In order to grow your accounting firm you need a marketing strategy that will attract potential leads online and then convert them into accounting clients. When we build a CPA marketing strategy we focus on driving traffic from multiple sources and then creating a process to then convert the highest percentage of that traffic into leads — and then finally, paying clients.
CPA Google reviews are one of the most important, yet overlooked, part of a complete (and effective) CPA marketing campaign. Not only do Google reviews for your CPA firm help build consumer trust, leading to higher conversion rates, but they also help your online visibility.
Accumulating a consistent influx of CPA Google reviews is important for local SEO. Many accounting firms assume that online reviews will just happen naturally, as a byproduct of doing business — but that is not the case.
While it does require some effort to get your CPA Google reviews rolling in, the tips and strategies we are going to discuss require very little effort to execute.
Why You Need Consistent ‘Fresh’ Reviews
While every positive review your CPA firm accumulates is beneficial, as they age they become less effective. A potential CPA client is more likely to convert if the reviews they read are recent. While a five-star review from last year is great, it doesn’t have the same influence as a five-star review that is less than a month old.
So, you want to implement strategies and procedures to attract CPA Google reviews on a regular basis.
How Consistent CPA Google Reviews Contribute to Your Firm’s Growth
The concept is very straightforward: attract more CPA Google reviews and generate a higher amount of CPA leads, which can then be converted into CPA clients. The more CPA firm Google reviews you can accumulate, the more it will contribute to the growth of your accounting firm.
There are three reasons why reviews are so important:
- Achieve a higher position in the Google Maps results: Local search results on Google feature their ‘Maps’ results on the top, which is prime real estate for local businesses. When a location-based CPA firm search is performed your firm is going to achieve higher visibility if you not only have a lot of positive reviews, but also continue to add them on a regular basis.
- Attract more CPA leads: Since Google’s algorithm takes CPA Google reviews into consideration, having more reviews is going to get your website more organic impressions, which attracts more visitors and ultimately, more leads.
- Convert CPA clients at a higher rate: By attracting more website traffic via organic search, you have an opportunity to generate more highly qualified leads. Consumers trust online reviews and put a lot of weight on them when making a decision. More reviews simply means more converted leads from that organic traffic.
CPA Google reviews need to be a priority in your marketing effort. Let’s highlight some important factors to consider that when combined together will contribute to the growth of your CPA firm.
Design a Dedicated “Reviews” Page on Your CPA Firm Website
Creating a dedicated page on your website for your reviews can have a positive impact on your accountant SEO strategy, helping to attract organic traffic that would otherwise land on one of the third-party review websites rather than your own.
By creating a page and optimizing its title and content for keywords like “[Your CPA firm name] reviews” and “reviews of [Your CPA firm name]” you will rank high in Google’s organic search results, and those looking for reviews can then land on your website to read the reviews. This is a great CPA SEO strategy to increase your monthly traffic volume.
You will want to pull reviews from platforms like Google, Yelp and Facebook, among others, and display them all on this one page. This can be done using APIs, scripts and WordPress plugins.
When a potential accounting client is looking for reviews of your CPA firm online and they land on your website to read those reviews they are going to be more inclined to contact you or convert into a lead since they are already on your website.
Not only is it an intelligent bookkeeping SEO strategy, but it also makes it much easier to direct current and past clients to a self-hosted review page, helping you to attract more reviews long-term.
Have an Email Campaign Triggered Once a New Accounting Client is On-Boarded
One of the best times to ask for accountant reviews is right after a new client is on-boarded. They are typically very pleased with the service so far and will more than likely oblige to a review “ask” — all you have to do is create a system to automatically ask your new clients to leave a review.
Setting up an automated email marketing campaign is a simple way to constantly attract accountant Google reviews, requiring little to no extra maintenance. A simple strategy would look like this:
- 14-days after becoming a client: This should be a very subtle “ask,” since they have only been a client for two weeks. A simple, “We hope you are completely satisfied with our firm” type introduction and the a, “We love to hear what our valued clients think. Feel free to leave us a Google review here” call-to-action at the end, linked to your Google My Business profile, is all you need.
- 30-days after becoming a client: You can maintain the same simplicity as above, just touch on a few more features and/or services that you have provided. Emphasize your firm’s strong selling points and then again, ask for the review at the end.
- 60, 90, 120-day follow-up: Not every client is going to leave a review after the first two emails. You will want to setup additional emails that touch the client monthly, each time asking for CPA Google reviews in a subtle way. Make sure to always provide something of value right before the “ask.”
Now, it’s important that once they do leave a review you remove them from this automated sequence. You don’t want someone to remain on this list after they do leave a review — when you get new reviews, remove them. That is the only “work” this strategy entails after the initial setup.
Make 100% Client Satisfaction Your Top Priority
When you make client satisfaction your top priority, positive Google reviews are going to become a natural byproduct. Create happy and satisfied clients, and watch many of them leave reviews on their own, without you having to ask.
Satisfied clients help generate leads for CPAs through word-of-mouth and by posting five-star reviews on Google that help influence those interested, pushing them to convert into a lead and then client.
This is a strategy that applies to every business — your customers are your biggest asset. Put their absolute satisfaction ahead of everything else, and watch how it helps your firm grow, beyond just attracting new CPA Google reviews.
Instantly Reply to Every Google Review on Your Google My Business Page
Make sure you reply anytime a client leaves a review on your Google My Business profile. The sooner you can do this, the better, for a couple reasons. First, it shows the client that took the time to leave the CPA review that you care and value them as a client. This can lead to more referrals down the line.
Second, when someone is looking to hire a CPA firm and search on Google they are going to naturally be drawn to the accounting firms on Google Maps with the highest number of reviews. From there they will start to read them, and if they see that your CPA firm is replying to all reviews it will help to instill consumer confidence.
A lot of great reviews combined with creating consumer confidence will help increase the number of leads your website generates and the overall number of new accounting clients your firm signs.
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