Transform your Accounting and Tax workflow with the lead converter for Accounting and Tax

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[Music] thank you for joining me today my name is Li Reims with County works pro in today's quick hits we're talking about five essential qualities successful Tax and Accounting pros need to convert web referrals so let's talk about what a web referral is so it's different than the traditional word-of-mouth referral it is a referral from your website it could be a referral through social media sites that could be a referral through a review marketplace like Yelp Google my business taxbuzz and is basically the process where a consumer one of your prospects is looking for assistance so they might be searching in the beginning it might be more research based you know I I'm looking to I'm having problems in my cash flow I'm looking for tips on improving my cash flows so they might land at a blog article that you've written about cash flow so what we talked about here is in the web referral process if you do not have a strong digital footprint you're gonna be a very hard time attracting web traffic through your different digital channels so issue one is getting them to your your digital brand so whatever that is it could be multiple channels that could be profiles again it could be your website but from then how do you now connect to convert these visitors into leads we've been very successful with our clients adding chatbots different strong calls to actions free strategy sessions landing pages with white papers so those are things that we're talking about in okay now you have someone on your site you're getting traffic but if they're not calling you if you're not making really strong calls to actions in your marketing copy you're gonna have a hard time getting them to convert to actually calling you right so that is number two in the web referral process number three is now how do you engage and build trust so is your profile set up are they credible are you responsive when someone comes through a lead channel are you using an email newsletter are you connecting via social media so once you have there's a bunch of different ways and that's what we're gonna talk about in this quick hits but once you have that social proof it's much easier to turn a web referral someone who may not have had a word-of-mouth referral to you into a client so the whole goal here is once they become a client now how do you these new clients into advocates so let's go through this so first thing from web referrals to paying clients so we kind of alluded to this before the prospects are out there but if you do not have a strong digital presence meaning you're not ranking you're not active on social media and your review profile it's not strong they will not contact you so this research is happening right now people are looking for help today on the internet and are choosing to work with your competitors and professionals every day we see it through our tax bonus match me through our county works match me process so there's 100% web referrals coming through that are becoming new clients and some of our clients are growing more than 50% of their growth is coming from the web referral pipeline so it's definitely something to look at but the issue here is competition is fierce right so it's very hard to stand out especially if you're a generalist and we'll talk a little bit about looking at niches or specific service types that will help you stand out from the crowd so awareness by itself is not enough anymore so you need to lurk nurtured these leads all the way through the referral process and this is what we talked about look at specialization so that might be a niche I work with restaurants it might be a service type I provide SAS virtual CFO services so there's a two different OP or even expat taxes right so those are different ways to look at a service you might be providing now but start specializing is much easier to stand out from the crowd if you're a specialist and also there's a perceived value and Trust right this person must know more than a generalist so it's definitely something to think about it all starts with an impressive online presence so web referrals is a prospect who found you online and is engaging with your brand so they may have found you through a query in Google search for assistance and a pain point they are currently you know maybe they have IRS tax problems what do I do about an IRS tax lien I need to report I haven't filed tax returns for multiple years I run in a business but I always seem to be running out of cash you know those are the kind of things that people would be searching for or perhaps they found you through a link on a social media push things like that but basically a web referral is somebody who has found you online is now in aging with your brand so the question is if they land on your website or one of your digital properties will they be impressed make sure your first impression on line is but positive professional secure modern and user friendly right so the modern buyer who is a web referral type prospect they want that ease-of-use they want to be able to communicate with you through the internet they want to make it you they want to make it so you take as much friction out of the buying process as possible and that brings in social proof so what are others saying about you that makes people trust your brand more so more you participate in the public conversation this is social media this is guest posting blogging roundups articles people writing about being quoted in the blogs and other trades that makes you more trustworthy to prospects right so this social proof starts building that without trust referrals web referral specifically will not become clients so build social proof as part of your long term lead generation and nurturing strategy how do you do it social media engaging with industry online so be in different social groups LinkedIn groups Facebook groups whatever case studies these are the type of things that help you build social proof and then it's social put kind of runs straight into reviews but high ratings on Marketplace sites so what you see now is Google likes to index brands ahead of smaller brands so the bigger brands obviously own the search engine results there's just so much they can show on a page right so what they're saying is if it makes it easier for consumer to go to a bigger brand to then find a smaller brand so sites like Google my business tax post counting works Yelp thumbtack things like that those sites are ranking high so what you want to do is a get you want your third-party reviews to be as strong as possible 90% of prospects read less than 10 reviews before forming an opinion about the business no one sells you better than your highly set satisfied client base so let them do the selling for you and then secondarily if you now convert that visitor to a lead so now they are a prospect what kind of lead nurturing strategy do you have so you need a way of capturing contacting from from people who visit your site that's one of the main things we see that is lacking in a tax and accounting website they don't have they just more list kind of their designations and you know choose a CPA versus a prospect this is your pain point this is how I will resolve that pay point and make your life better and then from there ask them to contact you right so whether that is through the chat bot options whether it's strong calls to action copy that leads people to something to take an action to start communicating with you that is what we're talking about in nurturing so even a lukewarm lead is still elite so sometimes Texan County pros think every buyer needs to be an intent buyer oh I want leaves I want leads not everyone is at that intent stage they might still be more of an awareness of your brand is their first look they know they have a pain point that you might be able to resolve they're actually reaching out is up to you now to nurture that process along from this awareness to actually becoming an intent and converting them to a buyer so prioritize following up with in a short length of time we Harvard did a big study that a lot of people cite it basically says that companies that respond to leads within an hour are seven times more likely to convert leads to sales so be responsive to these new leads you never know what will convert to a new product or a new customer so you need a compelling answer to the question why you right so why are you different how are how is my life gonna be better if I hire you to help me so you know basically are you delivering a better financial outcome are you saving me time are you an expert in how dental practices need to be run or there's some secrets and tax planning that you use it's different from a traditional tax preparer right so those are the kind of things that you need to start using in your marketing copy and then even in your entire approach of how you onboard a client through that initial discovery process so definitely have your why ready and use it consistently through your talking points through the onboard process so this is just some basics on web referrals we've been helping clients throughout the country whether they be CPA firms enrolled agents tax pros bookkeepers setup very strong digital footprints that help bring in these web referrals if you have any questions on how to do this for your own practice give us a call at 844 to 2 4 7 7 or visit our website at counting works procom specifically look at our case studies and you're getting a general idea the results we're providing for clients thank you