Financial Advisors Website Design in Ireland – what do you need? Why?

Tips and advice for Financial Advisors Website Design in Ireland.

Advice-First-Financial-Letterkenny-Donegal

Every Irish Financial Advisory Practice will have its own priorities/needs – What do you want to achieve at your Financial firm?

To look Professional – You may not need any more clients, but may want to have a professional financial advice website design when someone ‘Googles’ you (and they do). More importantly, you want to get found when someone searches in Google for the financial services you offer people. It could be Serious Illness Protection in Dublin or Dundalk, Mortgage Advice in Monaghan or Meath, Retirement Planning in Galway or Cork, maybe Pension Advice in Donegal or Cavan. Which financial services are you offering? And does your website get found for them in your area?

Leads – You may want more business, but you only want a certain type of financial services client, such as First Time Buyers or Seniors Equity Release, Life Cover or Retirement Planning. So the website needs to attract that target market segment in Ireland only, maybe specifically financial planning or Pensions advice enquiries for newlyweds or teachers, etc. In excess of 75% of people do online research before choosing a Financial Advisor to contact.

Time – You may want to save valuable time on repetitive phone calls by answering frequently asked questions on your website. You may want to allow people to ask questions 24/7 via a custom website enquiry form. A well planned website will save you a lot of time, especially for the more highly paid team members.

Recruitment – Attract high-quality QFA or financial advisory staff who are searching for a suitable Irish financial services practice to work in.
How do you look when these people search for financial advisors websites in your Irish city or town?
Your website is your face online, the best place to engage with potential new team members, Qualified Financial Advisors/Advisers and Mortgage Advisors or Administrators.

Social – You may want a single place on the web where you have a Blog about Financial Advice in Ireland or have all your Social Media channels integrated, so that all your online financial advice is found in one place – your place.

Help – You may not know what you want exactly, but just want to discuss it with someone trustworthy.
Have a chat with us, for a no obligation complimentary 30 minutes consultation to get some direction and answers.
Edel is a QFA, so we like this space. We are not right for everyone, so let’s find out if we are a good fit for your Financial Advice business. Otherwise, we can point you in the best direction. If you have lots of time, just read on, as we answer all the usual questions below.
Disclaimer: This is quite a long article to answer all these questions, which Google loves, by the way. And so do ‘some’ readers.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

GCFS-Gwen-Clarke-Financial-Services

10 tips and 10 questions to help you get your financial advisors website design right.

 

First the 10 technical tips.

From Michael MacGinty our resident Sales Guide and Digital Marketer, Speaker and Networker.

MEANit-Web-Design-Agency-Michael-MacGinty1. CMS – Get a website that is built in a CMS Content Management System, which makes it easier for you to edit. Content is King, it will decide your success on the web, so create it, add it, curate it and make yourself stand out as an Authority on ‘matters financial’ in your area. You are the best person to produce good ‘original content’ for your own financial advisors website. Do not leave its creation to someone else, unless they are competent in your field. Blog posts from Vendors of financial services or products will not cut it, if the same content is to appear on multiple financial service providers websites.
Note: YMYL ‘Your Money Your Life’ – Google will be scrutinising your content particularly, because you, as Qualified Financial Advisors, will fit in to this particular YMYL category and Google is trying to protect the public from any false advertising about investing or abuse.

2. Blocks – Get a website that is ‘Modular’, so that you can move elements around without needing a Developer again. For example, add or move a scrolling Financial Clients Testimonials module on the Home page yourself or move it to your About page, or add a video to a blog item on a specific financial product. Nowadays, with modern WordPress ‘page builders’ the ability to add or copy or move blocks is easy, and ’empowering’. Effectively you can DIY the curating of your website if you have the time to do it.

3. Open Source – Use a platform that is open source such as WordPress and this allows you to move from one web partner to another if ever needed – it happens for loads of unplanned reasons.
Tip: Avoid a one-man or one-person band, someone who offers to be everything, planner, designer, developer, digital marketer. How many financial advisors have just one person employed to do absolutely everything?

4. Financial Advisors Website Design Theme – You could get a low cost website that is theme-based, so that you can change the whole design theme without having to create a new custom website. Also, this makes it easier for you to move to a new web design agency. Avoid basic HTML developers who code their own bootstrap website for you, and then have to make every code change for you – at a price, in time delay, and money.

5. Custom Design: Plan your Branding, colours, content, and CTAs before or when talking to a Web Developer, if how you look online is important to you to build your brand. Think Grant Thornton, OSK, KPMG, Deloitte, Mazars, and so on. Or even smaller examples in the industry at Ask Paul, Moneysmart or Investwise, where you can see that their investment in custom graphic design is evident. It makes them look professional.

6. Navigation – Make Navigation simple, intuitive, stand out, and logically show which financial or tax advice services you specialise in. This needs to be simple in the mobile view too. Over 50% of your visitors are on a mobile when they find you for the first time. Regardless which page they land on, they should be able to find what they want to read.

7. Blog – Show off your knowledge of financial products, plus your experience advising people on their finances, and share any useful info or news from the financial industry. Try Guest Blogging if you can get a platform to do it or answering financial advice questions in forums!

8. Social integration – Tie in all your Blogging, Social Media, and any advertising to your website content and draw people to the website at every single opportunity. They might just connect with you by asking a question on a financial services topic. They may be looking for independent financial advisors or pension advice.

9. Maintenance – Bear in mind a financial advisors website, like a car, has to be maintained and updated. It needs constant attention, security updates & patches, cleaning code, plugin updates, software updates, app updates, and useful add-ons. Every time you update one plugin, you want to check that it does not conflict with another plugin. But most of all it requires useful, helpful content or advice to continually engage with your clients and visitors, to help promote your financial services practice in your local geographic area.

10. Budget for a spend in Year 1 for the design, branding, photography, CMS website, advertising, digital marketing, etc and then do a new budget for year 2 for building on that platform. The higher the spend the higher and faster the return – GUARANTEED ! (if done well). Yes – do ask for guarantees from any web partners.

Three Takeaways in Web Design for Financial Advisors/Advisers:
1. Get a good web design agency partner, pay them to be supportive – establish an ongoing relationship in the same way a company would do with their Financial Advisors or other key suppliers. It is fractional or outsourced qualified labour that keeps itself educated and trained to be ready to support you when you need them.
2. Treat this website project like opening a new financial advisory office. How much would that cost? How much attention would you give it? Build what you need rather than buy something off the shelf at a set price.
3. Most small web agencies are not good at MultiTasking. Chances are you need a 1.Domain Registrar, 2. Hosting Company, 3. Web Graphic Designer, 4. Web Developer and 5. Digital Marketer.

The good news is – a good website can promote your financial advisory practice in Ireland, show you with a professional look and get you found in Google search. It can showcase your work or financial advisory services, show your client reviews and testimonials, make client appointments, take deposit payments online. Or by answering questions online to save you time and pre-qualify callers, allow Client access and manage contacts through a CRM.

Now you know the brief! What is your next step? Answer Edels 10 questions below.
Note: You may want to know the ballpark investment required, so there is also a guideline underneath the questions below. But talk to us about your own specific requirements for your web design as a financial advisor.

Dorrin-Financial-Services-Sligo-Ireland

Ten good opening questions for you from our QFA Edel before building your Financial practice website in Ireland:

Edel_MacGinty-QFAFrom Edel MacGinty our resident QFA and CFO, who has been through this process for her own Financial Services Firm

1. Why do you want a website for your Financial Advisory?

2. Do you need a website at all?

3. What kind of website do you need? Is it just a simple brochure site or a more informative one or a Blog?

4. Who is the Target Market for your financial advice? For which services?

5. Who will create the website for you? Why choose that web design agency as your trusted partner?

6. Who will manage it, support & maintain it and train you?

Michael and Edel MacGinty Pirates7. Do you have a Digital Marketing Strategy? How will you use this new website after you do get it?

8. How much business do you expect from your web presence? Set some targets.

9. How will you measure success or your return on any website investment? Add some metrics.

10. What other questions come to mind for you – every Financial Advisor has specific requirements for their target market?

Answer these questions for yourself and you will be in a good position to start talking to a web design agency. Edel and Michael are happy to take any questions you may have, so feel free to send them in. 

Questions and answers about Financial Advisors website design in Ireland:

What does a good CMS Financial Advisors Website Design Cost in Ireland?
CMS Business Website Design Costs for a Financial Advisory in Ireland

From €250 to €350 per page up depending on which modules are required – Get a Free quote now. Every website project is different, so talk to us about yours, so that we can give you a proper personalised quote.

  • Content Management System, Initial Content Entry for initial 10 or so pages, (add unlimited pages yourself free), Attachment Management, Image Gallery, SEO Tools, Google Maps, YouTube, Preview Mode, Query Form, Website Statistics and User Manual – 10 pages estimate €3500
  • Business Website Design Template or custom design subject to choice of you Client – estimate €75 to €750
  • Monthly Support & Maintenance Options if required: Agree a monthly website support plan to cover website updates, server support, and any edit requests etc. Estimate €99 or just pay the Ad Hoc hourly rate. Monthly Support
  • We work with your budget and your cash flow #gettingbusinessonline
Optional Business Website items or add ons offered
    • Content Creation – do you want us to write it for you. Or hire a Copywriter in the financial advice space.
    • Content editing – can you edit your own text
    • SEF – making pages Search Engine Friendly. How will Google find you when someone searches for financial services
    • SEO – This is what gets you enquiries and conversions from visitors to buyers
    • Image – Producing, sizing, adding to website. Professional photography is always a good investment.
    • Downloads – any pdfs, guides, ebooks about financial advice etc
    • Google Map – adding your Irish location pins
    • YouTube Video – adding and optimising video as more content to optimise in Youtube and add to your website.
    • Google Analytics 4 – set up reporting in Dashboard. Setting up GA4.
    • Google Business Profile aka Google My Business – We can set this up or optimise it for you

If required, we can also refer Clients to photographers/videographers/Copywriters etc. Good ‘Independent’ honest advice for you, is our way of doing things – no exceptions.

How long will the project take?

The planning takes one week. The design usually takes two weeks, plus any delay due to revisions at your end. The Development takes two weeks from the time we receive your website content, written and photographic. Then a week to optimise and test, so usually between 4 to 8 weeks.

Is this the same for Wealth Planner Website Design or Financial Planner Website Design?

Yes this is the same for Wealth Planner Website Design or Financial Planner Website Design or financial consultant website, as the process is the same

The planning takes one week. The design usually takes two weeks, plus any delay due to revisions at your end. The Development takes two weeks from the time we receive your website content, written and photographic. Then a week to optimise and test, so usually between 4 to 8 weeks.

Can I create a financial advice website myself?

Do it yourself. Do it with you. or Do it for you.

Yes, if you have the time, in theory you could do it all yourself, plan, design, develop and optimise a website for your independent financial advice firm. In fact if you want to DIY the project, read our blog articles to find out how to tackle each step properly. It could be a good way to start.

Or talk to us about doing it with you, where we guide you and you do the work or even the marketing, whichever bits you want, once we write up a plan with you to give you some guidance and support.

Or we can do it all for you, whilst you focus on your own Business. In which case we need to use the new website to make you more money than you are investing with us. This is the sort of challenge we readily take on and overcome evry time. Yes, actually, we do Guarantee it. :0)

Could you please clarify who will be doing the work?

Our own team based here in Ireland, mainly Donegal. We do not offshore our work. The developers and project managers are team members on the web design agency payroll. The designers are all local and hired per project, as they all have different styles. We match the right graphic designer with your project. All website are custom designed for you individually. We do not even offshore SEO strategy, as our senior SEOs are also on the staff.

In fact, our Financial Controller and co owner Edel is a Qualified Financial Advisor.

Will it be responsive and optimised for mobile viewing?

Yes, we actually design for mobile first viewing and then make desktop work too. Mobile page load speed is very important, especially since Google introduced Web Core Vitals, as an important ranking factor since May 2021. Responsive and mobile should be a basic expectation for you.

How many pages do you need?

This depends on how many services you want to promote. It could be as low as 5 and as high as you like or need. How may financial advice services do you offer? Add Home, About, Contact and News. What about a blog or a page to reference SFDR Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulations in line with Brokers Ireland. Or explain your Terms of Business as per the Brokers Ireland Compliance Manual. Add a page for Pensions advice or Mortgage advice or any other financial service that you might offer.

Every page is a sales page or a conversion page, so done well each one will generate business. However you can start low and build up, so you dictate the budget totally.

Who provides the written content and photos for the website?

You do. We can get original written content done for you by a content writer. And we can buy photos for you too if you need them. However when it comes to Financial Advice, you are the expert. Your content on the Home page should explain:

  • Do you help people like me reach my goals?
  • How do you do that?
  • Do you have a proven process? Show me.
  • How do I know I can trust you? Show me some testimonials and case studies.
Where will my website be hosted?

We do not sell or resell hosting. It is too important to be used as a way of making a little side profit. We recommend suitable WordPress hosting for your specic WordPress requirements. The hosting, like your domain name, should be in your name and on your credit card – much like the deeds of your house.

Do we need a financial services blog?

No, you do not. However we often recommend having one.

This is to allow you add supporting content for your main financial advice service pages. If you have a service page called Critical Illness Cover, then why not write a supporting blog article about what is required to get the best deal in Critical Illness cover in Ireland. Or what are the typical charges are in relation to Critical Illness cover.
Or explain about Insurance-Based Investment Products (IBIPs) and how you look at your customer’s ‘sustainability preferences’, especially where there might be a conflict of interest or how the IBIPs are a contract of insurance which offers a maturity or surrender value and where that maturity or surrender value is wholly or partially exposed, directly or indirectly, to market fluctuations.

Basically you can use your blog posts to show your experstise to Google and to visitors.

Will we be able to update our new website after it is delivered?

Yes, absolutely. Insist on this from your web design agency.

If you work with us, we will set you up as a User. And we will provide you with a Website User Manual. Plus you can book training with us as often as required. The website is a Content Management System and is designed to allow you add, edit or delete content.

Do you offer any kind of guarantees or warranty on your work?

Yes. Unusually for our industry, we do in fact stand over our work with a Guarantee. We are happy to have some skin in the game.

We agree targets. We even offer money back because we only take on projects where we know we can add value to Financial Advisors. We have never had to give any form of warranty refund. And why not talk to Pascal or Gwen or any of our clients.

What else can you do to market the Financial Advisory firm?

Marketing Strategy – Create awareness in your target market of your financial advice services.

Tactics
1. Content Marketing – Ideally you want people coming to you organically. One of the best ways is to give them useful content to read, that makes them realise that you are the right Financial Advisor for them. Answer questions in detail, just like you would if someone asked you a question in the office or over the phone. Think of the money questions you get every day or regularly, as in Frequently Asked Questions. Ensure that this content is on your website, then promote it through SMM Social Media Marketing via your Social Channels, Linkedin, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads or Google Ads PPC Pay Per Click Advertising. You can even create a Facebook Group if you want to use it as a medium to engage with existing or potential clients. Adding video is a good way to get engagement and the video can be shared or promoted or put it on your own video marketing platform in Youtube.

2. Blog – Write some useful financial guidance articles to add value to your website for visitors. Show people you know a lot about these financial products or financial services you offer clients. If you feel that you cannot write or do not have time, hire someone to create ‘original’ content for you. No boilerplate content that gets published on dozens or hundreds of financial advisory websites. Use SEO Search Engine Optimisation to help your pages and posts get found in Google search for relevant key terms. Are you featuring on page one in Google for these key terms? You can use an email Marketing Campaign to send content via a Newsletter, to inform or bring people such as existing clients to your website to read more. Can you guest blog on other financial advice websites to show your authority.

3. Niche – if you specialise in ‘Retirement Planning’, then focus any content creation on that specific area, rather than trying to write content on too many topics. Financial Planning is a vast area. What about niching further, say retirement planning for nurses or firemen or men in a certain area of Ireland and of a certain age, whatever is your best space.

4. UX/UI – With all this wonderful content you are creating, make sure that it is easy to find in your website. Usually referred to as User Experience and User Interface. All artices on any given topic can be clustered or grouped together and be easy to flow from one to another in a logical way. Your Blog may have Categories of different finance advice posts. Your service pages may be in sub navigations, to break up the content and funnel people to where they want to go.

5. CTAs – On each page or post, have a logical CTA Call to Action, such as ‘Get a FREE Quote for Life Cover’ or ‘Make an appointment with a Qualified Financial Advisor now’ or whatever is right for that page. Only have one CTA if possible to avoid confusion and help with flow.

6. Updating – when you create these pages or posts you will need to keep the financial advice up to date. And you may well think that your clients would not read 5000 words about Life Cover options, and you may well be right. However some of them will like to get the long answers to their queries. And Google will definitely like it, so they may then rank you higher than other financial advice firms for this query. This is important, if you are not ranking on page 1 in a Google search in Ireland for your key financial terms who is going to find you?

7. PPC Ads – You could spend lots of money competing with Pay Per Click advertising. This can get quick short term results as long as you pay to play and works faster than SEO which is a longer term play.

Sounds like work! Yes it is, but this way you say it once to many rather than many times to one person again and again. So this will save you time in future. And more importantly, it allows you to answer questions for potential clients, whenever they ask the questions 24/7/365. Plus it helps you get found by people who do not know you even exist yet.

What is the "The Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR)"?

The Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) is a European regulation introduced to improve transparency in the financial advice market for sustainable investment products, to prevent greenwashing and to increase transparency around sustainability claims made by financial market participants.

It imposes comprehensive sustainability disclosure requirements covering a broad range of environmental, social & governance (ESG) metrics at both entity- and product-level. The main provisions of the SFDR have been applicable as of 10 March 2021, with a statutory instrument known as a Delegated Act containing more precise disclosure standards yet to be adopted by the European Commission. The SFDR is a fundamental pillar of the EU Sustainable Finance agenda, having been introduced by the European Commission as a core part of its 2018 Sustainable Finance Action Plan, which also include the Taxonomy Regulation and the Low Carbon Benchmarks Regulation.

Read the full details from 2019 at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32019R2088&from=EN in the Official Journal of the European Union.

What are the Sfdr classifications?
SFDR product classifications fall under 3 categories: Article 8, Article 9 and ‘Other. ‘ Article 8 and Article 9 products consider sustainability in a binding way. Article 8 products promote social and or environmental characteristics whilst Article 9 products have a sustainable objective.

Who does SFDR apply to?
The SFDR regulation applies to FMPs such as investment firms, pension funds, asset managers, insurance companies, banks, venture capital funds, credit institutions offering portfolio management, or financial advisors.

Who needs to report under SFDR?
SFDR Level 1 requires financial institutions within the European Union or marketing to EU investors, to make principles-based disclosures on ESG Environmental, Social and Governance related activity. Firms must report not only on the sectors they invest in, but also on their portfolio companies. And SFDR disclosures are not limited to marketing materials. Private and Corporate investors apply these non-financial factors, more and more every year as part of their own analysis process to identify material risks and growth opportunities.

What are Environmental, Social and Governance financial products?
ESG funds are portfolios of equities and/or bonds for which environmental, social and governance factors have been integrated into the investment process. This means the equities and bonds contained in the fund have passed stringent tests over how sustainable the company or government is regarding its ESG criteria of its use of or dependence on fossil fuels, its use or management of water and other resources and its pollution levels.

What is ESG or Environmental, Social and Governance marketing?
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Marketing is based on the ESG criteria. The aim of these criteria is to help consumers and investors to get in touch with products and companies that demonstrate similar values to their own.

What is YMYL Your Money Your Life?

What is YMYL Your Money Your Life? And how does it affect Financial Advisors websites?

Any website that sells a product or provides a service or even just information that can be deemed to impact someones ‘financial wellbeing’ or ‘financial safety’ and their ‘happiness’ or their ‘health’, can be classified or categorised by Google as YMYL “Your Money or Your Life”.

The very definition of the service you as a Financial Advisor provides means that your content could be so classified. Bear in mind this is a ‘topic’ so it is not just a page, but rather the whole website that gets classified as YMYL. One page or post could classify you in this category. It is not necessarily a bad thing or even something that you can avoid. However, you do need to be so careful about what you write or post in your website.

As the CEO you are responsible for anything posted by other members of the financial services team or your digital marketer, so do check your website content regularly. Talk to your Search Engine Optimisation team about what content to create, which financial advice to give and how to display it, as well as link to it. Your SEO can tell you if your website is affected positively or negatively by the content you are posting, which might be considered YMYL.

How can you use your website to recruit Qualified Financial Advisors?

There are ways that you can use your website to recruit Qualified Financial Advisory staff?

1. Post a Position or job vacancy for a Financial Advisor or Mortgage Broker etc on your website.

2. Give as much detail as you can in the job description. Include details of the post, the workplace, the team, the type of clients you deal with, the salary range on offer and any other bonuses or targets etc. You cannot give too much information, so keep typing until you run out of ideas. Let the reader know what it would be like to work with you and your team. Make the reader feel welcome and show them how good the position is. Sell it as if you were talking to someone who answered an advertisement for the job.

3. Optimise the page so that it can rank in Google search. This could save you a fortune in recruitment agency fees. Get your web design agency or SEO to do this if you do not know how to do it.

4. Use the link to this post and paste it in to Facebook and Boost it if you like to whichever demographic or geographic area you want to target.

5. Use the content of this post and paste it in to your Google Business Profile.

6. Use the link to this post and paste it in to Linkedin and promote it if you want to try a small spend. Bear in mind that Linkedin is expensive.

7. Use the content of this page to do an advert on your local digital news website and include the hyperlink to this post in your website.

8. Create a blog post about working as a QFA or how to become a QFA. Answer as many questions as you can.

9. Post the details in any Financial Advisors ‘Groups’ in Facebook or Linkedin or any ‘Forums’ that you may belong to.

10. Create a poll in Linkedin and ask people what would make them choose a particular Financial Advisory firm to work with.

Guideline costs involved in creating a Financial Advisors website in Ireland

Essentials Website

Get a clean, fast, mobile friendly, custom designed website that ticks all the boxes. By focusing on the essentials we can get you an online presence that makes a big positive impact on your Financial Advisory without investing a fortune initially. Build your brand and grow your audience with a Mobile-friendly website typically 5 to 10 pages, along with all the training provided, so you can grow your site yourself over time, adding content and Search Engine Optimisation to get you found

Best suited for:

Small financial advice businesses, who need a high quality custom design website without needing any large initial investment, but a platform that they can build upon over time.

Intended to get you online and give you a platform to start building your brand.

Includes simple Brief or Plan & Wireframe or Layout, Custom Graphic Design, Website Development of typically 5 to 10 pages, Initial SEO Search Engine Optimisation and Training

From €4,800

Optional items include: Keyword Research, Keyword Mapping, Competitor Analysis, Monthly Support Plan and ongoing SEO services for small financial advisors

Custom Website

Let us get you noticed with a totally custom designed, fast loading website built to your specific needs. Then we can engage your target audience with unique page layouts perfect for feature content and focused landing pages for financial services. Training is provided with this custom designed website, typically 10 to 20 pages.  And we can add in the critical Search Engine Optimisation, so your website ranks well in Google. Plus a full written plan to follow..

Best suited for:

Medium-sized growing financial advisory businesses who want a quality custom website and a marketing plan along with some ongoing help every month to get new clients

Intended to make you more effective online and build upon your brand at a steady pace.

Includes Brief or Plan & Wireframe or Layout, Custom Graphic Design, Website Development of typically 10 to 20 pages, Initial SEO Search Engine Optimisation and Training.

From €6,000

Optional items include: Keyword Research, Keyword Mapping, Competitor Analysis, Monthly Support Plan and ongoing SEO services for a financial advisory.

Strategic Website

You probably have an underperforming website, but realise you need a better web presence. One that will consistently generates the ideal leads and work you really want.
However, you do not have the team time to be doing all this digital marketing stuff. So you want some professional help.

Lets start with a meeting and then write up a digital strategy or plan, to ensure we set some agreed goals or targets.

Best suited for:

Growth focused medium financial advisory practice, who want to outsource all the website management and digital marketing responsibility to a competent, reliable Irish team, who will generate the new client business. This allows your team to focus on what you do best – close the sale.
Results Guaranteed by us!

Includes Brief or Plan & Wireframe or Layout, Keyword Mapping, Competitor Analysis, Custom Graphic Design, Website Development of typically 20 to 100 pages and Training, plus SEO Search Engine Optimisation.

From €9,500

Optional items include: Monthly Support Plan and ongoing SEO services for growing financial advisories.