It’s always a great feeling when you generate new leads in your accountancy firm from your marketing.
But a lead doesn’t equal a sale (at least not yet!).
So what can you do to convert leads into paying clients?
Follow up, follow up and follow up more
One of the biggest mistakes I see accountants make when generating leads is not following up with leads on a regular basis. Following up once, or once a year, is not enough these days.
As a minimum, you need to follow up with your leads once a month and preferably more.
Remember, prospects will likely need to hear from you many times before they do business with you. (Karen has an entire session of the Content Marketer programme on follow up alone, for this reason!)
What do you say in your follow up?
The next question accountants often ask is ‘what do I say when I follow up with leads?’
Well, here’s the beauty of content marketing. If you’re already creating content on a regular basis (which hopefully you are), then you can use the content you create as a way to follow up with your leads.
This is effective because:
- Now you have a good reason to follow up with your leads
- Any new content you create and share will build trust with your leads
- The content can do the selling for you
For example, have you created a new blog post, video, guide, webinar or anything else that is going to be interesting and valuable to your target audience? Great! Then don’t just post it on your website and that’s all… Be sure to, as a minimum, share it with your leads as well.
One way this can be done is by sending an email to all your leads once a month with your latest and best content. You don’t even need to have any fancy emails with complicated design. Usually the more simple your email looks, the better engagement and results you will get from it.
By following up with your leads at least once a month with your best and latest content, your leads remember who you are, grow in their trust with you and build a stronger relationship with you.
How can you follow up with your leads?
One of the most effective ways to follow up with leads is through email marketing. As I mentioned above, you can send your latest and best content to your leads by using email marketing software (such as Mailchimp, Infusionsoft, ConvertKit, Boma Marketing, etc).
However, you don’t have to limit your follow-up to using email only.
The principle is to follow up and have multiple touch points with your leads and there are a lot of ways you do this, in addition to email.
Here are a few ideas:
Follow up on social media
Did you know you can upload a list of your leads into social media channels such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and then retarget those people with new content you’ve created?
You can spend as little as £2 to £5 to get your content in front of hundreds if not thousands of your leads in a day or two. It’s very cost effective and a great way to build up trust.
We have one of our clients that does this for almost every new blog post or video they create, and they’re building trust with their leads. It’s gone a long way in helping them win more clients.
Follow up on Facebook Messenger
Another way you can follow up with leads is through Facebook Messenger. Facebook Messenger works similar to email marketing, but the main difference right now, is that because it’s a messaging app, Facebook Messages usually get much higher opens and clicks.
You can also create Facebook bots to automatically respond to questions your leads are asking or send them any other relevant content you’ve created.
If you’re interested in learning more about Facebook bots, then sign up for our Facebook Bots social media training webinar coming up early next year.
Follow up on social media
Another great way to follow up with leads, is to connect with them on social media and then post daily social media updates.
On the emails you send to leads, you can provide links to your different social media channels, for them to stay in touch with you.
Or, you can have a look through your list of leads and add any relevant people on LinkedIn (or any other social media channels of your choice) to stay connected with them outside of email.
By connecting to your leads on social media, it allows you to stay in touch with them each day through social media updates. That way, they can continue to learn about you, your accountancy firm, what you do, what makes you unique and the value you provide through content.
Another way you can increase your conversions, is by changing the selling environment. Although email marketing is great to follow up with your leads and build trust, it might not be the best place to get people to buy from you directly.
Instead, you can use email marketing to change the selling environment, by inviting them to an online webinar, an upcoming event or opportunity to book a one-on-one meeting with you.
This new environment provides you with a much better medium to speak to your leads directly about an issue or problem they might be facing that you can help them with.
It’s also easier to build rapport, trust and likability with your leads through events, webinars and one-on-one meetings. You can even answer any questions they might have right there and then.
When a business chooses a new accountancy firm to work with, it’s not a decision that is taken lightly. As you can see, building up trust is very important to get them to make a buying decision.
One way you can build up trust is by providing one-off services where business owners can purchase something smaller without making a full commitment of using a new accountancy firm. Examples of this, could be getting a prospect to hire you for some training or consultation.
When they purchase something smaller and are happy with the purchase, it’s much easier for them to then buy something bigger (like full accountancy services).
The final thing you can do to increase your sales conversions is to be patient and consistent. As we’ve learned, converting leads into clients, requires a lot of trust building, following up and connecting on multiple levels over a period of time.
The best thing you can do is be consistent with your marketing. Create content regularly, follow up regularly and keep adding multiple touch points to build trust with your leads and prospects.
It’s important to note that no matter where your leads come from (even if they come from referrals or other places outside of social media), everything we’ve spoken about above will be relevant and helpful for you to increase your conversions.
To get help with lead generation for your accountancy firm (either through one-on-one training, or done for you services) then arrange a free call with me now.
About the Author
Ashley Davis is the Social Media Director at The Profitable Firm and also works with small to medium sized businesses at Skyline Social.