Only Fee-Only
This podcast interviews fee-only financial planners to learn about how they are helping their clients and serving their specific niches.
Only Fee-Only
#125 - What Most Advisor Websites Get Wrong – Colton Etherton Breaks It Down
Many advisor websites feel like digital brochures—bland, generic, and forgettable.
Colton Etherton wants to change that.
A former financial advisor turned web designer, Colton now helps advisors build sites that actually convert. Through his firm, Slices Design, he’s helping advisors stand out from the sea of sameness in financial services.
In this episode, Colton shares:
- The #1 website mistake most advisors make (hint: it’s your homepage)
- Why clear messaging beats credentials
- How to use your niche to attract the right people
- When it’s time for a full website overhaul
Even if most of your clients come from referrals, Colton reminds us: “They’re still going to check your website before reaching out.”
Whether you need a full revamp or just a few tweaks, you’ll walk away with practical steps to make your site more compelling.
Listen now and start turning visitors into clients.
Colton's Social:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/coltonetherton/
x: @slices_design
Music in this episode was obtained from Bensound
How's it going? Everyone, Thanks for being here. This is the only fee only podcast, and today we're talking to Colton Etherton, who is the founder and web designer of slices design. He designs websites for financial advisors and he's one of the best out there. I truly do believe that. I've seen a lot of the different websites that he's done, and he actually did ours, and this is a great episode. Even if you're not ready right now to take that step in doing a new website, there is actionable tips that you can take to make your website better, and if you are ready to do something like that, what better time than now? So great episode. Stay tuned. This is Colton Atherton on the Only Fee.
Speaker 2:Only podcast. What's up everyone, welcome to another episode of the Only Fee Only podcast. I'm Peter Travalo, I'm here with my co-host, brock Buckles, and today we're so excited to have Colton Atherton back on sharing his experience building advisor websites at Slices. So, colton, welcome back to the show, man.
Speaker 3:Thanks guys, I appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 2:Yes, you bet. So for those who don't know who you are, do you want to give a quick overview?
Speaker 3:about Slices and your business partnership. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So obviously my name's Colton. I'm a former advisor turned web designer for advisors, used to run my own firm for a few years, worked at another local firm here in Portland Oregon before that Ultimately shut my firm down because I was having more fun on the design side after people were asking me for help and getting burnt out on the advice side so easy transition. And getting burnt out on the advice side so easy transition. So now I am helping advisors actually build and design websites that stand out unique, do a lot of work with our mutual friend, josh Bassler, a thin artist. He's a good dude, so yeah, now I'm designing websites that don't blend into the sea of sameness for all the other advisors.
Speaker 1:I love it, man. And for all of you that are thinking wow, bc Brokerage has a really great website. That's because Colton designed it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was one of my first ones that I was doing for other people, which was awesome. I love it. You killed it, man.
Speaker 1:We were so happy with it. What are some of the things that you see often that are like uh, you know, like I, this is kind of like uh, not a great website. Right, you should be doing better. You should be speaking directly to your target audience, like you're. It's just like it does not show what you guys actually are, what you're capable of actually capitalizing on. Like, what are some of the biggest mistakes that you see right off the bat, man?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, one of the biggest is really under utilizing the hero section of your website, right? So that initial top section, when someone, when someone pulls up your site I can't tell you how many times I see like welcome, or you know, welcome to Smith Financial or whatever, right, and like that part, right there is super important for capturing attention and should really tell people what you do, who you do it for and give them an action, right. That's. Another thing is there's oftentimes no call to action, no button there, or it's like a learn more or something like that, and so you're missing out on quite a bit by not putting a ton of attention into that section, and that's why I always start there too.
Speaker 3:It's like what's actually going to get someone to want to keep reading down the page rather than like, eh, you know, this sounds like just any other firm and I'm going to go check out. You know what else is on the Google search or whatever. Um, so from, and then from there it's like how does it actually flow? Cause most people, like I said, they do the hero get that wrong, and then it flows into talking about themselves rather than really talking to the person that's visiting, right, to show them that you understand. Sure Um.
Speaker 3:And I think that's's like if we were to frame that in that potential client coming to someone's office to talk to you or check it out, right, you wouldn't, as soon as they walk in, in that case you'd say welcome. So it's a little different, but in that case, you know, I mean, you wouldn't be like, hey, we're smith financial, we've got 30 years experience and we do this. It's like no, like you'd talk to them like hey, what are you looking for? Like you know, oh, okay, here's how we can help, here's what we do, right. It'd be more like geared towards them. And I think that's where a lot of advisors miss the mark, right in those early sections of the website.
Speaker 2:When most advisors, when they're coming to you like where would you say that they're at in their practice? Right, so they probably have a domain, they probably created their initial website. Right, like what are most people doing? Like, are they on wix wordpress? Like, when you meet them, where are they kind of at? And like how do you reframe this conversation of hey, you know what your website is, your storefront, and it's actually an asset yeah, that's a great question.
Speaker 3:Um, honestly, I've got people from all across the board right From I'm going to be registered in the next two to three months and I need to work on the site now and have it ready to hey, I've been in business for a couple of years. I kind of DIY it. Now I've really focused down on my niche or whatever. Now I have money to actually pay for a professional to. Hey, we're a bigger firm that's been around for a while and we, you know, our website was built in 2015. We need, you know, then we've kind of just like, maintained and done little changes and we need, we need a big change, sure, um.
Speaker 3:So yeah, definitely hit the whole gamut there, and I think the conversation typically revolves around like, who are we actually trying to speak to, messaging, and what are we doing to actually drive traffic to that site as well? Right, and, and sometimes they're actually doing something, whether it's on social or a podcast. Other times, you know, I get people that are a little unsure if they actually need to do anything with the website, because they're like my business is referrals, you know. Like I don't website. Because they're like no, my business is referrals, you know, like I don't need to, and in that case you know it's still the same argument, like I can almost guarantee, nine times out of 10,. Those referrals are still going to look you up and double check that website For sure.
Speaker 3:You know, if I'm going to Miami and Peter's like hey, you need to check out this restaurant, I'm not walking in blind. You know, I'm still going to go, look, check out the menu, just to make sure. It's just the same with a close advisor relationship that someone's potentially getting into for years, if not the rest of their life. You know what I mean. So, no matter where they're at, it's fair to say in 2025, that websites are a very key piece.
Speaker 1:For sure. I mean, you have to be able to represent yourself online, right? Like I always say, it's like people are going to look at your website and that's how they're going to get the information about who you are, what you do, what the vibe is. Right, even if you look at people among the same industry, a website could literally be the differentiator between who you go with, right. It was like this one feels like if you're going for a financial advisor, right, and you're like you know somebody that's, you know, old school, old-fashioned, you want everybody to have that headshot with a buttoned-up suit you know there's a there's a website for that right, but if you're like you know, more modern, you want to work with someone that's like you.
Speaker 1:You want to be more um, you know forward thinking and and want to work with someone that's more down to earth. Your website says that too, so there's a there's a big difference between the two yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3:I mean, a great example of that is um firm I worked with recently, iconoclastic. They're in new york and they already had the hero section done on their their old site and it was like no bs no, I don't know it says something but ultimately said no bs, like right in the hero section. Right, I was like, look, guys, if that's the vibe you're going for, I'm not going to change that because that right there sets the tone for the rest of the site. And like, if someone lands on that, they're either going to be, yeah, these guys are for me, or I don't like the tone of that, I'm gonna go somewhere else.
Speaker 3:And and if that's how you are with clients, like, let's make sure we maintain that, right, so there's no surprises. So, yeah, I mean it's definitely, it's vital. And if you're in the stage of hiring, it's just as important, right, that's another thing we're like well, I don't know if I need to. I'm like when I was looking for firms to apply to back in the day, I bet I was looking at their websites too to be like, hey, what is this, what's the vibe like here? Right, do I, do I want to actually apply, or does it look like you know, kind of an old stuck up what you'd picture as a stereotypical advisory firm, for sure yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those are great points. I mean, I feel like a lot of people. They probably come to you and they're like Colton, what's everyone else doing?
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:If you were in my shoes, what would you be doing?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:At a basis, how often do you think people should revamp their website? Because I feel like there's edits and things like that right, which you can do all the time, but then there's like what we did with you, which is a complete brand revamp, new brand colors, things like that and I've even seen with some of these big insurance carriers that we use that you know they're switching colors or their website finally changes. You know, is it like every three to five years? You should have a big revamp, or kind of what are you seeing other advisors do?
Speaker 3:yeah, um, I mean, that's tough. I think that ultimately depends on how the firm evolves, you know what I mean. Or they want to evolve the firm right like josh, and I had a previous client that we did do a full change right, he'd been in business for a while, but he was changing, focusing on a niche, so it looks totally different new name and everything and so I think it ultimately depends on where you're at. I think the issue some advisors get into is they change it constantly just because they feel like something's not working, but it's not necessarily the website right like. It's like oh, it's not getting traffic. What are you doing to get traffic?
Speaker 3:nothing like, okay, well, maybe don't change the website yet, right, like, let's see something else, um, something, I don't know that there's any like hard and fast rule, right, as far as like how often you should change, you should definitely keep it up to date and modern and do stuff. But, like, as far as major changes, I mean I guess you could say three to five years as long, unless it like still looks good, you know, um, but if, if the firm's making a change in direction, whether that's younger leadership taking over or a new niche or something, then yeah, definitely makes sense. I was talking to an advisor about that yesterday. He's like, hey, I'm really narrowing down on this pre-retiree niche and I don't really want to send people to my site currently because it doesn't really jive with what I'm talking about in person, and so we're talking through possibly redoing his site with that focus For sure.
Speaker 1:So what are the biggest mistakes you think you see people make man regularly when you go to their site. You're like, all right, I'm looking at this thing, it's not going well with me, it's not sitting well with me. What are those things where people say, hey, check it out, we're going for a rebrand, like why do people usually come to you? And then, when you look at their sites, what do you usually see?
Speaker 3:yeah, I mean a big reason is like hey, I, I need, I need the site to actually do something for me. I don't feel like it's working right and typically in that case there's a couple reasons. It's confusing, right as far as the layout there's. You know, advisors kind of diy it much like their clients do their portfolios before they go to work with them, right, and it's like I saw this advisor do this and I liked it, so I'm going to throw it on my site, tell someone else do this. Um, but there's no like actual thoughtful structure, flow, messaging, right, or with that like call to actions too right.
Speaker 3:Like again, in that hero section, sometimes there's none, sometimes there's like three right and it's like two buttons in the hero. There's one in the top right. They got a little thing in the bottom corner and as you go down the site there's different things. It's saying different stuff. There's a guide, there's a guide, there's a newsletter. It's like hold on what, what's the main thing you want these people to do? And then maybe let's add one more right, like if they're not ready, have them subscribe to the newsletter or download a guide to get them on the email list, but don't try to do too much right away, you know, I mean, if you want to do something else, like let's do a landing page that's maybe hidden and that's for like to draw ads to or something um, man, there's oh and and walls of text uh, most people are not going to read everything you put on your site and I think that just comes from a place of.
Speaker 3:I need to put a lot on here to explain it. So they feel like they're ready to work with me, right? But I think less is more in that case, because people aren't always going to read a big long thing about your investment philosophy and your thoughts on other stuff. So give them the main points. If you have a blog, great, that's where you can kind of expand on some of those things and they can get into that if they really want to.
Speaker 3:But for the main core of your site, like needs to be more quick, scannable, easy to read, because when they're looking, you know and most people aren't like sitting down, like okay, I got 30 minutes, I'm gonna look and I can read all this time, right, it's like a quick thought pops in their head and they're like man, I was just messing with my 401k, you know, I was sitting at work like I need to find an advisor to help or something, right? Um, it's not like they're sitting here like I sit down to read a book at night and I'm like, yes, gonna go read through some advisor sites. Right, they're not doing that yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2:So what are your thoughts just in general with like marketing and like when you hear the term niche marketing, you know network to a certain demographic or occupation. Is it still working? Do you see people like pigeonholing themselves a little too much? Like what's kind of the right way about niching down and getting into the right group with your clients?
Speaker 3:yeah, um, it's funny because my practice was very niched when I was running it, focusing on tattoo artists, and so, um, I think niches are good and they make sense, especially like when we're writing copy for the site to make sure you're you're talking to the right person.
Speaker 3:Um, sometimes I think it can be maybe a little narrow, a little tough, but I do think, whether it's an occupational niche, if it's a problem niche, right, like if you have a large stock position or something like that, right, like my buddy Zach Ashburn kind of works with those people, whether that's inheritance or equity comp or whatever, however you get that position right.
Speaker 3:Um, or if it's more of a psychographic personality niche, I feel, I still think it makes sense to have something, um, because otherwise it's really hard to just talk in generalities. And if you have a couple like, that's fine too, you know, and then we just make the home page a little smaller and we make more, uh, individually, like guided pages for those, those groups of people. But especially if you're like a bigger firm and you're like, hey, we got six advisors, everyone works, you know, a little bit different niche, but I do think it's still important, um, and that's a hell of a lot easier to write copy when you have an idea of that person, right? You're like think of, think of that one person. How old are they? Tell me about their family size, you know, if they have a family job, whatever right, and then let's talk to them. Um, rather than, I don't know, I help people with money, right, and it's like yeah yeah, so does.
Speaker 3:Everybody is different, from a retiree to a tech employee, to widows, to you know, whatever it may be. Um, like sure, there's some gen, some commonalities, but it makes a lot more difficult, and it's more difficult than for someone to recognize themselves on your site when they get there. If it's more generic, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:Well, give us an example, man, of a, of somebody recent that you were working with, where you were able to switch it up and they've been really happy with it yeah, um, I mean one recently, concierge Wealth Christian Amsbury.
Speaker 3:He's awesome, he, we built his site from scratch, it wasn't like a redo. But he works with tech employees and widows, so kind of two different niches, right. But there's already been a few times where you know he's texting me. He's like, hey, thanks, like this person reached out and they're like, hey, I went with you because, like's, he's texting me. He's like, hey, there, thanks, like this person reached out and they're like, hey, what with you? Because, like, your site spoke to me, right like it, it went right to the heart of what I was concerned about. Yeah, um, yeah, I mean I can try and think of other sites. I always forget sites once. I'm like done with them. Um, so I got a number going.
Speaker 3:Number, I'm going on he checks it off and he's done yeah, I mean not necessarily because I got ongoing clients as well, but, um, you know, like trailhead planners um courtney and morgan and them over there, um, we, we redid theirs to really like they had what I call it a corporate uh hiking vibe to it, right yeah I really revamped it to kind of.
Speaker 1:I think I saw that one on linkedin.
Speaker 3:You posted about it right, yeah, yeah, that was really good man thank you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's got this like uh, 70s or old school, like vintage um, like national park poster, vibe yeah right, uh got the hippie vibe going on yeah, and and kind of like illustrative images, and honestly, I thought I might have pushed it a little too far with that design before I sent it to him, so I was nervous, like man, I don't know, I don't know if this is too much, um, but I love it so, uh, you know, that was a good example too. Like it's like hey, this really shows their personality and um character and brings in they also weren't like using their whole color palette, right, and so it's like bring in some color, bring in some fun, really help you guys stand out. Um, so yeah, that was another one I love it.
Speaker 2:So what's kind of the dynamic been like with josh? I mean, how do you guys divide? And conquer on the projects. I mean, I envision josh is doing a lot of the colors, a lot of the uh designs, and I envision you know you're doing a lot of design too, but I could see you probably doing more implementation or, you know, actually inputting the stuff into the, you know, wix or wordpress or wherever. So what's that process look like?
Speaker 3:yeah, so it really depends because we've done projects where, like, it's all under one project, right, so it's a whole brand and web package, um, and we really everything goes through through fin art, and so we start there, right, and just as does his thing with the brand strategy session and really getting to the heart of, like, how do you want this brand to be seen? Um, and I'm still, you know, I'm sitting in on those calls with him and going through it and then, you know, as we kind of progress, we'll get into, you know, the messaging for the website and get to the design and kind of wrap up there. And that's to me, that's my favorite way to work with Josh is just because everything's very integrated, um, and it makes it quite a bit easier for me. When he crushes a brand, I'm like, yes, I know exactly where he's going with this.
Speaker 3:I already have ideas for the website, like I'm ready, um. And then there's other ones where it's like they go to him first and they get it done. They're not quite sure if they actually want a whole new website or to redo, and so so you know there's like a pause between the two right um, and then they'll you know, they'll connect with me after, or they get towards the end and they're like you know what? Hey, like, can you actually connect me with your guy, um, and those again. Anytime I get brand work from josh and then I get to go take it to a site is great, um. So no complaints on like. Either way, we work, but it's definitely fun on the times when I get to sit in on like the brand strategy calls and all that as well. Either way, even if they don't do web with me, he's usually sharing with me and we're sharing projects back and forth. So it's always fun to see his process because I guarantee you as clean and neat as things come out.
Speaker 3:They don't start that way that dude puts in a ton of work and concepts and everything like. It's amazing to be like, all right, here's where we started a month ago, right, and like see his project. I'm like here's where you're at, way over here in the corner, and it's like holy shit, yeah, um so yeah, it's fun yeah when he did a rebrand for bc man.
Speaker 1:it was like he showed us this thing and he just had I don't even know what you'd call it Like he opened it up, opened up this pallet and there was like 60 different things and he's zooming in and zooming out. I'm like it's created chaos, but it worked for him and he does such a fantastic job, man.
Speaker 3:And he's just like fun. Um, it's funny because, like when I first met josh, I haven't actually met him in person, but when I first started talking to him online right, he was still doing the the sketches at conferences and that kind of thing and I was running my firm and he'd like drawn this like little cartoon sketch up, um of like a tattoo artist for me and stuff and uh, so to see like both of us kind of evolve towards this way is cool and realistically. He's the one that pushed me more towards the web design, because I got a few people asked before when I had my tattoo artist side up and I was like no, I don't think I really know what I'm doing to like help someone else and so finally he's like, hey, can you at least help me with mine?
Speaker 3:and then, like it snowballed from there and um, so yeah, it's exciting and actually get to meet the dude in person at jolt, you know, in a couple months. So that'll be sick, yeah, for sure you know, my family even knows him because, like, they'll hear voice notes and stuff from us texting and they're like you haven't even met that guy yeah, you know, I'm like I know like, like you know, playing fortnight with him and my son and it's funny. I love it. Man, I'll hop on.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it's a good time, very good well man for people who want to reach out, talk to you, learn from your expertise and have you build them a website. How can they get in touch with you?
Speaker 3:yeah, um, so my website is slicesdesign. Um, I'm on twitterx whatever it's called nowadays linkedin, uh, as well. Um, I think it's slicesdesign on on twitter as well, and then linkedin is just my name. Um, yeah, awesome man perfect.
Speaker 2:Well, colton, thank you so much for joining and uh look forward to future success of slices thanks, guys, appreciate it awesome thanks.