Here’s some hot-off-the-presses info for you: in the past 30 days the preferred method among SMEs for contacting accounting firms has been through email and phone calls.
Emails into accountancy firms from our clients’ websites increased by 28% and telephone enquiries increased by 27%, compared to the previous 30 days.
Each of the accountancy practice websites we host saw an average of 26 enquiries in the past 30 days, which is a marginal decrease of 2.2% from the previous period.
A full 60% of those conversions came through organic search – people typing queries into Google, Bing or other search engines.
Direct traffic – people typing in the website address instead of searching – made up 20% of conversions, while 4% came via links on social media.
Form submissions fell by 3.6% overall.
Downloads of publications such as guides and eBooks saw a decrease of 14%.
Email sign ups dropped by 33% from the previous 30 days.
However, overall, our clients saw a 22% increase in new users and a 20% uplift on page views.
Performance-driven websites
Our results-focused websites for accountants are designed to attract your ideal clients, turn visitors into leads and enable your firm to measure your return on investment.
The majority of traffic came from organic search which produced 19% more traffic for our clients’ websites compared to the previous 30 days.
The most visited pages on client sites, after homepages, were the ‘contact us’ pages which saw an increase of 13% in traffic over the period. That ties into the increase in emails and phone calls – people want to get in touch with someone ASAP.
In terms of social media, Facebook has driven the largest volume of traffic with LinkedIn second and Twitter third – an interesting insight given the focus many accountants put on LinkedIn.
Summary
At this time of year we would expect to see top of the funnel activity dropping away in favour of direct contact, and that’s exactly what’s happening.
That’s why it’s critical for firms to have clear call-to-action prompts to drive users towards phone and email, along with a user journey that funnels website visitors to their contact page.
On top of all this, you need to make sure your website speaks to the needs of your target clients. It should demonstrate your expertise, backed up by evidence in the form of blog content, case studies and testimonials.
The buyer journey isn’t linear and conversions volumes like these don’t happen overnight. You need to invest in your marketing so you’re visible to your prospects in the right places, at the right times.
