Case Study: Accountants and the EOFY

How to attract new customers

The End of Financial Year (EOFY) can be a busy and stressful time for most Australian businesses, with BAS, PAYG summaries, tax returns and a whole lot more to think about. While most probably have an Accountant they go to year on year, many don’t, or perhaps they’re looking to replace who they have used previously, and finding an Accountant can mean a lot of searching, re-searching, reviewing and comparing to find a business  that they like the sound of. As an Accountant or Bookkeeper in today’s vast digital landscape, appealing to all of these needs isn’t as simple a feat as it once was and takes planning and perseverance in order to build a strong online presence. Fear not my Accountant friend; the road to digital marketing salvation is not as treacherous as it may seem and there are a couple of things you can do in the lead up to ensure you are competing with the best of em’ online.

If you have been in business for a while you probably have a host of customer contacts and emails of past clients. Whether they are year on year patrons or fleeting enquiries, you should be saving and using this information to keep in touch with your past contacts digitally. It costs nothing or next to nothing to use a professional email service to keep in touch with these people, especially in the lead up to EOFY when you need to be at the forefront of their minds. Get creative with your mail-outs to include things like promotions, specials and incentives to drive people through your door and keep them coming back. Most mail systems make it easy to unsubscribe and keep track of how many of your patrons interact with each mail-out so, use this information wisely to get to know your audience and what works for them.

Remarketing is another fantastic way of keeping your brand in front of your target audience. With a number of different methods of implementation, these ads utilise your past website visitors as an audience to display banner ads to past visitors on other websites which form part of the Google Display Network. There are a host of ways to refine this list to just visitors who have engaged well with your website or visited a key page. Remember that email list you worked so hard to put together? There are even some new features which allow you to build a remarketing audience based on email addresses you have on file. Once you have your audience just the way you want Google will allow you to find similar users to add to your list who have never interacted with your brand before. Make sure you speak to your digital marketing strategist about what will work best for you as there is an endless array of targeting options to choose from.

Great, so now we’re keeping your existing customers engaged, but what if you are the new kid on the block and you don’t have an existing customer or visitor base to work with? There are a couple of free and paid options to get you started. Google+ or Google My Business as it is known for business’ is a great, free way to promote your business locally, especially on mobile devices. Consumer’s most likely aren’t going to need as much coaxing to choose your business for their next tax return but what they will be seeking is convenience and that means the easiest business to physically get to. What better way to find a local than a Google My Business listing which shows on a map exactly how far away you are and where you are located?! Aside from a short set-up and a postcard from Google to verify where you are, you can also encourage your clients to leave feedback. These will then make up the reviews you commonly see in Google’s SERP. It doesn’t just look good to see a few stars against your business name; it also helps to build trust in your brand and will even help your Google+ page to appear above your competitors.

With EOFY just around the corner you can’t wait for your Google+ page to start ranking, so you need to appear in front of potential clients now! Google AdWords, while it is certainly not an overnight solution, can help you to appear in front of your target audience without needing to wait for organic rankings or history to build. Allowing you to pay to appear at the top of Google searches, AdWords is your best chance at gaining new customer interest with instant exposure. It might sound easy when you’re potentially putting up with hundreds of dollars in advertising costs, but you will want to make sure your money is being well spent. There are a host of resources to teach you about AdWords marketing online but my suggestion would be if you are going to spend big on advertising, it’s worth spending a bit extra for an expert opinion. Remember any money you spend on advertising is a tax deduction!

Get an expert from SponsoredLinX to guide you on the best path for you and your business. Call us today on 1300 859 600.

---