Advisor Website Showcase: Landau Advisory – Targeting Millennials

In this week’s Client Showcase, I spoke with Liz Landau from Landau Advisory.  Liz wanted her new site to appeal to her firm’s millennial target audience.  We believe in creating websites for financial advisors that communicate quickly to your visitors who you are, what you do, and who you do it for (in this case, Generation X/Y). Considering this target audience, we worked with Liz to develop a site that both looked and functioned with millennials in mind.

I initially asked Liz how she decided on her current website design theme.  She explained that she wanted a layout that would be easy to read on a phone because her millennial target market does everything on their phones.  Liz added that she also wanted a design that would be particularly visually appealing to this target market.  After explaining these goals to Samantha, Twenty Over Ten’s Director of Sales and Marketing, Samantha sent her a bunch of links to other websites designed by Twenty Over Ten.  This allowed Liz to collect ideas from each.  Liz also noted that she looked more broadly at other financial planner websites that were focused on the Y Generation to get ideas and inspiration.

In today’s world, it is key that your website is mobile-responsive in order to accommodate the ever-growing trend of smartphone use.

I then asked Liz about her favorite feature on her new site. She explained that she loves the layout and the functionality of being able to scroll down through the tabs.  Liz added that she loves how the site looks on a cellphone and really likes the color scheme.  Most importantly, she explains that she really likes the overall design because she believes that it conjures up a very professional image, but one that is soft and inviting.

When asked if she has received any positive feedback about her site, Liz emphatically exclaimed “Yes!”  She admitted that she hasn’t sent it around too broadly, but that friends, family and close colleagues are definitely complimentary.  Liz added that the site’s copy came out with the exact tone that she was hoping to achieve.

My next question for Liz was about her experience working with Twenty Over Ten’s design team for her new website.  She explained, “the team was incredibly responsive and helpful and never made me feel like I was imposing on them with my requested tweaks or broader questions.  We went back and forth a few times with the imagery and the copywriting, but they were very accommodating and really seemed to ‘get’ what I was hoping to achieve.”

I asked Liz if there was a certain message that she wanted to portray from her website and she broke down her answer based on the website’s copy, content and imagery.  In terms of copy, she wanted to come across as smart and capable, but also empathetic and approachable.  In regards to the actual content, she wanted the site to have a lot of information.  This was because she wants to use the website to help prospective clients really hone in on whether she might be a good fit for them by being transparent and comprehensive in explaining what she does, what her philosophy and approach is, and what it will cost to work with her.

Finally, she admits that it took her a couple of tries to get the imagery right.  Liz knew she wanted the imagery to reinforce her focus on Gen Y, which means pictures of graduation, young couples, young individuals living their lives, etc., but she at first went with the formal approach of people in more professional attire.  Liz eventually came to realize that while she wasn’t comfortable with the extreme casualness of some sites aimed at the millennial audience, she needed to have imagery more relaxed and relatable to that generation.

Landau Advisory’s website is a great example of a financial advisor site effectively targeting millennials.  We loved working with Liz and appreciate all of her great feedback!

Check out other latest blog posts from Twenty Over Ten, like Your Company Logo – The Foundation of Your Brand and How To Improve Your Site’s Local Search SEO.