blogging for accountants & advisors
TRANSCRIPT
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BLOGGING FORACCOUNTANTS & ADVISORS
Generating Leads and Positioning Yourselfas an Authority
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BLOGGING FORACCOUNTANTS & ADVISORS
‣ Michael ‘MC’ Carter ‣ Founder & Managing Director of
Practice Paradox (PARADOX) ‣ Co-Founder of Business Fitness 2001 ‣ Founded PARADOX 2010 ‣ Pioneer in modern marketing for accountants ‣ Inch-wide, mile deep focus in this area ‣ Not ‘practice management’ advisors
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BLOGGING FORACCOUNTANTS & ADVISORS
‣ Pioneer in modern marketing for accountants ‣ Content-driven marketing ‣ Thought leadership positioning ‣ Blogging ‣ Social media ‣ Marketing automation
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TODAY‣ For the past decade, “Growth” has been a Top 5
challenge for firms each year in the Good, Bad,
Ugly survey conducted by Business Fitness: ‣ For 7 of those years it’s been the
No.1 challenge cited by firms surveyed. ‣ 45% of firms are focusing on marketing/selling
their additional services in 2016 ‣ 84% of firms believe that for accountants to
survive they must provide advisory services(in addition to compliance)
WHY THIS TOPIC
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The Value-Add Chasm
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The Accounting Profession
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What makes the difference?
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The ability to communicate value
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®⤵THE ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE VALUEIS YOUR FOOTBRIDGE ACROSS THE VALUE-ADD CHASM
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POLL 1 ‣ Do you currently publish blog posts? ‣ No. Never have. ‣ Yes, but only a few times. ‣ Yes, but sporadically. ‣ Yes, around 1 per month. ‣ Yes, around 2 per month. ‣ Yes, we publish 3 or more posts each month.
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POLL 2 ‣ What do you want to achieve through your blogging? ‣ Generate leads ‣ Position myself / our firm as an authority ‣ Get our name our there ‣ Add value to our clients and prospects ‣ Attract potential employees ‣ Not sure ‣ Other
Select all that apply
WHY IT’S CRUCIAL
BLOGGING‣ Effective blogging: ‣ Grows your firm’s online presence ‣ Generates targeted traffic to your website ‣ i.e. people who are searching on the topics
you are writing about and are expert in ‣ Grows your marketing database ‣ Boosts your website’s Google rankings ‣ Esp. when done in ‘SEO savvy’ way
‣ Positions you as an authority ‣ Attracts your ideal types of clients ‣ Attracts other opportunities (esp. media) ‣ Evergreen content works 24/7, 365 days ‣ Blogs are more permanent than emails
WHY IT’S CRUCIAL
BLOGGING ‣ If you are not consistently blogging and publishing educational and influential content: ‣ You haven’t really “showed up” as far as
modern digital marketing is concerned ‣ You’ll be an “undercover operation”
compared to competitors who do ‣ Your website traffic will be much lower ‣ Your marketing database will be smaller ‣ You’ll be less of an authority to others ‣ You won’t be educating your clients as much ‣ You’ll be missing out on inbound leads
Web Pages versus Blog Posts• Content updated infrequently
= ‘static content’
• One-way monologue
• Formal
• Product/service focused
• ‘Brochureware’
• Every business has a website
Positions you as a SUPPLIER
• Content updated frequently= ‘dynamic content’
• Two-way dialogue
• Informal
• Topic/education focused
• Editorial tone
• Not every business has a blog
Positions you asTHOUGHT LEADER
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THOUGHT LEADER• One whose views on a subject are
considered authoritative and influential
• Someone who leads their field
• An expert to seek advice from
• A ‘guru’ people want to follow
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CREATE COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
noun [ mass noun ] Psychology
the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes,
especially as relating to behavioural decisions and attitude change.
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EDUCATE YOUR CLIENTS AND PROSPECTS ABOUT
PRINCIPLES AND STRATEGIES THEY NEED TO IMPLEMENT
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HOW DO YOU MEASURE YOUR BLOGGING EFFECTIVENESS?
1. Google Rankings 2. Website traffic
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A value-add service you provide
The PRINCIPLES the service is based on
The GAINS of implementing
The PAIN of not implementing
• Before anyone purchases advisory services:
• They must see a GAP in their lives
• This makes them feel uncomfortable
• Your service is then the ‘bridge’ they need
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People who are ‘comfortable’ do not buy
FIND A NON-OBVIOUS ANGLE• Don’t tell people what they already know
• Look for a contrarian angle
• You want them to think, “What the…?”
• Intrigue and surprise are crucial
• This starts with the headline(which we’ll explore later)
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ANATOMY OF A GREAT BLOG POST
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1. Great topic • Specific • Relevant to target audience • Timely to target audience
2. Non-obvious or contrarian angle 3. Great headline
• Grabs attention • Intrigues • Helps your SEO
4. Striking, supporting image
4. Well-written • Write as you speak: Conversational • Write to ONE person, not a group
• “You” not “all of you” • Use “you” and “your” far more
than you use “we”, “us” • Editorial in tone, not advertorial • Write in benefits not features
5. Well-formatted for easy reading
IF YOU ONLY EVER BLOG ABOUT YOUR CORE YOU WILL FOREVER BE CONSIDERED A BORE
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IF YOU ONLY EVER BLOG ABOUT YOUR CORE YOU WILL FOREVER BE CONSIDERED A BORE
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1. Avoid technical, dry content
• Don’t teach them tax
• Don’t teach them bookkeeping
• Don’t teach them things they’d expect you to be handling such as deductions available — they PAY YOU to look after that stuff, they don’t want to READ about it
IF YOU ONLY EVER BLOG ABOUT YOUR CORE YOU WILL FOREVER BE CONSIDERED A BORE
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2. You are NOT writing for your peers — You are not trying to impress other people (peers) with your technical knowledge
• Write for PERSONAS not PEERS
• i.e. for your target market
• If you write for your peers the content is likely to be too technical and above the heads of your target audience
IF YOU ONLY EVER BLOG ABOUT YOUR CORE YOU WILL FOREVER BE CONSIDERED A BORE
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3. Write about topics around the periphery of your core
• LEAD your readers to a better place
• TEACH them
• INSPIRE and EXCITE them — within your tone of voice — you still have to sound like YOU
• This requires you to write about what excites YOU
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Other things you care about
Related to what you do
The core of what you do
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POLL 3 ‣ Challenges you experience with blogging include: ‣ Finding the time to write articles ‣ Having the skills to write good articles ‣ Knowing which topics to write about ‣ The overall strategy for blogging ‣ SEO aspects of blogging ‣ Techie aspects of publishing blog posts ‣ Getting people to read our blog posts ‣ Other
Select all that apply
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GETTING PEOPLE TO READ YOUR BLOG POSTS
• Promote them via email broadcasts
• Promote them via social media
• Continue to promote evergreen postsat recurring intervals in social media
• Promote them in your email signatures
PLANNING YOUR CONTENT• Content Plan or Editorial Calendar:
• Which topics?
• When?
• Who will write?
• Article objective?
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• SEO target phrase?
• Image ideas?
• Who will edit/polish?
• Who will publish?
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TIME REQUIRED PER BLOG POSTTime required
Planning — Thinking of an article topic 15 mins
Writing — Write article draft 60 mins
Polishing — Revise and improve article draft 30mins
Writing — Create a good headline for the article 15 mins
Searching — Search for a good support image 30 mins
Graphics — Resize and possibly edit the image 15 mins
Publishing — Load the blog post into your website (CMS) 30 mins
Promoting — Promote blog post in social media 15 mins
Promoting — Promote blog post via email broadcast 30 mins
4 HOURS
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WHAT IS THE OPPORTUNITY COST TO YOU OF 4 HOURS?
Hourly rate
Opportunity cost
2 hours of Principal / Partner time $250 $500
2 hours of marketing / support team time $50 $100
TOTAL OPPORTUNITY COST PER ARTICLE $600
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WHAT IF THAT COULD ALL BE DONE FOR YOU?
AND BY SOMEONE WHO WILL WRITE BETTER ARTICLES THAN YOU’RE
LIKELY TO CREATE?
PARADOX’S BLOG ARTICLE SERVICE WILL HANDLE ALL THIS FOR YOU
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HERE’S HOW OUR BLOG ARTICLE SERVICE WORKS FOR YOUDone for you
We think of the article topics (and we take requests!) ✓We write the articles — industry specialist copywriters ✓We create three different headlines to choose from ✓We create 5 different images to choose from for each article ✓We publish the article to your website’s blog for you ✓We promote the blog post for you in your social media ✓A BETTER RESULT PLUS TIME SAVED FOR YOU OF APPROX. 4 HOURS
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BLOG ARTICLE SERVICE PRICING
Monthly(AUD ex. GST)
1 Article per month $450
2 Articles per month $750
TODAY’S OFFER — ONLY FOR FIRST 12 FIRMS
2 Articles per month for price of 1 Arcticle per month
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[email protected] ARTICLE SERVICE PRICING
TODAY’S OFFER — ONLY FOR FIRST 12 FIRMS
2 Articles per month for price of 1 Article per month
‣ Sign up for $450 AUD / month serviceand receive the $750 / month service
‣ 2 Articles fior the price of 1 Article each month ‣ 12 month x $300 = $3,600 AUD saving ‣ ADDITIONAL SAVINGS AVAILABLE ‣ Purchase 12 months in advance ‣ Pay for only 10 months ‣ $4,500 AUD (ex GST) up-front ‣ Equates to a 50% discount on 2 Articles service