Meet Stan (fictitious)…
Stan, a financial advisor, has heard about the power of digital marketing. He sets out to increase his profit margin by doing all of the things he has been told an advisor should do in this day and age. He builds a website, he sends out some emails, and he joins several social media sites. But after a few months, Stan is feeling discouraged. He thought his phone would be ringing off the hook by now. But instead, he hasn’t really noticed an upswing in his business. Stan gives up on digital marketing.
Why didn’t Stan receive the response he expected? Could it be that digital marketing just doesn’t work for financial advisors?
Actually, digital marketing is ideally suited for financial advisors! But what Stan did was similar to getting in the car and driving around in circles, hoping to end up at a fun location. Without a road map and a specific destination in mind, Stan’s chances of actually going somewhere were dubious at best. Stan’s only goal with digital marketing was to increase his profits. But he never defined that goal further, or asked himself what he specifically hoped to achieve!
Step one of a digital marketing campaign should be to identify clear, measurable goals. Yes, the end result of any successful marketing venture will be an increase in profits, but you have to be more specific than that.
Stan should have asked himself these questions:
- Do I want to reach more people? Who are they?
- Do I want to establish an image?
- Do I want to attract more leads? Or do I already have plenty of leads, and want to convert them to clients?
- Do I want to keep in touch with current clients, deepen our relationship, and earn more referrals?
- Do I want to network with other professionals, such as CPAs or estate planning attorneys, and earn referrals from them?
You can probably see that these are all separate goals. And your strategy will vary considerably, depending upon which objectives you choose.
What Stan did is a common mistake with advisors. He created content just for the sake of creating content, but he didn’t stop to ask himself a very important question: What is the goal of this content?
Remember, any content you produce communicates a message to someone. Ask yourself who you are talking to, and where they will look for that information viagra generika kaufen.
Which type of content should I use? Advisors can write blogs, produce videos, create white papers, or post on social media. Depending upon your specific objective, you might have even more options. But your goals will dictate your content, not the other way around. You should always be careful to select the content that will best meet your objectives. For example, blogs rich in keywords will increase your web traffic, while you would use social media posts to establish your brand.
How should I distribute this content? Producing the right content is half of the battle. Now you have to reach out to your audience using the correct format. Keep in mind that as a financial advisor, your method should match up with the needs of your audience. If you want to deepen the relationship with current contacts, you might choose to send targeted emails. But if you want to broaden your general audience, you might produce blogs or videos that appeal to a wide range of people.
Whatever you do, don’t make the same mistakes Stan made. Stan jumped into digital marketing without first analyzing his specific objectives, and because of that mistake, Stan’s efforts failed. First ask yourself what you want to accomplish, and what results you expect. Then, you’re ready to move on to the second step, which we will discuss in the next article in this series.