Do you have a great website, but you still aren’t getting as much traffic to the site as you would like? In a saturated industry like financial advising, it’s so pertinent that you stand out from the competition. If leads can’t find your site, then how do you do that? We’ve got 12 tips that can help you out tremendously.
Need help with creating awesome content for your website? Check out Lead Pilot. It comes preloaded with highly engaging content that you can use as-is, OR customize to your audience and niche. The content pieces are both editorial in nature, as well as, contain more dynamic content such as videos and infographics to really boost your SEO game.
In the above image, you can see that Google Analytics from Twenty Over Ten has many different tabs. The above image shows an overview of the behavior of the visitors to the website.
In the above image, Twenty Over Ten shares a blog on their Twitter platform that leads people to the webinar replay blog on the website. It was a very informative webinar about how to grow your client base using these two social platforms. This is the type of information that can create leads and encourage others to check out the website or even sign up for the next webinar.
Twenty Over Ten client, United Wealth Management, has a very specific niche. They specialize in PRAP Management and Financial Life Planning for Pilots at United Airlines. This niche is obviously incredibly specific, and the keywords are exhibited on the homepage, as well.
We love utilizing guest blogs at Twenty Over Ten and often work with Zoë Meggert. She is the founder of Perfectly Planned Content, which was started to empower financial planners and business owners in the personal finance community to tell their stories. In the above image, she shared very helpful information with tips on how to get started blogging in 60 minutes.
Depending on what service you use, you should be able to segment the lists out accordingly based on how you want to. At Twenty Over Ten, we use MailChimp, which makes list segmenting very simple and straightforward.
On the Twenty Over Ten blog, we include links to three additional related blog posts at the bottom of every post. This is a great way to get people to check out more of your content and stay on your website longer, which will boost your rankings.
Also, it’s a great idea to make it where links open in separate browsers, so that you don’t leave the website. The Twenty Over Ten platform makes opening links in separate browser tabs easy! Once you have added your link, users can just click the box in the lower left-hand corner to open the link in a new browser tab.
Zega Financial is great about regularly including videos that feature their CEO and co-founder Jay Pestrichell, which really humanizes their brand and establishes them as thought leaders in the industry.
Additionally, in the instance of getting a great hit, it’s okay to brag a little bit. Quarry Hill Advisors includes an “As Featured In” section that showcases the publications where they have been featured. It adds an element of trust and shows that this firm has what it takes to be included in these publications and shows that they are a thought-leader in the financial industry.
12 Tips to Drive Traffic to Your Financial Advisor Website
Let these 12 tips help you create a stronger advisory website and stand out from the competition by generating more leads and driving traffic to your site.1. CONTENT CREATION IS SO IMPORTANT
Content is king and you need to ensure you are creating strong content for your website. A great way to start this is by blogging, which is a huge factor in boosting your SEO rankings. Your blog content exhibits your expertise and trustworthiness as a financial advisor and is therefore critical when it comes to boosting website traffic. When you blog, it establishes you as a thought leader in the industry. The financial industry has so much competition, that if you create a really strong blog section that many others have not done yet, you will immediately stand out. Additionally, creating useful and helpful content will make other companies and advisors more likely to link back to your material, thus spreading your information and boosting your rankings. You can use keywords in your content, as well, which will help to drive even more traffic to your site. If you are a financial advisor that specializes in working with a certain niche, then include those keywords in your headers and throughout your page. However, beware of keyword stuffing, as that will actually penalize you and your rankings will go down.
Need help with creating awesome content for your website? Check out Lead Pilot. It comes preloaded with highly engaging content that you can use as-is, OR customize to your audience and niche. The content pieces are both editorial in nature, as well as, contain more dynamic content such as videos and infographics to really boost your SEO game.
2. CHECK YOUR ANALYTICS
Analytics are key to finding out how your website is performing. If you don’t know how your website is performing, then you are missing out on a huge opportunity to capitalize on your website’s strengths or improve on your weaknesses. You need to incorporate audits into your routine to see what’s working for you and what needs to be changed. This being said, we are very big advocates of incorporating Google Analytics into your website. It can seem overwhelming, but there are over 10,000 metrics that you can track on Google Analytics! It gives you access to a range of valuable insights to determine your website’s performance. You can track metrics like who is visiting your site, where they’re coming from, and how long they’re staying. Keeping up with this can show where your success is and what you can be doing better!
In the above image, you can see that Google Analytics from Twenty Over Ten has many different tabs. The above image shows an overview of the behavior of the visitors to the website.
3. SOCIAL MEDIA IS KEY
If you’re not already on social media, then you need to get started. Being on social media gives you access to 3.196 billion active users. We recommend at least starting with the big three: LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook at the very least. If you post regularly on these channels, then you are able to extend your content to a whole different audience who might not otherwise see your website. If you post links to your websites, such as through a blog or newsletter, this is just another way to drive traffic to your site. Also, if you share third-party content, in addition to your own, and are tagging the source, then this is a great way to connect with other leaders in the financial services industry. Overall, creating content on social media will show you’re a thought leader and a trustworthy firm. However, it’s so important that you remain consistent and that you are engaging, so strive to create an editorial calendar to help with scheduling out the content in a timely fashion.
In the above image, Twenty Over Ten shares a blog on their Twitter platform that leads people to the webinar replay blog on the website. It was a very informative webinar about how to grow your client base using these two social platforms. This is the type of information that can create leads and encourage others to check out the website or even sign up for the next webinar.
4. BECOME AN EXPERT IN YOUR NICHE
As we discussed earlier how catering to a niche proves that you are a thought leader in the industry, it’s just a great way to set yourself apart from the large amounts of financial advisors out there. Catering to a certain group creates more value for your marketing money and gives you stronger leads. As the digital world grows and we see the rise of more virtual financial planning tools, clients will no longer search for a planner who is limited to their geographic area, but rather they will find the one that works best for them. Like anything, making a mark in such a broad field takes a lot of time and effort, but if you market yourself as a financial planner for a certain niche, then you can really excel in a niche that may not be as served. When a group is underserved, you have the opportunity to become a thought-leader much quicker, which is why it’s so important to optimize your site properly so that when prospects type in your niche, they are able to quickly and easily find your website.
Twenty Over Ten client, United Wealth Management, has a very specific niche. They specialize in PRAP Management and Financial Life Planning for Pilots at United Airlines. This niche is obviously incredibly specific, and the keywords are exhibited on the homepage, as well.
5. OBEY SEO RULES
Keeping up with your firm’s SEO or search engine optimization is pertinent to maintaining your business’ reputation management. It seems like a lot of effort, but it does not have to be. It requires consistency and strong content creation, but when executed properly, you can watch your rankings soar. Want to know something even better? It’s free and is a way to increase your brand awareness and drive a lot of traffic to your advisor site. What are some of the key aspects of a good SEO strategy? Well, it includes proper linking, quality headers and tags, keywords, creating strong content and much more.6. UTILIZE GUEST BLOGS
As we’ve said throughout this post and many others, blogging is crucial for driving traffic, but what if you used a third-party source? Not only can blogging become a bit time-consuming, but it’s a great idea to invite some fresh thoughts into your page. Did you know that only 6% of marketers publish the majority of their blogs as guest blogs? If you take advantage of it is a great way to give yourself a step up on the competition. If you have credible industry leaders write a guest blog on your site, it can save you time and energy. Additionally, it’s a great way to make a connection with someone new that can help you in the long-run. It’s also a great way to showcase their own work, so a guest will likely be very excited to create content for your site. Just like creating your own content, make sure that you are posting these blogs on your social media platforms so that you can generate interest and drive more readers to your advisor site.
We love utilizing guest blogs at Twenty Over Ten and often work with Zoë Meggert. She is the founder of Perfectly Planned Content, which was started to empower financial planners and business owners in the personal finance community to tell their stories. In the above image, she shared very helpful information with tips on how to get started blogging in 60 minutes.
7. BUILD LISTS IN YOUR EMAILS
When you are sending out emails, you probably have different audiences that you are trying to cater to, right? So, you’re not going to send one blanket email to encompass everyone. This is why it’s so important to segment your lists and build them within your email marketing platform. Be sure that you are constantly updating and adding contacts to your email lists because:- Email addresses change as employees leave or start a company
- People opt-out/unsubscribe from email communication
- Old email addresses become unimportant as people drop them and get new ones
Depending on what service you use, you should be able to segment the lists out accordingly based on how you want to. At Twenty Over Ten, we use MailChimp, which makes list segmenting very simple and straightforward.
8. CREATE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL LINKS
Linking is a big part of an SEO strategy for your advisor site. There are both internal and external links, and both are incredibly important to your advisor website.INTERNAL LINKS
So, what is an internal link? It is a link that points to another page on the same website. They are links that go from one page on a domain to a different page on the same domain. They are so important to your page because:- They allow users to navigate a website easily
- They help establish an information hierarchy for the given website.
- They help spread ranking power around websites.
On the Twenty Over Ten blog, we include links to three additional related blog posts at the bottom of every post. This is a great way to get people to check out more of your content and stay on your website longer, which will boost your rankings.
EXTERNAL LINKS
What is an external link? Well, it’s a hyperlink that targets any domain other than the domain where the link already exists. They are so important for your website because:- They help you to increase in relevance
- They give you a reputation boost
- They encourage backlinking
- External links improve your value
Also, it’s a great idea to make it where links open in separate browsers, so that you don’t leave the website. The Twenty Over Ten platform makes opening links in separate browser tabs easy! Once you have added your link, users can just click the box in the lower left-hand corner to open the link in a new browser tab.
9. OPTIMIZE AND REPURPOSE YOUR CONTENT
This is a great way to get the most “bang for your buck” when it comes to the content that you have already spent time creating. Did you write a killer blog several months ago, and even though it’s now outdated, it did really well for your site? Then you can optimize it and then reuse it. Go through and update old links with some fresh content, check keywords, titles, find out what is trending and if it is appropriate, you can work that into your blog. You put a lot of time and effort into this blog, so make sure you can use it for as long as possible. You know what’s great about optimizing and reusing content? You can get as much out of it as you want, so if you wrote a post 6 months ago, which is no longer being seen, then as soon as you update it and make all the changes, you republish it on your website, so it’s at the top. Also, put that post out on your social platforms, as well, as this is just another way to direct traffic to your advisor site.10. INCORPORATE VIDEO MARKETING
It’s time to add video marketing to your content strategy. According to a report by Cisco, video will account for 82% of traffic by 2022. Start implementing video marketing into your strategy as soon as possible because this is the content people are clicking on. You can include videos in newsletters, blog posts, on social media, really anywhere to get visitors checking out your content.
Zega Financial is great about regularly including videos that feature their CEO and co-founder Jay Pestrichell, which really humanizes their brand and establishes them as thought leaders in the industry.
11. USE EMAIL MARKETING
If you want to humanize and stay in touch with clients and prospects, then sending out newsletters is a great way to do this. In your newsletters, you can provide useful information and links to pages on your website where your clients and prospects can learn more, such as through blog posts and landing pages. When creating a newsletter, there are some things you need to include, and one of those is a call-to-action (CTA). These need to make your readers want to take the next step by creating a sense of urgency. Also, when it comes to creating strong email marketing, there are some other things to keep in mind, such as:- Use strong subject lines
- Be sure you are sending out your emails at ideal times or days
- Use a highly-recommended service provider, such as MailChimp
- Make sure the content is strong
Additionally, in the instance of getting a great hit, it’s okay to brag a little bit. Quarry Hill Advisors includes an “As Featured In” section that showcases the publications where they have been featured. It adds an element of trust and shows that this firm has what it takes to be included in these publications and shows that they are a thought-leader in the financial industry.