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When I wrote my article pioneering the concept of the one-page website, many people were curious as to what such a page should say. Below is an example of five paragraphs for a hypothetical RIA firm, Blue Spruce Pine Elm Mountain Rock Advisors (remember how you advisors love to use nature words in your firm names). This is what you should include in a one-page website.
Contact info in the header
People often miss this. Don’t make it hard for them to contact you (and leave the website quickly) once they are interested. Let’s own up to the fact that advisor websites are boring and most of the time the person can’t wait to leave.
Face it.
Now that you’ve accepted that your website (by nature of the profession you are in) is something people are going to automatically want to run away from, here’s my advice:
Put your email and phone number at the top of the website, in the header, in large, bold, font. There’s nothing more annoying than when you want to buy a product or set up a meeting with someone and get the heavens off their website, and the blasted thing is chock full of meaningless garbage.
1. Paragraph 1
What it does:
Catches their attention and establishes that you are a human being with an actual pulse. The latter is not easy to do given how boring all of you sound when you talk about this stuff.
(Insert banner photo of something highly action oriented that is not the typical cliché of the retired couple sipping champagne on the beach!)
The words to say:
I’m Jessica (hyperlink over your name to your LinkedIn page) and welcome to my firm, Blue Spruce Pine Elm Mountain Rock Advisors. We work with a few families in (town name) and many of them happen to be involved with the profession of pediatric neuropsychology. Scroll down to learn about who we are, what we do, how we charge, and what to do as you conclude your visit.
Bon appetit!
(This should be a video.)
2. Paragraph 2
What it does: establishes trust by presenting who you and your team are. Notice how most of the information they’ll get is from your LinkedIn page which will present this data more succinctly and clearly while also prompting the reader to connect with you. This in turn will drive more traffic back to your website in the long term if you operate your social media correctly.
(Insert banner photos of you and your team working with clients. Yes. Get a picture with a real client. I’m always amazed that for a population who claims to be so warm fuzzy teddy bear client focused, you advisors reel in shock whenever I tell you to take a picture with an actual client of yours.)
The words to say:
Betsy Jones
Hi, I’m a senior advisor here at Blue Spruce Pine Elm Mountain Rock Advisors.
My motto is “Better late than never, but better not to be late in the first place.” To this end I pride myself on devoting my full attention to understanding your life and predict the needs you may have before it becomes an issue. Syncing up our plan with your reality is everything in the work I do for my clients.
For my background and credentials, please visit me on LinkedIn and I would love it if we could connect there! But what you won’t find out from my online profile is how I’m a dog lover with a passion for taking in rescues.
Repeat for the other team members at Blue Spruce Pine Elm Mountain Rock Advisors
3. Paragraph 3
What it does: Describes what you do without putting the reader to sleep or making some ridiculous claim about how you are the next Warren Buffett. I’ve seen more than one of you go on and one about how you do everything just like Benjamin Graham.
Ehem.
Exaggeration, posiblemente?
By the way, include high emphasis on visuals here because as you know people hate reading.
The words to say:
Financial planning
(Insert picture of what a sample financial plan looks like)
You’ll be kept up to date with all aspects of your finances (checking, investments, plan documents) through the eMoney portal. Every financial plan is different but the main elements of ours tend to be:
- Cash flow
- Expense budgeting
- Blah
- Blah
- Blah
Don’t tell them the purpose of a financial plan. Advisors always want to explain this. Isn’t it obvious that the person doesn’t know what in the blazes they’re doing or they wouldn’t have come to you in the first place?
Investment management
(Insert picture of what a sample account statement looks like)
Your assets will be custodied at Charles Schwab or at another custodian of your choosing. We focus on cash-rich companies with great balance sheets and a sustainable competitive advantage. Our clients appreciate how we meet with them semi-annually (which most advisors don’t do). You’ll have my cell phone number in case you get the heebie jeebies.
4. Paragraph 4
What it does: Tells the reader how you get compensated in the least confusing way possible.
The words to say:
I’m a fee-only advisor, which means that you’ll only pay me a percentage of the assets that I manage. The financial planning is included in this fee. I designed my practice this way because I was very intent on being able to justify the decisions I make as being in my clients’ best interest without being swayed by how much I was paid.
Here is the fee schedule (insert table)
500,000 to 1,000,000 – 100 bp
1MM to 2MM –50 bp
Blah Blah
Blah
5. Paragraph 5
What it does: Empowers the reader to get to know you over time by presenting various options instead of telling them to contact you for a meeting right away (awkward?).
From getting four kids under six years old out the door at 7 AM every morning, it has become clear to me that it’s hard for people to respond to commands. Recently it hit me: people don’t like being bossed around. Did you ever think about how bossy we really are being by saying, “contact me,” “join my newsletter,” or “let’s talk!” Subconsciously I think people have developed a resentment for these jazzed up marketing calls to action.
The words to say:
So that’s what we’re about here at Blue Spruce Pine Elm Mountain Rock Advisors in a nutshell! We’ve done everyone a favor and kept this website intentionally brief, so if you’d like to learn more about us here are some options you may want to consider.
Meet?
Did you want to talk? Leave your financial statements at home for the first meeting. We’ll just get to know each other. If it makes sense to move forward, we can get technical at a later point.
Read blogs?
I blog on LinkedIn (note to advisors: yes, you can post blogs natively to LinkedIn and this is a way better option for most of you, because you’ll get far more traffic there than you are getting on your own site. Check your Google analytics if you doubt me). Please send me a note and connect with me if you’d like to see my updates in your feed.
Read newsletters?
We have a fabulous quarterly market commentary as well as a monthly update newsletter. If you are interested in one or both please email us to subscribe.
Attend events?
We have events for clients and colleagues every three months or so and would welcome you to join us. This way you could casually get to know us without the pressure of doing business together.
Disclosures in the footer
What it does: gets your compliance officer off your back.
Sara’s upshot
There you go – an example of what a one-page website would look like. Clear, crisp, and to the point. Now that’s a welcome change, isn’t it? Try it in 2020. I triple dog dare you. If you’re not getting good results from your website (which is true for most of you), what do you have to lose?
Whenever I talk about one-page websites, my competitors get all up in arms about losing SEO value. Do you really care? Tell me how many of you are SEO-aholics who wake up with the burning desire to be at the top of Google page one? Or did you just get sold on that by some marketing sniper trying to make $2,000 a month off of you? Use social media to drive traffic to your website instead and forget about the bots. This year I have a ton of great content on schedule in my membership that will teach you how to do just that.
Sara Grillo, CFA, is a marketing consultant who helps investment management, financial planning, and RIA firms fight the tendency to scatter meaningless clichés on their prospects and bore them as a result. Prior to launching her own firm, she was a financial advisor and worked at Lehman Brothers.
Read more articles by Sara Grillo
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
