Why Your CPA Firm’s Website Doesn’t Generate Leads

Is Contextual Marketing a Part of Your CPA Firm Marketing Program?

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a website that played a key role in generating leads for your firm?

I think that it’s fair to say that most CPA and other professional services firms’ websites aren’t as effective as they could be when it comes to lead generation. It may be that firms just don’t think of their website as anything more than an online brochure and a branding tool, but today, the goal of a website needs to be focused on converting visitors to leads.

At its most fundamental level, converting a website visitor to a lead involves publishing some type of offer or call to action that requires completion of a form with the prospect’s contact information. For most CPA firms, that means: (1) using a “contact us” form, (2) bemoaning the fact that the website isn’t generating leads because nobody is requesting a contact, and (3) expending little to no effort to figure out why visitors aren’t clicking away to contact the firm.

context_marketing The more marketing-progressive and aggressive firms are “gating” content to generate leads. They’re using thought leadership packaged into a whitepaper, for example, and driving visitors to a landing page where the offer can be redeemed in exchange for contact information.

But to truly make your website into a lead generation dynamo, you need to understand the prospect’s buying cycle and to present relevant and appropriate offers at each stage of the buying cycle.

That’s what’s known as contextual marketing – right message/right person/ right time.

Yow! Only 3% of Visitors are Actually Ready to Buy When they First Visit your Website

So says HubSpot. My guess is that for professional service firms, it’s a lot less than 3%. In fact, using VitbergLLC data, that figure ranges between .1 and .5%!

Let’s just take HubSpot at face value for a moment, shall we? That means that 97% of visitors to your site are there for some other purpose than to “contact us”. And as much as you would like to see them clicking merrily away on that call, truth is that they’re just not ready to buy.

That doesn’t mean that they’re not (possibly) a great lead ... it just means, “Not now, Bub.”

Here’s what’s happening: those visitors are going through a journey, moving from trying to find a solution to an issue or challenge to developing awareness about you and your company as a possible solution to reaching a point where they decide to engage your services.

You want to move them from “just not now” to “how about now”.

The Secret to More Leads? Map Your Content to Your Prospect’s Buying Cycle

If the information that a prospect wants is different at each stage of their buying cycle, you need to be prepared with:

(1) a variety of different content with different messaging,

(2) identifying the key information your prospects are seeking as they move through the cycle, and

(3) a strategy for how that content can be accessed - gated or not gated. (Just remember: no gate = no data capture.)

Here’s a Guide that shows the different type of content that’s most appropriate for each stage of the buying cycle:

Buyer_Stages

By the way, all of the above efforts and results can be measured, and there’s a pretty good chance that you can use marketing automation to move your prospect through the buying stages.

It’s Time to Wring Some ROI out of those Bucks you Put into Your Website

It’s time that accounting, consulting and other professional service firms look to their website to deliver a return on the investment. That starts with determining what metrics you want to measure, but my perspective is simple: SHOW ME THE LEADS!!!

Here’s a path to getting more leads from your website:

Installing a content marketing program fueled by a context marketing strategy tied to prospect buying cycles,
Promote your offers using a variety of channels and tactics that will drive prospects to landing pages on the website, and
Install and use marketing technology for lead capture and data

And last but not least, stop depending on your “contact us” form as you only source of onsite lead generation – not all of your site’s visitors are ready to go steady.