Conversion isn't the goal of your professional service website

I have written a lot about the difference between product and service branding. But not as much about how that applies to professional or financial services websites.

We can’t expect the same technique used to sell a $20 product to work for a $20,000 service engagement. They aren’t the same scale of decision. 

Product sites are built for conversion: for filling the shopping cart and making sure you don’t leave before you pay. Product purchases are transactional, but our service agreements are relational.

No professional or financial services leader wishes their client interactions were more transactional; that isn’t the foundation of trust. But if our sites don’t do that one central thing, what should they do?

Here are the five jobs I think every professional services website needs to do.

Validation

A former client referred a friend to you. What will that friend do first? Look at your site to make sure you are legitimate and that they can find contact information.

Separation 

Your expertise is the core of your brand strategy. Your site should highlight your differentiation based on actual expertise, not decoration, at the top of the site. Can I swap your logo for a competitor's and the homepage still read the same? If so, that's a problem.

Navigation

Your site may look great, it may show how you are unique, but if I can’t use it intuitively, I will give up and move on to your competitor. Your site's user experience is the place for simplicity, not brand expression.

Consumption 

Your site’s center of gravity is your case studies, methodology, social proof, blog posts, and employee bios. This is the proof for what you say when you are creating separation. Is your site designed for your ideal client to binge on this content?

Cultivation 

The gap between visiting your site for the first time and signing a contract is months, if everything goes perfectly. What happens in between? Give them the opportunity to take a diagnostic, sign up for an email newsletter, and read more blog posts. Show your potential clients the respect they deserve by letting them get to know you on their terms, not yours.

Does your website do those five things? We are rebuilding our site right now and are wrestling with these issues alongside you.

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