London financial services web design

Why invest in London financial services web design?

On the trail of new business, I often hold meetings with financial services businesses to talk about marketing their company. As is to be expected, top of my agenda is the positive role that design, especially here in London financial services web design, can have in reaching new prospects and retaining existing clients.

We believe that harnessing a tech-savvy audience-base should be easy, in a world where most people have at least two huge wide-screen monitors on their desk, plus are using their Blackberry or iPhone nonstop in the evenings and weekends.

A well-crafted website that is full of useful data should be a honeytrap for this sort of audience.

montrose-financial-services-web-design

Montrose Capital’s website – a great example of London Financial Services web design

 

Confounding the sceptics

Often when I start talking about City of London financial services web design and its benefits, I have been confounded by a sceptical audience – something that’s always been a mystery to me.

Websites have historically seen as a ‘a bit glossy’, possibly a waste of money, or a vanity project. The reasons behind this are manifold and not always logical.

Over the years meeting with financial services marketing directors, I’ve heard all sorts of reasons why this opinion is held. Typical one-liners include when a Hedge Fund has ‘all the clients we can handle right now, we’re not interested in marketing’; ‘our website has stayed the same for years, there’s nobody here who knows how it works’; or ‘all our business is word-of-mouth, clients never find us online’.

When these are written down, it’s even clearer to me that all three of these are inherently flawed.

Call me crazy, but surely any business so successful that they have all the clients they can handle probably needs to hire more staff? I also feel that a website that has lain dormant for years is probably doing your business more harm than good. From my perspective, it’s time for a redesign on those grounds alone… could the site even be putting your clients (old and new) off you? And finally, word-of-mouth clients always check you out. If you were hiring a new firm, it’s likely you’d ‘look them up’… everyone does it and your business is no different.

So, it’s time to re-appraise your approach to London financial services web design, and how it can help your business.

mansford-financial-services-web-design

The homepage  for Mansford – Absolute Return Real Estate

 

London financial services web design reimagined

From our perspective, the tide is turning.

After a sustained period when firms such as Hedge Funds, Financial Analysts, Accountants and Fund Managers had no interest in their website, suddenly they feel rather differently. One view is this because they simply have no choice. Watchdog bodies such as the FCA oblige many firms have to make their site viewable to different countries in different ways, or require pop-up panels on a site’s homepage with legal disclaimers and a check-box once they’ve been read and accepted.

But while this sort of site is comparatively straightforward (though might feel like a huge revolutionary step to many firms) it’s a more interesting use of the web which is quickly gaining traction in the financial services industry.

In particular Investor Relations sections of sites are a project all of their own and one I have looked into extensively, travelling to Stockholm to help our long-time client Scandi Standard plan their IPO site in 2013. These large, multi-page sections are almost sub-sites as they have to follow a very distinct, specific framework, something we’re very familiar with.

Another area of great interest are ‘client areas’ of a site. More often than not, these are pages with a specific log-in, where your clients can download results and analysis, as well as annual reports and historic and current tax records. For a small firm, managing these can be a quick and easy job using a Content Management System, for which we provide training.

 

 

Know your clients; know your offering; ensure your website is on-brand

One of our key design tenets is that your website (and indeed any marketing material) should be aimed at your customer.

This sounds pretty straightforward stuff, but it’s astonishing how often websites are full of lists of bullet-points, personal triumphs, or out-takes from PowerPoint presentations. It’s fundamental that to market your services, your site speaks of your these, but in a way your clients can relate to.

We believe your website needs to reflect what you can do, and how that benefits your existing clientele and next generation of investments. That way, their potential future profits are front and centre (and so are yours).

 

Our work: quick links to key projects

Key London Financial Services web design projects we’ve worked on:

Mansford – Absolute Return Real Estate

Montrose Capital

 

Freedmans Law

 

Photo: Jeff Sheldon