5 Proven Marketing Strategies for Financial Advisors
Developing an effective marketing plan as a financial advisor often requires some trial and error to find what works for your business, and weed out what doesn't. Having a go-to list of proven tactics to implement can save you time, money and headaches so you can focus on other activities to grow your business. Some marketing strategies for financial advisors have proven to be more effective than others for attracting new clients.
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Why Is Marketing Important for Financial Advisors?
Good marketing matters because it can help you build a foundation of success as an advisor. After all, you can't expect clients to show up out of nowhere if no one knows what you do or that your business even exists. Marketing is how you capture prospective clients' attention and attract an audience for your services.
You could rely on referrals or word-of-mouth to generate leads, but those types of things may only take you so far. Actively marketing your business, both online and offline, allows you to:
Communicate your unique value proposition to your target audience, i.e., the people who need to hear the message you're delivering
Develop your brand image and increase its visibility amid a sea of competition from other advisors
Gain a better understanding of what your ideal client needs so that you can deliver it in the most efficient way possible
Establish credibility and your overall reputation in the financial advisory landscape
Most importantly, marketing can help you to capture new leads, which is vital to running a sustainable business. If you've neglected to create a marketing plan thus far, you may be costing yourself valuable opportunities to get your business on your ideal clients' radars.
Proven Marketing Strategies for Financial Advisors
Here's something you need to know about marketing: Some tactics simply work better than others and what works for one advisor may not work for you. It's also important to remember that marketing is constantly evolving, with new trends developing and others fading out.
With that in mind, here are five effective marketing strategies for financial advisors who are ready to scale:
1. Email Marketing
What it involves: Email marketing allows you to promote your advisory business to people who have joined your email list.
You may collect email addresses through a simple contact form on your website or by offering an incentive to join, such as access to a free financial planning workshop or e-book you've created. You can then decide how often to send out marketing emails and what type of messaging they should include.
Why it works: Email marketing is a proven strategy because it gives you a direct path into someone's inbox.
Crafting valuable messages that speak to the needs or pain points of the people on your list can help you establish trust and telegraph what your business is about, without any hard selling initially. You can then build on that trust to create messages that create a sense of urgency and encourage readers to take the next step and contact you for a consultation.
2. Social Media Marketing
What it involves: Social media marketing centers on building an audience online to generate interest in your business, while encouraging engagement.
You may be active on multiple social media channels or just one, depending on where your ideal clients spend the most time online. Social media content is often short-form, but you may experiment with creating longer posts or videos to see what your audience is most responsive to.
Why it works: Social media marketing is an effective marketing strategy simply because so many people spend a sizable portion of their day online. As an advisor, you can cultivate a loyal following by producing valuable, shareable content that answers questions or sparks discussion. You can use social media channels to promote your services, encourage followers to join your email list and drive traffic to your website.
3. Content Marketing
What it involves: Content marketing simply means creating and sharing content that's designed to generate interest in your business's services. As an advisor, you may create content for your business website or blog, including online workshops or webinars, blog posts, white papers, case studies and videos.
Why it works: Advisors can create a wide variety of content to meet different marketing needs, while keeping the core messaging consistent. For example, you might create an e-book that you offer to prospective clients to encourage them to join your email list, then repurpose the contents of that e-book to create a YouTube video or online seminar. You can decide which format to use for your content based on where it's going to "live" online so that it has the most impact for those who consume it.
4. Direct Mail Marketing
What it involves: Direct mail marketing is what it sounds like-sending marketing messages via direct or snail mail. You can craft marketing messages yourself or work with a direct mail marketing agency to send out mailers.
Why it works: Direct mail is one of the best marketing strategies for financial advisors who want to take their efforts offline. Sending direct mail is an opportunity to pique the recipient's interest so that they're more likely to open it, whereas emails can easily be sent to the trash folder without being opened. You can also tailor the messages you send to different segments of your client base to provide the most value.
5. Lead Generation Services
What it involves: Lead generation services can help you find prospective clients without having to do any marketing separately. For instance, you might buy life insurance leads from a third-party marketplace or use an online lead generation tool that connects you with prospects who meet your ideal client profile.
Why it works: Lead generation is most effective when you're able to connect with prospects who are ready to buy. These are people who are interested in working with an advisor and may have done some initial research, but just need that final nudge to commit. While you'll pay for leads, using a lead generation tool can save you time that you can spend on other tasks related to growing your business.
Bottom Line
When it comes to marketing, it's important to invest your time, energy and money into the right things. Setting a budget for marketing and developing some metrics that you can use to track your progress can help you figure out which efforts are the smartest investments.
Tips for Growing Your Advisory Business
If you're considering using a lead generation service to market your business, it helps to know what you can expect. For example, are you just getting a list of leads, or will you also have access to a suite of tools you can use to follow up and potentially increase conversions? Something like that can significantly increase one tool's value over another. With SmartAdvisor, you'll have everything you need to follow up promptly when a new lead comes your way.
While online marketing may be your focal point, don't overlook opportunities to promote your business offline. Holding client appreciation events, asking existing clients for referrals, building your professional network and participating in community events are all ways to market your services and expand your book of business.
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