online marketing and website strategy for financial advisors

WEBINAR SERIES FOR FINANCIAL ADVISORS

ONLINE MARKETING &WEBSITE STRATEGY

Presented byLoic Jeanjean – Online Marketing Manager

www.advisorwebsites.com

HOUSE KEEPING

• If you have any questions, please use the ‘Questions’ window on the right end side of your screen

• The slides for this presentation will be emailed to you by end of day today

• This webinar is being recorded and will be posted on our blog this week

ADVISOR WEBSITES IS NORTH AMERICA’S LEADING PROVIDER OF WEBSITES DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR FINANCIAL SERVICES PROFESSIONALS. IT WORKS CLOSELY WITH ADVISORS AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS TO DELIVER EFFICIENT; COMPLIANT AND HIGH QUALITY PRODUCTS.

LOIC JEANJEANOnline Marketing Manager loic@advisorwebsites.com jjloic advisorwebsites

• Customize your website• Market your website• 7 best practices for email marketing• Use social media• 5 tips to build trust online• Questions & Answers

AGENDA

QUICK TOUR OF SAMPLE WEBSITE

• Website layout – allows for a professional and trustworthy look and feel

• Products page – list all the products you can sell• Prominent buttons – generate call-to-action• Tell a friend page – generate leads and referrals• Contact page – map your office and provide

contact information• Analytics – displays quarterly statistics

CUSTOMIZEYOUR FINANCIAL WEBSITE

ADDING CONTENT

• Having fresh, engaging content is key for the success of your website

• You can add text, pictures, pdfs, videos and many other type of documents on your site

• Make sure you get authorization from your compliance department to post content

• Remember that FINRA requires you to keep a history of all revisions

ADDING PHOTOS

• Based on our experiences, advisors with a picture on their site have more chance to convert traffic into prospects or clients!!

ADDING LINKS AND RESOURCES

1. Will the content be valuable to your customer?

2. Is the material copyrighted?

3. Do you require 3rd party approval from the content owner?

4. Do you require approval from your compliance department?

5. Will the content change over time?It is recommended to link directly to the original site rather then hosting forms and/or content on your site.

ADDING GOOGLE ANALYTICS

• Google analytics provides you with a very good idea of how your visitors are using your website, how many visitors you are getting and ultimately you can determine whether you are generating good exposure and value from your web presence or if there is room for improvement.Free to signup: www.google.com/analytics/

Unique Visitors Amount of Pages viewed Top Pages viewed Time on site Search term Referring sites

GOOGLE ANALYTICS DEMO

ADDING GOOGLE SITEMAPS

• Sitemaps provide you with a way to tell Google valuable information about your Web site.

• Use Sitemaps to learn what Google thinks about your Web site.

• Free to signup: www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

MARKETINGYOUR FINANCIAL WEBSITE

Most Effective Marketing Techniques for Financial Advisors

What, in your opinion, is the most effective way to communicate with clients?

ADD YOUR WEBSITE TO YOUR EMAILS

Sample call to actions include:– Please visit my new brand new website at

www.johndoe.com– A referral is one of the biggest compliments a client can

give me. You can now send a referral through my website at www.johndoe.com/tell

– Check out my latest newsletter at www.johndoe.com/newsletter

– My website contains some very useful resources, please feel free to review these resources at www.johndoe.com/resources

SHOULD YOU BLOG?

1. Blogging establishes you as an expert in your field.2. Blogging moves your site up in the search engines if you

update your site regularly.3. Blogging gives you an easy way to interact with

customers and potential customers.4. Blogging is a great way to give more value to your

customers.

TOUCH BASE WITH YOUR CLIENTS

What to communicate:

• Quarterly Newsletter• Performance and held away asset reports• Live Events• Industry News• New Services• Community News• Tips and Tricks• Surveys

7 BEST PRACTICES FOR

EMAIL MARKETING

1.Use personalized subject lines

2.Segment messages

3.Take care of timing

4.Use relevant content

5.Understand how spam filters work

6.Avoid sending frequent e-mails

7.Test, test and test

7 BEST PRACTICES

SOCIAL MEDIAENGAGE, INFLUENCE, ACTIVATE

SOCIAL MEDIA EFFECTIVENESSWhich social networking websites are you using?

THE LINKEDIN PROFESSIONAL AT A GLANCE

Average Age 41Household IncomeCollege EducatedDecision MakersPortfolio value $250k+

$109,70395%50%24%

Dashboard overviewComplete your profileHow to connectHow to prospectJoin groupsAsk for recommendations

LINKEDIN DEMONSTRATION

DASHBOARD

The dashboard lists all the activities in your network:

Status updates, Recommendations, New connections etc.

COMPLETE YOUR PROFILE

Your profile should be 100% complete. Fill out your contact information, work history and upload your photo. Link your website, blog and list any awards/professional recognition.

PEOPLE YOU MAY KNOW

From the dashboard you can view a small list of people that are connected to some of your contacts. Really useful if you want to find new connections quickly

SEARCH FOR OPPORTUNITIES

You can use your connections list to look into their own contacts and ask to be introduced to potential leads, prospects or business partners.

JOIN 5 GROUPS OF INTEREST

• Financial planning associations, industry groups etc.• If your target audience is dentists, find a specific group for dentists and join this group

ASK AND GIVE RECOMMENDATIONS

Request recommendations from 5-10 of your best clients & contacts. Feel free to provide recommendations for your top service providers!

US Advisors:Check with your Broker/Dealer before using

LinkedIn Recommendations

LINKEDIN TAKEAWAYS

STATUS UPDATESWhat you’re working on, share links …

RECOMMENDATIONSAsk for them & give them

ANSWERSAsk questions & answer

JOIN 5 GROUPS3 professional groups & 2 target client groups

FACEBOOK FOR ADVISORS

OVER 125 MILLION USE FACEBOOK IN THE US• Look at Facebook as a valuable business platform• Businesses are increasingly understanding its business

value• Chances are you can benefit from it, too

LOOK AT FACEBOOK AS A WAY TO:• Connect with your clients• Share information• Join groups and give value• Speak to your audience directly

WHAT TO GET OUT OF FACEBOOK

• BOOST ONLINE PRESENCE• REFERRALS• INCREASE IN BRAND AWARENESS• APPEARS AS A TRANSPARENT

PRACTITIONER• PLATFORM TO SYNDICATE YOUR

CONTENT TO MILLIONS OF POTENTIAL CLIENTS

• DEVELOP STRONG RELATIONSHIPS WITH CLIENTS

TWITTER FOR ADVISORS

TWITTER RECEIVES OVER 40 MILLION MONTHLY VISITS– Chances are that your target market is there

LOOK AT TWITTER AS A WAY TO– Build and retain customers– Share information– Update your clients– Speak to your audience directly– Drive traffic to your website

WHAT TO PUBLISH ON TWITTER

• ARTICLE OR BLOG POSTS• OTHER PEOPLE CONTENT• TIPS AND TRICKS• VIDEOS• PHOTOS• UPCOMING EVENTS• COMMUNITY NEWS• PRESENTATIONS• NEWS AND VIEWS ON THE MARKET

SLIDESHARE FOR ADVISORS

• More than 30,000 slideshows are being uploaded each week on Slideshare.net. Here is why:

– Online version of presentation (reduce attachments size)– Promote your ideas (link presentations to social networks)– Build online connections and be found by others– Link back to your website for further reading– Publicize your presentations

50%PEOPLE WHO ARE MORE LIKELY TO BUY IF ENGAGED VIA SOCIAL SITES

YOU NEED TO LIVE WHERE THEY LIVE ONLINE

HOW DOES THAT HELP YOUR BUSINESS?

ARCHIVING SOCIAL MEDIA

If you are an advisor in the USA, you need to archive all your social media history

You can use ARKOVI:• Comply with FINRA and SEC regulations for record keeping of

electronic communications• Archive blogs & other social media sites via RSS• Archive Facebook & LinkedIn profiles• Interact, search & export archives

5 TIPS TO BUILD

TRUST ONLINE

HAVE A USER-FRIENDLY WEBSITE

BE HONEST & REAL

LISTEN TO YOUR CUSTOMERS

ANSWER EVERY QUESTION

FOCUS ON DELIVERING VALUE

3 months for $1WEBSITES FOR ATTENDEESEnter Code: 50WEBLAUNCH Offer expires on 31/12/2010. Signup at www.advisorwebsites.com

EXCLUSIV

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