[IMGCAP(2)]It’s that time of the year again. We have tweeted, connected, pinned, blogged and vlogged our way through 2012 – and now it’s time to look at what’s on accounting marketers’ bucket lists for 2013! I asked my peers about their top accounting marketing priorities for the coming year and discovered some clear and exciting trends for 2013.
- Developing more and better content, especially video:
Content marketing is reigning supreme in the accounting industry and across the spectrum of professional services. Let’s first start with a clear definition:
Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action. (
Why are accounting marketers loving content marketing? According to the firm
Krysta Lyon, marketing director at
Michael Bowlan, senior professional services marketing and business development specialist with
- Improving engagement
With Content Marketing gaining traction in accounting marketing, social media is reported to be the most popular tactic for B2B marketers, with an adoption rate of 87 percent. This is a significant increase from the 74 percent rate reported in 2012. What is the most popular social media channel in B2B right now? It’s LinkedIn, leaving last year’s leader, Twitter, in the dust. This graphic from Content Marketing Institute and
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In my experience, getting buy-in on social media among accounting firm partners can be challenging. I have found, however, that light bulbs start to go off once I explain the “ins and outs” of inbound marketing and how social media fits with content marketing and search engine optimization to drive client and prospect engagement and lead generation. Putting social media in context is critical to gaining acceptance among the tweet-resistant CPA crowd.
Cheryl Bascomb, Director of Marketing and Business Development at
- Client preferences and satisfaction
Although the newer forms of marketing (such as videos and social media) will be hot in 2013, there is one marketing staple in the mix: client satisfaction surveys. There’s nothing more important than understanding your ideal clients’ preferences and ensuring that your firm prioritizes these key benefits. Lyons, Tolin, and Bowlan all plan on making client surveys a priority in 2013. Said Bowlan: “We need to make sure we continue to deliver what clients need, not what we think they need!”
Debra Andrews is owner and president of