Sometimes, financial advisors need to get a little creative in order to get the attention of the CPA’s that can refer boatloads of clients to them. This month, we’re going share four creative strategies to do just that. And chances are, you’ve never considered any of them—until now.
If there’s one area in marketing that CPA’s really struggle with, it’s digital marketing. The fact is, most seasoned CPA’s are pretty old school in their approach. Their websites are antiquated. They have little, if any, presence in the social media sphere. Email marketing starts and ends with an impersonal, yearly holiday greeting. And video marketing? Well, they don’t touch that with a ten-foot pole.
But you…well, you’re different. You stay up on marketing trends and you’re not afraid to try new things. You know the importance of having a website that’s on trend. You’re convinced that social media marketing is a must-do. And you can both see and appreciate the value of email and video marketing.
Seeing that you share the same clients as most CPA’s, you’ve got something they need: marketing know-how. Now, we’re not suggesting that you’re a marketing guru—as you might just know enough to get by—but chances are, that’s a lot more than what your CPA network knows. And here’s the magical thing: you don’t have to know everything about marketing to be a real asset to the CPA’s you’re courting, you just need to be willing to find tools that can help you, help them.
Most CPA’s are rockstars with numbers. But tell them to write copy for their website, and they get hives. Tell them it’s important to ensure their website reads at the 8th-grade reading level, and they haven’t a clue what to do with that information. Introduce them to the fact that there is a right and wrong way to develop content that will attract website traffic from Google and friends, and be prepared to see a deer in headlights.
This is where you come in.
Now, if you’re thinking this isn’t relevant to you because you don’t know any of this stuff either, fear not. That’s what we’re here for! Today we’re going to introduce you to some of the power tools used by professional marketers to create websites that convert. Here’s the best part: you can use them too because they’re free and accessible to anyone with an internet connection! When you use these tools and share your findings with the CPA’s you’re targeting, you’re going look like a superhero!
Here are three of our favorites:
Pop any website address into this fabulous tool and they’ll analyze your website in a matter of just about 10 seconds. They’ll give a report that tells you how well your site is or isn’t performing from a usability perspective. You’ll also learn what you can do to make the website easier for the world to discover. In addition, you’ll get some important info about how your site shows up in the mobile space (which is more important than ever now that more than half of all internet activity is performed on a mobile device). And finally, you’ll find out if there are any security issues that need your attention. Think about how a CPA might respond if you sent an email or even an old-fashioned snail mail letter notifying them of your findings after running these tests on their behalf! Obviously, you’re not a developer so they’re not going to think you’re trying to sell them anything. They’re just going to see you as someone that really cares about their success. Bingo! That’s exactly what we’re going for!
Like Website Grader, this tool analyzes your site. But it does so from a slightly different perspective—giving you, even more, fodder to share with your CPA network. When we used this tool, we entered one domain name for analysis and were pleased to find out, this tool automatically created its report after reviewing 5 pages on our website, not just the one we entered. We walked away knowing how satisfying our website is from a user experience. We also learned how popular our site is, how well it’s designed and built, and how we could improve some of our code. While most CPA’s you talk with don’t know a thing about code, it’s still really powerful information to share with them because they can hand it to the developer of their choice and get the problem solved. Boom!
If writing isn’t your thing, editing is probably on your list of least-favorite tasks. Enter: Grammarly. Copy and paste text from anywhere into this genius tool and you’ll get an instant grammar check. It’s like having an editor in your back pocket that exists for one purpose: to help you communicate more effectively. Their free tool looks for 150 different types of errors.
The CPA’s you know will be forever indebted to you if you point out some easy-to-fix issues that will make them look better online.
There are countless online tools you can use to help identify problem areas on any CPA’s website. If you take the time to run these quick tests and compile a little report to share with them, you’ll stand out like never before. Next time you’re looking for a great task for your intern or admin team to work on, give them a shot at doing this for you. And be sure to come back and tell us how the CPA’s respond once you’ve delivered the goods to them.
