How to Turn Your Website Into A Lead Generation Machine

Your website is vital, as it’s where the majority of people will have their first meaningful interaction with your brand.

It is effectively a digital shop window that people can look through to find out more about your company and your services.

And the vast majority of financial firms have websites that look smart and give the visitor an idea of what the company does and how it does it.

But all too often this is where it stops – the website works as an insight into a business, but it does nothing to actually turn readers from interested visitors into actual leads.

And this is a mistake, as websites are still the primary way potential investors learn about brands.

Obviously, nobody makes a major investment decision on the strength of a website, but for many people, it is where the investment journey starts as it’s the first real contact they have with your brand and company.

Do a bad job, and they look – and possibly invest – elsewhere.

But do a good job and your website may be the first step on the way to investing with you.

So, what you say on your website – as well as how it looks and the experience people find there – is an absolutely crucial part of your lead generation process.

So, here’s how you can turn your website into a lead generation machine…

Set Yourself Apart From The Competition

Whatever sector you are in, differentiating yourself from the competition is a key aspect of marketing. Content must reflect this and explain to prospects why they should choose your product or service over others.

Fund marketing is no different – and your website is the one place where you absolutely have to get this across. The casual investor – with no real knowledge of what makes one fund or firm is better than another – is there to be convinced.

This is why websites are such an indispensable vehicle for lead generation. In the digital age, the majority of investor journeys start way before leads ever talk to sales teams, as people are doing their own research to try and make their own minds up about where to put their money. They will weigh up the pros and cons of various competing funds – and that means that you have to stand out.

So, you need to think about the key aspects of your fund, business or service that sets you apart and make sure these are addressed on your website. What sets you apart could be fund performance – but it’s not necessarily limited to that. The experience and knowledge of your staff, your customer service and support, and attitude to Corporate Social Responsibility could all be reasons why a prospective investor would choose you above the competition.

So, it’s a good idea to get the marketing and sales teams together to come up with as many reasons to choose your firm as possible – then make sure they are all mentioned and expanded upon within your site.

Think Like A Lead

For your website to be successful in lead generation terms, you need to give people what they are looking for. Do that and you both keep them on the site and make them well disposed towards you.

But, what exactly do they want?

To answer that question you first have to put yourself into the shoes of a potential investor. What is he or she looking for from you? What would be helpful to them in terms of making an investment decision? What is their attitude to risk? What sort of thing would put their mind at rest in regards the safety and opportunity of investing with you?

And you must involve your sales department in this process. Far too often sales are left out of the loop when it comes to websites, but that is stupid as they know so much about what actual investors do and don’t like. Set up a meeting with your sales team to go through the website content – and make sure you act on their advice.

Get Capturing

Some prospects turn into actual investors all by themselves. They will be so impressed by what they see on your website – or have read elsewhere about your company – that they get in touch with your sales team without any further encouragement.

But these people are few and far between. The vast majority of leads must be encouraged to trust you enough to invest with you. And you do that by getting them from your website and into your marketing database – so you can start to send them interesting and useful content that ultimately persuades them to trust them with your money.

But for that to happen you first have to offer them something useful – what is called a lead magnet – in exchange for signing up for your communications. This could be a guide for investors, for example, or an explanation of a particular investment sector. Whatever it is, it must be enticing enough to persuade people to sign up to your list.

But you must also make it easy for people to sign up. There is no point having one sign up form in one dusty, forgotten corner of your site. For lead generation to really work, you must have multiple sign up forms across your site – with clear instructions on what is needed to get the promised information, how data will be used, and exactly what prospects get in return for their details.

Lastly, you need to have website content that is both good and helpful enough for your visitors to be prepared to fill out a brief form in order to get more from you.

Show That You Know What You’re Talking About

Fund marketing is about building trust. Before people are going to invest with you, they must first trust that your firm will take good care of their money.

And one of the biggest building blocks of developing trust – especially when it comes to finance – is being seen as an authority on a subject.

This is why thought leadership is such an important component of fund marketing, especially in the digital age. People are increasingly looking to educate themselves on investment decisions by looking online for useful content to guide them.

So, it is vital that your website should reflect this. You must have articles and videos from senior figures within your company that positions your firm as an authority within the fund sector, which in turn helps persuade people that you will look after their money and help it grow.

And having this sort of content on your website will also encourage prospects to sign up for your marketing list – as they will view you as a trusted source of quality content, so will want to see and read more of the same.

Think About Your Existing Investors

A lot of time and money is spent in fund marketing on the quest to bring in new investors. But this is all too often at the expense of an equally important source of new assets – existing investors.

Those who are already investing with you can develop into a cross-selling lead that can be persuaded to invest in another fund under your management. And your website can play a crucial part in this.

So, you must make sure that your site also works for your existing investors and makes them feel looked after and valued.

But what you’re existing investors want to see is likely to be different from the priorities of your potential investors. For example, they probably want live information about particular products or funds. So, it may be a good idea to have a section of your site that is purely designed for existing investors, which gives them all the resources they need.

Keep Improving

You should not treat your website as something that is developed, designed, launched and then just left.

It is in effect a marketing campaign – something that is fluid – and so you must treat it as such and be careful to monitor what is and isn’t working and test new approaches.

For instance, you can test if a pop-up sign-up form may work better than a static form. Or if adding a new content format – such as videos or infographics – improves your lead sign-up rates.  But make sure you just test just one thing at a time, otherwise you won’t know which change has made the difference.

Another important aspect of monitoring and improving is to look at your competitors’ sites – what’s working on there that could work on yours? If there is something good, then develop your own version and see what happens.

Also, be brave enough to ask people what they think of your site – what could you do better and differently? Is there anything you could change that would make them more likely to invest with you, or look for more information on your fund?

Conclusion

The website is a vital part of the marketing process. Yet, all too often it is neglected and left as a simple information portal, full of useless waffle about when a firm was founded, where it’s based, mission statements etc. etc.

Do not let it happen to you. You should see your website for what it is – a lead generation goldmine.

You need to have some imagination and a determination to find out what works and what doesn’t. But if you turn your site into somewhere that is useful to visitors and gives them what they want to see, then you can have a website that performs that first crucial step in turning interested visitors into actual investors.