once you’ve created it, maximize it across multiple formats.
by sandi leyva
the complete guide to marketing for tax & accounting firms
you might have heard the term “content marketing.” in professional services selling there is almost always an educational component to the entire selling cycle.
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for example, buyers may not know they need sales tax consulting. they may not know they’re missing out on tax deductions, and they may not know that cloud accounting is better than what they have now.
content marketing allows us to educate our buyers so that they are clear on the gap between how they are doing something currently and how they could be doing it with our services. it’s the educational component that helps the buyer be more informed when choosing our (or others’) services.
the goal of content marketing is to educate and build trust, with the hope of making sales when it’s right for the buyer.
types of content
content marketing comprises a variety of formats:
- traditional
- newsletter
- white paper
- case study
- face-to-face seminar
- conference speech
- research study
- book
- brochure
- social media, such as
- blog
- video (youtube)
- slide presentation (slideshare)
- live mobile video streaming (periscope)
- images (pinterest, instagram)
- webinar
- podcast
- e-book
- video streaming (ustream)
because of budget, you’ll need to “pick a lane.” do you feel more comfortable writing or presenting? choose your format based on your natural talents so the learning curve is shorter. then stick with it.
if you decide to do a video, do one every week. if you decide to blog, do it every tuesday. consistency is key.
developing content
reverse engineering
the first step in creating a content marketing plan or campaign is to decide what you want to sell. you’ll want to focus on one service or one niche to start with. let’s say you are choosing outsourced controller services. you’ve defined your persona or prospect as a small business with sales from $500,000 to $3 million selling services.
what pain points do those business owners have? they may include inefficiency from a mishmash of systems, sales tax issues, certainly cash flow issues, and lack of knowledgeable accounting advice because their budget probably allows for bookkeepers and not controller or cfo-level hiring.
you can now determine your topic for developing content. you might be able to write a report called “three major profit risks for small service businesses.” or you might want to do a deep dive into “cash flow 101.”
start with the “pain” and write about it. don’t provide the solutions, but clearly identify the problem and what it’s costing the prospect. at the end of the report, you can let them know that the solution is outsourced controller services, and why your company is different.
the content educates and describes your solution at the same time, and that’s the goal of content marketing.
repurposing
once you’ve written your report, you’ve done the hard work. the same framework can be put into multiple formats for maximum exposure. the report can easily be turned into a podcast that you can read or explain with little modification. you can conduct a webinar, post it to youtube, hold a seminar, present it at conferences, post it to your blog and so on.
repurposing your content into many different formats will save you a lot of time.
resources
if your company is large enough, you may want to build a team of content providers. if not, these are the skills you’ll need to find or cover to build your content.
writer – you can write your own content or hire a writer to create it for you.
designer – you’ll want to put your content in a professional format using design elements on your cover page, header, footer, titles, text formatting, illustrations and other elements. you may also need graphics software for this – we use adobe creative cloud.
seo – it’s essential to optimize your content using keywords inside your content as well as through tagging when you post it. a good seo resource will be able to maximize this important aspect of your content.
social – you’ll need someone with social media experience to help you publish your content and share it with the world.
content coordinator – if you don’t have time to manage all these pieces, you’ll want a project coordinator who can guide the development of your piece and review, assess and ensure a strong implementation.
lead generation
content marketing is often used as a lead generator. when prospects are required to sign up – give their email, name and sometimes more – for a webinar, blog or white paper, then we call that gated content. often, once you’ve provided your info, you’ll start receiving emails or phone calls from the sales team.
you can do this with your own content by setting up an opt-in box on your website and automatically delivering the content once they are subscribed. the follow-up activity of calling or emailing the lead can happen within a day or two of signing up. from there you can set appointments or remove them from your list.
if you want a larger number of leads than you are getting organically, you can place online ads via google or facebook or others and send traffic to your opt-in page. when you invest at this level, you’ll definitely want to have a sales team and script or at least a follow-up process for prospects.
lead generation can occur in several ways:
- organic traffic to your site
- making an announcement while you are speaking to a group
- publishing an article in a news publication or on a news site
- driving traffic through social media posts
- from email marketing
- from your blog
i call this “marketing the marketing,” which sounds a little like busy work, but it is done for the purpose of building trust in your expertise and knowledge.
content plan
it’s a good idea to have a content plan that integrates with your marketing plan. decide when you need each content piece and set a timeline so that your content will be ready. here are some examples to get you started:
- do your tax education from november through march.
- write about payroll in september through december, when it’s easiest to switch on a calendar year start.
- in the summer, write about cash flow and system integrations.
- do quarterly, monthly and annual deadline reminders throughout the year as they occur.
- educate on midyear tax changes in june.
when you can cover a topic that’s relevant and timely, you are more likely to get more people to read it.
review questions
1. the goal(s) of content marketing is to:
- build trust and educate prospects and clients
- provide content for a website
- provide content for a newsletter
- weed out bad clients
2. the five skills you need on your content marketing team include:
- virtual admin, contractor, freelancer, employee and webmaster
- millennial, baby boomer, gen x, gen y and intern
- webmaster, it person, marketer, hr advisor and accountant
- writer, designer, seo, social and content coordinator
3. determine the topic you want to cover by:
- googling hot topics
- copying your competitor’s website
- deciding what you want to sell and identifying the clients’ pain points
- deciding what you want to sell and listing your services in detail
solutions and suggested responses
1. the goal(s) of content marketing is to:
- correct. the goal of content marketing is to educate, which will build trust and show expertise.
- incorrect. while some deliverables from content marketing might populate a website, this is too narrow of a goal and not the best answer.
- incorrect. while some articles from content marketing might be used in a newsletter, this is too narrow of a goal and not the best answer.
- incorrect. content marketing can be a lead generator, but it is not designed to qualify leads.
2. the five skills you need on your content marketing team include:
- incorrect. virtual admin, contractor, freelancer and employee are ways you can hire and pay a team, but are not skills.
- incorrect. these describe ages, not skills.
- incorrect. you should have these skills in your company, but they don’t necessarily need to be on your content marketing team.
- correct. these are the right skills to have on your content marketing team.
3. determine the topic you want to cover by:
- incorrect. you can google for topics, but this method is hit and miss, and there is a better answer.
- incorrect. you can get ideas from your competitor’s website, but you should never copy it.
- correct. first decide what you want to sell. then identify the pain points around that service so you can write about them.
- incorrect. you should decide what you want to sell, but if all you do is list your services, you won’t connect with the client in as much depth, so there is a better answer.