A website is a major marketing asset, as it is your firm’s main digital shopfront. Yet many businesses either ignore their website or haven’t bothered to build one.
Most financial planning operations do have a website but it can be a challenge to determine whether it’s creating value. In my book, regardless of whether you’re launching or rebuilding a site, there are a several issues to consider that will help maximise the value of your online presence.
Be clear about the primary function of a website
This might sound straightforward but many owners don’t take the time to consider what a website can accomplish. Lead generation is a common goal. The aim is to attract potential clients so they can learn more about your firm’s offerings and decide either to contact you or make a purchase. If these are your goals, then you’ve determined the website’s primary function, and you must endeavour to build your content accordingly.
Identify how your clients will use the site
Once you understand the purpose of your website, you’re well-placed to map out paths clients will take on it. In other words, you can take a visitor by the hand, virtually, when they land on your homepage. To do this effectively, you must put yourself in the shoes of financial planning clients. If you’re targeting young professionals seeking to build wealth, think about how easy it is for them to find relevant information. Review the menus, the landing page, the page layouts, and whether the website is easy to navigate.
This is a valuable exercise that forces you to focus on the new visitor experience. Given people’s attention spans are at an all-time low, it must be easy and pain-free to navigate your website. Likewise, hiding information under multiple headings isn’t a practical approach. If headings are ambiguous to new visitors, they’ll simply give up and move to your competitors’ sites.
Your marketing messages should govern the content delivered on the site. Messaging on the website should align with the rest of your sales and marketing content. If there are inconsistencies, then you have a problem.
Unless you’re a web developer, don’t go it alone
There are many basic web design packages available for do-it-yourself design. Wix is a good example. However, unless you’re competent with web development/design, marketing, copy creation, content marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine marketing, and a host of other areas, I would engage a website professional.
By the same token, you don’t have to spend a fortune building or renovating a website. There are literally hundreds of developers working on common Content Management Systems (CMS) such as WordPress. To find the right website professional for your business, don’t be afraid to seek recommendations from colleagues and friends.
Finally, be sure to use a standard CMS platform such as WordPress or Joomla. There are many developers using these platforms, which means you will be able to make changes to your website or design team in the future without too much stress.
