Google says one of the biggest trends on the Internet is the increasing numbers of people who conduct keyword searches to find all types of financial, tax, and legal professionals.
The Internet is definitely a game-changer. Investors can learn a lot about financial advisors without actually talking to you. They retain their anonymity until they are ready to be contacted.
All of the sales skills you spent years acquiring do not have an impact if investors do not initiate contact with you.
Investors control whom they talk to and when they talk to them. This new paradigm requires some new Inbound Marketing skills to attract internet leads for financial advisors.
How do you turn the Internet into a major source of new leads and avoid the problems that will waste your time?
You have to get your digital marketing act together to be successful in this intensely competitive marketplace.
Internet Image
Get your Internet image right before you commit time and money to increasing traffic to your website and improving its ability to convert traffic into prospects.
Try putting yourself into a prospective client’s shoes. He plans to use the Internet to find a top quality financial advisor. How does he find you?
Then he uses the Internet to learn more about you so he does not waste time talking to someone he will not select. He might:
- Review a Paladin research report
- Visit your website
- Google search your name
- Read published content
- View information at FINRA/BrokerCheck
What will he see? Will it instill confidence that you are a top quality professional? Will he initiate contact and schedule an appointment?
You have to develop and manage your online image. You are wasting valuable time and money if you are just another advisor.
Traffic
Internet visibility produces the traffic that is the key ingredient for a successful Digital Marketing experience. People have to find you on the Internet before they initiate contact. They become traffic when they visit your website to learn more about you.
Want to turn the Internet into a big business opportunity? Focus on producing more traffic for your website.
Websites
Your website has three primary purposes:
- Project the image that maximizes credibility and trust
- Deliver the information that visitors are seeking
- Convert more visitors into prospects
All other content on your website is clutter that distracts visitors from your real goal – getting them to initiate contact.
Conversion Rates
Conversions occur when visitors give up their anonymity and initiate contact with you. This is very different than the Outbound Marketing tactics you may have used for years to initiate contact with prospective clients (telemarketing, referrals, direct mail, advertising and seminars).
The Internet becomes a major business opportunity when enough investors initiate contact with you.
Monitoring
Tracking the success of your digital marketing program is simple:
- How many people visited your website?
- How many people submitted their contact information?
- How many prospects did you meet with?
- How many prospects were converted into clients?
- How much annual revenue did the new clients produce?
