How to make your accounting website conversion increase from 10% up to 70%

This one thing is missing from lots of accounting & bookkeeping websites and can make a HUGE difference

Oct 28, 2022

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I was recently asked to deliver a marketing training session to a small group of accounting firms here in the UK.

As part of the prep, I asked the group if there were any topics or focus areas that would be most helpful. The group leader suggested reviewing the member firm’s websites and providing feedback on how to improve them.

And so I reviewed all 12 accounting firm websites making note of things like messaging, structure, and call to actions (CTAs).

If you’d like me to review your website just leave a comment below and I’ll give you some honest feedback via a Loom video.

As I was reviewing these sites, something stood out to me as missing on all except one of them.

And this missing item can be the difference between your website capturing 10% of visitors, or up to 70% of them.

The missing item?

A lead magnet.

What is a lead magnet?

A lead magnet is a marketing term that’s used to describe a free item/product/service that is given away in exchange for somebody’s contact details.

They can come in different forms: guides, infographics, templates. I’ll share examples from other accounting firms later on.

But for now, you’re probably wondering…

Why does my website need a lead magnet? There are 2 key reasons why:

1. Most people visiting your website aren’t ready to work with you right now

I covered this in a previous Marketing By Numbers newsletter. I’ll summarise again below.

Take a look at this graphic.

Yes, this is some simplified cowboy marketing maths - but there’s also some fundamental truth to it.

The reality is that of all of the people visiting your website, only a small percentage are ready to work with you right now or would be very open to working with you in the short term.

So why does this mean you need a lead magnet?

Well if the only call to action (CTAs) on your website are things like:

“Book a call”
“Talk to us”
“Get in touch”
“Fill out our contact form”

Then these CTAs are only speaking to the 10% that are ready to work with you now or open to working with you in the short term.

If I land on your site and have no interest in changing accountants right now, why would I click any of those?

I wouldn’t. I’d likely leave and you’d never know I even stopped to visit.

So what about the other 60% that could work with you at some point? Do we forget about them and let them disappear into the online horizon?

Depending on your growth goals, maybe you do. The point of this newsletter is not to say all accounting firms must have a lead magnet.

But if your growth goals involve growing beyond the current number of inquiries you’re getting from your website, then you’ll want to tap into the other 60% of the audience.

A lead magnet is one way of doing that.

This doesn’t mean you’ll suddenly capture all 60% of them. But you’ll start to capture a segment of one-time visitors, generating leads that you can then nurture into clients.

The nurture aspect here is important. Just because somebody downloads your lead magnet, it doesn’t mean they’ll suddenly want to work with you. They likely will still need nurturing consistently over a period of weeks, months, years (yes - it can take this long!) until they’re interested/ready to work with you.

Before we get into creating a lead magnet, let’s take a look at another reason why they’re so valuable…

2. Assets create income

We all know that assets create income. Whether that’s income from a rental property or income from stocks & shares. The point is that income can come from assets.

Marketing assets are no different.

Your website? A marketing asset that creates income for you.

A lead magnet? Another marketing asset that can create income for you.

These are things you create once that will compound and continue to drive value in the months and years to come.

The question you need to ask yourself is: whose assets are you currently building?

If you’re spending all of your time on social media building up a following there that’s great. Let’s not underestimate the incredible potential for success you can have from these platforms.

But let’s also address the very real fact that these are not your property. At any given point in time, they can change their algorithms, ban your profile, or make some other change that means what worked previously works no longer.

Creating a lead magnet (and subsequently building an email list) puts you in control. It’s your property. And providing you play by the rules (don’t spam, respect privacy policy laws, etc), then it’s yours to do what you want with.

Now that we understand why lead magnets are important, let’s take a look at what they should aim to achieve in your marketing.

Key objectives of a lead magnet

If somebody lands on your website for the first time, it’s likely that a number of questions will be going through their mind:

Do I know this person?
Can I trust them?
Can they help me?

Good websites do an amazing job of starting to answer some of these questions. The objective of a lead magnet is to answer them all with absolute certainty.

So when it comes to creating a lead magnet, the questions you want to be asking yourself are:

How can I prove that I can help them by providing results quickly? (it has to be something easy to digest that gives them a sense of accomplishment)

How can I position myself as a trusted authority and credible provider? (the more they trust you, the more likely they are to want to work with you)

It’s also worth adding that another objective of lead magnets is to qualify (or disqualify) potential leads.

Suppose you have a specific Ideal Client Profile (ICP) that you’re targeting. In that case, a well-created lead magnet will speak to those people and their pain points, meaning that any leads generated fit within your target criteria and you don’t end up with a list full of rubbish prospects.

What types of lead magnets work best? (including examples from real-world accounting firms)

1. How-to guides

People go online to find answers to questions. They want to know HOW to do things.

What are some of the questions your ideal clients are searching for? Try creating downloadable guides for these.

Here is an example from a client we recently started working with. Daniel’s firm Clear Accounting was started after he successfully scaled his own online publishing business from $0 to $10M.

Now he’s building an accounting firm to support other creators looking to grow their online businesses. Naturally, they all want to grow, so the guide is focused on Daniel’s personal growth secrets.

2. Listicle/infographics

People love to consume list-style content online. Don’t ask why. I’m sure there’s some psychological rationale behind it.

Infographics are a great way of presenting this.

Here is a nice simple example from the team at Benson Wood. They’re offering business owners the chance to learn 32 ways to get the maximum value out of their business tax efficiently.

When a business owner downloads and consumes this, and suddenly realises they have no idea how to implement some of the tips, guess who they’re most likely to ask for help? You guessed it…

3. Benchmark studies and data reports

This one works REALLY well if you have a specific niche dialed in.

As an agency owner, I want to know what benchmarks other agencies are hitting in terms of growth, fees, recruitment, etc. My current accountant can’t tell me this because they don’t specialise in working with agencies.

The team at the WOW Company understood this and surveyed hundreds of agencies (many of which are their clients) to create the agency benchpress report. This now positions them as an authority in the agency niche and the report has evolved into an event (and has even been supported by Mailchimp!).

I’ve also seen this work really well in property, construction, and SaaS niches.

4. Templates & frameworks

Think about things that your ideal clients might be searching for or needing:

Business plan templates
Cash flow templates
Pricing and profitability template

There are hundreds of possibilities here. What are some of the common things your existing clients are asking for? This can often be a good starting point for creating templates & frameworks that others can download.

Is your website missing a lead magnet?

Is your website only speaking to 10% of your total audience right now?

If you’d like to learn more about some of the tactical how-to when it comes to creating your entire lead capture system including:

How to create and design your lead magnet for maximum conversion
How to build a landing page that converts at 40%+
How to configure your marketing CRM to capture and nurture leads
How to distribute your lead magnet to create consistent lead flow all year round

Then message me on Linkedin here, and I’ll send you a link to a free video I recorded running through all of this in more detail.

Marketing By Numbers