Simple guide to marketing your bookkeeping business

Accounting and bookkeeping have become integral to every business in today's world. Statistics have shown that even small companies spend no less than $1000-$5000 on accounting/bookkeeping services in a year. Business owners have attested to the satisfaction derived from hiring the services of an accountant/bookkeeper, stating that they don't mind spending money to have their bookkeeping professionally handled. Experience has shown that the stress of bookkeeping and sorting out taxes usually causes tremendous strain when running a small business. When starting as a bookkeeper or an accountant, you may get overwhelmed and ask yourself several questions ranging from 'how do I carry out marketing for bookkeeping business?', 'where do I find clients?' to 'What are the tools to use if I intend to carry out bookkeeping advertising or advertise myself as a bookkeeper?' All these and more are the things this article sets to demystify. Let's get right to it, shall we?

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Starting as a bookkeeper

When many successful bookkeepers first start, an essential thing they try to do is build a bunch of new relationships because they understand that networking, which is connecting with people who know people who know other people, is the most crucial thing that will keep you three degrees of separation away from your next client or your next dollar if you're not careful. So, when it comes to marketing a bookkeeping business, the first step is to reach out to your circle of influence; this is personal bookkeeper marketing, which includes your network of people and all of your friends who run businesses, and ask if you can assist them with their bookkeeping.

Tips on advertising bookkeeping services

1. Build that relationship

Relationships are particularly crucial in bookkeeping marketing because while many people will tell you to run a Facebook or YouTube ad, they aren't necessary when you're just starting. For example, a newcomer recently obtained a contract to do 20 hours of bookkeeping per week at $100 per hour due to reaching out and creating relationships. Someone needed his services, trusted him because of an existing relationship, marketing bookkeeping business, rapport, and voilà!

2. Referrals are powerful

Furthermore, if you have ever worked for someone in the past in an accounting or bookkeeping capacity, or if you have any existing work or clients, you should ask them if they know anyone who owns a business or needs a bookkeeper or accountant. Then you can take control of the process and connect personally with the person, and this right here is the power of referral in advertising bookkeeping services.

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3. Grow in the virtual world

After establishing relationships with current and potential clients, the next step in bookkeeping marketing is to expand your reach by establishing social media profiles, particularly LinkedIn and Instagram. By having an online/social media presence, we don't simply mean posting content online; instead, we suggest going out and building relationships with strangers on the platform.

How to market a bookkeeping business

• Follow businesses/business owners on Instagram

For Instagram, you should target at least a thousand people and business owners you're following and constantly checking in on, building relationships with, and learning more about their lives and pains/problems. Over time, those thousands of people may want to reach out to you on a trust basis to learn and know about your services, and you take it from there. Remember that thousands of people may seem like a lot when you're just starting, but after you're up and running, a thousand people are nothing; it is that simple. 

• Utilize LinkedIn connections

Always attempt to submit at least 50-100 connection requests daily on LinkedIn. In some circumstances, you may not be able to do so due to in-app modifications, but it is the most straightforward approach to begin building your network and growing your sphere of influence. From there, you start having conversations that focus solely on marketing yourself, chipping in bookkeeping ads, etc. These conversations eventually lead to clients, which in turn lead to contracts.

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• Invest in email marketing and paid ads

As one trying to market your bookkeeping business, we also recommend that you invest in sponsored ads such as Facebook Advertisements and Google Search Ads. Paid bookkeeping services adverts are beneficial because they give you the visibility and brand recognition you need and appear precisely when and where customers are looking for your services. Thus leading to an increased client base and revenue generation. Also, email marketing is a fantastic approach to marketing for bookkeepers as it enhances staying in touch with past, present, and future customers. According to stats, email marketing generates $42 for every $1 ad spent. As a result, you need to have a robust email list that will enable you to showcase the valuable and instructive information you've been creating. 

• Utilize Google My Business 

Having a Google Business Account allows your name to pop up whenever a search string involving your services is put into Google Search. To further utilize and maximize the power of a Google Business Account, always ensure that your Google Business Account listing should include a description of the services you provide; this will assist individuals in finding your company when searching. Having a Google account is also how people will find your website. You carry out your bookkeeping advertising. It is one of the most significant places to start collecting and monitoring reviews.

• Create your own website

Although not always necessary, a website allows you to define your bookkeeping business in more detail with words and images, providing an outlet to sell your bookkeeping services. Having a website is an all-encompassing aspect of bookkeeping services advertising. Because having a website is a vital part of marketing a bookkeeping firm, it's crucial to approach it as if you're creating a storied brand for your company. A character, a problem, a guide/call to action, the strategy, avoiding failure, and attaining success is all part of this story (your website).

How to develop your bookkeeping ad

Create client-focused content

When creating content for your websites, adverts, social media posts, and all, always show and demonstrate that you are a professional in your field to your prospective clients. Content should be helpful and offer value to the user's experience. You aim for sustainability and want people to follow your company naturally. It establishes your credibility as a bookkeeper. Before you get started with content marketing, consider a few factors.

• The character: Although you may be tempted to believe that you are the character in this situation, you are not. 'The character' is your customer or anyone who wants to hire you as a bookkeeper. As a result, you must make them the protagonist or heroes of the story. So, if you're talking about them on your website or social media platforms, make them the center of attention. Positioning the customer as the hero is not just good manners; it is also good business. That is what will assist you sell to your clients or establish you as a trustworthy counsel so that people would hire you. Always consider who your customer is and the hero in the story you're attempting to tell.

• The problem: When creating your content, the next thing to think about is who is the villain of your hero's story. So maybe this business owner doesn't have enough time to deal with their bookkeeping, or perhaps they are overwhelmed by learning about QuickBooks. They don't want to know about all these new-age technologies, or maybe they have apathy towards it because they used to be able to do their bookkeeping. These and more are the things you can make the villain in their story, and you can help them overcome because, of course, you will be the guy who helps them overcome this villain. By understanding your client's problems, you create a bond and trust that enables them to entrust your bookkeeping to you.

• A guide: As the bookkeeper, your job is to guide the hero through the maze of bookkeeping confusion and to the other side of success. The most critical thing after describing oneself as a guide is building trust. So you want to be trustworthy, empathetic, and understanding of your customers' plight. Your bookkeeping marketing ads should not solely contain information about how fantastic you are, your skills, and everything that will appear on your résumé. You should also have a strong customer focus as well as positive testimonials. Don't just brag about how good a bookkeeper you are on your website.

• The Plan/Call to action: Many bookkeeping marketing contents contain a wealth of helpful information but no clear action steps for customers, such as whether they should email to schedule a meeting or sign up for a mailing list. You don't want to leave the hero lingering on your website, unsure of what to do next. So, even if someone is impressed with your work, they will just leave and go to someone else if they are unsure what to do next. Make it straightforward in your marketing content, what they should do, how they should contact you, and the first, second, and third actions. Make sure that you are clear in laying out the plans so they know what steps to take and what to expect, thus, calling them to action. The call to action may be direct or transactional (involving building trust, free sampling, and so forth). 

• Avoiding failure/Achieving success: When creating your bookkeeping marketing content, you also want to convince potential clients that employing you as their bookkeeper or following your advice will help them avoid failure. Remind them of the failure they are overcoming by always hiring you. Please do not go overboard with this, but gently remind them that by hiring your bookkeeping services, they avoid all the bookkeeping they don't want to do monthly. They avoid getting their books so messed up that they can't see their finances. They possibly avoid audits, have a smooth task time, and save as much money on their taxes as possible. All these and much more are pitfalls they are avoiding by hiring you. Because your ultimate plan is to prevent failures and end/achieve success, focus on those success stories and the picture of where you want your client to end up with your guidance.

Manage your bookkeeping business with Workee!

Use Workee to promote your bookkeeping business

Workee is a client management tool that allows you to scale your business and operate more productively. Workee can help you manage and expand your business as the workee software has been designed to help you focus on the most critical aspects of your business while providing you with the tools you need to succeed. You can utilize the software in the following ways:

• Build an online presence for your business by creating a customized website for you within 5mins.

• The software has an abundance of bookkeeping templates through which you can professionally and conveniently manage your clients.

• Workee makes it easier to create and send invoices, manage your taxes, and receive money directly, as well as gives you an organized way of carrying out your bookkeeping business.

• With the software's in-built CRM, you can conveniently manage your bookkeeping workspace while simultaneously building and growing your clientele.

Conclusion

While many consider bookkeeping marketing ideas a complex activity requiring spending money, it is relatively simple. Bookkeeping marking involves knowing how to talk to people, how to make them feel comfortable, and how to make them comfortable enough so that you can charge them more money than everyone else is charging.

As a bookkeeper that desires to get more clients and retain previous clients, you need an all-encompassing software like Workee to help you manage your client base, give your business a professional outlook, and make your job easier.

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