Last week, I wrote about the mistakes advisers and planners make with DIY newsletters.
This week, we’re turning our attention to websites.
We’ve written three marketing strategies for Yardstick clients so far this month and, in each, we compare the firm we’re working with to its competitors. During that research, we uncovered the mistakes that we’re sharing in this blog.
They’re all genuine “what were you thinking?” moments that mean the firms making them will:
- Get fewer referrals contacting them
- Put doubt in the minds of prospective clients
- Get fewer right-fit enquiries from other sources.
That’s because 75% of people considering an adviser or planner, including those referred to them, will visit their website before making contact. And 88% will not return to a website after a poor first experience.
So, what mistakes did we find? Here’s the list of 10.
#1. Typos and spelling errors
One site included the line, “Contact us, if requiring help Planing your Finances”. Another offered me the opportunity to download an explainer about “The value of Lon Term Investing”.
Advisers/planners need to sweat the small stuff because typos, spelling mistakes, and grammatical errors give prospective clients reasons to doubt their attention to detail.
A spell check and a quick proofread should have caught these errors and solved the problem.
#2. Out-of-date blogs
One website’s most recent blog started with, “The Chancellor of The Exchequer Jeremy Hunt has today, Monday 17 October, brought forward a number of measures from 31 October’s Medium-Term Fiscal Plan.”
Jeremy Hunt’s last day as Chancellor was 5 July 2024!
Another site we visited last updated its newsletter section in August 2020, over six years ago.
If a firm can’t keep its blog page up to date, it should take it down.
#3. Linking to dormant social media accounts
The top right-hand corner of one site included a link to the firm’s LinkedIn page. Clicking it took me to a dormant profile with 73 followers and no posts.
Doing that offers no value to the visitor, but it risks sending them to LinkedIn, Facebook, and so on, where notifications or other people’s posts might distract them and keep them from returning to the website.
Instead, use the top-right corner of your website for a clear call to action encouraging prospects to get in touch, and think twice about linking out to social media platforms.
#4. Out-of-date information
Your website’s hero statement should explain what you do, who you do it for, and why people choose you, helping visitors decide whether they’re in the right place.
One site we found started with: “As the world economy slowly recovers from the impact of the pandemic…”
There are two problems here. The reference to slowly recovering from the pandemic makes the website feel several years out of date. And those opening words do nothing to help the visitor understand whether they’ve found the right firm.
To compound the error, the site then offered visitors the opportunity to download its 2023-2024 client brochure.
#5. Hiding the Chartered firm logo in the website footer
Chartered firm status doesn’t make a business unique, but it does set it apart from many others. So why did several firms hide the logo in their website footer, next to their regulatory statement?
Instead, place it prominently throughout your site, with an explainer about what Chartered status means and how it benefits your clients.
#6. Including stock market tickers and feeds
Financial advisers and planners talk to clients about the importance of patience in investing: spending time in the market, not timing it, and avoiding knee-jerk reactions when stock markets take a tumble.
Including a live stock market feed on a firm’s website sends a completely different message: that short-term market movements deserve attention.
Why encourage visitors to focus on the daily noise when the firm’s advice is to look beyond it?
#7. Broken links
Many of the sites had broken links, often to important pages. One site was completely down, so anyone clicking through from search results or its Google Business Profile hit a dead end.
We get it. Sometimes things break. But regular website checks should help firms spot problems and fix them quickly.
As we said, failing to sweat the small stuff can undermine a prospective client’s confidence in a firm’s attention to detail.
#8. Using a mobile as the only contact number
On a few sites, the only contact number was a mobile number.
For prospective clients seeking reassurance, a mobile number alone can make a firm seem less established and permanent.
Instead, use a landline telephone number, ideally with a local dialling code that prospective clients will recognise.
#9. Missing team profiles
Our research shows that the team sections of adviser/planner websites are well visited, often ranking as the second or third most popular pages. However, we found that some of the team profiles we reviewed were neglected.
One website had photos of three team members, but two of their profiles said, “Coming soon…”. It looked like the firm had uploaded the photos and forgotten to finish the job.
Yet the same website had written profiles for the team’s dogs. Putting the company’s pets before its people probably isn’t a good look.
Another website simply had “??????” underneath a team member’s photo. Again, hardly a sign of attention to detail.
#10. Using stock models on team pages
A team page should introduce visitors to the people they’ll be trusting with their finances. So why do some firms use photos of stock models instead?
Those people don’t work there, so prospective clients won’t meet them, speak to them, or get advice from them.
It’s inauthentic, and it wastes an opportunity to build familiarity and trust.
Instead, use real photographs of the team so prospective clients can see who they’ll be working with.
Fix the simple stuff, then review the fundamentals
These mistakes are easy to fix. However, all the sites had more serious and fundamental issues that require much more work.
For example, they all:
- Failed to showcase real clients and team members on their homepage
- Talked about products and services, rather than the types of people they serve
- Included very little social proof, such as Google and VouchedFor reviews, client testimonial videos, or survey results, to show the value of working with them.
And they all had extremely dated designs.
So what’s the alternative? To be truly effective, a website needs to do three things:
- Empathise with a visitor’s trigger
- Build trust by proving the value you deliver
- Create action by showing visitors a clear next step
That takes time, money, and commitment, but the return on investment is significant. In our experience, replacing an ineffective website with one that gets these fundamentals right significantly improves the quality of new enquiries, repaying the investment many times over.
Go and check your website. Look for the basic errors we’ve listed, then go deeper. How well does your website do the three things above?
If there’s room for improvement, we’re here to help. Email abi@theyardstickagency.co.uk or call 0115 8965 300, and let’s have a chat.
