When you think of “accounting websites” the word “creativity” probably isn’t the first thing that springs to mind to mind, but no matter what type of business you’re in (accounting or CPA included) creativity is going to be at the baseline of your marketing strategy.

People are drawn to things that are interesting, innovative and intriguing. Boring gets shown the door and your potential accounting client is now lost to a competitor that better understands how to relate to their customers.

Keep it Fresh- Following tax law changes and financial trends is your job, but illustrating service benefits to prospects is the key to attracting new business.

A great way to do this is by blogging. Write (or buy) short articles for your site that illustrates these benefits in innovative ways. Some examples might be answering a few of the most frequently asked questions, or giving a rundown list of the top things that a potential customer should look for when they’re trying to hire a CPA or browsing through accounting websites.

Remember, customers are coming to you because they need assistance and sometimes they may not really know what they’re actually looking for. Make them understand why they need you by clearly explaining what they have to gain by hiring you.

Keeping your web content fresh on a week to week basis will also keep your Google stats up, which is imperative.

Also, make sure that whether you’re writing your content, or having someone else write for you, SEO is integrated to keep your ranks up on search engines. You want to make sure that your firm is the one popping up on the first page at all times when people search for accounting websites in your town.

Social Media- Love it or hate it, social media is one of the major components of marketing these days. If you haven’t added your firm to Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or a combination of all of these top tier sites, you’re falling behind the times.

Remember we talked about being interesting and intriguing? Well, social media is a phenomenal method to get a buzz going about your company and services. Actually engaging your potential customer base will get people talking.

Ask questions. Tell jokes. Give some low level free advice. Make people laugh and give them information that they want and they’ll be putty in your hands.

Using Pinterest is another great way to market your business without having to say much. Pictures and small quotes work wonders to captivate the eye and get people to click on your pin, thus linking right back to your website where they can learn more about you and your services.

Love What you Do and Do What you Love- It sounds rhetorical, but the fact of the matter is that if there is no passion behind your business or your end goal of building (other than the financial gain), marketing will be a daunting task.

Know your weaknesses and your strengths and utilize them accordingly. If you’re not so great with relating to people or finding witty ways to engage, but your strength is in numbers and facts then hire someone that can put that passion into building your sales and your customer base.

by Brian O’Connell

Due to constant advancements in technology, mobile marketing has hit something of a plateau far short of it’s potential.

This huge source of potential income will likely remain challenging for CPA and accounting practices for a while. While the internet is saturated with increasing numbers of smartphones, laptops, and tablets, the short message service (“texting” or “SMS”) has limited capabilities and developers are having a very hard time keeping up with this rapidly changing technology.

Although mobile marketing is a convenient tool for most CPAs, truth is, PCs are much better at accessing online applications than smartphones and tablets. Smaller mobile marketing devices have more issues due to ever-changing apps and upgrades. Furthermore, portable devices simply are not designed to accommodate apps such as long forms that can be filled out on a PC. This can have a significant impact on email response forms, and on-site search functions. Often times, the result is slow and unresponsive searches that discourage prospects. This issue has also pretty much crippled many more advanced and specialized interactive functions.

One way to improve these issues are for developers to create a single app that can be optimized through multiple devices, but such an advance would require the various operating systems agree to a set of reliable standards. There are not yet any signs that this is even on their radar. Until then, we are making it a point to use short forms that work on smartphones and tablets, or simply go back to the basics and be contacted by phone.

For now your best solution is to do your best to make your existing website as mobile friendly as possible. The old CPA website design standards; creativity, insight, vigor, and most importantly communication; still apply. A creative website has a greater chance of success, because it is more likely to attract a wider target audience.

Keys to establishing a viable website include:

• Creative websites templates with larger icons for easier recognition to engage users on both mobile and traditional devices
• A thorough insight of the accounting industry to encourage strategic thinking
• Vigor to draw on the visuals and verbal techniques in order to initiate business
• Communication to track the progress of your efforts, and/or close accounting deals in person or via phone if necessary

In essence, even though smartphones and similar mobile devices are growing wildly in use and enable CPA websites to be flexible, accountants are constantly hampered by inaccessible and/or changing operating systems, browsers, and other software apps. Until developers are able to tackle this dilemma Mobile marketing is going to continue to suffer from significant limitations.

Feasible alternatives include utilizing resources like social media, analytical marketing, and coupon planning which incorporate with mobile devices indirectly. Fortunately, sites like Facebook and Twitter allow countless CPAs to flourish in their practice and these services are taking on mobile compatibility issues independently. Along with the ability to survey the market, and offer incentives like discounts through coupons, many accountants have been able to withstand the challenges intrinsic to mobile website design.

Ultimately, until developers can find cost-effective ways to keep up with technology CPAs should align their businesses with popular social media sites and search engines.

It is no secret that today’s accounting industry faces an uphill battle, but if CPAs unite certain facets of their business, chances increase that they will overcome many of the obstacles in front of their mobile website designs.

by Brian O’Connell

Inbound marketing is about letting go of the old school “hard sell” and letting qualified customers come to you. Like all marketing it helps raise awareness about your website and business, making it invaluable for small businesses with a limited advertising budget. But it’s also unique in that it’s success is measured across a longer term, and it tends to attract much higher quality leads.

The key to successful inbound marketing is producing high quality content for your website. You want to be viewed as an expert so potential customers feel they will be able to trust you with their accounting needs.

In order to create content your audience will appreciate, you need to take the time to determine who you will be marketing toward. Think about what type of accounting your firm specializes in and the specific groups that could benefit from your work. Speak directly to these groups in language they will understand. You may know all the tricks and terminology associated with personal accounting, but your audience does not. After all, if your customers were experts on money management, they would not need you. Break things down and use layman’s terms to create a presentation that gives plenty of information without talking down to the reader.

Creating a Dialogue with Your Customer

Inbound marketing relies on your audience getting involved with the content you make. Encourage your readers to ask questions in the comments or share your writing with others that may find it helpful. Link your website to your social media profile and post a status when you add new content. The more opportunities you give people to talk about your website and business, the easier it will be to get new readers on board.

Consider how to make your topic relevant to your readers. The holidays or tax season might get people thinking about how they need to organize their finances. Provide tips that will help them get started and let your readers know you can provide the assistance they need. Never make a post simply for the sake of filling up space. Find the balance between providing new information on a regular schedule and becoming overbearing. This will encourage your readers to check in often.

Responding to Feedback

The main purpose of social media pages or blog sections on your website is to get users to respond. In order for this to be successful, readers have to know you are listening. If someone asks a question or makes a point of responding to your blog, take the time to answer them. This will increase your comment count in a way that is genuine, encouraging others to get involved in the conversation. Active webpages generate attention from customers and search engines, increasing the success of your inbound marketing.

Though it may be tempting to hire a “commenting” staff, this is best avoided. Planting fake comments on your webpage may increase your search engine hits temporarily, but it will ultimately ruin your inbound marketing campaign. Posting fake comments and reviews is considered highly unethical, and is illegal in many areas. Customers need to be able to trust their accountant with a great deal of private information, and will not do so if their webpage and advertising strategies are deceitful. Focus on creating content high quality content your readers need and customer participation will increase naturally.

by Brian O’Connell

Google Places should be the final word when clients are searching for your accounting practice. While it certainly has it’s fair share of foibles, Google Places is still an invaluable asset for your firm’s online marketing plans.

Here’s the catch. It’s up to you to make sure you’re getting all you can out of the system, and one of your most important responsibilities is to make sure you have authoritative and consistent “citations”.

Google Places searches for your CPA business on sites such as CitySearch, Yelp, the Yellow Pages and the Better Business Bureau. Every instance of your business being mentioned on any of those sites is a listing known as a “citation”. Google uses all of these listings to verify that your business is indeed real, where you are located, and the type of business that you offer.

Your Google rankings and, ultimately, the ease with which potential clients can find you online, is based in large part on the number of times Google finds your citations online. The way to raise your ranking in Google using citations is to make sure that every listing your company has is worded in the exact same way.

Consistency is key. The Google algorithm is very literal. It only reads the exact words it sees, and cannot interpret any information or make any assumptions. Every time Google reads about a business it files away the information. If it reads about the business again by seeing the exact same words, it files away this listing as the second occurrence of the same business. If it sees a listing that uses different wording it files the listing as an entirely new business on its list. It’s critical, therefore, that all your citations consistently offer exactly the same business name, category, and contact information.

Make a master list of your business information, including the official name by which you will advertise and be known online, the exact wording of your address (Street vs. Blvd, etc.) and how many different phone numbers you will include. Refer to this list every time you include your business anywhere that will be posted online.

Go online to Google Places to check out your business listing. Make sure the listing is exactly the same as your master listing. Go to every other place your business may appear and check their listings. If there is any information that is different from your master listing (assuming it’s still accurate, like an additional phone number) add that information to your listing on Google Places. If you find inaccurate or obsolete citations take the time to correct them. Google will now be able to read all the citations about your business and recognize them as all referring to one place. This should immediately cause a rise in your rankings, and an increase in quality traffic to your website.

As a long-term solution, spend some time each week searching the web for listings about your business and correct any that have anything besides your master listing. This may take a long time, considering all the different aggregate sites and directories that exist, but the more times your business appears online in the correct form, the stronger your Google ranking will grow.

by Brian O’Connell

So you think your accounting firms marketing plan is in need of improvement? You are not alone. Lots of accounting firms neglect their marketing plans. Some have no plan at all, and I have a lot of people ask me for advice in finding a marketing plan that suits them best.

Whether you are revitalizing an existing plan or building one for the first time you may choose to hire some professional help. This can be tricky if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Unfortunately there’s no one size fits all firm I can refer you to. But there are some basic guidelines that will make your search easier.

What Should You Look For in a Marketing Program
First, steer clear of companies that offer financing. For the most part these guys clean up on the back end, and you’ll be paying the bill long after you stopped getting any benefit for your outlay.

Stay away from companies who have undefined fees or ones that gain most of their returns from other products they push. Be sure to ask specifically about costs and fees that might not be caught at first blush and make sure you get any assurances and promises in writing.

Now… think about this question: What is it that you should look for? What is it you want to achieve?

OK… now we’re ready to start looking for a rainmaker for your firm. Here are a few things to look for.

1. Completeness
2. An exact blueprint of the plan
3. Unlimited support
4. Budget
5. Focus
6. Longevity

A marketing program must be totally intact in every area. The plan should never be limited to things like social media, sponsor websites and emails. The perfect plan should always include programs for all areas of your firm.

A plan should be able to supply you with a proven blueprint for success. A great plan should not leave anything for you to create after implementation. Plans should always include the material necessary, what processes will be used, any forms needed, formulated letters for prospective clients etc.

A program should be willing to offer unlimited support to whatever area in your firm needs the most help or even bring in persons who have had success in this area and can walk you through every step.

Marketing plans should be implemented on a budget.

CPA market plans should be geographically focused. Most  firms work mainly with local accountants.

You do not want to become a statistic, a lot of accounting practices have short lives. You want to build a company that will be around for decades. This usually means cultivating long term relationships with businesses and affluent clientele rather than running a tax prep mill. It also means respecting your authority and reputation. Marketing programs that offer shady techniques and “one weird trick” ads have nothing to offer a reputable accounting firm.

What should you stay away from when beginning a marketing plan?

This is another good question. What should you avoid?

1. Unrealistic Guarantees
2. High Budgets
3. Undefined/Hidden Costs
4. Financing

Many CPA practices draw prospects in with an unrealistic set of guarantees. Don’t let some self-declared marketing “guru” lead you down this particular garden path! This might work fine for a fly by night retail operation, but growing an accounting firm means cultivating long term relationships. Making promises you can’t keep is not a good way to do that.

As we talked about earlier, marketing plans should not be expensive. High marketing costs hurt your bottom line. Many cookie cutter marketing programs will concentrate on attracting large numbers of discount-hunting low-end tax preparation clients. Low end clientele combined with high implementation costs could leave you working long hours and seeing almost no money.

by Brian O’Connell

CSS is an abbreviation of “Cascading Style Sheets”. It is a style sheet formatting language used to format the look and feel of web pages. CSS mostly applies to web pages that are written in HTML and XHTML although it can be applied to any kind of XML document.

Okay, that’s the Geekspeak definition. Now let’s try to explain it in English.

CSS documents are fundamental to contemporary web design. A cascading style sheet is a document that describes to a visitor’s web browser what a site is supposed to look like before it even starts downloading individual pages.

Typically, web pages have three main layers. These layers are:

The Content Layer
This is your message. The content is whatever the site owner wants to convey or share to site visitors. Text is the most common content on the web as most sites are basically “instructive” but content also includes images, sounds, videos, and downloadable documents.

The Presentation Layer
This is the layer where the presentation of the content which you have is defined. The presentation layer dictates how your website will appear to site visitors as they browse your site.

The Behavior Layer
This is the layer that is concerned with real time interaction of the user and the documents being viewed. The behavior layer is usually handled by JavaScript code and deals with things such as validation of user information, tracking traffic, and user verification using tools like CAPTCHAs.

CSS is mainly concerned with the presentation layer.

CSS is widely recommended in presenting websites because the CSS code is independent of the HTML or XHTML “source code” of the website. This makes styling much easier as far as your accounting website design is concerned because it is much easier to change the feel of your web pages by editing only one CSS file rather than editing say two hundred, a thousand or more HTML documents.

So… Geekspeak aside… what does this mean to you?

Without CSS changes to a site design once it’s coded can be ridiculously expensive; requiring that each page be edited individually. CSS allows us to be much more flexible.

For example, let’s say you find a website template you really love, but the font is Arial and all your marketing materials use a Georgia font. This would normally be a HUGE job. You would need to go to every page and manually change all the calls to the website template’s font to your own. Using CSS we can easily change the font style, size, and/or color by simply changing the style sheet!

There are other benefits of using CSS in your accounting website design. These include:

• Reusable content from services such as text to speech conversion and/ or RSS feeds are made easier with a Cascading Style Sheet due to its being external to the site’s source code.
• A single CSS sheet can control how any web page on the site will be reproduced for different output media. Creating a CSS sheet for each and every page is therefore unnecessary.
• CSS provides a better control over the appearance of a web page/ web pages than presentation elements in HTML files.
• Cascading Style Sheets save bandwidth. The style sheet is cached after the first request. This property enables the style sheet to be reused for each web page in your site. Removing presentational elements from your markup language and instead using a CSS file also reduces the bandwidth consumption.

Of course, most of these benefits don’t matter to you as much as the simple flexibility afforded to you in designing, maintaining, and updating your site. It allows Templates to be easily customized for a lot less money than fully blown old-school design. Combine this with our proprietary Site Manager system and it’s a fairly simple matter to take a template and give it a completely unique look and feel. This is the design benefit of CSS that will most significantly impact your accounting website.

by Andy Himes

In order to turn accounting prospects into clients, you first have to close the deal that will get them to agree to do business with you. This can be a tough task, as you really have to sell yourself, and your business, to the prospective client you are hoping to work with. Many accountants come up short on this skill. They use a standard pitch, sometimes even an elevator pitch, and this costs them sales. You need to learn to tailor your close to the specific prospect you are working with.

There are five main ways to do this.

Assuming the Close
For one closing attempt, you can make an assumption that the client is going to go for the deal by asking a question that confirms their commitment when they answer. This is called an assumptive close. You might perhaps ask the client how exactly they are planning on using your company’s accounting skills. Are they going to want compilations, reviews, or full audits? If they answer, they’re in. This is my favorite close, but it takes some practice to pull it off without seeming manipulative. This is a great close if you’re having trouble getting a read on whether or not the client is really interested. It doesn’t offer the prospect a chance to say “no”, so it almost never hurts a negotiation. Be ready though… some prospects will kill your close with more questions.

Direct Statement Closes
Then there’s the direct statement. This is similar to the assumptive close and is often confused for one, but a direct statement close is more explicit. You simply say, “let’s move things forward,” instead of asking if you should. Use this close when you are quite sure that the client has given all the signals of wanting to say “yes.” This is much safer than an assumed close, but it allows for a “no” so while it might be used instead by novice salespeople, once you get good you’ll want to restrict this close to prospects that have already indicated that they are already pretty solid about signing you.

Reverse Closes
The reverse close asks a question that doesn’t need a response; not answering really means they should be saying “yes” to your deal. In accounting, you may ask the client if there is a reason why he or she wouldn’t you to compile a monthly profit/loss statement for them. Reserve this close for nitpickers and nay-sayers, and be ready for an objection!

Time-Sensitive Closes
Repeat the amount of time that the client stated they wanted to have the work done by. Say to them that they said they’d like to have all of their financial details sorted by the first of the year, so you should start coming up with a plan together to make that happen. Accountants use this close a lot, as they have to deal with procrastinators pretty regularly and it works best if there is a real time crunch.

Direct Question Closes
The direct-question is the basic close that set the bar for all the others. It means, “just ask”. Repeat everything the two of you talked about, and then ask them if things should move forward. There shouldn’t be any reason why not if everything was already discussed. his is the safest close there is because it never comes across as manipulative or presumptuous. Try not to use it, though, unless none of the other closes seem appropriate because it does give the prospect a chance to say no, and this can put you right back at square one.

The type of closing attempt to choose will be based on what the customer says and does. Monitor their speech and what they’re saying; do they seem hesitant, or have they mentioned a time-frame? Perhaps they seem perfectly ready and willing to use your firm. Whatever the case may be, use the appropriate close at the time and it should lead you to the business deal you are trying to make.

by Brian O’Connell

I once worked at a newspaper; typesetting and designing the ads. Our daily task as ad setters was simple, complete every ad, proof, publish and then we could go home.

Productivity was EVERYTHING at this job.

The newspaper business is not terribly forgiving about missing press time. This work had to be done; all of it, every day, without exception. If my co-worker was out, I was responsible for completing all the ads for the paper regardless of how long it took.

Needless to say after my first 14 hour day I realized the importance of efficiently navigating my way around my computer and local network.

I researched every shortcut key for every program, increased my word per minute typing skills but something big was still missing.  I attributed a large part of my loss of time to navigating my computer and local network.  In order to remedy this I looked for programs that would allow me to cut corners, eliminate time spent using my mouse, and needless time scrolling through massive client folder databases.

My solution was a mix of learning just about every possible keyboard shortcut known to a windows environment along with installing 3 very useful programs.  The programs are as follows:

WinSplitRevolution: A small utility which allows you to easily organize your open windows by tiling, resizing and positioning them to make the best use of your desktop real estate.

Launchy: indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes. The real power of this program is within personal customization of the built in plugins; calcy, controly, gcalc, runner, verby and weby

Launchy is by far my most used program.  Learn the basics of the program then dive into some advanced features.  For instance if I want to view a site style, I simply press “ALT + SPACE” then type “site” press “tab” type the style # and press “enter.” That’s 11 key presses instead of opening a browser, finding a shortcut to the style viewer, and then typing the style #. This same type of shortcut I have setup for the share drive, clients, styles folder, logos folder, stock images folder, ftp passwords, design team files, team files and the list goes on and on.

Learn to love this program.

DisplayFusion: UltraMon is great too, but this is even better. Unlike the freeware we’ve already talked about DisplayFusion is going to cost you a few bucks, but it’s more than worth paying for. The cost will depend on the number of licenses you need, but the base cost is $25 for a single computer. DisplayFusion is a utility for multi-monitor environments, designed to increase productivity and unlock the full potential of multiple monitors.

Of course I’m assuming here that you have multiple monitors. You DO have multiple monitors… right?

Give these programs a try and let them grow on you.  All three are hardly noticeable at first install, but within a short month or two you’ll be wondering how you ever lived without them.  There’s seemingly endless customization with all of these programs so if you have any questions about them just refer to the help pages for each app.

by Erik Thomsen

Happy New Year!

We all have accounting websites. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be here. But not all of us have great accounting websites. In a market where everyone has one, having the best website can give you a big leg up against your competitors. The web is changing, like it does every year, in leaps and bounds! Sometimes it can be hard to keep up. Why not take a few hours this New Year to make sure your firm’s website is good enough to outshine the competition?

There’s a lot of talk out there about search engine optimization, and we’re covering it, too. But instead of just asking, “Is your website search engine optimized?” here are some specific questions that will help you make an objective appraisal:

Does your website have the proper keyword density?
Keywords will determine the type of traffic that is driven to your accounting websites. If you have the wrong keywords you will get the wrong people. Each page of your website must have focus and be geared toward the exact aspect of your business that will draw the right clientele.

Are you using the HTML headings in the right way? (H1, H2, H3 etc.)
One of the key ways to tell search engines what your website is all about is by using heading tags in the correct way. The simplest rule is that headings are a ranking classification with H1 being the most important and H6 being the least.

Are your image files too large?
OK… This is more about load time than the filesizes of each image, but this is a great way to control load times and you don’t need to be a web geek to do it. Take a look at your images. Your web browser will let you check the image properties by doing a right click on the image.

Pictures are powerful ways to draw customers to your accounting websites. In this day and age of high definition everything, your pictures do not have to be massive files in order to look good. The speed at which your page loads is more important than how good your images are. Replace, remove, or compress images that are too large.

This can be a particular issue for images you upload yourself. If you uploaded an image off a digital camera without re-sizing it you are probably looking at a file size of 3MB or more. This will cause a substantial increase to your page’s load time.

Use jpg images for most things as it strikes a great balance between image quality and size.

Is your website mobile ready?
By 2015 the majority of internet usage will be done via a mobile device! That means that if your website is not mobile ready it is already beginning to lose potentially valuable traffic. Take a look at your website on a variety of phones and tablets. Make sure that it not only looks good, but that it’s readable and usable.

There is no time like the present to look to the future. With advances in technology and particularly the shift towards mobile usage, it is important to make sure you’re keeping up. What better time than now, with the new year upon us, but the tax crunch still a few weeks away?

by Brian O’Connell

I’m not going to make this a long post. It’s Christmas Eve. My Wife and Kids are doing a little last minute shopping, and they’ve left me alone for a few hours. I have some friends and family I’ve been writing to, but I also want to take some time to say a special “Merry Christmas” to you, my customers and readers. Thank you for making me and the rest of our CPA Site Solutions family a part of your life. I really want you to know how much we appreciate your attention, your custom, your friendship, and your trust.

I’ve always been a huge Tony Robbins fan. When I suffered some personal business setbacks many years ago it was one of his seminars that helped snap me out of my funk and put me back on the road to taking care of myself, my family, and my customers.

During this seminar Tony talked about a business strategy he called CANI. CANI is an acronym for “Continuous And Never-Ending Improvement”. It’s a simple system really. It is based on the concept that the key to business success is to make sure that you are always offering the best possible service for the best possible price and means that every day, every day, you sit down and take some time to ask yourself a simple question. What can I do to make the product or service I’m offering better. Once that’s done, all that remains is to muster the will to act on what you’ve learned.

I’ve applied this concept to every aspect of my life, not just my business. And it has made my life better. I have a wonderful life. I have a beautiful wife and two amazing children I love with all my heart. I have a great job that I look forward to doing every day. I have real friends that I can count on.

I cannot recommend highly enough that you take some time every day and apply CANI to your business, and your life, too.

I would also like to humbly suggest that we also apply this concept to one another.

Times are hard. We’ve been at war pretty much continuously for more than a decade. We’re recovering from the worst economic downturn since the great depression. The country is more polarized than I have ever seen before. As a country we are tearing ourselves apart to the point that we are staring down the barrel of a complete political meltdown.

I don’t pretend to have a solution to this, but I can’t help but wonder what would happen if, in the spirit of the holiday, we applied CANI to our politics, too. And I’m not talking about politicians. I don’t honestly have a lot of hope for them. I’m talking about the rest of us. Maybe it would be a good idea if we each spent a half hour or so asking ourselves what we might do, personally, to reach out to and understand the people we disagree with.

I’m not asking you to start a third party or solve the financial crisis with an ingenious soundbite. I’m not sure it’s wise to try to convince anyone of anything. But what would happen if each of us reached out to just ONE person we don’t see eye to eye with and tried to find a spirit of compromise between us? After all… isn’t compromise about finding common ground? And I think we can all agree that whatever we may disagree about, we all sincerely care about one another and our country, and we all would happily wish one another a “Merry Christmas”.

Hey… it may not help one bit, but it couldn’t hurt. And it may not save the world, but it may spare a few friendships. It may also remind us that while we may disagree on the means, pretty much all of us are working toward the same end. If we cannot agree, we can agree to disagree civilly and with an understanding that what can be done can just as easily be undone.

I guess that’s it. Peace on earth is an awful big order. How about just a little peace among friends?

Anyway, in closing (as a very wise man once said)…

“MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!”

by Brian O’Connell