How to Build a High-Performing Website with Andy Crestodina

In a Nutshell: If you view your website and blogging as just a box to check, you’re missing out on one of the most effective marketing tools in your toolkit. Building a high-performing website is both art and science. In today’s show, we get strategic, practical, and tactical in showing you how to build a high-performing website and online presence. Consider taking some notes during this episode, as there are a plethora of ideas that you and your digital marketing team can implement right now that could have a dramatic impact on your growth potential. As a bonus, we anonymously critique several websites from Barron’s Top 100 Independent Advisors. Spoiler alert, it ain’t pretty.

Guest: Andy Crestodina, Chief Marketing Officer and Co-Founder of Orbit Media Studios, Inc., which is an award-winning Chicago web design and development company.

My Key Takeaways:

The key to successful web design is empathy. Andy says your content and copy should understand the needs of the visitor, their hopes and fears, and then share the information they need to be confident. The content and the container should work together to create a visual hierarchy that guides the visitor’s eye through a series of prioritized messages during which they get their questions answered.
Build around your “moment of truth.” Step one in Andy’s design process is interviewing an advisory firm’s key stakeholders to understand who’s on your team, what your client niche looks like, and perhaps most importantly, why your visitors decide to start working with an advisor.
Clear the info hurdle. Your site and your marketing have to give visitors enough information to make them want to contact you.
Be uniquely you. Any phrase that could apply to any advisory firm should be scrubbed from your site. What makes your firm and your approach to financial planning special?

Also Learn:

Where Andy and I fall on the question of whether your marketing should cast a wide net or zero in on a specific niche.
The key psychological barrier that both B2B and B2C sites have to account for.
How to blend the science of effective SEO and analytics with the art of engaging copywriting.
The importance of supporting your marketing claims with data and testimonials.
The optimal way to connect your site’s digital content to social media.
The correlation between the length and quality of blog posts.
How to personalize your online presence so that visitors get a feel for the people they’d be working with.
Dos and Don’ts from Andy’s anonymous reviews of advisor websites from the Barron’s Top 100 Independent Advisors list.

Complementary podcast: I hosted a virtual panel with two digital marketing experts. Bill Keen is the founder and CEO of Keen Wealth Advisors, which is an RIA in the greater Kansas City area with half a billion dollars in assets under management. Lisa Salvi is Vice President, Business Consulting and Field Experience at Charles Schwab. Listen/read here.