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. 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 that 95% of video information is retained compared to around 10% for plain text content. Webinars and online Q&A’s allow 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, 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