Whether it’s comparing your next car purchase or hotel stay, more and more people are seeking out information online before making buying decisions. If you want to have a successful business in the modern marketplace, generating a professional website is essential.

In this episode of Money Script Monday, Dan walks you through 6 easy-to-follow steps you should consider when creating a new website or optimizing your existing website.

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Video transcription

Hello there and welcome back to another episode of Money Script Monday.

My name is Dan Tatulli and today, we're going to be talking about websites for financial professionals, six critical areas to focus on.

I wanted to do this video because 72% of people when making a buying decision, go online.

So, it's super critical that you have a website online, some type of presence that's displaying your brand.

If you hand your business card out or if you meet that person at a seminar, they're going online, they're doing some research to figure out who is this guy? Who is this gal trying to sell me?

If you haven't yet created a website, this is going to be a great video for you. Consider it a good thing too when you're getting started out on it.

And if you have created a website a few years back, somebody helped you out along the way but you haven't seen much activity from it.

This is a great video because consider this much like a checklist for you. This is going to help you optimize your website.

With that, let's get started.

#1 Mobile Friendly

Number one, I wanted to just quickly go over this, your website should be mobile-friendly.

What does that mean? When you log online onto your phone, that the images and text it optimizes for your phone.

So, you should only be scrolling up and down.

If you actually have to zoom in on things and move around and do all that, your website is not mobile-friendly.

And in fact, Google is now penalizing people. I believe this was last October, they made that decision that they're penalizing your website if it's not mobile-friendly.

Google's main goal is to help that visitor have a great experience online.

So, if they have to zoom in, if they can't read the words that are on your site, your page is getting bumped back to page two, to page three, to page four. Google is actually penalizing people nowadays.

This is a bigger problem, I wish it was just an easy on and off switch. But, it's usually the actual template that you had used to design your website.

So, if it's not mobile-friendly, the LifePro team here, we can certainly help you out with that, but definitely, make sure it's mobile-friendly.

#2 Contact Information

Number two, this kind of goes without saying but contact information.

Sometimes we get so caught up in the design of things and making sure everything looks beautiful.

But, make sure your phone numbers out there, make sure your email address, make sure your physical address is there when they're going to the appointment.

I drew up this visual here that that button in the corner, that real estate in the upper right, that's probably the most valuable real estate on your website.

So, make sure you're making it as easy as possible for the client, for the visitor who goes on your page to contact you.

#3 Call-to-Actions

Number three, call-to-action. Call-to-actions are simply asking the visitor to do something.

Whether it's download an ebook, download a guide, request an appointment, making sure that you have forms on your website.

I compare this to very much like referrals.

If you're not getting as many referrals as you want to or as many people engaging with you on your website, chances are you're not asking for it.

Make sure you ask for them specifically on the homepage. They should be downloading some type of thing.

And again, I put this visual up here where there's typically two buttons.

One, the blue one right here is called the direct button and then the next one is called a transitional button.

Direct is asking them exactly what you want them to do, request an appointment today, receive a no-obligation consultation.

The transitional one is if they didn't agree to the direct one, what's the next best thing? Watch this video. Learn more about us.

In the dating scene, this would be very much like, will you marry me? No, I won't marry you.

Okay, well, can I at least see you again? So, think of it like that.

You should have two buttons on your homepage that ask for the appointment and if they don't want to do an appointment at that time, hey, come check us out, watch this video, learn more about us.

#4 Fresh Content

Number four, fresh content. So, making sure your website is up to date.

Give that visitor a reason to continue going to your website.

Things like blog posts, videos, articles and again, we can help you out with that.

#5 Brand Congruency

Number five, brand congruence. What is that? That is basically making sure your brand is consistent along all platforms.

So, your business card reflects your PowerPoint presentation, which reflects your email template, which reflects your website.

Definitely having an advanced graphic designer on board to help you out just making sure the logos, the images, the fonts, everything that's being used, there's an actual main message across all channels.

#6 Personal Story

Lastly, number six is the personal story. I put a star next to this because this is the most important one.

I'm not going to spend too much time here today. But if you are interested, go back to Episode 30.

Kevin does a great job talking about what a personal story is and how to really craft one.

In short, I will tell you just make sure your personal story is across all pages on your website. And what is that personal story?

That's just simply telling the visitor two things.

One is empathy. Showing that you have empathy towards that person, towards that client that you've been in their shoes, you know their challenges.

You know their struggles and you've actually seen, you've come across all of their challenges. Having empathy with that client.

Number two is showing that you have authority in the marketplace.

Saying that you have the knowledge, you've got the wisdom, you've got the years, the experience that you can help them along the way.

I'll just quickly go over this. Many of our advisors think that they're the hero. They're the hero in the story where the client comes up and they're saving the client in some way, that couldn't be any further than the truth.

Actually, the client is the hero.

You see if we relate this to kind of like a Hollywood movie, everybody in life, me, you at home, everybody is on their own Journey.

Everybody is kind of like that main actor in their movie. They have their own struggles, their own pain points. They have their goals and aspirations of what they want to do.

The purpose for you, the advisor is to be the guide within the movie.

So, I think of Star Wars all the time, everybody knows Luke Skywalker and what that ended up as.

Everybody in this role, your clients, your prospects are Luke Skywalker. You are Yoda, you're that little green guy who guides him along the way.

Because what did he say? He said, "Hey, I've been here before, I've been in your shoes but guess what? I have the wisdom to help you along the way."

So, make sure that personal story, again Episode 30 does a great job doing that.

Make sure you're telling your personal story showing the empathy and the authority and showing the client that they're the hero and you're simply the guide in their story.

That wraps it up for the six things on the website. I told you all of this because LifePro can actually help you.

We have a division called MarketPro where we can help you with your branding and marketing needs.

Anything from business cards, to stationery, to emails, to websites, we can certainly help you out with that.

To really get started, we're offering a 30-minute consultation.

If you're interested in having us check out your website and maybe offering some tips and tricks of what you can do or maybe we can even help you redesign that website, please reach out to your FSR at (888) 543-3776 and we can get started right away.

Thanks again and take care.