Your website must be the central hub for all your marketing activity. Whether you are using traditional direct mail, networking or digital marketing, you will always be driving prospects back to your website.
Unfortunately, professional service firms rarely utilise their website to achieve maximum ROI on their marketing.
Why? Because you don’t know what you don’t know.
What I mean by this is that firms are lead to believe that if you build it they will come. However, unlike when Noah built the ark, your vessel often has a lot of leaks in it.
The good news is that with a few tweaks, your “ark” can transport people from strangers to clients, and can stop leaking leads.
At TwentyTwo Agency we only need 2 clients a month who want to embark on a lead generation journey with us. To hit our monthly goals we only need those two extra clients.
This means that our goal isn’t about reaching the most number of accountants that we can, but in fact nurturing those leads and talking to every lead that comes on to our website. Each person/business is cared for and nurtured to ensure they have the information and help they need.
I first started running the Agency in 2009 (which was called KennedyPR before our rebrand). At the time it focused solely on copywriting and social media. Growth started slowly.
After wasting so much valuable time and a lot of money throwing mud and hoping some of it would stick, I realised I was leaking leads because we lacked 3 things:
1) An effective way to capture prospects details (lead magnet)
2) A way to follow up with people who were on the website (email nurturing)
3) Dynamic calls to action to the right person at the right time depending where they are in the marketing funnel
The chances are you too don’t need thousands more visitors to your website to build your client base. What you need is a process to convert your current visitors into leads and close them to become clients.
Let’s go through what this process should look like:
Step 1. Have a website that is created for lead generation not just a brochure website.
Most accounting firms that I see don’t have a website that is geared up for lead generation. Visitors that are coming from your offline marketing, social media and referrals are landing on your website, but cannot then take any action whilst they are browsing/researching/looking for testimonials, etc.
Most of the time accounting firms are not pro-actively moving website visitors along their customer journey. They are waiting around hoping that the website visitors will read some info, and then submit the “contact us” form without a reason other than the fact that they are ready to buy.
In one of our other articles Email Marketing To Get Up To 97% More Clients In Your Accounting Firm, you will be able to read why only 3% of people who are on your website are looking to buy right now.
If only 3% of the people on your website are thinking of engaging an accountant right now, then this in itself should motivate you to sort your website out.
One of the most effective ways to do this is to have multiple ways to capture email details. Overlays (or pop-ups) are the most effective, and can garner more than a 200% uplift in data capture when used well.
It’s a given that these overlays can be annoying, especially if it is completely out of context. On the other hand, if your overlay is well timed and something of value to your website visitor, then the chances are they will take action.
Overlays can be triggered to pop up immediately (annoying) after a few seconds (less annoying, and you must ensure that it is easy to close, especially on a mobile phone) or as your website visitor is exiting that page or your website (least annoying of all, in my view).
Presenting a relevant, useful offer to people as they are exiting your website can be a huge source of leads that you are currently missing out on.
Step 2. Provide Value.
A lot of accounting firms only have a boring “subscribe to my newsletter” button on their website. They don’t have a valuable offer.
There is no incentive for the website visitor to give up their valuable contact information. They certainly don’t want more emails in their inbox. 99% of the accountants that approach me for help and wanting more leads, fall into this box. They are adamant that they already have a way to get email addresses because people can sign up to their newsletter or information on their firm. Little do they realise this type of offer is fruitless in the pursuit of quality leads.
By having a targeted lead magnet, with a great proposition that is appealing to your website visitors, you can clearly communicate that you are providing value in return for an email address.
The key for success with this lead magnet is the word “targeted”. It needs to have high perceived value to the right people. Your lead magnet wants to filter out the tyre kickers and grab the attention of your ideal prospect.
Step 3 – Having Calls To Action
Do you remember the last time you were on a website and you wanted to buy something or hire someone and you couldn’t find a way to actually do it? Sometimes you land on a website and there isn’t a contact name, a contact form or even contact details.
Calls to action can make a website more effective by giving the website visitors a path to accomplishing their objectives.
As the website owner (the owner of the firm/services they are currently researching) it is your responsibility to make your website visitors life easy and convenient for them right from the start.
A call to action is a clear direction that you give to the visitor that they (or you) want them to take.
- Download this free report
- Book your free call here
- Sign up to our free resources
- View our accounting plans
Etc.
But not all website visitors are equal. Some are early stage leads, some are mid stage and some are late stage.
Early stage leads may be just discovering your accounting firm. Maybe it is their first time reading a blog which they found on google or social media. These leads are the leads you want to proactively offer a lead magnet to. This way you can follow up with them and nurture them along the customer journey with you.
Mid stage leads may have already engaged with your accounting firm, and have already downloaded your lead magnet. These leads will need to be easily able to book a meeting/call with you.
Late stage leads are ready to buy. They have already qualified themselves – downloaded a lead magnet, watched a webinar, come to one of your events, had a call with you, and now they want to buy. This is where an online brochure or details of your pricing should be available.
This method of syncing your website with your customers buying cycle will play an important factor in the success of converting your website visitors into clients.
Step 4 – Follow Up.
Now you have a website that captures the details of its visitors, you need a way to follow up with them and nurture them along their journey with you.
- If they download your free lead magnet you need to move them along their journey to come to an event or webinar you are having.
- If they have booked a call with you, you need to follow up on the call booking, and then nurture the lead after the call so they buy.
- If they download a pricing brochure you need to jump on a call with them to close them to become clients.
Your ability to follow up, and the speed in which you follow up, will directly affect your website success.
“71% of Internet leads are lost because companies don’t respond fast enough.”
– Dr. James Oldroyd at the Kellogg School of Management
Studies have shown that it takes an average of 11 touches before a potential customer takes a significant step towards making a purchase. Your accounting practice is no exception to this rule. By combining follow up with relevant content you will remain “front of mind” with your leads.
In conclusion, by leveraging your website in the right way, by having a way to capture details, by having the right calls to action for the right people, and by following up – you can increase engagement with potential clients and convert them from leads into buyers.
Let me ask you a question – how many new clients do you need a month to grow your accounting practice?
When you know this number you can then concentrate on attracting the right number of leads to your website and nurturing those leads to become clients.
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To download our ebook and get a list of 100 marketing ideas for your accounting practice click here for the 100 Ways To Market Your Accounting Firm
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What do we do at TwentyTwo?
At TwentyTwo Agency we specialise in helping you create a strategy, attract ideal prospects, convert them into clients and get remembered and referred. Our specialities include content marketing, blog writing, email newsletter management and social media management. We are a content marketing and digital experience agency for accounting firms. We ensure you get remembered, recommended and referred.
To find out if we can help you, reach out to our team by emailing [email protected]
