If I hire you to redo my webpage, will it result in more leads?

That’s the question I recently got from a prospect.  It’s a fair question.

Let me elaborate.

Our conflicts

As consultants, we have an obvious conflict of interest.  We want to generate revenues. Our clients want to avoid paying for services that won’t generate results and risk as little capital as possible trying to determine if our services will have a positive ROI.

That conflict is inherent in any consultant/client relationship and should be fully disclosed and totally transparent.

Our accountability

Consultants seek to avoid accountability for several reasons.

The consultant may not want a metric that can easily determine if we actually added value.  Or we may genuinely believe it’s not possible to assess our value using any metric.

With website design, it’s the latter.  Few prospects will tell advisors they were motivated to contact them because of the content or design of the advisor’s website.

The most truthful response I could give my prospect was this:  I don’t know.  Our content and design is based on sound research.  You maximize the possibility of attracting more leads when your website is consistent with this research.

What generates more leads?

There are many marketing consultants who claim the ability to generate leads.  Because we are a source of business for them, they contact our digital marketing firm and ask us to refer to them.

My due diligence is simple and direct:  Give me five advisors who have retained you and generated leads by using your services.

I’ve asked this question of Facebook ad consultants, social media consultants, SEO consultants and general marketing consultants. So far, no one has been able to provide such a list.

In my experience, there is no system that will reliably produce a steady stream of new prospects.

What works?

There are some things you can do to generate more leads.  You may or may not need a consultant to implement these suggestions.

Generating original content is critical.  It’s the linchpin of your marketing efforts.

When you produce original content, you can link it to social media.  You can put it in a newsletter and start building a database. You can attach it to an e-mail to send to prospects and clients and as way of keeping in touch.

Original content can take many forms.  It can be a printed blog. You can convert a blog to a video, using new technology.  You should experiment with different formats.

You can write a book.  I know how intimidating that sounds.

Commenting on social media counts as “original content.”  I find when I make a two-sentence observation on a subject of interest on social media, it often gets many more views than when I post a blog.

Effective marketing involves having a presence on social media, especially Facebook and LinkedIn, and utilizing tools like Buffer to schedule the information you want to disseminate. You’ll be surprised how quickly you can build up followers.

Research based videos, placed strategically on your webpage, can be very effective in generating leads.  Most videos produced by advisors are not “research based.” I discuss the latest research in this blog.

You can link your videos to social media and your newsletter, thereby leveraging their impact.

Consider outsourcing your content and video requirements.  Most advisors aren’t good writers and don’t have the technical ability to produce first-class videos.  Even if you’re an exception, it’s not the highest and best use of your time. You should be focused on speaking with prospects and servicing clients.  Firms like ours and others have talented writers and video producers who can generate content in your voice, customized to your requirements, in a cost-effective manner.

I wish there was a holy grail that would generate leads for you.  Sometimes I think the most valuable service we provide our clients is keeping them from spending money chasing this illusion.

Resource of the week:

Check out my blog on the latest research for producing videos that make a positive impact.