Digital Marketing Tactics that Deliver More Prospects

Agile

Moving fast in the world of content creation is a necessity for social and digital marketers.

Not only can you respond to opportunities, but it helps you recover from failures quickly. (There will be failures.)

Agility is the difference between a digital marketing strategy that succeeds and one that does not; the key is adjusting on the fly.

Agility in action – Don’t spend years writing a book. Instead start with a book chapter – a white paper or free report – and test that topic as a lead magnet in your social and digital marketing.

Analytics

Analytics are the only window into which website copy, social promotions or content is working.

Use something like Google Analytics to discover trends in overall traffic, unique visitors and performance of different media and ads.

Leverage marketing automation, which integrates with your CRM to track specific offers and landing pages, where the traffic that converts to leads is coming from, and what issues are leading to conversations and sales opportunities.

Analytics in action – Analytics will tell you not only which blog post was the most-widely read, but which yield leads and paying clients!

Automation

Marketing automation is technology that captures website traffic, tags and segment contacts as they respond to different offers, so you can follow up with leads.

Ideally, marketing-automation technology integrates with your website and automates the process of sending an email sequence that turns connections to clients by moving them from:

• White Paper download; to
• Webinar or seminar attendee or video viewer; to
• Meeting or consultation request.

Automation in action – Avoid content like monthly newsletters or social posts on the market. Build trust and a more meaningful relationship with custom, educational content that addresses buyer emotions around planning and investing.

Audience

The most important thing advisors and marketers must do is personalize content to specific audiences.

Social media technology and AI helps you research your markets, customize marketing messages and get in front of prospects when they are looking for an advisor or firm like yours.

For example, a quick search on my LinkedIn revealed there are 442 chief marketing officers (CMOs) in California who are my first- or second-degree connections.

We know statistically that CMOs change jobs every 3.5 years and earn an average of $347,100 per year.

Messaging and influencer marketing, which helps transition CMOs to their next role, is likely to be popular with this audience.

Could a California financial planner expect to add four clients per year focusing on being the financial planning expert for this niche of wealthy job changers?

You bet, by designing a very targeted marketing system for those individuals.

Audience in action – Avoid the notion that the average investor or planner is your audience. That is too broad. Leverage the intelligence available on social media to “narrowcast” to attract individual segments like the CMO example.

Authority and Influencers

Every industry has influencers – people who the rest of us look up to because of their work, followers, position in an industry, or content.

Knowing who has influence among your audience helps social and digital marketers tap into individual followings and niche media.

For example, if 20% of a CMO audience follows an author like Seth Godin, I can hire Seth to speak on my next webinar and promote to both my and his followers.

I am not hiring a speaker who is an Influencer to financial advisors. The process narrows to a specific audience first then uncovers who is an Influencer in that market.

Influencers in action – Create a relationship with an industry influencer, then offer content or an event together, and build your own authority and reach with your audience.

Buyer emotions

Knowing your audience’s emotions, especially when they are looking for an advisor or firm, is critical.

Financial marketing seeks to make a rational case for planning or investing, but humans buy emotionally and only later go back and justify with facts.

Those emotional nuances should be sprinkled throughout your social and digital marketing like breadcrumbs that lead your potential client to want to do business with you.

Knowing your audience and their hopes, dreams and fears when they are searching for and selecting an advisor will guide your focus for your content.

Buyer emotions in action –Define a specific buyer, or “persona,” to bring dimension to your prospect profiles. When creating content for an audience, I often have in front of me the social media profile of a specific individual so I can write to appeal to that one person.

Custom content

Creating your own content is an investment versus using third-party or firm content. But it is an investment that will pay off generously.

Allow subject-matter experts, clients or freelancers to create your content with you as a co-author or for you in a ghostwriting role.

Focus on evergreen or forever content for your core niche that speaks to prospects and upsells clients.

Custom content in action – Create content that targets an issue your audience has when their “money is in motion.”

For example, one of my advisor clients targeted long-time employees of a large shipping company in his area. His seminar/workshop/webinar, Seven Steps to Take When You Get a Buyout Offer, literally created the practice of his dreams over a decade.

Call to action

A call-to-action is a critical part of your social and digital marketing because it is a specific direction to turn connections and followers into contacts in your marketing database.

Avoid the common mistake of driving social connections and web ads directly to a consultation page. That is like asking someone to marry you on a first date.

Drive all traffic to a specific landing page on your website.

The online “ask” could be to subscribe to your blog or newsletter.

For a higher conversion rate, offer educational content like white papers and webinars.

Call to action in action – Tell them exactly what to do online. Use phrases and a call to action like “instant access to my white paper,” “register now for the webinar,” or “subscribe to our blog here.”

Conversion rate

Website traffic and social followers are great, but clients fuel your practice and its growth.

Conversion rates take the guesswork out of marketing.

They tell you which content is turning visitors into leads and leads into clients.

For example, many advisors convert three client or influencer referrals to two meetings to one client.

Conversion rates in action – Ideally your core webinar about your investment strategy or planning services would turn every 15 webinar registrants into two meetings and one client.

Adopt the ABCs of digital marketing, and always be converting.

Bob Hanson is a fractional marketer and author of Marketing Power for Financial Advisors. Get his checklist, Nine Questions Advisors Must Ask Before They Hire a Marketing Agency, Fractional or Full-Time Marketer, click here.

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