We’ve all heard it time and time again – having a “good” financial advisor website is essential for any firm. But what defines a good, or a great website? In the early days of the Internet, it was enough just to have a website in the first place. They served to supplement the original means of communication, such as direct mail and phone books and other printed directories.
Now websites have become the initial—and sometimes only—means of contact for clients and potential clients. That’s why Internet visibility is crucial to your advisory firm. Internet visibility leads to website traffic which leads to website conversions. Conversions are clients.
If you’re looking for ways to make your financial advisor website a lead generating sales tool, follow the 5 tips below to get started:
1) Transparency/Building Trust
When looking for financial advisors, investors will most likely visit multiple advisor websites. As an advisor, your website needs to stand out from the others. While there are many ways to “stand out” for financial advisor websites, transparency is one of the best ways to separate yourself from the pack.
With prospects, it’s best to be transparent about your services, fees, experience and policies from the very beginning. While you don’t have to go into specifics, It’s important that you establish trust with your potential investors or they may simply move on to the next financial advisor website in their search queue.
This is especially important for seasoned investors. These investors have worked with financial advisors before and are usually pretty good at sensing when someone is withholding important information. Also, be sure your domain name is appropriate for your business and adds credibility.
2) Start or Improve Your Blog
Blogs are a great way to bolster the online visibility and credibility of your financial advisor website. If you already have a blog, there are plenty of ways you can improve the content, drive traffic, and even reuse content to make the most out of the work you’ve already done. A blog is an extension of your website, and can help to make you an authority on various financial topics by offering high-level financial advising information and market commentary.
Blogs are not meant to be a substitute for personal financial advice, so the content should be general enough to capture a wide audience, but compelling enough to make readers want to reach out for more information, or possibly share with friends and family. Blog articles typically range from 400-1,000 words, and are often accompanied by photos, charts or infographics.
One of the most important aspects of a blog is frequency. It’s not enough to post once and forget about it for a few months. A blog is meant to be a steady source of information for your readers. In order to establish frequency, many bloggers have an editorial calendar of sorts. This calendar serves as a timeline for when you’d like to publish blog posts on certain topics.
The frequency depends on your schedule, but a good practice is to write about topics that come up frequently, or seasonal topics (such as April 15th tax day!) that happen at certain times of the year. When you have any spare time, write on those topics and save them for when you want them to be published.
3) Make It Personal With Your Financial Advisor Bio
Building trust isn’t easy for anyone in business, and unfortunately it can be more difficult for financial advisors than for others in the financial profession. To some, financial advisors are viewed as salespeople who only want your money so they can make a commission. It’s important to be seen as an ethical and professional business person first and foremost. That's why a thoughtfully written financial advisor bio should be an important part of your website.
This is why it’s important to show the names and faces of you and your team visible on your website. Some advisors choose to have a team photo directly on the homepage, but really it just needs to be easy to find on your website. Include bios for yourself and your team members. If someone leaves, update the website as quickly as possible. Regardless of why that person is no longer part of the team, you don’t want it to appear as though you have a high turnover rate or problems with employees.
Team member bios should have a good mix of professional and personal information, without getting too personal. People want to not only see the human element behind the advisors managing their money, but also see that they have the experience and knowledge to be trusted with their finances. A tall order, but it can be achieved with a superior website and service to follow it up.
4) Use Social Media
Social media is becoming more and more important to financial advisors and the way they connect with their investors. If you have social media accounts: such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, are you promoting those channels on your website and vice versa? At a minimum, your website homepage should have links to your social media profiles.
Ideally, using icons is the best way to ensure people can quickly and easily find your social media. When posting on social media, be sure you’re linking to content on your website as well. Social Media can help make it easy to find you, and will increase your Internet visibility.
5) Outsource Your Marketing Department
You may find yourself too busy working with your existing clients and running your firm to also optimize and improve your financial advisor website. Outsourcing a part or all of your marketing efforts might be the answer. The cost, in many cases, can be lower than hiring a part time employee.
Whether your website needs a tune-up or a complete overhaul, consider using the services of a digital marketing firm. Paladin Digital Marketing has been working exclusively with RIA’s for over 15 years. Our inbound marketing techniques are designed to produce more investor leads for your financial advisory firm. Contact us today and find out how we can help!
