Content marketing strategy

Man working on laptop using marketing automation

How to write a blog

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There are so many distractions these days from email through to social media or website pop-ups therefore if you have written a blog on your website how do you get people to stay on your website to read it? Here’s some of our tips for writing engaging blog content for your website to help with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

What should you write in a blog?

When you write a blog the first thing you, or your SEO agency, should always think about is who is your target audience. Therefore, thinking of that typical customer or client will help you tailor your content specifically to them. It also helps to make your content engaging and personable.

You then need to write about topics that will help your target audience. Solve their challenges for them. A great way to get ideas for this is to think about the questions that clients ask you. Then that simply becomes the title of your blog. This is a great SEO tactic as it tells search engines exactly what to expect on that page.

Keywords and phrases

We need to mention keywords and phrases – don’t be put off by thinking it’s some kind of jargon. It’s as simple as thinking about what your customers will search for to try and find your products or services. This will help you create a list that you can refer back to when you write about a topic. Check to see if you can add in relevant keywords to help with SEO campaigns.

While we can get technical and look into keyword volume of searches and keyword difficulty score (which Smart Cow can help with), an initial list created manually will also help in the long run.

Get your point across quickly

Once you have your topic and title established then it’s time to get to work with the content. You may find it easier to break your blogs up with subheadings. If you think of these first then you already have the structure of your blog.

With your opening paragraph, you need to get to the point fairly early on. By giving an indication of what is on your blog, this will give more reason for the website visitor to read on to get more of the details.

Blog content

Keeping your reader engaged is the most important thing as this is what keeps people on your website for longer. It also means visitors return and share articles on social media to help attract more people to your website.

Here’s a few tips to consider to help you write engaging content:

  • Pose a question to move the content along and in another direction
  • Use subheadings to break up content – it’s easier on the eye and makes for a more engaging web page
  • Make content topical by tapping into relevant national days
  • Reference relevant research and statistics – but don’t forget to reference your source

Call to action

Once you’ve drafted the blog, remember the point of it. Ultimately you want people to do something as a result. So, add a call to action in your final paragraph, for example:

  • Download our ebook
  • Contact us for more information, email us on…
  • Get involved by registering at….
  • If you want to attend the networking session, contact…
  • Get a free website review

Free resources to help you write your next blog

Digital marketing Croydon

We are a Croydon based digital marketing agency offering SEO services including blog writing, keyword research, local SEO, Google Ad campaigns to help improve your online presence and visibility online as your SEO experts.

Get in touch for a consultation or a free website review.

Inbound Marketing strategy

How to achieve growth with inbound marketing

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This blog covers some of the steps to consider to help you achieve growth with your inbound marketing strategy. Right now, businesses are vying for attention online as we’ve all shifted focus to conducting business remotely. Our networking events and exhibitions have gone for now, and everyone is searching online for services and products.

With 89% of B2B buyers and 81% of consumer shoppers starting their online search for products or services by turning to Google, how do you get your business in the mix? How can you generate web traffic via search engines and get good qualified leads who are interested in your products and services visiting your website?

Here’s a few tips on achieving growth with an inbound marketing strategy that attracts leads that are right for your business.

Who are your customers?

If you don’t already know who your core customers are, then you need to. This will ensure that any inbound marketing is targeting the right people, with the right messages and when they want to hear from you. This means that your budget is more efficient and provides a better return on investment.

Be consistent

Now you understand your target audience and their needs and challenges then you need to tailor content for them. You need to make your messages consistent across all marketing platforms. Creating a core message document with a tone of voice specific to your business helps. As well as creating an online buyer persona of the person you would like as your customer.

Being consistent helps build trust for your brand.

Content marketing

Now you need to attract customers. Part of your lead generation strategy is to get people to your door and that means to your website. Therefore, great content is what you need including keywords that will help with website optimisation and your website rising in search rankings.

We recommend you have a blog page for your website which allows you to update relevant and unique content regularly to your website. Include your researched keywords in a blog post not only for SEO but to continue that consistency of messaging.

This is all part of lead nurturing. You want to engage with your prospects and maintain your existing customers. So become that thought leader with interesting content offering advice that solves their problems. Know any industry legislation that will impact their business and provide informative templates and eBooks that can help grow their business. 

Be professional yet approachable

Having a relevant social media account can help with this, especially of you are an accounting firm. However more often than not accountants are inclined to the think that social media is not the right channel for them. However, it’s worth remembering that social media is not all about Tik Tok and photographing food. Your audience is somewhere on social media.

It’s about thinking of the right social platform relevant for the people you want to reach. For example, LinkedIn is perfect for networking and ideal for reaching out to SMEs in a professional manner. However, don’t dismiss the virtues of Facebook. If you think of Facebook as another search engine. If for example your accounting firm has a company page on this channel then this helps reassure people about your firm.

Inbound marketing agency in Surrey

If you’re looking for qualified leads become a lead generation magnet with the help of Smart Cow. Take a closer look at our marketing services or book a consultation and we can discuss digital marketing strategy that is best to achieve your business goals.

We specialise in digital marketing for accountants as well as providing digital marketing services and web design for local businesses within Croydon. If you’re looking to grow your business, get in touch.

Find out more about lead generation strategies for your business in our blog.

Email marketing keyboard

What to check before you send your next email marketing campaign

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An email marketing campaign can be an incredibly effective way of reaching your target audience. Whether you’ve captured data from an email newsletter sign up box on your website or because a visitor downloaded a document, by showing this engagement your email subscribers are interested to learn more about your products and services. So, a regular email marketing campaign is a great way of keeping your potential clients informed. 

However, email marketing can be daunting. There’s pressure to get your content right and with so much to review little things can be missed which could affect click through rate, engagement and worse – lead to unsubscribed.  So, here’s our tips on what you should check before you hit send so you have a great email campaign.  

Proof-read 

Even though you will have automatically done a spell check, you still need to take time to thoroughly proof-read the content of the email. Check for spelling, grammar and the overall flow.  

Try and read it as if for the first time and check whether your message is getting across clearly. If you can get a colleague to look at it too, even better. If someone who hasn’t been close to the content up to this point looks at it, they can usually spot things quickly that you may have overlooked.  

But, don’t just read the body of the email. Always double check the titles and footer too. We’ll cover these in a little more detail.  

What’s the subject of your email? 

You want people to open your email so remember to check the subject line for typos. Also check it not only makes sense but will it entice people to open it? A good benchmark is to work to 50 characters. Succinct and to the point. Remember that 47% of people open an email based on the subject line.  

[FIRSTNAME] 

If you’re adding in the recipient’s name using dynamic tags then you need to check that these are working correctly. You want their first name showing not another field from your database! Generally, you’d only be using the dynamic tag for a first name so make sure that this is working correctly. 

When you send yourself a test email, check that all links work including social media handles and that they lead to the correct page. Fix any that are broken.  

This means checking the links in your footer too, especially that the unsubscribe link works. While you don’t want people to unsubscribe, it is inevitable. For someone wanting to unsubscribe they will find it rather annoying to then not be able to complete this function all because it wasn’t on your round of checks before distribution. This could then lead to bad reviews.  

Call to action 

You’re sending an email for people to engage with and ultimately take action. Whether that’s to read more, book a consultation or watch this video. Having a bold call to action button will entice people to click, this makes this a crucial button to ensure that the link is not broken.  

Social media 

We’ve already mentioned that you need to check these links work but this is also a note that if you have icons in your email that they need to be clickable. It’s just natural that we want to click them. So, don’t just think you can have an icon and assume people will go to Twitter and try and search for your business. You need to make it really simple. Cut out unnecessary steps to keep your prospects engaged for longer. 

How’s the formatting? 

Check that the layout of your email is not affected on the test and fix any issues. Look out for call to action buttons or bullet points – are they positioned correctly?  Is font colour and size consistent and easy to read?   

Responsive 

Check your test email on all devices. Does it look OK? Are the images replicated well on each device? It’s worth doing that last check on your mobile. Let’s face it 81% of us open our emails on a smartphone – so make sure it looks good as that’s a lot of potential clients you could lose. 

Unsubscribe  

If you’ve previously sent emails to customers in the past, then you’ll know all about GDPR compliance. Ensuring you have a clearly visible unsubscribe link is essential. It needs to be very simple for people to stop receiving your emails. It’s usual to include this in your footer of the email but just because it forms part of the template does not mean you shouldn’t check it each time. This is a definite to do on our email marketing checklist of actions before you click send. That’s why we’ve mentioned in twice! 

Email marketing agency Croydon  

Email marketing offers a great Return on Investment – 42% of B2B organisations say email is one of their most effective lead generators.

Or email marketing service forms part of our inbound marketing services in our suite of digital marketing tools to help businesses grow through online lead generation.  

Depending on your business goals, we can provide email marketing strategies as a standalone service or as part of a digital marketing package as email marketing consultants in Croydon. Why not get in touch for a free consultation and we can discuss the best approach for your business.  

Business growth with inbound marketing

Your inbound marketing guide for accounting firms

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Inbound marketing is focused on lead generation to attract quality clients from qualified leads interested in your accounting services.

An inbound marketing strategy is about building brand awareness and trust through thought leadership content. Certainly, in the current COVID-19 situation it’s about sharing insightful content that will help your potential customers.

Adding context to your marketing activity that’s relevant to your audience is key to success.

Inbound marketing strategy for accountants

We recommend that you take time to understand who you are selling to. An accounting practice will know from experience who their main clients are. Therefore, create an imaginary persona based on this. What are the challenges that your target audience faces? Empathise with their requirements and personalise your content.

It’s all about appealing to your relevant prospects to reach those quality leads interested in your accounting services.

Think of your overarching message and USP – why should someone come to your accounting firm as opposed to another? What are you offering that’s different and make is specific to your target audience?

Download The Beginner’s Guide to Inbound Marketing to help you create your marketing strategy.

What does inbound marketing include?

There’s no one size fits all to inbound marketing, even for an accountancy practice.

There’s a number of inbound marketing tactics that a digital agency will draw on to create a strategy to generate traffic for your accounting firm. Here’s an overview of digital marketing tools.

  1. Website design and development
  2. Search Engine Optimised website 
  3. Blogs
  4. Social Media Marketing
  5. Pay Per Click (PPC)
  6. Remarketing / Banner advertising
  7. Email Marketing
  8. Video
  9. CRM and marketing automation

What to do first with inbound marketing

  1. Your website is at the core of your business, it’s your shop window. So, a review of your current site is a key first step to take.
  2. Think of the keywords you want your accounting firm to be found for. If your expertise lies in outsourcing services such as bookkeeping, payroll and VAT returns, then make sure you have content that answers questions for your potential clients covering these topics.  
  3. Make sure your website is easy to navigate. A lot of websites these days are Content Managed Systems (CMS) so you can generally make quick fix updates yourself. If you have trouble updating anything then get in touch with a digital marketing agency that manages web design and development. We offer free consultations and can provide a proposal based on your requirements.
  4. Have you completed your Google My Business page? It’s free to do and is the ultimate directory to be on providing quality links back to your website.
  5. An ongoing content marketing plan is also key. This will help position your accounting firm as a thought leader in the sector. So, think of adding a blog to your website or more up to date articles as this provides great new content for a website. Having already implemented your keyword research, including relevant phrases in your new blogs will help search engines find your practice.   

Working with an inbound marketing agency in Surrey

As a digital agency for accountants, we would look at your business, understand your objectives to then tailor an inbound marketing campaign for your firm encompassing the tactics that are right for your goals. 

Why not contact us for a FREE consultation? If you’re looking to grow your business, talk us through your current position, where you would like to be, your target audience and objectives and we can work on a proposal for you.

In the meantime, Download The Beginner’s Guide to Generating Inbound Leads.

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