Social Media

Explore expert insights into social media trends with Croydon’s leading web design and digital marketing company. Tailored for SME business owners in South London and Surrey, our category page is the go-to resource for enhancing your digital presence and engagement

Digital marketing tips for accountants

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Here’s an overview of the various digital marketing tactics an accountancy firm needs to consider to help their business grow.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO is all about getting high up on the search engine results page. This means making relevant, up to date and unique content for your website. Ensure key words relating to your business are used. Key words might be ‘accountancy’, ‘accountant’, ‘accounting’, ‘finance’, ‘tax return’, “economics”. Another good tip when growing a local business is to add a location of the areas you cover for example Surrey or Croydon. The more content you produce using keywords the more your website is recognised by a search engine meaning your website will make its way up the results pages. A good tip is to stay on top of your website and create fresh content.

Pay Per Click (PPC)

A PPC campaign can significantly improve SEO results. It involves some investment but is sure to pay off. Essentially it is paying to get noticed. PPC allows you to do geographic marketing, as well as tailoring the PPC to match the style of your business. However, accountancy is a competitive sector therefore to increase your chances of the best value for your cost per click, you must also invest a bit of time in reviewing the content on your website and creating a relevant landing page if necessary. The reason being is that these ads are specific, if someone actually clicks on it they want to know straight away the answers, it’s no point spending money on an ad and sending the person through to irrelevant content. We can help you kick start your campaign so that you get the best ROI.

Social Media Marketing

Not everything is down to SEO or PPC, social media channels are also a key communication tool. To ignore the impact of social media will severely limit the number of people you are able to reach out to. Although it can’t hurt to be present across all social media platforms, the two we usually suggest for accountancy firms is Twitter and LinkedIn. LinkedIn has a professional focus while Twitter can spread reach with relevant hashtags.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is still an effective way of gaining and retaining customers. Not only is it a cost-effective but easy and efficient. We can create campaigns fit for accountancy firms and find the best way to get your message out there to the appropriate people. When sending out messages make sure you keep them short and to the point, images are also good at grabbing people’s attention.

Accountants Marketing

To find out more on how Smart Cow can get your accounting firm seen online, get in contact to go through the options for accountants’ marketing.

Social media growth is changing

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It’s likely that your organic reach is not as far reaching as it once was. Due to changes in the way that the likes of Facebook operate, content on a person’s social feed will be tailored much more to them, with less public content. But don’t fret, we’ve got a few tips here to help you maintain organic reach.

Content

We will always talk about how content is king, tailored content for your audience and making sure that you tailor content for a specific platform is no different. This includes fitting in with the parameters of the social channel. For example, avoid sharing Instagram pictures on twitter as it comes up as just a link on feeds. A tweet with just a link is unlikely to gain any activity as it doesn’t stand out to the average thumb-scroller, whereas making sure to post the actual picture would be a lot more eye catching! You need to make sure all your platforms suit the image you want to portray.

Other people’s content

Sometimes it’s worth showing and sharing other people’s content, after all social networks are all about socialising with many different people, and you may end up with other people sharing your posts too! This shows you want to appeal to your audience and have their best interests at heart rather than bombarding them purely with your own content.

The aim of providing quality content, even if it’s not your own, helps build trust with followers positioning you as a thought leader and knowledgeable about industry stories and ultimately improving your reputation. We think is highly important in social media reach.

Budget for growth

Although paying for ads isn’t necessarily an ‘organic’ form of social media growth, it can still be a great way of getting content out to your target audience that they empathise with, and so will help to increase your followers. Let’s face it, once you have new followers, they’ll be engaging with future posts that you don’t pay for.

This method is so effective that a recent study by Nielsen Brand Effect* found that people remembered an Instagram advert three times more than a regular advert, making it worth your time to invest in to help brand awareness.

Video

As we’ve said before in our blog, videos are becoming more important, with Facebook updating its algorithms to prioritise video over pictures or status, it means videos are the most likely form of content to be seen by target audiences. The live video feature helps mix content up and keep followers interested. If you want to learn more about video content and how to make your videos effective online read our tips for using video for social media for business.

Social media marketing agency

You can find plenty more tips about organic social media growth from Hootsuite. And if you want to chat more about how your digital marketing strategies incorporating social media management, get in touch with us at Smart Cow.

Sources: *Blog.hootsuite

Has the emoji had its day?

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With emoji’s having their own day to celebrate them, we take a closer look at whether emoji’s have had their day or are here to stay.

Are emoji’s being used for business?

With the plethora of emoji’s available and new ones always emerging it’s important to understand how and where we can use them to make our business stand out, how you can use them to understand your market, or when not to use them in fear of looking unprofessional.

In 2017, a survey found 86% of emoji users were 24 or under* making it important for businesses with young target audience to bare this in mind when trying to appeal to the younger market.

Furthermore, there are expected to be 157 new emoji’s arriving on our screens by the end of 2018, rising the total number of emoji’s up to a stunning 2,823*. The sheer number of these mean it’s ever more important to understand how to use each emoji properly, as misinterpretations can have damaging consequences to a business, for example, did you know only 7% of people use the peach emoji as a fruit*, otherwise it’s more commonly known to describe a bottom – something very important to remember when advertising fresh fruit online!

How can your business benefit from using emoji’s?

It’s becoming very difficult to know when or when not to use emoji’s in digital marketing strategies, so we’ve got a few tips of when you can use emoji’s to your advantage.

Using emoji’s to attract customers in emails can be very effective especially in times when many businesses will be communicating with emails such as cyber Monday or black Friday. Emoji’s such as the lightning bolt can serve as a call to action, drawing attention to the email and offer and away from competitors.

With, 56% of brands using emojis in subject lines witnessing increased open rates, it’s certainly something worth considering**. Even without a click through, you’ll still be increasing brand awareness.

Be warned when using emoji’s for your business

Many corporate companies such as finance or legal firms will be wanting to convey an air of professionalism. In this case, an emoji in emails or social media may not be the best approach for your audience. Again, their use comes down to the content you’re using and the image you want to portray.

Incorrect use of an emoji may deem a company’s branding seem silly or immature, therefore you must make sure to understand what market you are targeting and the industry you’re competing in before adopting this emoji marketing strategy.

As well as this, if you do opt to use it in your email subject line, not all recipients will be able to see emoji’s as some platforms don’t support some emoji’s**, making them appear as just a white box, ruining the marketing plan that was in place originally and undermining the whole concept.

If you’re using emoji’s for business, ensure to use them sparingly and where relevant in order to not run the risk of looking unprofessional or mediocre.

Need digital marketing support?

For any more information on using emojis in digital marketing or any other questions on your latest email campaign, social media posts or website, get in touch with us for advice.

Sources: * WorldEmojiDay **Omnisend.com

Instagram Influencers, what’s it about?

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With a recent BBC article indicating a backlash by brands on using Instagram stars and influencers, we take a closer look at the cause in such a booming digital age. We also delve deeper into how this can affect brands, whilst giving our own thoughts on the true integrity of Instagram and how it supports small business growth.

The article is founded upon consumer goods giant Unilever threatening to take a stand against fake Instagram influencers – those who buy followers with very little interaction in order to become attractive to firms looking to build a customer base. The article offers a range of examples of fraudulent behaviour from Instagram stars, with one Instagrammer using stock photos on his profile rather than his own in order to gain followers, and another using a ‘bot’ to show fake engagement – a key form of measurement for company’s looking to hire an influencer. It also highlights how unfair this is becoming on hardworking social media stars who spend a lot of time and effort developing unique content to attract a quality audience being out done by these fake influencers.

Is it all about follower numbers?

However, the piece also shows how small businesses can be productive in the way they avoid fake Instagram stars. With brands opting for influencers with less followers but good quality clout and engagement with these smaller numbers. As the saying goes – it’s quality not quantity that counts!

While you may not be looking to use influencers for your business, you can certainly take heed of the actions of large brands to help make your own Instagram feed stand out from the crowd. Small details such as imagery and relevant hashtags allow followers to track your brand, making it easier to grow engagement. Both relevant hashtags and insightful words can attract many new followers and help kickstart your account. This Smart Cow blog gives a more in-depth analysis of how exactly to grow a strong brand Instagram account from its setup too.

Social media agency Croydon

If you’re looking to create a digital marketing campaign using social media and want a little help, then get in touch with Smart Cow today.

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