The Financial Advisor's Guide to Digital Marketing

Why does it seem like every technology company, consultant, and business guru is talking about digital marketing right now?

One reason is because we spend so much of our lives online today. Just over half of the world’s population has a social media account and the average person spends about 2 hours and 20 minutes every day on social media alone.

When it comes to financial advisors, research says that social media can be one of the most effective ways to acquire new business. In one study, 92% of advisors who use social media for business said it helped them find new clients, and the average new client acquired through social was worth just under $5 million.

Social media, however, is just one digital marketing strategy. There are many more possibilities. We haven’t even touched on how much video people watch—a number that rises by 100% every single year on mobile devices.

Before diving into specific digital strategies, let’s establish what digital marketing is and how your advisory firm can benefit from it.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is simply any kind of marketing that exists online. As you start learning about digital marketing, you’re likely to encounter an approach called inbound content marketing.

In inbound content marketing, a business regularly creates new content (blog posts, videos, etc.) designed to provide valuable information to prospective customers. When those customers find the content helpful, they then have an opportunity to reach out to the business, instead of the business reaching out to them.

That’s where the "inbound" part comes from: leads are coming into the business, instead of the business going out and contacting prospective customers to convince them to work with them.

Digital Marketing vs. Other Popular Methods of Client Acquisition

For most of the history of financial services, inbound content marketing hasn’t been the primary method of acquiring new clients. Most forms of client acquisition relied on outbound marketing attempts. Here are a few examples:

Cold Calling

Cold calling is one of the oldest sales techniques, often used by young employees just entering the industry. It relies on making a phone call to a prospective client—who may or may not be interested—to try to interest them in the company’s services.

The “smile and dial” technique isn’t very effective. A study by LinkedIn found that less than 2% of cold calls result in scheduling an appointment. Cold calling is time consuming, requires tremendous sales skills, and is more of a numbers game than anything else.

In-Person Events

Financial advisors have long built their businesses on in-person events like educational seminars. While many advisors found success with seminar marketing, the expenses associated with them could be prohibitive. An in-person seminar often requires renting a conference room, marketing the event, and providing a meal.

The shift to remote work in 2020 made in-person events less popular. Advisors have discovered the benefits of digital marketing, which doesn’t require time-consuming tasks like cold calling or planning events.

The Digital Marketing Funnel

Digital marketing focuses on warming up a person to the idea of working with a business by providing different types of valuable content over time. This process can be thought of as a funnel, moving a person from “stranger” to client.

The average person interacts with 11 pieces of content before making a decision to purchase or work with a brand.

There are three parts of the funnel:

Top of Funnel

At this stage, content is about creating awareness of your brand, not attempting to close a sale. Content should address an issue a prospect is encountering and help them solve that problem. Examples include blog posts, infographics, or ebooks.

Middle of Funnel

Once a prospect is aware of your brand, their repeated interactions move them to the middle of the funnel. Here, they are considering whether your company is right for them. Content can go deeper and more specific, such as email nurture campaigns or webinars.

Bottom of Funnel

At the bottom of the funnel, prospects are ready to make a decision. Content becomes ultra-specific, focusing on why your firm is the right choice. Examples include webinars or comparison fact sheets.

Most advisors will find it necessary to use a marketing automation system to run their marketing funnel. Marketing automation tracks interactions and automatically moves prospects further down the funnel, providing increasingly relevant information.

Content Foundations for Digital Marketing

There is a tremendous variety of content your firm can produce. Here are the most common types:

• ​Blogging: The most popular way to create consistent marketing content and bring people to your website. If you don’t like writing, you can outsource or create a vlog.
• ​Email marketing: Getting someone’s email address gives you permission to communicate with them in a personal way.
• ​Social media: A valuable way to discover and engage with new prospective clients. Updated SEC advertising rules provide more leeway to interact with clients and prospects.
• ​Website: Your firm’s website is the home base for all digital marketing content. The goal is to bring prospects back to your website for more valuable content.
• ​Digital advertising: Retargeting allows you to remind people who visited your website to return.
• ​Video: YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine. Video is an important part of digital marketing, allowing you to be present wherever someone is searching for answers.
• ​Other collateral: Includes ebooks, white papers, and client case studies. Your imagination is the only limit to the amount and type of content you can create.

Getting Organized: Why an Editorial Calendar is an Advisor’s Best Friend

With so much content to create, being organized about what and when you publish is key. Any financial advisor investing in digital marketing should use an editorial calendar (or content calendar).

At minimum, your content calendar should include:

• ​Content Topic (What it’s about)
• ​Type of Content
• ​Publish Date
• ​Who’s Responsible

Using a content calendar helps you publish more consistently. Nothing derails good marketing faster than missed deadlines. The content calendar helps you get your thoughts in order so you can focus on serving clients.

Think of planning your marketing content as similar to helping clients formalize their financial goals.

It might seem overwhelming to get started with digital marketing, but the truth is the opposite. Pick one thing to start doing, and start small. As your skills increase and you see results, you can add to the amount and variety of content you create.

The world has moved online, and you need to be there too.