Today's Features
SOCIAL MEDIA

Marketing for Mobile

Becky Livingston: The more precisely you state your goal, the more likely you are to end up where you want to be.Best practices for reaching people on the go, including goal setting, advertising, tailoring ads and KPIs.

By Becky Livingston
The Accountant's Social Media Handbook

With the rapid increase in mobile use, it can be challenging for CPA firm owners to reach their audience.

MORE ON SOCIAL MEDIA: How to Use Social Media Analytics | What ‘Social Sentiment’ Is and Why You Should Care | What a ‘Community Manager’ Does | How to Build a Strong Landing Page for an Accounting Firm | How to Set Up a Social Media Plan | DIY Design for Social Media | Tailor Content to Social Media Platform | How to Track Who’s Clicking Your Links | Which Social Media Should You Use? | How Social Media Works with Accountants’ Top 5 Marketing Goals
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The first step any firm needs to take is to make sure their website is mobile-ready and responsive. In doing so, your search on mobile will be easier to find and will state it’s a “mobile-friendly” site, which encourages mobile and tablet searchers to click.
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MARKETING & SALES

30 Smart Marketing and Growth Questions

Illustration of marketing strategy

Drill down on what is working and what isn't.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Retreats

It's always a good time to ask the right questions of your marketing strategy is always. But most firms save the heavy lifting for their annual retreats.

Before formally beginning the discussion part of the session, it’s always a good idea to begin by asking participants what they want to be sure to cover.

MORE ON RETREATS: How Marketing for CPA Firms Is Different | How to Take Action After a Retreat | 12 Simple Rules for a Retreat | Leave Your Retreat With a To Do List | Retreats Are No Place for Clowns | Retreat Logistics: How Long, What Kind? | Why Do CPA Firms Conduct Retreats?

As issues are suggested, write them down on a flipchart.

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TAX PRACTICE

CPE Webcast: The Big Opportunity in Tax Resolution Services with Jassen Bowman

Surgent CPE
Click for more

CPA Trendlines expert author featured in Surgent CPE series.

Discover the lucrative new opportunities in providing advanced tax representation services when Rick Telberg, CPA Trendlines founder and CEO, interviews Bowman, author of Tax Resolution Systems.

Learn more here

Topics covered:

  • The Tax Resolution Opportunity
  • Staff roles & responsibilities
  • Hiring & firing
  • Office setup
  • Tax firm management checklists
  • Client management checklists
  • Marketing & sales
  • Tax resolution checklists
  • Tax season work flow
  • Building your dream team
  • Business management checklists
  • Learning Objectives

Eligible for 1 CPE hour

TECHNOLOGY

Wireless Charging from Afar in the Works

Eventually cars could top off charges as they're driven.

By Rick Richardson

Wireless charging can be a great convenience, cutting out the need to carry cords and plugs around in case your phone's battery dies. Today, though, it requires a phone be stationary and in contact with a charging pad.

MORE TECH THIS WEEK: Will HEIF Kill JPEG? | Predicting Flu Outbreaks Faster in the New Digital World | Americans Would Pay More For a Self-Driving Car | How to Beat Robocallers on Your Landline | Botnet 101 | USB Firewall Protects Against Malicious Device Attacks
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Wireless charging at a distance could make life easier not just for people with smartphones, and for drones and electric vehicles, but also for patients with electronic medical implants.
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TECHNOLOGY

How to Stop ‘Overauditing’

Hard-working man in officeAn outside consultant may be in order.

By Roman H. Kepczyk
Quantum of Paperless

Traditional audit practices use the previous year’s audit programs and processes updated for the current year as their standard operating plan.

MORE ON TECH SPENDING: How Audit Field Equipment Has Changed | How and Why to Establish Firm Procedures Manuals | Is Your Tax Workflow Digital Yet? | The 4 Types of Firm Knowledge | Back Up Your Bandwidth | How to Choose Which Microsoft Office Version to Use | Time to Replace a Server? Consider the Cloud
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Eventually this can lead to a significant amount of “overauditing.” Breaking this habit is difficult as every level of staff has been trained in the manual processes and falls back on them when deadlines approach.
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GROWTH STRATEGIES

Experience Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Does

Young businesswoman talking to her client and using tabletHow to increase lead generation, conversion and retention.

By Rob Nixon

Most accounting practices have a zero-based lead generation (or new inquiries) strategy, which means they do nothing. New clients just "appear," typically via referral.

MORE ON STRATEGY: Change Is On the Horizon | Do Your Clients Want More? | The Bizarre Habits of Accountants | 12 Traits of a Better You | How to Calculate a Value Price | Boost Efficiency and Your Bottom Line | 4 Sales Systems and Some Secret Sauce | Marketing Objectives Determine Marketing Amount | Rewards Go Far Beyond Money | What It Means to Be a Real-Time Accountant
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Nothing wrong with getting referrals from existing clients. In fact they are the best quality leads you can get – free and credible.
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THE SMALL FIRM AND SOLO PRACTICE

5 Ways to Get More Referrals

Woman pressing one of many faces on a gridDo your clients even know you WANT them to share your name?

By Sandi Leyva

The most popular way to get clients is from referrals or by word of mouth.

MORE SMALL FIRM GROWTH STRATEGIES: Measure Client Retention … Against Yourself | Turn to the ABCs for Client Feedback | Use Client ‘Touch Plans’ to Stay in Touch | Build Your Revenue Plan in Reverse | 5 Fast, Easy Ways to Turn Annual Clients into Year-Round Clients | Best Practices for Growth: Network, Specialize, Share | How to Handle Referrals – And How Not To
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A referral takes place when other clients refer you to their friends or a business associate passes your business card to a prospect, and the prospect calls you for more information. At the beginning of your career, you may get started with referrals from relatives, personal friends, previous employers or co-workers, or other entrepreneurs if you have been active in professional business groups.
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PRICING, FEES & BILLING RATES

Pricing Strategies: The Real World vs. The CPA World

Businessman and tablet with the word "pricing" above.7 types and how they work.

By August J. Aquila
Price It Right

Pricing in the real world is much different than in the accounting profession.

MORE: Marketing and the 5 P’s | How to Shift from Production to Marketing Orientation | How Traditional Fee Methods Hurt Firms | 6 Questions for Planning Your Succession | Underperformers Come in Many Shapes and Sizes | 6 Focuses for Managing Partners | 10 Steps to Transitioning to a New MP | What Managing Partners Should Be Doing
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Usually, wholesalers and retailers set their prices by using markups as the product moves through a distribution channel. Producers or manufacturers usually set a list price. Think of the manufacturer’s suggested list price on the window of a new car. Car dealers will use various methods to price the new vehicle.
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TECHNOLOGY

Will HEIF Kill JPEG?

Side-by-side comparison of HEIF and JPEG.Everything you need to know about the new image format.

By Rick Richardson

HEIF is the new photo format that Apple is using to replace JPEG. And it probably will replace JPEGs, because the iPhone is the most popular, most-used camera in the world, and as of iOS 11, most iPhones will be switching from JPEG to HEIF.

MORE TECH THIS WEEK: Predicting Flu Outbreaks Faster in the New Digital World | Will Self-Driving Cars Help Reduce Traffic Jams? | Box Uses WiFi to Detect Home Intruders | How Blockchain Makes Accounting Obsolete | 3 Big Data Career Opportunities | Overhyping IBM’s Watson Is Dangerous
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

But what is HEIF? What makes it better than JPEG? And what difference will it make?
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