Use These 10 Strategies to Acquire CPA Clients Utilizing Accountant Websites
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011Accounting professionals come in all sizes and stripes - with some focusing on tax work, others on part-time CFO services, and others still on specialized markets such as medical billing.
One reality ties them all together: regardless of how broadly focused or specialized their services, they can’t afford not to obtain new clients, or they won’t have a business. This hurts not simply you, but the whole community. It doesn’t matter how proficient or client-centered a CPA is - without enough clients to provide revenue and keep the lights on, his business will cease to be.
So, if you’re an accountant looking to get established in the field, how do you get leads?
The best way is with superior accountant websites.
Today, if you are not online, you will simply not be able to generate enough leads or sell potential clients on the worth of your services.
So what can you do to help your firm thrive in this environment? Below are 10 pointers for how to obtain and make the best use of your accounting website:
I. Make sure your website looks professional. These days, it is extremely easy to create a website. Plenty of options exist for you to not only get a web address, but also pick a professional design that’s targeted exclusively to the clients you want to attract.
II. Don’t try to do it yourself - use a web designer. Your talents lie with numbers, not design. A professional designer can effortlessly make your website look and run just right.
Even if you have a good eye it takes much more than that to make high quality accountant websites, it takes training in things like navigational structure, meta tags, alternative text, flash, java, framed links, search engine optimization, and much much more. The trick is to not just attract visitors to your site, but also keep them once they arrive. Make it attractive and informative.
III. Make the best possible use of social media platforms for marketing accountant websites. This isn’t as much of a hassle as you may have heard, although the more energy you put into it the better your results will be. The simple act - which takes all of half an hour - of creating profiles on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn is enough to gain exposure.
Facebook is the most important of these. Start there. Make a personal profile first, and then mock up a simple “fan” page for your accounting firm. Get your friends to “like” your page, and soon their friends and their friends’ friends will be seeing your business’s name and a link to it.
IV. To get more visitors to your site, you need to post plenty of links to other sites (as strange as that sounds). The best way to do this is to add links to your social media profiles. If someone visits your site and likes what they see, this will be an easy way for them to help you spread the word. Add a button that says “Like me on Facebook” or a “Follow me on Twitter” link and your social profiles will get a boost.
V. Post links to the websites of your notable clients. When folks see your client list, and maybe even click through to your clients’ websites, it acts as that all-important “social proof” that helps you appear trustworthy. This benefits your clients as well because inbound links from reputable accountant websites give them a boost in the search engines.
VI. Take advantage of merchant websites that can help you get leads - such as eBay and Craigslist. These, and other similar sites, have extremely high traffic rates and are designed with classified sections that advertise services.
VII. Don’t forget about ads in the newspaper that include your web address, which still work well for local clients. Getting people to click on links and visit accountant websites is a lot easier than getting them to drive accross town to visit or even just pick up the phone and call. Take a look at your local papers. You might be able to also get in their online edition, where you could either be listed in their “marketplace” or be featured in a banner ad. Where possible try to concentrate your ads in business and financial sections and include a tag line that will entice business owners to call. Look into websites for publications in surrounding towns that are a reasonable driving distance for potential clients.
VIII. Hike it up a notch; look for websites that advertise specifically for accountants. Accountant-Finder.com, for example, is just one of many sites that provide potential clients with a starting place to find you.
IX. Don’t turn up your nose at lead-gen websites such as adknowledge.com, either. There are plenty out there and they may bring in new business. Use them the right way - as part of your overall marketing efforts - and you could see some nice results.
Do your homework here and ensure that you investigate the site before you join it. Some have fees involved and some are fly-by-night operations. If you want quality clients, use a quality lead generation site.
X. Finally, seek out and listen to experts in your field and take the time to learn from their mistakes and successes. Find online resources - such as Websites4accountants.com - that can teach you some tricks on how to obtain new clients.
So-called experts who assure you it’s not hard to find clients and build a booming accounting company are, unfortunately, hiding the truth. However, don’t allow this to discourage you. Having a high-powered CPA website is a manageable way to make this dream a reality.