Now that Tax Season is over, take a break, and learn how to grow your accounting or bookkeeping practice from the Beach. You can watch our webinar from your mobile device, while you soak up the sun.
Learning Objectives
- Improve your branding and marketing with actionable items.
- Create Content with WordPress.
- Target a niche industry and develop content campaigns for it.
- Learn to use Social Media to increase exposure for your brand and content.
Resources
- The Social Media Examiner
- Gary Vaynerchuk
- Writing Riches
- Seth Godin: How to get your ideas to spread
- Tony Robins: Why we do what we do
- 5 Reasons Introverts Make Better Leaders
WordPress Content:
- Introduction to Marketing and Branding for Accountants and Bookkeepers
- Menu Navigation in WordPress – How to Make it Great
- The Real Deal on How to Create a Post In WordPress
- Intro to WordPress for Accountants and Bookkeepers
- How to use WordPress Plugins and My Top 2
- 5 Digital Notebook Applications for Keeping Track of Your Content
- WordPress Pages vs Posts
- WordPress Widgets
Before we get into the marketing and branding part, I want to talk about structure.
Accountants are linear thinkers. We like structure. One of the biggest objections I get from accountants, when it comes to marketing, is that they don’t have the time. Neither did I, so I made the time. Here’s how. I structured my day.
Let’s say you want to be “on the clock” every day from 9-5. I know – you’re all laughing. Most of us are on the clock from 9-9. I get it, and I can also tell you, it’s a big mistake. I’m sure you all know what the law of diminishing returns means.
When I started cutting my day up, the way you see on this calendar, my productivity skyrocketed! I was well rested, refreshed, and HIGHLY focused.
Do you know how much more easily you are distracted when you’re tired?
Branding
Your brand is your personality. It’s how people remember you.
Marketing is how you get the word out.
There is a simple formula for how to succeed with your marketing and branding.
Who are you? How do you want to represent your firm? My tagline for Nerd Enterprises, Inc. is “funny name, serious business.” That describes me well. I did not want to position myself as “just another accounting or bookkeeping firm.” I wanted to stand out. I wanted to create a noticeable difference.
What makes you stand out? One of my favorite questions to ask is as follows. Think back to when you were working somewhere. Or even in your current office. What would have to happen for someone to say, “Hey go get _____
[fill in your name]!”
There may be more than one answer, and one might stand out among them. For me, that was any microsoft Excel problem. The managing partner at the CPA firm where I used to work, would call me into his office, whenever he couldn’t figure out a formula, or how to get Excel to do what he needed.
When I would work on someone spreadsheet, and figure out the answer to a complex formula, I would get really excited. My wife would call me a nerd (affectionately of course). That’s how Nerd Enterprises, Inc. was born.
Your brand is your personality. If you own the business, it should be an extension of you.
The real key here is to let your personality shine through. Infuse your personality into your business. See what that looks like.
Most importantly, don’t try and be someone, or something, that you’re not.
This theme will permeate all of your marketing, and predicate everything you do, from hiring, to buying SWAG to hand out, at events.
If you’re an introvert, don’t worry. There are plenty of people, just like you, who’ve succeeded at branding their business.
Here’s an article to get you started:
5 Reasons Introverts Make Better Leaders
Marketing
Who DOES care about what you have to offer? How can you make it remarkable?
You don’t have to be first. You just have to be different and better.
People have needs, and your job is to address them. I know what you’re thinking. They need their taxes, or their books done.
No. We have to go deeper than that. What drives us to do what we do? Tony Robbins, has a GREAT TED Talk on this. It’s in the resource list, you’ll be getting in your handout. I ripped the 6 needs, right out of his talk, and now we’re going to talk about how this will make you a better marketer.
How can people need both certainty and uncertainty?
If everything were certain. If we knew exactly what was going to happen at all times, there would really be no point in doing anything, ever.
Certainty vs Uncertainty
A client needs the certainty that you have their back. At the same time, then need the uncertainty about how you’re going to get them, to where they want to go. The uncertainty lies in how you’re going to WOW them, once they’re a client.
You will need to infuse this into your marketing, both in the form of your online copy, and in your spoken dialogue. Let your prospects know that you have their backs, and let them know that there are things you can do for them, that they didn’t even know they needed, but once you show them, they are going to be blown away.
In all likelihood, when it comes to the uncertainty, we’re talking about the strategic advice, and guidance, that no one is giving them, yet they so desperately want.
Significance
Everybody needs to feel significant. One sure way to lose a prospect, or even a client, is to fail at making them feel significant.
Ever have that embarrassing moment on the phone when you realize someone has just asked you a question, and your mind had wandered so far away, that you have no clue what they just asked you? The way to save yourself from this, by the way is simple. Ask them to repeat the question, and this time pay attention, and pretend like it’s the most important question you will answer all day.
Then get out whatever it is that you like to use to take notes, and start taking notes while you’re talking the the client. That is how you can guarantee you will stay engaged.
Ask them TONS of questions, about themselves, and their business. Listen. Find the common ground. If they say they are on Long Island, I immediately interrupt them, and say, “Oh I grew up in Commack!” That is how you engage. Then make sure to steer the conversation back to business within 5 minutes.
What about YOUR Significance?
While we’re at it, for YOU to be significant, you need to be unique – you need to stand out from the crowd of other accountants and bookkeepers, that prospect is talking to. How can you stand out? Go ABOVE AND BEYOND what anyone else would do.
Connection and Love
The love part may be a stretch, but unless you’re dealing with a sociopath, everyone craves connection. That’s why it’s important to harp on any common ground you find, because you were paying attention when they were speaking to you. That common ground, is how you connect with them. That builds trust, and makes the connection that will give you THE advantage over everyone else they’re talking to, because everyone else’s mind is wandering, while they’re checking Facebook!
Growth
If you’re not growing, you feel horrible, because you don’t feel like you have something of value.
You’re going to have to convince your clients and prospects that you are going to help them grow, because they NEED that!
And that brings us to the last need.
Contribute beyond ourselves
Most business owners know this – the key to live is giving beyond ourselves. The more we give the more we get. I built my entire business model on this philosophy. I created free videos on YouTube, that people found valuable, and useful, and it didn’t cost them a dime. Then what happened? They started coming and asking me, how they could hire me to give them more help.
Now About How to Reach People
The process is simple.
You must create content. You have expertise, in that brilliant mind of yours. It’s time to package it up, and give it away.
You can make videos, like I do.
You can make webinars like this one. Putting together a webinar like this is EASY for me, because from my perspective, all I am doing is sharing my experience with you! I have so much knowledge in my head, based on what I’ve lived, and learned, that it’s just a matter of laying out the information, organizing it, and coming up with a new angle in the process.
Once you have content, you can lay it out in the appropriate platforms.
If you make videos, it’s YouTube.
If you record Podcasts, then it’s Soundcloud.com, and many others.
If you blog (and you all SHOULD) then you take the previous formats, embed it into a blog post and write about it.
Then you use the other channels for distribution.
It’s really that simple.
Networks
- YouTube
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Instagram
- Snapchat
- Pinterest
Social Media Resources:
Other Resources:
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