How Technology Has Changed Financial Advisor Marketing Strategies
Written By : Greg
The burst of technology throughout the past decade has changed the way financial advisors engage with their clients. But does that mean all of the old marketing rules are null and void? Not at all! The proven principles of marketing still apply to everything we do. It’s just that you have to apply those principles in new ways, if you want to stay relevant and keep your audience’s attention.
In the wake of technological expansion, you should incorporate these five trends into your marketing strategy.
Consumers call the shots now. The Internet puts consumers in control of your interactions with them. On social media, users can select from options that allow them to receive your messages or block them. When presented with one of your posts, your audience can make an instant decision to read it…or ignore it with a flick of their finger. If you impress a reader, you might be rewarded when they share your post. But if you displease that same person, they have their own very visible platform from which to criticize you.
What this means for financial advisors:
- The quality of your content is more important than ever; it must be engaging and relevant, or it will be ignored.
- Every financial advisor needs a professional social media strategy, designed by a marketing expert. It’s not enough to just post on Facebook once in a while.
Consumers demand engagement. Your clients actually expect to form a relationship with you online. Search for any major brand on Facebook, like Coca Cola or Nike, and you will see that they have millions of followers. For fans of these brands, their enthusiasm goes beyond an appreciation of soft drinks or shoes. It is an opportunity to share an experience with like-minded people.
What this means for financial advisors: Your clients and prospects expect to interact with you on social media. If you don’t provide them with the relationship they want, someone else probably will.
Every screen presents a marketing opportunity. Every day, the average consumer might watch TV, use a smart phone, play games on a tablet, or work on a desktop computer. Most of us, especially the affluent clients you want to attract, own multiple gadgets with screens.
What this means for financial advisors: You should create a marketing campaign that works across multiple formats. Video is also becoming increasingly important, as your audience spends more time using services like YouTube, and less time watching typical television programming.
Social media is the new shopping. Facebook boasts more than one billion users, and people use the platform for much more than chatting with friends. Increasingly, we are seeing consumers turn to Facebook as a shopping resource. They research businesses by checking out their Facebook pages, read recommendations from friends, and learn about new products and services from posts in their news feed.
What this means for financial advisors: Your social media campaign can attract new prospects via shares and comments from happy clients. A few well-placed Facebook ads can also increase your brand recognition and help you gain new followers.
Everything can be integrated (and should be). Most successful marketing campaigns operate on multiple channels these days. Your clients expect consistency, and they want to choose how they interact with you. With all the different ways we can reach consumers, it would usually be a waste of energy to focus a marketing campaign on one channel only!
What this means for financial advisors: When you design your digital marketing campaign, you should consider how the content you create can be utilized across multiple channels. For example, you can publish a blog, share that blog on LinkedIn and Facebook, incorporate a video that you share on YouTube, and invite your clients to connect with your content via a targeted email campaign. When you utilized technology in the right ways, you can streamline your marketing campaign while maximizing your reach!
Filed under: Financial Advisor Marketing
Written By : Greg
Greg Preite is a digital marketing and Social Media consultant for CreativeOne. He is the lead content writer and contributor to Advisor Online Marketing and was recently named by LifeHealthPro.com as one of the 20 Most Creative People in Insurance.