Developing Effective Website Content

For visitors to get the most from your website, the content should be fresh, informative, and written to benefit both clients and prospects. Website visitors are often looking for information that is different from what you might provide in other formats (ads, printed newsletters, seminars, etc.). The easier it is for visitors to process your content and navigate your site, the more likely they are to spend time there and to revisit.

This article will provide some ideas and resources to help you get started with developing effective website content.

Providing Informative, Useful Content

Visitors to your website want to gain some insight into your practice, the services you provide, and your business philosophy, not just look up your phone number. They want access to engaging financial resources that can help improve their financial situations.

Sharing information about you, your company, and your company’s mission helps achieve the first part of that goal. Providing educational resources such as newsletters, articles, market data, and calculators can achieve the latter part.

Writing a Bio

Qualifications are important in the financial services sector. Your clients and prospects care about your experience and credentials and want to know that you are qualified and trustworthy.

A great way to write a bio is to begin with a template. Emerald Connect offers sample content, including bio templates, on our support site. You can also find helpful guides and tips for writing a bio from these sources:

• How to Write a Biography for a Website — eHow
• How to Write a Bio — Tips for Building Your Personal Brand — Brand-Yourself

Use your bio to summarize your values, education, focus, and experience. Offering some information about your personal life and community involvement may help establish credibility. Remember that it is important to create a positive first impression for visitors.

Adding a Call to Action

Adding a call to action to your site can help you gain new contacts as well as make it easy for visitors to sign up to receive your newsletter, email you to request more information, or follow you on social media (if applicable). A good call to action will offer something “free” to website visitors so they will contact you instead of “just look.” Options can include offering a complimentary financial consultation, receiving a special economic report, or registering for an upcoming seminar.

Try this step-by-step guide for Creating a “Call to Action” link on your Emerald website.

Setting Yourself Apart

If you operate in a certain business niche, make sure your website highlights that fact. Some financial services companies target a specific market — teachers, business owners, farm owners, professional athletes, etc. Others focus on specific products (employee benefits, annuities, life insurance) or financial goals (retirement, estate planning, wealth preservation).

Highlighting your business focus has two advantages:

1. It gives you an opportunity to show site visitors that you are an expert in a specific area.
   Prospects will feel more comfortable doing business with an advisor who focuses on a market segment (such as small business planning) they belong to, who specializes in a product (insurance protection) for which they have a need, or who specializes in a financial strategy (tax reduction, estate planning) that they are most concerned about.
2. It helps increase search engine optimization.
   If your site is full of content about providing tractor insurance for farm owners, you will have a greater chance of coming up under those unique combinations of keywords in search engines than you will by using general terms like “financial services” and “life insurance,” which are used by most of your competitors. Emerald offers Strategies for Raising Your Websites Search Results.

Providing an Account Login / Access Link

An account login (or account access) link is a great strategy to build business loyalty and encourage clients to visit your website on a regular basis. Create a link where your clients can access their accounts with your company. Make this link easy to find and use on your website and encourage your clients to access their accounts in your marketing communications.

Using Descriptive Links

Avoid using “Click Here” links as they are likely to be glossed over by visitors, and search engines will not gather useful information from them. Also avoid using full web addresses (e.g., http://www.emeraldconnect.com/products/websites/advisor/) as they can be distracting and are difficult to read. Instead, use descriptive links that tell the visitor what they are clicking on (e.g., Emerald’s Advisor Websites).

Keeping It Short and Simple

This is a sales and marketing basic that applies especially when marketing online. Website visitors tend to scan rather than read long content. It may be much harder to hold their attention online than it might be with a printed newsletter.

On the other hand, it is much easier to read online when body heads are provided, paragraphs are restricted to about three or four sentences each, and content is succinct. You might consider using a less formal style on your site that feels conversational and generates rapport.

Formatting Content

Formatting is important to make your content easier to read and therefore more likely to be read.

• Utilize bullets — Bullet points make lists of items easier to read.
• Add subheads — Subheads make scanning content easier and also help search engines identify what the content is about.
• Format text using italics and boldface where appropriate — This can help highlight important content.
• Avoid underlines — Underlining should be used only for links to distinguish them from other highlighted copy.
• Use numbered lists where appropriate — They can be useful when giving directions or steps.

Avoiding Common Mistakes

• Hurdles — Long, unavoidable splash pages or requiring contact information for access to content is no longer an acceptable web marketing practice.
• Too much content — Avoid “fluff” and remember to keep content short and simple. If it is not providing value to visitors, it should not be included.
• Keyword stuffing — While you want to make sure there are keywords in your content for search engine optimization, it is more important to provide useful content to visitors. Always remember, visitors are the first priority and keywords are second.

Proofreading Content

Grammatical errors and typos are prevalent in a lot of web content, but this can make an advisor site look less professional and reliable. Be vigilant to make sure your site content is free of errors. Your website represents you and your company. Poor grammar and other serious errors can turn off potential clients.

Promoting Your Website

Once you have developed your website content and received compliance approval, the next step is to promote your site. Emerald Connect offers Four Strategies for Promoting Your Website.