The world of personal finance is changing. While the fundamentals of budgeting and savings remain the same, the tools and platforms through which we seek and obtain financial advice have changed dramatically.
In the past, when we wanted to work with an investment professional, we would seek out a stockbroker or bank branch and meet with a financial advisor in person.
Now, we have online marketplaces that allow for direct access to high-quality professionals who can provide expert advice online, at our fingertips.
If you’re looking to enter this market, how can you gain the trust of potential clients? What will make you stand out among the many financial advisors online?
In this article, we will discuss how to market your financial advisory business online. We’ll cover everything from SEO to social media marketing, as well as tips on how to build a brand for your new venture.
Create Quality Content
In today’s digital world, content is king. Search engines, social media, and email marketing all play a crucial role in getting your content in front of the right audience. And that audience should match your target market.
If you’re just starting out, your main priority should be to create content that is as good as, if not better than, the content your competitors are producing.
To get started, simply use Google Search, which will take you to the ‘organic’ results of search engines such as Google and Bing. Now, you don’t have to follow the advice of seasoned entrepreneurs who say things like ‘create something that everyone needs’ or ‘make something trendy’ – instead, you can use your own expertise to come up with a list of topics that interest you.
Once you have your list, begin writing to provide value to your audience. The better your content is, the more likely your target audience will be to click-through to your website or social media channels. If your initial investment is in creating high-quality content, you’ll be able to spend more time developing your business and less time struggling to gain online popularity.
Optimize Your Website For Search Engines
In the past, users would come to your website, read the content, and perhaps leave with a phone number or email address to get more information. Now, they’re often searching for specific types of financial advice online and scrolling through content to find what they’re looking for.
When it comes to SEO (Search Engine Optimization), or improving your website’s ranking on search engines like Google, it’s important to keep your target audience in mind. After all, if you want to make sure that your website pops up when someone searches for a specific term, it’s best to build the page around that content.
There are several areas that you can optimize to gain a better ranking on search engines. From the name of your website to the copy on your pages, you can use the tools of a reputable SEO company to get your page listed on major search engines for terms associated with your niche.
The better your SEO, the more likely your target audience will discover your site when they’re searching for related content – even if your site isn’t the most popular one in your industry. As SEO becomes more complicated, it’s important to work with someone who is an expert in the field.
Use Social Media To Build A Connected Audience
If you’ve ever run a social media campaign, then you know the importance of creating engaging content that will keep your followers interested.
To get started, create content that is valuable and interesting to your audience. If you can become a known personality in your industry, you’ll be able to use social media to connect with potential clients. Plus, being active on social media will further establish your expertise and trustworthiness as a marketer.
For example, if you’re an investment advisor, you might want to take part in the #Askanadvisor campaign on Twitter. Responses to this question are often curated into short videos that give viewers an inside look at the process of finding and engaging with financial advisors online. In these videos, you’ll typically see the question asked, followed by a rapid-fire series of replies from different financial advisors.
While many advisors will answer questions, it’s important to note that a lot of the content here is likely to be automated and done in bulk. So, while you might get a quick response from a marketing team, that content won’t all be relevant to your target audience – unless you decide to run a series on your blog covering similar topics.
Use Email Marketing To Keep In Touch With Your Audience
Once you’ve established a small audience on your website or social media platforms, you can use email marketing to stay in touch with them, provide value, and invite them to take further action – like subscribing to your newsletter or buying a product that you think they’ll find interesting.
To get started, create a small group of email templates that you can use over and over again. Whether you’re providing information about your upcoming events, latest research findings, or just some general advice, the better your content is, the more likely you’ll be to gain new subscribers.
You can also use a tool like Mailchimp to easily create and send out personalized emails based on subscribers’ interests. Through this tool, you can collect emails from your website visitors, build a database, and segment these email lists based on interests. You can use the resulting segmented lists to create targeted emails encouraging your audience to take action.
Build SEO-friendly Links
If you want to make sure that your site pops up when someone searches for a specific term, it’s important to establish web pages with relevant content. But, if you want to improve your website’s SEO, you have to consider other factors as well.
In this case, you’ll want to build links to your website from other websites that are relevant to your niche. For example, if you’re an investment advisor, you might want to create links to relevant articles, funds, or events from other investment-focused websites.
To get started, use a reputable link building service like Ahrefs or Google’s inbound marketing platform to establish backlinks – or ‘nodes’ – to your site. These are the links that will help your website’s SEO.
Monitor All Engagement Efforts
To increase your site’s visibility on search engines, you’ll need to constantly monitor all of the activity that is happening on and off your site. From social media to forums to blogs, keep track of everything that is being said about your brand, and respond appropriately. If someone posts something negative, engage with them to explain why you’re a better option or to ask for their feedback to improve your services.
A good place to start is Google Analytics. With this platform, you can keep track of all of the activity that is occurring on your site – from the moment someone comes to your website to the point at which they take an action, like subscribing to your newsletter or buying a product from your shop.
Through this platform, you can also find out exactly which articles, videos, or other content is driving the most traffic to your site. By understanding these metrics and finding a way to improve them, you’ll be able to gain more traction as a business.