Credit broker websites are extremely important for consumers. They assist them with initially understanding how lending works, detail the options available to them and help them find the best possible deal for their personal requirements. All in one place without having to go to individual lenders.
They are a vital service and when implemented well can be very successful businesses. If you have plans to set one up, here are nine essential tips for success from Solution Loans, a well-established online credit broker.
- Cover a broad range of financial products
When you first set up your website, you don’t want to limit your potential reach and your customer base. By offering a broad range of financial products including loans and credit cards to varying types of insurance, for example, you can spread your potential offering and give yourself more chance of engaging with the needs of your client base.
By providing a variety, you also increase the chance of customers opting for more than one product through your website. If you have a narrow product offering you run the risk of losing potential clients to sites where they can source more than one product.
A range of products from a range of providers will also help to build trust with your customers and illustrate your authority in the market.
When you engage with lenders across their full product range you also give yourself the best chance of securing better deals from them.
The next point is crucial to help you do this.
- Build great relationships with your lender partners
The best possible deals for your customers will come from your building and maintaining fantastic relationships with a variety of lender partners.
They are the lifeblood of your business, so you need to develop a detailed strategy on how to build the relationship in the first place and continue to do a number of things to keep your partners happy and secure as the partnership moves forward.
When dealing with your partners always be clear and open in your communications, look after your client contacts and always share knowledge and information.
- Provide genuinely useful and helpful content to inform your visitors
When people search for financial products online, they won’t always be ready to buy. They may simply be researching what their potential options are or have an idea of what they need and are looking for the best provider or deal.
Your site should, of course, cater for the final stage of the journey when your customers are ready to convert, but you can build trust and authority by engaging with them earlier in their research journey. The best way to do this is to a) understand how they may be feeling and the specific questions they are asking, and b) provide genuinely useful and helpful answers to those questions through your onsite content.
This will keep your visitors informed at the research phase, helping them to consider your site when the time comes to find the right financial product for them.
- Focus on helping your visitors make the right decision for themselves
You need to think about two specific things. Firstly, the fact that everyone’s personal situation will be different, and secondly the way people find the best choice is through comparing and contrasting.
You can cater to both of these by providing bespoke tools and calculators on your website which enable users to enter their individual financial details into them. Users can then be provided with multiple results contrasted against each other. By doing so you give your customers the chance to really make an informed decision.
You need to be aware of the difference between providing information (so the visitor can make their own choice) and providing advice (where the visitor is reliant on the decision you make for them). From a regulatory point of view, the latter is much more onerous. And you cannot reasonably provide advice unless you have a full disclosure of a person’s circumstances. Providing advice also changes the economics and your business model, so a decision about which route to follow is fundamental. Personally, we would stick to only providing information.
- Providing a blog allows for the creation of useful supplementary content
It isn’t just about borrowing and the decision to seek credit, it’s about the whole financial experience. Your customers will want to know how to budget, where they can find deals and how they can save money from day to day.
By creating useful, engaging, and helpful supplementary content you provide essential assistance to your customer base. By housing this on a blog or content hub you can begin to make it their go-to destination when they need some advice, assistance or want the latest info on budgeting and money saving.
Build customer demographics and profiles, focus on their pain points and create content that helps them in their everyday lives.
- Build a proper brand and give it a personality
What is your USP? What is your point of difference? How do you want your customers to feel when they engage with you?
By answering these questions, you can start to identify the things that make your brand unique. Once you have this, build it into a brand story, tone of voice and brand guidelines.
Remember, the key to making your brand recognizable is your logo and branding. This should be consistent across all of your marketing and social media channels, as should your tone of voice and the way you engage with your customers.
- Measure, measure, and measure your traffic
Your website will live or die on the volume of traffic you secure. If you have some fantastic offers from financial providers, that’s great but they will mean nothing if you don’t get plenty of eyes on them and at the right time for those specific customers.
It’s imperative to measure traffic and have a detailed understanding of what channels, campaigns or marketing strategies are driving visitors. You’ll need to understand this mix and ensure you’re maximizing the opportunities they offer to drive traffic to the business.
If things aren’t working, change them and continue to measure. This will be one of the best ways to gauge the success of the different strategies you implement.
Never stop measuring.
- Continue to innovate
If you stop innovating, your business will stagnate and slowly start to go backward. Innovation should be firmly built into the DNA of your operation from the top to bottom.
From the financial products you offer, to the content you create, and the comparison tools you provide for your customers, never stop innovating and don’t ever rest on your laurels.
Technological invention and innovation are widespread in the finance sector with new tools, products and ideas surfacing all the time. Read widely and visit conferences to discover new ideas and keep up with trends.
- Make sure you are fully FCA regulated and remain fully compliant at all times
To be a legitimate credit broker you must be authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), as well as being registered on the Financial Services Register. It is a legal requirement and something your potential customers will certainly look out for when they first land on your website.
Amongst the various rules for credit brokers you must:
- Be clear in all advertising that you are a broker and not a lender, and don’t make any false claims or promises
- Treat customers fairly, with all communications being clear, fair and not misleading.
- Disclose how and when any fee is payable and have this agreed in writing before any agreement is entered into.
- Respond promptly to any complaints.
A summary of the FCA rules can be found here.
Remember, do it by the book, have your own individual brand, look after your lending partners, and always make the needs and requirements of the customer paramount.
Photo finance manager w– stock image
