Let’s face it, your website probably sucks.
Ok, so I am making a generalisation here but one based on the simple truth that 99.9% of the websites representing Professional Services Firms are communicating the wrong things in the wrong ways and are focused on achieving the wrong goal.
More than 98% of the visitors to your site will go to the ‘About Us’ tab their very first click. You know this because it’s what YOU do every time you visit someone else’s site.
After about 3-7 seconds of you scanning across the same old blah blah blah you click away, just like everyone else.
You are in a ‘trust’ business, and the reason that people go to About Us is to find out about ‘the people’… and what do they get? The same old fake professionalism that says NOTHING about the people.
If you want your website to work then you need to understand its 3 purposes…
- To make it easy for your clients to refer you (and to find your contact details when they lose them)
- To make it easy for people who are curious about you to KNOW you
- To find a way to keep the relationship ongoing after people visit
What your website is not for…
- Getting lots of people to fill in lead capture forms or to book appointments
- To host heaps of technical information to prove how good you are at what you do
- To act as a professional resume and to be just as boring and impersonal as one
How to fix it?
Tell Stories
If you want to stand out, grow your referrals, have your clients proud of you and to have a website that actually creates trust, then all you have to do is to tell your stories and those of your clients.
Do it in the form of pictures and video. Don’t try and sell anything, just be human and show what kinds of people you are and what kind of clients you love working with.
Better yet, tell stories that don’t involve your business ‘what and how’ at all.
Watch your referrals grow, your word of mouth spread, and your sense of authenticity flourish.
Now for the technical parts…
Pixel Your Visitors
Days gone by, the goal was to get people to share their email address with you via an ‘opt-in’ so that you could continue the relationship building after they visited.
Now by simply installing a Google and Facebook code to your website, with just a few dollars you can share more of your stories with your visitors wherever they go on the web.
Forget SEO, forget paying for someone to create content, those things are by far the hardest ways to grow your business through digital channels.
Essentially you are paying money to someone to represent you, who isn’t you… and probably doesn’t really know that much about you. How do you think that is going to work out when you are in the trust business?
Yeah there is a little more detail to this and I am making it seem simple, but really it is if you just invest a little of your headspace.
I could have made a fortune selling web services to Advice firms, but the truth is I refuse to. I would much rather show you how to take control of your own digital presence… it’s not that hard… but it is so important.
In a connected world you need to invest in understanding the basics of just being in business, otherwise, you are at the mercy of snake oil sellers and your own misunderstanding.
Let me know if this subject interests you and if you would like me to cover more details in upcoming posts.
Baz
P.S. Don’t forget I’m on tour this month for our Brisbane, Sydney & Melbourne Roadshow. Join me there and I will challenge your thinking about Professional Services in a connected world.