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Accounting, Consulting and Other Professional Services Firms Need to Step Up Their Content Marketing Program
There’s not one CPA, consulting, law or engineering firm alive today that isn’t doing marketing using content, but very few are actually doing content marketing.
Huh? Permit me to explain…
Got a website? You’re doing marketing using content. Last year, did you do a presentation to a group or prospects or hand out some collateral at a meet and greet with a peer? Well, you’ve done some marketing using content. Did you reprint an article and distribute it? Yep … you know what you did … marketing using content! Did you do a LinkedIn profile or tweet a time or two? Marketing with content strikes again.
Data from recent benchmarking studies from the Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs show that in the B2B universe, there’s not a lack of understanding about the benefits of using content as a means to build awareness, drive traffic, create thought leaders, generate leads, and play a key role in the prospect to engagement sales process.
There’s also an overwhelming amount of data that simply cannot be ignored by partners and niche practice leaders that shows the relationship between content and new business. There’s a good reason why over 50% of CMI’s survey respondents said they plan on increasing their content marketing budget in 2013!
Your firm probably has an inventory of content, but here’s the $64,000 question: Is your “marketing using content” accomplished with a structured, disciplined approach involving planning, a dedicated budget and tactical resource allocation, infrastructure, technology, and a systematic way of trying content to awareness, lead generation and sales goals?
If you answered “NO”, then you’re not doing content marketing. The bottom line: content marketing requires a new strategies, tactics, processes and tools in order to accelerate its effectiveness as a key piece of your overall marketing program. There are strong and compelling reasons to move from a “marketing using content” to content marketing.
Here are a few insights, observation, and tips for creating an incredibly effective content marketing program for your CPA, consulting or law firm in 2013:
- Educate and get commitment and enthusiasm from all corners of the firm for moving your marketing efforts toward a strong content marketing program
- Develop both an overall and a niche by niche comprehensive content marketing plan, strategies and tactics
- Organize a content creation team including an executive champion, subject matter experts, the marketing staff, writer/editors
- Dedicate an appropriate level of budget and resources (including unbillable time) for acquiring, producing and publishing content
- Install marketing technology like HubSpot to provide the infrastructure for managing the content marketing program
- Include your sales and business development staff in the planning process to get their perspective on hot issues or pain points that cab be addressed though content
- Make your content interesting, controversial, and readable, and unless you are marketing to a technical audience, stay away from a technical writing style
- Don’t just give your content away – make visitors fill out a form which then gives you a lead
- However, find a good balance between form required and no form required content
- Use an integrated approach to announcing and promoting the availability of new content – on your web site, via social media, through email, and so on
- When posting content on your website, make sure it has been optimized to work within your key word strategy
- Segmenting and tailor content to the different personas, prospect company characteristics, and stage of buying cycle
- Don’t get stuck in a content rut – use different types of content to keep website visitors engaged
Is 2013 going to be the year that your accounting or consulting firm moves from marketing with content to content marketing? There’s a groundswell of support for making this move and it’s my belief that firms making this move this coming year will enjoy sustainable competitive advantages well into the future.
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