In a broad sense, your financial advisory firm’s digital marketing strategy is the overall strategy for all your digital assets, campaigns, channels, and platforms. And while it’s necessary to always keep the bigger picture in mind, it’s also vital to understand the individual components and their importance to the overall success of your financial advisor digital marketing efforts.
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Let’s take a deeper dive into 5 digital marketing strategies that can take your financial advisory firm’s marketing to the next level:
1. Content Marketing
If all your financial advisor digital marketing efforts fall under the same digital marketing strategy umbrella, then all marketing of any kind should be considered part of an overall content marketing strategy. Content marketing is less about a sales-focused approach, but more about providing quality financial advisor content at the right time to the right audience.
Once a content marketing strategy has been defined, all digital marketing efforts can take direction from there and then begin integrating this content into efforts on all digital marketing changes. And in terms of digital marketing, it all comes down to the online search.
And as the global leader in all things search-related, financial advisory firms would do well to remember that the first audience of any financial advisor content is not your target audience of prospective clients — it’s Google.
2. SEO
When discussing Google, SEO now enters the discussion. If content is the “what” of digital marketing strategy, then Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the “how” as in, how is that content going to be seen by the intended audience? Google wants to deliver the most fitting and accurate information to that search, and it must be fast.
Part of how this speed is achieved is through the indexing Googlebots are constantly performing to keep a current library of sites that have been vetted and deemed “searchable.” In other words, if your financial advisory firm’s website is indexed, that means Google knows your financial advisory firm’s digital content exists and has determined that it is eligible to show up in relevant searches.
Without this, a website had little to no chance of coming up on any of Google’s SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Getting indexed is part of a broader SEO strategy that includes ranking higher for relevant searches and adopting optimization strategies that consider all of the ways searches are now conducted, including semantic search and the emergence of the zero-click search thanks to AI-driven search algorithms.
3. Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the tried-and-true digital marketing channels. Virtually everyone uses email in some way to keep up with important business and personal communication, news, financial updates, all the way down to sales promotions and entertainment newsletters.
But just because email marketing has been around for a while, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t evolved. Just like all things digital, email marketing has come a long way and remains an important part of every financial advisor digital marketing plan. One of the most effective ways financial advisory firms can make email marketing work for them is as a lead generation tool.
By gating more in-depth content, such as eBooks and whitepapers, on your financial advisor website behind a sign-up form, you’re not only providing a valuable piece of content to a prospective client but also adding a lead to your sales funnel. If nurtured properly, this lead can potentially become a client.
To achieve this, it’s recommended to use a trusted email marketing platform with a built-in CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform. A CRM will allow your financial advisory firm to deliver relevant content to your prospects through automated trigger and onboarding campaigns but can also mitigate risk by handling opt-outs and unsubscribes.
4. Social Media
Even if you don’t personally participate in social media, there is no question that financial advisory firms that don’t take action in this channel are missing out on reaching a key demographic. Younger audiences of early or potential investors are turning more and more to social media as their generation’s version of friends and family.
Generationally speaking, where a Baby Boomer would have asked parents or neighbors who they use for their financial advisory services, Millennials and Gen Z users are turning to Reddit and TikTok – among others - for financial tips, recommendations, and advice. TikTok has a trending movement, known as #FinTok, where users ask questions and get answers from other users.
In fact, some financial professionals have become influencers in this space. This type of social media activity can lend itself to creating a niche that your financial advisory firm becomes known for.
5. Niche Marketing
There are certain industries where it can be difficult for a business or brand to stand out from the rest. And financial services are one of them. This is partially because financial topics can be seen as boring and traditional, and because everyone in the mix offers the same products and services. And while it’s true that there are only so many financial investment services to offer, how your financial advisory firm is positioned to offer them can be the difference maker.
Known as niche marketing, financial advisory firms can set themselves apart from the competition by finding an area of strength or passion within the financial advising space and doubling down. By honing these skills and crafting financial advisor content and branding that support and promote this niche, you can become a trusted resource for that niche product or service.
This strategy takes the “everything to everyone” approach of many digital marketing strategies and turns it on its head but can prove to be just as powerful as any other tactic. The key here is to remain consistent with your financial advisory firm’s messaging and branding, while balancing the niche marketing approach with a general financial advisor content marketing strategy where appropriate to avoid alienating other audience members not interested in that niche specifically.
