It stands to reason smart, prudent investors are going to use the information on websites to learn more about financial advisors. And, the more money they plan to invest the more prudent they will tend to be. Mistakes have bigger impacts on larger asset amounts.
Financial Advisors and Firms
Investors with larger asset amounts will research financial advisors and the firms that they represent.
They know the policies of the firms can impact the advice that is provided to them by financial advisors.
Since most of the information on financial advisor websites is about firms it is important to have bios on the site for each financial advisor.
The Low Hanging Fruit
The easiest way to learn more about financial advisors and their firms is to visit their websites.
This makes sense because every financial advisor in America has a website that disseminates information about financial advisors and firms.
The second easiest source of information is based on Google name search. Investors enter names of firms and professionals to learn more about them. In a positive sense, they see articles that were written by the firms and their professionals. In a negative sense, they see complaints that have been lodged against the firms and their professionals.
Key Information on Financial Advisor Websites
One of the most visited pages on financial advisor websites is the "Our Team" page. Investors want to know who is going to be advising them and their years of experience, college degrees, and relevant certifications.
A financial advisor website should have a "Who We Serve" page that describes their ideal types of clients: Business owners, professionals, pre-retirees, retirees, etc. The more investors can connect with the content on advisor websites, the higher the probability they will give-up their anonymity and submit their contact information.
A financial advisor website should have a "What We Do" page that describes their services in enough detail that investors can make a connection. The financial advisor provides the services that investors are looking for.
A financial advisor website should have an "Our Practices" page that describes how they are compensated, how they interact with clients, and how they protect client information.
Protecting client information is an important characteristic. After all, financial advisor websites are asking investors to give-up their anonymity and submit their contact information. Investors, in particular those who have had bad experiences with previous advisors, will be very cautious. What will financial advisors do with the information: Sales calls, spam emails, sell information to third parties?
Quick Access to Key Information
All of the information on a financial advisor website must be delivered in a clear, intuitive manner. That’s because our surveys show investors will exit sites before they will look for information.
This means financial advisor websites must have intuitive navigation that leads visitors to the information they are seeking.
Financial advisors should assume investors are visiting several financial advisor websites. The information on the site will determine which advisors are contacted.
The Three Minute Solution
Our most recent survey showed the average time on websites for financial advisors is two minutes and 33 seconds. That is the amount of time financial advisors have to deliver marketing messages and key information.
Advisors should view Google Analytics data to determine the average time on their websites. If the time on site is substantially less than three minutes, this is a good indicator that the current content is not resonating with investors who visit the site.
Financial advisors should also view the average time that is spent on each of their website pages. There may be certain pages that have very few views or very little time is spent on the page by visitors. This is another indicator that the content on the page is not resonating with investors.
Best Source of Financial Advisor Leads
Financial advisor websites should produce the best leads. That is because investors have taken the time to learn more financial advisors before they decided to contact them.
In fact, some advisors have even said the leads that are produced by their websites are pre-sold.
