hint: it can solve more than your marketing needs.
by sandi leyva and jason holmes
influencer marketing has been around forever in retail marketing, but does it have a place in the accounting and tax profession? absolutely! here’s what most firms are missing out on when it comes to leveraging this profitable channel.
more: why your social media is a flop | the biggest seo secret of all: google business listings | beyond bookkeeping: five value-add service areas | beyond quickbooks: wowing your clients | five ways to get better clients | 11 kinds of wealth | 11 ways to boost billings and impress clients | how clients get underserved and accountants get underpaid
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first, let’s get everyone on the same page and define influencer marketing. it’s simply getting help from someone with a large following – an influencer – to market your offerings in exchange for value or a fee. in a way, it’s like an endorsement or sponsorship. but unlike a sponsorship, which is somewhat passive, an influencer is more actively participating in the promotion of your items. you might think of influencers as paid referrals on steroids.
influencers are paid based on the number of followers they have, and they are often paid by the post. a similar model is to recruit affiliates, who typically get paid only if their posts result in sales. affiliates use a special tracking link and software that calculates their commissions.
you can see influencers on almost every social media platform, especially instagram and youtube. influencers can be celebrities, the most famous being the kardashians, but they don’t have to be. “regular people” with large followings earn their living being influencers. thought leaders can be influencers, too. the key is to have a large fan base.
you can see how it works for retail: all an actress has to do is wear something, and that something will get visibility and sales. but how would it work for services? and specifically accounting? here are some examples and opportunities:
- one midsized cpa firm had a bookkeeping and tax client who was a new york times best-selling author and speaker on customer service. the speaker created a testimonial video for the accounting firm and mentioned them in his speeches.
- at conferences, you can find b-list celebrities (who are amazingly affordable to hire) given a speaking slot and an autograph-signing hour to draw more attendance. jason alexander was at a conference sandi attended a few years back.
- at accounting conferences, you can find accounting thought leaders who have been hired by software vendors to speak or conduct demos, or even just hang out at their booths.
influencers with specific characteristics can shore up branding weaknesses of a typical accounting firm. for example, you can hire a comedian or someone colorful if you want your brand to go from boring to memorable.
while influencers are typically hired to boost sales, they are also the perfect solution to the staffing shortages we have right now. for example, you can make a statement on diversity and inclusion by hiring a leader who is vocal about their pro-lgbtq stance or who has a strong minority fan base. this influencer can help you spread the word about your job openings to help you have more choice in candidates. (if we all did this, we’d shave years off of closing some of the diversity gaps we’re behind on.)
there are databases of influencers available and specialized software to find and match influencers with companies that want to hire them. and there are marketing agencies like ours that can help firms build campaigns around influencers. done well, the roi from influencer marketing is at or above the top five marketing channels typically used in our profession for lead generation.
be careful to hire influencers who know how to follow the disclosure rules, not only to meet our profession’s ethics, but also the ftc’s social media disclosure requirements.
as you’re planning your marketing for 2022, keep in mind the power of influencer marketing, and feel free to reach out to the authors for any questions you might have.