3 Biggest Reasons Why Your Internet Marketing Isn’t Working

Written By : Greg

We see it all the time. A financial advisor, enthusiastic to jump on the internet marketing bandwagon, reads a few articles on the topic and gets busy with what he thinks is a surefire strategy for success. He crams a little blogging time into his schedule, instructs his assistant to create an email list, and they each take turns posting on social media when they can find the time.

And yet, after a few months of trying to market himself online, the advisor is frustrated with his lack of results. His appointment book looks about the same as it did before, and the phone isn’t ringing off the hook.

Sound familiar? You might think that there are some complicated dynamics at play here, but we almost always find that this type of disappointment boils down to three big reasons.

You haven’t set a consistent plan of action.

This is one of the most common mistakes we see from financial advisors who start up an internet marketing campaign. They might have some idea of what they need to do, but no idea of the regularity or consistency required by internet marketing. Remember that you are communicating with an audience. Would you start a conversation at a party and then walk away? Would you gather dozens of phone numbers and then fail to follow through with a few phone calls? Of course not!

Unfortunately, a lot of advisors are making the equivalent mistakes with their online marketing strategy. They might blog a few times, but they don’t do it with enough regularity to really establish a relationship with their audience. They post on social media occasionally, but not enough to stay in the forefront of their followers’ minds. They start conversations, but then forget to return and follow up. If you haven’t set a schedule for your marketing campaign, or you’re unable to follow your plan, then you could be hurting yourself more than you’re helping!

And if you haven’t conducted market research, analyzed your audience, and established a clear plan of action, it’s likely that…

You’re saying the right things to the wrong people.

As you already know, your internet marketing strategy should revolve around producing the right content. But that is only half of the battle. You then have to put that content in front of the right audience, or else it won’t be well received.

Consider this: The most informative blog on parenting techniques won’t get much attention from people who don’t even have children, will it? The same goes for financial advice. If you’re distributing blogs on Social Security to people who are too young to care about these issues, you’re saying the right things to the wrong people. Make sure your content is not only engaging, credible, and informative, but also addresses the correct audience.

If you’re experiencing low open rates on your emails, few web page visitors, and other disappointing results, often all you need is a few tweaks to your strategy. But it takes the right mindset to see what needs to be done, which is why…

The wrong people are conducting your marketing campaign.

You hired your assistant for their organizational talent and time management skills, and he or she is great at managing your office. But then you assigned them the task of managing your internet marketing campaign. Your intentions were in the right place, but if your employee is not a marketing professional, they are being forced to learn as they go. Marketing requires an entirely different set of skills, and an amateur is unlikely to meet with the same success as a professional.

Most marketing firms employ a number of people, each with a very specific set of skills. For example, a professional writer creates content for websites and blogs. SEO experts perform behind-the-scenes work to boost search engine rankings. A graphic artist designs advertisements. And so on. Even within marketing itself, a wide variety of specialties are needed.

Look at it this way: Would you ask your plumber to please take a look at your electrical wiring? Of course not! So why would you ask your assistant to do the jobs of an entire marketing team?

If you’re feeling disappointed with your internet marketing plan, then chances are you have made one of the above mistakes. Luckily, you can still correct these mistakes and move forward with a very successful campaign. Identify your areas of concern, and take the right steps to remedy them. And remember, consulting a marketing professional is probably the best way to figure out where things went wrong. Often advisors just need to tweak their strategy, and they are soon surprised to see just how effective internet marketing can be!

Filed under: Financial Advisor Marketing, Social Media for Financial Advisors