Eventually every financial advisor firm in America that has a marketing budget will be using digital marketing to promote their brands, build their credibility, and produce leads for their services. This means there will be haves (those who can afford it) and the have-nots (those who can’t afford it).
How do we know this statement about digital marketing for financial advisors is true? Because ALL financial advisors already recognize the need to have a website. However, not all financial advisors have figured out how to use their presence on the Internet to promote brands, build credibility, and produce leads.
This article will help those financial advisors develop a digital marketing strategy that is based on the achievement of their goals.
Why is Internet visibility the foundation for digital marketing?
Websites do not produce their own traffic. Internet visibility produces the traffic that websites can convert into leads. Therefore, online visibility is a key metric that measures the effectiveness of financial advisors’ digital marketing strategies.
How do you measure Internet visibility?
It starts with identifying a financial advisor’s ideal types of clients. For example, an advisor prefers to work with pre-retirees - someone who is within five years of retirement.
Next, what keywords do pre-retirees use when they are seeking financial advice, services, or information on the Internet. For example, a pre-retiree may be looking for help moving assets from a 401k to an IRA.
Once the keywords are identified, there are several digital marketing strategies that are used to create online visibility: Content marketing, pillar pages, and social media to name a few.
The visibility that really matters is page one in Google for the keywords that are used by these ideal types of clients. Why page one? Google says 91.5% of its users do not scroll to page two.
Only 4.8% scroll to page two and 1.1% scroll to page three. So, there is intense competition for being ranked on page one for keywords that matter.
The key metric is the number of relevant keywords that have higher page ranks.
How does Internet visibility produce traffic for financial advisor websites?
Investors have to find financial advisor websites in order to visit them. What they find on the Internet, let’s say it is an interesting blog article like this one, has to bring them to the financial advisors’ websites.
Content marketing (blog articles, pillar pages), social media, and local SEO are three popular ways for building visibility that produces traffic for financial advisor websites.
Content marketing also produces credibility for the financial advisors’ advice and services. Since this content provides the information that investors are seeking, there is a good chance investors will revisit the financial advisor websites that provide the information they are seeking.
This in turn creates competitive advantage when investors are ready to begin interviewing financial advisors.
The key metric is the number of people who visit financial advisor websites each month. A reasonable expectation is that this number will increase over time as financial advisors rank for more keywords on the best pages (1,2,3).
Why is Time on Site an important metric for measuring digital marketing results?
The simple answer is the longer investors stay on financial advisor websites the higher the probability they like what they are seeing. This could be the content in blog articles or the content on the financial advisors’ websites.
Conversely, what if the home pages of financial advisor websites have high bounce rates with ten seconds or less for time on site? This is an indicator that visitors did not find what they are looking for or did not like what they found. The data is also telling financial advisors that they have a serious problem.
What is a reasonable expectation for time on site for home pages on financial advisor websites? In our most recent survey the average time on home pages (above the fold) was nine seconds.
This is a major indication that first impressions are critical. Is your firm what the investors are looking for? Does your elevator pitch create enough interest that they visit other pages on the website?
The same survey showed the average time on site for financial advisor websites was two minutes and thirty-three seconds. This is the amount of time financial advisors have to deliver information (About Us, What We Do, Who We Serve, Why Select Us) and convince visitors to give up their anonymity and submit their contact information.
The key metric is the amount of time visitors spend on financial advisor websites. The number of pages they visited could also be a key indicator for their level of interest.
What is a realistic conversion rate for financial advisor websites?
It is important to note that converting visitors, who are seeking financial advice, into leads is one of the toughest vertical markets on the Internet. It is not like they are seeking a travel agent who may give them bad advice about a one night stay in a hotel.
Their financial security is at stake and there is a 50/50 chance they have had a bad experience with a financial advisor in the past. Or, someone they know has had a bad experience. Consequently, prudent investors are going to be very cautious.
There can also be two types of leads that are produced by financial advisor websites. The best leads have immediate needs for financial advice and want to schedule interviews with financial advisors.
There can also be investors with deferred needs for financial advice. In the short run, they are seeking financial information that helps them make the right decisions. Their need for a financial advisor will come later.
For example, someone who is retiring in six months, may have an immediate need for information and future need to interview advisors. The financial advisor who provides the information has a distinct advantage when investors start interviewing advisors.
Another key metric is the percentage of website visitors who submit their contact information. A realistic average can be 2% so that every one hundred visitors should produce two leads. 500 qualified visitors per month should produce ten leads. Actual conversion rates will vary by financial advisor website.
Can a website produce clients for financial advisors?
I am going to have to answer No on this one. The proof lies in the experience of the Robos. Their attempts to convert visitors into clients, without human contact, only worked for investors with very small asset amounts (<$25,000). Clients with more substantial assets want to talk to real, live financial advisors.
Websites produce credibility, trust, and leads (immediate and deferred), but they do not produce clients. The financial advisors’ sales processes, including CRM, will have to take over for both types of leads.
Leads with immediate needs for financial advice will require a follow-up telephone call or email to schedule an introductory interview. If that goes well (the advisor makes the cut), there will be a second and even a third interview as investors reduce the candidates to finalists and they eventually select one.
What are the next steps?
What should you do with this information?
If you are not running Google Analytics on your website you should be. Its data will provide the information you need to evaluate your website’s digital marketing results.
Consider talking to a digital marketing agency that specializes in working with financial advisors. The agency can conduct an audit that provides additional information that will help you evaluate your results.
