The Finance Shop are an independent financial advisor based in East Anglia.
Bigfork were appointed by the Finance Shop to design and develop their new website and service-specific microsites.
Website goals
All our projects start with establishing measurable goals, for this website they were:
- Advertise services to generate leads through the website
- Provide information for existing clients
With these goals in mind, we worked with the Finance Shop to produce a brief that would deliver them.
Lead generation
Like many businesses, the Finance Shop use their website as a tool to create leads. We applied proven lead generation tactics to the website which included:
- A high quality, professional design to build trust
- Clear structure and navigation to highlight key services
- Strong calls to action throughout
- Multiple contact options including email, telephone, enquiry form and live chat
- Site-wide banner offering a free 1-hour consultation
Key services such as retirement planning were also designed as landing pages. These have content designed to explain what the Finance Shop do and the solutions they can offer. Demonstrating expertise is another good way of building trust, and of course these pages have clear calls to action throughout.
And everything is linked up to Google Analytics so we can keep track of what’s working and where there’s room for improvement.
Customer service
As well as getting new customers, the website needed to support the people that the Finance Shop already work with.
One of the main things we found their clients wanted was direct contact details for staff. So, we designed a searchable team directory with contact information for all staff. As well as making life easier for clients, it’s reduced the number of calls handled by reception – a great example of how a website can help a business be more efficient.
Finance Shop also publish quarterly market reviews for their wealth management clients. This information is published on the website and email marketing is used to update clients. Compared to printed versions, these are quicker and cheaper to produce, available anytime (you just need an internet connection), and more environmentally friendly.
Microsites
Finance Shop is part of the Finance Shop Group who also offer additional specialist services. These include discretionary portfolio management and FS Ventures, an investment platform.
As these are very different to the Finance Shop’s core services, we agreed it would be best to have them as separate websites. They each have their own branding which we applied to the same structure as the Finance Shop website, giving the sites a consistent feel while also having their own identities.
Lastly, we built a nifty site-switcher widget to catch people’s attention and advertise the microsites.
