Turn your website visitors into customers (part 1)

Lots of accountants focus on website visitors – how can I get them, and how can I get more? The truth is its pretty easy. If you have deep pockets you can buy it, or if you have a good content plan and consistent execution, then people will visit from all sorts of different channels. Wahey, Marketing!

But what if you’re still figuring all this stuff out, and want to start with the most powerful tool rather than dabbling about with a bunch of different ones?

Video.

Remember that video, Charlie bit my finger? Almost 700 million people have watched that video. That’s equivalent to every single person in the United States watching that video, twice. Or to put it another way for every 10 people alive in the world today, 1 of them has watched it. Pretty epic visitor volume huh? But it didn’t make anybody rich.

And why would it? There is no point to the video, there is no next step that you should follow so you just watch it, laugh, then disappear off down a YouTube black hole of endless cat videos.

So here’s the thing. You could use cat pictures or videos of children biting each other to get people to your website, but after that your visitors will want to know ‘what next?’ ‘what should I do?’ ‘where should I go?’

The problem is that these aren’t necessarily conscious questions but questions we inherently ask when we browse the internet, or in this case land on your accountancy website.

So tell ‘em.

Give them very clear sign posts that encourage them to answer a question they might have as a result of reading your blog or watching your video, or even just ask them to call you for a chat. By providing that next step you are both helping your visitors to help themselves as well as encouraging your visitors to say hello and maybe make their way onto your prospect list or ideally your client list.

But how? Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) can be regarded as a black art but the principle really isn’t that complicated. Offer your visitors something they want and make it super easy for them to get it.

At this stage I am going to recommend you read a book, ‘Don’t make me think’ by Steve Krug. It’s like a bible for me, thin, easy to read and full of massively helpful CRO thinking and actionable tips that far surpass my ability to explain everything you might need in this blog. Once you read it your eyes will start to open to the opportunity that exists with your own website. (This is a blue pill / red pill moment guys.)

So you have a week to place your order with Amazon and maybe read a couple of chapters. I’ll be back next week with 6 tips that you can use in your business to turn visitors into customers.