[email protected] • Financialmedia.marketing • 877-799-3433 1 FMM2022AmpLeadGen Digital & Social Media 101
[email protected] • Financialmedia.marketing • 877-799-3433 2 FMM2022AmpLeadGen Motivated Prospects Are Looking For You Online More and more Americans are prioritizing retirement planning.[1] The problem is that Google provides tons of search results, and prospects have a tough time figuring out whom they can trust. So as much as they might like to work with a financial professional, they end up doing it alone. 75% of Americans, including those just starting their careers and those approaching retirement, have decided to manage their own retirement finances. If you want to reach any of those folks and help them meet their retirement goals, you’ll need to make it easier for them to find you on Google and social media, so they can learn about all the great resources you have to offer. They’re looking for guidance. Prospects are going online and searching for someone who can help them manage their resources and create the retirement of their dreams. HERE’S THE GOOD NEWS: MORE GOOD NEWS: THAT’S A MASSIVE OPPORTUNITY FOR FINANCIAL PROFESSIONALS LIKE YOU
[email protected] • Financialmedia.marketing • 877-799-3433 3 FMM2022AmpLeadGen Financial Professionals Struggle With Marketing Tools There are many ways to manage your online marketing efforts to help prospects find you. You could just manually manage your own accounts on Facebook and LinkedIn and learn how to optimize SEO on your website. You could build and manage your email lists and write blog posts and articles for industry publications. But all that takes time away from closing business and caring for clients, and besides, you might not have the skills it takes to do them as well as they should be done. Of course, there are marketing tools out there to help streamline the process. They can automate a lot of the technical wizardry and get more messaging out there faster. Advisors benefit from tools like that, but they’re in the minority… only about 29% are currently using one, and just 25% more are seriously thinking about adopting marketing tools sometime in the next year.[2] That means nearly half of all financial advisors don’t plan to improve their online marketing with professional tools and support. And sadly, they’re going to get left behind. NEARLY HALF OF ALL FINANCIAL ADVISORS ARE GOING TO GET LEFT BEHIND
[email protected] • Financialmedia.marketing • 877-799-3433 4 FMM2022AmpLeadGen What’s Stopping You? In a recent report, eMoney discovered a few common roadblocks that keep advisors from adopting these marketing tools… even advisors who see themselves as marketing savvy.[3] Your relationship with your prospects and clients is personal. After all, you’re asking them to trust you with their futures, and they also want to know their agents. Marketing tools can feel impersonal when they’re not handled correctly, so some advisors would instead just do things the old way… manually and in person. For those interested in marketing tools, it takes time to compare and choose from the best ones available, and there are costs involved, especially if you make the wrong choice. Then they have to learn how to use the tools, experiment, test campaigns and messaging, adjust and try again. Even the best tools will take time and resources to work and generate results. For individual advisors and small firms, that feels like a cost they can’t afford. Even if an advisor finds a great tool that looks promising, they might have to sell the investment upstream. And management can be reluctant to pull the trigger on unknown tools, especially if it requires a longterm financial commitment. They might also worry about compliance issues when content is shared through automated systems, which is a perfectly reasonable concern. TECHNOLOGY CAN FEEL IMPERSONAL TIME AND MONEY RELUCTANT MANAGEMENT
[email protected] • Financialmedia.marketing • 877-799-3433 5 FMM2022AmpLeadGen Tools May Actually Solve These Problems In reality, the right tool can overcome these objections when used correctly. Personal interactions are always best. Nothing replaces a handshake and a smile. But a good marketing tool, integrated with a quality CRM system, can keep track of all kinds of information about prospects. From their goals and concerns, family history, current financial resources, and the number of times they’ve been called or emailed. All this information makes it far easier for advisors to craft their communications and provide personalized service that meets the needs and expectations of prospects. A tool that lets you automate certain outreach efforts—like posting on social media or sending out drip email campaigns—saves time, freeing advisors up to close business and care for clients. There’s a learning curve in the beginning, but once these automated systems are running, it’s like having magical elves finishing your shoes overnight while you sleep. It’s an investment into future savings of time and money, and you get a measurable return in the form of more warm leads and the time to care for them that makes it all worthwhile. Management’s compliance concerns might be mitigated by systems that offer granular control over content distribution. Some tools let advisors choose from an inventory of approved assets, ensuring that prospects are only getting current, compliant information. This can actually be more reliable than letting individual advisors pull assets from uncontrolled sources that might be outdated or inappropriate. IT’S LIKE HAVING MAGICAL ELVES FINISHING YOUR SHOES OVERNIGHT WHILE YOU SLEEP
[email protected] • Financialmedia.marketing • 877-799-3433 6 FMM2022AmpLeadGen Strategy First, Tools Second Your overall marketing strategy will determine which tool makes sense, so don’t buy a tool before you know what you need it to accomplish. For advisors who haven’t built a marketing strategy before, there are a few core principles to consider: You can know all about your business, taxes, and retirement plans. But if you don’t know your audience, you’re in trouble. Chances are you’ve got a “perfect prospect” (or two or three) that you and your firm are especially well-positioned to help based on your experience and resources. You might start by creating an “avatar” of each of your perfect prospects… that’s essentially a fictional model of who they are and what they need. Is there a specific age range you work best with? A particular industry or career phase you’re targeting? Is your perfect prospect risk-averse or aggressive? Do they hang out on Instagram and TikTok, or Facebook and LinkedIn? Do they prefer phone calls, emails, or text messages? If you’re serving prospects in a specific generation, or you serve prospects across several generations, it’ll help to understand the general preferences for each. That way, you can target them with the right message, using the right tools, on the right platforms. While no two people are exactly alike, you can consider some known generalities. “Baby Boomers” are now in their 60s, 70s, and 80s. If they’re not already retired, they’re getting close, so their earning years are dwindling, and they’re probably looking to maximize their savings. They’re still reachable through traditional marketing like print, radio, and television, but you’re most likely to find them on Facebook if they’re online.[4] KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
[email protected] • Financialmedia.marketing • 877-799-3433 7 FMM2022AmpLeadGen Members of “Generation X” are in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, and they’re still building their wealth. They may not have had smartphones and the internet as kids, but many of them are comfortable with technology, even if they’re wary of digital marketing and data mining. They’re more responsive to messaging that delivers the information with statistics and evidence. Like Baby Boomers, if they’re online, a majority will be on Facebook, but you’ll also find them on Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat.[5] “Millennials” were born sometime between the early 80s and the mid-90s. If they went to college, they might still be struggling under the weight of student loan debt, so they’re probably just now thinking about making future goals. These prospects pretty much grew up with smartphones, the web, and video games, so they’re very tech-savvy. You’ll find them on Facebook, but they’re especially comfortable with messaging apps like Facebook, Messenger, and WhatsApp.[6] But they also distrust marketers in general and are more likely to make buying decisions based on the influence of friends and others they trust. [7] Then there’s “Generation Z.” They were born sometime between the mid-90s and 2015, so they might just be entering the workplace and starting their careers. If they’re old enough to have gone to college already, they’re probably also carrying student debt. On the younger end, their goal planning may revolve around school or work right now, and they may not have even started to think about financial planning. If you reach this group, you may have more luck by focusing on their Generation X parents. IF YOU DON’T KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE, YOU’RE IN TROUBLE
[email protected] • Financialmedia.marketing • 877-799-3433 8 FMM2022AmpLeadGen There are two kinds of competitors to keep track of: Practical competitors and perceived competitors. In other words, competitors you know are in your space and offer competitive services, and those who aren’t really in your space but might be perceived by prospects as your competition. You need to know both kinds inside and out. What do they offer? What are their strengths and weaknesses? How exactly do their offerings compare with yours? That way, you can craft your messaging to clearly communicate your differentiation and your unique value proposition in the context of the competitive messaging your prospects are going to see. “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Having clear, measurable goals for your marketing campaigns will ensure that you can track how your efforts are performing and give you the information necessary to make adjustments for continual improvement. Short-term “tactical” goals will feed your long-term “strategic” goals, so be sure both are measurable. For instance, a short-term “10% more warm leads per month” goal might be what feeds your progress toward “30% more signed clients quarter over quarter,” which leads to “40% revenue growth year over year.” Don’t forget to set productivity goals as well, like “reducing time spent managing drip campaigns so you can spend more hours on the phone with clients.” Once you have a measurable set of goals with an estimated ROI, you know what kind of investment in tools makes sense. Some tools may be too expensive for the ROI you expect to generate—knowing this makes choosing a tool an informed decision rather than a costly, uninformed guess. KNOW YOUR COMPETITORS SET MEASURABLE GOALS BUDGET FOR YOUR GOALS
[email protected] • Financialmedia.marketing • 877-799-3433 9 FMM2022AmpLeadGen Financial advisors may need different things from their marketing tools depending on their marketing experience and expertise. Advisors who are just getting their feet wet in marketing might struggle with the basics of websites and branding, Google rankings, data collection, or email compliance. So they might need tools that deliver turnkey marketing websites, easy SEO solutions, accessible analytics, and social media automation. Advisors with ample marketing experience may focus more on long-term marketing strategy & planning, deep data analytics, and robust client communication campaigns and tracking. So they might be looking for tools to manage complex digital brand messaging, streamline data measurement, and increase their social media or drip email automation. Knowing your comfort level with all these aspects of marketing helps narrow down just what features you need in a marketing tool. And knowing what additional features you’ll require as your needs and skills grow can help you choose a tool that will grow with you, so you don’t have to move to a new platform and learn a whole new suite of tools just when you’ve got momentum. Since your prospects will come not only from your online efforts but from offline events and personal referrals, you’ll need a tool that works with your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform. That way, the two can share data and build a complete profile of each prospect. Whether you’re on NetSuite, Monday, or HubSpot, be sure your marketing tool will integrate the way you need. If you’re working in a larger team that includes marketing, events management, billing, or other departments, you’ll need a tool that works for all those stakeholders without disrupting your current workflow and processes. So bring all those people into the conversation to be sure the tool you choose works for everyone. Lastly, don’t just look at the features. Look at the service. A great tool isn’t great if it’s complicated to implement and use, and doesn’t include adequate support. Does it come with training? Do you understand the documentation? Will you get a dedicated rep? If you take the time to find the right tool that delivers the features you need, you’ll be able to provide the content your prospects are seeking where they’re seeking it, online and off. You and your brand will rise above the noise and communicate your unique value in a sea of competitors. And ultimately, you’ll earn trust, close more prospects, and help more people build the financial and retirement future of their dreams. CHOOSING THE RIGHT MARKETING TOOLS
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References 1. CNBC and Acorns, “Americans Are More Confident About Their Retirement Savings Now Versus Three Years Ago Pre-Trump, According to the Invest in You Savings Survey,” April 1, 2019. 2. InvestmentNews, “Independent advisory firms plan to increase digital marketing budgets this year,” March 19, 2019. 3. eMoney, “Next Best in Class Marketing Tool Research,” August 2019. 4. Statista, “Facebook: distribution of global audiences 2020, by age and gender,” February 14, 2020. 5. eMarketer, “The Three Ps of Gen X Tech Use: Plugged In, (Social) Platforms and Privacy,” August 20, 2019. 6. Digital Marketing Community, “Facebook is the Most Used Social Network Platform by Millennials in 2018.” 7. Marketing Insider Group, “A Guide to Content Marketing by Generation,” July 2, 2019.
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