Traditionally, bookkeepers and accountants managed to successfully generate client leads from word of mouth and referrals from current clients. However the way people search for products and services has altered drastically in the last ten years which means you might need to change tactic if you want to develop an effective lead generation strategy. We’ve put together a list of 4 top tips for generating leads for your practice.
If you are looking to grow your client base, Facebook is a good place to start with over 1.71 billion monthly active users. You should start by creating a page for your business with links to your website and price details. You can then invite people to like the page and encourage them to ask their friends to do so too. You should then focus on updating the page with posts and comments designed to gain likes and shares to spread your business’ visibility. Facebook offers great analytics on their business pages meaning you will be able to keep track of how many people saw your posts and engaged with them. Facebook also offers the option to create advertisements which can be shown to a target audience of your choice. This is one of the cheapest paid advertising options and the easiest to set up.
Twitter is another great social media platform to use if you want to expand your business’ online visibility. By setting up a dedicated page for your business on Twitter, you can add links to your website. You should then focus on sharing posts using relevant hashtags so that your post will show up on relevant channels. You could also look to follow and be followed by influencers in the bookkeeping and accounting industry in order to gain retweets of your posts from them. The aim of your Twitter activity should be to gain traction and visibility from as many users as possible and to get people talking about your business. It’s important to remember when it comes to twitter consistency is key. You should endeavor to spend 30 minutes to an hour a day on your Twitter account.
Meetup
Another useful resource for generating leads is the platform Meetup. This is a site which allows users to arrange meetings and events relating to specific topics. If you are a bookkeeper looking to gain clients you could make an effort to attend small business and entrepreneur meetups in your area in order to meet business owners and spread the word about your service.
Website
Now that you’ve figured out the best way to generate leads for your business, you need to start thinking about what your website looks like to those who land on it. Is it mobile responsive (i.e. does it appear correctly on a cell phone), is it easy to use and is the font simple to read? Most importantly, does it include a call to action? That is a specific instruction that’s clearly labeled which explains to site visitors what to do next in order to use your service. It might be to schedule a call with you or fill out a form. Whatever it is it should be clear and the primary focus of your site. Including testimonials or reviews from clients on your site is also a good way to show trust for your service. There are many online services out there such as usertesting.com which provides user testers for your site to give you feedback on how easy it is to use.
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