Blogs as the Ultimate FAQ page: the Holy Grail of Marketing for Tax & Accounting Professionals

From the May 2012 Issue.

I’ve publicly called blogging a potential holy grail of marketing for CPA. That might sound sensationalized, but it’s not. See, what works for marketing today is the same formula that worked 50 years ago before CPAs could advertise and long before there was ever an Internet.

Visibility + Credibility + Reassurance = New & Repeat Business

Visibility: You’ve got to be found. Word of mouth still reigns just like it always has. Fortunately (or not) mouths are a lot bigger now with the social Web.

Credibility: When people find you, they need evidence that you’re trustworthy and capable. You saying so isn’t enough: it’s got to be demonstrated by you, and echoed by third parties.

Reassurance: When someone buys from you, and every day thereafter, they want to be confident in their decision. When they lose that confidence, they move on.

Expertise is the best way to accomplish all three. Like speeches or articles, blogging has terrific potential to distinguish you as an expert. And exponentially more people can see your work; some will subscribe to your content updates (replace pesky, expensive newsletters) while your content also perpetually attracts Web searchers.

Many authors use their blog as an easy-to-search intellectual capital archive of their past content. I tapped some of my past posts for this very article. Also, I often forward posts to prospects or referral sources—they offer a good reason to follow up with someone I’ve just met.

Think about how sending a post you’d already written about whatever you just discussed will underscore your expertise in a complex topic. Suddenly your claim of knowledge is backed with evidence. And for CPAs with a specialty, there’s no greater demonstration of subject-matter expertise and passion than a well-regarded blog dedicated to your niche.

Blog writing is shorter and less formal than traditional articles. View a blog as a solid FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section of your website, not a QWWYWA (Questions We Wish You Would Ask) page that is a thinly veiled sales page, usually regurgitating a firm’s brochure language.

A blog should provide content that addresses technical questions or issues that your clients struggle with and seek information about. It’s better to be micro, not general, in how you field these questions or issues. Cover things like: FIFO vs LIFO, dealing with asset disposal, treatment of donations, inventory woes, and repairing financial stability before seeking capital.

The biggest mistake I see with most of the accounting blogs out there is that the bloggers are dumbing down their content way too much. If you actually want business owners to read it, write it for the executive-level person, not the green bookkeeper. Content at the 101 level won’t hold a sophisticated business owner’s attention at all. Yet the new entrepreneur or novice bookkeeper will certainly rise to read the sophisticated, executive-level stuff.

Think about how no one, not even the newbies, want to attend the “beginner” class at a conference, everyone piles into the advanced track. We want to skip ahead to the good stuff. So do your readers. Post for them; post and write strategically.

Another mistake I see is writing on obvious stuff like record retention and mileage rates. A rule of thumb is that if you can search and find info out there already, you shouldn’t write it anew. If you’re compelled to share that info, just link to an existing article giving the original source credit for a great piece.

Focus the bulk of your energy on providing content that isn’t already on other financial websites. Or if you find info out there but think you can add information to make it even more valuable or more relevant to your particular readers, then link to it along with your thoughts; this is called “continuing the conversation.”