From a financial advisor marketing POV, it may help to hear from potential clients. In a Pollfish fielded survey conducted in 2020 among 2,000 American adults:
- 84% said personalized content was very important to them when working with a financial advisor
- 63% said insightful and educational content that was personalized would make an advisor’s marketing stand out among its competitors
- 42% said they started the process of finding an advisor with an online search
- 98% said a financial advisor’s website was important to them, while a third said that it was extremely important
- 37% said they were more likely to choose an advisor who is active on social media
As for millennials, it was reported in 2021 that 73% of people under 40 rely on a Google search to find an advisor.
With steadily increasing internet users, 2022 can be a game-changing year for financial advisors on the proverbial fence about funding a digital marketing strategy for their firms.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OUTBOUND, INBOUND, AND DIGITAL MARKETING?
Old outbound marketing tactics have produced diminishing returns for financial advisors for several years. Outbound requires advisors to initiate contact with investors, including investors who don’t want to be contacted.
Remember cold calling? One well-known wirehouse even stopped this obsolete business practice in 2021. All it did was alienate investors who did want to be contacted.
Since the early 2000s, the Internet has made inbound marketing possible for financial advisors with an online presence that makes them easy to find. Inbound means investors initiate contact with financial advisors when they need financial advice or information.
This inbound strategy drastically reduced the high rejection rates produced by outbound marketing tactics. How bad was the rejection? Hundreds of thousands of advisors left the industry for greener pastures. Major financial service firms had extraordinarily high employee turnover rates. New financial advisors contacted people they knew and then what?
They had to pickup the telephone and dial for dollars.
Why be concerned about the transition from outbound to inbound marketing tactics? Increasing numbers of investors use the Internet to find, research, and contact financial advisors for interviews. Will they find you? Will they like what they see? Will they contact you? Digital marketing can make this happen.
Is the Internet beginning to impact the marketing of financial services the way it has impacted other industries?
Fact: The answer is a resounding yes. The Internet has been a primary source of information for investors for decades. However, financial advisors are just beginning to figure out how to use the Internet to market their services.
Tip: It is not too late to begin using digital marketing tactics to market financial advisor services on the Internet. Financial advisors should commit a portion of their marketing budgets to build an online presence that produces traffic for custom lead generation websites that convert visitors into qualified prospects.
Why has it taken longer for the Internet to impact the marketing practices of financial advisors?
Fact: A powerful sales culture has dominated the financial service industry for 60 years. That is, 650,000 licensed and registered professionals selling the industry’s services and products.
Huge sales organizations have not dominated other industries the way they have financial services.
Changing the marketing tactics that an industry has depended on for decades is a monumental task. Consequently, these tactics still impact how financial advisors think and act despite producing diminishing returns.
The writing is on the wall. More and more investors will use the Internet to find all types of professionals, and they will use the Internet to learn more about them before they initiate contact with the firms that best meet their needs.
The Internet is the safe, free, easy way to find and research advisors.
Tip: Outbound marketing tactics will be less productive as increasing numbers of investors learn how to use the Internet to find and select the best financial advisors. They will respond less and less to unwanted solicitations.
It will damage lower-quality advisors as more investors learn to avoid them. Perhaps this explains the growth in the ranks of the fee-only RIAs who act in a fiduciary capacity.
Is the Internet more than just a source of new leads for financial advisors?
Fact: Another resounding yes. All financial advisors, who want to grow their businesses, expect their websites to be a consistent source of new leads for the professionals at their firms.
The production of leads may be at the top of every financial advisor’s list. But, that may not be the most important application. Investors also use the information on the Internet to learn more about particular financial advisors. This is important because their research determines who they connect with to schedule initial interviews.
There are numerous ways to find financial advisors. However, the Internet is the single best avenue to learn more about them while maintaining investor anonymity.
Tip: Keep in mind that the Internet can also be used to disseminate information while building credibility and trust. These features are critical because they impact lead generation more than finding advisors.
How has the Internet transferred power from financial advisors to investors in the past 25 years?
Fact: The most significant impact the Internet has had on the marketing of goods and services is quick, free, easy, confidential access to all kinds of information. You can thank Google and the other search engines for this phenomenon.
One type of information is unprecedented access to information about financial advisors and the professionals who work for them.
A couple of decades ago, the only way to learn more about financial advisors was to talk to them. This exposed investors to the strong sales cultures and tactics that generated new clients for financial industry firms.
Today, investors use Caller ID and spam filters to avoid these advisors. Why respond to unwanted solicitations when they can use the Internet to find, research, and contact financial service firms. And they can remain anonymous while they conduct their searches for advisors and information.
Tip: The Internet created the opportunity for financial advisors to stop using obsolete outbound marketing tactics and start using web-based inbound marketing tactics.
What is the difference? Advisors used outbound marketing to initiate contact with investors. Today, advisors use web-based inbound marketing tactics to get investors to contact them.
What is the hot tip that all financial advisors should embrace in 2022?
Fact: Digital marketing is not just for the more prominent firms with larger budgets for building online visibility, traffic, and high-performance websites that convert more visitors into leads. In fact, firms with smaller budgets can also compete for online visibility, website traffic, and qualified leads.
Tip: The longer financial advisors wait to develop and implement digital marketing strategies, the tougher it will be to produce meaningful results. They are giving their competitors more time to build stronger foundations.
Conclusions
Why is the Internet so powerful? It provides free, convenient access to vast amounts of information.
How does the Internet fit the way people make decisions?
- First, most people use the Internet to “find” what they are seeking.
- Next they use the Internet to “conduct research” to identify the best service providers and products.
- Then they “initiate contact” to learn more.
This frequently used process increases the odds investors will find higher quality advisors and avoid lower quality advisors.
At the same time, the Internet dilutes the impact of obsolete sales tactics that created potential risk for investors when they selected the best salesperson versus the best financial advisor. This is a positive for investors and a big negative for advisors who continue to rely on aggressive sales tactics to win new business.
THE INTERNET IS A GAME-CHANGER. ARE YOU READY TO BUILD AN ONLINE PRESENCE THAT PRODUCES RESULTS?
