New strategies and tactics are emerging daily in financial advisor digital marketing. The difficulty level is rising, even for those with experience in financial advisor marketing. But that doesn’t mean financial advisors can simply ignore the importance of digital marketing for long-term success.
Bottom line: In the digital-first world we now reside, financial advisors won’t survive without digital marketing, period. To embrace digital marketing, use these eight tips for creating innovative financial advisor digital marketing campaigns.
Here’s what financial advisors need to know about digital marketing!
Set Clear Goals
As a financial advisor, you undoubtedly ask your clients what their future financial goals are from the start of your partnership. You also have goals for your business growth. Digital marketing is no different.
Without setting attainable objectives, it’s impossible to measure results and know which digital marketing efforts are working (and which aren’t!). Your goals may vary, depending on the type of digital marketing, but the one thing they should all have in common is that they are realistic and easily measured.
By skipping this step, you could be spending money on ineffective campaigns and missing the mark when growing your client list.
Define Your Audience(s)
Depending on the size and scope of your financial advisor firm, you may have more than one target audience. Your audience(s) might even change depending on the digital channel on which you’re marketing. It’s essential to define the current audience based on what your ideal client would look like, also known as a persona.
These personas will help you select criteria when choosing an audience for your digital marketing campaigns and deliver the ad content that would be most appealing to that audience. You can run multiple campaigns simultaneously, so don’t use a “one-size-fits-all” approach.
Get Social
Even if you’re not a fan of sharing your personal life on social media, your financial advisor firm needs to be in all the places your potential clients are. And for the highly coveted Gen Z and Millennial age groups who are reaching prime investment years – this is one of the places to reach them.
Younger adults are doing things differently than their parents and grandparents, including how and when they invest and plan for retirement. These new-agers have lived their entire lives with the internet and social media, so it’s second nature to seek these channels to help them make important life decisions.
Have a Solid SEO & Website
Search Engine Optimization is no longer an option for any business looking to succeed with digital marketing. Why? Because no matter the digital channels used for marketing efforts, all roads lead back to a strong SEO strategy and high-quality, optimized website and content.
Search engines such as Google reward good SEO practices by ranking those websites higher on organic SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Additionally, Google uses another system known as EAT, which stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
This is a ranking system where websites are rewarded in terms of search rankings and placement based on how they prove to be an expert in a subject and how other digital entities interact and endorse them. Consider it as a character reference from Google – and it can only be achieved by having a strong SEO and web presence as a solid foundation.
Reviews
As mentioned, social currency is necessary for financial advisors to reach the up-and-coming wave of prospective clients. Part of earning this currency is through online reviews and testimonials. This, compounded with the recent marketing rule allowing financial advisors to use reviews and testimonials in their advertising, means that there has never been a better time to incorporate them into your digital marketing mix.
Use Content to Build Your Prospect Database
It’s no secret that high-quality, original content is the key to digital marketing success. The content you create not only brings visitors to your website or blog but can help you build your prospect database. If someone finds your information (such as whitepapers, videos, and infographics) valuable, they are likely to want more of it in the future.
By having this content “gated” (accessed through a required form), you can collect email addresses from these prospects to add them to your database. Once there, you can move them through the sales funnel and ideally convert some to clients.
Be Accessible
Even pre-pandemic, consumers expect answers to their questions instantly. In a world where one tweet to a major brand can elicit a response in seconds, why would anyone dial a 1-800-number to wait on hold?
That’s why financial advisors need to be accessible to their clients and prospects. While that doesn’t mean answering emails and phone calls 24/7, it does mean responding to questions promptly on all channels, which will require some monitoring and diligence on your part.
Get Help
While financial advisor digital marketing can be highly fruitful and is critical to the success of financial advisor firms wishing to remain relevant, it’s – admittedly – hard work. Knowing the basics helps, but most financial advisors simply don’t have the time (or desire) to immerse themselves in digital marketing campaigns. You have clients who need your expertise and markets to keep an eye on; no one can fault you for running your business that way!
That’s why many financial advisors get help from a digital marketing agency. From SEO strategies to social media and search ad campaigns and everything in between, a high-quality digital marketing firm can act as a member of your marketing team, allowing you to take care of your clients and grow your business.
A digital marketing partner can also help establish goals and show you how to measure your digital marketing efforts, so you know what’s working and what’s not – all in an effort for you to take it over – eventually. Or, you can let them run with it and report critical updates, but otherwise, maintain the day-to-day digital marketing operations.
No matter the level of involvement you require, you have options and don’t have to go it alone.
