The Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast

193 | Marketing without Social Media

• Serena Shoup, CPA • Episode 193

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Serena dives deep into marketing strategies for bookkeepers and small business owners who are skeptical or overwhelmed by social media, sharing practical tips for building connections and growing your business.

What You’ll Learn:

  • Marketing isn't just about social media: Discover a multi-pronged approach including offline networking, online presence, and website strategy
  • Build your "circle of influence" by connecting with complementary professionals like insurance agents, bankers, and consultants
  • How to start small and prioritize your marketing efforts without getting overwhelmed
  • The power of delivering exceptional service as your best marketing tool

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Welcome back to another episode of the Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast. It's me, Serena, your host, and today I am answering another listener question. This one, I believe came in through email and Amy m writes in. Hey, Serena, do you have any ideas on how to connect with others without the social media? I have it all up and I'm sort of at a loss, but I know there must be a way. Alright, Amy, thank you so much for submitting this question. I know you're not the only one thinking about this, so I have some thoughts, so let's get into it. So, one of the things that's been coming up a bit for me lately and in other conversations is. Social media and how to use it in your bookkeeping or accounting business and if it's even effective. So one thing that I am experimenting with right now is I am using a template service that provides bookkeeping and accounting, social media content as a monthly service. So they send a Canva. Document, link every month with enough content, pretty much for the entire month. And you just put your branding colors in it, your fonts, do your own photos, make it your own, and it comes with captions and everything. And I was a little bit skeptical of it at first, and I wanted to give it more time, honestly, before I started talking about it on here. But hey, I am building this thing in public and I am testing things out and sharing what I believe is working so. I've been using this service for about three months. By the time this has aired, it will be a full three months, and I've been pretty good about grabbing all the content and putting all of my branding in it and uploading it into my scheduler. And one of the things that I, I do do with it is I don't use. A hundred percent of the content because it doesn't feel, some of, it doesn't feel, authentic to me. And the content that I do use, I make sure to use photos that are my own that I've done with branding shoots, and I tweak some of the wording on the posts as well as the captions. This is. For me, key for maintaining an authentic brand voice. And so that's the part that actually takes the longest for me when I'm going through all the captions and adding my own stories, my own, take my own voice to those and making them authentically me. So. Like I said before, I was a little bit skeptical of this and I'm, maybe, I'm kind of getting a little off track with this because the question was how to connect with others without social media, but I promise you, I'm coming to a point here. So I was also starting to feel like social media was. Not really a great use of my time inside my firm. And to be honest, I haven't ever really put a lot of time into it. I post here and there when I'm inspired. I do some fun reels occasionally, but this is the most I've ever posted on my firm social media and. I am seeing a little bit of, bit more engagement, but that's mostly on the reels that I do, and I'm not using their content for the reels. I have my own strategy for that, which I'll probably touch on in a different episode. but what I have noticed is you're not gonna see a direct return on social media, and it does play a role even with your other marketing. Sources. And I will also say social media should never be your sole avenue of marketing. So if you're listening to this and you're like, oh my gosh, I need to add social media, you might need to add it, but also don't stress out too much because like I said, you're not really gonna see a direct correlation however. It is a complimentary strategy to something else, and every method takes time. Marketing is relationship building, whether it's online or offline. So it does take your time and energy and authenticity. So let's dive into how you can market or connect with people outside of social media. Now that I've talked about this social media strategy that I'm doing, I'll say one more thing about this. Like I said, social media is a complimentary strategy. It doesn't need to be your only strategy, and if you really aren't feeling the social media at all, that's okay. Don't, don't do social media, but you might need to have something up there for when people look for you online. At the very least, have a website and maybe one other social channel like LinkedIn or. Instagram or Facebook. You don't have to have all three of those, but those are the three most popular social medias and having some sort of presence on there is going to help build trust when someone gets referred to you and they're doing their research on you. Yes, a website is great. You should also have that. So it's like a three-prong approach. You have your. Offline marketing strategy. You have your online marketing strategy, whether it be social media or online networking, and then you have your website. So with the three people will find you, they will connect with you, and you will start to build trust because you have a presence in all three. So let's dive into how you can market or connect with people outside of social media. I'm a big believer in having what I call, I've heard, and I don't even remember where I learned this term, but at some point in my career I learned the term circle of influence. And this is a network of others who serve clients in a different capacity but compliment each other. So that's like your insurance agents, your bankers. CPAs, if you're not a CPA or a tax preparer lawyers and other consultants that are serving businesses that you work with. If you have existing clients, look at their vendor list and see what other professional services they're paying for and reach out to some of them or ask your client for an introduction. So something really cool happened to me recently with a new client that I took on. Who was referred to me by someone else and I've been working with her now for a few months and she is in the process of trying to sell her business. That's why she came to me. She wanted to have like legitimate bookkeeping and accounting done, and she's working with an exit strategist, which is a consultant who is helping her exit her business and. Lo and behold, we've delivered a wonderful service. She's really excited to be working with us, and she's been singing my praises to this exit strategist that she works with, and so she introduced us and basically offered. A referral for me was like, Hey, I want you to talk to my exit strategist. I've been singing your praises. I think you guys should connect. She has lots of other businesses like mine who could really use your help. And so that's. Another side marketing strategy, I guess, is to just deliver really good service to your clients and then they will want to refer you to their entire network. So I got on a call with this exit strategist, I'm gonna have her on the podcast in the near future, hopefully. And we were able to just connect over serving similar client bases. And she's going to have me in her group, to offer some services and maybe speak or whatever the collaboration ends up being. But, since it's still in the beginning stages, I don't quite know yet, but that is just an example of when you offer really good service and , you build your network and your circle of influence. This is a really good offline strategy. That can then overlap online. So we're coming back to the online world, like these people don't live in my local community. We're connecting online. She has. Online groups of other business owners, where she helps people. And so it's still a very much an online world. And one of the things that she said when we got on call together was, I went to your website and. I like just really connected with who you are because of the pictures you have, the way you, , have everything organized on your website. It's beautiful. The branding is great, and so let that be a testament to like all of it works together. You can't just have one and not all the other pieces, and it might feel a little bit overwhelming, so it's not like you have to do all of the pieces at once, especially if you're at the beginning of your business. Take it one step at a time. Choose the area that you think is going to be the most important, the biggest priority for you to get set up if you're brand new out there, and start there and then add the social media and then add the website or whatever order you deem most important. So for me, when I started my business, if I think back to 2017 and when I was starting my business. For me, the most important piece to get prepared was not social media. It was my website because I was actively working to get clients on Upwork, which is an online platform. So I knew I needed some sort of online presence or a place to send people so that they could get to know me a little bit better than they will on Upwork. So that felt really overwhelming at first. And so what I actually did is I just. Updated my LinkedIn profile. I started real small guys, so I updated my LinkedIn profile, made sure it highlighted all of my relevant accomplishments that I could talk about when I was applying for Upwork positions, and what I would do is I would link out to my LinkedIn in my Upwork proposals. Then the next layer that I did was my website. I ended up working with a website designer and doing a trade for bookkeeping to get my initial iteration of my website up because I was tired of messing around with it. So I'm gonna do a little plug here for my web designer Tia. she has a program that you can jump into For a fraction of the cost that it would be to work with a website designer, and she walks you through how to set up your own Squarespace website, which is where I initially set up my website as well. I love Squarespace for new business owners. Honestly, I would still be on Squarespace if it weren't for just everything that I do being under the Kajabi umbrella. So I'll link that, in the show notes to this episode, if you're watching on YouTube, it's linked below this video. It's called Squarespace for Bookkeepers. Shout out to tia. Alright, so there's all these facets. You've gotta sit down and prioritize. Which one is going to be the most impactful for you? So if you're actually networking locally, if that's your preference, the most impactful marketing piece for you is going to be getting business cards made. So with business cards, you start to go down the rabbit hole of, oh, I've gotta have like branding and a logo, and all that kind of stuff. Don't let that hold you back. The first business cards that you print are not going to be the business cards that you. Hand out a year from now. So just do something that you're semi proud of. Put your picture on it so people remember what you look like you know, after they've met you. And link to your LinkedIn if you don't have a website or link to just your email or your phone number. However you want clients to contact you. You just need to have something out there and start small. Don't let yourself get overwhelmed. Alright, that is it for today's episode. I kind of went into all these different directions, from where I thought that I was going to talk, about, networking offline and ended up talking a lot about networking online, and I think that's just a product of. The day and age that we're in, even when you network offline, you're going to end up doing something online or having some sort of online presence. There's just no way around it. Now that online presence, like I said, does not have to be social media, but it is helpful to have something. In the social media realm, it doesn't mean that you have to post on social media all the time. However, if you do want to, I've linked the service that I am using the templates below this video so you can join the membership and get access to those templates too. And then you'll start to see how many of us are actually using them. Um, just a little side note on that too. Don't follow other bookkeepers. It's gonna make you feel like everyone's doing the same thing and that there's not room for you. So if you are feeling that, then I encourage you to unfollow all the other bookkeepers and accountants that you're following. Alright, everyone, have a beautiful day. Thank you so much for tuning in once again to the Ambitious Bookkeeper podcast. Don't forget to check out the YouTube channel. This is up on YouTube. I'm on video. I've been wearing the same thing for weeks now. Because I'm batching content. If this episode was helpful for you, please share it with a friend, and leave a review on the podcast. I would love that. And it, it gives, it shows it to more people that are interested in these types of topics, so, all right. Bye for now. Stay ambitious guys.

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