Content Amplification: The tech behind newsletters, podcasts & social media

It’s time to hit the road with Amy & AJack  for the All Aussie Accounting Adventures TECH edition. 

Are accountants word people? Let's shatter the myth! This episode unravels the world of content creation, amplification, and its significance in the realm of accounting. We kick off by trotting through newsletters, podcasts, and social media, exploring why accounting firms produce content. Be it for marketing, information sharing, or simply keeping pace with trends, we've got you covered with insights into content generation, distribution, and reporting specific to accounting firms and the tech that can deliver it.

As we dive into the challenges and rewards of this journey, we underscore the power of storytelling to foster relationships and cultivate communities. So, tune in and let's turbocharge your content creation and marketing strategies together!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hi Amy hey Jack hey Dorn.

Speaker 2: 0:04

I'm good thanks. How are you?

Speaker 1: 0:06

I'm well, I'm well. I try and say something different every time, but I can't remember what I said last time. So I'm well, I'm well today. Looking forward to this chat with you, and I thought I'd kick it off with a little bit of a horse related fun fact, as has become our theme. Did you know that the Pony Express was a mail delivery service? In the mid 1800s, they used horse mounted riders to deliver messages over vast, vast distances, incredible, interesting.

Speaker 2: 0:40

I did know it is.

Speaker 1: 0:42

This is kind of like Roman Empire level stuff, that this history it goes way back and somehow related to what we're talking about today.

Speaker 2: 0:52

Well, welcome, Welcome content trailblazers, to today's episode. We're going to take a ride with you know where newsletters, podcasts and social media platforms are your trusty steeds. It's time to take the reins and let's amplify your voices. And that's what we're talking about today. It's all about content amplification Newsletters, podcasts, social media.

Speaker 1: 1:27

Let's unpack it. I mean there's a bit to discuss. I think it's actually one of the more challenging parts of the tech stack because it's not like there's a accounting specific. This is the two tools every firm uses, and just use those and tick the box and you're done. You know there's so many options because it's kind of not accounting specific in a way, like the tech products at least. So I mean maybe I'm jumping ahead. So, like you know, what are we actually talking about when we say content? I mean, yeah, what's making that up?

Speaker 2: 2:10

Well, I guess there's. I mean, first things first, we're going to talk about what form does it take, right? So, because we can talk about the medium, the form and, I guess, the tasks associated with it. So, what's the form that we're talking about? In terms of content, we're talking posts, pictures, videos. Events is another form of this content. So how are we like, what is the form of content and, therefore, how are we digesting it? The mediums are obviously social media, email, newsletters, face to face, in person or in person, but via Zoom, for example, or Teams. Yeah, what about tasks for you?

Speaker 1: 2:59

I mean I kind of break down content into three. There's the generation of it, whether that's an article that you're writing or a blog that you're writing or a video you're putting together, if you're creating that bit of content. Then there's the distribution of it so how am I getting that out to the relevant audience? And potentially there's like a reporting component to that. You know, we want to know if it's working, if it's doing well. You know what words are working, what images are working. If we're going to that level of detail which I appreciate not everyone is, but yeah, I kind of see content generation, distribution and reporting.

Speaker 2: 3:32

Hmm, and why are we doing it? I guess what's the point of the content? Why are we producing content?

Speaker 1: 3:39

I think this is probably the juicier part of the conversation. So accounting traditionally numbers, number crunches. You know we're not people to get out there and put our face on a TikTok, but it's happening right. It depends where you look. I guess you know some of us are stuck in a bubble of people who create a lot of content and that's all we see. But you know there's a lot of accountants out there now doing that kind of stuff and exploring that space and I think a lot of the industry is still a little bit like. You know, that's not my brand, that's not my style, that's not what I do. So I mean, do you, yeah, do you see that you work with a lot of accounting firms? How do they see content generation as part of what they do?

Speaker 2: 4:20

I think they see content generation. If we're talking about so, if you want to also break this down right, are we talking about it from a marketing and information side of things? Is that why we're producing the content, to obviously be informative for our current clients and all potential future clients? So, from a lead generation perspective, or are we creating the content because we just have something to say? Or are we creating the content because we have FOMO and everybody else is doing it and we feel like we need to keep up with the Joneses? Because I think that there are a lot of accountants out there that do create the content, the social media posts, because they feel like that's what they've been told that they need to do in order to generate new leads, or new business, or good quality business, and not to mention as well. I think there are a lot of accountants out there that do it begrudgingly because they don't feel like they are word people. They're numbers people. That's why they're an accountant, for example, right, and I call a bit of a BS on that one, because every accountant that I've ever come across that has said that they're more numbers than not really words and I've, you know, gently nudged them and or kind of.

Speaker 2: 5:24

I'm like no, we actually need this piece of content. You know whether it's a letter informing their database of you know something new that's happening within their organization or they're rolling out a new piece of tech. When you actually look at what they write, I'm like you guys are awesome at this. You're so good at the way that the like you know your allocution and your choice of words is. It's amazing, so don't be fearful of it for any account. Now that it doesn't think that you're a words person, you definitely are, but I have just gone on a bit of a tangent there. So I think breaking it down to begin with around well, why are you actually doing it? What's the end goal of you producing this piece of content is a starting point.

Speaker 1: 6:06

Yeah, I mean I totally agree. I think there's a few reasons and If you are someone who's a little bit, I think, kind of alluding to what you were alluding to with the firms who just kind of do it for the post-sac, you know, they're probably if you're thinking I just got to do this, I got to put it out there, you're also going to be the one who looks back 12 months and say, see, I knew that was a waste of time. Because if the thought and effort isn't going into the content and it's not special, it's not differentiated, it's not targeting your market properly, it's not really sending any important message, it's just like, hey, we got to get a post out every week, let's do that. I mean, there's very little value in that and there's going to be very little return on it. So yeah, I think I just wanted to kind of touch on that point and totally agree with you that just doing it for the sake of doing it is like you don't. You may as well not do it if you're not going to try.

Speaker 2: 7:00

But also, if you do start doing social media posts, for example, then there is something to be said for a level of consistency. So there is a level of you need to dedicate some time to it and make it consistent, because if you just sporadically post something every now and again, you set off the wrong message as well. So it's one of those either do it or don't do it. Don't do it half asked though basically because and that doesn't mean that you need to do a post today no, you just need to. Even if it's one post a week, even if it's one post every two weeks, that's still consistency.

Speaker 2: 7:36

It's when you do one, you know you might do three or four posts at an event, for example, like, hey, I'm attending this zero con event, hypothetically, and then you don't post anything for the next six months. That's when you know you need to think about the audience and you also need to think about the why. Why are you producing the content again, like, are you trying to attract new clients or are you trying to educate the current your current market out there? Because I think there's value in both. But understand what the end goal is, because that will also dictate the type of content that you're also producing as well.

Speaker 1: 8:08

And there's two points I think that I just want to add to this. So one is if you're looking at what other firms are doing in terms of content and you're like, oh, that looks so I mean, maybe it's bright, it's fun, it's exciting, it's a video, it's engaging, whatever it is and you're like, goodness, like that's hard to do or that's not really my style, that's okay. Like that's another firm's brand, that's not yours. You know it's okay if your brand is quality, you know accuracy, you know your content is going to reflect that. It doesn't need to be full of bright colors and unicorns and things like that. It can just be really good quality content that's informative and that's selling your brand as a business that we know our details, we know our stuff. If that's the kind of business only you are, that's kind of counted you want, then where the place for you. So understanding that relationship between you, know once. So we're moving on now from just the cadence and the consistency to like what am I putting in this? And you know understanding what your brand is and what you're trying to tell the market and who you're trying to target, you know. I think you can really adapt your content there.

Speaker 1: 9:14

The other point that I wanted to make was I think, in addition to whether you're trying to win new clients or educate your existing clients, I've actually noticed some of the really good firms are leveraging social media and other formats to actually show how good their firm is to the market. I know it's kind of like you see a lot of people saying why are these accounting firms bothering with all this stuff to the accounting market? Like they're not going to win work by putting all this content out there just for other accountants to see. But the reality is when they go to recruit, when they go and need someone, they get someone. So if you have trouble bringing stuff in good quality stuff, well maybe your brand isn't quite there in the industry. So don't think content is just about winning new clients. Sometimes it could be about recruitment.

Speaker 2: 10:05

Yeah, I think as well. I think it's a really good opportunity to bring out any forms of suppressed personality. It's like it's a really good opportunity to actually show your personality and to show what your style is. It doesn't have to be as you said, you don't have to keep up with the Joneses and do what others are doing, but it's an opportunity to find your uniqueness, which is the whole point of, like you know, the accounting industry is a service-based industry. Your point of uniqueness is you, so show it Like. That's the reason why, like, I can go and get my tax return done with multiple accountants out there, right?

Speaker 2: 10:42

But, I choose to stay with my current accountants because of the relationship that I have with that person and with that firm.

Speaker 1: 10:48

basically, oh, and you're not wrong. Like how many Andrew Vanderbeek throughout the world he used to be in a suit, and tie right.

Speaker 1: 10:56

This guy who's now covered in tats of beer to cap like. He does not look like your average accountant, but he used to. So there's so many people in the industry are probably having that kind of like. I'm a different person at home than I am at the office, because how many of us are really, you know, just want to. You know, I don't get me wrong, you're allowed to be. You can just be quiet and not want to put yourself out there and not really have any crazy taste or interest. But there's going to be people, probably in your firm, who are happy to put themselves out there and do a little bit of this stuff and be creative or at least be willing to give it a try.

Speaker 2: 11:30

Yeah, to your point around the whole. I know that we're probably tangy a little bit, but to your point around looking to attract new team members. For example, when we were at ZeroCon we had a very good chat with Will, a country leader from Zero, and he was talking about his main keynote speak, where the speech was in relation to kind of almost I'm paraphrasing let's bring the sexy back into accounting.

Speaker 2: 11:54

That is not what he said but you know what can we do as an industry to change our persona to the industry, so that you know, if you ask a fire hero, what do you want to be when you grow up, they go. I want to be an accountant, as opposed to the stereotypical other. You know genres of what they want to be these days. So how do we reeducate a new generation? And that comes from remembering that you know you all have personalities and therefore displaying those personalities in a public medium to a degree, in whatever that your level of comfort is, that will only enhance trying to not only improve the industry, attract potentially new clients, attract good quality team members, which makes it for the greater good of being an accountant so much better. That's what I love about this.

Speaker 1: 12:43

I love where this is going. It's, we're going. We're going deeper than I was expecting in terms of kind of you know the purpose behind this stuff and having you know there is sometimes a bigger meaning here. It's not to say everyone should invest thousands of dollars to try and help the industry change its brand, but no, there's a personal benefit to this. Like you don't have to. You personally aren't going to benefit. You will Like it. Naturally, you know you invest in this stuff. It does, it does return. But you've got to, you've got to do it properly. I think that's probably key. Maybe it's time for a cheeky break to our sponsors.

Speaker 3: 13:20

Have you ever heard the phrase the future of accounting includes carbon? No, well, I guarantee that you will be hearing it soon and you will be hearing it often. Now, carbon accounting it's kind of like the environmental detective of the accounting world. Right, it's all about keeping tabs on how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are getting released into the atmosphere by individuals, companies and even entire nations. It's kind of like balancing the books, but instead of dollars, you're balancing the Earth's health, helping us all make smarter choices and work towards a greener, cleaner future. Now, enter someday. S-u-m-d-a-y Someday is technology built in Australia that allows us accountants to really assist our clients and community in the world of carbon accounting. It can help you complete, audit-ready and transparent carbon accounting and reporting, as well as stay in control with features that meet stakeholder expectations like dashboards, carbon general ledgers and carbon trial balance reports. All this kind of stuff can lead to exceptional conversations with your clients about the impact that they're having in our world. And why do I think it's extra amazing? Well, as great technology is for accountants, it's much better when it's built by accountants and that is someday built by accountants for accountants. Now, no, you're probably sitting there and saying is this for me. Well, the good thing is, someday is about being accountant first. It's for all businesses, of all shapes and sizes, as well as being accessible and affordable, so absolutely it can be for you. I guess, as their catchphrase says, someday accountants will save the world, and someday is now. So go check out someday when you get a chance.

Speaker 3: 14:58

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Speaker 3: 16:16

You're not going to be disappointed. You know, when you find a piece of software that just happens to do a lot more than you expected it to do and then, as you delve deeper and deeper and deeper into it, you realize, holy moly, there's so much that I can do here. Well, good friends of the podcast, patron are one of those pieces of technology that I am constantly amazed by whenever we spend time within there. They can do a whole bunch of stuff like data capturing and pre accounting, ap automation, approval workflows, fx and multi currency, business accounts, corporate cards and expenses, group batch and partial payments, payroll reimbursements, payroll payments and a whole bunch of other incredible stuff all within the one platform. Now, Patron does connect to all of the great accounting software is out there and builds a whole bunch of finance automation to ensure that you are efficiently managing your cashflow, your spend and your expenses, as well as having transparency and approval processes in place. So the right things happen at the right time. So when you go, check them out.

Speaker 3: 17:25

Patron. P a y t r o n dot com.

Speaker 1: 17:37

Something we haven't discussed really is this kind of decision that a lot of firms have to make between doing it in house and outsourcing. Do you have a perspective, experience on that?

Speaker 2: 17:49

I think it depends on what you're trying to, what the information is in terms of whether you make it, whether you outsource it or whether you bring it in-house right. So, first of all, the only way that it's going to work, if you want to outsource it, is that you need to be able to tell them what you want to actually get out there into the public space, whether that's to your internal client base or to the external social media platform, that kind of thing. You can't expect them to just come up with ideas. This is from an external perspective. You can't just expect them to come up with ideas and just go and run with creating content for you, because they aren't the specialist in this. They aren't the specialist in terms of the content that needs to be produced. So they can come up with ideas and they can come up with concepts for you to consider. They can come up with hey, are there any lodgements, dates that you need to remind your audience about, or there are public holidays coming up? That kind of stuff. Those kinds of things they can prompt. They can also finesse at the end as well. They could also come up with a draft. They can do research, but ultimately they can't write the piece of content from scratch and get it word perfect if you are expecting that. So I think the internal versus external is an interesting one and I think that comes down to size and it also comes down to what your perception is in terms of the cost benefit of why you're doing it.

Speaker 2: 19:08

So internal communication, which I wanted to touch on anyway. So internal communication, we can come back to a deeper level. You can get your own internal team members to do that if you've got a good admin team member or you yourself have got the capacity to do so. I wouldn't always recommend it if you're a partner of a firm, but if you've got a good admin team member, they are usually pretty good. If they're pretty techy in terms of the social side of life Most of them are these days they can actually do this, but you need to give them the opportunity and the space to be able to do that, make it part of their role. That's the main thing.

Speaker 2: 19:40

If you use an external source, I guess it's the same level of expectation as if you are using an outsourced anything. If you're using an outsource company to hire a team, we have a level of expectations in terms of capability. You have to spend time with those team members, like you would have to spend time with an external marketing agency, for example, to educate them on your style, your voice, your scenes, your branding, and that will take time. You can't just have this. You can't get instant gratification, is my point. Spend some time with this one. Basically, I think it depends on the size of the firm and what you're trying to achieve. I don't think that there's a hard and fast which one is better or worse, whether it's internal or external. If you've got the design capabilities and content capabilities in-house, use them. Use them to your advantage. If not, look at the externals. If you are looking at externals, someone that does at least support the industry or work with other accountants would be very valuable to you, because they get your language, they get what you're trying to achieve.

Speaker 1: 20:45

Yeah, and I think that's where the toughest part to outsource, I feel, is the actual content part, which is like what are we saying If it's a blog? What are we writing in the blog? If it's a video, what are we talking about? I think the actual delivery of it, the reporting around it, making adjustments where things aren't working. That's where some experts can be quite helpful and probably a lot more efficient. They have better tools at their disposal. They know this stuff. They're working with thousands of posts and articles. They can see where, okay, this one didn't really hit the way we expected. We know the benchmarks for an article like this. The same reason you get an accountant they help you with your business. There's some stuff you can do in-house and there's some stuff you want an expert for If you do outsource. I still like that whole.

Speaker 1: 21:35

Let's involve the team. Every month, we want each team member to do one blog. Sometimes it's not going to be amazing, sometimes it's, but it means you're covering off the basis when the budget happens. Of course, you're going to have a little get together as a firm and say let's do a little write up on the budget. Then you could shoot that draft through to your outsourced marketer. They now have the facts. Once you've taught them your language and how you want it, they then take that and run with it To get someone who's actually going to write informative content that understands accounting policies, legislation, things like this that are changing super hard I reckon there's probably some people out there that do it but probably very expensive versus you've got a lot of the know-how in-house. If you just don't want to deal with the tools and the distribution and the reporting side, you can outsource that bit. Maybe there's somewhere as well. That's a bit of a balance. I mean Anything else you want to add to that conversation.

Speaker 2: 22:36

No, I mean a bit of a. I will be honest with you. There is a small shameless plug on their way coming. So I've been dealing with this space for quite some time, obviously, both when I was in practice, when I was. You know from my history of this, you know the last 15 odd years being in this industry, I have always been in the more client facing marketing space to help try and generate content etc. Right. So I do it not only for my own business now, but I used to do it in practice as well. So I was that in-house person that was assisting.

Speaker 2: 23:08

Essentially the reason why ClarityStreet actually has a service which is called ClaritySocial and the reason why we started that is because we also noticed how challenged the accounting industry were at creating content and being consistent around, having a nice, pretty face, having a voice to not only make sure that their team sorry, their clients are educated but also to potentially attract, as we've discussed, future clients and future team members, essentially. So you know, we work with accounting practices. We have a service that actually does that, but a lot of it. The other major reason why we started those because we also recognize how and I don't mean to throw a broad brushstroke here, but how horrible accountants can be at actually communicating changes within their business to their client base that impact them. So, for example, I'm rolling out a new piece of technology which has a client facing, you know component to it. Therefore, there is an impact to the way that clients will actually receive information and they're like, oh, I'll just have a conversation with them. Why Create a letter, email it out to the clients? It's like there's this fear of I don't want to rock the boat, I don't want to engage with my clients in fear that they might ask questions and I don't know whether that's because they're scared of not knowing the answer to the question, because it's also change and therefore, you know I'm rolling out a new piece of software. I don't know all these answers and if the client contacts me, I don't know what I'm going to say to them, or, if it's, they don't have time. There's a big component of it, but there's a lot to be said for internally.

Speaker 2: 24:40

When you are rolling out change, there is a sequence of things that need to happen, which is you need to do some form of marketing around this. You need to market it to your team. Ie, these are the changes that are going to happen. Therefore, be advocates for that change, because you've chosen to implement this change, but also you need to organize the marketing for your clients as well, because and how it's going to impact them, and then educate your team around. We've now done this. We've emailed out, you know, this correspondence to the clients. We've sent it in a newsletter. We've sent it. You know we've sent an individual email. We might have even sent a snail you know snail mail like good old fashioned, actual letter to our clients in relation to these changes, because they're quite big changes. Therefore, the impact is going to be you might have to field some phone calls because clients will call up and ask questions. That really happens.

Speaker 1: 25:27

I guess, in addition to just communicating a change and to your point, you know, wanting to sit down with the client and manage that expectation, you know I feel like there's a little bit more like sense of control over how you're telling the story. But if you sit down and really think about it and put that letter together nicely, you know that's the crux of what you're trying to do. You're trying to explain why you're making that change and you only get one chance for it to come from you and your side and tell it the way you want to tell it. Yes, it's. I guess some people call it spin, but it's true.

Speaker 1: 25:58

It's like, look, you're not making a change to make your clients lives worse, but if you don't say it properly, then they can be, they can assume that they can jump to that conclusion like, oh, this is going to mean I don't get to see you as much, I don't get to hear from you as much, or the prices are up, or whatever it is. It's like, well, instead of saying the prices are up, it's like we want to focus on delivering high quality service and this is why you know you can choose. When you're in control, you choose the story, whereas once it gets out, you have a chat to a few clients face to face. They spread the word to a few others and you didn't get the chance to tell it the way you wanted to tell it. So just being on the front foot, almost like that's part of that process.

Speaker 2: 26:34

Transparency. It's all about being transparent, communication and transparency. That's. That's the name of this game and I guess, going back to the whole content component of things, I mean to your put, like you asked me, a question around the who should be in charge. Do you have an opinion around that? Who should be in charge?

Speaker 1: 26:54

of content.

Speaker 2: 26:55

Yeah, do you think that the do you think that it needs to come from the directors, or do you think it's just a collaborative collective around working with a team, et cetera?

Speaker 1: 27:03

I think it's very strategic, like the actual content creation can be done by anybody, but I think it starts at the top, which is like what are we trying to achieve? Are we trying to grow the number of clients? Are we trying to actually cut the fat and really increase business with our existing clients? You know, what are we trying to do at a very high strategic level, which filters down to the content eventually. Because if it's like look, we want to actually grow our advisory arm, well, how are we gonna do that? Well, normally, existing clients who never signed up for advisory don't want to sign up for advisory. Now they're not the client, they're not that profile, that personality.

Speaker 1: 27:41

So you're gonna have to think about okay, maybe we'll do a brand change. Okay, we're gonna add advisory to it, the name of our business instead of accountants. You know, we're gonna be XYZ advisory. Okay, cool. Now any new client who comes to us comes to us knowing we're an advisory firm and this is part of the offering. Then we stop selling just compliant services, like so this is quite a strategic decision at a very high level. But then when we start putting content out to the world, now we're focused our content on growth and business performance and KPIs and helping you achieve your life goals, rather than content that's around. We're gonna help you meet your you know, baz deadlines on time and we're gonna be the cheapest bookkeeper you can get and you know it's completely different goals for different messaging, different content. So yeah, I think, top, I'm deciding the strategy, but you can probably have anyone execute.

Speaker 2: 28:28

Yeah, cool. And on the topic of strategy actually having one, that's really important.

Speaker 2: 28:34

And understanding it right. So I don't know like, even though I've been in this game for a while, it still takes it's still taken me a while to actually work out what our strategy is in terms of delivering content and obviously ensuring that the content that we're delivering is engaging and that you know you're looking at how many people you get signed up to your newsletter versus how many people drop off from your newsletter, and just little things like depending on the type of mediums, like in how much you can also repurpose content. This is the other thing that I think can sometimes be a bit of a fear factor for firms is the thought process that if you've done it once and you can't reuse it, so for a bit of knowledge, right. So I do a monthly FOMO Friday. That content then gets snipped up into our weekly tips and tricks emails, which gets sent out, which then also gets posted on social media posts a couple of times, and then sometimes gets repurposed again in terms of our newsletters, because not everybody sees the same level of content, right.

Speaker 1: 29:28

It's just smart.

Speaker 2: 29:29

Yeah, but it's about thinking strategically around how you can use that content and as well, in what medium. So, going back to your point around social posts versus blog posts, versus newsletters versus, you know, just emails, for example, what is the best medium? Social posts are easy, Blog posts are also easy, but you also need to house them somewhere. Usually they're housed on your website and it's about you know, having a blog post on your website which you can then create a snippet which is a social post, which then links back to your blog post. Essentially right. So it's all about feeding people back to your website. So, ultimately, those people will ultimately contact you and get in touch because they want your services. If you're looking at newsletters, newsletters don't have to happen all the time. Depends on you know. I would recommend probably once a month. That's quite good, If not once every two months.

Speaker 1: 30:20

Yeah, yeah, consistency, absolutely. You need that. You need that consistency, but you also don't want to bombard people and get them to unsubscribe from your newsletter. For sure, for sure.

Speaker 2: 30:29

Then there's the likes of well, do you do a podcast, do you do any video content? Those kinds of things. I'm a relatively sorry. I have a fairly high level of confidence typically speaking, but equally, doing podcasts and doing videos scares the crap out of me. I hate doing videos. However, sometimes they're necessary evil. I'm not saying it's for everyone and you don't necessarily need to do it, but there are some people who thrive in that space and there are some people that don't. It just is what it is. Something that we haven't touched on as well is the event space as well. So that's obviously a form of content and obviously either providing content or gaining content if you're at an event.

Speaker 1: 31:13

And that's a really good example. Like you go to an accounting conference and it's a whole bunch of accountants talking to other accountants and a lot of people are like, why are you doing this? Well, yeah, probably they get paid for it, probably. But there's also, you know, that's delivery of content, practicing delivery to people in a safe space, that you know, all that kind of stuff comes into it. I mean, we haven't even spoken about the tech, but we need to.

Speaker 2: 31:34

Yes, how is that?

Speaker 1: 31:35

So, from a rapid fire tech app perspective, what are the tools that are out there? I mean, you know we didn't wait. I wasn't thinking we're gonna cover podcast, but it's a fair point. You know you can. You can go on to an app like Riverside right now and you can, for free. I think you can go and run a podcast with a mate and I think they give you you know, if you did one a month, it'd be totally free download the episodes.

Speaker 1: 31:58

You can cut them up, clip them up, put them on social media. It's very easy to do. So, you know you, sometimes people don't realize how easy this stuff is. You can, you can do these basic things and then you can, you can ramp them up. Like you know, you can have really good mics and you can have really professional sound editing and all this kind of stuff. It does make a difference. But if you're just trying to get started, you can normally get started relatively cheaply. But if we're not talking podcast, we're just talking general content. Obviously, you know we've got a whole episode on AI, whether it's coming up or it's already been or whatever it is.

Speaker 1: 32:29

But chart GBT a great place to Get your thoughts out, so you provide it some prompts it, then it can pull together your marketing plan. If you said, look, I need a 12 month kind of marketing plan for my accounting firm, this is the kind of Message I'm trying to send. This is the kind of themes of the of the year Q1s, this theme, q2s, this. Can you give me some examples of what I should be putting out? And that then just gets you thinking don't let it Do all the content for you because it will be a bit generic unless your prompts are amazing. But use it as inspo. Start there and, you know, feed off that grow, grow from there and you'll get going pretty quickly. Anything on your end.

Speaker 2: 33:08

The other ones are. So we use HubSpot for our content, for us to send out newsletters. We use HootSuite to manage our social media platforms. So one of the things that is kind of painful is, obviously there's Twitter linked in Facebook, now Instagram. They're our format social media platforms that we have you said Twitter.

Speaker 1: 33:28

I think it's X.

Speaker 2: 33:29

Sorry, x, sorry, god, I'm so old anyway. So we have those four platforms right and instead of Manually logging into each platform to post pretty much the same thing because it's a different form we use HootSuite, which basically allows you to condense that into one platform and post the relevant social posts accordingly. There are other platforms out there that do a similar thing. We just happen to use HootSuite right, starting out from a newsletter perspective though MailChimp, it's free. Most people's databases in the, you know, depending on what level of accounting practice you're at, most of the smaller end of town can probably get away with using MailChimp on the free version, because Doesn't.

Speaker 1: 34:11

HubSpot also do email newsletters if you're using that VCRM.

Speaker 2: 34:15

It does, but it's a paid feature. Yeah, yeah it is a paid feature.

Speaker 1: 34:20

With all of these tools as well. There are alternatives like MailChimp, there's Active Campaign, there's MailerLite, there's probably a hundred others with HootSuite, there's another app called Buffer as well. So I mean and once again, hundreds of others, because these are not accounting specific. These are generic marketing tools and every business in the world needs them. So there's a lot of them. So feel free to do your own research too.

Speaker 2: 34:41

Yeah, but accounting specific ones. I think the only one that's really accounting specific, that is, an integrated accounting specific platform, would be Boomer.

Speaker 1: 34:49

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 34:51

If you're looking for an integrated CRM SwiftFox but then that doesn't actually produce the content for you, you need to create that content for you. I think something to note, and I feel like this is a space that can be definitely untapped. We've talked about this from a CRM perspective in in other episodes, but Definitely that content creation side of things Boomer there's nothing that actually connects in with a practice management platform at the moment, just as a complete side note. So shout out to anyone who wants to create something there's nothing that connects in with any of the practice management platforms from a Marketing perspective that I'm presently aware of.

Speaker 1: 35:30

Okay, I thought Boomer integrated with XPM. Maybe it doesn't.

Speaker 2: 35:32

No, it connects in with zero as in zero blue.

Speaker 2: 35:35

Yeah, okay, that's a way to can be a challenge when it comes to the Contacts against all the clients, basically. So not that it's a deal breaker, it's just something to be mindful of. But also the other thing I wanted to say about that. And there's there are other platforms which are accounting specific. So there are other content creation platforms that that you can use not necessarily integrated, but more. Where I was going with this is, if there are specific accounting industry Content creation platforms know that there are other accountants that are out there creating the same or putting the same content out there. So therefore, these are a good starting place, but if you want to have again, put your own spin on it, put your own Personalization on it, that's something to consider as well.

Speaker 1: 36:19

So yeah, we actually did some research as part of early Dr Subb with Boomer and it was quite. It was really interesting because, without even talking about their product, we really uncovered and validated that accountants were super concerned about using anything that was generic content. That was like I can go on to my app. It has 10 new articles every day. Click on an article, cut it up and send it out to my socials.

Speaker 1: 36:41

I'm now concerned that every single accounting firm who's on this product has used that. I mean but it's that's not the point of the tool that they want to provide you a starting point for the content. So you don't have to write like because every firm needs to write about the fbt changes or the budget anyway. So they're giving you the starting point and the delivery platform, don't just they do. I don't think they want you to just use what they've written. They kind of want you to take that and Apply your own voice. But I haven't looked at it recently. But I wonder if they're looking at AI as a way to say, implement your own natural language and apply it to this article.

Speaker 2: 37:15

That would be a very cool that we use case if they're listening. Yeah, that'd be very cool, all right. So things to remember. Things to remember, jack.

Speaker 1: 37:23

I mean no, the number one thing for me is that the tools, the tech in this space and most areas you know it's secondary to the quality of the content. So focus on that first. Know what message you're trying to send. Don't just put content out for content sake. If you're gonna do it, do it well.

Speaker 2: 37:40

Yeah, definitely. One of the other ones that we were discussing earlier is often in accounting, and I 100% stand by this as well. Word of mouth Is better than you know. It's a better driver of business than ads and blogs and bits and pieces, ultimately, asking your current clients for a referral. If you like your current clients, they probably have similar friends and similar people in business. I asked for a referral because that's a really good way to generate more business as well, and they're probably going to be more like-minded Clients that you obviously want to.

Speaker 1: 38:12

No, that's great Cool, I mean that I think. I think like if you just put a little bit of time and effort into looking for a few Referrals, you're probably gonna get more business than a whole year of doing social media ads. But that's when you really nail your target market. You've got a super niche area of focus. That's when you can start to really get some, get some results from that. It's like I focus on e-commerce brands in the creative industry. It's like great, that's super niche, I can target them. They're gonna be all over Instagram like this is a great platform to leverage and test. But there's gonna be other Approaches and target markets that aren't as easy to reach through those channels. So that's why I mean some of this is like it's gonna be more applicable to some firms than than others. But yeah, I don't know How's that, is that good?

Speaker 2: 38:57

That was good. Thank you, jack. It was a great chat that went. That waved down a weird little path at times, so I think we unpacked a really good topic of content today. So thank you.

Speaker 1: 39:06

I know, sorry listeners, it was a long one again. How bad. Thanks, jack, thanks.

Speaker 4: 39:09

Amy. See ya, hey team. It's Ellie and Andrew from all Aussie accounting adventures here. I hope you really enjoyed this episode with Amy and Jack. What did you think, andrew?

Speaker 3: 39:28

Our stunning as always, the two of them are brilliant minds and are brilliant communicators. So we hope that you have got some incredible learnings out of this episode and if you'd like to continue to follow us, make sure you check out our website. Find us on the socials You'll see accounting adventures, or look for all Aussie accounting adventures, wherever good stuff can be found, whether that's Conferences, whether that's websites, with that's podcast or social media.

Speaker 4: 39:52

Remember to share it around. My friends like review. We love that stuff, so come on, join the adventures with us.