Every financial professional responsible for producing new clients should read this article to learn why digital marketing is their golden ticket:
- An introduction to digital marketing
- How it impacts sales funnels
- How it improves sales outcomes
- How it simplifies the sales process
Why is digital marketing the key to the future success of financial advisors? The short answer: the Internet is beginning to impact financial services the same it has impacted other industries. It is a game changer. The impact is a major business opportunity for enterprising financial advisors.
The Internet is the top of financial advisors’ sales funnels. That is where investors find advisors and learn more about them. What they see determines who they contact for interviews. This starts the sales process.
A strong online presence can make financial advisors' sales processes easier and more productive. Let us tell you why.
Why are financial advisor close ratios so important?
The top three metrics for measuring digital marketing campaign effectiveness are:
- Internet visibility based on keywords and page ranks
- Website traffic that is measured by time on site
- Website conversion rates – visitors into leads
Think of the effort to build brand awareness for financial professionals and produce relevant traffic for their websites. It is the unique role of the website to convert that traffic into qualified leads.
When a visitor becomes a lead, the advisor’s sales process takes over. The last step in the process is the all important “close.” No close, no revenue.
What happens if advisors fail to convert leads into revenue-producing clients? The leads end up in the financial advisors’ CRM system. There is no revenue to offset the expense, and the advisor hopes there is a sales opportunity down the road.
“Digital marketing is an important part of the financial advisors’ sales funnel.”
Three frequent sales tactics that financial professionals use to improve close ratios are:
- Build rapport with leads for the primary purpose of producing a competitive advantage. At the pinnacle of this tactic is genuine connection and a free lunch; however, Covid has diminished the impact of the free lunch.
- Become a valued source of financial information. In an ideal situation, when investors seek information, they visit the blog sites of financial advisors. This tactic builds the credibility of advisors when they are perceived to be experts.
- Use the Internet to build trust. This occurs when investors “Google search” financial advisor names and visit their websites. What they see impacts who they trust enough to give up their anonymity and initiate contact. Building trust is an integral part of nurturing leads in sales processes.
How can digital marketing help financial advisors stand out?
A financial advisor can be visible or relatively invisible online. It’s a big deal when investors seek financial professionals they can interview face-to-face (or virtually) in their communities.
Digital marketing raises the visibility of financial advisors on the Internet, making them easier to find – step one in many sales funnels.
A newer type of information for financial professionals is testimonials and ratings with reviews. This type of content delivered online makes advisors stand out virtually, increasing the likelihood that investors will schedule interviews.
How can financial advisors make their sales process easier and more productive?
It stands to reason the more investors believe they have found the right financial advisors, the more inclined they are to interview them.
When prospective clients find and screen financial professionals online, they are seeking four types of information:
- Is the firm staffed with financial experts?
- Does the firm provide the services the investors are seeking?
- Has the firm worked with clients like them in the past?
- Are there meaningful differentiating characteristics?
The sale process is easier when investors have all this information before they contact particular financial firms. The website content must have impressed them, or they would not have initiated contact.
“A simple sales process is a major competitive advantage the is produced by digital marketing.”
How do financial advisors know which sales tactic had the greatest impact on their close ratios?
It is logical to assume there are “different strokes for different folks.” What appeals to one investor may not appeal to another investor. Consequently, it always pays to ask why they selected particular financial advisors.
This input can help fine-tune sales funnel business practices.
What is the biggest digital marketing sales challenge that financial advisors face in their sales funnels?
Investors have to be able to find advisors’ firms on the Internet. This is usually based on the keywords that they enter in the search engines.
Page one/two/three rankings are the visibility that matters in Google. That’s because 75% of Google users do not scroll to page two. Only 25% scroll to page two and even less after that.
How is digital marketing the proverbial triple threat?
When you combine Internet visibility with a website that is designed to generate financial advisors leads, they can triple the impact of your digital marketing efforts.
It starts with financial advisors’ websites converting visitors into qualified leads. This critical step produces the leads financial advisors need to produce prospects and new revenue producing clients.
Done right, digital marketing can also build financial advisor brands in a way that produces a competitive advantage in the form of increased credibility and trust.
Think of the goodwill that financial advisor websites can create when they deliver the user-friendly information that investors are seeking. There is a predisposition that investors have come to the right websites and that the advisors they find deliver the services they need.
This is a big hurdle that can be overcome before investors make the critical decision to contact advisors.
Can digital marketing help financial advisors who do not like marketing?
Some advisors are involved in sales because they have to be. There is no one else at their firms who can take on the responsibility of talking to prospective clients.
When queried, a surprisingly high percentage of financial professionals will tell you they would rather spend time with current clients planning their financial futures and investing their assets. They do not consider sales activities the highest and best use of their time. Rejection rates can be high, making sales a potential waste of their valuable time.
So, it makes sense that the more investors know about them, the easier it is to sell them the advisors’ services. It also makes sense that the investors only contact firms on the Internet when the advisors meet their screening criteria.
Why does digital marketing produce the highest quality leads?
Investors have done their due diligence before contacting the financial advisors they like best. As noted earlier, they have visited multiple websites, and Google searched their names. It is fair to assume they liked what they saw if they reached out and initiated contact with particular advisors.
Anyone can use the Internet to contact financial advisors whether they can afford their services or not. Therefore, when applicable, financial advisor websites should be designed to filter the leads. For example, an advisor has a one million dollar minimum for new clients. This minimum can be communicated on the website landing pages and content.
Not only do investors initiate contact, but they meet the minimum asset requirements of financial advisors.
