The Lost Opportunity That Could Be Hurting Your Business

Written By : Clifford Blodgett

As a financial advisor, you’re familiar with the cost of lost opportunity. A client who withdraws $10,000 from an IRA today isn’t just missing $10,000 later when he retires. He’s also lost an opportunity for growth – years of interest that would have compounded on those funds.

Likewise, you may be missing huge potential for incredible growth in your practice, by neglecting one simple thing: Digital marketing.

In fact, failing to launch an online marketing campaign hurts your practice in three very distinct ways, all of which combine to multiply your losses.

You’re not doing it. Twenty years ago, the internet was unknown territory to most of your target demographic (that is, retired people and those planning for retirement). Today, most older Americans are going online at least once per day. They read emails, they chat with friends on Facebook, and they keep up with colleagues on LinkedIn.

Twenty or even ten years ago, financial advisors weren’t using online marketing to keep in touch with their target demographic, because the target demographic was not online. But times have changed, and yet many financial advisors haven’t changed with them. If you aren’t conversing with current clients and seeking new ones online, you’re neglecting a potentially enormous source of referrals.

Someone else is doing it. Maybe you’re thinking, Oh well, my target audience will find me another way. Indeed, they might, if another advisor doesn’t scoop them up first.

Your clients and potential clients are online, and they are receiving emails and reading blogs by other financial advisors. At some point they will have a question and need help, and who do you think they will call? Hint: the guy who’s right in front of them.

While you’re neglecting to harness the power of email or social media marketing, the competition is reaping the rewards.

It works. Your clients probably won’t keep in touch with you some other way, because email and social media is quickly becoming their preferred mode of communication. The fact is, more and more financial advisors are catching on to the power of online marketing. They’re experiencing better client retention rates and pulling in more referrals as a result.

It’s as if there’s a fully-stocked pond of fish in your backyard, but you’re driving across town to attempt fishing in a pasture. Meanwhile, you’ve left your back gate open, and other advisors are fishing in your pond!

Simply put, neglecting to launch an online marketing campaign is a compounding threat to your practice because it works, because you aren’t doing it, and because the competition is doing it. It’s time to embrace higher levels of technology and venture into a new horizon. The choice is yours: Grow your practice (and your income), or risk being left behind by the competition.

Filed under: Financial Advisor Marketing