A practising Chartered Accountant is bound by the Code of Ethics (‘CoE’) and is not permitted to advertise herself or her services. Honestly, a CA’s service holds dignity and doesn’t require any kind of solicitation. However, it must be noted that many other entities hire CAs and can brand for more or less all services that a Chartered Accountant offers and market and brand them. From that perspective, a Chartered Accountant is at a disadvantage as she is not on a level playing field. Therefore, we cannot ignore the fact that building a brand for oneself is equally important in today’s world.
I’m sure all of you have come across the following kinds of questions:
• I am not sure if my firm or I can be on social media or digital platforms because our Code of Ethics does not allow that;
• CA, as a profession, runs purely on referrals and social or digital media may not help;
• I know few people who are on these platforms but I’m not sure how effective that is;
• I feel it’s a waste of time and I have better technical things to concentrate on.
Let us now quickly look at answering these questions by simply understanding the basics of Digital Branding.
WHAT IS DIGITAL
BRANDING?
Today, for everything we search on Google, but do you know Google is merely a search engine and it does not create most of the content? All it does is smartly present to you content which is created by millions of users and subject matter experts like us.
Digital Branding is a process of creating an online identity and brand story of your firm or of yourself. It involves using online channels like websites, social media, SEOs, etc., so that when someone is in need of answers she can get them via Google search or other social media.
To put it simply, Digital Marketing is like pulling customers to you by advertising which is restricted and against the code of ethics, whereas Digital Branding is like creating a digital presence so that those who are in need of advice / service get contact details to approach you.
In the current professional services era, you can think of your brand as the visibility of your digital reputation.
WHY IS DIGITAL
BRANDING IMPORTANT?
Technology is something that disrupts every industry every now and then and firms that do not adjust with technology may cease to exist. We have so many examples of mobile giants like Blackberry, Nokia, etc. However, being professionals we are assured that our knowledge and expertise will not be replaced just like Kodak paper was replaced with Digital Photography. But does that mean technology will not disrupt how CAs are working or getting new clients?
Let us take a look at just the last six months. How many of us had earlier heard about Zoom (a company that was set up in 2011)? But today we will hardly find any professionals who have not heard of or used Zoom. Yes, the pandemic was unprecedented and the entire world was under lockdown so we were all forced to switch to the Digital World. And everyone co-operated in the switch. However, does every change follow the same process? What if, after a few years of working, we suddenly realise that something else has changed slowly but certainly and that we are now the odd person out?
Do we need to wait for a pandemic to teach us the next lesson or do we start blending in with a five-year plan? It’s high time to envisage the importance of digital branding. Agreed, that our profession runs on a referral model, but imagine someone referring you to a potential client and they do not find any digital presence while Googling (searching your firm’s name on Google). There are high chances they may not even approach you. Secondly, the belief that ICAI COE doesn’t allow us to be on digital / social media platforms, or that it’s a risky thing to do, isn’t true.
Currently, there are around 1.5 lakh practising CAs but the real competition is online companies which place advertisements and many other semi-qualified CAs or other professionals offering to do the same work as CAs. Not that all users are interested in hiring those online companies or the semi-qualified individuals – but their ability to approach professionals is limited to Google and other social media, but we are virtually not present there.
WHY HAVING A DIGITAL BRAND WILL
WORK FOR US
Digital Media has its own set of advantages and we have already witnessed one of its major advantages in the pandemic. It was a Eureka! moment for a lot of people who realised that we may not need to travel all the way to just speak face-to-face. We can just do a video call, have negotiations, meetings and discussions and close the deal. Let us try and understand the various advantages that the Digital Platform offers us:
• Cost-effective – Unlike other traditional modes of branding, it is cost-effective. About 90% of the digital media platforms are free to use. The cost, most of the time, is the ‘TIME’ that you invest in using the Digital Platform;
• Global market – With the www revolution, we are not bound by physical boundaries. Anything we post on social media can be accessed by anyone in the world. Connecting has become seamless. For example, a website of a person working in a remote village can be accessed by a person sitting in the US or Europe, vs. the physical billboard outside our office;
• Flexibility – A user can access the details while travelling or early in the morning, or late night, whether on laptop or mobile; digital platforms give flexibility to users to read, watch or listen at a time and place of their choice, as well as it gives us the flexibility to post or just simply schedule the posting as well;
• Interactive – All digital platforms are much more interactive than traditional modes. Websites offer chatbox option, social media provide Direct Message Option and hence when the interaction is quick, there are high chances that users with queries can turn into clients with consultancy;
• Tracking results and analytics – A majority of the digital platforms provide analytics which can help track the results of each post.
Clause (6) of the First Schedule, Code of Ethics, says that a ‘Chartered Accountant in practice shall be deemed to be guilty of professional misconduct, if he solicits clients or professional work either directly or indirectly by circular, advertisement, personal communication or interview or by any other means’.
Often, a practising CA is reluctant to use digital or social media believing it to be a push mode and an indirect way of soliciting. This is where Digital Branding wins over Digital Marketing. Before we look at different modes of digital branding, let us understand the difference with some quick examples:
|
Digital
Marketing / Push Mode
|
Digital
Branding / Pull Mode
|
|
Updating status on various social media or sending direct
messages to your connects asking them for collaboration or direct work
|
Regularly updating status on various notifications which show
your expertise to readers which may ultimately (in the long run) help win a
client
|
|
Yourself writing client reviews or attaching screenshots which
may brag about your work
|
Your clients tagging you or giving you a review on ‘Google My
Business’ page of how happy they were with your services
|
|
Replying to comments on your posts with ‘Reach out to us to
avail services’
|
Replying to comments with your knowledge and leaving an ‘In case
you have further queries, you may feel free to reach out to us’
|
When we talk about having a digital presence, we are nowhere soliciting or advertising our services but just building a brand on digital platforms by generating rich and useful content.
WHAT ARE THE VARIOUS MODES OF
DIGITAL BRANDING?
In this section of the article, we will sketchily look at the modes of Digital Branding and how it may help to build your brand to eventually help you / your firm grow.
Mode I: Search Engine Optimisation
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of growing the quality and quantity of website traffic by increasing the visibility of a website or a web page to users of a web search engine like Google Search or other Social Media Search. In short, SEO is utilising specific goal-oriented strategies to ensure that we rank higher up in search results pages. Firms using SEOs to optimise their content (whether websites or Google My Business) will be the ones clients get their answers from when they first Google and eventually land up assigning their work to the firms. The broad channel categories of SEO Branding include these modes:
A) Website:
Your firm’s website should be optimised with words that show your niche. A good website should ideally be mobile-friendly as well as optimised for computer screens. Your website is your first digital impression; a poorly designed one is like having an office in an area where no one prefers to travel. Websites should be easy to navigate and should answer basic questions like what’s your specialisation, your location and what information and tools you provide and, most importantly, the call to action button, i.e., where a visitor can contact you in case she has a query. If words in a website are used wisely, it can enrich the SEO and provide better search results.
B) Google My Business Account:
The fact is that around 65% of the CA firms do not have their own Google My Business (‘GMB’) account. A GMB account basically is Google’s way of verifying small businesses. So when someone searches exactly about your business, Google shows details about the business on the right-hand side of the search result. If a GMB account is not created, it may show other firms’ results instead. Besides, a verified GMB account means your official website appears first in search results when someone searches your firm’s name instead of some random online aggregator websites.
Having a GMB account builds your brand in multiple ways – it improves SEO for a professional web page, helps you build reputation by taking reviews from clients and colleagues for your page and all of this is absolutely without charge. To summarise, a GMB account is a ‘should have’ and not a ‘good to have’.
Mode II: Social Media Branding
Social Media (‘SM’) Branding is the use of social media platforms to connect with your audience. This involves publishing great and engaging content with your SM profiles, listening to and engaging your followers and analysing your results. Co-reading this with paragraph 2.14.1.7(vii) & (x) of Clause 7, First Schedule of COE, it is to be noted that though one can use the prefix ‘CA’ on SM profiles and have a firm page on SM accounts, utmost care should be taken that no exaggerated claims are made (such as, Best CA for GST, Best CA in Mumbai and so on). Hence, the perception that as a practising CA one may / should not have an SM presence doesn’t really hold true. Let’s quickly look at the channels of SM and how these may help in branding:
(a) LinkedIn / Twitter / Facebook / Instagram:
It is a known fact that the number of users on the above SM in India (including professionals, too, considering LinkedIn and Twitter) are in their billions and not having a presence on these SM won’t really help. These platforms work in an easy way: Every time you publish a post or share an update which the readers find useful, they tend to share the same and the reach increases. The more content you generate on SM, the more people will know you and the better brand you will build for yourself. Firms regularly sharing relevant updates build a reputation which in the long run will get them more clients. (Think about it like this – Since childhood you have seen ads and hoardings of Activa two-wheelers and as a first-time user when you plan to buy a two-wheeler, Activa would be the first brand that will come to your mind. The same happens with clients who look for services the first time.) So, if you have regularly maintained your brand on SM, they will be inclined towards you.
(b) Quora:
This is my personal favourite SM platform. Quora has a competitive edge as only about 500 practising CAs are currently using it. What makes it unique is the purpose of the user visiting it. It’s neither search nor social media but somewhere in between. The content posted here is easy to find even months and years later, unlike other SM where it gets buried or disappears. If any potential clients using Quora find an answer posted by you / your firm, there are 85% chances of them connecting with you when they look for any formal consultancy. This is primarily because of the satisfaction they received with your simple answers. Practising professionals who are active on Quora create an avenue to get new clients for themselves simply by answering questions. Needless to add, the brand is also worth cultivating because the platform has a global reach.
Mode III: Content Branding
Content branding is a strategic approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. In our profession, content branding entails writing books, articles, blogs or any kind of write-ups (collectively defined as write-up). Paragraph 2.14.1.6(iv)D of Clause (6), First Schedule of COE countenances using the designation CA in the write-ups. So, every time a person reads your write-up which shows your specialisation, they are building an image of you and next time they wish to have a consultancy on that topic, they may be inclined to approach you because you created a reputation on the topic with your content.
Mode IV: Audio / Visual Branding
If truth be told, the modern generation prefers audio / visual stimulus that is easily accessible and gets to the point over the idea of having to read something, and hence audio / visual branding these days becomes imperative. It’s really simple – a random user (who may be a potential client) wanting to learn how to log-in to the GST portal will prefer to watch a video on the same or attend a webinar rather than reading about it. So, when it’s about technical substance, people prefer reading write-ups, but when it comes to practical stuff, a webinar or an educational video will have the upper hand. And this is what audio / visual branding is all about – creating a marquee for yourself / your firm.
And this definitely works, given the following motives:
• Hosting a webinar or uploading a video gives you an opportunity to position yourself as an expert in the topic;
• It is an indirect way of soft sales;
• The level of interaction it provides gives comfort to the audience; and
• Lastly, it’s the new trend and we do not want to stay out of sync with it.
While we have delved into how audio / visual branding helps strengthen our Digital Presence, it is also to be noted that there is no violation of the code of ethics here provided we are cautious about not mentioning the firm’s name in the videos [ruled by Paragraph 2.14.1.6(iv) – Q of Clause 6, First Schedule of COE]. However, sharing videos on your own SM profile still does the work.
To summarise, while the COE does restrict direct ways of advertising, we should avoid Digital Marketing but definitely cannot avoid having a Digital Brand for ourselves or our firm. The modes of digital branding discussed here, when used with the correct strategies for each digital / SM platform, can work wonders for us even without soliciting work.
As a first step, this is what should be done:
• Creating, reviewing and revamping your individual and your firm’s digital / SM channels (redesigning website to enrich the SEO, having a GMB account, initiating and start using Quora, review each of the SM profiles);
• Plan your first webinar / YouTube video which can showcase your expertise and make it reach more people;
• Stop hard-selling, rather work on building a reputation on these channels; and
• Connect with relevant professionals on LinkedIn / Twitter and follow them.
For, it goes without saying that
NETWORK = NET WORTH
