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BLOGSThe Web-Savvy Advisor

How WordPress Helps You Be A Better Marketer

By TJ Gilsenan
May 4, 2011
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For many advisors, your personal or company website is the core of your web marketing efforts. No matter what else you do online, at some point, all roads lead back to your site.  Clients, and certainly prospects, want to know who you are and what you do.  The easiest way for them to do that is to visit your website.

It's no surprise, then, that advisors are starting to think about how to better utilize their website to both serve their existing clients and develop new business.  One way to do this is make sure your site is built on a user-friendly content management system or CMS.  A CMS lets you quickly and easily add new content - like blog posts, additional web pages, even videos and podcasts - to your website.

When it comes to CMS systems, it's hard to beat WordPress.  Once known mostly as blogging software, it has come a long way.  Today you can use WordPress to  build a blog, a website, or both. As Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress said:

"It's true that WP had very humble beginnings and was focused mainly at blogging, but it's evolved hugely since then. It's a secure, scalable, and a joy to use, which is why the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Wired, BBC, Time, TED, TechCrunch, CBS, and many more use it.” 

My company site, The Interactive Advisor is built on it as well.

Here are a few reasons for you to consider a Wordpress based website:

It’s free

WordPress is open source software which means it is free to use.  And because its open source, there are people all over the world developing new and improved ways to use it. 

It’s user friendly

You don’t have to be a coder to use WordPress.  Its easy to install - most web hosting companies now offer 1-click Wordpress installs.  It’s easy to use - most of what you do in WordPress can be accomplished with simple typing.  And it’s easy to update - more on this later.

It’s an SEO machine

Search engine optimization or SEO is the art and science of getting your site to rank highly in Google for certain keywords or phrase.  WordPress is constructed in such a way that it makes it easy for search engines to process the information on your site. This helps search engines like Google better understand who you are and what you do.  There are even tools that make it easier for you to add important information for the search engines beyond the content you publish.

It’s incredibly easy to update and expand

Much like the iPhone comes with a universe of apps, WordPress comes with a universe of plugins.  With WordPress plugins, (think apps) you can easily optimize your site as your business grows and changes.  Plugins are easy to use, often free, and can transform your site’s functionality and engagement in just minutes.

Here are a 4 ways to optimize your blog or website with WordPress plugins:

Stats

Keeping track of your site visitors is a tremendously useful resource that WordPress makes simple.  The WordPress Google Analytics plugin helps you automatically monitor page views, outbound clicks, incoming links, and everything you want to know about your readers.  By learning details like where visitors come from, what posts they read and exit from, and how much time they spend on your site, you can adjust content to better meet their expectations.

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Blog Archive

10 Steps to Twitter Success

TJ Gilsenan, the Web Savvy Advisor, says it's time for advisors (if they haven't already) to start tweeting. Here are some tips to help you and your firm start taking advantage of this powerful social media tool.

7 Key Components for Every Advisor’s Social Media Plan

Getting started in social media is a lot like getting started in investing. It pays to have a plan. And, much like investment planning, TJ Gilsenan, the Web Savvy Advisor, says social media planning involves assessing where you are now, determining where you want to go and establishing a plan to get there.

5 Steps to Create a More Effective Advisor Website

An advisor’s website is his or her most valuable piece of Internet real estate. TJ Gilsenan, the Web Savvy Advisor, explains not only why, but provides five important steps every advisor can take now to create and maintain a more effective website.

Social Media By the Numbers

We finally have some numbers to attach to all the discussion surrounding social media for financial advisors. The people at Nielsen (the same people who measure television audiences) recently released a report detailing social media use in the US. The report is rich with actual numbers and data. While you can read the report yourself, I thought it might be helpful to hit some of the highlights here.

What Can Video Do For Financial Advisors?

Video can make a big difference in the effectiveness of your website. Most websites, including financial advisor sites are about conveying information. The easier you make your content to process for your visitors, the more likely they are to stick around. Video is a great way to do this.

What Web-Savvy Advisors Are Doing Right Now

It's hard to argue that markets like this don’t take their toll on advisors and clients alike. Managing client expectations is challenging enough already, let alone in the midst of all this volatility. How much communication is enough? Does every client need a call? What’s the right way to stay in touch? Many advisors answer these questions with a mix of proactive outbound calls and responses to inbound calls.

Using Social Media for New Business Development - 5 Steps to Take Today

For a financial advisor, social media can be a powerful new business development tool. Managed right, social media can connect your business to an almost unending stream of new and interested prospects. But to enjoy that kind of success, you have to take an active approach.

Six Things Financial Advisors Can Do to Launch a New Blog

Hubspot’s latest study shows that the number of companies that blog has grown from 48% in 2009 to 65% this year. Indeed, it appears that non-bloggers are fast becoming the minority, and it’s not hard to see why: companies that blog have 55% more visitors, 97% more inbound links, and 434% more indexed pages, compared to those that do not.

How Corporate America is Teaching Your Clients to Use Social Media

When it comes to social media most advisors will tell you “my clients don’t do that”. On the surface, this seems reasonable. However, if you have clients who work in corporate America, all bets are off.

Eight Tips to Building a Better LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn is a powerful networking tool that can have a significant impact on your bottom line.

Why Twitter Matters to a Financial Advisor

With JPMorgan rumored to be eyeing a minority stake in Twitter that would value the company at $4.5 billion, it’s time for advisors to start taking it seriously. Not surprisingly, like many other aspects of web-marketing and social media, how an advisor uses Twitter is different from most everyone else.

Why Most Web-Marketing Advice Doesn’t Work for Advisors

When it comes to web marketing, independent advisors are different from everyone else. Which means there is a good chance you have been getting bad advice. Bad advice about using the web to grow your practice.

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