There are roughly 1.73 million bookkeepers in the US, making it an incredibly competitive industry.

If you’re just starting a bookkeeping service, you need a fleshed-out strategy to build your client base and maintain sustained growth.

Here’s how to get clients as a bookkeeper, along with practical resources to help with client acquisition.

1. Start with Your Own Network

Often the best way to connect with potential bookkeeping clients is to tap into your existing network. This can include family, friends, old colleagues, and other people you’ve done business with in the past.

Getting the ball rolling with your bookkeeping business is all about leveraging built-in rapport. And there’s no better way to do that than to reach out to people who already know and trust you.

Even if you’ve never done bookkeeping services for them, the relationship you’ve established in the past will often be enough to get them to take a chance on you.

Then, as you gain momentum with these initial clients, it should make it easier to acquire new bookkeeping clients, as you can get client testimonials that will allow you to prove your professionalism.

Also, note that people you know will likely be more understanding if you make a mistake or two when starting your small business. That way, a few hiccups shouldn’t derail the success of your entire bookkeeping firm.

Even if you can secure just a couple of clients this way, it should help propel your bookkeeping business in the right direction. Just be sure to go the extra mile and leverage the positive experience of these initial clients to serve as a springboard to bring in new clients.

This brings us to our next strategy.

2. Ask For and Incentivize Referrals

Trust is hard to come by as a bookkeeper or accountant in today’s business world. Even with a great rating and testimonials, many business owners may still be skeptical when choosing a certified public bookkeeper.

One of the best ways to slash through that skepticism is with a word-of-mouth referral from an existing client. Although it may sound antiquated to some, personal recommendations still carry a lot of weight and are perfect for getting your foot in the door with potential clients.

In fact, 49% of small business owners said that when looking for a bookkeeper, recommendations from other professional advisors are the most critical resource.

That’s why it’s important to not only ask for referrals but also offer incentives for existing clients to bring new clients to you.

One example of a referral incentive is giving existing clients discounts or a certain number of hours of free bookkeeping services. Another is to offer perks to a satisfied client like a cash bonus or gift card for each successful referral.

refer a friend program
Source: Recruiting Solutions Online

This sweetens the deal and can build further upon the rapport you’ve established to create an even stronger relationship with an accounting client. 

3. Consider Picking an Industry Niche

As we mentioned earlier, there are approximately 1.73 million bookkeepers in the US alone. If you’re a generalist with no particular target bookkeeping client demographic, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle.

But if you zero in on a specific industry niche, it’s often easier to stand out from the pack, which is essential when trying to acquire new clients and build your business. This can make you seem more attractive to those potential clients, and it’s easier to focus your marketing.

For example, you may focus on providing bookkeeping services to medical practices or real estate agencies.

While “niching down” in bookkeeping will, admittedly, limit the overall size of your client pool, it should put you front and center for potential clients that need that specific bookkeeping service.

Niching successfully relies on two main things:

  1. Perform adequate market research to ensure there’s enough demand for professional bookkeepers in your niche
  2. Go after a niche that you have prior experience and/or a legitimate interest in

So if you used to work in real estate, for instance, and there was significant demand for real estate bookkeepers in your area, that would be a logical choice.

Keep in mind that you can always branch out into other areas later on, but concentrating on a niche or two initially should help get your business off the ground and hopefully land your ideal client.

4. Speak at Local and Industry Events

This strategy is a win-win. Not only does it allow you to showcase your bookkeeping expertise and offer insights to others, but it’s also the perfect setting to network as a financial advisor afterward.

Just put yourself in the shoes of a potential customer attending an event. After hearing you speak and provide expert advice on accounting matters, they can talk with you directly afterward to learn more about your background and the services you offer as an accounting professional.

This is the ideal environment to showcase your talent and build instant rapport with potential clients for a one-two punch. An added plus is that you also get to inject your personality, which can be a selling point for many clients.

Here are some ways to find events to speak at:

  • Check local/industry social media pages
  • Contact your local chamber of commerce
  • Join accounting associations in your area
  • Use SpeakerHUB to find professional speaking gigs
speaker hub
Source: SpeakerHUB

5. Post Content on Social Media

Like it or not, social media has an immense influence on society and guides many of our purchasing decisions. According to research, “More than 90% of consumers turn to social media for guidance on purchasing.”

So it only makes sense that when building your bookkeeping business, you’ll want to have social media as an arrow in your quiver.

Not only is it an excellent way to connect with thousands or even millions of potential clients, it gives you a medium for demonstrating your knowledge and expertise.

But with so many social media platforms available, which ones should you focus on?

If you look purely at the user base, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn, are the best choices, with each having at least one billion users as of 2024.

social media user worldwide 2024
Source: Blog2Social

However, we suggest concentrating primarily on LinkedIn, as it’s specifically geared toward professionals, making it ideal for bookkeepers.

Not only that, but it’s an excellent platform for introducing yourself as a bookkeeper (or accountant), which can come in handy for cold outreach (more on that later).

As for content ideas, here are some that tend to get consistent results.

  • Accounting industry news
  • New regulations that could impact business owners
  • Financial advice
  • Success stories of satisfied clients
  • Breakdowns of complex topics into simple terms

Also, be sure to completely fill out your LinkedIn profile and post regularly so you stay on the radars of prospective clients.

6. Run Google Ads

Social media, and as we’ll discuss in the next section, SEO, are largely free and effective for growing a bookkeeping business. The only downside is that they often take time to get results.

If you’re looking to accelerate the process and essentially grow your accounting firm overnight, Google Ads is a smart choice.

google ads
Source: Google Ads

With Google Ads, you create targeted paid ads that can appear in a variety of places within Google’s network, including search, display, YouTube, Gmail, and more.

Google even has something called Performance Max, which serves as an all-in-one advertising solution that lets you reach prospective clients from all of these places in a single campaign.

google ads network
Source: Google Ads

With this form of advertising, you pay per click, where each time a prospective client clicks on your ad it costs a certain amount of money. The exact cost varies, but the average for the financial management industry in 2024 was $4.01 per click.

Note that Google frequently offers discounts for first-time campaigns, such as $500 in Ads credits if you spend $500 in the first 60 days, $1,500 if you spend $1,500 within the first 60 days, and $3,000 if you spend $3,000 in the first 60 days.

google ads pricing
Source: Google Ads

You can learn more and sign up here.

7. Launch an SEO Campaign

Let’s start by saying that creating an SEO campaign takes time and is more of a marathon than a sprint. In most cases, it usually takes three to six months to see tangible results.

When compared to Google Ads, SEO is more of a waiting game. That said, once your campaign fires on all cylinders, you’re likely to see a dramatic boost in your traffic, leads, and customers. And looking long-term, the cost of SEO is significantly cheaper than paid ads for an accountant.

Here are some of the key benefits of SEO.

benefits of SEO
Source: Attitude Academy

There are a lot of moving parts involved with this marketing strategy, so we don’t have time to get into the specifics of launching a full-blown SEO campaign. But a great starting point for a small business owner is to set up a Google Business Profile, which you can do here.

It’s free, easy, and Google allows you to fully customize your profile by adding hours, photos, and other content.

Once you’re set up, your business should appear on Google Search and Google Maps, which should help generate some initial exposure. From there, you can evolve your campaign to reach a larger portion of your audience over time.

google business profile
Source: Google Business Profile

8. Build an Email List

Email is one of the oldest marketing strategies for building an accounting service and generating leads. It’s also one of the most effective, with a ridiculously high ROI.

For perspective, a study by Omnisend found that the average ROI across the board for email marketing was $36 for every $1 spent!

revenue of investment
Source: Omnisend

Some brands have even seen a higher ROI of $40 for every $1 spent, so the potential is definitely there.

Once you’ve gotten someone to join your email list, you can promote your bookkeeping services in a personal one-on-one type of way.

You can demonstrate your knowledge and expertise by sharing helpful information. Also, you can organically build your relationship with a current client over time to encourage repeat business and referrals.

And it’s all pretty cheap. Mailchimp — one of the premier email marketing platforms — offers a free one-month trial, and it’s only $20 per month to send up to 6,000 emails after that.

mailchimp standard plan
Source: Mailchimp

9. Get Listed on Relevant Directories and Freelancer Websites

Another good way to get the ball rolling and bring in some initial clients is by getting listed on directories where you can promote your bookkeeping business. As we mentioned earlier, Google My Business is a great place to start and is crucial for local business SEO.

Some other potential directories include:

Also, freelancer websites can help you land short-term gigs as a freelance bookkeeper with a new client. And if there’s strong client satisfaction, it could potentially result in a long-term relationship.

Some websites to check out include:

upwork
Source: Upwork

10. Do Cold Outreach

Finally, you may be able to gain some traction by going at it the old-fashioned way with cold outreach — through email, LinkedIn, in-person, and even cold calling.

In full transparency, cold outreach doesn’t get nearly the same results as most other techniques mentioned in this list. For instance, “The average response rate for cold emails is just 8.5%.”

But if you take the right approach, you can often increase your response rate, as well as your overall conversion rate.

Here are some examples from Mailmeteor.

  • “Reaching out to multiple contacts with the same company can boost your response rate by 93%”
  • “Cold emails with advanced personalization achieve a 17% response rate”

If you’re using LinkedIn, try to target potential clients who share a common connection to gain some quick trust. And when cold calling, be sure to thoroughly research each prospect so you know their pain points and can personalize your pitch.

Use Keeper to Streamline Operations and Expand Your Business

The less time you spend on redundant, time-consuming tasks, the more time you’re able to devote to what’s truly important — keeping clients happy and expanding your business. One of the best tools for streamlining all aspects of bookkeeping services is Keeper.

keeper

Keeper is a bookkeeping practice management software that’s designed specifically for bookkeepers. It’s incredibly robust, and here are some of its key capabilities.

  • Seamless communication between internal team members and clients (includes a client portal)
  • Automated file review where data is automatically synced to QuickBooks Online or Xero
  • 1099 requesting and tracking
  • Custom management reports with user-friendly graphs
  • Task management
  • Time tracking

With Keeper, you can drastically speed up your month-end close, provide a far better client experience, and make your life easier. In fact, many bookkeepers are able to close the books in half the time by using this accounting software.

It’s also the first bookkeeping platform that integrates with both QuickBooks Online and Xero and offers countless other integrations.

google suite

 

Learn more about Keeper’s features and book a demo today.