Excellent Examples of Well-Written Copy for Financial Advisors

It has become harder than ever to run a successful business without the help of online platforms. If you don’t claim your own corner of the web, you only make it easier for the competition to win over prospective clients.

Most RIAs now have their own websites, but what good are they if they’re not producing returns? The purpose of your website is to turn visitors into prospects and prospects into clients. If your website isn’t producing those results, it’s not working.

There may be a few offenders weakening your website’s power but one of the most common reasons websites fail is due to poor website copywriting. We see this especially in the financial services industry, which unfortunately is chock-full of jargon and numbers. Advisors must have copy, or written content, that is customer-centric and search-driven. Thankfully, this issue is simple to fix!

Today our copywriting team is letting you in on the top four key components to creating great website copy. In writing and editing copy for hundreds of financial advisor websites, this list is tried and true for success.

1. Select a Voice for Your Advisory

Boring website copy isn’t beneficial to anyone, especially your visitors. Website goers will feel they’ve wasted their time reading content that doesn’t interest them and leave your site only to find their answers on a competitor’s website. They lose time and you lose clients.

Think about it – would you stick out a book that doesn’t interest you or watch a full season of a TV show that only has you fall asleep? The design of a website should catch your visitor’s eye and the copy should interest them enough to stick around. The headings should grab their attention and the information given should be engaging.

Here’s how you can find your brand’s voice: 

• Prioritize authenticity in your copy and marketing.
• Understand your ideal audience, and speak to their needs and interests (more on this below).
• Consider what you offer and how it’s different from other advisors. Focus on this difference in the delivery of your copy.
• Don’t be afraid to get creative. Your voice may be humorous, charming, quirky, or caring.

2. Make Your Copy Scannable

Another way to entice viewers to read your content is to make it easy for them to find what interests them. By making the copy scannable, visitors can skim your website and dive into what is relevant to their story and financial journey.

Part of making your website scannable is trimming down the fluff and replacing it with valuable content. Consumers are no longer interested in every detail of your business but want to know how you can help them.

Follow these guidelines to make your copy scannable:

• Create simple and easy navigation (check out #9 on this list for an easy-to-follow formula for your website navigation).
• Keep paragraphs short and sweet with the benefits of your service at the start.
• Utilize boldface, bullets, headings and subheadings.

3. Write Copy for SEO

Your website copy’s main purpose is to communicate with readers, but you would be missing a fundamental opportunity if you didn’t optimize your copy for search engines. By creating quality content, you are hitting two birds with one stone – your prospects gain useful knowledge and as they spend more time on your website, your SEO improves.

With better SEO, your firm is more likely to show up in results, more prospects are likely to find you, and ultimately your client base and ROI should increase. Good website copy can enhance your website’s SEO in more than one way.

Here are a few ways to upgrade your content to make it more SEO friendly:

• Use keywords throughout your copy and in headings
• Link text back to other relevant pages of your site, past blog posts, or reputable 3rd party sites
• Add alternative text for images on your website
• Blog, blog, blog!
• Use your location not only on your contact page but throughout the copy of your website, even in header tags when appropriate.

4. Focus On a Niche

Last but most definitely not least, your copy should be oriented towards your target market. Again, the purpose of your website copy is to connect with prospects and therefore the copy should be written for them (not you). Ask yourself, what are prospects looking for and what do they want to know? Your copy should be less about your firm and more about how your firm can help them.

You may have something similar to this phrase on your website: “We are an independent financial advisory firm providing services for those looking to retire.”

Instead, answer these questions to write toward your niche:

• How does being independent benefit clients?
• What will clients gain from your services?

Revising content to be more customer-centric and niche-oriented can be achieved by writing through the lens of a prospective client. After understanding what they want, you can better write directly to them.