Does your website reflect your niche?

In a previous post I wrote about an accountancy firm (Pearson & Associates) who make it very clear on their website what type of clients they are looking to work with. They use the potential size and aspirations of businesses as the criteria for taking them on as clients - using monthly fee packages as the guide.

Yesterday I was introduced to Amy Taylor Accountancy, via Twitter. Amy asked what people thought of her new website and I replied saying it had a very feminine feel. Amy's response to that was:

Thanks Adrian. It is a bit girly isn't it, but as Mums in business is the niche I am serving, hopefully they will like it!

So, whilst being less overt than Pearson & Associates about the type of clients she is aiming to work with, nonetheless Amy is making her position clear by using a coherent design syle that will appeal to her target market - mums in business. Her site visitors will be subconsciously qualifying themselves.

Too often I see websites where accountancy firms make bold statements about the niche(s) they wish to specialise in but where the site design makes no concessions to those niches. Amy hasn't made the same mistake.

It's £250 per month to join this exclusive club

My old firm Pearson & Associates have launched a complete redsign of their website today. And very good it looks too in my view, but that is not why I am writing about it.

What is the striking message that comes through from the home page?

I think the firm are very clearly indicating the type of new clients they are looking for: businesses prepared to pay at least £250 per month for access to a broad range of professional services.

Pearson & Associates understand that they may be turning away businesses looking for just compliance services but they have their own clear strategy and that does not include trying to be all things to all people. The firm wants to work with team-led businesses that need a full range of professional services.

At a time when there are dire predictions for the future of independent small firms I believe that my old colleagues are right to position themselves as they are doing.

More importantly though, it is refreshing to see an "accountancy" firm being brave enough to make it clear who they do NOT want to work with.

Landing pages, your marketing friend

Most business now have a website. The days when producing one was expensive and a technical challenge are in the past. However, the vast majority of sites have to serve many purposes including: 

• Marketing
• Customer support
• Staff recruitment
• Event promotion
• Dissemination of news
• Publishing legal and regulatory notices 

When the business is looking to drive visitors to its website for a specific reason, perhaps a special offer or promotion, then the "Jack of all trades" nature of most sites can mitigate against success.

The answer to this problem lies in the use of "landing pages". A landing page is new web page designed with one particular message and purpose in mind - perhaps talking about a new product offer or a new discount scheme: the idea being that the visitor driven by a marketing effort is presented with exactly what they expected and not much else.

Traditionally, landing pages have been used by larger organisations with big marketing and IT budgets but there are now new services which make the whole process easier and within the reach of smaller businesses.

One such service is Unbounce. Unbounce allows users to easily create specific-use landing pages from pre-designed templates. If desired, multiple pages can be created and traffic stats compared to see which messages work better. Lead data can be collected using ready made forms and the service is integrated with Mailchimp and Google Analytics.

Unbounce offers a free account plan and their basic service starts at just $25 per month.

Businesses that want to take their website and social media marketing to the next level should be looking at landing pages. Trying to get a standard website to be all things to all people is a recipe for frustration on both sides.