Every financial advisor has a website and every investor with meaningful assets has access to the Internet. There is no question we live in a digital age. These realities should be driving the marketing strategies of financial advisors who want to use the Internet to market their services to investors.
Ironically, 30 years ago we could have been saying the same thing about access to the telephone. Everybody had one, which made cold calling by financial advisors possible. Three decades later the use of the telephone as a marketing tool is largely obsolete due to Call ID and other types of filters.
Digital marketing became inbound marketing opportunities when investors began using the Internet to find, screen, and initiate contact with financial advisors.
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What a difference! 30 years ago financial advisors used invasive sales tactics to create contact with investors - buy a list and start dialing. Today investors control the process when they use the Internet to initiate contact with financial advisors.
In the ever-evolving digital age of online communications, financial advisors are tasked with the pivotal role of navigating the vast expanse of the internet to connect with potential clients. The pervasiveness of the web in the lives of investors with significant assets underscores the importance of a robust digital marketing strategy for financial advisors. This transition from traditional to digital marketing mirrors the shift from reliance on telephones to the Internet, underscoring the dynamic nature of client engagement over the decades.
Digital marketing has evolved into inbound marketing when investors actively seek out financial advisors online. This paradigm shift from the invasive cold calls of yesteryear to the investor-driven contact of today's digital age demands that financial advisors optimize their online presence to facilitate discovery, information sharing, and communication initiation by potential clients.
Addressing the challenge at hand requires a comprehensive strategy encompassing various aspects of digital marketing. This guide delineates five critical areas that financial advisors must focus on to elevate their digital marketing efforts and improve SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) results.
Our Guide will provide 5 categories of tips that will help financial advisors improve the digital marketing results of their websites:
- Why more investors are seeking specialists
- How to get investors to visit financial advisor websites
- The most important pages on financial advisor websites
- How to improve your website’s conversion rates
- Why transparency matters in the digital age
Targeting Niche Markets: The Power of Specialization for Financial Advisors
Investors are increasingly looking for advisors who specialize in specific areas, be it retirement planning, wealth management for high-net-worth individuals, or active investment management. Financial advisors can improve their online visibility by tailoring their content and keywords to cover these niche services. This specialization not only enhances SEO by aligning with specific search queries but also positions advisors as experts in their chosen fields.
Then there is the flip side of this coin. Many specialized financial advisors work with particular types of investors. For example, they work with recent retirees, pre-retirees, women, small business owners, professionals, or biblically responsible investors.
Many of these investors prefer specialized advisors because they believe these specialists will understand them better and deliver better results. Just like investors would not go to a general practitioner for brain surgery, they may not go to financial advisors who will work with anyone. They want specialists.
Driving Website Traffic: Strategic Content and SEO Tactics
To attract more visitors to your financial advisor website, a multi-faceted approach combining valuable content with strategic SEO practices is essential.
Regularly publishing insightful articles, blog posts, and market analyses can establish your authority and keep your site fresh. Incorporating keywords, optimizing meta tags, and ensuring mobile responsiveness further improve your site’s ranking on search engines, making it more accessible to potential clients.
Your key metric, provided by Google Analytics, is the number of visitors to your website each month.
Optimizing Key Webpages: A Focus on User Experience
The homepage, about us, who we serve, and services pages are often the first points of interaction between your website and potential clients. These pages should clearly communicate your value proposition, experience, and the services you offer.
Enhancing the user experience with intuitive navigation, fast loading times, and engaging content can significantly reduce bounce rates and encourage deeper engagement with your site.
Your key metric, provided by Google Analytics, is your average time on site data.
Boosting Conversion Rates: The Art of Engagement
Once visitors land on your website, the goal is to engage with them by providing what they are looking for. They may want to schedule interviews or register for a complimentary eBook. One ends up an appointment and the other a name in your CRM system.
This requires a strategic layout of calls-to-action (CTAs), contact forms, and downloadable resources that provide value in exchange for contact information. Segmenting your audience and personalizing content can also increase conversion rates by delivering more relevant and engaging experiences to visitors.
Emphasizing Transparency: Building Trust Online
In the financial advisory sector, trust is paramount. Transparency about your qualifications, compensation, and the value of the services you provide can set you apart in a crowded digital space.
Start by determining the information investors are seeking when they visit financial advisor websites. Then determine your comfort level by providing that information.
For example, are you comfortable publishing your fee schedule on your website? We suspect not, since very few advisors publish that information. They provide the information in the initial interviews.
If you choose to withhold certain information on your website, keep in mind your competitors may not be withholding the same information. If investors see information on one website and not another, they know who is withholding the information. This can cause investors to contact the advisors who provide additional transparency.
Summary
By focusing on these five areas, financial advisor digital marketing can significantly improve both SEO and SEM results. The digital age offers unprecedented opportunities to connect with potential clients; mastering the art of digital marketing is not just beneficial but essential for financial advisors who want to thrive in today’s competitive marketplace.
