Technology is moving so fast that it takes a lot of running to just stay in one place! Thanks to some such disruptive innovations, the industry is witnessing an imminent shift in the way customers are interacting with advisors. One such change is with respect to the adoption of digital marketing platforms for reaching, acquiring, and engaging clients and prospects.
The rise of the GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon) model and the increasing number of tech-savvy investors mean you, as a financial advisor, have a fantastic opportunity to leverage digital marketing to derive mileage and expand your client base.
The advent of social media has changed the way people interact, and according to data from online market research and business intelligence portal Statista, India has 250 million active social media users as of January 2018. Hence, embracing digital marketing in your advisory is inevitable.
Digital modes help strengthen existing relationships and attract new clients. Read on to know how you can give your business a digital marketing push.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is a wide term – it simply means using technological to conduct your business. To harness its potential, you need to leverage its components such as social media marketing, video marketing and search engine optimisation. Creating a website is the first step to getting anywhere with digital marketing. It is your address on the web. Further, here are some ideas to drive traffic to your website and generate interest:
- Create Business Pages
Use social platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook to set up your business page (avoid using personal profiles for business purposes). Through these pages, build a network and connect with existing clients and prospects.
There are various financial advisory groups on LinkedIn, joining these can help you learn, participate in discussions, and gain perspectives. Developing and sharing your opinion on trending topics can help you establish yourself and your organization as thought leaders. For example, you can use Live videos and polls on Facebook to capture instant reactions and feedback from your audience.
- Direct Marketing (Personalised emails)
It is an essential mode of digital marketing that allows you to target specific customer segments. But most email marketing campaigns fail to produce the desired results because of the lack of personalisation. Before you start, segregate your client base into buckets (lists) based on similar goals or ticket sizes and customize communications accordingly. Pitching a retirement product to a teenager might not elicit the same response as a communication about the benefits of starting a SIP. Instead of bombarding customers (on email or WhatsApp) with your advertisements, get to know them better and offer personalised and tailor-made communications. This approach can help you build credibility and reliability while helping you generate relevant leads.
- Engage through Audio and Video
In the digital era, the importance of audio and video marketing cannot be stressed enough. Podcasts and videos create deeper client engagement and have the potential to embed your message deep into the consumer’s mind. You can create cost-effective audio and video content about topics that interest your target audience, and distribute it through channels like your website, social media pages, and WhatsApp groups.
Be your audience’s eyes and ears when it comes to making investment decisions and offer unbiased inputs. An ‘educate and earn’ approach can help you garner more followers and subscribers, thereby expanding your reach and influence. Just as a disciplined investment strategy calls for aligning it with financial goals, a digital marketing approach needs to align with your objectives. Keep trying various content types and channels. Diversification and calculated risks can help you reach
your goal.
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