As a marketing consultant, I spend quite a lot of time looking at accountants’ websites, either on behalf of a client to review their competitors or as part of my marketing initiatives.
Frequently, I come across ‘faceless’ websites, i.e., websites that don’t give me the names of the key people in the firm, let alone some background information about them. Some of these websites are beautifully designed and tick all the website navigation, content, and SEO boxes. Yet they seem cold and clinical without any people from the practice featured on there.
People buy from people
Ultimately, new clients will choose you because they feel like they have connected with you in some way. Remember, people buy from people, so anything you can do to make your team more approachable will help develop these client relationships and, ultimately, your practice.
Here are my top tips for making sure your website (and your practice) is more approachable:
Create personal profiles
Add written profiles for all your staff, including your admin and support team. Don’t just talk about your workplace skills and expertise, make it personal, i.e. what are your hobbies and interests outside of work etc. If you’re the practice/business owner, provide some of your ‘back-story’, i.e. why you started the firm and want to make a difference to your clients.
Include professional photos and contact details
Add photos to accompany the profiles and a phone number and/or email address so that people can contact partners and staff directly. I would also advocate having the photos taken by a professional photographer, as you will get a better quality photo that brings out the best in your staff. Increasingly I am seeing firms move away from the standard ‘head and shoulders shot’ and have more fun based photos showing partners and staff in more informal poses or perhaps wearing or holding an item that relates to their hobby.
However, get your staff’s permission to upload their profiles and photos to the website.
Add a firm news page
In addition to having business news feeds on your website, you should consider having a separate firm news page. This should feature blogs and photos showing you and the team getting involved in fundraising events, local community projects, passing their exams, being promoted and so on. Your firm news page should aim to get the firm’s personality across through a steady stream of photos and blogs, which can also be shared on your social media pages.
Aim to attract clients and recruit staff
By making your website more friendly and personable, not only will it help to attract new clients it can also help to attract new members of staff. Accountancy firms that show their commitment to their staff through the website and other marketing channels are more likely to retain their staff and be better placed to recruit new staff in the future.
Your website should be the starting point for people wanting to learn more about your practice. Give web visitors a reason to want to get to know you better by creating an engaging, approachable business of which they’d like to be part. Don’t be faceless, let people see your personalities.
