Using Content To Market a Tax or Accounting Business

It’s been a wild few weeks of traveling, with my family (in Hilton Head), and earlier this week in Chicago for the IRS Forum, and leaving bright and early on Monday for NYC for the same.
The IRS Forum was pretty interesting, which I’ll share with you in a moment — but a couple alerts, before I get there…
1) I was interviewed today for “Money For Lunch” — a national radio program on business issues. You can listen
from your computer here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/moneyforlunch. It’s now archived for the August 24th, 2012 show.
Which brings me to my primary point today:
Good content is king.
Now, the reality of this statement was brought home, once again, at that aforementioned IRS Forum in Chicago. And I’ll explain why this matters to you, as well.
You see, my team and I were one of scores of exhibitors at the show — which is a strategy I’d been leery about in the past, but wanted to test.
So, in order to maximize our time there, I decided to write a book, which I completed in June. Instead of offering mindless swag with our sweet little logo on it, I suspected that giving attendees something REAL, and something worthwhile would be far more effective than another stress ball or key chain.
It’s a very real book (soon to be released on Amazon and other platforms), and as I half-jokingly informed some of the booth visitors, very well-written ;).
Wouldn’t ya know it? We gathered far more interested leads than any other booth at the show (based on the informal information given to us by the lead scanner folks). And even better, we heard from attendees who started READING the thing, and were extremely interested in talking further with us about how we could help them.
But the point isn’t the book; the point is that putting out fresh, authoritative content is a critical strategy to win the marketing “game”, online and offline, for your business.
There’s a reason I do radio. Why I blog. Why I send out emails. And there’s a reason why the most successful tax and accounting firms, now and in the future, are and will be known for putting out great content.
As Dan Kennedy says: “I don’t know one way to get 50 clients, but I know 50 ways to get one client — and I use them.”
In the ever-crowded marketplace of information, where knowledge becomes commoditized, you need BETTER information, more personalized (and personable/authentic) information, and LOTS of it to grow your internet presence, and to grow deeper relationships with clients who are looking for an excuse to hop on over to Intuit or another professional.
Now, it’s true: putting  out great content isn’t easy.
However, there ARE shortcuts (including ones with additional services thrown in), so if you’re not an expert at putting out great content, find someone who is … and add them to your team. STAT.
Because if you don’t, your competition surely will be.