Increasingly, wealth managers rely on their website to attract new clients – and retain the confidence of current ones.
The typical client journey used to start with a referral. Perhaps a close friend and a prospect would get talking, and the former would mention and recommend a wealth manager they had good experience working with.
This person would then introduce the wealth manager and the prospective client, face-to-face, maybe over a round of golf.
Today, things work differently.
Referrals still play an important part. People still refer wealth managers to others, yet the prospect will then often go on the investigate the business online. They check the website and do due diligence in Google Search and on social media.
If the digital presence looks compelling, the prospect may then consider reaching out to the wealth manager (or, asking the original referrer to make an introduction). All of this points to the need for a wealth manager to have a great website.
Yet how do you ensure your wealth management website is as strong as it can be? In our experience at CreativeAdviser, we have noticed that many of these websites are missing key features that are likely resulting in lost prospective clients.
Below, we share 5 ways that wealth managers can improve their websites. We hope this is helpful to you. If you’d like to discuss your own wealth manager website project with us, get in touch to arrange a free, no-commitment online meeting with us.
#1 Not mentioning the client
This is, perhaps, the biggest and most common mistake we see on wealth manager websites.
Here, the text speaks predominantly about the business – what it is, what it does and how it does it. Yet the prospective client is barely mentioned. Their needs, goals and fears are hardly addressed. This is immediately off-putting.
Imagine you go to a dinner party and start talking to someone you do not know. Suppose that person does nothing but talk about themselves; what they’re good at and their achievements. They don’t ask you any questions or appear to show any interest in getting to know you.
Most likely, you’d want to get away from this person as soon as possible?
However, we all enjoy talking to new people who appear interested in what we have to say. They try to understand and ask questions to find out more about our perspective on things. The same holds true for wealth manager websites.
Instead of focusing on what you can do in your website copy, concentrate on who your prospective clients are and what they need. You can then talk about your business by positioning it as a potential solution to your audience’s problems.
#2 Poor calls to action
A call to action (CTA) is typically a button – with some invitational text – asking the reader to take some kind of meaningful action. This may involve downloading a PDF guide, booking a place on an upcoming webinar or submitting a form to arrange a consultation.
Many wealth manager websites do not have many CTAs at all (if any!). Those which do use them often fail to use the right tone of voice, or the placement/style of the CTA is inappropriate. Here, you need a good understanding of your audience, your brand and website user experience (UX) good practice to get the best results.
If you are unsure which CTAs might work best on your website, then you can always “split test” different options. Here, you run two different slightly versions of your web page for a few weeks, to compare the results. The first might have one type of CTA and the second another.
When the results are in, you can see which one performed best and keep refining your page to get the best engagement.
#3 Little/no social proof
Social proof is evidence, on your website, of past success working with similar people to your prospective clients.
It can also refer to prestigious or positive news coverage (e.g. “as featured in ABC Magazine”).
A typical example of the former is client testimonies or case studies. Yet many wealth managers do not feature these on their websites. Perhaps they are worried about upsetting clients by asking them for permission to feature their stories. Or, maybe they are concerned about clients getting poached by competitors.
There are ways to include testimonials which respective client confidentiality and protect your business interests (e.g. just using the first name on the case study). It is crucial to include social proof on your website, as it gives prospects confidence that you can help.
#4 Hiding the team
Many wealth managers are camera-shy, or worry about featuring their team on a website out of fear of recruiters.
However, putting your people front-and-centre is crucial to inspiring the trust of prospects. Most business websites, these days, do not conceal their team. Those which do so are often now viewed suspiciously (“What are they trying to hide?”).
Make sure that you not only mention names, but include good-quality photographs too.
#5 Missing thought leadership
As prospects do their initial due diligence on your website, they will likely expect to see great articles, guides and content.
This is standard practice now across verticals. After all, content marketing helps your SEO (i.e. pushes you up search engine results) and offers your prospects immediate value – helping to inspire trust in your abilities.
Many wealth managers do not even have a blog, let alone other great content resources like downloadable guides and videos.
If you’d like to get started with these kinds of thought leadership, check out our online content library called Clients+. It offers ready-made articles, videos, guides and newsletters for wealth managers and financial planners. We hope this is useful!
