Content marketing is far from new, of course. As long ago as 2008, revered American author and digital marketing expert, Seth Godin, made his much-quoted declaration that: “Content marketing is all the marketing that’s left.”
But content marketing has really risen to prominence in more recent years, with much traditional marketing simply not worth the effort or investment.
What is content marketing?
The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) defines content marketing as a “strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”
The key to success is to become a source of free, relevant, useful content that helps your prospects and customers to solve their problems. Take away their pain or help them to be more successful and they’re more likely to buy your products or services, because they know, like and trust your brand.
Content marketing has become a highly cost-effective way to attract and retain customers, with businesses of all sizes now using it to good effect, including many successful accountancy firms. If you’re still not entirely sold on content marketing, here are a few important things to consider…
1 Everyone’s doing it
Well – almost everyone. About 90% of B2B marketers use content marketing. About three-quarters of those who don’t use content marketing soon plan to. And CMI research suggests that almost two-thirds of users remain “very or extremely committed” to content marketing.
Key take-away >> If your accountancy firm doesn’t use content marketing – you risk losing customers to those that do.
“Each year in the UK, some £5bn is spent on content marketing and research suggests that a quarter of organisations using content marketing found it to be extremely or very successful”
2 Content marketing works
Businesses throughout the world use content marketing because it works. Each year in the UK, some £5bn is spent on content marketing and CMI research suggests that a quarter of UK organisations using content marketing found it to be extremely or very successful, while a further 42% found it successful.
Key take-away >> Content marketing can be a particularly effective way to reach small-business owners, who are notoriously difficult to reach.
3 Content marketing is highly cost-effective
For a third of the cost, content marketing can generate more than three times as many leads as “outbound marketing” (ie advertising, promotions, PR, etc), while lead conversion rates are reported to be six times higher than other options. And up-front costs can be significantly lower, while providing much better long-term benefits than, paid search advertising, for example.
Key take-away >> Written content can be cheap to buy or produce and it can deliver a far better return on investment.
“Since the Covid-19 lockdown, there’s been a surge in demand from UK SMEs for practical financial advice. If you don’t communicate regularly, your customers may feel unloved and soon go elsewhere”
4 Content marketing can help you to attract and retain customers
It’s much cheaper to sell to existing customers. Content marketing enables you to communicate regularly with them and you can give them helpful information when they need it. Since the Covid-19 lockdown, there’s been a surge in demand from UK SMEs for practical financial advice. If you don’t communicate regularly, your customers may feel unloved and soon go elsewhere. You have been warned.
Key take-away >> Content marketing can enable you to build stronger, longer-lasting relationships with your customers.
5 Content marketing can boost your Google search rankings
Keyword choice and density is, erm, key, of course, but Google also favours website content that displays expertise, authority and trustworthiness. Getting backlinks from other websites makes a big difference, too. Content marketing can also raise your profile on social media, which can also increase your website visitors and ultimately boost your sales.
Key take-away >> If you want to boost your website visitors, content marketing can really help.
“To safeguard your brand, extend your reach and ultimately sell more – never compromise on the quality of your content”
6 Content quality is key
What impression you are left with when you read badly written or presented information? What if there are errors or the advice is poor? Would you share it via your social media channels? Would you buy from such a source? No? Me neither. If you want to succeed, be a source of high-quality content that provides unique value.
Key take-away: To safeguard your brand, extend your reach and ultimately sell more – never compromise on the quality of your content.
In conclusion
Seth Godin’s proclamation isn’t strictly true. Plenty of accountants get work from word-of-mouth recommendations and networking. Paid search and social can also generate leads. But content marketing should be central to how your accountancy firm markets its services, especially in our post-Covid19 world, where businesses are hungrier than ever for regular, reliable advice.
Many accountancy firms (particularly the larger ones) “get it” when it comes to content marketing and some do it very well. But other accountancy firms, usually small ones, don’t do it as well or don’t do it at all, often because they lack time, expertise or don’t believe in content marketing. Who knows how much opportunity they’re missing out on?
• With 15 years’ experience as a leading writer of small-business content, Mark Williams is the founder of Dead Good Content, which specialises in writing cost-effective bespoke and oven-ready content for accountancy firms and others that want to market their services to small businesses.
