Many accounting firms grow in a similar fashion.
They get client referrals, perform cold outreach to an extent…
Rinse and repeat.
For a while, it works.
But eventually, the referral well dries up and cold outreach becomes too much work for so little return…
(I know this because when I started my previous accounting firm, I struggled hard just to get clients!)
That’s why, in this article, I’ll show you how to get accounting clients in today’s market.
You’ll get strategies you can use to find the clients you want to be working with and, ultimately, increase your firm’s revenue.
Let’s get started!
What Do Accounting Clients Look For in Firms?
It’s normal for accountants to assume clients are looking for someone who can do their books for cheap.
As an example, there was an accounting firm close to where I used to live that did tax returns for a low price.
How low, you ask?
$54 per tax return!
(The sign is in French, but that’s what it means.)
Not only does this destroy your revenue, but it also sends a message what types of clients you want to work with.
(And trust me, they are not the ones you want to work with.)
And as counterintuitive as it may sound, they’re also harder to keep as existing clients.
Why?
Because the moment they find someone else who charges $53 per tax return, they will jump ship.
But the clients you do want (i.e., clients who pay on time, are easy to work with, respect your firm)…
They care about 4 things:
1. Financial Gain
Clients want to see a tangible return on their investment in your services.
This could mean:
- Increasing their profits
- Reducing their tax liabilities
- Cutting unnecessary costs
If you can clearly demonstrate how your firm will help them achieve financial growth or savings, they’ll see your value.
For example, if you can help save a client $10,000 in taxes every month, that makes a $2,000 monthly fee a no-brainer.
2. Time Savings
You’re busy running an accounting business and juggling responsibilities…
So are your clients.
They don’t want to spend hours managing their books or wrestling with complicated accounting software.
If you can show them how much time your firm can save them — whether through automation, streamlined processes, or taking tasks of their plate…
They’ll be happy to work with you.
Time is one of the most valuable commodities you can offer.
3. Risk Mitigation
Clients want to protect what they’ve built…
Whether it’s their business, personal assets, or reputation.
They’re looking for a firm that can help them not only stay compliant with regulations but also minimize financial risks.
Good clients don’t want just another firm that can provide bookkeeping services.
They want someone who can proactively identifies and mitigates risks.
4. Emotional Improvement
While this isn’t something clients can see in their books…
This factor is very important. 🙂
Finances are a major source of stress for most clients.
They feel overwhelmed by the complexity of taxes, bookkeeping, and compliance, and they want someone who can make it all easier.
If you can reduce their anxiety and provide peace of mind, you’ll create a strong emotional connection.
Clients will be happy to pay more for a service that makes them feel confident and stress-free.
Plus, these satisfied clients become way more likely to stay with your firm!
What You Need to Know About Attracting Clients
Before getting into the strategies for finding potential clients, there’s something you need to know.
Attracting new business involves marketing.
Now, I know most firm owners hate marketing…
And I totally get it, because we accounting professionals are not trained for that.
But it actually revolves around 2 very simple concepts:
Understand Your Target Market
While this may sound complicated, it simply means that you have to ask yourself this:
What clients do you want to serve, and what is making their life difficult?
You need to be clear with your target market because this will be the driving force behind your marketing efforts.
For example, Protea Financial — a firm that made our list of the Top 50 Modern Accounting Firms of 2025 — chose a target market of wineries.
From there, they can identify the pain points unique to that specific market, like inventory and operating costs.
This allows them to determine how to address those pain points and best provide value to their clients.
You don’t have to be as specific as this firm.
There are accounting firms that succeed in being generalists.
But if you’re just starting out (or struggling to get clients), choosing a niche industry does tend to make things easier.
Your niche doesn’t necessarily have to be a specific industry too.
It can be based on company revenue (e.g., “Businesses under $200K”)…
Or even team size (e.g., “Solopreneurs”).
Just make sure you aren’t going for something too broad like “Business owners and other professionals,” because this will result in ineffective, generic marketing down the road.
Craft a Value Proposition that Your Target Market Understands Cares About
Being clear with your target market allows you to create a value proposition that gives them a compelling reason to sign up with your firm.
For example, if you’re a bookkeeping business that wants to cater to lawyers, you can frame your messaging around that:
- Automated Bookkeeping for Legal Industry Professionals
- Financial Peace of Mind for Legal Practitioners
- Stress-Free Financial Management for Law Firms
Make sure that you’re focusing on what they are getting, not what you are doing.
For example, instead of saying “We are a bookkeeping business that serves X clients…”
Say something like “We help X clients achieve Y with expert bookkeeping support.”
And like I said earlier, you don’t have to be confined to industries as niches.
Here’s another example: QBKaccounting exclusively works with clients using QuickBooks.
(Yes, that’s a target market!)
Once you understand what that compelling reason is, you can sprinkle it on your marketing channels.
What we’re trying to do here is stimulate an emotional response that gets prospective clients to connect with your firm and want to do business with you.
Including feedback and stories of success from past clients is also important to build trust with the people who might be interested.
As an example, one of my newsletters about a success story got an open rate of 71.2% and a click rate of 20.7%!
How to Get New Accounting Clients in Your Accounting Firm
Successful referrals aren’t bad.
If they’re coming in, absolutely go for it!
But relying on them exclusively is a fragile growth strategy.
In most cases, the best way to find accounting clients is to make it easy for them to find you.
Here are the strategies that make that happen.
1. Optimize for Local SEO
SEO (search engine optimization) is the process of optimizing the content on your website so that it’s easier for it to appear in search engine results (e.g., Google, Bing, etc.) when people search for relevant keywords.
But while many are familiar with SEO, not a lot know about local SEO.
Essentially, it involves optimizing your online presence so that it appears in local searches.
To show it in action, when I Google “accounting firm montreal,” my previous firm, Xen Accounting, appears:
The firms showing up in the local search results are going to get the first eyeballs and therefore more web traffic.
And while there are a ton of things you can do to optimize your firm’s local SEO, there’s one very simple strategy that drives most of it:
Claiming and optimizing your Google Business Profile.
To do this, just Google your firm and then click on “Own this business?” and fill out the business’ profile:
If you don’t already have a Google Business Profile, you can create one here.
The process is straightforward, and Google will guide you every step of the way.
If you do this right, you might find yourself getting a steady stream of clients from this channel.
This is what happened to one of my Future Firm Accelerate members!
2. Create a Human Connection
The role of AI in accounting is bigger now more than ever.
AI can handle books, create marketing materials, and is getting smarter every day…
But like I mentioned on LinkedIn, the most important aspect of your business (regardless of where it is right now) will always be this:
Needless to say, if the first thing potential clients see when they open your website is generic AI copy…
They’ll know it.
Even if they can’t quite put their finger on why.
A 2025 Reuters Institute report found that more than half of Americans are uncomfortable with content produced primarily by AI…
Even when humans are involved in the process.
Source: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025
To prevent prospects leaving because of this, you need to infuse human-ness into your content.
Here’s how you do that:
- Tell stories only you can tell
- Relate your experiences to their pain points
- Share your mistakes and what you learned from them
Your website is a good example of where you need to infuse human-ness because it’s one of the first things your clients will see if they look you up.
For instance, take a look at this Future Firm webpage:
Notice how the way I wrote is so simple?
That’s because I never wrote it to impress anyone.
I wrote it to let them know that I understand their struggles and that there’s a solution to their problems.
You don’t need the most eye-catching website or the most impressive copy in the world.
You just need to speak to your client’s pain points.
No good client is going to choose an accounting firm that promises all the fanciest automations over one that makes them feel heard and understood.
3. Adjust Your Productized Service Offerings
Here’s the basic gist of a productized service offering:
You take all forms of value that you’re providing to both current and prospective clients.
Then, you turn it into a “product” delivered in a systematic, repeatable fashion, usually offered on a subscription basis.
Many modern firms are advertising their productized offerings on their website.
Here’s a simple example of a productized offering:
Examine your business carefully to find ways you can adjust your service packages.
Make sure they match what your clients need as things change, all while keeping the value they get from you in mind.
Pro tip: Make sure each tier is distinct from each other that clients easily understand why one plan is better than the other, like in this plan:
If you believe your target market values any of the services I mentioned above…
Then you should be blatant about including these services as line items in your plans.
You can learn more about productizing your services in my guide to tiered pricing.
4. Attend Networking Events
This is still one of the best places to find clients, even if it makes you want to hide under a rock.
(I’m saying that as an introvert!)
The idea of walking into a room full of strangers and making small talk used to terrify me.
But if I can do this…
You can too. 🙂
You’re not just looking for direct clients at these events.
You’re also meeting other accountants who might know people who could use your services.
Events hosted by local businesses and business associations are some of the most valuable networking opportunities you’ll come across, so don’t sleep on them.
And not every connection has to lead directly to a client either.
Some of the best outcomes from networking are mutually beneficial relationships, like people who can send you referrals and other people in the industry you can collaborate with.
The key is having a solid elevator pitch ready.
Explain what you do in 3 sentences, maximum, and be confident about it.
“I help small businesses get their books cleaned up and keep them that way. Most of my clients were drowning in spreadsheets and receipts before we started working together. Now they actually know if they’re making money each month.”
Practice it until it feels natural.
Don’t overthink which events to attend.
Start with your local chamber of commerce or small business meetups.
Show up, be genuinely interested in what other people do, and have real conversations.
The goal isn’t to hand out business cards like you’re dealing poker but to build relationships with people who might need your help (or know someone who does).
You can listen to more networking tips in this Future Firm Podcast episode.
5. Assemble Your Partners for Virtual Events
Want an easy strategy?
Select 2 or 3 of your favorite referral partners (e.g., lawyer, banker, etc.).
Then, organize a webinar event with a theme around helping common challenges between their industries like cash flow, cost reduction, or customer engagement.
Set a date for the event, and ask each partner to invite their current clients and prospects to increase the audience size.
At the end of the webinar, you can include a very simple yes or no polling question:
“Do you want us to get in touch with you regarding help with anything discussed today?”
If you put on a good, helpful presentation, at least some people will say yes.
6. Use This Simple, Proven Email Marketing Tactic
Email marketing is one of my favorite digital marketing strategies for a few reasons:
- It’s easy
- It’s affordable
- It doesn’t take much time to set up
(You can start learning how to do this in my email marketing guide for accountants.)
Your newsletters are most effective when you’re not overtly pitching anything, however.
In fact, my Future Firm newsletter is 99% useful content (in my opinion!).
But this is how I end my newsletter each and every time:
Believe it or not, adding a P.S. at the end works.
Week in, week out, I get people responding asking for help.
Week in, week out, I get people responding asking for help on how to find new clients and provide better bookkeeping or accounting services.
Adding a P.S. line lets you market your services every time you send an email.
It also helps you stay top of mind with your prospective clients.
Here are some examples of P.S. lines (feel free to swipe):
7. Write Helpful Content for Your Ideal Clients’ Industry on Social Media
Don’t overthink this.
You don’t need to be a content machine churning out posts every day.
Start simple.
For example, here’s one of my earliest LinkedIn posts:
While it was Xero that made the report, that didn’t mean I can’t create value out of it for my target audience.
Similarly, you don’t have to come up with original research to be noticed.
(My guess is that you already have a lot of knowledge and experience your clients would be super interested in anyway.)
Share one tip per week about something you help clients with all the time.
- “Here’s how to organize your receipts so tax season doesn’t suck.”
- “3 red flags that mean you need to fire your bookkeeper.”
- “Why your profit margins are probably wrong (and how to fix it).”
The best content comes from real conversations you have with clients.
That question someone asked you yesterday?
Turn it into a post.
Keep it conversational, and write like you’re talking to a friend over coffee.
For another example, check out this LinkedIn post that got over 120K impressions and got people talking:
You’re not trying to teach them everything.
You’re giving them enough value to trust that you know what you’re talking about, while making it clear there’s more depth when they need it.
Post consistently, but don’t stress about going viral.
One person who sees your content and thinks “this person gets it” is worth more than a hundred random likes.
Your ideal clients are scrolling through social media anyway.
Make sure they occasionally see something useful from you when they do.
8. Show Up in Online Communities
A lot of great conversations (and connections) are happening online.
For starters, think about the communities already available to you.
Professional associations often have active online groups where firm owners share referrals, ask questions, and swap recommendations.
And while social media channels are great for broadcasting content, they’re also a door into communities where paying clients are already hanging out:
- A Facebook group for local business owners in your city
- A LinkedIn group for your niche industry
These are places where you can show up consistently, offer genuine value, and build trust that can turn into a conversation about working together.
If you’re looking for a community specifically built for modern firm owners, that’s exactly what Future Firm Accelerate is.
Hundreds of firm owners sharing what’s working, what isn’t, and helping each other grow…
Without the trial and error of figuring it all out alone.
Start Getting New Accounting Clients With These Strategies
That’s a wrap!
Pick one or two strategies that feel right for your firm and start there.
You don’t need to do everything at once, but you do need to start somewhere.
If you want to get more practical advice on growing your accounting firm delivered straight to your inbox…
Subscribe to my Future Firm newsletter! 🙂
Now, I want to hear from you.
Which of these strategies are you going to try first? What did I miss?
Let me know in the comments!
