CPA Websites Marketing Tips

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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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!

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.

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.

Using Outlook for your email is like using carrier pigeons instead of a cell phone.

It’s 4:30 – and you want your husband to buy some wine for dinner. You write “Pick up wine” on a piece of paper, roll it up, attach it to one of your pigeons, and send him flying out the window toward home. There.

It sounds ridiculous – but if you use Microsoft Outlook to check your email, you might as well communicate with your spouse through carrier pigeon.

Yes – it’s that out of date.

Let me show you how to easily save 10 hours of productivity per month by simply switching from Outlook to the email that comes free with our CPA websites.

Problems with Outlook

In the computer timeline, Outlook is very old. The technology is outdated; the program simply wasn’t built to accommodate a high volume of messages and the size of today’s email attachments.

Here are some problems you might have with Outlook that drain your productivity:

• Your messages pile up - you try to spend time organizing them into folders but you’re always behind. (est. time lost – 1 hr/wk)

•  The search function is slow and cumbersome – and the results are often so bloated that you still waste time sifting through messages. (est. time lost – .5 hr/wk)

• Your Outlook calendar doesn’t sync with the calendar in our Workteam Collaboration Suite – leading to missed meetings and time-consuming meeting check-ins. (est. time lost – .5 hr/wk)

• You can’t view appointments on your calendar with your iPhone or other mobile device. (est. time lost – .5 hr/wk)

• You get “Cannot Connect to Server” and other error messages. These come from problems configuring Outlook and they hinder sending and receiving emails. (est. time lost – .5 hr/mo)

• You struggle with initial setup and reconfiguration challenges. If you’re not a techie, making sure your settings are correct and updated is frustrating and time-consuming. (est. time lost – 1 hr/mo)

Our Solution

CPA websites with CPA Site Solutions include – at no extra cost – a much more robust email service with our Workteam Collaboration Suite.

Here’s how our email solution saves you time, money, and frustration:

Less Expensive. If you use Outlook, you’re most likely paying for IT support, Exchange hosting, or email accounts through GoDaddy or another domain registrar.

In contrast, our email is absolutely free. It also comes with 50 email addresses, so everyone in your firm gets their own address. We support your email so you say good-bye to your IT guy (at least for email).

Easier. Your inbox looks the same no matter where you access it – and you can do so from any computer or mobile device with an Internet connection. Plus, the outstanding search feature allows you to quickly find any email in seconds. Much better than sorting in Outlook.

And because the software is all online – “in the cloud” – you don’t wrestle with installing software or keeping track of updates.

Saves Time. Our email solution saves time, too, with keyboard shortcuts. These allow you to compose, answer, and organize your email without ever having to take your hands off the keyboard.

Furthermore, our email groups emails into conversations. Instead of getting a new email each time someone replies to a message, all replies are displayed with the original thread. This cuts way down on the number of messages to wade through in your inbox.

Safer. Our email is backed up on fully redundant servers. If a virus infects your computer – if a hurricane strikes your office – if any disaster compromises your computer – your email remains perfectly secure.

More Efficient. Our email service is fully integrated with our Workteam Collaboration Suite – giving you the full functionality of these cutting-edge tools:

• shared calendars

• team wiki

• task manager

• shared documents

• shared spreadsheets

• instant messaging (IM)

Check out our videos on the benefits of our email and shared calendars and IM and shared documents.

If you haven’t yet taken advantage of all the features of our Workteam Collaboration Suite, I urge you to give them a try.

You have nothing to lose but wasted time!

Try a Better Way Today

Are you a CPA or accountant who needs a website? Sign up for a Complete Web Suite and get a free 60 days.

If you’re a CPA Site Solutions client who uses Outlook, consider switching over to our easier, faster, and safer email service. Give us a call at 1-800-896-4500 or email us at support@cpasitesolutions.com.

What do you think about Outlook? Does it frustrate you, or does it work for your firm? Share your experiences below.

Brian O'Connell, President

Who likes turning away easy business? Anyone?

I didn’t think so. I don’t either! Yet when clients need help incorporating their sole proprietorships, accountants often send them to an attorney.

With CPA websites from us, you get to keep that business, perform it easily, make a nice profit, and save your clients money.

That sounds pretty efficient to me.

The Easy Way to Incorporate a Business

Our Online Incorporation Solution automates the whole process of forming a corporation.

It orders your corporate supplies and even tracks the progress of your order.

There are so many details you no longer need to take care of. Check them out:

How Much Profit Would You Like?

You make a nice profit incorporating your clients' businesses.

When you register with our partner – a leading national incorporation service – you enter the amount of profit you’d like to make.

That’s right – you set the price. Choose $200, $350, $400… It’s up to you.

The online system calculates all the fees, adding in the profit you chose, and comes up with a package price for your client.

Clients Win, Too

Using our partner for incorporation services saves your clients money in two ways.

First, incorporating is an excellent tax-saving strategy. If you offer this to your clients, they appreciate the long-term advantages of this effort.

Second, even with you making a $400 profit, the total cost of incorporating is still hundreds less when your clients use you instead of an attorney. Attorneys charge $1,000-$2,000 and up for the service. That’s far more than what you charge.

Fully Integrated with Our Sites

Online incorporation is fully integrated with CPA websites from CPA Site Solutions. It takes your clients just five minutes when they visit this page on your site.

Interested in getting a Complete Web Suite with CPA Site Solutions? Try us out for 60 days free. There’s no obligation whatsoever.

Do you find yourself sending your clients on to attorneys when they want to incorporate? Are you intimidated by the incorporation process? Let us know in the space below!

Brian O'Connell, President

We all agree: you’ve got to get paid for your work. You can’t allow clients to skip out on their bills.

Luckily, our CPA websites have an Online Credit Card option, which means your clients pay their bills right on your site.

You save hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars when you take advantage of online credit card processing.

But which credit card processor?  The right choice makes a difference in how much you save.

Which credit card processor you need depends on your monthly usage.

PayPal or Capital Payments?

Our CPA websites offer you a choice of two credit card processors: PayPal or Capital Payments.

Here’s a quick look at the plans:

PayPal =  1 or 2 transactions/month

Capital Payments = 3 or more transactions/month

How to Get the Lowest Fees

To get the lowest credit card fees, follow these steps:

1. Evaluate your needs. Do you have a busy firm with a high percentage of Web-savvy clients – or a smaller firm with a more traditional clientele?

2. If your clients will pay by credit card only once or twice a month, choose PayPal.

3. If you think you’ll process 3 or more credit card payments per month, you want Capital Payments.

Getting Paid On Time, Every Time

Whichever company is right for you, accepting credit card payments online means you get paid on time, every time.

In fact, between paying low processing fees, avoiding bad debt, and saving on collection costs – you save at least $1,000/year.

Both PayPal and Capital Payments accept Visa, MasterCard, and American Express – so your clients enjoy the convenience as well.

We’re Happy to Help

If you would like clients to pay you online by credit card, sign up for one of our websites. You get a free 60-day trial and have absolutely no obligation for two months.

If you already have one of our Complete Web Suites and would like to take advantage of online credit card processing, call 1-800-896-4500 or email support@cpasitesolutions.com. We’re happy to help you get set up with the right processor.

Do you ever feel burned by clients who fail to pay? What ways do you deal with this? Post your thoughts in our Reply section.

A new Security Measures page helps clients understand the Web is not the Wild West anymore.

Are your clients afraid of the Internet? Do they mistrust the security of cyberspace? And does this prevent them from taking advantage of all CPA websites have to offer?

The Internet is not the Wild West anymore. Safety measures are now in place – firewalls, encryption, and anti-virus software – that make it a much more trustworthy environment.

It might be time to give your clients a little push – to show them how secure the Internet is these days. With a bit of encouragement, clients start to feel comfortable using the Web for more than just contact information.

A great place to start is your secure Client Portal. Once clients see how it improves their financial lives, they’re hooked. They’re more satisfied with your services…

And you reap the reward in higher retention.

Our New Security Page

You have an easier time convincing your skittish clients to use the Client Portal with the new Security Measures page.

Clients get to the new page with a link on the updated Client Portal page.

When clients go to the updated page on your site, they see this:

Your updated Client Portal page includes a link to information on Security Measures. Click on the image to enlarge.

When they click on that last link, they’re sent to a Security Measures page detailing the Portal’s impressive 14 layers of security.

Benefits of the Client Portal

Although they might need some encouragement to try it out, once your clients do take your Client Portal for a spin, they love the benefits.

The Client Portal provides…

• a secure, convenient, and easy way for you and your clients to exchange and share files;

• 24/7/365 access for clients to their tax returns, financial statements, scanned documents like W-2’s, employee data, corporation papers, and legal documents;

• secure access to their tax information – with your Online Tax Organizer – anytime from anywhere, so they no longer need to complete and mail paper organizers;

• a way for them to make entries, print reports, and have full access to QuickBooks, Sage Peachtree, or any accounting software from home, office, or any location in the world (when you add the Online Accounting module); and

• a secure environment to enter their hours and earnings, print detailed reports, print checks, make direct deposits, and file all federal and state payroll taxes (when you add the Online Payroll option).

There’s no question that the Client Portal improves your clients’ financial lives.

And in a way, when you push them to try the Portal, you’re doing your job at a high level – offering information, technology, and support to help your clients stay organized and in control of their finances.

How to Get the New Pages

Let us know if you want the new Security Measures page on your site. It means adding two pages – the updated Client Portal page as well as the Security Measures page.

If you’re at the Silver service level, visit our Help file called “Adding the Updated Client Portal and Security Measures Pages” to learn the steps involved in publishing them.

If you’re a Gold or Platinum client, give us a call at 1-800-896-4500 or email support@cpasitesolutions.com to request these pages. We’re happy to add them.

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.

Our Life Events guide helps when clients lose a spouse.

When a client’s spouse passes away, it’s rough. You feel terrible for their loss, and you want to help them sort out the financial tangle that’s often left behind.

That’s your job – to be there for your client when they need you most.

But you can’t always predict when life events will unfold. What if your client needs you in May, when you’re taking a well-deserved vacation? Or over a long holiday weekend?

Accounting websites with CPA Site Solutions allow you to be available for your clients 24/7/365. Our sites contain page after page of guides and FAQs designed to help your clients whenever they need it.

You serve existing clients far better with this high-quality content. And a well-served client – one you support in his hour of need – will never want to leave.

3,000 Pages of Financial Guides

Our financial guides cover 5 major areas:

• Life Events

• Business Strategies

• Tax Strategies for Businesses

• Tax Strategies for Individuals

• Investment Strategies

Our guides are written by top-flight writers so you know you’re offering sound information.

Over 1,000 Frequently Asked Questions

A list of FAQs is an important resource for your clients. Sometimes it’s easier to skim a list of questions than to look for an answer you didn’t even know you wanted.

Our FAQs are divided into categories, such as Financial Planning, Life Events, Banking, and Taxes, among others.

On That Long Holiday Weekend…

On Labor Day weekend, when you were at the lake with your kids, your client Nancy needed you. Her husband had died the previous week, and after the shock had worn off a bit, she was ready to tackle the will, life insurance, mortgage, and everything else left behind. The only problem was, it was late on Sunday night.

Luckily, the last time you’d met, you mentioned the Financial Guides and FAQs, and urged her to use that resource whenever she needed it.

Nancy remembered that. When you got back to your office on Tuesday morning, you had an email from Nancy. Using your Financial Guides, she’d researched what papers to collect for various benefits and for finalizing the estate. She knew she needed to contact Social Security and she was hoping you could help her with that.

This Financial Guide, "Death of a Spouse: Financial Steps You Should Take," helps clients get organized in a time of confusion. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

In short, she used the Financial Guides to become informed about her situation. She still needed to talk to you – but she knew the questions to ask.

This was a great comfort to Nancy. She began to feel that she’d be able to make it on her own after all.

Of course, with you as her trusted advisor.

Complete Web Suite with Tons of Content

Accounting websites with CPA Site Solutions come loaded with Financial Guides, FAQs, financial calculators, Monthly Client Newsletter, and many other pages. Your clients have access to all this material anytime. It doesn’t take your place – it just enables clients to help themselves with the big picture, and come to you for the details.

If you’d like to take advantage of our Complete Web Suite – serving your clients better and turning them into raving fans – give us a try free for 60 days.

If you have any questions about the content on your site, call us at 1-800-896-4500, or email us at support@cpasitesolutions.com.

Do your clients use the Financial Guides or FAQs? What other content do your clients enjoy? What content is the most important on your site? Let us know in the box below.