How To Start An Accounting Blog: A Complete Guide

Many accountants may feel that writing a blog is awkward. After all, they are numbers people who are better equipped on balancing complicated financial statements instead of writing witty prose.

But the truth is that you are missing out on a massive marketing opportunity by not owning a blog. According to a recent Marketing Sherpas study, 84% of marketers have the opinion that using blogs as a marketing tool is either very effective or somewhat effective, and was rated higher than any other form of social media.

Still yet to decide on blogging? For proof that blogs are a valuable venture, study these statistics: according to some reports, B2B companies that constantly published on their blog get 67% more leads each month than companies who don't. Additionally, 57% of marketers believe that a business can get new customers through blogging.

Along with offering valuable accounting advice to customers, owning a blog enables you to:

1. What is the purpose of your blog? Is it to tell customers and prospects about your accounting services–or to create a medium for people with accountancy issues to get answers?

2. What action do you want your audience to take? Your blog becomes very easy to develop if you know the answer. Do you want them to visit your website, use a new product, or put a call across about a certain service?

The second step to start an accounting blog is to determine your audience. To whom are you writing for? Are you writing for large or small businesses, or for people? Establishing early on whom you’re writing for can help you determine the type of content to produce and the level of insight. For instance, if you are writing for people, you may assume that their accounting knowledge is limited or non-existing. Nevertheless, if your target is accounting departments at large corporations, you’ll want to share industry buzz.

A recent survey by Custom Content Council shows that 61% of consumers say they feel better about a company that offers custom content and, in turn, are more likely to buy their products.

Also Read: How To Get Accounting Job With No Work Experience

Your best option is to write about the benefits your products and services provide instead of the features of the product itself. This helps you relate better with your audience, and prevents your blog from reading like a sales pitch. Focus on answering questions or solving problems met by your clients and prospects.

In most cases, people create accounting blogs with the aim of educating people on the subject, answering frequently asked questions on accounting and finance, posting news and latest trends about accountancy without wanting to sell any product or service.

Here are some accounting blog topics you can create contents on:

Setting up your accounting blog is the main reason for this article. If you don’t have an already hosted website to post your content, you don't have to worry because there are many free options you can use, such as WordPress, Blogspot, Tumblr, Vox, and Typepad. They give diverse templates and tools that simplify setting up within a few minutes. However, bear in mind that unless you purchase a domain name services, you will be given a web address which includes their company name.

Now that you are set and know the kind of contents to produce, make sure that you know how to use the tools available to you. Break down ambiguous words by attaching pictures and videos so that your readers can understand your message. These elements can not only help engage your readers, they can help increase your website in search engines.

Also Read: How Much Do Entry Level Accountants Make?

The time to publish your content is also very important, as there are periods that people are most likely to use social media. Consider posting between the hours of 9 a.m., 12 p.m., 3 p.m., or 6 p.m. on the three middle days of the week.

People need to find your website, and the more means of telling people about it, the better it becomes. Share a link to it from all of your company social media handles, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter pages. Feature an introductory paragraph to your blog on the home page of your company's website and link to it from there. Write the link on your business card. Posting it to your personal pages is also a good idea. Contrarily, make sure you link your blog back to your company website and social media pages.

One of the greatest challenge in blogging is keeping your blog current. You must be consistent if you want to run a successful blog. It doesn't make any sense to post when you want and expect readers to read. Your clients or prospective clients expect you to publish contents at regular intervals.

Set a posting schedule and stick to it. You can decide to write 200 words per day, if you are posting once in a week, then you already have 1400 words which is great for an article. Decide on how often you will publish new articles–once a day, week, etc. Like me, I publish once in a week except for when I have guest-post to publish. Create a content calendar that explains the post times and topics so you’ll know the time to post and what to post.

Use status update schedulers like Hootsuite or Cotweet to make it easier to schedule and publish your contents. They are free of charge and enable you to post your latest contents to several social networking sites at once, at designated times.

When I started trendingaccounting.com, my aim wasn't to make money through blogging. I wanted a platform where I can improve my writing skills and share my knowledge on accounting.

But along the line, monetizing it becomes almost inevitable. A mentor told me that it doesn't make sense to get all these blog traffic and allow it waste, so I searched for ways to monetize my accounting blog. The following are some ways you can make money from your accounting blog:

Blogging is a great channel to maintain customer relationships with existing clients and reach out to potential clients. With your blog, you become a go-to for trusted information and offer a useful customer service tool. Finally, it helps you to build your brand while increasing your profit.