Tips for Creating and Marketing a Financial Services Business Website

Jul 8, 2021 | Website Design

Reading Time: 6 minutes
Kevin Fouche

Tips for Creating and Marketing a Financial Services Business Website

Posted by Kevin Fouche, Pixel Fish Director

Kevin handles the planning, design, launch and training of every website that Pixel Fish creates. He ensures that every website is highly engaging and aligned with our client’s goals. With over 20 years of design and web industry experience to draw upon, Kevin aims to pass on his knowledge to our clients and like-minded businesses wanting to grow their online presence.

How can your financial services business website outcompete thousands of others that are already online? When creating and marketing, the secret is to think from your buyers’ perspective.

Your buyers desire lightning-fast speed, security, in-depth information, and easy navigation. Grasp these things, and you’ll be their favourite go-to brand for their financial needs. Read more to learn how to hack it.

1. Build Professional User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX)

First impressions matter a lot. So make your financial services business website stand out from the rest of the pack. Be sure to capture your visitor’s interest within the first 15 seconds of landing on your website. That’s where a professional UX and UI steps in.

Minimal is More

Make it easy for users to complete a specific action on your website or get answers to their queries. They only are a few clicks away from what they’re looking for.

Hierarchy

Are your website’s elements flowing naturally and in a defined way? Vary the structure, font sizes, colours, and other things to draw visitors towards what matters most. The site should be easy to scan, have multiple visitor conversion paths, and visually focused on the crucial elements.

Stress-free Navigability

Be sure visitors can move seamlessly from one point to another. Your top-level navigation should have only essential options (minimize them to around 7) and use familiar words. Your footer section can have a second navigation menu.

Then throw in a breadcrumb menu to help users navigate from one page to another easily. Don’t forget to add a search bar and your crucial information shouldn’t be many clicks away from the user. Also, the “Contact Us” page needs to be conspicuous.

Keep the Site Uniform

Your website’s pages need to be as uniform as possible. Sure, your pages cannot be identical, but their layouts, fonts, colours, and other elements should speak a common language.

2. Build a Conversion-Focused Site

Be sure to focus all your website efforts on converting your users into the next step in the buyer’s journey. Apart from driving high ROI, your goal may be to collect more leads, increase the number of registered users, or achieve other objectives.

Use a Strong CTA (Call to Action)

What do you want your visitor to do after landing on your website? It could be signing up for a newsletter, contacting you, finding out more, and purchasing. Be sure to put these CTAs strategically in the right position (mainly at the top or bottom of the page).

Also, use the right colour and size to make them conspicuous. But avoid going overboard as too many CTAs with off-putting colours can scare the visitors away.

Throw in a Variety of Lead Forms

A wide variety of lead forms throughout your website will drive quality conversions. These forms include:

  • Contact forms: allow visitors to submit queries or messages to you. Include fields for their name, contact details, and the message.
  • Registration forms: entice visitors to be part of your business family, participate in events like webinars, attend a workshop or grab a juicy offer. They should also have at least a name and email address field.
  • Lead generation forms: allows you to turn visitors into leads. At the bare minimum, include a name and email address fields. The CTA may be something like Download our eBook, Sign Up for our Newsletter, or Schedule Appointment.

Ensure the forms are clear and concise with a clear purpose. Limit the number of fields- you don’t want to overwhelm users. Also, include thank you messages, ensure auto-responders are performing properly, and check that your database captures the users’ details correctly.

Include Relevant Links

Links on your financial services business website are helpful for navigation, promotion, building trust, and referencing other pages. They also boost ranking on search engines.

Use them periodically and naturally, and ensure they open in the current tab (not a new one) for better tracking and analytics. Keep these links timely and relevant but don’t include too many on one page. Remember to use a different colour (like blue) to indicate to users that the links are clickable. Finally, double-check them and remove all 404 error pages.

Use Enticing Images

Humans are 90% visual beings. So break the boredom in your content and website by using images. Just remember to use high-resolution photos and keep them proportional to other content forms. While minimizing the file size to promote faster loading speed and maintain the images’ quality.

Be sure to include alt-text to give more details about the photo (useful for visually impaired users) and improve on-page SEO. Images of people have been found to drive more engagement. Just be sure to remain authentic and avoid stock images as much as possible.

3. Adopt a Mobile-Friendly Design

Google strives to serve users with mobile-responsive websites since most people’s lives today revolve around their mobile devices. Each day in 2020 saw the average adult in the US spending around 4 hours on their mobile phone.

The information they want is now just a few clicks away. In fact, Generation Z and Millennials tend to engage with a brand through digital channels before making a purchase decision.

Some UK researchers revealed that by 2023, more than 70% of young adults will be using digital channels for financial management tasks. So be sure your website is responsive to any screen size and type that will be thrown at it. Make it look modern and sleek if you desire to capture as many clients as possible.

4. Build Rock-Solid Social Proof and Trust

When marketing their services, financial businesses’ websites usually encounter a stubborn roadblock: trust. In fact, 92% of customers- especially millennials- usually doubt what banks say. The media has worsened the situation by airing data breaches, misdeeds, and various crises that usually haunt the financial industry.

So play your cards well when it comes to social proof, reviews, and the promotion of customer-centric values. Take time to listen to your users’ feedback and respond accordingly.

Spice up your website by including former clients’ reviews, testimonials, and case studies. You can also work with celebrities and role models to endorse your brand, products, and services.

You see, social media influencers can help you entice young generations to purchase your financial offerings or invest. In fact, 58% of millennials and generation Z are attracted by adverts that feature their favourite influencer.

Personalization is another crucial thing to do since financial matters tend to be personal. Your contact and lead capturing forms need to capture essential information. That way, your emails and SMS will be unique and directed to intended users.

Don’t forget to encourage your customers and fan base to spread the word using tactics like referral bonus links. According to Nielsen, 92% of potential customers trust brands referred to them by their friends and family.

5. Content is King

According to a marketing report, 72% of marketers agreed that content marketing is the force behind quality prospect engagement. Your financial website needs to demonstrate in-depth knowledge in their content marketing, portray you as the industry thought-leader, and show that you have your target audience’s back and can solve their pain points.

So first, carry out a comprehensive research about your audience and offerings. For instance, millennials desire online banking, financial health improvement, and the ability to use a mobile app to send money.

Then create an organized content marketing plan. Be sure to deliver timely and relevant content through blog articles, financial services apps, and social media channels. The forms can vary- think explainer articles, interviews, long-form blogs, and videos.

While creating a conversion-centric website, content comes in handy to help you make an inbound marketing funnel on your website. This funnel has the following stages:

  • Top of the Funnel: It’s the stage of awareness and discovery. Use eBooks, educational videos, blogs, and whitepapers to capture your audience’s attention.
  • Middle of the Funnel: At this stage, your potential clients evaluate your brand, consider it, and compare your products with your competitors’ offerings. Use webinars, FAQs, toolkits, expert guides, quizzes, and reports to win their hearts here.
  • Bottom of the Funnel: Some of your leads are about to get out their credit cards and make a purchase. Hurray! Events, case studies, and testimonials will come in handy to convince them to take that step.

6. Go Social

A third of people worldwide and over 2/3 of internet users use social media platforms (think Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and LinkedIn). So your brand should have a consistent and engaging presence on relevant social media platforms. The channels allow you to educate your audience, plant new ideas in their minds, keep them updated with industry and company news, and engage them.

Throw in occasional polls and quizzes to create engagement and generate leads. Also, create videos to demonstrate a topic or tell your story in a way that connects with viewers emotionally—spice up things using humour while keeping the attitude positive. And remember to be consistent.

Wrap Up

Your financial services business website is a home that your brand needs to boost awareness and sales and increase revenues. Therefore, optimize it to work for you, and you’ll not have to spend money on offline marketing campaigns.

But if you already have a lot on your plate to create and market your website, consider Pixel Fish. We are experts in building unique WordPress websites for financial businesses. Contact Us today to help you skyrocket your business through the roof.

Take your business to the next level with a Pixel Fish Website.

Check out some of our latest Website Design projects.

Further Reading
How to Use Instagram to Drive Website Traffic for your business
Twitter Vs Facebook Vs Instagram Vs LinkedIn: Which is Right for You? 

Read More
How to Repurpose Content to Increase Reach and Influence
How to Choose the Right Social Media Channels for Your Business
Why do smart business owners make dumb decisions?
3 Big Business Things Every Small Business Should do
5 Principles of Intelligent Database Marketing
Facebook Reviews vs LinkedIn Reviews vs Google My Business Reviews
Financial Services Web Design
10 Tips for Designing the Perfect Accounting Website
Web Design Testimonials
5 Characteristics for Effective Web Design for Inbound Marketing
10 Great Ways To Improve Your Website Inbound Leads Management
How to Create a Landing Page for Your Small Business: A Comprehensive Guide

Stand out from your competition with a Pixel Fish website!

Contact us today on 02 9114 9813 or email info@pixelfish.com.au

Small Business Website Packages   | Custom Website Design   |   Ecommerce Websites

Related Blogs

Contact Pixel Fish - Website Design Agency

Get Started with a new Pixel Fish Website

We would love to hear about your upcoming website project

Kevin Fouché, Pixel Fish Director