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!

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.

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.