CPA Websites Marketing Tips

There's lots of "juice" in your website. Make sure you get it all...

Websites for accountants are an excellent way to serve existing clients and draw in new ones.

But sometimes, their value is even more direct.

With your CPA website, you actually earn commissions.

With no extra work from you, money on the sale of QuickBooks software comes right to you.

Earn Commissions Selling QuickBooks

Your QuickBooks Store allows you to keep your clients’ software up-to-date by offering them up to 20% off retail prices and free shipping on the latest version of QuickBooks.

Best of all, you earn 5% every time your clients buy from your site.

You don’t have to be a QuickBooks ProAdvisor to take advantage of this program – but if you are a ProAdvisor, you earn 6% instead of 5%.

Serving Your Business Clients

QuickBooks is far and away the most used accounting software among small to medium businesses. When you offer a discount on QuickBooks products, it truly benefits your clients.

When clients visit your site, they see a menu option for QuickBooks Services under the Services tab. When they mouse over “QuickBooks Services,” the last option is “Buy QuickBooks and Save.”

On this page, they get a listing of all the QuickBooks products you sell. And when you sign up with Intuit’s affiliate program, you get an Intuit banner to put on this page.

The page for your QuickBooks Store.

Get Started Selling QuickBooks Online

To become an affiliate with Intuit and offer QuickBooks products to your clients at a 20% discount, check out this Help file.

Gold and Platinum clients, if you’d like your Dedicated Webmaster to take care of this for you, call 1-800-896-4500, or email support@cpasitesolutions.com.

More Ways to Earn Commissions…

Selling QuickBooks software isn’t the only way to earn commissions on your website.

Take advantage of these other sources of income that take virtually no effort on your part:

• sell books online through Amazon

• online client incorporation

• online payroll processing

Make the most of your CPA website. Get started with our affiliate programs and add revenue to your firm today.

We’re Always Here to Help

If you have any questions about your QuickBooks Store – how it works or how to start the ball rolling – or you’d like to learn more about our other affiliate programs, give us a call at 1-800-896-4500, or email us at support@cpasitesolutions.com.

Do you participate in the QuickBooks Store? How do you like it? Let us know below.

The right kind of client keeps the working flowing, day after day.

Websites for accountants are critical for the CPA. They draw in new clients, help retain current clients, and increase the efficiency of your firm.

But not all clients are created equal.

The All-Important Business Client

A good deal of accounting work centers around tax preparation for the individual. But business clients are often more complicated – thus bringing in more revenue – and provide year-round client work.

CPA Site Solutions provides websites for accountants that help you appeal to the business client – so you enjoy a year-round, stable revenue stream.

Features of Your Website Help Draw Them In

QuickBooks Services

One of the best ways to reach out to business clients is to offer them QuickBooks services. QuickBooks is the most popular accounting software used by small to medium businesses.

Your website with CPA Site Solutions has a whole section dedicated to QuickBooks services.

The menu for QuickBooks services.

Online Payroll

With our partner, Intuit Online Payroll for Accounting Professionals, we offer you an Online Payroll System that gives your clients more control over their payroll.

Our system is a convenient “back office” payroll processing service priced as low as $10.99 per month, per client.

Your clients access their accounts directly from your website  – which means they enter their hours, print checks, and view reports with or without your assistance.

The Onine Payroll sales page.

Client Portal

Our Client Portal – the most secure on the market – is a must for the small business owner evaluating accounting firms.

With the Portal, you can easily exchange large accounting files with your business clients. No more hassle trying to send attachments that are too large (and, as it happens, not at all secure). No more faxing or using a courier service.

Your clients simply log in to your secure Client Portal and upload their materials with the click of a mouse. You access the documents in the client’s folder, and you’re able – just like that – to get back to the billable time that actually supports your business.

The sales page for your secure Client Portal.

Business Services Section

Your website includes an entire 13-part section on the various services you offer to business clients. (Of course, you can remove any pages that your firm doesn’t actually offer.)

From pages devoted to Part-Time CFO Services to those on Business Valuation and Litigation Support, your website explains just how well you serve the business owner.

The menu for Business Services.

Articles and Newsletters

Don’t forget about the 3,000 pages of financial guides included as stock content on your site, or the Monthly Client Newsletter – both of which educate and guide your clients wrestling with the day-to-day functioning of their organization.

Let Your Website Shoulder the Burden

If you ever feel overwhelmed by the need to even out your workload throughout the year, remember that your website can help.

In highlighting your usefulness to the business client, your site attracts the kind of stable, revenue-generating work that helps to build up your firm.

Have Questions? Give Us a Call

If you would like to remove any of the Business Services pages on your site – or add a new page for a service that’s not listed – call your Dedicated Webmaster at 1-800-896-4500, or email support@cpasitesolutions.com.

What feature of your site do you find most useful for business clients? Tell us about your experience with a comment!

Provider of CPA Websites Ranks No. 1313 on the 2010 Inc. 5000 with Three-Year Sales Growth of 223%

Winooski, VT – August 26, 2010 - CPA Site Solutions, a provider of CPA websites, was just named to the prestigious Inc. 5000 list, a compendium of the fastest growing private companies in America.

“I’ve wanted to make Inc. Magazine’s list since I was 16 and dreaming of being a successful entrepreneur,” comments Brian O’Connell, President of CPA Site Solutions. “Thirty years later my dream came true – and I owe it all to our fabulous team for making it possible,” O’Connell adds.

CPA Site Solutions was honored as the 1313th fastest growing private company in America, with an extraordinary three-year growth rate of 223%.

“On the heels of an excellent year, CPA Site Solutions is poised for future growth,” continues O’Connell. “Technology and Web-based services are increasingly important in the accounting field. We truly enjoy providing accountants with the fully loaded websites they need to excel in today’s environment.”

An Innovative Company in a Small State

CPA Site Solutions was founded in Winooski, Vermont, in 1999 by Brian and Kathy O’Connell, CPA. It was the first company to be devoted solely to websites for accountants.

The small company with 16 employees was named the 3rd fastest growing company in Vermont.

“We’re very proud to be a leader among small businesses in Vermont,” says O’Connell. “We love this state, and we find it an excellent place to run a successful company while enjoying work-life balance.”

The Inc. 5000 Distinction

The Inc. 5000 list, produced by Inc. Magazine, represents the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy—America’s independent-minded entrepreneurs. Music website Pandora, convenience store chain 7-Eleven, Brooklyn Brewery, and Radio Flyer – maker of the iconic children’s red wagon – are among the prominent brands featured on this year’s list.

“The leaders of the companies on this year’s Inc. 5000 have figured out how to grow their businesses during the longest recession since the Great Depression,” said Inc. president Bob LaPointe. “The 2010 Inc. 5000 showcases a particularly hardy group of entrepreneurs.”

About CPA Site Solutions

CPA Site Solutions (http://www.cpasitesolutions.com) provides websites for more than 4,000 CPA and Accounting firms. They offer personalized websites, a dedicated webmaster, a secure client portal, a client newsletter, secure email accounts, search engine optimization, and 109 additional website features designed specifically for Accountants.

This demo video gives an overview of CPA Site Solutions’s offerings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxMz_GwWgX0

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Snap a few photos around town and we make them dance on your site!

Are you ready to add a little flair to your site? To make it stand out above the competition – and to refine your image as the local professional of choice?

All it takes is a few clicks of your camera.

Custom Slideshows

Gold and Platinum clients can choose to add either a standard slideshow or tabbed slideshow to their welcome page.

These slideshows are customizable… in two ways.

Your Pictures. We encourage you to take pictures of your town and your staff and use them in place of the stock photos in our samples. This is a great way to identify yourself as a member of your community – which is just the right statement for an accountant to make.

Your Text. If you like the text in our sample slideshows, that’s fine – but feel free to either change it to better match your firm, or to remove it altogether.

Choose the standard slideshow…

This is the first image on the standard slideshow.

Or the tabbed slideshow…

This is the first image on the tabbed slideshow.

Custom Design Without the Custom Fee

It doesn’t cost a thing to add one of these slideshows to your site – or to customize them for a local touch.

All you need to do is shoot some photos, send them to us – and enjoy your professional new homepage!

Just Call or Email

To get the standard or tabbed slideshow on your site, give us a call at 1-800-896-4500 or email support@cpasitesolutions.com. One of our Dedicated Webmasters will get the slideshow up for you and add the images and text you send along.

Silver clients, to get this custom look for your site, consider an upgrade to Gold. Get your custom slideshow plus other Gold benefits for an extra $20/month.

Do you think local scenes on a website give a competitive advantage? How about photos of staff? Share your ideas in the space below.

Don't drive away clients with inaccurate tax info!

CPA websites absolutely must include this one feature – or your clients will go elsewhere.

What is it? Updated tax information.

The Danger of Outdated Tax Information

For the majority of your clients – both business and individual – their most urgent need for your services is related to taxes.

Clients must feel secure that you are fully informed on the latest tax laws and regulations.

If they visit your site and can’t find the information they’re looking for, they might cease to trust any of your expertise – even when it doesn’t relate to taxes.

The kicker is, you might be fully aware of the tax changes. But if you don’t post the updated information on your site, your clients won’t know that. They might assume you actually are ignorant – even if nothing is further from the truth.

Our Solution – Four Areas Updated

CPA websites with CPA Site Solutions are always up-to-date with the latest tax news.

Here are the four places on your site where we post tax information:

1. Tax Services. This section of your site, under Services, describes your tax-related offerings. We make sure the three subsections – Tax Preparation, Tax Planning, and Tax Problems – reflect current laws.

Your website has a 3-part section devoted to Tax Services.

2. Financial Guides. Your site contains 3,000 pages of articles about financial issues. Two of these sections are especially relevant to tax news: Tax Strategies for Business Owners and Tax Strategies for Individuals. These are updated for you regularly.

Two of your Financial Guides are solely about taxes for business and individuals.

3. Financial Calculators. You get 58 interactive financial calculators in the Resources section of your site with CPA Site Solutions. Your clients can trust that these are programmed with the most recent version of the tax code.

Your 58 financial calculators reflect the latest changes to the tax code.

4. Monthly Client Newsletter. Finally, in each Monthly Client Newsletter you get articles and tax tips about recent tax updates. For example, the August 2010 newsletter ran a piece titled “Homebuyer Credit Closing Deadline Extended,” which discussed the closing extension from June 30, 2010, to September 30, 2010.

Your Monthly Client Newsletter keeps your clients up-to-date with articles about the newest tax information.

Updated 2 to 4 Times/Year

Your website is updated 2 to 4 times a year with the latest tax information.

That’s several hours every quarter or two that you don’t need to worry about gathering the latest tax news from http://www.irs.gov or other sources of information.

We take care of it for you. Kathy O’Connell, CPA, one of the company’s cofounders, makes sure your site is fully updated.

That means you stay totally assured that when your clients visit your site, they’re getting the professional image of you that you deserve.

Keep Your Valued Clients

Sign up for a Complete Web Suite with CPA Site Solutions today. You get 60 days to evaluate your site’s effectiveness – such as the tax information that’s regularly updated.

If you already have a site with us but have questions about the tax-related content, give us a call at 1-800-896-4500, or email us at support@cpasitesolutions.com. Or leave a message below!

The change in seasons is a great time to make changes in your business life, too.

Consider a new design for your CPA website. You have 8 new Gold-level CPA website designs to choose from – and it costs nothing to switch designs.

Check Out These Slideshows

We’re excited to announce that these new designs boast a slideshow on their homepages. To see the slideshows, click on the images below.

These slideshows make a professional statement – and they are also fully customizable. Simply send us 4 or 5 pictures and any changes to the text and we’ll swap out the stock images and text for your own.

When you call us at 1-800-896-4500 or email us at support@cpasitesolutions.com, you get your new design up – with a customized slideshow, if you wish – within 2 business days.

Silver clients – if these designs appeal to you, consider an upgrade to Gold. For an extra $20/month, you get an additional 150 designs to choose from, a Dedicated Webmaster, double the space in the secure Client Portal, and more – including the option to have a customized slideshow on your homepage.

Design 395 Gold	Design 396 Gold
Design 397 Gold	Design 398 Gold
Design 399 Gold	Design 400 Gold
Design 401 Gold	Design 402 Gold

If these designs don’t look quite right, take a look at our gallery of 300 CPA Website Designs. Silver clients choose from about 150 styles, and Gold and Platinum clients choose from all 300.

Switch styles at any time. There’s never any cost to get a new look for your website.

We also provide custom designs. Call your Dedicated Webmaster at 1-800-896-4500 to talk over your options.

Sign Up Today

If you don’t have a Complete Web Suite with CPA Site Solutions, sign up and receive a free 60-day trial. You pick your design from our portfolio and get a professional site loaded with tools and content, with absolutely no obligation for 2 months.

What do you think of these new designs? Do you want to take our slideshow for a spin? Let us know below!

Consider having a "business breakfast" with your clients a couple times a year.

Do you want to know the best marketing trick for accountants?

Well, okay, it’s actually not a trick. It takes time, attention, and effort.

But it’s the number one way to retain your clients.

Be a real person, and get to know your clients as real people.

Perform this “trick” on a regular basis and your clients will find it very difficult to leave.

Don’t Sell. Build.

Rather than selling to your clients and potential clients – get to know your clients.

What do they do for work, and how do they like doing it? What’s their family structure? What are their hopes for the future?

Likewise, let them in a little. It doesn’t mean you should be unprofessional – but find common ground with your clients.

This is very powerful and leads to an actual relationship – not just one person delivering a service to another.

Even More Important for CPAs

Certainly all service-based professionals should focus on building relationships with clients. But it’s especially important for CPAs.

Despite the accounting scandals of the last two years, accountants – especially small to medium-sized firms – are one of the the public’s most trusted professionals.

This means your clients are already receptive to you on a more personal level. Use this trust as a starting point.

Strong Relationships Lead to Cross-Selling

Of course, you would never refer to it as “cross-selling” with your clients. But the truth is, if you know your clients well, you have the leverage to offer them your full range of services.

Our CPA websites are an excellent way to meet all your clients’ needs:

• Your clients receive a Monthly Client Newsletter stuffed with tax tips, helpful articles, and even QuickBooks information. The articles remind your clients to get in touch with you for further details – thus driving more business back to your firm.

• Your Online Accounting services help you manage your clients’ books while keeping their data fully backed up and protected.

• 56 Interactive Financial Calculators allow your clients to make sense of their finances – including the gaps, where they might need more assistance from you.

• When you add the Online Payroll feature to your site, you show your business clients how you can safely and cost-effectively meet their payroll needs.

• A 10-page Tax Resource Center – including an Online Tax Organizer – allows clients to work on their taxes 24/7. This effectively tethers them to you and your offerings.

Don’t forget that your site includes 35 pages of details on the services you offer. Once you have a strong relationship in place, and you’ve identified a need of one of your clients, you can professionally “soft-sell” your services.

Start Building Relationships Today

If you have a website with CPA Site Solutions, you’re on your way to building strong client bonds. Consider adding the Online Accounting or Online Payroll modules to your site. And use your website as a meeting ground with clients – a place to connect and establish trust.

If you’re an accountant who needs a website – or thinks your current website could be improved – give us a call at 1-800-896-4500, or email us at support@cpasitesolutions.com. You get the first 60 days free!

What methods have you found to be most effective in building strong client relationships? Share your suggestions in the space below, or tweet us at @cpasitesolution.

If you have a website for your accounting firm, you’re doing something right. CPA websites are an excellent starting point in the never-ending battle to increase efficiency.

But you can’t stop there.

There’s a revolution under way, and accountants need to embrace it: the smartphone.

The Blackberry has the leading market share for mobile devices.

Once you join the “smartphone revolution,” you see why they’re taking over. With this tool, your productivity reaches new heights – and you even strengthen your relationship with clients.

Smartphones Increase Efficiency

Work from Anywhere. It’s especially true during tax season – but this applies anytime of year: accountants are spending more time outside the office.

Whether it’s visiting clients in their office, taking an afternoon to go to their daughter’s ball game, or just working from home after hours, CPAs find plenty of reasons to leave the desk behind.

Smartphones make it easier to do business away from your office. You have access to phone numbers, addresses, your calendar, and your email – all while getting your life done.

Not Ready to Start Hiring Again? When the recession hit, many accounting firms had to lay off staff – and they’re not yet confident enough in the economic recovery to rehire.

Smartphones give partners a way to conduct the business of the office with fewer admins and assistants.

Smartphones Strengthen Client Relationships

More and more, accountants find that their clients expect a return phone call right away. If a client calls in with a question, it’s not acceptable to wait until you’re back in the office to call them back.

A smartphone is crucial for keeping that client relationship as healthy as you can. With a smartphone, the client’s phone number and address is right at your fingertips, wherever you are.

And because you can sync a smartphone with your email, you’re able to access relevant information about your client, too.

50 Million Users Can’t Be Wrong

There’s no denying the popularity of smartphones. Here’s a breakdown of the most popluar brands’ market shares:

All told, nearly 50 million people in the United States use this technology, an 8.1% increase from earlier this year.

That’s a lot of smartphones.

Take Advantage of Our Experience

There’s only one catch: if you’re not technically savvy, it can be a bit tricky to set up your phone to sync with your email.

But do not fear. We do this all the time – and we can help.  Just give us a call at 1-800-896-4500 or email us at support@cpasitesolutions.com.

If you need a CPA website and you want excellent customer service – Dedicated Webmasters who handle all the techie details – give CPA Site Solutions a try. You get 60 days free with zero obligations.

What about you? Have you joined the smartphone revolution? What’s your phone of choice? Leave us a comment, or catch us on Twitter!

Think of the Quick Login for the Client Portal as a gateway to billable time.

It’s 9:00 am. You’re in webmail, checking messages and mapping out your day.

You get an email from a client asking you to check on a figure in his tax return. You start to close the message and move on, thinking you’ll take care of it later – when you remember:

“I can log in to the Portal directly from my webmail!”

And so you can.

Accounting websites from CPA Site Solutions just got more efficient. Now you can access the Client Portal directly from a link in webmail – which means you only need to remember one password, and it’s that much easier to jump in to client work.

And, of course, the easier it is to do client work, the more you do – and the more your profits grow.

Quick Login to the Client Portal

When you add the link, you get a Portal option in the menu on your webmail.

This means you can quickly go from your email to your Portal – eliminating the need to open a new window, get into your website, enter your password, and click to the Portal from there.

The link to the Portal shows up on your “More” menu, as seen here:

Two Mighty Features That Save You Time

Two of our most popular features – our email solution and the secure Client Portal – are now connected.

Email Solution. Our email service is a huge time saver for your firm.

For one thing, our webmasters support the tech aspect, so you no longer need to rely on the IT guy if your email is down. Our email is also easy to manage – there are no folders, and the search function is fast and highly targeted.

Note that the Quick Login feature does not integrate with Outlook. To take advantage of this time saver, use our email solution. (When you do, you benefit from its full integration with the Workteam Collaboration Suite, including its shared calendars, wikis, and instant messaging.)

Secure Client Portal. Our Client Portal includes QuickSend and 1-click send, both of which save tedious administrative steps and help your day run more smoothly.

Of course, our entire Client Portal is highly efficient – allowing you to easily and securely exchange large accounting files and sensitive financial information with your clients.

How to Get the Quick Login Feature

It’s easy to add the Portal link to your webmail page.

If you’re a Gold client, give us a call at 1-800-896-4500 or email us at support@cpasitesolutions.com. We’ll be happy to add it for you.

If you’re a Silver client, visit our Help file for instructions on how to add this link. Don’t worry – this is an easy one! It takes just a couple clicks. (If you’d like us to add it for you, upgrade to Gold and have a Dedicated Webmaster make all your changes.)

Add the Quick Login to the Client Portal and enjoy the improved workflow – from webmail straight to work.

Do you think this new feature will improve your workflow? What other suggestions do you have for cutting out steps in your daily routine and bumping up efficiency? We’d like to know. Share your thoughts below.

Allison Lazarz, Webmaster

I recently learned firsthand why excellent customer service is so important, not just for providers of CPA websites, but for all businesses.

Last weekend I called 3 different venues that I’d like to consider for my wedding reception.  I left messages for someone at all three places on Saturday.

Unbelievably, I never actually received a return phone call from any of them.

I made a follow-up call to one of the locations because it’s of high interest to me, and the event coordinator said she’d written my number down wrong and that’s why she didn’t get back to me.  (I’m quite certain I didn’t give her the wrong phone number, so maybe she could have been a bit more diligent!)

A Bad Taste in My Mouth

I don’t tell this as a sob story, for I do have a reception location lined up and am currently just looking at alternatives before I sign a contract.

I tell this story because I can’t believe how unconcerned these places are with someone who’s willing to give them thousands of dollars.

It reminds me of our website signups.  Folks who sign up online are eager to do business with us.  And we try very hard to get back to them within hours.

After all, our clients went to the trouble of visiting our website and filling out the contact form. It’s just plain rude to ignore them. And it’s definitely not good business.

A timely return phone call starts off your relationship on the right foot.

Call Back Every Prospect

What if accountants treated all prospective clients as though they were brides looking for a place to have their wedding?

Please – don’t keep them waiting! Call them back within 24 hours to show them you care about their business.

From the very beginning of your relationship with them, show them how honored you are that they’re considering giving you their hard-earned money.

Judging by the lack of attention I got when I called those 3 vendors over the weekend, not all businesses do this.

Surprisingly, simply making a return phone call in a timely manner is an effective way to stand apart from your competitors.

Leverage Your Website

Of course, your website is a great starting point. It clearly displays your contact information so that potential clients know exactly how to get in touch with you.

It also contains sign-up forms, which makes it easy for folks who would rather make contact online.

And our Online Appointment Scheduling helps establish a client bond from the very first point of contact.

Do you need a website to help you make a great first impression with prospective clients? Our Complete Web Suites are reasonably priced and you get 60 days free with no obligation. Sign up here.

Have you ever experienced poor customer service? How did it make you feel? Share your story below.