Nick Lincoln
Director, Values to Vision Financial Planning
I used to have a very basic website: nothing flash. It just served as a blogging platform that I had built a website on top of. It was not very interactive or engaging in terms of content.
Use website templates
I decided I needed to modernise the website and do something different. In doing so I came across [website builder] Squarespace. I had a look into it and it really is a phenomenal service. You can design your own website using just templates, so you do not require any technical coding knowledge. It only took me around a day to complete the new website, and it only costs around $191 (£157) a year, so not a lot in the grand scheme of things.
I thought: ‘I’ve got this shiny new website, why don’t I have a video?’ because so few IFA websites I had seen were doing that. So I now have a video less than two minutes long, which outlines who we are and what we offer.
Tailor your site
I get all my business from referrals from existing clients and introducers, and have a website simply so that potential clients can have a quick look when they have been referred to me. It is not a site I want people trawling the web to find. I do not care about the Google analytics and page hit rate.
I also do not use the words ‘pensions’, ‘ISAs’ or ‘life assurance’, as I want to give a different message. I wanted to have a website without mention of products, as clients do not give a monkey’s about that.
Chelsey Southern
Marketing executive, Capital Asset Management
Websites in any profession have a shelf life. The world changes, technology changes, fashion changes. We felt our online presence was in need of a refresh, so we embarked on a process to determine what ‘good’ would look like.
Check out your rivals
We did a lot of research by looking online and seeing what our competitors had and, truthfully, we did not like any of them. They did not represent what we were trying to present and we were keen to show something different.
The websites we liked were those from modern tech firms, like Apple. They generally included clean lines, white space and large images. It was important firstly to determine the purpose of the website. We are not overly keen on unsolicited enquiries; we are clear on our target audience and gain most of our business through introduction.
Be engaging
We did not want a shopping list of products and services, but a visually positive experience, giving a sense of quality and reliability that compels those to whom we had been recommended to take the next step of contacting us.
We engaged with a web design and marketing firm. The subject of video content is extremely important with greater broadband speeds and increased mobile capability. Over 50% of our traffic now comes through mobile devices.
We wanted to future-proof the website and add dynamic content that was easily accessible. The web design team put us in touch with a small video production team that did some guerrilla filming around London.
Petronella West
Director of private clients, Investment Quorum
It is important that your website works seamlessly across all devices: phones, iPads, tablets and so on.
Very few people use a desktop computer these days and it is said that attention spans are only around 18 seconds, so your content also needs to be engaging.
Keep it fresh
We always try to divert traffic back to the website through a constant stream of content, be it market updates and commentary or through multiple social media feeds including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Along with fresh content, you can also republish stories that are not time sensitive to drive web traffic.
Our marketing executive uses analytics tools to see how long people spend looking at the website and whether they click through links to articles. All your information should be presented clearly and be easy to navigate.
Be easy to find
Fresh content is key to search engine optimisation, so that, when people search ‘boutique wealth management firm London’ in Google, we are one of the first results.
It is about fresh content, engaging visuals and enabling people to clearly see your narrative.
Websites are a huge marketing tool to tell potential clients what you are about. We have been getting some really substantial enquiries directly from search engines recently, which have been converted into business.
THREE TOP TIPS
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Nick Lincoln: Think about why you have a website in the first place.
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Chelsey Southern: Future-proof your website, and think about mobile users.
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Petronella West: Generate fresh content to optimise search engines and direct traffic to your site.