This is a guest post by Samantha Russell, chief evangelist of Twenty Over Ten and FMG Suite, about the top marketing opportunities for financial advisors. Twenty Over Ten is a digital marketing platform for financial advisors.
Last year was a year that we all want to forget. However, there were some positive things that came out of 2020. For instance when it comes to marketing and how connected we are with each other. Twenty Over Ten turned to the LinkedIn community to find out more about what advisors had to say when it comes to marketing opportunities this year. Read on to find out more about the seven top marketing opportunities for financial advisors.
1. Offering Subscription-Based Services
Firstly, a very large chunk of the American population cannot be served by the AUM model. Therefore, in order to cater to a larger portion of American households, you need to change how you serve them, and that could be by offering subscription-based services. Michael Kitces offers some great tips on how to best use subscription-based services in a way to increase profits for your business in his blog “How To Profitably Price Fee-For-Service Financial Planning.”
2. Utilizing Video
Video is a great way to connect with others in a quick and informative way just by offering a short clip that can benefit your audience. It is here to stay and has become increasingly popular, especially as we have spent most of 2020 social distancing. In fact, according to Oberlo, 85% of all internet users in the United States watched online video content monthly. Meanwhile, the demand for video is increasing, as 54% of consumers want to see more content from the brand or businesses that they support.
3. Targeting Millennials
Millennials want to connect digitally, and they want to receive answers quickly. According to the Pew Research Center, they make up 35% of the U.S. labor force. That’s over one-third of the working population, and that number is only growing. As a result, it’s crucial that you are targeting this group in your marketing strategies.
If millennials are your niche, they are a unique group to market to. Some of the best ways to target them include:
- Ensure that your website is mobile-friendly
- Make sure your website pages load quickly
- Generate website content that is easy to understand, straightforward and easy to scan
- Keep the content accurate and up-to-date
- Integrate live chat features that make it interactive
4. Retargeting Ads
When it comes to ads, make sure you are utilizing retargeting. That way you can get in front of an audience who has already seen your work. With this tactic, you will be able to track prospects, so you can see people whose name or email has not been collected. Accordingly, this will allow you to show them your content on other websites rather than your own. You stay top-of-mind even when your potential leads are not on your page. There are plenty of ways to get creative with how you target your ads, so that they are unique to your audience and will attract them.
5. Practicing Inclusivity in Your Marketing
In 2020, we learned the importance of inclusion in marketing. The lack of diversity has gone on for far too long. Take a look at your blog section, your email marketing, the images you use, your social posts, your website, etc. You need to make sure they are inclusive of all genders and races.
We love the beautiful imagery used by Twenty Over Ten client, PathWise. They include a fantastic stock photo just below the fold on their homepage, with the phrase, “You’re Not Like Everyone Else. Neither Are Your Finances.”
For other great examples and tips on how to incorporate more diversity into your marketing, check out our blog post How to Incorporate More Diversity in Your Advisor Website and Marketing.
6. Alternative Investments
It may be the year to embrace discussing alternative investments in your content marketing. Topics like Bitcoin, peer-to-peer lending, gold, etc. are topping the charts in searches. They are the hot topics your audiences will be interested to learn more about from you this year.
7. Hyper-Personalization Powered by Automation
Finally, your prospects get A LOT of emails every day. If you aren’t sending content that is personal to them, they are probably not going to read it. Personalization in email marketing starts with segmenting your lists based on niche, age, the type of content they want to receive… The more personalized the better!
If you need help with personalization, Lead Pilot, helps advisors to drive qualified prospects through hyper-personalized content marketing. Financial advisors can launch robust content campaigns from a streamlined, easy-to-use dashboard.
Are You Ready?
We are beyond excited for what’s in store. Even though this past year was tough on everyone, it taught us all to quickly pivot and embrace change when necessary. This includes connecting with others virtually in a way that we never have before.
While we think all the opportunities are going to be important in the coming year, two things stand out. Offering subscription-based services and hyper-personalization seems to be the opportunity that professionals are most excited to use. The second most popular opportunities are utilizing video and retargeting ads. These are a great way to connect with audiences and to stay relevant.