Yesterday, on the train on my way home from London, I sat and read the Evening Standard. It wasn’t a specific action I had chosen to take, but as I was walking past the vendor he asked if I would like a copy. By chance he put some information in front of me in the form of a newspaper and I chose to read it. In fact, because I had 30 minutes of travel time, and no phone battery, the newspaper had my undivided attention.

So why do I share this with you? Well to start with, I wasn’t looking for a newspaper to read. Secondly, I was given the opportunity to read said paper, so I did. Thirdly, I learnt some information and came across some ideas I hadn’t seen before.

And this is the lesson about content marketing that I want to share with you today. If you create content, people will read it. Even if they hadn’t previously planned on doing so.

If you don’t create content, then you will not have people reading your insights, thoughts and expertise.

I remember one of my mentors saying to me a few years back, you need to think of your business as a media company.

 

Content Creation And Distribution

What he meant by this is that you need to create and distribute content. Like they do in a newspaper. On radio. On TV.

Newspaper = Articles on LinkedIn, blogs on your website, guest blogging
Distribution =  Email Marketing, FB Advertising and Organic Social Media

Radio = Podcasts
Distribution = ITunes, Email, Social Media

Television = YouTube, Facebook Live, and coming soon LinkedIn Video
Distribution = Email Marketing, Social Media, LinkedIn Groups

Years ago the only way to get your accounting firm in front of prospects was through the Yellow Pages, leaflet drops or parish magazines. Whilst I am still a fan of the latter two options, accounting firms now need to use content marketing and distribution en mass.
Over the past 8 years of being in business content creation has been the catalyst of success for my clients.

Content needs to be created and seen everywhere your ideal client is, and across a variety of different mediums.

 

It is as simple as that.

I did not actively go into a newsagent looking for a newspaper. I was rushing past a vendor and he gave me one to read. This is how we now consume information.

We are scrolling on our LinkedIn timeline, not necessarily searching for a specific piece of content, yet we can stumble across something that catches our eye and we read it.

We are skimming our Facebook feed and an advert pops up, giving information on something you were searching for a few weeks ago, but then forgot about. It reminds you and you hop on to Amazon to buy it.We are on Twitter chatting to our friends and then we see an interesting article, we click and the next thing we know an hour of reading has gone by.

We are on Twitter chatting to our friends and then we see an interesting article, we click and the next thing we know an hour of reading has gone by.

My point here is that you need to create content. It is no longer an option for your accounting firm. You need to think of yourself as a media business that creates and distributes content. There is not an industry that is an exception to this rule.

 

If you don’t start thinking like a media company and prioritise content creation in your firm, you are going to lose.

 

Of course, once you have decided to embrace content marketing, you then need to ask yourself “How do I create content that my target audience would choose to read over watching cat videos?”.

Which I will cover in another blog over the coming days. ____________________________________________________________________

To download our ebook and get a list of 100 marketing ideas for your accounting practice click here for the 100 Ways To Market Your Accounting Firm

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What do we do at TwentyTwo?

At TwentyTwo Agency we specialise in helping you create a strategy, attract ideal prospects, convert them into clients and get remembered and referred. Our specialities include content marketing, blog writing, email newsletter management and social media management. We are a content marketing and digital experience agency for accounting firms. We ensure you get remembered, recommended and referred.

To find out if we can help you, reach out to our team by emailing [email protected]