What if your most powerful marketing tool was already on your phone?
For financial advisors, Facebook represents an unprecedented opportunity to market your business. Of course, some social media marketing strategies will be more successful than others.
How can you know which strategies will work and which ones won’t? Keep reading to discover our complete list of Facebook marketing tips!
1. Efficient Ads
You may be relatively new to marketing via social media. However, one of our best Facebook marketing tips is something you might already be doing with your content writing: keeping things short and efficient.
The modern consumer expects content they can quickly “skim.” This is why landing pages and blogs are often filled with many headers and short paragraphs that they can easily scroll through, especially when browsing via mobile phone.
Your Facebook ads need to bring this same “short and to the point” energy. And that means there are two primary things to focus on: an interesting “hook” and plain language.
When customers are using Facebook, they are accustomed to quickly scrolling through their feed. That means your ad must be something that convinces them to stop scrolling and read everything. You don’t have to overthink a good hook: just ask yourself, is the first line or two something that would make you stop scrolling?
The second consideration is using plain and simple language. You are a trained financial advisor but your potential clients are not. Use direct language (no financial jargon!) to explain the value proposition of your services (more on this later).
2. You Must “Click” Before They Click
Want to hear the biggest rookie mistake that financial advisors make with Facebook? Here it is: they think Facebook will become the primary way they grow their business.
It’s true that some clients (maybe even many clients) will discover your business via Facebook marketing. But one of the big goals of social media marketing is to cultivate your biggest fans and turn them into online brand ambassadors. And that usually works best by capitalizing on existing relationships.
For example, you should encourage your existing clients to “like” and follow your page. From there, they can like, comment on, and share different posts to help advertise your business.
Generally speaking, it is easier to get your existing clients to join your online community than virtual strangers. And as your online following grows, you’ll ultimately have an easier time finding new clients online. This is because the enthusiasm and testimonials of your previous clients help create “social proof” about the quality of your financial advice.
3. Crafting Unique Content for Specific Audiences
Most financial advisors cater to customers of all stripes. But when it comes to your Facebook advertisements and content, you won’t see the best results until you are crafting unique content for very specific audiences.
Let’s say, for example, you want to reach clients who will retire soon (within the next five to ten years). One of the best ways to reach this specific audience is to craft posts and advertisements that speak to their unique concerns.
You might focus on things like Social Security, retirement taxes, and retirement health insurance options. This demographic is also interested in what to do with their 401(k) and how to budget for the world travel they always wanted to do before now.
Keep in mind that you can treat Facebook marketing like any other form of marketing. If you have properly segmented your client base, you can create different social media marketing campaigns focus on different groups. This can help maximize the number of people you reach and ultimately boost your brand.
4. Matching Keywords and Audiences
It’s one thing to get a customer’s attention with a good hook and efficient writing. But it’s another thing to make sure the Facebook algorithm puts that advertisement in front of them. That’s why you need to match the right audiences to the right keywords.
This can be as simple as using keywords and hashtags focused on unique customer concerns (like #retirement will naturally garner interest from customers close to retirement). If you want to make things a bit easier for yourself, you can always re-use some (or even most) of the keywords that you use on your website.
Above all else, though, the keywords should feel like a natural extension of the rest of your post. If you awkwardly jam too many keywords into any given post, it will feel forced and unnatural to the customer. Ultimately, that kind of keyword stuffing defeats the point of creating plain and simple language for your posts.
5. Lean Into Your Niche
There are some financial advisors that are true “generalists.” Most advisors, though, eventually focus on a particular niche or two in order to set their business apart. When it comes to Facebook marketing, we recommend that you lean into that niche as much as possible.
The reasoning behind this is simple enough: at the end of the day, your Facebook page and social media advertisements are another part of your sales funnel. Like any other business, you are trying to convert as many customers as you can.
If you try to appeal to just about everyone, you won’t get nearly as many conversions. And if you’re using paid Facebook ads, you’re effectively throwing money away if you don’t focus on a very specific niche.
Just be warned: customers will not instantly convert, even if you are focusing primarily on a particular niche. But your focus will help bring in the right customers who will ultimately move through your sales funnel that much more quickly.
6. Schedule Posts in Advance
Some of our Facebook marketing tips are simpler than others. For instance, one of the best things you can do is to schedule your posts in advance.
With personal Facebook accounts, most of us simply post something when the mood strikes. But that doesn’t work for your business page. Your followers and even your biggest fans expect content on a regular basis.
You could always set alarms and reminders to post on certain days and times. But Facebook lets you schedule posts up to one month in advance, allowing you to craft great posts ahead of time and schedule them whenever you want.
For best results, we recommend posting on the same days and times each week. Over time, you can see which posts are generating the most activity and change your posting schedule for the days and times with the most activity.
7. Discuss Your Value Proposition
Once again, you don’t have to necessarily reinvent the wheel when it comes to Facebook marketing. You can rely on some tried and true marketing techniques, including making your value proposition clear to the consumer.
The average client doesn’t know much about what a financial advisor does. Instead, they think in terms of problems and solutions. That means they have a finance-related problem and are looking for someone who can help solve it.
For example, you can integrate customer testimonials and basically showcase your major success stories. Prospective customers love to read posts that say things like, “We helped her retire five years early.” This shows that you have a proven track record of success and can help other customers achieve their desired goals.
8. Don’t Rush the Client
Earlier, we discussed one of the biggest “rookie mistakes” when it comes to Facebook marketing. Here is another mistake: trying to rush customers into decisions.
As we said, your social media marketing exists in large part to guide customers down the sales funnel and convert them. And this means prompting them with occasional calls to action. But a constant onslaught of CTAs in your posts can actually be a big turnoff for customers.
Many of your potential demographics don’t like constant CTAs because it is the online equivalent of dealing with a pushy salesman. In order to drive your CTAs and customer conversions, you need to focus on building relationships first.
Posts encouraging customer interaction (like opportunities for them to share stories or ask questions) are a great way to turn your Facebook page into an online community. And the loyalty of that community will boost your bottom line more than countless CTAs ever could.
9. Selectively Boost Posts
Facebook gives you the option to “boost” posts for an additional fee. This helps you garner more community interaction or get more customers to reach out to you. But this means you must ask a certain question about your posts: to boost or not to boost.
The best way to choose what to boost is to conduct your own social media analytics. When you discover the kinds of content that your chosen audiences like the most, you should boost those posts. This helps you reach existing customers and new customers alike, all while building a robust online brand for your business.
Facebook Marketing Tips: What’s Next?
Now you have our top Facebook marketing tips. But do you know who can take your Facebook marketing to the next level?
We specialize in helping financial advisors grow their business and boost their brand. To see what we can do to increase your online and offline success, contact us today!
