5 Tools For Managing Your Online Reputation

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Jeff Bezos is quoted as saying that your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room. That is to say, your brand is your reputation and your reputation is your brand. It takes a lifetime to build and could be dashed apart in an instant.

Managing your online reputation is all about protecting this valuable asset and making sure that there is an accurate representation of your brand promise available for prospects and clients to find online. Here are five tools that you can use to manage your online reputation and make sure that when you are not in the room, people only have good things to say.

Google Search

While Googling yourself might seem like an overly self-centered thing to do, it is an important activity that anyone who is serious about their online reputation needs to do on a regular basis. It is the quickest way to discover where you stand in the rankings of the SERPs (Search Engine Return Pages) that are most important to your brand. Of course, nothing is more important than your name. If you are not coming up near the top of the search for your own name, consider putting additional effort into your social presence. Several of the other tools on this list will give you the opportunity to increase your standing in the search rankings.

Be sure to also search Google Images for your name. Make sure that the pictures that come up are ones that you would want potential clients to see. If there are images that you have access to and would like deleted there is a process for that. First, delete the original picture then visit Google’s ‘Remove Outdated Content Page’. Once you have cleaned up your images, you can rest easier knowing that anyone else who runs a Google search on you will be seeing your best representation.

Google Alerts

One of the most comprehensive strategies for monitoring your online persona is to create a simple Google alert for your name and your company’s name. Google alerts are nothing more than an email that arrives in your inbox with any news of new occurrences of the designated phrase. Since it is not feasible to consistently Google yourself every morning, a Google Alert will take care of this for you.

You can also set Google Alerts for key clients and competitors. This will give you a head start on responding to all kinds of news that affects your business. It will surprise you how powerful being the first person to respond to a new story can be in many different instances.

Local Listings

One of the most important aspects of your reputation has to do with your location. Attracting clients who are near you is a powerful way to increase your book of business. Local searches have been shown to more frequently lead to engagement by those conducting the search. A recent study by Google found that “a greater percentage of local searches lead to a purchase within a day versus non-local searches (18% vs. 7%).”

Local search has become much more important in recent iterations of the Google algorithm. Businesses whose information is correctly and consistently listed across the Internet gain preferential treatment in search listings. If you are looking to improve your discoverability, Google Local Listings is a must for your reputation management.

Namechk

One of the most important things you can do for your brand is secure your name or your company’s name across the different sites and social platforms. Securing your name provides consistency to your users and allows your business to be seen and recognized in more places. Namechk is a site that has partnered with the top social companies to help you ensure your brand is consistent and easy to find across the internet.

Use Namechk to see if your desired username or vanity URL is still available at dozens of popular Social Networking and Social Bookmarking websites. You can also use it in the early stages of naming to find a brand identity that you can consistently register for the majority of the most popular sites.

If This Then That

One element of a great marketing experience that we fervently recommend is automation. If you are trying to do everything manually yourself, you will undoubtedly experience burnout and human error and it will negatively impact your ability to execute your marketing strategy. If you are using FMG Suite, you are already experiencing some of the best automation on the Internet, but if you are looking to automate aspects of your brand management outside the FMG Suite environment, there are few tools that can match If This Then That (ITTT) for its ability to automate your workload.

ITTT’s recipes allow you to create instances of automation on almost any major social platform. Do you want an email every time you are mentioned on Facebook or Twitter? Want to make sure your branded content is evenly distributed across all of your different social platforms? ITTT has everything you need to not only keep an eye on your reputation but to create the kind of ubiquitous experience that communicates you have spent the time and effort to own your brand online.

Your reputation is a valuable asset that you can not afford to let get tarnished. Use these great tools to keep an eye on your reputation and manage it going forward.

How To Strengthen Your Social Marketing

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Financial advisors have limited time to worry about their social marketing. Between LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, it can be especially hard to build a brand that remains unique to your firm and yet specific to each platform.

At Advisor Launchpad, we’re here to strengthen your social marketing by simplifying your focus. Our advice? Pick a platform, build a game plan, and stick to the process. It’s that simple. Rather than trying to master LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook all at once, invest your time in one platform at a time.

Today, we’ll provide an overview of each outlet so you know what types of content work best.

  1. LinkedIn: “The 24-Hour Trade Show Booth”

For financial advisors, LinkedIn is regarded as the most important social marketing community. While Twitter and Facebook bring more personality to the conversation, LinkedIn is usually the first destination prospective clients and industry colleagues will search you. It’s the place where thought leaders carve their niche and cultivate their audience. 

To join the conversation, you need original, engaging, and thought-provoking content. LinkedIn surfers aren’t only interested in hearing about what you do. They want to know how you think. Not only do people use LinkedIn to network, but also to stay abreast of the most innovative ideas in their industry. 

Inspirational pieces about your unique work philosophy or your distinct approach to financial planning will make the most lasting impressions. To captivate audiences about your company, shine a spotlight on your team, your work culture, and your firm’s successes. If you can attract readers with your business ethos alone, it’s only a matter of time until they become your client. 

LinkedIn rewards topicality. Stick to your niche, focus on your audience, and publish content that continually reinforces your expertise in the financial world. Think of LinkedIn as your 24-hour, seven-day-a-week trade show booth at a financial planning conference. 

What would you publish to continually attract (and retain) your visitors? 

2.   Twitter: “The Eternal Elevator Pitch”

LinkedIn posts age slowly, but last week’s tweets might as well be from 1850. Twitter is a social media beast that feeds exclusively on a steady stream of fresh and pithy messages.

While providing a second outlet for the content you share on LinkedIn, Twitter presents an opportunity to network in a more engaging and public way. Beyond linking to your white papers and blogs, Twitter encourages you to continuously interact with others in your field. 

Retweets, comments, and even a well-timed GIF show readers that you possess a broad perspective that extends beyond your own practice. That’s an attractive quality to prospective clients. Think of Twitter as your personal newspaper, carefully curated to highlight the qualities that make your firm unique. Though much of the content on your feed may come from third parties, if you retweet it, you’re technically still the publisher. 

While your LinkedIn profile largely consists of your own blogs and updates, Twitter can be an eclectic collection of tweets from The Economist, stock market updates, a random Bill Murray GIF, and the occasional thought piece of your own. 

A word to the wise: while propriety is paramount, don’t be afraid to build the Twitter feed you want, not the one you think others respect.

3.   Facebook: The Happy Hour of Social Media” 

The secret is in the title: Face. Book. The ubiquitous social network demands one thing above all else: users want to see you. In contrast with LinkedIn and Twitter, Facebook is by far the most personal of the social media outlets. 

With well over 2.13 billion active users on the platform, Facebook is less about overt branding and more about personality. This plays well into the hands of financial advisors.

While you may already have a personal Facebook page, you will want to establish one specifically for your company. When you do, lean into the recreational side of social media that Facebook enables. Continue sharing your company’s original blogs and content, but go a step further by posting videos of you and your firm. 

45% of users watch over an hour of Facebook videos a week. If you can tap into that demand - whether via clips explaining a hot topic in the news or behind-the-scenes videos of your team at work - you’ll be personally inviting prospective clients into your world. 

If LinkedIn is your round-the-clock trade show booth and Twitter is your elevator pitch, think of Facebook as a corporate happy hour. You’re technically still working, but you’re surrounded by people who want to loosen up and get to know the real you. 

Use video to get the most out of Facebook.

Getting started!

We hope this guide helps clarify the larger differences between the three pillars of social media. However you choose to get started, prioritize building an authentic personality on one platform rather than a haphazard presence on all three.

Pick your platform, build a game plan, and stick to it. Over time, you’ll master each platform and reap their individual rewards. 

Creating Marketing Channels for Your Content

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So you’ve mastered the first steps of your marketing strategy. You’re posting bi-weekly blogs, drumming up your following on social media, and emailing clients to share your new and exciting insights. You’re ready to expand your marketing efforts even further, and the first step is to find new channels to share your amazing insights. So where do you start?

Recycling is all the rage right now, so why not extend it to your marketing efforts? By giving your existing content a facelift, you can repurpose it to attract a whole new audience. Here are some fun, out-of-the-box ideas to put a more creative spin on your old whitepapers and blog posts:

  • Infographics: These bright animations are a wonderful way to attract an audience that is too busy to read more than a paragraph at a time. Hire a graphic designer, pull out the key talking points of your content, and create a work of art!
  • SlideShare: LinkedIn’s recent acquisition of SlideShare makes it a key component of a LinkedIn Marketing Strategy. Repurpose your content as a PowerPoint, then upload it to SlideShare to send it out into the world! For added impact, send it out to qualified leads and show off your industry knowledge.
  • Videos: Record a 2-3 minute clip explaining the key points of your content and share it across all of your marketing channels. As an added bonus, the camera gives you the opportunity to show off your personality and build rapport with your prospects before you even connect.

Rather than focusing on the constant creation of new content, ensure you are getting complete use out of the whitepapers and blogs you’ve already created. Putting a bright new veneer on your existing content is an excellent way to attract viewers who don’t have the time to read a full page of content, and it allows you to maximize the impact of your hard work.

Content and the Art of Persuasion

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When compared to the marketing strategies of your average industry, financial advisors face a particular challenge. People hire financial advisors to avoid worrying about the very services you are trying to offer. For the average person, finances are confusing. Math is frustrating. Saving for retirement is stressful. Though Benjamin Franklin described Compound Interest as “the eighth wonder of the world,” the average American will yawn (or roll their eyes) if you start explaining it in detail. 

So how do you persuade your prospects that you’re the right person to hire…without diving into those boring and complicated numbers? Here are some other techniques you can use to make your services shine, taken from the true masters of persuasion: famous authors!

  1. A Tale Of Two Clients

Humans are naturally drawn to a compelling narrative. Our ancestors used to bond by sitting around this awesome new thing called “fire” and telling stories about the origins of the earth. Though you’re not working with anything this grandiose, you can still make a compelling argument by contrasting the stories of two very different clients. Client #1 is motivated and starts investing with you right at the start of their career. Client #2 dilly-dallies a little bit, buys a fancy sports car right out of college, and is struggling to catch up. Comparing the financial future of these two characters illustrates how your company can help people in different situations, and, if you tell the story well, prospects will see themselves in one of the characters you create.

  1. The Sound And The Fury

One of the quickest ways to unravel your argument is to use generic language that forces your reader to drift off. In the Financial Industry, there are certain cliches that your prospects have heard a thousand times. “Your dream retirement” and “Planning for your financial future” are some of the worst offenders. Try to think of hip new ways to describe these boring old concepts. After all, William Faulkner didn’t describe life as a “struggle” or a “challenge.” Instead, he rehashed one of Shakespeare’s most famous lines as a metaphor for his tragic novel. 

  1. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Repetition is key for marketers in the modern world, so take a lesson from Dr. Seuss. We are constantly inundated with advertisements on our phones, on TV, and even splayed up on billboards as we drive to work. Most prospects won’t pay attention to your content until they recognize your logo and have a basic understanding of what you do. Sending content out into the world via email, social media, and other forms of advertising builds the first stages of “brand awareness” and primes your prospects for future interactions with your content. 

Using these persuasive techniques allows you to market your business…without falling back on those boring numbers. As you reach out to clients that are less mathematically-inclined, tell a compelling narrative to make your business stand out! 

Influencer Marketing and the Financial Advisor

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Influencer marketing is the art of using paid endorsements from people who have attracted sizable and loyal audiences online. In a recent Digiday article about the real cost of influencer marketing, it stated that the going rate for an influencer recommendation was $1000 for every 100,000 Instagram followers they have. YouTube star Pewdie Pie, with his 50 million followers, earns a staggering $15 million dollars a year with endorsements and ad revenue. This is all to prove the point: influencer marketing is a very real thing.

How can a financial advisor use influencer marketing to grow their business?

It might seem like influencer marketing is only for big public-facing brands that want a lot of exposure. The truth is, influencer marketing is a perfect strategy for service professionals with niche markets that are looking to both find new leads and increase their cachet within the types of communities, online and off, that will increase prospect comfort and likelihood to take action.

Financial advisors are often worried that engaging an influencer will violate compliance rules. While you do need to be careful when working with a thought leader or expert, it should not stop you from trying influencer marketing. The key is to create content with the person rather than just have them recommend you. This way it is not a recommendation, it is a collaboration.

With a little bit of time and effort, you can leverage the power of influencer marketing to increase your own brand’s engagement, recognition, and reputation. The first step is finding the right influencer.

How do I find influencers in my market?

When it comes to finding a good influencer to work with you should not be too worried about which platform they are on. While Facebook and LinkedIn will probably be the most common if you find a Twitter profile, Instagram personality or Tumblr page that reaches your audience you should engage with them.

The trick to finding influencers is to search, search, search. Think about your ideal client. What are the types of search requests they would type? Which words would they use? As you begin to search words and phrases on the different platforms, profiles will emerge that have some amount of authority in each arena.

Here are some types of people who might be good influencers for your business:

  • Authors
  • Journalists
  • Thought Leaders
  • Community Leaders
  • Lawyers
  • Bloggers
  • Politicians

Engaging an influencer is simple. Reach out to them and ask them if they would be willing to consider an online recommendation. How much you offer to reimburse them (if anything) is based entirely on what you are asking for. Some influencers may be happy just to interview you in a blog or podcast. Check out the service Help a Reporter Out.

What should I look for in an influencer?

All influencers, whether they be in the world of fashion, food or Futons, have three criteria on which they can be judged: Reach, Resonance, and Relevance.

Reach - How big is their audience? Do they match your ideal client?

Resonance - How good are they at getting that audience to take action? What is their engagement level?

Relevance - How important are they in the market you are trying to influence? How much will it matter they are recommending you?

What should I look for in an influencer’s audience?

The only way to judge audiences is to look at similar influencers and get a sense of where the numbers are. Another aspect to watch is how engaged their audience is. If a Facebook page has 150,000 likes but none of their posts have a single engagement, chances are they paid to pump their numbers and don’t have much relevance to their audience.

Pay careful attention to the follower to following ratio. If the numbers are the same, chances are the influencer spends more time pumping up their followers that creating meaningful content.

With a little effort and ingenuity, you can align yourself with powerful voices online that will increase your exposure to ideal audiences and improve your chances of closing new business.

New Year’s Resolutions for Marketing Magic

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2018 is right around the corner, and it’s the perfect time to optimize your marketing strategy for the new year. But where do you start? Before you begin setting new goals, take some time to consider what strategies worked best for you in 2017. Ask your team:

  • What specific marketing strategies were most effective?
  • What (if any) marketing strategies didn’t work at all?
  • Should you re-allocate resources to the more effective strategies?
  • Has your target audience or geographic location changed in the past year?
  • Were you able to stay within your marketing budget?

Having an honest conversation about your performance over the past year is the optimal way to pick the best path forward. Once you know what worked best for your team in the past, you are ready to create marketing resolutions for the next year. Focus on creating goals that are SMART.

  • Specific (targeted to a specific area of improvement)
  • Measurable (gives a quantifiable result you can monitor)
  • Achievable (a goal that is challenging, yet still completable)
  • Relevant (something that will further your marketing goals)
  • Timely (set a certain deadline for completion)

Here’s an excellent example of a SMART Goal: ”I will grow my social media presence to 250 followers by the end of the year, and post content on my social profiles twice a week.” Now that’s a SMART goal!

Though it can be daunting to draft out your marketing resolutions for the new year, these tips can help you focus your efforts and input a successful strategy for 2018.

Use Content Marketing to Appeal to Millennials

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As the Millennial generation makes strides in the workforce and begins to gather their nest egg, it is exceptionally important for financial advisors to adjust their marketing strategies to speak to this up-and-coming demographic. This is easier said than done, however. Millennials were born between 1982 and 2003, growing up in an age bombarded by digital advertising on all sides. As a result, they are more skeptical of traditional advertising than any generation before. Their lack of trust in the business world as a whole requires financial advisors to use a light and gentle touch when trying to get their attention. So how do you begin?

  1. Socialize!

In order to reach a Millennial audience, you have to establish a presence on social media. The statistics here are astounding…The Pew Research Center reports that 88% of all American adults aged 18-29 are on Facebook, 59% are on Instagram, and 36% are on Twitter. Utilize these existing audiences by sharing social content that speaks to millennials. 

  1. Say what?

So you’re on social media…What now? You want to speak to the current financial priorities of your Millennial audience. Share content that is most important to this key demographic. Information on first-time home purchases, Roth IRA’s, and student loan repayment establishes you as a trusted source of information and emphasizes that you have the knowledge to address their financial dilemmas. Encourage your users to share your helpful content with their friends, and engage with all comments and shares to start a meaningful conversation. 

  1. Showcase your values

Being inundated by advertising at such a young age has created a general mistrust for corporations among the Millennial demographic. These feelings were amplified by the financial meltdown of 2008, which occurred right as they were entering the workforce. As a result, the “profits-over-people” mentality is extremely unpopular, and they want greater moral accountability from the companies they invest in. Crafting a meaningful mission statement, offering Socially Responsible Investments, and highlighting your volunteer work makes it clear that you are dedicated to making the world a better place…Something that Millennials will respond to. An astonishing 70% of Millennials will spend more on brands supporting causes they care about, so make sure your brand stands for something! 

  1. No mobile, no go

It should be no surprise that Millennials are the most mobile generation. Not only are Millennials more likely to browse the web on their mobile phone than any other generation, an astonishing 18% are mobile-only. Confirm that your website passes Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test and that all content loads quickly and easily on mobile devices.

Using these tips, you can ensure that you are including the next generation of investors in your marketing plan. Though they are less trusting of advertising than any previous generation, they can be won over by authentic messaging and engaging content. 

How to Use LinkedIn Groups to Become a Thought Leader

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With more than 467 million users, LinkedIn is the new powerhouse for innovators, business professionals, and aspiring entrepreneurs. The ability to reach large audiences with a few clicks has created the opportunity for financial advisors to build a reputation as a “Thought Leader” and gain respect through an expanded network. But how do you begin?

  1. Personalize Your Profile

In order to garner respect from an audience you have never met, your profile needs to stand above the crowd. Ensure that you are personalizing every aspect on your LinkedIn profile, including custom backgrounds, banner images, and a headline. Create consistent messaging for your personal brand and ensure that it will grab the attention of your audience.

You have minimal space to make an impact, so every word counts. LinkedIn allows you to bring in a headline of up to 120 characters and a summary of up to 2,000. Use as many keywords as possible to ensure that you are attracting the right people from your industry.

  1. Better Get Blogging!

Blogs are an excellent way to expand your network, both with clients and other financial advisors. Pay attention to shifting trends in the financial services industry and try to be one of the first to report on them. Breaking news is an easy way to get likes and shares! 

If you already create blogs for your website, don’t just hit the share button to publish on LinkedIn. Bring in the same content as a new LinkedIn Article to give yourself a boost in their sharing algorithms. They want you to republish your content on their platform!

Share your articles in relevant groups and encourage conversation with your readers. Ask their opinions about the topic to increase engagement and foster a sense of community. 

  1. Expand Your Horizons

Though you should always join financial services groups throughout the LinkedIn platform, important connections can come from surprising places! Join groups based on your interests, education, and local pastimes in order to cast a wider net. Passionate about baseball? There’s a group for that! Volunteer at your local animal shelter on the weekends? There are groups for that, too! Reach out to new contacts in your community to establish yourself as a thought leader outside of your traditional industry.

  1. Treasure Your Connections

More than anything, people will remember how you made them feel. Be sure to engage with your contacts at every opportunity. Let them know that you value their input, especially when they comment on your posts and articles. Be quick to respond with insights and advice when the people around you ask for assistance! 

By standing out from the crowd and delivering insightful content, you can attract new clients and cultivate respect from your peers. The networking tools at LinkedIn are revolutionizing the way that advisors market themselves…Use them to your advantage! 

How to Create an Infographic

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Information is only useful if you can get people to pay attention to it. When trying to communicate an idea quickly, one of the best strategies available is to couch your information in a colorful infographic.

Studies that track eye movement have shown that audiences pay more attention to images that carry information. Infographics are also shared three times more than other media on social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn.

Infographics communicate ideas better than regular text. In another study, participants who followed directions paired with graphics did 323% at successfully following the directions than those who had only text-based instructions.

All of this equals up to a great opportunity for you and your online content marketing. But where do infographics actually come from? Follow these simple steps, and before you know it, you’ll have an infographic of your very own.

The Info Part of Infographic

The first step to making an infographic is gathering the info. There are a number of reputable sources for new information. Financial advisors will find interesting statistics and facts on sites like:

Always trace your information back to its original source. Make sure you are getting the context for your statistics correct and always link back to the original study that provided the material. This is not only a good way to establish your credibility; it will help improve the SEO of your site by connecting you with top-rated websites.

You can also use information that your organization has gathered itself. Be sure not to violate any fiduciary standards of revealing information, but feel free to use insights that you have gleaned from working with your clientele and represent them in a way that preserves anonymity.

Finding something that has not already been put into an infographic is a great way to make a big splash on the web.

The Graphic Part of Infographic

There is a multitude of sites now that will allow you to use templates and they’re online design tools.

The different infographic generators differ slightly in their user experience and range of templates they make available. However, it is hard to pick one that stands out above the rest. It has more to do with finding the right layout for your vision among the thousands of options available. Here are five of our favorites:

Freelancer Sites for Infographics

If you want something done right sometimes, it is best to hire a professional. There is no shame in handing over your infographic project to a dedicated graphic designer who specializes in changing hard data into colorful visualizations. There are several sites that allow you to search through hundreds of eager freelancers just waiting to sink their teeth into your new project. Here are a few of our favorite:

Get Your Infographic Out There

While hosting your infographic on your home blog is always a good idea, it is also true that infographics do extremely well on social platforms. They are 2.3 times as likely to receive engagement on Facebook, and they receive 150% more retweets on Twitter. Unfortunately, Facebook and Twitter’s image size restrictions don’t allow people to see an entire infographic. A good strategy is to create a preview picture for these platforms that fit into their 1.91:2 ratio and then an include a link back to your blog for those who want to see the entire infographic.

Another platform you may consider utilizing for sharing your infographic is Pinterest. While platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook will only show a portion of your infographic as the preview, Pinterest displays the entire picture as the preview. This can do wonders for inspiring people to click through and give it a closer look.

Creating an infographic can take a little bit of work, but the results can be massive. When you produce the kind of content that gets noticed and shared you are adding a massive boost to the efficacy of your content marketing strategy.

3 Secrets to Making Your Financial Advisor Blog Stand Out

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Don’t let “blog” be another four-letter word.

In the age of social media, blogging has seemingly become this hyper-competitive industry that fights over readership and alienates the audience in the process.

For financial advisors, it doesn’t need to be that way.

While other industries and companies take the scattershot approach to blogging, you’ll reap the rewards of a more precise process with every blog post.

Creating a captivating and informative blog page on your financial advisor website can serve as an extension of your company, providing value for your readers.

Here are 3 tips on how to make a great financial advisor blog:

1. “Content is King” When Creating Your Blog Posts

This phrase is currently making the rounds as the “most redundant sentence” of 2016, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s true. Without question, content remains the most important component of your financial advisor blog.

While the benefits of blogging are important (viewership, reaching prospective clients, etc.), remember its primary function: to educate, inform, and excite your audience.

You want people to walk away from your article with new information and a refreshed perspective.

So, how do you pique the interest of your readers and stimulate their engagement?

The Value of Episodic Content: Break Up Topics and Narrow the Focus

If you’ve ever binge-watched a Netflix show, then you already understand this principle. Whether it’s a thrilling TV series or a nerve-wracking sporting event, people love suspense.

Studies indicate that it’s in our nature to be attracted to uncertainty and to stay engaged until we reach a resolution.

Applying this perspective to blogging can be immensely useful. While content is the king, its presentation and delivery is second in command.

For example, consider two possible financial blog post ideas:

  • In writing a single blog about “Preparing for Retirement,” you tackle everything from college funding and savings accounts, to your 401(k), estate planning and more.
  • Or, you write a three-part series about the same subject and dedicate one post to each major area of planning.

The second option not only delivers the same information, but it does so in a more palatable way. Readers have time to digest the first block of information and apply it to their practice.

There’s a reason premiere restaurants have a meticulously designed culinary experience. They want you to enjoy each course before moving onto the next.

With your financial advisor blog, allow your readers to savor every bite of information you provide, then end the conversation before they’re overwhelmed.

This will earn you a loyal reader who anticipates the next installment in your series.

2. Know Your Audience and Hone Your Content

The digital marketplace can often seem like the wild west, offering little to no guidance, feedback or direction.

As a financial advisor, however, you have an advantage.

You know who your most important clients are, what your most valuable services have been, and how often you’re growing your total assets under management.

When it comes to your website and the blogs you offer, however, nothing will replace the power of statistics.

First and foremost, it’s essential to hone in on your target audience with every post. Know who you’re trying reach and what change you’re trying to affect in their financial lives.

Secondly, you can review the success of each blog post with the help of Google Analytics.

Advisor Launchpad specializes in providing top-tier Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to boost your web presence, and using Google Analytics will tell you three important things:

  • How much traffic your site generates
  • Who your key visitors are (and when they’re coming from)
  • What pages of the site are getting the most traction

The takeaways from these findings are key to your digital marketing strategy.

If the numbers are good, and people are consuming your content, then you’re on the right track. If you’re underwhelmed by the statistics, then you simply have to readjust your process.

Play to Your Strengths When Creating Content for Your Target Audience

When helping financial advisors hone their content and messaging, we often find that the advisor’s own words are the best.

Nobody can capture the essence of your firm and your philosophy like you and your team.

One advisor spoke about his approach to investing with cooking analogies – ingredients, preparation and more. That verbiage may not work for everyone, but it was true to his personality and unique to the essence of the firm.

We encourage advisors to play to their strengths and write blogs from their own veteran perspective with the words and phrasing they’re most comfortable using.

3. Use Social Media to Share Your Blog Posts

Content is the king, and the more you feed the beast, the longer you protect its reign.

Featuring your blogs on social media will help establish you and your firm as thought leaders in the industry.

Also, while nothing will replace the value of fresh and vibrant content, your favorite blogs from the previous year will always be in play. Thanks to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, you can recycle and repurpose your old posts in a plethora of ways.

Social media engagement has the added benefit of growing your following and showing audiences the depth of your involvement in the industry.

Start Focusing on These 3 Secrets for Your Financial Advisor Blog

Whether on the phone or in person, you spend countless hours nurturing your client relationships. No matter how busy you get, remember that your blog is an extension of your website and your firm.

It’s the digital platform that showcases your thought leadership and provides insight into your expertise that your clients might not otherwise get to see.

Embrace the challenge, write frequently (and in your own voice!), then let your blogs circulate through your favorite social media channels.

If you need a boost in building your digital marketing strategy while maintaining financial advisor compliance, Advisor Launchpad is here to help. Reach out today for more information!