If a business searches on Google for some combination of accountant(s) and Carlisle, we naturally want to make a good showing. We have organised our Google snippet and the top panel on Google+ using a features and benefits system of presentation. The features we want to mention in the short time and space that we get are the use of radical new technology and the existence of an online quotation system. The benefits are cheaper accounts and VAT returns, and a quick no-fuss quotation to confirm this. We also need to mention our location in Stanwix, and we want to try to plug everything seven times, which is the classic marketing formula.

We have worked on this for the title and description which appear in the Google snippet, and for the panel at the top of the Google+ page. We reproduce this panel on the home page of our main website and give links below it to the quotation page and back to the Google+ page. We have displays on Google Images and Google Videos. Let’s hope that all this does the trick.

In Google+ we have pictures plugging another feature, namely our facility with letterheads which we can install in the accounts or any invoicing system. One of the pictures pops up when the user hovers over our entry in the 7-pack, or in Google Maps. This might serve as a teaser to get people interested.

What is now needed is some offline promotion, which will be dealt with in a future blog.

David Porthouse & Co are accountants in Stanwix in Carlisle serving clients in Cumbria and North West England. They have a principal interest in new technology and are developing an optical number recognition/datepoint system for scanning bank statements with the intention of reducing the costs of accounts preparation. They also have a spreadsheet system which can be e-mailed back and forth.