What is content marketing for accountants?

The short answer

Content marketing for accountants means answering the questions prospects ask before they ever call a firm, and putting those answers where they will find them: your website, social media and email. Instead of saying "we are good accountants", you show it by explaining things clearly, again and again, to the clients you want.

A small firm with no marketing team can do this in about an hour a week. Choose one type of client and one channel, write one useful piece a month, reuse it in four or five places, and judge it on enquiries rather than likes. The rest of this guide shows how, step by step. The example titles and posts below are made up to show the method.

What content marketing means for a small firm

For an accountancy practice, content marketing is a simple swap: you spend the time you might spend selling on explaining instead. Every week clients ask you questions by phone and email. Content marketing writes the best of those answers down once, publicly, so the next hundred people with the same question can find them.

It suits accountants for three reasons:

• People research before they hire. A business owner worried about a tax bill searches the question first. The firm with the clearest answer is the first firm they meet.
• Trust is the product. Clients cannot easily judge technical skill, but they can judge whether you make things make sense. A clear explanation is evidence of that.
• You already have the material. The questions sit in your inbox and the answers sit in your head. Nobody else has to invent them.

Content is one part of a firm's marketing, alongside the website, search, social media, email and perhaps adverts. For how those fit together in one plan, see our guide to digital marketing for accountants. This guide is about the content itself: what to make, how to make it in the time you have, and how to get the most from each piece.

Pick one audience and one channel first

Before writing anything, decide who it is for and where they will see it. Content written for "small businesses" on every platform at once reaches nobody in particular, and a small firm runs out of time by the second month.

• One audience. Pick the type of client you most want more of, such as landlords, contractors, hospitality businesses or new limited company directors. Write for them by name, so they can tell at a glance that a piece is about them.
• One home for the long version. Your own website is the best place for the full answer. You control it, it can appear in Google, and every other channel can link back to it.
• One channel to share it on. Choose where that audience already spends time. For many firms that is LinkedIn for business owners and an email to existing clients. Add a second channel only once the first is running without effort.

The five types of content, and where to start

Start with written answers on your website. They take the most thought, but they last the longest, and every other type can be cut from them. Here are the five types most useful to an accountancy firm, in the order to add them.

1. Answer pages and guides on your website

One page per question, written in the client's words, with the answer in the opening lines. This is the foundation. Our list of blog ideas for accountants has 25 example topics and a calendar built around the tax year, so this guide does not repeat them. Why answers like these help a site appear in Google is covered in our guide to SEO for accountants.

2. Short social posts

Small pieces of a longer answer: the key point, a common mistake, a date to remember. They reach people who already know you, and remind them what you are good at.

3. An email to clients and contacts

A short monthly email that summarises your newest piece and links to it. Existing clients are the people most likely to refer you, so keeping them informed is content marketing too.

4. Checklists and templates

A one-page checklist, such as the documents to send before a year-end, gets saved and forwarded. Make it from a guide you have already written, and keep it short.

5. Video and talks

A two-minute video of a partner explaining one point, or a talk at a local business group. These show the person behind the firm. Add them last, and base them on a written piece so the facts have already been checked.

One idea, used five ways

The way a small firm keeps up is by making one thing and using it many times. The thinking and the checking happen once; everything after that is cutting and sharing. Take one example question a contractor might ask: "Should I go limited?"

• The guide.A page on your website: "Sole trader or limited company: the questions to ask before you decide". This is the full version that everything else links to.
• Social posts. Three or four short posts over the month: the question itself, the factors that change the answer, a common mistake, and an invitation to talk it through. Each links to the guide.
• A newsletter section. Two or three sentences in the monthly email and a link to the guide. Our guide to email marketing for accountants covers what to send and who you can send it to.
• An FAQ entry. A short question and answer on your service page for contractors, linking to the full guide for anyone who wants more.
• A saved reply. The next time a client emails the same question, send a short reply and the link. Your team saves time, and the client gets a fuller answer.

Here is how the first social post from that guide might read:

For how often to post and which platforms suit a firm, see our guide to social media marketing for accountants.

Cutting a finished guide into a month of social posts is the step most firms skip, because it comes after the writing feels done. It is also the step Pillr does for accountancy firms: it reads your website, drafts a month of posts in the firm's voice, and schedules them to LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram once a partner has approved each one.

A one-hour-a-week routine

A partner does not need to write every word. Their hour goes on the parts only they can do: choosing the question, explaining the answer and checking the result. Everything else can go to a colleague, an assistant or a tool. Here is one way to run a four-week cycle that produces one guide a month and everything cut from it.

• Week 1: choose and explain (one hour). Pick the next question from your question log, the shared list where the team notes what clients ask. Then explain the answer out loud for 15 to 20 minutes, as you would to a client, and record it on your phone.
• Week 2: draft (someone else). A colleague turns the recording into a draft, keeping your words and examples. The partner spends their hour on a quick read and a list of corrections.
• Week 3: check and approve (one hour).Check every figure, date and rule against the source, add a "last checked" date, and approve the guide and the social posts and newsletter text cut from it.
• Week 4: publish and share (under an hour). Publish the guide, schedule the posts across the month, add the newsletter section and the FAQ entry, and save the reply for the team.

The rules for content your firm writes

Content is promotional material, so the same marketing rules apply to a guide or a post as to an advert. ICAEW's helpsheet on marketing, updated for the code of ethics in force from 1 July 2025, says the basic rule is that advertising material should be legal, decent, honest, truthful and clear. It also makes these points:

• No disparaging other firms. Firms must not say anything that disparages or discredits the practice or services of others, even if the statement is objectively true. Write about what you do, not what others do badly.
• No exaggerated or unsupported claims. Firms should not make exaggerated claims for their services, qualifications or experience, and should make clear the basis of any claim to be the leading or most widely used firm in an area.
• Client stories need consent.Using a client's testimonial is in order if the client has consented. The relationship between a firm and a client is confidential, so without consent it would be inappropriate.
• Fees must not mislead. If a piece mentions fees or charging rates, it should explain them clearly, including the period they cover and any exclusions.
• You are responsible for outsourced work. Firms can use agencies and specialists, but remain responsible for any marketing carried out on their behalf.

ACCA, AAT, ICB and the other bodies have their own codes, so check your own body's code as well. For newsletters, the helpsheet also recommends a clear opt-out in every marketing email. Beyond the rules, the main risk is accuracy: a piece with last year's threshold can mislead a reader, so review each one when the rules change.

How to tell if it is working

Count enquiries that mention a piece first, then look at the searches each page appears for. Visitor numbers and likes on their own say little: a guide can attract readers from the other end of the country who will never hire you.

• Enquiries per piece. Ask every new enquirer how they found you, and note which guide or post they mention. Five enquiries from one landlord guide tell you to write more for landlords.
• Search Console queries. Google's help page on the Search Console Performance report explains that it shows the queries your site appeared for, with clicks, impressions (how many times your site appeared in results) and average position, and lets you look at them page by page. Check which questions each guide shows up for, and answer the ones it does not yet cover.
• Replies and forwards. A client who replies to your newsletter or forwards a checklist to a friend is a better sign than a high open rate.
• Time saved. Count how often the team sends a saved reply link instead of writing an answer from scratch. That is a return even before new clients arrive.

Review once a quarter: update the figures, link newer pieces to older ones on the same subject, and stop making the type of content that never leads to a question or an enquiry. Give the whole effort six months to a year before deciding whether it works.

Five mistakes small firms make

• Writing about the firm instead of the client.News about your new office interests you. An answer to "why is my tax bill so high?" interests the people who might hire you.
• Starting on every channel at once. Four platforms in January usually means none by March. Start with your website and one channel.
• Making everything from scratch. If each post is a new idea, you will run out of time. Make one guide a month and cut it up.
• Leaving out the next step. Every piece should end with one clear action, linked to the service that solves the problem it describes.
• Stopping too soon. Content builds slowly. A firm that keeps going for a year gives each piece time to be found; one that stops after two months never finds out what worked.

If you want to see what a month of social posts from your own website would look like, paste your firm's address on the Pillr home page, or look at plans and pricing.

Questions accountants ask