Social Media for Financial Advisors: Does It Work?
Written By : Clifford Blodgett
As a financial advisor, you’re aware of many different ways in which you can market yourself and grow your practice. For the past few years, social media for financial advisors has increased in popularity, with 75 percent of advisors using at least one social networking site*. And it’s clearly not a flash-in-the-pan trend that will disappear quickly, as 46 percent of all financial advisors predict social media marketing may play an even larger role in the future*.
Of course, the fact that almost everyone is doing it isn’t an automatic guarantee that it actually works. Just think of the latest fitness craze; if it worked as well as the hype claims, wouldn’t we all be in tip-top shape by now? Sometimes the popularity of a trend has absolutely nothing to do with its actual effectiveness, so it’s important to look at case studies and statistics to get an idea of real results.
Numbers Don’t Lie!
Here are a few real examples of what we have accomplished with our Social Media Elite program:
In Case Study 1, the agent’s website traffic was analyzed both during the 30-day period before a social media plan was implemented, and then again for the 30 days afterward. Before beginning his foray into social media, his website gathered only 70 viewers (51 unique viewers) and 159 page views. Only thirty days after Social Media Elite implementation, website viewers jumped to 255 visitors (187 unique) and 566 page views. That’s quite a clear difference from one month to the next!
Even more impressive was Case Study 2. In the month before beginning his social media strategy, the agent’s website was visited 47 times (36 unique visitors) with 73 page views. After 30 days of social media marketing, visitors had jumped to 709 (589 unique) and 927 page views. This agent is already scheduling appointments as a result of leads coming straight from his website.
It’s easy to see the difference made by social media marketing when it’s broken down into clear numbers this way. Yet, aside from the dramatic difference that can be seen in only 30 days’ time, it’s important to keep in mind the power of social networking over the long haul.
For example, we’ve been working with another financial advisor for about two years, resulting in multiple success stories. Recently, this agent received a referral to a multi-million dollar client through a CPA. Why is this story remarkable? The CPA had been quietly following the agent’s blog on LinkedIn for quite some time, even though they had never met in any other capacity. If not for social media, the two would have remained completely unaware of one another. Yet LinkedIn brought these two professionals together, and the advisor has gained a valuable new client as a result. With the use of social media steadily increasing, in both a personal and professional capacity, it’s clear that this mode of networking is only going to become more important in business.
The bottom line is that if you are not implementing social media properly into your marketing strategy, you may be losing tremendous opportunities.
Got questions? Just let us know!
FOR INSURANCE PROFESSIONAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR USE WITH THE GENERAL PUBLIC 14209 – 2015/3/5
Filed under: Financial Advisor Marketing, Social Media for Financial Advisors
Written By : Clifford Blodgett
Clifford Blodgett is the Director of Digital Marketing and Demand Generation at Creative One. He is integral in financial advisor interactive communications strategies, website management, social media, content marketing , and overall demand generation.