Saturday, 12 October 2024

Evertol | Business News

Accounting Firms must Maximize on Digital Marketing in South Africa

Without Digital Marketing, no Accounting Firm can grow in this Digital Age. In eight sessions of the DigitalPlus Course in Digital Marketing, we recently trained an Accounting Firm’s executives, with one of the outcomes being a realisation that they had made enough reputation to get new clients leveraging on and further mining into their current client base.

 

They had a very healthy Social Balance Sheet to grow the business without investing much into digital marketing, both in time and money, in order to realise a good return on investment.

 

The Rubik’s Cube 

Figure it out is what the Rubik’s Cube game is all about; one must figure out the solution to their current predicament with speed and dexterity. Figure it Out. That is what most businesses have been left to do in Africa; from start-up to even some large multinational businesses. 

 

This is impossible without the Accounting function in business, and Account Firms need to realise entrepreneurs need help solving their Rubik’s Cubes. Accounting Firms need to maximise on the use of Digital Marketing in order to effectively intervene in the daily business lives of entrepreneurs in Africa. This can be done by firstly getting training, then through that creating a Digital Strategy for the firm, for new client recruitment, current client maintenance, and other public relations activities.

 

The Googlicability of Accounting Firms 

The most common way that people find businesses or services today is with an internet search. That means you must make it easy for potential customers to find you. Since most searches involve questions or queries, one of the best ways to ensure that people can find you is by answering the most common questions they are likely to ask.

 

A potential client searching for information about taxes might search, "which tax deductions should I take for my business?" If you answer that question on your website, your chances of appearing high on Google's search results page increase -- and that means your chances of attracting new leads increases as well. 

 

That's the beauty of content marketing: it helps you connect with your target audience by providing valuable information. Content Marketing is an important facet of Digital Marketing.

 

Relationships Matter for Accounting Firms

This is the motto for LinkedIn, and very relevant to Accounting firms. Relationships matter in this type of business, and the best place to relate these days is on Social Media. Relationships depreciate, and the loss in future business for Accountants in these days lies in simple things as sending a birthday message on LinkedIn, this in turn rekindling or reminding the person of that connection. 

 

Content for Accounting Firms

Content Marketing is an essential component of any digital marketing strategy. It is said websites with blogs attract 55% more traffic than websites that don't have blogs. Some of the common content that works include Articles, Guest posts, eBooks, Podcasts, Webinars, Whitepapers, Case studies, and Social Media posts.

 

What is the Return on Investment?

What us the ROI, is a very common question that accountants ask in regards to Digital Marketing, and can be simply answered in saying “your Social Assets less your Social Liabilities”. If your Social Assets are effectively tapped into, you will grow the business; measured against how much you reduce all Social Liabilities, one of them being inability to be visible as a brand that needs to relate with more people. Investment in Digital Marketing for Accounting Firms must lead to referrals and networking with new clients either directly from the platforms with active presence or from happy customers. 

 

In order to tap into current and new clients, the Accounting Firm must have a strategic active presence on Social Media platforms to “relate”. It is that “relating” that they must learn how to effectively do so, in an African, yet global manner – the DigitalPlus being solution.

 

The DigitalPlus Course in Digital Marketing

The DigitalPlus Course in Digital Marketing is an eight-module full-fledged course, created for an African business audience, that teaches all things Digital Marketing, plus the psychological and market dynamics that are only relevant for an African business environment, to help the Executive to create an executable effective Digital Strategy for their business. Some of the unique subjects taught include The Social Balance Sheet, The Credibility Matrix, Emotional Banking, The Cyber Wildlife, and many more.

 

Source: DigitalPlus