All right, so welcome. We are going to go ahead and kick things off. My name is Lauren Hong, and I am the owner at Out and About Communications. And today we are joined by some pretty incredible guests. So I'm going to go ahead and let them introduce themselves so we can really get into your website as a platform and how it can work best for you. So Bridget, do you want to get us started? Sure. And thanks for having me, Lauren. I'm Bridget Grimes. I am the president and founder of a financial planning firm called Wealth Choice. We're based in California, Arizona, but our client base is virtual and national. And we are, we launched the firm about eight years ago, fee only, heavy financial planning firm, and we serve women executives. We call them breadwinner women. So thanks for having me on. Excited to share. Yes. And a NAFA member as well. So glad to have you here. Absolutely. Yep. Thanks. Molly? Yes. Awesome. Thanks for having me, Lauren. I'm Molly. I'm the CEO of TrackThat Advisor. We are a data analytics group, so we really help independent financial advisors know and understand their numbers and really understand everything about your firm. So you're helping so many people. We, our firm really tries to help you understand the data and the metrics behind what's going on in your business. So honored to be here. And Sam? Hey, everybody. Sam McHugh. I'm Sam McHugh. My, I work for XY Planning Network as a Senior Director of Sales and Marketing Operations. And that's a really, really big title. All's to say is we, is we do a lot of work with advisors, helping them run, start and grow their firms. I am the only person here is probably not a natural born financial planner, but I have background working for, in marketing organizations for large firms such as Oracle, Cisco. I've also worked at a lot of agencies. So my experience with XYPN has very much shaped my knowledge of the space. And I really hope I can bring some conceptual knowledge to the table for everybody. Wonderful. All right. So let's go ahead and get started. So Bridget, I know you just recently did a website redesign and just to kind of help frame this for folks that are listening, can you talk us through that process? What prompted it? What was the process like for you? You know, what were you, tell us more about kind of like what you were hoping to get out of that? Sure. So WealthChoice is eight years old in September and the website that we had was the one that we launched the firm with, right? So brand new firm, you know, I was hoping to serve the same client base that I'd always served, which is executive women, breadwinner women, we call them. And so when we created the website, you know, it was, it was coming from like a, Hey, I've got a brand new firm and we do all these things. And after eight years and a hundred million of asset center management and 65 households, we serve like we're a different firm, right? We were kind of grown up and I didn't feel that the website really spoke to my target audience as clearly as I wanted. There's been a shift in our industry where now you can have case studies and you can have testimonials. So I really, when I looked at the site, it was very pretty. But when I looked at the content and the way we had laid the site out, I had like eight pages. It had just become like, you're throwing more stuff at this. And I also wasn't sure if we were converting folks, like there were, I had a million questions about this, right? I'm like, so I don't know if people are seeing the site. Like I don't know how we're measuring in search. Like I don't know anything. And over time I had worked with a couple of different marketing folks who had kind of put their spin on the site. And the last thing was, you know, basically loading up content for SEO. And I'm like, this is not, this is not speaking to me. So we really wanted to make the site current. I wanted it to look modern and fresh. I wanted it to have way better way to capture folks who came there. So different buttons where people would say, Hey, I want to have a conversation with Bridget. I wanted there to be a Calendly link, which is what we use for folks to make invitations with us. I wanted it to showcase all of the media I'm in. And I wanted to incorporate the case studies and the testimonials. So I really wanted, when a woman goes to my site, I want her to feel like, Hey, these people serve women who look like me. And I want them to see proof of that on the site. So it was really, I guess, Lauren, it's looking at the website as a really current viable tool for my business. I love that. I also love that you have the, had the clarity for your target market and what your focus was going into the website redesign. Do you mind, we'll maybe do a screen share and just kind of show, we'll give them the tour. Yeah, I'd love to. So this is the site. Can you see that? Okay. Looks good. Yeah. So here's a tour. So you can see now, now when it comes to the design, I actually had reached out on that for forum for peers and I'm like, Hey, who can recommend a website designer they really loved. And that's how I actually found my website designer. And then the process for the way this looks, I actually, she said, Hey, go out and just find websites you love for the design feature, right? Because the design is an important part. I want this site to speak to my clients or potential clients. And I want it to be sophisticated, like my clients are. I don't want it to be in any way patronizing, even though my clients are super good at what they do. They don't necessarily understand anything about money, like that's for real. So, but you don't want to be patronizing in your content and you want the content. I wanted the content to speak to them in English. You know, somebody I had heard, I had said, you want the content to be something your grandpa could read, right? Like this is in grandpa language without being in any way patronizing. So a couple of cool things. I wanted it to start with a video, which it does. And so this is combination stock, but mostly a photo shoot we did. You know, it's a lot of white space, which I really liked from a design perspective, but it absolutely speaks to how are we really providing value to clients? You'll see a lot of buttons, right? The buttons are how are we capturing people who want to talk to us? I wanted to show the lifestyle my clients wish they had or hope to have, right? Work really hard, but I want to see myself having a good time with other women community. And so then we go to really detailing out who do we serve, right? So we serve this one type of woman, and then we have a case study. And this is an actual client who I serve, right, who I continue to serve. And this is, you know, what are her problems? What are her needs? How did we solve it for her? So this was really important to me to just really be sharing people. I want people to see themselves when they come here. And for me, the site is really establishing credibility. It's you know, it's do these people at Wealth Choice serve women who look like me in a way that's going to make a difference to me if I engage with them. So, you know, we are a super niche firm, thanks to Kitsis, like we bought that we're all in. And so I want it. I want folks who come here to say, yes, that's who they serve people who look just like me. And so we go through the different case studies here. And then we get to this part, which is these are clients, we asked our clients to survey who would be willing to provide a testimonial. And so that's another thing, you know, SSE allows us to do work with our compliance team. We've got all the disclosures we need, but these are real people, right? And I want I want to highlight these people. So my clients or prospects say, hey, that's who I am. We're just sharing a little bit more about the piece of that looks like me or that's who I am. How did you go about that process? Was it just through you talking with clients over the years? Was it, you know, looking at the contact form submissions and understanding how people are phrasing things? Or how was it that really defined that like that looks like me? You know, I serve women who look like me. So this is actually kind of easy and over time. So if you look at tech execs, for example, I wound up with just our firm is like 100 percent referral based. So I wound up with women who would introduce me to their friends or their peers. And when you look at how you help these folks over time, it's actually it was really easy for me, Lauren. Like, these are the clients I serve. They're not hypothetical case studies there. These are my people. And I tried to take a really good when you looked at when you look at a case study we chose to highlight, I was trying to highlight a client who had a lot of the same challenges that we solve. Right. So this is a woman who had all sorts of things that we encounter with with other women in tech. Right. So it's hitting a ton of buttons that that explain your question super helpful. I think also some of that secret sauce is that because it's authentically you. Right. And you're able to like who you are and who you're attracting also helps to clarify that. Yeah, for sure. And so the way this content is written, the way this case study is written was where I really leveraged our content, our copywriter. I said, hey, here's here's the case study. I would write it and she would say, OK, Bridget, I'm going to edit this and we're going to write it in words that speak to your clients in English and also is mindful of SEO, which I know we're going to get to in a little bit. But so the SEO is a really big part of this, right, because we want to see if somebody is searching for a woman executive financial planner, we want to be showing up in search. And so that's really where an important part of it is how is it written, not just in English, but is it going to help us where we rank in searching? Yeah, just us having worked with a number of firms, we see these case studies be really valuable because it helps the the prospective client kind of get into the story, you know, helps them understand what you can do. It's a hard piece to sell because there's so many things that advisors can help their prospective clients with. So helps a little bit for sure. One of the things I just want to show you is so this is new and on the contact us page. So we never had this before and we're trying to make it as easy as absolutely possible for somebody to speak to us. So this, you know, our marketing team put this on here and it's great, right? Like you want to you want a 30 minute consultation that will make it really easy for these folks to do. So that's kind of cool. Wonderful. Thank you, Bridget. And Sam, how about for you being at, you know, X, Y, P and what are members talking about? What are what advice are you giving them if they're thinking about, you know, undergoing a website or they've got one going to really for not just to be a brochure, but for really to speak to someone, you know, their target market, ideally, right, and to be able to bring in those marketing qualified leads. Yeah, I absolutely love your website, Bridget. It brings to light some of the main things that I advise our members on when they're going to undertake something like that. And the number one is you're writing to your ideal persona throughout that website. I think I see it in your calls to action. I see it in your headers, your I can't reinforce enough how intelligent it is to not over speak or I think financial advisors and just professionals in general tend to state things in the most accurate terms as possible. But people don't talk like that. And when they're looking for somebody to trust, they're looking for that kind of language. So brilliant choice on that. And I think it also appeals to folks as nobler values. And I see that in the imagery. And so when folks that are listening to this are looking to undertake that, it's really important to understand who you're writing for, who you're looking to connect with. And that can just be as simple as having a conversation with that person, an existing client or a prospective client of the like. But I know most folks listening to this or a lot of folks listening to this might not have that figured out yet. So I really do urge you to take a look at what Kitsis says about niching down to level up. It really does make a huge difference, at least we see with our advisors. We have some more for metrics on niching down and speaking specifically to that audience, how much business impact it can have over the years. I also want to touch on this, the CTAs. I loved that there were not too many calls to action on your site, because you just want to be super specific with what you're asking your traffic to do. And do they want to talk to you? Do they want to learn more? These are all different stages in their journey to finding a solution. If they're in that awareness stage of the buyer's journey, they know they have a problem, they might not have a name for it. If they're in the consideration stage, they've got a name for their problem and they're actively looking for solutions. And if they're in the decision stage, they know what they want to do and they're looking for a way to contact you. So that was just what jumped right out at me with your CTAs. And you know what, Sam, I want to add something. So on our prior website, we had none of that, like zero. I mean, we didn't have a single button. And so people didn't have a way to get in touch with us. But I was seeing other advisors checking out their sites. And I'm like, God, you know, we want to make it easy for people. And like, how are they going to find us? So thanks for that. That was a really big part of this website refreshes. Make it easy, but not like overdo it, right? But make it easy for folks if they want to have the conversation to do it. I think it's the nature of our society also. We're very quick, right? We don't want to spend a lot of time researching. We want to know, OK, this person can help me. And I feel like, Bridget, your site does that. I mean, I even found myself going, oh, like, that would appeal to me, you know, as a female entrepreneur and in this industry and a C-suite person. So I feel like that's exactly engaging. What I also love, though, is that it wasn't too much content. I often think websites should be like going to the doctor's office. If you have a problem with your foot, you don't want to know everything that could possibly be wrong with your brain, your kidney, your liver. Like, I don't want it's not WebMD. It's very specific. This is what I need from this website. This is a case study similar to what I want. Here were her three items or his three items that were addressed and solved by you. And I think your website really showed that. And it really I mean, again, it's the nature of our society. Like, we want to Google, we want to find it, and then we want to move on and make a decision and consider that. So I think everything about it was very streamlined and really specific to your niche market and really proved that, you know, this is who I serve and showed that. So Molly, you brought up a really good point, which is it's not like a data dump, right? So my prior site, I think we had eight pages. Like, we just keep adding tabs. And I think, you know, to speak to your point, Sam, like, it's about like, why don't you just say what you're going to say? Like, you don't have to say it like 75 times and just be really pointed with who you're targeting. And it doesn't have you don't need like a million. You don't have to say it over and over and say it right the first time in English. And you don't need 65 pages. But that was an evolution for us because I was like, no, we're just going to have more stuff. And I would tell people like, hey, put another page on. And this was, this is kind of like the opposite. I think it's also freeing, Bridget, and it probably came with some time as well. So I hope like maybe newer advisors that feel that sense of, wow, my website really does have eight pages, but it potentially came with time where you found your niche. So I always want to give freedom and grace and everything is not perfect. And your goal should be to continue to find perfection and continue to grow and be better, but also kind of give grace for newer advisors where Bridget is a media learn process. Even you shared it's been eight years now for your company. So it does look different from year one to eight as well. If anyone listening to this too is just getting started with a website and just trying to figure out who to trust to build that website for them. You know, that's just as big a trust as a client is in taking in you becoming a client of yours. So just understand a couple of things too, when you look at various agencies or contractors is that one, they have no idea what you do. They most web development businesses are built on the SaaS model. And that is a fast paced one size fits all business. So do not be afraid to be very specific with what you need and question whether or not their suggestions are valid in your space. I would say we deal with that with a lot with our members is that they've employed services and the services have over-delivered if you know what I mean. So I came across a client or members of ours website last week. That's just one page. And it says, if you found this website, you know who I am and you've got my phone number, call me or referral only. And I laughed because that works for them. And they are running a business with that website successfully. If they weren't successful, they probably would have a more built out website. So trust your gut for sure. But also choose wisely who you choose Bridget's agency. I don't know. And I got her from one of our peers, which is awesome. Awesome. Yeah, it's part of what this community is for. Well, simple is never easy, right? And to be able to get that notification. So Molly, you are in the back end of all the data. Are there any like just snags that you see that advisors are having with their website that folks should be aware of if they're getting into this or they're just trying to turn up the volume? Yeah, great question. So I wish I always in data metrics, it's always interesting because data does tell such a story. And you can say, okay, great. These are the hard and the fast rules. But at the end of the day, also, it really is so dependent the type of advisor that you are and your niche market. So you could be an advisor that is really niche to one thing and an advisor two miles down the road is really niche to another. So again, kind of back to Sam's point, there really is no one size fits all. I think the biggest things that we see when we're regarding just the success and the nature of the website is one, authenticity. And I think Bridget, I mean, she nailed that in hers. But I would say that that's the biggest piece of advisor websites, right? People want to be able to relate to you. People want to be able to say, you know, I found my person. You know, I know this is going to be someone that can serve me. So digital leads as a whole, we can talk a little bit about that later as well, behave very different than like a dinner seminar, for example, or TV or radio kind of prospect because that trust hasn't been built yet. So I would say if anything, that website is the initial trust factor. And that's where you'll see, you know, the success of your website is you've built the authority, you've built the trust. They know who you are. They know who you serve. They know if they're going to be a good fit and that's really what you can gain success on. So as far as like, you know, clicks or likes or leaning pages, that's a bit difficult to really say, Hey, there's one thing that matters. You know, we've seen success in a variety of areas, but realistically the authenticity is going to be your biggest takeaway piece there. Yeah. It's, we see the same thing and a lot of it, I mean, it comes, it's a human to human business, right? And then I'll talk with advise and say, yeah, that prospect, you know, we're getting close to closing and they, they went on and on about how I'm a pilot or I like dogs and like Labradors or I've got kids or whatever it is, it's the connection piece. And you are part of that difference. So Bridget with that, I, you know, we know that you had mentioned some images are stock, some are custom. I love to hear a little bit more about the pieces that you leaned into invest in to bring out that authenticity. Yeah, sure. So because I feel that we're projecting my client's ideal life, like I think the photos are super important and I'm a huge fan of getting your own photos done. If you look at our website, it is, I would say it's like 98% from our photo shoots. So I found a photographer who I felt had this style that I wanted. And I actually, I went to wedding photographers in Arizona, like I live in Arizona. And I wanted somebody who was, who had my, this clean style, but also could really capture the landscape. Because that's a big part of, you know, like the setting is a big part. So found this awesome photographer. I invested in that, right. So she was great. She totally got it. The women in there are very intentionally chosen. They're friends, but they also look like my clients. So kind of cross section of folks. And I guess, so I, if you look at my site, I feel like the photos are really, really big part of it. But I also would say, you know, the, the style of this site here, let me show it, let me show it again, just so you guys can see what I'm talking about. But I would say that the design, can you see that? Okay. Yep. So the design is really important to me. You know, I want the pictures to, to be, like we said early on, I want, I want people to see themselves on this website. So the photography is super important. The other thing that was, I invested in, if you want to call it, that was a really good, good copywriter. So all of this copy was written by a woman named Zoe Megert. I had actually written some of the copy in my first website, right? So you're starting off, you're a new advisor, you don't have a huge budget. So this time I was like, I want to hire somebody. She worked really closely with my designer, my website designer. And she wrote exactly what I had in my head, but she wrote it so much better than I could ever write it. So I felt like having a really good copywriter was critical. And then like we said early on, like the pages, the number of pages, everything is intentional here. There is nothing that is like just randomly happened. So I really feel that the way this looks was a critical part of resonating with my client. No, so well said. So Sam, we, you had talked earlier about the calls to action too, right? So one of those key critical pieces. I love to hear just about thoughts about if it's the different types of calls to action. Sometimes we get these messages of like, you know, we, in addition to the site being appealing to a prospect and you've got to have a downloadable and pop up here and this there. Would you mind sharing a little bit more about what you see and what you recommend? Absolutely. Yeah. This is one of my very favorite spaces of marketing is how to get people to convert. You can get the traffic there with good SEO and great content, but once they're there, how do you get them to take the action you want them to take? And this is not an easy answer. It changes daily, but I've been leaning into the consumer science area of what makes people convert. There's a lot of things that just we do innately as humans. And there's a lot of studies about how to trigger action in humans based on just how we're built. So one of those main things that I employ in our calls to action is I try to peak curiosity. It's called the curiosity bias in the behavioral psychology world. What that looks like on a website is you can have learn more. No, I'm going to back up. If you're trying to get somebody to book a call, I like this example better. You can say chat with me. That's a pretty clear call to action chat, chat with me. But oftentimes if you're using like a Calendly or some kind of scheduler tool, which perform very well. I prefer using more of an interest, something to peak their interest, that curiosity bias. So I'll say something like, would you like to chat? Which one of these times works best for you? And then they naturally want to see what times are available. So that's just getting them through the next step. So they're looking at your calendar. So this is a whole field of study called conversion rate optimization with CTAs. But the main takeaway is that when you're asking them to take action, really be critical of what you're asking them to do. And if you can introduce a little curiosity there too, it really, it really helps. And I love the example you gave because it feels very natural. Like someone talking with you, you know, just chat with me or, you know, but which time works best for you. Cause it's sort of that how can I help you sort of talk. So. Yeah. And further up, if we're looking at case studies too, I mean, I know their first step might not want to be to talk with you, but if we're looking at case studies personalize it. And so we have various personas that we work with. And one of them is somebody who's changing careers completely and becoming a financial advisor, and they're not even a financial advisor yet. They don't know anything about it. They don't know where to start. And so we have case studies that related to that, that success story in, in various ways. And, and if we want somebody to, to learn more about that case study, we'll say, this is what it could look like for you. And naturally they're going to want to see themselves in that, in that Bridget, you talked about that earlier. They want to see themselves in the potential lifestyle they could have. And so we use that in, in when we're asking them to take one more step past the homepage. Yeah. Just for others. Thoughts about, you know, kind of, there's the, the call to action of have a conversation, but like Molly, do you see any data specifically related to downloadables or any other conversion points or how do you all define that and track that advisor? Yeah. Great question. So we do a lot of the data metrics, like once they're converted, but one thing that we've really seen, like, cause again, like Sam mentioned, you have SEO, you have all these ways to get them to their site. The matter of getting them to their site, it's pretty understandable, but what happens post them, you know, choosing to book a call with you is very, very different. Data, digital leads in general behave very differently. But one thing that we've really found is what is helpful is to know why they're coming to your website. So a lot of times they'll initially maybe come to a dinner seminar or have heard you on the TV or I've heard you on the radio, or maybe on a drip list, some type of nature that you're now pushing them to go to your website and learn more. So one thing we've really found is creating different landing pages for those different types of avenues, right? Because it's, again, it's not a one size fits all. So what we found is like, for example, if you are doing a dinner seminar and you're talking about taxes, creating a landing page where they go to it specifically to find a downloadable on taxes, again, over information and overwhelming, you know, just feeling like, wow, there's so much out there. It's immediately going to be a turnoff for a potential prospect. Again, it's like anything, right? Like I want to know about taxes. So I'm coming to your website, but if it takes me 15 clicks to get to anything about taxes, you've already lost me. It's the nature of the beast. It's quick. So that's one thing as far as like downloadables that we've found that's really helpful is, is send them to the correct place. And again, if they want to, if they're curious, they're like, Hey, how much is this going to cost me? If you, you know, if you are, you know, a fee, a planning fee type of advisor, send them to where your pricing is, send them to what they're asking, what question they're asking, give them the answer immediately. So that's one thing we really suggest. Again, a free book is awesome. You know, financial advisors are amazing at that, like sending, you know, proving the authority again, because they are a digital lead. You do need to put in a little bit of trust and authority there, but really sending them to the correct place. So that's kind of the biggest thing we've seen again, once they're converted, they do behave differently. Um, but a lot of that is trying to get them the correct information and building that authority online, which again, it's kind of a newer, I think newer. I mean, it's been the last decade of really starting digital, but we've kind of seen that really come to fruition. You know, I think for a long time, it was, you have these three sources and that's it for financial advisors. If you're a financial advisor, that's what you do. And now it's like, okay, what's the, you know, I think initially it was a new shiny idea, right? We always talk about shiny ideas and everybody loves to try the new thing. And a lot of people jumped into digital being the shiny idea. Um, but what we've seen really from the data is digital is a great kind of secondary, uh, source there. It should not really be your primary. So yes, it's so important to have a good website for all of the reasons that we're talking about today, but it really is that authority builder and a secondary type of nature. Yeah. It doesn't take away from that sales part of it. Um, so Molly also to what you're saying is essentially like the putting like and like together, right? So if you have a, if you have a seminar about exit planning, you can direct them to a landing page that might have an article or a lead or something like that. And you're keeping them on that similar thread and then you can further open them up to other aspects of your business. So absolutely. I oftentimes, and maybe this is a silly example, but I oftentimes feel like it's a bit of a matchmaking process. It's like, great, this is who I serve. I understand, but now what are their needs and how do I fulfill that? You know, like if they need legal, then I'm going to give them legal. If they need taxes that I'm going to give them taxes. You know, it's a very one-to-one type of correlation instead of a one size fits all, which is oftentimes not the case. Yeah. Sam or Bridget thoughts on that? Yeah. Um, you touched on something I'm very passionate about Molly there, which, um, I love passion. I don't know if this is an underscore or bolding what you said, but when I worked at a, I worked at a marketing agency for a long time, like about two and a half years, which was seven years in agency years, if any of you. Um, and we had some rhetoric that we used to talk about with our CTAs and with how we're going to convert people based on the relevancy of what they're looking for. And it was, um, regarding our forms and it would say, all right, if they would pay a dollar for, no, let me adjust this for inflation. If they would pay $5 for it, um, ask them for a first name, last name, and an email. If they'd pay $10 for it, ask them for a phone number. If, you know, if they paid 15, ask them for their date of birth, that kind of thing. So every field you add to a form on your site is adding friction to that buyer's journey. So just be very careful, the amount of form, the amount of fields on your form. Um, because if you're adding too many fields, you might be losing out on potential conversions, but just getting their email gives you a chance to kind of nurture them and gain and build trust with them and add value. And we've seen that really dripless. I feel like it just kind of nurturing them is become a huge, huge part of people's, you know, again, that secondary source nature. Like, what are you doing beyond that initial contact? Because you spend a lot of money to get that initial prospect, right? Like you are spending much more than $5 to get their email, um, you know, in there and to get that information. So you've already paid for it. What are you doing now? Are you, do you have the right people in the right places to market to that? Do you need to partner with someone? Um, you know, I think Bridget did this well. She knew maybe copyright wasn't, was her style for a certain period and then knew, hey, I need to now partner with someone. So I think it's similar to that. If you, if you have the email, that's a lot. So maybe $5 for an email and a hundred thousand, they can give you your social security also. So we take when, when we would have that, when we would capture their emails, um, now we drip on them just like you said, Molly. And so the, I can tell you the process for my prospects to convert is a long process. It always has been. Um, I think a lot of it is just like trust, you know, and you, you have to earn that trust over time. So the way we, um, what we do when we capture somebody's email, if you go to our site, we see, we write, I've always written blogs. Um, you know, for the first probably five or so years, I wrote every blog and then I had some help with some content. Um, but it's, you know, on topics that I'll say, Hey, this is really important to our client base. So we've written a lot. Um, and we'll share that with the folks who give us their email address, right? And we have a monthly newsletter. So we take that email and we provide this newsletter that is intended to be super relevant, right? Like we're not just going to send it out and it's not going to make a difference to somebody. And we do this pro personal thing, you know, which I just learned from marketing. So it's, there's a lot of personal part that's in my newsletter that gives me a little sense of uncomfort, um, a discomfort. I'm not really excited to share a lot about myself because we just are like, do people really want to know this? But they kind of do want to know that. So yeah, I know you're a person, right? Um, but we take all, we take their, their, what they've given us, this email, we try to over time, create trust and value for these prospective clients. Um, and it all starts with how do you capture that email on your site? Yeah. I mean, it's not like you're asking these clients for their date of birth and all their financial information, social security number, you know, to, to support your relationship with them, right? Yeah. Yeah. The trust building can't be overstated and telling your own story. You know, we, we just got done with X, Y, P and live last week and Maddie Roach had a huge impactful keynote on telling your own story. And it is so uncomfortable to do that. We are some of the most effective people in professions out there are very reserved. They're very humble. So telling your own story might not come naturally, but it can go yards and yards when you are talking about building trust. Yeah. Bridget, I think what you said is so true. And I see it for many firms as well is that the life cycle is long. Like it takes a long time, that journey, customer journey to really say, okay, this is my first point of contact staying top of mind. And they're ready to make that, that shift. And Molly, you said something earlier, you said something about how digital digital digital leads are not kind of the same. Yeah. No, like they're a little, they play a little different. And Sam, I see you nodding as well. Can you speak to that and help folks that are listening to understand, like, what does that mean? Right. Yeah, absolutely. So also kind of one thing quick on the life cycle and the time span Bridget, I know you have a, maybe a little bit longer of a kind of prospect story cycle, so to speak that we often see that with higher average case size type clients, that's going to be in the data that's been very proven. People of higher net worth typically take a little bit longer. Those that maybe aren't quite as high of an average case, I do tend to close a little bit quicker. So that truly could be one reason. Maybe you have a little bit higher or longer of a sales cycle. But truly, as far as like how digital leads perform, you typically need about three times the number of digital leads than if you were to do a dinner seminar, for example. We touched on this earlier. One, it's the authoritative builder. Two, they're much, much less sticky of prospect types. So for example, like if we come to a webinar, typically we see the attendance about a 50% rate versus what we would consider and see at a dinner seminar. So you're going to have 50% less people show up to the seminar or start the webinar, just from a digital type of perspective. Once they're there and once you get them to convert and they sit in your seat, they typically follow the same structure of that prospect story of what we see. So really, three times the number of leads to even get them interested in your event, you're typically going to lose about half of that in the attendance. It's like anything, right? And I'm guilty of this as well. I sign up for a webinar. I put it on my calendar. Oh, but then another meeting comes up and that has to take precedence, right? Please don't say I'm alone in that. Nod your heads yes. But that's really what happens, right? And it's a digital thing. It's a digital, like I haven't really built that authority. So if I have a scheduling conflict, I'm going to go with the person I've already built that authority and that trust with and have built that relationship with. So, but again, once they get through that door and they have sat in your chair, they perform very similarly. So that's just the nature of digital. But I always, again, I want to encourage it should be that secondary tool. It absolutely can be a great tool, a great resource, but you have to do more than just have an awesome website. If you have an awesome website, great. If you're doing webinars, great. Are you promoting that? Are you giving them calls to action? Are you giving valuable resources that they want? And then from there, you can really decide, you know, the type of prospect that they'll be. So we do see some, I mean, it's very mixed. Again, it really depends on the office. We see some that have just been extremely well at webinars, but it's taken time. They've built that authority over the years. They're sending a lot of referrals to their webinars. So they're kind of saying, Hey, at step one, and that's already kind of a trust builder because their friend has already been there. Step one, come to the webinar and then continue. That's what we've really seen success in. But overall, that's kind of the main metrics that we look at. Awesome. So well said too. Oh, thank you. Sam, thoughts, I see you. Oh yeah. Sam and I are going to be best friends at the end of this. That's right. Molly, you talked about just the behavior of digital leads and just people. I urge anybody listening to this to remind themselves that when you're dealing with these leads, these are the same people starting fights in Facebook comments. They are rational consumers and they behave irrationally online. You're much at a dinner or a presentation at an in-person event. You're much more to get a rational human being than you are online. So I use Murphy's law. If it can go wrong, it will. So it's important to just have a very tight journey for them to take. And if they're falling out, you truly know that they're either not ready or not in your ideal target market. Yeah. Yeah. But honestly, that even, I mean, to that point, even if they potentially aren't ready now, get their emails, drip on them, build that authority. Dripless, I cannot speak highly enough of that type of source because again, you've already spent the money to get their email, utilize that, make it work for your firm. And as far as the email goes, make sure you're putting enough value in that email to keep them there. I unsubscribe religiously every morning I drink my coffee and I unsubscribe to emails. And it's just, it's like what I do because everybody's got my email. It's not a secret, find me. So when, when you're dealing with these folks, you need to be worthy of being in their inbox. So your subject line has to be appropriate, but also thought provoking. And then once you're into that email, what are you actually giving them? Are they going to read it? Is it worth sending if they're not going to read the email? So short, sweet, concise, and then it takes them somewhere. And I see a lot of good examples of this. Weekly webinar, weekly video blogs from some of the members that we work with at XYPN. A lot of people are using TikTok to push people out to there where they have short-form video content. I know N2 Content Marketing is somebody that we work with sometimes with our advisors, and they have tons of information on how to use Instagram Reels and TikTok to provide value to these folks. And so these are just some of the tools at your disposal that you can mix into those email drip campaigns. So with that, and I wanna be mindful of time here, like it's just, it's slipping away. So that's a great discussion. So I wanna get into a few more questions. We'll have a little time at the end for questions for those that are listening. Just a reminder, you can drop those into the chat. I will make sure to answer them towards the end here. But speaking of tools, Sam, other tools that you all see that advisors should be thinking about, or just maybe to have them on their radar? Yeah, I do see a lot of success with calendar bookers. There's a few options out there, like Calendly, I think is pretty affordable. Google, if you're using Google for your business email, has some tools that people can select dates on your calendar. And then Zoom also has another tool. So it's becoming a very familiar thing for folks to see a calendar and book some time. I think it's more of a comfortable experience than submitting a form and waiting to hear back. If you're looking at measuring your digital performance, I suggest everybody have Google Analytics on their website to help. It can be as much as you want, it can be too much, and it can be as little as you want. And that can be very helpful in just deciding what pages you need to work on to help conversions. And then finally, if you're looking to track any kind of conversions or build a marketing funnel with emails, I found MailChimp to be an affordable yet kind of unwieldy tool. I think it takes, there's a little bit of a learning curve there, but MailChimp is a very practical tool for advisors to use. If you're just trying to automate some of these things you're doing, because at the end of the day, you're a financial advisor. You're not a marketer. You might lean into marketing really well, you might not. So you want these tools to continue working once you've taken your marketing hat off and gone back to planning. It'll save you time for what you're most passionate about. Yeah, I just want to add to that, Sam. So when we first started the firm, so eight years ago and much lower revenue, smaller budget, I used MailChimp. I hired a marketing person who created some templates for me so that I could send out this monthly newsletter to my list, if you will, my clients, my prospects. So I leveraged a marketing team to help me with things that I would essentially, she created a template for my blogs. She just tried to help me out as much as she could, and I couldn't afford to hire, wasn't the right time to hire somebody to do the content. And so now where I am, a few years into this, and like you just mentioned, I'm a financial planner. I am not a marketing expert. Like I know we need to do this, but I need to hire somebody to help me with this, who's, this is their space, right? So I choose to delegate everything that I'm not good at or don't enjoy. And so now the, my marketing team has evolved, and I now ask these folks to write content based on topics that I, you know, we both decide are really important to my prospects and clients. But have leveraged MailChimp. I think MailChimp is awesome. You know, I'm a huge fan of blogs. I love to speak. I love webinars. I think there's like a lot of really great tools for us to be using, but it goes back to then, how is it, how can you tell if it's effective? And that is like the big question. And just want to throw out really quickly, I don't know if I'm getting ahead, Lauren, but the way we, I wanted to see, right? So we relaunched our website, new content, new photos, new everything, is it effective? And how does it, how does it compare to what we had before? So my content, my copywriter actually pulled a bunch of reports from Google Analytics and could see how we measure up in SEO now versus what we were before. And these changes that we've made to content and to this site, we have tripled, no kidding, tripled the views, everything. Like where we show up on Google, we're on the first page for a lot of really important things like the number of people who are going to the site, so much more we can measure. Are they going to the homepage? Like how does that change versus what we did before? So I would tell you that when you have the right content and the right messaging and the right words and the right site, it really does make a difference. Yeah, 3X is nothing to scoff at, that is huge. Typically when we see site redesigns execute, we see a decrease in traffic. So that is very, very awesome. I see it. Yeah. Go ahead. No, why do you feel like that is, Sam? Like that you see a decrease in traffic. Do you feel like it's just because people are no longer familiar that potentially we're familiar before? It's typically, I see it as an SEO issue. It's having to re-index your whole site. It's seeing a bunch of new content. It doesn't know how authoritative this new content is. And oftentimes traffic goes down, links go away. So anytime you reorganize a site or redo it, you're risking losing traffic for a short period of time. And that's just something we come to expect in my profession, but I'm very happy to see Bridget that 3X returned. Thanks. And you brought up a really good point because I Googled myself, my firm and I'm like, and I saw old links, Sam. And I was like, okay, so I reached out to my marketing team and I'm like, there's these old links here and they go nowhere. Like, what do we do? So the marketing team went to those old links and they link them to the new page. So you have to be really mindful of, okay, what just happened when you changed all this stuff? But yeah, no, I'm pretty pleased, but I really do attribute it to the team and the messaging. I see a question in the Q&A that I think ties into what we're talking about here too. And this person was looking for a more systematized data driven way to improve their performance right away. What are five tasks? And one, I can give one that jumps out of me right away that everyone who's listening to this can go do is they can take their existing website, URL, copy it and go to a website called Google PageSpeed Insights. And what this is, is it's a site that shows how fast your site is loading and what might be slowing it down. And this is something that I think a lot of advisors could benefit from. You paste that in there, it's a free tool that Google gives us. You hit the button and it tells you how well your page performs on mobile and on desktop. Then what you can do is it spits out a list. It'll say, all right, you've got a 31 out of a hundred or you've got a 50 out of a hundred. Either way, there's probably room for improvement and it will list out exactly what you can do to improve your page speed. Because this is an industry metric I pulled a few weeks ago that said, if somebody comes to your site, they have about three, you have about three seconds to get them engaged. So meaning, after three seconds, 40% of traffic to your site is gonna just bounce right off. So if your site doesn't load quickly, then you're losing out on that. So I think that it's Google PageSpeed Insights for anybody that's looking to check that out. And then you can hand that to a developer or somebody who has the know-how to get it done. Awesome. So I hope that was an okay answer for the question. Yes, Molly or Bridget, any thoughts for folks if you were to say, here's kind of a one takeaway, one major takeaway lesson learned for folks that wanna improve their website performance? I think Bridget kind of touched on this. Yeah. It's a little tricky. Overall. Yeah, it can be defined differently. Go ahead, Molly. Yeah, I think one thing Bridget really touched on and I find this is so key and this is something that we've been talking about and I find this is so key and this is something we even did with the business that we're in is photos. They have to relate to you. And I know that, and again, I know it's strange and it feels weird to put yourself out there, but honestly, people wanna know your story. They wanna know and relate to you. So I think that that's one thing, especially if you were to choose five big things, I'd say authenticity. And that is kind of underneath that even correlated is photos of your team. People also wanna know that you enjoy the people that you work with. So I always say, do fun photos also. Like it's enjoyable to go to a firm. Yes, we are in a very strict professionalized business, but we are still human and people wanna work with, humans wanna work with humans at the end of the day. Like that's all that we can really do is we wanna relate to one another. That's the nature of society and the psychology of it. I also really wanna say your website should tell a story. Just kind of into psychology a little bit. You are typically likely, someone that visits your site is likely to remember five to seven things. It's like just spot out, that's how the human brain works. If your website is built more like a story and they're able to kind of relate to that, they're 22 times more likely to remember those things. So it's building in that authenticity of I'm now able to remember because it's telling a story. It's leading me through, hey, this is who they are. Now I wanna know, how did they establish their firm? And I'm remembering the story of who you are. You're 22 times more likely to remember those things. A little bit of, sorry, psychology. I'm with Sam. I find it so fascinating, the human brain and how we react and interact with one another. But that's kind of my main thing is be authentic. And I think to add to that, I think the content and how it's written is really important. If you look at our website, I wanted a lot of photos. Like you said, the photos are really important to my firm so that these women can see themselves in the pictures. So I wanted much less, I wanted fewer words. I wanted more white space, more photos, less text, which I think works for my client base. But what we say is really important. And I think so having the content, having the messaging that speaks to your people, your prospects in a way that resonates best with them. I think the content, when I look at my site, I feel like that was a huge difference, right? The way we say what we wanna say was a big deal. And you can see how it translates to the SEO and search. Like it actually really made a difference. Such good takeaways. So there's another question about clarifying the comments about the $1, $5 and asking for different information from prospects. Sam, I think that's to you. I think just to elaborate a little bit more on kind of the weight of what you're asking for when you're asking a prospect for something, right? Something meaning their email or all their information to further clarify that, if you don't mind. I kinda just threw that on everybody. And it's some heavy stuff when you're looking at what information are you gonna ask for? And it's up to whoever's on your site to give it to you. So if you want somebody to subscribe to your blog, all you need is their email. You don't need their first name and their last name. It's still a very general communication. If you've got a case study or a white paper that adds a lot of value, say somebody would pay a dollar for it. Somebody would give you a dollar to read your case study. I'd say it's worth asking for a first name, a last name and an email. And then the $5, I mean, it's really not an actual scale, but it's really just to get you thinking about how much value you are providing and what you're giving them and for what you're asking for. So I see a lot of case studies in like technical white papers, things that are very specific being $5 items, where you would ask them for an email and maybe a phone number or maybe where they're located, whatever suits you best, but just be very careful for asking too much information. If somebody sees a big long form and you just want them to subscribe to your blog, they're probably not gonna fill out that form. But if they see a form that says, look, are you willing to follow along with our tips and tricks every week? Just ask for their email. And you're more likely to get a conversion there. Somebody who says, yeah, that seems pretty low stakes. I'll fill out my email. Meanwhile, every week you can nurture them and build trust with them to the point where when that moment happens and they go, I need financial planning, I really just do. You're gonna be at the top of their list. Where are those middle funnel ask? Or I think when you're in a position to ask a little bit more from the prospect, a middle funnel ask could be something like a webinar, a seminar in person or virtual, but something where it's like a heartier, it's got more content, more human involvement that's involved with it is usually where you can, like you said, ask for a little bit more information beyond just email, name, email, that piece of it. So yeah, we see that as well. So appreciate you sharing that. Yeah, you don't wanna ask to get married on the first date is kind of how we say it within that context. You don't wanna know everybody's whole story right away, ask for their first name and last name first and then kind of move forward with that. So true. Molly, I wanted to make sure we touched on, cause you talked about how you all look at the data kind of after the fact. Is there anything that you wanna speak to related to that of, okay, prospects come in just to sort of see that cycle that might be both digital, offline or other? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So a lot of times what we find is it's almost like if you're looking at a hundred buckets and you have all of these oysters, right? You typically wanna, you know, within those hundred buckets there are gonna be three to five pearls that you're gonna be finding within the data. So I find that a lot of people are looking at data and they're like, gosh, there's so much data to look at. I need to track all of the things. I need to track everything. In reality, we've kind of pinpointed five different sections of items to look at. So once you get that prospect to convert there's really five different things. And I'm happy to share a screen because I feel like visually that's sometimes easier as well but just five metrics to track. So hopefully that's sharing and we can kind of just do a quick, I know we only have about five minutes here. So we'll do a quick spitfire of what these are but once you get them to convert these are the five things we really deep dive and say, these are the pearls that you should be tracking that we most often find, you know, problems or areas of improvement within firms. So the first is gonna be the stick rate. Like once you get them to convert and say, yes I wanna be on your calendar. How many of those are actually sitting in your seat and getting to your firm? How many are getting in that seat and actually are able to meet with the advisor? A lot of times people are like, oh gosh I just need more leads. So they ramp up their SEO. They spend all this money on marketing but if you're getting them to your calendar but not getting them in your office that's a process problem. Maybe that's not enough follow-up. Maybe that's not enough, you know really converting to that. So that's gonna be the stick rate. The close rate is gonna be a lot of times advisors are looking at this quasi in some way. That's gonna be how many of those kept appointments you actually closed. Referrals are much higher. So Bridget, I would anticipate you have closer to a 50% close rate. Most advisors are gonna sit right around a 35%. That's pretty common. What we see as a whole again referrals have already built a little bit of authority. So that's gonna be a little bit higher of a nature for a close rate. We also wanna look at average case size. This also kind of speaks to a longer sales cycle. If you are in a position of having kind of a longer sales cycle odds are you maybe do have a higher average case size and that's okay. Or are you closing a ton of clients maybe lower average case size. That's okay too. Just something really important to track when you're looking at the metrics of your firm as a whole. Last two things, cost per client, huge. What are you spending per client? You know, a lot of times we'll also at Tracted Advisor, we track cost per first appointment but it's really, if I wanna just stick to five things I'm looking at cost per client and that can be pretty high. Our average benchmark we say is right around $4,500. If you're doing TV, that's gonna be much higher. If you're doing radio, that's gonna be a little bit higher. Again, referrals, I cannot stress enough to hit your referrals and existing clients. That's gonna be your lowest cost per client type of deals. And then last thing, pending leads. Again, everybody thinks I need more leads, I need more leads, I need more in my funnel. But if you have a lot of pending leads that you're not closing, again, that could be a processing, that could just be something that they may be our higher net worth clients so they take a little bit longer to get through. But if you have a lot of pending leads, you don't need more leads. You need to service the people that are in your funnel and channel. So I know that's super quick. That's just kind of five things we recommend tracking. Again, you can track so much data, so much in the queue but these are really the five things once you get them to convert from your website, definitely recommend tracking those fives. Wonderful. Thank you, that's really helpful. Also just the baseline data, right? To be able to have a point of comparison. Sometimes that's hard to know if, just if you're kind of where you are relative to other peers. So we have about two more minutes. So just any final thoughts from the team as we round it out here. Sam. Final thoughts is trust your gut. You know your business, you know your clients, you are your own CEO. And that is more important than what people tell you you need. So if you feel strongly about something, trust your gut. I've never seen anybody go wrong by doing that. And that's not to say they won't but we're here to make mistakes. That's how we get better. So trust your gut. Bridget. Yeah, I would say invest in yourself. And by doing that, invest in your website. You know, this is a really great representation of who you are and who you serve. And I would just say, you know, it's expensive. It doesn't have to be out of, you know, break the bank but it's worth it. And each of these two websites we've had for my firm it was a priority to spend some money so the messaging is right. So I would just say, you know, bite the bullet and create a website that really speaks to who you are who you serve and who you want to serve. Yeah. Molly. I would just say put others first and know who you're serving and serve them well in whatever capacity you can with your God-given talents and ability. I think that's so key is just really put that other person before, you know, your business maybe they're not ready to be, you know a prospect or a client with you but are they ready to be, do they need a friend? Maybe, you know, that in the long run will really make or break the difference with that relationship. So serve others well. I think that's key. So well said. Well, Molly, Bridget, Sam thank you all so much for your time today. Thank you so much for hosting us. Really enjoyed this conversation. And just a kind reminder that when we do close the webinar there is the attendee survey that will pop up. It's also in that chat. We'd really appreciate your feedback so we can continuously improve these discussions. So thank you all for joining us today. Thanks everybody. Thank you.

website optimization

financial advisory

Lauren Hong

Bridget Grimes

Sam McHugh

Molly

target audience

user interaction

online presence