Only a few tax and accounting professionals really understand how to actually use an accounting website as a sales tool. People have a natural desire to land new customers fast and a tendency to focus on quick conversions, but when used properly a website is a long-term selling tool. Selling professional services, like accounting, requires time, forbearance, and tenacity, even on the internet.
Not Many people are in the market for a new CPA at any given time. As a rule people are happy with their accountants. They already have a bond of trust, even friendship. Hitting prospects with a hard sell will very likely alienate them.
So how do you use your accounting website to find clients in a market like this?
Technology has changed a lot recently, but the fundamental principles of marketing aren't very different than they were centuries ago. Good old fashioned networking is now and probably always will be the key to your firm's success. Take the time to get to know your prospects. Care about them and treat them as individuals. Post information to your website that will benefit them over the long run and use your email marketing system and newsletter to let them know when you post something they'll find helpful.
Networking will always be your best source of clients, but it takes time. You'll often need to work prospects for months or years before they finally sign with you. I know that sounds like a lot of work, but please don't misunderstand my message. Take the time to do it. The long term health of your firm depends on it. This article is not intended to offer a substitute for networking. I can't stress this enough. There are, however, other ways to lure new clients to your firm.
If you know where to look and how to attract their attention, there are some fast conversions to be had out there.
The nature of the web can be exploited to move traffic to, and generate leads from, your website. For the first time small business owners have an opportunity to really take advantage of what industrialists call the "economics of scale". There are a LOT of people out there, and even if most of them are happy with their accountant, a few of them aren't. Like the watering holes and wells of old most of these people are congregating in one place, but now that place is the Internet.
The old cliche of "Location, Location, Location" is still going strong, but your actual geological location isn't actually as important as your location on Google. Take some time to work on improving your accounting website's search engine "location". Your practice will benefit both over time and in the short term.
There are a few different kinds of search engine listings; paid, local, and organic; and in time you'll want to employ all of them. Each has advantages, and disadvantages, and none are really "better" than the others. In this article I'm only going to help you get started. Local search is the easiest of these listings to influence. Lets get you started there. Don't stop there, however. Once you get your local listing going keep your momentum and look into paid search programs like Google AdWords and Organic Search Engine Optimization.
So, step by step, let's get your firm listed in local search. Step one is to make sure your business is listed as a business on "Google Places". Google places drives the local search results. Your practice is probably already listed, but if it's not it's easy enough to register. What you will need to do is modify your listing. Businesses indexed by the search engines tend have very little information on them. Go through the listings and make sure they are completely filled out. You are able to upload your logo, pictures, etc. and you can add a short description of your firm, your business hours... everything.
Once this is done get people to review you.
Google uses reviews, combined with a number of other factors like the physical location of your business, to determine your ranking on the page when it returns results to a search for accounting firms in your area. The more reviews you have, the more important you look.
That's the easy part. Now it's time to roll up your sleeves a do a little real work. It's not uncommon for a local business to have two completely separate listings; one for their current location and another for an old location. This is a pretty sure sign that you have some obsolete information floating around on the web. This information needs to be corrected. You'll do this in two stages.
First do a search for your company. Search by firm name, old names that you don't use any more, old phone numbers and addresses that you don't use any more... What you're trying to do is locate every possible reference to your company on the Internet. It's important that as much of this information as possible is up-to-date. If you find obsolete or incorrect information do your level best to correct it. The search engines are constantly crawling the web, and they like it when they find a lot of consistent information about your company coming from a diverse variety of sources.
Once your existing web presence is as consistent and current as possible, you're going to want to take the next step and increase it. The more mentions the search engines find about your company scattered about the web, the more important you appear to them. The easy way to do this is to apply to every directory you can find, but directory listings don't have that much "authority" in the eyes of the search engines. Google trusts some sites more than others, and "Authority" is the measurement of how much trust the site that's talking about you has earned. Site's like AICPA, BBB, and local chambers of commerce have a lot of authority.
Now, you'll notice I haven't really mentioned Bing. Don't worry about it. If you take these steps and get listed in Google you'll get found by Bing, too. Most accounting firms are small locally owned companies with a strong focus on finding local clients. Local search is defiantly the best place to start for firms like this.
Once you get this done there's a lot more work to do. Some folks don't even look at or understand how to use local listings. "Pay per Click" advertising and organic search engine optimization are both notable lead generators and you'll need to use them both, but local search will get your accounting website off to a wonderful start.
Not Many people are in the market for a new CPA at any given time. As a rule people are happy with their accountants. They already have a bond of trust, even friendship. Hitting prospects with a hard sell will very likely alienate them.
So how do you use your accounting website to find clients in a market like this?
Technology has changed a lot recently, but the fundamental principles of marketing aren't very different than they were centuries ago. Good old fashioned networking is now and probably always will be the key to your firm's success. Take the time to get to know your prospects. Care about them and treat them as individuals. Post information to your website that will benefit them over the long run and use your email marketing system and newsletter to let them know when you post something they'll find helpful.
Networking will always be your best source of clients, but it takes time. You'll often need to work prospects for months or years before they finally sign with you. I know that sounds like a lot of work, but please don't misunderstand my message. Take the time to do it. The long term health of your firm depends on it. This article is not intended to offer a substitute for networking. I can't stress this enough. There are, however, other ways to lure new clients to your firm.
If you know where to look and how to attract their attention, there are some fast conversions to be had out there.
The nature of the web can be exploited to move traffic to, and generate leads from, your website. For the first time small business owners have an opportunity to really take advantage of what industrialists call the "economics of scale". There are a LOT of people out there, and even if most of them are happy with their accountant, a few of them aren't. Like the watering holes and wells of old most of these people are congregating in one place, but now that place is the Internet.
The old cliche of "Location, Location, Location" is still going strong, but your actual geological location isn't actually as important as your location on Google. Take some time to work on improving your accounting website's search engine "location". Your practice will benefit both over time and in the short term.
There are a few different kinds of search engine listings; paid, local, and organic; and in time you'll want to employ all of them. Each has advantages, and disadvantages, and none are really "better" than the others. In this article I'm only going to help you get started. Local search is the easiest of these listings to influence. Lets get you started there. Don't stop there, however. Once you get your local listing going keep your momentum and look into paid search programs like Google AdWords and Organic Search Engine Optimization.
So, step by step, let's get your firm listed in local search. Step one is to make sure your business is listed as a business on "Google Places". Google places drives the local search results. Your practice is probably already listed, but if it's not it's easy enough to register. What you will need to do is modify your listing. Businesses indexed by the search engines tend have very little information on them. Go through the listings and make sure they are completely filled out. You are able to upload your logo, pictures, etc. and you can add a short description of your firm, your business hours... everything.
Once this is done get people to review you.
Google uses reviews, combined with a number of other factors like the physical location of your business, to determine your ranking on the page when it returns results to a search for accounting firms in your area. The more reviews you have, the more important you look.
That's the easy part. Now it's time to roll up your sleeves a do a little real work. It's not uncommon for a local business to have two completely separate listings; one for their current location and another for an old location. This is a pretty sure sign that you have some obsolete information floating around on the web. This information needs to be corrected. You'll do this in two stages.
First do a search for your company. Search by firm name, old names that you don't use any more, old phone numbers and addresses that you don't use any more... What you're trying to do is locate every possible reference to your company on the Internet. It's important that as much of this information as possible is up-to-date. If you find obsolete or incorrect information do your level best to correct it. The search engines are constantly crawling the web, and they like it when they find a lot of consistent information about your company coming from a diverse variety of sources.
Once your existing web presence is as consistent and current as possible, you're going to want to take the next step and increase it. The more mentions the search engines find about your company scattered about the web, the more important you appear to them. The easy way to do this is to apply to every directory you can find, but directory listings don't have that much "authority" in the eyes of the search engines. Google trusts some sites more than others, and "Authority" is the measurement of how much trust the site that's talking about you has earned. Site's like AICPA, BBB, and local chambers of commerce have a lot of authority.
Now, you'll notice I haven't really mentioned Bing. Don't worry about it. If you take these steps and get listed in Google you'll get found by Bing, too. Most accounting firms are small locally owned companies with a strong focus on finding local clients. Local search is defiantly the best place to start for firms like this.
Once you get this done there's a lot more work to do. Some folks don't even look at or understand how to use local listings. "Pay per Click" advertising and organic search engine optimization are both notable lead generators and you'll need to use them both, but local search will get your accounting website off to a wonderful start.
