Accountants aren’t the only professionals who don’t always grasp the importance of marketing.  I work in the communication industry and I don’t always devote the time to marketing that I should. Sometimes it can be hard to justify it, especially when fee-paying work is clamouring for your attention. But I try to remember the advice I read in a business guide when I first started out: 10 minutes of time devoted to marketing activities is never wasted.

With that in mind, have you taken a good look at your website recently? Go on, be honest. And if you have, put up your hand if it looks virtually the same as it did in 2008, even though we’re now in January 2013. Don’t worry if you think it’s a little stale, you’re not the only one. Recent research by Decibel Technology found that more than a third of British people believe that their closest competitor’s company website is actually better than their own. Even worse, one in five don’t actually think their own company website represents their brand.

What does having an out-of-date website mean for your firm? According to Decibel, nearly half of people would consider not even doing business with an organisation that had an out-of-date or hard-to-navigate website and a third of people would be put off working for one with a poor web presence. So the fact is, your firm’s scruffy website could be costing you both money and talent.

January is a notoriously busy month for accountants, but if you can take 10 minutes out from preparing self-assessment tax returns, I recommend that you take a good look at your website. And if it’s in need of a revamp, make that your marketing project for 2013.