When we ask financial advisors to describe their #1 marketing challenge, 83.7% say it is producing a continuous flow of qualified sales leads.
This makes a lot of sense when you consider the diminishing returns that are produced by obsolete Outbound Marketing tactics.
If you are not familiar with Outbound it is the marketing tactics that advisors use to initiate contact with investors: Telemarketing, direct mail, seminars, advertising, and affinity marketing.
Why obsolete? These sales leads are incredibly expensive (time, money, frustration) when advisors initiate contact with investors who do not want to be contacted. This is called a disruptive marketing process. In fact, it is so disruptive, rejection rates approach 100% and tens of thousands of financial advisors have left the industry because they could not make a good living using Outbound Marketing tactics to produce qualified sales leads.
The alternative is Inbound Marketing. Inbound is marketing tactics that are use to motivate investors to initiate contact with them. This drastically reduces the rejection rates associated with obsolete Outbound Marketing tactics.
There are four critical Inbound Marketing tactics that must be mastered to make the Internet a source of qualified sales leads.
- The Internet
Increasing numbers of investors are using the Internet to find, screen, and contact financial advisors. They:
- Enter geo-specific and other key words to find financial advisors
- Google search advisor and firm names
- Visit advisor websites
- Search the Internet for public data (FINRA, SEC)
The Internet has impacted a lot of industries. It is finally impacting the financial services industry. How does your RIA take advantage of this powerful new trend?
- Internet Visibility
You need visibility so investors can find you on the Internet. We are not talking about investors who know you and enter your name in a search engine. We are talking about investors who do not know you exist.
Investors enter various combinations of keywords in search engines when they look for financial advisors, information about advisors, and general financial information.
Will they find you?
You can create visibility using SEO, content and social strategies. Or, you can buy the visibility using an SEM strategy, but you better have very deep pockets.
- Website Traffic
Internet visibility produces financial advisor sales leads when it produces traffic for your website.
But, not just any traffic. You want relevant traffic. For example, investors who are your ideal types of clients. That is, investors who can afford to hire you based on their incomes, net worth, or assets that are available for investment.
- Website Conversions
Your website is where the “rubber meets the road”. All of the time and money you spent producing visibility and traffic is wasted if your website fails to turn visitors into qualified sales leads.
There are several website sales tactics that can be used to convince visitors to give-up their anonymity and submit their contact data.
Unfortunately, most advisors use template-based websites, stock photos, and generic content. The result? 82.7% of RIAs are dissatisfied with the performance of their Internet marketing strategies.
This level of dissatisfaction creates a major business opportunity for enterprising advisors who develop effective Inbound Marketing strategies before their competitors beat them to the punch.
