If such overplayed images as
Roman columns, boats, or chess pieces populate your firm's website, it is definitely time for a redesign.
To that point, experts suggest that an in-depth assessment of the design and structure of a firm's website be done every two or three years.
Chris Cooper, president of
financial planning firm
Chris Cooper & Co. Inc., which manages $225 million in assets, last year decided that his site needed a facelift.
A few months ago, he launched what he calls “Version 2.0” of his site — “Version 1.0” came along in 1997. Aside from an outdated look, Mr. Cooper realized that the site couldn't accommodate some of the features that he wanted to introduce, including a blog.
“Honestly, my business wasn't coming from the [old] website. It was really a brochure, and clients found me the traditional way, through referrals,” Mr. Cooper said.
However, after conducting a study of Internet traffic, he concluded that people were more likely to land on websites such as his after hitting a reference link on social-media sites such as Facebook, rather than through straight web searches.
Mr. Cooper also used the Google Analytics service to study the web traffic on his site. That led him to the idea of using a blog, because he reasoned that it would improve his web search results.
Mr. Cooper also decided that it would help him communicate with clients better.
Trying to get a sense of traffic patterns on your site — both when contemplating a redesign and after having done one — is a smart move, according to technology experts.
“You have to know who is using your site, how they are getting to it and what they are using once they are there,” said Michael Golaszewski, director of schwabinstitutional.com. He launched a redesign of the site for
Charles Schwab Institutional in September.
Although there is no shortage of consultants and analytics tools available to measure web traffic, perhaps the best approach for small advisory firms, at least initially, is to use Google's free analytics service (
google.com/analytics).
Although some advisers want their redesigns to embrace social media and other web technologies right out of the gate, others have more modest intentions.
For example, Beth Blecker, chief executive of
Eastern Planning Inc., said that it has been about six years since her site was last updated. She felt it was a little too buttoned-up.
“I decided that if my clients are going to be constantly visiting my website, I want them to get a better sense of who I am,” said Ms. Blecker, who added that part of her mission was to provide direct access to a client account portal through her site.
As is the case with many advisers who work with broker-dealers, she is restricted in her choice of content management providers to one of the three on the broker-dealer's approved list.
Although the content management providers generally are good at helping advisory firms keep up with their compliance and regulatory obligations — often a major reason a broker-dealer would select them — they can make implementing a new design or new technology offering a challenge.
As a result, Ms. Blecker turned to an outside design firm for help.
Kathryn Lineberger is the content strategist and creative director with
Catch 24, a design and advertising firm that has done work for dozens of companies, ranging from financial planning shops to Fortune 500 corporations.
“For a financial planner, the climate right now is to really affirm the transparency of the firm for the client. This can be a real break stylistically from what these sites might have looked like before,” Ms. Lineberger said.
Collaborating on and coming up with a clear message was the first order of business in the site redesign, she said.
There are several other basics for an adviser to consider.
Using stock photography is fine, but try to avoid the images that have become clichés. Too many advisory firm websites use columns or mountains to represent strength or stability, and chess pieces seemed to become a symbol of the “great game” of investing.
Advisers also need to make sure that people in the images really represent their clients.
“Images speak first on a website or any marketing materials, and if you are dealing with younger retirees, you don't necessarily want a lot of supergeriatric-looking folks in the photos,” Ms. Lineberger said.
Other issues to keep in mind are whether your firm's logo is consistent across your website and that the copyright date in legal verbiage at the bottom of your pages is recent.
Advisers need to keep in mind from the beginning of a redesign project how their site is built and whether its underlying structure and technology can keep up with new programs and applications, Mr. Cooper said.
The need to keep his site updated with fresh content using a blog was the first hurdle for Mr. Cooper. By his own admission, his old site had antiquated architecture based on the use of frames — self-contained HTML pages — and it just wouldn't allow an easy transition.
Get rid of frames — they were a simple way to organize websites early on, but as the Internet matured, all sorts of issues cropped up.
Of course, cost is going to be a factor for most advisers when deciding on a redesign.
For his redesign, Mr. Cooper used the services of
Make it a Great Day (miagd.com), which caters to advisers. It offers more of a do-it-yourself approach in terms of design with a wide selection of pre-built but customizable templates and modules.
Mr. Cooper paid $2,000 for the initial setup and design phase, and another $2,000 of his own time in rewriting and getting a feel for what he wanted. Now there is a $44 monthly hosting fee.
Ms. Blecker spent about $20,000 on her site's total redesign, which was far more comprehensive and used the expertise of several different types of professionals including programmers and designers doing custom work from scratch.
In working with a private design firm, advisers should expect a detailed agreement that specifies the roles of people involved with the project and an estimate of the cost per hour of their services. Advisers should know that most design firms are willing to make a presentation showing the sorts of work they do and results of past projects.
That is a good place to start for advisers. They should take a look at finished products on the web and ask for references.
Finally, advisers should seek input from clients before completing the redesign project.
“The best advice I can give anybody: Make sure you are involving your customers and testing out some of your designs with them prior to implementing major changes or a redesign,” Mr. Golaszewski said.
Go to InvestmentNews.com/redesign to view this story's complementary slideshow.
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