Marketing is an important aspect of running a successful financial advisory business. Without a well-thought-out strategy for marketing your financial advisory services, you might be treading water rather than pushing ahead with your business growth goals. Therefore, it is important to take the time to create an effective financial advisor marketing plan before you dive into marketing activities.
What’s a Financial Advisor Marketing Plan?
An advertising plan for financial advisors is a carefully documented plan for advertising and marketing your services to current clients and prospective clients. Thus, a clear-cut marketing strategy is crucial to your financial business development. Taking the time to create a plan for marketing makes it easier to;
- Identify and define your ideal customers or audience
- Figure out how to position your financial advisory business in the market
- Clarify your marketing message to ensure it’s reaching the intended audience
- Outline your marketing goals or objectives
- Estimate your expected return on investment (ROI) for your marketing activities
- Create a marketing budget
- Allocate your marketing efforts and time efficiently to generate desired results
It would be best if you did not continue to run your financial firm without drafting a detailed marketing plan. Remember, having a cohesive plan for your marketing activities makes sense to ensure you are not wasting resources on marketing techniques or strategies destined to fall.
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Strategy is King
Before implementing any marketing idea for a financial firm or financial advisory services, understand that business strategy is everything. If this shocks you, think of techniques as tools. For instance, a hammer is a powerful tool, but it’s useless to tighten lug nuts. So, tactics are meaningless unless you put them into the correct context and strategy.
That’s why most financial advisors who fail often focus on the tactics, blindly follow them, and implement them in every situation. So if you care more about trendy email marketing techniques instead of the big-picture marketing strategy, you are headed down the wrong path – and so is your overall bottom line.
Don’t get this twisted; tactics aren’t bad. But for any tactic to be effective, it must be combined with a strategy customized to reach your target market successfully.
This is where you should get creative. To launch a winning strategy, see your marketing tactics as chess pieces and strategy as the chessboard. You don’t beat an opponent by just playing one chess piece and pushing other pieces off the board. It would help if you had all your chess pieces and well-thought-out moves to win. A detailed financial advisor marketing plan works the same way.
Instead of swapping out a tactic to use a trendy one, incorporate new or more effective marketing techniques into your overall marketing strategy. This will make your financial advisor marketing plan more powerful. It would help if you didn’t eliminate a tactic that works or keep one that doesn’t. That means building a marketing strategy for financial services is an ongoing process. Build on it with new and more effective marketing techniques to strengthen your reach.
Sure, you can always add or replace tactics later. But it would be a disaster to focus on marketing your financial advisory business without a clear strategy. Because before deploying any marketing tactic, you must ensure you’re using it correctly. Once you create a strategy that aligns with your financial business model, implement it carefully.
Tips to Create a Financial Advisor Marketing Plan
Here are essential tips for creating a digital marketing plan for a financial advisory business.
1. Set your Digital Marketing Goals
Perhaps this doesn’t fit into the typical marketing advice you’ve been getting, but it’s one of the top pillars of a successful digital marketing strategy. Unless you have a target, your strategy is likely to be ineffective. I can’t stress this enough. Setting marketing goals makes all other elements of your financial advisor marketing ideas or plan fall into place.
You have probably wondered why some individuals seem to work so hard for little results. While others seem not to work as hard but appear to have everything they work for. The latter seems like they have a ‘magic touch.’ But the difference is goal setting. Goals or objectives are the foundation of any successful marketing strategy.
They influence your actions, directing you to take well-calculated actions, all intended to achieve a certain objective. Unless you have clearly-defined marketing goals, your financial advisor marketing ideas will remain wishful thinking.
It’s equally important to be smart about the objectives or goals of your financial business’s digital marketing plan. Your goals must be specific, measurable, achievable, fall within a realistic timeline, and relevant. Also, benchmark your marketing achievements to your competitors and ensure your digital marketing plan is more efficient. Keep the following key points when establishing your marketing goals;
- Improving sales conversion rate
- Increase in overall sales
- The percent of repeat client or return website users
- Natural or organic traffic volume of your official website
- Reduce bounce rates – the users landing on your site and leaving without completing the desired action.
2. Ensure your Website & Landing Pages look Professional
Please don’t create a crappy website for your financial firm. For most prospective clients and target audiences, your official website is the first impression they get of your financial advisory services. If you have the worst website (it takes forever to load, has poor graphics, irrelevant content, and isn’t optimized for Google), you are losing countless prospective clients.
I’m not saying our website is the most beautiful online platform in town. But the importance of a functional, optimized, easily navigable, and visually appealing website shouldn’t be underestimated. Unless you are an experienced website designer, it’s best to hire a reliable and highly experienced designer for your site.
If you already have a website for your financial advisor business, consider having an expert assess it and give you an honest opinion. Be sure to find a professional website designer with marketing knowledge of financial-related businesses. Sure, you will spend tens to hundreds of dollars, but the benefits of having a great website for your business outweigh these costs.
Generally, your official website or landing page serves as a ground zero to direct all your traffic. Similarly, adding compelling aspects to your website, like excellent content, is a great way to engage your audience. Just think about it; without a landing page or website, where will your target customers learn about your financial services?
3. Optimize and Leverage your Social Media Presence
If you think social media presence isn’t for financial advisors, financial planners, and financial analysts, I suppose you might be wrong. Social media is a straightforward, basic digital marketing tactic to get your name and financial services out there. And you need social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and other social networks.
If you want to market your financial services, you need to get on social media – where most people spend a significant portion of their time. Besides, your target audience expects to find you there. That means social media is more than a way to keep up with your old high school friends. It is a way to manage your business reputation, respond to your clients’ concerns, and offer educational information.
The dominance of social networks in digital marketing doesn’t mean you must be on Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, or whatever social media channels pop up tomorrow. So, which are the best social media platforms for financial advisors? Before you choose the specific social networks for your financial advisory business, there’s something you should know – Note every social media channel is ideal for your financial firm.
Instead, it would be best if you chose the channels most relevant to your business model and target audience. So, it’s not just being there. You must be active, connect with your target audience, and engage them. These marketing channels must be well-maintained, updated, and monitored. After all, pretending to be is the only thing worse than not being on social media.
It would help if you decided on the specific channels you want to use and familiarized yourself with how to use them. Get to know how your target audience talks. Are they conversational, encourage discussions, and appreciate query responses? Do they love short or long-form content? Before you start connecting and engaging your target audience on social media, try to learn as much about them as possible.
If you are already using social media and live video, give TikTok videos and Instagram Reels a try. Be careful with what you say, highlight your qualifications or credentials, and stress the importance of seeking professional financial advice. This is crucial if your target client base is Millennials and older Gen Z. Remember, there are many content creators spouting dubious or inaccurate financial advice.
4. Become a Thought Leader
Becoming a thought leader in the financial industry is easier said than done. But it’s a great way to market your financial services and grow your client base. Becoming a thought leader means being the knowledgeable person people can turn to for financial advice. Most importantly, you want to be there whenever your target audience searches for answers to their burning financial questions.
In addition to using your official website to market yourself as a thought leader, use social media. Use these channels to promote yourself and your expertise to get a foothold as a knowledgeable industry leader who provides valuable advice and insights.
You can also volunteer to speak at various financial events like conferences, even if these events are virtual. Remember, virtual events like webinars have a somewhat extended shelf life, thanks to social media channels like YouTube and TikTok. You can share your presentation on these platforms or post it on your official website after the event.
The point is; to get your name out there! In addition to attending events and sharing your expertise on various online platforms, host your own events. Get comfortable being on camera and host webinars focused on your financial specialties. Your target audience will trust and turn to you for financial guidance once they realize that you are a great leader in the financial industry.
5. Choose your Digital Marketing Tactics Carefully
According to WebFX, you must invest about 50% of your financial advisory marketing budget in digital marketing. Now that’s how important online marketing or search engine advertising has become in the financial services industry. Here are the main types of digital marketing or online marketing tactics you can use when creating a financial advisor marketing plan.
Website Marketing
Your business website must drive your digital marketing campaigns. As mentioned earlier, it’s the first impression of your financial firm and what you offer to your potential clients. Various studies have proven that online visitors get your financial firm’s first impression within a few seconds of landing on your business website.
Having a financial advisor website design will help keep users on your website longer, help your site rank better in local search results, and most importantly, convert prospective clients into high-paying clients. Financial advisors, therefore, must develop a digital marketing strategy with a clear digital vision. This is because you won’t get a second chance to create a great first impression.
Aesthetics may not be the only thing your finance firm needs in the competitive finance industry. But having an eye-catching website that uses functional designs, marketing tools, and delivers excellent content with a fluid user experience gives you a competitive edge. In addition to keeping you a step ahead of the competition, such a website can help you establish trust. Great content and insightful information will engage your target audience while driving conversations on various online channels.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) + Local SEO
An effective SEO strategy is crucial to a financial advisor marketing plan. SEO is a set of digital marketing tactics that makes your website appear higher in search results for keywords or search phrases relevant to your financial services. It makes your brand and official website visible on Google, Bing, and other search engines.
For instance, suppose you’re a financial advisor in Toronto, and an internet user searches for “financial advisors in Toronto or Ontario.” If you had optimized your content for this keyword, your website is likely to appear in the top results recommending you as a local firm or individual providing these services. Instead of paying for adverts, local SEO is a far more cost-effect marketing strategy to attract new clients.
Also, appearing among the top-ranking in Google searches can help boost your credibility and build trust among existing and prospective clients.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is a key part of any successful online marketing campaign for financial advisors. It includes email campaigns with updates, promotions, or special offers for clients. This marketing tactic compliments your entire digital marketing plan, including websites, blogs, and social media.
Note that email marketing campaigns are relatively easy to set up and manage, making them an effective way for financial advisors to generate leads. You can include a newsletter sign-up form on your website, blog, and social media pages, which will encourage visitors to subscribe to your mailing list. You’re free to send out emails to clients once they have signed up for your newsletters.
Not only that, but you can also remarket to clients who didn’t respond the first time. On average, spending one dollar for email marketing generates an ROI of $42, according to a HubSpot report. Here are some tips to make the most out of your email marketing campaigns
- Build your contact list (email list)– focus on getting high-quality leads.
- Make sure to create a personalized message for each customer.
- Do not SPAM.
Video Marketing
This forward-facing digital marketing strategy incorporates creative and engaging video content into your financial advisor marketing plan. You can use it to promote your financial planning services, financial advisor services, and more. Video marketing is also a great way to build customer rapport.
Remember, you can use video marketing as a channel to promote your client’s video testimonials, present tutorials, deliver informational content, or livestream events related to the financial sector. The following tips will help you develop a better video marketing plan for financial advisors.
- Use decent equipment, build a video marketing team, and acquire great video editing software.
- Tell your story
- Engage your audience by addressing their pain points to gain their trust
- Keep your videos short and simple
- Publish your video content on social media channels like YouTube and your website
- Track the performance of your videos – gain insightful information, re-evaluate, re-design, and execute a better plan
Content Marketing
An important aspect of a financial advisor marketing plan is content marketing. This digital marketing approach requires you to create and distribute valuable, relevant, and consistent content. This will help you attract and retain clients.
Instead of aggressively pitching your financial-related services to your clients, you can publish interactive and helpful content that addresses their burning questions. Whether you are a self-employed financial advisor, wealth management company, or insurance firm, you can create and execute effective content marketing campaigns. If done correctly, a content marketing strategy works well for financial advisors.
Remember, great content is essential when it comes to running an impactful digital marketing campaign for any financial advisor. Whether you prefer SEO, PPC, social media marketing, or email marketing, you require excellent content to retain existing customers and attract potential clients.
Social Media Marketing
Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are becoming increasingly important for financial advisors and other finance-related businesses looking to reach their audiences. To use social media marketing effectively, you need to:
- Post high-quality content on your social media profiles.
- Listen to what people are saying about you and engage with them.
- Create ads for promoting your products and services.
- Look at the metrics and performance of the marketing campaigns you’re running.
Social media marketing is not just one thing; different tools can help you deploy a successful plan. You can use social networking to complement other marketing efforts. Indeed, you can use social media accounts to promote your business, create links between your social media accounts and your website, include mentions of your social media accounts in your newsletter, and add videos from your social media accounts to your website.
Note that consistency is essential for any social media marketing campaign. If there are any inconsistencies in your content, or if you’re not posting consistently on multiple platforms, your clients might get confused and think less of your brand.
Get help from experts who know what they’re doing.
If you’re a financial company or an entrepreneur who doesn’t know where to start when it comes to financial services marketing, let us help you. We are experts who help companies and entrepreneurs create effective financial advisor marketing plans.
Contact JavaLogix to grow your business with successful advertising, marketing, and website designing services.
Are you ready to ignite your marketing strategy? Start with a complimentary brand audit to get a clear starting point and 90-day plan, or speak to sales at +1 613 800 6951.
