CPA Practice Advisor - 15

BUILDING YOUR NICHE PRACTICE

management, inventory control,
employee classification, product
theft, payroll fraud, embezzlement,
multi-state employees, and more.
Once you have the content created
in several media formats (graphics,
photos, video, and/or text), share it
with them using a landing page that
has a simple form to capture more
information, such as first name, last
name, company, email address, and/
or phone number. Once captured,
follow up with relevant leads within
a few days with a call or an email.

BRAGGING
RIGHTS

information in social media and
place it prominently on your website.
If you're using WordPress, there are
several testimonial plugins you could
use to display a series of testimonials
on your site. Another way to create
visual testimonials is a video creation tool-there are many free ones.
Imbed photos, overlay some music
and text, and bam-you have a video
that may be uploaded to Facebook,
shared on YouTube, or included in a
referral campaign to existing clients.

SEARCH
ENGINES AND
VOICE SEARCH

Testimonials can be a powerful way
to draw in new clients. Ask existing
clients for testimonials about a way
in which you helped them with
a specific pain point. Share that

Listing your firm's information on
Google and Bing's business listing
service is a great place to start to
increase your organic search ranking. Those listings appear in search

Broken links - the ones that bring you
to a page that says "404 error" - are
frustrating and impact search engine
optimization (SEO), user experience,
and conversion.
■ Revise your text and use short
sentences and short paragraphs. This
makes your website easier to read.
■ Add head shot s of you r team
members to your bios. This will make
your website more personal and help
visitors put a face to a name.
■ Optimize your website for mobile
devices. Mobile browsing is becoming
more common and this also helps
with SEO.
■ Optimize page speed. According to
Google, 53 percent of mobile site
visitors leave a page that takes longer
than three seconds to load.
■ Add landing pages to promote
specific services, events or offers.
A landing page is any page on the
web on which one might land that
1) has a form and 2) exists solely
to capture a visitor's information
through that form.
■ Include a call-to-action on every

page, including blog posts. A callto-action is an image, button, or
message that calls website visitors
to take some sort of action.
This list is not comprehensive but
provides a good start.

BOOST YOUR SOCIAL
MEDIA PROFILE
When it comes to social media there
are many options: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram,
Pinterest, Google+, you get the idea.
It's important to create a realistic
social media strategy that supports
your marketing goals and you are
committed to updating.
Since LinkedIn is the most
business-oriented social media
platform let's spend our time today
focused on it. Here are five LinkedIn
profile updates to make right now to
enhance your business development
efforts:
■ Headshot and Custom Background:
Your headshot needs to look
professional with your face looking
forward, making up about 75 percent

results on the first page before
organic listings. In your listing add
keyword phrases, such as "grocery
store accounting firm since [enter
year]," "specializing in organic food
markets for more than [enter number
of years]," "your local food store
accounting firm," or include "food
stores" or "grocery stores" in a list of
industries you serve.
When it comes to voice search, on
your website's About Us, Services, or
Contact Us page, include one or more
of these keyword phrases in keyword
meta tag (located within the site's
code), "local food store accounting
firm," "grocery store accountant,"
"grocery store accounting firm,"
"local food market CPA," and "organic
food store accountant."
According to Google's Ad keyword
planner tool, the phrases "grocery

store," "organic food store," and "food
store," each respectively has between
1 - 10 million, and 10,000 - 100,000
searches within the U.S. monthly.
Plus, there is low competition for
those terms organically or via
paid ads over the past 12 months.
(Search results for those terms was
conducted on April 14, 2019.)
Now that you have these five
marketing munchies, which will you
begin implementing today to reach
the food store clients you desire? ■

of the frame. Replace your custom
background with an image that
reinforces what you want people
to know about you. This image
could promote your firm's brand, a
marketing campaign, or event, for
example.
■ Headline: Your headline needs to
concisely communicate who you
help and how you help them.
■ Summar y: L i ke your custom
background, your summary needs
to tell readers what you want them
to know about you. Focus on your
target markets, areas of specialty
and write it in first-person.
■ Custom URL: A custom URL will
help to increase the overall visibility
of your LinkedIn account and will
make it easier for you to share how
to find you on LinkedIn. For example,
you can find me at www.linkedin.
com/in/jeancaragher.
■ Content: Include two to four pieces
of content. This can include documents, photos, videos, presentations,
and brochures.
Once you've updated your profile

you can expand your LinkedIn presence by:
■ Writing posts on a consistent basis.
CoSchedule recommends one
LinkedIn post per day.
■ Writing articles.
■ Liking and sharing posts.
■ Joining and participating in groups.
Increasing your networking,
upgrading your website, and boosting your social media profile, three
solid ways to revive your marketing efforts after tax season. Don't
attempt to implement everything in
this article at once. Rather, create a
plan and execute one activity at a
time. ■

MAY 2019 ■

Becky Livingston has over twentyfive years' experience in marketing
and technology in financial services
and engineering firms. She is the
President and CEO of Penheel
Marketing, a boutique marketing
firm specializing in social media
and digital marketing for CPAs.

Jean Marie Caragher is president
of Capstone Marketing, providing
marketing consulting services to
CPA firms. She is the author of The
90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA
Firms: How to Create the Roadmap
for Your Firm's Growth and Gear
Up for Growth: The Marketing Trends Manual
for Accountants. For more information contact
her at 727.210.7306 or jcaragher@capstonemarketing.com.

www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com

15
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeancaragher http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeancaragher http://www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
CPA Practice Advisor

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