Marketing Strategies for Financial Advisers
People turn to the Internet for advice on everything, from dog training tips to personal finance. With access to unlimited information at their fingertips, people have become accustomed to finding instant answers. The challenge for businesses is to two-fold, to make sure people can find your business and to make sure your business can fulfill their needs efficiently. This requires a solid marketing strategy that delivers the right message to the right person at the right time.
Whether you’re an independent professional or part of a larger firm, this task can seem daunting. After all, there are a wide variety of options to choose from, including email, social media, mobile, and content on your website. With the right investment of time and resources, internet marketing can be the most effective way to generate new, profitable leads.
On this page, you’ll learn why you need to develop a marketing strategy for your business, what it takes to build a successful online marketing strategy, and an overview of some of the best marketing strategies for financial advisors.
Why do Financial Advisors need an Internet Marketing Strategy?
The end goals of your internet marketing strategy should be similar to any other marketing strategy: to generate more qualified leads, increase revenue and build your reputation. However, internet marketing and traditional media (like print, radio, or TV) operate in different ways.
Digital Marketing Costs
Most traditional marketing techniques come with a high fixed price, whether you want to place an ad in the local paper, mail a flyer, or rent a billboard. Online tactics like Google Adwords, or Facebook Advertising have variable cost models that fit your budget and growth goals.
Additionally, where traditional ad costs are based on the number of people who might respond, online ad costs are based on the number of people who want to know more and reach out. For example, pay-per-click advertising only results in a charge to you if someone clicks on your ad- not if they view it.
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Digital Marketing Targeting
The audiences for traditional advertising are broad, segmented only by location or by common interest. Direct mail audiences are more specific, but still based on assumed needs or interests. Online marketing is targeted only to people who have already shown an interest in your services, or who have found you as a result of an online search.
When someone needs anything the first place they turn to is the internet. They usually go to their phones, and search for whatever they need, when they need it. A solid internet marketing strategy can make your business be the first thing people see through a combination of various strategies like Google Adwords, or through an SEO (search engine optimization) strategy that puts your business in first position organically.
Branding for Financial Advisors
Word of mouth is important in getting new business. The value of a lead that has been recommended by a satisfied customer is worth its weight in gold, however sustaining a business on word of mouth alone is not plausible in this day and age. In order to gain enough business through word of mouth and hit the critical mass where your business can efficiently and competitively participate in the market is very difficult and only works if all your other competitors don’t advertise which is highly unlikely. Utilizing your website to build trust that a word of mouth referral is worth is key in growing your business.
How to Tell if your Investment is Working?
Spending money on advertising and marketing is an important investment for any business. Knowing how your investments are doing is instrumental in making sure you are spending your money wisely.
It’s hard to measure the effectiveness of traditional marketing campaigns. Even with marketing codes on brochures and newspaper ads, you can’t always find out which tactic generated the most leads. At best, you can put up a billboard and estimate how many people would look at it but it’s hard to put that into real dollars.
By contrast, you can get an accurate measure of how well every email, ad, or landing page performed. You can track how many people came to your website, how many people came from Facebook or from online ads, and you can see how many leads you generated from your website. With almost infinite ways to track how your marketing efforts are performing, it is important to know and define what your all your goals are.
What should Financial Advisors do Online to Promote Themselves?
Now that you understand why you need to market your business online, you have to figure out a way to do it - or rather, several ways. Using only one method will not generate the business you want, so you need to use a variety of tactics to catch the eyes of potential clients.
Some methods will demonstrate your expertise as a financial advisor, such as having email newsletters and blogs. This is a great way to show your leads how much you know about your profession, convincing them that you can be trusted. This should be a way to deliver valuable insights, not just to sell your products or services. By doing so, you build a credible online presence.
Advertising on search engines and social media plays a big part in drawing qualified people in. Internet marketing is more about pulling in prospects rather than pushing out messages like traditional media. If somebody sees your ads on search engines or social media, then they’re already shown an interest in what you have to offer.
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Having a website that provides great customer experience and is easily indexable is a highly coveted asset. Being able to show up on the first page organically on a search is extremely valuable position because people rarely ever look on the second page of search engines. With a website that provides value to a customer, that person will typically spend more time looking through the site and learning more about the business and ultimately become a lead. Also having interactive website elements like a financial calculator or an amortization calculator increase the likelihood of people converting.
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ACS Can Help You Market Your Financial Services Online
For today’s financial advisor, email marketing, social media marketing, and other internet marketing tactics are essential to growing your business. Prospective clients are busy, they often turn to the Internet for guidance on investing, saving, and other financial strategies. ACS can help you develop a strategy to find these clients, direct them to your website, and then turn them into leads.
Our specialists have experience in every aspect of digital marketing, from planning and execution to copywriting and design. As your Internet marketing partner, we’ll work with you to develop internet marketing strategies that highlight your expertise as a financial advisor, and we can stay on top of your efforts to make sure they’re meeting your goals and delivering the highest possible returns on investment.
To receive a free, completely customized, no-obligation quote on a marketing package for your business, reach out to us by phone or online today. We’d love to hear about your marketing goals and find out how we can help. Our experts are waiting for your call!