OPPORTUNITIES EVERY ADVISOR HAS IN ENHANCING THEIR DIGITAL FOOTPRINT
PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE
DIGITAL MARKETING
7
THE STATE OF
WHAT WE DISCOVERED FROM COACHING 500 ADVISORS ON IMPROVING THEIR DIGITAL BRAND
FOR FINANCIAL ADVISORS
2 PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS04 INTRODUCTION 06 OPPORTUNITY 1: RETHINK MODERN MARKETING
07 OPPORTUNITY 2: HARNESS THE POWER OF YOUR STORY
09 OPPORTUNITY 3: CAPITALIZE ON MARKETING RESOURCES
10 OPPORTUNITY 4: SIMPLIFY YOUR SEO STRATEGY
11 OPPORTUNITY 5: ALIGN YOUR DIGITAL EXPERIENCE WITH YOUR IDEAL CLIENTS
12 OPPORTUNITY 6: REINVENT YOUR WEBSITE
13 OPPORTUNITY 7: MONITOR YOUR DIGITAL METRICS
14 CONCLUSION
3PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE
Phone: (800) 514-9116
Email: [email protected]
Peak Advisor Alliance Headquarters13321 California St.Suite 100Omaha, NE 68154
EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThe evolution of consumer behavior has presented a number of challenges for financial advisors, but none are more pressing
than the need to create a memorable impression and meaningful experience for those who engage with their firm. In a nutshell,
investor behavior has changed so rapidly the majority of advisors are wondering where they lost touch along the way.
Through our conversations, surveys, and long-standing relationships with over 1,000 financial advisors across the country, we’ve
taken this challenge to heart. Our profession is undergoing dramatic change and, with all of this movement, we see immense
potential and opportunity in how advisors re-invent themselves to stay relevant and connect with their clients in ways they haven’t
before. What we found as partners alongside them for the journey of building a digital presence was enlightening. With all the
diversity that exists in branding an advisory firm, we discovered advisors really aren’t as differentiated as they once thought.
7 OPPORTUNITIES IN MODERN MARKETINGIn fact, when it comes to building a modern marketing plan, we discovered the majority of advisors are all in the same position:
wondering how and where to begin. As with any major initiative in your office, the answer lies in having a specific purpose and
defined goals. The goal of this whitepaper is to help you design a compelling online experience that connects and converts. With
that in mind, we uncovered seven digital marketing opportunities every advisor should consider as our profession continues to
evolve in 2015 and beyond:
Opportunity 1: Rethink Modern MarketingOpportunity 2: Harness the Power of Your StoryOpportunity 3: Capitalize on Marketing Resources Opportunity 4: Simplify Your SEO StrategyOpportunity 5: Align Your Digital Experience with Your Ideal ClientsOpportunity 6: Reinvent Your WebsiteOpportunity 7: Monitor Your Digital Metrics
We’ve seen the proof! These opportunities not only differentiate firms from the rest but also give advisors the edge in an area of
the practice that promises to be a leading indicator of success: enhancing the client-advisor relationship. In a time when investors
have more options than ever before – and more businesses competing for their limited attention – designing a memorable digital
presence couldn’t be any more vital for future growth or any closer to the purest definition of “opportunity.”
7 Opportunities. 9 Tools. 1 Interactive Whitepaper.
4 PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE
THE STATE OF DIGITAL MARKETING FOR FINANCIAL ADVISORS
7 Opportunities Every Advisor Has In Enhancing Their Digital Footprint
What We Discovered from Coaching 500 Advisors on Improving Their Digital Brand
he high net-worth investor of 2015 is an
intriguing prospect. They are more connected
to their devices (91 percent of adults have a
smartphone within arm’s reach 24/7 according
to Morgan Stanley), more interactive with their peers (social
media is now the top Internet activity), and more opinionated
(46 percent feel they can be brutally honest online according
to a study by Harris Poll) than ever. They have shorter attention
spans, expect on-demand service, and see convenience in
everything they do as the new standard. This evolution of
consumer behavior has presented a number of challenges for
financial advisors as they try to create a memorable impression
and meaningful experience for those who engage with their
firm. In a nutshell, investor behavior has changed, but the
majority of advisors haven’t.
According to a 2014 study done by DigitalFA, two-thirds of
millionaires said they would like to use electronic media
with their advisor. In regards to social media, LinkedIn has
become the leading source for investors who seek financial
information. According to LinkedIn’s recent research, there
are approximately 5 million affluent investors ($100,000+ in
investable assets) using their social network, 73 percent of
which use it specifically for researching investment decisions.
Yet, with this increasing percentage of interest from investors,
less than 5 percent are actively being engaged by a financial
Tadvisor. If that alone doesn’t set the stage for the amount of
untapped opportunity, consider the fact nearly 70 percent of
consumers now learn about a company through online content
versus ads, and 93 percent of digital experiences begin with a
search online.
Combine some of these hard numbers with the resounding
qualitative feedback we’ve been collecting from our universe
of more than 1,000 advisors over the past two years and
you’ll soon realize the immense potential our profession has
in connecting with investors. Peak Advisor Alliance has taken
“Investor behavior has changed, but the majority of advisors haven’t.”
5PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE
an innovative leap into this territory
because we understand these pressing
challenges perhaps more than any
other content and coaching program
in our space. The need to build a magnetic digital presence that tells a compelling story couldn’t be more of an advantage during an era of diminishing attention spans. In fact, we felt so strongly about
the changing landscape, we designed
a command center that can fuse the
practice management content needed
in any advisory practice with a new
platform that allows advisors to manage
their entire digital presence from one
place. Along with this initiative, we spoke
with hundreds of advisors, helped rethink
how they leveraged their digital brand,
and provided direction on how to move
forward.
What we found as partners alongside
them for the journey was astonishing.
Building a modern marketing plan
is deceivingly complicated without
asking the right questions first. There
are countless channels and avenues to
consider and even more confusion on
how to appropriately target ideal clients.
The preparation and thoughtfulness that
goes into developing a digital marketing
plan is directly related to the success an
advisory firm experiences in executing
the strategy itself. As the old saying goes,
failing to plan is planning to fail. It all
begins with having a defined purpose
and designing online experiences with
investors that connect and convert.
As a consulting firm that always keeps
a pulse on the biggest opportunities
and challenges advisors face, something
became extremely apparent in our
research: with all the chatter around
crafting a modern marketing plan,
advisors have nowhere to turn for
guidance or direction on where to point
“Building a modern marketing plan is deceivingly complicated without asking the right questions first”
their focus. So, here are the seven biggest digital marketing opportunities we see as
our profession continues to evolve in 2015 and beyond:
1. Rethink Modern Marketing2. Harness the Power of Your Story3. Capitalize on Marketing Resources4. Simplify Your SEO Strategy5. Align Your Digital Experience with Your Ideal Clients6. Reinvent Your Website7. Monitor Your Digital Metrics
6 PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE
With higher demands from investors on immediacy and
convenience, advisors have yet to tap into the power of an
integrated marketing plan. By incorporating several touch
points and linking the various channels your clients use to
interact with your firm, you can begin to understand how each
avenue contributes to the big picture. But, before we get to the
big picture it’s important to share some of the misconceptions
advisors have when using digital channels to execute their
modern marketing plan.
MISCONCEPTIONS IN SOCIAL MEDIAThe first misconception relates to social media. Not only did
we find advisors seldom understood the functional difference
between a personal and company social profile, but also that
they didn’t realize how these social channels affected the
overall experience of their online brand. For example, in several
of our personal consultations, many had an epiphany when they
realized their social profiles could also serve the alternative
purpose of driving traffic to their website. Traffic that wouldn’t
have otherwise been generated through a search engine
because of how consumer preferences have changed. Social
media remains an untapped resource. And, not because advisors
haven’t adopted this medium; rather, because they don’t yet
realize the full potential it has in the grand scheme of building
an online presence. Adjusting to this mentality couldn’t be more
beneficial or timely. In our annual Advisor Insights study, “social
media” was chosen by advisors as the biggest opportunity for
RETHINK MODERN MARKETING1
OPPORTUNITIES TO ENHANCE YOUR DIGITAL FOOTPRINT7
THETOP
growth in digital marketing followed by “content marketing” and
“video marketing.”
MISCONCEPTIONS IN VIDEO MARKETINGThis brings us to another misunderstood arm of an advisor’s
digital marketing strategy – video. Again, not because advisors
didn’t see the appeal, but because they didn’t grasp the full
flexibility and fluidity of how a single video could be used in
a variety of channels and for a number of purposes. Produce a
video for your website, announce it on your Facebook company
page, embed it on other partner sites via YouTube, play it at the
beginning of your next open house for clients, and showcase
it in your next email newsletter to prospects. These are five
ways to maximize the same video, and it only took a second to
brainstorm.
The engagement you receive from a simple video blows any
other method of communication out of the water. Visual
“Social media and video marketing tend to be two of the most misunderstood digital avenues advisors utilize when developing a multi-channel marketing plan.”
7PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE
CONVERT – Define the compelling value you offer to entice
them to want more.
ENGAGE – Develop a strategy around how your clients are
treated once they move forward with your firm. Do you have
a communication plan in place? Are you periodically gauging
them to exceed expectations? And, are you coaching them on
how to bring you referrals?
Get a better visual of what an “integrated” marketing plan looks
like by downloading our Modern Marketing Plan Sample below.
Download Our Modern Marketing Plan Sample Here
2
information is processed by the brain 60,000 times faster than
text, according to research compiled by 3M. Or, as Dr. James
McQuivey from Forrester Research explains, it’s like comparing
the value of 1.8 million words to a one-minute video! With that
sort of effectiveness, it’s easy to understand why those who
watch video on a website are reported to stay twice as long,
looking through twice as many pages. It’s also why YouTube has
become the second largest search engine in the world.
We retain 80 percent of what we see, 20 percent of what
we read, and only 10 percent of what we hear. Combine all
those human senses into one experience, and you’ll find
video marketing has the potential to change the way clients
and prospects interact with your firm. According to data from
Syndacast, videos will be responsible for 74 percent of all
internet traffic by 2017. With that outlook, there’s no better time
than now for advisors to engage investors and create a lasting
impression by leveraging video. Here are a few things you can
do to raise your marketing IQ (Implementation Quotient).
RAISE YOUR IQ: SCRIPT YOUR NEXT VIDEOTake the first step to producing a video of your own by writing
out a script. Defining the purpose and message of your video is
the most important piece of the process, and it doesn’t cost you
a thing. Use the exercises below and consider partnering with
experts who can take you the rest of the way (like the Peak
Advisor Alliance production team).
Download Our Video Scripting Exercise Here
Download a Sample Script for an Explainer Video Here
RAISE YOUR IQ: CRAFT YOUR MODERN MARKETING PLANVideo and social media are just two of the countless extensions
advisors need to leverage in order to assemble an integrated
modern marketing plan. Building a consistent experience across
all mediums is what investors have come to expect. Your role is
to ensure those experiences and touch points work together to
create a memorable brand.
To help you outline the main components of any marketing
plan, start with the RACE method:
REACH – Determine the preferred channels of communication
your clients and prospects expect. Ask yourself where they
spend the majority of their time online.
ACQUIRE – Brainstorm how easily they can engage with you
through these channels and tell them what to do next to
continue the conversation.
“Building a consistent experience across all mediums is what investors have come to expect. Your role is to ensure those experiences and touch points work together to create a memorable brand.”
HARNESS THE POWER OF YOUR STORY
We live in a time where companies are seeing new potential
in creating business plans and annual growth goals centered
around one currency: consumer attention. But, attention has
grown increasingly difficult to capture. People are becoming
more comfortable interacting with media than they are with
each other, which poses an interesting challenge for advisors.
With so much content to consume and a never-ending choice
of platforms and devices to leverage, how do financial advisors
grab the attention of their ideal clients and, more importantly,
keep that attention by standing out from the rest?
The first part of the answer starts with a little bit of good news
about human nature. We, as humans, are wired to empathize
and emotionally connect with each other. We’re simply doing it
8 PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE
by using the technology in front of us every day. And, because
this urge to communicate is built into our DNA, we search
for solutions to our problems with both logic and emotion.
The second part of the answer has to do with how advisors
use emotion to connect with clients and prospects. The most
revealing opportunity we found in our research over the past
two years was the absence of storytelling.
WHY DO BUSINESS WITH YOU?Storytelling is an art and a science, but both can be mastered
by starting with your why. Nearly every advisor we worked
with over the past two years didn’t have the answer to this
question weaved into the fabric of their online presence. Every
advisor, every team, every practice has a story to tell. In fact,
it’s probably something you share with people more than you
realize but that same compelling story is not bleeding into
your digital channels. The advisor who infuses emotion into
his or her story – and explains why they do what they do in all
sectors of their marketing – has the best chance to grab the
attention of that prospect on their website, that client at their
educational event, or that referral who hasn’t even considered
your firm before.
When crafting your story, think about how your audience will
consume the message on a digital device. Just because you
have an old brochure with this type of verbiage doesn’t mean
you should turn a blind eye to refreshing it. Cut down on the
amount of text if more than 600 words or produce a profile
video (around 3 minutes in length) to make your story more
engaging.
RAISE YOUR IQ: TELL YOUR STORYTake the first step in telling your story by showcasing it on
your website. Add a page and title it “Why Do Business with
Us”, “Why Us”, or even “Our Story.” Prominently display this
messaging in a dedicated space that will allow you to explain
how your story drives your firm’s mission.
RAISE YOUR IQ: KNOW YOUR IDEAL CLIENTAs the world gives consumers more and more options – and
puts more of the purchasing power in their hands – they
become harder to convince. Your clients and prospects have
this insatiable appetite to want to know your purpose.
• Why did you become an advisor? • What is your guiding light in running your business? • What meaningful purpose do you have that can speak to
me? • What can I do with this advisor that I couldn’t do before?• How does my advisor make me feel? How do I want to
feel?• How does my advisor and their team become an extension
of me?• What brings us together and keeps me coming back to
them? • What can we do together that I can’t do without my
advisor?
Answer these questions and you’ll see why storytelling is a
huge differentiator.
Download Our Helpful Exercise to Discover How You Can Use
Emotion to Tell Your Story
“The most revealing opportunity we found in our research over the past two years was the absence of storytelling.”
9PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE
By now, you’re probably looking at the first two opportunities
and wondering where you’re going to find the time to tackle the
other five opportunities we’ve yet to cover. Not to fear, our third
opportunity is here to help!
No matter the size of your firm, where your practice is located,
or who you serve as clients, digital disruption is sure to follow.
It’s an inescapable reality that has convinced leading advisors
to invest in marketing resources that specialize in digitizing
their brand. Advisory practices of every size are beginning to
understand how valuable digital marketing is to the future
vitality of their company, whether that means hiring talent,
investing capital in technology, or both. Those who can’t
shell out the money for a full-time specialist are finding
cost-effective ways to collaborate with agencies, freelancers,
and modern marketing services (like Digital Fortress™) that
can easily manage their entire online brand, from building a
dynamic website and creating blog content to social media
strategy.
This opportunity may seem like an elementary observation, but
what we’ve found in working with our advisors is it’s also the
biggest stumbling block as they begin to establish any sort of
digital presence. Those who dedicate a person responsible for
the oversight, direction, and day-to-day management of the
firm’s digital presence – or implement the technology to help
them do it themselves – hold a distinct advantage in both the
speed and quality with which they re-invent their online brand.
The other unrealized advantage this opportunity provides is
saving the advisor time from wearing yet another hat in the
company. For smaller firms or one-man shops, investing in a
full-time marketing associate (which could range anywhere
from $35,000 - $65,000 a year depending on your location
according to GlassDoor and Salary.com) may be an option
but, chances are, it makes more sense to invest that capital in
marketing technology that ends up being more cost-effective,
can streamline communication, automate marketing processes
(like email campaigns), and refresh website content. Prioritizing
this investment over human capital will also give you a solid
foundation to build on if you do decide to hire that person in
the future. Growing a digital presence takes time, energy, and
effort so choosing the right solution will be the difference
between saving you time and pulling your hair out. Advisors
who have team members to draw from can also explore
delegating marketing responsibilities. Expanding their role in
the firm may inspire growth and allow you to capture their
discretionary effort without taking on an additional new hire’s
salary.
Our recent research with efficiency expert Dr. David Lawrence
exposed just how inefficient advisors are with using divergent
solutions, especially as it relates to managing their digital
presence. Advisors invest up to three times as much in both the
hard dollar costs for the initial set-up of their digital channels
and the soft dollar costs (people) in maintaining their online
brand. Because the soft dollars of any practice are hidden in the
firm’s existing expenses (employee wages, etc.), it’s not readily
seen as an impact. However, where it is felt is in the reduction
of time available for other tasks.
Click here to see the hard dollar and soft dollar comparison.
We at Peak Advisor Alliance have seen this efficiency problem in
every area of an advisor’s practice. Just this year, we collaborated
with eMoney’s new emX Select™ platform and built a
single-sign-on function with Digital Fortress so advisors didn’t
have to leave their financial planning software to get to our
digital marketing platform. Whatever the case, the message is
clear: advisory firms of all shapes and sizes need to invest in
technology and the people behind it. It really just comes down
to how. Does it mean hiring a marketing expert, adopting a
digital marketing platform, delegating additional responsibility
to other team members, or a combination of both? Here are a
few tips to help decide what’s right for you:
RAISE YOUR IQ: HIRE TALENT, ADOPT TECHNOLOGY, OR BOTHIf you want to take the first step toward capitalizing on this
opportunity, you must start with considering several factors,
including your current resources, goals, expectations of
marketing, and competitive landscape. Clarifying these areas
will help you understand what type of skills you need for the
new marketing role.
For those in larger firms who have the luxury of delegating this
responsibility to current team members (or hiring for a new
position), it’s time you assign the work. Understand hiring talent
or assigning this role to a current team member is only the
beginning. Possessing the knowledge and skill is an absolute
necessity, but your dedicated people must also have the
necessary tools at their disposal to execute a
3 CAPITALIZE ON MARKETING RESOURCES
10 PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE
modern marketing plan. Partner with a firm that can help your
marketing associate oversee and execute your new web design,
your refreshed messaging, and even your social media strategy.
Leveraging tools like marketing automation, content delivery
systems, and design software is crucial for your marketing
associate to maximize their time, efficiency, and output. Invest
in talent, equip them with the appropriate tools, and they’ll
soon become the linchpin to your success.
Download Our Exercise to See if You Need a Marketing
Generalist or Specialist
Advisors who want to consider a more cost-effective option
in the short-term should consider starting with technology.
Surprisingly enough, marketing platforms can almost serve
as an interim employee in terms of the automation available.
According to Gartner’s Digital Marketing Spend Report, 40
percent of small businesses reported seeing considerable
increases in new clients and time savings from digital
marketing technology. Think of it this way: your platform is
your Marketing Manager, your website is your sales person,
and your email automation system is your communication
plan. You will need to invest some time up-front but, if used
correctly, marketing technology (like Digital Fortress™ and
other options) can end up catapulting your firm’s growth and
increase your brand visibility.
Take our Digital Marketing Assessment to See What Areas You
Need to Invest In
Speaking of brand visibility, search engine optimization is
often over-hyped and sold as the proverbial weight loss pill
that sheds the pounds without ever leaving the couch. When,
in reality, exercise (good content, refreshed design, a powerful
story, and integrated strategy) is much more effective. Yet, when
surveying and consulting with hundreds of advisors over the
past two years, many fall into the trap of throwing loads of
time and money at something they don’t fully understand.
When we ask advisors what they’re looking to improve in their
digital marketing strategy, the number one response we hear
is SEO. And, for good reason. Ninety-three percent of digital
experiences now begin with a search online. Combine this
with the fact Google considers more than 200 factors in each
search query and 1 in 5 searches have never been done before
(according to Jon Mitchell of ReadWrite), and you’ll soon realize
how hard it can be to hit a moving target.
But, before your brain overloads trying to decipher Google’s
algorithms, think about why you want to improve this area of
your digital marketing in the first place. For advisors, this really
comes down to answering two simple questions:
How are clients and prospects finding us online?What are they looking for once they arrive?
4 SIMPLIFY YOUR SEO STRATEGY
“Search engine optimization is often over-hyped and sold as the proverbial weight loss pill that sheds the pounds without ever leaving the couch.”
11PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE
RAISE YOUR IQ: 5 TIPS TO BOOST YOUR ONLINE PROFILEAs complex as SEO may appear, most advisors can start by
boosting their online profile with a few fundamental actions:
Upgrade your local visibility by registering your
website with Google My Business, Yahoo!, and Bing. With
Google’s latest Pigeon update, small businesses now have
the ability to compete locally with larger firms because of
the greater emphasis on the location of the user. Having a
registered business website with a published location just
gives you that much more local visibility, website traffic, and
online conversions.
Incorporate keywords on each page of your site.
Choose a primary focus (describing your ideal client, talking
about your experienced team, etc.) for each page to help
simplify your message.
Create relevant, valuable content (as well as an
editorial calendar) to attract your ideal clients. The more traffic
you organically generate – because people are trained to come
to your site for information – the more visible you are in the
eyes of Google’s algorithm.
Develop a process for refreshing your website. Search
is all about getting users the most recent information; if
Google sees your site as constantly adapting to your audience,
it will regard you as a more credible source.
Get social! Establishing social media networks and
publishing content regularly will only increase your credibility,
both with your target audience and with search engines. Use
LinkedIn’s posting feature to publish engaging content with an
audience hungry for financial information.
A simple way to summarize building your SEO strategy is to
think of it in the form of an equation:
A+B+C=SEOActivity (the frequency in which you update/add relevant
content)
Backlinks (the number of quality referral sites that drive traffic
back to your website)
Content (the substance and value you provide to your target
audience)
Perfect these three areas of your digital presence and the
majority of your SEO strategy is already in place.
Creating a viable digital presence involves many components,
but all are optimized with one person in mind: your ideal
client. The Internet of Things has become the Internet of Me.
Growing a business is all about how you make your clients’
lives easier, more productive, and, while you’re at it, more fun.
So, what does this mean for advisors looking to replicate their
A+ clients? Everything!
For example, we speak with advisors every day who feel their
middle-age clients don’t spend any time on social media. Yet,
research tells us a different story. According to Finect and
The DigitalFA, 68 percent of online U.S. adults that own an
investment account have a profile on at least one social media
network. And, even more surprisingly, 90 percent of affluent
consumers (those who have between $100K-$1M in investable
assets) now use social media. If that doesn’t tell you of the
amazing opportunity in front of you, this will: 63 percent of
these mass affluent will take action after using social media
to learn about financial services. Look at the opportunity the
majority of this profession is missing because of not taking
the time to know where ideal clients are spending their time
online.
Despite these figures, the vast majority of advisors still
assume marketing only comes in the form of a print ad, a TV
commercial, or a piece of direct mail. It’s time to re-imagine
the way you promote your firm and deliver value. Start by
asking yourself some tough questions:
• What specifically have we been hearing from current clients about what they like or dislike about their experience with us?
• What makes us memorable to our prospects before they become clients?
• Where are we delivering value beyond a doubt?• What channels are prospects using to learn about
us?• What avenues are most helpful to our clients when
they need something?
5ALIGN YOUR DIGITAL EXPERIENCES WITH YOUR IDEAL CLIENT
12 PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE
Answering these questions is key to delivering a consistent
and continuous experience across all platforms, devices, and
locations. Don’t be afraid to go a level deeper and put yourself
in your clients’ shoes. Our research has told us this is an area
many advisors feel competent in but haven’t translated the
message to their digital presence. The better you understand
your business and the role it plays in the lives of those
you wish to serve, the more equipped you’ll be to market
your services. A recent Edelman BrandShare study revealed
87 percent of respondents around the world say they want
“meaningful relationships” with brands, yet only 66 percent say
brands don’t share with them at all and 70 percent say that
when they do, it’s only due to “a self-centered desire to increase
profits.” With that much skepticism and negativity around the
current status of relationships between businesses and their
customers, there couldn’t be a better time to make this a focus,
especially as a financial advisor whose profession is designed
to get into the fabric of their clients’ lives. Spelling out exactly
who you work best with on your website and describing the
value they’ll receive closes this relationship gap between
feeling connected to a company and completely anonymous.
RAISE YOUR IQ: SEGMENT YOUR CLIENTS AND DEVELOP PERSONASTake the first step in aligning your digital content to your
ideal audience and segment your clients. Working through
this exercise will allow you to create targeted content and
messaging that appeals to each group. It will also give you
clarity regarding those who aren’t ideal. Once this is done,
you will have a more specific idea of the needs and interests
of each group. Having this detailed background information,
demographic data, and qualitative insight then allows you
to build a fictional, generalized representation of your ideal
clients or, as the marketing world calls them, personas.
Download our client segmentation spreadsheet below to get
you on the right track to segmenting your clients, scoring each
individual on their value to the firm, and developing more
personalized marketing.
Download Our Client Segmentation Spreadsheet Here
With the advent of inbound marketing, websites have been
reinvented. Gone are the days of using your website as an
online version of your print brochure. Ask any advisor when
they last updated their site, and they’ll tell you “we just did
that recently.” After probing a little more you find out “recently”
really means two years ago. In fact our recent Advisor Insights
study confirmed this notion by revealing one in four advisors
haven’t touched their website in more than two years! That’s
where this opportunity begins: with advisors changing their
perception from websites being a project with a beginning
and end to websites as a living, breathing extension of brand.
Gone are the days when one year, much less two, is considered
“recent.” We live in an on-demand culture where immediate
gratification rules and websites are as fluid and changing as
we are. The majority of consumers now go to the web in any
stage throughout the client lifecycle (awareness, consideration,
adoption) making it all the more important to rethink the role
of your website.
Evidence is showing up in nearly every industry study about
the overwhelming amount of financial advisors who don’t fully
tap into the potential of their website as a marketing tool.
According to the InvestmentNews 2014 Financial Performance
Study, a firm’s “website” was chosen by far (65 percent) as the
most successful marketing tool. However, despite this fact,
only 4 in 10 firms report having websites that are optimized
(mobile, content, etc.). In our research, we’re seeing even
more surprising stats. Only 10 percent of advisors in our
2015 Advisor Insights Study report using their website as the
marketing tool of choice when interacting with clients and
prospects.
These numbers have our attention for one reason: advisors
don’t understand the full potential of their company website.
If you think your 18-month-old website is doing the trick, you
may be in for a rude awakening.
RAISE YOUR IQ: BRAINSTORM YOUR WEBSITE’S NEW PURPOSE AS LEAD GENERATOR, EDUCATOR, AND CLOSER For those who see the opportunity to transform the purpose
of their website for the overall goal of bottom-line growth, we
“This opportunity begins with advisors changing their perception from websites being a project with a beginning and end to websites as a living, breathing extension of their brand. ”
6REINVENT YOUR WEBSITE
13PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE
have good news. We’ve discovered the biggest reason advisors
want to enhance their site is lead generation. When committed
to revamping your digital presence, it all starts with the central
hub of your website and how you can drive more clicks, page
views, downloads, and new clients.
Don’t get bedazzled by design. Instead, focus first on the
functionality. The reason advisors aren’t passionate about
re-purposing their website is because they don’t see the
benefits of going through all that time and effort. Rest assured,
it’s absolutely worth your while to maintain your relevance
with prospects. Schedule time with your team to sit down and
brainstorm the new vision of your website.
Download our Website Brainstorm Meeting Agenda (click here
and enter the code “brainstorm”) to guide your conversation.
Think about how to weave call-to-actions (CTAs), engaging
content, and ease of use into your site, and you’ll see why
functionality is trumping design just as showcasing immediate
value is trumping the old sales pitch.
If there’s one area of digital marketing most advisors never even
consider, it’s the task of monitoring the effectiveness of your
website, your content, and your social profiles. Within our own
universe of building hundreds of websites for advisors, we’ve
seen this first-hand. Advisors get so consumed with the initial
build of a website, they forget the responsibility they inherit
after the site goes live. And, it’s not just website statistics.
Measuring the effectiveness of your content plays a huge role
in how you design an engaging client experience that lives
up to your brand’s promise. This is the moment – the ongoing
management of your online presence – where leading advisors
separate themselves from the pack.
To understand the importance of continuously monitoring
your site traffic and the quality of your content, you must first
know what checking the temperature gauge of your marketing
strategy can tell you. Consider the fact that according to CEB,
the world’s leading member-based advisory company for
business performance, 57 percent of your prospect’s purchase
decision is already complete before they even contact you for
the first time. Or that 90 percent of the website traffic you
get today stays anonymous forever because you don’t have an
engagement path laid out for your visitors to follow. Exploring
these numbers alone should open your eyes to just how much
consumer behavior has changed in the last few years. Look for
trends in how your clients and prospects behave. What do they
seem to enjoy reading on your blog? What devices are they
using most often to access your website and social profiles? Is
there an action you want your audience to take on your website
but no one is acting? How are you showing up in search
engines and are people finding you?
“Don’t get bedazzled by design. Instead, focus first on the functionality.”
7MONITOR YOURDIGITAL METRICS
“Advisors get so consumed with the initial build of a website, they forget the responsibility they inherit after the site goes live.”
14 PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE
The point to answering these questions is to know what you’re
looking for out of a digital marketing plan. You can chase
a bunch of meaningless statistics all day long but, if those
numbers aren’t telling you anything (tied to your goals), then
you’ve just wasted a bunch of your time number crunching.
Advisors come to us frustrated all the time because they aren’t
showing up in the first page of Google or their website page
views are not increasing. What they soon realize is they were
missing pieces of data to help tell the entire story. And, because
of it, they couldn’t extract the meaning behind the data.
Develop a system for monitoring metrics and then meet as a
team to determine what the numbers are really telling you.
Chances are your resolution will fall into one of a few areas:
• Adjustments to your content strategy (because it’s missing your audience or it isn’t valuable)
• Changes to your website design/structure/navigation (because visitors are getting lost, not engaging, and bouncing out)
• Adding specific call-to-actions that lead the visitor from one step to another (because you see website traffic but no leads to show for it)
RAISE YOUR IQ: MANAGE YOUR METRICSTackling analytics is actually quite simple if you know where to
begin. Set up your own Google Analytics account and use this
free platform to begin monitoring web traffic immediately so
you have the ability to draw insights from the data presented
and, more importantly, have the proactive information you need
to continually enhance your client experience. The amount
of data available in Google Analytics is vast but, if you have
a focused plan with SMAC-certified (Specific, Measurable,
Achievable, Compatible) goals, you’ll know exactly what do with
it.
Download Our Guide to Set Up Google Analytics Here
SEVEN OPPORTUNITIES. ONE GOAL. At Peak Advisor Alliance, we’re always looking at leading
and lagging indicators of success for advisors. One of the
reasons we’ve gone into so much depth in the realm of digital
marketing throughout this piece is because one leading
indicator has become extremely evident in the research we’ve
conducted and the relationships we have with more than 1,000
elite advisors:
“Establishing a stellar client experience that delivers value beyond a doubt will become the primary differentiator for advisors over the next decade.”Establishing a stellar client experience that delivers value
beyond a doubt will become the primary differentiator for
advisors over the next decade.
According to Gartner’s recent marketing study, in just a few
years 89 percent of businesses will compete mainly on
customer experience. By 2020, some predict the customer
will manage 85 percent of their relationship with a business
without interacting with a human, making the customer
experience the winner over price and product as the key
brand differentiator. Firms without a digital strategy in place
will face a growing struggle as investor expectations rise
and technology continues to play a larger role in the lives of
every person you serve. The threat of losing new and existing
business because of your online presence (or lack thereof) has
become a very real one. And, advisors know it. Our 2015 Advisor
Insights study revealed more than 78 percent of advisor
respondents feel they either “needed immediate help” or
“additional guidance and resources” when it comes to building
an effective digital marketing plan. This shouldn’t come as a
surprise considering 64 percent of those who took our survey
don’t currently have a formal marketing plan in place. Look
behind these numbers and it isn’t hard to conclude that those
who can successfully combine a mixture of technology with
human touch will be the ones who gain the competitive edge
in the future.
It’s a very noisy world out there. Investors have more options
than ever before (yes, including robo-advisors) while businesses
compete on a higher level to capture the valuable attention of
those they target. Whether it’s a new referral meeting you for
the first time or a client who’s been with your firm for 20 years,
“The threat of losing new and existing business because of your online presence (or lack there of ) has become a very real one.”
15PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE
“Those who can successfully combine a mixture of technology with human touch will be the ones who gain the competitive edge in the future.”
people are looking for something unique. They’re looking for
personal connection to your firm and an exceptional experience
that reinforces why they chose you.
Take a second look at these seven opportunities with this new
lens, and you’ll notice a theme that permeates into every area:
redefining how clients and prospects build a relationship with
you as their financial advisor. These are the interactions that
will keep your clients coming back and the avenues that will
allow you to compete in future.
We felt compelled to share these findings because of who we
are as a coaching and consulting firm. Our goal is to provide
guidance when advisors are directionless and motivate advisors
when they lack the inspiration to act. Hopefully, this insight
provided both.
NEED A COMPLETE DIGITAL MARKETING MAKEOVER? TAKE THE FIRST STEPIf you’d like to assess your current digital marketing efforts
to see where you stand – and where there is room for
improvement, we’d be glad to schedule a personal one-on-one
consultation with you and one of our experts to discuss your
score and work with you on how you can improve in all of the
seven opportunities mentioned.
Take our Digital Marketing Assessment to See What Areas You
Need to Invest In
www.PeakAdvisorAlliance.comPhone: (800) 514-9116Email: [email protected]
Peak Advisor Alliance Headquarters13321 California St.Suite 100Omaha, NE 68154