Most professional service providers recognise they need to have a website. But do you understand the purpose of your website?
If you ask most business owners what they want their website to do, they will say generate enquiries: encourage people to get in touch. But how you generate enquiries depends on how you use your website, its purpose.
There are two main purposes a business will use its website for (whether they are aware of it or not!).
Brochure website
A brochure website is exactly as it sounds. Your website is created as a static document to showcase information you about and your services.
The content is very business centric and is rarely updated.
What is the purpose of a brochure website?
This website is useful for direct traffic. This means people who already know about your business, who then go to your site directly to view it.
They may have heard about you from word of mouth, or met you at a networking event, or may be a current client. You have already introduced them to the top of you ‘marketing funnel’ – awareness.
This will have been done in an offline setting, and the website is used as a tool to help people find out more about you. It may also help offline enquiries get in touch if you have a contact form or contact details. Once you have set it up initially, it’s easy to maintain with few updates.
Our experience is that the vast majority of accountants and solicitors have a brochure website.
Magnet website
A magnet website works very differently. The focus is almost entirely digital, and is full of useful, timely and valuable information for your target clients.
The content is specifically for your audience, not about you or your business, and the website will be updated very regularly.
What is the purpose of a magnet website?
This type of website is used to attract your target client, outside your known network. You want your traffic to come organically or through external referrals such as social media platforms.
By producing useful information your target audience wants to know about, you are more likely to appear on search engines, when they are specifically looking for information related to the services you provide.
Even better, once you have good quality content on your website, the traffic you receive can scale. It doesn’t rely on your ability to network, or call, or engage with someone in real life, to then direct to your site.
Which type of website should you have?
To break it down simply, a brochure website works best at supporting offline networking and lead generation. A magnet website works best for digital outreach.
Because of that:
- A brochure website doesn’t work as a magnet – there’s nothing to attract traffic to the website organically.
- However, a magnet website can work as a really effective brochure for your business – this can lead to a higher conversion rate, even for offline leads.
If you’re looking to grow your business and find new leads and clients, a digital approach has to be central in your marketing and website strategy.
Because of this, we would recommend professional service providers consider developing a magnet website to grow their online presence.
How do you create a magnet website?
This takes us back to our initial question – what do you want your website to do for you? If that is ‘generate leads’ then you need to think about what kind of leads you want.
This means you need to consider your website audience: Who do you want to visit your website and what will bring them to it?
Some good questions to get you started include:
- Who are your ideal clients?
Really pinpoint this down – don’t say ‘Everybody!’ Think about the clients you currently work with, as well as the types you’d like to work with as your business grows. Perhaps your ideal client is an e-commerce start-up business owner looking to scale their business - What are their concerns?
This needs to be wider than just how you can help them. You need to consider all the issues that keep them up at night. For example, if you’re an accountant and your ideal client is an e-commerce start-up business owner, they may be unsure of how to get started hiring staff. - Do they ask you the same types of questions?
This is a great starting point to think about what kind of content you can add to your website. Think about your e-commerce start-up business owner. What questions are you commonly asked when working with existing clients in a similar niche?
The ultimate goal for your magnet website is to become a hub of useful information for your target client. You want them to come to your website (and stay on your website), reading and viewing valuable information.
This will put them in a primed position to get in touch and generate that lead.
Top tips for a magnet website
- Regularly updated content – this can be blogs, videos or reports: any type of resource your target client would find valuable.
- Clear calls-to-action – if you want to generate leads on your website, you need to direct people to get in touch: include clear visuals to trigger the action you want your audience to take.
- Include less information about yourself and more information for your audience – check your homepage. Does it start with ‘we’ or ‘I’? Think about how you can shift the language to be more client focused rather than business focused.
How we can help
If you need help turning your website into a magnet, get in touch today! We can help you identify your target audience, and update your website to offer more value to help you generate the clients you want.