CPA Websites Marketing Tips

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!

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.

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.

Diana has too many questions. She's stressed.

Meet Diana. She runs a catering firm and is always challenged with paying her five employees on time.

Although Diana likes her accountant, she’s overwhelmed by her finances. Her accountant sends her a CPA newsletter every so often – in the mail. The articles sometimes look useful, but she never reads them.

Angela is enjoying life. She feels in control.

Now meet Angela. With her own business to run – she has three employees for her landscaping outfit – and two kids nearing college, she’s busy, too.

Angela gets a CPA newsletter, too – straight to her email inbox. She stars it and reads it over the weekend, when she has more time.

Last month, she read an article about the best college savings plans. She went straight to her CPA to set up a new account.

Emailed Newsletters Are Better for Clients

Obviously, Diana’s newsletter isn’t doing her any good.

Angela, on the other hand, gets a lot out of hers. It educates her about financial matters and gives her action steps that help her manage her complicated finances. It also helps her stay more closely connected to her accountant, which helps her feel in control.

Emailed Newsletters Are Better for Accountants

With an emailed newsletter, a CPA firm is more efficient – saving time and money – and has stronger client relationships, which leads to better client retention. Why?

Here are 6 reasons…

1. Saves Money

An emailed newsletter is far cheaper than a paper one. Let’s compare costs:

Costs of Paper Newsletter

Total = $800-$900 per issue / $9,600-$10,800 per year

Costs of Emailed Newsletter

Total = $0.00 (included in your web suite)

2. Saves Time

Not only do you have to pay for all the materials when you send a paper newsletter, but also you need to take the time to coordinate the writing, design, printing, and distribution.

Your emailed client newsletter is automatically uploaded to your site and then emailed to all your clients. If you want to take a few minutes to add a couple custom messages, it’s easy to do; or just leave it as is. Your clients still receive a superior product.

3. Clients Actually Read Them

When clients receive a newsletter in the mail – stapled over, black and white – they usually recycle it. They have too many competing needs, and opening a piece of mail that’s not a bill is low on their list. They also might not choose to keep it around so it won’t clutter their living room.

Emailed newsletters, on the other hand, can be archived and read when the client has the time. Further, more and more people are used to reading and gathering information online. It fits with their schedule – they can read it at work, on the weekends, or on the commuter train.

4. Go Green

Everyone is going green these days. The less paper and ink you use – as well as fuel for the delivery trucks and cargo jets – the better for our planet.

Clients appreciate less waste, too. Emailing a newsletter reflects well on your firm.

5. Stronger Client Relationships

When clients get an emailed newsletter, they hear from you once a month. If they have a festering tax or financial question, all they have to do is it “reply” to send you a message, or see your phone number on the newsletter and give you a call.

It’s a monthly reminder that you’re there and it provides a super-easy way to get in touch.

6. The Way of the Future

There’s no question that fewer and fewer professionals will send paper newsletters in the future. Email is the method used for all types of transactions, and that will only increase. Everyone needs to make the switch at some point.

CPA Newsletters Included at No Charge

If you have a website with CPA Site Solutions, you already have an emailed client newsletter. Your clients enjoy useful articles and tips delivered to their inbox once a month – and your client relationships are stronger as a result.

If don’t have our web suite, give us a try free for 60 days. Try out our emailed newsletter and see for yourself.

As always, call 1-800-896-4500 or email support@cpasitesolutions.com with any questions.

Is your firm trying to go paperless? What challenges does it present? How has it helped your efficiency? Post your thoughts in the box below.

Brian O'Connell, President

My wife Kathy is a CPA. I’ve been at her side plenty of times when an acquaintance asks for free tax advice at a party or at one of the kids’ games.

That probably happens to you, too. It can be a little tiring – like a busman’s holiday.

But there is an upside to all the free advice you give: It lets you really impress folks with your knowledge and it raises your professional reputation.

Now what do you think would happen if you ran into the same person once a month and gave them free advice for a full year?

They would remember you. They might even switch from their current accountant to you – or recommend you to a friend.

Take a break! Your client newsletter does the work of connecting with prospective clients.

That sounds pretty nice. To make that happen, you could frequent as many parties, sports events, and other gatherings as possible in the hopes of running into the same people over and over…

Or you could take the weekends off – catch up on your sleep – and leave the networking to your Monthly Client Newsletter, which comes free with our CPA websites.

9 Meetings to Make a Sale

The Direct Marketing Association states that it takes an average of 9 contacts to turn a prospect into a client.

That’s 9 times you need to connect with an individual – in person, by phone, or by email.

Chances are very good your competitors are not making that much contact with prospects. It’s frustrating and time-consuming to keep calling or emailing someone, and most people give up after the 4th or 5th attempt.

If you use your client newsletter to make those contacts, it gets done once a month, every month – 12 times a year, year after year. Of course, not everyone will convert to clients – but touching base with them once a month significantly increases your chances.

Then, if you run into them at a party 6 months down the road, that’s just icing on the cake.

Newsletter Jam-packed with Helpful Tips

Is the newsletter really something your acquaintances will appreciate?

You bet.

The monthly client newsletter addresses the topics people are interested in – like saving for college, financial planning, and, for small business owners, hitting their tax due dates. There’s even a regular column on how to make the most of QuickBooks.

The table of contents of the July 2010 issue of the client newsletter. Click on the image to enlarge.

Hearing from you every month – with customized, firm-specific messages, if you wish – makes your contacts feel like they know you. This is important in their choice to switch to your firm or recommend you.

They’re also grateful for the gift of useful information that helps them protect what’s most valuable in their lives. This practice of “gifting” – especially to folks who aren’t paying you yet – is an effective way to build long-lasting client relationships.

A Favorable Equation

The monthly client newsletter comes with CPA websites from CPA Site Solutions at no additional cost.

And it has the potential to make you extra revenue. Say you add 10 prospects to your newsletter distribution list in a year and 1 becomes a client or recommends a friend to your firm. If you do just a standard tax return for them, you make $250.

That’s $250 for you with no additional expenditure and almost no effort.

And remember, $250 is a conservative estimate. Your extra revenue could be much higher.

If you’d like, consider the equation this way: one night off a week – with no schmoozing necessary – earns you $250 . . . or about $4 per night of sleep!

Get Started

How does it work? Each month, you get 10 new financial or tax saving articles automatically updated to your website. The articles are written by our award winning team of CPAs and MBAs and provide your clients with enough information to pique their curiosity – while giving them a consistent reminder to contact your office for more details.

We give you time to customize the newsletter if you like – and then the newsletter is automatically sent to your list of clients and contacts, using the Email Newsletter Marketing System.

If you don’t have a web suite with us, give us a try free for 60 days. See if the newsletter does what I claim – and enjoy all the other features of your site, like the secure Client Portal, 3,000 pages of financial guides, Online Tax Organizers, plus 111 other features.

If you already have a site with us and have questions about your client newsletter, call us at 1-800-896-4500 or email support@cpasitesolutions.com.

Do you enjoy networking in person, or would you rather have your newsletter do it for you? What other methods do you use to establish relationships with potential clients? Let us know in the space below.

I don’t know if you’ve ever taken the time to check out the client newsletters other CPA firms provide to their clients. I have, and I can tell you that yours is best I’ve seen.

Your monthly client newsletter has something of interest for a wide range of clients. The 3 Featured Articles help your business and individual clients successfully navigate their financial future.

The 3 Tax Tips are all approved by the IRS and gives your clients food-for-thought and insightful tax saving strategies.

The new (optional) QuickBooks Tips offer your clients great ideas on how they can become even more productive and glean insights to their financial situation. These tips position you as a true QuickBooks expert.

The 3 Financial Planning Tips are great reminders to help everyone take better care of their finances so they reach their financial goals.

Your clients also get a reminder of each of the tax filing deadlines for the month, so they don’t miss them.

Add that all up and you can see why your firm’s client newsletter is arguably the best one out there.

In the past we only included summaries of the 3 Featured Articles in the emailed version of your client newsletter. This month we’ve expanded the emailed version of your newsletter to include the titles and links to all the featured articles, tax tips, QuickBooks tips, financial planning tips and tax due dates. That way there is a greater chance that your clients find an article that catches their interest.

Your clients know that you are looking out for their best interest when you regularly provide them with helpful financial tips. And best of all it enables your firm to retain your clients even longer.

Your monthly emailed newsletter also generates new engagements by gently reminds your clients that they can turn to you for other financial services besides tax preparation.

So add your clients to your emailed newsletter. You can add them one at a time from the form on your newsletter page. Or you can email us a list of your clients’ email addresses and we’ll import them into your subscription list for you.