Marketing Tip in 60 Seconds - Is Your Web Site's Home Page Missing This Vital Element?

Michael Carter - Sunday, July 25, 2010 - Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

60 Second Summary:

• It is a mistake to have 'Call us for an obligation-f.r.e.e consultation' as the call-to-action on your web site
• This is too 'high gradient' for many prospects
• Include a simple 'Sign Up for our Free Newsletter' web form on your home page and make it prominent
• Give your newsletter an appealing name with implied benefits - e.g. 'Tax Hints & Tips', or 'Business Building Hints & Tips', not just 'Client Newsletter'

When someone is dissatisfied with their existing accountant, they think about changing accountants long before they do it.

After all, for many, it's like breaking up (and breaking up is never never easy, I know).

If your web site asks a prospective client to 'Call us for an obligation-f.r.e.e consultation' (or words to that effect), that's like asking them out on a first date when they are perhaps just in the early stages of 'shopping around' to see what else is on offer.

In sales process design, this type of call-to-action is 'too high gradient' as a next step. In other words, it's too daunting for many. You want the first step to be an easy non-threatening step, such as signing up for your newsletter or downloading a special report or white paper (and in that process, signing up for your e-newsletter).

From a marketing perspective, one of the main objectives of your web site is to have a high conversion rate of visitors to people who join your newsletter list. That means for every 10 people who find your web site, you want to know how many are signing-up to your list. Then you need to test and measure changes to your site, to improve that conversion rate.

In our Marketing Machine™ model that we teach firms in The Clientshare Academy™ course, we call this 'grow your list' aspect 'The Hopper' - a hopper being the part of a machine that you tip the raw materials into at the start of the process.

The front-end of your marketing should have a Subscriber Acquisition Focus, not a Client Acquisition Focus.

That's counter-intuitive, I know.

Your newsletter needs to be written with not just your clients in mind, but your referral partners, prospective clients, prospective team members, and so on.

Have a look at your web site's home page now. If it doesn't have a prominent sign-up form for a well-named newsletter or special report, call your web developer now and request that this be implemented.

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Purpose of our Marketing Tip in 60 Seconds articles

To give you quick, easy, actionable marketing tips. Often they will be very simple, at the tactical rather than strategic level.