Professional accountants come in all shapes and sizes - with some focusing on preparing tax returns, others on outsourced CFO services, and others still on niche markets such as medical billing.
Regardless of their specialty, one undeniable fact is true in every case: just as with any business that offers services, accountants need paying clients. An accounting professional could be the valedictorian in school and graced with superior client skills - but unless and until she gets an adequate number of new clients, her talent will go wasted.
Therefore, one of the first and most important question any accountant can ask is, How do I get my clients?
The best way is with high-quality accountant websites.
Today, if you are not online, you will simply not be able to generate enough leads or sell potential clients on the worth of your services.
This won't change in the future, either. With thousands of students studying accounting, coupled with one of the most challenging of economies, finding clients is becoming a very competitive endeavor. Having a website will remain critical.
So what can you do to help your firm thrive in this environment? Below are 10 pointers for how to obtain and make the best use of your accounting website:
1. Make sure your website looks professional. These days, it is extremely easy to create a website. There are several choices out there that allow you to obtain a domain name (your URL or web address), as well as easy-to-use software programs that will allow you to tailor your website to target the clients you want.
2. It's best to use a contractor to set up your website for you. While your strength is with numbers, a professional web designer knows how to make your site look great and run smoothly.
Even if you have a good eye it takes much more than that to make high quality accountant websites, it takes training in things like navigational structure, meta tags, alternative text, flash, java, framed links, search engine optimization, and much much more. The trick is to not just attract visitors to your site, but also keep them once they arrive. Make it attractive and informative.
3. Make the best possible use of social media platforms for marketing accountant websites. You can increase your exposure by simply creating profiles on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
The king of social media right now is Facebook. To get started on this popular social sharing platform, simply create a personal profile and then create a "fan" page for your business. Get your friends to "like" your page, and soon their friends and their friends' friends will be seeing your business's name and a link to it.
4. To get more visitors to your site, you need to post plenty of links to other sites (as strange as that sounds). The best way to do this is to add links to your social media profiles. If someone visits your site and likes what they see, this will be an easy way for them to help you spread the word. A "like me on Facebook" or "follow me on Twitter" link will expose you to even more potential clients.
5. Your clients who have websites can use a plug - and adding a link to their site gives you a benefit, too (because the more links on your site, the better). When folks see your client list, and maybe even click through to your clients' websites, it acts as that all-important "social proof" that helps you appear trustworthy. This benefits your clients as well because inbound links from reputable accountant websites give them a boost in the search engines.
6. Useful websites for generating leads are online merchant sites such as eBay and Craigslist. Sites like these, along with other, similar ones, see mega numbers of visitors, and when you advertise in their classified section, your visibility goes through the roof. Normally, there is no charge to list services; advertising with these sites will expand your reach to well outside your local client base.
7. Don't forget about ads in the newspaper that include your web address, which still work well for local clients. Getting people to click on links and visit accountant websites is a lot easier than getting them to drive accross town to visit or even just pick up the phone and call. Take a look at your local papers. Chances are they have an online edition that uses banner ads as well as a services or marketplace section. Look into websites for publications in surrounding towns that are a reasonable driving distance for potential clients.
8. Hike it up a notch; look for websites that advertise specifically for accountants. Sites like Accountant-Finder.com list accountants for a small fee, making it that much easier for leads to find you.
9. Bid system and lead generating websites such as adknowledge.com are plentiful online. These services, when used properly, can get you in contact with the clients you want and who need what you have to offer.
10. Lastly, make it a point to find the veterans in your field. Ask how they find clients, and then mimic them. There's no point in reinventing the wheel. Find online resources - such as Websites4accountants.com - that can teach you some tricks on how to obtain new clients.
Finding customers for your accounting firm isn't easy. However, when you make use of a quality website as the starting point, it can be surprisingly effective - and more than worth the trouble.
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