Producing short-term profit is an admirable goal, but is that sufficient for achieving loftier goals that are associated with your financial advisor marketing success. If your financial advisory firm is not growing, it is missing out on important opportunities to add new clients, increase market share, and add to the future value of your firm. Instead of pouring your hard-earned money into traditional advertising mediums such as TV, radio, and print, opt for comparably cost-effective digital marketing alternatives. Here’s a quick look at how digital marketing helps financial advisory firms reach their true growth potential.
Obtain Valuable Exposure to the Growing Number of Web Users
Use your imagination to compare a financial advisory firm that strictly relies on conventional advertising to firms that solely use the web to produce leads and validate the quality of their firms. The firms that use conventional advertising will certainly increase their exposure to the broad universe of people who read, watch, or listen. Or, they could use a digital marketing strategy that targets particular types of investors who use the services of financial advisors.
In contrast, the firm that strictly relies on web-based marketing would enjoy access to local investors who specifically need financial advice and services. Many of them are actively seeking service providers and financial information on the Internet. Even if both strategies yielded the same exposures and results, the firm that relied on the web to reach its target clients would be in a better position simply because it is cheaper to advertise online as opposed to the traditional alternatives.
What matters most is that you get your content out there on the web for local investors who are seeking financial advisory services when they conduct Google searches, surf the web, use social media, and and/or check-out the websites of financial services providers in their communities.
Even if your content is limited to blog posts, a couple of social media pages, and a website, you can successfully connect with the most valuable customers of them all – locals who genuinely want your financial advisory services and are actively conducting their own searches for financial advisors on the Internet. These are the prospects who represent the most potential revenue when they use the Internet to find and research financial advisors. Compare them to people who happen to see an ad in a local magazine. Or, think of all the people who saw the ad, but were not looking for a financial advisor.
It Pays to be Social
It was not long ago when the extent of socialization was limited to in-person meetups with friends, family, coworkers, and others. Nowadays, a growing number of relationships and dialogue are formed and conducted on the internet. Though digital socialization is certainly different from offline socialization, it is equally important for the success of your financial advisory firm.
Establish a profile for your company on the top social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Interact with locals on these digital platforms and word will begin to spread about your financial advisory services. Invest some time and effort into crafting truly engaging and helpful social media posts and blog posts, share them on the many different web-based social platforms and they just might go viral, shining the spotlight directly on your firm, ultimately ramping up interest all the more.
Above all, be active on these platforms on a weekly basis. If necessary, hire a social media agency to handle your social media exposure for you. It is important to respond to questions and concerns posed on your social media pages in a timely manner. Embrace these platforms, maximize their potential and they will help your financial advisory firm grow even faster.
Market Your Company With Google in Mind
Google is the epicenter of digital marketing. From pay-per-click PPC ads to search engine optimization (SEO), Google My Business, Google Maps, and beyond, this search giant is essential to your financial advisory firm’s web marketing success. Every piece of content you create should be produced with Google’s search algorithms in mind.
Take some time to determine the specific keywords, key-phrases, and local information those in need of your financial services are likely to type into Google and other search engines. Use these keywords/phrases at a density rate between 0.5% and 2% throughout your online content. This strategic use of keywords and key phrases will help your financial advisor website shoot up the search engine results pages (SERPs), possibly to page one that is viewed by 91.5% of Google users. Only 4.8% scroll to page two.
PPC advertising on Google is also worth considering because it can produce positive results. The amount you pay for PPC ads on Google is determined by competitors and the number of clicks your ads receive. Compare the cost of PPC ads to that of traditional advertising campaigns and you will find PPC is comparably inexpensive and they produce better results.
Don’t forget to fill out your Google My Business profile! This way, when people search for keywords related to your business or the name of your business, your complete profile/listing will appear on the screen, facilitating clicks that redirect investors to your site, ramping up your online conversions all the more.
A 100% complete Google My Business profile enhances your SEO ranking while providing searchers with helpful information such as:
- Hours of operation
- Phone number
- Street address
- FAQs
- Contact Us
- URL to visit website
If your financial advisory firm’s information changes, be sure to update your Google My Business profile to reflect the new information, ensuring you make it easy for interested parties to connect with your company after conducting a web search.
Market Your Business With Mobile Users in Mind
Check every component of your online footprint with a smartphone, tablet, and other web-connected mobile devices. If you were to pretend as if these mobile devices did not exist, you would alienate a growing number of prospective customers. More than five billion mobile users exist. This figure continues to rise every single day.
If your website, service pages, contact page, or any other component of your online footprint do not function to perfection on each type of mobile device, those users will quickly move to one of your competitor’s sites and help them grow as opposed to helping your business reach its potential.
Even a seemingly subtle flaw in the context of mobile computing such as a homepage that takes longer than a couple of seconds to load will prove quite important in the context of growing your customer base. More than 50% of websites accessed on mobile devices are abandoned if the site takes more than three seconds to appear on the screen. Continue improving your website until it functions to perfection on every type of mobile device.
