12 Promises You Can Make to Your CPA or Consulting Firm to Get Them Blogging

Put a Little Blogging into Your CPA or Consulting Firm’s 2015 Marketing Efforts

“I just can’t get the firm to commit to doing a blog!”

Been there. Heard that.

If you are a professional services marketer, or a partner that’s involved in the firm’s marketing program, then I’ll make one my proverbial leaps of faith and state that you’re aware of the power and value of content. Leaping a bit further, I’ll hazard a guess that you know about the power and value of blogging as a centerpiece for your content program

(Still not aware of what blogging can do for your firm? Click here for a copy of The Partner’s Guide to Blogging)

But, here it is 2014, you’re developing plans and the budget for 2015, and you’re not sure if you can move the firm into a new game plan with blogging, right? If it’s any solace, you’re not alone – while the rest of the B2B world is charging ahead with their blogging efforts, most professional services firms don’t seem to be to get their staff involved in blogging from a strategic perspective, let alone the process of producing a weekly blog post.

12 Promises (and Some Stats) You Can Make to Your Firm to Get Them Blogging

There are to key ways that you can showcase the value of blogging for your firm. For a few really cool statistics for the number crunchers in your firm, check out some of the most recent stats about blogging that we’ve pulled together, by clicking on the button.

For those partners and staff who have more of a strategic bent, here’s a list of 12 promises you can make that may help you get your new game plan into place and moving forward. So, at the next partner or management team meeting, stand tall, clear your throat, bang on the table a few times for great effect, and start putting the new game plan into motion:

“I (state your name) solemnly promise that if we start and commit to a blog, our firm will:”

Drive more visitors to our website
Convert more visitors into leads because we’ll use our blog to promote offers
Be recognized as thought leaders
Differentiate from our competitors with our unique take and voice on key issues
Help build the personal brands of our staff
Get visitors to stay on our site longer and direct them to learn more about our capabilities
Build authority by helping visitors with issues, and not shouting at them with platitudes about our firm
Showcase our unique take on an issue, and not just regurgitate code or regulations
Leverage our investments in the firm’s newsletter
Leverage our investment in social media, as a driver to our blog posts
Build our network and following well beyond our geographic footprint
Show that we have a human side by writing in a compelling and interesting voice

How Much Does it Cost to Have a Blog?

Well, this is one of those questions that every marketing consultant in the entire world is trained to answer with this response: “it depends”.

In fact, if a marketing consultant does not use this response, she or he is unceremoniously dumped from the consultant’s ranks and their consultant’s epaulets are ripped from their shoulders.

But, I’m going to do the reveal: you can either outsource the blog , and pay somewhere from $50 to $300 per post, depending upon the quality, and industry experience and expertise of the writer, or you can it in-house and your out of pocket costs will be exactly this: $0.00.

However, I would urge you to think about costs differently – think about the lost opportunity costs of not doing a blog. It’s time to change the dynamic and stop thinking about expenses and start thinking about strategy. All of those 12 promises that I discussed above? Well, if you aren’t blogging and your competitors are, then the costs to your firm can be significant.

If you aren’t blogging, take a peek at your competitor’s website and see if they are and if they’re doing it consistently. If so, every single word they post is another lost opportunity for your firm to get more traffic to your site and more visitors converting to leads.

On the other hand, if you are blogging and they aren’t, keep up the energy and intensity. After all, in your new game plan, the objective is to score more points and hopefully, through their inaction, your competitor will keep themselves off of the scoreboard.