june2021 - 17

MARKETING YOUR FIRM
How to Use Polls to Measure Your Clients' Needs
By Becky Livingston
IF I WERE to ask you, " What do you prefer, working or vacationing? " Which
would you choose? That simple question is a poll, providing answers that
inform content development to get my target market's attention. Okay. That
sounds fun for consumer brands, but are polls something B2B companies
could use? Yes! Here's why.
7 BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA POLLS
Whether you create a poll through advertising or
as part of your organic social media strategy, here
are seven reasons to use them.
■ Increased Engagement. Increased social media
engagement = higher social media clout. More social
media clout = increased online brand visibility.
■ Generate Leads. Attaching a lead generation form to
share poll results or providing an offer helps make
the interaction feel more natural for the audience
while giving you lead data.
■ Cost-Effective. Compared to focus groups, online
polls are less expensive.
■ Administrative Ease. You can schedule polls in
your organic social media plan and distribute
them with ease.
■ Audience Reach and Sample Size. Polls are unrestricted
by geography, demographics, or interests.
When paying to post them, you have control over
who will see the poll.
■ Data Analytics. Social media tools provide a variety
of analytics about those who completed the request,
including household income, geography, age,
gender, and more. Though some of this data may
be suppressed due to the Apple iOS 14.5 update, you
can still collect quite a bit of information.
■ Less Intrusive. Users are accustomed to taking a
social media poll on just about any platform.
WHAT PLATFORMS SUPPORT
SOCIAL POLLING?
Each of the major social media platforms allows
polling, including LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and
Instagram. To maximize its effectiveness, be sure
to launch the poll from your firm's page rather than
a personal profile.
BUDGET
You can create a poll on your company page
without spending a dime. However, organic polls
only go to your existing followers, unless shared by
your followers to a larger audience. If it's shared,
you have no idea who it's going to.
Paying for a poll post will give you control
over the audience, increase your sample size, and
provide information about a target market.
POLL QUESTION INSPIRATION
You have to be realistic with your poll questions
to make sure the data collected helps your firm.
Here are some examples that could lead to content
development.
■ How do you prefer to get information? (a) podcast
/ (b) webinar / (c) reading. The top answers inform
how your content is consumed.
■ If you could live outside the U.S. while retaining
your citizenship, where would you live? (a) Europe
(b) Asia (c) Canada (d) South America, etc. Answers
would lead to a series on international tax, FBAR,
and ex-pat taxes.
■ What kind of movies do you like to watch? (a)
drama (b) sci-fi (c) action (d) romance, etc. This
data informs how you create scenarios in content
examples. Each genre lends itself to certain types
of content headlines. Future storylines could then
be based on the data.
■ What are you most worried about when it comes
to retiring? (a) no social security benefit (b) I won't
have enough money (c) I'll never be able to retire (d)
Retirement, what's that? Answers to this question
can lead to a series of financial planning, estates,
trusts, and more.
■ Have you considered moving out of state? (a) yes (b)
no. This data lends itself to cross-border tax topics,
income tax returns, property tax issues, etc.
■ If we shared a monthly newsletter with cash flow
tips, money management, audit tips, payroll guidance,
etc., would you want to receive it? (a) yes (b)
no. Answers help you determine if you should spend
time, money, effort on creating a monthly newsletter.
■ What is your top business pain point? (a) cash flow (b)
succession planning (c) tax management (d) payroll
oversight (e) time management, (f) audit prep, etc.
Each answer lends itself to a series of business pain
points and how your firm can solve them.
■ Did you hear, [insert celebrity name] didn't have a
Will for [his/her] estate? Do you have a Will? (a) yes
(b) no. Based on responses, you could create a series
of estate planning tips.
If you want to know more about your audience,
consider demographic questions, such as " What
was your favorite television show growing up? "
(a) Flipper (b) Beverly Hills 90210 (c) Friends (d)
Dawson's Creek (e) Nah to TV give me video games.
Create questions that help you gauge the age of
those responding. Then create content addressing
life issues during those ages. For example, Flipper
would align with boomers. Beverly Hills 90210
would signify Gen X. Friends would indicate a
millennial. The video game answer would align
with Generation Z.
MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR POLLS
Here are four tips to help boost your poll's
effectiveness.
■ Keep it interesting and relevant. Ensure that your
audience cares enough about the topic to respond.
■ Post the poll during peak visitation/traffic times
and days. Find the time from your social media
platform analytics.
■ Avoid too many polls. Posting once a month might
suffice.
■ Respond. Take the time to interact with poll takers
by responding to questions or following up with
links to relevant content.
Now that you have some poll ideas, what will
you ask your audience? ■
Becky Livingston is the Owner and CEO of Penheel Marketing,
a NJ-based firm specializing in social
media and digital marketing for CPAs
and small business owners. With over 25
years of marketing and tech experience,
she is the author of " SEO for CPAs - The
Accountant's SEO Handbook " and the
" The Accountant's Social Media Handbook. "
In addition to being a practitioner,
she is a dog lover, an active Association
for Accounting Marketing's (AAM) committee member,
an adjunct professor, and a speaker/trainer. Learn more
about Becky and her firm at https://Penheel.com.
JUNE 2021 ■ www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
17
https://www.Penheel.com http://www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
june2021

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