Advisers need a coordinated digital strategy if they want to
stand out from the competition
As
financial advisers make their way back to work in the New Year, and a new
decade, one resolution many may have is to improve marketing efforts to
jumpstart growth.
Digital marketing is still the name of the
game, but simply having a
website and social media accounts just won’t cut it in 2020. If advisers want
to stand out, they need to have a coordinated strategy across multiple media,
including email, social and even video or podcasts.
InvestmentNews reached out to several marketing experts as well as some
advisers who have found success with digital marketing to gather some helpful
tips for firms looking to expand their digital
footprints in 2020.
Most
important is still the firm’s website, which remains a sort of base of
operations for any digital strategy. But in 2020, it’s not enough to simply buy
a domain name and throw up some text with your name, address and phone numbers.
“Consumers
are expecting an Amazon or Spotify-like experience,” said Bill Finnegan,
managing director of financial services marketing at technology firm Seismic.
“Advisers, and the organizations they represent, need to be willing to make the
investment in delivering this experience.”
For
example, Victor Gaxiola, co-founder and head of marketing for TechGirl
Financial, a hybrid firm affiliated with Cambridge Investment Research, said
his firm has a responsive website to account for retail investors visiting from
mobile devices.
Mr.
Gaxiola also employs a search-engine optimization strategy to ensure every page
of the website has data and keywords that increase its visibility on Google and
works with a web developer to stay up to date on the latest updates to the
search engine’s algorithm.
Advisers
also should consider how SEO can help differentiate the firm, said Michael
Nollman, director of digital marketing at LifeYield. He recommends advisers
create a longer, more comprehensive “pillar page” that ties together content
from across the page on a specific topic.
“This
will help you attract the right audience with a message that resonates with
them, rather than trying to engage the masses,” Mr. Nollman said.
Where
a lot of advisers fall short is the value they provide to retail investors who
visit their website, said Jud Mackrill, chief marketing officer at Carson
Group. Mr. Mackrill recommends advisers study digital startups like Betterment
and Wealthfront, which allows users to complete a digital form and receive some
basic financial recommendations before they even create an account.
“That’s
a great start, and advisers need to have something like that today,” he said.
For example, Carson Group recently rolled out a Secure Act calculator to its
advisers’ websites to provide more value to prospects.
Advisers
also need to start thinking about how content on their website works with voice
searches, said Johnny Sandquist, CEO of Three Crowns Copywriting and Marketing.
Rather than typing in single words, people tend to phrase voice searches in the
form of questions. If advisers want their websites to turn up on a Siri or
Alexa search, they need content that answers specific questions an investor
might ask, Mr. Sandquist said.
Though
social media got all the attention in the last decade, email isn’t dead. For
marketing, email can still be the best channel for advisers, Mr. Nollman said.
He
recommends advisers keep subject lines brief, use short and easily digestible
sentences in the email body, and always include a call to action.
As
for social media, too many advisers still just spam feeds with links, Mr.
Mackrill said. Social media instead should be viewed as a platform to cultivate
a personal brand and demonstrate the firm’s personality.
“I
hope for this next year, that we stop creating noise and start creating
something worthwhile … start having a personality,” Mr. Mackrill said.
Mr.
Sandquist added that he is bullish on advisers using video for marketing, even
though very few advisers currently do so. Production values don’t have to be
high; anyone with an iPhone can record something authentic and relatable to put
in an email or social media post.
“Video
is the number one way for an adviser to build trust with a prospective client,”
Mr. Sandquist said. “For the same reason that we feel like we know our favorite
actors, video gives people a chance to feel like they know the adviser’s
personality before they ever meet.”
Videos
should be clear and concise with a predetermined goal in mind, such as getting
a prospect to book a call after the video, Mr. Nollman said. Because
smartphones make it so easy to record a video, advisers should consider
personalizing them for each message.
“Simply
mentioning someone’s name can go a long way,” Mr. Nollman said.
But
none of this will matter unless advisers have a clearly defined marketing
strategy to tie everything together, said April Rudin, founder and CEO of
consulting firm The Rudin Group. Too many advisers think just recording a video
or having a social media account is enough.
“It
is not the sum total of doing or using these platforms but having a strategy
about who your target client is and what you offer that can solve their pain
points,” Ms. Rudin said.
https://www.investmentnews.com/adviser-digital-marketing-campaigns-2020-175990
No comments:
Post a Comment