How to market a bookkeeping business

Finding and signing new clients is key to growing your business. Marketing your bookkeeping business may seem like a daunting task and perhaps you don’t even know where to start. Not to worry, promoting your company to find new clients doesn’t have to be complicated. 

This guide will share helpful guidance to teach you how to market a bookkeeping business, including the following tips:

• Provide helpful and free resources
• Use social media to keep followers informed
• Do pro-bono work
• Reward clients for referrals
• Start networking in person
• Optimise your website
• Add to your services

One of the best ways to promote your business without spending money is through content marketing. Use content to become a reliable source of inspiration and knowledge surrounding bookkeeping, accounting, tax, best compliance and other finance-related topics. Share tips and advice that people can use to make their lives easier. 

You can publish this content in a variety of ways, including:

• Regularly publishing blog articles on your website
• Sending out a monthly newsletter with advice and helpful links
• Contributing guest posts on other blogs
• Creating ‘how-to’ videos or demos

A great way to capture people’s details is to share downloadable forms or templates and request their email address to access the download. That way, you can continue to nurture the potential lead relationship through emails.

Since 90% of people with access to the internet use social media, it’s an excellent method for spreading the word about your business. However, rather than wasting time and energy staying active on every platform out there, stick to two or three that are most relevant to your business and its target audience.

Different channels serve different people. Depending on your service offering and what clients you wish to serve, some will be more rewarding than others. For example:

• LinkedIn – This is where you need to be if you want to connect with other bookkeeping professionals and businesses. 
• Twitter – Great for sharing quick and short bits of information to educate, inform and connect with prospective clients. What can you achieve in 280 characters? 
• Facebook – More for individuals than companies. If you decide to use this platform, focus on connecting with local businesses and building relationships.

Whatever platform you choose, it should be one where your target audience is active to allow you to reach and connect with as many prospects as possible.

Another great way to market your bookkeeping business is to have clients who are happy with your service recommend you to other companies or individuals. Ask clients you have a good relationship with to refer you to their own networks. 

Want to increase your chances of them actually referring you? Offer an incentive for referrals. Reward these clients with an hour off their next fee, a free advisory consultation, a shopping voucher or a free lunch. Word of mouth is a powerful tool, so it’s worth incentivising. 

Now that society is slowly returning to normal, face-to-face networking events will start up again. Take advantage of these events to build strategic relationships to grow your network. Attending networking events allows you to meet other business owners to discuss ideas with and learn from. These people can also be great sources of continued referrals to your ideal clients.

Try joining a local networking group for bookkeepers and other finance professionals and attend various industry events. Do your research and consider whether other attendees will fit into your target customer base before you invest time or money.

If your networking and client referrals result in potential customers visiting your website, they’ll likely change their mind if it’s of poor quality. Having a company website that looks professional and is easy to navigate is crucial to presenting yourself as an expert. 

Additionally, you have to make sure your website is optimised for SEO (search engine optimisation) to drive traffic to it. If you want new leads to find their way to your site on their own, you need your page to appear in the top search results. These days, 70% of marketers consider SEO more effective than PPC (pay per click ads). 

If you notice that more prospects and clients ask for services beyond balancing their accounts, you may want to consider expanding your service offering. What are your other skills? 

You could add advisory services to your portfolio to generate an additional income stream or train yourself to become a software specialist. As we live in a digital world, being an expert in modern accounting technology will give you a competitive edge over established accountants who cling to traditional methods. 

You can save your practice time on manual admin and help your clients keep organised records with Countingup’s free accounting software. 

Countingup is built specifically to help you manage your self-employed and sole trader clients. Our software is MTD-compatible and full of features for accountants to review and manage client accounts efficiently, with direct access to their real-time organised data. Find out more here.