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Written by: Eric Sleeth
Often marketing can fall to the bottom of a to-do list in a business. We know there are marketing activities we should be doing, but are we performing them consistently and efficiently? This is especially true for Financial Institutions. Their Field Marketing channel is critical to maintaining a strong book of business as well as creating new opportunities.
There are many Marketing solutions available that are designed to solve any marketing activity. Regardless of the activity, Financial Advisors and Financial Institutions are looking to solve 5 key marketing objectives; Establishing a Digital Presence, Increasing Reach, Building Trust, Lead Generation, and Nurturing.
Below are 5 Marketing activities that make it easier to meet those Financial Advisor marketing objectives.
Website Platform Built for Financial Advisors
In today’s digital age, having an online digital presence is mandatory for organizations and Financial Advisors. There are many site-building tools available. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean it will lead to consistent or effective usage. Most tools are built to meet the needs of the most general group of users. However, Financial Advisors should be utilizing a solution purpose-built for advisors.
Financial Advisors need a website platform that is easy to use, as their first priority will always be their book of business. There are a few features that will ensure advisors can prioritize their book of business AND be consistent with their Digital Presence. The key is to find a solution that streamlines the process to website management; from simplified content publication or look and feel applied by enterprise themes at scale.
Creating Authentic Connections with Content
It should not come as a shock that competition for Financial Advisors is fierce. At the same, prospects are conducting more research and have an increased appetite for information. This creates an opportunity for advisors that are able to consistently share valuable content.
Advisors should look to leverage blogging capabilities on their websites as a means to capture that opportunity and share information. According to Hubspot “Blogging helps boost SEO quality by positioning your website as a relevant answer to your customers’ questions.” The advisors who are able to do this consistently will build trust amongst their prospects and clients. Additionally, consistent blogging brings added SEO benefits by increasing the Financial Advisor’s visibility and search ranking.
As previously mentioned, purpose-built marketing tools will streamline the creation of content. However, a consideration that is often overlooked and often is the content marketing killer is the compliance review process. A built-in compliance engine will remove unnecessary hurdles that would otherwise demotivate advisors from blogging and now makes Content Marketing more efficient (while remaining regulatory and brand compliant.)
Driving Traffic Through Social Media
Which sites do you visit the most on a given day? If you are like your clients/prospects, it is likely Social Media. With the average person spending near 2 and a half hours a day on social media, this provides a tremendous opportunity for financial organizations.
Social Media Marketing helps financial advisors to increase traffic and boost leads by getting their brand and content in front of prospects on a channel of their choosing. Additionally, this helps you connect with customers to share information and to build trust.
Similar to blogging, Compliance review is the biggest challenge in Social Media marketing. Since the lifespan of a social post is shorter than a blog, consistency is key. Therefore having a built-in compliance process, allows for advisors to begin posting consistently. This is especially important if the information being shared is related to current events.
It’s critical that Financial Organizations and Financial Advisors don’t let marketing fall by the wayside.
Continue to Optimize Email Marketing
Email Marketing has been a very important tool for Financial Advisors. When speaking with advisors, the one marketing activity they will always make the time for is some type of Email Marketing.
With that in mind, Wealth Management firms should look to optimize their Email Marketing activities to allow for enhancements and to free up resources for other activities.
Financial Advisors should have the ability to create both individual emails, but also campaigns. Providing the ability to access their own content and a library of pre-approved content makes building email campaigns and newsletters very simple.
The next step to effective Email Marketing for Financial Advisors is contact segmentation. The proper list management capabilities will allow the sending of personalized content to a targeted audience. Whether it is for high net worth clients, near retirement, new families, providing the right content builds trust and nurtures relationships.
Compliance Review: Necessary but Overlooked
Compliance is a necessary part of Advisor Marketing. Financial organizations may not be considering that improving this process would lead to an increase in efficiency and ultimately an increase in marketing consistency.
Firms not leveraging a Compliance platform often will use email as the method for submission and review processes. This creates lengthy review periods and increased risk.
When a Compliance engine is built into the Field Marketing solution, it will be easily embedded into the marketing process and access the created web pages, blog content, social posts, and email campaigns.
Compliance tools are not only valuable for the enhancement of advisor marketing, but also should improve the efficiency of the compliance officers and include functionalities like Site Archiving, Multi-Stage Workflows, Delegation, and more.
Conclusion
To be able to maintain a strong book of business as well as creating new opportunities, it’s critical that Financial Organizations and Financial Advisors don’t let marketing fall by the wayside. The way to make sure Marketing is maintained, firms must look to improve consistency and efficiency.
As a provider of a leading Financial Advisor Marketing platform, Digital Agent, we often hear from our clients they are looking to solve 5 core objectives; Establishing a Digital Presence, Increasing Reach, Building Trust, Lead Generation, and Nurturing.
To achieve these objectives, there are 5 activities as part of the Advisor Marketing program; Websites, Content, Social Media, Email, and Compliance. We would encourage organizations to examine the tools and processes they are using for those activities as it is through that, they can reach that improved consistency and efficiency in Marketing.
Related: The Value of Uniqueness in Advisor Content Marketing