Sceptical, doubting and downright suspicious of Digital Marketing for accountants?

...Then this should be the article  for you...

Written by John Braithwaite, Head of Digital Marketing

As an analytical person myself, and having been on the receiving end of many broken promises I have empathy for those who, like me, want facts. The problem with words like 'ONLINE', 'WEBSITE', 'SEO', 'CODING' and 'JOOMLA' is that they conjure up images of some dark art, or magic formula that must be implemented when designing a website or to get results using the Internet. It can be difficult to see the wood from the trees and so many of us are used to traditional routes to market. Embracing anything new is difficult, embracing something we know little or nothing about can feel like a nerve racking step into the dark.

Therefore (in my view at least) one ought to be able to either gather the facts for themselves or find a company they trust implicitly. To help I wanted to write a few of the facts down to provide firms with the information they need to make informed and educated decisions about their online marketing. I quickly realised I simply did not have the space within this article to cover everything I wanted to; therefore at our cost I have arranged for a DVD to be produced “The 9 biggest digital marketing mistakes made by accountants and how to avoid them” Simply register here for yours by phone 0800 803 0826 or online here.

Digital Marketing for Accountants

With the space I have left I wanted to focus on the most pertinent issue - Does Digital Marketing really work for accountants?

I love sceptics; I find them honest and often overlooked for fear of more scepticism or objections. My experience is, once educated they are prepared to make a logical decision for the best. One of the recent conversations we had was with the head of a large accountancy network. He shared that he believed accountants were sceptical about digital marketing and websites. Moreover he was not clear himself this was a proven process for generating leads for accountants.

We would almost all probably agree that the use of the internet and technology is growing at a staggering speed. If you are in any doubt simply type into Google internet growth statistics and you will have access to numerous amounts of research and reports on internet use in the UK and globally.

Most true sceptics would agree it's a growing market but then argue that it is not growing for the accountancy market. Sure most get email on their phones and shop online for a dishwasher, car insurance, a holiday, perhaps even to download a movie rather than renting a DVD but seriously not the accountancy market. Let's call this the Island argument, which agrees that there is significant change in the market and its effecting almost everyone but not them! Most would see that this argument is actually one that is poorly founded and lacks thought. However the cry remains! We want the FACTS.

The FACTS are that buyer's habits are changing, and whilst not every potential client will find you online (although a growing number will) almost every single potential client will look at your website before making a decision either to contact you or use you - yes even those that are referred to you are highly likely to look at you online first.

The accountancy market is not an island and the facts are startling:

Every single day, your potential clients are using the internet to search for an accountancy firm. In fact, nationally in the UK, there are over 250,000 + searches every single week for accountant or accountants on Google alone!

We estimate in the UK alone there are over 10 million searches for accountancy and related searches every month.

The more conservative of us might be somewhat sceptical of these figures and rightly question if these searches are resulting in actual business for firms. The answer is a resounding yes for our customers.

THE HALF WAY HOUSE

The trouble is that if we remain somewhat unconvinced by the facts then so often the result is a half way house. Firms that do not really believe in online marketing invest little time or money into their site and simply opt for any old website. In a somewhat haphazard and careless manner they have a website constructed that is basically a template. The same copy, the same navigation, same amount of unhelpful content with little or no thought to the site visitor.

The sad news is that most half way houses simply produce very little (if anything). This only goes to fuel the fire of doubt that 'Websites don't work' some partners we speak to are actually proud of the end product pleased that they 'did not waste even more money on a better site that would have produced the same - nothing!' The reality is that websites are proven to work powerfully for accountants when done properly and marketed efficiently.

ARE WE RIGHT FOR EACH OTHER – for many firms the answer is NO!

Insight is not a mass marketing organisation and has no desire to become an unapproachable giant, churning out poorly designed, out of the box websites with little regard for customer interaction. It is our goal to develop robust, intelligent and creative digital marketing solutions for partners who want to grow and contribute. We want happy, satisfied and prosperous customers and enjoyable working relationships. To help achieve this, and in the interests of our customers, we vet our customers, or partners, very carefully indeed. Read our customer protection criteria.