It’s no longer enough to produce quality financial advisor content to realize digital marketing success. Today’s digital consumers have more options than ever before, and they have higher expectations. How can financial advisors meet these expectations? Personalization and localization.
Keep reading for a rundown of what personalized and localized content means for financial advisor marketing and how to apply these practices to your financial content.
Personalization
People want to know that you know them and understand their needs. While this has always been important in business, it’s become a necessary part of digital marketing. This is because people using online services—such as search engines and social media platforms—know that marketers have vast information on them. And while this may have been worrisome in the past, it’s now an accepted practice in the digital space. In fact, the way to anger consumers is not by using the information you know about them but rather by not using it. An example would be inviting someone to sign up for a newsletter when they have already subscribed. Or even offering them a product or service that they already have.
Personalization can enhance marketing efforts, from direct mail to digital. Financial advisor website personalization is a powerful place to start. Personalized website content can be anything from customized landing pages (PURLs) to showing specific content based on your financial advisor's website.
Localization
When it comes to thinking “locally,” it’s critical to think outside of terms of geography. This localization refers to localizing an audience based on similar interests, cultures, demographics, and sometimes geographic location. Localization differs from personalization in that the content targets a group of people, rather than specifically targeting an individual. This involves sending the right message to the right person at the right time. This can be achieved by using the information about an audience or segment and producing content that appeals to them the most.
How to Get Started with Financial Advisor Website Content Personalization and Localization
Define Your Audience
While you already likely have a persona identified for your ideal client, you need to take it deeper to understand how to deliver a personalized experience on your financial advisor's website. By gathering all the available information, you can learn details about these prospects, making it easier to appeal to them. So where is this information? It’s often available to you already, and you don’t know it. One example is social media analytics platforms.
These platforms offer details about their users that you can use to personalize and localize your financial advisor content. Additionally, Google offers insights on visitors to your financial advisor website through its free Google Analytics platform. You can then use this information to divide your audience into these individuals or localized groups.
Find the Right Website Personalization and Localization Tools and Partners
There are many platforms, partners, and tools to choose from regarding financial advisor content personalization and localization. The key is to find platforms and partners that best fit your financial advisory firm.
Pro Tip: don’t think too nearsighted in terms of the size and scope of the personalization and localization partners—if growing is your goal, then allow for some room for that growth. It would be unfortunate to see success with personalization and localization only limited by the platform initially chosen to manage them.
While this can mean more work and resources initially, it can prove a worthy investment in the long run.
Benefits of Personalization and Localization
While the results can vary based on the specifics of the financial advisor content marketing and the personalization and localization audiences, the benefits can include the following:
Generate Quality Leads
The best answer is always quality if given a choice between quantity and quality. And leads generated from personalized and/or localized content are traditionally going to be fewer in quantity but higher in quality because those prospects taking the next step are doing so after being shown content that was more likely to appeal to them.
Build Loyalty
It can help build loyalty by consistently delivering a personalized and/or relatable experience that gives visitors the information they need in a relevant way. This means that when that user has additional needs for financial advisor content, they will turn to your content first. While this may initially seem like a small win, the long-term benefit could mean anything from more website views to a new client.
Tips/Best Practices for Financial Advisors using Personalization and Localization
Don’t Reinvent the Wheel
While some large brands will serve personalized/ localized content that changes everything from the messaging, colors, and images, that level of customization isn’t necessary for your financial advisor marketing. In fact, subtle changes in wording and imagery can go a long way toward making an audience feel that content was made just for them.
Keep Clean and Accurate Data
Personalization and localization marketing strategies for financial advisor content are only as good as the data available to support these efforts. That’s why clean and accurate data collection is paramount. By maintaining accurate data on both customers and prospects, you can continue to provide financial advisor content that’s relevent to their needs, even if those needs change over time.
Use Dynamic Content
The one-fits-all approach is history. Dynamic content is the way financial advisors get their content to the right audience. Dynamic content relies on data to provide information on the user visiting a page to determine the content. This helps visitors to your financial advisor website see the content that resonates with them.
