About 46% of the U.S. population feel they have just some or little knowledge of personal finances. If that’s your area of expertise, you can turn your knowledge into a lucrative, income-generating business. Your services could help your clients reduce excessive spending, manage debts, and plan for retirement.
But you may struggle to attract clients in your early days. That’s where financial services marketing can help.
Through your marketing activities, you can advertise your business and establish credibility as a financial services professional. Your reach will grow as you build a presence online and through email and social media. And the best part? Marketing is fun, and today’s tools make it easy!
Start where you are
Financial services run the gamut. For that reason, many advisors specialize in particular services tailored to a specific audience. As an example, you might manage investment portfolios for wealthy individuals. Or, perhaps your focus is on helping young adults figure out a reasonable spending and saving plan.
Narrowing down your service offerings helps you target the people most likely to respond to your marketing efforts. The key is tailoring your story — and content — to match your offering(s).
Think about where your business is right now. Do you already have a few clients, or are you starting a new organization? Your first marketing steps will likely look different in each scenario. Newer businesses might focus on attracting fresh leads, while established providers can focus more on client retention and long-term growth.
Financial services marketing can certainly help build your reputation and client base wherever you’re at. The trick is to know what value you offer and how it benefits your customers.
Share knowledge that matters
Clients want information that speaks to their needs. So, when you design your digital marketing strategy, think about the topics that come up most frequently in client conversations. You might create content that circles around those topics and use it for blogs or emails.
If you offer investment guidance or manage retirement portfolios, your clients probably want to know about market ups and downs. You can use digital marketing to discuss market trends or recent news. You should focus on the non-technical aspects, as your audience might not be investment experts themselves.
Try to keep a mix of helpful and personal content. For example, you might send a weekly finance newsletter to everyone on your mailing list but send personalized appointment reminders directly to individual clients.
When it comes to text and email marketing, know your compliance responsibilities. Always give recipients the option to opt out of your messages. That way, you don’t risk complaints that hurt your sender (and business) reputation.
Email that builds relationships
Email remains one of the best ways to build client relationships. When a client signs up for your marketing emails, they want to hear from you. You’ve already gained their approval, and it’s up to you to keep their interest.
Grow your list naturally
When you first establish an email marketing list, you may only have a handful of subscribers. That’s completely normal — it will grow over time if you promote it. Let clients know you regularly share updates via email and ask them to sign up to receive them. You can also include email sign-up forms on your website and social media.
Refrain from using any black hat techniques to spur email list growth, like buying lists. Doing so can legally leave you in hot water. It can also degrade performance metric quality.
Share updates clients actually want
There’s a lot of competition in your client’s inbox. To make sure your messages don’t get passed over, focus on creating quality email marketing campaigns that demand a read. This will improve your open rates and click-throughs.
Make compliance simple
You need a client’s approval before you can send them email marketing messages. A verbal agreement isn’t enough — you want a client’s written consent. Look for ways to quickly get their consent without them having to jump through hoops. For instance, you might request it on their intake form or via the sign-up form on your website.
Clients may opt-out if they no longer want to receive messages. Include a conspicuous link in each email that they can click on to unsubscribe.
Let automation do the work
Chances are, you won’t be available at 9 AM every Tuesday to send out your weekly financial services marketing messages. That’s okay — automation can take care of that for you!
With automation tools, you can:
- Schedule emails in advance
- Create email marketing journeys, such as a welcome series
- Automate appointment setting and reminders
Automating part of your email responsibilities saves you time and keeps you at the forefront of your clients’ minds.
See what works best
When you first start email marketing, finding out what resonates with your audience may take a little while. Don’t be afraid to try new things, but pay attention to the results. Learning what your clients like can help you tailor future content to their interests.
Smart social media
On average, people spend 143 minutes daily on social media. If you’re not already using it to promote your financial services, you may be leaving money on the table. However, not all social media posts are created equal — like email, you should devise a social media strategy that appeals to your audience.
Pick the right channels
There are several social media platforms out there, but you don’t have to be active on every single one. In fact, using too many social media platforms may get unwieldy, fast.
To decide which platforms work best with your business, consider the content you post and your audience. LinkedIn might be a good fit if you’re going for long-form text- and graphics-based posts geared toward professionals. But Instagram is probably the better option if you primarily use short videos for social media.
Post content that connects
Take a close look at your social media posts. Would you — as a viewer — find them engaging? Would they inspire you to leave a comment or reshare with a friend? If not, then you might want to work on crafting more intriguing posts.
For instance, say you help your clients budget money. A short video of you talking about unique ways to cut costs is relevant to your audience, and it’s actionable. It also helps you establish your credibility as the budgeting wizard that you are.
Stay compliant while being real
Financial services is a tricky business when it comes to social media — but it doesn’t have to be. Be cognizant of “too good to be true” content, such as promising your audience they can earn a 1,000% return by investing in a single stock. That kind of content may be a legal no-no.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t get into the nitty gritty of financial topics on social media. Just back up your content with solid sources and encourage clients to contact you for personalized, one-on-one financial advice.
Build professional connections
Social media isn’t only for building a client base — you can also use it to establish relationships with other businesses. Such connections may come in handy for cross-promotion.
For example, suppose you establish a connection with a real estate agent. They could share your information with prospective homebuyers interested in saving for their first home. In turn, you could promote the agent’s services to clients looking for someone to help them buy or sell a house.
Help followers become clients
Not all of your social media followers may be actual clients. That’s okay — you can leverage the connection to gain new customers.
For instance, you might target non-client followers by offering free consultations or a special discount on their first month with you. You can share a special code in your social media post so you know how they found your business.
Get found by the right people
Email and social media are the biggies in digital marketing, but a robust strategy also includes a few other tools.
If you have a local presence, set up a Google Business Profile. You can insert key information to help people find your company, including your address and available services. A Google Business Profile also allows client reviews — a great way to showcase how much your clients benefit from your financial advice.
You should also set up a website. It doesn’t have to be extensive to start with; a simple site with your contact information and service offerings is enough for basic search engine optimization (SEO). You can expand the website to include a blog targeting relevant financial services keywords as your business grows. The website helps you round out your online presence so clients can find out more about what you offer.
You might claim your business in any relevant directories, too. For instance, you could submit your company information to your local Chamber of Commerce and ask for inclusion in their directory. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is another option. Signing up with the BBB demonstrates you’re commitment to compliance and ethical business practices.
Know what’s working
How do you know whether your audience reads your emails or clicks on your social media links? That’s where analytics tools come in.
Email and social media marketing platforms — like Constant Contact — include robust analytic dashboards that help you understand content performance. You can use the tools to track key metrics. For email, those metrics might include:
- Open rates: How often clients open your email
- Click-throughs: The percentage of subscribers who click on email links
- Bounce rates: How many emails go undelivered
- Growth rate: The rate your subscriber list grows
Metrics help you understand how much your audience engages with your marketing messages. You may use them to set goals or make informed content strategy decisions. For instance, you might set a goal to grow your email list by 10% over the next month. That’s a reasonable objective worth working for.
On the social media side, look at metrics such as:
- Follower count: More followers means more eyes on your posts
- Likes and comments: High engagement indicates people find your posts intriguing
- Reach: Shows how many people saw your post
- Conversion rate: Indicates how many people took action on your post (like scheduling an appointment)
As with email, you can use social media analytics to evaluate performance and adjust your approach.
Tools that help you grow
There are plenty of tools that can help you in your financial services marketing journey. With Constant Contact, you have access to a marketing platform designed especially for email and social media. It includes automation features to schedule messages and posts in advance. You can use the generative artificial intelligence (AI) features to quickly draft or fine-tune content and tailor the tone for your audience.
We have over 100 templates that support drag-and-drop design, so you can create a visually appealing email in just a few minutes. Help is always available, whether you need the expert assistance of our marketing team or prefer the thriving community of other small business owners like you.
We also offer plenty of other resources, including our Knowledge Base and “Be a Marketer” podcast.
Get started: Build your path forward
Financial services marketing can help you build a client base that looks to you for guidance. The right combination of tools — a website, email subscriber list, and social media profiles — gets you right in front of the people who can benefit from your services.
The best part is that it isn’t hard to get started. All you need is a desire to learn and build your business. Start by reviewing your current marketing strategies and determining what you want to tackle first. If it’s social media, pick a platform that best suits your audience and create a business profile. Remember that social media posts are a great way to grow your email list because you can promote it through some of your posts. If you want more insights into creating financial services content for email and social media, take a look at the Constant Contact blog. It’s full of informative articles to help you design your first financial services marketing campaign.
