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7 Steps on How to Digitally Grow Your Financial Advisory Business

Our ways of conducting business continued to evolve due to external circumstances. To stay competitive, financial professionals of all types must ensure that their marketing strategies are up to date, this includes marketing traditionally and through digital marketing. With the recent changes in our environment, now is probably a great time to re-evaluate how you are marketing your business.

Last week, I was catching up with a friend over the phone and the conversation naturally gravitated to the recent changes in my business.

He found out that I have exited my decent-sized book of business primarily with accredited investors. At the same time, my growth consulting company has expanded into digital marketing, specifically into content marketing.

As an insurance advisor, he was intrigued to learn about these changes and the benefits of marketing his business online.

For me, it was a natural progression, as I found a partner with a high level of digital marketing experience and we have complementary skill sets.

Additionally, I have noticed an increase in demand for digital marketing in our ever-evolving world, and I expect this demand to keep increasing, with all companies needing an online presence to do well.

This will especially be true as many firms have pivoted to online due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

While it might be time-consuming to execute, it is not that difficult for companies to develop online marketing strategies to grow their businesses.

Of course, financial advisors have to also account for compliance regulations, but the long-term benefits of these efforts make it all worthwhile.

With the competitive nature of the market, it is important for financial advisors, insurance brokers, and wealth managers alike to constantly look for ways to expand their business.

Digital growth will be one of the most important areas to spur this growth, especially given how many people today use the internet. Below are some tips on how we feel financial or insurance advisory firms may grow their businesses digitally.

To learn more about how business will likely evolve due to the pandemic, check out our blog post here.

Why Digital Growth Matters

Financial professionals of all types, from wealth managers to financial advisors to financial planners to insurance advisors, would do well to invest in the digital growth of their financial advisory business.

As the world changes, so do marketing strategies. With the massive amount of time spent online, digital marketing will only increase in demand.

In the future, digital marketing will become a requirement to remain competitive. If you choose to skip creating a digital presence in the future, you will be holding your business back, just as failing to put a sign on your physical business would hold you back today.

The best digital strategies begin now, providing you with time for growth. Best of all, it likely less challenging than you think to develop a digital presence, especially if you have the proper tools and professional assistance at your disposal.

1. Develop a Plan and Stick to It

The very first step toward digitally growing your financial advisory business is the same as it would be with any other business strategy — creating the plan.

To maximize the success of your plan, do research. This is the time to identify your clients by creating client personas, determine what is needed in a custom web design for financial professionals, and begin researching your SEO keywords and link-building strategies.

Your marketing strategy should also highlight your specialties and distinction from other advisors. For example, if your business specializes in alternate assets then your marketing should showcase the value of these asset types and how your services are different when compared to an advisor who helps their investors build portfolios using traditional investments.

Creating a plan allows insurance advisory businesses and wealth management professionals to remain on track and measure their success. It provides a focus for every member of the team, helping ensure you work toward a common goal.

For more information on how to build links and increase the authority of your website, please check out our blog post here.

2. Build a Website — While Keeping These Factors in Mind

To ensure your financial advisory business is poised to grow, you must have a solid presence online, including a strong website.

You can complete the website design in-house or have a professional take care of it. The latter will typically result in a higher-quality website since professionals are aware of techniques and trends, especially if they specialize in custom web design for financial professionals.

If you are planning to build a website on your own, some of the more popular free website building platforms include Wix, Weebly and WordPress.

As you create your website, focus on ensuring that it has a clean layout and is easy to navigate. The goal is to ensure that when a potential client visits your website, they can easily find all of the information that they need.

Make sure the website is fast enough, as you do not want visitors to lose interest if it does not load properly. Confirm the speed of the website across browsers, so you do not miss out on any segment of your audience.

On top of this, as users increasingly consume content with a mobile-first approach, a mobile-optimized site is becoming a must-have in order to appeal to potential clients on the go.

3. Harness the Power of Social Media

In addition to setting up the website, ensure that potential clients can find your business on social media.

Some insurance advisory companies will also want to consider advertisements on LinkedIn or other social media pages, but at the very least, you should set up a profile on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Include updated information on your services and contact information.

Use social media to not only attract new clients but also direct them to your website. Social media is also an opportunity to engage with potential customers to confirm your status as an industry expert and to promote content that your team creates.

4. Create a SEO Strategy

No digital growth strategy is complete without search engine optimization. SEO involves a range of tasks, from link building to copywriting, to increasing your ranking on search engines.

This is a slow process, but it has long-lasting effects that are well worth the effort. Do not expect to see instant results with SEO, and be sure to avoid any company that promises a certain ranking. There is simply no method of guaranteeing the ranking of a website.

A strong strategy will include SEO content creation that incorporates carefully planned keywords without overstuffing them.

The copywriting itself can be done in-house by your team, or you can save time by outsourcing it to the same company that handles your SEO strategy.

To read about how you may set up a SEO content marketing strategy, check out our blog post here.

5. Follow Through with Your SEO Strategy

Once your team has developed an SEO strategy, stick to it. For example, publish your blog articles on a consistent basis.

Blogs are an excellent way to show search engines that your website is regularly updated. They also provide you with an opportunity to share information and insights with potential clients, which establishes your expertise in financial advisory services.

Consistency is important from a branding perspective as well as an SEO perspective. It shows potential clients that you are reliable and can deliver on promises of any size.

To learn about how blogging can help to grow your business, check out our article here.

6. Engage with Your Customers via Your Content

While some of the content on your website is part of SEO, that is not the only goal. The content also provides you with an opportunity to engage with your customers.

To do so, consider the client personas that your team created and think about the type of content they would prefer to see. Then, tailor your content to your target customer base.

When creating content that engages with your customers, your topics should focus on information that is of interest to them. What do clients want to learn about? What are the most common questions?

Take the engagement a step further and encourage website visitors to ask follow-up questions or to add their own related experience in the Comments section.

The read the story about how John Deere created it’s own content marketing campaign back in 1895 to grow it’s following, check out our blog post here.

7. Offer a Lead Magnet

One of the ultimate goals as you digitally grow your financial advisory business is to generate leads in the form of contact information for potential clients. Most people are hesitant to give out this information, so you must offer a lead magnet or incentive of some sort.

Consider an e-book or PDF your business created as an introduction to the products and services that you are offering. Or offer an incentive, such as a free consultation or an introductory discount for your services. An effective lead magnet will be free and useful to potential clients.

When creating a lead magnet, it is important to consider which stage of the buyer’s journey your prospects are at. To learn more, you may check out our blog post on different lead magnet ideas that help to convert leads at every stage of the digital marketing funnel.

Then again, growing your financial advisory business digitally will be significantly easier with the assistance of a firm experienced in digital marketing and SEO. It is a way of extending your company through an external hire of experienced professionals.

So, there you have it. I hope this gives you something to think about when you consider how to grow your financial advisory business. If you would like to learn more, I would encourage you to download your free copy of “The Ultimate Digital Marketing Playbook” for a more comprehensive explanation of how you may develop your online marketing strategy.

Was the information on this article useful? How was your experience with digital marketing? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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