As of January 5, 2020, there were over 4.5 billion internet users all across the globe. And at the same time, over 1.74 billion websites were on the internet. Sites that catch out attention attempt to persuade us to consume information or buy a product or a service.
Websites have become a primary way businesses generate leads and potential clients. For example, when looking for financial advisors, users will most likely search on the internet, land on multiple websites, and then decide.
We’ve all beaten it to death- build a “great” website for your financial advising firm. But there is so much confusion around what constitutes a great website.
In the early internet days, it was enough to have a website. People appreciated a business that built and managed a site. Now, every freelancer or solopreneur has one. Your competitors have a website, too. It would help if you did more to stand out from the crowd.
If you’re looking to convert your website into a lead-generation tool, follow these simple tips:
Start or Refine Your Blog
This is an excellent way for you to stand out in your market. Investors will search on the web when looking for specific knowledge about financials. Your blog can be an excellent way to pass on value to your site visitors and get discovered by others who haven’t come across your business yet.
Drive visitors to your site and improve your SEO rankings.
- Consistently publish content – Stick to a publishing routine. This way, your readers will know when to expect new content from you. Aim to blog at least once a week, on a particular day of the week. Your prospects will soon understand that they can find useful information on your blog and may even spread the word for you!
- Share across social channels – 48 billion people use social media. Share blog posts with your followers to get more eyes on your content and get noticed by financial advisor leads.
- Build links – Links can optimize your blog and get more organic traffic from your publish. For example, internally link older blog posts or landing pages from new blog posts or point links to external domains that build upon your content or enhance its value.
- Put out relevant content – Blog right in your niche. Since you specialize in financial advisory, create content that reaffirms this expertise. Learn about your prospects and their challenges, and then write from the point of offering value and help.
Write a Personal Financial Advisor Bio
It would be best if you built trust with your prospects. And, extremely hard too. To some, financial advisors are viewed as salespersons who only want your money to take their commission out.
Therefore, it is all the more critical for you to build loyalty first. A personally written financial advisor bio should be essential to your site. Show your prospects who you are. Include pictures from your workplace. Introduce your teammates.
Bonus points if you can add personality to your and your team’s bios. Talk about what you love doing outside of work. Introduce your pets. Anything that can help them know you better. You can also consult Accounting Firm Marketing Services Company.
Effectively Leverage Social Media
Utilizing social presence is so necessary when it comes to lead generation. People access social media every day. They read about businesses. Consume content. Buy services. So you are missing out on a lot if your firm does not have a strong social presence.
- Choose the right platform – For financial advisors, the top three platforms are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Next, build a brand for your firm with a professional summary of what you do, clean, high-quality profile and header images, and consistent content.
- Share trivia, industry news, and thought leadership content – Share third-party content on your social page that covers industry news, industry trivia, or thought leader quotes. Caption every shared post with your ideas and opinions. This will help you build credibility.
- Create valuable content – Besides sharing third-party content, it is equally important to create original content that can get you noticed among investors. Use an appropriate number of hashtags to aid that discovery. And use strong visuals to complement your message.
- Engage and spark conversations – Engage with everyone who comments on your posts. Please keep the conversation going to build significant interactions with your leads, as this could become why they hire you over your competitors.
Use Email Marketing
The importance of email marketing for advisor firms has increased as technology got more commonplace. In 2018, over 3.8 billion people used emails, which is expected to reach 4.2 billion by 2022.
Email marketing is an efficient way to generate leads through your website. You can build your email list by offering your site visitors a free guidebook or a simple checklist. Then, ask for their email address and name in exchange. If you have been able to provide value to them till now, they’ll accept the offer.
Know that mobile clients account for 81 percent of email opens. Therefore, you need to optimize your emails for the smaller screen. Segment email recipients based on their demographics, age, gender, nationality, etc., to personalize your emails.
Use Email Marketing
The importance of email marketing for advisor firms has increased as technology got more commonplace. In 2018, over 3.8 billion people used emails, which is expected to reach 4.2 billion by 2022.
Email marketing is an efficient way to generate leads through your website. You can build your email list by offering your site visitors a free guidebook or a simple checklist. Then, ask for their email address and name in exchange. If you have been able to provide value to them till now, they’ll accept the offer.
Know that mobile clients account for 41.9 percent of email opens. Therefore, you need to optimize your emails for the smaller screen. Segment email recipients based on their demographics, age, gender, nationality, etc., to personalize your emails.
Create Targeted Landing Pages
Capture information from new leads through dedicated landing pages. When your prospects click on a search result or online advertisement, you can land them on a specific page. Here, you offer details about your practice; your process or display valuable content for your readers.
You could also create a lead magnet and capture their information in exchange. Landing pages are specifically designed to convert site visitors into leads. Since landing pages are not built into the primary navigation, you can make as many customized messages as you want in financial services marketing.
Sprinkle Calls-to-Action Throughout the Site
A website that does not tell visitors what to do does not get anything done. All through your website, you need to guide visitors into taking the next action. And then the next. And then the one after that. Until they hire you, effective CTAs help does just that.
Calls to action could be anything from “Contact us” to “Grab a Free e-book now.”
Effectively using CTAs can help you propel your visitors into taking action on your site. Ensure all the CTAs on your website are straightforward, clear, visually appealing, easy to spot, action-oriented, and benefits-oriented.
Have multiple CTAs on your website, but no more than once on a page. You can repeat the same CTA throughout a page for better conversion.
Sprinkle Calls-to-Action Throughout the Site
A website that does not tell visitors what to do does not get anything done. All through your website, you need to guide visitors into taking the next action. And then the next. And then the one after that. Until they hire you, effective CTAs help does just that.
Calls to action could be anything from “Contact us” to “Grab a Free e-book now.”
Effectively using CTAs can help you propel your visitors into taking action on your site. Ensure all the CTAs on your website are straightforward, clear, visually appealing, easy to spot, action-oriented, and benefits-oriented.
Have multiple CTAs on your website, but no more than once on a page. You can repeat the same CTA throughout a page for better conversion.
Remember On-page SEO
Here are a few musts for fixing your site’s on-page SEO.
- Include your keyword in the Title tag on every blog post or web page across your website. Place your keyword near the beginning of your title.
- Always ensure keyword phrases appear in the first 100 words on your blog posts and web pages. Don’t make these keyword instances forced but naturally occurring.
- Post longer content as it boosts your SEO. Search engines favor lengthier content of 750+ to 1000 words or more. Create comprehensive blog posts and pages that talk about a subject exhaustively.
- Optimize images for SEO. When you add a featured image, include your target keyword in the filename.
- Optimize URLs for search engines by placing your primary keyword in them.
- Add a Meta description on each post and page. This should be captivating as well as contain your primary keyword.
Improve Your Site’s Local Search Ranking
Local SEO focuses on immediate proximity, such as a city, metropolitan area, or cluster of ZIP codes. So your ideal prospects search the phrase ‘Financial Advisor near me and find a fit now and then.
If other financial advisors in your area don’t bother about SEO much, this is your chance to stand out and get leads from a locally optimized website. Since most firms draw their clients locally, follow these steps to optimize your website for your location:
- Optimize your Google My Business listing – GMB is a free and easy-to-use tool where you can display your business. By utilizing Google My Business, you can choose what Google users see when searching specifically for your business. Categorize your business correctly. Write a brief description of your business that conveys why you are different. Add pictures, your website address, a local area code, and a phone number. Then, solicit reviews and feedback from your customers to start getting leads.
- Location-specific keywords – To get local leads, you must modify your page’s keywords according to location. Therefore, “financial advisor” becomes “financial advisor in Minnesota,” for instance.
- Locations page – If you have offices in multiple cities, it could help your SEO to have a separate locations page for each office with as much relevant content as possible.
As businesses are getting online, this is the perfect time to establish yourself in the market as a preferred financial advisor- through your website. So try out these steps and let us know what you’d add in the comments below!
