These days finding new leads can feel more competitive than ever before. The good news is that financial advisors can also generate leads more easily than ever before by leveraging personalized digital marketing on the right channels.
Don’t worry, this article will not advise you to write posts on social media all day long. Instead, you will get some insight into the larger strategy you can leverage to keep your marketing funnel filled. Top-earning financial advisors are those who have mastered the art of understanding their ideal clients and knowing where to find them. They are also savvy with using online tools to help make the prospecting process easier and more effective.
Whether you are just getting started in your career as a financial advisor or you are a seasoned professional, read on to learn how you can leverage digital tools and personalized marketing to generate leads and convert them to clients.
Understanding Your Target Audience
One of the most important first steps in finding leads is defining your ideal client profile. Newer financial advisors often start out by approaching everyone they know. They reach out to friends, family members, and even random strangers. While this method may get your business card in more hands, is it really the most effective way to find ideal clients? The answer is, no.
More experienced financial advisors often take the approach of following up with referrals or trying to target clients they assume will most likely have access to investment capital.
What both of these approaches miss, is the importance of creating a buyer persona. A buyer persona is a detailed profile of the client that you most want to serve. Developing a thorough awareness of who your ideal client is, sets you up to be more efficient and more effective in finding quality leads as a financial advisor.
A helpful way to begin creating a buyer persona is to start by taking a look at your best client experiences. Who have you had the most success with? Who have you enjoyed working with the most? What common traits can you observe among these clients?
You will also want to take stock of what motivates your ideal client. What are their biggest challenges? What goals matter most to them? What stops them from taking action and moving forward?
Use this Buyer Persona Worksheet to help you “paint a picture” of the type of client that is an ideal fit for you. You may be surprised by how much clarity you gain from this simple exercise. (Tip: Make it fun! It's a common practice to even give your buyer persona a name to create a strong connection with that niche.)
Spend some time with this now, to ensure your lead generation efforts are not ad hoc, leaving you time-poor with few viable prospects.
Finding Your Prospects
It seems like just about everything can be found online these days - and that means your prospects too! After you’ve developed your buyer persona and you have a clear picture of your ideal client, it’s time to find them and reach out.
Social Media
The reach of platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and Instagram is undeniable. The secret sauce in leveraging these social media channels is defining your message and sharing it consistently. Wait, didn’t we say no posting all day long? Yes, you’re right. While you do not need to be on social media all day writing posts, you will need to define a window of time you can consistently commit to. Why? Because showing up consistently online will help to steadily build an audience who resonates with your message. When a potential customer is looking for a financial advisor, your content will be there.
Here’s a basic plan to build consistent sharing on your social platform(s) of choice:
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This is a simple first step to building the habit of consistency. You don’t need to be on social media every day, but you do need a routine that allows you to build a presence and be there when your ideal client comes knocking.
High Net-Worth Investors ($25 Million +) Using Social Media (1)
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68% |
47% |
46% |
Overall, 70 percent of high net-worth investors use some form of social media. (2)
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Did you know? You can expand your reach with Advisor Websites Automated Social Media Sharing tool. This tool links your blog with your social media accounts and automatically posts your new articles. Each post allows you to reach thousands of potential clients with a click of a button. Learn more about this tool and others HERE. |
Other forms of content marketing are also powerful for generating leads. You could try an email newsletter or blog. If you enjoy talking and being on camera, a YouTube channel is another great option. The key is showing up consistently with your unique message and engaging with people to build rapport.
Leveraging The Right Tools
As your audience grows through your social media channels, you will want to make sure you are leading those prospects who resonate with your message to your own online home - your website. This next step is key for turning your leads into clients.
Blog & Personalized Website Content
Providing personalized content through the right channels - social, email, and your website! By personalizing your content to your ideal client profile, you draw your prospects in and further down the funnel. And by providing education and value first., you're effectively building trust with your prospects and building your website search engine optimization (SEO) - which is a catalyst to your inbound marketing.
Content advances your website's performance and lead generation by:
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Building Trust Through Sharing Industry Knowledge |
Providing Additional Value to Clients and Aiding in Retention |
Boosting Your Website's Search Engine Optimization |
What exactly do we mean by personalized content?
Content that addresses the pain and problems that your buyer persona commonly faces. For example, what are frequently asked questions you get from your clients now? The probability is that your prospects have the same questions and they're turning to Google for the answers. This is your chance to be in the right place with the help they need.
Whether you write a monthly or bi-weekly blog or film a quick video speaking to your audience, what you write about matters because it will determine the quality of leads you bring into your funnel. This is why we can't stress enough to start with defining your buyer persona (aka ideal client) and write personalized content for their needs as if you're speaking directly to them!
| Did You Know? Advisor Websites Content Library equips you with ready-to-use articles, videos, and images for your content marketing strategy. Easily customize the articles in your own voice and revise to target your ideal client base before publishing. Schedule a demo to see it in action. |
Email Marketing
Last but certainly not least. Is once you've created and shared the right content and converted your website visitors into leads, it's time to nurture them into new business.
For email specifically, it's important to have the right system of automation that will make sure all of your online prospecting efforts don’t go to waste. Our Automated Email Marketing Solutions for Financial Advisors is specifically designed to give you landing pages and email newsletters that integrate with your website. Best of all, this system is easy to execute!
There are many approaches you can take to nurturing your leads. However, automating your processes will save you hours of time and be most effective in getting your leads to move forward with you. Read this blog to learn more about the advantages of marketing automation, specifically when it comes to financial advisor newsletters.
(1) https://www.putnam.com/static/pdf/advisor/putnam-social-advisor-survey-6.pdf
(2) https://spectrem.com/Content/reaching-wealthy-investors-social-media.aspx
(3) https://www.stateofinbound.com/
WHO ARE WE?
At Advisor Websites we help financial advisors grow their business and enhance their digital marketing strategies with their own personalized website. Our platform offers a selection of effective and proven frameworks that are personalized to reflect your business and brand.
