NEW Lead Generation - Accountancy Firm

[Probox Accounting]

Hello,

Any advice welcome. We are Probox Accounting. A up and coming firm in Alfreton, Derbyshire. We service Chesterfield, Nottingham, Mansfield, Derby etc.

I wanted to see what Ideas or tips people have for new customer and lead generation please?

Do we go with SEO, local advertising, various Goole, Facebook and Yahoo marketing campaigns? or do we use professional websites for leads such as Upwork, Bark, People per hour etc.

it seems all work for some people and the smart thing is to do it all BUT what works?!

We do want to work with local firms mainly so they benefit from our weekly and monthly support. This has worked really well for us to date.

Any help and feedback would be welcome.....

 

[Yana Yelina]

For many companies LinkedIn is the primary source of lead generation.

 

[dubOnline]

Hi Probox, we specialise in lead generation for accountants and work with some of the biggest practices in the UK right down to small start ups.

As a quick answer to your question:

Short to mid term plan: Consider targeting specific sectors (Charities, ecommerce companies, builders/tradesman etc). Do this by creating a database of suitable companies to reach out to by offering tax rebates advice or streamlining processes of their books.

This will help you generate some initial clients.

Mid term: Rinse and repeat in a new market sector or to a wider audience. This will help you become a specialist in the sector and generate referral work.

Mid to long term: Focus on organic inbound lead generation using case studies, testimonials and free articles from new clients in your chosen sectors.

Gone are the days where SEO for generic accounting services generate a decent ROI.

E.G: Accountants in "Name of area" is NOT as effective as "Charity specialist Accountants in 'Area'

Immediate plan should be to pick a sector, publish some content on your website that talks to that sector and target people.

 

[fisicx]

Gone are the days where SEO for generic accounting services generate a decent ROI.

Are you sure about this? I've just finished helping an accountant and their site is ranking well for a whole range of local services and already generating new business. It wasn't that difficult.

 

[RedEvo]

Take a look at this to get some ideas - https://www.hubspot.com/inbound-marketing

d

 

[fisicx]

The web has gotten worse as the years went by.

No it hasn't. A lot of the web is excellent, you just seem to seek out the worst of it. Interesting that you don't even try to disguise yourself anymore. Is this the third or fourth incarnation of Event Domain? I've lost count.

 

[RedEvo]

I disagree as people (the public) will not use blogs to seek out customers.

Perhaps you meant to say "to seek out providers". Assuming you did, the empirical evidence I see shows that blogs help with rankings and traffic generation and as a result of all that, leads.

Of course, it's a long slog and doesn't happen overnight but as an example, a post I wrote in May 2016 received 305 visits in August 2017, 249 in July 2017, 185 in June 2017 etc. A post I wrote in August 2015 received 142 visits in August 2017. It compounds, it's the gift that keeps on giving.

It is a slog but blogging done well can work IMHO

d

 

[dubOnline]

Are you sure about this? I've just finished helping an accountant and their site is ranking well for a whole range of local services and already generating new business. It wasn't that difficult.

20+ years specialising in lead generation for accountants both online and off- yup pretty sure.

 

[Probox Accounting]

Really appreciate everyone comments - Also see there is some lively debate which is good too!!

I get that SEO and other such things are the future etc. The issue I have is cost. From what I see you can spend anything really but sensibly even for a small firm £300+ a month.

I appreciate people will say this is off-set against the leads and generated income etc but a bit of a chicken and egg situation for a relatively new business that doesn't really have that sort of budget to work with at the minute. Google Adwords and Facebook marketing etc is much cheaper Im told.....but does it produce results?

 

[fisicx]

Same old ranting as before you were banned last time around. You didn't find my blog posts because you were looking in the wrong place. I don't need lots of traffic, one phone call every two days is sufficient.

So instead of making lots of unsubstantiated claims maybe you need to realise not everyone has the same goals as you do.

 

[Alan]

it seems all work for some people and the smart thing is to do it all BUT what works?!

No - the smart thing to do is LIST all the different channels.

The guess ( or have a hypothesis ) of what the top three will be.

Then start testing the top three.

When you have enough data to identify the least well performing channel ditch that test and substitute another channel.

Repeat and rinse until you find you sweet spot channels with the best ROI.

 

[RedEvo]

So between May - Aug (4 months) you only got 881 total visitors - ok, you consider that a triumph as far as your concerned, but its small potatoes.

No, that's not what I said but it's obvious from what others have said that it's best not to argue with you, so I won't

d

 

[AllUpHere]

Same old ranting as before you were banned last time around. You didn't find my blog posts because you were looking in the wrong place. I don't need lots of traffic, one phone call every two days is sufficient.

So instead of making lots of unsubstantiated claims maybe you need to realise not everyone has the same goals as you do.

Why are banned members allowed to simply sign up again as many times as they like? It's makes being banned a little pointless really.

 

[Sorodo]

B2B - prob use Linkedin with a HubSpot combo. Hubspot will help you to really target and increase conversion. Facebook may not work well for B2B however in your case you are looking for small local businesses most of whom are also on FB. Jump in on Twitter too, engage with local firms in their conversations. retweet and join their conversations....don't use the social platforms for hard sell though..(that will come from helping others)

 

[J2DHS]

Hi Probox,

Not sure if you've already gotten your answer or if people are just bickering but thought I'd give my thoughts

"Do we go with SEO, local advertising, various Goole, Facebook and Yahoo marketing campaigns? or do we use professional websites for leads such as Upwork, Bark, People per hour etc."​

Where do your customers hang out? You're wanting to work with local firms, so keeping it in that area you'd be looking at attending conferences/business meet ups/networking events in your area, LinkedIn/Facebook ads to reach decision makers for those businesses. You can also get involved in Twitter & Facebook groups for your area - there's often "Business Owners TownName" type groups floating around that you could help people on.

Local SEO could work if you're looking for customers in your local area, but you'd need to look into the search volumes and competition to see if it will be worth it.

"it seems all work for some people and the smart thing is to do it all BUT what works?!"​

The key is for you to do what works.

Try each one, and see what has the biggest impact for you; there's no golden ticket unfortunately otherwise these sorts of forums wouldn't exist!

"I get that SEO and other such things are the future etc. The issue I have is cost. From what I see you can spend anything really but sensibly even for a small firm £300+ a month.

I appreciate people will say this is off-set against the leads and generated income etc but a bit of a chicken and egg situation for a relatively new business that doesn't really have that sort of budget to work with at the minute. Google Adwords and Facebook marketing etc is much cheaper Im told.....but does it produce results?"
​

SEO isn't the future, it's the now - you're already behind someone who's capitalising on it so don't leave it too long.

As I mentioned before, Adwords and Facebook do have good results for many people, but you need to test them for yourself to see if they work for you.

Unfortunately even then, you might not be doing it efficiently, and hiring experts to do it would be a better decision!

I'd say get some more clients the same way you've found your existing customers; maybe attend some networking events to get your business in front of some people, and then when you can afford to invest the £300 in an expert do it then.

If you're already spending £300 a month on printing of flyers and shoving them through letterboxes, then I'd recommend taking that £300 and trying an agency to see if they're more effective.

Hope that helps somewhat!

Good luck!

Jamie

 

[SALESSALESSALESSALES]

Same old ranting as before you were banned last time around. You didn't find my blog posts because you were looking in the wrong place. I don't need lots of traffic, one phone call every two days is sufficient.

So instead of making lots of unsubstantiated claims maybe you need to realise not everyone has the same goals as you do.

Hilarious, you present yourself as some sort of internet guru as you post all day on a forum, but when someone who clearly is more expert than you calls you on it, your goals are conveniently not to achieve lots of traffic, sure, your goal is NOT to achieve traffic! Why people take you seriously i have no clue

 

[KAC]

Don't worry. The OP has got bored and left the forum

 

[Orla_marketing]

I agree with @JamieSilman's advice.
Are you getting website hits that don't convert? I looked at your website. Perhaps, it's just me, but it seems odd for an accountancy firm that you only have a mobile phone. You say further down that you are a family business with 15 years experience. Also, you have no profiles listed. Profiles linked to linkedin would create confidence.

 

[Kevin Davison]

So between May - Aug (4 months) you only got 881 total visitors - ok, you consider that a triumph as far as your concerned, but its small potatoes.

My sites get upto 2800 + visitors a day - a day, probably say 25k of our total traffic tranfers from our blog

Is your blog in a specific niche with an audience radius of around 100 miles? Your trying to compare apples with oranges. Unless your blog is targeting a market as narrow as OP's, it makes no sense to compare them.

Sigh.

 

[bogdy23]

If you want them now than go for facebook. Linkedin is very good but not so easy you have to do a lot of work cash rich time poor time rich cash poor you`ve heard about this. I don`t think an accountant has time to write articles that are interesting .Than diversify your sources traffic sources. So in conclusion now Facebook if you have time on your hand linkedin or the cheap man option SEO wich will take time and money just like facebook but you have to go through it to belive it