Whether you have experience with financial advisor marketing or are new to the game, there are always new things to learn when promoting yourself and/or your financial advisor firm. What worked previously may no longer attract prospective clients like it used to. Or perhaps your new target audience is skewing to a younger demographic, and you need a new approach to reach these future investors.
Wherever you are in your wealth management career, there are likely some areas you want to improve on, and others that you haven’t started. Read on for:
- Valuable tips to analyze your efforts and reach more potential clients
- SEO (search engine optimization) guidance
- Resources you can use to help grow your business
- Content that is helpful to your target market
- Best practices in digital marketing for financial advisors
How can financial professionals embrace the digital landscape?
For some, the digital revolution has meant big adjustments to conducting business as a financial advisor. But being “digital” means way more than simply having a website. It means it’s not enough to simply “accept” new digital trends for marketing and conducting your business. Those seeing the most success with their financial advisor marketing efforts have embraced the Internet as the present and future of digital marketing for financial advisors.
What exactly does embracing digital entail?
While it can mean different things for advisors, in short it means that instead of digital marketing being an addition or an afterthought to your financial advisor marketing plan, it should be the focus of such a plan and everything else supports those efforts. And if embracing digital doesn’t come naturally, there are qualified digital marketing professionals who can help along the way.
Understand the importance of Google products
While not impossible, it would be difficult for any business with an online presence to be successful without the use of resources from Google. Best known as a search engine, Google’s suite of products has expanded to include some of the most widely used digital platforms in the universe — and they’re mostly free to use. For financial advisors like you, the top recommended Google assets are:
- Google Analytics, which can tell you everything (and more) financial advisors could ever want to know about their website’s performance.
- Google My Business (GMB) is the formerly named Google Places, and it allows businesses to have online listings akin to that of a “digital phonebook.”
- Google Ads do cost money to run, but the product also includes free resources such as keyword planning and also integrates seamlessly with Google Analytics, which combines organic and paid reporting to give a bigger picture of your financial advisor’s online presence.
Find your financial advisor niche
There are many different elements that support a thriving financial advising business. And while you may be a Jack or Jill of all trades when it comes to knowing your role as a trusted financial partner, it’s probable that there’s an area you prefer over others and/or you’re more knowledgeable on.
If that’s the case, this could become your “niche” that can be leveraged in your financial advisor marketing efforts. This could be in the form of long-form content, webinars, explainer videos, or any other medium where you can establish your niche as part of your brand.
Why branding for financial advisors matters
Much more than colors and a logo, branding is often overlooked or at minimum it’s undervalued as part of a successful marketing plan. And while financial advisors are guilty of this, it’s not just within the financial industry. Perhaps this is because branding and brand awareness isn’t a tangible or measurable KPI.
For financial advisors who work with numbers and often think analytically, this can seem like an abstract concept that doesn’t add value to the business in an obvious way that can be attributed to revenue or AUM. In reality, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
The good news is that there are marketing professionals who live and breathe in all things branding. If you’re struggling to get behind a solid branding strategy, you won’t be after hearing what they have to say!
How to become a trusted source for financial planning and financial services
Advisors are in a unique position to help their clients achieve their financial goals in a prudent way by offering sound advice and recommendations, and above all else looking out for the best interest of their clients. Establishing that trust often starts before that person was an actual client.
To effectively market, your content and branding must position you and/or your firm as a knowledgeable and trustworthy resource on financial topics. Examples include
- Market commentaries
- Timely blogs
- Free offers
- Videos explaining recent news in the financial markets
- Most of all, through the content you produce and distribute on all channels, online and offline
This is another area where having a marketing support team behind you can make all the difference. With the above-mentioned videos breaking down financial news, timing is critical. If big news breaks, such as major tax law changes or even political events affecting the markets, people are looking for a trusted resource to help them understand it right now — not days from now.
Measure your results
While some marketing attributes are harder to quantify, it’s always a good practice to track and measure marketing strategies and success — however that looks to your financial advisor business. Between digital analytics platforms, email marketing platforms with detailed reporting capabilities, social media statistics and other measurement tools, there’s no shortage of information.
The trick is to choose the KPIs that matter most and measure them regularly. By skipping this step, it can be difficult to see where your firm is having marketing success, and where it needs improvement.
Pro tip: marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. Keeping up with measurement for the long term can help identify subtle — yet critical — gains that can be directly attributed to marketing efforts.
Don’t go it alone
When all is said and done, you’re not a marketer by trade, and there is nothing wrong with that. The notion that “everyone is a marketer” can be dispelled by spending a day with a digital marketing expert and seeing what all is involved in modern-day marketing.
Start here: Use this free eBook to see how digital marketing for financial advisors can be simplified.
From SEO to copywriting, there are experts in every marketing discipline who can help make the most of your financial advisor marketing efforts. And by working with a digital marketing firm like PDM, you can gain access to them with one click.
