Digital marketing for accountants

Tips to maintain online presence

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With the end of the third lockdown, our local High Streets will start to welcome more people as shops, beauty and hospitality (with outside space!) are opening.

It will certainly be different for a while, as we all find our feet again after such time away from family, friends and colleagues. But what’s key is that our local businesses will be opening their doors again to welcome people through their open doors.

What has changed is that many businesses realise the importance of online presence with many creating websites to sell products and services as well as utilising social media and email marketing. 

If you’re still finding your feet with building your online presence, here’s a few marketing tips to help you maintain and build online visibility.

Develop your content marketing plan

Wow your customers and prospects with your knowledge and expertise to help increase brand awareness and position you as a thought leader.

A great way to make news timely is by tapping into international days of relevance to your business. Create a calendar and then each month check to see what blogs you can write or social media posts you can share tapping into that day.

This fresh content added to your website also helps with search engine optimisation (SEO) which helps improve your ranking in search engine results pages. Whilst SEO is a long-term strategy, a regular blog with keywords (those words and phrases you want to be found for in search engines) will help in the long run.

We recommend that you compile a content marketing plan adding key dates so you know when you can write a blog post about a particular topic or product to send out timely communication.

This ongoing sharing of information helps to build trust with your customers and potential clients. If you’re offering advice that is helping, then you have more chance of getting a call for a consultation.  

Regular and new content on your website with keywords that you want to be found for forms part of a search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy. Including this in your plan will really help give your website a boost in search results pages.  

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Do you know your target audience?

Over this period have you may have discovered that you’ve been working in one or two sectors of industry more than others? Or perhaps you have had more enquiries about a certain service or product.

Now is the time to review these frequent enquiries and really understand who your target audience is. This will help so much with engagement and attracting quality leads because you can tailor your marketing communication specifically to their concerns. This positions you as the thought leaders in your area of expertise.  

Here’s our advice on creating up an online persona (an imaginary person that is your typical target audience).  

Are you listed on Google My Business?

If you have already discovered the virtues of Google My Business that’s great. If not then now is the time to make sure that your business is listed on it.

We’ve got a few videos from how to set up your Google My Business page through to getting reviews. So, whatever level of Google My Business you’re at we have a video to help beginners through to GMB old timers. Take a look at the Google My Business videos here.

Digital marketing Croydon

We are digital marketing agency in Croydon. Why not take advantage of our free website audit so you can understand whether you need to make any updates to your website so that it is optimised for lead generation.  

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Inbound marketing

Lead Generation: Lead generating forms

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This is the final blog in our mini-series covering the four-key mechanics for inbound lead generation to help gather quality leads.

In our previous blogs we’ve talked about creating compelling offers,  engaging calls-to-action and landing pages.

Forms that convert to quality leads

Your lead capture form is what your web visitor will find when they have clicked on your offer and ended up on your landing page (take a look at our previous lead generation blogs to understand the set up of your landing page and offers).

This is the key part of a successful lead generation campaign as the form converts your prospect to a lead.

A form enables a web visitor to sign up to offers such as to receive a regular e-newsletter or download an eBook.

What to include on your form

As there is no set rule in what detail you should include on your form, it’s always useful to test it out.

Building your email database is crucial for a successful inbound marketing campaign. The less fields to complete on a form the more likely it is that someone will complete it with information such as name and email address. This is useful for ongoing email marketing campaigns you run.

However, the more fields you have to complete may mean you get a better-quality lead, but it may also put people off.

It should also be clear and not take time to complete.

Even its appearance can impact whether someone completes a form or not. So cutting down space so that a form looks more compact can really help improve engagement.

So, test it out, and find out what works for you.

Calls-to-action

When it comes to the call-to-action button you are asking people to click on to send you their details, have a think about what you are asking them to do. Be specific.

So, if they are handing their details over for an eBook, then say something like ‘Download your free eBook’.

It’s useful if the button stands out on the web page with a contrasting bold colour.

Find out more about Call-to-actions.

Be compliant

You want to build a database of quality leads. Therefore your communication must be transparent to gain your prospects trust. So add a link to your privacy policy. Also testimonials from customers help to reassure people.

Ultimately you need to ensure that you are GDPR compliant which is a stringent privacy and security law for any company that processes personal data.

The four mechanics for inbound marketing lead generation

The four key mechanics for inbound lead generation include:

1.   Offers: including books, whitepapers, free consultations, coupons and product demonstrations.

2.   Calls-to-action (CTA): bold text, an image or a button that links directly to a landing page so website visitors can download your offer.

3.   Landing page: A specific page with information about a particular offer, and a form to download that offer.

4.   Form: To collect contact information from a website visitor in exchange for the offer.

Digital marketing agency for lead generation

We can help formulate your inbound marketing strategies using a range of marketing services to target prospects and customers including refreshed web design, search engine optimisation (SEO services), content marketing such as blog posts, social media marketing, email marketing, and Pay Per Click (PPC). 

Digital marketing Croydon, London.

Blog content

8 tips to maximise the content of one blog

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With many businesses bearing the brunt of lockdown such as hospitality, leisure and retail closures, any additional cost is a major consideration. Whilst businesses are aware of the importance of marketing to stay front of mind, there’s a few things you can do to be efficient with your marketing and therefore be as cost-effective as possible.

So, you’ve written your blog and uploaded it to your website. Then what? Be efficient with the marketing content you already have.

Here’s a simple process to follow so that you maximise one blog once you have uploaded it to your website.

  1. Write a social media post. Add a link back to the blog post and share on social media with an image (your own image or purchase a stock image – do not use google images as these carry copyright).
  2. Don’t just leave it at writing one social post. Review the content of your blog and break that down into bite size chunks. You’ll find that you can schedule a number of different social posts simply by lifting a few sentences from the same blog and sharing them on social. You may have to tailor them slightly for the different social channels you use, but it will take you a lot less time.
  3. Get your employees and colleagues to also re-share what you post on social media to spread the news through your social network.
  4. Conduct a poll question relating to your blog. This is particularly good on LinkedIn as it engages well with your network and allows them to comment.
  5. If your business is on Instagram or Facebook, share the social post to your Stories to highlight that you have a new blog post. The gifs on Instagram are great for stand out.
  6. Add a summary of the blog as an update to your Google My Business page with a ‘learn more’ button with a link back to your blog. And, if you are on any other listing directories such as associations or event websites, check if they have the option of adding regular updates from you as this all helps with link building.
  7. Send an email to your marketing database. If you have an email database then start to utilise that. Create a template for an email. Platforms like Hubspot allow you to create great looking email templates. Then use the content from your blog in your email. Only use a small part of it to entice recipients to click to read more.
  8. If you want to build on your creative skills, why not create a short video with information taken from your blog? You can chat further with us about video creation if you want to know more about what you could do.

Well, we hope this gives you a few ideas to take advantage of for the next blog you write.
Remember that all this activity will help with search engine optimisation (SEO). With the blog itself ensure you have keywords included (the words and phrases that you want to be found for in search engines).

For social posts, email marketing and business directory uploads always ensure that you have included a link back to your blog. Link building with quality links also helps show search engines that you are a thought leader as well as improves brand awareness and lead generation.

Get in touch with Smart Cow, we provide digital marketing for accountants and a helping hand with content marketing for websites, alongside kick starting your SEO strategy.

Inbound marketing

Lead Generation: Landing pages

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This is the third blog in our mini-series which looks at the four-key mechanics for inbound lead generation to help gather quality leads.

Previously we’ve talked about creating compelling offers and engaging calls-to-action. Here we will take a closer look at landing pages that convert to leads.

What are landing pages?

A landing page is a specific web page for targeted marketing campaigns in which website visitors are directed to. As content on this page is relevant to the offer that has interested the website visitor in the first place it’s an effective way of capturing leads.

Landing page set up

A good landing page will include a clear headline and brief description of the offer (see our blog on creating compelling offers for more on this topic). You should have a relevant image and perhaps a bullet point summary.

What’s vital though is the inclusion of a form for your website visitor to complete. This will capture the information to convert your web visitors into leads.

We find that removing the main navigation bar on a landing page will help with conversions because there are fewer links for the visitor to click on to move away from your page.

Your content on the landing page should be consistent to the details of the call-to-action that people clicked on in the first place. Ideally your headlines should be the same.

These marketing campaigns are also about building brand trust so that’s where the consistency of messaging helps and people become familiar with your offers. It means they know what they see on an offer shared on social media, via an email marketing campaign or paid search ad, they know what to expect.

Be clear that your web visitor knows what will happen when they enter their details. So, if it’s to download an eBook with 30 inbound marketing tips, say that on your landing page.

Web design

Whilst it’s important to have the right messaging, it’s also key to include space on the page.

We often talk about being image led and concise messaging for web design, so follow these guidelines for your landing page too. Ensure that it has the same look and feel to the rest of your website to again build that brand trust.

Be social

Your landing page should also make it easy for web visitors to share your offers. So whatever social channels you are on, add the ability for potential customers to share the details to help extend reach.

The four mechanics for inbound marketing lead generation

The four key mechanics for inbound lead generation include:

  1. Offers: including books, whitepapers, free consultations, coupons and product demonstrations.
  2. Call-to-action (CTA): bold text, an image or a button that links directly to a landing page so website visitors can download your offer.
  3. Landing page: A specific page with information about a particular offer, and a form to download that offer.
  4. Form: To collect contact information from a website visitor in exchange for the offer.

Digital marketing agency for lead generation

Our next blog in our lead generation mini-series will be focussed on the details you need for a great form that converts leads. These will help you form part of your inbound marketing strategy and digital marketing plan to help grow your business.

As an inbound marketing agency we can help formulate your inbound strategies using a range of marketing services including refreshed web design, search engine optimisation (SEO services), content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, and Pay Per Click (PPC). 

Digital marketing Croydon, London.

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