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Biggest Mistakes Made By Accountancy Firms - Number 3 of 12

27th Sep 2013
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mistake-3
Mistake - 3 of 12

Misunderstanding what is expected & required online

There is significant confusion over what is expected of accountancy firms online and indeed expected or required by clients. The result is often a mess; small amounts of activity carried out with little or no joined up plan in place.

Important statistics

  • Over 70% of accountancy websites are out of date and contain little or no SEO
  • Most firms still don’t have an integrated blog, despite overwhelming evidence which supports their use
  • 50% of local searches are mobile, yet 95% of firms still don’t have a mobile site enabled
  • Many firms still insist on low quality template sites that do little for a firm’s growth
  • Hundreds of firms are launching their own Google and Apple Apps for good reason

Your online obligation

The key differentiator over the coming months will not be how quickly you handle tax returns, nor the quality of your partnership team, nor where or how nice your offices are. The key differentiator - the place where the battle will be won or lost – will be online.

Never before in the history of your practice has the need been so high for you to embrace digital marketing. In the UK accounting community there is presently a significant divide between the firms who ‘do’ digital and those who don’t. In our opinion the time to make a decision about your digital involvement is now. The choice is entirely yours: take advantage of it or be taken advantage of. Embrace it or get left behind.

The decision is made online

Few firms would accept anything but the highest standards offline, yet so many accept very poor standards online.

Here is our top 10 list of the most common online mistakes:

  1. Assuming what you have is OK or good
  2. A template website stuffed with ‘content’
  3. No measurement of performance
  4. Little or no Search Engine Optimisation
  5. Poor or distracting design
  6. Generic, unattractive copy
  7. No compelling reason to enquire
  8. Staff bios badly constructed
  9. No enquiry generation options
  10. No integrated blog

The one place everyone will go

Every potential client will visit your website before choosing to engage with you. Even your existing clients will be looking for online solutions to the accountancy challenges they face. The right website will help you generate quality visitors and new enquiries at a controllable rate. It will position your firm as ‘advanced’ and help you reach out to a new generation of wealthy, tech-savvy business owners.

These potential clients grew up with smartphones and know the difference between IE & Firefox, LinkedIn & Xing. They could blow your firm out of the water just by looking at your web page.

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Replies (7)

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Man of Kent
By Kent accountant
27th Sep 2013 15:00

Rubbish

"The key differentiator over the coming months will not be how quickly you handle tax returns, nor the quality of your partnership team, nor where or how nice your offices are. The key differentiator - the place where the battle will be won or lost – will be online."

The vast majority of clients want their accounts and tax returns filed on time and for their tax bills to be minimised - legally,

Plus all of my new clients are currently coming from referral not online.

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By andrew55
27th Sep 2013 15:21

Totally agree with Kent Accountant.

Would the writer like to confirm what percentage of the 50% of local mobile searches are for accountants? I'll eat my hat if it's more than a handful.

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By User deleted
27th Sep 2013 15:30

And what percentage ...

... is for accountnats? (Probably quite a few  :)  )

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Locutus of Borg
By Locutus
28th Sep 2013 21:39

The depressing thing is ...
... That we've got another 9 of these pearls of wisdom to go.

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By Moonbeam
29th Sep 2013 21:41

These blogs are not all we have to put up with

There are the spam emails from this charming firm as well.

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By MissAccounting
01st Oct 2013 14:04

Perhaps...they should be considering the damage this is doing to their own reputation writing crap like this on here as they are on my "dont even bother looking at" list and should I or my clients ever be in the market for an app I would give them a very wide birth!

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Man of Kent
By Kent accountant
01st Oct 2013 13:23

@MissAccounting

I doubt they read anything they post on here.

Mind you seeing as they can't spell 'accountants' correctly they could do with employing a proof reader (or use a spell check).

Imagine the marketing drivel they must send out.

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