Use the Web to:
- Professionally Position Yourself and Business
- Generate Leads
- Provide a Due Diligence Resource for Prospects
- Communicate with and Manage Clients
- Communicate with and Manage Staff
- Build Brand Equity
As a CPA, Financial Advisor, or other financial professional, you exist in a local marketplace. Your network and the referrals it generates is tip of your marketing, the door for new clients to come through. Your local marketplace is the greater room beyond your office. How present are you there? How are you perceived there?
The Internet is increasingly a playground for consumers to understand a local marketplace – whether searching to find a provider or to generally learn more about the topic or to follow up on a referral received.
Absence in search engines is noticeable absence. Search engines define a marketplace. A semi-professional, static website is noticeable mediocrity.
The new Web is about content and interactivity. Yes, a professional design is always a must. And achieving simplicity in architecture and navigation is increasingly important as websites become publishing systems.
- Maintain significant presence in the search engines (= market presence)
- Provide a resource for visitors thus giving reason to stay and to return (= professional positioning as an expert)
- Tap into the new Web exchange of content (= professional positioning as connected to the present
- Create specific goals and objectives. How will the Web function in your business model and in what ways does that benefit you?
Specific options for your Website:
- Articles on your Core Areas of Service
- Interactive Maps and Directions
- Contact Information and Forms
- Interactive and Download-able Forms
- About/History/Bio Copy and Photos
- “Blog” with RSS Feeds (allows easy publication of content by you and easy syndication of that content by others)
- Video/Audio from Seminars Given
- Video/Audio Blogs
- Social Media
An aside for YouTube: Think it’s crazy for a financial professional to be on YouTube? Look at the piece we’re running on BeaconSmallBiz.com. We filmed it at Bill’s office. Then we published it on YouTube.com and then fed it into his on site. Also, check out the one we’re running for Showell Blades the Bankruptcy Lawyer. We filmed his seminar at a community college and put it on YouTube (See it on YouTube). Notice the stats and comments and feedback. The video was watched over 800 times in the first 8 months. The video appears on multiple bankruptcy attorneys websites around the nation (fed into their site through RSS).