Professionals, who work in finance often find themselves wondering: “Is digital marketing important for financial advisors?” In short, the answer is a resounding “Yes!” The most successful financial advisors invest their time, effort, and money into a combination of inbound marketing, outbound marketing, and in-person networking.
If your financial advisory firm is exclusively focused on traditional outbound advertising or has only dabbled in digital marketing, it is time to make a change. Digital marketing is essential to your financial advisory firm’s success. Here’s an in-depth look at why inbound marketing for financial advisors has become increasingly important.
Recognize the Societal Shift Toward Digital Marketing for Financial Advisors
Social interactions are at an all-time low while screen use is at an all-time high. People are using the internet and playing video games more frequently. Furthermore, people are listening to the radio and watching TV less frequently. This means it is no longer in your interest to advertise your financial advisory firm on the radio or TV.
Instead, it is better to spend your marketing dollars on inbound marketing through digital advertising. This is not to say you should shell out money for banner ads shown on the internet. Rather, it is in your interest to invest in search engine optimization (SEO) and other forms of inbound marketing that connect you to those who proactively use the internet to find financial advisors in their communities and research advisors before they contact them for interviews.
Inbound Marketing Connects Your Financial Advisory Firm to Valuable Prospects
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could squarely focus your attention on individuals who show an interest in your financial advisory firm’s services? Opt for inbound marketing instead of conventional advertising and you will do just that. An inbound marketing campaign highlighted by SEO, social media, blogging, email marketing, and pay-per-click ads connects your firm to people who take the initiative to learn more about your industry, niche, firm, and specific services.
These are the coveted clients your financial advisory firm needs to bring into the fold to grow your client base without spending an extraordinary sum of money on outbound advertising.
Communicate With Your Unique Voice Through an Informative Blog
Blogging is an essential component of digital marketing for financial advisors. Financial advisors should think of blogs as a covert means of inbound marketing that provides an opportunity to establish legitimacy and steer online visitors toward the company’s value offering.
Demonstrate your expertise through your blog, use this platform to put your unique voice on display and you will develop an exceptional level of rapport with your target clients. An added bonus is the fact that a blog including specific keywords, key phrases, and local information will steer that much more traffic your way from interested local investors.
Social Media is a Key Component of Your Inbound Marketing Strategy
Do not make the mistake of overlooking social media as a virtual space where people congregate to gossip and share pictures! Social media is a vitally important inbound marketing channel for your financial advisory firm. In fact, some digital marketing experts insist Facebook will soon be used more for conducting business than socializing with friends, family, and co-workers in a digital manner.
If your financial advisory firm is not yet on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, the time to join is now. Update your status, post links to your blog entries, add short videos, and provide your audience with a steady stream of information about your industry, local area, and your company’s unique niche. Be sure to comment on posts related to your business, address questions and concerns, and continue interacting with your audience on these web-based social platforms.
It might even make sense to pay for ads on Facebook and other social media platforms. Crunch the numbers and you will find Facebook ads provide a superior return on investment compared to most other forms of digital advertising.
Enhance Your Website
Your website represents your firm. If your homepage does not captivate your audience within the first 10 seconds of their visit, make changes. Furthermore, your homepage should load within 2.8 seconds or less on all mobile and non-mobile devices.
Do not force your audience to search for important information on your homepage! If your homepage is not polished, easy to navigate, and clear in all regards, invest some time improving it until you are sure online visitors will be satisfied with the user experience. Ideally, your homepage will be enticing to the point that visitors are happy to invest the next 2-3 minutes learning more about your financial advisory firm’s value offering.
Take Full Advantage of Email
Your website should have a signup form for your email newsletter. If this form does not generate many signups, consider offering something of value for free to entice people to add their email address and name to your email newsletter contact list. Whether your free offering is an e-book, a small discount on your services, access to an informative webinar, or something else, such positive reinforcement really will convince online visitors to sign up for your email list.
Follow through by sending helpful emails that provide insight into your industry, your financial advisory firm’s niche, and your services. Your email newsletter can touch on your latest services, local events, industry events, your firm’s involvement with local charities, recent additions to your team, and other relevant information.
Add Video to Your Marketing Content
Just because you are shifting your marketing away from TV toward the internet does not mean you have to completely abandon video. Embed video into your blog posts, social media posts, website, and other components of your online footprint to make your content that much more engaging. This way, prospective clients who are not interested in reading the written word can simply click “play” on your videos to learn more about the merits of your financial advisory firm’s value offering.
Your videos do not have to be long. Keep the content under a couple of minutes, get right to the point and you will have successfully engaged your target audience, possibly creating a lasting impression that converts prospects into paying clients.
