7 Mistakes Financial Advisors Are Making With Their Website

Let me ask you a question? How many new clients did you get from your website this year? How many leads came in from your website this week? If your answer is none or never, then your website is costing you new clients and revenue.

Today, the potential clients you are targeting to help are between the ages of 57 to 70 years old. These people, particularly the 57 to 67 age group, represent the younger end of the Baby Boomer generation and the older edge of Generation X.

What does this mean for a Financial Advisor who is trying to win new clients for their practice? It means if your website is not up to par, you will and probably are losing business.

Why? Because this group of prospective new clients came up with the internet and technology. They may not be as sharp as their children but they are comfortable and accustomed to researching on the internet. This means if your website is just an electronic billboard, then you are losing business from it.

I am going to share with you the 7 biggest mistakes I see on the majority of financial advisors websites. So when you are hiring a company to build a website for your business, you will know what to watch out for.

1.  The number one problem with websites that the majority of financial advisors have is the design of their website is outdated. It looks old and the content is confusing. The website does not engage the viewer and invite participation.

2.  The content is difficult to understand. If a visitor to your website is greeted by strange words, industry terminology, and an alphabet soup of professional designations, they will be confused and quickly leave your website. Think about when was the last time you bought something from someone that you did not understand the product or program?

I know you worked hard for and are proud of your designations, but if you are going to use them, at least define what the letters mean and more importantly why should the visitor care if you are a CEP, RFC, CLU, CFP, LUTCF, etc.

The same way with industry terminology, do not assume that the visitor knows what an IUL is.

3.  Your website is hard to navigate. When a prospect goes to your website they are looking for an answer to a question they have. Every industry can sum up what questions their prospects have to three, maybe four questions.

When people go to your website they should be able to see where to go to get the answer or at least a promising direction for the answer. The rule of thumb is that a visitor should be no more than 2 – 3 clicks away from what they want.

4.  Generic content. The trend in the industry is to purchase one of the canned websites for financial advisors. The problem is your website has no personality and looks the same as a half a dozen other financial advisors in your area. Because your content is the same as other advisors, you get penalized with Google and rank way down on the search list. Google ranks sites based on original or unique content.

While getting one of these pre-canned FMG Suite websites is better than not having a website at all if you have one of these websites you will need to be thinking of the next step and upgrading your website if you want to grow your practice.

5.  Brand yourself. Your clients buy you first and then your company second. Photos and more importantly short videos of you talking to the prospect go a long way to building trust.

6.  No or awkward call to action. Look at what do you want the visitor to do on this page? Do you want the to download a report? Schedule an appointment? The call to action needs to be clear.

7.  Your phone number is hard to find. Your phone number should not be in small print and hard to find. You need and want people to call you, so do not make it hard for them to do so.