Every business can benefit from growing its client base, especially professional services small businesses such as accounting practices. But sometimes finding new clients may be easier said than done.
Perhaps you actually are attracting new clients, but they may not be the right clients. Some clients can actually be a negative for your accounting firm. For example, clients who take up more of your time and energy than you’d like, or who haggle on the price of your accounting services and expect the world for every dollar you charge them.
If you are finding acquiring new clients for your accounting business an uphill battle, the following pointers may prove useful.
Word of mouth marketing
Word of mouth marketing can be a truly effective way to generate new business enquiries for your accounting business. Word of mouth marketing is when a consumer’s passion and enthusiasm for a company’s products or services runs so deep that without any prompting or prodding they will endorse your product, service, or business to friends, family, colleagues, and even rank strangers. They do this because they believe in the value of your products or services, and they do it without you having to badger them.
The very nature of word of mouth marketing makes it compelling and enables it to cut through and connect with consumers and customers – because the person passing on their endorsement of your business or services has no ‘skin in the game’. They are simply an impartial, happy customer – and that is a powerful thing for a business, especially in professional services industries such as accounting.
Word of mouth marketing is not something that happens automatically, even though it may sound like it does. As a business owner you may reap the full benefits of word of mouth marketing by providing a consistent service that exceeds the expectations of customers every time.
Introduce a referral program
In this day and age of social media and rampant online conversation about anything and everything, opinions can be spread quicker than wildfire and be passed off as fact in an instant. All of that can happen before you may even have a chance to view the opinions being spread about your business, let alone respond to them. In almost the blink of an eye potential customers may dismiss your business due to hearsay.
As a business owner, you can reverse this trend by setting up a referral program that will help your accounting business grow. It’s easy to ask satisfied customers for testimonials and reviews and get their permission to post their feedback on your website, social media pages, and in your company emails. Your accounting business will gain more credibility by asking for their permission to use their real names with their testimonials.
Request referrals when things go well
Have you ever asked your loyal and satisfied clients to refer your accounting services to friends, family, or colleagues? They’d likely be happy to refer you if you have given them an excellent customer experience, and you can remind them to refer your accounting services to acquaintances by adding a reminder to your email signature. Even better – incentivise referrals and reward clients who refer your business with a thank you gift.
Optimise your accounting company website
Your website is effectively the digital storefront for your accounting small business. As such, it should reflect the character and identity of your accounting business – and your own character and identity. Given how critical your company website can be as an awareness and lead generation tool for your accounting business, it’s in your interest to maximise its effectiveness in delivering new business enquiries to you.
As such, your company website may benefit from a review and potential makeover. If you go to the effort and investment of redesigning your company website, then you might as well do it right. This will likely require the skills and expertise of a web developer, a digital graphic designer, and a digital marketing professional with search engine optimisation (SEO) expertise.
Define your ideal client
Intimately understanding your ideal customer can help you to better connect and engage with them through your content marketing and your advertising. To do this, you may choose to create buyer personas for your core customer types.
The aim of buyer personas, also known as marketing personas, is to as accurately as possible create a clear picture of your core customers, including their motivations, frustrations, and goals. This can be critical for getting more clients for your accounting business, because once you understand what motivates your clients and what their frustrations are, you will be better positioned to respond to their accounting needs.
Identify your niche
While attempting to offer all of your accounting services to all of your accounting clients may sound good in theory, you may also benefit from identifying a niche accounting service or services. If you can identify a niche that is in demand but underserviced by other accounting businesses in your catchment area, this could present an opportunity to offer a specialised accounting service where one doesn’t yet exist.
Network at industry events
Industry events and networking events can be a fantastic way to not only meet likeminded individuals and expand your professional network but also to gain confidence talking about your accounting business and the services you provide.
There are industry networking events in most Australian capital cities most weeks, and if you’ve never been to one you may benefit from getting along. While your objective certainly isn’t to court new customers, you may form new business relationships that may come in handy in the future.
BizCover helps accounting small business owners throughout New Zealand to reduce the risks to their business via business insurance, including Professional Indemnity, Public Liability insurance, and small business insurance. Visit bizcover.co.nz and get business insurance for your accounting small business in minutes and get on with your day.
*This information is general only and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. It should not be relied upon as advice. As with any insurance, cover will be subject to the terms, conditions and exclusions contained in the policy wording. © 2022 BizCover Pty Limited. BizCover Limited is owned by BizCover Pty Ltd (ABN 68 127 707 975)
