More than a few asset managers have struggled with how to build and maintain a website that maximizes growth.

We like to ask clients “Does your website look the part of a successful investment management firm? Does it provide prospects and clients with timely content, thought leadership ideas, and reasons to come back to the site?

As you consider building or updating your website, what questions should be asked of potential marketing partners?

Here are 73 questions to ponder:

Strategy

1. What is your overall philosophy on building websites?
2. How will my new site build trust with my audience?
3. What would you change on my current site?
4. How can you make my site help generate leads?
5. Can I get the name and/or email addresses from visitors I don’t already know?

Expectations

6. What can I reasonably expect my ROI to be?
7. Can I expect more site traffic, and if so, how much?
8. How can I expect to use digital marketing to distribute and leverage my ideas?
9. What will my compliance department and/or legal counsel expect to see and not see on the site?
10. How frequently can I expect to modify and update the site?

Pricing

11. How much will it cost to build the site?
12. What is included in the cost, and what’s extra?
13. Is the cost of writing text and articles included or excluded in the proposal?
14. What do you need from me to help price the project?
15. How much of my time do you need before, during and after the website build?
16. Do you bill hourly, based on project, or on retainer?
17. Do I pay extra for additional drafts?

Timing

18. How long does it take to build (or rebuild) my site?
19. How long until I get a first draft?
20. How many drafts can I expect from start to finish?

Content

21. What other marketing content do I need to maximize company growth?
22. What is a thought leadership content and how do I determine what to write about?
23. How many articles should I write each month, and why?
24. How long should each post be, and why?
25. Can you write and post the posts?
26. How can webinars, whitepapers, infographics and other content help create credibility?
27. How do I best leverage our ideas for public relations and social media?

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Ownership

28. Who owns the content?
29. Who owns the domain name?
30. Do I need to keep my current hosting account?
31. What happens to my old website host after we launch the new site?

Compatibility

32. How would we work together every day?
33. Do you do the development, design, and writing in-house, or do you outsource?
34. Who will I be working with – the firm owner, president, project manager – or other?
35. Do you use online tools to manage the relationship, and if so, which ones?
36. How involved in the site redesign process will I be expected to be?

Design

37. Can you show me samples of your work?
38. Should we do a full rebrand and design change, or make less wholesale changes to the current site?
39. Who owns the graphics?
40. How will the revision and editing process work?
41. What are wireframes?
42. Do you do logos?

Development

43. Will the site work for mobile devices?
44. What website platforms have you used to build sites?
45. What is a Content Management System and which one would you suggest for my firm?
46. Will you build the site from scratch or from a template?
47. Do I need a mobile app and can you build one?

Digital Marketing

48. How can my website be optimized for today’s digital way of communications?
49. What is marketing automation?
50. How do we measure the effectiveness of digital marketing?

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SEO

51. What’s your SEO expertise?
52. What can you do to maintain my current site’s search engine value on Google?
53. What are backlinks and how do I get them?

Logistics

54. Where will the site be hosted?
55. Will you sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) agreement?
56. What will happen when I redirect old site pages to new pages?
57. What hosting platform should I use?
58. Can you set it up and show me how to best use it?
59. How can we simplify the way clients and prospects schedule meetings?

Analytics

60. What metrics should I be measuring for success?
61. Will you provide regular reports?
62. What other tools are available in addition to Google Analytics?

References

63. Will you provide me references form other clients you’ve worked with?
64. Have you worked with any other companies with similar objectives and styles?
65. Have you worked with other firms our size?
66. What makes your firm special?

Post Launch

67. Can you manage the website once the site is built? What do you include?
68. Can I make updates to the site after it’s completed?
69. What if there’s a bug or several, how do you fix them?
70. Do you provide training on how I can maintain and edit the site in-house?
71. What happens if I want to move to another content management system?
72. How often should I update the site, and why?
73. What more do I need to know?

A Final Thought

Your website can be the hub of your firm’s marketing strategy for driving growth in assets and management and revenue. Effective website may build visibility, add to your credibility and provide leads for your sales team with timely, clear, and thought-provoking content. Ineffective websites are typically no more than static and outdated brochures on the web. One final question: What’s stopping you from starting your path to growth now?

Frank Serebrin leads marketing services for Sondhelm Partners. Frank has more than 25 years of experience in creating content and messaging that helps asset managers and wealth managers increase leads, conversions, assets and revenue.