Financial Advisor Marketing Begins With Your Growth Objectives
- Do you have as many clients as you can handle and simply need to keep the calls coming or are you looking to grow your business?
- How many calls are you getting today from your website? What about your social media?
- What are your most profitable types of clients? Who would you like more of? How much is a new client worth to you? These are important to assess your marketing budget.
- Does your advisory business have a focus? Some focus areas will be determined by your certifications but you need a story for your go-to-market message about where you add the most value. Do you focus on business owners and their families, foreign investors, corporate workers, large businesses, funds or teachers? While you may focus on more than one segment, you will need a message that makes sense to each target persona and demonstrates that you understand their unique needs.
Financial Advisor Marketing Fundamentals
- We assume that you are networking, but do you take full advantage of the handfuls of business cards you collect or do they sit on your desk? A CRM system is a perfect tool to automate nurturing those leads. Send customized emails that look like you fired them off from your account personally. Ask for referrals and automate aspects of your new client onboarding. Did an initial consultation not close? Send an automated check in. Need to meet with clients on a monthly or quarterly basis? Invite them automatically.
- A Website That Converts: Your website needs to load in 2 seconds or less, look great on mobile and make it very obvious what you do and why you’re different from other financial planning or advisory firms. Since everything you write online is subject to regulatory review, work that into your go live timeline. However, don’t be tempted to use pre-approved, template content for your website since Google only gives SEO credit to the original creator. If you publish second, you lose SEO juice.
- Local SEO: Your firm needs to be on the map. This is accomplished by creating keyword rich listings in hundreds of online directories. It is one of the most cost effective and fastest ways to be found and should definitely be part of your strategy.
- A Newsletter & Blog: Find a way to regularly connect with your clients, prospects and referral partners by sharing a monthly newsletter with your blog excerpt, upcoming events, pictures of members of your firm in the community or with clients and tips. Remaining top of mind will help with professional referrals and being the firm a prospect will call when they have a financial planning or insurance need. This is where that canned content does make sense since taking the time to have monthly content reviewed may not be worth the effort. Being top of mind and making it as personal as possible without writing your own blog & tips is key. Use photos, talk about local events and weave in some of that canned content your broker dealer provides.
Next Level Financial Advisor Marketing
- Social Media Visibility: Do you have a LinkedIn profile? Does it have positive reviews and endorsements? Are you active daily on LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, Instagram & Twitter? As with the newsletter, this is a good place to make use of that canned content your broker provides but personalize your feed with event and community photos. This is also a good place to mention speaking events you offer (with pics of you speaking), explain what you do, share inspiring quotes, share articles on interesting financial leaders, your charitable work, show pictures of your kids as your “why” for financial planning, and questions people should be thinking about in their financial planning.
- Social Media Engagement: Visibility is the first step but you want to network online the same way you network at events. Join community online groups where your target personas reside, comment on posts, share and make connections. Out in the community? Share pictures!
- On Page SEO: This involves optimizing the load speed of your financial advisory firm’s website (like an untuned car it will slow down over time), making changes to the code to be more search engine friendly and optimizing your content for target legal keywords.
- Online Reviews: People really do care what others think, even when it comes to choosing a financial advisor or insurance agent. The more 5-star reviews you have on Facebook and Google and the more endorsements on LinkedIn, the more confident a client will be to work with you. Even if they find out about you elsewhere you can be certain they are checking you out online.
- Original Photos: On your website show professional photos of you working with clients. Visitors to your website or social media should get a feel for what it would be like to work with you.
- Adwords: Financial advisory and insurance are highly competitive. Adwords can be a significant investment when you’re up against deep pocketed corporations like Edward Jones and Merrill Lynch. If you decide to try your hand at Adwords, then highly niche long tail keywords will be the way to go. Be prepared to have your Ad copy cleared by your broker dealer also.