9 Sureshot Strategies for CPA Firms to Get More Clients in This Tax Season!

In 2019, January 23 was the starting date of filing the taxes, with April 18 being the deadline. This clearly shows that the present time is the peak time for preparing for the tax season, with CPAs needed to put in a lot of effort. As per the Small Business Accounting Insight Survey, published in Accounting Today in 2018, 65% of people said they were looking for professional CPA tax preparation services. How to get accounting clients today? It is the major concern for CPA firms.

The same survey revealed that 23% wanted consulting for business planning, 41% wanted additional tax planning guide, 36% wanted bookkeeping help, and 22% were looking for payroll services. This is the time when businesses are looking for CPAs for tax help, and this is the right time when CPA firms can acquire new clients. So, let’s get started and figure out the best ways to achieve the same.

Top 9 Strategies to Acquire More Clients

1. Collaborate with other Trusted & Qualified Professionals

There are various alike services which your clients might be using or looking for:

• Recruiting needs
• Legal representation
• Technology
• Investment advice and more…

By collaborating with technology consultants, qualified lawyers, recruiters, and investment advisors, you can expand your services and acquire more clients than ever before. One of the best platforms to achieve this is the LinkedIn platform, where you can get in touch with different professionals via e-mail.

2. Ask for Referrals with Confidence

One of the best ways to acquire new clients is by asking for referrals from your current clients. Every business that has established itself has made complete utilization of the same and has built a future from their existing clients only. Gain benefit from your clients ‘word-of-mouth’ publicity and contacts and leave no stone unturned to create a positive impression on the minds of the new prospects.

For this, it is important that you ask your clients for positive reviews, and also create a referral program that enables them to enjoy some additional benefits from your side upon sharing referrals, send timely e-mail reminders, and more. If you have a strong and positive reputation in the business world and online, your referrals will soon turn into your customers.

3. Optimize your Website & Marketing Efforts

In today’s world, no business can achieve success if it does not have a strong online presence. This makes optimizing the website imperative for better search engine performance. Also, content marketing plays a vital role in improving the overall image of a CPA firm and make it more appealing, along with persuading customers to get in touch with it.

4. Have Tax-Focused Content

Content, which is based on the tax theme, helps in attracting clients during the busy tax season. This makes it imperative for CPA firms to have a regular and heavy dose of such articles in your newsletters and articles during the tax season.

This is the time when customers seek tax help, and if your social media channels and the content of your blog fail to can help them with the same, they will most likely go to other places. So, you should be publishing content that is tax-based on your e-mail newsletters, social media channels, and blogs during the tax season.

Apart from this, using social media platforms like Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, and more for marketing and promotion is a must today as most of the customers are active on such platforms.

5. Promote your CPA Firm using Digital Ads

We all know that advertisements are for the mere purpose of acquiring new clients. With maximum users active online, it makes complete sense to invest in digital ads like pay-per-click (PPC). When you start using Google AdWords, you start targeting those prospects online who are interested in reading and sharing about services related to your CPA firm.

With the help of digital ads, you will be able to multiply the responses by 400% and reach them directly, and since they are looking for CPA accounting services, they are most likely to click your ad and contact you at the earliest.

At the end of the year, you can consider running ads. Also, tax season is the time when most of the CPA firms spend their budget, making the tax season even more expensive when it comes to competing. A lower cost-per-click can be reached when tax season comes to an end, with fewer competitors shelling out money for the ads.

6. Organize Free Seminars & Offer Tax Planning Advice

By organizing free seminars and offering tax planning advice, you will be able to grasp the attention of a lot of prospects who are looking for CPA services. Your seminar gives you the opportunity of showcasing the talent and uniqueness of your CPA firm to the world and set you apart from your competitors in the eyes of the people attending it.

Everyone is looking for tax advice during tax season, and if they get this advice free of cost from a professional CPA firm, they will go all praises for your firm. It will not take enough time for you to convert these ‘interested prospects’ into your customers.

Case studies like CPA and Business Coach have revealed that podcast interviews provided by KPMG, EY, PwC, etc., turn interested listeners into customers more than blogs and other forms of traffic.

7. Contact Unsatisfied Customers of other CPA Firms

There is no denying that every CPA firm consists of satisfied and unsatisfied customers. If you can contact the unsatisfied customers of other CPA firms, you can gift yourself an amazing opportunity to acquire these clients.

One of the best ways is to know about such customers using the online platform. Dissatisfied customers are always looking to spread negativity about a CPA firm online in the form of reviews.

You can get in touch with such customers, and if you are able to persuade them into trying your services instead, you will be halfway through towards turning them into your customers.

Another way to find details about such customers is by having personal relations with professionals working in different CPA firms and seeking help from them for the same.

8. Streamline Business Processes with Technology

In order to perform exceptionally well, your CPA firm needs to have the latest technology in place. By incorporating the use of technology in the form of tax and accounting software, you will not only be able to improve the work productivity of your organization but also serve your clients better, especially the newly acquired ones.

Customer support, marketing, and sales can easily be integrated with the Customer Relationship Management systems for a better view of the relationship with the customers. On the other hand, cloud technology streamlines business processes to a much greater extent.

With CRM data present in the cloud, information can easily be shared and accessed from anywhere. This makes the work of the sales team using software like NetSuite, more productive, agile, and effective.

As per the Forbes Magazine Insight Survey, which was conducted on more than 300 executives, almost 95% of them were of the view that Artificial Intelligence will help them refine their business models, enhance productivity, bring down overhead costs, and more. So, make sure you have the right technology in place if you want to win and retain new clients.

9. Benefit from Work Overflow of Larger Firms

Just as we discussed above, this is the time when customers are looking for CPA services. The biggest players in the market are definitely having a good time during this time due to the number of clients they get to serve in this period. However, this overburden of work can also make things complex for them and affect their work productivity and image of their firm eventually.

This is a bright opportunity for you to get in touch with such large firms and offer support for the same. When you serve some of their clients, you might not receive 100% financial benefits, but since you will be serving them, you will get an opportunity to influence them with your firm’s efficiency and turn them into your very own customers.

Conclusion

Irrespective of the size of a CPA firm, every owner looks forward to acquiring new clients, especially in the busy tax season, when customers are actually looking to avail of CPA accounting services. Acquiring new clients includes a lot of hard work and strategic planning, as it is not a one-day job. First, one needs to focus on improving the efficiency of its CPA firm and then focus on marketing and client acquisition strategies.

The above-mentioned tactics will not only help you in acquiring new clients but streamlining your business operations at the same time and improving your brand image eventually.

Are you unable to focus on client acquisition due to the accounting workload? Outsource the workload burden to Cogneesol and focus on acquiring maximum clients in this tax season. Give us a call today at +1 833-313-3143 or email us at [email protected].