When it comes to marketing for accounting firms, one of the biggest factors that's going to determine which tactics work best is figuring out if you're a niche firm or a generalist firm. It might sound simple, but most of the rest of your marketing strategies will ultimately flow from that decision.
What 'type' of accounting niche are you?
An accounting firm can be niched around an industry. You could say, "We work with dentists or doctors." A niche can also be a philosophy — "We work with EOS companies as their fractional CFO." A niche could even be a unique approach: "We don't work with clients who don't do X."
Ultimately, that means you're saying no to a lot of clients who don't fit your specific criteria. And when we say criteria, we mean a narrow criteria.
You can say "We'd like to work with anyone in the professional services, trades, and restaurants — and we don't work with lawyers." That's great.
"We work with ALL small businesses," unfortunately, is not a niche. We hear this a lot. Businesses will tell us, "Yeah, we don't have to be limited to just our city or state. We can work with anyone anywhere."
This tactic does not work for most accounting firms.
Here's the reality from a marketing perspective: it's extremely difficult for a generalist firm to compete in a wide geographic area. It's also a waste of money. The tactics needed, the investment required, and the amount of time and energy you'd spend to compete nationally make it not worth it.
If you're a generalist firm, your local area is your niche
For the rest of you: you're a generalist firm. And we're going to say this clearly — if you're a generalist firm, your local area is your de facto niche. That's the reality.
That's actually a good thing. Now you know, and you can act on it.
The tactics you pursue are generally going to align with local SEO work. You want to show up in searches for "accountant near me" or "accounting firm in [your city]." It doesn't make sense for you to try to rank for "best bookkeeping practices for dentists" on a national level. There's too much noise and you don't have the defined expertise — at least not one the internet recognizes yet.
Be focused locally offline as well
You're better off focusing on local SEO, getting involved in local networking events, or connecting with your chamber of commerce to speak to folks in your area once a quarter. There are many ways to approach marketing from a local perspective.
Marketing tactics for niche accounting firms
If you're a niche firm, you can compete on a much wider scale. Let's use the dentist example: you do accounting for dentists. You want to compete nationally for that term.
In some circumstances, it may make sense to double-niche — say, accounting for dentists in California. If the broader niche doesn't have enough people in it, double-niching can help you dominate a more targeted segment. But if your niche is already narrow, going even narrower may limit you too much.
The rule of thumb for defining an accounting firm niche
There are two things you want to confirm when defining your niche:
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Are there enough potential customers? For us, that means somewhere between 2,000 and 20,000 potential clients. More than 20,000 and it's not really a niche anymore — it's too broad. Between 2,000 and 20,000 is the sweet spot.
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Are there competitors in your niche? You want to see between 20 and 200 competitors. If there are no competitors, that's often a red flag — it may mean the niche has been tried and doesn't have enough money in it, or that potential clients approach the problem differently. If there are more than 200 competitors, breaking through the noise is going to be very slow and expensive.
You have your niche — what now?
Once you've defined your niche, you can pursue tactics built around it: blog articles optimized for niche-specific search terms, going on podcasts your niche audience listens to, attending or sponsoring conferences in that industry.
All of these should be built around your niche, especially if it involves a specific industry.
A market is not the same as a niche, and there are ways to build a niche that aren't as straightforward as "we do accounting for dentists." But for the purposes of getting started, that's the classic model.
If you go in a different direction, it takes more thoughtfulness about how you're going to position and market yourself. That's the balancing act — and for that, you'll want to talk to a marketing professional who specializes in this space.