
DIGITAL MARKETING
Many of us in the financial services industry, if asked about our digital strategies, feel good in sharing that we have a website and probably some sort of newsletter and email list that we send articles to periodically.
A fewer number of us, if asked, can share some type of analytics (usually Google) about the number of ‘hits’ to our site and the path the individual viewers take before they exit. Basically we know they came, they saw and they went!
A much smaller and elite group of advisors actually know what is happening with their digital marketing tools and generate business for their firm with them. This elite group is leading the way in Digital Business Transformation. This remarkable transformation is being driven by Digital Marketing. Digital Marketing’s mission today, and in the future, focuses on continuous customer engagement and revolves around your ability to efficiently modify your strategies and tactics in response to changing markets and client desires.
This process can be broken down into four basic steps:
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Getting traffic to your site - Creating blog content, search engine optimization, promotion of your value on social media sites or via PPC (pay per click) advertising, retargeting, search engine optimization (SEO), mobile apps and ads and personalization.
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Getting leads - Placing calls-to-action (CTAs) throughout your website to drive visitors to landing pages with forms and offers. Visitors fill out the forms to get whatever you’re offering and become leads.
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Getting customers - Engaging your leads, often through automated emails and personalized experiences on future web site visits so they will ultimately provide your sales team with intelligence about themselves to support the sales process.
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Analysis - Learning how and why your marketing campaigns succeeded or failed, and determining which areas need further optimization for future success.
We firmly believe that future businesss growth depends on how YOU deliver customer experience, not only to prospects, but to your clients. Quality technical advice, successful investment results, aggregated technology and good reporting are the cost of admission, not a differentiator (at least among those intending to survive!)
Do you think your digital tools (web site, mail, engagement marketing) are producing enough action? Do they engage and create leads for your financial practice? Is your marketing plan inclusive of all of the different channels that your prospects are active on? Most likely, the answer will be no.
Our formula is one of transparency, continuous communication and alignment with your needs. If this resonates with you, we’ve found that the one thing that ties all of this together is that each project starts with a good conversation. Let’s talk.


Your Web Site
One of the first steps in looking at a firm's digital presence is to do a quick review of its web site to see whether there are aspects of design that might be tweaked to make the site more effective and engaging. Does it look good on the computer screen, can you easily find information, and is it easy to navigate? Is it responsive and works well with smart phones and tablets? The goal is to arrive at a design that after viewing, potential clients will see starting or maintaing a relationship with your firm as unique and and worth pursuing.
The goal is to take a wholistic approach to design and development. In looking at the site, we strive to understand your market, your audience and your core business drivers in-depth, so that we can correlate every design and engineering decision directly back to helping you achieve your business goals.
To deliver this outcome, the process has three steps:
1. Interface Design
Interface design is the arrangement and makeup of how a user can interact with a site. The word interface means a point or surface where two things touch. So a web user interface is where a person and a website touch - so menus, components, forms, and all the other ways you can interact with a website. Good interface design is about making the experience of using a website easy, effective and intuitive.
2. Aesthetic Design
Aesthetic design is all about getting the look right. Different designs convey different messages to an end user, so it's essential that a design matches the site's message. Out of the three components of web design, aesthetic design is surely the one that people most identify as being design. One thing we find interesting about aesthetic design is that it is deceptively difficult and a challenge to do properly so as to convey the personality of the company.
3. Information Design
Information design is about preparing the information on a website in the best possible way, so that users can efficiently and effectively find and digest information. In larger sites, just finding information becomes challenging, but in sites both large and small, processing it is always a design problem.
When was the last time you looked at your web site through the above filter? If you or your team aren't doing it every month or two, let's talk!

INBOUND MARKETING
As a great firm we've worked with - Hubspot - would say, the goal of inbound marketing is to Attract, Convert, Close and then ultimately Delight visitors in your digital world. The tools you use to do this include blogs, keywords, social marketing, landing pages, forms, calls-to-action for offers and opportunities, your CRM, email, smart personalized content and work flows, to name just a few.
Hubspot, for example, makes it possible to create content that answers prospects' basic questions and pulls them into a relationship with your firm. By looking at the various stages a vistor goes through in their journey of becoming a client, it's possible to bring about the concept of Lifecycle Marketing that assists in moving contacts down the path of becoming happily engaged with your firm.
This process needs to include the concept of personalization. Personalization is the processs of tailoring the content to the then current wants and needs of the people who are viewing it. This becomes an iterative process - as you learn more about your leads over time, you can better personalize your messages to your ideal target client.
Good inbound marketing is multi-channel and supports both web traffic and social media. The goal is to meet the prospect where they want to interact with you.
For all of this to work, it must involve integration. Content creation, publishing, tracking and analysis must all work together to allow you to focus on delivering the right content in the right place at the right time.
If you'd like to learn more, Let's talk!

MARKETING STRATEGY
It's important to create a roadmap when implementing any kind of digital transformation within your organization. In an ever changing digital landscape, success in business can often depend on what you do (or don't do) in marketing your company on and off-line.
From SEO (search engine optimization) to content marketing and analytics, it can be overwhelming figuring out what to start -- and, more importantly, what's going to have the biggest impact both in the short and long term on your business.
The successful digital implementation will be built on 7 core capabilities which are strategic approach, performance improvment process, management buy-in, resources and structure, data and infrastructure, integrated customer communications and ultimately customer experience.
We're here to help with discovering:
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The essential essence of your digital strategy
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Recommended tool and resources to help get it up and running, and keep it running smoothly
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Ways to stay ahead of the competition, including recommended tools and technologies to support your digital footprint
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Ideas on how to maximize your in-person events for online success.
Ready to get started building our a digital strategy that works for your business?