Good RIA marketing for your website is about having a clear message, driving traffic, and ultimately getting new leads.
In one of our previous posts, we mentioned how your website is the face and window into your organization more than ever.
While in-person communication and presence is important, the digital side of you and your business cannot be ignored.
That means the content on your site should show your organization at its finest, in a clear and concise manner. It should also entice visitors to take action.
When it comes to RIA marketing in the digital space, knowing SEO is key.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of increasing quality and quantity of traffic to your website through search engines like Google, Yahoo!, or Bing.
Ranking higher in the search results is good for your business; people are more likely to click the top sites.
Think about keywords that best describe your organization, and think about keywords prospects are likely to search for online. You want to show up in those results.
SEO includes a range of factors, such as:
Think about how you want to present your firm online.
Be consistent in your website page templates, font type, imagery, and use of colors. Make sure the colors and reflect your logo and overall brand. Also, make sure that consistency carries over into marketing material in all forms, across all platforms.
Branding allows you to be more recognizable and trusted, and consistency builds trust.
Consistency demonstrates a sense of order, and potential clients are more likely to trust brands they see regularly and know what to expect.
Avoid jargon. Do not use overly technical language.
Financial industry websites have a lot of work to do when it comes to their message being easily understood.
It feels good showing your knowledge of complicated financial concepts, but the prospect cannot be impressed by things they don't understand.
Although you're demonstrating qualifications, site visitors have to know what they're reading.
Think about the young, first-time investors. Consider the older, late-in-the-game segment that knows nothing else except they're getting old and need a retirement plan. If your website content doesn't resonate with the audience, they'll go to a competitor.
So, if you're a wealth manager, assume your prospects as having this simple mindset:
"I have money. I entrust you to manage my money. Go make me more money."
Tailor your content around that thought process. As mentioned above, good RIA marketing is about a clear message. Your site will be a more effective marketing tool with a clear and understandable message.
As part of what's made financial industry websites hard to process is the volume of text.
Long paragraphs with long sentences will confuse readers and test their patience.
Focus on the most important messages to share. Give those sentences room to stand by themselves and get the attention they deserve.
When someone visits your site and they like what they see, they'll take action... if it's convenient.
By convenient, we mean it's super easy for the prospect to connect with you and engage with your content.
Having Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons clearly displayed on every page will make it easy to connect and engage.
These buttons should stand out from other other neighboring text. Use a different text and background color with bold font for the CTA button. The text might read "Request a Meeting" or "Schedule a Free Consultation", whatever you feel is appropriate.
Maybe you have a piece of content to share with your audience. Make a CTA button on the appropriate pages to direct them to that content.
The thing is, prospects may be interested in your offering, but if it feels like extra work for them to contact you, they will move along.
Remove as many barriers as possible. Get the prospects while they are hot.
Easy to understand and concise language is good, but not enough.
Site visitors need good imagery, graphics/infographics, and video to keep their attention. There's a human psychology component: 65% of people are visual learners.
And according to a HubSpot survey, 72% of consumers prefer video marketing over text.
For video, use it to tell your company story. By seeing faces and hearing voices, prospects get a more personable sense of who your team is and what your firm is about.
Check out these video marketing tips for financial advisors.
While the services and solutions pages are important, they're not the only pages that sell your organization.
Site visitors like to know the company history and its leadership. "About Us" and team biographies pages are the underlying support to services and solutions pages. After all, the "About Us" and team biographies are the foundation to overall credibility.
Prospects want to put names and faces to the organization. For bios, make sure each featured team member has a picture. Highlight their job responsibilities, relevant experience, career success, education, and licenses/certifications.
Once you've shared those crucial points, you can show the more human side of your staff by mentioning family, pets, hobbies, etc.
In short, give prospects an opportunity to know and trust the organization.
Having a blog is a great way to share helpful content to your audience. establishing thought leadership. When you provide useful content to others, they are more likely to trust you. They may want you to manage their money.
Utilizing the right keywords in your posts and following SEO best practices, the blog can help drive traffic to your website.
Some of the best RIA marketing out there is other clients who will vouch for you. Their support should appear on your website.
With clients' permission, share their nice quotes about your organization on the website.
Maybe you want something more in depth like a case study. These detailed accounts of how you helped other clients achieve their goals will go a long way in your RIA website marketing efforts.
Prospects want to know you are helping others like them. Testimonials are a great way to show that.
If you can't be physically present to meet with prospects, you should be digitally present.
People spend a lot of times on various platforms (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, etc.), and if you are regularly posting content to these sites, you will show up in the feeds and stay top of mind.
Asset managers, for example, are increasingly active on social media.
"The importance of a strong online presence has been underlined by the COVID-19 lockdown measures," said Fabrizio Zumbo, associate director of European asset and wealth management research at Cerulli.
Effective RIA marketing is about getting your message across clearly and concisely. It's also about driving traffic through SEO and having call to action (CTA) buttons to capture those hot leads.
You can further support your efforts by having good "About Us" and biography pages, as well as blog posts and sharing testimonials. Being present across the popular social media platforms also helps.
Digital marketing for RIAs will only increase in importance. Optimize your site and reap the rewards.
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