It can be hard for advisors to compete for local business, especially since every community has many advisory firms and it’s now uncommon to have a brick and mortar storefront. We’ve often are asked by financial advisors “How can I get more local business?”
Our advice: use your blog and social media to bring more awareness and more traffic to your website, and ultimately, more inquiries about your service. In this way, you can grow your reach and take out your competitors.
These 5 moves will get financial advisors more local business and better connect them with their community.
1. Interview local people in the community or your industry and blog about it
As a financial advisor, you most likely have a network of other professionals that you refer clients to, such as estate planning attorneys and CPAs. A great way to continue to build rapport with these folks and showcase your integrated approach is to feature them in a blog post on your website. Come up with 10 questions that you think your clients and prospective clients would find interesting to learn more about, and then email them the questions and ask them for a short write up. Be sure to include pictures of the person and links back to their website in your post.
The person you interview will most likely see this as a very flattering gesture, and often they will share the post with their own network as well (you can also ask them to share it on their social media pages or link to it via their client newsletter). These types of post show that you are an active member of your community, and make someone else the “hero” – showing that you are not just focused on your own business but truly want to give the best experience possible to your clients. Not only will you end up learning a plethora of things from the people you interview, but the feature will help to remind the person you interview of your relationship (and hopefully lead to even more referrals!).
2. Get involved in your local community, and share it on social media
It’s important to let your current and perspective clients know that you’re engaging in events throughout your local community. Don’t be afraid to showcase the events that you’re involved in on social media. The local organization you post about will be happy to have the publicity, and if you tag the them in your post, you’ll get many new eyeballs from their followers on your post that may have never heard of you before.
For instance, let’s say your advisory business sponsors a local 5k or other charity event. You could first promote the event on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, then live tweet about the event in real time (being sure to include the event hashtag), and finally, post an album on Facebook of photos you took on the event. Writing a blog post about the whole experience gives you the opportunity to provide more detail about the event, including why you chose to sponsor it, how you feel about the community, and why you’re giving back. It’s your opportunity to talk directly to the community and show your commitment. Share this on your social media channels to to increase your brand awareness in your local area.
3. Participate in conversations with other businesses online
Often we forget that social media is supposed to be “social”. Don’t just post your own content and quietly read others posts – actually engage! A great way to show engagement in your community is to like, comment on, and share posts from other businesses, professionals, or nonprofits in your community. Keep the conversations positive and don’t focus on self-promotional, but actually take an interest in what other people are sharing and respond back thoughtfully.
It could be that a perspective client is unaware of your business or your services, but after reading through a Twitter thread of conversation between you and a different business, has stumbled upon your page and is interested in learning more.
By participating in conversations with other locals in your area, you’re expanding your network and building relationships. This allows for more opportunities to arise between you and the people in your community to connect. Even if some of these leads don’t necessarily turn into clients, they can still provide valuable word of mouth, one of the most powerful types of marketing in a community.
4. Offer exclusive deals to locals at events
Do you regularly give talks and presentations to local groups? Are you a member of the local chamber of commerce? Do you sponsor local events? All of these are opportunities to showcase your expertise and offering, and show how engaged and invested you are in the community. This will ultimately bring more traffic to your website and business, but you can even take it one step further.
Local events are the perfect occasion to incentivize locals to get started working with you quicker. For instance, if you have a booth or give a speech at a local event, you could offer a freemium incentive or discount to those that visit your booth or attend your speech. Another idea is to offer a deal that only applies for a short period of time – such as “Sign up for a free initial consultation before next month and get 10% off your first financial plan”. This sense of urgency may persuade prospects to act sooner rather than later.
5. Become a resource for the local community
Posting helpful and relevant content to your blog and social media can lead to becoming a source for financial information and advice in your community. Whether you are writing blog posts about how someone can get the most out of their taxes or how parents can realistically save for their child’s college, blog posts tailored to the community portray your expertise and ability to help.
You can also share information about trending topics and events in your local community. This type of content is will lead perspective and current clients to appreciate that you’re in-the-know and up to speed with what’s going on locally. It shows that you care about what’s going on around you and proves that you’re on top of community events. For example, if you post on your blog or social media outlets about upcoming community events, such as a food drive or a town hall meeting, it shows that you’re interested and involved in your local community. You bring authenticity to your brand and build trust with prospects in your own community.
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You may also like: Get on the Map: How to Win in Local Search [Webinar Replay], How to Earn & Leverage PR Success for Financial Advisors, and 6 Ways to Improve Local Search Rankings for Financial Advisor