Name: Smart Cow Marketing
Price range: $$$

Accounting firms: Kick start your inbound marketing campaign

05/06/202109/25/2020 by scmarketing

With so much happening online today, ensuring your accountancy firm has share of voice online is essential for new business and growth. While ensuring your existing clients are well looked after, in this current climate it’s no longer possible to simply rely on repeat business or referrals.

At the centre of all your online activity should be your website, but how do you get potential clients to your site?

Here we give you an overview of how to kick start or enhance your online inbound marketing campaign for your accounting practice.

Set up your Google My Business page

If you haven’t already set this up then make sure you action it as soon as possible. We’ve got a series of videos coming up to give you the ins and outs of this directory but safe to say that as it is one of the largest search engines, then having your business listed with address, contact details, opening times, web URL and services then you are already helping your optimisation strategy to lead people to your business.

Search engine optimisation (SEO)

Before starting your inbound marketing campaign, make sure that your own website is optimised for search engines. There are many tools available to run against your site to see where improvements can be made to your site is more effective. We found Semrush a great tool, although also many free options and plug-ins you can have for your browsers.

If your website design and build was some time ago make sure that is is mobile responsive. Check how the web pages look on your smart phone and that it’s easy to read and navigate.

We can provide a free website review which will highlight some key areas you can focus on initially.

Also take a look at our Boost your SEO blog for some quick fix top tips for your SEO strategy.

Create a persona

Do you know who you are marketing to? One of the best ways to understand this is to create a marketing persona. This is an imaginary character based on your target audience and current client base.

Once you’ve created a persona it makes it much easier to understand how to market to them, what language to use and what online marketing channels would be best.

Here’s our tips on creating an online persona for your firm.

Website structure

You need to make sure your website is structured to make it easier to navigate so that visitors can quickly and simply find what they’re looking for.

This makes a much better experience for your visitors and also lowers the bounce rate which will negatively affect your site in search engine results pages (SERPs).

We can work with you to review your site so that the website functionality is spot on for your prospects.

Keywords

It is worth making sure you know which keywords are appropriate to your business. Be specific. Think about what you would type in the search function to find what you are looking for to help you get a list of the right keywords.

This forms part of your content marketing strategy. Initially we recommend you review all your website content to ensure that it is up to date. Then consider adding a blog or news feed. The reason we suggest this is that it allows a space for you to add regular, fresh content to your website which will incorporate those keywords.

The more you use the keywords in fresh content, the more chances you have of being found by search engines. If you are an accountancy firm phased in Croydon then makes sure that you regularly say this on your website. But not only that, be a more specific in content and write blogs with keywords in titles or H1headings.

Take a look at our article, why blog, as this has some great tips on keywords, internal and external link building as well as Google My Business.

Inbound marketing agency for accountants

This is just a short overview of the key areas to implement to kick start your inbound marketing. Lay these solid foundations so that you can build on this for your ongoing inbound strategy. Here’s some further reading to help:

We specialise in marketing as well as working closely with many local businesses in Croydon and London area. Take a look at our digital marketing services for accountants including website design and development, social media management, Pay Per Click (PPC) and more.

6 SEO tips to improve search ranking

07/07/202005/05/2020 by scmarketing

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the key digital marketing tactic working invisibly and effectively in the background to help improve your visibility in search engines.

Incorporating SEO into your overall marketing strategy is important right now especially as we’re reliant on the virtual world to shout about our business attributes. What’s key is about generating leads. You don’t want just anyone visiting your site, it’s about quality leads.

To help you achieve this, we’ve gathered together our top tips to kick start your SEO campaign and some refreshers for those businesses who need to revisit this.

1. Review website navigation

To have any success in Google search your website needs to be easy to navigate. This is not just about your menu, it’s the internal links that you include on web pages to help the search engine crawlers to use links and understand the content of your page. Conduct a review of your website to see if you have good quality links directing visitors around your site.

2. Fix broken links

Make sure the internal links on your website work. Think of a search engine as your visitor, it doesn’t want to be sent to a ‘404’ page as much as an actual visitor. It won’t be marked well for you. We can conduct a FREE Website review which will indicate errors such as broken links that you can then fix.

3. Keywords

If you don’t already have a list of words that you want to be found for, then now is a time to conduct keyword research. Spend some time really thinking about what your target audience is searching for to find you. What’s your business offering? How are your services solving a problem for your customers? These types of questions can help you get to those keywords and phrases (longtail keywords) that you then use to create content to optimise your web pages.

When you review your current content against this new list of keywords, there’s a few tips and tricks to implement that will help you stand out in search engines. Use the keyword in the title of your page and if possible, the URL – however this may be too difficult if you have a lot of backlinks already to the pages so you may not want to change them. We would usually aim to place a keyword within the first paragraph.

It’s also key to have your meta description completed and with keyword included. This is the short phrase that you see below the website URL in search results.

4. Review web page URL

Don’t be clever with the name of pages on your website. The URL of your pages should in effect ‘do what it says on the tin’. If you’re an accounting firm and one of your pages is about tax advice, then that should be the URL. It’s the keyword you want to be found for.

5. Link building

You may have articles or comments on other websites which include a link back to your website – in other words a ‘backlink’. Google monitors links reviewing quantity and quality. This helps build a websites’ authority. However, be careful, you don’t want links placed on any website, the emphasis is on quality and relevance to your website.

6. Local SEO

Local SEO can help you target local clients and prospects. Create content that includes information about the specific geographical areas you’re targeting. Also complete your Google My Business page. It helps Google verify your business.

Digital marketing agency

This is just a short overview of just some of the search engine marketing tips you can conduct for website optimisation. If you need help from a digital marketing agency to kick start your SEO strategy and improve your online presence then get in touch with us for your free consultation.

Blog as part of content marketing strategy

Why blog?

07/19/202104/07/2020 by scmarketing

We work with a wide range of clients including those within the accounting sector. Often when we meet to discuss initial marketing proposals, a blog is far from the agenda. People are under the misconception that blogging is for… ‘bloggers’. There’s this misconception that a blog is about polished lifestyles and food! In this blog we aim to set the record straight and give small business owners more insight into the purpose behind a blog.

Whilst your content is essential to attract your target audience, blogs are essentially about your blog fitting into your marketing strategy in particular, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

Now is a good time to review your business website. If you don’t already have a blog page, then these points will help you to understand the purpose of the page and its importance in helping your website rise in search rankings. If you already have a blog, then there’s some tips for content that could help your overall digital marketing plan.

A blog forms part of your content marketing

A blog is an important page on your website to provide tips, advice, guides, and offers. All your content is aimed at supporting your target audience as well as positioning you as a thought leader in your sector.

But that’s not all. Content that you post on your blog helps to keep your website fresh, frequently. The strategic inclusion of keywords – phrases that you want to be found for in search – will help search engines find you. And, because you are posting content regularly it helps search engines see that you are ab authority in your field.

Red more about optimising your content with keywords in our blog; What SEO agencies should offer London firms.

See, there’s a little more to it than fancy coffee pics!

Content marketing plan

Create a content marketing plan to help you schedule when you will write a blog and on what topic.

To help your creativity, initially think of key dates in the year that you can use as a hook. If you’re an accounting firm, then list out key dates for tax return deadlines within the year; the Budget and so forth. Also include exhibitions you may be attending or charitable events you are involved with so that your audience gets an all-round look at your firm. This will help you schedule timely reminder blogs for your audience.

Use news articles as a hook – often referred to as a news jack. Or if there’s some research just published of relevance to your target audience you could write a comment piece on it and why your prospective customers or existing clients should take note. A word of warning on this though, always make sure to reference any source in full and add backlinks to the original article or report.

Internal and external website links

Backlinks are all about helping your website increase its domain authority and appearance in search. Blogs are a great way to add backlinks to your website. You can add links back to key ‘pillar’ pages within your website as well as adding links to external websites. Not only that, the aim is to have backlinks reciprocated.

The more you write, the more thought leadership authority you accrue with search engines, this will help you be sought for backlinks too. Now this is a long-term SEO strategy as it takes time to build up a catalogue of good quality content and a lot of work to seek out opportunities that you could provide comment on with external sites.

So, your quick wins are that once you’ve checked your own website has relevant links to other pages on your website is to check any websites that you already have a mention on and whether they have a backlink to you. For example, are you a member of an industry association, speaker or exhibitor at an event or formed a partnership with a supplier? Do these sites have the correct website mentions in place and importantly a hyperlink back to your accountancy website?

Google My Business

Always make sure you have completed your Google My Business page. Continue to update it with your latest blogs. This also adds another backlink to your website. Plus, it tells this dominant search engine first-hand all about your business which helps you be found by prospects as well as provide ongoing support to your current client base.

Read more on the benefits of completing your Google My Business page in our blog – have you told search engines you exist?

Titles and keywords

And now for the website backend tech SEO. Make sure you always complete the H1 / H2 header tags as well as meta title and alt tags when you upload your blog.

If you partner with a website designer and developer, then they will be able to guide you on this. If you’ve not updated your website in a long time and have a Content Managed System (CMS) such as WordPress, you should be able to look at the backend and complete these yourself.

Equally if you wanted a Free Website Review, which will highlight areas that can be updated such as missing header tags or meta titles, then get in touch with us and we can run this report for you.

Our blog 9 tips for optimising your website has some further tips on SEO for inbound marketing.

Smart Cow Marketing is a digital marketing agency providing services for a range of clients including marketing for accountants.

8 tips on how to build an inbound marketing strategy

12/08/202001/21/2020 by scmarketing

At the core of your digital marketing campaign is the product or service that you want to sell or promote. Your offer should not only be something that your industry wants but also offering a point of difference. Truly understanding what you core offer is will help you to develop an inbound marketing strategy that will ‘wow’ your prospects.

Here’s some tips to help you structure and create your inbound digital marketing plan.

Understand your brand identity – it’s key for business growth: One way to start building and understanding your brand identity is by thinking about your business as a person. What characteristics does it have? Is this person professional, an expert in their field, knowledgeable, creative – you get the idea. Start to jot down your thoughts and you’ll start to build a profile for your business. This will need to be translated to your website design and blog posts.
Review the collateral you already have so you know your starting point: Here’s a few questions to consider – Do you have a company logo or brand guidelines? What are your company values and vision? What are the strengths of your team and what hidden strengths can they bring to the table? Having this background information to hand will help you form a well targeted marketing plan as messaging will be aligned to your values and visions.
Create a persona of your target audience: For small businesses especially focus on the target audience, no matter how micro that niche is, and you will fly. Try to grab the whole market and you will end up getting nothing or, at best, poor fitting clients. Your knowledge in your niche will grow and will position you as the expert and the go to person. Think about the goals or challenges of your target audience and create a persona. If you start with their job role, imagine their personal goals such as business growth, saving the business money or a future promotion. Then imagine what challenges they face and start to note solutions for these. So, already you can begin to see a personality form in front of you. Then think about how your service or product can help them.
Research your competition: Before setting out on your inbound marketing campaign, draw up a list of key competitors and the services and products they offer. This can help you make your offers and services stand out.
Develop keywords and phrases for your business: Think about what key term you would like to be found for. The more content you produce using keywords the more your website is recognised by search engines and improve you search engine optimisation. This means your website will make its way up the organic results pages. Find keywords that work with your business goals and target the areas you’re looking to promote. But finding out which keywords have the most traffic or competition isn’t widely available, this is where working with a digital marketing agency can help.
Create a content plan with these overarching keywords at the core: Content marketing is a key focus for a successful inbound strategy. Create and align your content plan with any new product launches, service updates or industry report launches. You’ll then begin to get a picture of when to plot campaigns throughout the year and through what channels to be most effective. Develop specific content for your website to incorporate key phrases if you haven’t got relevant pages already. If you do, then they are likely to need updating. Also use backlinks to key pages on your website to help lower bounce rate.
Tell search engines you exist: One of the first things you need to do when you’ve created your website, or if you’re embarking on a digital marketing campaign to grow your business, is to make sure you’ve told search engines that you exist. The most popular way to do this is initially is by populating Google My Business with your company details. It’s FREE to do. The very basics to complete are your website URL, opening times, address, contact numbers and email addresses and a short paragraph about your company. But it also allows you to upload blog content, images and videos, therefore another place that you can be found online to help SEO and your company to rise in the search rankings.
Review results: With all the technology in the world at your fingertips, this alone is not going to be effective in getting a return on investment. Become data driven and review results of your campaigns will help you tailor, target and be relevant to the audience you want to reach. Through social media insights, PPC results or a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, there’s tools at your fingertips to help you really tweak your campaign for the best results.

If you’re looking for more quality clients, become a lead generation magnet with a targeted inbound marketing strategy. Get in touch with us today or find out more in our handy resources. We are also a digital agency for accountants so check out our marketing services for accounting firms.