After setting up our digital marketing suite for over 10,000 financial advisors, we have learned a few things about our clients and their marketing efforts.
We have noticed a few patterns emerge over the last eight years. Here are the three biggest mistakes that we see advisors making on a regular basis.
They Don’t Have a Good Website
Your website serves as the first impression prospects receive regarding your company. We find that most advisors have some website already. However, these websites are too often simply ‘brochure sites’ or simple pages without much design or content that serve as business cards for people looking you up online.
It is no longer enough for your website’s main purpose to be nothing more than giving out your phone number. A website needs to communicate your brand and personality, both visually and through the quality content. It should be equipped with lead capture mechanisms and gated content to lure prospects into joining your mailing list. If you are still relying on a brochure site as your primary online presence, it is time to make a change.
They Don’t Communicate a UVP
It will only become more difficult to stand out as a financial advisor. Ibis World estimates that financial advice is a 56 Billion dollar industry and that despite a few years of contraction, the sector is due to expand through 2022. How are you going to differentiate yourself from the other operators in the marketplace? The answer is your Unique Value Proposition.
Once you can articulate the features and benefits of your service that distinguish you from your competition, it is then your responsibility to communicate your unique position through your marketing. By concentrating on keywords your ideal client would search for and creating insightful content answering your prospect’s real questions, you can go a long way to securing your market share of this growing industry.
They Don’t Have a Written Marketing Plan
It may seem like overkill to some to sit down and write out a marketing plan. It might seem like enough to just dedicate time and energy to social and perhaps some blogging and hope for the best. But the reality is quite the opposite. It is the advisors who take the time to write out their marketing plans and keep them in accessible documents that have the greatest success.
In the Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs 2015 B2C Content Marketing Trends report, they found that service professionals who had a written marketing plan were twice as likely to have successful marketing operations as those who just kept it in their head. If you are looking to take your marketing to the next level, consider writing it all down.
It is not easy to create a thriving marketing operation for your firm, but if you avoid these few mistakes and work with a trusted marketing partner like FMG Suite you are sure to achieve success.
