Keep It Personable: Exploiting Your Accounting Website To Attract New Prospective Clients

Your accounting website is an outstanding means to impress customers and prospects

, but do you really understand how to make use of it? Let me share some fundamental marketing secrets with you.

The single biggest mistake most accountants and website designers make when designing their websites is failing to suitably determine what prospects are looking for in a CPA. As a result a lot of CPA websites read as fogyish and dry. In order to actually convert new clients you need to re-examine your premises and revisit the basic question, "What are potential customers honestly looking for?".

Easy as pie, right? Your prospects are looking for the best accountant for the best price.

That seems pretty self-evident, doesn't it?

Believe it or not that's wrong! That's what you'd think a prospect was looking for. Heck, that's even what the prospect thinks he's looking for, but that's not really what he's looking for.

The best way to get a prospect to pick up the phone and call you is to get him to LIKE you. Your site can be an invaluable tool for giving people a chance to get to know you BEFORE they have to pick up the phone and call you!

When writing copy for your website, keep this in mind...

Likability Matters

What's the point of convincing me how great you are if I'm too shy to call you afterwards?

The most important function of your website is to give your visitor a chance to feel like they know you.

Some Practical Design Tips for Your Website:

Include pictures

Add pictures of your staff and yourself. Don't be shy, here. We all hate cameras but your fear of cameras is costing you money! We're not adding the picture to show the prospect how pretty we are (that might just intimidate them, too). It's about making the prospect more comfortable, and having some idea who might pick up the phone will do that.

Be a Person

Hey... I'm a football fan. If you love football too, we've made a personal connection! What are your interests? Are your a dog person or a cat person? Do you play tennis? climbing? Surfing? Bicycling? Clubs Business organizations Religious organizations Charities you are involved with. These are the things that make a personal connection possible with a prospect. This is the real secret to getting your prospects over their fear of strangers and into your office.

Show Trust

Get personal. Show your prospect some trust on a personal level. Not only does this make it more likely that you will get an initial contact, it also improves your odds of landing a sale. It's just the way people think. Very few people make decisions intellectually. Most of us make our decisions emotionally, and then use our intellects to rationalize those decisions after-the-fact.

Don't be a Wise Guy

Nobody like a wise guy. Resist the temptation to make your content too smart. Don't write over the prospects head. Don't lecture or talk down to your visitor. If you're lucky you'll just bore your customer, but if you make your visitor feel frustrated, confused, or stupid you'll only aggravate the fear factor. Dumb it down a little for us normal folks. We really don't care about the details. If we understood what the heck you were talking about we wouldn't need you in the first place. We just want you to git-'er-done so we can back to running our lives and businesses.

Your CPA site is a marketing goldmine, but the more you know about using it correctly the more cash it will make. Take some time to individualize your website. You'll not regret it.

by: Brian O'Connell

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