On October 30th, I again presented to the National Conference of CPA Practitioners (NCCPAP Long Island). I gave an overview of our Practice Marketing Cheatsheet™ - upon which many of my AICPA column articles were based. Click here for a voiceOver video of my 30-minute seminar. Email me for the PDF shown in the video, [...]
If you are in professional services and you want to grow your business, you simply must embrace social media – specifically LinkedIn. For example, a client of ours who only recently opened a LinkedIn account: Has made more than 1,000 connections; Is a member of 50 groups (LinkedIn’s maximum); Gets dozens of comments on every [...]
Bling out your articles with what I call “blog jewelry.” Like jewelry, too much “blog bling” can distract & be gaudy. Used well, blog bling makes your articles: more attractive & eye-catchy accentuates points more social media friendly can be coded to boost SEO (ask me how) encourages comments, fwds, & shares. A monotonous, long-winded [...]
I just heard from a longtime client-turned-friend that a speaker she heard was espousing the importance of spending 80% of our marketing time on personal connections – networking, public speaking and face-to-face meetings – and only 20% on social media. Even though I run a company heavily immersed in social media, I don’t think the [...]
Your SEO marketing efforts may be going to waste. Before you fall for those “We’ll get you to the top of Google” schemes, read this: Do you keep your Gmail open all day? What about all those who use YouTube, Google Drive or login with their Google Account in some way? They are in Google’s [...]
Aside from a related LinkedIn lawsuit, the #1 apprehension I hear to uploading contacts into LinkedIn is the fear that their colleagues will get spammed by other members. I squash that concern by showing them the mechanisms that prevent mass blasting. I further explain that we’re all spammed everyday; we only choose to work with [...]
I, like many of you, am often in email purgatory. My inbox “overflowith” with staff questions & updates, client requests & questions, personal email, industry news, social media requests & updates, junk mail, etc, etc. And mixed in with this daily storm of emails are the occasional inquiries from referrals, or our website. I must [...]
Blogging can brand you an expert. Moreover, your blog can also help you leverage the reputation & recognition of others. By co-blogging, you can leverage each other’s time, topics & traffic. Here are 3 models, 2 examples each, of how bloggers are exchanging content & contacts: 1) Cooperative Bloggers, like Healthcare in Compliance or The [...]
When your name is given or dropped, the party or person receiving the referral is going to look you up online. What are they going to find when they do? How findable are you? Are you Googlable? And while they are searching for you, they will also find your competitors. So how can you ensure [...]
Since word of mouth marketing is king in professional service industries, we recognize that professional services are built on the magic triad of: Know Like Trust People need to know, like, and trust you before they are going to do business with you. It’s not so much about business to business marketing, as much as [...]
Here’s how to distinguish yourself – to meet new referral sources, clients, and friends. The vast majority of LinkedIn users don’t participate in Groups; but this is where the relationships blossom. I have many complaints about LinkedIn, many of which center around its latest redesign. Nevertheless, one of my favorite aspects of LinkedIn is its Groups. [...]
One of the most frustrating aspects of blogging is thinking of new ideas. So, we’ve improved on the Blog Brainstormer that we’ve been using for so long. Originally, we used my AICPA ‘CPA Insider’ newsletter column. But we now have more blog post ideas; and more ways to come up with more article ideas. So I’d [...]
Does your personality match the tone of your blog? Maybe that’s not a good thing! We don’t all have personalities that POP. And even if you do – here’s how you can make your blog – in the immortal words of Cosmo Kramer – “more you than you’ve ever been.” Previously, I’ve written about the [...]
Done well, seminars and blogs brand you as the expert, and directly lead to new business, new word-of-mouth referrals, and more speaking engagements. Done poorly, it can be a waste of your time and money. Well, not a total waste: At least you’re getting your name out there. But will they remember it? Will they [...]
On Feb 5th, 2013, the Academy of Professional Family Mediators (APFM) had us back to present more marketing insights. Mark Bullock keynoted at their inaugural conference in Cape Cod in 2012. Now, in the first of a series of 4 webinars, Mark asked me (Vik Rajan) a series of questions about "physical networking." Here's a [...]
The word 'newsletter' is charged with many preconceptions: Highly-designed (hopefully, "well-designed") templates, graphical & "boxy" as my partner, Mark puts it, i.e., with tables and sections, creatively arranged, with sidebars, call-outs, icons, and other buttons. But does all this help with results? E.g., open rates, click-through rates, and forwards? The numbers cause concern & debate. [...]
I don't know who first coined the phrase, "Content is King," but it is quite bandied about in blogging circles. Perhaps it's the Internet's version of "Publish or Perish." Publishing regular content is vital for the health of your website SEO (all hints of Google's secret sauce algorithm point to fresh, relevant content). Publishing interesting [...]
Mark and I started phoneBlogger.net to help our clients establish themselves as Branded Experts™ and to grow their Internet-based referrals. This column, published on AICPA’s cpa2biz.com on March 19, 2012, explores the concept of how CPA’s can establish themselves as “the best.” Accountants find themselves in humbling positions where they don’t want to necessarily brag [...]
The Editor of AICPA’s “CPA Insider,” Sukanya Mitra, originally asked me to write a column in response to Pinterest’s rapid growth. I retorted with an explanation of the demographic that Pinterest addresses: It is not that congruent with a professional journal or publication, specifically for CPA’s. You can read my full explanation in the column. [...]
A client recently expressed disappointment in a poorly attended networking event with a self promoting organizer. His feeling was that it had been a total waste of his time. I remember attending an event where the self-important organizer/speaker droned on and on – I didn’t want to sit there listening to him “waste my time”. [...]
