When a prospect lands on your website what do they see? Is it instantly clear what your company does, and whom you serve? Do you offer several options for prospects to request further assistance? (e.g. chat, email, phone, download a document, filling out a form).
Unfortunately, many small to mid-sized professional service firms (consultants, business coaches, accountants, financial services companies, IT service providers, law firms, etc.) have websites that do not convey a clear message or persuade visitors to contact them.
Studies by Hinge Marketing show that 80% of your prospects will visit your website before hiring you.
Here are the 10 most common website mistakes professional service firms make.
1. Making It Difficult to Understand What It Is You Do
Many professional service firms fail to explain clearly what it is they do. Too often their websites are full of technical jargon or vague language like: “We’re the leaders in providing global solutions for industry verticals.”
If no one can understand what “industry verticals” are then you need to change your messaging.
Many firms also fail to coherently communicate their benefits. They try to show their expertise by spewing technical jargon. Unfortunately, they confuse their less technically-inclined prospect because the message is not clear to them.
Most prospects will not tell you they don’t understand what you do, they’ll just move on to another firm.
Your website should clearly explain what it is you do and who you serve. If you’re a management consultant, then just say so. If you provide accounting services for small businesses then tell your web visitors that. Don’t make them guess what you do.
2. Overwhelming Visitors with Information
Some firms overload their site with everything they do. They list every service they provide in great detail. It’s good to inform your audience, but it should be done in moderation. Trying to promote everything all at once may scare your visitors away.
What you should do is give them as much information that they need, but make sure that it’s relevant to the page they’re viewing. Provide them with just enough information and then direct them to another page on your site via a button or link for more details. This way your visitor gets the information they want and may continue to read on if they wish.
3. Having A Lack of Content
The only thing some firms have on their website is an “About Us” page, “Services” page, employee bios, and a contact page. Some publish a newsletter, and others only have a blog.
Some of the firms that only have a blog don’t publish regularly. Some haven’t published for several months to even a few years.
If you’re going to publish a blog you need to post regularly, either once a week, once a month, or twice a month. 43% of B2B marketers say blogging is the most important content they produce. Blog traffic generation increases up to 30% after 24 to 51 blog posts are published.
You should not only commit to publishing regular blog posts, but also have other content like case studies, white papers, and videos. Studies have shown that when a company creates targeted, compelling content regularly, the higher their website ranks on the search engines.
4. Creating Web Content That Only Talks About What Your Company Does
Too many professional service firms only communicate about themselves on their website. They don’t focus on their client’s needs at all. Many times, their blog posts are filled with what their company is doing or new employee hires. There’s nothing wrong about publishing this information, but what your prospects are looking for is how can your company solve their problems.
That means the content you create must answer the questions your prospects may have. Your blog posts and other website pages must center around the problems and issues your clients are facing.
That’s why you should have white papers or special reports posted that address those problems and how your company can solve them. Having case studies showing how your firm helped previous customers solve their issues is another powerful tool in persuading your web visitors to do business with you.
Creating web content that focuses less on your firm’s capabilities and more on the issues your clients are facing is more attractive to search engines and your web visitors.
5. No Way to Capture Leads
Many professional service firm websites are visually appealing. However, they don’t have anything in place to capture leads. Websites that do not have this tool in place will lose web visitors, often to their competition.
The tool that these websites should have is an opt-in form to capture email addresses.
You should offer a freebie in exchange for their email address. You can offer a free report, white paper, checklist, or newsletter subscription.
A great way to capture leads is to post your free offer prominently on your home page. It can be a free white paper or special report. Along with signing up for your free content they will also subscribe to your newsletter. Make sure that it’s clear that they will be getting your free content and your newsletter.
Once you have their email address you can nurture them for some time by occasionally sending promotional and relationship-building emails.
Email marketing is still an effective marketing channel. According to a HubSpot survey, 86% of professionals say that email is the best for business communication.
You only have a few seconds to grab your website visitor’s attention and persuade them to take action. You need to demonstrate how your firm differs from the competition and how they can solve their problems.
Next steps
Need help crafting a lead generation website? Email me at ksmiley@ksmileycopywriter.com today.
This article was first published on my LinkedIn profile here.
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