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See the photo above of the woman climbing a mountain? If we were designing or rewriting your website and you were that woman, that activity would be front and center on your home page. The caption would read: This is how I spend my free time.
Here’s why.
The purpose of your website
With rare exceptions, my clients tell me the primary purpose of their website is not to generate leads, but rather to validate the judgment of those who have heard about their firm, through referrals or otherwise.
Understanding the role your website is intended to serve is important. People referred to you can easily find your website. They’re not roaming the web looking for generic keywords.
How much should you should spend on SEO for your website?
When I review proposals from search-engine optimization (SEO) vendors, they run in the thousands (or even tens of thousands) of dollars, and many have recurring charges. You can get a basic SEO package for $800 from one of the platforms specializing in websites for financial advisors.
If a high organic search ranking isn’t important to you, a basic platform package may be all you need to spend on SEO.
Does your website have a soul?
I’ve reviewed hundreds of websites since I formed my digital marketing company. Most of them look like they were designed by an army of robots.
In part, this unfortunate reality is the result of the way websites are designed. Historically, each website was custom designed – an expensive and labor-intensive process. On the upside, there was the opportunity for creativity, but it was often squandered.
Few have the budget to engage in that process any longer. Instead, most advisors select a template from one of the popular platforms (like WordPress) and modify it for their unique requirements.
The good news is this is a very cost-effective way to design a website. The bad news is your website lacks imagination and is indistinguishable from everyone else’s.
A disruptive approach
You relied on evidence in formulating you investment philosophy. It’s equally important in your approach to website design.
If you are an evidence-based advisor, it’s difficult to distinguish yourself from other advisors with the same philosophy. Yet many of you ignore the primary source of differentiation: You.
Your website should show what’s unique and special about you. Here’s how to do that.
Your website should make an emotional connection with the reader. Decisions are made emotionally and not rationally (although after-the-fact we rationalize that we made the decision based on objective facts).
Your webpage is likely text-dense, with a few formal images and stiff videos. Its purpose is to demonstrate your expertise as an advisor. You do so by overwhelming the viewer with specialized content in guise of providing “education” and “resources.”
Nothing about this approach is relatable to prospects. It’s often mind-numbingly dull. I doubt the information you convey is retained even briefly.
The overwhelming evidence (summarized in my Smartest Sales book) supports a radically different approach.
It involves revealing who you really are to the viewer. What do you do in your spare time? If you are a mountain climber, or are into poetry readings, spending quality time with your family, playing sports, coaching your children’s sports teams or just taking long walks in nature, that’s what we insist on showing, up-front as the first visual image your viewers will see.
We do so because it makes you relatable and human, without detracting from your goal of also being perceived as competent.
A different reaction
What’s the reaction you want visitors to your website to have?
That’s an impressive amount of investing information
or
I’d love to meet her and understand more about how she has the courage to climb those mountains.
Dan Solin is a New York Times best-selling author of the Smartest series of books. His latest book is The Smartest Sales Book You'll Ever Read. His sales coaching practice includes helping advisors convert prospects into clients and generating leads through videos and other elements of marketing. Dan is not affiliated with any advisory firm.
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Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives
