Chartered accountants: how to advertise in your profession?

Advertising by chartered accountants has long been subject to restrictions, until the recent opening up of the right to advertise and canvass. The rules surrounding their communication in the form of advertising have been relaxed, although promotional actions are still subject to certain conditions.

How can you promote your accounting firm and ensure its commercial development through advertising? What practices are authorized and what limits are imposed?

Here's everything you need to know about your right to advertise as a chartered accountant, and a guide to the means of communication available to you to promote your business!

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Expert-comptable: what advertising can you do?

Practices authorized by the Hamon law

Since the Hamon law of August 22, 2014, communication and canvassing actions to promote a chartered accountancy firm are authorized, but remain framed.

Professionals can carry out various advertising actions, such as:

• promoting their firm in a magazine insert,
• promoting their services and offers on a website,
• displaying the firm's address on a billboard,

provided they comply with the general principles laid down by the Ordre des Experts-Comptables.

Indeed, the forms of communication deployed must be compatible with the ethical rules of the profession as set out in article 152 of the Code of Ethics.

Promotional activities carried out by the persons mentioned in article 141 are intended to provide the public they are targeting with useful information. These persons may only offer services to third parties who have not requested them, under conditions compatible with the ethical and professional rules governing the practice of their profession.

Article 152, modifié par Décret n° 2014-912 du 18 août 2014.

In short, they must meet the following criteria:

• ✅ they must convey useful information;
• ✅ their content must be accurate and not mislead the public;
• ✅ their expression must be decent and restrained;
• ✅ they must comply with the rules of professional secrecy;
• ✅ they must demonstrate loyalty to customers and other members of the profession.

☝️Si a communication action is deemed unfair or indecent, sanctions are likely to be applied.

For your practice, you need to find the right balance and moderation in your advertising, so that it serves your interests and meets your communication needs, without deviating from the established rules.

Limits to promotional activities

The Code of Ethics for Chartered Accountants specifies that communication campaigns must not damage:

• image,
• independence
• or dignity,
• nor the honor of the profession.

Furthermore, advertising must be free of any comparative elements or inaccuracies.

Finally, advertising content must not promote a "specialization", which is not recognized by the profession as such, and which could mislead the customer.

What advertising levers can you activate to develop your practice?

With this in mind, it's in your best interest to establish a communications strategy to ensure the commercial development of your accounting firm. It's an important part of your firm's business, helping it to raise its profile and reach new clients. Let's take a look at the different options available to you.

Collective advertising by the Ordre des Experts-Comptables

Even before you embark on a communications plan to promote your individual business, you're already benefiting from the OEC's communications initiatives. In fact, the OEC's objective is to pool advertising initiatives and finance them so that all chartered accountancy professionals can benefit.

Thanks to advertising campaigns highlighting the skills and qualifications of the chartered accountant, clients have a better understanding of the role of the chartered accountant, whether for :

• companies,
• public authorities
• entrepreneurs,
• or even associations.

Campaigns such as "L'expert-comptable : un conseil qui compte" (The chartered accountant: advice that counts) promote the skills of the chartered accountant, with a particular focus on his or her advisory role , especially in certain areas such as employment, IT and wealth management.

Communication tools for chartered accountants

Between traditional and digital communication tools, you have many options:

• publishing a paper magazine,
• creating a promotional video to be shown in your practice,
• fitting out your practice's shop window, provided you keep a certain amount of discretion, as a commercial storefront is not permitted,
• development of a website,
• distributing a newsletter,
• the use of social media, creating a corporate page on Facebook or LinkedIn, or a professional account on Twitter, giving you both a channel for direct exchange and a showcase to promote your activities.

These different channels enable you not only to communicate about your offer, but also to disseminate content on subjects that concern your audience:

• legislative news,
• topics related to your expertise,
• or a profession you support, etc.

Inbound marketing for accountants

You can use inbound marketing techniques to raise the profile of your accountancy practice, letting prospects come to you, as opposed to canvassing.

You can do this in a number of ways:

• organizing or taking part in conferences or seminars in your areas of expertise,
• promoting these events on social networks or on your showcase website,
• a blog or YouTube channel, with articles or videos, tutorials, etc. to create valuable content likely to interest your targets,
• implementing a review system to encourage recommendations from your customers, etc.

A polished brand image for your practice

These communication and marketing levers enable you to :

• promote your expertise,
• educate and raise awareness of the different facets of your profession,
• create a sense of proximity with your prospects.

By nurturing your brand image in this way, you can reassure your customers and prospects of the quality of your services, and increase your chances of building customer loyalty.

To achieve this, one of the prerequisites is to equip yourself with high-performance tools so that you can devote most of your time to the essential aspects of your profession:

• nurturing customer relations,
• guaranteeing quality service, in line with customer expectations,
• winning new customers.

⚒️ For example, by using a tool such as QuickBooks Experts-Comptables, you can speed up and automate time-consuming tasks, and be more efficient in managing accounting tasks. As a result, you can concentrate on high value-added activities, such as supporting your customers: you improve your customer relations and gain a competitive edge in developing your customer base.

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Advertising to raise your profile

The opening up of the right to advertise has opened up a whole new world of possibilities for accounting firms wishing to build their development strategy and attract new clients.

Despite a relatively strict framework, there are many ways to advertise. Don't hesitate to try them out and make them your own, in order to improve the trust customers place in you and ultimately your reputation.

Which levers do you choose to communicate your offer and your expert status?