It’s likely that you’ve heard you need to take your business online, or you’re going to have trouble finding new customers. Several studies have shown that over the last few years more people are starting to search online before they decide to work with a company. If you don’t have an online presence, you’re not taking advantage of your marketing budget. However, you need to make sure that your online presence makes sense with your accounting business.
Keep it Professional
There are a lot of websites out there. You want to make sure that you stand out. However, one of the worst things you could do is make your landing page or website look silly or unprofessional. As an accountant, your customers want to make sure that you are steady, stable, and able to work with them the way they want. One of the quickest and easiest ways to do this is to keep your site professional. Blinking text, extremely bright colors, and silly images may sound like a great idea, until they’re put on the page.
Edit and Proofread
Make sure that you take the time, and in some cases the extra expense, to ensure the wording on your website is right. Having someone else take a look at your text is a great option, as this gives you an outside perspective. There may be some phrasing that simply doesn’t work well, or you may have spelled some words wrong. Either way, if you want to improve the response to your website, make sure that the text reads well and isn’t full of errors.
Local or More
As a business owner, you need to make sure to decide where your target market is located. Are you targeting customers in your city? If so, you can add keywords into your text and meta information, that will help distinguish where you’re looking for customers. On the other hand, if you’re marketing toward the entire country, you should also use wording that indicates this.
Use Images
As you’re building your webpage, you don’t want to make the mistake of boring your customers. One of the easiest ways to keep them interested is to include images on the page. If your site is just text, you’re going to have a difficult time engaging your customers. However, with proper images, you’re able to give your customers a visual break that keeps them on the page.
Sell Yourself
Give your customers a reason to contact you. Are you the best accountant in the city? If so, tell your customers why. Do you offer specific products or features that others don’t? The more information you can give to potential customers that will work to intrigue them, the better off you will be. Don’t get too salesy on your homepage, but make sure that you offer something great to your customers on every page.
Keep an Eye on Reputation
Do a search on your company every once in a while. This will allow you to see if others are talking about your business elsewhere. You will be able to find reviews, complaints, and more. As you’re looking at the different information you find out there, make sure to respond to customers. Good responses allow you to foster great customer service, while no response shows customers that you don’t really care about their input or problems.
Resources:
http://biz.yelp.com/blog/survey-85-of-consumers-use-the-internet-to-find-local-businesses