Let’s start by putting this right out there:
You probably will never “make a sale” online.
But that is actually very good news.
Here’s why:
As a tax or accounting professional, you are NOT in “e-commerce” and you don’t sell widgets. You’re a service professional (who happens to deal with extremely sensitive and personal information), and that changes how you market your services on tax or accounting websites.
Unlike many sellers online, YOU don’t have:
- An online store
- Physical products
- “One size fits all” solutions
Now, this is not to say that you can’t integrate these kinds of items into your firm (I’ve seen it done, and done well), but that’s a subject for another day.
You won’t win many new clients online until there is a certain measure of trust established first.
And you have to be REALLY good to cross that particular bridge on ONE website or page.
Which is, again, why you need much more than a mere “good website” to win business online.
You need a follow-up machine.
Intuitively understanding this, many tax professionals throw up their hands and slap up “cheap”, commodity-style advisory websites.
But it’s not cheap when you’re leaving so much future revenue on the table! It’s actually extremely expensive in opportunity cost.
You see, it’s much easier to get a prospect to give you their contact details in return for valuable content than it is to have them hand over their intimate financial details online without a phone call or meeting.
This is the essence of what we teach — how you should be *using* tax or accounting websites for building a steady list of prospects with whom you communicate *regularly*, and who will turn to YOU … when they’re ready.
Whether that’s during tax time, or not … the fortune is in the follow-up.
Allow me to peel back the curtain of what we’re doing (right now) with our clients … and our clients’ clients.
You might have figured out that we didn’t *just* write this post to you. By the time you’re reading this, it’s been a few weeks (if not more).
Most marketers wouldn’t admit that (it’s nice to maintain an illusion), but we think you’re smart enough to have probably figured this out.
But here’s the thing: This isn’t a cynical ploy.
That’s because as I share stories from my family’s life, from my business successes (and failures), you get an authentic feel for who I really am. Yes, we run a very real and serious business here, helping advisory professionals grow their firms — but you also get the sense of the “real AdvisorProMarketer”.
It’s one of the major reasons we have had the growth we’ve had since 2007 — relationships matter, and they CAN be built online.
That’s why a cornerstone of your online marketing efforts should include an email system that works to nurture and build client relationships — which leads to referral explosions, long-term relationships with clients and a practice that can withstand the tremors of ANY economy.
That’s when your firm slurps in the new accounts and can grow like crazy. Don’t throw up your hands and accept commoditization in the online space — advisory websites are incredibly powerful WHEN you understand what they really are.
It’s much more than a website. It’s a system to build relationships.
