CPA Websites Marketing Tips

An RSS feed keeps a stronger bond with clients.

The wide variety of content on our accounting websites is a key reason our accountants have a year-round connection to their clients.

But we want your clients to get the full benefit of these articles and posts.

Now, with our new service improvement, they do. Clients receive updates of newsletter articles and blog posts – which means you have an even stronger bond.

RSS Feed with Newsletter and Blog

Your Client Newsletter and Blog now include an RSS feed.

RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication (sometimes given as Rich Site Summary), is an automated way to deliver updated web content.

More and more people get their news and updates through RSS these days. It’s convenient – you read all the latest headlines from your favorite blogs and websites in one place.

How Does RSS Work?

Clients subscribe to an RSS feed by clicking on the RSS icon, which takes them through the steps of subscribing.

When clients visit your newsletter and blog pages, they see these icons:

RSS Feed Icon on Newsletter Page

RSS Feed Icon on Blog Page

When they do, this page pops up, asking them how they want to receive the feed:

Once clients click on the icon, this box comes up. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

When they fire up their reader to get that day’s news, they see the latest headlines and teaser text from your newsletter and blog.

A feed of CPA Site Solutions's blog in Google Reader. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

They read your updated content along with the other online publications they subscribe to – the New York Times, CNN.com, and so forth.

Let Your Clients Know

Let your web-savvy clients know they now have the option to subscribe to your newsletter and blog with RSS.

They enjoy all the latest firm news, useful tips, and financial articles…

…and because RSS automatically delivers updates to your clients, you make the most of your high-quality content – and enjoy a stronger bond with clients.

If you have any questions about how your clients use the RSS, give us a call at 1-800-896-4500 or email support@cpasitesolutions.com.

Do you subscribe to any websites with RSS?  Do you find it a useful way to get the latest news? Share your thoughts in the space below.

When consumers go online to look for products and services, they bring their magnifying glass. Like any other service, accounting websites must stand up to the scrutiny.

But how do people evaluate accounting websites? What helps a site stand apart from its competition?

Quality content. Load your site with great content and you make the grade.

New visitors read your articles, profile pages, and other information and become comfortable enough to take the plunge and hire you.

The 10-Second Test

Did you know that 95% of all buying decisions are now made online? Folks are searching for websites to help make decisions about what to buy. This goes for professional services as well as consumer products.

Once they land on a site, they take 10 seconds to decide whether to click away or read on.

If your design is professional, they feel comfortable enough to stay past those 10 seconds – and do a closer read. That’s where content comes in.

Quality Content Makes the Difference

But what content, exactly?

Here’s a list of the pages you need to convey who you are:

• Descriptions of your services

• About Us pages

• Articles

• FAQs

• Newsletters

• Blog posts

• Contact Us pages

If your site is filled with these pages, and they’re well written and knowledgeable, you put your best foot forward. You allow prospects to research your firm in the way they want to – online, in private, without needing to pick up the phone.

And, as a bonus, loads of high-quality content position you as an expert. This means you not only get the client, but you also get to charge the expert rates.

Get That Content Here

When you have a Complete Web Suite with us, you get page after page of outstanding content.

• 35 pages describing your Services - Tax services, business services, QuickBooks services, and services for individuals (you add and delete pages to fit your firm’s focus)

• About Us pages that are fully customizable and feature pictures and bios of you and your staff

• 3,000 pages of Financial Guides covering life events and business, tax, and investment strategies

• 1,000 Frequently Asked Questions about financial planning, insurance, taxes, and numerous other subjects

• Client Newsletter uploaded to your site monthly, with links to previous issues, covering taxes, investments, financial planning, and many other topics relevant to individuals and small businesses

• Fully Integrated Blog that’s easy to update with helpful accounting-related articles as well as more lighthearted pieces on your hobbies and personal interests

• Contact Us page with all your contact information, an email contact form, a map and driving directions (which can be omitted if you run a home office), and a staff directory

Someone looking for an accountant wants to research a variety of firms to find the right fit. Providing them page after page of text allows them to become familiar with your staff as professionals and more personally. This kind of information is what tips the scales in your favor and gets you the sign-up.

Free 60-Day Trial

If you want a website with loads of content that helps you acquire new clients, sign up with us today. You get a free 60-day trial, as well as all the tools and content of our Complete Web Suites.

Have new clients given you feedback on your site’s content? What other features do you think clients rely on when choosing a CPA? Share your ideas in the space below.

When it comes down to it, is there anything more important than client relationships? Without happy clients, you soon have no clients – and no revenue.

CPA newsletters allow you to upgrade your once-a-year relationships with tax clients to monthly relationships. Clients feel protected year-round, which strengthens that all-important relationship.

We made some changes to the newsletter design that further enhance your bond with clients.

The previous design. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

The new design. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

The new design offers several benefits:

1. Your clients now have the option of signing up for your newsletter right on the newsletter page.

2. The “Print This Page” icon makes it easy to print out the newsletter. It also pulls in your footer.

3. It’s more fully integrated with your website design. It uses the same primary colors as your overall website, and it also matches the width of your site.

4. The newsletter now displays the QuickBooks tips only if you have the QuickBooks service pages on your site.

Put Our Newsletter to Work

Think of the newsletter as an on-staff PR and outreach professional. It takes your firm from once-a-year tax work to year-round financial advisor.

You get our CPA newsletter free with our Complete Web Suite.

Don’t have a website with us yet? Sign up and get your first 60 days absolutely free.

What do you think of our newsletter updates? What other changes would you like to see? Post your suggestions below.

In March and April, you have plenty of clients. Maybe even too many.

But what happens after the returns and extensions are filed?

Come October, do your clients remember you?

All our CPA websites come with a Monthly Client Newsletter that makes sure they do, even when receipts, W-2s, and thoughts of deductions are months away.

Touch Base Every Month

Don't let another firm swoop in and grab your clients.

Your client newsletter goes out to your clients and contacts once a month – 12 times a year. That’s 12 times you remind your clients of your expertise and helpfulness.

Without this regular contact, your clients are susceptible to the marketing efforts of other firms.

Keeping in touch with your clients on a regular basis makes it difficult for them to be poached by an accountant down the street.

Interesting Topics, Too

Our newsletter covers timely topics that are directly relevant to your clients. The newsletters aren’t just junk mail in their inbox.

Even when taxes are months away, the newsletter reminds clients of your expertise. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

Here’s what your clients get in each massive monthly newsletter:

• Feature Articles

• Tax Saving Tips

• QuickBooks Tips

• Financial Planning Tips

• Tax Due Dates for the Month

• Links to previous months’ newsletters

Don’t Forget Personalized Messages

Your newsletter is sent out each month through the Email Marketing System. This powerful and flexible system helps you keep in touch with your clients not only through the newsletter, but also through custom messages you send whenever you like.

The Email Marketing System makes it easy to maintain a personal bond with your clients year-round. Here’s what it does for you:

1. Automatically sends clients your monthly email newsletter. (Send a personalized message with the newsletter to make the most of your monthly contact.)

2. Manages your contact list.

3. Sends custom email messages to your contact list.

4. Creates campaigns of sequential e-mail messages to your contacts.

No Need to Pay Extra for Your Newsletter

You could get your Email Newsletter Marketing System from BizActions. It would cost you $1,750 a year as long as you have fewer than 3 professionals in your firm. (The price goes up to $3,250 if you have more people on staff.)

Even at $3,250, it would be worth every penny when you consider the help the newsletter gives you hanging on to clients. If just 5 clients went elsewhere, you could lose thousands of dollars.

But you don’t have to pay $3,250 a year for your newsletter. When you have a CPA website with us, we include it – and the entire Email Marketing System – free with your subscription.

Start Now

Give us a try free for 60 days if you don’t have our Complete Web Suite. You get our Email Marketing System with a Monthly Client Newsletter right away at no additional cost.

Now is a great time to start – folks are returning from summer vacations and soon their thoughts will turn to more serious matters, like taxes.

Would you like some ideas about what kinds of custom messages to send out? Call us at 1-800-896-4500 or email support@cpasitesolutions.com.

Do you find you lose clients in the fall?  What methods help you stay in touch year-round? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Although the Internet is an ever changing medium, having a newsletter is still key to running your CPA firm. In the series looking at creating custom campaigns for your Email Marketing System, PDF documents were used to attract subscribers.

This is another series looking at what to use for the PDF, creating the PDF, and uploading and linking to your PDF within the Welcome letter. Here is part one with what content to use for your PDF files to get newsletter subscribers.

Content Made Easy. A number of CPAs and other tax professionals really don’t want or have time to write their own content. So how do you create content for your PDF to attract subscribers? You use content freely available online.

There are many sources of good quality and informative articles available online for free. Although it won’t directly be your content, you are compiling the information for your subscribers so that they benefit. As long as you don’t change what is in the article, you are free to use it.

Where To Go. There are a number of websites with free articles for your CPA newsletter. In order to get you started here are a couple of great sources:

Articlecity—Best way to find something is through a keyword search. Example, searching for taxes brought up an interesting article on taxes when selling a home. The only drawback is that each time you do a search you have to prove your human by typing in barely readable text.

Ezinearticles—Again the best way to find an article is a keyword search but you won’t have to prove your human as with Article City. Taxes keyword search brought up an interesting article on questions to ask before hiring a CPA.

There are many more sources to choose from online. Just make sure that you read the terms of use and follow it before using it for your CPA newsletter.

Make It Your Own. You don’t need to violate the terms of use to make these articles unique to your firm. All you need is some personal commentary upon the articles you use. You then leverage the article ideas and give them your CPA firm’s perspective. The potential clients who read these then come to you for follow-up not the person who wrote the article.

Once you have your articles the next step is to prepare it as a PDF file for your CPA newsletter. This isn’t hard. There are tools online to use if you don’t have any desktop software for the job. This is the subject of the next post of this series.

Do you already use PDF files to gain subscribers? How has it worked out for you? Comment below.