These 5 Mistakes Are Why Your Online Marketing Is Failing Forbes Our Internet marketing agency has been around since 1997, and over the course of time we've heard it all and seen it all when it comes to assessing failed marketing campaigns. I polled our sales and account management teams, and arrived at a very ... |
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These 5 Mistakes Are Why Your Online Marketing Is Failing - Forbes
Yes they will, unless smaller RIAs are willing to commit part of their budget to inbound marketing!
The marketing of financial advice and services is changing rapidly. In the past just about every financial advisory firm used outbound marketing tactics to initiate contact with investors: telemarketing, direct mail, seminars.
Outbound marketing tactics produced a reasonably level playing field. Anyone could make marketing calls or send out direct mail so the size of the firm mattered less and individual sales skills mattered more.
However, outbound is increasingly obsolete because who wants to spend time and money on marketing tactics that have rejection rates approaching 100%. Most investors do not want to be contacted.
New Playing Field
It should not be a big surprise that old marketing methods are being disrupted by the internet, software, online tools, and quantitative measurements.
The internet is a major game-changer because it opened the door to inbound marketing that is more efficient than outbound marketing. It enabled advisors and firms to use the internet to make it easy for investors to initiate contact with them.
Three key elements produce a successful inbound marketing experience. Advisors need:
The bottom-line: The playing field is no longer level. The big firms can afford to spend substantially more money on inbound marketing than smaller firms. They will use this marketing muscle to build a big presence on the internet that will reach large volumes of investors.
Blame Google
The internet gives investors unprecedented access to public information about advisors. This includes advisors they know and advisors they don't know.
They no longer have to talk to advisors to learn more about them.
Instead, they can view the content on websites, google-search names, visit third party websites (BBB.org), and check compliance records at FINRA.
Sales skills will be less important. What investors see on the internet will be more important.
Numbers
In the past, marketing was more sales skills than science. The most successful advisors usually had the best selling skills.
Today, the Internet and an inbound marketing sales funnel make success a function of numbers that can be monitored by advanced analytic systems. The challenge is creating numbers that produce revenue.
They are the numbers of investors who:
Inbound Marketing
You already know that the key to a successful inbound marketing strategy is convincing investors to initiate contact with you.
Step one is they have to find you on the internet. There are a number of ways they can do that.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM; Advertising)
You have seen the advertisements that appear on page one of Google. The advertisements are dominated by brand name firms with deep pockets such as: Morgan Stanley, Vanguard, and Fidelity.
Smaller RIAs cannot afford to pay $30 per click for 14 clicks to produce one qualified prospect for their firms. This is a $420 per lead cost with no guarantee they will even meet with you.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO; Organic)
If you don't like the Seach Engine Marketing numbers you will not like the SEO numbers much better. Every financial advisory firm would like to be represented on page one of Google for key words that investors use when they are seeking financial advisors or information about financial advisors.
Page one is critical. Google says, 91.5% of users view page one and do not scroll to page two.
This means thousands of firms are vying for the same limited space. Why is the space so limited? Google gives preference to the .org's and .edu's because they are informational and not trying to sell anything.
From a Google perspective, if you want to sell a service on page one, you should be an advertiser.
Content Marketing
The single most popular way to raise your visibility on the internet is writing articles that are published on your blog site. But, even this is not as simple as it sounds. Google is continuing to raise the bar:
How many smaller RIAs have the staff to right relevant, original, 1,000-word articles that have a high probability of being read by large numbers of investors?
What About Advisor Websites?
Websites are advisors' single most powerful marketing tool. It has one all-important purpose. It has to be good enough to convert website visitors into qualified leads.
Template-based websites using generic content and stock photos will not produce results. Not when the big RIAs are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to create custom websites that are optimized for the internet.
Traditional, Virtual & Robo Advisors
The increasing popularity of virtual and robo-advisors will also be dominated by the Big RIAs - Schwab, Vanguard, Fidelity. Betterment may be a serious contender if it can convince enough smaller RIAs to use its platform and market its services.
Every wirehouse will have a robo capability by the end of 2017.
The traditional (brick & mortar) advisors who meet with clients face-to-face will still dominate the market for the foreseeable future. But, it is only a matter of time before virtual and robo advisors become more acceptable alternatives. From a communication perspective, technology will replace cars, conference rooms, and face-to-face meetings for a large percentage of investors.
Small RIA Strategies
What is one consistent characteristic that impacts smaller RIAs? They do not have marketing budgets or dedicated marketing staff with digital marketing skills. Firm principals are the marketing professionals and it is a part-time job because they also produce financial plans and invest assets for their clients.
Are these smaller RIAs up the proverbial creek without a paddle? Not necessarily, but they have to make very smart decisions when they develop digital marketing strategies that compete with major RIAs that have much bigger marketing budgets.
Local SEO
A smaller RIA's best bet is to focus some of their marketing dollars on local SEO. This is by far the most economical way to increase your internet visibility. And, local SEO produces leads in the market that matters the most - a 50 mile radius of RIA offices.
Local SEO works for the following reasons (source: Flag.io):
Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.
I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
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Will Major Financial Advisor Firms Dominate Internet Marketing? - Seeking Alpha
TRIBECA, N.Y., April 6, 2017 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- After having tremendous success with various businesses in the real estate and housing industry, fishbat, a leading Internet marketing company, highlights the importance of SEO for the real estate industry.
In today's real estate, most homes are found and previewed online. SEO and digital marketing efforts should be employed to promote those homes and impact quicker selling potential. Home sellers are always trying to push a quick sale and those searching for homes can become frustrated trying to find the perfect home. This is where SEO comes in.
To identify best practices in implementing SEO in real estate efforts, first consider the SEO basics that get online content found. Search engine optimization is focused on higher search engine rankings for online visibility. One factor that has a direct impact on SEO is keyword placement for indexing, whether in content, picture titles, website headers and footers, or anywhere they can be placed for web crawlers to index them for search engines, which impacts search engine ranking. Another factor is linking to, and from, valuable content to drive traffic. Additional focuses needed for successful SEO are engagement, content dissemination, and mobile responsiveness.
Keywords are vital for SEO. Web crawlers search websites, content, videos, pictures, blogs, directories, and more for value-added information and keywords to determine search engine ranking. For real estate sales, this means incorporating keywords that focus on the local area, special features buyers may be looking or, school districts and other vital words and terms for a particular property. This will make the listing easy to find online, impacting sell-through speed and consumer experiences.
Backlinking is also a major contributor to SEO because search engines recognize backlinks as an indication of industry authority, trust, and value to the consumer. Those factors cause an increase in search engine ranking in addition to providing an influx of traffic which will also boost SEO organically. Value-added content dissemination, having a mobile-responsive website, and engagement factors are also elements that are reviewed by search engines through web crawlers to impact SEO. SEO is highly focused on consumer value, so making sites easy to use on mobile devices, providing educational or otherwise beneficial blogs, articles, and other content boosts value and user engagement and shows benefit to web crawlers. Additionally, these factors make social sharing easy, which will increase audience reach while boosting ranking on search engines.
All of these efforts form a comprehensive approach to boost SEO to get properties seen. SEO helps realtors increase the likelihood of getting listings found online and outshining any competing properties. It also helps buyers to find exactly what they are looking for easily and delivers customers straight into the hands of the realtors handling those properties. From seller to buyer, and from realtor to realty agency, search engine optimization benefits everyone involved in the home or property buying process. Through a focus on keyword placement, shareable engagement-prompting content and listings, and strategic linking, SEO can drive huge results for the real estate industry.
NYC online marketing agency fishbat is a full-service online marketing company and social media agency dedicated to connecting all types of businesses with their target audiences in the most effective and efficient way. Through innovative strategies in social media management, search engine optimization (SEO), branding, web design, reputation management, and public relations, fishbat promotes a consistent and professional online voice for all of its clients.
Media Contact: Scott Darrohn, fishbat, 855-347-4228, press@fishbat.com
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Internet Marketing Company, fishbat, Highlights the Importance of SEO for the Real Estate Industry - Yahoo Finance
TRIBECA, N.Y., April 5, 2017 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Due to its historical and continued success in B2B marketing, fishbat, a leading New York Internet marketing agency, showcases 3 reasons why it is the top Internet marketing agency for business-to-business marketing promotions.
fishbat is a full-service digital marketing agency that paved the way in social media marketing and specializes in B2B marketing strategy, lead generation, and business growth. The following three reasons are a testament to fishbat being the top Internet marketing agency for B2B businesses.
Long Island SEO company is a full-service online marketing company and social media agency dedicated to connecting all types of businesses with their target audiences in the most effective and efficient way. Through innovative strategies in social media management, search engine optimization (SEO), branding, web design, reputation management, and public relations, fishbat promotes a consistent and professional online voice for all of its clients.
Media Contact: Scott Darrohn, fishbat, 855-347-4228, press@fishbat.com
News distributed by PR Newswire iReach: https://ireach.prnewswire.com
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3 Reasons fishbat is the Top Internet Marketing Agency for B2B Marketers - Yahoo Finance
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Inside Self-Storage Store. DVD - The Science of Internet Marketing ... - Inside Self-Storage