Standing out as a professional bookkeeper is challenging. In 2019, nearly 1.7 million bookkeepers held businesses in the United States alone. This makes establishing your expertise critical for gaining bookkeeping client leads.
Find new clients with our expert advice and marketing tools.
Fortunately, there are powerful lead generation strategies for getting more clients. In this article, we’ll examine seven lead generation tips to grow your bookkeeping business, including:
- Attracting clients with content marketing
- Creating an email marketing campaign
- Creating a social media marketing campaign
- Investing in Google Ads
- Guest posting on popular websites
- Making your website SEO friendly
- Creating strategic partnerships with related businesses
Attracting clients with content marketing
As a professional bookkeeper, you already know the questions clients ask when you first meet. You also know the most common problems clients have when they come to you.
Guess what? Plenty of potential leads are typing those same questions and concerns into search engines, hoping to get a professional response. You can turn those online searches into leads by creating online content on your website that answers those questions — and then refers those clients to you.
This is a powerful digital marketing strategy called content marketing. You can do it by:
- Writing blog posts that address concerns including managing payroll, being audited, and keeping accurate financial reports
- Offering a Frequently Asked Questions section on your website
- Recording an explainer video for your website that takes clients step by step through topics like balance sheets or equipment leases
By addressing common pain points bookkeeping clients have, you attract potential customers who appreciate the information you provide. This helps them recognize your expertise and builds trust, making it more likely that they’ll become a warm or even hot lead you can turn into a client.
Whatever option you take, be sure to include a call to action at the end of your online content inviting readers to contact you or use your bookkeeping services.
Creating an email marketing campaign
You can also encourage your leads to subscribe to your email list at the end of your blog posts, videos, and website content. Offer them a good incentive for signing up. For instance, you can give them a free download of your bookkeeping ebook or a cheat sheet full of inside information on how to deal with payroll issues.
Not only does this further establish you as an expert in your field, but it also helps warm up your leads as they begin viewing you as a provider of valuable bookkeeping advice.
And once you develop an email list, you can send your subscribers regular email newsletters that also motivate your leads to hire you. Your emails can include:
- Additional answers to common bookkeeping questions
- Exclusive discount offers for your services
- Industry news aimed at your target audience
- Announcements for a free FAQ bookkeeping webinar you’ll be offering
Creating a social media campaign
All businesses should have a social media presence. People use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest to ask bookkeeping questions and find bookkeepers.
Once again, you can advertise your bookkeeping articles, webinars, ebooks, and other incentives on social media. Make sure to engage on social media yourself by sharing and commenting on other people’s posts, particularly ones asking bookkeeping questions. This encourages reciprocation and increases the chances that your online marketing materials will reach more leads.
One very good social media network to promote yourself on is LinkedIn. This online platform allows you to connect with thousands of professionals, including many who need bookkeeping services. Others will endorse or promote your services, allowing more leads to gravitate toward you.
When creating an account on LinkedIn or any other social media network, be sure to focus on your About section. Be very clear on the type of services you offer and the clients you work with. You should also include links to your website as well as contact information, such as your business email.
Investing in Google Ads
Google Ads enables you to promote your bookkeeping services on Google searches. You can also create specific goals for your ads, such as getting your leads to call you or visit your website. To make this process simpler, Constant Contact offers a Google Ads tool with automated features.
Guest post on popular websites
Posting informative articles on your own blog might attract some leads, but if your blog doesn’t already have a lot of subscribers, your reach will be limited. One great way to get around this is by guest posting on more well-established bookkeeping blogs and websites.
Do an online search for the most popular bookkeeping blogs and take a close look at the top results. How many subscribers do these blogs have? Are their posts regularly shared on Facebook and Twitter by large numbers of people?
Then take a look at some of the most popular posts on the blogs that reach the most people. How does your personal bookkeeping expertise fit into these types of articles? Can you offer a new article that reflects your industry knowledge and offers valuable advice to the readers?
Contact the blog’s owners and see if they’re open to having you contribute some guest posts with a link to your website. The nice thing about this method is that not only do you reach more potential leads, but your website becomes more recognized by search engines thanks to the backlinks that lead to your own blog.
Making your website SEO friendly
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of making your website more recognizable by search engines like Google. While your website might be full of valuable content that can generate many leads, if search engines don’t direct online users to your website, your potential clients won’t know you exist.
Fortunately, there are many tactics you can use to make your website more SEO friendly. These include:
- Create fresh blog content: Search engines love websites that offer new content on a regular basis. Post new articles on your blog weekly or at least once a month.
- Make your website mobile-responsive: More people are using mobile devices to do their research — so make sure your website shows up clearly on smartphones and is easy to navigate on mobile devices.
- Make sure your images and videos load quickly: Images and videos add value to your website, but if they load slowly, your site ranks lower on search engines. Optimize your website for fast-loading media.
Creating strategic partnership with other businesses
Bookkeepers don’t have to compete with each other for clients. By partnering with bookkeepers and other businesses, you can create an effective lead generation network that benefits everyone.
For instance, if you specialize in bookkeeping for construction companies and some of your leads mention they need a real estate bookkeeper, you can direct them to bookkeepers you know who work in the real estate industry. Likewise, banks and other businesses who partner with you can offer leads to your bookkeeping business.
And because these leads are looking specifically for bookkeepers in your niche area, the chances of them converting into clients are much higher.
Finding bookkeeping client leads
When it comes to bookkeeping lead generation, bookkeepers like you have plenty of options for approaches to finding new clients. By looking at your current resources and expertise, you’ll be able to decide what lead generation strategy you want to start with. From there, you can learn more about how to use online marketing to expand your lead generation campaigns and help your business truly thrive.
