14 Digital Marketing Strategies for Financial Services

The Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing for Financial Services and Advisors

Did you know that 85% of people search for local businesses and services online? This statistics data is an indication of how people prefer online stores to traditional brick and mortar shops.

The internet has revolutionized the world in unimaginable ways. It has become the first destination for people looking for all sorts of things.

It has enabled teachers to teach remotely, and doctors to prescribe online. Nearly every industry relies on it in one way or another. Your success as a financial advisor in this digital era depends on your positioning on the internet.

Inasmuch as the internet offers a great opportunity for you to market your products, it’s quite difficult to gain the trust of prospective buyers as a new business.

Given the high rate of internet scamming, you’ll have to build your brand’s reputation and ensure that it’s recognizable on the online market, so you can attract as many clients as possible. Achieving this outcome can be done with the right digital marketing tactics in place.

Of course, you can either hire a specialist or take charge of the marketing yourself, although the former is the most recommended course of action. If you’re running a financial firm, for instance, making use of SEO and implementing other digital marketing techniques can be tricky. Therefore, you should consider hiring experts like an Advisor SEO who will help build your professional image and enhance your online performance.

This article will go over 14 digital marketing strategies, tips, and ideas to help you completely dominate the internet, display credibility, and find prospective clients. But before we jump right in, first take some time to refine your buyer persona (if you haven’t already done so).

A buyer persona is simply a precise description of your most ideal client, down to the smallest detail. Ask yourself who they are, what industries they work in, where they live, how much they earn, etc.

The internet is extremely vast, and without some form of direction, trying to find clients is like sailing a ship without a compass. You’ll only end up spinning in circles without actually getting anywhere. A buyer persona will help guide you on where and how to find clients who would be most suitable for your financial services.

Interesting Stats for Financial Advisors:

The average age of a financial advisor in the US is 50. Only 22% are under 40 (and 5% are under 30). (Source)
A third of Americans have no retirement savings at all. (Source)
Google gets over 77,000 searches a second, (Source), and 67% of clicks go to the first 5 result pages. (Source)
Email marketing has an average ROI of around 4,400%. (Source)
Personalized email subjects get 6x higher transaction rates. (Source)
20 – 40% of webinar attendees end up becoming leads. (Source)
Lead nurturing can help generate up to 50% more qualified leads at a 33% lower cost. (Source)
Asking for phone numbers has the worst impact on conversion rates. (Source)
Testimonials are considered to be one the most effective content marketing strategies. (Source)
90% of people who read positive online reviews claimed that it influenced their decisions. (Source)

14 Financial Advisor Digital Marketing Strategies

1. Get an optimized website

A website is the foundation of your online presence and digital marketing strategy. It is where people searching online for financial advisors can learn all about your services. It is essentially your office on the internet.

Most search engines like Google and Bing work by scanning the web for information, and then showing users the most relevant results based on what they’re searching. If they happen to be searching for phrases such as “best financial advisors in xxxx [insert your city]”, then your site should be among the results presented to them.

The use of city and country names – popularly known as local SEO – can have a huge impact on your search engine ranking because those keywords make your brand stand out on the internet. A user is likely to click a search engine result that mentions their location rather than a general answer. There’s no better way to get a consistent stream of leads than by simply having a website, and then optimizing in the ways that will be discussed.

The most important thing to keep in mind when building your site is that Google always favors websites that have a positive user experience.

User experience, or UX, refers to the overall design of the website, how easy it is to navigate, how fast it loads, how responsive the pages are, etc. Ideally, people visiting your site should be able to find any information they need in seconds.

Modern website builders like Wix allow you to easily build professional websites that check all the boxes of a positive UX quite easily. Alternatively, you can use platforms such as FreeWebDesign to get developers to build your entire site for free.

2. Set up PPC ads

Pay-per-click, or PPC, is an advertising model where ads get shown to people as they browse the internet, however advertisers only get charged whenever the ads are clicked.

For example, if 1,000 people see your Facebook ads, however only 100 click them, then you’ll only pay for the 100 clicks despite getting your message across to a total of 1,000 people.

It is one of the easiest ways of driving targeted traffic to your site. Some popular PPC platforms include Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and LinkedIn Ads. You can test them all out by running a small campaign with a limited budget, just to see which platform yields a better result.

Google Ads is often the preferred option for many advertisers because of the advanced targeting options it has. For instance, you can show your ads specifically to people in your target location who Google the phrase “best financial advisors”.

You can also target your prospective clients based on their income class, interests, gender, marital status, and many other factors. If you have a buyer persona then you can easily reach them with such advanced targeting options. Running a PPC campaign is one of the most effective digital marketing strategy for financial services.

3. Set up retargeting ads

Retargeting is a popular advertising model where ads get shown to people who previously visited a website.

Studies show that people who have been retargeted have up to a 70% higher conversion rate than people seeing an ad for the first time. It’s a great strategy to implement simultaneously with your other PPC campaigns.

In most cases, website visitors are actually people who are interested in your financial services. They may have been researching financial advisors when they stumbled upon it, or just saw some of your PPC ads.

Retargeting helps you specifically target them with ads which are designed to drive action. For example, you can offer a free 30 minute online consultation just to get them to call you.

4. Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the process of increasing a website’s authority to help it rank higher on search engines for all relevant queries. It is currently the leading digital marketing strategy for organic growth on the internet.

Your local SEO goal should be to rank your site among the top Google results for queries such as:

“Best financial advisors in [insert your city]”
“Where can I get a financial advisor in [insert your city]”
“Top 10 financial advisors in [insert your city]”

People who are searching for such phrases are clearly interested in financial services. The higher your ranking is on Google, the greater the traffic you’re likely to get from relevant searches.

SEO is a long process that can take months or even years, however it is definitely worth the effort. There’s nothing better than traffic from the search engines because you don’t have to pay for it. It can even eliminate the need to spend money on ads.

SEO has two main parts. The first is on-site SEO, which involves optimizing the pages on your site to make them user friendly. Some ways to do that include increasing the loading speed and making the pages mobile responsive. Responsive pages load seamlessly across all devices, including smartphones, computers and even TVs. If you built your site using a Wix template then all the pages should be optimized by default.

The second part is off-site SEO, which entails the dreaded process of link building. Whenever another site links to your site, Google considers it a referral, which is a sign of authority. Therefore the more sites link to your site, the more authoritative it becomes, and the higher the ranking it gets.

5. Social media marketing

Social media is an area that is often neglected by many professionals because of how time consuming it can be. There’s no better place to find all your prospective clients in a casual and relaxed state of mind, browsing for hours upon hours. Just like owning a website, having a strong social media presence makes it easier for people looking for your services to find you.

If you don’t have the time nor personnel to run your social media marketing campaigns, you’d rather outsource it to a freelancer or a virtual assistant than skip it altogether. You can create accounts for your financial services on popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Your social media manager’s main responsibilities will include publishing new posts daily, engaging with users, responding to messages, and growing your following. The more followers you have, the more people you can reach with your marketing messages.

Another advantage of having social media pages is that they often get a high ranking on Google. Therefore whenever people are searching for financial services in your target location, or are looking for a company that specializes in Financial Services Outsourcing, they could also come across your social pages in the search results.

6. Get reviews

According to Moz, 67% of internet users are influenced by reviews. Reviews are one of the few ways that businesses can demonstrate credibility and social proof over the internet. Without them, you’d be forcing your leads to rely on their gut feeling, since they have no way of judging whether you are as good as you claim to be.

Reviews simply help people make decisions. The more positive reviews you have, the more they can trust your competence, even if they’ve never met you before.

You start collecting reviews by asking for them from previous clients who you have a great relationship with. Make sure to create a page on your website where you can proudly display them like trophies in a cabinet. You can also publish them on your social media pages.

7. Get a GMB page

Google My Business, or GMB, is a tool that lets businesses create and manage their online profiles. GMB pages often get the highest ranking on Google Search as well as a placement on Google Maps.

They are very important digital assets because they can help you be more visible to people searching.

A GMB page is like a mini website that gives a summary of your services and enables people to easily grab your contacts. And if they would like to visit your office, they can follow the map directions.

Another advantage of having a GMB page is that it allows you to easily collect reviews. Whenever clients visit your office, Google automatically sends a request to submit a rating and review.

8. Publish blog posts

A blog is a great way to dominate the internet with content originating from your site, and in the process establish yourself as an authority in the field of finance.

As mentioned earlier, most people who need the services of a financial advisor are likely to first do some research on the specific areas they need help with. If they keep coming across articles from your blog addressing their issues, then they’re naturally going to develop some familiarity with your name. Your value will rise tremendously in their eyes.

If you don’t have the time to write your own posts, you can outsource the work to freelance writers, and act as the chief editor.

You can write posts covering various topics in finance, even if they’re not directly related to your services. Some examples include:

10 ways to create passive income
How to achieve financial freedom in your 30s
How to start investing in stocks

The goal is simply to get your name out there and drive traffic to your site. When you have traffic, you can easily upsell your financial services to your readers.

You can even monetize your blog using Google Adsense, a program that lets you place ads on your site and get paid for every click. Websites in the finance niche have one of the highest earning potentials on Google Adsense.

The key to a successful blog is keyword research; that is the process of finding keywords and phrases that get searched frequently on Google. When you know what they are, then you can write posts covering them.

For example, if you discover that many people in your target location search for the phrase “how to start investing as a beginner”, then you know it’s a topic you can write about that will get traffic.

SEMrush is the most popular keyword research tool used by bloggers to identify high-traffic keywords to write about. You can use it to find content ideas for your blog.

9. Become a contributor on local publications

Becoming a contributor on local publications such as magazines, newspapers and even other blogs is a great way to grow your audience and influence.

Most publications would welcome the idea of having a financial expert as one of its contributors as it would help them get more traffic.

Your column can focus on any topics that are likely to generate public interest, similar to your blog content.

Although contributors usually don’t get compensated for their work, what they get is an opportunity to promote themselves to a new audience. They can also add back links to their own website, which helps drive referral traffic and increase their SEO score.

10. Directory listings

A lot of people use directories such as Yellow Pages to find services and business contacts. You can create listings on the major directory platforms just to cater to the people using them.

In order to run a successful business in this digital era, you need to have an omnipresence on the internet. You need to be everywhere people are likely to go look for you.

Publishing listings on directory sites is also a great way to get backlinks for your site, which in turn helps boost your SEO score. Most platforms will give you an option to add your website URL.

11. Email marketing

Email campaigns have one of the highest conversion rates in all of digital marketing. The average open rate for emails is 21.3%, which is significantly higher than most other advertising formats such as PPC. A lot of people spend a large chunk of their day on their email, just like they do on social media.

Once your website starts generating traffic through the strategies discussed, you can start collecting emails by integrating an opt-in form requesting people to sign up for your newsletters.

Publishing monthly newsletters is a great way to keep people on the loop about the latest news, send some useful financial tips and advice, and indirectly market your services. You can even repurpose some of your blog content for your newsletters.

12. Answer Quora questions

Quora is a popular Q&A site where millions of internet users take their questions to.

You can search for questions related to your specific areas of focus in finance, and simply provide elaborate answers. Every time you answer a question, you can share a link to your website. You can also share links to articles on your blog covering the subject in greater detail, to help drive referral traffic.

Quora questions often get thousands of views from people facing similar problems. If they find your answers to be helpful, and need further assistance, then they can get in touch with you through your site. It’s a simple yet effective digital marketing strategy for financial services.

13. Join relevant social media groups

Social media groups and forums are a great place to find people who might be interested in the services of a financial advisor.

You can join groups on Facebook and LinkedIn related to your buyer persona’s field of work or industry. For example, if your buyer persona is an entrepreneur based in the US, you can join the popular Facebook group Business Owners, Entrepreneurs and StartUps.

Both Facebook and LinkedIn have niche groups for almost every industry. After joining a relevant group, make sure to be an active member by frequently contributing to the discussions. That helps people get acquainted with your name.

Every time you answer a finance-related question, you would be advertising yourself by giving a free sample of your expertise. You can even follow up by sending private messages.

14. Host free webinars

Hosting webinars gives you an opportunity to bring together people who have an interest in financial matters, many of whom may be leads for your services.

Your webinars can focus on trendy topics such as “profitable investment opportunities” and “how to reduce corporate taxes”.

Make sure to start promoting the event weeks in advance to give people enough time to plan to attend. You can promote it on your social media platforms as well as on your email newsletters. The goal is to get as many attendants as possible.

Once the webinar is done, you can break down the video and use it as content for your website and social media pages.

Whenever people come across videos of you in such an authoritative position as the host of a webinar, then you immediately gain credibility and your value rises. Webinars are an extremely underrated digital marketing strategy despite being so effective at generating quality leads.