An advertising strategy is the sum total of a company’s (typically paid) outreach efforts to build brand awareness and drive sales; these goals can include introducing new products, priming sales conversion rates, gaining social media subscribers, accessing a target market, and engaging existing customers. 

Financial advisors who don't advertise are missing out on a valuable opportunity to reach potential clients. Ad campaigns that target specific demographics or areas of interest can be very successful at grabbing attention and engaging prospects.  

Myriad different types of advertising are available to financial advisors. Which of these advertising tools will be most successful depends on the type of advertising being used and the desired target audience. It’s important to consider the benefits and drawbacks of each type of advertising before choosing an approach and creating a campaign that will be successful. 

In previous posts, we discussed various marketing strategies, including social media and SEO for financial advisors. Today, we are going to put forth a list of eight creative ways to implement those strategies for advertising your firm, both paid and organic, to ultimately drive prospects to your business, providing you with solid leads just waiting to be converted into new clients. 

 

Paid Advertising Options

Facebook Advertising

Two million small to medium-sized businesses advertised on Facebook in 2016, and that number grew to ten million advertisers by Q3 of 2020; it’s an easy and effective way to market to virtually any target audience. Facebook ads allow you to target a specific audience based on location, interests, age, gender, and many other factors. In addition to the terrific targeting tools, creating a Facebook ad is easy. Create a great headline, valuable and creative content, an image, and a link. That’s it. You’re advertising on the social media giant. 

The Facebook Ads Manager is an intuitive marketing tool that allows you to try multiple versions of an ad campaign even if the user lacks in technical expertise. When you include an ever-growing suite of 3rd-party applications that can facilitate your Facebook ad-creation and tracking, advertising on Facebook becomes all the more attractive as a digital advertising platform. 

Google Ads

There are more than 90,000 search queries on Google every second. This makes it one of the easiest and broadest ways to make sure your business can be found by your target audience. 

Google Adwords is the paid advertising service offered by the search-engine behemoth. It’s competitive, constantly evolving, and can be cost-efficient or expensive based on the keywords you’re targeting. And, in the right hands, can be a very successful way to market your business. Because of the ever-changing Google landscape and the complex algorithms involved, you will almost definitely be best served to seek outside assistance if you choose to make Google Ads your primary source of digital advertising.  

LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn is widely known as a networking social media platform, but more than that, LinkedIn also offers a fantastic platform for paid advertising. With a LinkedIn Campaign Manager account, you can create an ad campaign with options to customize your target demographic, and a variety of budget options. LinkedIn Ads also allows you to choose what your advertising campaign objective is and will promote your ad accordingly. You can choose from: 
  • Awareness – Build your brand and measure impressions. 
  • Consideration – Get your customers to take action to learn more about your business. 
  • Conversions – Optimize for lead generation or other actions taken on your website. 
Highly customizable and with great tools for tracking your campaign’s reach and success, LinkedIn is a terrific platform for financial advisors to advertise, as well as network. 

Print Advertising

While much of the world has moved online, print media still exists, and in some industries, it still thrives. As print media continues to decrease in overall popularity, pricing for ad placement lowers as well. In the right publications, it is now possible to run effective ads at incredibly affordable prices. 

That said, print media is rarely effective as a solo marketing strategy. It is best used in conjunction with online marketing strategies, with the two channels arranged to complement each other and create an engaging experience for potential buyers. 

 

Organic (Free) Advertising & Marketing Options

Organic (Non-Paid) Social Media

If your future customers can’t find your business on social media, you can rest assured that they will find your competitors’ social media pages. How much time and resources you should be investing in your social media presence, however, is up for debate. You can ask yourself two questions when it comes to choosing which social platforms are worth your investment: 
  1. Where are your target audiences most prevalent?  
  1. What kind of content is most successful in converting their presence into a lead?  
Instagram may be a great platform for a fashion designer to show pictures and videos of their latest fashion line. But LinkedIn may be more valuable to a financial advisor whose target audience is employees in the tech industry.  

Having a presence on social media is a must but having a presence across all of social media may be unnecessary, and a waste of time and money. 

Google’s Free Tools

Google can be used organically as well, via the Google Business tool. Google Business Profile combines all your different Google platforms into one central place, which includes your Google Maps profile, your Google reviews, access to data on Google Analytics and Google Insights, and more. 

Google Business immediately gives your business credibility and visibility and should be a top priority when advertising your business online. And best of all, maintaining your Google Business Profile is relatively fast, and easy, and you can get a great deal from this tool for free.  

Email Marketing

Email marketing remains a cornerstone of digital advertising and will continue to do so in 2023. 

Knowing that most prospects that visit your website will not become a customer immediately, it is crucial to capture their contact info for later marketing efforts and to grow your CRM. And an email address is the easiest and most valuable contact info you can obtain via your website. 

Email marketing is cheap, easily automated, easy to update, and easy to track. Software like HubSpot offers reliable and feature-packed email marketing tools suited for growing businesses — for free. These tool allow you to create professional marketing emails that engage and grow your audience. You can start from scratch, with easy drag-and-drop email builders or use one of the goal-based templates available.  

(Another great option is email marketing software with robust automation and ready-made content for your firm.) 

Write A Guest Column or Blog

Prefer writing to public speaking? A weekly or monthly article or blog post can pack some advertising punch as well. Local newspapers or non-profit organizations are often looking for articles and being able to offer expert advice to their readers should be even more enticing. For the low, low cost of free, you are given the opportunity to make regular contact with an audience, building an actual relationship with the publication’s readers. That audience will naturally think of you when they need a financial advisor. 

Though the publication’s audience is somewhat out of your control, still make sure that what you write about is valuable to your target audience. You may be writing to a larger group, but you still know who your ideal customer is, and that should always be your ultimate focus. 

 

Ad Campaign Ideas 

Free Consultation

Looking for ideas for your first ad campaign? People love to feel like they are getting something for nothing. Providing an offer, or a “lead magnet” on your social media or through print advertising is a great way to entice your audience to learn more about your brand.  

As an expert in the financial services industry, offering a free consultation is a great way to attract new clients. Your target audience will appreciate the opportunity to meet you and your team in person, and you can begin building the trust required to gain a long-term client. This can be achieved either online or in your office. And you can promote this offer to whatever faction of your target audience you choose. Maybe only to your LinkedIn followers, or to a specific group of email subscribers. You can be as selective or inclusive as you see fit. 

Webinars & Seminars

Whether it be a presentation, demonstration, or discussion, webinars are wonderful lead magnets for email marketing, and a well-targeted topic can drive a large number of new visitors to your site to help build your CRM.  

Recorded webinars can also be used as video content on your site and social media pages, stretching your advertising budget even further! An investment in good, feature-filled webinar software is recommended if this is an advertising strategy that you decide is a good fit for your audience. 

Likewise, being a speaker at popular events in your area is a great chance to advertise your services and create valuable content at the same time. While getting started in what is largely an invitation-only area can be challenging, you can also work your way into these opportunities by becoming a talented speaker and delivering great talks at smaller events such as: 

  • Chamber of Commerce or other local clubs 
  • Local colleges & universities 
  • Churches or other faith-based organizations 
  • Larger companies where you may already have clients 
Another tip: always record your efforts so they can be shared or potentially repurposed in the future. 

 

Be Consistent and Committed

The advertising campaign itself is distinct from the strategy, but consistency is key. Content, images, and all other aspects of your ad campaign should reflect your advertising strategy. This is especially important when multiple channels are used: print, social media, and email, for instance. 

There is no simple, universal strategy that will catapult your business to the cover of Fortune magazine.  

But having a well-researched and thoughtfully designed advertising strategy in place can absolutely help you achieve whatever goals you set for your company.  

 

Ready to level up your marketing game? Check out Redtail Campaigns, the industry’s first CRM-centric advisor marketing suite. Redtail Campaigns builds upon Orion’s legacy Market*r tool, empowering advisors and firms to drive new business and deepen client relationships through hyper-personalized marketing campaigns launched right from their CRM dashboard — see it in action, here, or get started today. 

 

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