One of the hardest parts of building your business as a financial advisor is showing people what makes you different from the competition. An advisor’s digital brand presence matters more than ever, but it is not always obvious how to take advantage of digital channels to find new business and keep your current clients engaged.
There are two digital channels available to almost any advisor that they can use immediately to stand out and talk to prospects about what matters to them. One is relatively new to our industry… and the other has been around almost as long as the internet itself.
Email marketing needs to be a big part of your prospecting strategy, because it keeps you in front of prospects while also allowing for deeper discussion and education. Drip campaigns—a communication strategy that sends pre-written emails to your target audience over a determined period of time—can be deployed easily through marketing automation software.
These campaigns are an effective way to walk a prospect through the entire sales funnel, from the initial search for an advisor all the way to becoming a new client. Through these emails, you can share educational content (such as your blogs and videos) to get or keep prospects engaged, offer easy ways to schedule a meeting with you, and give readers a glimpse into your personality and what it’s like to work with you.
Not only is email a big part of everyone’s daily routine, it also leads to a higher conversion rate. In fact, 99 percent of Americans check their email daily, and some check it up to 20 times a day. Studies have shown that people who visit a website from email are more likely to buy a good or service (4%) compared with visitors from search engines (2.5%) and social media (0.6%).
Video
Video enhances every part of your overall marketing strategy. From email to social media to ads, video makes a higher impact on your audience:
- Video increases email open rates by 19 percent and email clicks by 65 percent.
- 64 percent of consumers purchase after watching branded videos on social media.
- Almost 60 percent of marketers say Facebook ads with video lead to more clicks than images only.
Video helps you quickly and consistently tout your thought leadership and value. Especially in today’s increasingly digital world full of Zoom happy hours and FaceTimed holidays, video gives you a chance to establish confidence and rapport with prospects who can’t see you in the same room, but can still engage with you face to face.
Importantly, you don’t have to be an expert in video production to be successful. A simple iPhone video can make just as much of an impact as a professionally crafted one.
And there’s always the cold, hard truth of growth to consider. Businesses who use videos in their marketing grow their revenue 49 percent faster year-over-year than businesses who don’t.
