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Chances are, you’ve invested considerable time and resources into building, or perhaps refreshing, your website. And while you’ve worked hard to add new pages, update headshots, and make sure everything is compliance-friendly, there may be one thing missing.
If your site doesn’t offer a seamless and compelling user experience (or UX, as it’s often called), it very well could be underperforming — ultimately costing you future clients.
Despite sounding like a web developer buzzword, UX can be viewed as the invisible thread that either draws visitors in, or — in some scenarios — quietly drives them away. For financial advisors, whose business depends on trust and first impressions, the impact of UX couldn’t be more critical.
To help exemplify the importance of UX, I’m breaking down a few of the most common UX myths, along with the top recommendations to avoid the pitfalls associated with them.
Myth 1: UX always means following best practices
If you follow UX best practices for websites, it will automatically translate to a positive user experience. Right? Well, not quite.
Yes, best practices do provide valuable guidelines (especially for those who may be new to website building), but they aren’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Rather, your website needs to address the specific behaviors, pain points, and expectations of your target clients.
Rather than blindly following best practices, use them as a foundation and customize them to fit your audience. You may find it helpful to implement A/B testing on your website to try different wording, graphics, layouts, and other elements to see what resonates best with them.
You should also consider questions like: What are your ideal clients looking for when they visit your site? What do they value in an advisor? Build your UX strategy around the answers.
Myth 2: UX is all about the visual design
Considering the fact that viewers can process images 60,000 times faster than text, your website’s visual design can make an incredibly important first impression online.
But too often, I see advisors equate “good design” with “good UX,” and stop there — which is a mistake.
User experience encompasses other aspects of your website, including its accessibility, messaging, emotional tone, and functionality for visitors.
For example, consider whether your website’s messaging directly addresses your audience — or if it’s too focused on selling your firm and services. (Hint: Your site copy should address your clients and their concerns, while positioning you as the solution to their problems.)
Too often, websites are filled with “we” language — we do this, we’re the best, we offer comprehensive planning. But you need copy that resonates with your visitors, which means flipping the script from “we we we” to “you you you.”
Consider, for example, which of the following would resonate more with a reader who’s looking for an advisor to help them prepare for retirement:
Option A: “We offer services including investment management, tax planning, estate planning, and more for people in or near retirement.”
Option B: “You’re concerned about making your money last in retirement. We can help you transform your biggest questions about taxes, insurance, Social Security, and more into a streamlined financial plan you can feel confident about.”
While option A tells the reader what you do, Option B tells them what you can do for them. It identifies your reader’s pain point, offers a solution, and (most importantly) portrays you as the hero of their story — their financial knight in shining armor. Simply put, switching to a reader-focused rhetoric helps you deliver the same message in a more compelling manner.
As the examples above demonstrate, a strong UX considers whether the information is relevant to the visitor and framed in a way that helps them see your firm’s value for themselves.
Aside from visual design, a strong UX can include clear navigation, logical page flow, and content that resonates emotionally with your target audience. Those are the elements that make site visitors feel understood and more compelled to take the next step.
Myth 3: UX is subjective and can’t be measured
This one comes up a lot: “UX is fuzzy; it’s more of an art than science.” In reality, user experience is tracked and measured using both qualitative and quantitative tools.
For example, with a little practice, you could use tools like Google Analytics to measure key metrics (bounce rates, time on page, etc.). These metrics share important insights on how visitors interact with your site.
You may also want to collect client feedback via a short online survey or email to determine what information or features visitors find valuable and where you may be able to make smart UX improvements. This data could confirm your assumptions or contradict them. Either way, you’ll have what you need to improve engagement and, ideally, conversion rates. Remember, you can’t improve what you don’t measure. Rather than try to rely on your intuition, you can collect and consider data to create a better UX.
Myth 4: Good UX is expensive
There’s a common misconception that a large budget is required to achieve a quality website UX.
Yes, good UX takes time, thought, and often some upfront investment. But perhaps rather than focusing on what the initial cost is to achieve quality UX, the focus should be on what the cost of not investing in UX could be for your firm.
A website may look fine on the surface, but unless an intentional UX strategy has been implemented, it could miss the mark completely in terms of client engagement. Firms that choose to forgo the research, planning, and testing that goes into website UX are most likely to miss out on results — meaning they’re also more likely to head back to the drawing board within a year or two.
Firms that invest in UX from the start often build sites that not only perform better but last longer. The return on investment shows up in higher-quality leads, stronger conversion rates, and better alignment between the firm’s offerings and its target clients’ needs.
Final thoughts on UX
When an advisory firm’s website is developed with UX in mind, it leads to a more positive experience for the site visitor. Not only can a well-built site grab and keep your target audience’s attention, it can encourage action as well, helping move visitors further down the sales funnel.
In other words, UX can be the difference between a visitor clicking away or becoming your next client.
If your website isn’t performing the way you’d like, I encourage you to look beyond surface-level changes. Examine the full journey from your site visitor’s perspective. And most importantly, challenge the myths that might be holding your web site back.
As more people search online for an advisor, your site’s UX will often be their first (and perhaps most lasting) impression of your firm.
Mikel Bruce is the CEO of TinyFrog Technologies, a San Diego web design agency specializing in WordPress web design & development and secured hosting & maintenance. TinyFrog provides a conversion-based approach to web design, with a focus on creating websites that are relevant to the people exploring and navigating it. TinyFrog has built over 1,500 websites over the last 22 years, and has extensive experience designing and building websites for financial advisors.
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Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
