Accountants are creating content like never before. Your three enemies to marketing – fear, perfection, and time – have been wiped out. You have bigger things to fear, no one cares if your blog post is perfect, and you’re just making time wherever you can find it, because you have to.
This content you’re creating goes beyond just a few blog posts. You’re creating resource centres, setting up YouTube channels, building video libraries, creating online courses. (Read about turning your content into assets)
You are investing in the future of your firm.
And the numbers are proving it.
Already – less than a month in – we’re seeing the accounting firms who are creating fresh, continuous content have better and higher marketing numbers than ever.
Some of them are getting new business, signing proposals right and left. Even those who haven’t signed any new business have seen the power of their content to increase their marketing numbers. Bounce rates going down, website page views going up, social numbers through the roof.
Here are a few examples. These are live, real examples from March 2020 for three different accounting firms.
These are accountants we’ve been working with for at least 1-2 years. Who have been putting out content consistently, updating their website, and using social media. But now they’ve stepped up their own activity at a higher level. And their numbers have directly gone up, after only a few weeks.
This isn’t surprising to us. We’ve never failed to see this level of results when accountants 1) create and share their own content consistently, 2) are personally involved in their own marketing, and 3) get help in areas they aren’t as familiar with.
It’s always been a partnership – we don’t believe in doing marketing for accountants, but with you. And you can see from just these few examples why being invested in your own marketing matters so much.
Why is this?
Because what your prospects want the most – what they’ve always wanted – is to hear what you think.
They want to hear your take on things. They need to be reassured, encouraged, reminded you know what you’re doing. Even if all these COVID-19 rules and regulations are new to you, they can see you interpreting them as quickly as you can. Sharing videos, sending emails, writing blog posts, going live on Facebook. They’re building trust at top speeds, and usually it takes months if not years. It doesn’t usually feel urgent. But it is now: and the accountants who are sharing their own take on things, consistently, are seeing more reach than ever.
Not just better numbers: more new clients
It’s not just building good numbers, and more views. The content you create now is literally building leads for the future – but it can also deliver new clients to you today. Listen to these words from Andy, from Complete HQ (we literally copied and pasted what he sent us in Slack…as you can see.)
“We’ve signed over £21k worth of work in the past two weeks because of other accountants who aren’t helping their clients”
“So, when we first chatted all those months ago (long before you realised just how cool I was) I had LOOSE goals for the end of March. 100 clients, drive 10 leads via socials & website. SO. Today’s the big day. Right now I have 120 clients (WINNER), 7 leads through social & website AND. Thanks to all of the accountants around me being completely useless for businesses right now I’ve signed £21,760 in new clients, total. £7,329 of that was quoted pre-corona, but they umm’d and ahhh’d. Then realised over past couple of weeks how shit their accountants were (and I had them included in my daily emails/vids) and were like, OMG can we be friends? A big cheers to shit accountants (those numbers aren’t in the above, so that’s like an extra £1,000 of monthly fees YEA) So. From me and all my team (that’s me). MEGA THANKS for all your help since whenever it was that we started. SMASHED IT MATE. LADS.”
Andy graduated from PF’s 12-week Accelerator course last December.
All the clients whose results we’ve shown above took the Accelerator course – at least once. Some of them twice or three times.
Normally we’d say, don’t join Accelerator if you don’t have time. But it looks like you’ve all realised it’s just a matter of where you put your time.
Now, for some of you things feel so uncertain you’re being extra careful about what you invest in. And we get that. If you are truly afraid for the future of your firm, and can’t invest anything right now, we get it. (You can apply to win a free space though – so definitely do that! Details below.)
But we know, as well, things are changing continuously. We’re already seeing accountants starting to breathe a little, starting to book meetings in advance instead of taking four calls at a time until midnight.
So, if you were thinking of it anyway (or you are now), here you go.
If you need a quick reminder of what it is, It runs over a period of 12 weeks, starting at the end of May, and includes:
- Weekly live Zoom sessions on a different topic of marketing
- “Forever access” to the recordings so you can listen and re-listen when you need it
- Sessions that stack on each other, in order, so your marketing is more structured (not random)
- Specific feedback on every piece of content you create whilst on Accelerator
- Private Slack group for conversations with your group members and the PF team
- Mini website review
- One on one strategy call with Karen or the team at any point during the course
The course has been delivered by PF for over five years, and we’ve fine tuned it to the core things you must have in your content marketing. The new series (we’re trying to make it sound cool, like Accountantflix or something) on Thursday 28th May 2020.
The reason the accountants who have gone through the course are getting such great results right now is because they are implementing what they learned. We told them marketing wasn’t something you hand off to someone else: you have to be personally involved. They wrote a few blog posts, maybe recorded a video or two whilst on the course. And when this crisis began and their clients were panicking and they needed information fast, these accountants remembered what they’d learned and put it into practice, fast.
They went live on Instagram even though it was 6am and they were in a hoodie and a child was crying in the background. They sent out the email even though the email header wasn’t perfect (or there wasn’t one at all). They set up a Facebook group as a fast way to stay in touch with clients. They ran webinars (even though they’d never done one before) because their clients needed not only information, but their take on that information. Their personality. Their style. Their tone. And for some that included their kitchen, their dog running around in the background, their fast-growing beard.
It’s what your prospects have always wanted: humanity, personality, authenticity, authority.
Be real, and share what you know.
Accelerator: no staged pricing
No staged pricing: just the early-early bird for everyone
Normally we have this ‘staged’ sort of pricing. It starts at £395 for one space, or £795 for unlimited (your entire team). And then this pricing goes up and up, every few weeks, to encourage people to sign up sooner rather than later.
We realise no matter how things are (or aren’t) going in your firm right now, it’s hard to plan. Even though you WANT to join accelerator, you don’t want to be penalised for joining next week as opposed to this week.
And we’re all in the same boat. So, we’re making sure that’s reflected now, and are keeping the prices for this round of Accelerator to the lowest it ever is, and not increase it.
We created a waiting list a while back – the idea was that everyone on the wait list would get the lowest prices, but if not, you might miss them. Well, we’re continuing to use the waiting list just to make sure that those who really want a space get one (it’s capped at 50), but not to worry. If you sign up straight away you get the lowest price…and if you wait a little longer, you’ll get the lowest price. Everyone on the same page.
Make sure you’re on the waiting list
Or, you can apply to win a free space (there are 5 available). Read on.
GOLDEN TICKET: Win a free space on the Accelerator
We’re also going to GIVE AWAY five spaces on the Accelerator.
There are two ways you can win this free space:
- Look out for the golden ticket: If you attended one of our Creativity events, we’ll be sending you a card thanking you for coming. Look out for the ‘golden ticket’ inside!
- Send us a video saying why you’d like the free space: If you really, really want to join Accelerator but you weren’t at the creativity events, you can still win a free space. All you have to do is upload a short video explaining why you’d like to be part of Accelerator, and how it would help you create more and better content for your firm. Here’s what to do:
- Pick up your phone
- Go to video, and press record
- Tell us why you’d love to win the Accelerator free space
- Keep it around 3 minutes
- Post your video to the PF Marketing Community facebook group
That’s it! Simples. No perfection, no retakes required. Just share your thoughts with us and we’ll review them and announce the winners in the Facebook group!
More details about golden tickets here
You’re doing great. Keep going
Regardless of whether you simply keep creating content on your own, or join Accelerator, or get a little help here and there – we salute you. Like many people, accountants are having to step up to things you weren’t so familiar or comfortable with before: and you’re finding to your surprise that you are actually good at it. Or it’s not quite so scary. And best of all, your clients (and prospects too!) LOVE it.
Here’s a video from Ian Butler of Golding Accountancy, who has been recording Facebook live videos for the first time ever. He recorded this off the cuff within the GoProposal facebook community and with his permission we share it with you. “I’m doing loads of videos all of a sudden! I didn’t like doing videos. I blame James for making me do videos, and Karen at PF, thanks Karen by the way, and Camilla and the rest of the team kept telling me I had to do them…BUT…clients are loving it. And, I also saw today people were saying ‘Oh we’re getting loads of lovely little calls from people, saying how great we are. And I thought, well I’m not getting those. Well, we are now! Everyone’s loving it! So, all the whole team, keep telling your clients what the hell you’re doing, how we can help, and they. will. LOVE YOU FOR IT.”
Get on the Accelerator waiting list today. We’ll email you soon.