Accounting Websites- Get Persuasive Lead Capture Pages With These Simple Tips
The Guerilla Marketing, Building Effective Lead Capture Web Pages, Affiliate Marketing for Laser Detectors companies
Your lead capture pages have pretty much the same primary purpose. They entice entice visitors to give you “leads” by giving out their contact information. All you really need is their Email address, but it also helps a great deal if you can get some names. This isn’t a sale; this is a lead. All we’re looking for is some contact information. Not many people close deals on services over accountant websites. In fact, not many people will even be interested in hiring a new accountant the first time they visit. What we’re building here is a pool of prospects. We can keep in touch with these people over time using emailings until their circumstances change and when they need an accountant our brand will be there waiting for them. I cannot overstate the long term value of leads like this.
Consider the following points as you create your lead page and watch your results improve dramatically.
1. Accountant websites offer a lot of opportunities for lead capture. Don’t just use your newsletter and contact pages. Put them on your service pages and your free report pages also. You want people to be able to fill one out the moment they decide they want to contact you.
2. Don’t hide your opt-in forms. Make them simple to use. The key is to capture just the right amount of information from your visitors. If you ask for too much information you’ll spook the prospect but if you don’t get enough you won’t be able to follow up. Fields in your form can be made mandatory – others can be left optional. You need at least a an Email address and, except for your newsletter, a first name. The rest of your fields should be optional. You can use an auto-responder to ensure visitors immediately start receiving emails from your company. If you have more sophisticated email marketing software you can set the website up to manage your lead automatically. These systems can also replace your auto-responder with a more personalized message.
3. Keep track of where your leads are coming from. It’s easy to have the form identify exactly which page it’s coming from. This will help you decide how to respond to each inquiry. A form submission from a service page should be followed up on immediately, while a newsletter subscription should be treated as more casual. This will also give you clues exactly what kind of accounting service the prospect is looking at. A lead from the “Compilations” page or “Strategic Business Planning” page is going to be treated differently from a lead that came from the “Personal Financial Planning” or “Tax Preparation” page.
4. You’re page Header, or “Headline, is exceedingly important. Take the time to craft a good one. Your headline needs to inspire the visitor to keep reading. Keep your message moving. Your headline should be concise and exiting. Get straight to the point.
5. Keep your lead capture page easy to read. Use lists and bullets. Generally, readers love to have information broken down into small, easily digestible parts for them. It’s easier to eat bite sized portions of food rather than cramming the whole burger into your mouth at once; similarly, the good news about your company is more easily assimilated if it is revealed in stages. Just because accounting is a complex subject it doesn’t have to follow that your website needs to become unreadable. Your reader doesn’t need to know every detail, just the bits that benefit him. Pages like this won’t bring in leads.
6. What do you want to get out of your readers? What do you want them to do? What can they gain by joining you? Using “call to action” style language undoubtedly helps drive your message home and will get more names on your list.
7. Make it irresistible. In most businesses a white paper or ebook can do the trick, but in the accounting business it’s much more common to offer a free consultation to local business owners. I’ve had a number of clients balk at the free consultation but the more valuable the offer, the better chance you have of making a good impression from the get-go and obtaining new customers.
8. Use a privacy statement. Naturally as an accounting professional you would never betray a trust like this but a lot of people are going to be suspicious of your motives so include a privacy statement. Reassure visitors that you aren’t going to abuse their information and send them garbage they don’t want, and that you are emphatically not going to re-distribute their information. This is a terrific way to establish your professionalism and build confidence with your readers.
Tags: Lead Capture Pages, online marketing, Accounting