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When it comes to looking for a new financial advisor, research shows that there's a common strategy: searching online.
Financial advisors need a strong digital presence to make themselves discoverable, but how do you actually go about it?
How do the affluent search for a financial advisor? The answer to this question is key for helping you as the advisor figure out where to spend your marketing dollars, and where you should spend the most time and effort when it comes to what marketing strategies you're going to employ. I'm Samantha Russell from Twenty Over Ten, and today we're going to talk about the answer to this question and the results that might surprise you.
Okay, so what we're talking about here is from the Oechsli Institute. They did a survey back in October of last year, October of 2019, where they looked at 403 investors that had at least $500,000 in investable assets and asked them questions about where they go to find a financial advisor. Now, they broke their respondents up into age brackets, and the most surprising result that they found-well, it may be surprising to you or may be not-is that those who are 45 and under reported that they pulled out their smart phone and simply did a Google search. So if you're targeting people that are on the younger end of the age spectrum, having a strong digital presence is key in order to be the advisor that they turn to when they're doing their search.
Now, we actually only see this trend continuing. The "digital referral shift" is what we call it, and what we know is that the use of search, you know, just going to Google and searching for an advisor, or searching "financial advisor near me" or "financial advisor for physicians in Philadelphia," any of these specific searches, is only going to become more and more prevalent over time. Especially as more and more people age up and become used to being the generation that has always used online tools, has always been used to having the answer to everything right in their pocket on their smartphone. So what does this mean for you as an advisor? What makes you somebody that is more likely to capture the interest of the person doing the search? There's a couple things to think about.
Number one, those advisors whose websites come up at the top of the Google search listings are going to be seen as the most credible by many people doing the search. How many of you yourselves actually go to page 2 or 3 or 4 when you're searching for something on Google? Not many, right? So you want to make sure your website is on that first page, and to do that you need to follow best SEO strategies, which we can link to our best tips on how to do that below. The second thing that you want to make sure that you remember is that Google reviews matter. When someone is searching for any business, seeing that that business is highly reviewed by others who have used the service is going to be crucial to them in knowing that that service is reputable, that they can trust that service, right? We trust other people more than we trust the business itself. So that's the second thing you want to think about is those Google reviews.
And then the last is thought leadership. People want to see that you have articles or blog posts that you have written on the topic in which they're going to hire you for. So if they're hiring you as a financial planner, then you better have articles and blog posts that you have written on different subjects that would be related to how you're going to help them with their own personal finances.
I hope these tips are helpful to you in thinking about why it is so important to have a strong digital presence today, and we will link below to even more strategies and tips that you can use to boost your own presence. Make sure that you like this video if you find it helpful, and subscribe to our YouTube channel, because every single week we share a quick marketing video just like this one to help you grow your digital presence and grow your business as well.
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