Content Creation Tips for Accounting Firms: Enhance Your Online Presence

Even with the right tools and resources in place, content creation often remains a sticking point for busy accounting professionals. You’re “numbers” people, so the act of drumming up a blog post, writing a monthly e-newsletter, or sitting in front of a camera may be uncomfortable if not totally foreign to you. However, just a little bit of effort in content production goes a long way when you’re working on improving your online presence.

Everything you see, read, or hear online started as an idea – and with a little bit of focus, these ideas can come to fruition with very little technical knowledge nowadays. In this piece, we’ll help you capture your own ideas for content creation, and execute on those ideas to connect with your audience online.

The Ideation Process: Planning Your Content

A content plan requires you to consider a few key components: content goals, content categories or topics, media type, and promotional platform. Here’s a bit more about each.

• Content Goals.
  You can’t make a plan without a destination, so consider what you want your content to do for you. Common goals include educating clients on tax changes and other important topics, promoting a specific offering or service area, increasing visits to your website, increasing calls to your firm, and boosting online follows or engagement.
• Content Categories.
  This is the “stuff” you actually write or talk about in your content. There’s usually a spread for most firms – for example, 40% educational content, 30% recruiting content, and 30% promotional content about specific services.
• Media Type.
  Business audiences tend to consume more written and email content than other audiences, although video, images, and podcasts are also popular.
• Promotional Platform.
  Make a plan for how you’ll get your content in front of the right people. Some use email marketing or organic methods, like social media posts, while others use paid advertising to appear at the top of search results or elsewhere.

Create the Most Important Piece First

It’s often easy to generate lots of ideas for content, but much harder to hone in and make something truly worthwhile. Focus on creating a piece of content that you believe is most likely to move your business in the direction you’re looking for.

For example, a whitepaper may be a good choice. White papers are often one to three pages long and thoroughly cover a specific topic relevant to your target audience. These can be used and repurposed into smaller “chunks” of content that you can use across multiple channels (infographics, emails, videos, blog posts, social media), which is why they’re a popular choice for time-strapped B2B companies.

Gain more knowledge by reading this article: How to Strategically Choose Thought Leadership That Drives Business Objectives

Focus on Your Buyer Personas

Create content with real humans in mind. If you don’t have a feel for your target audience, take a few hours to explore what they’re already interested in consuming online. Just a small amount of legwork upfront to research your target audience will save time later and make your content much more effective.

If you have a marketing team or marketing leader, collaborate with them to capture your target audience’s needs, preferences, and challenges. By tailoring your content to your ideal buyers, you increase the chances of resonating with them and building a stronger connection.

Expand your understanding with this article: How to Use Client Personas to Boost Your Accounting Firm’s Success.

Utilize Tools and Resources

There’s never been a better time to use technology to assist with content creation. Here are a few of the most popular content-creation resources for accounting professionals:

• Hemingway: A writing tool that helps you simplify sentences and improve your writing style.
• Marketing by Numbers AI Writing Assistant: An AI writing assistant, specific to the accounting industry, that creates efficiencies in topic planning and content creation.
• Chat GPT: A chatbot and virtual assistant that helps generate content, answer questions, engage in conversations, and provide explanations.
• Canva: A graphic design platform that enables you to create visuals for your content, such as social media posts and newsletter graphics.
• Zoom: A popular platform for hosting webinars and online meetings – use Zoom to capture video content with participants’ consent and repurpose it into your marketing videos.
• PiktoChart: A tool for creating infographics.
• MailBakery: A service that designs professional email templates.
• Upwork: A platform for finding freelancers, including designers and writers.
• Wistia's Soapbox and ScreenPal: Tools for creating video content that combines presentations with video recording.

There’s no need to feel daunted by the work involved in content creation. With a plan, a couple of dedicated hours per week, and the right tools, even the busiest accountants can make time to spread their firm’s online presence through engaging and informative content. If you are looking for ways to simplify content creation for your firm, give us a call we’d be happy to help.