It would be an understatement to say that the COVID-19 pandemic has turned everyone’s lives upside down. If you’re anything like me, your living room has become your office and your classroom for your kids. And while I sincerely hope your adviser business isn’t suffering, I realize that many businesses are looking for ways to cut back and marketing is typically the first budget line item to go, sadly. But I’m here to share seven useful tools to learn, create and market your adviser business successfully as you begin to navigate the world of digital marketing.
This list is in no way comprehensive, but these seven tools are some of our team’s top recommendations for the most valuable and effective free (or low-cost) marketing tools available to financial advisers today.
1. Canva
If you aren’t a skilled graphic designer, that’s okay! Canva is a great graphic design tool that you can use to make a variety of static and animated graphics to share on your blogs and social media platforms. From infographics to presentations, social media and everything in between, Canva has the non-designer covered. If you have a large team collaborating remotely, as most of us are currently, Canva allows you to establish brand guidelines to ensure brand consistency across every visual piece of content you create. Canva’s free plan includes 8,000-plus free templates, 100-plus design types (social media posts, presentations, letters, and more) and hundreds of thousands of free photos and graphics. A $12-a-month-upgrade will allow you some extra freedoms to resize your graphics for different platforms and access to a library of stock photos to use in your designs.
(2) Headliner
Of course, your clients will read the news. But you also want to be the one they can turn to for information that is grounded and isn’t designed to get clicks or views. Video works great because it allows your clients to hear your voice, see your face and absorb all the non-verbal cues to keep your clients up-to-speed on what is happening and how you are monitoring the situation. You can record a video right on your smartphone and then use a tool like Headliner to create on-screen subtitles. Studies show that captioned videos receive over 7 percent more views than those without captions, so using a tool like Headliner to add these is key for better video performance—especially when you’re sharing your videos on social media.
(3) Loom
Another type of video service we’re huge fans of here at Twenty Over Ten is Loom. With Loom you can capture your screen and face and instantly share your video with a unique URL. Once your video is recorded, you also have the ability to make edits or download it so you can upload to a YouTube channel or Vimeo. For client communication, Loom can be a great tool to leverage to walk a client through how to access their accounts, read statements online via a portal, etc., or even a personalized but professional way to show them portfolio performance.
(4) Unsplash
Studies show that visuals increase desire to read content by 80 percent. So, if you want your content to stand out, incorporating bold imagery is a must. However, if you aren’t a graphic designer or photographer, finding quality (and free) images can sometimes be a hassle. The good news is it doesn’t have to be. Unsplash is an open-source site dedicated to sharing stock photography that users can download and use for any kind of project. Simply type in what kind of image you are looking for in the search bar and you are guaranteed to find something to suit your needs.
(5) Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a tool offered under the umbrella of Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) that uncovers a treasure trove of great information about your website’s organic rankings. You can use Google Search Console to find out things such as which keyword searches caused your site to appear in search results, what websites are linking to your website, how the mobile version of your website is performing, and so much more. SEO is a long-term campaign, so you have to be patient when measuring its results. If you’re unsure what to monitor within your Google Search Console to ensure your moving the needle check out this daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly checklist.
(6) Google Analytics
Another tool offered under the G Suite is Google Analytics. With this tool you can glean information about the performance of your website, which is different from the data your Google Search Console shares. Google Analytics provides key information on the number of visitors to your site, where visitors are coming from, how much time they spend on your site, your visitors’ demographics and so much more. With over 10,000 metrics to measure, I recommend advisers measure these top five:
- Average number of total visitors
- Number of pages per session
- Three most visited pages
- Bounce rate
- Conversion rate
(7) Content Creation and Marketing Tools
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, advisers have reported that communicating quickly and providing timely, relevant information to clients and prospects online is their biggest challenge. At the same time, they are seeing their revenue drop with the markets, and the stress of crafting and managing communications to send out to clients and prospects is adding to the strain on their businesses. At Twenty Over Ten, we’ve assembled a special COVID-19 content team, relevant to the current pandemic and market downturn and are releasing three to four new communication pieces for advisers to use each week relevant to the pandemic and markets. This content can be deployed from our Lead Pilot content library via blog posts, social media, email or broadened into more automated, comprehensive campaigns. Access is free for 30 days and 50 percent off for the first year of service. Other organizations—like eMoney Advisor—are also offering its planning platform, marketing solutions and educational resources more accessible to advisers amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
Samantha Russell is the chief marketing and business development officer at Twenty Over Ten (a digital marketing and website development company for financial advisers). She helps financial advisers create digital marketing strategies that produce explosive growth through website development, content marketing, SEO, social media and video.
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