Mastering the 5-Second Rule: How to Create Websites That Convert

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you so much for being here today. We are gonna get started here in just, a minute or so. And while everyone’s signing on, we wanted to go ahead and start a poll because we love to see where everybody’s at and get a good baseline.

So we’re gonna launch a poll. And as you’re coming into the room here, if you wouldn’t mind just answering the quick question on your screen, which is what do you think is the most important to increase conversions on your website with a couple different answers?

And so this is really just us gauging the audience here, seeing where everyone is at, and then we will share the results with you all. So, please take a minute and do that as you’re joining. And then the other thing we would love to know as you’re signing on is where you are joining us from. So I’m Samantha Russell, and I am in State College, Pennsylvania.

And Melissa, who’s here, Melissa Thomas, she is joining us from the Philadelphia area. Right?

That’s Westchester, Pennsylvania.

Alright. We got Sandy coming in from San Diego.

I just see who else we have. Ocean Isle Beach in North Carolina. Oh, that sounds wonderful. It’s storming here in PA.

Beach sounds great. Violeta is from coming from Chicago. I was just in Chicago this weekend for Memorial Day. It was so fun.

We did the architectural boat tour, me and the kids. We got Omaha, Nebraska. Hannah’s in Phoenix.

Joe Messenger. Hi, Joe. I haven’t seen you in a while. He’s in Sarasota, Florida. Another Chicago Inn.

We’ve got Connecticut, Georgia, Texas. I hope everybody who’s in Texas is doing alright and that if you’re here, you must have found some power, so that’s good.

But I don’t know if everybody there.

Yeah. We got lots of people coming from everywhere. Oh, Keena. Hi, Keena. So nice to see you’re here.

And she said it’s a hundred degrees in Florida. Wow. Alright. So let’s give you all five more seconds, and then we will share the poll results and, see where we’re at.

So, Blair, if you would share what where we’re at with the poll, and we can all take a look at the results there.

Alright. So it looks like we have a pretty clear winner, encouraging visitors to take action. Contact you, schedule a consult is what people are saying is the highest, or the number one thing to increase conversions, but pretty close behind was clearly communicating your value proposition, who you serve, and who you are. Are. Melissa, are you surprised by those choices at all?

Not at all surprised by those choices. I’m excited to dig into both of those today.

Yes. Awesome.

Well, we are gonna go ahead and get started, and let me just share my screen here. I’m sorry if it’s not if I my sound isn’t that the greatest right now to everyone. Hopefully, you can all hear me okay.

Here we go. So this is a joint webinar between FMG and Tensionly, and we are talking about creating a website that converts and specifically how to use something called the five second rule or five second test to assess your own website and then how you go from there, next steps. So if you’re not familiar with FMG, we have an award winning marketing suite built just for financial advisors, and this is just some of the awards we’ve won over the last few years. If you haven’t taken a look at FMG in a while, now is definitely the time.

And we actually have a really fun, live demo we’re gonna be doing in just a couple weeks on June thirteenth called the FMG era, kind of a little fun plan, the Taylor Swift era tour. And it’s gonna be live. I’m gonna be showing you everything that’s new, and we’ll have lots of prizes. So look for an invite for that coming soon.

So let me just go back really quick, though. I know so many of you on the call, but I’ll just reintroduce myself. I’m Samantha Russell, and I’m the chief evangelist here at FMG. And I have been helping advisers with their marketing for about the last decade, specifically digging into how to look at things like your website, your social media, your email communications, and figure out what’s working, what’s not, and then make changes so that you can drive more, business for your firm.

And joining me today is Melissa Thomas, who I’ve just met for the first time. So, Alyssa, Alyssa, I’m so sorry. Melissa, can you tell us, a little bit about yourself?

Yeah. Thank you so much for having us.

Melissa Thomas. So I am the president of Advisor Brand Builder and the head of strategy at Intentionally.

Advisor Brand Builder is our latest, way that we are helping financial advisers, develop a, really high impact compelling brand that ignites their marketing efforts. I’ve been in this space for, gosh, my entire career at this point and really very much focused on brand development and the journey that that could take you on to ultimately grow your firm.

Awesome. Well, we’re so glad to have you and excited to dig in. And I already see a couple questions coming in about, you know, how to create graphics. Can you use things like Canva?

All the questions, feel free to go ahead and drop them at any point in the q and a, and we promise to get to as many of them as we can, throughout the presentation. So we’re gonna start with something called the five second test. If you’ve been on a webinar I’ve done before on websites, you’ve probably heard me talk about this. So I’d love to know in the chat, are you aware, yes or no, what the five second test is, or the five second rule, again, can go by either name.

Have you heard of that before? So let us know in the chat. But, basically, before you wanna start sending people to your website, you want to know, does your website pass the five second test? And the five second test is something we use in, marketing and user experience, user design to determine whether this digital asset or storefront, if you will, is doing its job.

Right? Is it going to take the people that we’re sending to it and have them take the appropriate next step and be converted? So you can see here’s an example of, a website here, fiduciary financial partners. And, you know, like many of you, they focus on people who are, pre retirees.

But look at how clear their value proposition is there. Right? Retirement planning for individuals age fifty plus and four zero one k solutions for businesses with fifty to two hundred employees. So instead of just saying, you know, we get you to financial freedom or something more generic, they have a very clear message about who they are, what they do, and who they do it for.

And so that’s really what the five second test is. The five second test is you pull up your website and you show it to somebody, and then you count to five and you close the the laptop and you ask them a series of questions such as, what do you remember seeing? Who would benefit from the service that this, firm is offering? What action should you take next?

You know, what was the page about? And if they give you answers like, I think it was something to do with, you know, financial services or it might be a bank, you know, you’ve got a long way to go to clear up your messaging. Right? If you say who do they work best with and they have no idea, again, you need to be a lot more clear in your messaging because people within five seconds will decide whether or not they are on the right website and if they want to keep exploring more.

So that is why this is so crucial.

So with the five second test, if you, once you do it, you really wanna think about a couple different a couple different elements. Right? So there’s really three. The copy, so who you are, what you do, and who you do it for, the image, which should be reinforcing that messaging, and then the user experience.

Where do you want someone to click on the page to, go next? Right? So in that last image, you remember, we had we’re talking about construction industry. We have a picture of construction because our brains process imagery sixty thousand times faster than text.

So we’re actually gonna see the construction picture before we even read the text. Right? In this next next example, we’re seeing the image of these two guys here and the graphs behind them before we’re reading the text. That’s just the way our brains work.

So the image that you select for your home page is incredibly important as well. And here, we can obviously see we design financial plans for busy executives and their families, and then they have the schedule the call button on the bottom right corner or, the prepare your finances with the financial fortress blueprint. So they have two different calls to action here. When it comes to the copy though, and I know, Melissa, I’ve seen you nodding your head about the copy specifically, this is probably the area on all the websites we look at that can use the most help.

Most people write their copy in a way that comes across as boring, bland, and it does not actually say who you help and speak in their language. Right? So I love this example I have here. We want you to write how people talk. That is really the key here. You want to be talking in a way that the person visiting your website is gonna say, yes.

This firm works with people just like me. Right? That’s the ultimate goal. And so when you use their words I also love using you statements.

So here here you can see. Right? Everything is you focused. If you go look at your own website right now and I add you add up how many things you say I or we.

Like, we’ve been in business thirty years. I have over twenty years of experience.

We put our clients first. It’s all about you versus if you versus if you change it and make it all about the client. You know? This is the situation happening in your life, and this is how we help. Right? So you wanna be thinking what is the problem your clients have or prospects have, and then what is the solution you provide to that problem written in you language.

So let’s just take a look at these two examples here, and you can all tell me, you know, which message to you is a lot more clear if you were falling in one of these categories. And, And, Melissa, I’m sure if you had a penny for how many times you’ve seen somebody write, we help businesses, families, and individuals, right, which is basically just another way of saying we help everyone.

And maybe some of you have that on your own website.

But the one on the right, they’re saying retirement planning.

So many of you are doing retirement planning. That’s actually still really broad. And fifty plus, that’s pretty much the, you know, the whole target market here for most advisers. But just writing it that way, retirement planning for individuals age fifty plus sounds more specific than we help businesses, families, and individuals. And then the four zero one k solutions for businesses with fifty to two hundred employees. Right? So just getting a little bit more specific can go a long way.

Very long way.

Okay. So we have another poll for you, and we want to know how confident you are that your own website passes the five second test. So, Blair, if we could launch that poll. And we wanna know if you remember, go back and think. If someone were to pull up your website, they know nothing about you and your business, and they’re shown your site, and within five seconds, they have to determine who you are, what you do, and who you do it for.

How confident are you that it passes? So we’ll give everybody just a minute or two here to answer.

Okay, Blair. Let’s look at the results.

Alright. So somewhat confident or not very confident are the two major winners with not confident at all far behind. Well, you’re in the right place because we’re gonna show you how to do it.

We have just one more poll question which is what do you think is the best way to improve your answer? So let’s look at the four options here and have everybody give their guess.

And then once you all do that, we will actually give you, a very clear directive of how you can actually do that. So do you think the best way to improve is a clear value proposition and messaging, high impact modern visuals, compelling engaging ongoing content, or direct and clear calls to action.

And Vince just said, I’m in the process of upgrading to your premium website for my current subscription. Looking forward to passing this test soon. Yes. I love it, Vin.

So happy to have you on board. The premium website offering from FMG is amazing, and we’ve done so much work to make it really follow a formula that we know works. So happy to have you on board. Alright, Blair.

Let’s look at the answers.

Alright. A clear value proposition and messaging. You guys are my people. You know what’s up.

So you are correct. That is one hundred percent, at least in my opinion. I don’t know Melissa. You could have a different opinion.

We’re open to different opinions here. The best way to move forward.

Yeah. Well, I would actually add to that, Sam. I think in some ways, that question was a little bit of a trick question because really taking a look at all of those aspects of your website together is what creates a comprehensive brand experience that paints the right picture for your firm.

Can you jump to the next one if you get a sec?

Can you see that okay?

Yeah. Yep. Can you move one one more forward?

So we think about messaging as sort of the the oh, can you go one back? I think my Internet might be a little delayed here.

Delay. Yeah. Sorry.

Yeah.

It’s it should be up there. I see it. Hopefully, everyone Okay.

I see it now. Yep. I see it now. Okay. So when we think about messaging, we really think of it as sort of the, the centerpiece of a comprehensive brand.

And really a brand and and all of the pieces that go into it is is what we think of as one of the most powerful assets you have right next to your expertise.

Your messaging helps you ultimately establish credibility. It’s one of the biggest and and sort of first ways that you have to build trust. As as Samantha mentioned, someone visits your site for the first time and they don’t clearly see, you know, an experienced messaging and and visuals that tell them right away that you are a professional, you are experienced, you are, credible, and that you look like you deliver an experience that’s of high value, then they’re gonna quickly move on. There are so many options in terms of access to advice with how connected our world is today. So it really is so important for building trust.

Good messaging and a strong brand in general, I think, also promotes engagement. We want visitors to spend time on your site. We want visitors to want to click around and to learn more about you and sort of peel back the layers of the onion one piece of at a time and learn more about what it is that you can really do for them. And then, ultimately, it has to support your differentiation, your ability to differentiate.

And I can’t tell you how many times we’ve you know, I’ve had a conversation with an adviser about messaging or and it it starts with me asking, well, how did you get to where you are today? And oftentimes, they say, well, I really didn’t know where to start. So I took a little bit of this, person’s website, and I saw this firm who does a great job. And I pulled a little bit from them.

And next thing you know, they’ve put together a message platform that doesn’t really sound like anybody because it’s not really them. Right? It’s it’s sort of taken from, you know, other advisers and firms who are doing it well. So really being authentic and and differentiating yourself is such a a big opportunity for your website messaging.

Can you skip forward to the next?

Sure thing.

Oh, did I What? Am I frozen completely? You did you’re you’re Hello, guys?

A little bit of a lag. Hello? Yes. We can hear you and see you.

Oh, okay. I’m sorry. I couldn’t you guys were completely frozen. I couldn’t I couldn’t see or hear anything.

Oh, that’s okay. Yeah. Sometimes when you take your camera off, it might help to Yeah. WiFi a little.

Yeah. I think I’ll I’ll just take camera off if that’s okay.

So, you know, ultimately too when we think about your brand and your messaging, the the metrics bear out. And and the fact of the matter is is that brands, businesses, firms that have better brands also have better business results. The research supports that. Consumers, clients, anybody.

Right? We’re all consumers in our own lives as well. We wanna do business with brands that look professional, that are packaged, that sound like they specifically can meet the needs that I have, you know, in whatever area of my life that that I’m looking to consume something, whether it’s financial advice or a new pair of shoes. Right?

So, it’s really, really important because the the the metrics do, you know, just prove the fact that those who do it well are more successful as well.

And jump to the next.

Okay. So when when we think about sort of the do’s and don’ts of of great website branding, what we often find is that brands that need a boost often have a really great story to tell. Right? They just don’t always know how to tell it. They don’t know where to get started. So in the example that I shared before with, you know, advisors that we’ve spoken to who’ve kind of borrowed from different, you know, sites that they they see and they admire, that’s that’s, you know, a a telltale sign.

They often also have dated or inconsistent visual elements. Even firms that are well established that are, you know, not starting new. It’s important to look at things like your imagery, your the photography that you’re choosing, the color scheme. How well do they align with sort of the expectations that your clients and prospects have now? How well do they paint a picture of what it is that you can do for them? And then what we talk about too in terms of messaging and and the connection to the visuals is that how does it all tie together to create an overall experience that helps you stand out and that, again, sends the message that you are the best choice in a field where there are a lot of great choices.

I I was chuckling before, Samantha, because I I sort of think, you know, back in the day when financial planning became kind of the the topic du jour, the idea that you were delivering personalized financial advice was maybe at one time a, you know, a a part of a differentiator statement. But now now we have to be so much more specific. Right? Because you’re doing it and other firms are doing it. So really dialing into that level of specificity.

Because the reality is whether or not it’s true, you know, you’re at risk to be, you know, judged by your cover and not your book if you don’t have a website that ultimately reflects the the quality of the advice you deliver and the and the experience that your clients can count on.

So here, I I’m sort of showing an example of the way we think about building a brand, you know, following some best practices, and creating a brand that can stand out on a website.

Creating really, as Samantha mentioned before, strong, clear messaging that is specific and unique to you, coordinated visual elements, again, that reflects the audience that you’re you’re trying to reach, and ultimately clear, consistent calls to action that make it very simple to know the next step and sort of the expectation that we have, for the visitors to your site and kind of tying that all together in a really well professional high quality looking brand package.

Was there anything else to say on the phone or That’s it.

I think that’s it. Yeah. I’m sorry. Forget that you can’t see my face, worms.

You know? That’s okay. That’s okay.

So that’s amazing. And we’re gonna talk a little bit more about how Advisor Brand, Builder and F and G work together. So, we’ll stay tuned for that. There were a couple questions that came in I wanted to answer really fast.

Somebody asked about how important it is to use testimonials or Google reviews in your website for social proof. If you are able to do it, I know some if you’re affiliated with certain broker dealers, they’re still rolling out how they want you to do it. But we highly, highly suggest that you do it if you can. If you have, you know, those reviews and testimonials, it is social proof.

Right? I mean, I don’t know about you, Melissa. I don’t even buy a book of jeans without reading reviews about them. I’m listening.

I can’t imagine hiring someone to manage my whole financial life without, reading the reviews and wanting to see what other people have to say. So, you know, think of the Google review as the modern day referral. Right? It used to be one friend tells another friend privately.

Nobody else sees it. Now somebody asks in a local Facebook community group, who do you recommend for a financial adviser? And ten people give answers, and it’s a public referral. Mhmm.

Or they go to Google, and they leave a review, and now that review can be read by thousands of people. So, you know, these online reviews, and testimonials are really just the modern day referral, but it’s become a one to many approach, which really gives you a bigger bang for your buck.

Totally agree.

Alright. So, Melissa and the team and intentionally through adviser brand builder have really a I think it’s six. Is it six steps? Six six Yeah.

Proven strategies for crafting a compelling brand. And what we thought would be fun to really help you understand how to go about it is we’re gonna take an example of, this wonderful adviser who, has a website here with us at FMG Victoria, and she does have a very specific niche. Obviously, she’s working with people going through divorce, but her overall brand is really what we wanna focus on. And so we’re gonna go through it one by one, and then you’ll also, be able to take a look at her website.

So, Melissa, why don’t you tell us what the first one is?

Yeah. So I think I think the strategy number one, numero uno place to start is you have to be authentic. Right? You have to really think about what it is that makes your firm unique to the real clients that you’re serving, and not sort of the the narrative that you want to tell. Right? And and being authentic is is, it translates.

Right? It’s the difference between you know, I think one of your first examples, Samantha, you know, saying that we we serve families and individuals versus we serve pre retirees who are fifty plus with two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Right? It’s being authentic allows you to really make that connection and and hone in on who it is that you wanna you wanna target through your site.

I love it. So the example here we pulled from Victoria’s website. She, again, works with people going through divorce. I love this.

She has real talk. Good financial luck is a series of good decisions, ready to take ownership of your future. Right? Just even having that real talk there.

And then she has has pictures of herself throughout the site.

But then even the the tone here. Right? Yep.

You know, saying, but we get it.

She’s talking to you like she’s talking to someone in her office over a cup of coffee or a friend at breakfast. It’s not, so highbrow, and that is probably one of the top tips I could give all of you. When you’re looking at your own website, you wanna write so that, you know, someone in sixth to ninth grade could understand it. It should not be very, very high level.

This is the first introduction to your firm, and people are scrolling and scanning. They are not reading every single sentence. But if it starts to get too jargony or bland or sound like too much business speak, they are not going to connect with it. And the whole point of this is to create a connection as we as we talked about.

Alright. Let’s look at strategy number two.

Yeah. So the next is to be specific. Right? If there is a unique, specific, single, pain point challenge that you solve and you focus on that more than anyone else, make sure that that is loud and clear in your in in your messaging. For example, we’re supporting, brand development for a firm that, is really focused on the sandwich generation, serving people who are, you know, catering to the needs of both their young children and their their aging parents as well. And it is very, very specific down to the unique challenges of time management and scheduling and, you know, the all of the financial considerations that come from, you know, when you’re balancing this phase of your life.

And that adding that level of specificity to the brand messaging just makes you read it and you say, oh, they get me. They know what I’m struggling with. They know they they understand how I’m conflicted with this decision and that decision, and they can guide me in the right direction.

That phrase you just used, they get me. Mhmm. We want people when they land on our website to say, this firm works with people just like me. They already know, you know, they know the questions I don’t even know to ask.

Right? So you look on the right hand side here, she has whether you’re considering filing for divorce, have recently filed, or still wondering how to handle the divorce announcement. We’ve got you covered. And then she has a list of questions.

Will I need to go back to work? Can I afford this lifestyle? Should we sell the house? All the things that’s gonna go through someone’s mind that maybe they haven’t even articulated yet.

Yep. It’s the way you can read your mind.

Yeah. And one of the ways that we sort of frame this too is that, again, we’re all consumers in our own lives. So if we’re looking to hire an expert on something, we don’t wanna have to tell them what we need. Right? If you have a an electrician or a plumber come to your house, you want them to know why you want the the the Yeah. You know, the outlet to go on when you walk into the room or, you know, it’s just it’s it’s so if we just take a step back and really remind ourselves that we’re consumers and that when we are selling our own services, it’s so important to frame them in a way that, you know, we would want to consume ourselves.

Such a good point. I mean, I know from years of doing this that it’s so I’ve worked with advisers who worked with maybe a marketing firm before that didn’t specialize in financial advisers, and then they come and I say, well, I know we can’t do this because of compliance or, you know, we know that this is gonna perform best to get retirees at this time of day. And they’re like, oh, it’s so refreshing. You know?

You you get it. So, yeah, use that to your advice.

Yes. Exactly.

The next is to be clear, and I, you know, I think we we sort of touched on this a little bit in sort of some of the previous points. But, we want you want your audience to see themselves in in the visuals and the messaging that that’s on your site. You don’t wanna use jargon. You don’t want to, you know, have them kind of get through it and think to themselves, okay.

But do they do this or this? Right? You want it to be, crystal clear. You want it to be easy to to understand, easy to digest, and ultimately make it easy for them to say yes because you you you made such a compelling and and sort of visual case that you are the right adviser for their needs.

I love that. And so here’s just another example. This service is a perfect fit for you if and then it lists them out. And then, again, her brand kinda had this, like, wise old owl with it. And so she uses that in her instead of where somebody else might have, like, a check mark. Alright. What’s next?

Next is be consistent. Right? So you want your brand and your brand messaging to sort of, you know, echo in the right way across all of the the touch points both on and off line. So if you have a tone established on your website, you wanna also match that tone in your other marketing materials and the other interactions that you have and and the way you present your brand forward.

Consistency is key, and I think it’s really one of the things that differentiates brands that do it extremely well and those that are okay at it. Right? I mean, we think about again, I I I draw the comparison to brands we know in our lives, which are those, whose experience we can anticipate before we actually interact with it. You know?

Nike, Four Seasons. Right? Like, we understand what it is that that experience is going to deliver because at every opportunity to deliver an interaction, they’re delivering a consistent brand interaction.

I love that. And so this is just a great example. You know, because she is a sole proprietor here, she has photos of herself throughout the site. So even on her testimonial and review page, rather than just, you know, having maybe a landing page that has them all, she has a photo of herself, and then you can click through and read all these different great reviews and testimonials that people have shared about her, as you’re looking at her face. So that really, really helps again with that connection and that social proof.

And then I think the last one here on this list is is be direct. Right? Ask for what it is that you want and then make it easy for your visitors to know what the next step is. Right?

There’s nothing worse than when you leave a website or you’re on a website and you can’t figure out, well, do I should I call? What should I should I have to send an email? Should I look for a phone number? Make it really, really clear, what they should do next.

And then also, of course, the beauty of of things like strong calls to action, book a consultation like you see here is then it’s trackable. And it’s, you know, it’s ways that you can be, measuring the performance of your messaging and understanding what it is that’s sort of resonating more, or less with your audience.

Yeah. And I love this example here because rather than just say something like, are we a good fit for you? Let’s find out. Or, you know, something more generic. Again, she knows her audience. So the the call to action is your divorce doesn’t have to destroy your family financially.

And then it goes into some more things and then that book of consultation. So the language you use even on these pages, really, really can go a long way.

And I’m just Yep.

I’m just gonna, hit escape here and just pull up the actual live site. Can you see this? Yeah. Okay.

So, again, Blair had put a link to it, but I just wanted to show you how it all comes together. So you can see again with the brand colors, the messaging, the imagery, This is a wonderful site. Our team at F and G did such a great job putting this all together. And, you know, one of the other things I wanted to mention when it comes to, you know, your brand and visual, someone had asked, well, if I wanna make ongoing visuals for webinars, for social media, what should I use?

Yes. One hundred percent Canva would be our, suggestion, and we actually at FMG have a direct integration with Canva. So you can connect to your live your Canva library and then pull in any images you have to share directly, to social media with your scheduled post, things like that. But this is just a great example.

And then somebody was asking about the testimonial page. I just wanted to show this is what I was referring to. So you could actually click through and read all of these great reviews, about her service right there on her site.

Yep.

So we’ll have a link for all of you if you wanna take a look at that later.

But let me just go back here, and I wanted to show a couple more examples of sites that I think have done such a great job with this. So this is Money Maven Financial.

Nicole is an adviser who works specifically with women, and she really did a great job going through the exercise of what do I want people to feel when they come and they land on my site. So when you go to her site and you’re scrolling through it, which I’ll pull it up here, you’ll see she uses a lot of pinks to really convey she works with women. She has really natural images of herself working, you know, with women. And then even on her about page, you know, meet the founder.

She’s drinking a cup of coffee. It’s really giving a certain kind of vibe, obviously. This frequently asked questions is another great place where she’s able to ask questions in her audience’s voice. Things like, how do you get paid?

Right?

All of these different questions that people would have. So I love that site for that.

It’s a great example of authenticity. Right? It’s very much, consistent with, you know, page to page and and very authentic in in the tone and and how she’s writing that content.

Yes. So then this is one I’m gonna skip ahead to this one in the interest of time. This is, retirement matters. So, again, specifically working with people, going through retirement planning, but they say with a specialty in serving Abby v executive. So they’re working with people in a specific company.

They have a great brand video here, sort of meet the founder, talk about why he’s able to work with executives at this company, learn more about our services, a great featured in section here, all of these, you know, different elements that go really a long way. And I love, you know, even with the visual you know, do you need a visual of our services you can download to see, like, what do we provide, what don’t we provide. So really, really making it easy to look under the hood and see what it feel, what it would, you know, be like to work with this firm. So, again, just another example there.

K. So this is good timing because I already see a lot of people asking questions about, okay. Well, if I wanna work with Advisor Brand Builder and F and G or I have an F and G website or I don’t, what does that look like? So let’s dive in and talk about it.

Yeah. Yeah. So Advise the Brand Builder, it’s a new platform. We actually launched it, at Future Proof last year.

So we’re, approaching our one year anniversary, and it is a tool intended to help firms, really zero in on what it is that they’re looking to do in in building their comprehensive brand. So there are pieces of that where we work on the logo, your color palette, your imagery, sort of how we pull it all together. But then there’s also, you know, the ability in the in the platform to build really high impact custom messaging that that tells your brand narrative and ultimately is easy to apply to your website, to your other marketing materials. And just because, again, we’re so big on consistency, there’s also a capability where with a click of a button, you can take that custom developed brand and apply it to what we call, some foundational marketing materials.

And you do that all, of course, with the the support of, financial service marketing pros sort of facilitating that entire technology experience.

So I’m sorry. I think this one has, some some yeah. So it’s a it’s a pretty simple process.

You know, it’s a it’s an online based platform that walks you through a series of questions, again, helping peel back the layer I mean, the onion a a layer at a time.

If you go next.

Ultimately, the platform then takes your responses and synthesizes it and puts forward a recommendation for what we call a brand style board. So it it can include recommendations for logo refinements. This is a platform that works very well for firms that are looking to refresh or sort of modernize or or tune up their visual brand. It doesn’t always have to be, you know, starting from zero.

So it’s three different style boards that include all of the elements of your visual brand and a full messaging platform.

You get to take a look through all of those, options. You actually even get to to tune some of the some of the elements of it, change colors here and there, see how the fonts come into play. And then when you find one that looks closest to sort of your vision for a brand, you push it to our team, and that’s sort of where the magic comes in. So we are you know, we we put together Advisor Brand Builder, because we know technology can be a catalyst for really great things, but it’s not a replacement for the expertise and vision of marketers and creative minds and and strategists who have been supporting the financial services firm, you know, financial services industry their their whole careers.

So our team then steps in. We review the responses. We review your selection, and we give it a full polish so that it it goes out the door prime time ready. And then as I said, we we build your matching assets sort of with one one click of a button.

And the really nice thing that we just actually rolled out is, a feature within the tool, based on our our partnership here with FMG that makes it simple for you to take the brand that you’ve created in the platform, all of the messaging, all of the, you know, stock photography, etcetera, and push it directly to the FMG team, so that they can help you kind of apply that to your site moving forward. So just a quick screenshot on the next slide of what that looks like. You have your your brand built in our platform, and sends it packages everything up, and and sends it, over to our contact there.

Important to note, there is a step here where you can also share everything that’s in the platform, with compliance if there would ever be an interest in doing that before we we kick off the the website build effort. So lots of options here. And and overall, the intention is to, take some of the stress and burden away of creating these sort of foundational, elements that ultimately make up for a great website.

Love it so much. And I think one thing I just wanted to point out too, I have gotten so many messages from so many people who come to us and said, you know, I love the design and the look and the feel of my FMG website, but I really need I’ve realized I’m not specific enough. Can you help me come up with who my target audience should be? How should I talk to them? What voice should I use? This is perfect for that. You go through those questions.

You give all of your information. It’s going to, you you know, give you this amazing packaged up, messaging and branding that then our team can use to take your website to that next level. So that’s why I’m so excited about this partnership because I know that that is a big missing step for so many people, and this makes it a really, really easy, I think, cost effective way to do it.

Very cost effective through the power of technology. And I’ll I’ll add too just, you know, when we think about the the components of the message platform, we give you the foundational elements, the value proposition, the differentiators, your boilerplate, you know, your your services overview. But then we also, right within the technology itself, take that messaging and build website copy, for your home, your about, your services, and your audience pages. Again, making it very simple to then kind of apply that across your template.

And then, you know, here is just a quick snapshot of sort of how that universe kind of comes together and and how it ultimately, you know, creates a brand that you can apply pretty seamlessly and consistently across all of your your assets. It it defines your visual sort of identity. It creates this compelling messaging in a very in a variety of different ways, and then it empowers you to take all of that and place it very seamlessly on these turnkey marketing assets.

Love it. Love it. Love it. So just to be clear, because I wanna make sure everybody walks with understanding, advisor brand builder, you would go through the process, answer the questions.

It’s going to create your brand identity, those foundational brand assets, and all that messaging. So, again, you know, how you’re gonna talk about your services, how you’re gonna talk to your target audience. Then Then we at FMG take what Advisor Brand Builder has helped you, you know, figure out, yes, this is my messaging. This is my brand identity, and we create beautiful lead generating website or refresh the one you already have.

And then we also, as a platform, support that website and all of your lead generation and client communication efforts with ongoing emails, social posts, ongoing content, all all of that good stuff.

We do have a special offer for webinar participants, and this website, link will take you there. Do you wanna talk a little bit about it, Melissa?

Yeah. So, we are excited to offer a free brand makeover to participants of the webinar. So if you head on over to adviser brand builder dot com backslash f m g brand makeover.

You can complete a very quick sort of form to put your name in the hat, and, ultimately, we’ll be picking a winner and working with you to go through the process, experience the workflow, either refine your visuals. And, I think maybe most importantly as the takeaway from this webinar today, really nail that brand narrative so that when you are looking at your website and thinking about how you can make it, you know, stronger, drive more conversions, you feel more confident in your ability to kind of pass that five second test.

So, if you are wanting to see more of FMG’s amazing new premium websites, a couple people mentioned it in the q and a. If you go to our website, and I’m just gonna show you where that is really fast.

Here, if you go to resources and then oops.

I gotta move things around here. Website gallery, You can take a look at so many of our new premium websites that we have launched for advisers.

Take a look at what’s working, and you can also actually, if you scroll down a little bit, take a quiz to see how your own website stacks up and how it’s doing.

And then we would love to work with you to either give it a refresh or start from scratch, if you know, depending on where you are in that journey there. And then, of course, as I mentioned before, ongoing, we have, a ton of amazing options for you, whether you wanna go into the platform and use FMG’s content library to power your social media, and email strategy. Or one of the things we’re most excited about right now is our do it for me program. We talked to so many advisers over the years who’ve said, this is all great.

You’re giving me so much great information, but can you just do it for me? And so, I guess it would be almost two years ago now. We launched a do it for me marketing program where every single month, you get a calendar that looks just like this, and it’ll tell you based on current events, what’s happening, time of year. These are the blog posts, the social media posts, the, emails that are gonna go out on your behalf, and then you have optional ones you can add in.

So for instance, right now, we just had a really great COI campaign, and you could pick and choose which centers of influence you wanted to send emails to, maybe local CPAs, estate planning attorneys. It’s all written and done for you, and you have a marketing concierge that you work with every month. And you tell them, yes. Go ahead and and launch that campaign.

And, they even know in your dashboard which groups you have, your goals for your marketing. So it really, really makes it incredibly easy to stay on top of everything without needing to spend a ton of time. And this is just a great testimonial from one of our amazing adviser clients, Henry, who said he got a client from, the work we were doing, and I love when he says it was a million dollar client. Just keep doing what you’re doing.

I’m not even on the call, so I don’t know what it is, but it’s definitely working, which we love that. We wanna make it as easy for you as, possible. So we do have a QR code here. If you’re interested in learning more about FMG, or how we work with Advisor Brand Builder, you can, just scan that code, and we will be happy to talk with you.

Are there any let’s look at and see if there’s any questions that have come in, while we’re we were talking.

Okay.

Somebody asked, I would like to eventually scale the firm, so I always have been of the mindset to sell the firm as opposed to the individual. However, do you think prospects are more apt to move forward if they connect to a person, or is it possible to have them connect with the philosophy approach just as effectively?

I can take a stab at this one, Lisa, and then you can let me think. I think, you know, in general, people connect with people, and that is why it doesn’t have to be just you, but having, you know, maybe a few different people within the firm, sharing things on social media, being the face, if you will, of the company goes such a long way because people do want to have that personal connection. They’re you know, at the end of the day in this business, the relationship is what we’re selling. The advice, the investment management has all been commoditized, really, and so it is really the relationship that they’re buying. So I think you can, of course, you know, do it at a firm level, but having a few different people maybe recording videos that you add or hosting webinars or in your emails, sharing a little, you know, personal tidbit can really go a long way. What do you think, Melissa?

I couldn’t have said it better myself. I mean, I think that, you know, you’re exactly right. People wanna work with people. They want to know, that someone gets them. And having a firm brand or firm identity that sort of just further adds credibility and professionalism to that experience can only overall boost the effort.

I love it.

I think all the other questions we answered in real time, some Some people are saying I’ve already made tweaks to my web or my website based on the advice of this webinar. I love it. Absolutely great. Were there any other questions you saw we should answer?

I’ll just go ahead and drop the, the link to the contest in the chat just so that folks have it. I think there was a question there on that.

Yeah. I feel like we covered we covered a good number of them.

Okay. I know that there’s some, there are some questions very specific about, like, certain packages. Like, what do you get with this premium package, this or that? The best way to go about it, honestly, is to use the QR code and set up a time to talk with someone on our team to go through all those very, very specifics.

So, hopefully, you will do that, and we’ll would love to talk with you more. But everybody’s saying that they learned something, which I love, and, that it was a good time spent. So I we really appreciate you being here. Hopefully, you did take away a few things that you can implement right away. And, just thank you so much, and enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you so much, Melissa, and everyone at Intentionally for joining us.

Thank you for having us. This was great.

Okay. Take care. Take care.