Your Tax Business Website Isn't an "Expense"

For though a righteous man may fall seven times, he rises again; but the foolish are brought down by calamity.
Proverbs 24:16
I met George Foreman yesterday.
I’m in Atlanta for a marketing conference, and big George was yesterday’s keynote speaker. I got to meet him briefly before his speech, shook his hand (from which, I’m happy to report, my hand survived), and chatted briefly.
Look–George is a boxer, so he wasn’t delivering on the technical aspects of what made him and his entrepreneurial ventures so successful (that kind of stuff he left for different speakers). No, instead he shared his rags to riches…to rags…to riches story for the sheer purpose of inspiring this collection of about 1,000 marketing entrepreneurs–and it was awesome.
As you might guess, he alluded to the theme of “getting off the mat” — and he’s seen his share of failures in life–having been broke and weighing 315 pounds in the early 80’s. Of course, he “got up” again…and re-claimed the world heavyweight title a few years later from a man 20 years his junior.
Gosh, I love that stuff.
So what does this have to do with your business?
Well … I bet you’ve had to “get off the mat” once or twice (or six) in your business. And often, that includes cutting some dead weight and starting fresh.
And chances are, your firm website–EXTREMELY critical in this Google age to “get right”–might just be carrying a bunch of that dead weight. I wrote last week about the only real purpose of your website being to start a relationship with prospects. And many tax professionals may *think* that their website is doing just that.
“My website *looks* impressive, and if they want more information–they’ll call!”
You might think that’s the case…but it’s wrong.
So, I expand on what I mean in this week’s Strategy Note, and reval some insider strategies for making sure that you CAN build that relationship–and not just rely on your prospects taking the initiative.
Let me know your thoughts…
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Nate Hagerty’s
“Profit For Life”
Tax & Accounting Business Marketing Strategy
Firm Website Essentials–Part 2
Most tax & accounting business websites are automatically-generated by those “cheap”, commodity-style “solutions”–and seem to rely on the dubious premise of looking nice.
And some do–look nice, that is. The problem is that most of them look the same. And they’ve got much of the same content.
Listings and descriptions of services, stuffy bios and the same articles as other websites.
So tell me this: how is an interested prospect going to decide on who they’ll trust with their most intimate financial details–when they all look the same?
Well, it starts, of course, with NOT looking the same. But a more critical component is actually giving your prospect something they want–and then building a relationship over time.
“But I’ve got a monthly email newsletter! They can get that to see what we’re all about!”
What makes you think that your prospect *wants* to clutter their inbox with just another boring newsletter–especially when it too is the same as everyone else’s?
The answer is that you need a “lead generation magnet.” This is something that has value to your prospect–that entices them to not only visit your website, but to give you their name, email address and other contact information once they get there.
The lead generation magnet could be a free e- book, report, mp3, mini-email course, online video, etc. And there are two keys to making your lead generation magnet successful:
1. It should be something that your target market wants and has value to them.
2. It should have real value–while also providing a low-pressure way to take some next steps (like call your office, come in to meet with you, etc.).
Then, once you’ve delivered the goods, you get permission to build a weekly (which is essential–monthly doesn’t cut it) relationship with this website visitor over time–and harvest them as a client when THEY’RE ready.
Putting this mechanism in place (and systemizing it) will go a long way towards turning your website into a leads-producing machine…and transforming it from an “expense”–to an investment.
If it’s not doing that, it might be time to cut some of that dead weight–and get off the mat.