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As a financial advisor, you focus on providing solid advice to your clients. After all, your clients are the foundation of your business. While your financial skills are critical, though, without a sound marketing strategy to effectively drive more traffic and sales to your business, you will not achieve the level of success that you deserve.
A HubSpot survey found that about 40% of business owners and marketers consider the promotion and distribution of content to be a crucial part of their strategy. It also found that 77% of businesses already have a content management strategy.
But just because you have a strategy doesn’t mean it’s effective.
Among marketing strategies, video content is a popular and effective way to drive leads and sales. Today, I take a look at a few important tips to help financial advisors take full advantage of adding video marketing to their strategy.
The rising trend of video marketing
Content marketing used to rely exclusively on writing articles and blog posts, which were then published on websites and ranked by search engines. Today, however, marketers rely far less on text-only content.
One survey found that about 87% of people who used video as part of their marketing strategy experienced an increase in generated traffic. Furthermore, 80% of the marketers also mentioned an increase in sales driven by the implementation of video marketing.
As video is an open-ended and flexible medium, it is a good option for any industry, from companies that produce physical products to those that provide services such as financial advisors.
Video marketing tips for your advisory business
Video marketing is a relatively broad term that covers a variety of types of video content. To determine which type is right to integrate into your marketing strategy, there are several factors to consider, including your specific goals and desired outcomes, as well as the pros and cons of each type of video content. Here is a selection of tips that will help financial advisors gain a better understanding of how they can succeed at video marketing.
Understand the video content types you should focus on
The first step is to understand what the different video content types are and determine which is most suitable for your specific strategy. The main video content types include:
- Explanation videos
- Product or service overview videos
- Live recordings
- Success stories
- Whiteboard videos
- Greetings and introductions
I recommend a strategy that takes advantage of multiple types of video content, giving you an opportunity to reach different audiences based on their expectations and the information they are looking for.
As an example, you could feature a greeting video that introduces you as a financial advisor on your website, landing pages and YouTube channel. Next, you could set up a series of explanation videos sharing tips that clients and prospects can use to organize their finances. As your presence continues to grow, set up service overview videos introducing your audience to the services you offer with the ultimate goal of generating more sales.
Every video needs a goal
Never put together video content until you understand your goals and expectations. Why are you creating the content? Would you like the video to guide clients and prospects through a certain process? Or maybe you want the video to ensure the viewer can quickly learn more about who you are? Know exactly what the viewer should get out of the video, know what it is that you are trying to achieve, and then start planning accordingly.
Learn more about video SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is not just something that you should focus on when setting up your website. Videos published to YouTube and other platforms are also ranked by SEO and by optimizing them, you ensure that they rank above the competition.
Here are a few tips to help you get started when it comes to video SEO:
- Choose the right hosting platform. YouTube remains a top choice and even allows you to integrate videos directly on your website.
- Add a transcript for your video. This can be done in the description of the video or on your website. The transcript allows people to read everything that was explained in the video. It also increases the amount of text used on the page, which is a good practice when it comes to SEO.
- The title of your video should include a keyword that is related to the content – it should not be deceptive and always remain on topic. At the same time, you want to ensure the video attracts viewers. This also applies to the description. Ensure you offer an accurate description that includes a few keywords.
- Avoid embedding one video on multiple websites. Instead, choose one page and try to make the video the focus point of it.
Focus on conversions
Remember, the ultimate goal of your marketing strategy is to attract clients and drive sales. For this reason, include a link back to your landing page somewhere in the video description. There is no need to make this sound “salesy” or pushy. Instead, simply plant the seed by mentioning that it’s there.
The important role of the thumbnail
Finally, never overlook the crucial role of the thumbnail. As the thumbnail is the first thing a person sees when they scroll through YouTube and other platforms, make sure it grabs the attention of potential customers, while remaining relevant to the video topic. Clickbait is never a good strategy, as it can hurt your SEO ranking and damage your reputation.
Conclusion
Due to the open-ended nature of video content, it has become a highly effective tool for creating engaging, visually stimulating, and informational content that fits into a bigger content marketing strategy. If you haven’t already incorporated video content into your strategy, this is your sign that it’s time to start.
Whether you choose to create informational videos for social media, “about us” videos for your website, or a “financial tips” video series for your YouTube channel, video marketing is a promising way to capture attention and attract leads.
If you are interested in incorporating video marketing into your content strategy, reach out to Beyond AUM.
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.
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
