An accounting firm must target and be able to reach B2B clients in order to grow. Businesses need accounting services but there are a huge number of accounting firms – from multinationals like the big four to “mom and pop accounting firms” which are usually set up by local accountants. There are also freelancers. Many small businesses often engage with freelance accountants who are just out of university. They may lack experience but accounting services for B2B digital marketing small businesses is usually basic and doesn’t require a lot of experience and expertise.

As a marketer for an accounting firm, there are a ton of channels that you can use to reach business clients – you could publish an ad in Forbes magazine if your budget allows, you can start a Youtube channel or you could focus on social media marketing.

Using social media marketing to target B2B clients

Social media marketing refers to using platforms like Tiktok, Facebook and Youtube to reach audiences. Many social media marketers make the mistake of creating spammy-looking ads and posting it on Facebook. They’re then shocked when their ads don’t go viral or get anyone signing up for their accounting services.

Social media marketing isn’t about getting a high number of conversions – rather it’s about connecting with your target audience and building a relationship with them.

For instance, you could start a podcast interviewing your clients and talking about accounting problems that they faced. Regulations are pretty strict in Singapore so you could ask them about accounting fraud in their industry and how there are many bookkeepers who use bad accounting practices to hide revenue and other illegal activities.

You can then publish the podcast interview to Youtube and share and promote it on Instagram and Facebook through social media marketing. A small budget of $100 per day can push your video to a huge number of business clients who may find your personality interesting and want to work with an honest accountant.

You can also cut up the interview into smaller segments and post them to tiktok. That’s sure to capture the attention of accountants who despise bad accounting practices and this will help to generate attention and virality.

You can even post free accounting courses and tutorials online! Teach people how to do journal entries and target accounting students. Talk about the best accounting softwares to use and go into case studies like the accounting fraud of Enron. This will also help with HR and hiring when new accounting graduates apply for your position because they recognise your company’s brand.

Hire a web developer to develop a free accounting software

This is a bit out of reach for most people and is a big step for most accounting firms to take. But one way to build a brand as a good accounting firm that cares is to develop and launch a free accounting software for small business owners to use.

This may sound counterintuitive – why offer free software to people who you want to engage and pay you for accounting services? If they use your software, won’t they no longer engage your services?

This is one way to think about it. But small businesses often grow into large businesses. If you’re only targeting large business owners, wouldn’t you want to build a strong relationship with business people while they’re in the “small business” stage and have them engage you for accounting services when they’ve grown and expanded their company? Once they have a large company, they won’t have the time to do accounting themselves. Plus accounting for large businesses often becomes tricker. But at that point, they’ll be familiar with your brand name and want to engage your firm’s services!

There are a ton of web developers who can help you with this. Developing small accounting software like Wave isn’t too complicated and you don’t need a lot of advanced features like taking into account foreign exchange rates and foreign currencies. All you need is a simple accounting software that any business person can use.

But don’t forget to look for a good web developer. It’s difficult to write good code and bad code is a pain to maintain. This can mean higher server and maintenance costs if you don’t make the right up front investment and hire a good web developer with experience in developing complex accounting software.

There is a ton to learn and a ton of different digital marketing channels and tools to grow an accounting firm. People like to give up after a month or two of trying but there’s a lot to do to grow your company’s brand. It just requires a lot of hard work and effort. Plus results are usually only seen later so you need to always remember to put your head down and be focused on marketing your accounting firm.