When I was younger, I was obsessed with The Sims. 

In fact, my sister and I were allocated specific time slots to use the family computer (remember those days?!), where we lamented the fact that most of our time was spent waiting for the loading screens due to an abundance of installed expansion packs.

But when we finally got into the game, we were completely absorbed. We created families, gave them jobs, decided where they lived, and spent far too much time worrying about whether their little green diamond (a plumbob, for the hardcore fans among us) was hovering at a satisfactory level.

The key to the game was understanding your Sim. What did they want? What did they dislike? What made them happy? What were they good at? What were they trying to achieve?

It turns out, spending hours analysing the needs of my fictional families wasn’t completely pointless. Because when you’re writing a website, understanding the person on the other side of the screen is a pretty good place to start.

1. Know your Sim (aka your ideal client)

One of the first things you did in The Sims was create your character. You had to make specific choices about who they were, what they were good at, what they wanted from life, and what kind of personality they had.

Your website strategy requires that same level of intention.

You aren’t inventing your clients from scratch, but you do need to be just as deliberate about defining who you’re trying to reach. The better you understand the specific people you want to work with, the easier every decision about your website content becomes.

For a financial planner, that might mean getting specific about the business owner approaching an exit, the couple five years from retirement, or the successful professional who has accumulated wealth but isn’t quite sure what to do with it.

Try this: Write down what your ideal client is worried about, what they’re trying to achieve, and what might stop them seeking advice. Then, check whether your website has dedicated pages or sections that reflect those exact triggers.

2. Pay attention to their needs

Knowing your Sim was only the beginning. Once you’d created them, you had to keep an eye on what they actually needed. If you didn’t pay attention to their little needs panel, you’d face the consequences – a lot of Simlish yelling and handwaving.

The same applies to your website. Every prospective client who lands on it comes with a specific set of needs, and they’re relying on you to show them the solution.

For example, someone approaching retirement might technically need pension advice. But that’s not how they’re thinking about it. Instead, they’re asking themselves:

• Can I afford to stop working?
• Have I saved enough?
• Will I have to shrink my lifestyle?
• What happens if markets experience a downturn right after I retire?

No prospective client sits at home thinking, “I could really use some cashflow modelling today.” They’re trying to work out whether the life they’ve imagined is financially possible.

That’s why your website shouldn’t just list what you do – it should explain how what you do solves the problems that keep them up at night.

Try this: Take your main services and write down the emotional problem that causes someone to seek each one out. Does your website talk about those problems, or just the mechanics of the service?

3. Don’t make them work it out

The Sims gave you plenty of information about what your characters wanted. You didn’t have to guess why your Sim was suddenly miserable – the game was quite happy to tell you.

Your website should do the same.

If someone lands on your homepage and has to spend 10 minutes figuring out whether you work with people like them, what you actually offer, or how to get in touch, you’re making them do too much unnecessary work. 

An effective website relies on:

• Clear, intuitive navigation
• Jargon-free language
• Useful, descriptive headings
• Obvious, inviting calls to action.

Try this: Ask someone outside financial services to look at your website and answer three questions: Who is it for? What do they do? How can I get in touch? If they struggle to answer, you may need a refresh. 

So, what can The Sims teach us about building a great website?

For a game about people who routinely set fire to their own kitchens, The Sims was surprisingly good at telling you what was going on.

Your website should do something similar. Give people the information they’re looking for, show them how you can help, and make it easy to take the next step.

That’s what we do. We write website copy for financial planners and advisers, helping you say what you do in a way that makes sense to the people reading it.

If you’re unsure whether your website copy is doing its job, drop Abi a line at abi@theyardstickagency.co.uk.