Summary:
Financial advisors often assume that when a prospect visits their website but chooses not to book a call, the visitor is uninterested or simply not ready. In reality, the vast majority of those who hesitate are not rejecting the advisor—they’re wrestling with uncertainty. This episode focuses on the psychology behind a website’s call to action and why booking a meeting is an emotional decision long before it becomes a logical one. Mark Mersman explains that advisors face a unique marketing challenge: the first step prospects are being asked to take requires vulnerability, trust, and exposure. The competition, therefore, isn’t another financial professional; it’s the prospect’s own fear about what will happen if they click that button.
The phrase “book a call” or “schedule a meeting” often carries more weight than advisors realize. For consumers, it implies the possibility of being sold to, pressured, or embarrassed. The fear of a sales pitch is a major source of friction, even for people who genuinely want help. Because of this, advisors may benefit from softening their CTA language to something less triggering. A phrase like “start a conversation,” “ask a question,” or “explore your options” reduces perceived risk and shifts the focus to curiosity rather than commitment. The change may seem small, but psychologically it reframes the moment from a sales encounter to a low‑pressure dialogue.
A second emotional barrier arises from the fear of looking uninformed. Many people worry they will ask the wrong question or expose their lack of financial knowledge, especially when jargon and complexity often define the industry. Prospects don’t want to feel judged for what they do or don’t know. The fix, Mark explains, is to normalize uncertainty openly and explicitly. When advisors say, “No preparation needed—most people aren’t sure where to start,” the message offers reassurance and neutrality. It gives the prospect permission to show up as they are, without needing to get ready for the conversation. That simple shift helps transform a situation that once felt intimidating into something approachable.
The third psychological barrier involves unclear expectations. Prospects often avoid booking a meeting because they genuinely don’t know what will happen on the call. Without clarity, the mind naturally fills the gap with assumptions—usually negative ones. Advisors can significantly reduce this friction by clearly defining what the first conversation includes. Setting a simple agenda—two or three topics, no overwhelming details—helps prospects visualize the experience and reduces the fear of the unknown. For example, explaining that the call will help them articulate goals, clarify priorities, or determine whether it makes sense to continue reinforces the idea that the prospect will walk away with value even if they choose not to proceed.
Time‑commitment anxiety is another hidden obstacle. Some visitors worry the meeting will be long, draining, or more involved than they’re ready for. This fear is often grounded in past experiences with other advisors. The most effective counterpoint is to emphasize brevity and flexibility. Phrases like “a short introductory conversation” or “a brief call to see whether we’re a fit” communicate that taking the first step won’t consume their afternoon. By framing the meeting as light, exploratory, and respectful of their time, advisors reduce the emotional cost of saying yes.
Perhaps the most powerful barrier, however, is emotional vulnerability. Talking about money feels deeply personal. Many prospects feel anxious, uncertain, or embarrassed—sometimes even when they’ve accumulated substantial assets. They fear exposing mistakes, revealing disorganization, or not measuring up. Advisors often underestimate the emotional weight clients carry as they consider reaching out. Mark emphasizes that leading with empathy is essential. When advisors acknowledge that it’s completely normal to feel uneasy and that the conversation is judgment‑free, they help prospects feel seen rather than evaluated. This reassurance lowers defenses and creates a safer environment in which prospects can take that first step.
Beyond language changes, the episode highlights several design‑related best practices that further support higher CTA conversions. Mark encourages advisors to reduce clutter around their primary call to action. A visually busy layout creates cognitive overload, and too many buttons or conflicting choices exacerbate indecision. A single, clean CTA per page is ideal. Including a friendly, approachable headshot near the button can also humanize the experience and reduce perceived risk. Below the button, advisors can place a one‑sentence expectation statement—something empathetic, simple, and calming. Examples include “No pressure, no preparation required” or “Many people feel uncertain when starting this—totally normal.” These statements work because they acknowledge what prospects are already thinking and reduce the emotional tension associated with taking action.
The core message of the episode is that booking a call is not merely an administrative step; it is an emotional leap for the prospect. When advisors address the psychological obstacles proactively—fear of being sold, fear of appearing unprepared, uncertainty about what to expect, worries about time, and the vulnerability associated with discussing personal finances—they dramatically increase the likelihood that visitors will feel safe enough to move forward. The goal is to lower the barriers, soften the language, clarify the path, and acknowledge the human experience behind the decision.
Mark concludes by reminding advisors that when emotional friction is minimized, pipelines naturally open. Prospects feel comfortable engaging because the first step feels humane, not transactional. By refining CTA language, adjusting design elements, and leading with empathy, advisors can create a more inviting digital environment that aligns with how real people make decisions—not out of pure logic, but out of emotion and trust.
Transcript:
Mark Mersman, Chief Marketing Officer at USA Financial - Welcome back to the playbook. know, today I want to talk about the psychology of the call to action on your website. And this this conversation was important to me. I've recently had some conversations with some advisors who, you know, haven't gotten the results that they wanted from their website. And, you know, hey, I just haven't gotten any book meetings from it. And sometimes it's going to happen. Maybe there's not enough traffic. Certainly that's to be to be you know, expected to a certain degree, you're not going to convert everybody that comes. But, you know, if someone visits your website, but doesn't book a call, it doesn't necessarily always mean rejection. I think a lot of the times it means hesitation. And so when we think about this from an advisor perspective, the real competition that you have isn't necessarily another advisor, it's uncertainty.
So I want to talk about how small language and design changes could certainly increase conversions with some of your digital marketing. Here's the deal. People avoid booking calls, booking meetings because of fear, not necessarily lack of interest. Now, sometimes they lack interest, but oftentimes they do it because of fear. And every call to action can create some emotional friction or we can try to remove it. So barrier number one, when we think about the idea of book a call, book a meeting, that immediately there's an implication there and a barrier that there's a fear of being sold. What happens is if a prospective client sees that, they expect pressure, persuasion, or potentially embarrassment. So the first fix is simply to look at what can we do to potentially rename our call to action. This could be something as simple as rather than book a call, book a meeting to start a conversation, explore your options, ask a question, see if this makes sense for you. And we'll touch on a few combinations here in a minute, but I want you to think about, do I want to soften my CTA language a little bit to take away some of that pressure, that concern of that fear of being sold?
The second barrier that we have to think about when we look at the psychology of somebody who is just looking at your website for the first time perhaps and thinking about, know what, some of this looks appealing. Maybe I want to take a next step. There is a legitimate concern and fear of looking uninformed. Your prospective client might worry that they'll sound dumb or ask a stupid question or be unprepared. The fix to this, as you think about the language you use both when you talk with prospective clients, whether it's at events or whether it's through your website is to normalize uncertainty. They need to understand that that is expected. And you can say things like, there's nothing that you need to prepare. There's no preparation required. The truth is most people have no idea where to start. That's completely normal. You have to normalize some of the feelings that they likely have because for the vast majority of people dealing with finances and their personal financial accounts and all the jargon that our industry has can be really intimidating. And so they don't want to sound dumb or feel like they're unprepared.
The other thing, the other barrier that's happening, the other psychological component is oftentimes there are very unclear expectations. You know, if, if when it comes to that first meeting in particular, the prospective client has no idea what happens on that call. And so one thing that I would really encourage you to do is somewhere on your site or somewhere in your collateral, define what that first meeting or that first phone call is gonna be like. Define the agenda. This is especially important once they've actually booked it to ensure that they hold the meeting. Define the agenda, give them expectations. In this 20 minute call or in our meeting, we'll cover three primary things or three things that there are gonna be two areas of focus. Again, we don't wanna overwhelm them thinking that we're gonna go through 48 lines of your tax, you know, your tax return, give it something simple, something they can understand. You want to give them some sense for the fact that they will leave with greater clarity, even if we never work together. So again, define the agenda, create some clear, concise collateral so that they understand what the expectation is during that first meeting. Obviously once they get to the first meeting, as you might be booking subsequent meetings, you're gonna be able to cover that with them in person. Give them that list, here's what we'll cover at the next meeting. But especially for this first meeting, they're walking in to the lion's den and they don't necessarily know what to expect. And so their mind is gonna go to the worst case scenario. The fourth barrier, the fourth psychological thing to be aware of is time commitment anxiety.
A lot of these clients, if they've worked with other advisors before, they might have a fear that this is going to be a long draining meeting. And especially for the first meeting when, or especially if you're just looking to do short calls to kind of see if there's, there's a fit or something worth exploring. I encourage you emphasize the brevity and the flexibility with the meeting. You know, examples could be, you know, this is simply a short exploratory conversation. There's no obligation. You want to kind of downplay and put their mind at ease that this is not going to be this long taxing phone call or meeting, especially for that first one, because they're really reluctant that, boy, am I going to be, am I signing up for a two, three hour long meeting that I'm going to be emotionally drained from afterwards.
Speaking of emotions, that's really the fifth barrier that I wanna touch on, which is arguably one of the most important ones people are very emotionally vulnerable. you know, talking about money feels extremely personal and uncomfortable. know, oftentimes I've heard it, you know, analogize that it's akin to going to the doctor's office, stripping down naked, and here you are in your birthday suit feeling really vulnerable. The same thing is happening with these prospective clients for that first meeting. They're worried about, oh boy, this is gonna make me feel really uneasy if I have to put it all out there. And sometimes they're embarrassed. I've kind of laughed over the years as I've spoken with other advisors how they've said to me, some people think they don't have much saved and it turns out they've got two, three, $4 million. But they're embarrassed because they feel they haven't done enough. So here's the fix to this. Lead with empathy. This should be something you do within your website, your other marketing collateral, and most importantly, how you speak with clients and prospective clients. Let them know, many people feel anxious talking about this. Don't worry, this is a judgment-free conversation. lead with empathy, take down their worry. Let them know that you understand that this isn't necessarily always the most fond and enjoyable. You can feel kind of vulnerable, but there is nothing to worry. There's nothing to feel anxious about. It's a simple conversation that, you know, we do this every single day with clients through, know, so try to stress to them that you understand what they're feeling, the emotional vulnerability that comes with meeting with a financial professional for the first time. So a couple of things, kind of some quick wins that we can take away. First of all, from a design and user experience standpoint, I would tell you, remove some of the clutter near your calls to action. If you look at your website, if you've got a bunch of clutter around calls to action, make that a little bit more concise. We're really trying to avoid the idea of having too many calls to action on one page. Try to simplify that. If you can get it down to one simple call to action per page, that's great. I'd encourage you to think about, you know, on some of your CTAs putting a friendly headshot near that booking button. And of course, I would encourage you think through how we can provide some of that reassuring language below the button. So here's kind of the quick wins. Look to replace, if you've got book a call or book a meeting, on your website, maybe think about using a softer language. Obviously we're trying to get to the same end result. So maybe you're gonna look at replacing book a call with something a little bit softer. The other thing that you could look at doing is adding a simple short one sentence expectation statement below the button. It could be the button might be start a conversation and then the subtext underneath it might be
No pressure, no prep required, or just a conversation to see if anything, if it makes sense. Or maybe many people feel unsure, that's normal. So again, kind of thinking through pairing up a softer CTA with a very succinct one sentence expectation that demonstrates empathy to the prospective client. So here's kind of the big takeaway, I guess. Booking a call, booking a meeting isn't necessarily a logical step, it's an emotional one to the prospective client. Lower the wall, lower the barriers, tackle the psychological concerns, and all of a sudden, the pipeline opens. Hope it's helpful. Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast player or give us a like and a thumbs up. And if you're an Apple, podcast user or any of the platforms out there that allow you to give reviews or afford you the ability to give a review. If you're enjoying this content, I certainly would appreciate the opportunity that certainly helps my reach as I'm trying to get out there and help as many advisors as possible. Again, take care, have a good one, bye now.
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The Financial Advisor Marketing Playbook is a podcast/video series for high-performing financial planning professionals that are committed to improving their craft, helping their clients, and growing their business. Hosted by Mark Mersman, Chief Marketing Officer at USA Financial, this series contains a wide variety of content – from quick win ideas to long-form interviews, each episode provides actionable marketing ideas and insights that can be implemented easily into your practice. From digital marketing to traditional direct-response marketing, each episode delivers straight-forward and engaging content that any financial professional can use to improve their bottom line and grow their practice.
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