The financial industry has been considered to be one of the most boring industries in the business world, especially when it comes to creativity and marketing. There is a certain assumption that financial providers, such as banks should have a very serious and conservative brand image, where there is no space for innovation and creativity.

The other reason is that for a long time, big financial companies were not marketing themselves to individuals, but rather to corporations. The marketing itself was done in a more private way even in the digital era, with emails, one to one meetings and call offers.

This is why there are still so many financial companies that have a similar approach to their marketing campaigns, similar colours on the website and branding in the same way – as a reliable, serious and professional company.

There is nothing bad about it, however, some financial companies do not understand the need of changing their path from boring and linear to creative and innovative.

Unfortunately, however, many companies don’t see websites as brand ambassadors, they see it as a necessity, and simply make one in order to tick a box and have it over and done with.

Why would an industry that was grown and moulded by word of mouth and completely different marketing strategies even consider website design? Let’s find out

People judge by what they see

It does not matter what kind of financial service a company is offering it will still be judged by the structure and design of its website, it’s just the world we live in, and companies need to adapt.

Potential customers will visit the website just to take a look and make a decision right on the spot. It does not mean that if the website looks super, they will sign up immediately, but it will definitely add up more value and reliability to the company.

For a visitor, it will mean that a company has enough funds to invest in its website to work properly, meaning that they have enough funds to cater to them as well. On the other hand, if the website looks old, outdated and there is not enough information or simply a boring and generic design, it takes potential customers nanoseconds to close it and never come back.

But, it is not only about the design, but about the overall webpage experience for example how much time does it take to load the website or different pages, how does it look like, if there is SSL or not, what colours are used there, does it have any additional value, is it responsive for all the devices, how good is it contentwise and how updated is it.

According to Forbes, there are thee key factors of success when it comes to the website structure for a business. Those are the business function, usability and design if all three of them are taken care of the odds of the website converting customers increases by quite a lot.

There’s more competition

It has been a while since the competition on financial market has increased significantly, especially in countries with larger populations. There were times when there was only one bank in the city or even in the country, the same goes for various financial services. But today there are thousands of providers who are continuously searching for new customers.

Due to the sheer number of these companies, bloggers have taken to the internet to provide reviews and impressions of every business. These reviews pay a lot of attention to the website experience since it can say a lot about the company.

Restrictions in time

As mentioned, the design is not the only thing that needs attention when setting or updating the website. One of the most important things is the value. The main idea is that the website should not exist just for the sake of existing, but should help visitors solve their issues.

Today, in the era of the internet, not many people are eager to go to offline offices or even call for every small inquiry or question they might have. The website should enable customers to get even the smallest amount of information within seconds or minutes of contacting the company.

Companies need to have a contact form on the website, indicating the addresses of physical offices, providing answers for frequently asked questions and allowing customers to make some operations online.

It is essential that businesses have a good website that is memorable these days. It does not matter which industry the company operates in, but since the financial markets were considered to be less creative when it comes to digital world it is important that specifically, these kinds of businesses understand that this concept has changed.

There are many ways to increase website authority and make pages look better that can be used very well for financial businesses. The key point is that financial services providers should be as creative, innovative and bold when it comes to their webpages as any other businesses in order to stay relevant and impress potential customers.