Extending the Engagement Opportunity
I am constantly reminded how far behind the independent financial advisory industry is, compared to many other retail operations, in the use of technology to assist in engaging prospects. Having been in the industry for decades, an obvious reason is the nature of the advisor - most are male baby boomers that are very good sales people - who built a practice of people generally 5 to 10 years older and before the technology revolution. For these businesses to continue to the next generation, much has to change.
Many of us in the financial services industry, if asked about our digital strategies, feel good in sharing that we have an attractive website. And just about as many say they never get any leads from their website.
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.
What is digital marketing? A good example for discussion is the procedure known as “retargeting.” Retargeting, also known as remarketing, is a form of online advertising. The goal is to keep you brand in front of individuals after they’ve left your site. For most websites various statistics show that only 2% of visitors “convert” or engage with a site on the first visit, so keeping your brand in front of a visitor is useful.
A good example of this - I logged into Yahoo to read a couple of news articles today and on the right side menu was an ad from Amazon for children’s toys. I had been looking for a gift for a granddaughter and the Amazon targeting ad reminded me I hadn’t ordered a gift. The end of the story is I clicked on the Amazon toy ad, left Yahoo and went back to Amazon to complete a purchase. This is a great example of good technology - Amazon got a sale and my granddaughter got her gift on time building my brand with her!
If you’ve not gone through the list of dozens of ideas like this to build your brand, or you have questions on this, let's talk.