An Expert’s Guide to Financial Advisor Marketing That Produces Results

Not too long ago, financial advisors relied on outbound marketing tactics to generate leads for their firms’ services and products. This was a way for firms to make professionals responsible for generating their own leads.

Fortunately, cold calling and other invasive sales tactics are largely gone due to new technologies like Caller ID and spam filters. Today the rejection rates by individual investors are so high outbound marketing is not a productive use of the advisors time. 

Can we say outbound marketing is dead? No, we can’t say that. However, even some of the major Wall Street wirehouses have abandoned these boiler room sales tactics due to their invasive nature, low productivity, and negative sales image.

When we talk to financial advisors about their current marketing strategies, more than 60% say their principal strategy is referrals from their current clients, friends and family, and Centers of Influence.

There is no question that referrals are a financial advisor’s best source of high-quality leads for the sale of financial advice and services. Based on the referral source, the person being referred has a predisposition that the financial advisor is credible, competent, and trustworthy based on the experience of the source. The more they trust the referral source the more likely they trust the financial advisor. This is a major competitive advantage that converts more prospects into revenue-generating clients.

The quality of the leads is not the real issue. The quantity of leads that are produced by referrals is the main issue. Many financial advisors are reluctant to be proactive and ask clients, friends, and family for referrals to people they know. Consequently, referrals are few and far between.

The result, most financial advisors say they receive a few referrals each year. Then they say they convert about 50% of them into revenue-producing clients – an excellent close ratio that reflects the quality of the leads. The problem is a few conversions (two to four per year) barely cover the losses that financial advisors experience each year due to terminations, deaths, and relocations.

This leads us to say referrals are not a viable strategy for long-term organic growth.

The Internet has been a game changer for several industries. It has changed how entire industries market their products and services to their customers and clients.

It would be foolish to assume the Internet will not impact the financial service industry. In fact, financial advisor marketing is the perfect application of Internet marketing (also known as digital marketing and inbound marketing) because it is based on an exchange of information.

The Internet gives investors vast amounts of information about financial professionals and the firms they work for. Our data shows that when investors seek financial advisors, 82% visit their websites, and 64% Google search for their names.

This is one of the key benefits of digital marketing for financial advisors. Investors are using the Internet to find, vet, and compare financial advisors to each other. In makes sense that financial advisors market their services on the Internet because that is where investors can find them. 

Does digital marketing work? This is how lead generation companies, like WiserAdvisor and SmartAsset, produce thousands of monthly leads that they sell to financial professionals and firms.

Back in the day, when outbound marketing was the dominant force, investors had to talk to financial advisors to learn more about their firms and the professionals who worked there. This opened the door to the aggressive sales tactics that financial advisors used to initiate contact with investors - for example, buy of list of names and start dialing for dollars.

If that wasn’t bad enough for investors, the financial advisors (professionals) controlled all of the information that investors relied on to select them and all of the information was verbal so there was no written record. And less than 5% of investors knew enough to check the FINRA database.

In modern times the Internet has made it possible for investors to find, research, compare, and contact financial advisors. What they see on the Internet impacts who they contact for interviews. And, most importantly, they are anonymous until they are ready to be contacted. This is an unprecedented amount of power for investors who use the information on the Internet to select financial advisors.

There is an old saying in the financial service industry: “That money moves on trust.” It makes perfect sense that investors select financial advisors that they believe are trustworthy experts. And trustworthiness can be based on transparency, credibility, consistency, and honesty.

The question is, how do financial advisors use the Internet to create enough trust that investors are willing to give up their anonymity and contact them?

The answer starts with the information that resides on the financial advisors’ websites. Do the sites deliver the information that investors are seeking? Is the key information transparent and easy to understand? Are the advisors’ websites competitive with other financial advisor websites? This is where

 comes into play. Financial advisors use content marketing, social media, and other tactics to build credibility and create the trust factor.

The financial advisors’ willingness to disclose information about their firm's credentials and business practices is paramount. For example, disclosing key information that describes how financial advisors are compensated for their advice and services. Very few financial advisors disclose their fee schedules. A much bigger percentage discloses the way they are compensated, but not how much. A significant percentage, who receive commissions, prefer to ignore the topic in its entirety.

Other information that is frequently missing includes:

• Documentation for key facts
• The name and background of the RIA if it isn’t the advisor
• Assets under management
• Average account size
• Minimum fee or asset requirement
• Potential conflicts of interest
•  The name and background of the custodian
• The impact of the fiduciary or suitability standard
• Potential affiliations
• Proprietary products (if applicable)

And lastly, what do investors see when they Google search the financial advisors’ names? Ideally, they will see substantial amounts of high-quality content that establish the advisors as credible financial experts and consistent sources of information they can trust.

This is the information investors must see before they are comfortable giving up their anonymity and contacting financial advisors. Find out how financial events should impact the digital marketing strategies of financial advisors.

Internet visibility is one of the primary keys to digital marketing success. The more visible your firm is online, the easier you are to find. The easier you are to find, the more visitors you generate for your website. The more visitors you have to your website, the more leads your website can produce for your marketing team.

The number one SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy for building Internet visibility is content marketing. 

The goal of financial advisor SEO is page one visibility for the keywords that investors use to find, screen, and compare financial advisors on the Internet: “find a financial advisor near me” or “do I have enough money to retire in 5 years”? Ideally, these keywords will lead them to articles that advisors have published online, and the articles lead them to the advisors’ websites, where they have the opportunity to convince investors to contact them.

Social media is an increasingly powerful tool that financial advisors can use to:

• Increase the visibility of their brands on the Internet 
• Expand the visibility of their content
• Build credibility and trust
• Interact directly with potential clients
• Build and expand networks
• Launch promotions, distribute information, and generate leads
• Become influencers

An essential part of this strategy is leveraging every piece of content published on your website and blog. The more you leverage your content, the greater your return on the time or digital marketing dollars you spend to produce the content. 

It makes sense that the more your content is seen, the more valuable it is for your firm. This is also true for engagement. Your target prospects must open and read your content to have real SEO (Search Engine Optimization) value. 

This makes a steady flow of high-quality content distributed in search engines and social media channels extremely valuable. You achieve maximum effectiveness when you have a consistent strategy to leverage the visibility of your content on the Internet.

The answer is Google. It has a built-in predisposition to connect buyers to local service providers. In fact, it has been reported that 24.7% of Google’s website ranking algorithm is based on local visibility. 

When it comes to financial advice and services, investors may also have the same predisposition – select a local service provider they can meet with face-to-face.

On the other hand, the disposition of investors has been evolving with financial advisor business practices, so virtual marketing and servicing are more acceptable to more investors. They continue to value communication, but it does not have to be face-to-face.  

It stands to reason, financial advisors should be prepared to offer prospects a choice. Let them choose the type of interaction they are most comfortable with. The more visible you are locally, the more important this choice will be. 

Keep in mind that visibility is your key to success as long as it generates traffic to your website that is converted into new leads.

Not every investor is using the Internet to find financial advisors right away. An even bigger number are seeking financial information that could include tips for selecting the best financial advisor. Every advisor should provide this information in the form of a free, gated eBook on their websites.

 Another aspect is investors who are collecting financial advisor information several months before they plan to start interviewing these firms. They may be in the midst of critical learning curves that will help them make the right financial advisor selection decisions.

These contacts will end up in your CRM or another system where you store names and contact information. Then you keep your name in front of them with monthly or bi-monthly emails that help you build credibility and trust.

Challenge #1 is making sure they include you in their interview processes. So that when they interview financial advisors they include you. In an ideal world your email marketing will also create a competitive advantage (transparency, credibility, trust) when investors start interviewing financial advisors.

What kind of CRM for financial advisors are you currently using?

SEM is Search Engine Marketing. SEM is also known as paid advertising campaigns. This online strategy uses advertising to build or supplement your online visibility for more competitive keywords. 

Instead of using SEO to build website visibility over time, you can buy your visibility more quickly. In fact, many financial advisors do both to accelerate their flow of leads.

Google and Facebook are two of the more popular advertising channels.

Think of the time and expense you have spent building your visibility on the Internet and producing traffic for your website. Only to have investors visit your website and exit it without leaving their contact information.

Your website has a one-time opportunity to convince visitors to submit their contact information. And, it may only have three minutes (average time on site) to make this happen. 

Your website has to deliver critical information to investors that they use to compare your firm to other financial advisors:

• Background information for your firm (about us)
• Who you serve (ideal clients)
• What you do (your services)
• Why select your firm (differentiating characteristics)
• A Resource Center (financial information)

All of this information is delivered by intuitive navigation. That’s important, because experience shows investors exit financial advisor websites before they will search for information.

Following are the top five traps that negatively impact the success of financial advisor marketing.

1. They have rented or purchased websites that are nothing more than online sales brochures. Their websites are not designed to convert visitors into qualified leads.
2. Every advisor has a website, but they are not doing anything to produce website traffic. Traffic requires Internet visibility.
3. Advisors are downloading articles from libraries that have no SEO value. Google and the other search engines have already seen the content hundreds or thousands of times. No SEO means no Internet visibility and no website traffic.
4. Advisors write their own original content, but it is the wrong type of content. For example, they write about general financial topics that are lost on the Internet. How do you compete with the Wall Street Journal and the other brand names? Consequently, there is no visibility or traffic. 
5. They should be writing about the financial pain points of their ideal types of clients. For example, what are solutions for some of the financial concerns of a person about to retire? 

The Internet is a financial advisor’s best source for organic growth. However, you may already know, the Internet is an intensely competitive place to market financial advice and services. 

Very few financial advisors have a team of inhouse digital marketing experts. Therefore,  advisors who are serious about digital marketing results should consider hiring an agency that understands their industry and specializes in working with independent financial advisor firms. 

Regardless of size and location, every financial advisor can benefit from a well executed digital marketing strategy. And, the sooner you start building an online presence, the sooner you will start reaping the rewards of reaching more investors on the Internet. 

Consider these four observations:

• Waiting for the telephone to ring is not a marketing strategy
• Marketing is an essential part of building a profitable business
• An effective marketing strategy is critical if you are seeking organic growth
• Organic growth is vital for enhancing the future value of your firm

Digital marketing requires a commitment of time and money to make it work. But it is worth the effort because the Internet is the future for marketing financial advice and services to individual investors.

The content in this guide will help you build a successful digital foundation for marketing your financial advice and services on the Internet to individual investors and their families.