Websites are key to any professional services firm. Not only are they a way to market and promote your business, but they are also a go to place if your customers want to find out more about you.

The trouble is, designing a website isn’t always the easiest thing to do. Particularly if you want to come across as a trustworthy and thoroughly professional company.

To help you on the way, I have put together some of the key areas that you need to focus on when creating or rebranding your professional services firm website.

Imagery

The last thing that any brand will want is to blend into the background, after all, if you don’t stand out then how can you outshine your competitors? Try to steer away from any imagery or visuals that you have already seen from your competitors. Imitation isn’t flattery in this case!

Be brave and use fresh colours, images, and other design elements, all of which will ensure that you not only get noticed, but that your visitors can see that you are proud to offer something that is a little bit different.

Please don’t go for the bog-standard London skyline. I’ve seen so many professional services firms go down this route. And it’s a bit been there done that. You need to shine and stand out from the crowd. My advice, don’t play it safe. In the words of the marketing guru Seth Godin “safe is risky.”

Specialisation

Not everyone is a natural writer, and if we understand our industry, then chances are that we will use a lot of jargon to explain it. Having a wall of jargon or overly complicated content on your website can be at your detriment.

I know that it’s important to show you are qualified and that you know what you are talking about, but keep your copy in plain simple English. I have recently been introducing my clients to the concept of ELI5 – explain like I’m five. The simpler it is the easier it will be for clients landing on your homepage to understand what you do.

If you’re constantly talking in jargon on the website then it might worry clients that you will speak jargon to them in a face to face meeting and they won’t understand.

Your professional services blog

If you are looking at ways to market your business effectively, then chances are that you have come across the idea of a blog. Blogs are a great way to not only promote yourself, but also provide your customers with useful content too. It will ensure that you are able to showcase yourself as an expert in your industry and that they will feel comfortable that you are going to be able to deliver on what you say you can.

You need to keep updating your blog, making sure that it is fresh content, and never ever pack it full of solely promotional and advertising blogs. Otherwise you could drive customers away.

It’s a good idea to promote your blog through your social media channels and email campaigns. Just because you post a blog to your website doesn’t mean that people will automatically know to come flocking. You need to sign post people to it!

Responsiveness

More and more of us like to view websites on our mobile phones. This means that it is important that your website is responsive. Responsive websites not only work on desktops or laptops, but also on mobiles and tablets too.

You can have a separate mobile website if you like, but this means that you have two websites to keep track of and two websites to update when you have changes. Recently I found out that one of the top ten law firms in the UK didn’t have a mobile optimised site! It’s so important to have this as google rankings are now taking mobile responsiveness as a major consideration.

Calls to action

Without a call to action, your visitors may not turn into clients or customers. These simply phrases will help you to direct them towards what they need to do next. This could be downloading a guide, signing up for a free trial or sending you more info. It’s important to have these on all your pages and see how many click throughs they have.

For instance, on your blog landing page you could have a sign up for your e-newsletter so that your visitors ‘don’t miss out’ on the latest news from your firm. Think about how to nurture your visitors into clients!

Now you know the things that you need to have in place, why not try and create a website that stands out. It might take some time and effort, but I am sure that in the long run, this will definitely all pay off.

If you’re looking at creating a website take a look at my blog on the simple steps to setting up your website.