When many of us think of marketing, we imagine television and radio spots, magazine advertisements, and billboards. You might think of cold-calling, asking for referrals, and attending trade shows to connect with new clients. But there’s a whole other world of marketing just waiting to be tapped.
Digital marketing can help transform your business. Read on to discover some of the best digital marketing strategies you should be using to grow your financial advisor business.
1. Create SMART Goals
When you get ready to launch a digital marketing strategy, the first thing you need to do is set goals. These will help guide you during your marketing efforts and let you know what’s working for you and what isn’t. Without goals, you won’t know how to change your marketing plan or whether your efforts are really paying off.
You may want to focus on setting SMART goals – goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. This means that rather than saying you want to increase your client base, you say you want to increase your number of clients by 20 percent over the next two years. These goals should be relevant to your overall business aims and should be realistic things you can achieve.
2. Focus on Your Branding
Once you have your goals in place, you need to turn your focus to getting your branding down solid. Branding is a way to subtly let your customers know who they’re working with and what sort of business you are. For instance, any time we see a red background with gold letters on it, our minds go to McDonald’s, even if we don’t have any other information.
Work with a branding expert to create a strong brand for your company. This should include a logo, fonts, color schemes, and some basic overall design elements. You may also want to develop an overall writing tone, specific design layouts, and company culture guidelines as part of your branding efforts.
3. Build a Strong Website
After you get your branding pinned down, you need to turn your attention to building a strong website. Your website will be the centerpiece of all your digital marketing efforts. Everything else you do should drive customers back to your website, where your sales funnel can really kick into gear.
You need to make sure your website is both beautiful and functional. It should reflect the branding you just worked so hard to create, incorporating your colors and the fonts you picked out to create a beautiful, pleasant browsing experience. But your website should also be easy to navigate and quick to load, so customers don’t waste valuable time trying to get the information they need.
4. Focus on Mobile Optimization
When you’re building your website, you need to make sure that it’s optimized for use on mobile devices. As of last year, mobile traffic accounts for more than 50 percent of all web traffic. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, customers won’t spend very much time there before finding another financial advisor.
Most web hosting platforms, including WordPress and Squarespace, automatically optimize their sites for mobile accessibility. This means having dynamic layouts that can shift based on the size of the device your customer is using. You also need to have easy-to-click links and mobile-optimized menus that are simple to navigate.
5. Improve Your SEO
The other thing you need to focus on when you’re building your website is search engine optimization. As of this writing, there are more than 1.8 billion websites online, and that number is always on the rise. Search engine optimization can help you stand out from the crowd and get your site in front of potentially interested customers.
Find keywords related to your industry that receive a high volume of search traffic, and use those throughout your site—link to a reputable non-competitor site to build your reputation as a quality business. And focus on keeping your text readable, with short paragraphs and easy-to-read sentences.
6. Create Quality Content
Once your website is live, it will be time for you to start creating quality content for your customers. In today’s ad-filled world, customers don’t want to feel that the only thing they’re getting from you is a sales pitch. They want to feel like you have real value to offer them beyond the benefits of your financial advisor.
Take a look at your target customer, and think about what sort of content will be useful and appealing to them. Showing off your expertise in your industry can also help to build trust in your brand so customers will feel their money is in good hands. Include a CTA at the end of this content, but don’t make the entire thing a sales pitch.
7. Write a Blog
One of the best ways to create quality content for your customers is to start a blog. For one thing, you can use your blog as the centerpiece of your social media posts and email newsletters. You can pull content from and link to your blog in these posts, driving traffic back to your site.
Write posts about the best financial advice from your industry. You can also talk about the most common mistakes you see or how to handle different financial situations. Focus on educating your potential customers and providing them with content to keep them coming back to your website for more.
8. Use Social Media
Social media is one of the best tools any marketer has at their disposal. Nearly 70 percent of American adults have a Facebook account, and another 37 percent have an Instagram account. You’re going to be hard-pressed to find any other single site that has that large a portion of your customer base.
Ensure your company has active social media profiles on all relevant platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and even Pinterest. Post links to your blog, highlight different financial advisors each week and share relevant articles from non-competitor pages. Also, make sure to engage with your clients on social media – respond to their comments, message back promptly, and let them know you’re there for whatever they need.
9. Start Email Marketing
Email marketing is another fantastic option to have in your digital marketing toolbox. With social media marketing and other such approaches, you’re throwing messages out into the void, hoping they connect with customers. But email allows you to speak directly to current and future clients who already have an interest in what you have to say.
Send out newsletters about once a week with updates about what’s going on in your business. Include links to the latest blog post and some subscriber-exclusive advice tidbits. While you can email more than once a week, make sure you don’t start sending out so many emails that they become junk mail for your subscribers.
10. Invest in Podcasts
You might be surprised to learn that marketing through podcasts is another one of the most effective methods you have available to you. About 144 million Americans listen to podcasts – more than half of the United States population over age 12. Like social media, this platform represents an opportunity to speak to an enormous segment of your target market.
Consider starting a podcast giving listeners advice from the front lines of the financial world. Discuss timely topics such as the post-election economy, the pandemic, holiday financing, and New Year’s resolutions. If you don’t want to start a podcast of your own, consider buying an ad spot on a podcast that’s popular with your target demographics.
11. Host Virtual Events
There are few better ways to win over new clients than talking to them face-to-face about the challenges they face every day. But with our worldwide networks expanding and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person networking may not be possible. Instead, focus on hosting virtual events for your clients and leads.
Host Q&A sessions on your social media pages where you answer clients’ biggest financial questions. Have a client party where people get together on Zoom for finance chat and giveaways. Don’t be afraid to get creative with new ways to engage your customers on a more personal basis.
Discover More Great Marketing Strategies
Digital marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach your customers in our technology golden age. Ensure you have a strong website with good branding and use your blog and email newsletters to direct clients back to that site. Also, use viral marketing platforms like social media and podcasts to reach a broader segment of your customer base.
If you’d like to discover more great marketing strategies, check out the rest of our site at Stephen Oliver’s Advisor Wealth Mastery. We can help you get your business off its plateau and onto the next level. Contact us today and start creating the business you deserve.
