Do you want to know how to amplify social media content in your marketing endeavors? Are you considering how accounting blogs might bring new business to your firm?
Gusto is your ally in helping your firm to generate wealth, so we’re thrilled to partner with CPA Academy to bring you insights into effective outreach strategies. The webinar “Five Articles You Can Run This Week” featured Matt Wilkinson, a marketing expert and CEO of BizInk. Matt brought his 20 years of experience designing impactful marketing and web development strategies to the conversation, and you can watch the video here. Matt laid out ways your firm can maximize marketing spend by creating exceptional accounting content for social media, and repurpose it for SEO.
Owning content and amplifying it through social media
It’s a myth that marketing has to be complicated and drawn out to be effective. You can work smarter, not harder, through creating and repurposing content. In what Matt calls the “Own and Amplify Campaign,” you create and therefore own a piece of content, such as a blog post. Then you amplify it by distributing it through multiple platforms. Not only does this help you get the message out to a wider audience, it also unifies your message across all channels.
If you were to use the angle of saving tax money, you would start off with a variation of the following email:
Subject Line: Could changing to an S-Corp save you thousands in taxes?
Dear [Subject Name]:
I’m guessing you’d rather pay less tax!
If your business structure is a sole proprietor or a single-member LLC, you could save thousands of dollars in taxes by setting up as an S-Corporation instead.
Check out this blog that I wrote about the benefits of S-Corp status. Then, if you’re keen to set up an S-corporation, we can help.
You can make a time to chat here.
Thanks!
[Name]
Then you distribute the blog post via social media. You can also pull quotes from the article and share them on Twitter, share any graphics from the article on Instagram, or discuss the article in a short, shareable video. By casting your net far and wide, you’re overcoming one of the biggest challenges in marketing—most prospects will go through several touch points before they take action.
“Repetition is really important in marketing. [It’s] very underused, especially in the accounting profession. If you think of TV ads, for example, the big brands will run the same ads year after year. They’ll run them because they work. It’s the same with your marketing because people don’t generally act straight away. They’re not going to see a campaign and just go, “Okay. Let’s act.” Often it will take five, ten, maybe more touch points through email, through social, through [many] different ways before people take action.”
– Matt Wilkinson
In addition to sharing your content widely, you’ll want to do so over time. That’s why having a reserve of content to pull from regularly will work in your favor. You want to have a place where content lives over time so that you can regularly pull from it over a prolonged period. The most natural and easiest way to do that is through a blog.
Why your firm needs a blog
Having a blog is a no-brainer for any business in any industry. It can form the basis of many of your marketing campaigns, it’s easy to set up, and it can help you rank higher in search engines. Blog posts don’t need to be long; often they are under 500 words. You don’t need to be a wordsmith to create one either. Natural language works best, as does keeping it simple.
Having your own blog with your own content to distribute helps to establish your authority. While you can distribute content from third-party sites, it’s more effective to create your own. When you’re strengthening alliances and drawing in new ones, you should set yourself up as the expert. You want your clients to view you as the go-to resource when they have a problem to solve. In creating a blog, you are showing them that you’re that resource.
Having a blog on your site will make it easier for you to run repetitive campaigns. You’ll be able to easily find your previously used content and repeat the campaign. Over time, these campaigns work more often than not, as customers rarely act unless they have a need. While someone might not need tax help now, their circumstances might change later down the line. However, they won’t remember the post you did six months ago—that’s why it’s important to keep your ads running.
Having an active blog can help your ranking in search engines. If you really up your game, you can hire a content marketing writer who understands SEO for accounting firms. This involves structuring the blog correctly, including quality links, and having specific keywords within the post. An active, SEO-optimized blog can be your firm’s most effective asset.
How to amplify social media content
The world of social media marketing can seem overwhelming at first. There’s an increasing number of platforms, from Facebook to LinkedIn to TikTok. Go for the ones that the most people are on and that your prospects are most likely to be on. Facebook has got the biggest number of users, and LinkedIn is the go-to for professionals you’ll likely work with. You can branch out to Twitter, Instagram, or even TikTok if you have a very targeted market segment, like young creatives.
Be sure to set up a business page for all social media platforms with an additional personal page for LinkedIn. When distributing your blog posts on social media, you’ll also want to go for repetition.
“Repetition is important here … [For example,] if you go and visit LinkedIn, [you’ll] see these posts that different people in your network have put up, but every time you visit, you might look at maybe five or ten of those. It’s only going to be a small handful of all the posts that are out there. So … if you posted to your LinkedIn, how many people would actually see it? The key is repetition—it’s to not just post it once, but to post it several times in the week.”
– Matt Wilkinson
When crafting your content, be sure to include images. Content containing visuals gets 94% more views than those without. Visuals breathe life into your posts, making them much more attractive and interesting to viewers. If possible, use branded images. You can also find free pictures on Pexels or on Spruce, which allows for users to create text overlays. For those looking for more customization, Canva provides templates for every social platform including YouTube.
Use natural language like that of the email example, and aim to be pitchy and catchy.
If you really want to increase your campaign effectiveness, try creating a video. It’s never been easier thanks to platforms like Loom, which make it easy to record short videos quickly. Instead of reading a blog, your audience can watch you speak about setting up an S-corp and tax-saving benefits. A video through Loom doesn’t need to be polished, as long as you look professional. This type of content is trending on LinkedIn for good reason—it works.
Learn more about marketing for accounting firms
One of the best approaches to marketing is to create and distribute content across multiple channels. In doing so, you’re working smarter, not harder, and getting much more bang for your buck. Start with a blog post about a topic that will appeal to your prospects. After self-publishing, distribute it through email and across multiple social media platforms.
If you don’t have a blog on your website, it’s time to get started. A blog has a host of benefits including helping you rank higher in search engines, giving you an easy source of content to pull from for campaigns, and establishing you as a trusted authority.
Repetition is key to effective campaigns. Your viewers’ feeds are likely choked with competing content, so posting once isn’t enough. You want to share posts on a regular basis and over a long period of time. This goes for all of your campaigns, including email.
Creating great content can be simple. The days of needing a graphic designer or a video production team to create content are waning. You can create short, effective videos or branded images using simple online tools. It’s in your best interest to do so, as visual content is much more likely to be viewed.
Gusto’s mission is to create a world that empowers a better life. We’re here to help make marketing your business easy. Don’t forget to check out Parts One, Three, Four, and Five articles based on the same webinar.
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