We live in a digital age where consumers have more opportunity than ever to find out about businesses and services. And that includes the financial services industry. The competition is fierce. However, when it comes to Internet marketing for financial advisors, a lot of advisors assume it costs too much to even get started. But that’s not necessarily true.
Today, the information customers crave is more than just advertising; it is the communication that is taking place on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. And it is having a big impact on businesses big and small.
Because social media is fast becoming one of the most powerful tools for improving awareness, producing leads and increasing client satisfaction, financial advisors are taking notice. Don’t be left out of this profitable frontier where the benefits are plenty and the costs are next to none. You too can join the social media bandwagon to benefit your customers as well as your bottom line.
Did Someone Say Free?
Social media can essentially mean free advertising. Compared to traditional marketing like print ads, mailers and commercials, social media has virtually no cost for spreading the word about your financial services. The most popular sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, do not charge for creating a profile for your firm and establishing valuable exposure for your company. In addition to free exposure, the mere posting of content has the added potential to be further “liked” and shared with friends and associates, creating a valuable ripple effect of greater reach and visibility. Of course, this sharing carries even greater impact as word-of-mouth messages get passed on by friendly, trusted sources.
Stake Your Claim
When you get your business on the most popular social media sites, you will not only be visible to a vast new world of consumers, but you will have more opportunity than ever to connect with interested investors and quality leads. Social media gives you a direct and more personal way to share your brand with existing and potential customers alike. This is extremely important for small and virtual businesses. Creating a recognizable identity for your firm will go a long way in helping you establish yourself as a contender against the large companies with much bigger marketing budgets.
This Way to Quality Leads
Nowhere else can you find so many quality leads than social media. Now businesses of all sizes and kinds can be where the most interested consumers are. Financial advisors are embracing these opportunities with custom content for target groups, essentially giving viewers every reason to click-through to their site. The right type of social media can increase your traffic and can keep the leads coming with links from other sources that point to the expert information on your site.
Singing Your Praises
Social media is an excellent way to share valuable feedback, reviews and helpful conversations about your financial advisor services. This can be as simple as using a Facebook page to showcase consumer experiences.
For example, if your social media post generates a positive response, put this unbiased endorsement in the spotlight where it has the power to influence others in a way that is more meaningful than traditional advertising. Online shopping has impacted the way consumers evaluate and choose products and services, and today, nearly 50 percent of Americans find real customer reviews like this helpful when making a purchase. This type of candid information goes a long way in providing “social proof” for your potential investors, which, in a nutshell, is the trust and satisfaction customers feel upon learning about you through the communication they discover on social media. Plus, people feel great about themselves when they find you have posted or shared their reviews, which in turn, establishes brand-loyal clients who will continue to sing your praises.
You Have the Power
If you are using social media just to talk about your brand, then you are only scratching the surface.
You can take your business to the next level by using social media as a platform for connecting with clients and providing customer care. Not only can you provide a simple, encouraging way for your clients to post comments and reviews, but the real beauty of social media is that you have a way to respond. Opportunities to reach out to your clients who are using and loving your services are important because these satisfied and potentially powerful influencers deserve your heartfelt “thanks.”
Also imagine that when a consumer posts a comment, you have the power to reply with personal, well-crafted communication that is full of valuable answers. This can ultimately allow you to fix problems in your company’s brand-voice and positively influence others in the process.
Some businesses fear the potential for negative comments, but when done right, this is the perfect platform to explain and make things right. The fact of the matter is, if someone has something negative to say, ignoring it won’t make it go away. But when you address customers’ concerns head-on, you are seen as a business who cares and who wants to make their clients happy. Not only do customers appreciate businesses that respond, but they also crave this kind of personalized attention in today’s crowded marketplace. Showing that you value their input is one big way that even a small or virtual firm can make a huge impact.
Boost Your Ranking
To put your company right where your potential clients are searching, you need a healthy search ranking. A search ranking is the number order that your business appears in the listing when customers search for you by any number of keywords. Of course, being first and listed highest is always better for grabbing attention in our face-paced, virtual marketplace where consumers have come to expect the best results first. So it is no small detail to know that big search engines like Google and Bing count a company’s social media presence when determining search rankings.
Because conversations on social media will increase these rankings and help your firm appear higher in the order of a customer’s search, it is no longer sufficient to count on just your website and blog alone to establish this important Internet exposure.
Why an Expert?
You know there is a sea of investors out there and the way to catch their attention is through far-reaching, cost-effective social media. The difference between a savvy social media presence and a simple, unengaged presence is that it will consistently generate leads.
In order to keep your sites engaging and generating leads, you may find the number of hours that it takes to get-up-to-speed and manage those accounts may in fact make it more cost-effective to enlist support. An expert on your side ensures your social media is hitting all the right notes in many ways. Often times, an expert who is knowledgeable about your field can better provide targeted content and compelling images than you might on your own.
Did you know that posts that include compelling images have been found to be “liked” and shared three times more often than content alone? This is just another reason enlisting a team with creative capabilities makes a lot of sense.
Without breaking the bank, partnering with an Internet strategist can help your firm with the whole gamut of social media opportunities, including:
- Search Engine Optimization
- Account monitoring
- Collection of feedback
- Results tracking
- Quality links and hashtags
- Surveys, polls and promotions
- Real-time and streaming video
- Maximum cross-posting exposure
If you can find a social media expert who is fluent in your industry, the benefit is ten-fold. With a strategic partner well-versed in the realm of financial advisors, important factors can fall securely in place, including industry best practices, protocol and disclaimers – all significant details that go a long way to ensuring peace-of-mind and success.
If you do not want to be left out of the profitable world of social media marketing, then it might be time to see what an expert can do for you.
