As a financial advisor, your website is your most powerful marketing tool and it has great potential to generate new customers and a steady stream of revenue. Especially in this ‘Internet Age’ where investors are Googling for information on everything under the sun, your online presence must be appealing, modern, and easy to navigate in order to survive.
Here are a few of the most successful website elements commonly found on top-performing financial advisor websites:
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Targeted
The best financial sites are taking great care to get off on the right foot by speaking to their target audience in just the right voice. To find the right professional, approachable tone a firm must first define who it is they serve.
Knowing and understanding the target helps drive all marketing efforts and shapes every part of a successful website. From the choice of words and offers to the layout and images--the most successful sites connect and resonate with their audience.
Take another cue from websites that have found great success in including specific information that lets prospects know what to expect when they partner with them. Visitors want important details like who the financial advisory firm’s typical clients are and what services and products are offered. Informed and confident investors are far more prepared and ready to reach out for a consultation.
It may be a surprise that including a breakdown of pricing is also beneficial. In the old days, the topic of fees may have been avoided in initial communication, but today’s savvy investors do not like to hunt for details or be surprised down the road.
Smart & Pretty
It is not an overstatement to say that a professional website can make or break the success of a financial advisor. The truth is, if your website does not feel up-to-date, investors get the impression that your firm is outdated too.
From compelling visuals to content and organization, successful sites make sure that the architecture and design are seamless and client right. Smooth, speedy navigation is essential and the right tools can make it click, load, and flow just as your visitors need.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) also help prospects find and navigate the most successful websites. Firms that incorporate SEO strategies early in web development reap more benefits and consistently pull new leads.
A web-design firm with success utilizing SEO will ensure that search-engines are consistently finding and ranking a site through strategic landing pages, titles, keywords, and more.
Call To Action
As you may know, a Call-To-Action (or CTA) asks your visitors to take the next step by clicking for a valuable offer. The goal of a great CTA is to open the door for future communication with viable leads.
This is possible with effective CTAs that ask for an email address in exchange for the offer, resource, or tool. This is the way successful websites keep in touch with interested contacts who in time can become satisfied clientele.
Thoughtful CTAs are strategically placed in successful sites to provide a wealth of information and more ways for visitors to engage with the firm through ebooks, quizzes, workshops, and tools.
Blog
By now you probably know that a blog is a term coined for the online articles related to a site. When done well, blogs do more than quench consumers’ constant desire for information, they also position a firm as an expert.
This is why the most successful financial websites feature blogs on trending topics that matter to their target. In this way, successful websites have a reason to keep in touch and invite prospects back to their site to view something new.
The icing on the cake is that maintaining a blog also boosts a site’s Search Engine Optimization since engines rank websites higher on lists when there is a blog.
If the thought of writing and managing an effective blog is daunting, then know that outsourcing these efforts to a professional can save time and money.
Show Experience
The very best sites help visitors get a sense of the firm's experience right off the bat. Since trust is a major factor in choosing a firm, the best websites demonstrate a stellar reputation and track record. History about the firm’s background, philosophy, and case studies all go a long way in connecting with the target and instilling confidence.
Advisor bios with a few personal details can also help prospects begin to know the team. Pictures foster an important visual connection and the most successful sites are using actual photos of their advisors, offices, and location to help browsers know their business. Professional photographers are experts at capturing high-quality imagery that conveys the approachability and professionalism that best represents the firm.
Financial advisors have had great success including a video link for viewers to hear their team speak, which feels even more personal. Thoughtful use of these embedded videos often can better explain an investment process, in addition to giving potential clients and current investors a way to engage and connect with the firm.
Step It Up
To ensure your financial website is generating leads at its full potential, you can partner with a digital marketing agency. Go a step further and enlist an expert committed to the unique needs of financial advisors in order to reap benefits from a partner that is well-versed in current industry news and compliance.
