firm’s. --- ### [The Complete Digital Marketing Tool For Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/the-complete-digital-marketing-tool-for-accountants/) **Published:** November 17, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** BOMA is the all-in-one digital marketing platform for Accountants with a content library, email & social campaigns, lead capture forms & more. --- ### [Take control of your marketing with BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/take-control-of-your-marketing-with-boma/) **Published:** March 23, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** With hundreds of advisory & compliance articles accountants can easily create email, social & blog posts to engage & support clients & prospects. --- ### [Sending a Campaign in BOMA - Interactive Demo](https://bomamarketing.com/sending-a-campaign-in-boma-interactive-demo/) **Published:** October 22, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Click through a step-by-step, interactive demo of how to send a campaign in BOMA using an article from the content library. --- ### [Lead Capture Pages](https://bomamarketing.com/features/lead-capture-pages/) **Published:** May 9, 2018 **Author:** Andrew Spear **Content:** Easily design and publish lead capture forms for your newsletter, ‘Contact Us’ page, downloadable lead magnets and more to grow your audience and generate leads. --- ### [Campaign Analytics](https://bomamarketing.com/features/campaign-analytics/) **Published:** May 9, 2018 **Author:** Andrew Spear **Content:** Our straight forward analytics show how well your campaigns are resonating with your audience, & where your marketing focus is best directed. --- ### [Save time and money using BOMA for your social media marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-social-media-roi-calculator/) **Published:** October 1, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Many Accountants struggle to post regularly to social media. BOMA comes with hundreds of articles making social media posting a breeze. --- ### [Save time and money using BOMA for your digital marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-digital-marketing-roi-calculator/) **Published:** March 6, 2019 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Our ROI calculator reflects the time & money that Accountants can save by using the BOMA platform to conduct their Digital Marketing. --- ### [Save and money using BOMA for your blog and content creation](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-content-roi-calculator/) **Published:** May 18, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Many Accountants struggle to create regular blog content. BOMA marketing platform comes with hundreds of articles making content creation and blogging a breeze. --- ### [Save time and money using BOMA for your email marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-email-marketing-roi-calculator/) **Published:** October 1, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** BOMA comes with hundreds of expertly written, ready-to-share articles making email marketing a breeze for accounting firms. --- ### [Marketing Training Webinars](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-training-webinars/) **Published:** February 1, 2019 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ## A collection of marketing related webinars created to help educate and inform you about the most common marketing questions and issues facing business today. --- ### [Our Amazing Features](https://bomamarketing.com/our-amazing-features/) **Published:** November 7, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** BOMA comes packed with Content Libraries, multi-channel campaigns, URL Share, Image Library, Lead Capture Forms, Analytics and more. --- ### [Nurture & Support Clients with BOMA's Content Library](https://bomamarketing.com/nurture-support-clients-with-bomas-content-library/) **Published:** March 18, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Deliver real value to your clients by highlighting issues that may affect their business and sharing insights to help them grow. --- ### [News](https://bomamarketing.com/news/) **Published:** September 8, 2017 **Author:** BOMA --- ### [Making Sure Your Accounting Firm Is Easy To Find Online](https://bomamarketing.com/making-sure-your-accounting-firm-is-easy-to-find-online/) **Published:** August 17, 2023 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Once you’ve got your website humming, you don’t want it to labor in obscurity. You want people when they go into Google and type in your name for it to come up at the top of the search rankings and this is hygiene factor 101 for your website. So how do you make sure that this happens? --- ### [Marketing planning for Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-planning-for-accountants/) **Published:** June 22, 2023 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Your marketing plan is like a Rubik’s cube, you can’t make each move in isolation, you need to plan for a few moves in advance. All the individual little pieces, are your marketing tactics and the plan is to get them all lined up so that each activity contributes to your business goals. --- ### [Terms of Service](https://bomamarketing.com/legal/terms-of-service/) **Published:** June 11, 2017 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** ## **PLEASE READ THESE CUSTOMER TERMS OF SERVICE CAREFULLY.** This is a contract between you (the Customer) and us (Boma Technologies Limited). It describes the services we will provide to you, how we will work together and other aspects of our business relationship. It is a legal document so some of the language is necessarily “legalese” but we have tried to make it as readable as possible. These terms are so important though that we cannot provide these services unless you agree to them. By using the Subscription Service or receiving the Consulting Services, you are agreeing to these terms. We periodically update these terms and if you subscribe to our Marketing Product or CRM, we will use our best endeavours to let you know. The ‘General Terms’ below set out the provisions that apply to our product ## GENERAL TERMS ### 1. Definitions “Agreement” means these Customer Terms of Service and all materials referred or linked to in here. If you are keeping track, the Customer Terms of Service used to be called the Terms of Use. “Billable Users” means those types of Users (defined below) for which we charge you fees as set forth on our Pricing Page. “Billing Period” means the period for which you agree to prepay fees under an Order Form, which will be the same as or shorter than the Subscription Term. For example, if you subscribe to the Subscription Service for a three (3) month Initial Subscription Term, with a one (1) month upfront payment, the Billing Period will be one (1) month. “BOMA“, “we”, “us” or “our” means the applicable contracting entity as specified in the ‘Contracting Entity and Applicable Law’ section of the ‘General Terms’. “BOMA Content” means all information, data, text, messages, software, sound, music, video, photographs, graphics, images, and tags that we incorporate into the Subscription Service or Consulting Services, including Enrichment Data. “BOMA Partner” means an agency or reseller with whom BOMA partner, to sell BOMA products, the Subscription Service and/or Consulting Services to third parties. “Communication Services” means third-party forums, online communities, blogs, personal web pages, calendars, and/or other social media communication facilities (such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) linked to or from the Subscription Service that enable you to communicate with the public or with a private group. “Confidential Information” means all information provided by you or us (“Discloser”) to the other (“Receiver”), whether orally or in writing that is designated as confidential. Confidential Information does not include any information that (i) is or becomes generally known to the public without breach of any obligation owed to the Discloser or (ii) was known to the Receiver before receipt from the Discloser. “Contact” means a single customer, prospect, lead, or other individual (other than a User) identified by mandatory email address whose Contact Information is stored by you in the Subscription Service. “Contact Information” means the name, email address, phone number, online user name(s), telephone number, and similar information submitted by visitors to your landing pages on the Subscription Service or uploaded by you to the Subscription Service. “Consulting Services” means the professional services provided to you by us, which may include training services, installation, integration or other consulting services. “Customer Data” means all information that you submit or collect via the Subscription Service, including Personal Data. Customer Data does not include Enrichment Data. “Customer Materials” means all materials that you provide or post, upload, input or submit for public display through the Subscription Service. “Contact Limits” means the number of contacts allowed in your Subscription Service. The Subscription Service pricing is subject to increase in accordance with the number of contacts as per our pricing page. This limit includes any unsubscribed contacts but does not include deleted contacts. “Enrichment Data” means the data we make available to you as part of the Subscription Service, including information about Users (such as social media handles, avatars, and alternate email address) that we obtain from public or third party sources. “Free Trial” means a period of 14 days during which you can access and use BOMA and BOMA Content without a Subscription. “Maximum Contacts” means the maximum number of Contacts you are permitted to use with the Subscription Service as identified in your Order Form, plus any Contacts added as part of an upgrade. “Order Form” or “Order” means the BOMA-approved form or online subscription process by which you agree to subscribe to the Subscription Service and purchase Consulting Services. Most Orders are completed through our online payment process or via in-app purchase. The purchase form may be referred to as a “Statement of Work” if you are purchasing only Consulting Services. “Personal Data” means any data by which a living individual can be identified, whether directly or indirectly. “Pricing Page” means “Sensitive Information” means credit or debit card numbers; personal financial account information; Social Security numbers; passport numbers; driver’s license numbers or similar identifiers; racial or ethnic origin; physical or mental health condition or information; or other employment, financial or health information, including any information subject to regulations, laws or industry standards designed to protect data privacy and security, such as the United States Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards. “Intellectual Property” means all copyright, design, patent or trademark rights, whether currently registered or not, in relation to trade names proprietary processes and formulae, technology, interfaces, software source code and object code, algorithms, development tools and designs associated with BOMA services including BOMA Content, software copyright, trademark and logo copyright. “Site Visit” or “Visit” means interaction with your website by a single visitor in a single session. “Social Media” means internet-based platforms which allow for interactions between individuals or the broadcast of content to the wider world and which are far more interactive than traditional broadcast media. “Subscription” means your subscription to the Subscription Service for the Subscription Term. “Subscription Fee” means the amount you pay for the Subscription Service. “Subscription Service” means all of our web-based inbound marketing and sales applications, tools and platforms that you have subscribed to by an Order Form or that we otherwise make available to you, and developed, operated, and maintained by us, accessible via [https://bomamarketing.com](https://www.bomamarketing.com/), or another designated URL, and any ancillary products and services, including website hosting, that we provide to you. “Subscription Term” means the Initial Subscription Term and all Renewal Subscription Terms. “Third-Party Products” means non-embedded products and professional services that are provided by third parties which interoperate with or are used in connection with the Subscription Service. These products and services include non-BOMA apps available from, for example, the following: our integrations products page, partner directory, template marketplace, links made available through the Subscription Service and non-BOMA services listed on [https://bomamarketing.com](https://www.bomamarketing.com/). “Third-Party Sites” means third-party websites linked from within the Subscription Service, including Communications Services. “Users” means your employees, representatives, consultants, contractors or agents who are authorised to use the Subscription Service for your benefit and have unique user identifications and passwords for the Subscription Service. “You”, “your” or “Customer” means the person or entity using the Subscription Service or receiving the Consulting Services and identified in the applicable billing statement, online subscription process, Order Form or Statement of Work as the customer. ### 2. The Subscription Service 2.1 Access. During the Subscription Term we will provide you access to use the Subscription Service as described in this Agreement. 2. 2 Limits. The limits that apply to you will be specified in your Order Form, this Agreement or on our Pricing Page. You will be charged fees associated with all Billable Users. For additional limits and terms that apply to specific products, see the ‘Product Terms’ section below. If we make modifications to the limits set forth on the Pricing Page that would negatively impact you, these modifications will not apply to you until the start of your next Renewal Subscription Term. On renewal, the current product usage limits on our Pricing Page will apply to your subscription, unless you and we otherwise agree. 2.3 Modifications. We modify the Subscription Service from time to time, including by adding or deleting features and functions, in an effort to improve your experience. But we will not make changes to the Subscription Service that materially reduce the functionality of the Subscription Service provided to you during the Subscription Term. We might provide some or all elements of the Subscription Service through third party service providers. 2.4 Additional Features. You may subscribe to additional features of the Subscription Service by agreeing to a new Order Form. ### 3. Customer Support 3.1 Support. Support is included in your Subscription Fee. We accept emailed support questions 24 Hours per Day x 7 Days per Week at support@bomamarketing.com. Webform responses are provided during phone support hours only. We attempt to respond to web form support questions within one business day; in practice, our responses are generally even faster. We do not promise or guarantee any specific response time. 3.2 Availability. We try to make the Subscription Service available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, except for planned down-time for maintenance. 3.3 Consulting Services. You may purchase Consulting Services by contacting us direct at info@bomamarketing.com. Unless otherwise described in a Statement of Work or Order Form, the Consulting Services we provide will be delivered in English. Fees for these Consulting Services are in addition to your Subscription Fee. If you purchase Consulting Services that recur, they will be considered part of your subscription and will renew in accordance with the ‘Renewal Subscription Term’ section below. Unless otherwise agreed, all Consulting Services are performed remotely. To enable us to provide the Consulting Services, you must provide our Consultants with full and safe access to your premises as required. Where applicable, you will provide, at your cost, suitable materials, equipment, well maintained Internet connections and facilities (including use of telephone and support services) as we and/or our Consultants reasonably require to carry out the Consulting Services. You will reimburse us our reasonable cost for all expenses incurred in connection with the Consulting Services performed on-site. Any invoices or other requests for reimbursements will be due and payable within thirty (30) days of the date of the invoice. If there are a specific number of hours included in the Consulting Services purchased, those hours will expire as indicated in the applicable description, which expiration period will commence upon purchase (the “Expiration Period”). If there are deliverables included in the Consulting Services purchased, it is estimated that those deliverables will be completed within the time period indicated as the delivery period in the applicable description, which delivery period will commence upon purchase (the “Delivery Period”). If the Consulting Services provided are not complete at the end of the Delivery Period due to your failure to make the necessary resources available to us or to perform your obligations, such Consulting Services will be deemed to be complete at the end of the Delivery Period. If the Consulting Services provided are not complete at the end of the Delivery Period due to our failure to make the necessary resources available to you or to perform our obligations, the Delivery Period will be extended to allow us to complete such Consulting Services. We might provide some or all elements of the Consulting Services through third party service providers. Consulting Services are non-cancellable and all fees for Consulting Services are non-refundable. ### 4. Fees and Payments 4.1 Subscription Fees. The Subscription Fee will remain fixed during the Subscription Term unless you (i) exceed your Contacts Limit, (ii) upgrade products or base packages, or (iii) subscribe to additional features or products, including additional Contacts. You may downgrade your subscription during the Subscription Term by reducing your Contacts and falling below your Contact Limits. We will monitor or audit remotely the number of Contacts in the Subscription Service and the number of emails that you send on the Subscription Service. This information is also available to you on your Billing Page in your BOMA Account. Any Subscription Fees will be due and payable monthly OR annually from the Initial Subscription Term commencement date. 4.2 Fee Adjustments in Next Billing Period. If you exceed your Contact Limits in a Billing Period, then your Subscription Fee for the next Billing Period will be increased to the tier price (as set forth on our Pricing Page) that corresponds with the maximum number of Contacts from the prior Billing Period. Your Subscription Fee will reflect the increased tier pricing as at the date that you exceeded your Contact Limits and will be payable from the next Billing Period in the Subscription Term. Each Billing Period during the Subscription Term we assess factors like Maximum Contacts, your entitlements under the Subscription Service and the number of emails you sent to assess the suitability of your Subscription Fee. At your request, we will provide you the information we used to reach our conclusion. Once increased, your Subscription Fee will decrease if there is a subsequent reduction in the number of Contacts in your account. 4.3 Fee Adjustments During a Billing Period. The Subscription Fee will increase during the course of a Billing Period if you exceed your Contact Limits in a Billing Period. In this case, the Subscription Fee will increase to the tier price which corresponds with the number of your Contacts from the current Billing Period. The Subscription Fee will change during a Billing Period to the corresponding package and tier price (as set forth on our Pricing Page) if the number of your Contacts changes or you subscribe to additional features for use during the Billing Period. You may be liable to pay an additional fee in this Billing Period to reflect this fee adjustment. In the event that you would be subject to a fee adjustment yet opt to cancel your Subscription before the next Billing Period, the difference between your current Subscription Fee and the increase in Subscription Fee will be due and payable before you cancel your Subscription. 4.4 Payment by credit card. If you are paying by credit card, you authorise us to charge your credit card or bank account for all fees payable during the Subscription Term. You further authorise us to use a third party to process payments, and consent to the disclosure of your payment information to such third party. 4.5 Payment against invoice. If you are paying by invoice, we will invoice you no more than forty-five (45) days before the beginning of the Initial Subscription Term and each subsequent Billing Period, and other times during the Subscription Term when fees are payable. All amounts invoiced are due and payable within thirty (30) days from the date of the invoice, unless otherwise specified in the Order Form. 4.6 Payment Information. You will keep your contact information, billing information and credit card information (where applicable) up to date. Changes may be made on your Billing Page within your BOMA Account. All payment obligations are non-cancellable and all amounts paid are non-refundable, except as specifically provided for in this Agreement. All fees are due and payable in advance throughout the Subscription Term. If you are a BOMA partner that purchases on behalf of a client, you agree to be responsible for the Order Form and to guarantee payment of all fees. 4.7 Sales Tax. All fees are exclusive of taxes, which we will charge as applicable. You agree to pay any taxes applicable to your use of the Subscription Service and performance of Consulting Services. You shall have no liability for any taxes based upon our gross revenues or net income. If you are located in the European Union, all fees are exclusive of any VAT and you represent that you are registered for VAT purposes in your member state. At our request, you will provide us with the VAT registration number under which you are registered in your member state. If you are subject to GST, all fees are exclusive of GST. If you are required to deduct or withhold any tax, you must pay the amount deducted or withheld as required by law and pay us an additional amount so that we receive payment in full as if there were no deduction or withholding. ### 5. Subscription Term and Renewal 5.1 Initial Subscription Term. The initial subscription term shall begin on the effective date of your subscription and expire at the end of the period selected during the subscription process (“Initial Subscription Term”). 5.2 Renewal Subscription Term. This Agreement will automatically renew on a monthly OR annual basis (“Renewal Subscription Term”) or as agreed in writing between the parties. The Renewal Subscription Term will be on the current terms and conditions of this Agreement, and subject to the renewal pricing provided for in your Order Form or, if not specified in the Order Form, on our standard pricing available on our Pricing Page. See the ‘Limits’ section above for the applicability of product usage limits on renewal. Your Subscription Fee is subject to change in accordance with Clause 4. 5.3 Cancellation of Subscription. The Subscription Term will automatically renew on a monthly OR annual basis until it is cancelled. You can cancel your Subscription at any time by visiting the billing page located at . In the event that you cancel your Subscription, you will be liable to pay any fees payable under the current Subscription Term. This is the case even if the Subscription Term had recently commenced. If your subscription is not paid on a monthly basis, you may send the notice of non-renewal by email to support@bomamarketing.com. ### 6. BOMA’s Proprietary Rights 6.1 We, or our licensors (if any) are the owners of all Intellectual Property rights associated with BOMA Content and the BOMA Subscription Service and retain all ownership of the Intellectual Property. 6.2 This is an Agreement for access to and use of the Subscription Service, and you are not granted a license to or assignment of any software by this Agreement. The Subscription Service and Consulting Services are protected by intellectual property laws. You agree not to copy, rent, lease, sell, distribute, or create derivative works based on the BOMA Content, the Subscription Service, or the Consulting Services in whole or in part by any means, or permit or assist any third party in taking those actions, except as expressly authorised in advance in writing by us. ### 7. Customer’s Proprietary Rights 7.1 As between the parties, you own and retain all rights to the Customer Materials and Customer Data. This Agreement does not grant us any ownership rights to Customer Materials or Customer Data. You grant permission to us and our licensors to use the Customer Materials and Customer Data only as necessary to provide the Subscription Service and Consulting Services to you and as permitted by this Agreement. If you choose to use shortened URLs through the Subscription Service, you acknowledge that the data related to the number of clicks on a shortened URL may be publicly available and used by other parties. If you are using the Subscription Service or receiving Consulting Services on behalf of another party, then you represent and warrant that you have all sufficient and necessary rights and permissions to do so. ### 8. Account 8.1 To access certain content in the Subscription Service, you must complete the registration process by creating an account (“Account”) and nominating a password (‘Password’). If you do not provide accurate and complete details we may not be able to activate your membership and provide you with complete access to the Site. You agree to keep your Account and membership details current at all times by updating these details via your Account settings page located at https://app.bomamarketing.com/settings/user-settings. 8.2 You agree that you have sole responsibility for any activity that occurs on or using your Account, as well as the accounts of your Users. You agree to notify us immediately if you become aware of any security breach or any unauthorised use of your Users’ Passwords or Accounts. 8.3 We take no responsibility for determining the ownership of individual User accounts within your organisation, as this information is completely organisation dependent. You agree not to request access to, or information about, an Account that does not belong to you and undertake to resolve any account-related disputes internally. In the event we need to determine who an Account belongs to, we will look to the content of the emails in that Account. 8.4 You will notify us right away of any unauthorised use of your Users’ Accounts and Passwords or your account by emailing us at support@bomamarketing.com. ### 9. Eligibility 9.1 You must be eighteen (18) years of age or over to register as a member of the Site or to access the Site. If you are under the age of 18 years (‘Minor’), you must immediately cease accessing and using the Site. 9.2 Your continued use of the Site is an acknowledgement by you that: (a) you are over the age of eighteen (18) years; (b) you accept these Terms and Conditions and agree that you have entered into a binding legal contract with us in relation to these Terms and Conditions. ### 10. Confidentiality 10.1 The Receiver will: (i) protect the confidentiality of the Confidential Information using the same degree of care that it uses with its own confidential information of similar nature, but with no less than reasonable care, (ii) not use any Confidential Information for any purpose outside the scope of this Agreement, (iii) not disclose Confidential Information to any third party (except our third party service providers), and (iv) limit access to Confidential Information to its employees, contractors, advisors and agents. In the event that disclosure of the Confidential Information is made in accordance with (iv), the Receiver must take care to convey that the information is Confidential Information. Upon notice to the Discloser, the Receiver may disclose Confidential Information if required to do so under any federal, state, or local law, statute, rule or regulation, subpoena or legal process. ### 11. Customer Responsibilities 11.1 To realise the full value of the Subscription Service and Consulting Services, your participation and effort are needed. Resources that may be required from you include a Project Manager, one or more Content Creators, a Sales Sponsor, an Executive Sponsor and a Technical Resource. Responsibilities that may be required include planning of marketing programs; setting of a content creation calendar; creating blog posts, social media content, Calls-To-Action (CTAs), downloads, emails, nurturing content, and other materials; acting as internal liaison between sales and marketing; providing top level internal goals for the use of the Subscription Service; attending regular success review meetings; and supporting the integration of the Subscription Service with other sales and marketing systems. 11.2 You confirm and warrant that you either own or have the unrestricted right to use all Customer Data and to enter into this contract with us to provide the Subscription Service and Consulting Services to you in relation to the Customer Data. 11.3 You also confirm and warrant that you have a valid legal basis in accordance with European Directive 2002/58/EC (e-Privacy Directive) and Articles 6 and 9 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) to (a) process all Personal Data forming part of the Customer Data for marketing purposes; and (b) share all such Personal Data with us as a data processor for the purposes of providing the Subscription Service and Consulting Services to you, subject to your instructions. 11.4 Specifically, if you are relying on the consent of the data subjects for the processing described in Clause 11.3, you warrant that you can show that all such consents were freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous, in accordance with the GDPR. You agree to inform us immediately if any individual withdraws their consent. ### 12. Publicity 12.1 You grant us the right to add your name and company logo to our customer list and website. ### 13. Customer Data 13.1 Limits on BOMA. We will not use, or allow anyone else to use, Customer Data to contact any individual or company except as you direct or otherwise permit. We will use Customer Data only in order to provide the Subscription Service and Consulting Services to you and/or as permitted by applicable law, this Agreement or our Privacy Policy (located at ). 13.2 Aggregate Data. We may monitor use of the Subscription Service by all of our customers and use the data gathered in an aggregate and anonymous manner. You agree that we may use and publish such information, provided that such information does not incorporate any Customer Data and/or identify you. 13.3 Safeguards. In order to protect Customer Data from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure, we will maintain commercially appropriate administrative, physical, and technical safeguards. We will take reasonable steps to either destroy or permanently de-identify Customer Data if it is no longer needed for any purpose. You consent to the processing of Customer Data in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and/or within the European Union (location/s to be determined at our discretion). You grant us the right to use and disclose Customer Data in accordance with our Privacy Policy (located at ). 13.4 No Sensitive Information. YOU AGREE NOT TO USE THE SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE TO COLLECT, MANAGE OR PROCESS SENSITIVE INFORMATION. WE WILL NOT HAVE ANY LIABILITY THAT MAY RESULT FROM YOUR USE OF THE SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE TO COLLECT OR MANAGE SENSITIVE INFORMATION. ### 14. GDPR Conditions of Use 14.1 Relevant Parties. For the purposes of this Contract the Customer (You) is the Data Controller and BOMA (Us) is the Data Processor. You warrant that you have permission to contact and store data about the Contacts stored in your account and are processing them legally according to GDPR legislation and requirements. 14.2 Your Instructions. We will process your Contacts based on your interactions with the platform, and any support requests you may make. These are considered to be your documented instructions, e.g. scheduling an email campaign within BOMA. 14.3 Confidentiality. We agree to keep all data confidential, and only store it as documented or as required by you, e.g. requesting an export of your data for transfer purposes. 14.4 Security. We adhere to security best practices, and will notify you of any breach or security issue as soon as we become aware of it. 14.5 Sub-Processors.To deliver our services we employ a number of sub-processors, these remain stable (i.e. change infrequently) however if you require notification when we change processors you may subscribe to get notifications when they are changed. By agreeing to our terms and conditions you agree to accept our current and any future replacement sub-processors, our current sub-processors are: Sub Processor Your Data Your Client Data Purpose [AWS](https://aws.amazon.com/) Yes Yes Holds and processes your and your clients data, our primary technology provider. Your contacts data is encrypted at rest in our Production database. [Bee Plugin](https://developers.beefree.io/) If Included in Email or Branded Web Page If Included in Email or Branded Web Page Building Emails and Branded Web Pages, hosting long form Content Library Content. [Chartmogul](https://chartmogul.com/) Yes No Tracking BOMA’s marketing and sales performance. [Contentful](https://www.contentful.com/) No No Creating and Editing Content Library Articles. [Drip](https://www.drip.com/) Yes No Used to send Marketing and Support emails by BOMA. [FileStack](https://www.filestack.com/) If included in uploaded images If included in uploaded images Uploading and importing images into Campaigns. [Google Workspace](https://workspace.google.com/) When support tickets are raised or updated If included in support tickets Managing BOMA’s internal files and emails. [Intercom](https://www.intercom.com/) Yes No Used to send Marketing and Support emails by BOMA. [Rapid7](https://www.rapid7.com/) Yes Yes Used for logging and debugging BOMA’s systems. [Segment](https://segment.com/) Yes No Used to integrate BOMA’s data platforms. [SendGrid](https://sendgrid.com/) If Included in Emails If Included in Emails Is used to deliver any Emails you send using BOMA. [Stripe](https://stripe.com/) Yes No Manages your Subscription with BOMA. [TrackJS](https://trackjs.com/) Yes Yes Used to record and process any client side errors in BOMA. [Zapier](https://zapier.com/) If connected to Forms and Your Data is included If connected to Forms Used to extend BOMA, e.g. send Content Library Articles to your Website, send Contact details to and from BOMA. 14.6 Individual Data Requests. You can delete all personal identifiable information from a Contact (excluding email address) by deleting that contact in BOMA. If required we can also delete the full email history for that Contact including email at your request. 14.7 Meeting GDPR Obligations. We must help you meet all of your GDPR compliance requirements by enabling either system, or manual processes to meet these requirements. We will notify you of any personal data breaches or data protection impact assessments as soon as we become aware of them. 14.8 Deletion of Data. We delete your data once your account has ceased use for 6 months, or immediately upon your request. Some data logs are required to be retained longer for legal purposes, but these also expire and are deleted. 14.9 Audits and Obligations. We can supply you with further information to ensure your confidence in meeting GDPR requirements within BOMA. You may pay for an independent audit of the services, any charges would include the independent audit and any time and materials required by BOMA or its staff at a rate of AUD300 per hour and any reasonable incurred expenses. ### 15. Use and Limitations of Use 15.1 Acceptable Use. You will comply with our Acceptable Use Policy at (“AUP”). 15.2 Prohibited and Unauthorised Use. You will not (i) use or launch any automated system, including, “robots,” “spiders,” or “offline readers,” that sends more request messages to our servers in a given period of time than a human can reasonably produce in the same period by using a conventional browser; (ii) use the Subscription Service in any manner that damages, disables, overburdens, or impairs any of our websites or interferes with any other party’s use of the Subscription Service; (iii) attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Subscription Service; (iv) access the Subscription Service other than through our interface; or (v) use the Subscription Service for any purpose or in any manner that is unlawful or prohibited by this Agreement. ### 16. Acceptable Use of Communications Services 16.1 You agree to use Communication Services only in compliance with any terms of use specified by each Communication Service. We do not control the content, messages or information found in the Communication Services. We will not have any liability with regards to the Communication Services and any actions resulting from your use of the Communication Services. ### 17. Third-Party Sites and Products 17.1 Third-Party Sites and Products are not under our control. Third-Party Sites and Products are provided to you only as a convenience, and the availability of any Third-Party Site or Product does not mean we endorse, support or warranty the Third-Party Site or Product. ### 18. Indemnification 18.1 You will indemnify, defend and hold us harmless, at your expense, against any third-party claim, suit, action, or proceeding (each, an “Action”) brought against us (and our officers, directors, employees, agents, service providers, licensors, and affiliates) by a third party not affiliated with us to the extent that such Action is based upon or arises out of (a) unauthorised or illegal use of the Subscription Service by you; (b) your noncompliance with or breach of this Agreement, (c) your use of Third-Party Products, or (d) the unauthorised use of the Subscription Service by any other person using your User information. We will: notify you in writing within thirty (30) days of our becoming aware of any such claim; give you sole control of the defence or settlement of such a claim; and provide you (at your expense) with any and all information and assistance reasonably requested by you to handle the defence or settlement of the claim. You shall not accept any settlement that (i) imposes an obligation on us; (ii) requires us to make an admission; or (iii) imposes liability not covered by these indemnifications or places restrictions on us without our prior written consent. ### 19. Disclaimers; Limitations of Liability 19.1 Disclaimer of Warranties. WE AND OUR AFFILIATES AND AGENTS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES ABOUT THE SUITABILITY, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, TIMELINESS, SECURITY OR ACCURACY OF THE SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE, DATA MADE AVAILABLE FROM THE SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE, BOMA CONTENT, OR THE CONSULTING SERVICES FOR ANY PURPOSE. APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACES (APIs) MAY NOT BE AVAILABLE AT ALL TIMES. TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE, BOMA CONTENT AND CONSULTING SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF ANY KIND. WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND WITH REGARD TO THE SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE, AND THE CONSULTING SERVICES INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. 19.2 No Indirect Damages. TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL EITHER PARTY BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS OR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES. 19.3 Limitation of Liability. EXCEPT FOR YOUR LIABILITY FOR PAYMENT OF FEES, YOUR LIABILITY ARISING FROM YOUR OBLIGATIONS UNDER THE ‘INDEMNIFICATION’ SECTION, AND YOUR LIABILITY FOR VIOLATION OF OUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS, IF, NOTWITHSTANDING THE OTHER TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, EITHER PARTY IS DETERMINED TO HAVE ANY LIABILITY TO THE OTHER PARTY OR ANY THIRD PARTY, THE PARTIES AGREE THAT THE AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF A PARTY WILL BE LIMITED TO THE LESSER OF FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS OR THE TOTAL AMOUNTS YOU HAVE ACTUALLY PAID FOR THE SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE IN THE TWELVE MONTH PERIOD PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO A CLAIM. 19.4 Third Party Products. WE DISCLAIM ALL LIABILITY WITH RESPECT TO THIRD-PARTY PRODUCTS THAT YOU USE. OUR LICENSORS SHALL HAVE NO LIABILITY OF ANY KIND UNDER THIS AGREEMENT. 19.5 YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT ABSENT YOUR AGREEMENT TO THIS LIMITATION OF LIABILITY, WE WOULD NOT PROVIDE THE SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE TO YOU. ### 20. Termination, Suspension and Expiration 20.1 Termination for Cause. Either party may terminate this Agreement for cause, as to any or all Subscription Services: (i) upon thirty (30) days’ notice to the other party of a material breach if such breach remains uncured at the expiration of such period, or (ii) immediately, if the other party becomes the subject of a petition in bankruptcy or any other proceeding relating to insolvency, liquidation or assignment for the benefit of creditors. This Agreement may not otherwise be terminated prior to the end of the Subscription Term. 20.2 Suspension for Prohibited Acts. We may suspend any User’s access to any or all Subscription Services for: (i) use of the Subscription Service in a way that violates applicable local, state, federal, or foreign laws or regulations or the terms of this Agreement, (ii) use of the BOMA email send service that results in excessive bounce-backs, SPAM notices or requests for removal from a mailing list by recipients, or (iii) repeated instances of posting or uploading material that infringes or is alleged to infringe on the copyright or trademark rights of any person or entity. 20.3 Suspension for Non-Payment. We will provide you with notice of non-payment of any amount due. Unless the full amount has been paid, we may suspend your access to any or all of the Subscription Services ten (10) days after such notice. We will not suspend the Subscription Service while you are disputing the applicable charges reasonably and in good faith and are cooperating diligently to resolve the dispute. If a Subscription Service is suspended for non-payment, we may charge a reactivation fee to reinstate the Subscription Service. 20.4 Suspension for Present Harm. If your website on, or use of, the Subscription Service: (i) is being subjected to denial of service attacks or other disruptive activity, (ii) is being used to engage in denial of service attacks or other disruptive activity, (iii) is creating a security vulnerability for the Subscription Service or others, (iv) is consuming excessive bandwidth, or (v) is causing harm to us or others, then we may, with electronic or telephonic notice to you, suspend all or any access to the Subscription Service. We will try to limit the suspension to the affected portion of the Subscription Service and promptly resolve the issues causing the suspension of the Subscription Service. 20.5 Effect of Termination or Expiration. Upon termination or expiration of this Agreement, you will stop all use of the affected Subscription Service and BOMA Content, and if we request, you will provide us written confirmation that you have discontinued all use of Enrichment Data (unless, of course, you have a source other than the Subscription Service for such Enrichment Data.) If you terminate this Agreement for cause, we will promptly refund any prepaid but unused fees covering use of the Subscription Service after termination. If we terminate this Agreement for cause, you will promptly pay all unpaid fees due through the end of the Subscription Term. Fees are otherwise non-refundable. 20.6 Retrieval of Customer Data. As long as you have paid all fees owed to us, if you make a written request within thirty (30) days after termination or expiration of your Subscription, we will provide you with temporary access to the Subscription Service to retrieve, or we will provide you with copies of, all Customer Data then in our possession or control. If we provide you with temporary access to the portal, we may charge a reactivation fee. We may withhold access to Customer Data until you pay any fees owed to us. Thirty (30) days after termination or expiration of your Subscription, we will have no obligation to maintain or provide you the Customer Data and may, unless legally prohibited, delete all Customer Data in our systems or otherwise in our control. ### 21. General 21.1 Amendment; No Waiver. We may update and change any part or all of these Customer Terms of Service, including the fees and charges associated with the use of the Subscription Service (but, your fees and charges won’t change during the Subscription Term except as we explain in the ‘Fees and Payments’ section above.) If we update or change these Customer Terms of Service, the updated Customer Terms of Service will be posted at and we will let you know through the Notification app in the BOMA portal used to access your BOMA subscription, or as we otherwise describe in ‘Product Terms’ below. The updated Customer Terms of Service will become effective and binding on the next business day after it is posted. When we change these Customer Terms of Service, the “Last Modified” date above will be updated to reflect the date of the most recent version. We encourage you to review these Customer Terms of Service periodically. 21.2 If you do not agree with a modification to the Customer Terms of Service, you must notify us in writing within thirty (30) days after receiving notice of modification. If you give us this notice, your subscription will continue to be governed by the terms and conditions of the Customer Terms of Service prior to modification for the remainder of your current term. Upon renewal, the Customer Terms of Service published by us on our website will apply. No delay in exercising any right or remedy or failure to object will be a waiver of such right or remedy or any other right or remedy. A waiver on one occasion will not be a waiver of any right or remedy on any future occasion. 21.2 Contracting Entity and Applicable Law. Regardless of your physical address you are contracting with Boma Technologies Limited for the Subscription and Consulting Services. This Agreement is governed by the laws of New Zealand without reference to conflicts of law principles and the parties submit to the jurisdiction of the courts of New Zealand. 21.3 Force Majeure. Neither party will be responsible for failure or delay of performance if caused by: an act of war, hostility, or sabotage; act of God; electrical, internet, or telecommunication outage that is not caused by the obligated party; government restrictions; or other event outside the reasonable control of the obligated party. Each party will use reasonable efforts to mitigate the effect of a force majeure event. 21.4 Actions Permitted. Except for actions for non-payment or breach of a party’s proprietary rights, no action, regardless of form, arising out of or relating to this Agreement may be brought by either party more than one (1) year after the cause of action has accrued. 21.5 Relationship of the Parties. You and we agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship exists between us. 21.6 Severability. If any part of this Agreement or an Order Form is determined to be invalid or unenforceable by applicable law, then the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed superseded by a valid, enforceable provision that most closely matches the intent of the original provision and the remainder of this Agreement will continue in effect. 21.7 Notices. Notice will be sent to the contact address set forth herein, and will be deemed delivered as of the date of actual receipt. (a) To Boma Technologies Limited, Level 4, Building A, BDO Centre, 4 Graham Street, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand. Attention: Legal. (b) To you: your address as provided in our BOMA Subscription account information for you. We may give electronic notices by general notice via the Subscription Service and may give electronic notices specific to you by email to your e-mail address(es) on record in our account information for you or through the notifications centre of the Subscription Service. We may give notice to you by telephone calls to the telephone numbers on record in our account information for you. You must keep all of your account information current. 21.8 Entire Agreement. This Agreement (including each Order Form and Statement of Work), along with our Privacy Policy, AUP and the NZME Sales Brief Form (if applicable), is the entire agreement between us for the Subscription Service and Consulting Services and supersedes all other proposals and agreements, whether electronic, oral or written, between us. We object to and reject any additional or different terms proposed by you, including those contained in your purchase order, acceptance or website. Our obligations are not contingent on the delivery of any future functionality or features of the Subscription Service or dependent on any oral or written public comments made by us regarding future functionality or features of the Subscription Service. We might make versions of this Agreement available in languages other than English. If we do, the English version of this Agreement will govern our relationship and the translated version is provided for convenience only and will not be interpreted to modify the English version of this Agreement. 21.9 Assignment. You will not assign or transfer this Agreement, including any assignment or transfer by reason of merger, reorganisation, sale of all or substantially all of your assets, change of control or operation of law, without our prior written consent, which will not be unreasonably withheld. We may assign this Agreement to any affiliate or in the event of merger, reorganisation, sale of all or substantially all of our assets, change of control or operation of law. 21.10 No Third-Party Beneficiaries. Nothing in this Agreement, express or implied, is intended to or shall confer upon any third-party person or entity any right, benefit or remedy of any nature whatsoever under or by reason of this Agreement. 21.11 Contract for Services. This Agreement is a contract for the provision of services and not a contract for the sale of goods. The provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), the Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act (UCITA), or any substantially similar legislation as may be enacted, shall not apply to this Agreement. If you are located outside of the territory of the United States, the parties agree that the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods shall not govern this Agreement or the rights and obligations of the parties under this Agreement. 20.12 Authority. Each party represents and warrants to the other that it has full power and authority to enter into this Agreement and that it is binding upon such party and enforceable in accordance with its terms. 21.13 Survival. The following sections in the ‘General Terms’ shall survive the expiration or termination of this Agreement: ‘Definitions’, ‘Fees and Payments’, ‘BOMA’s Proprietary Rights’, ‘Customer’s Proprietary Rights’, ‘Confidentiality’, ‘Publicity’, ‘Indemnification’, ‘Disclaimers; Limitations of Liability’, ‘Termination, Suspension and Expiration’, and ‘General’. 21.14 Precedence. In the event of a conflict between the terms of this Agreement and an Order Form or Statement of Work, the terms of the Order Form or Statement of Work shall control, but only as to that Order Form or Statement of Work. ## PRODUCT TERMS ### 1. Alpha/Beta Services 1.1 Applicability. If you are given alpha or beta access to any features of the Subscription Service, the following additional terms apply. In the event of a conflict between the terms set forth in the ‘General Terms’ and the terms set forth in this ‘Alpha/Beta Services’ section, the terms in this ‘Alpha/Beta Services’ section will control with respect to your use of Alpha/Beta Services. 1.2 Alpha/Beta Services. If we make alpha or beta access to some or all of the Subscription Service (the “Alpha/Beta Services”) available to you (i) the Alpha/Beta Services are provided “as is” and without warranty of any kind, (ii) we may suspend, limit, or terminate the Alpha/Beta Services for any reason at any time without notice, and (iii) we will not be liable to you for damages of any kind related to your use of the Alpha/Beta Services. If we inform you of additional terms and conditions that apply to your use of the Alpha/Beta Services, those will apply as well. We might require your participation to be confidential, and we might also require you to provide feedback to us about your use of the Alpha/Beta Services. You agree that we own all rights to use and incorporate your feedback into our services and products, without payment or attribution to you. 1.3 Contracting Entity and Applicable Law. If you do not pay us a Subscription Fee, you are contracting with Boma Technologies Limited with respect your use of the Alpha/Beta Services. If you pay us a Subscription Fee, you are contracting with the BOMA entity as set forth in the ‘Contracting Entity and Applicable Law’ section in the ‘General Terms’. 1.4 Survival. The following sections in this ‘Alpha/Beta Services’ section shall survive the expiration or termination of this Agreement: ‘Alpha/Beta Services’, ‘Contracting Entity and Applicable Law’ and ‘Survival’. ### 2. Free Services 2.1 Applicability. In the event of a conflict between the terms set forth in any of the sections above and the terms set forth in this ‘Free Services’ section, the terms in this ‘Free Services’ section will control with respect to your use of the Free Services. 2.2 Additional Definitions. “Free Services” means the Subscription Service or other products or features made available by us to you on an unpaid trial or free basis. 2.3 Limits. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Agreement, limits may apply to our Free Services, regardless of whether these limits are specified as set forth in Section 2.2 of the ‘General Terms’ above or other sections of the ‘Product Terms’. These limits may be specified only within the Free Services. We may change the limits that apply to your use of our Free Services any time in our sole discretion without notice to you, regardless of whether or not these Free Services are used in conjunction with other products or services for which you pay us a fee. In order to use our Free Services, you must be 18 years of age or older, unless you are subject to the laws of Japan, in which case you must be 20 years of age or older. 2.4 Free Services. If you use our Free Services, we will make the Free Services available to you free of charge until earlier of (a) the date on which your free subscription is terminated or (b) the start date of your paid subscription. 2.5 Free Trial. If you register for a trial of the Free Services, we will make the Free Services available to you on a trial basis free of charge until the earlier of (a) the end of the free trial period (if not earlier terminated) or (b) the start date of your paid subscription. If we include additional terms and conditions on the trial registration web page, those will apply as well. Unless you purchase a subscription to the applicable Free Services before the end of the free trial, all of your data in the Subscription Service may be permanently deleted at the end of the trial, and we will not recover it. During a Free Trial you are able to share up to five (5) pieces of BOMA Content via Email, Social Media or posted to a 3rd party website. If you share more than five (5) pieces of BOMA Content during your Free Trial we reserve the right to pursue legal action. If you do not become a Subscriber you are required to remove the BOMA Content from 3rd party websites. BOMA Content posted to Social Media is not required to be removed. 2.6 Disclaimers; Limitations of Liability. WE AND OUR AFFILIATES AND AGENTS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES ABOUT THE SUITABILITY, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, TIMELINESS, SECURITY OR ACCURACY OF THE FREE SERVICES FOR ANY PURPOSE. APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACES (APIs) MAY NOT BE AVAILABLE AT ALL TIMES. TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE FREE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF ANY KIND. WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND WITH REGARD TO THE FREE SERVICES, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL BOMA BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS OR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES. IF, NOTWITHSTANDING THE OTHER TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, BOMAIS DETERMINED TO HAVE ANY LIABILITY TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY, THE PARTIES AGREE THAT BOMA’S AGGREGATE LIABILITY WILL BE LIMITED TO ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS.WE DISCLAIM ALL LIABILITY WITH RESPECT TO THIRD-PARTY PRODUCTS THAT YOU USE. OUR LICENSORS SHALL HAVE NO LIABILITY OF ANY KIND UNDER THIS AGREEMENT. YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT ABSENT YOUR AGREEMENT TO THIS LIMITATION OF LIABILITY, WE WOULD NOT PROVIDE THE FREE SERVICES TO YOU. THIS ‘DISCLAIMERS; LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY’ SECTION SHALL APPLY IN LIEU OF THE ‘DISCLAIMERS; LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY’ SECTION IN THE ‘GENERAL TERMS’ WITH RESPECT TO YOUR USE OF OUR FREE SERVICES. 2.7 Suspension. We may suspend, limit, or terminate the Free Services for any reason at any time without notice. 2.8 Contracting Entity and Applicable Law. You are contracting with Boma Technologies Limited with respect to your use of the Free Services. 2.9 Survival. The following sections in this ‘Free Services’ section shall survive the expiration or termination of this Agreement: ‘Additional Definitions’, ‘Disclaimers; Limitations of Liability’, ‘Contracting Entity and Applicable Law’, and ‘Survival’. **Last Modified: 11th August, 2023** --- ### [App Cookie Policy](https://bomamarketing.com/legal/boma-app-cookie-notice/) **Published:** May 18, 2018 **Author:** Andrew Spear **Content:** This Cookie Policy (“**Policy**”) is provided by Boma Technologies Limited of Level 4, Building A, BDO Centre, 4 Graham Street, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand. It governs the use of the Boma App (“**App”**), located at . The App uses cookies to distinguish you from other users. This helps us to provide you with a fantastic user experience as you use the App, while also allowing us to improve functionality. By continuing to use the App, you are agreeing to our use of cookies on the terms contained within this Policy. A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that may be stored on the hard drive, browser or any other data storage mechanism of your computer, smartphone, tablet or other Internet enabled device (“Device”). ## We use the following cookies: - **Strictly necessary cookies:** These are cookies that are required for the operation of the Website. They enable you to log into secure areas of our website, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services. - **Analytical/performance cookies:** These cookies allow us to track the performance and usability of our Website. Certain functions they carry out include recognising and counting the number of visitors, how they navigate the Website and whether there were any error messages produced. This information is collected in the interest of improving the functionality of the Website. Any information collected is not personally identifiable as it is aggregated in a way that preserves user anonymity. - **Functionality cookies:** These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region). In order to provide this functionality, we may record information about your device, IP address, browser type and other software or hardware information. If you access the site from a mobile device, we may collect geolocation data. - **Targeting cookies:** These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. The information may be also be used to assess the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. We may share this information with third parties for this purpose. You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the table below: **Cookie****Name****Purpose****Opt-out****Intercom**intercom-sessionStores information about your preferences, and so allows us to customise our site and to provide you with offers that are targeted at your individual interests.[www.intercom.com/terms-and-policies#cookie-policy](https://www.intercom.com/terms-and-policies#cookie-policy)**Stripe**\_\_stripe\_midRecognise you when you return to our site.**Stripe**\_\_stripe\_sidRecognise you when you return to our site.**Google Analytics**\_gaStores information about your preferences, and so allows us to customise our site and to provide you with offers that are targeted at your individual interests.**Segment**ajs\_user\_idThis allows Segment to collect data about your usage of Boma.**Boma Session Cookie**connect.sidRecognise you when you return to our site.[www.bomamarketing.com/legal/privacy-policy/](/legal/privacy-policy/)Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. After you visit our Website or use the App, you can also remove cookies by deleting them from your browser’s cache. Note that if you block cookies (including essential cookies) by any means, the App will not function properly. We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to the cookies we use or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons. Please therefore re-visit this Cookie Policy regularly to stay informed about our use of cookies and related technologies. Any information captured by cookies will be treated in accordance with the Boma Marketing Privacy Policy, which can be viewed at **[www.bomamarketing.com/legal/privacy-policy/](/legal/privacy-policy/)**. For further enquiries in relation to this Policy, please contact **.** --- ### [Legal](https://bomamarketing.com/legal/) **Published:** June 11, 2017 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** Here you can find all of BOMA Technologies Limited legal documents, policies and notices with information about how you can use the BOMA product (the do’s and don’ts), how we protect your privacy and safeguard your data. If you have any questions do get in [touch](mailto:privacy@bomamarketing.com). --- ### [Acceptable Use Policy](https://bomamarketing.com/legal/acceptable-use-policy/) **Published:** May 22, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** This BOMA – Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) applies to the use of any product, service or website provided by us (BOMA Technologies Limited), whether we provide it directly or use another party to provide it to you (each, a “BOMA service “). This AUP is designed to ensure compliance with the laws and regulations that apply to the BOMA service. This AUP also protects the interests of all of our clients and their customers, as well as our goodwill and reputation. These terms are so important that we cannot provide the BOMA service unless you agree to them. By using the BOMA service, you are agreeing to these terms. If you are using any BOMA service, this AUP applies to you. Every client of ours agrees to abide by this AUP and is responsible for any violations. You are not allowed to assist or engage others in a way that would violate this AUP. We will enforce and ensure compliance with this AUP by using methods we consider to be appropriate, such as complaint and email failure monitoring. We periodically update these terms and we will let you know when we do through the Notification app in the BOMA portal used to access your BOMA subscription (if you have one), or by posting a revised copy on our website. You agree to review the AUP on a regular basis and always remain in compliance. ## 1. Reporting Suspected Violations We encourage recipients of email messages sent using the BOMA service to report suspected violations of this AUP to us by forwarding a copy of the received email with FULL headers to privacy@bomamarketing.com. We have a policy to investigate all of these reports and to respond in the way we consider appropriate. If you know of or suspect a violation of this AUP, you will promptly notify us in writing of the known or suspected violation of this AUP. ## 2. No SPAM Permitted You may not use the BOMA service in any way (directly or indirectly) to send, transmit, handle, distribute or deliver: (a) unsolicited email (“spam” or “spamming”) in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act (referenced below) or any other law; (b) email to an address obtained via Internet harvesting methods or any surreptitious methods (e.g., scraping or harvesting); (c) email to an address that is incomplete, inaccurate and/or not updated for all applicable opt-out notifications, using best efforts and best practices in the industry, or (d) commercial electronic messages in violation of Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (referenced below). ## 3. Prohibited Email Content and Formatting; Email Best Practices Email sent, or caused to be sent to or through the BOMA service may not: (a) use or contain invalid or forged headers; (b) use or contain invalid or non-existent domain names; (c) employ any technique to otherwise misrepresent, hide or obscure any information in identifying the point of origin or the transmission path; (d) use other means of deceptive addressing; (e) use a third party’s internet domain name without their consent, or be relayed from or through a third party’s equipment without the third party’s permission; (f) contain false or misleading information in the subject line or otherwise contain false or misleading content; or (g) use our trademark(s), tagline(s), or logo(s) without our prior written consent and only then pursuant to our trademark usage guidelines. You are prohibited from using the BOMA service to email purchased lists. If you use email, we recommend that you adopt the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG) Sender Best Communications Practices (BCP), which were created and agreed upon with collaborative input from both volume email senders and Internet Service Providers. The Sender Best Communications Practices document is available at [https://www.m3aawg.org/sites/default/files/document/M3AAWG\_Senders\_BCP\_Ver3-2015-02.pdf](https://www.m3aawg.org/sites/default/files/document/M3AAWG_Senders_BCP_Ver3-2015-02.pdf). You will use commercially reasonable efforts to follow these practices. ## 4. Email Opt-out Requirements You warrant that each email you send or is sent for you using the BOMA service will contain: (a) header information that is not false or misleading; and (b) an advisement that the recipient may unsubscribe, opt-out or otherwise demand that use of its information for unsolicited, impermissible and/or inappropriate communication(s) as described in this AUP be stopped (and how the recipient can notify you that it wants to unsubscribe, opt-out, or stop this use of its information). These requirements may not apply if the email sent is a transactional email and these requirements are not otherwise required by law. You warrant that you will promptly comply with all opt-out, unsubscribe, “do not call” and “do not send” requests. ## 5. Telephone Marketing You must comply with all laws relating to telephone marketing, including without limitation those specifically referenced in the ‘Proper Usage of BOMA service section below. You must comply with all laws related to the recording of phone calls and ensure all proper consent to record is obtained prior to making any such recording. If you use the BOMA service to place telephone calls, you must also comply with all applicable industry standards, including those applicable guidelines published by the CTIA and the Mobile Marketing Association. You are prohibited from using or permitting access to use the BOMA service to make emergency calls or to provide or seek emergency services. ## 6. No Disruption You agree not to use the BOMA service in a way that impacts the normal operation, privacy, integrity or security of another’s property. Another’s property includes another’s account(s), domain name(s), URL(s), website(s), network(s), system(s), facilities, equipment, data, other information, or business operations. You also agree not to use the BOMA service to gain unauthorised access to, use, monitor, make an unauthorised reference to, another’s property, unless you have the appropriate express prior consent to do so. Examples of prohibited actions include (without limitation): hacking, spoofing, denial of service, mailbombing and/or sending any email that contains or transmits any virus or propagating worm(s), or any malware, whether spyware, adware or other such file or program. These restrictions apply regardless of your intent and whether or not you act intentionally or unintentionally. ## 7. Proper Usage of the BOMA service In addition, and without limiting the other requirements in this AUP, you may not (directly or indirectly) use the BOMA service with content, or in a manner that: - is threatening, abusive, harassing, stalking, or defamatory; - is deceptive, false, misleading or fraudulent; - is invasive of another’s privacy or otherwise violates another’s legal rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity); - contains vulgar, obscene, indecent or unlawful material; - infringes a third party’s intellectual property right(s); - publishes, posts, uploads, or otherwise distributes any software, music, videos, or other material protected by intellectual property laws (or by rights of privacy or publicity) unless you have all necessary rights and consents to do so; - uploads files that contain viruses, corrupted files, or any other similar software or programs that may damage the operation of another person’s computer; - downloads any file that you know, or reasonably should know, cannot be legally distributed in that way; - falsifies or deletes any author attributions, legal or proprietary designations, labels of the origin or source of software, or other material contained in a file that is uploaded; - restricts or inhibits any other user of the BOMA service from using and enjoying our website and/or the BOMA service; - harvests or otherwise collects information about others, including e-mail addresses, without their consent; - violates the usage standards or rules of an entity affected by your use, including without limitation any ISP, ESP, or news or user group (and including by way of example and not limitation circumventing or exceeding equipment use rights and restrictions and/or location and path identification detail); - is legally actionable between private parties; and/or - is in violation of any applicable local, state, national or international law or regulation, including all export laws and regulations and without limitation the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM Act) (15 U.S.C. § 7701 et seq.), the U.S Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (47 U.S.C. § 227), the Do-Not-Call Implementation Act of 2003 (15 U.S.C. § 6152 et seq.; originally codified at § 6101 note), the Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and Council of 8 June 2000, on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular, electronic commerce in the Internal Market (‘Directive on Electronic Commerce’), along with the Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and Council of 12 July 2002, concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (‘Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications’), regulations promulgated by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission, any rules of national or other securities exchange, including without limitation, the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) (S.C. 2000, c. 5), Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) (S.C. 2010, c. 23), and any regulations having the force of law or laws in force in your or your email recipient’s country of residence. You will use the BOMA service for your internal business purposes and will not: (i) wilfully tamper with the security of the BOMA service or tamper with our customer accounts; (ii) access data on the BOMA service not intended for you; (iii) log into a server or account on the BOMA service that you are not authorised to access; (iv) attempt to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of any BOMA service or to breach the security or authentication measures without proper authorisation; (v) wilfully render any part of the BOMA service unusable; (vi) lease, distribute, license, sell or otherwise commercially exploit the BOMA service or make the BOMA service available to a third party other than as contemplated in your subscription to the BOMA service; (vii) use the BOMA service for timesharing or service bureau purposes or otherwise for the benefit of a third party; or (viii) provide to third parties any evaluation version of the BOMA service without our prior written consent. ## 8. BOMA Trademark Use **BOMA and the BOMA Logo are all trade marks of Boma Technologies Limited. You may only use these trade marks or any other name, logo, tagline, other trade mark, or any identifier or tag generated by the BOMA Service, including without limitation: (a) as a hypertext link to any website or other location (except as provided for or enabled expressly by us); (b) to imply identification with us as an employee, contractor, agent or other similar representative capacity in direct connection with the BOMA services and only in accordance with the terms of use set out below. You agree not to remove or alter any of these items as we may have provided or enabled:** **BOMA must always be in Larsseit font, and #00000 colour. The BOMA trade mark must not be used alongside any other word or image.** ## 9. General Terms If you breach of this AUP we may immediately suspend your access to the BOMA service. We may also terminate your and our subscription agreement for cause if you breach this AUP. You acknowledge we may disclose information regarding your use of any BOMA service to satisfy any law, regulation, government request, court order, subpoena or other legal process. If we make this type of required disclosure we will notify you, unless we are required to keep the disclosure confidential. We are not obligated to, but may choose to, remove any prohibited materials and deny access to any person who violates this AUP. We further reserve all other rights. We may update and change any part or all of this AUP. If we update or change this AUP, the updated AUP will be posted at https://bomamarketing.com/legal/acceptable-use. If you have a BOMA subscription, we will we will let you know through the Notification app in the BOMA portal used to access your BOMA subscription. If you do not have a BOMA subscription, we will let you know by posting the revised copy on our website. The updated AUP will become effective and binding on the next business day after it is posted. When we change this AUP, the “Last Modified” date above will be updated to reflect the date of the most recent version. We encourage you to review this AUP periodically. --- ### [Getting started with Boma](https://bomamarketing.com/getting-started/) **Published:** August 9, 2017 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** Want to get started with Boma’s marketing platform for accountants? Here’s the best place to begin. --- ### [Digital Marketing Guide For Accountants and Bookkeepers](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-guide-for-accountants-and-bookkeepers/) **Published:** July 24, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** BOMA’s digital marketing guide has everything you need to know about Digital Marketing for accountants with easy explanations, tips & simple steps to follow. --- ### [Content Planner & Calendar for Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/digital-marketing-content-planner-calendar/) **Published:** February 5, 2019 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Content marketing for accountants involves sharing valuable content to attract leads, convert them to clients and nurture them. --- ### [Digital Marketing Guide For Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/get-started/) **Published:** October 29, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Get the full picture. BOMA’s guide tells you everything accountants need to know about digital marketing with easy explanations, tips and simple steps to follow. --- ### [Contact Us](https://bomamarketing.com/contact-us/) **Published:** June 2, 2017 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** If you have a question about the BOMA platform please review these [FAQS](https://support.bomamarketing.com/en/?_ga=2.80165847.1352522295.1700366035-2057840244.1670792155) or you can send us a message below. **Note: We do not take guest posts from SEO agencies or companies, please do not contact us about this.** --- ### [BOMA Premium Content Partners (NZ)](https://bomamarketing.com/premium_libraries_nz/) **Published:** April 22, 2021 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** BOMA partners with best in the business to bring you their content, updated weekly, to the New Zealand specific content library. --- ### [BOMA's Digital Marketing ROI Calculator](https://bomamarketing.com/bomas-digital-marketing-roi-calculator/) **Published:** February 13, 2019 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Use this ROI Calculator to see how much time & money you could save your accounting firm by using the BOMA platform for your digital marketing. BOMA’s easy to use digital marketing platform fast tracks marketing results for accountants, taking the time, the cost and the complexity out of marketing. --- ### [BOMA Premium Content Partners (AU)](https://bomamarketing.com/premium_libraries_au/) **Published:** April 8, 2022 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** BOMA partners with best in the business to bring you their content, updated weekly, to the Australian specific content library. --- ### [BOMA's Content Library For Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/bomas-content-library-for-accountants/) **Published:** July 7, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Watch this short on demand demo to see why BOMA is the perfect platform to power accountants client support and marketing activities. --- ### [BOMA Premium Content Partners (GLOBAL)](https://bomamarketing.com/premium_libraries/) **Published:** April 13, 2021 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** BOMA partners with best in the business to bring you their content, updated weekly, to our accountant specific content library. --- ### [BOMA + The Gap ROI Calculator](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-gap-roi-calculator/) **Published:** November 23, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** The Gap’s practical and proven Business Development content combined with BOMA’s easy to use digital marketing platform fast tracks marketing results for accountants, taking the time, the cost and the complexity out of marketing. --- ### [BOMA + Tradify](https://bomamarketing.com/tradify/) **Published:** August 30, 2023 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** BOMA has proudly partnered with Tradify to offer accountants trade industry focused articles to bring value to their trade clients. --- ### [BOMA + The Gap](https://bomamarketing.com/gap/) **Published:** November 26, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** The Gap and BOMA fast tracks marketing for accountants. Provide value, attract and engage clients through ‘best business practice’ content. --- ### [BOMA + Spotlight Reporting](https://bomamarketing.com/spotlight-reporting/) **Published:** May 3, 2019 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** Accelerate your transformation from compliance to advisory and drive customer success for your clients with Spotlight Reporting and BOMA. --- ### [All Marketing Resources](https://bomamarketing.com/all-marketing-resources/) **Published:** August 14, 2019 **Author:** Andrew Spear **Content:** If you’re just getting started marketing your accounting firm or are already an experienced marketer we have tips & advice to help you achieve your goals. --- ### [Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/xero/) **Published:** September 5, 2017 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** BOMA makes connecting with current and prospective clients easy. Xero Partners can access the Xero content library and use BOMA to distribute engaging high value business advisory articles via email and social. --- ### [Branded Web Page with Content Assist](https://bomamarketing.com/branded-web-page-with-content-assist/) **Published:** January 17, 2025 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** --- ### [Interactive Self-paced Demo of BOMA - The All-in-one Marketing Platform for Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-interactive-self-paced-demo/) **Published:** November 18, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [BOMA's Content Writing ROI Calculator](https://bomamarketing.com/bomas-content-writing-roi-calculator/) **Published:** September 13, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [BOMA's Content Library- Interactive Demo](https://bomamarketing.com/bomas-content-library-interactive-demo/) **Published:** October 22, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [BOMA + The Gap: Reunion 2024](https://bomamarketing.com/elevate-your-marketing/) **Published:** October 17, 2023 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [BOMA integrates with Zapier](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-integrates-with-zapier/) **Published:** November 7, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [BOMA EOFY 2024 Articles in the Content Library](https://bomamarketing.com/features/boma-eofy-2024-articles-in-the-content-library/) **Published:** June 26, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [BOMA Farm Focused Articles in the Content Library](https://bomamarketing.com/features/boma-farm-focused-articles-in-the-content-library/) **Published:** June 26, 2024 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [BOMA's Social Media ROI Calculator](https://bomamarketing.com/bomas-social-media-roi-calculator/) **Published:** September 13, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [BOMA's Email ROI Calculator](https://bomamarketing.com/bomas-email-roi-calculator/) **Published:** September 13, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [Better Marketing Results](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-better-marketing-results/) **Published:** February 22, 2023 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [Discover how easily BOMA can help power your content marketing & business growth](https://bomamarketing.com/demo/) **Published:** February 1, 2019 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [Book a one-on-one BOMA Demo](https://bomamarketing.com/book-a-demo-of-boma/) **Published:** February 27, 2019 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [Keep up to date with all things BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/newsletter-signup/) **Published:** May 15, 2018 **Author:** Andrew Spear **Content:** --- ### [Thank you for signing up!](https://bomamarketing.com/thank-you-for-signing-up/) **Published:** June 11, 2017 **Author:** BOMA --- ### [Success. Please check your email inbox in a few minutes.](https://bomamarketing.com/success-weve-sent-a-download-link-to-your-email-address/) **Published:** August 3, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [Your subscription has been confirmed](https://bomamarketing.com/your-subscription-has-been-confirmed/) **Published:** September 11, 2017 **Author:** BOMA --- ### [March 2023 Special Offer
Terms & Conditions:
50% Off for 2 Months](https://bomamarketing.com/march-2023-special-offerterms-conditions50-off-for-2-months/) **Published:** March 16, 2023 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ### PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY. #### 1. DESCRIPTION OF PROMOTION 1.1 BOMA Technologies Ltd (NZBN 94290 4216 0359) (“BOMA”) is a marketing software platform that helps professional service businesses take the time, cost and complexity out of digital marketing. 1.2 BOMA is running a promotion to provide entrants with fifty percent (50%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first two (2) months (the “Promotion”) when they register for a BOMA account or reactivate their BOMA Account. 1.3 The promotion is valued at NZD$149.00 + GST, (based on 5,000 contacts) per calendar month. 1.4 In order to register for a BOMA account you must enter your credit card details on the billing page at 1.5 The Promotion will commence at 12.01 am NZDT on March 10th, 2023 (“Promotion Start Date”). 1.6 The Promotion will expire at 23.59 pm NZDT on March 31st, 2023 (“Promotion Expiry Date”). #### 2. ELIGIBILITY 2.1 To be eligible for the Promotion, you must: (a) be above the age of eighteen (18) years old; (b) not be a current BOMA subscriber or hold an active BOMA account; (c) be in possession of a valid Promotion coupon code provided by BOMA (“Coupon Code”); and (d) utilise the Coupon Code to activate your BOMA account by visiting and accessing the billing page at before 23.59 pm NZDT on December 31st, 2022 on the Promotion Expiry Date. 2.2 We may contact you to verify your eligibility to participate in the Promotion. 2.3 To be eligible for the fifty percent (50%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first two (2) months promotion entrants must register for a BOMA trial during the Promotion Period. 2.4. Entry into the Promotion is free; however, any costs associated with accessing the Promotion online are the responsibility of the person seeking access and is dependent on the internet or mobile service provider used. #### 3. TERMS AND WAIVER 3.1 By participating in the Promotion, you unconditionally accept and agree to be bound by these Promotion Terms and Conditions (“Terms”). 3.2 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we do not believe you have satisfied the eligibility requirements as outlined in clause 2. 3.3 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we believe your actions have been in contravention of these Terms. 3.4 There is a limit of one Coupon Code per entrant. This Coupon Code has limited use for entrants. The Coupon Code is non-transferable, not for resale, and for the avoidance of doubt, not redeemable for cash or credit on the BOMA platform. 3.5 The Coupon Code and the Promotion cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or discount. 3.6 The Promotion of fifty percent (50%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first two (2) months can only be used once and is not transferable or redeemable for cash or credit on the BOMA platform. 3.7 Certain features and functionality on the BOMA platform, such as paid advertising, are subject to additional charges. These will be billed to the credit card provided when creating your BOMA account. While we will always use our best efforts to notify you of any additional charges as and when they arise, you are obligated to make your own enquiries as to the costs and fees associated with using BOMA. 3.8 If a user has more than 5,000 email contacts they will need to pay the difference between the 5,000 contact subscription and their number of contacts as laid out on the BOMA pricing page . This additional cost will be billed on a monthly basis. 3.9 Your use of the BOMA platform is subject to the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. These can be viewed at . You should take care to familiarise yourself with your obligations under the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. 3.10 At the end of the fifty percent (50%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first two (2) months Promotion period, we will notify you that your complimentary access to the BOMA platform is ending. At this point, you must cancel your subscription by visiting the billing page located at . Failure to cancel your subscription will see it automatically renew on a monthly basis until cancelled. 3.11 In the course of providing the Promotion to you, we may collect some of your personal information or data. This will be collected in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which can be viewed at . 3.12 We make no representations, guarantees or warranties as to the suitability of the BOMA platform or any services contained therein for your needs. Our obligations to you are limited to the provision of the Promotion. These obligations are conditional upon your satisfaction of the eligibility requirements in clause 2 and adherence to these Terms. 3.13 BOMA may amend these Terms, in writing, at any time. You will be notified of any changes to these Terms as soon as is reasonably practicable after amendment. --- ### [March 2023 Special Offer
Terms & Conditions:
Premium Onboarding Packadge](https://bomamarketing.com/march-2023-special-offerterms-conditionspremium-onboarding-packadge/) **Published:** March 8, 2023 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** ### PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY. #### 1. DESCRIPTION OF PROMOTION 1.1 BOMA Technologies Ltd (NZBN 94290 4216 0359) (“BOMA”) is a marketing software platform that helps professional service businesses take the time, cost and complexity out of digital marketing. 1.2 BOMA is running a promotion to provide entrants with a Premium Onboarding Package (the “Promotion”) when they register for a BOMA account or reactivate their BOMA Account. 1.3 The promotion is valued at NZD$1,400.00 + GST. 1.4 In order to register for a BOMA account you must enter your credit card details on the billing page at 1.5 The Promotion will commence at 12.01 am NZDT on March 8th, 2023 (“Promotion Start Date”). 1.6 The Promotion will expire at 23.59 pm NZDT on March 31st, 2023 (“Promotion Expiry Date”). #### 2. ELIGIBILITY 2.1 To be eligible for the Promotion, you must: (a) be above the age of eighteen (18) years old; (b) not be a current BOMA subscriber or hold an active BOMA account; (c) activate your BOMA account by visiting and accessing the billing page at before 23.59 pm NZDT on March 31st, 2023 on the Promotion Expiry Date. 2.2 We may contact you to verify your eligibility to participate in the Promotion. 2.3 To be eligible for the Premium Onboarding Package entrants must register for a BOMA trial during the Promotion Period. 2.4. Entry into the Promotion is free; however, any costs associated with accessing the Promotion online are the responsibility of the person seeking access and is dependent on the internet or mobile service provider used. #### 3. TERMS AND WAIVER 3.1 By participating in the Promotion, you unconditionally accept and agree to be bound by these Promotion Terms and Conditions (“Terms”). 3.2 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we do not believe you have satisfied the eligibility requirements as outlined in clause 2. 3.3 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we believe your actions have been in contravention of these Terms. 3.4 The Promotion cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or discount. 3.5 The Promotion of the Premium Onboarding Package can only be used once and is not transferable or redeemable for cash or credit on the BOMA platform. 3.6 Certain features and functionality on the BOMA platform, such as paid advertising, are subject to additional charges. These will be billed to the credit card provided when creating your BOMA account. While we will always use our best efforts to notify you of any additional charges as and when they arise, you are obligated to make your own enquiries as to the costs and fees associated with using BOMA. 3.7 Your use of the BOMA platform is subject to the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. These can be viewed at . You should take care to familiarise yourself with your obligations under the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. 3.8 In the course of providing the Promotion to you, we may collect some of your personal information or data. This will be collected in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which can be viewed at . 3.9 We make no representations, guarantees or warranties as to the suitability of the BOMA platform or any services contained therein for your needs. Our obligations to you are limited to the provision of the Promotion. These obligations are conditional upon your satisfaction of the eligibility requirements in clause 2 and adherence to these Terms. 3.10 BOMA may amend these Terms, in writing, at any time. You will be notified of any changes to these Terms as soon as is reasonably practicable after amendment. --- ### [MyHR](https://bomamarketing.com/myhr/) **Published:** October 21, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [Thank you for your booking](https://bomamarketing.com/thank-you-for-your-booking/) **Published:** December 7, 2022 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [Thank you for contacting us](https://bomamarketing.com/thank-you-for-contacting-us/) **Published:** June 11, 2017 **Author:** BOMA --- ### [Top Tips for using BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/quick-tips/) **Published:** September 26, 2017 **Author:** BOMA --- ### [Order Failed](https://bomamarketing.com/order-failed/) **Published:** August 1, 2022 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** Your transaction failed, please try again or contact support. --- ### [Order Confirmation](https://bomamarketing.com/order-confirmation/) **Published:** August 1, 2022 **Author:** Liz Studholme **Content:** Thank you for your order! Invalid order --- ### [Support Clients & Grow Your Accounting Firm](https://bomamarketing.com/grow-your-accounting-practice-in-minutes/) **Published:** August 3, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [Uh-Oh, something doesn’t add up!](https://bomamarketing.com/uh-oh-something-doesnt-add-up/) **Published:** October 19, 2021 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [WELCOME SPECIAL OFFER: Try BOMA for FREE Today & Get 100% Off Your First Month](https://bomamarketing.com/welcome-special-offer-try-boma-for-free-today-get-100-off-your-first-month/) **Published:** August 27, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** # **PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY.** ## **1. DESCRIPTION OF PROMOTION** 1.1 BOMA Technologies Ltd (NZBN 94290 4216 0359) (“BOMA”) is a self-drive marketing software platform that helps professional service businesses take the time, cost and complexity out of digital marketing. 1.2 BOMA is running a promotion to provide entrants with one hundred percent (100%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first one (1) month (the “Promotion”) when they register for a BOMA account or reactivate their BOMA Account. 1.3 The promotion is valued at NZD$121 + GST, (based on 5,000 contacts) per calendar month. 1.4 In order to register for a BOMA account you must enter your credit card details on the billing page at 1.5 The Promotion will commence at 12.01 am NZDT on August 25th, 2020 (“Promotion Start Date”). 1.6 The Promotion will expire at 23.59 pm NZDT on September 30th, 2020 (“Promotion Expiry Date”). ## **2. ELIGIBILITY** 2.1 To be eligible for the Promotion, you must: (a) be above the age of eighteen (18) years old; (b) not be a current BOMA subscriber or hold an active BOMA account; (c) be in possession of a valid Promotion coupon code provided by BOMA (“Coupon Code”); and (d) utilise the Coupon Code to activate your BOMA account by visiting and accessing the billing page at before 23.59 pm NZDT on September 30th, 2020 on the Promotion Expiry Date. 2.2 We may contact you to verify your eligibility to participate in the Promotion. 2.3 To be eligible for the one hundred percent (100%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first one (1) month promotion entrants must register for a BOMA trial during the Promotion Period. 2.4. Entry into the Promotion is free; however, any costs associated with accessing the Promotion online are the responsibility of the person seeking access and is dependent on the internet or mobile service provider used. ## **3. TERMS AND WAIVER** 3.1 By participating in the Promotion, you unconditionally accept and agree to be bound by these Promotion Terms and Conditions (“Terms”). 3.2 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we do not believe you have satisfied the eligibility requirements as outlined in clause 2. 3.3 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we believe your actions have been in contravention of these Terms. 3.4 There is a limit of one Coupon Code per entrant. This Coupon Code has limited use for entrants. The Coupon Code is non-transferable, not for resale, and for the avoidance of doubt, not redeemable for cash or credit on the BOMA platform. 3.5 The Coupon Code and the Promotion cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or discount. 3.6 The Promotion Prize of one hundred percent (100%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first one (1) month can only be used once and is not transferable or redeemable for cash or credit on the BOMA platform. 3.7 Certain features and functionality on the BOMA platform, such as paid advertising, are subject to additional charges. These will be billed to the credit card provided when creating your BOMA account. While we will always use our best efforts to notify you of any additional charges as and when they arise, you are obligated to make your own enquiries as to the costs and fees associated with using BOMA. 3.8 If a user has more than 5,000 email contacts they will need to pay the difference between the 5,000 contact subscription and their number of contacts as laid out on the BOMA pricing page . This additional cost will be billed on a monthly basis. 3.9 Your use of the BOMA platform is subject to the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. These can be viewed at . You should take care to familiarise yourself with your obligations under the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. 3.10 At the end of the one hundred percent (100%) off their subscription to the BOMA platform for the first one (1) month Promotion period, we will notify you that your complimentary access to the BOMA platform is ending. At this point, you must cancel your subscription by visiting the billing page located at . Failure to cancel your subscription will see it automatically renew on a monthly basis until cancelled. 3.11 In the course of providing the Promotion to you, we may collect some of your personal information or data. This will be collected in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which can be viewed at . 3.12 We make no representations, guarantees or warranties as to the suitability of the BOMA platform or any services contained therein for your needs. Our obligations to you are limited to the provision of the Promotion. These obligations are conditional upon your satisfaction of the eligibility requirements in clause 2 and adherence to these Terms. 3.13 BOMA may amend these Terms, in writing, at any time. You will be notified of any changes to these Terms as soon as is reasonably practicable after amendment. --- ### [Get BOMA BONUS Free for 1 Month - Terms & Conditions](https://bomamarketing.com/get-boma-free-for-1-month-bonus-terms-conditions/) **Published:** March 27, 2020 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** # **PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY.** ## **1. DESCRIPTION OF PROMOTION** 1.1 BOMA Technologies Ltd (NZBN 94290 4216 0359) (“BOMA”) is a self-drive marketing software platform that helps professional service businesses take the time, cost and complexity out of digital marketing. 1.2 BOMA is running a promotion to provide entrants with a complimentary one (1) month subscription to the BOMA platform (the “Promotion”) when they register for a BOMA account or reactivate their BOMA Account. 1.3 The one (1) month subscription is valued at NZD$121 + GST, (based on 5,000 contacts) per calendar month. 1.4 In order to register for a BOMA account you must enter your credit card details on the billing page at 1.5 The Promotion will commence at 12.01 am NZDT on March 25th, 2020 (“Promotion Start Date”). 1.6 The Promotion will expire at 23.59 pm NZDT on April 15th, 2020 (“Promotion Expiry Date”). ## **2. ELIGIBILITY** 2.1 To be eligible for the Promotion, you must: (a) be above the age of eighteen (18) years old; (b) not be a current BOMA subscriber or hold an active BOMA account; (c) be in possession of a valid Promotion coupon code provided by BOMA (“Coupon Code”); and (d) utilise the Coupon Code to activate your BOMA account by visiting and accessing the billing page at before 23.59 pm NZDT on April 15th, 2020 on the Promotion Expiry Date. 2.2 We may contact you to verify your eligibility to participate in the Promotion. 2.3 To be eligible for the one (1) month free promotion entrants must register for a BOMA trial during the Promotion Period. 2.4. Entry into the Promotion is free; however, any costs associated with accessing the Promotion online are the responsibility of the person seeking access and is dependent on the internet or mobile service provider used. ## **3. TERMS AND WAIVER** 3.1 By participating in the Promotion, you unconditionally accept and agree to be bound by these Promotion Terms and Conditions (“Terms”). 3.2 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we do not believe you have satisfied the eligibility requirements as outlined in clause 2. 3.3 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we believe your actions have been in contravention of these Terms. 3.4 There is a limit of one Coupon Code per entrant. This Coupon Code has limited use for entrants. The Coupon Code is non-transferable, not for resale, and for the avoidance of doubt, not redeemable for cash or credit on the BOMA platform. 3.5 The Coupon Code and the Promotion cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or discount. 3.6 The Promotion Prize of a 1-month subscription and marketing coaching can only be used once and is not transferable or redeemable for cash or credit on the BOMA platform. 3.7 Certain features and functionality on the BOMA platform, such as paid advertising, are subject to additional charges. These will be billed to the credit card provided when creating your BOMA account. While we will always use our best efforts to notify you of any additional charges as and when they arise, you are obligated to make your own enquiries as to the costs and fees associated with using BOMA. 3.8 If a user has more than 5,000 email contacts they will need to pay the difference between the 5,000 contact subscription and their number of contacts as laid out on the BOMA pricing page . This additional cost will be billed on a monthly basis. 3.9 Your use of the BOMA platform is subject to the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. These can be viewed at . You should take care to familiarise yourself with your obligations under the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. 3.10 At the end of the one (1) month Promotion period, we will notify you that your complimentary access to the BOMA platform is ending. At this point, you must cancel your subscription by visiting the billing page located at . Failure to cancel your subscription will see it automatically renew on a monthly basis until cancelled. 3.11 In the course of providing the Promotion to you, we may collect some of your personal information or data. This will be collected in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which can be viewed at . 3.12 We make no representations, guarantees or warranties as to the suitability of the BOMA platform or any services contained therein for your needs. Our obligations to you are limited to the provision of the Promotion. These obligations are conditional upon your satisfaction of the eligibility requirements in clause 2 and adherence to these Terms. 3.13 BOMA may amend these Terms, in writing, at any time. You will be notified of any changes to these Terms as soon as is reasonably practicable after amendment. --- ### [Win BOMA for a Year Promotion](https://bomamarketing.com/win-boma-for-a-year/) **Published:** August 30, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [Win BOMA for a Year](https://bomamarketing.com/xerocon-win-boma-for-a-year/) **Published:** September 3, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [Xero Roadshow Australia 2019](https://bomamarketing.com/xero-roadshow-australia-2019/) **Published:** January 30, 2019 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [BOMA 'Do it for me' Marketing Service](https://bomamarketing.com/do-it-for-me/) **Published:** May 6, 2019 **Author:** Andrew Spear --- ### [Thank you, we'll be in touch.](https://bomamarketing.com/thank-you-one-of-our-team-will-be-in-touch/) **Published:** February 25, 2019 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [Xero Roadshow Special Offer – Terms & Conditions](https://bomamarketing.com/xero-roadshow-special-offer-terms-and-conditions/) **Published:** February 5, 2019 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** # **PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY.** ## **1. DESCRIPTION OF PROMOTION** 1.1 BOMA Technologies Ltd (NZBN 94290 4216 0359) (“BOMA”) is a self-drive marketing software platform that helps professional service businesses take the time, cost and complexity out of digital marketing. 1.2 BOMA is running a promotion to provide entrants with a complimentary two (2) month subscription to the BOMA platform (the “Promotion”); and all entrants that register for a BOMA trial during the Promotional Period will automatically be entered in the draw to win a 12-month BOMA subscription free of charge for twelve (12) months. 1.3 The two (2) month subscription is valued at $109 US Dollars, (based on 2,000 contacts) per calendar month; and the Promotion prize of a 12-month BOMA subscription is valued at USD$1,308/annum (based on 2,000 email contacts). 1.4 In order to authenticate your account, an amount equivalent to one (1) percent of the total fee payable for a monthly BOMA subscription will be charged to your credit card each month during the Promotion Period. 1.5 The Promotion will commence at 12.01 am NZDT on February 5th, 2019 (“Promotion Start Date”). 1.6 The Promotion will expire at 23.59 pm NZDT on March 31st, 2019 (“Promotion Expiry Date”). ## **2. ELIGIBILITY** 2.1 To be eligible for the Promotion, you must: (a) be above the age of eighteen (18) years old; (b) not be a current BOMA subscriber or hold an active BOMA account; (c) be in possession of a valid Promotion coupon code provided by BOMA (“Coupon Code”); and (d) utilise the Coupon Code to activate your BOMA account by visiting and accessing the billing page at before 23.59 pm NZDT on March 31st, 2019 on the Promotion Expiry Date. 2.2 We may contact you to verify your eligibility to participate in the Promotion. 2.3 To be eligible for the twelve (12) months free promotion entrants must register for a BOMA trial during the Promotion Period. 2.4. Every unique trial is considered an entry. 2.5 Entry into the Promotion is free; however, any costs associated with accessing the Promotion online are the responsibility of the person seeking access and is dependent on the internet or mobile service provider used. ## **3. TERMS AND WAIVER** 3.1 By participating in the Promotion, you unconditionally accept and agree to be bound by these Promotion Terms and Conditions (“Terms”). 3.2 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we do not believe you have satisfied the eligibility requirements as outlined in clause 2. 3.3 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we believe your actions have been in contravention of these Terms. 3.4 There is a limit of one Coupon Code per entrant. This Coupon Code has limited use for entrants. The Coupon Code is non-transferable, not for resale, and for the avoidance of doubt, not redeemable for cash or credit on the BOMA platform. 3.5 The Coupon Code and the Promotion cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or discount. 3.6 The Promotion Prize of a 12-month subscription can only be used once and is not transferable or redeemable for cash or credit on the BOMA platform. 3.7 Certain features and functionality on the BOMA platform, such as paid advertising, are subject to additional charges. These will be billed to the credit card provided when creating your BOMA account. While we will always use our best efforts to notify you of any additional charges as and when they arise, you are obligated to make your own enquiries as to the costs and fees associated with using BOMA. 3.8 If the Promotion 12-month subscription winner has more than 2,000 email contacts they will need to pay the difference between the 2,000 contact subscription and their number of contacts as laid out on the BOMA pricing page . This additional cost will be billed on a monthly basis. 3.9 Your use of the BOMA platform is subject to the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. These can be viewed at . You should take care to familiarise yourself with your obligations under the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. 3.10 At the end of the two (2) month Promotion period, we will notify you that your complimentary access to the BOMA platform is ending. At this point, you must cancel your subscription by visiting the billing page located at . Failure to cancel your subscription will see it automatically renew on a monthly basis until cancelled. 3.11 At the end of the winners twelve (12) month subscription Promotion period, BOMA will notify you that your complimentary access to the BOMA platform is ending. At this point, you must cancel your subscription by visiting the billing page located at . Failure to cancel your subscription will see it automatically renew on a monthly basis until cancelled. 3.12 In the course of providing the Promotion to you, we may collect some of your personal information or data. This will be collected in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which can be viewed at . 3.13 We make no representations, guarantees or warranties as to the suitability of the BOMA platform or any services contained therein for your needs. Our obligations to you are limited to the provision of the Promotion. These obligations are conditional upon your satisfaction of the eligibility requirements in clause 2 and adherence to these Terms. 3.14. BOMA may amend these Terms, in writing, at any time. You will be notified of any changes to these Terms as soon as is reasonably practicable after amendment. 3.15 BOMA reserves the right to draw an alternate winner if BOMA determines in its sole discretion that the winner does not comply with these terms and conditions of entry or where BOMA has reasonable grounds to believe the winner will not comply with these terms and conditions of entry. 3.16 If the prize becomes unavailable for reasons beyond BOMA’s control, BOMA may substitute a prize of equal or greater value. 3.17 The winner will be chosen at the discretion of BOMA. Judges’ decision is final. No correspondence will be entertained. 3.18 BOMA will use reasonable endeavours to contact the winner within 72 hours via email. If for any reason BOMA is unable to make contact with a winner within that period then the winner will forfeit the Prize and another winner may be drawn on the same terms and conditions as the original draw. 3.19 No Prize or Give Away is transferable (except as permitted in these terms & conditions) or redeemable for cash. 3.20 The Winner’s name may be published via social media channels. 3.21 All participants undertake to comply with the publicity requirements of BOMA. Personal information of participants may be collected to enable BOMA to administer and promote this Promotion and to contact the winners. --- ### [Learn more about the Xero Roadshow Special Offer](https://bomamarketing.com/learn-more-about-the-xero-roadshow-special-offer/) **Published:** February 25, 2019 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [Xero Special Offer - Terms & Conditions](https://bomamarketing.com/xero-special-offer-terms-conditions/) **Published:** November 14, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** # **PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY.** ## **1. DESCRIPTION OF PROMOTION** 1.1 BOMA Technologies Ltd (NZBN 94290 4216 0359) (“BOMA”) is a self-drive marketing software platform that helps small businesses take the time, risk and complexity out of digital marketing. 1.2. BOMA is running a promotion for Xero Partners to provide entrants with a three (3) month subscription to the BOMA platform (the “Promotion”). 1.3 The Promotion is valued at $109 US Dollars, (based on 2,000 contacts) per calendar month. 1.4. The Promotion will commence at 12.01 am NZDT on November 20th, 2018 (“Promotion Start Date”). 1.5 The Promotion will expire at 23.59 pm NZDT on December 31st, 2018 (“Promotion Expiry Date”). ## **2. ELIGIBILITY** 2.1 To be eligible for the Promotion, you must: (a) be above the age of eighteen (18) years old; (b) not be a current BOMA subscriber or hold an active BOMA account; (c) be in possession of a valid Promotion coupon code provided by BOMA (“Coupon Code”); and (d) utilise the Coupon Code to activate your BOMA account by visiting and accessing the billing page at before 23.59 pm NZDT on December 31st, 2018 on the Promotion Expiry Date. 2.2 We may contact you to verify your eligibility to participate in the Promotion. ## **3. TERMS AND WAIVER** 3.1 By participating in the Promotion, you unconditionally accept and agree to be bound by these Promotion Terms and Conditions (“Terms”). You can view the Terms at [https://bomamarketing.com/xero-special-offer-terms-conditions/ ](https://bomamarketing.com/xero-special-offer-terms-conditions/) 3.2 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we do not believe you have satisfied the eligibility requirements as outlined in clause 2. 3.3 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we believe your actions have been in contravention of these Terms. 3.4 There is a limit of one Coupon Code per entrant. This Coupon Code has limited use for entrants. The Coupon Code is non-transferable, not for resale, and for the avoidance of doubt, not redeemable for cash or credit on the BOMA platform. 3.5 The Coupon Code and the Promotion cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or discount. 3.6 Certain features and functionality on the BOMA platform, such as paid advertising, are subject to additional charges. These will be billed to the credit card provided when creating your BOMA account. While we will always use our best efforts to notify you of any additional charges as and when they arise, you are obligated to make your own enquiries as to the costs and fees associated with using BOMA. 3.7 Your use of the BOMA platform is subject to the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. These can be viewed at . You should take care to familiarise yourself with your obligations under the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. 3.8 At the end of the three month Promotion period, we will notify you that your complimentary access to the BOMA platform is ending. At this point you must cancel your subscription by visiting the billing page located at . Failure to cancel your subscription will see it automatically renew on a monthly basis until cancelled. 3.9 In the course of providing the Promotion to you, we may collect some of your personal information or data. This will be collected in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which can be viewed at . 3.10 We make no representations, guarantees or warranties as to the suitability of the BOMA platform or any services contained therein for your needs. Our obligations to you are limited to the provision of the Promotion. These obligations are conditional upon your satisfaction of the eligibility requirements in clause 2 and adherence to these Terms. --- ### [Redirect](https://bomamarketing.com/redirect/) **Published:** October 8, 2018 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** Testing Page for App --- ### [Win BOMA For 1 Year Promotion - Terms & Conditions](https://bomamarketing.com/win-boma-for-a-year/boma-xerocon-promotion-terms-conditions/) **Published:** August 30, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** # **PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY.** 1\. Information on prizes and how to participate forms part of these terms and conditions. By participating in this promotion (“Promotion”), you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions. 2\. The Promoter is Boma Technologies Ltd, level 4, Graham St, BDO Tower, Auckland, Auckland 1010, Auckland, New Zealand (“BOMA” or the “Promoter”). 3\. Entry and participation in the Promotion is dependent on the entrant following and acting in accordance with the below terms. 4\. The Promotion will commence at 12.01 am NZDT on October 6th, 2018 and will close at 23.59 pm NZDT on October 31st, 2018 (the “Promotion Period”). Should the Promoter receive low or no entries to the Promotion, the Promoter reserves the right to extend the Promotion closing date. 5\. To enter, eligible entrants must sign up for a BOMA free trial within the Promotion Period. 6\. Every unique trial is considered an entry. 7\. Entry is only open to individuals aged 18 years and over. BOMA employees, directors and other representatives of the Promoter and organisations involved in sponsoring or conducting the Promotion (and any individuals so involved) are ineligible, as are members of their immediate families and households. 8\. Entry into the Promotion is free. However, any costs associated with accessing the Promotion online are the responsibility of the person seeking access and is dependent on the internet or mobile service provider used. 9\. The Promoter accepts no responsibility for lost, late or misdirected entries. The Promoter reserves the right to verify the validity of entries and to disqualify any entrant who tampers with the entry process or who submits an entry that is not in accordance with these terms and conditions. 10\. The entrant is responsible for the submission of their own entry during the Promotion Period and it is not the responsibility of the Promoter or any third party to ensure that a person is entered into the Promotion. 11\. Judges’ decision is final. No correspondence will be entertained. 12\. The Promoter reserves the right to draw an alternate winner if the Promoter determines in its sole discretion that the winner does not comply with these terms and conditions of entry or where the Promoter has reasonable grounds to believe the winner will not comply with these terms and conditions of entry. ## **Prize Allocation:** 1\. The offer entitles the Promotion winner to a complimentary 12-month BOMA subscription valued at USD$588 (based on 500 email contacts). 2\. If the winner has more than 500 email contacts they will need to pay the difference between the 500 contact subscription and their number of contacts as laid out on the BOMA pricing page https://bomamarketing.com/pricing/. This additional cost will be billed on a monthly basis. 3\. This Prize can only be used once, cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer and is not transferable or redeemable for cash or credit on the BOMA platform. 4\. Certain features and functionality on the BOMA platform, such as paid advertising, are subject to additional charges. These will be billed to the credit card provided when creating your BOMA account. While we will always use our best efforts to notify you of any additional charges as and when they arise, you are obligated to make your own enquiries as to the costs and fees associated with using BOMA. 5\. At the end of the twelve (12) month Promotion period, we will notify you that your complimentary access to the BOMA platform is ending. At this point you must cancel your subscription by visiting the billing page located at https://app.bomamarketing.com/settings/billing. Failure to cancel your subscription will see it automatically renew on a monthly basis until cancelled. 6\. If the prize becomes unavailable for reasons beyond the Promoter’s control, the Promoter may substitute a prize of equal or greater value. 7\. The winner will be chosen at the discretion of the promoter. 8\. The Promoter will use reasonable endeavours to contact the winner within 72 hours via email. If for any reason the Promoter is unable to make contact with a winner within that period then the winner will forfeit the Prize and another winner may be drawn on the same terms and conditions as the original draw. 9\. No Prize or Give Away is transferable (except as permitted in these terms & conditions) or redeemable for cash. 10\. The Winner’s name may be published via social media channels. 11\. Promoter, its affiliates, agents and their respective directors, officers and employees will not be responsible or liable for: 1. any losses, damages, liabilities, deaths, injuries, claims, demands and/or proceedings (collectively, the “Liabilities”) incurred or suffered by any party due to any delay and/or failure (including lost entries, mail delay or loss) in receiving and submitting the entries as a result of any communication error, interruption, human error and/or failure by Promoter and/or any third party; 2. any Liabilities incurred or suffered by any participant or his/her authorised representatives resulting from their participation in this Promotion or fulfilment of any prize; 3. any error (including error in notification of winners), omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft, destruction, alteration of, or unauthorised access to entries, or entries lost or delayed whether or not arising during operation or transmission; 4. any changes made by Promoter or any third party supplier, or the organiser, administrator or sponsors of this Contest or the prize; and/or 5. any liabilities incurred or suffered arising from any act beyond their control or for any act, omission or default of any third party. 12\. All taxes and other expenses, costs, travel, fees or taxes associated with the prize are the sole responsibility of winners. 13\. All participants undertake to comply with the publicity requirements of Promoter and grant Promoter and its affiliates the irrevocable, perpetual, non-royalty right to feature or publicise on any platform owned/operated by Promoter any materials submitted by the participants. 14\. Personal information of participants may be collected to enable Promoter to administer and promote this Promotion and to contact the winners and may also be provided to other third parties assisting Promoter in this regard, including without limitation, prize suppliers and deliverers, and authorities which regulate this Promoters (if applicable). If a participant does not truthfully provide all the requested personal information, Promoter reserves the right to disqualify or reject his/her entry. 15\. Promoter reserves the right to amend these terms and conditions at any time and without notice. Participation in this Promotion shall constitute acceptance of these terms and conditions and the amendment thereof. 16\. This Promotion and these terms and conditions shall be governed by the laws of New Zealand, without regard to the conflict of laws. --- ### [Page Not Found](https://bomamarketing.com/page-not-found/) **Published:** May 28, 2018 **Author:** Andrew Spear --- ### [Content Sharing](https://bomamarketing.com/features/url-sharing/) **Published:** May 14, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [Boma + Startup Victoria Terms & Conditions](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-startup-victoria-promotion-terms-conditions/) **Published:** August 24, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** # **PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY.** ## **1. DESCRIPTION OF PROMOTION 1.1 BOMA Technologies Ltd (NZBN 94290 4216 0359) (“**BOMA**”) is a self-drive marketing software platform that helps small businesses take the time, risk and complexity out of digital marketing. 1.2 Startup Victoria (ABN 26 167 737 582) (“**Startup Victoria**”) is a not-for-profit organisation who work to boost entrepreneurship and develop the startup ecosystem in Victoria. 1.3 BOMA is running a promotion in conjunction with Startup Victoria to provide Startup Victoria’s members a complimentary four (4) month subscription to the BOMA platform (the “**Promotion**”). 1.4 The Promotion is valued at a minimum of $49 US Dollars, (based on 500 contacts) per calendar month. 1.5 The Promotion will expire on the 11/11/18 (“**Promotion Expiry Date**”). ## **2. ELIGIBILITY 2.1 To be eligible for the Promotion, you must: (a) be above the age of eighteen (18) years old; (b) have a current membership with Startup Victoria which will remain valid up to, and including, the Promotion Expiry Date; (c) not be a current BOMA subscriber or hold an active BOMA account; (d) be in possession of a valid Promotion coupon code provided by either Startup Victoria or BOMA (“**Coupon Code**”); and (e) utilise the Coupon Code to activate your BOMA account by visiting before 12:00am AEST on the Promotion Expiry Date. 2.2 We may contact you to verify your eligibility to participate in the Promotion. ## **3. TERMS AND WAIVER 3.1 By participating in the Promotion, you unconditionally accept and agree to be bound by these Promotion Terms and Conditions (“**Terms**”) [https://bomamarketing.com/boma-startup-victoria-promotion-terms-conditions/ ](https://bomamarketing.com/boma-startup-victoria-promotion-terms-conditions/) 3.2 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we do not believe you have satisfied the eligibility requirements as outlined in clause 2. 3.3 We, at our absolute discretion, may refuse to provide you with the Promotion if we believe your actions have been in contravention of these Terms. 3.4 There is a limit of one Coupon Code per Startup Victoria member. This Coupon Code has limited use Startup Victoria Members. The Coupon Code is non-transferable, not for resale, and for the avoidance of doubt, not redeemable for cash or credit on the BOMA platform. 3.5 The Coupon Code and the Promotion cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or discount. 3.6 Certain features and functionality on the BOMA platform, such as paid advertising, are subject to additional charges. These will be billed to the credit card provided when creating your BOMA account. While we will always use our best efforts to notify you of any additional charges as and when they arise, you are obligated to make your own enquiries as to the costs and fees associated with using BOMA. 3.7 Your use of the BOMA platform is subject to the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. These can be viewed at . You should take care to familiarise yourself with your obligations under the BOMA Customer Terms of Service. 3.8 At the end of the four month Promotion period, we will notify you that your complimentary access to the BOMA platform is ending. At this point you must cancel your subscription by visiting the billing page located at. Failure to cancel your subscription will see it automatically renew on a monthly basis until cancelled. 3.9 In the course of providing the Promotion to you, we may collect some of your personal information or data. This will be collected in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which can be viewed at . 3.10 We make no representations, guarantees or warranties as to the suitability of the BOMA platform or any services contained therein for your needs. Our obligations to you are limited to the provision of the Promotion. These obligations are conditional upon your satisfaction of the eligibility requirements in clause 2 and adherence to these Terms. --- ### [Sign Up Form Staging](https://bomamarketing.com/sign-up-form-staging/) **Published:** August 7, 2018 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** I agree to the BOMA Terms and Conditions --- ### [Sign Up Form Test](https://bomamarketing.com/sign-up-form-test/) **Published:** August 6, 2018 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** I agree to the BOMA Terms and Conditions --- ### [Success. Please check your email inbox](https://bomamarketing.com/youre-ready-to-go-digital-marketing-the-small-business-guide/) **Published:** July 24, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark --- ### [Please check your inbox for our confirmation email](https://bomamarketing.com/thank-for-registering-your-interest-in-boma/) **Published:** June 2, 2017 **Author:** BOMA --- ### [Website Cookie Policy](https://bomamarketing.com/legal/cookie-notice/) **Published:** May 21, 2018 **Author:** Charles Clark **Content:** This Cookie Policy (“**Policy**”) is provided by BOMA Technologies Limited of Level 4, Building A, BDO Centre, 4 Graham Street, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand. It governs the use of our website, located at [https://bomamarketing.com](https://www.bomamarketing.com/) (“**Website**”). Our Website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our Website. This helps us to provide you with a fantastic user experience as you browse our Website and also allows us to improve functionality. By continuing to browse the Website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies on the terms contained within this Policy. A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that may be stored on the hard drive, browser or any other data storage mechanism of your computer, smartphone, tablet or other Internet enabled device (“**Device**”). We use the following cookies: - **Strictly necessary cookies:** These are cookies that are required for the operation of the Website. They enable you to log into secure areas of our website, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services. - **Analytical/performance cookies:** These cookies allow us to track the performance and usability of our Website. Certain functions they carry out include recognising and counting the number of visitors, how they navigate the Website and whether there were any error messages produced. This information is collected in the interest of improving the functionality of the Website. Any information collected is not personally identifiable as it is aggregated in a way that preserves user anonymity. - **Functionality cookies:** These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region). In order to provide this functionality, we may record information about your device, IP address, browser type and other software or hardware information. If you access the site from a mobile device, we may collect geolocation data. - **Targeting cookies:** These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. The information may be also be used to assess the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. We may share this information with third parties for this purpose. You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the table below: **Cookie****Name****Purpose****Opt-out****Intercom**intercom-sessionStores information about your preferences, and so allows us to customise our site and to provide you with offers that are targeted at your individual interests.**Google Analytics**\_gaStores information about your preferences, and so allows us to customise our site and to provide you with offers that are targeted at your individual interests.**Segment**ajs\_user\_idThis allows Segment to collect data about your usage of BOMAPlease note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. After you visit our Website, you can also remove cookies by deleting them from your browser’s cache. Note that if you use your browser settings to block cookies (including essential, Intercom or Segment cookies), you will lose Website functionality, including support services and access to our help desk. We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to the cookies we use or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons. Please therefore re-visit this Cookie Policy regularly to stay informed about our use of cookies and related technologies. Any information captured by cookies will be treated in accordance with the Boma Marketing Privacy Policy, which can be viewed at [www.bomamarketing.com/privacy-policy/](/legal/privacy-policy/). For further enquiries in relation to this Policy, please contact . --- ### [Media](https://bomamarketing.com/media/) **Published:** September 5, 2017 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** Information about Boma for press and publishers **Press releases (PDF Download)** [Boma Tech Media Release 05/09/17](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Boma-Tech-Media-Release-050917.docx-2.pdf) **Boma Logo Assets** [Boma Logos](https://bomamarketing.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/BomaLogos.zip) --- ## Webinars ### [Webinars Made Easy: Run Your Own Webinars with The Gap's Business Advisory Templates in BOMA](https://bomamarketing.com/webinars/webinars-made-easy-run-your-own-webinars-with-the-gaps-business-advisory-templates-in-boma/) **Published:** June 19, 2023 **Author:** Chad Ripepi **Content:** Is your accounting firm running webinars for clients and prospects? Or interested in doing so? The Gap’s curated collection of client event packs, right down to slide decks and speaker notes, does the hard work for you. And all the marking material, including emails and social post is ready to send directly from the BOMA platform making promoting the webinar and following up after the event super easy. Register with the link below, to find out more about how The Gap and BOMA support accountants to market their advisory service and support clients. **Type:** Webinar --- ### [BOMA Platform & Marketing 'Ask Me Anything' Workshop](https://bomamarketing.com/webinars/boma-platform-marketing-ask-me-anything-workshop/) **Published:** June 19, 2023 **Author:** Chad Ripepi **Content:** What is this workshop about? Well to put it simply, you give us the questions, and we will answer them. From “how many campaigns should I send a day?” to “When is the best time to post content?” You can send us questions in advance by DMing me through LinkedIn, commenting on this post, or by sending an email to support@bomamarketing.com with the subject line “Ask me anything.” **Type:** Workshop --- ### [Creating a Lead Form in BOMA and two use cases](https://bomamarketing.com/webinars/creating-a-lead-formin-boma-and-two-use-cases/) **Published:** May 23, 2023 **Author:** Chad Ripepi **Content:** In this workshop we’ll look at how to create a Lead Form in BOMA that you can use in a variety of ways including including a downloadable e-book and a coffee meeting promotion. Key items we will cover include: - Creating a Lead form - Attaching a coffee promotion to the lead form (flyer or more information) - Attach downloadable e-book to the lead form **Type:** Workshop --- ### [Creating a Lead Form in BOMA that will send an automatic email upon submission](https://bomamarketing.com/webinars/creating-a-lead-form-in-boma-that-will-send-an-automatic-email-upon-submission/) **Published:** May 23, 2023 **Author:** Chad Ripepi **Content:** In this session we’ll show you how to create a Lead Form in BOMA that will send an automatic email upon submission. Key items that we will cover include: - Creating a Lead Form - Sending to Zapier - Creating the email automation **Type:** Workshop --- ### [A practical guide to turn recent Federal Budget tax changes into advisory opportunities for your accounting practice](https://bomamarketing.com/webinars/pratical-guide-federal-budget-tax-changes-advisory-opportunity-accounting-practice/) **Published:** April 13, 2023 **Author:** BOMA **Content:** Each year, Federal Budget announcements result in a high volume of tax changes which can be time consuming and difficult to keep track of. We’ll start to see the impact of these tax law changes coming into effect in the next few weeks. It’s important for accountants to stay on top of the latest developments to give reliable, accurate advice to their clients. Knowing what to communicate to your clients can be tricky, especially if the team is time-poor and doesn’t have the in-house marketing expertise to navigate what and how to share these key changes to affected clients. This is where CCH iQ and BOMA come into play. Wolters Kluwer CCH iQ provides event-based, actionable insights prepared by experienced, in-house tax experts all locally based in Australia. Wolters Kluwer’s CCH iQ premium content library in BOMA make it easier for accounting firms to provide these actionable insights for clients to attract and engage new business through curated, trusted content that can be easily shared via email, on social media and your website In this session, we’ll showcase: - How CCH iQ works – the process from a tax trigger event -> expert insight/content you can communicate to clients - Practical examples of the latest CCH iQ content following the recent Federal Budget announcements - The partnership between CCH iQ and BOMA’s digital marketing platform streamlining your ability to take premium content and easily distribute it via multiple digital marketing channels (email, newsletter, blog) and social media within a few clicks. **When**: Wednesday 31st May at 11am AEST **Who should attend**: This is suitable for accountants in practice, tax practitioners and bookkeepers. **Type:** Webinar --- ### [Using the BOMA Settings Menu](https://bomamarketing.com/webinars/using-the-boma-settings-menu/) **Published:** April 13, 2023 **Author:** Chad Ripepi **Content:** Join us for our next short workshop at 11am AEDT / 1pm NZST 19th April on the BOMA x Zapier integration. In this short session we’ll cover: - Connecting your social media accounts - Xero HQ - Branding - Team members - 2 factor authentication - Content library (premium) - Imports menu - Tags **Type:** Workshop --- ## Categories ### [Uncategorized](https://bomamarketing.com/uncategorized/) --- ### [Marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/marketing/) **Description:** Stay informed and up to date with our Marketing resources. Covering all things Marketing related this is a must for anyone who is interested in marketing their business. Filled with advice, tips and tricks to get you started. --- ### [Digital Marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/digital-marketing/) **Description:** Stay informed and up to date with our Digital Marketing resources. Covering all things digital marketing related this is a must for anyone who is marketing their business online. --- ### [Business](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/small-business/) **Description:** Covering everything that a Small Business should consider when marketing themselves online and offline, BOMA's Marketing Resources have loads of helpful advice, tips and tricks to get you underway. --- ### [Accountant and Bookkeeper](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/accounting-bookkeeper/) **Description:** BOMA's Marketing Resources pages are written specifically to for Accountants and Bookkeepers. Filled with advice, tips and tricks that you can apply to marketing your firm, we've got everything you need to get started. --- ### [News](https://bomamarketing.com/news/) **Description:** BOMA News coverage and Announcements --- ### [Articles and resources to help you market your firm](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/) **Description:** The home of BOMA's marketing resources --- ### [Social Media](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/social-media/) **Description:** Using social media effectively is critical for modern businesses and we've got a tonne of articles filled with tips, tricks and advice for using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram to promote your business. --- ### [Success Stories](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/user-success-stories/) **Description:** Hear firsthand how other Accountants & Bookkeepers used BOMA to get ahead with their digital marketing and grow their businesses. --- ### [BOMA Webinars](https://bomamarketing.com/resources-webinar/) **Description:** All of BOMA's free webinars in one place with advice, tips and training on a variety of marketing, digital marketing and related topics. --- ### [Technology](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/technology/) --- ### [Website](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/website/) --- ### [Content Marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-marketing/) --- ### [Email Marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/email-marketing/) --- ### [Tips & Advice](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/tips-advice/) --- ### [Video Tutorials](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/) --- ### [Getting Started](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/getting-started/) --- ### [Content Library](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/content-library/) --- ### [Email](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/email/) --- ### [Social Media](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/social-media-tutorials/) --- ### [Lead Forms](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/lead-forms/) --- ### [Contacts](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/contacts/) --- ### [Campaigns](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/campaigns/) --- ### [Settings](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/settings/) --- ### [Content Assist AI](https://bomamarketing.com/video-tutorials/content-assist-ai/) --- ### [Integrations](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/integrations/) --- ### [Content Insights](https://bomamarketing.com/marketing-resources/content-insights/) --- ## Tags ### [Customers](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/customers/) --- ### [Nurture](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/nurture/) --- ### [Business](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/business/) --- ### [Strategy](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/strategy/) --- ### [Facebook](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/facebook/) --- ### [Google+](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/google/) --- ### [Instagram](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/instagram/) --- ### [LinkedIn](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/linkedin/) --- ### [Pinterest](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/pinterest/) --- ### [Social Media](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/social-media/) --- ### [Twitter](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/twitter/) --- ### [Vimeo](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/vimeo/) --- ### [YouTube](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/youtube/) --- ### [Audience](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/audience/) --- ### [Customer](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/customer/) --- ### [Customer Segmentation](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/customer-segmentation/) --- ### [Assests](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/assests/) --- ### [Marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/marketing/) --- ### [Marketing Automation](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/marketing-automation/) --- ### [database](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/database/) --- ### [Email](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/email/) --- ### [Search](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/search/) --- ### [SEO](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/seo/) --- ### [Mobile](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/mobile/) --- ### [Video](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/video/) --- ### [Branding](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/branding/) --- ### [PR](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/pr/) --- ### [Public Relations](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/public-relations/) --- ### [website](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/website/) --- ### [back links](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/back-links/) --- ### [link building](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/link-building/) --- ### [WOM](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/wom/) --- ### [Referrals](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/referrals/) --- ### [GDPR](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/gdpr/) --- ### [SMB](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/smb/) --- ### [EU](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/eu/) --- ### [Advisory](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/advisory/) --- ### [Accountants](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/accountants/) **Description:** BOMA's Marketing Resources pages written specifically to help inform and educate Accountants and Bookkeepers on everything marketing and more --- ### [Tools](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/tools/) --- ### [Accountant](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/accountant/) **Description:** BOMA's Marketing Resources pages written specifically to for Accountants and Bookkeepers. Filled with advice, tips and tricks that you can apply to marketing your firm, we've got everything you need to get started. --- ### [Scale](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/scale/) --- ### [Accounting](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/accounting/) --- ### [Tips](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/tips/) --- ### [Mobile Responsive](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/mobile-responsive/) --- ### [Optimise](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/optimise/) --- ### [Thought Leadership](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/thought-leadership/) --- ### [Engagement](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/engagement/) --- ### [Data](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/data/) --- ### [analytics](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/analytics/) **Description:** BOMA Analytics --- ### [ROI](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/roi/) --- ### [HR](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/hr/) --- ### [Hire](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/hire/) --- ### [Remote Working](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/remote-working/) --- ### [Digital Marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/digital-marketing/) --- ### [Goals](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/goals/) --- ### [Bookkeepers](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/bookkeepers/) --- ### [Growth](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/growth/) --- ### [Newsletter](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/newsletter/) --- ### [Xero HQ](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/xero-hq/) --- ### [App Partners](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/app-partners/) --- ### [Artificial Intelligence](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/artificial-intelligence/) **Description:** Artificial Intelligence --- ### [AI](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/ai/) **Description:** BOMA AI --- ### [Content Marketing](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/content-marketing/) --- ### [Productivity](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/productivity/) --- ### [Start up](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/start-up/) --- ### [App](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/app/) --- ### [Glossary](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/glossary/) --- ### [customer success](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/customer-success/) --- ### [testimonial](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/testimonial/) --- ### [case study](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/case-study/) --- ### [User stories](https://bomamarketing.com/tag/user-stories/) --- ## Type ### [Webinar](https://bomamarketing.com/webinar-type/webinar/) --- ### [Workshop](https://bomamarketing.com/webinar-type/workshop/) ---