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Marketing Tips for Accountants and CPAs

Beyond CPA Website Design: The Marketing Mindset

Marketing is a state of mind.

‘Marketing’ used to be a dirty word in the accounting world, but that’s not true any more. Forget your instinctive associations with telemarketing and expensive advertising. Successfully marketing and growing your accounting firm is about developing the right attitude towards your clients, prospective clients and referral sources.

Accounting firms operate in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Gone are the days when ‘marketing’ meant a plaque on the door and perhaps a Yellow Pages ad. Now even small sole practitioners are setting up organized marketing campaigns, and extravagant CPA website design is a virtual requirement for success.

But before you hire a marketing guru like myself and you need to open your wallet, there are some simple, cost-free steps you can take to transform your approach to growing your practice. This will benefit you in the short run by improving your marketing mindset and in the long run, when you really do need my help, it will make my job a lot easier.

Here’s my top ten:

  1. Monitor your referral sources and organize your leads.
    If you keep track of where your best business comes from you know how to invest your time in the future. Organize your referral contacts. Assign each a priority, high, medium, and low,  then formulate a communications strategy for each group.
  2. Never assume your clients are happy.
    Delighted clients are your most important source of referrals. Survey your client base to identify those who are merely ‘satisfied,’ then look for opportunities to convert them into fans. While you are at it, review everything your client sees, hears or touches. Is your reception area nice? How about your receptionist? When a client calls, are they likely to get a real person or do you make eveyone wade through your voice-mail? Are your accounts covers ? Are letters well-written and easy to read? Are your staff skilled communicators?
  3. Get to know your clients vendors and professional service providers.
    These referral sources very likely don’t know you and your firm, but they should. By getting to know your clients vendors and service providers you establish a referral source, cement client relations, and enhance your image and reputation.
  4. Focus on your client’s profits (not your own).
    OK, a lot of my colleagues will vehemently disagree with me on this one, but I sincerely believe that the best way to win the network marketing game is to be the best at what you do and doing it. Nobody is going to refer you if they feel gouged. There is a limit to the demand for tax return preparation, services and audits. There is also, however, an unlimited demand for accountants and consultants who can help clients improve net profits! If you are still focusing on increasing your chargeable hours, charge rates, or net fees, it’s time to reorient your thinking. It’s not about increasing your billable hours, it’s about increasing your services to the clients!
  5. Develop a marketing plan.
    Most partners and managers have only 100-300 hours a year to devote to marketing. Why not organize this time the same way you would a 300-hour client engagement? Focus on your desired outcomes, actions, steps, money, time, and a budget.
  6. Talk about Value, not Fees!
    When meeting prospects, focus on the value you offer, and on what makes you different from (and better than) your competitors. If the client agrees to the service, and if your terms are fair, you can assume the close. Fee terms should seem like an afterthought to the client.
  7. Get to know your clients’ team.
    Before the tax season starts, meet the financial teams of your ten best clients. These are valuable contacts. Build a great team for your client and you will build a great team for yourself too.
  8. Don’t hibernate the tax season away.
    Clients are never more interested in help with their business than when confronted with last year’s financial results and this year’s tax liability. Plan now to cross-sell to every client you meet during the season. Capitalize on this effort. Use press releases, articles, and mailings.
  9. Learn to ask better questions and listen to the answers.
    Asking the right questions is the foundation of being an effective adviser.  The client doesn’t know what he needs, he only knows what he wants. Listen between the lines. You are failing in your duty as an accountant if you can’t sell a client on a service he really needs. Identify what your clients’ needs are and use what you know to help your them meet those needs. Ultimately this will benefit both you and your client.
  10. Tomorrow is more important than yesterday.
    Your clients are more worried about  today and tomorrow than they are about yesterday (which is the traditional province of the accountant). You can really help most of your clients by helping them use financial statements as a cornerstone for making better business decisions.

Marketing is not a dirty word, and neither it’s not black magic. If you want to succeed in today’s market you need to change your attitude about marketing. Clients and referrals can have remarkable results in maintaining and winning business – and you can do it for less than the cost of a plaque and a Yellow Pages ad.

Kenny Marshall
Marketing Consultant specialized in CPA Website Design

Kenny Marshall | July 24, 2008 | no comments
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CPA Website Design: Surveys have Real Marketing Value

Ask Yourself Three Questions

  1. Where do most of your new clients come from?
  2. How do you know that your clients are happy?
  3. How can you effectively cross-sell services to your clients?

For most of us the answer to the first question is, “Most of my new clients are referrals.” Recommendations make up the bulk of new business for almost all professionals, not just accountants. Some people, however, find it awkward or overly forward (some even say ‘unethical’) to ask their clients outright for referrals. A survey built into your CPA website design can be a simple, non-pushy but effective method for gaining leads from clients.

Identifying happy clients is usually much easier than identifying unhappy ones. Clients, for example, will only refer your services or invite you to birthday parties if they’re happy with you. These clients can provide us with valuable information, though – you need to know what you’re doing right so that you can keep on doing it.

Unfortunately, many unhappy clients won’t tell you until it’s too late to fix the problem.  A survey gives them a way to tell you what you need to improve in time to fix the problem!

Finally, a vital source of business is cross-selling new services to existing clients. But again, how can you go about effective cross-selling without being pushy?

A survey can be a very simple, cost-effective solution for all of these problems. A quick and easy client survey allows you to gauge the satisfaction of your clients, nip potential problems in the bud, cross-sell services and gain hot leads.

Few firms regularly survey their clients, and even fewer get surveys right. Typical reasons given for avoiding surveys altogether include: “We won’t learn anything we don’t already know”; and “We’re too busy serving clients to survey them”.

Behind these excuses lies a dangerous attitude: “We’re worried that we’ll hear something we don’t want to hear.”

Designing Your Survey

Even when firms do survey, the questionnaires are often too long, too complicated, and produce results that don’t really lead to any obvious conclusions or actions.

Avoids these traps. Keep it down to a few well chosen questions so clients are more likely to take the time to complete it.

Carefully word the questions to get straight to the heart of the matter and at the same time make them general enough that the client can say what he wants to say. A good survey will provide you with precisely the information you need to decide on effective follow-up actions.

Example

The Questions

  1. Can you suggest any ways that we can improve our service to you?
  2. Our mission is to help you achieve success on your terms. To what extent have we helped you do this in the past year?
  3. We are here to help you achieve your personal and business objectives. Where do you want to be this time next year?
  4. What would it mean to you to achieve these goals?
  5. What more can we do to help you in the next year?
  6. Is there anyone you know that you feel would benefit from our expertise? If so, you may wish to use the space to provide contact information. We always appreciate your referrals!

What the answers can tell us

  1. This question gives clients an opportunity to express dissatisfaction, but forces them to do so in a way that gives you constructive feedback and an opportunity to fix the problem.
  2. This is a chance for the client to give you positive feedback, but it requires them to be specific, enabling you to identify areas where things are really working well. If this client appreciates a particular service, so will others.
  3. Questions 3, 4, and 5 are all about positioning yourself as a trusted adviser. This question will help you identify your clients goals and judge the feasibility of your clients expectations.
  4. This will help you understand your client. There are very few “selling points” (things that people really want). This question might help you identify what selling points are most important to your client. Does he want power? Security? Status? Acceptance? Is he just looking for a good time? This question often provides us with insight as to what this clients best selling point is.
  5. These answers allow you to further identify the right services to cross-sell. The answers will give you an ice-breaker when calling the client: “I noticed that in our survey you said you wanted to cut down on the time you spend on routine admin work. Did you know that we can help?”
  6. This is a great, non-pushy way to gain strong leads, since it forces the client to think about specific contacts.

Adding the Survey to your Accounting Website

Every CPA Website Design provider is different. If you are already one of our clients adding a survey to your accounting website is free, and getting started is easy using our Customizable Online Feedback Forms. If you are a Gold or Platinum client just type up your questions and send them to support@cpasitesolutions.com and ask us to set you up with a Customer Satisfaction Survey page. If you are a silver client just log into your portal and click “Modify Your Site”. Go to “Add Page”. Select “Form Page”. Click next. You can rename the page and position it on the Nav Bar normally. To modify the form itself, just click on it.

If you have your website through a different CPA Web Design firm you will need to contact them to determine availability and cost for your online survey.

Kenny Marshall | July 23, 2008 | no comments
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Use the Media to Grow Your CPA Firm

It’s no secret that I provide websites for accounting firms. It’s what I know best and what I love, so obviously it’s what I write about.

I’ve noticed that when new clients come to me they are often myopically focused on Search Engines. This is a mistake! As you can see from our past posts there is SO MUCH MORE to internet marketing than just search engines.

Even I can lose focus from time to time, and a great article has appeared recently on Squidoo that has reminded me that there are tons of great ways to market your accounting firm that have nothing to do with your website. This new contributor to Squidoo bears watching. I can tell you for a fact he has a real passion for internet marketing, and best of all he plugs our blog!

His first ever article, however, has almost nothing to do with internet marketing. Instead the focus of the article is using the news media to grow your accounting firm. I recommend you check it out, especially the section called “Winning the Media Game”.

Kenny Marshall | July 18, 2008 | no comments
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What Does My Accounting Website Need?

I’ve been asked by a lot of Do-it-Yourselfers over the years what they should put in their cpa websites. At the bare minimum you need to provide prospects with enough information that they can find you so your site absolutely, positively needs the following pages:

  • Contact Us: With your details and perhaps an email contact form.
  • Our Services: Details about your core and added value services, plus contact names for specialist areas. If possible throw a contact form at the bottom of the page.
  • About Us: Perhaps with a short history of the firm and details of the principal staff.
  • Firm Profile: Explain why a prospective client should work with you.

This is a brochure site. You don’t need me, or any other accounting website designer, to have a site like this. Just go to www.godaddy.com and set up a site with them.

A brochure site won’t land you new clients, help you retain your existing clients, or decrease your operating costs. All it will do is keep you from looking like a dinosaur when you are doing your traditional marketing and make it easy for your current clients to find your office and phone number when they need it.

If you are looking for a website that can actually help you increase your community exposure and bring new clients into your business you’ll need to add some real content to the site. Tax rates and facts, Budget summaries and business content give your site depth, extra value for clients and a reason for visitors to return to the site.

You’re going to need to find a real accounting website designer at this point.

News stories and free reports- whether they’re about the firm itself, client successes or general tax and business news these articles will keep your site looking dynamic and exciting. Search engines and clients alike love to see sites that get updated regularly. But be warned: if you have news, you need to keep it up-to date. A “news” page that hasn’t been updated for six months or more makes you look lazy and unreliable.

Interactive features such as calculators, links, downloadable forms and PDFs will take your site to the next level and provide a genuinely impressive online resource that can be used to great effect as marketing tools by providing real, tangible reasons to visit your site not just once, but repeatedly.

Finally you’ll need a client portal that allows your patrons to send and receive large files securely over the web.

The cost of buying these features separately will be prohibitive for most small businesses, but there are a number of companies that specialize in building websites for accountants. They will be able to provide you with affordable content packages.

Kenny Marshall | July 11, 2008 | no comments
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