Your website (and wider online presence) is crucial to generating new clients.
Why? Because people considering engaging you, including those referred by existing clients, will often look you up online. The results of that search will increase or decrease the chances of them getting in touch.
Therefore, it’s crucial your website does everything possible to both impress and engage visitors by giving them the information they are looking for.
How do you know what that is?
Read on and we’ll tell you.
Using Google Analytics we’ve reviewed the websites of financial advisers and planners to compile a list of the 10 most popular pages. The page at the top of the list is no surprise but there are some unexpected entries as we work our way down it.
1. Home
The entry point for most website visitors, your homepage should be easy to navigate, treading a fine line between giving visitors the information they need and promoting the things which are important to you.
Avoid the mistake of focussing on financial planning too soon (click here to read why that’s a problem), empathise with the reason people are visiting your site and dial up the social proof to demonstrate the benefits of working with you.
2. Meet the team
Every prospective client will look for something different in their adviser or planner. Some will want qualifications and accreditations; others will be more interested in your background and interests. Almost all will want to know that you are experienced in working with people like them.
Potential clients ‘meet’ you (online at least) before you meet them, making a well-designed team page vital. The firms which ignore this advice are making a serious error which will significantly reduce the effectiveness of their site.
3. Contact us
People will visit your contact page for a variety of reasons; some will want your telephone number, others a way of contacting you online. People visiting your office might want directions, a map or to know more about parking.
A comprehensive contact page will make everyone’s life easier, prospects and clients alike.
4. News
A well populated and regularly updated news section showcases your knowledge while delivering value to visitors. It’ll do your search engine rankings no harm either.
Be careful though, the reverse is also true. A neglected news section (the worst we’ve seen was 10 years out of date) makes your business look out of touch and lazy.
If you can’t commit to updating your news section yourself, then outsource the job.
Shameless plug: click here to read our outsourced content writing and newsletter proposition.
5. Case studies
Client videos are the perfect way of showing off the benefits of financial planning. Yes, they can be costly and will take some hard work, but you can use the results in a variety of ways for years to come.
If your budget doesn’t run to videos, written case studies supported by a photo of your client are an effective alternative. Click here to see an example on one of our client’s websites.
6. About us
Potential clients will naturally want to know more about the business they’ll put their trust in. So, give them what they want by including a detailed page explaining what you do and who you do it for.
Whilst this is different from the ‘why us’ page, it doesn’t do any harm to sell yourself here too.
7. Popular blogs
The fact that individual blogs make it into the top 10 emphasises how important they are. Add regular updates, make them interesting, add value and people will read them.
8. Why choose us
This is your chance to show off and explain to potential clients why they should work with you.
We’ve said many times that financial advisers and planners shouldn’t search for a USP (you can read why by clicking here) but that they must understand how they are different and communicate these differences clearly.
Your ‘why us’ page is your chance to do just that. From your Chartered, Accredited and Independent status (yes, it still means something to many people) to being highly rated on VouchedFor or offering lifestyle financial planning, understand how you are different and shout about it.
9. Individual team member pages
We believe that every member of your team should have their own individual page on your website.
The best pages balance the professional and personal. You’d be surprised how many clients are interested in your background, family life and interests.
10. Who you work with
We live in an increasingly complex world, specialist advice is, therefore, crucial. Furthermore, it’s reassuring to potential clients that you work with people like them.
Case studies are a great way of showing this in practice, but pages explaining who you work with are crucial too. And, it beats talking about pensions, investments, protection. Yawn!
So, what next?
You need to give people what they want so, first things first, if you are missing any of these pages it’s time to add them in.
Depending on what’s missing, filling the gaps might take some time and effort. The rewards will be worth it though as you’ll see lower engagement levels, with potentially fewer conversions, without them.
Next, critically review the pages from the list you do have on your site. Use Google Analytics to review their performance focusing on the length of time people spend on each page and the bounce rate.
Next week we’ll reveal the average time visitors spend on these top 10 pages so you can see how yours compare. In the meantime, open up your website and see which pages you’re missing.
And, if you need our help to plug the gaps, you know where we are!
