Your Website Needs a Promotion

Have you reviewed your website lately?

Not to update your contact information or share your bio, but to click around, read the content and experience the website like a prospect. If the answer is “unsure” or “maybe a few years ago,” start here.

Technology changes, design changes, search changes and, most importantly, the way people research financial professionals is changing right before your eyes.

As a general rule, if your website hasn't had a meaningful refresh in three years, take a closer look. You may not need a total rebuild, but make sure the technology, design, and content still reflect your business today.

Basic Accessibility Setup

Before we get all fancy with AI, advertising and prospect intelligence, let's cover an unsexy topic: accessibility.

People need to be able to read your website.

This happens by using readable fonts with sufficient color contrast. Contrast guidelines generally call for a ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. Here is a free online contrast checker. Click around and you'll easily learn if your text passes the test: https://color.adobe.com/create/color-contrast-analyzer.

In the real world, this looks like blue words on a slightly paler blue background. While that may look sophisticated, if no one can read them, they lose their charm.

Your Website Is Not a Billboard

For years, advisor websites followed a familiar formula:

Who we are. What we do. Who we serve. Contact us. Check. Check. Check. Done.

Except that your website should never be “done.”

Think of it less like a billboard and more like a news channel. It should be living, breathing, and regularly providing useful information to the people you serve and those you hope to serve someday.

This information might include:

• Fiduciary education

• Plan sponsor guides and checklists

• Benchmarking insights

• Participant education

• Financial wellness resources

• Videos, articles and FAQs

• Commentary on issues employers are asking about now

You don't have to create every piece from scratch. The point is to build a system for consistently sourcing, customizing, and publishing relevant content so that your website remains current without becoming another full-time job.

The goal is to give people a reason to stay and come back.

What if Your Website Became Your Best Salesperson?

Most advisors we meet seek more qualified prospects.

Imagine if your website worked as part of your prospecting engine.

A plan sponsor sees one of your digital ads on LinkedIn: “401(k) committees carry real risk. How are you protected?” They click and arrive on a landing page specifically designed around fiduciary risk.

That visit can generate valuable digital signals. With appropriate website technology, analytics, consent frameworks, and data subscriptions, you may come to understand things like the company visiting, pages viewed, repeat visits, referral sources, and other behavioral signals.

Your website just raised its hand and said, “Psst…someone may be interested over here.”

It’s about business building data.

One Visit Doesn't Make a Prospect

Someone visiting your website once probably isn't going to immediately email and hire you to advise their company's $10 million retirement plan.

Instead, think about building familiarity.

Remarketing can help your brand continue appearing as prospects go about their normal digital lives - on LinkedIn, Meta, Google, and other supported channels.

Meanwhile, your business development can become more intentional. Here’s how:

• Research the company and decision-makers

• Connect, follow, and thoughtfully engage on social media

• Look for mutual connections who can make a friendly introduction

• Develop a targeted email outreach

• Continue to provide useful digital touchpoints

Familiarity grows when someone sees you consistently and begins to trust you.

Traditionally, that relationship-building happened in person. Today, it is increasingly occurring online.

Technology doesn't replace relationships. It helps you identify where to focus them.

Ready for the Advanced Class

Take the process another step with intent data.

Certain data platforms can help identify companies demonstrating increased research activity around topics relevant to your business.

Examples include retirement plan advisor, defined contribution, cash balance plans, financial wellness, or fiduciary services.

Instead of asking, “Who should we prospect this month?” you can ask a much more interesting question like “Who is already looking?”

It doesn't automatically make them a lead. But it adds another layer of intelligence to your sales and marketing efforts.

And Then There Is AI

If you're thinking, “This already sounds like a lot,” here's one more acronym: AEO. Answer Engine Optimization.

Consumers are using tools like ChatGPT, Gemini,  and Claude to research questions, organize information, compare options, and discover solutions.

Think back to your website and reflect: When someone asks AI a question about a 401(k) problem that you can solve, does your firm have a chance to be part of the answer?

Here's an easy place to start: Ask your website provider what they're doing to make your site understandable and discoverable by both traditional search engines (SEO) and AI-powered answer engines (AEO).

If they don't have an answer, it becomes useful information.

Ask about structured data, site architecture, crawlability, authority, content categories, FAQs and how your content strategy is evolving as search behavior changes. Unfortunately, there is no magic “put me in ChatGPT” button.

Remember all that useful, regularly updated content we talked about earlier? This is another reason it matters. The more clearly your website demonstrates what you know, who you serve, and the questions you can answer, the more useful your digital footprint becomes for prospects, search engines, and AI systems alike.

Start Small and Today

You don't need intent data, remarketing campaigns, a new content engine, and an AEO strategy by Friday. Start by opening your website and really looking at it. Is it current, readable, and helpful? Does it demonstrate your expertise? Are you publishing something worth reading? Can you tell what happens after someone visits?

Now choose one thing to improve. Because the advisor website of the future isn't an online brochure quietly collecting digital dust.

It is a content hub. A credibility engine. A source of prospect intelligence. A connection point between marketing and sales. And, increasingly, a source of information for people and machines.

Your website has been sitting there working at the front desk for years.

Maybe it's time to give it a promotion.

Thanks for reading & Happy Marketing!

About Us

401(k) Marketing is the solution for retirement plan advisors looking for an ongoing and scalable marketing process to generate awareness, streamline sales opportunities and earn more 401(k) business. This comprehensive, strategy driven marketing program includes digital content and sales material specifically designed to help retirement plan professionals attract the right decision makers.

Retirement Plan Marketing is the solution for retirement plan advisors looking for a scalable marketing process. This process generates awareness, streamlines sales opportunities, and earns more 401(k) business. This comprehensive, strategy-driven program includes digital content and sales material designed to help retirement plan professionals attract the right decision-makers.