When I first started out as a financial advisor, having a website was completely foreign to me. I had been taught to cold call and door knock to get new clients, websites where not promoted at all. After getting tired of these old tactics and seeing what was possible by having an advisor website I realized I had to have a financial advisor website, period! This wasn’t up for debate – I had to have the best website possible to attract and convert new clients.
Moreover, when I started Conneqtor, my online coaching & training for Financial Advisors, I knew I had to have a professional website that clearly outlined what I have to offer, how Advisors can benefit from the course, and it had to convert potential leads into sales.
Like me you’re probably wondering how to create your Financial Advisor website and how to get it right. While I don’t recommend trying to build the website yourself – rather leave this to the professionals, unless you know a thing or two about web development – some areas need to be included on your Financial Advisor website if you want it to do its ultimate job: driving conversions.
I’ve learned a ton since getting my first website about 15 years ago. I will share some best practices and tips for you to optimize your Financial Advisor website.
Keep in mind that the following tips for your advisor website assume you already know your ideal client (niche). Without knowing this really well it will be much harder to create content for a great advisor website.
It’s time to learn how to market your services effectively and nurture your leads from the minute they land on your website right through to onboarding.
Think about the user journey
Step number one, before you even begin to think about fonts and layout, is to consider the user journey. This is the ideal journey you want users to go on when they visit your website.
Once they land on the homepage of your Financial Advisor website, where do you want them to go next? Do you want them to first read your About Me (or About Us) section before making contact? To see your pricing and then book a call with you? Or do you want them to read every word on your home page and then only take action? These are all important questions to consider before you build your website.
The design of your website and the calls-to-action (CTAs) you use will help direct users to where you want them to go. But first, you need to know where you want them to go. Also referred to as a sales funnel.
Spend time thinking about how you would ideally like people visiting your website to behave and build your design around this very journey.
Develop strong and enticing CTAs
Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes I see on many Financial Advisor websites is the lack of calls-to-action (CTAs), or too many of them. These CTAs are how you direct users as to where to go next. Typically, CTAs are in the form of a button. Take a look below at two CTA buttons I have on my Conneqtor website:
These clearly state what I want users to do when they visit my website.
Using descriptive, compelling text in your CTA buttons is a good idea rather than just a generic “click here.” Users want to know exactly where they’re headed if they click one of your CTAs on your Financial Advisor website, so make sure this is made clear to them. Also, make sure it leads them to value and not clickbait. Give your website visitors what they want, not what you want.
Use a sticky header
What’s a sticky header? Probably not what you just imagined! A sticky header is essentially when the header (top menu bar) of a website follows you as you scroll down the page.
No matter where users are on your website, with a sticky header, they can easily access your menu at any point to click on where they want to go next.
Over 50% of website visitors will leave a website that isn’t easy to navigate. A sticky header makes it easy for users to quickly find what they’re looking for and – ideally – get in touch with you from wherever they are on your website.
In other words, once they make the decision to work with you, you need to make it as easy as possible for them to take the next step and convert into scheduling a meeting with you.
If you visit my website and scroll through the content on the home page, you’ll notice that my menu at the top of the page follows you the whole way. My RIA website does the same thing. This is vital to include in the build of your Financial Advisor website.
Keep speed in mind
When was the last time you visited a website that’s just taken too long to load and ended up leaving the site? I certainly have.
There’s nothing more annoying than when a website loads slowly or not properly! In fact, over 50% of people say they will leave a website if it takes more than six seconds to load.
If you want potential clients to visit your Financial Advisor website and actually stay until they convert, it’s vital that your website loads quickly and completely in just a few seconds. Having slow load times will increase your “bounce rate”. Google and other search engines look at this metric, the higher the bounce rate the lower they rank your website in search results.
You can use this tool from Google to test the current speed of your website. I strongly suggest you speak to whoever is developing your website to ensure they prioritize your site’s speed.
Optimize for mobile
Did you know that over 60% of website traffic comes from mobile devices? With there being over one billion 5G connections worldwide by 2025, it’s absolutely essential that your Financial Advisor website is optimized for mobile.
Optimizing your website to be viewed on a mobile device involves tweaking the design and using special code to ensure your website loads optimally. Don’t worry, this isn’t something you need to learn how to do. But you need to know it’s important to make sure your website vendor is on top of it.
CTA buttons are incredibly important for mobile websites as they show people where to tap to continue their user journey. Also known as tap targets, CTA buttons on mobile websites tell users where to go – versus a desktop experience where you can see what’s clickable and what isn’t. So, again, it’s really important to nail those CTAs!
Create good content
The last and perhaps one of the most vital things you must include in your Financial Advisor website to see success is good content. Content refers to the text on your website. Content creation is an art & science, don’t underestimate the power of it but also that it takes work and consistency to get the most out of it.
Your content should include plenty of keywords that your ideal clients are likely to search for online, which will (hopefully) lead them to your page.
Moreover, your content should convince the reader as to why they should work with you. And then what steps they need to take to make that happen.
Above all else, though, your content needs to strike up a balance between sales copy and valuable content.
Of course, the website sells your services and financial products, so the content would be somewhat sales-orientated. However, you don’t want to bombard users with so much sales-speak that they bounce off your website. Instead, you want to entice them with content that is valuable to them. Showcase how you’re an expert at what you do.
Just like your practice should adopt an advice-led approach, your Financial Advisor website should reflect this too.
I initially created all of my own content under the direction of a digital marketing coach. It took months to find my voice. But if you don’t do this then it will be a waste of time & money to hire a professional copywriter to write the content for your website. They need to know your tone, style, etc. so they can mimic it. Eventually they will take over the bulk of your blogging, copy, etc.
They’ll also know how to optimize your copy for search engines, also known as SEO (search engine optimization), which we teach a lot about in my Conneqtor Coaching course.
Wrapping up on high-converting Financial Advisor websites
Your website will likely be one of your biggest investments. After all, it’s how you’re going to attract prospects and gently nudge them through your sales funnel. Only then canl they convert into paying clients.
It’s absolutely imperative that you get these six aspects in mind when working with a web vendor & developer to ensure that the final product is a masterpiece that’s going to land you your ideal client. Make sure to check out FMG’s most recent list of their top 15 financial advisor websites for more examples.
For more advice and insights on how to take your financial advisory practice into the 21st century, check out my blog. You can also download my free eBook to find out how you can be a successful Financial Advisor in this digital age, and don’t forget to subscribe to my Rethink. Financial Advice Podcast with Adam Holt.
Until next time, cheers!
Derek Notman
