CHAPTER 3

Your New Front Door: Your Website

It used to be that clients learned about your firm by visiting your office, so having a professional-looking space was important. Today hundreds if not thousands more people will visit your website. However, many firms aren’t making a good impression on these potential clients.

THE NEW FRONT DOOR

Many years ago, I needed the services of a business attorney. This was a serious matter for me; I was having a dispute with a (now former) business partner, and the financial stakes were relatively high. At the time, I had never hired legal counsel and didn’t know what to expect, but I asked for recommendations and was referred to a gentleman we’ll call Mr. Smith.

When I went to his office for an initial meeting to see if he was right for the job, the first thing I noticed was the lingering scent of stale cigarette smoke. I waited awkwardly in the lobby until a rather unfriendly and unkempt intern appeared, telling me brusquely to sit down and wait. Having done so, I then amused myself in an ancient dusty chair by perusing an assortment of news magazines... published many years earlier. The fun of nostalgic reminiscence in these antiquated articles had worn off long before Mr. Smith finally appeared 30 minutes later. He came shuffling into the waiting room, rumpled and dirty, wearing ragged clothing and smoking a cigarette, which he used to gesture me into his office. I was not encouraged.

Needless to say, I didn’t hire Mr. Smith. I later learned that I probably should have because it seems he’s an amazing litigator with an incredible record of success. But the impression he made was not one that instilled even a shred of confidence in me; because of that, I had to move on. He could obviously have had a client list a mile long given his skill and success rate. But even if you’re the best in the business, your appeal to clients is minimal if you can’t drive traffic to your door and then make a positive impression with what they see when they get there.

Accounting marketing may have gotten a slow start, but in today’s client-driven business climate, almost everyone agrees that effective marketing is an important key to success, like it or not. So you market. Choosing from among the plentiful options like print, radio, e-books, video, billboards, direct mail, social media, and all the other channels you have at your disposal, you expend limited firm resources and energy in an effort to get your name and reputation in front of potential clients. All with the goal of... what? Driving traffic to your door, of course!

These days, many professionals don’t even have outside offices any more, working out of homes or shared spaces to save on overhead. Coffee shops, co-working spaces, and other public or semi-public spots suffice when it’s time to meet with clients; often there isn’t even an actual front door left with which to make that great first impression. But that’s not quite accurate. The very phrase “driving traffic to your door” illustrates just how important your website is because your firm’s website is your new front door.

Today that all-important front door to your business is a virtual one, even if you have a brick and mortar office. And one of your very first orders of business if you want to make a good impression on current and potential clients is to ensure that your digital front door is welcoming and attractive, without a hint of Mr. Smith’s office of doom.

Lacking such a site, all your other efforts to market your firm will be unable to deliver the business you want and need. After you’ve created that beckoning site, however, every additional marketing strategy you employ will work to feed your firm’s greater success.

That’s because the final stop before a buying decision is the company website, nearly every time. Whether a site visit is the first and only step on a quest for a new service provider or whether it comes at the end of extensive research to find reviews and recommendations, if the brand is familiar or not, potential clients will come to your site from every direction. It is the Grand Central Station of your entire marketing strategy. Consider these scenarios:

• If your emphasis is on social media, you’ll be striving for good relations with current and potential clients who will turn to your website to find the information they need before pursuing new or additional services.

• If you opt for push techniques like billboard space, radio time, or direct mail, you’ll gain significant brand exposure, which will send potential clients flocking to your website to read more and check for a good fit prior to reaching out in person.

• If you prefer to rely on extremely satisfied clients to create word-of-mouth referrals and online reviews that bring new work, letting your outstanding skill, value, and customer service speak for themselves, those referred will head to your website to learn more about the fabulous firm with the stellar reputation.

• Even if your firm is simply one of many in the area that turn up in a Google search for “accounting firms,” you’ll be well served by a good website that communicates what your firm can do for this potential client and what differentiates you and makes you the perfect choice.

There is no way around it. Your website gives everyone who is interested in your firm the information on which they make the decision: Do I want to make an appointment with this firm? It answers the basic questions about what services you provide and for whom. Your website also conveys the more subtle details about the firm’s style and creates the subjective impression on which decisions tend to rely, all other things being equal.

Do you still doubt the importance of your website because most of your business comes from word-of-mouth referrals? That may not be the case for long. “According to the Attorney Selection Research Study by The Research Intelligence Group (TRiG), 76 percent of consumers in the United States who sought an attorney in the past year used online resources at some point in their selection process, as compared to 73 percent of consumers who turned to friends and family for assistance at some point during the process. This is the first known time a study of this nature has found that online resources are on par with personal referrals for how consumers find attorneys.”¹ As the attorneys go, so go the accountants, right? I bet a similar study of the CPA profession would yield similar results.

Some firms try to use a social media presence, such as an active Facebook page, in lieu of an actual website. Although this is an attractive idea for smaller firms with tight budgets and schedules, it’s not a productive choice. Social media is an important part of any company’s web presence, but it is best used to flag down and interact with clients, potential and current, while serving as a pointer to the official website. Social media is fun and dynamic, but the very fluidity that is its strength also lends an ephemeral nature that severely limits its use as your firm’s main digital home. The sheer nature of social media encourages others to add their two cents to your pages, diluting your message and limiting the control you have over its focus. Your various social media pages can be compared to brightly colored tents in the sand: beckoning, promising a good time to partygoers who seek them out or stumble upon them, but always moveable. Your website, on the other hand, is your online castle; it’s meant to last. Built on solid ground and added to or remodeled over the years as you see fit, this is the firm’s home base for countless generations. It lends a sense of permanence in an impermanent world, and it is where the people who have found your firm through any means will turn for confirmation of their early impressions.

Explore your own experience. When you meet new contacts in a professional context, what’s the first thing you do when you get back to your computer? You go to their website to learn more about them. When a friend recommends a new service provider to you, where’s the first place you go to check out the details? Their website, of course. When you hear about an intriguing place or product, what do you do next? If you’re like most people today, you go straight to the web in hopes of finding its site for more information. Even if you first learned about the subject through social media or an online reference or review, you’ll go to the real source of information—the company website—to get a complete picture.

Conducting basic reconnaissance and due diligence via a business’s website has become standard operating procedure, and people develop strong impressions based on what they see. It is critically important to your success that you leave all these prospects with a positive feeling about you and your services and products by making that website an information-rich interactive place that’s well designed and welcoming. In the following sections, I’ll discuss strategies to help you create this type of site for your accounting firm.

LET YOUR FREAK FLAG FLY

You should be convinced that you need a website by now, and I’d be willing to bet that most of you have one already. But just any old site simply will not do in this day and age. Websites have evolved rapidly over the years; gone are the days of taking your print brochure and just tossing it up online.

Admit it. That’s probably exactly what your first website was: a simple replication of a print brochure. That’s what nearly all websites were in the early days. In fact, quite a few firms still go this route. Others go with a template site that allows for little differentiation. Do a bit of searching, and it won’t take long for you to find a firm that has nearly the same look, feel, and even content as one you saw earlier. On one level, we understand the appeal of taking this approach because it’s certainly easier and a lot quicker than creating your own site. But an “Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent” approach isn’t good for your brand. It not only makes you seem like a “me too” kind of firm, but it also adds to the commoditization of the industry.

Which brings me to my mantra: “What makes you different?” I’d be willing to bet every one of our clients has been asked this question at one time or another. If you’ve ever heard me speak at a conference, I’m sure it came up at least once or twice. It’s even on the cover of our firm’s brochure.

The reason for this level of focus is that identifying and embracing your differentiators is vitally important if you want to stand out from all the other firms in the industry. How many times have you heard firms tout that fact that they provide great services by hiring great people to serve great clients? So you think you are great and that fact alone is supposed to convince me to hire you over all the other firms that also think they are great? I can’t measure great, and I can’t even value it in real terms, so the claim becomes virtually meaningless. After all, no firm is going to go to market claiming, “We offer the same services as our competition, hire average people, and work for mediocre clients” when in fact, that is probably true more often than some of us would like to admit.

I can hang my hat on “different” though, and so can you. Do you have special expertise in a handful of industries? Do your people have education and designations that others don’t? Has your industry segment leader worked directly for the industry she now serves? Are your clients likely to find you in jeans rather than a suit when they come to your office? Does one of your partners have a leadership role in the industry or advise the IRS or AICPA? (See figure 2-1 for a guide to help you determine your firm’s differentiators.)

You get the idea. Different is measurable and makes your firm stand out from the rest. It doesn’t necessarily make your firm any better than your competition, but if you can clearly define your differentiators and position your firm as an expert in a particular area, you will attract new clients. So the logical conclusion here is that if people are going to your site to learn more about you and your firm, you want to make sure they walk away with a clear understanding of what makes you different and the best choice for them. If they go to your site and see nearly the same stuff as they do everywhere else, they may still reach out to you, but the likelihood of it diminishes. It will also drive them to make a decision based on price rather than value. By articulating precisely what sets you apart from the rest of their options, you are offering them a good reason to choose your firm over all the rest.

THE BUILDING BLOCKS

Not all sites are the same, nor should they be. (Differentiation strengthens your position, remember?) However, there are some common elements that tend to show up on most accounting firm sites. A few of them are listed in the following sections, but keep in mind there are no hard-and-fast rules.

Home

Every site has a home page. It’s where you go first to find what you want. In the case of accounting firm sites, this is where you establish who you are so visitors can decide within a few seconds if they are in the right place. If they can’t find what they need or are turned off or confused by what they see, they will go elsewhere. Today, no one lingers on a site if they can’t find what they are looking for. There are tons of options, and time is too valuable to waste on a bad website, so make sure you clearly state what you do, provide clear navigation to the rest of your content, include photos or illustrations that are appealing and representative of your firm, and brand it to look like the rest of your firm’s materials.

Services

This might seem obvious, but make sure you list explicitly what you do on your website. There was a trend for a while that I still see quite often of simply saying that your firm offers “business advisory” services rather than using terms like “accounting,” “tax,” “audit,” “bookkeeping,” and the like. The main idea behind this was to expand the role the CPA played for clients and not limit the possibilities to what the average person “thinks” an accountant does. The services you provide are so much more expansive than mere tax assistance, so why shouldn’t you label them something all-encompassing like “business advice” or “business consulting?” The problem with that is that someone who is looking for an accountant is never going to search online for a “business advisory consultant.” The term is too broad and ambiguous. I encourage firms to expand beyond simple tax and audit services, but make sure you don’t lose sight of the big picture. Describe what you do, for whom, and how you stand out from the rest, too.

Industries

If there are particular industries where you have special expertise or where you thrive, make sure you include that information on your site. Many firms are afraid to do this for fear of turning off potential clients that may not be in the listed industries. That that can happen, but most of the time you get even more new clients who are thrilled to find someone who understands their business and industry and can offer special advice and direction to them. A good web designer and writer can help your firm communicate that although you have special expertise in a few industries, you perform outstanding work for others as well. The benefits to be gained by calling out your industry expertise far outweigh the downside in the vast majority of cases.

Profiles

This is one of my favorite sections, and I am not alone. In fact, outside of the home page, partner and employee profile pages are the most visited on any professional services firm site. You can pretty much bank on potential clients going here to learn more about you, so give them something interesting to read. No matter how boring you think you are, everyone has something unique and fun to share in a bio.

Typically readers want to start out by reading about your current role and what makes you particularly valuable in that position. Then you can go into past experience, awards, professional memberships, and volunteer activities. Most people like to include a bit about their education and even go back to their childhood a bit. It allows readers to see how you got where you are today and gives them a bit of confidence in your ability to help them. But don’t stop there! Here’s where it starts to get really interesting. Share some personal information as well. Not “I like to drink alone in my underwear and watch a lot of reality TV” personal, but “I’m crazy about home-brewing and love coaching Little League for my grandson’s team” personal. Do you love sewing and zombie movies? Perfect! Do you have family you’re close to or a black belt in karate that you’re proud of? What is it you prefer to do when you don’t have to work? Do you still thank your lucky stars you got fired from that college job as a telemarketer, or did it help you discover what you really wanted to do? Have you always resented the color orange, hated spiders with an irrational passion, or dreamed about becoming an astronaut for your next career? This is what makes you you, and it makes your bio interesting to read. It also shows you are a human being, and everyone prefers working with humans they can relate to rather than generic “service providers” if given a choice. Besides, it’s only polite to volunteer information like this to those whom you’ll be asking for very personal details about their own lives.

Contact

Don’t overlook the fact that many times people are simply going to your site to find your address to mail a package or enter it into their GPS so they know how to find your office. Make it easy for people to locate your contact information and consider including it discreetly on every page. Allow visitors to click on a map and enter their own address to get directions to your office. Include a phone number, email address, and even a form for them to fill out if they prefer that method. While you are at it, make it easy to reach out to your partners and staff as well. You take the risk of getting some spam, but don’t you want all those potential clients that you are driving to your site to be able to reach out to you in the manner they prefer? Take advantage of spam control mechanisms like CAPTCHAs² to cut down on the clutter, but always err on the side of making it easier rather than harder to contact you and your team.

News and Articles

Including a section like this can be a great way for you to showcase the news coverage your firm receives and share press releases as they are distributed. Not to be confused with a blog (which we’ll discuss later), this section is typically populated with news about your firm (and potentially the industry) as opposed to articles created by your firm. Here’s the challenge: it needs to be kept fresh and up to date. An out-of-date website where the latest news item dates from three years ago reflects poorly on you and your firm. Even six months makes your site look a bit dated. So consider how much news is written about your firm and how many releases you put out on a regular basis. If you have an active public relations initiative, go for it. Otherwise, step carefully and consider other ways of distributing this information.

Resources

I’m seeing this less and less, but this page still crops up, particularly on template sites. The original idea was to make your firm’s site a true “information hub” for visitors. Although the idea isn’t a bad one, it is just not likely to happen. If your clients want to go to the IRS site, they are going to Google it as opposed to going to your site, clicking on Resources, and then clicking on your link to the IRS. It doesn’t hurt to have good information and links to commonly needed sites on your page, but we typically don’t recommend that you pay a lot of money for this opportunity. Features like calculators, which are fairly common on older sites, are going out of vogue for the same reason. Even those of us in the industry are more likely to do an Internet search for a mortgage calculator than go to a link on our firm’s site, and we know it’s there. Again, it’s not bad to have links and forms for your visitors to use, just don’t expect a ton of traffic to this section.

Other

We are just scratching the surface here; the options for your site are endless. Recently, we are seeing sites take great advantage of things like client portals and campaign-specific landing pages. Regularly adding new case studies that illustrate your work with individual clients by telling a story is an excellent way to update your firm’s online presence. Some sites even offer an option to instant message with an expert. Think about the types of information your clients want to see, and if you aren’t sure what those are, ask the clients. You will be surprised how much you can learn by a quick conversation with a handful of clients.

TIPS TO TURBO CHARGE YOUR WEBSITE

You have decided what you need and have figured out the pages you want to include on your new site. I’ve found that getting this on paper helps ensure a smoother process.

Create a Site Map

The first step in the website process is to create a site map. Don’t make this exercise overly complicated; most site maps can be built easily using common programs like PowerPoint or even Word or Excel. It simply needs to show the pages that your site will contain and how they will be organized once they are built. I recommend that you include a brief explanation of what each page will contain as well, either below the map or on a separate page. This gives you a visual of the site that you can share with partners, marketing services providers, and other interested parties.

Figure 3-1 provides an example of a fairly simple site map for reference.

What’s next? The following paragraphs are a few rules and even more tips to help you get the most from your efforts.

Figure 3-1: Sample Site Map

Update Regularly

Back in the day when you flung your printed brochure up online, most firms went months and even years without making a single update to their sites. Personnel changes were usually the only reason edits were made, and those had to be done by whomever it was that built the site in the first place. Those days have gone the way of crimped hair and Beanie Babies. Today it’s important to update your site regularly to give visitors a reason to come back. It also impacts your search engine placement because new information is one of the things that pushes sites higher in rankings. Finally, it’s expected. Whether it’s your social media feeds, the latest blog post, or simply adding a few of the latest tax tips, regular updates to your site will lead to more traffic and longer visits. See exhibit 3-1 for a list of questions and common updates.

Maintain Some Control

The previous section leads directly to this important point: insist that your site be built in a way that allows you or someone at your firm to make updates to it easily. Back in the day, sites were all built in HTML, which was difficult at best for the layperson to use. Now there are many options for content management systems (CMS) and nearly no reason to use pure HTML anymore. A CMS is an online program that allows multiple users the ability to add, edit, delete, and update website content from a central interface. In most cases, you can log-in to the “back-end” of the site and make changes relatively easily and make them live in one click. I’m a firm believer that someone inside the firm should be able to make updates to the content of the site without calling an outside expert to help. It takes very little training to learn how to use Wordpress, Joomla, or other similar systems, and the money you can save is substantial. You will likely want to go back to your site developer when you need to add entirely new sections or update the overall design of the site, but simple content updates can be handled easily in house by most firms, assuming your website relies on the right platform. Therefore, it is important to mention that you want this flexibility when hiring a marketing firm to create your site. And if they say it’s not possible, it’s time to move on and find a different firm that will build the site you want.

Write Dynamic Content

Writing for the web is quite different than writing for other mediums, and it has evolved over the years. Think about how you “read” a website. If you are like most people, you have a tendency to read the headlines then scan the copy for the information you want. It’s pretty rare that people actually read a website like they would a book or even a brochure. Keeping this in mind, it is important to make sure you write using subheads, callouts, and bullets to break the content up and give visitors a way to quickly find what they are looking for on the page. Content should be active, not passive, and written with a confident air. Saying things like “we believe that...” and “we think you should...” makes the reader think you aren’t sure about what you are saying. Remember, the people visiting your site are looking for someone to help them with something they likely don’t fully understand. Softening your language doesn’t do you any favors and can make the reader question how well you know your stuff.

Another thing to consider is who should write your site’s content. In most cases, the CPAs in your firm aren’t the best choice, as much as we hate to say it. Although they may be great writers in their field, the type of writing an accountant does on a regular basis in no way resembles the copy that should reside on your website. It is certainly important to get their input and advice as the copy is being developed, but their time is typically better spent on billable client work than on trying to craft compelling web copy. We recommend hiring a writer who understands how to write for the web and also understands your industry. This may cost a bit more up front, but ultimately it will take much less time and require fewer rounds of edits.

A common trap that many accounting firms fall into is making the content all about the firm. “But it’s our website!” you might respond? Yes, and of course you need to talk about what you do and those you serve. But the more you can phrase your communications from the reader’s perspective, and the more specifically, the more powerful your message will be and the longer your visitors will stay on your site. For example, compare these sentences: “We provide tax services for the manufacturing industry,” versus “Manufacturers depend on us to reduce their tax burden and help them take advantage of available tax credits.” The basic information is the same, but the second sentence starts with the industry you are talking about and goes into more detail about how a manufacturer might benefit from the services you offer. The second sentence paints a vivid picture of value and offers a more powerful impetus for the reader to learn more. Do your best to avoid just touting your accomplishments and bragging about your awards. Focus on potential clients, and give them content that they can relate to and that allows them to picture themselves working with you.

Finally, and I can’t stress this enough, hire a proofreader! Even the best writers in the world make errors and overlook blatant mistakes. Always insist on having someone who has not been involved in writing the copy check it for mistakes and also for flow and clarity. People make judgments about your intelligence and attention to detail, fair or not, based on how many typos and mistakes they find on your site. Don’t give them a silly excuse to go to your competitor. The time and money spent on having your site proofread will pay off in spades.

Keep Navigation Simple

Have you ever been to a site where you can’t immediately find the navigation? Or have you seen one where the navigation is written to come across as clever rather than directional? How long did you stay before finding another option? Your site’s navigation should always be easy to identify and clearly indicate what visitors are going to find when they click on each button. You don’t have to use the same terms as every other site out there, but stick with obvious words or phrases. I’ve seen some sites start to get a bit too slick with their design, opting for unidentified colorful buttons for navigation where the location doesn’t show up until you hover over the dot. Don’t go there! Make it easy to maneuver through your site, and visitors will appreciate it. A visitor who feels competent and successful is far more likely to follow up with personal contact than one who becomes frustrated and feels inadequate even to cope with the website.

Don’t fall into the trap of trying to make every page of your site available with one click and cluttering your site with too many navigation options. Take advantage of features like dropdown menus and roll-over hyperlinks that change color to indicate a link. Also make sure that your navigation stays in the same place on every page of your site. If you have a bar at the top of the page, keep that same bar throughout all pages on your site. Don’t make visitors search for your navigation each time they want to see a new page. You will quickly frustrate them and force them to move on to a competitor’s site.

Please the Eye

Content may be king, but your site’s design is certainly an equally powerful queen. Remember what we said earlier: people are making judgments about your firm, its professionalism, and its culture based on the look and feel of your site. Is your firm more of a buttoned-up, navy blue suit type? If so, it should communicate that and look somewhat formal and professional. Do you have a more casual atmosphere and a strong commitment to your local community? Those who visit your site should get that impression.

Ensuring consistent branding among your office environment, printed materials, website, social media, and even the way you greet and treat clients is important. You want anyone who visits your site to realize at a glance that it is YOUR site. It should capture your culture and even feel familiar to those who know your firm.

Which brings me to stock photography. We use stock photography quite often but are very persnickety about the images we choose. Stock images can be useful when used appropriately and in moderation, but most people would much rather see photos of your real employees than a group of perfectly diverse 20-something models shaking hands and pointing to random objects off frame. Although your real people may not be quite as pretty as those stock models, you can be sure they won’t show up on other sites either. I recently visited two competing firms’ sites and saw exactly the same photo on their About pages. Talk about failing at differentiation! Stock photos can help you visually communicate a message in a beautiful way, but use them sparingly. You may also want to visit a number of stock sites to find the types of images that would be the best fit for your firm’s brand.

Stock photography is a lot like shoes: you can get amazing quality and style, but you’ll pay more for it. You can get comfort and simplicity for less money, and you can get what everyone else is wearing for next to nothing. Here are my thoughts on selecting a stock photography provider:

You may pay more for each image with providers like Getty and Corbis, but it is well worth it to have an image that isn’t likely also to show up on a billboard for potato chips, an ad for erectile dysfunction medication, and your competitor’s brochure.

Be Mobile Friendly

More and more people are getting their information on the go. Just look around any restaurant or bus stop and you’ll see a very large percentage of people glued to their smart phones. And admit it: you’ve been guilty of doing the “blackberry prayer” during a meeting or two. Because of this, it’s important that your site be mobile friendly. If during the course of a business lunch someone refers others to your site, and they decide to bring it up right then and there, will they be able to easily navigate on even the smallest of touch screens? Your website should be developed in such a way that it can adapt to the different types of mobile devices in common use. Typically, when people are searching on a smart phone, they’re looking for an email, phone number, or street address. These should be easily accessible from the very first screen. If you’re not sure how your site appears to the average mobile user, try pulling up the site on your own device or testing your URL on a site like www.mobiletest.me to get a better idea of how people see your site when they are on the move.

As you can see, there are quite a few pieces involved in building a website. But that’s how it should be. Your services aren’t overly simplistic and mundane. They’re multifaceted and dynamic, and your website should express that. By creating a website that speaks to your culture and differentiators, you set yourself apart from the competition by showing that you are more than just any old CPA firm. See the following checklist for a summary of this chapter’s main points about website building.

¹ “New Study Finds Behavioral Shift in How Consumers Find Attorneys,” by Amy Koyar, September 25, 2012, LexisNexis/Martindale-Hubbell Law Firm Marketing Solutions. www.lexisnexis.com/community/portal/blogs/kovarat/archive/2012/09/25/new-study-finds-behavioral-shift-in-how-consumers-find-attorneys.aspx

² CAPTCHA is an abbreviation for Completely Automated Public Turing test, and it challenges users to prove that they are human and not automated bots of some type. Most of you will know this device as the annoying combination of blurry letters and numbers that you must fill out at the bottom of many online forms.