In many industries, including accounting, finance, investment, and digital marketing, there are lots of complicated processes that companies go through when providing professional services to clients.
More specifically, to show value to clients and help them understand their accounting services’ importance, many businesses share tutorials and information on their blogs.
However, including complex topics and long-winded explainers in your accounting blog content can make readers bored and confused.
That doesn’t mean that you can’t explain complicated processes to them and potential clients; it just means that you’ve got to go about it the right way.
If you find the magic formula and manage to explain confusing topics to novices engagingly and interestingly, then you could find that you earn a lot of organic traffic and that content creators link to your posts.
These external links, alongside the traffic and additional website views, help you get to the top of relevant search engine optimisation pages.
So, not only could you get quality accounting leads, but also help your website’s SEO when you learn to create relatable accounting blog posts on the topics that readers want to learn about.
For accountants and other businesses that use complicated processes, writing interesting blog posts is more challenging than for other companies, as your niche is confusing for many readers.
They won’t understand even basic terms and concepts, so you’ll need to make things simple while also trying to keep them engaged.
Explaining complicated concepts can be a challenge, but there are ways to do it correctly. As an experienced writer and content marketer, who’s written about complicated processes, I’ve got some practical tips that can help make the process easier:
1. Know your audience
Before you put pen to paper (or, more likely, fingers to keyboard), you need to know who your audience is, so that you can tailor your language to their understanding.
For example, if you’re targeting complete beginners with no accounting knowledge, you’ll need to explain every concept to help them understand.
However, if you’re writing for in-house accounting assistants, who aren’t qualified accountants but do have some experience in the market, you can include more complex content and not explain as much.
Once you know who you’re writing for, you can tailor the content to suit them. Make it clear in the blog post who you’re writing for so that readers know what to expect from your article.
2. Use visuals and videos
Huge blocks of text look intimidating, so try to break them up with images and videos. Videos, specifically, can be a great way to explain complicated concepts and processes.
Images such as infographics can also help readers visualise the concepts and see them in a different light.
Visual information should always be accompanied by written instructions, as everyone learns differently, and graphics often need supplementing, so they’re understandable.
Other ways to break up your text include:
- Using headings
- Bullet points
- Numbered lists
- Box-outs with quotes and specific information
3. Be friendly
Formal articles might alienate readers, so try to keep your tone light and use colloquial language. If you explain complex concepts formally, then your reader might not only struggle to understand the concept, but also the language you’re using.
If they don’t understand your article or think it’s too formal for them, they’ll probably click straight off and won’t finish reading your piece.
Don’t become too friendly; you still need to keep your content professional. The best way to get the tone right is to read your content aloud; if it sounds strange to you, it’ll probably sound odd to the reader.
4. Test your blog posts out before you publish it
One thing I notice that a lot of my fellow content marketers are doing when writing complicated articles is getting experts to read their content before they publish it.
However, if your target audience is complete novices, then they’re the ones you should share your content with to see if it explains the concept in an accessible way.
Ask a member of your family or a trusted friend who isn’t in your market to check out your content and give you feedback. If they find the content interesting, then you could be onto a winner.
If they offer you any tips on making it more interesting, consider implementing them and testing them. Incorporate their suggestions and then test them out; if readers respond well, you can use them again.
5. Monitor your posts
Creating interesting accounting blog posts and explaining complicated concepts requires trial and error, so once you’ve published your posts, you need to monitor them to see which tactics work and which ones don’t.
Use your website hosting tool and advanced SEO software such as Ahrefs and SEMrush to monitor backlinks and traffic on your blog posts. You should also check how many readers are remaining on your site and visiting other pages, and how many contact your company after reading your work.
This information will allow you to see what is working and incorporate these techniques into more of your content.
Writing accountancy blog content that benefits your digital marketing strategy is a time-consuming process that takes practice.
If you’re struggling to write the content yourself and manage the growth of your accounting firm’s marketing, then consider hiring outsourced writers.
Get them to edit your work, as they might struggle to convey or even understand the complicated concepts that you need to convey if you ask them to write the entire piece.
Provide a draft or a thorough brief and let them work their magic on it so that the resulting content is engaging and keeps readers coming back for more. Once they’ve proofread and edited the piece and employed these tips, you will be able to showcase your prowess as an industry expert and get them interested in working with your organisation.
Article author Hannah Stevenson is the Content Marketing Manager at UK Linkology, one of the UK’s highest-ranking link building agencies. A former journalist and experienced blogger, she has written a wide range of articles and enjoys sharing her experience and expertise with marketers and business owners.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Think Little Big Marketing.
