2. Your Competitors Have One
If you don't have a website, you could lose clients and prospects to competitors who do. If all other things are equal, the decision to go with you or a competitor could hinge on the convenience and benefits a website brings to your potential clients. The Internet provides a level playing field for advisors - a well-designed website for a small financial planning practice can have just the same presence and consumer impact on the web as a large financial institution.

3. Enhance Your Image
Enhance and improve your professional image with your domain name printed on your business cards, stationery and advertising material. Your own domain name (www.yourcompany.com) establishes a strong online brand identity and also allows you to set up email addresses specific to your own company or practice. A well-designed Web site is a great way of instilling confidence and reassuring clients that you are keeping up with the times.

4. Improved Customer Service
Many consumers use the internet today to search for goods and services online, including financial planning and investment products. Your website provides your clients with a virtual contact point that is open 24 hrs a day. Keep your clients informed about upcoming events and seminars and how new tax laws and legislation affect their personal finances. You can provide research and reports on particular investments that you recommend for client portfolios. You can also provide clients with password-protected access to view their portfolio statements online.

5. Enhance Your Marketing
A website can effectively supplement and enhance your other marketing activities. The amount of information you can present on a website far exceeds what you can do on a small budget with traditional advertising and it is all in full colour. Integrating an electronic newsletter with the website is an effective way to leverage your online presence. Most email newsletters contain several article summaries with links to the full-text article on the website. Visitors who click the links to read the full story, hopefully, will explore other sections of the site. This provides advisors with another chance to discuss their products and service offerings.

6. Constant Showcase
Your website can provide a showcase of everything you and your practice have to offer, in one easy-to-navigate location. It is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to clients and prospects alike.

7. Being Anonymous
A website is anonymous and free of any pressure. A prospect visiting your site can spend as much or as little time as they like to decide if they want to follow up on your financial product or service offerings.

8. Frequently Asked Questions
Whoever answers the telephone in your practice can tell you, their time is often spent answering the same questions over and over again. Posting these answers on your website will not only be more convenient for the client, but also mean your employees can devote more time to other tasks as opposed to answering the phone.

9. Immediate Feedback
A web site is a great way to get immediate feedback from your clients, through client surveys, contact forms, and e-mail addresses for your contact personnel.

10. Low Cost Investment
Whether it's a simple design that offers basic information about you and your practice or a fully-functioning client service site, most everyone today can have a website built to their specifications at a reasonable cost. There are attractive options to be had for every budget. In addition, your web site is truly low-cost advertising. It is a marketing tool you can use again and again for years.



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