As an accountant, bookkeeper or outsourced CFO trying to grow your practice, the number one thing that you need to do is be seen by your prospects. And not just any old prospects – if you want to scale your practice to success, you need to capture the attention of your ideal clients. However, that’s pretty difficult to do when you don’t know where they hang out.
So how can you be sure if you’re showing up in the right place and using the right platforms? Fortunately, there are several steps you can take to work out where you should be showing up.
Who is Your Ideal Client?
Before you can work out where your ideal client hangs out, you need to get crystal clear on who they are. Otherwise, you’re taking a stab in the dark and the chances are, you’ll miss.
A good client is someone who:
– Values your services
– Will achieve a transformation by working with you
– Pays you well
– You like and get along with
Use these criteria to identify ideal clients, and then once you find the sweet spot you can go ahead and start doing some research on where they hang out.
Industry Influencers
You can learn a lot from industry influencers, not least where your ideal clients hang out.
Do some research and identify prominent influencers for your target market. For example, if you were looking to reach coaches and consultants such as myself, Tony Robbins would be a good creator to start with.
Find out where these influencers focus their efforts. Where are they most visible? Where do they spend the most time? Identify their preferred platforms and then use them to your advantage.
This is a really useful strategy because influencers’ entire careers depend on them using the right platforms to reach their ideal audience. They’ve done the hard work already, so learn from them.
Successful Competitors
Another great way to find your ideal audience online is to study your competitors. However, there is a caveat to this: only the ones who are performing well. You won’t learn much from an accountant with a handful of posts and followers, but you can gain a valuable insight from the ones who are successfully making a name for themselves in your niche.
Well-known competitors who share your target audience have already figured out which platforms work best, so skip the trial and error and follow their lead.
Conferences
Of course, attending conferences hasn’t been possible for most of us for quite some time now, but under normal circumstances conferences can be an excellent place to reach your ideal clients.
Keep an eye on conferences which are designed specifically for your ideal client. For example, I get a stand at Accountex every year and make sure that I have the opportunity to speak on stage, too. This conference is a congregation of 8,000+ of my ideal audience members, so it’s a fantastic place to reach them in person.
Joint Venture Partnerships
A joint venture partnership could really help you to grow your audience and reach new prospects. By partnering with another business who serves your ideal client but isn’t a competitor, you can reach new audience members and quickly gain their trust. Since you’re showing up as a partner of someone who your prospects already like and trust, you will immediately have more authority in their eyes than if they simply stumbled across your profile.
When looking for a joint venture partnership, try to find a business that complements your own and shares your brand values.
For example, a few years ago I delivered a webinar with Practice Ignition. It’s an app that automates client onboarding and so as a marketing coach who helps accountants and bookkeepers land high value clients, our interests and audiences most definitely overlap.
Summary
Finding out where your ideal clients hang out isn’t rocket science – in fact, it’s far from it. It simply requires forethought and research to discover which platforms will give you the most opportunity to reach the right prospects. Once you get clear on who your ideal client is, you need to study industry influencers and well-known competitors within your niche to figure out which online platforms will work best. Remember to keep an eye out for joint venture partnerships, too, and once the world returns to normal don’t overlook the power of conferences – there’s nothing quite like having thousands of prospects physically in one place!
