A tool to find an adviser and increase user traffic
Spear's magazine is a respected media brand that comprehensively covers global wealth, business, and culture. It is a reliable source of information for the affluent financial services sector, including bankers, lawyers, and family offices who advise wealthy clients. It is held in high esteem by the ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) community.
Since its inception in 2006, Spear's has established itself as a leading authority on wealth management in the UK and Europe. The magazine is also known for its incisive commentary on the latest arts, business, and lifestyle trends.
Spear's has long relied on its print magazine to attract new readers and generate advertising revenue for its digital platform. However, with limited potential for lead generation and ongoing investment, the magazine's traditional mechanics needed to be revised to sustain long-term growth.
In response to these challenges, Spear's team requested innovative strategies to expand its reach, attract new advisors, and increase brand awareness. It was time to get creative and develop a solution to increase website traffic and social media engagement.
Project Development
Our team brainstormed with Growth to create a web tool to attract new readers to Spear's. Ideas were evaluated with the ICE framework to select the best approach. Success metrics, user stories, and goals guided the design of user journeys for both Spear’s readers and new financial advisors.
The proposal was to build Spears500.com, a platform for UHNW clients to find advisers based on attributes like expertise and location. The tool also provides advisers exposure to potential clients and includes plans to expand Spear’s directory, driving more leads.
Process
• Define metrics and proposal
• Prepare website sitemap, navigation and taxonomy
• Create wireframes, prototype and test
• Develop a simple design system + UI designs
Results
Currently, the Spears 500 website attracts approximately 6.5K monthly visits, where visitors spend an average of 1 minute and 38 seconds per visit and view 1.5 pages on average.
The website is constantly updated, with the marketing team introducing new streams of income by implementing sponsored tags such as Top 10 Recommended, Featured, Top Ten, and Top Flight for profiles and companies.
In addition, we have made the decision to disable the internal blog on the Spears 500 website and instead utilise the Spear's Magazine blog. This allows for a more streamlined approach to content creation, providing readers with a centralised location for all news and articles related to the UHNW community.
Since the launch of the new website, the private client directory has increased by 36%. Furthermore, the Spears 500 print report is still published annually and includes 2,361 profiles spread across 612 pages.