Financial advisors do valuable work, but in many cases, it’s flying under the radar. More than half (57 percent) of Americans are currently going without financial representation.
That’s a huge gap in the market, so how can you work to fill it? With effective digital marketing strategies and techniques.
In this post, I’ll introduce you to the need for digital marketing for financial advisors. I’ll then jump right in, showing you how to use data to find your target audience and, most importantly, target them with various digital marketing strategies. Finally, I’ll share the best marketing channels for financial advisors so you can get off to a running start.
Top Tips for Financial Advisor Marketing
Trust and credibility should be the focus of financial advisors, especially when using marketing to establish their brand and grow their clientele.
Topics like finance fall into the YMYL (your money or your life) page type, which receives greater scrutiny from Google.
Customer profiles are just as necessary for financial advisor marketing as any other industry.
Customer profiles enable you to narrow down the best marketing channels for you to target.
The best practices for marketing as a financial advisor include targeted client segmentation, a strong digital presence, consistent personal branding, online and offline networking, and regular performance data analysis.
Why Do Financial Advisors Need Marketing?
Like any industry, financial advising can benefit from marketing for a few general reasons: promoting brand awareness, building credibility, and growing your clientele, just to name a few.
Beyond that, though, marketing for financial advisors can help to establish them as trusted sources and thought leaders. This is important for such a client-centric industry, and one that requires significant trust and transparency.
If done correctly, marketing can position you as the authority within your financial advising niche.
What Makes Marketing for Financial Advisors Unique?
Perhaps more than any other industry, trust and credibility are crucial to the success of a financial advisor. If you can’t instill trust in clients, then you won’t have any clients to speak of!
Marketing for financial advisors, then, needs to focus heavily on those elements. You’re not only selling a service, but you’re promoting yourself as a trustworthy and knowledgeable advisor. The emphasis on trust, expertise, and personalized service distinguishes financial advisor marketing from other industries.
Of course, we can’t discuss financial advisor marketing without discussing YMYL. YMYL (your money or your life) is a type of content that can directly impact the readers’ financial stability, well-being, safety, or health. Financial topics are a part of this, but YMYL topics also include medicine, weather, current events, and more.
YMYL pages are given greater scrutiny under Google’s search quality evaluator guidelines. Hency, why trust and credibility are so important.
Customer Profiles for Financial Advisor Marketing: Our Data
Believe it or not, there is not one “best” target audience for financial advisors. You can have people from all walks of life interested in your services, but you must know how to reach out to them and meet their needs.
So where do you even start?
That’s where data can help.
The team at NP Digital, my digital marketing agency, sent out three surveys regarding finances and financial goals. We collected the responses of 1,000 people.
Each section below will highlight a different customer profile that I created based on the data collected. These are just a few examples of the audiences you may want to consider targeting. I will then go into detail on how that customer profile can be implemented as part of an overall marketing strategy for financial advisors.
Customer Profile One: Security Seeker
Name: Sarah
Age: 35
Gender: Female
Financial Habits:
Sarah primarily uses her savings account as an emergency fund, a habit she shares with 71 percent of other survey respondents.
She has only one savings account and uses it for all her savings goals, reflecting 31 percent of the respondents.
Sarah is well-educated about financial terms like APY and uses it as a deciding factor when selecting savings accounts. This is similarly the case for 41 percent of women and 55 percent of men.
Her top uses for savings accounts include emergency funds, vacation or travel, and major purchases.
Sarah understands the importance of actively growing her savings and makes informed decisions about her financial goals. For 17 percent of survey respondents, that means using a financial advisor to help them manage their money.
Sarah is a dream client for financial advisors, as she has general financial literacy, and therefore understands the importance of working with a knowledgeable advisor. If she doesn’t currently have an advisor, she is likely to reach out on her own to learn more about financial advising services.
The goal is two-fold: First, she needs to know that you exist. Second, she needs to see the value of your service over your competitors.
How can you achieve that?
For general awareness, paid marketing campaigns can be of great help. Paid campaigns on Google and social media will plant the seed in Sarah’s mind. Once Sarah is ready to take the leap, you can implement retargeting campaigns to recapture her attention.
Customer Profile Two: Financially Stretched Striver
Name: James
Age: 40
Gender: Male
Financial Habits:
James falls into the 22 percent of respondents who can pay bills on time, but lives paycheck to paycheck and has debt.
He prioritizes paying bills promptly but struggles with financial stability due to living expenses and debt. He has one savings account but cannot actively grow it, like 27.5 percent of respondents.
His primary financial goals include getting out of debt and achieving a more comfortable, less paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle.
James represents individuals who are working towards financial stability and need support in managing their debts.
Of the four customer profiles, James is the least likely to work with a financial advisor to handle savings and investments. He may, however, seek out financial advice regarding debt management and debt payoff.
So, how can you let James know that you can help?
A focus on search engine optimization (SEO)—particularly targeting debt relief keywords—is a great place to start. This will get potential clients to debt-specific content on your website, whether that’s educational blog posts or even debt payoff calculators and tools.
Customer Profile Three: Budget-Conscious Planner
Name: Alex
Age: 48
Gender: Male
Financial Habits:
Alex falls into the 20.3 percent group that has more than one savings account to support different savings goals.
He is among the 10.2 percent of respondents who are debt free, pay off their bills comfortably, and have additional savings.
Alex is included in the 24.9 percent of surveyed individuals who currently use a financial planner to help them with their financial goals. He has an eye towards early retirement.
Despite being financially conscious, Alex is part of the 20 percent of people who overlook the features of his preferred bank when setting up accounts for retirement.
Alex represents the demographic that values having multiple savings accounts to allocate funds strategically.
Of the four customer profiles, Alex is the most likely to already have a financial advisor. The goal, then is to make him realize that he could be doing more with his money and how your firm can help.
This is where FOMO (fear of missing out) marketing comes in.
Customer testimonials and case studies are a great place to start. Once collected, you can use them in various advertising campaigns (search engines, social media, TV, and radio adverts).
Of course, we can’t talk FOMO without talking about influencer marketing. That is, the use of social media influencers and thought leaders to promote the benefits of your services. Find out where your target customers in this demographic hang out and focus your efforts there.
Customer Profile Four: Financially-Insecure Seeker
Name: Casey
Age: 28
Gender: Non-Binary
Financial Habits:
Casey is part of the 30 percent of people who can pay bills but have no savings, indicating a potential lack of emergency preparedness.
Casey’s financial goals include building an emergency fund and feeling more secure about their financial future, which is the most popular goal among respondents.
They acknowledge past financial mistakes, such as overspending and not having an emergency fund, and is eager to learn more.
Casey represents individuals seeking financial security and education to make better-informed decisions.
How can you target a potential client such as Casey? By focusing on financial literacy. Free resources like budget planners, blog posts, and how-to guides will bring customers like Casey to your website.
You can even host free webinars on YouTube or live Q&As on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
While customers like Casey may not currently be in the position to hire a financial advisor, these free resources can help to get them there. Once comfortable enough to hire an advisor, you can be sure that your brand will be the first one on their mind.
Best Marketing Channels for Financial Advisors
Once you have built out your own customer profiles or borrowed ours from above, it’s time to begin your marketing efforts. So, what are the best marketing channels for financial advisors? Take a look!
Social Media and Financial Advisors
Social media for financial advisors is an important piece of the puzzle. From Facebook to YouTube to TikTok, social media can reach potential clients of all demographics and backgrounds.
It’s often overlooked or poorly utilized as part of financial advisor marketing strategies, though.
Why? If I had to guess, it’d be assumptions on who is interested in financial advising and where they’re hanging out.
Don’t assume that your target clientele is 40+ and, therefore, more likely to be hanging out on Facebook. Within one of our surveys, 17 percent of respondents indicated they were already working with a financial advisor. Of that 17 percent, 92.5 percent were between the ages of 18 and 25.
So don’t be afraid to branch out to millennial and Gen Z hangout spots like Instagram and TikTok! Financial advisor influencers, like Delyanne Barros (@delyannethemoneycoach) and Tori Dunlap (@herfirst100k), have shown just how popular financial advising can be to a “younger” audience:
Paid Media for Financial Advisors
As a financial advisor, you may hear the adage “you have to spend money to make money” and cringe. However, it’s certainly true as far as paid media goes.
So why should you invest in it for your business?
Paid advertising, whether on search engines, social media, or television, is a great way to increase brand awareness. It can also help you to improve conversion rates and hyperfocus your audience targeting so you connect more with your dream clientele.
It doesn’t have to be difficult, either. There are so many different types of paid media, that you can easily find one that is easy for you to implement and has a beneficial return on investment.
Paid search and display ads immediately come to mind, but other options include affiliate marketing and paid placements on blogs and social media accounts.
Content Marketing for Financial Advisors
Content marketing is one of the most versatile marketing channels. White papers, podcasts, videos, blog posts—these are all forms of content marketing!
Content marketing for financial advisors is a strategic way of building trust and brand credibility through valuable and relevant content. By creating content that resonates with your audience’s needs and concerns—and using SEO to target relevant search terms—you can position yourself as a valuable resource.
You will need to build out a content strategy if you hope to succeed. How?
Define your goals. What do you hope to achieve with your content plan? Whether it’s more pageviews or a more engaged audience, knowing what you’re targeting will help you to create the right content.
Research your audience. What do they want to learn? What content formats are most engaging for their demographic?
Focus on your niche. Whether that’s retirement planning, investing, or debt management, create content that reflects your knowledge.
Measure your results. Determine what metrics (e.g. pageviews, social shares, email newsletter signups) matter most to you and then measure it to see how you stack up to your goals.
Listen to your customers. As your audience grows, listen to their feedback and fill in any gaps in your content offering.
Beyond what you create, how often you create content and share it can be just as important.
Take Nerd’s Eye View, for example:
Started by Michael Kitces in 2008, the blog features relevant and timely content on topics spanning the industry. He goes no more than a few days between blog posts which means his content is fresh in an industry where trending content is important.
Regularly sharing valuable insights and staying up-to-date with industry trends like Michael Kitces not only reinforces your expertise, but it also keeps you top of mind for potential clients.
Influencer Marketing for Financial Advisors
Believe it or not, influencer marketing can be just as effective as a friend or family member’s recommendations. According to Matter Communications, 69 percent of people are likely to trust a friend, family member or influencer recommendation over information coming directly from a brand.
Even freelancers and small business owners can utilize influencer marketing. Here’s how:
Look to your audience. See who is already commenting on your social media and see if they have a following. If they do, they may be more than happy to do a collaboration.
Search industry hashtags. If you don’t have a big audience (yet!), search industry hashtags. You may find some influencer posts in your niche, which is a great way of learning which influencers are open to working with similar businesses.
Look to the competition. Who is your competition collaborating with? While non-competes may be a concern for active campaigns, you’re likely free to work with influencers from months-old campaigns.
If you don’t have the budget for a big name influencer, consider working with micro influencers. It can be just as effective in helping you to build up your business.
Thought Leadership for Financial Advisors
Establishing yourself as a thought leader is no small undertaking. It takes time, patience, and most importantly, deep industry knowledge. However, the benefits of becoming a thought leader—credibility, authenticity, and brand awareness—are well worth it.
Now sure how to get started? Check out my guide on how to brand yourself as a thought leader.
Thought leadership doesn’t mean you need to become a thought leader, though. Like influencer marketing, you can collaborate with established financial thought leaders.
Take a look at James Eagle, investment writer and founder of Eeagli, for example. He frequently posts interactive charts and infographics on platforms like LinkedIn and X:
Ashley M. Fox, a formal analyst turned educator, is another influencer in the financial industry to keep your eye on! Her expert way of breaking down complex topics into easy-to-understand topics is how she keeps her audience hooked:
This does two things. First, it gives your business greater credibility within the finance industry. Second, it enables you to reach a broader audience.
Best Practices for Marketing as A Financial Advisor
While you can take a jack-of-all-trades approach to your marketing efforts, that’s not likely to pay off in the long run. You need to focus your approach because by doing so, you ensure you’re targeting the right clientele for your business.
Now who you target, how you target them, and where you target them will likely vary from advisor to advisor. However, these best practices for marketing as a financial advisor can be beneficial no matter which approach you take.
Targeted Client Segmentation: Identify and understand your target audience to tailor marketing messages that resonate with specific demographics and financial needs.
Digital Presence: Establish a strong online presence through a professional website, social media, and relevant online platforms to reach a wider audience and enhance credibility.
Personal Branding: Develop a consistent personal brand that reflects your values, expertise, and unique offerings to differentiate yourself in a competitive market.
Networking: Actively engage in both online and offline networking opportunities to expand your professional connections and generate referrals.
Metrics and Analytics: Utilize data analytics tools like Ubersuggest to track the performance of marketing efforts, understand client behavior, and make informed decisions to optimize your strategies over time.
FAQs
Digital marketing for financial advisors is necessary if you want to promote your brand, build your brand’s credibility, and grow your clientele. It’s a versatile and effective way to show potential clients who you are and what you can offer as their financial advisor.
SEO for financial advisors is crucial for improving your organic visibility online. By targeting highly relevant keywords with high visibility and low competition, you can wiggle your way into the search engine results pages (SERPs). As your brand gains credibility, you can even begin to target higher competition keywords with greater odds of success.
A strong online presence as a financial advisor will vary, but it should include at least a blog with a personalized domain, multiple social media pages (preferably all with the same handle), and business directory listings. As you build your following, your presence may grow to include a full website, guest posts on popular financial blogs, and callouts on thought leader roundups.
To identify your ideal customer profile, you must first know your goals for your business and your areas of knowledge or interest. From there, you can build out a profile that fits the kind of person you would love to target as a client. You can also use survey data to shape a more realistic customer persona.
Conclusion
Digital marketing for financial advisors doesn’t have to be difficult. While financial advising has many unique elements, there are various general digital marketing strategies that you can begin to implement right away.
All you really need to get started is a list of business goals, a target audience, and one or two marketing channels. Once you’re established within those spaces, you can continue to branch out and expand your digital marketing efforts.
Do you have questions about digital marketing for financial advisors? Leave them in the comments below!