Five Advisor Sites with Great Visual ContentJune 19, 2020

by Samantha Russell

Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here donot necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.

It’s been echoed time and time again: we live in a visual world. People processvisual content a shocking 60,000 times faster than text. For financial advisors, thatmeans in order to win the attention of prospects, you need to win them overvisually. Employing visual content in your firm’s marketing strategy is a must. Well-made visuals communicate more effectively, are pleasing to the eye, and improveyour overall chances of converting leads.

You might be asking, “What actually constitutes a ‘well-made visual’?” Working withhundreds of advisors over the years, I’ve seen some great applications of visualsin content marketing… and some well, not so great ones.

I’m sharing and analyzing five examples of great visual content from financialadvisors.

1. WealthKeel, LLC

WealthKeel, LLC, an advisory firm, with a niche of serving physicians, placed thevisual below on its homepage. A visual like this is impactful for a number ofreasons, especially knowing that 81% of users only skim online content. If WealthKeel had put this content into paragraphform, all of that information would’ve been lost to visitors.

Prospective clients who visit your website don’t sit and digest every morsel of detail. They will develop a first impression (intwo-tenths of a second!), scan your content, and then make a decision whether to leave or investigate your companyfurther.

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This is exactly why it’s so important to compress information into compelling visuals such as this. It’s to the point, visuallystimulating, and informative. Icons like WealthKeel uses serves the same psychological purpose as paragraph breaks –icons visually break up a large amount of content, making it less intimidating and likely for someone to hang our on yourwebsite longer. If you’re searching for icons to use on your advisor website we recommend using a service like NounProject, which offers millions of icons that can be tailored to your brand guidelines and some for completely free.

2. Cultivating Wealth

In this blog post about financial aid, Cultivating Wealth used this infographic as the header:

Infographics are some of the best visual marketing tools; high-quality infographics are 30-times more likely to be read thantext articles.

Let’s break this one down: Filling out a FAFSA application is a notoriously complex process. No matter how much you try toexplain it in words, you just need a visual aid. This infographic lays out an otherwise complicated issue into an easy-to-follow flowchart. In this format, the information is easily digestible and fun to follow.

Infographics are a quick and easy way to incorporate visual content into your marketing. And as a bonus, they can bepromoted everywhere, from your website to your social media channels, email and other communication vehicles. You cangrab infographics from other sources, create your own in platforms such as Canva, Infogram or leverage pre-designedinfographics in Lead Pilot, which are hyper-specific to the financial services industry.

3. Weiss Financial Group

Weiss Financial Group does an amazing job of utilizing one of the best forms of visual content: video. In fact, 87% ofmarketers say that video marketing increases their website traffic.

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Including video in your marketing strategy is an instant attention-grabber, and it’s as simple as this: People love to watchvideos. In this example, Weiss Financial Group chose to put an introduction video in place of an “About Us” block of text.The video itself, one of many on their YouTube channel, is engaging, with graphics and professional editing.

Video is a great tool to use in your email marketing, landing pages, and social media. In addition, you don’t need a costlyprofessional set up to produce them. Adding in quick video content gives your prospects a break from reading. As seenhere, the embedded video made the homepage look more visually appealing immediately.

4. Continuum Wealth Advisors, LLC

Continuum Wealth Advisors, LLC creates a visual experience for prospects immediately when they land on their website.Using a looping video (or GIF) paired with moving text directly on their homepage above the fold is a great way to conveymessages unfit for words, all while grabbing and maintaining the user’s attention.

In this case, the firm provides a quick glance into their goals and philosophy. The phrases that cycle through are short andPage 3, © 2020 Advisor Perspectives, Inc. All rights reserved.

to-the-point, yet super effective. Visual content like this reels in prospects by highlighting firm ideology with speed andaesthetic value.

To create a GIF for your website or social media, you can make one out of almost anything and put it almost anywhere.Tools such as Giphy Capture create GIFs in seconds, which can then be turned into visual content for your website orsocial media.

5. Lakeshore Capital Group

The example below from Lakeshore Capital Group is another one I love and something I see a lot from the advisors wework with at Twenty Over Ten. This visual helps outline what their process is working with clients in a flywheel visual aid.

Before taking the steps to start working with your firm, prospects want to know what the collaboration process will look like.Putting this information in a more visual context can not only communicate more information in less space but makesprospects more likely to retain that information.

This visual is effective because it leaves a good impression. It clearly highlights all the key aspects of Lakeshore CapitalGroup’s advising philosophy, and it’s nice to look at, too.

Final thoughts

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To integrate visual content into your marketing efforts, the options are endless – and when they’re well-executed, they’reextremely fruitful. Take the examples highlighted here as a point of inspiration. Explore all the different applications ofvisual content for your firm, and find ways to make it your own.

Samantha Russell is the chief marketing and business development officer at Twenty Over Ten (a digital marketing andwebsite development company for financial advisors). Samantha helps financial advisors create digital marketing strategiesthat produce explosive growth through website development, content marketing, SEO, social media and video.

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