The next few years will present financial Advisors with the biggest opportunity to capture new assets. With the greatest wealth transfer closely looming on the horizon, these potential clients are increasingly seeking out Financial Advisors online. According to one study, 91% of Advisors agree that digital marketing has become increasingly key to win clients in recent years.
But adapting to that new marketing landscape is challenging: 91% of Advisors say developing a digital marketing strategy is difficult, while roughly 40% currently don’t use any technology as a source of lead generation.
Whether you are struggling to start using digital marketing or just want to refine your strategy, this article will help you navigate the digital marketing landscape – and use digital channels to win more high-value clients.
Expect to learn:
- The best digital marketing channels to win new clients
- The three key ingredients to a successful digital marketing strategy
- The average digital marketing budget for successful Advisors
Digital Marketing for Financial Advisors: Three Common Use Cases
1. Finding New Clients
The internet has become a vital way for clients to find an Advisor, particularly for younger high-net-worth individuals who are “digital natives”. But the beauty of digital marketing is there are many ways a prospect might find your business:
- Direct search: Prospects may actively search for an Advisor on social media or via a search engine. If your business appears and they are impressed with your website or social profile, they will reach out for a meeting. Note: even if someone has referred you as an Advisor, the first action the potential client will take will be to look you up online.
- Thought leadership: Investors often seek financial advice online, and Advisors that offer authoritative, high-value information and education will gain a strong following. When these prospects eventually look to hire an Advisor, you will be the go-to choice. Note: continue to add new educational content to your website like blog posts or market commentaries that will demonstrate your acumen.
- Digital referral: Advisors that build a strong enough following online may find they get “digital referrals”, where people on social media put them directly in contact with a friend or family member who needs an Advisor. Note: it is equally as important for you to share your thought leadership on social media channels where it can easily be shared with others.
2. Reputation Management
Digital marketing builds a “digital presence” for your business – which often functions like an online store front. Clients who come to you through referrals are likely to look your business up online before reaching out, as they will want to assess your:
- Mission and Purpose: Do you serve clients that look like them?
- Solutions Offered: What type of financial service solutions do you offer?
- Credentials: How long have you been in the business and what certifications and accolades do you have?
Inactivity (or worse, invisibility) online can make your business look less positive across all these dimensions – and therefore less attractive to a prospective client.
3. Nurturing Your Followers
Digital marketing is a great way to build, maintain and progress your relationships with potential clients. Traditionally, “lead nurture” (the process of staying in front of your prospects) was extremely expensive and time-consuming: could you really afford to stay in contact with 100 prospects without a dedicated marketing team? But with digital channels like social media and email, Advisors can easily generate and disseminate high-value content to a large list of followers or email contacts.
Four Key Digital Marketing Channels for Advisors
1. Content Marketing
From blogs and case studies to podcasts and YouTube videos, Advisors can use a wide range of digital content to build authority and garner the attention of their target audience. With more people than ever seeking financial advice online, there is a big audience for this content – and Advisors that provide real value will generate a high volume of leads.
Content marketing is the best channel for promoting your business’s services. It allows Advisors to:
- Build authority: You can produce a large body of information that clients refer back to – developing an image of your business as a trusted authority.
- Showcase success stories: You can explain important concepts or principles through hypothetical examples that you might use with your clients – subtly reminding your audience of the value your business offers.
2. Webinars
Webinars are online events that allow Advisors to speak on their chosen topic for an extended period. By promoting the events through paid ads, social media and content marketing, you can garner a large audience – and build a lot of authority in the process.
Webinars are the best channel to capture high-value clients, because they are perceived as a more valuable form of content and allow Advisors to:
- Promote their expertise: A webinar gives you the opportunity to go into greater detail than most blogs or social media posts will allow.
- Field questions: Including a Q&A section encourages attendees to engage with you directly, allowing you to offer tailored advice and demonstrate the value you could offer to each prospect individually.
3. Social Media
According to a recent survey, 37% of Advisors have obtained a prospect that became a client through social media. By posting regularly, building a large network and providing real value to a professional audience, Advisors who use LinkedIn and Facebook in particular are likely to gain significant traction.
Social media is the best digital channel to build relationships with prospective clients because it is:
- Personal: You can interact directly with individuals and show your personality.
- High-volume: Users spend several hours per week on social media, providing ample opportunity to connect.
4. Local SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of practices aimed at ensuring your website appears high in search rankings. This is essential because most people do not look beyond the first page of Google results – which means Advisory businesses that rank win the lion’s share of business.
SEO is particularly valuable for appealing to clients who live near to you. This is known as “Local Seo”. Many people rely on “localized” search, using terms such as “Financial Advisor near me” or “Financial Advisor in [City]”, and optimizing for these terms offers a few benefits:
- Lower competition: While trying to rank for terms like “Financial Advisor” is virtually impossible for most Advisors, there will be a much smaller number of Advisors looking to rank for your specific location.
- Clearer keywords: SEO marketers target specific “keywords” and try to optimize their website copy to include those terms. A focus on local SEO means you have a smaller number of keywords to focus on – and can give them greater emphasis on your website.
How to Build a Digital Marketing Strategy
A strong digital marketing strategy must establish three things:
1. Your Target Audience
Given the number of digital channels and the sheer volume of content online, Advisors must narrow their aim toward a highly specific set of prospects. This will help you:
- Choose your channels: Your audience will have preferred channels, and knowing what they are will help you focus your budget where it will have real impact.
- Improve conversions: Targeting your marketing toward a specific audience will avoid wasting a lot of time and money engaging with people who were never going to use your service.
2. Your Marketing Budget
There is no real limit to how much you could spend on digital marketing – which means you need to have a clear budget. This should not just establish how much you are willing to spend, but also how much you expect to generate in return. As a rule of thumb, most successful Advisors spend approximately 5% of their annual revenue on marketing tactics.
3. How You Will Manage Marketing
From producing content to managing your social media accounts, digital marketing could take up a lot of time. That’s why it’s important to have a clear plan for both the daily management and monthly planning of your campaigns – to ensure you can deliver results without overwhelming your resources.
Make Your Resources Go Further with RFG Advisory
Digital marketing should be a means to build your business – not create headaches or holes in your budget. That’s why RFG Advisory offers every Advisor who partners with us end-to-end marketing support, including intentional marketing strategies, tools, and content.
Our goal is to help grow our Advisors’ business organically, ultimately building their enterprise value. Our multi-channel digital marketing and communications platform, combined with an RFG-provided annual marketing budget, enables Advisors to achieve an impressive 19% annual organic growth rate—three times the industry average.
We specialize in helping our partner Advisors create their brands, develop insightful marketing strategies and bring their visions to life. We’ve seen time and time again that these tools do fuel growth. Our partner Advisors have leveraged their expertise combined with carefully crafted marketing tools to establish thriving, growing practices.
Want to learn how we could help you win the digital marketing race?