recruiting. recruiting. recruiting.
by marc rosenberg
the rosenberg practice management library
every firm needs a website.
more: five social media do’s and don’ts | breaking it down: marketing job descriptions | how and why to hire a marketing director | how to brand and differentiate your firm | why consultative selling works | how not to develop your practice | does your firm recognize all its skills? | 15 powerful niche marketing practices
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here’s why:
it puts you on the map. it legitimizes your firm for those checking you out, essentially serving as an electronic brochure. prospective clients, referral sources and employees who are thinking of working with or joining your firm will want to vet your firm before contacting or meeting with you.
it beats the alternative. having a website is clearly better than not having a website. a customized website is way better than a canned website (from a media company that provides primitive websites using templates).
websites help establish credibility and can drive business. when used in conjunction with a blog or newsletter, your site can drive leads to your firm.
recruiting. recruiting. recruiting. the best use of websites is for recruiting. potential staff want to know something about your firm before their interview.
a good website is your ante to get into the poker game of developing name recognition and establishing credibility. it’s an essential requirement for all firms, though it may not bring in much business directly.
website tips
- differentiate your firm. if you look at various cpa firm websites, most essentially say the same thing. almost all
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- list their services and industries
- dutifully show standard headshots of the partners together with short bios
- insist that they are committed to great client service
- state their commitment to upholding standards of excellence in their professional work, maintaining the highest level of integrity at all times
- commit to working with clients to help them achieve their business and professional goals
- vow that they are committed to helping their people achieve their personal and professional goals
- list contact information
do these differentiate your firm? or course not. it’s fine to include some or all of these features in your website but focus on what makes your firm special and different from other cpa firms.
- use tabs and headings for your website:
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- resource center: news and events that educate readers, lists of tax rates, links to places like the irs and articles
- blogs, newsletters and journal articles. if your firm provides blogs and newsletters, they should have a separate heading and belong in the basics above. but if they are minor, then they can be included in the resource center above.
- speeches, seminars, firm awards and recognition
- a major heading that shows how much fun your firm has, primarily with pictures of staff engaging in various activities
- client testimonials, ideally with pictures of the clients in their factories, offices, etc.
- the most visited parts of firm websites are the bios of your people, especially the partners. devote plenty of time to sprucing up those dossiers. i particularly liked one firm’s choice of partners’ pictures. each person was photographed in their favorite sport or hobby attire. another that caught my attention displayed color caricatures of the partners instead of the usual boring mugshots. update the photos from time to time.
- offer real thought leadership. jay baron, writing for accounting web, says: “there’s a big difference between writing to write and writing in a way that contributes to and actually drives conversation. the former is useless fluff – the latter is called thought leadership.” this pertains mainly to the blogs and newsletters appearing on your website.
“you need to publish thoughtful insights that could come only from someone with your depth of expertise. write within your niche. introduce bold, new, exciting ideas. push the envelope.”
- keep it fresh. don’t let your website get stale. change it every now and then. people will stop reading your website if they realize it’s been the same for years. but if the site looks new, people are inclined to read through it, which is what you want.
- show how dynamic your partners are. include things like journal articles published, speeches given, awards won and positions on boards. if your response is, “i don’t have any of that stuff,” then get started on having accomplishments to post.
- post videos. we encourage you to include videos on your website. short presentations by a few partners are good. i’ve seen several firms create entertaining videos to popular music, showing how much fun the firms have. note: videos should be professionally produced.
- allow staff to make changes to your website. use a content management system that allows your firm’s personnel to make basic changes. wordpress is a very common platform that is relatively easy to use.
- avoid things that slow down your website. an example is flash software (displays embedded videos), which is notorious for slowing down users’ experience. one reason is that they must download software in order to view a flash video.
- study google analytics. this free service helps you understand your website traffic. it gives you specific data on how people are accessing and reading your website or blog and what they do when they get there. specific data measured include:
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- open rate: did they open an email to access the site?
- click rate. did they click through your site once it was accessed?
- how many visits per day, per week?
- which portions of your site were viewed and how often was each page of your site accessed?
- how many website pages, on average, were viewed?
- what keywords were used to access your website?
- where did people come from to view your site?
- did visitors use a desktop/laptop or a mobile device?
- how many new visitors did the site have? how many returning visitors?
- use a host for your website. don’t host your own site. always use a third-party host. this provides some protection from viruses and hacking. use a hosting site that is well-known and common, not an obscure host that may make your site difficult to find.
- use seo (search engine optimization). this process gets your firm and its people to come up closer to the top when someone tries to find you or a firm with your traits on google or other search engines. each search engine has its own algorithm that uses several factors about you to determine how high a ranking you get. these algorithms are constantly changing; once you receive a ranking, you must work to keep it there. these are the main factors that will optimize your ranking:
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- keywords
- titles
- links between your website and others
- words in those links
- your reputation determined by the degree of freshness of your site and the extent that it engages people
- make effective calls to action. says jay baron: “every single page on your website should point visitors to the next, guiding them along a simple, clear path from home to contact us. on each page, ask yourself what a new visitor might want to know at that point in your website workflow. how can you offer them the answers they’re looking for at the right times? offer free things such as assessment tools, a free consult and helpful guides. this can drive action.”