Over the years financial planners have had a love/hate relationship with marketing. In most of those years, though, it's more of a hate/hate relationship. The traditional methods of outbound marketing - from cold calling to traditional advertising - have had so little benefit for the overwhelming majority of planning firms, that most don't even have a budget for marketing in the first place. To the extent any business development occurs, it's strictly from referrals, and any "marketing" expenses don't extend much further than paying for social events with clients or centers of influence to cultivate more referrals. But as the digital age reaches financial planning, an entirely new marketing opportunity emerges: inbound marketing. The basic principle: instead of blasting out solicitations hoping you happen to hit a prospective client like finding a needle in a haystack, create content that is useful, relevant, and interesting for your target clients, and let them find you.
The inspiration for today's blog post is an extension of an article I wrote last week, entitled "
3 Ways the Digital Age Will Change Financial Planning in the Next 10 Years", which began to explore how key aspects of financial planning practices will change in the coming years. In terms of marketing, the digital age creates a tremendous opportunity for planners to thrive in the digital age, as inbound marketing techniques can be especially effective for professional financial planning practices.
The key to success for inbound marketing is creating content that is useful, relevant, and interesting for your target clients. The content may take many forms, from blogs, e-books and white papers to videos, webinars and pinboards. Once created, the content is made public and available, so that your target market can find your materials when they search the web (the process of making your content more searchable is called "Search Engine Optimization").
For example, imagine your target niche is working with families that have young children. The content on your website might have tips for everything from the best 529 plans for babies to videos explaining how to figure out the right amount of life insurance to buy when your first baby arrives. In addition, your content might also includes a quick video about how to soothe a baby that's teething, or a guide you found with tips about how to childproof the house when the baby starts to crawl. The point is just not to be pushing financial information; the point is to be a resource for your target clients with whom they can build trust and a relationship as you impart wisdom and sharing interesting content in any number of areas relevant to their world. At some point, when your readers have a question that is financial and you make it clear that you're available and ready to help, they'll contact you when it's right for them. In a meantime, they may even start sharing with their friends where they're finding all that great information... which means your base of prospective clients is growing. (For an example of a planner targeted at new parents, check out
Kristin Harad at VitaVie Financial Planning; another example of inbound marketing techniques for a target clientele is
Brittney Castro's Financially Wise Women.)
However, if you haven't defined your target market, you can't create content that's relevant for them. And no, people who can afford my services, or meet my asset requirements, or pay my minimum fees, is not a target market. Because you can't create relevant content that attracts new clients and prospects with a target that broad. In fact, a good tip is that if you can't think of what kind of non-financial content would be relevant for your target market, you probably haven't defined it well enough yet.
Another upside of this approach is that in the digital world - where you can work with anyone, regardless of their geography - the techniques of inbound marketing are remarkably inexpensive. Creating a blog and a website costs almost nothing; most social media accounts are completely free. Creating content - not to mention sharing content you find that others have created but is relevant for your target market - is also free. At worst, you may spend a little bit of money having your website properly designed, especially to optimize it for web searches so your target market can actually find you when they search for information. But compared to outbound marketing techniques like traditional advertising, it's pennies on the dollar in cost, with a very high potential return on investment.
The bottom line is that as the digital age transforms financial planning, simply relying on referrals generated by relationships will become more and more challenging. Clients don't simply want to work with someone they're referred to; ideally, they want to work with the person who's the best at handling their particular needs and situation. In the past, clients have settled for working with someone nearby who was recommended to them, because the alternatives were limited. As technology and the digital age advances, the limitations and barriers to those alternatives are breaking down.
So what do you think? Do you work with any clients who are not in your immediate geographic area? How did they find you? Have you heard of inbound marketing before? Do you have a blog or use social media to attract "inbound marketing" prospects? Are you thinking about trying it in the future?
Good article, you have highlighted very clearly some of the benefits of moving with the times. One area that financial planners should be concerned is the quality of their website compared to those who move ahead with blog posts etc. Planners with static 'brochure' style websites, no matter how fancy, they will look dull and and lazy compared to the more progressive planners. And as we all know, you only have one chance to make a good first impression, these days, that first impression will normally be your website!
For instance, Financially Wise Women by Brittney Castro (noted in this blog post) is operated in compliance with LPL's broker/dealer.
A common question. My tip is simple, pitch articles that are rather timeless. Testimonials that show how you help (not the technical nonsense that some planners are obsessed with), quick tips, stories how you and your clients contribute to the local community. These can get past compliance with little effort and are what clients and prospects like.
For the more compliance focused articles which normally arise out of new legislation, the tech department should put something out and you tailor them to suit your business.
Cheers
Indeed, you make a good point here.
Compliance is generally focused on articles and content that deals with regulated securities products, investments, etc.
But the reality is that a great deal of content to make yourself relevant to your target market has NOTHING to do with investments or financial services products at all!
For instance, having a niche that focuses on new parents and sending your prospective clients a great article about how to childproof your house is not likely to create a compliance problem, but it certainly can be useful, relevant, and meaningful for your clients!
Respectfully,
- Michael
What do you do if your B/D has outlawed blogging? I am not kidding. I have called them and they are completely against it. How do I convince them that this is a good thing that generates market buzz, brand awareness and ultimately revenue? I am a young progressive planner trying to break into the industry and create a niche and I believe my biggest asset is spreading the message via social media and blogging. I am feeling frustrated. Thanks Michael!
Not to encourage 'rash' decisions, but honestly - if your broker/dealer is unequivocally against allowing any type of blogging activity whatsoever, the first question that comes to mind is: "Can you change your broker/dealer?"
Although certainly almost any B/D will reasonably and prudently want SOME oversight of what you're doing - if only to make sure you're not saying what you shouldn't - not all broker/dealers are this close-minded.
For instance, both Jeff Rose (http://www.goodfinancialcents.com/) and Brittney Castro (http://www.financiallywisewomen.com/) operate under a broker/dealer umbrella.
- Michael
Certainly compliance can be an issue for many, especially for advisors associated with B/D's, but many of the B/D's are allowing blogs. (by the way Jeff Rose is now an independent RIA) Technically a blog is a website, but it's driven by dynamic content that still must be pre-approved by B/Ds.
In my experience, many advisors still don't get the value (because there is rarely ever a short-term gain), they don't want to do the work of consistently creating content, or they don't know how to even begin the process. I also think it's a question of budgets. Some level of investment is going to be required to run a strategic and sustainable program, but the benefits aren't immediate which makes it a tough sell.
I still believe that the majority of advisors don't yet view blogging and social media as critical business communications tools for helping, selling and service. This especially became apparent to me at the last conference I attended. My eyes were opened
Your thoughts?