Visibility, traffic, and website conversion rates are the three most important metrics that measure digital marketing results. It goes without saying, but I will anyway, that the functionality on your financial advisor website has the greatest impact on your production of new leads and contacts.
Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. Weak financial advisor websites do not convert visitors into qualified leads. Every day their websites squander potential leads that visit their sites then they exit without submitting their contact information.
In fact, many financial advisors have told us their current websites have never produced a lead. Therefore, they have no expectations for the ways digital marketing can help them win new clients for their firms.
It stands to reason, that investors initiate contact when they have positive experiences on the Internet - that is, they find what they are looking for. I would take it one step further. What they find on a financial advisor’s website also has to be competitive with what they are seeing on the other websites that they are visiting. Let’s say they visit eight sites, but only contact four to schedule interviews. A critical first step is making this initial cut.
Why does a weak website cause so much damage? On the one hand, it is not helping your firm produce new clients and revenue. On the other hand, any money that is spent producing visitors for your website is being wasted.
This article will provide several tips that will help you improve the productivity of your website:
- How do financial advisor websites produce positive first impressions?
- Which types of investors use the Internet to find financial advisors?
- How do investors use the Internet to screen financial advisors?
- Why do investors use a process of exclusion when they screen financial advisors?
- What are investors looking for on financial advisor websites?
- What are the key characteristics of the best financial advisor websites?
- What are the top 3 issues if a financial advisor’s website is not producing leads and contacts?
How do financial advisor websites produce positive first impressions?
A website is an investor’s electronic first impression of your firm. That impression could be positive, negative, or neutral. It will impact whether investors stay on your site to learn more about your firm:
- Have they come to the right website?
- Does your firm provide the services they are seeking?
- Does your firm work with investors like them?
- Does your firm have any distinguishing characteristics?
- Is your firm competitive with other firms?
This is a financial advisor’s one-time opportunity to make the right first impression.
Which types of investors use the Internet to find financial advisors?
Two types of investors use the Internet to find out more about you - those who know you and those who don’t know you.
The investors who know you will enter your name or your firm’s name in Google to find the information they are seeking. There is a 90% probability they will find you and end up on your website.
Investors who don’t know you will enter geo-specific keywords in Google. For example, they enter a zip code or city/state with the keywords “financial planner” or “financial advisor.” There is a good chance they will find you and 25 of your biggest competitors.
How do investors use the Internet to screen financial advisors?
In the good old days, the principal way investors obtained information from advisors was during sales calls. They had to talk to advisors to learn more about them, so the advisors controlled the information that investors relied on to make their selection decisions. All too often, the advisor with the best sales skills, brand name, personality, or presentation won the relationship.
The Internet is a game-changer as increasing numbers of investors use it to obtain information about financial firms and advisors before they meet with them. Or, they use the Internet to validate the information that is provided to them by advisors. New tools will make the vetting and validation processes much easier for investors in the future.
There is a bottom line. Investors will have access to increasing amounts of information that is not impacted by the sales skills of financial advisors. For example, 82% of investors will visit financial advisor websites before they initiate contact. 64% will Google search for the advisor’s name.
Why do investors use a process of exclusion when they screen financial advisors?
Ignore this process at your own risk.
Put yourself in the shoes of investors for a minute. They are talking to the four finalists of their search process and plan on hiring just one. They have to make decisions to eliminate three in order to hire one.
The investors do not know which advisors are best. Who has the best credentials? Who is the most trustworthy? Who will provide the best advice? Who will produce the best results?
Since they don’t know who is best, they exclude three for a variety of reasons and select the last advisor standing. Consequently, investors are looking for reasons to exclude advisors from further consideration. It makes their final decision that much easier. Advisors do not want them to find these reasons on their websites.
What are investors looking for on financial advisor websites?
Investors visit financial advisor websites for these reasons:
- They are seeking information about financial firms
- They want to learn more about the professionals who work for the firms
- They want to schedule an introductory interview
- They want information about a financial topic
The ideal investors (leads) are seeking advisors they can interview. A much bigger number (contacts) are seeking various types of information. Ideally, they will want to interview advisors in the future. The contacts end up in the financial advisors’ CRM systems.
The most important pages on financial advisor websites include:
- About Us (Background)
- Our Team (Credentials)
- What We Do (Services)
- Who We Serve (Ideal Clients)
- Why Select Us (Differentiation)
- Resources (Financial Information)
What are the key characteristics of the best financial advisor websites?
The best financial advisor websites have seven critical marketing characteristics in common:
- They deliver all of the content that investors are seeking
- The information on their websites is easy to access
- The content is easy to read and understand (no investment jargon)
- All graphics have some relevance to key personas
- There are no distractions on the website
- High-value free offers convert visitors into leads
- It is easy to initiate contact
The key metric for the best financial advisor websites is the percentage of visitors who become leads and contacts. Other metrics include average time on site, number of pages visited, bounce rates, etc.
What are the top 3 issues if a financial advisor’s website is not producing leads and contacts?
There are several issues not limited to the financial advisor’s website.
The real problem could be the financial advisor websites lack the traffic they need to convert more visitors into leads and contacts. Website traffic is produced by Internet visibility for keywords that produce the right types of traffic for advisor websites.
So, the top three metrics to check out are:
- Your visibility on the Internet
- The traffic that is produced by your visibility
- Your website’s ability to convert visitors into leads and contacts
Editors note: This post was originally published in 2015 and has been completely revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
