More advisors are using social media to improve their business than ever before, according to a new survey by Putnam Investments. The results showed that 83 percent of advisors used social media for business purposes in 2018. The fact they’re using social media is great, but what is more important is how they’re using social media.
Engagement is the name of the game when it comes to social media, but another study shows that advisors are striking out. A survey by Broadridge Financial Solutions found that most clients thought the communications they received from their advisors on social media weren’t engaging enough or even something they could put to use.
So, what’s missing from advisors’ social media strategy?
The Right Content and the Right Target Audience
You can post a great article on planning for higher education costs, but if your target market is made up of active retirees, you won’t get the quality engagement that you desire. You don’t want to communicate the right message to the wrong audience, and you especially don’t want to send the wrong message to the right audience. Instead, you should develop the right content for the right group of people.
The first step to finding the right audience is reviewing and segmenting your book of business. Categorizing your clients into segments can help you understand which customers are your bread and butter. In knowing this, you can craft messages specifically for this target audience. Also, by understanding the various services you provide to your clients, you can develop a variety of messages that reflect these services.
The moral here is that one message does not fit all. If you have a diverse book of business, you should develop a diverse set of messages tailored for each client-segment. Related to this is the growing importance of cultivating trust with your social media audience. Advisors can achieve this by focusing less on maximizing the reach of their social media communication and more on generating quality connections to select segments. That means creating and sharing content that resonates with smaller, more valuable audience groups that reflect your book of business.
The LinkedIn to Facebook Strategy
One method to develop social media communications is to find and initiate connections on LinkedIn and then to cultivate those relationships on Facebook. For financial advisors, the professional characteristics of their clients are often important in determining their segment in their book of business. By utilizing LinkedIn, financial professionals can identify individuals that fit their target audience and establish a connection with them. Utilizing that previous relationship, they can then develop targeting messaging for these individuals on Facebook.
Social Media Ads
One in every four Facebook Pages now uses paid media, which accounts for 23 percent of the total U.S. digital ad spending budget. With paid advertising on social media growing in popularity, it’s increasingly important to invest in creativity and the right targeting when developing a strategy.
With 1.5 billion daily active users on Facebook, Facebook Ads are a great way to reach prospects. With the audience customization tools available, you can specify the type of Facebook profiles your ads will target. The most important categories to consider are the location, demographics, interests, and behaviors of your client-segments. This makes reaching the right audience simple and easy.
There are many types of Facebook ads. They include the “sponsored” posts seen on either the timeline or right-side panel on the Facebook interface.
LinkedIn has a similar advertising platform for financial advisors to use. With 610 million active professionals using the networking site, it can be an effective way to target professional or business-oriented clients.
Utilization of Analytics
Perhaps the most significant technological result of social media is the wealth of information available to us. By referencing advertising data, we can tweak strategies that aren’t quite working or capitalize on strategies that are. Facebook and LinkedIn provide detailed data analytics over the popularity (or lack-there-of) of posts and advertisements. One important feature is the ability to track the “click paths” of website visitors. Knowing which pages people are visiting on your website and for how long can help you to determine your messaging. If you find your blog about 529 Plans is gaining a lot of traffic, you can emphasize that topic or even target the specific visitors if you’re able to get their contact information.
In utilizing the advertising services along with analytics, you can target “warm” audiences over “cold” audiences. For example, if you can see which individuals are going to your website, you can then re-target those leads with a specialized campaign.
The Right Professional
Often a successful marketing campaign means taking advantage of social media expertise. A social media marketer with financial services experience can be invaluable in your quest to maximize your social networking presence. They can help you find the right strategy while ensuring you stay compliant with rules and regulations. After your social media strategy is set you can even hire an intern or have one of your existing employees maintain it for a few hours a week.
Advisors at NEXT Financial Group, Inc. (NEXT) have a full-service in-house Marketing Department available to them at no extra cost. Our team of professionals can help you craft a social media strategy that fits your goals as a financial advisor.
For more financial information, follow NEXT Financial Group, Inc. (NEXT) on Facebook and LinkedIn.
https://www.wealthmanagement.com/marketing/three-facebook-retargeting-strategies-financial-advisors
https://www.wealthmanagement.com/marketing/four-facebook-advertising-lessons-advisors
https://hootsuite.com/resources/social-media-trends-report-2019
