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I’m making a bold claim: Data should be the top driver of your marketing strategy.
To understand why, consider Bob Dylan’s lyrics, "the times they are a-changing." Marketing for financial advisors historically meant placing an advertisement in a magazine or sending mailers to promote a special offer for wealth management services. But digital marketing has replaced traditional marketing efforts, opening up a whole new world of lucrative opportunities for advisors. But even though digital tactics – think social media and email marketing, among others – have made marketing easier, capitalizing on and measuring those efforts takes some forethought.
Getting started
Leveraging data to propel your marketing strategy starts with a couple of core questions: Why are prospects reaching out to you? What problems do they think you can solve for them?
Unlike traditional marketing, which was largely print-based and would often disappear into the circular file, providing no real insight into who viewed or took action on them, digital marketing lets you track where potential clients came from and why. This information can help you establish more defined client niches, which are fleshed-out personas that describe who your ideal clients are. Defining your niches helps you better tailor your marketing efforts and increases your chances for success by providing more relevant content, messaging, and education.
There are three reasons why new prospects request information. Major life transitions trigger a wide range of financial changes and consequences, from divorce to the birth of a new child, to an impending retirement. Prospects may have had a significant windfall, whether it be an inheritance or a sizeable bonus, and are confronted with a wide range of financial questions and concerns they may not be ready for. The third is market pullbacks, which can have short-term, negative effects on an investment strategy, and push prospects to search for a second opinion. Conversely, market gains make some prospects develop a case of fear of missing out (FOMO) and could be the push they need to reach out to a financial advisor and start investing.
Once you have a solid understanding of what prompted a prospect to contact you, focus on some key questions to flesh out your data-driven marketing strategy.
Are you covering your client niches in your content marketing?
Defining specific client niches provides relevant information and increases your chances of success. For instance, if most of your prospects are coming to you because they are preparing for retirement, then make sure your content reflects the topic areas those prospects would gravitate toward – such as strategies for maximizing Social Security benefits or potential changes to Medicare. Creating more targeted content marketing positions you as a thought leader who specializes in the areas your prospects care about and ensures you’re the first person they think of when a financial need arises.
Is your website optimized for your client niches?
Creating and delivering content for your target niches is just the first step in attracting prospects to your business; you need to ensure your website is optimized for their viewing. For example, if the data tells you that most of your prospects are women in transition, make sure your website is SEO-optimized with keywords that pertain to that niche (i.e., “financial planning for divorce,” “estate planning for women in transition”). Devote sections of your website to your niches as well. Create specific pages of your website that are dedicated to talking about the services you provide your target niches and the challenges your services will help them solve.
Do you review Google Analytics for how you acquire visitors? What do they do once they get to your website?
Your website analytics provides a treasure trove of valuable information, offering metrics including how many people are visiting your website, what they’re doing on your site, and how much time they spend on your site. The most popular, free platform advisory firms use is Google Analytics. The tool gives you an insider’s look into how you’re acquiring website visitors and what you can do to capitalize on what’s working well or change what isn’t. At a more granular level, Google Analytics can show you a comparison of the traffic between various different webpages, as well as key demographics and geographies that can help you better understand who your visitors are.
Do you utilize Google search console?
Google search console is another important tool to add to your marketing data suite. The platform can give insight into the specific keywords that are drawing visitors to your website. From here, you can analyze that data to determine the most popular keywords for your business and subsequently increase your usage of them to garner more traffic.
The data doesn't lie
According to Invespcro, 83% of marketers that employ data-driven campaigns enjoy more than five times the ROI on marketing spend? Thanks to advances in technology, we no longer have to distribute blanket messages to prospects. Data – and more importantly, analyzing and acting on data – can be the catalyst your advisory firm needs to generate tangible results from your digital marketing efforts.
If you need a third-party expert to help launch your data analytics program or interpret data you’ve collected so far, reach out to our team at Beyond AUM. You can get in touch with us here.
Gretchen Halpin is the co-founder of Beyond AUM, an agency that provides field-tested, data-driven marketing, growth, digital alignment, and experience solutions to financial services firms across the nation, including wealth managers, financial planning firms, and RIAs & BDs. We work with firms to achieve world-class outcomes for their brands and professionals and drive success in the business beyond the AUM number. Gretchen is a regular contributor to media outlets such as Forbes and a speaker at industry conferences including eMoney and Invest in Women.
Read more articles by Gretchen Halpin
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
