Let’s face it: whether we’re talking with our friends about our favorite restaurant, dentist, or shopping brand—collective word of mouth significantly impacts the reputations and bottom lines of businesses of all sizes. This applies to financial firms, CPA consultancies, and every accounting practice out there. Your brand reputation matters for your lead generation and SEO strategy.  Social media has amplified “word of mouth” marketing. This is where UGC SEO (user-generated content SEO) can have a powerful impact. Your best UGC creator may be your own team members. Recognize this collective power and encourage employees to become “brand ambassadors” and help spread the word.

By harnessing the authentic voices of your employees, you can boost your firm’s search rankings and enhance your brand visibility. But, surprisingly, many financial firms often overlook the role employees can play in influencing the clients they’re trying to connect with. But, when employees speak—your prospects listen. So, here are three ways to turn your team into a marketing machine.

1.     Communicate your firm’s vision. 

To maximize the impact of UGC SEO, start by ensuring that your employees understand the firm’s vision, mission, and core values. You want everyone on your team to understand the value and benefits you provide to your clients—and how their roles contribute to client success. That means boldly explaining your company’s vision and mission to your employees.

Be clear about where your team fits in your culture and the big picture, and help them see how their roles contribute to the overall success of your firm’s brand. Employees who feel important are more likely to be cheerleaders for your services.

2.     Encourage employees to share content for UGC SEO. 

Marketers highly prize UGC because it’s authentic, engaging, and often more relatable than polished marketing campaigns. Embrace UGC SEO by encouraging your employees to share posts about their work or create a venue for your team members to share on LinkedIn or the firm’s blog. Even recognizing their individual social posts (and reposting) can go a long way.  By showcasing client success stories or insights into your firm’s culture, your employees help humanize your brand and send strong signals to search engines. 

3.         Provide clear social media and compliance guidelines. 

While employee-generated content can boost UGC SEO, financial firms must navigate strict regulations. Encourage your employees to share, but give them the do’s and don’t’s of doing so. The recent M1 Finance LLC settlement highlights the risks when firms don’t properly supervise social media activity. Here’s what you need to know:

• Fair and Balanced Content: Under FINRA Rule 2210, all social media posts must be fair, balanced, and not omit material information. Don’t share any UGC that has exaggerated or misleading claims about returns and fees, violating these rules. Ensure your employees understand these guidelines.
• Supervision is Key: FINRA found that M1 failed to pre-approve and monitor influencer posts, resulting in an $850,000 fine. Your firm needs a strong review process for employee content, ensuring it meets compliance standards.
• Recordkeeping Requirements: Both the M1 and Cobra Trading cases show the importance of maintaining records of all social media communications. FINRA requires firms to archive these posts to comply with Exchange Act Rule 17a-4 and protect against regulatory issues.

By implementing clear social media guidelines and a strong supervisory process, your firm can leverage UGC SEO effectively while staying compliant, building trust, and avoiding costly fines. 

Embrace UGC SEO for Your Financial Firm

When employees feel valued and proud of their work, they’re excited to share their experiences—and this authentic content is exactly what potential clients want to see. By incorporating UGC SEO into your overall content and SEO strategy, your financial firm can boost its online visibility, enhance client trust, and differentiate itself in a crowded market. 

Tap into the power of your employees and energize them to boost your marketing efforts. 

Ready to power up your SEO efforts? As a specialized SEO consultant and financial copywriter, I can help you develop effective strategies that align with your brand’s goals and resonate with your target audience. Let’s chat about taking your firm’s digital presence to the next level.

Whether you’re a new accounting firm or established, small business owners face the same struggles when it comes to marketing. Marketing trends change, and you need to know where to invest your marketing budget to get the best ROI to grow your accounting services business. These marketing podcasts for small accounting firms and solo practices offer expert advice in bite-sized portions for the busy entrepreneur.

Tune In To Podcasts For Tips

Podcasts have grown in popularity over the past 5 years. Recent studies show that 51% of Americans ages 12 and over listen to podcasts, with 32% listening in the past month. Podcasts have become one of the easiest ways to consume valuable information from experts. Tune in anywhere at any time and listen to practical advice when it’s convenient for you.

How Do Marketing Podcasts Help Small Accounting Practices?

As a local practice, you are busy with the day-to-day operations of your accountancy. It’s hard to fit in learning everything about marketing or finding the time to read books on the subject. Marketing podcasts for small business owners provide you with:

• Insightful digital marketing trends.
• Interviews from marketing experts, leaders and leading brands.
• Simple tips you can apply to your own business immediately.
• Advice on how others have overcome the same marketing obstacles you face.

This year, staying afloat with current marketing trends is essential for small business owners. Marketing podcasts are an easy, convenient and free way to stay ahead of the competition and grow your business.

1. Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing is a weekly podcast offered by Social Media Examiner. Its 45-minute segments are hosted by Michael Stelzner and his team of social media marketing pros.  Each podcast focuses on social media trends and provides audiences with actionable information for their business. The advice on this podcast is essential if you are using social media to connect with your clients.

Recommended Episodes:

• Organic Facebook Content for Local Businesses: Building a Loyal Following
• Successful Facebook Ads on a Small Budget
• Organic Social: Content Marketing Ideas From a Pro

2. The Simply Marketing Show with Alison Teare

Alison Teare is a marketing expert, trainer and speaker. Her podcasts provide easy-to-use marketing advice geared towards small businesses. The podcasts consist of her own experiences and interviews with other marketing experts. I enjoy her podcasts because they are relatable and provide tips you can implement without a big budget.

Recommended Episodes:

• 3 Ways To Become More Visible Online
• How To Build Awesome Engagement on Facebook
• How To Create Emails Your Audience Wants To Open

3. Marketing Over Coffee

Marketing Over Coffee is a 20-minute-long podcast hosted by Event Hero’s VP of Marketing, John J. Wall, and Podcamp’s co-founder Christopher S. Penn. The podcast is conversational, and they cover topics like social media marketing, SEO, affiliate marketing, and other topics. They bring in industry experts to chat about marketing topics.

Recommended Episodes:

• Seth Godin on What To Do When It’s Your Turn
• Brendan Kane on Hook Points!
• Ann Handley on Everybody Writes

4. Online Marketing Made Easy

Online Marketing Made Easy is the podcast of Amy Porterfield, a well-known online marketing professional. This show is primarily geared towards small business owners and entrepreneurs. She breaks down complicated marketing strategies into manageable step-by-step pieces small business owners can put into action quickly to get results.

Recommended Episodes:

• 3 Free Organic Strategies to Grow Your Audience Quickly
• Landing Page Not Converting? Here’s What to Do
• 5 Unexpected Way To Rethink Your Content and Build Your Audience

5. Copyblogger FM

Copyblogger FM is the perfect podcast to improve your content marketing and writing skills. This weekly podcast covers marketing topics such as content marketing, email marketing and conversion optimization. Podcasts are pretty short, ranging from 15-35 minutes.

Recommended Episodes:

• The Advantage of Email Marketing
• Understanding the Lifecycles of Your Website
• When Is It Time To Bring in a Professional Copywriter?

Podcasts In A Nutshell

Finding great podcasts can be overwhelming. There are dozens of marketing podcasts with helpful advice for businesses. These 5 marketing podcasts will help you get started with actionable steps to help your marketing efforts this year.

The Next Step For Marketing Your Business

These podcasts are a great first step to learn marketing advice. But the demands of running a business can be time-consuming. How do you find the time to put it into action?

Consider working with an SEO consultant or using a digital cheat sheet like the Content Building Blueprint.

This easy-to-follow workbook guides you through five building blocks founded on my years of consulting, observation, and proven results in digital marketing. You’ll be able to fine-tune your content goals in one sitting and map out a straightforward path to reach them. No marketing experience is required! Get it today.

Digital Marketing Trends To Embrace This Year

Digital marketing trends are always changing.  But which ones should your financial firm invest your time and money into next year? Which ones are going to get you the most leads, conversions, and sales? These three digital marketing trends should be on your radar.

1. Glued to our phones

Mobile devices have made it easy to watch videos at any time and all the time.

The convenience and low cost of smartphones and tablets have made video always within reach. And people are watching a lot of videos.

Video is no longer optional

According to Buffer, more than 500 hours of videos are watched on YouTube each day. And that is just on YouTube. eMarketer reports that adults spend more than 7.5 hours on connected devices per day in the US.

People love videos, and marketers need to learn to love them, too.

More videos, more views, more customers

Why is video marketing so essential to brands? Check out these statistics.

• 89% of consumers say that they want more videos from brands. (Wyzowl)
• 88% of marketers report that video has improved their conversion rate. (Small Business Trends)
• 52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchase decisions. (Invodo)
• More than 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. (Statistica)
• People are 52% more likely to share video content than any other type of content. (Wyzowl)

People watch videos to answer their questions, learn how things work, and for advice. Video is the perfect content to connect with your customers and build trust. People are more likely to buy from brands they trust.

2. Voice search is quicker than typing

A.I. (artificial intelligence) technology has improved over the years, and as a result, voice search has become more popular.

How popular is voice search?

Currently, 66.4 million Americans, or over 25% of adults in the U.S., own a smart speaker. And, 31% of smartphone users worldwide use voice-activated search technology at least once a week.

According to Wordstream, here’s what the numbers tell us about voice search:

• One in five consumers (19%) have made a voice purchase through Amazon Echo or another digital home assistant, and another third (33 percent) plan to do so in the next year. (Walker Sands)
• 22% of U.S. smart speaker owners have purchased something using their devices. (Edison Research)
• 72% of people who own voice-activated speakers say that their devices are used as part of their daily routines. (Google)
• 55% of all American homes will own a smart speaker by 2022. (OC&C Strategy Consultants)

As AI technology continues to improve, we should expect smart speaker technology to improve in understanding voice search.

3. Interact with your clients

Companies have embraced content marketing with blogs, how-to guides, and videos. This static content brings value to consumers, but it doesn’t deliver engagement.

What content delivers the most engagement?

Anything that your audience can actively participate in. Calculators, pricing estimators, and interactive infographics are just some examples.

How can engagement help businesses?

Fully engaged customers are 4x more likely to appreciate brand messaging and 7x more likely to claim offers from a brand.  Increased customer engagement means more subscribers, clicks, and sales.

Keeping ahead of the competition

So, what does this mean for your firm’s marketing strategy?

The main takeaway is to embrace the new digital marketing trends and technologies and stay ahead of the competition. Be aware of the trends and find ways to try new ones.

Need help with your CPA firm’s content strategy? Let’s chat.

Do you feel like you are constantly throwing money at Facebook Ads that are not delivering results? Without a Facebook Ads strategy, it can be challenging (if not impossible) to get a return on investment (ROI) on your Facebook advertising.

You’re not alone. 62% of small businesses feel like their paid Facebook Ads are failing.

Why do so many small businesses feel like this?

Well, the Facebook landscape and how to use it effectively is always changing.

The Facebook algorithm (the secret formula behind posts, reach, and Ads) is never constant. And organic reach doesn’t have the same value as it did years ago.

But, with 2.6 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the biggest social network. Your business needs a presence and a Facebook Ads strategy to be effective and get leads and sales.

Where to start?

Create a Customer Persona

To start a Facebook Ads strategy, you need to know your audience. It is essential to define your audience or “customer persona.”

You probably have a rough idea of your ideal customers. They are generally the customers you have already attracted and converted.

If you are creating a new product or service, then your “customer persona,” maybe someone who is not already defined.

How many “customer personas” do you need?

Create a range of customer personas based on your ideal targets.

Think of things like age, gender, customer needs, demographics, and even values such as their opinions on matters related to your industry.

Key Point: Don’t make assumptions when creating a customer persona. Research and make sure each customer persona you’re targeting is interested in the product or service you offer.

Define Your Goals

You need goals to measure success with your Facebook Ads.

So, what are your goals?

What’s great about Facebook Ad Manager is that it can help you fine-tune the goals of your Facebook Ads.

Facebook Ad Objectives are broken down into 3 categories:

• Awareness: Generate interest in your brand and an understanding of what you offer.
• Consideration: Urge people to learn more information about your brand and your product or service.
• Conversions: Encourage people already interested in your business to buy or use your product or service.

What do you want from your Facebook Ad? Sales leads? App downloads? Brand Awareness?

Defining these goals will determine what type of Facebook Ad you need (video, collection ads, Facebook Stories, etc.) and what features to display.

Make a Content Marketing Plan

As said by digital marketing expert Neil Patel, “Social Marketing is different than traditional marketing.”

Facebook Ads are not like traditional ads you buy in your local newspaper.

You can’t just buy the ads and expect results. You need a content marketing plan to put forth a profitable Facebook Ads strategy.

Content Marketing is about building trust. When you create relevant, educational, and helpful content for your audience, you position your company as a trusted brand.

What does content marketing include?

• Educational articles
• Videos
• Blogs
• Infographics

Paid Ad campaigns need to combine with organic content marketing.

Organic content can build relationships with your brand, which will help your paid Facebook Ads encourage conversions.

Your Turn

Unfortunately, you can’t just create a Facebook Ad and hope it brings you leads and sales. Facebook Ad success requires a strategy.

If you want to get results, you need a Facebook Ads strategy that includes:

• Creating a Customer Persona
• Defining Your Goals
• Content Marketing

What’s your biggest struggle with Facebook Ads with right now?

Are you looking to level up your digital marketing skills?

Like the algorithms in Google, trends in digital marketing are always changing.

Whether you are a seasoned digital marketer or a beginner, you’ve got to stay up to date with the latest digital marketing certifications and training. No one wants to be left behind!

Luckily, there are many digital marketing courses and certifications that are free (or not too expensive). They can help you stay on top of new trends and learn the “tips and tricks” from digital marketing pros.

These 3 digital marketing resources make it easier to help you grow your business, traffic and your career.

1. Google

As a leader in the search engine market (89% of internet searches are on Google), it’s no surprise that Google offers its brand of digital marketing training.

Through Google Skillshare, you can check out a variety of training on Google Analytics, Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords), and Google Marketing Platform.

Noteworthy is the Google Ads certification.

If you work in the PPC industry (Pay-Per-Click), this is the certification to get! GoogleAds certification can give you an edge over the competition. Google Ads accreditation shows that you are an advanced Ads user and an expert in PPC advertising (and Google thinks so too).

Price: Free

Time Commitment: Varies between 1- 4.6 hours

2. Hubspot

HubSpot is a full platform of marketing, sales, customer service and CRM software.

Whether your company uses the HubSpot platform or not, HubSpot Academy is an essential resource of digital marketing training.

Ask yourself, “What am I looking to learn about digital marketing?” and then go to HubSpot. They probably have training on it (or a blog post, article, guide, white paper…you get the drift).

HubSpot has many different training courses and certifications for all aspects of digital marketing.

Training offered includes Inbound Marketing, Facebook Ads, SEO (search engine optimization), and Email marketing.

HubSpot certifications demonstrate your knowledge in various areas of digital marketing considered well-respected in the marketing industry.

Why get HubSpot certified?

• Colleges are accepting HubSpot Academy certifications for school credit.
• The number of people receiving HubSpot Academy certifications has
• HubSpot Academy certifications are considered highly rated.

Price: Free

Time Commitment: Varies between 1 – 7 hours

3. Moz

There is no way to talk about digital marketing and not mention SEO.

If you are looking for training courses to brush up on your SEO skills or certifications show you SEO prowess, Moz Academy is where to start.

Do you work in SEO?

If so, you’ve heard of Moz SEO software (and maybe even use it daily).

If not, no worries, Moz Academy offers beginner training in SEO Fundamentals to get you up to speed in all things SEO so you can improve search rankings and drive traffic.

For the digital marketer with SEO experience, Moz offers the SEO Essentials Certificate Series.

Price: Free through May 31, 2020, with the Promo Code: wegotthis (Does not include SEO Essentials Certificate Series); After May 31, course prices vary between Free – $595

Time Commitment: Varies, 1+ hours

To Sum Up

Training and certifications take time, commitment and focus.

But, above all, every training or certification is a huge step in solidifying your credibility as a digital marketer and helping your clients increase their traffic, customers and sales.

In short, go sign-up and grow your career!

Do you have any other digital marketing certifications that have helped advance your career? Are you looking into other digital marketing tools for your career?

Do you want visually stunning, beautifully designed, and free content for your brand’s social media channels?

Of course, you do!  And with these free (and user-friendly) social media graphic design tools, you can create amazing visual content immediately to get likes, shares and engagement on social media.

Why now?

Fun Fact: On average, 97% of digital consumers use social media each month.  With 50% of the global population using social media (roughly 3.8 billion people), it’s more important than ever to make sure your brand is present and creating content on social media.

I know this sounds daunting (and expensive), but if you don’t have the budget—don’t worry. These free social media graphic design tools can get the job done at $0. The most important thing is to start!

Show Me The Social Media Graphic Design Tools!

1. General Graphic Design

Canva

We are all guilty of clicking on a post because of the cool infographic and cute cat photo (that’s me!) associated with it.

Do images generate more engagement? For sure! A study by BuzzSumo showed that adding images to Twitter updates generated 150% more Retweets than using plain-text updates, and adding images to Facebook posts led to 2.3x more engagement.

So, where do you go to create your cute cat photo and boost your social engagement? That’s where Canva comes in.

Canva is a graphic design tool that sits at home in your internet browser. It has easy-to-use drag-and-drop features that allow you to create professional layouts with only a few clicks.

Canva also has millions of free images you can access, photo filters, free icons and hundreds of fonts. One of the best features is that you can create custom designs specifically for a social media platform. No more guessing (or remembering) the image dimensions for each social network –Canva does that for you!

Check it out: http://www.canva.com

Pricing: Free, Pro ($12.95/month), Enterprise ($30.00/month)

Alternatives: Stencil, FotoJet, BeFunky

2. Infographics

Easel.ly

A study in TIME reported that the average attention span is about 8 seconds. 8 seconds isn’t long to capture a consumer’s attention –especially with all that competing buzz on social media (like those cute cat photos!).

Maybe you have interesting (possibly even complex) information to share in a social media post –how can you display it so your audience can easily digest it? Thank you, infographics! Easel.ly can help you effortlessly create infographics

Easel.ly is a design tool primarily to design infographics that are fun and engaging to read. The interface is easy with a simple layout. Every button is carefully labeled so you can get started right away.

Are you worried about designing your templates? Never fear! Easel.ly has thousands of templates already ready for you to open and modify yourself. With a few clicks, you can customize the templates with your brand logo, fonts, and colors.

Check it out: Easel.ly

Pricing: Basic (Free), Pro ($4/month)

Alternatives: Infogram, Venngage, Piktochart

3. Video Content Marketing

FlexClip

Did you see that cute cat VIDEO? Did you share it with all your friends? Maybe not, but someone probably did (It was me, sorry, not sorry).

The truth is that you want to create content that gets shared, and video is your most significant opportunity to make that happen.

Why video?

You want your audience to remember your product (and purchase it!) and video gets results:

• Viewers claim they retain 95% of a message when obtained through video. (Social Media Week)
• This year, video ads were the #1 way consumers discovered a brand they later purchased from. (Animoto)
• 30% of mobile shoppers say video is the best medium for discovering new products. (Facebook)
• 92% of mobile users report sharing videos with others. (Social Media Week)

Everyone is Doing It!

There’s no time like the present to make videos. Social video trends are only growing, and by 2022, the number of videos crossing the internet per second will approach 1 million translating into 82% of all online traffic. (Social Media Week)

FlexClip: A Free & Easy Video Tool

Creating a video for social media doesn’t have to be complicated or time-intensive. FlexClip makes it easy to create short videos to showcase your product and produce engaging content.

FlexClip is a cloud-based video maker that produces videos from photos, video clips, and music. You can add your images or use their vast media library of royalty-free media resources.

A lot of “free” video software claims to be free, but these “free” plans imbed their logo as a watermark on all your videos. Not with FlexClip! You can create free videos that look professional–no watermark.

FlexClip is one of the best tools of its kind, as you can create high-quality videos without paying for sophisticated video-editing tools.

Check it out: http://www.flexclip.com

Pricing: Free, Basic ($4.99/month), Plus ($7.99/month)

Alternatives: Animoto (watermark), Adobe Spark (watermark), iMovie (Mac/iOS only)

Time to Create Content

Now that you have these free social media graphic design tools, you can quickly get started creating visually stunning graphics for your audience to share, comment and love.

Not sure what content to create first? In my opinion, you can always start with a cute cat video and go from there.

Do you need help planning out your social media strategy or creating engaging and content to attract your audience? Let’s chat.