At FMG Suite, if there’s one thing we see advisors get stuck on, it’s writing their website content. Whether they enjoy writing or despise the task, creating a powerful and effective message (that is also SEO friendly and compliance approved) often proves difficult. For the next step of our “Marketing Makeover,” we worked with our advisor to craft some thoughtful and customized website content.
The advisor’s current site lacks any marketing content (relying only on investment information) so we started the website copywriting process with a clean slate. Our copywriter spent thirty minutes interviewing the advisor, covering a number of questions, including what makes his practice unique, which services he offers, who his ideal clients are, and what he wants his visitors to take away when reading his website. Once the advisor completed this interview call, all he had to do was sit back and relax while we tackled writing his content.
Here, we’ll share some tips on how we wrote the advisor’s website.
The Importance of the Home Page
First, we looked into the advisor’s Google Analytics for his old site. If you remember from our previous blog, a majority of the advisor’s site visitors landed on his home page. This will generally be the case for most advisors’ websites. This means it’s critical for advisors to capture the most important elements on their home page. Even if there is limited space for text, an advisor can still highlight their key information: who they are, what they do, who they do it for, and where their business operates.
The Second Most Important Page
Beyond the home page, the advisor’s “About” page holds the most weight. Clients and prospects want to know who the advisor is and what makes him or her tick. An advisor’s “About” page should feature a healthy balance of personal story and details about their expertise and experience. We call this balancing the head and heart. Advisors should avoid only highlight their credentials; we recommend they dive into their passion for the industry and share what they enjoy most about their job. If they were inspired by a specific person or incident, share their motivation and passion.
Before “About” Section:
First, as a registered representative of LPL Financial, and now, as an Investment Advisor Representative of LPL Financial, I provide professional investment advisory services to more than 150 individual clients who have more than $65,000,000 invested with me in securities through LPL Financial.
After “About” Section:
I’m Thomas Dobransky, an independent financial advisor supported by LPL Financial in San Diego, California. I have lived in San Diego all of my life, growing up in a small house in Lemon Grove, with two brothers and working class parents. My father served in the Navy for 40 years and my mother worked as a caterer and a baker while she raised me and my two younger brothers. Like many in the 1940’s and 1950’s, we experienced some difficult times and struggled to make ends meet.
I realized from a young age the sense of peace, security and dignity that successful financial planning, budgeting, saving and investing can provide. This inspired me to eventually enter the financial services industry and help people just like my parents feel confident in their financial situation and give security to their families.
Early in my career, I saw firsthand how I could help people by guiding them toward security and success in their finances. I committed my career to working with positive individuals who want to plan and invest for the long term and, over the past 30 years, this goal has transformed into my life’s passion.
Today, I remain committed to educating, engaging, and inspiring as many people as possible to take control of their finances. I enjoy building close, long-lasting relationships with my clients, many of which span decades and generations.
Over the years I have noticed that clients frequently call me to share their happy news, whether it’s a new job or the birth of a child. I am also honored to serve as a shoulder to lean on during difficult times in life, such as a layoff, divorce, or death. It’s my privilege to help clients on their journey of life and to celebrate their successes with them.
This page is often either the easiest or the most difficult page for advisors to write. For some, sharing your story is simple and exciting, and the words will flow onto the page. For others, determining how to tell your story or what exactly to include can cause frustration and uncertainty. An advisor may be asking himself, “Am I oversharing? How much is too much? Will anyone really care?” If they aren’t sure what to include and what to skip, we recommend they write a draft (don’t even edit it!) and share it with a friend, family member, or colleague to get their feedback.
Highlight Your Niche
We also created several other pages centered around what we learned from our thirty minute phone call with the advisor. For example, we learned that the advisor largely works within his local community. Throughout his website content, we listed some of the neighboring cities where the advisor works to help with his search engine optimization. This means, when someone searched for “financial advisor in San Diego,” he has a greater chance of appearing on that first page of search results.
We also learned that the advisor largely works with three specific niches: professionals in the science and medical fields, women, and small business owners. After learning how he centers his services around the needs of these clients, we reflected these benefits in his website content. We highlighted these niches and addressed how the advisor specifically works with these clients and addresses their concerns better than anyone else in the area.
Discovering Your Unique Elements
We work with a number of advisors on their website content and we often see advisors learn new things about their own practice through our interview process. Like so many others, this advisor couldn’t easily pinpoint what made his practice unique or how he differed from other advisors in the area. It wasn’t until we dug into his clientele, his passion for the industry, his long career, and his goals that we realized he had three distinct client niches and a number of factors that made him unique.
If an advisor is having trouble determining the unique or differentiating elements of his or her firm, we recommend they talk with a friend or professional who isn’t familiar with their firm. They should explain what they do, who their average client is, and why someone should choose to work with them instead of someone else. Through this process, the advisor may discover what others find most intriguing about their firm and that will help the advisor decide what to focus on in writing their site.
If an advisor needs help writing his or her website, FMG Suite offers Website Copywriting starting at $499. Learn more about our Website Copywriting service here.
Marketing Makeover: The Next Step!
With the new website content complete, we’re now moving on to the build of the Exclusive Website for our advisor, which includes choosing some great photography, design and colors that complement the new logo. Stay tuned as we continue to share the process of our “Marketing Makeover!”
