![\"grossed](\"https:\/\/www.blueleaf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/grossed-out-face.png\")
<\/p>\nAdvisors aren\u2019t designers (well, most aren’t).<\/p>\n
Yet some have joked with me that you kinda sorta wish you were.<\/p>\n
It\u2019d be awesome to whip up a snazzy image for your website or format the content of your emails in a visually appealing way.<\/p>\n
After all, bad design isn\u2019t just embarrassing, it’s sending the wrong messages to prospects and clients.\u00a0When someone looks at your stuff online, visual design has a huge impact on their impression of how you are as an advisor. If that impression is bad, they hesitate.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Here are 4 common places a financial advisor\u2019s presence is uglier than it needs to be, what this bad design really says to people, and exactly how to give yourself a makeover. (Spring cleaning, anyone?)<\/p>\n
![\"Oracle](\"https:\/\/www.blueleaf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Oracle-cluttered-homepage.png\")
<\/p>\n
Your website (homepage, in particular) is cluttered.<\/p>\n
What this says to people:<\/span> Fix it:<\/span> Learn from other great sites and apply what they do well to your site. Some strong advisor examples are Blueleaf<\/a> users: Jason Wenk<\/a>, Dave Grant<\/a>, and Alan Moore<\/a>.<\/p>\n Your email signature is stuck in 1999. It lists all your credentials, notes your fax number, and has a 8-line disclaimer at the end to put the nail in the coffin.<\/p>\n What this says to people:<\/span> Fix it:<\/span>\u00a0Read my previous post with 6 Tips for an Email Signature Your Clients Will Love Your social media profiles are designed in a way that a 14 year-old in PowerPoint could have done. It was made, and you deemed it \u201cgood enough\u201d.<\/p>\n What this says to people:<\/span> Fix it:<\/span> Go back to the platform\u2019s preset design options. This is a quick and easy way to fix a ghetto fabulous attempt at fancy design work that\u2019s not doing you any good anyway. Then take some time to do a bit of how-to research, and carefully design something that fits the platform, fits your brand, and fits your goals.<\/p>\n for Twitter: Settings > Design > Pick a premade theme
\nYou\u2019re not organized.
\nYour thoughts are jumbled.
\nCommunicating with you may be overwhelming.
\nI don\u2019t know what you want me to do.<\/p>\nEmail Signature circa 1999.<\/h3>\n
![\"carolyn](\"https:\/\/www.blueleaf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/carolyn-sig-300x170.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nYou<\/em> are stuck in 1999.
\nYou\u2019re behind on current times.
\nYou\u2019re slow to make change in your business.
\nWorking with you will be old-school and standard.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\nGhetto Fabulous Profile Background<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.blueleaf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/BLOG-about-ugly-web-presence-Wendys.png\")
<\/h3>\n
\nYou hack stuff together.
\nYou don\u2019t check your work once it\u2019s done.
\nYour business isn\u2019t established enough to care about design yet.
\nYou don\u2019t have resources needed for basic aesthetic presentation.<\/p>\n
\nfor Facebook: hover over your Cover Photo > click \u2018Change Cover\u2019 > Remove
\nfor your blog: varies per platform – we suggest asking Google.<\/em><\/p>\n
![\"hero-client-screen-looking-good-easy\"](\"https:\/\/www.blueleaf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/hero-client-screen-looking-good-easy.jpeg\")
We\u2019ve put serious amounts of research into developing a tool clients love – showing them exactly what they want to know, in a way they understand, in a format they intuitively navigate, using the kinds of words they use to talk about money. And it\u2019s all automated for the advisor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"