What's your most powerful tool for attracting new clients? Your website!
“For financial advisors, projecting well online inspires confidence and encourages current clients to refer you,” notes Carolyn Dalle-Molle, FiComm’s vice president of Advisor Growth Marketing.
But with so many self-proclaimed business development gurus hawking the secret sauce of website design, where should you start?
Dalle-Molle and Nitesh Verma, head of Enterprise and Partnerships at marketing automation firm Snappy Kraken, set out to answer that question for participants in FiComm’s Marketing Masterclass on supercharging websites to convert prospects.
While it can be easy to get bogged down in zillions of best practices and fads, advisors can take their websites to the next level by nailing just three key elements: simple instructions, valuable content, and convincing offers:
- Clear, Bold Value Proposition – Make it obvious what you do, whom you do it for, and why you do it better than other options visitors may be considering. Keep it short and sweet – think headlines and subheads. Do it right, and your value prop will keep prospects engaged and poking around your website.
- Intuitive and User-friendly Interface – Make it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for. Remember that 40% of your traffic will come from mobile devices. Clean design and simple navigation that doesn’t force users to scroll for miles to get to the good stuff. A clear, concise website also sends a message that your firm is organized, competent, and detail-oriented, traits anyone would want in a financial advisor, Dalle-Molle added.
- Strong Call to Action – It's important to tell visitors what to do next and make it easy for them to do it. Don't just hint that it might be a good idea for them to reach out or suggest they consider scheduling an appointment. Your call to action should take them by the hand and usher them to the next step in the conversion process. You could ask them to call your office, sign up for your newsletter, or download a whitepaper (which we'll discuss more in a bit). Feel free to sprinkle multiple calls to action throughout your website, tailored to specific pages or the information you want to convey.
- Benefit-driven, Client-first Content – Visitors don’t stop by your website to be converted. They come to get information and have their questions answered. Give them what they want, and they will return the favor by continuing on their buyer journeys. Content marketing should be a major consideration, with blogs spurring return visits and demonstrating your expertise in the industry.
- Value-adding Lead Magnets – Whitepapers, surveys, reports, and webinars can effectively capture visitors' contact information in exchange for the valuable knowledge they want. Be sure to “charge” visitors to access prospects to download your lead magnets. The price is their name and contact information you can use to follow up with them later and close the deal. Dalle-Molle suggested testing magnets with various titles, screenshots, and promotional copy. “Marketing is an experiment,” she said. “It’s not something that we figure out once and we’re done. It’s a series of efforts and reinventions.”
- Search Engine Optimization – SEO has a lot of moving parts, but you can get started with the basics. It’s more than keywords; SEO is about the user experience, so keep them happy while they’re on your site with logical navigation and interesting content. Simple design ensures fast page loading without complicated image or video files that take forever, especially on mobile.
Dalle-Molle and Verma demonstrated how these tips work in real-life situations by applying them to FiComm’s Marketing Bootcamp members’ current websites. While every site and every financial advisory service is unique, the concepts will support and leverage any firm’s omnichannel marketing initiatives.
“Once someone knows your firm exists, they will satisfy themselves that you are legitimate,” Dalle-Molle said. “They will be online stalking you, checking you out. They want to know who you are and what your firm is all about. This is where your website takes center stage, with your social media accounts and online reviews playing supporting roles. Your website creates an immediate and lasting impression that can easily be the deciding factor in whether prospects continue to the decision phase of their journeys or take their business elsewhere.”
Even more than lead and traffic generation, conversion is your website’s most important function, Verma said. “Nine or 10 out of 10 of your referrals are directed there, so it’s a great way to capture your credibility and convince visitors to fill out an online form or book an appointment,”
Want actionable insights into how to improve your website, collateral, social media outreach, or any other marketing aspect? Ask the experts at Dear FiComm. It’s our take on the newspaper advice column, offering our coaches’ professional opinions via video.