The holy grail for most professional services marketers is being able to generate qualified leads in a scalable and cost effective manner. For most firms that translates into generating leads with digital marketing.

Does your website generate enough qualified leads? If not, you are probably falling prey to one or more of these fatal mistakes:

1. You don't believe it's possible.

This is the biggest single barrier for most professional services marketers. They haven't given their website sufficient attention, so it's not working. Since it's not working nobody believes it can work. In virtually every study that we have seen, professional service providers can use the web to generate qualified leads or teaming partners for government contracts. Networking doesn't work if you don't network. Direct mail doesn't work if you don't send anything out. It's no different for digital marketing.

2. You overwhelm and confuse your visitors.

Sadly, many professional services websites are confusing, jargon filled, impenetrable messes. A visitor cannot tell what these companies do or why they should care about them. To “play it safe,” many firms try to be as broad and vague as possible so as not to turn away any potential customer. Instead, their websites are inscrutable and turn off many potential clients or partners.

3. It's all about you.

Why shouldn't your website be all about you (it's your website after all)? Aren't visitors coming to learn about you? No and no. Visitors are coming to solve a problem they have, and they are looking for a firm with services that can help them — that is what the visitor cares about. You have less than 10 seconds to let them know that they are in the right place. If visitors can't determine that your firm might offer a solution to their problem, they will be gone in a flash. So don't build your site around your organizational structure. It will only confuse your web visitors, and you will lose them. Instead, build your navigation around client needs. Clarity and simplicity always, always win.

4. No one can find you.

If someone knows the name of your firm they should be able to find you, right? That is a start. But what if they only know what their problem or need is? Can they find you then? Here's a good way to find out. Look at you web analytics (you have them, right?). What are visitors searching on when they find your site? If it is only variations on your firm's name or the people in the firm you are missing out on a ton of new business. If folks are finding you based on a variety of relevant search terms, you are on the right track.

5. You show up in a cheap suit.

Most of us would not think of showing up at a networking event or prospect meeting in ill fitting, poor-quality clothing. Yet many firms have websites that are so poorly written and built that visitors can't see past them. Valuable prospects and potential hires will form critical impressions about your firm based on their initial impressions of your website. They will wonder “Is this a firm that's in my league? Or are they amateurish?” Ask a few people if they have ever ruled out a firm because of what they saw or didn't see on a website and you will get all the proof you need.

Fixing these five problems may not solve all of your lead generation problems, but it will get you much closer to having a sustainable, scalable source of new business.

To learn more, check out Spiraling Up, our book on high growth, high value professional services firms. It's available as a free download and lays out the data behind these conclusions. And keep an eye on this blog, where we will be publishing a lot more on high performance website. This post about lead generating websites is also full of good ideas.

 

Lee