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Why your digital marketing isn’t working

  • + Marketing

15 April, 2025

Why most digital marketing doesn’t work for accountants, lawyers & financial planners, and what to do instead to actually get results.
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"We tried digital marketing. It didn’t work."

Heard that before?

I’m willing to bet you have even said it.

Maybe it was a couple of paid ads that didn’t work. Maybe you did a few months’ worth of social posts with a content marketing agency or tried some email campaigns with no response.

Either way, nothing much came from it. The leads were most likely average, or there were none. The results didn’t match the spend. And your marketing budget was a leaky bucket over a drain pipe… and the handle snapped off.

Nothing went right.

I know this sounds familiar.

We see it all the time in accounting firms, law firms, and financial planning practices. And the problem isn’t the channel, the content, or even the budget.

The problem is the mindset and the plan.

The short-term mindset that kills marketing before it starts.

For too long, professional services firms have adopted a short-term approach to digital marketing. Quick wins and fast leads with minimal effort. And after a few months into the campaign, there are no big results, and the campaign gets scrapped.

But here’s a curious contradiction: these same firms talk about building relationships with their clients. About being trusted advisors, partners, and taking a long-term view with clients.

And yet, a majority of the time their approach to marketing is based on transactions.

Here’s the truth: great, long-lasting, profitable client relationships aren’t created from one moment. They’re built slowly, over time, through value, familiarity, and trust.

And marketing is the tool that builds that trust long before a client picks up the phone, sends an enquiry, or asks for a recommendation.

Not sales. Marketing.

The data is telling us everything we need to know about your buyers.

We’re not just saying all of this because we love marketing (we do, obviously).

We’re saying it because the data is telling us, loud and clear, that professional services buyers take their sweet time.

The 2024 Green Hat B2B Buyer Report revealed that the average B2B buying journey in the APAC region is 13 months long. Buyers typically engage a firm at the 9.5-month mark. Let’s say that again for dramatic effect…

The average B2B buying journey in the APAC region is 13 months long. Buyers typically engage a firm at the 9.5-month mark.

And by that time, 73% of their journey is already completed.

Which means, when a potential client reaches out to your firm, they’ve already done their research. They’ve been lurking in the shadows of the World Wide Web. Comparing. Watching. And they’ve been doing it for months.

If you’re not showing up in those early months with the right content and a presence worthy of being remembered, they’re spending that time engaging with another advisor, lawyer, or accountant.

Your buyers are doing a lot more behind the scenes than you think.

What are they doing during that 9-13 month window? Here’s what the data reveals, and what we’ve seen firsthand:

  • They're recognising they have a problem
  • They’re searching for information
  • They’re asking friends, colleagues, and other advisors for recommendations
  • They’re Googling (a lot)
  • They’re saving posts on LinkedIn and Instagram
  • They’re reading blogs, watching videos, and comparing websites.

It’s obvious they’re not sitting still. They’re not waiting for your next social post or email. They’re actively researching and engaging. And if your firm is nowhere to be found in that research? You’re already out of the race.

This is where digital marketing for accountants, lawyers and financial planners matters most. It’s more than just showing up when they’re ready to buy. It’s about being there well before that time comes.

Playing the long digital marketing game.

The best, most profitable growth from digital marketing doesn’t show up in weeks. It shows up in the 9-12 month mark of following the plan and doing the right things, consistently.

And when it clicks, it really clicks.

We’ve seen firms triple their website traffic in less than a year without any paid tactics.

We’ve seen brand awareness campaigns resulting in long-term clients that stick around for years. But it only worked when they stopped chasing short-term wins and started to focus on long-term positioning.

If you’re big on building trust with clients, your marketing needs to reflect that too. That means showing up with:

  • Educational blog content that answers real questions when they have them, and where they’re looking for the answers.
  • Helpful insights and relatable content on social media
  • Content that reflects your voice and brand (not generic templates and online content libraries)
  • Email marketing that nurtures relationships
  • Paid ads that target the right intent with the right message.

Firms that do this well become the go-to source of helpful information in the early stages, and maintain that connection through the entire 9-13 month buying process. They’re constantly visible, so they stay top-of-mind. They feel familiar by the time the client is ready to engage.

And, did we mention the report also revealed that 82% of the time, the firm that won the client is the firm that was first engaged.

And the first engaged firm is usually the firm they know, like, and have trusted for a while.

Why most firms fail at digital marketing.

Because they dabble.

They try blogging for a month. Post on social once a fortnight. Run a Google Ads campaign for 30 days and expect 5 new clients.

That’s not a strategy as much as it is a reaction.

Marketing is like compound interest. A single post won’t do much. But showing up with relevance and value, week after week, month after month is when the growth kicks in. That’s when your brand is being seen and remembered.

Also, your firm becomes the first name that comes to mind when someone asks:

“Anyone know a good commercial lawyer?”

“Who do you use for business tax?”

“Do you have a financial adviser you trust?”

So, what actually works in digital marketing for accountants, lawyers, and financial planners?

Content marketing

We’ve been talking blogs and helpful articles for years. Yet, there are still firms who don’t do it. Firms that publish relevant, search-optimised blog content generate more qualified traffic and leads. It helps boost your SEO maturity, but most importantly it leaves an impression with a potential client.

Email marketing

If someone’s downloaded a guide or subscribed to your updates, they’re warm. Don’t ghost them. Nurture that relationship with helpful insights, stories, and content that brings value, consistently, through your email marketing efforts.

Social media (yes, essential in digital marketing for law firms as well)

Your ideal clients are on LinkedIn. Some are on Instagram. And yes, more than you think are even on TikTok. If your content is tailored to the right audience, social media works! Especially with consistency, a distinctive brand visual, and value-led messaging.

Google Ads and SEO

You still need to show up when buyers go searching. This is where a combination of SEO for legal firms, accountants and financial planners and smart paid ad strategies can make a big difference. But again, this only works when everything else (content creation and blog posts, email marketing and social media marketing) is already in play.

Patience

If you only take one thing from this blog, take this: the best clients take time to engage.

If you’re giving up after three or four months because you don’t have leads pouring in, you’re cutting your campaign short right before it starts working.

You say you value long-term relationships. You say you put service and trust first. So let your marketing reflect that.

The firms that win online aren’t the loudest. They’re the most consistent and show up with value, insight, and relevance again and again. And they play the long game.

If your digital marketing strategy is built on chasing quick wins, you’ll end up disappointed. But if you’re ready to build something that compounds over time and grows with your firm? That’s when digital marketing becomes a serious growth lever.

If you want a team that knows how to make the digital needle move for accountants, lawyers, and financial planners, Practice + Pixels is your go-to digital marketing firm.

Explore our digital marketing services or book a free SEO health check for your firm.

Schedule a chat with us.

If you’re ready to take your brand and digital presence to the next level, schedule a 15-minute chat with our brand specialists for professional service firms to discuss your business growth plans and how we can play a key role.

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