1. Be Visible.
Being visible means participating in the social web, becoming a sponsor or a speaker at an upcoming conference, and listing your firm in every relevant publication known to the industry.  Network, network, network, and not just with other people in the industry.  You need to be where your prospective clients are.  For example, if your firm targets tax planning for restaurants in the greater New York Area, consider attending the International Restaurant & Foodservice Show of New York.  While your competitors are leaving voice mails, you could be shaking hands with the decision maker.  Do not under estimate the power of being where your prospective clients already are.

2. Branding Matters.
In the words of branding guru Jerome Smith, CEO of brandEvolve, “Branding is the art of incorporating your professional identity into how you sell yourself.”  Decide how you want to position your firm, and then work on your differentiators.  What makes you stand out? What are you doing bigger/better/bolder than your competition in the same area? It’s important to remember that brands do evolve – so your branding this year may not be exactly the same as next year.  This is especially true as your firm continues to grow its services.  To build your brand, you need a very firm grasp on the concept (what you do), the content (what you offer), the look (logo, letterhead, website, business card), and the ability to bring it all together as one cohesive plan.   The recognition of your brand is a very powerful tool- and bear in mind that the consumer is naturally more preferential to something aesthetically pleasing, so hire your designer with the same scrutiny as you would taking on another partner.

3. Your Website is Not Static.
Seriously, it is not a brochure.  This may have been true in 1998 – before all the moving parts and communication were really understood, but it’s 2011 and your website needs to work just as hard for you as the newest intern in the audit department does. Your website is a tool for lead generation – often times it is a prospect’s first and only impression of your business. Right now, take a look at your site, does it do these things;

• Provide a visible and easy way (1 click max)  for the site visitor to contact you?
• Offer a free consultation/white paper/e-book about a service your firm specializes in?
• Illustrate in a beautiful and approachable way the culture and professional nature of your firm?
• Offer intuitive navigation to access the different services of your firm?
• Focus on what a potential client will want to see/know?

If the only thing your website is achieving is the ability to give you a seizure (Click here for an example!) you may want to consider getting a new website that will actually showcase the amazing firm that you really are.

4. SEO is NOT a Buzzword.
 SEO will help your firm generate meaningful, qualified leads.  It will bring the prospects you have been searching for directly to your front door.   It’s hard for some firms to justify hiring an outside provider for SEO, and many firms actually do their own SEO, check out this article about the trade offs between in-house and outsource to decide for yourself.  Regardless of the direction you decide, it’s important to make sure you are doing something in this area.  Keywords, search terms, and meta-data are the roadmaps of the internet and you don’t want to be out in the middle of nowhere never to be found again. Recognize the importance of being found, and watch the leads pour in.

5. Follow Up and Follow Through
You might actually be amazed at how many firms out there bring people to the front door and then slam the door right in their face.  We might be e-mail junkies, but if someone calls you – return their call promptly.  If a lead comes through on your website, send an e-mail that immediately addresses their questions.  Set appointments and meetings during the first point of contact whenever possible.  Always make your prospects feel wanted, needed and important – and when they become clients – treat them the same way.  Follow through with promises and deadlines.  In marketing, word of mouth is still the best and most effective form of advertising – and bad news always travels faster and further than good; don’t fall into that trap.

So, if your inbox is not exactly flooded with leads and your voicemail isn’t full,  if you’re still not sure how or where you could use some improvement, send me an email and we can look into it together.  If you’re already thriving, share your tips in the comments.  How does your firm stack up?

© 2011, Flashpoint Marketing. All rights reserved. The material presented here is copyright by Flashpoint Marketing. Reprinting or reproduction is prohibited without the express written consent of Flashpoint Marketing.

1. The Button.  +1
You’ve probably seen it.  You just might not understand the impact that it has on SEO for you, and for everyone you are connected to. This magical little button lets you recommend articles, blog posts, and links, and pretty much any content – much like the Facebook ‘Like’ button.  However, this particular mechanism is changing the face of search engine marketing.  By giving a link, website, or any content your ‘+1′ seal of approval, you are essentially voting that content up the search engine ranks for both you, and all of your Google plus contacts – and over time as Google sees the +1′s increase from a wide variety of sources (ie. those you are not directly connected to) the +1 button will contribute to the organic search ranking as well.

2. Links, Schminks!
If I told you now that Google was putting less of an emphasis on the value of a link within their SEO algorithm, would you panic? Links still matter, but not to the degree that they once did. Google’s valuation of linking is over a decade old and with the recent addition of Google Plus to their mountain of services, times are changing.  This means that the way you once thought of SEO is very different than how SEO really is.  Links floating in the universe don’t really matter very much, but links that people click on, interact with, share and comment on, well… those matter the most.

3. Interest Must be Genuine.
What your friends say matters, to you.  But did it ever matter to anyone else? Now it does.  The +1 button which is available to click to your hearts content on various videos, blogs and articles now actually affects the Google ranking which that article sees.  Social sharing just engaged in a plot twist.  The more +1′s that a page gets, the more Google sees it as being relevant and worthy of a higher ranking – because to a great number of people the content that was found within that link mattered and it was relevant. Does that mean if all my ‘Friends’ like my website, than I’ll be a higher rank on Google? Not really, Google knows your friends better than their own families, Google is also watching the other things that your friends are clicking on and giving a +1 to determine if the interest in your site is genuine.

4. Google + Is Watching You.
Google isn’t just spending time ranking pages, they’re actually ranking you too.  The more time you spend on Google, the more you search, the more friends you have, the more Spark interests you choose, the more articles your read, the more data you put in your profile, the more times you ‘check in’ – the better Google knows you.  And the better Google knows you, the better Google can serve you by eliminating non-relevant content from your search results, and ranking the most relevant content higher in the results.  I’ll borrow an example from my friend Brian here, if your Spark interests contain Organic Gardening, and you have a  Google Plus circle of friends that is dedicated just to Organic Gardening, and then one sunny day you do a Google search for how to grow tomatoes – Google is going to place articles which cater to organic tomato gardening at the top of your results – whereas those same articles may have been on page 2 or 3 before, or maybe on page 5 or 6 for me – since I don’t particularly share an interest in gardening of any kind.

5. Signed In and Signed Out – Very Different Results.
Below is concrete evidence that being signed in or signed out of a Google account (any Google account for that matter) has a significant impact on the results you will get with a search.  Take a look at the screen shots below of our Principal, Brian Swanson’s G+ account for the search term ‘Accounting Marketing’.  Several differences appear in the results – most notably, the items that he assigned a +1 to are appearing in his search results. These results are specifically relevant to him. The signed in/signed out distinction is extremely important, because this is yet another factor which should be considered when developing an SEO campaign.

Conclusion
So what’s the bottom line?  We recommend content worth reading and worth sharing.  Relevant content will guarantee your place in the ranks and it will be much more interesting for your target anyway – and who doesn’t want to read something interesting these days? If you’re not sure what more you can do, or how you can create that spectacular, everyone-wants-to-read-this kind of content, give us a shout and we’d be more than happy to talk with you about ways you can improve both your SEO, SEM and overall online strategies.

© 2011, Flashpoint Marketing. All rights reserved. The material presented here is copyright by Flashpoint Marketing. Reprinting or reproduction is prohibited without the express written consent of Flashpoint Marketing.

The key findings include:

• 42% of respondents have a formal written social media policy;
• 55.4% indicates their firm does have a Facebook page;
• For those with a Facebook page 74% use it for recruiting, 54% for client communications and 39.2% use it for alumni communications;
• 67% of respondents indicated their Firm does have a blog;
• For those with a blog 81.7% use it for client communications, 78.3% use it for new business and 70% use it for public relations;
• 76.5% of respondents indicated their Firm has a Linked In account;
• For those with a LinkedIn account 71.6% use it for public relations, 70.1% new business and 56.7% client communications;
• Interestingly enough 50% of respondents indicated that although Linked In has been useful it is has not achieved the expected ROI;
• 59.6% of respondents indicate their Firm has a Twitter account;
• For those with a Twitter account 83% use it for public relations, 62% for client communications and 55% for new business;
• Only 24% indicated Twitter has achieved an acceptable level of ROI.

What do these results indicate?

First it is obvious that most accounting firms are ways to leverage the digital medium to connect with customers, enhance their firm image and identify new business. It appears that most firms are active within the three main social media tools but are seemingly using all three tools for the same purposes. Unfortunately the study did not provide a great deal of insight into whether one tools was more effective for new business development than another. Perhaps we will have to wait for another study to uncover those details.

The entire results of the survey can be found by clicking here.

© 2010, Flashpoint Marketing. All rights reserved. The material presented here is copyright by Flashpoint Marketing. Reprinting or reproduction is prohibited without the express written consent of Flashpoint Marketing.

What I like most about this article (and the concept overall) is how Eric creatively blended two mediums to develop a powerful and effective strategy for his firm. It makes me wonder what other combinations CPA and accounting firms could use to either broaden their brand in select markets or attract new prospects and referral partners.

The article also provide some tips on how to approach radio advertising. I found these helpful because as someone with little experience with radio, they provide some much needed insight. These items include;

• Employ Valuable Calls to Action – Paid commercials MUST have a call to action that’s valuable to the audience. Seminars, checklists, whitepapers, survey results, consultations, diagnostic tools, etc are all good value offers. These value offerings differentiate you and engage which aligns perfectly with social media integration.
• Promote Niche Practices – Don’t be afraid to use radio that goes deeper than just “general awareness” – just be sure the station is the right format and demographic for your niche.
  Leverage Radio for Earned/Free Media Opportunities – Develop relationships with news department and people besides the account exec – they have needs (experts on short notice) that you can fulfill! On-air expert clips often get aired throughout the day. Watch the value add up!
• Stretch Your Radio Dollar – Get the MP3 of your radio spots (most stations will give this to you for no charge) and distribute them widely among your social media outposts – for guest appearances, link to the station’s audio vault (sending visitors to them is a way to thank the station).
• Know Your Lead Sources – Use unique identifiers (URLs, phone numbers, etc) to track response sources so you can see what works best and modify for greater effectiveness where needed.
• Negotiate Wisely – In radio buy negotiations, don’t disclose your budget up front. Make them work to find your limits. Negotiate rates for small flights, then add additional weeks if the rep works with you to sweeten the deal from there. They are usually willing to add extra value.

To review the entire article, click here.

© 2010, Flashpoint Marketing. All rights reserved. The material presented here is copyright by Flashpoint Marketing. Reprinting or reproduction is prohibited without the express written consent of Flashpoint Marketing.

What makes this article interesting is that it goes beyond the discussion on brand awareness, market positioning and client engagement and provide the actual steps for how to reach out through these tools and find new business. While social media does allow a firm to address the “soft marketing topics”, it is often more difficult to tie those benefits to a business development metric. The advice offered in this article works. I know this because I use some of these tactics myself and also because I have seen others meet with success using others.

A brief listing of the tactics include:

• Share helpful tools on social networks
• Monitor twitter for keywords
• Subsrcibe to and participate in LinkedIn’s Answers program
• Friend and follow journalists
• Give website visitors multiple points of contact
• Adopt a 24 hour response rule

This is timely advice and the source, Eric Majchrzak of Freed Maxick & Battaglia, in Buffalo, New York is a well respected expert on the matter. The good news is he was a large contributor to the piece.

To read the entire article, click here.

© 2010, Flashpoint Marketing. All rights reserved. The material presented here is copyright by Flashpoint Marketing. Reprinting or reproduction is prohibited without the express written consent of Flashpoint Marketing.

The popularity of social media has become so prevalent even the Internal Revenue Service is getting involved. In my travels across the web I recently noticed that the IRS has posted instructional videos on You Tube.  (Click Here to see the IRS Channel.) The bulk of these are short one to two minute clips that focus on explaining provisions of the American Recovery and Investment Act. Specific topics include the $8,000 first-time homebuyer’s credit for those who purchase a house this year, the sales or excise tax deduction on new car purchases and the expanded credits for education and energy conservation. The videos are available in English, Spanish and American Sign Language.

The channel is no surprise given the Obama Administration’s targeted use of social media in the past. However, I believe it also provides insight into a greater trend in marketing and public relations. It is no secret that the IRS is not considered by most “Joe Plumber’s” to be a friendly organization. The only time most want to have any interaction with the IRS is once a year when they file taxes. Any interaction with them at other times of the year is generally unwelcome. However, I believe the new videos help recast the IRS in a new and positive light. They demonstrate a clear desire on the part of the IRS to connect with customers and provide valuable information in a quick and easy to understand format. Rather than simply reciting the Internal Revenue Code, they have people explaining these topics in layman terms, making it easy to understand each topic and what the taxpayer should needs to do to take advantage of the benefits.

The lesson learned is that social media tools such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter offer a forum of interaction with clients, prospects and referral partners previously not available. Through social media you can invite these groups to interact with your firm, learn more about what you do and the personality of the firm. Offering helpful information such as the IRS does is only one way to engage these groups with your organization. Additional ways to create “engagement forums” include creating a group on Linked In, Fan Page on Facebook, a YouTube Channel and of course a blog.

CPA firms currently using YouTube include:

Daszkal Bolton LLP

Cerini & Associates

How is your firm using social media tools to interact with clients, prospects and referral partners?

© 2010, Flashpoint Marketing. All rights reserved. The material presented here is copyright by Flashpoint Marketing. Reprinting or reproduction is prohibited without the express written consent of Flashpoint Marketing.

Below is an excerpt from the article:

“When I work with tax and accounting professionals, they are constantly asking me to explain what social media is, what it can do for their practice, and most importantly, how to determine ROI. I’m not surprised. After all, accountants are logical, numbers-oriented people, so it makes perfect sense for them to want to talk about what kind of return they expect to get through their investment in time spent doing social networking.”

This is a great read for those seeking to understand how social media can bring additional marketing value to their firm and overall SEO efforts.

Click here to read the entire article.

© 2009, Flashpoint Marketing. All rights reserved. The material presented here is copyright by Flashpoint Marketing. Reprinting or reproduction is prohibited without the express written consent of Flashpoint Marketing.

The article is centered around a question and answer session between Mr. Tom Hood, MACPA CEO and the magazine. Topics such as the value of such activiity, how to measure return and what type of strategy the Association is using are all discussed and addressed.

An excerpt from the article is listed below:

JofA: What are some of the risks CPAs might face using social networking for business purposes, and what strategies can be used to mitigate the risks?

So the strategy should be: How can I engage that criticism and respond to it in a respectful way that says that I’m listening? If you can actually do that, the research says that you’re going to win customer loyalty.

I recommend reviewing this article if you are just starting out or thinking about how/why your firm CPA firm should invest the resources in this type of marketing. It provides good ideas and simple start up strategies to get your firm thinking and moving in the right direction.

Click here for a copy of the full article.

© 2009, Flashpoint Marketing. All rights reserved. The material presented here is copyright by Flashpoint Marketing. Reprinting or reproduction is prohibited without the express written consent of Flashpoint Marketing.

In the August 2009 edition of Accounting Today there is an interesting article on this topic entitled, CPAs Embrace Twitter. The article focuses on various CPA and accounting firms, CPA Societies and other organizations that are using Twitter. What makes this article worth the read is each organization discusses the value of the micro blogging tool and how it is helping grow their practice.

How is your firm using/contemplating Twitter to enhance your marketing efforts?

Click here to read the article.

© 2009, Flashpoint Marketing. All rights reserved. The material presented here is copyright by Flashpoint Marketing. Reprinting or reproduction is prohibited without the express written consent of Flashpoint Marketing.