Utilizing Interns Can Be An Excellent Strategy for Managing Accounting Websites

The most desirable initial contact with potential clients for just about all small firms are effective accounting websites. Above all else they should make an excellent impression about you. Even though a site prospects for you behind the scenes 24/7, it requires hard work to manage your website content so that it is always fresh. You want your clients to come across your firm in the search engines. This means your site should be ranked high enough that your practice is visible.

This takes a lot of diligence. One excellent method is to work with a student to help you with your online marketing. New webmasters and students are a strong labor pool. They generally welcome the opportunity to create web marketing programs. Here are some pointers to effectively bring a student into a practice to help create and manage marketing programs and CPA websites.

Fundamental Skills

You actually don't need an intern with a lot of accounting expertise for this position. Instead the most desirable candidates will already have some experience with online marketing. They need to be skilled in SEO (search engine optimization). They should also have SEM (search engine marketing) skills. It isn't an impossible task to improve your search engine results. However, it takes a lot of effort and you must be patient. Acconting firms must consistently generate fresh content to maintian convincing CPA websites. Examine writing samples, especially if any are written about financial management and accounting. You may need to spend some time teaching them your business, but unless you get really lucky and find a good writer that already knows about your business it's time well spent.

As a CPA, you understand the importance of a professional and dependable image for not only your prospects, but for your current clients as well. Although your intern is not in a client-facing role, their work will be a direct reflection of you and your firm. It is a good idea to review their work carefully. Because they will be representing you online, you want to make sure the quality of their work is sufficient.

Your intern needs only a basic set of math skills to be able to create and monitor performance metrics for your website. You want them to understand your marketing programs' effectiveness over time. For this, they only need an understanding of basic statistics and the use of spreadsheets.

Integrating your Intern

Even though the intern role may be a temporary one, it is a good idea to treat your intern as if they are a permanent employee. They will be directly working with your office staff, so it is important to consider their compatibility with the rest of your team. You want to be sure there is seamless communication between the intern and your staff, so that the site content they produce can properly reflect your firm's image.

Campaign Effectiveness

Your intern can provide valuable ideas for increasing the performance of your SEO and SEM programs. Keep in mind that it takes several months to see any kind of results. You'll find that dedicating an intern to the job will allow them to make significant contributions to a CPA website's quality and search position. Considering all your options is also a good idea. Your intern can contribute greatly to your firm's revenue stream.

After the first marketing programs run their course, you may want to continue to work with your student past the original scope of the project. The field of accounting is highly competitive. College interns and aspiring web developers can contribute greatly to your website's success.

Ken Marshall is a sales and marketing expert and original VP of CPASiteSolutions.com. His special area of expertise is marketing small firms by utilizing serious CPA websites. While using online social networking websites and Search Engines forms the basis of his practice he also stresses the importance of traditional network marketing and customer service in helping accounting firms grow their customer bases.