Positioning your start-up practice website

One of the most popular articles I have written for AccountingWEB is titled: The top five accountants’ website mistakes, explains Mark Lee.

I recently realised there is another common mistake and it is especially important in the context of start-up practices. Let me start by asking, what do you think should be your primary consideration as regards your website?

Until recently I would have suggested that it should be to know to whom you are speaking, that is: Who is the target audience for your website?

The additional common mistake I want to highlight here is that of failing to position your start-up website appropriately even if you know to whom you are speaking. And then, if it doesn’t do much for you, simply assuming that your investment was a waste of money – despite the fact that the failure may be more attributable to the lack of clarity on your website or your target audience’s inability to access your site.

My starting point back in 2010 was ‘Who is this website for?’ I stated my view that it is rarely for clients. Indeed when it comes to start-up practices your website cannot be primarily for clients. It’s more likely to be for communicating with:

• Prospects who have been recommended to the firm
• Prospects who have found the site when searching online
• Ambassadors and advocates of the firm and the partners, for example bankers, solicitors and other networking contacts who want to check out what you have told them about the firm
• Suppliers and prospective suppliers
• Finally – and this may not be an issue at the outset – prospective staff

Do any of us really know how best to communicate with these people? As regards prospects it is important to be clear as to who they are (really). But there is much more to it than this.

Does it look good?

May I assume that you understand the importance of creating a good first impression? No doubt you have chosen an appropriate look and feel for your new practice website. Maybe you have tried to do it yourself, or you had a friend create something simple. Or perhaps you used a professional designer, a template site or one of those that Sift Media’s sister company PracticeWEB can create.

Whichever route you have adopted you may have been tempted to take short cuts with the copywriting. But let’s assume that all is well here – from a general perspective anyway.

Feedback from friends and family

I bet when you asked friends or family to check out your new website they said nice things such as "I love the colours" or "what a great picture" or "it is very cleanly designed". 

If they have relevant experience and insights to add then perhaps it helped to get their feedback. Their platitudes though, while nice to hear, are of limited value unless they are a key target client.

How easy have you made it for the people you are targeting to engage with the website and then to get in touch with you?

The buying process
Are you targeting people who are just starting their journey, searching for their first accountant but unsure about what this will involve? What will engage them is quite different from someone who knows what they want from an accountant but has simply not yet used one.

Different again is someone looking to move from one firm to another. And then, dependent upon how you are looking to grow your start-up practice, there is the person who has been recommended to your new practice. They may simply want to satisfy themselves that you are right for them.

Each of those kinds of people are at different positions in the buying process. For your website to work well it needs to instantly communicate what position it inhabits. Who is it for? People at the start of that buying journey or people at the end of it?

You need to ensure that your website speaks to each of them and makes it easy for each group to find the messages that are directed at them. This is a variation on the more common idea of having a clear target business area or niche. That’s equally important but it’s not enough as I hope I have explained above. A good copywriter who understands how effective communication works can be worth every penny that they charge for reviewing or crafting the key messages on your website.

Different browsers and platforms

It was my daughter who helped me to appreciate a related point and how crucial this is. She works for a company that tests whether websites work across all platforms and browsers. Few accountants need to worry about such issues to the same extent as Test Partners’ typical clients – who tend to be household names. These companies need to be confident that, when a new campaign goes live, the public will be able to access their site and buy tickets or whatever, regardless of whether they are using Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari or Firefox and also regardless of whether they are looking on an iPhone, a Samsung galaxy, a Blackberry, an iPad or any other popular device.

Although start-up firms do not have similar huge investments riding on the launch of a new website, it is still important to ensure that most users will not have a problem. The recent explosion in the use of mobile computing, smartphones and tablets means it’s worth checking that your website communicates effectively with users no matter how they choose to access it.

Do you know if your design works properly across the most popular browsers and platforms? And that any forms or facilities, intended to make it easy for users to get in touch, are also equally accessible?

Conclusion

A website that looks great on your PC via Internet Explorer or Firefox and receives lovely comments from friends who review it, also needs to work well for people who access it in other ways.

As importantly the language and content on your website needs to capture the attention and interest of visitors who fit your target profile.

As I said in my 2010 article you must also make it easy for them to get in touch with you. To this I would add that you need to ensure that they know when to get in touch – do you want everyone who visits your site to call you or do you want to qualify them first?

It all depends on where your website is positioned. Do you know?

Related articles:

• SEO secrets for accountants
• The top five accountants' web mistakes 
• Trends in accountants’ websites over 12 months

Mark Lee is consultant practice editor of AccountingWEB. If you like this article, do check out his BookMarkLee blog and ebooks for accountants who want to better understand and get more value faster from their social media activity. He is also chairman of the Tax Advice Network of independent tax specialists.