Editor's note: This blog article was originally published in 2016 and has been completely revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness. Originally published December 16, 2016, updated October 23, 2020.
82% of financial advisors we surveyed told us they were not happy with the results that were produced by their current websites. Some financial advisors had websites they were renting and others owned out-of-date websites that were based on obsolete business practices. Regardless of circumstance, they were not satisfied with their results.
An important distinction was the financial advisors’ expectations for their websites. Some advisors had websites because their competitors had websites. All they expected from their websites was the delivery of information that was similar to other financial advisor websites. They did not have any other expectations for their websites just like they did not expect investors to walk-in off the street and hire them.
Only a small percentage of financial advisors viewed their websites as sources of new clients for their advice and services. They had low expectations due to their lack of results in the past. It would be transformational if their websites did produce a consistent flow of prospects.
Read on to find out what went wrong and how your firm can avoid making the same mistakes.
Inbound Marketing for Financial Advisors
A common problem occurred when financial advisors spent money on websites, but did not spend money on Inbound Marketing services.
Websites do not produce their own traffic. Internet visibility produces traffic for financial advisor websites. This process, of building online visibility, is referred to as Inbound Marketing. That is, investors find financial advisors on the Internet, they visit financial advisor websites, and they initiate contact when they are ready to talk.
This is the opposite of Outbound Marketing when advisors initiated contact with investors. This was always a disruptive process when investors did not want to be contacted. This form of marketing is largely obsolete due to caller ID, spam filters, and other technologies.
The Internet plays a key part in Inbound Marketing because it makes it possible for investors to find financial advisors online. The key to success is high rankings for keywords that are used by investors when they are seeking financial advisors and information on the Internet.
Content Marketing
Some advisors say they commit time to writing blog articles and social media posts. A much higher percentage say they outsource this work to agencies that specialize in producing high quality, original content exclusively for financial advisors.
Outsourcing also makes sense because a lot of advisors were writing the wrong type of content or they were downloading content from libraries. Unfortunately, downloaded content has no SEO value because the search engines have already seen the content - perhaps hundreds or thousands of times.
Outsourcing can also make sense due to the need for a continuous flow of content that is actually read by investors. Google no longer gives SEO credit for content that is not open and read by investors.
Website Conversion Rates
Most of the financial advisor websites that we reviewed were developed to deliver basic information about firms and professionals to visitors – an online brochure if you will.
They were not developed to convert visitors into qualified leads and active prospects.
A properly developed website is part of an Inbound Marketing sales funnel that starts on the Internet and ends on the advisors’ websites where visitors submit their contact information to schedule interviews or download eBooks.
It goes without saying that convincing investors to give-up their anonymity is a difficult task. That is because investors have linked the financial services industry to high pressure sales tactics from the past. They have legitimate concerns about what advisors will do with their contact data.
Financial advisor websites have to do everything right to overcome this hurdle. The right first impression. The right content. And, a compelling free offer that provides substantial value. The keyword is compelling. The ideal offer will solve a major problem that is a financial pain point for many investors.
Lack of Transparency
Very few financial advisor websites practice full transparency based on information that is important to investors. A substantial amount of information may be withheld from investors. The amount of withheld information varies by firm - philosophy and business practices.
This can be readily apparent to investors when one RIA disclosed information to website visitors that was being withheld by another financial advisory firm. It is easy to compare information in the public domain. The more investors know about financial advisors the more aware they are of information that is not being disclosed to them.
For example, one financial advisor discloses the firm is compensated with fees (hourly, fixed, asset-based), but no fee schedule. Another RIA discloses his preferred method of compensation is fees, without saying it also accepts commissions. A third RIA is fee only and it publishes its fee schedule. All three are competing for the same prospect. At some point, it is pretty obvious to the investor, that some financial advisors practice more transparency than others.
A high percentage of investors may equate transparency to trust.
The more RIAs practice transparency the more obvious it will be when other RIAs choose to withhold certain information from investors.
Distractions
Our most recent survey showed the average time-on-site for visitors on RIA websites was 2 minutes and 36 seconds. That was the amount of time financial advisors had to convince visitors to give-up their anonymity and submit their contact information.
Consequently, the navigation and content on advisor websites should be intuitive, easy-to- find, concise, and easy-to-understand. The more intuitive the navigation the more likely investors will spend more time on financial advisor websites.
Unfortunately, too many financial advisor websites are loaded with distractions that consume valuable time and fail to convince visitors to submit their contact information.
Examples of distractions included irrelevant content, calculators, and stock quotes.
Conclusion
It stands to reason that some financial advisor websites are more productive than other advisor websites. It takes Internet visibility, website traffic, and websites that are designed to convert visitors into leads to be productive.
