Part 1 – Best Before End. Or, why your website has a shelf-life.

This is part one of a three-part series on branding, websites and online engagement we wrote for Citywire WealthTech.

Click here for our article featured in Citywire.

For the three articles visit this link.

Generation Zoom

Historically, financial advice has been sought, and delivered, face-to-face. This makes sense for the older generation. Most of whom earned their wealth before the internet delivered us into the Zoom era. Frankly, most people had never made a video-call before the pandemic. Video conferencing was always coming, but Covid-19 accelerated the process a surprising amount.

Alongside this accelerated trend is the steady march of time itself. Millennials are approaching their peak-earning years. As a cohort they are poised to inherit the wealth of their Boomer parents. With Generation Z not far behind. Such generational shifts are nothing new of course. But the coming wealth transfer is unprecedented. So it has become essential to future-proof your brand and website. Do this to ensure that your assets under management stay with your business.

There is also a worrying modern trend. It has become common for children to fire their financial advisers upon receipt of their inheritance. One reason for this is a perceived profound relevancy gap. Once, targeting the older generation made sense. But at the cost of missing the target for younger clients.

Attract, Engage and Retain

There’s good news to in the brave new world of remote working and video calling. Across generations and demographics clients have taken to video calls extremely quickly. Even preferring the convenience of remote communications over traditional face-to-face advice. This frees up time for financial advisers, as they spend less time on the road – allowing more time for other things.

This confluence of events has resulted in an increase in demand for financial advice. Everyone has received a lesson in the importance of planning for the unexpected. This in turn shows that it’s critical clients find the right adviser. They will look – and make first contact – online.

Has your website passed its expiry date?

As discussed this is an important question. Getting your brand and website right are the basic foundations for success in ‘Generation Zoom’. A useful place to start is to answer this very question: has my website passed its expiry date?

Your website is “best” before it’s five years old. That’s an average, but it’s a good rule-of-thumb. Technology moves on. Software gets updated. Your business develops. But your website grows old. Static. Immutable.

Your website will become old, watching the World go by. Teetering on the precipice of obsolescence; wondering when it started moving so fast. But why do websites become obsolete, and why after five years?

The four most important reasons are: security, performance, breakdowns and design. These reasons have equal weight. Any one is a cause for concern, more than one and it’s time to think about a new site. So let’s run through them.

Design.

Design matters. The internet is the biggest and most varied marketplace in the history of the World. Design changes over time, so you can fall behind your competitors. It is vital that you keep up.

Avoid clichéd stock photos. We’ve all seen them before, and it’ll make your website look generic. This, along with out-of-date design sends low trust signals as it looks cheap – even if it wasn’t.

Performance.

You’ve heard it all before. Google rewards speed. Mobile users demand speed. Your website must provide speed. Old websites are slow. It’s old tech, and old code that’s to blame. You’ll have noticed this with your old laptop, or your old mobile.

Security.

Every day, every hour, this very minute, perhaps, malicious forces attempt to penetrate our defences. I am talking about hackers.

If your website is running old code then the chances are there’s a security risk. The older the code, the more likely it is that hackers have discovered security flaws. And gone on to exploit them.

Breakdown.

The universe tends toward entropy. Or, put another way, stuff breaks. Hardware failure won’t break your website. But the complex interplay of software will introduce instability. It’s inevitable.

Eventually it will be broken beyond cost-effective repair. Keeping an old site running then becomes a poor investment.

Conclusion.

Today your website is your company brochure, order form, shop front, checkout and sales person. You cannot afford to let this slip. I believe 5 years is very conservative, considering how fast web design moves and changes.