Our 20 years of experience show 82% of fee-only financial advisors want to expand their number of revenue-producing clients. The other 18%? Well, they have built comfortable lifestyle businesses and do not want to spend the extra time or money necessary to expand their list of current clients.
This article provides marketing tips for fee-only financial advisors wanting to expand their firms' current sizes. This means more clients, assets, and revenues. At the same time, most of these firms want to build improved awareness for their brands, which is another way of increasing the value of their firms.
There is a case to be made for financial advisors using digital marketing to reach potential clients at an unprecedented level. Every investor, who would benefit from financial advisors' knowledge, has internet access. And they are making the web their go-to solution for finding, screening, and contacting potential advisors to schedule introductory interviews.
From creating content that resonates with investors to leveraging digital channels such as social media, email marketing campaigns, and search engine optimization (SEO), our top ten financial advisor marketing tips will help you reach your target audience and increase engagement with prospective clients. Additionally, financial advisors can tailor their marketing strategies for maximum results by taking advantage of the latest technology trends like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
Financial professionals who want to use digital marketing to grow their businesses need a well-thought-out marketing strategy. That’s because digital marketing strategies for financial advisors are intensely competitive, and weak efforts are likely to fail.
Reading our Top 10 Marketing Tips for Fee-Only Financial Advisors is a great starting point.
Top 10 Marketing Tips
These are the topics that we will cover in this article. In a few short minutes, you will know more about digital marketing business practices than you do right now.
- How a good marketing plan uses the power of the internet.
- Many advisors use digital marketing strategies.
- Financial advisor marketing relies on visibility and traffic.
- Why website conversion rates are a key metric.
- Content marketing builds visibility and credibility.
- Different advisors use social media to expand their reach.
- Why local SEO builds online visibility faster.
- Advisor marketing uses paid advertising campaigns.
- Investors increasingly prefer watching short videos.
- Email marketing should be an effective source of leads.
How a good marketing plan uses the power of the internet
Think of the web as a two-way street. Investors seeking screening, contacting prospective advisors, and contacting prospective advisors are finding each other on the Internet.
The internet gives investors access to unprecedented amounts of information about financial advisors. 82% of investors will visit advisor websites to learn more about them. 64% will Google search their names to obtain additional information.
Not too long ago, investors had to talk to prospective advisors to learn more about them. The web has been a game changer. Plus, investors are anonymous until they want to be contacted by advisors.
Financial advisors use digital marketing strategies
When investors use search engines to find, screen, and contact potential advisors, it makes sense that they use search engines and other avenues to reach investors.
The top five digital marketing strategies include:
- Competitive websites that keep investors engaged
- SEO* and SEM** to build online visibility and credibility
- Traffic to competitive, user-friendly websites
- Websites that convert more visitors into qualified leads
- Technology that interacts with visitors and tracks activity
- *SEO: Search Engine Optimization
- **SEM: Search Engine Marketing
Advisor marketing relies on visibility and traffic
Great websites do not produce their own traffic unless investors already know their names and enter their URLs in the search engines.
Advisors need online visibility for the keywords that drive the right types of traffic to their websites.
The right types of traffic include the ideal types of clients that would benefit from the advisor in question’s services.
Why website conversion rates are a key metric
Think of the time and expense to get visitors to your website. Then they exit their website without contacting you. They will move on to another advisor’s website on their list.
A website converts a consistent percentage of visitors into qualified leads (1.5% to 3.0%). The online process can screen investors for advisors. These are industry averages. Your experience could be better or worse.
So, websites are more than just delivery systems for basic information about potential advisors. That is the role of sales brochures and not websites.
Content marketing builds visibility and credibility
Who writes articles about financial topics? Experts write articles. The more content you publish online, the easier it is to market yourself as a credible expert.
Investors can find your articles on your website or by Google searching your name or a topic. Either way, you are a published author who is an expert in your field.
Financial advisors use social media to expand reach
Social media is a powerful marketing tool for financial advisors. It is a way to leverage the content they use to build credibility, reach influencers, increase brand awareness, and target various markets for the services.
For example, 62% of financial professionals say they have won new clients using LinkedIn and other social media channels.
Why local SEO builds online visibility faster
It is easier to rank locally than it is to rank on the broad scope of the world wide web. That is because investors enter geo-specific keywords in the search engines to find local advisors:
- Find a financial advisor near me
- Find a financial advisor in Dallas
Consequently, there is less competition when investors use geo-specific search terms.
Local SEO is one of several Search Engine Optimization strategies that improve the visibility of advisors in local search results that Google produces.
Financial advisor marketing uses paid advertising campaigns
SEO takes time to build the online visibility that fee only financial advisors need to produce website traffic. SEM (Search Engine Marketing or Paid Advertising Campaigns) is much faster because advisors buy their visibility.
Both marketing strategies benefit from the keywords investors input into the search engines.
Google Ads is an example of online advertising. It is the most popular form of SEM. Facebook ads are also an increasingly popular advertising alternative. These ads offer another unique feature. They appear at the top of the page for increased visibility.
Investors increasingly prefer watching short videos
You must admit reading page after page of website text is tedious, boring, and time-consuming.
The tedious nature of reading content is exacerbated when investors are visiting the websites of multiple fee-only advisors. At some point, their eyes start to glaze over.
The alternative is short (30-60 second) videos that:
- Communicate key features and benefits
- Describe differentiating characteristics
- Provide insights into the cultures and styles of firms
- Are a superior way to communicate firm information
The bonus is Google likes videos, which can increase the online visibility of advisors. Increased visibility means increased website traffic, and increased traffic means more leads.
Email marketing should be an effective source of leads
Every fee-only advisor has a drip marketing system that produces emails for the names on the list. This marketing strategy is designed to keep the advisor’s name in front of the lead, so they are included when the investor is ready to start interviewing prospective advisors.
No one knows when investors on drip lists will start interviewing financial advisors. It could be a month or a year.
Due to this unknown timeline, most advisors do not take this form of digital marketing too seriously. Once a month, they send out a generic newsletter or whitepaper and expect nothing in return.
It pays to build an email marketing system that targets the specific financial interests of the leads on the list. Then make sure your email marketing system can send relevant content to that lead.
