WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS WHITE PAPER

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS WHITE PAPER It can be difficult to develop a client base as a financial advisor in the Denver Metro area, especially if you’re just starting out. Traditional marketing methods are frustrating and oftentimes fruitless for financial professionals without marketing experience. If you’re like most business owners, you’d rather focus on servicing your clients and running your business as opposed to conducting marketing activities.

The answer to your marketing woes: Online Marketing. Online Marketing

through search engines is the most cost effective marketing approach for most Denver businesses.

This paper will teach you the following about Online Marketing:

Actions you can take TODAY to improve your search engine rankings The 3 main components of Online Marketing through search engines and

how each will bring you clients How to identify – and avoid - online directories that will likely do nothing

but drain your marketing budget How to design your website to turn more website visitors into clients

Contents

What You Will Learn.....................

1

Marketing Plans for Denver Financial Advisors………….

2

Online Marketing Components………

3

Local Search……………..

4

Paid Search……….........

6

Organic Search……………..

8

Online Marketing Pitfalls……….........

10

Web Design Tips… 12

Getting Started…. 14

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MARKETING PLANS FOR FINANCIAL ADVISORS Do you have a marketing plan? Financial Advisor marketing plans should contain the following general areas1:

A current Look at the State of Your Financial Advisory Practice Business Goals Target Clients Marketing Strategies to Meet Business Goals Budget for all activities, including marketing

This paper will address marketing strategies for your Financial Advisory business – specifically the benefits of Online Marketing. As shown in Figure 1, Online Marketing through search engines provides the greatest Return on Investment (ROI) for your marketing dollars, and can reach your target clients much more effectively than traditional forms of advertising. The cornerstone of any financial advisory business marketing plan must be online marketing.

Figure 1: Cost Per Lead for Online Marketing Search vs. Traditional Forms of Advertising2

1 Entrepreneur.com Small Business Encyclopedia 2 US Bancorp Piper Jaffray Research

Online marketing with search engines provides a much better ROI and a lower cost per lead than traditional forms of advertising.

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ONLINE MARKETING COMPONENTS All financial advisors need to be aware of the three major online marketing components. All 3 components can and should be used to generate business clients.

Each of these components is described in depth in Figure 2. To illustrate, when searching for “Denver Financial Advisors”, within the search results, there are 3 distinct areas where your financial advisory business can appear:

Local Search Paid Search Organic Search

Figure 2: Google Search Results for “Denver Financial Advisors”

To have a truly effective Online Marketing Campaign, you need to focus on getting visibility for your Financial Advisory business within each of the three major areas of Search: Local, Organic, and Paid.

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LOCAL SEARCH One of the easiest ways to get your listings to appear in search engine results is to take control of your local search listings in Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. This is a great first step to immediately increase your chances of bringing in business from the Internet. The Local Search Results for Google “Denver Financial Advisors” are featured in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Google Local Search Results

The search for “Denver Financial Advisors” yields many results for financial advisors within Denver. Their location is noted by the letters both on the list, and on the map. When you are on an actual search engine results page, clicking on the links will take you directly to the financial advisor’s website (if they have

Local Search appears near the top of the search engine results and provides a link directly to your home page. It is free and all financial professionals looking to promote themselves need to get listed in Local Search.

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one). You can take a look at the current search engine results for “Denver Financial Advisors on your own computer by clicking here.

All of the major search engines have a local search component and you should ensure that your website is listed within each one.

Local Search Advantages:

It is FREE Local search results appear at the top of the results page (just below the

sponsored listings) You can upload detailed information about your financial practice

including an overview, photos, web page link, services offered and much, much more

Local Search Disadvantages

None – You need to sign up for this right now

To take control of your local search listing now at the three major search engines by clicking on the links below:

Google: http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter?gl=US&hl=en-US

Yahoo: http://listings.local.yahoo.com/csubmit/index.php

Microsoft: https://ssl.search.live.com/listings/BusinessSearch.aspx

The Bottom Line on Local Search  

Free and easy way to get a presence with major search engines  Potential to bring in clients for relatively little effort  A must for advisors who wish to promote their services online 

All 3 major search engines will allow you to submit your firm information to local search. Get started now with these links.

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PAID SEARCH Paid search advertisements can be purchased by any organization, and when an ad is clicked, the advertiser pays the search engine. As shown in Figure 4, paid advertisements appear to the right – and sometimes at the top - of the search results in all major search engines.

Figure 4: Paid Search Results

Paid search involves establishing an account with the major search engine providers to have specific ads appear based on various search terms. Users clicking your ad are taken directly to your website. Paid ads receive somewhere between 15%-30% of all clicks on the search engine results page.3

3 ComScore Estimate

Paid Search is the quickest way to get a visible link to your website from within search engine results. Although it will cost money for each click, it is the quickest way to bring traffic to your website.

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Paid Search advertising differs from traditional advertising methods because the advertising is highly targeted. Traditional advertising – like direct mail and TV ads – interrupt the user and are almost always ignored and rejected. With paid search advertising, you get hot leads. A person has a financial planning issue that needs solving, they type in a search term, and your advertisement appears. They click on your ad and arrive at your website - ready to be converted into a client.

Paid Search Advantages:

Easy to sign up and get started You control what search terms trigger your advertisement You control your ad “rank” in the sponsored links area Quick way to get traffic to your website Highly targeted prospects delivered to your website

Paid Search Disadvantages

Steep learning curve to do it right Can be complex Time consuming You can lose money quickly if you don’t know what you’re doing

To get started with paid search, use the following links below.

Google: https://adwords.google.com

Yahoo: http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com

Microsoft: http://adcenter.microsoft.com

The Bottom Line on Paid Search  

The quickest way to get prospective clients to your website  Easy to get started and get a presence with search engines  You can burn through a lot of money with poor results if you don’t do your homework prior to buying paid search ads 

Unlike other forms of advertising, users are actively seeking your services with paid search – making it much more likely to generate hot leads than traditional forms of advertising

Do your homework before engaging in paid search – part of your research should include repeated visits to our completely free “Denver Online Marketing Blog”

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ORGANIC SEARCH More users click on organic search result links than any other, making it the holy grail of search marketing. Keeping with our example search term of “Denver Financial Advisors”, please see the organic search results in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Google Organic Search Results

Although only a few results are shown in the above screen capture, listings continue on for many pages. Organic listings appear on the left side in the major search engines, below any sponsored ads or local search results.

While 15%-30% of all user clicks are for paid search results, the remaining 70%-85% of clicks are for organic listings. It is great to be listed here, and it is often times possible, depending on what search terms you want your financial advisor website to be ranked near the top.

Most users click on Organic Search results

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So, if you want to rank highly for “Denver Financial Advisors” in the organic listings, your site will need to be recognized by search engine algorithms as being highly relevant for the given search term . So, your web site (or a given page on your site featuring the search term) should have a lot of good information relative to the search term. So good in fact, that other websites use your Denver Financial Advisors web page as a reference and link to it.

The keys to doing well in organic search are having great, popular content that is used frequently by others. Having a blog right on your site is a great start.

Organic Search Advantages:

It is completely free The majority of users click on organic search links

Organic Search Disadvantages

You need to be constantly aware of industry trends and apparent changes in search engine algorithms

You’ll need to have some sort of computer programming help to make sure that your website is properly coded

You’ll need to keep your website consistently updated with fresh, relevant information to make sure that search engines recognize your website as an authority

Even if you do everything right, organic search engine rankings take a long time to improve

To do well with Organic Search, Google must recognize your web site as a high quality site with relevant content for the terms being searched

The Bottom Line on Organic Search  

An essential part of your online marketing strategy  Very time consuming –your website must be an authority for your specific areas of practice 

Results take a while to materialize – you won’t jump to #1 instantly  

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ONLINE MARKETING PITFALLS This white paper primarily deals with online marketing through search engines – by far the most effective way to market your business online. But there are other methods – including online paid directories – where you can market your business. But are they worth it?

How are People Going to Find Your Financial Advisor Website?

I frequently give online marketing presentations to business groups in the Denver Metro area. During my presentations, I put the audience members into the not-so-hypothetical position of looking for a Denver professional (attorney, plumber, landscaper - whatever). Then I ask for a show of hands of how the audience members would go about finding a Denver area professional in various ways.

How many would use Google?

How many would use Yahoo?

How many would use Microsoft (or MSN)?

How many would use DexKnows.com?

How many would use YellowPages.com?

The overwhelming majority raise their hands for Google. Many hands still remain up for Yahoo – and Microsoft. Only very rarely does an audience member raise their hand for DexKnows.com or YellowPages.com.

Don’t Spend Money At Low Ranking Websites According to Alexa.com, major search engine traffic is far more significant than online paid directories (see Figure 6):

There are other options for your online marketing budget besides search engines, but many of these alternatives receive a fraction of the traffic and will likely not yield a positive return on investment.

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Web Site Alexa.com Internet Traffic Rank4

Yahoo.com 1

Google.com 2

YellowPages.com 770

DexKnows.com 6,606

Figure 6: Traffic Rank of Major Search Engines vs. Local/Regional Directory Websites

Where do you want your financial advisor marketing message to appear? My informal polling as well as Alexa data indicates the overwhelming majority of Denver searches begin at a major search engine like Yahoo or Google. Extremely High Cost For Very Little Return

A small business owner in Eagle County revealed to me that he paid $12,000 to be listed in a phone book company’s online directory for 1 year, and it generated just ONE client. It was essentially a waste of precious marketing dollars.

4 Alexa.com Search May, 2008

Your online marketing budget needs to focus on where people are actually searching for your services – the major search engines – as opposed to regional or national directories that get much lower volumes of traffic.

The Bottom Line on Online Marketing Pitfalls  

Everyone uses major search engines, so advertise on Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft 

Don’t advertise on unpopular websites  Online directories may not be worth the money – do your homework prior to investing your marketing budget 

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WEB SITE DESIGN TIPS

By getting more familiar with the search engine strategies presented in this white paper (Local, Organic, Paid), you’ll have the capability to bring more visitors to your website. But this isn’t enough. Entire books have been written about what to do when a visitor reaches your website. How do you convert this hot lead into a client?

Obviously, you can’t take advantage of online marketing techniques unless you have an online presence. Therefore, you MUST have a website.

The primary goal of your financial advisory website is to generate business. It is just that simple. You build a website to generate business for your advisory practice. Many financial professional websites don’t have a clearly defined objective at all – to their detriment. They are disorganized, difficult to navigate, and focus on firm accolades and services rather than on generating business.

To generate business, your website must focus solely on your visitors Business is generated through your clients, therefore the entire website must be crafted from the client perspective. If you use the Search Engine techniques described in the previous sections, it is likely that the majority of the visitors to your website have arrived at your site after conducting a search for a specific service that you offer. You must not disappoint them.

Who is your typical website visitor? Someone that knows what they’re looking for, and they want to find it fast. If you don’t give them what they need quickly, they’ll find another advisor website that will.

In order to accommodate these impatient users, your website must:

Have a clean, compelling, modern design Be clear of distractions (like flash or any type of animation) Be free of extraneous information

Your website must have the single goal of generating business for your practice. Any website items that don’t contribute to this goal are distractions and should be eliminated.

In order for your website to generate business, the website must be designed around the site visitors and must demonstrate that your business can help solve their financial planning dilemmas.

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In other words, provide only information on your website that is pertinent to the visitors that you would like to convert into clients. Anything else gets in the way of this conversion process.

Web Site Design Tips If your financial advisor website wins website design awards, you’re probably doing something wrong. The average website visitor decides within 50 milliseconds whether or not they’re going to even bother looking through the pages of your website.

For your website to be effective, it must:

Look contemporary – like it was designed within the past year or two Compare favorably to the competition Be very easy for the visitor to navigate Be very easy for the visitor to find what they need Be free of clutter Be free of motion, animation, and Flash

Your website doesn’t have to be an award winning or cutting edge design. Usually this is a bad idea. Your site needs to be pleasing to the eye and easy for site visitors to find exactly what they’re looking for.

The Bottom Line on Your Website Design  

Your website needs to look professional and up to date   Design the website for the prospective clients that visit your website.  Make it easy for them to find the information that they're looking for 

Think up-to-date and well structured website design. You don’t want a flashy, gimmicky, or distracting website. This will just irritate visitors and they’ll look elsewhere.

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GETTING STARTED You are now familiar with the online marketing techniques that are available to you – as a financial advisor – to successfully market your services and bring prospects to your website. There are two paths that you can take to promote your business online: Do It Yourself If you have a technical aptitude and love computers, you may be interested in doing it yourself. I have many free resources, tips, tricks, and how to advice on the Denver Online Marketing Blog at Database Watchdog that can assist you in getting started. You can also e-mail or call me (contact info is below), and I should be able to answer any questions that you have. Get Some Help Many advisors would rather not deal with marketing efforts and would prefer to focus on servicing their clients. For these financial advisors, outsourcing online marketing activities makes the most sense. I have the ability to relieve these advisors of the burden of marketing online, freeing up their time so they can focus on their core business.

I provide a free one hour consultation for all financial advisors. I would be happy to describe these online marketing techniques in more depth help you further explore how new business can be driven your way through the Internet.

Contact Information If you’re interested in a free consultation – or if you just have questions about Internet marketing, please contact me. Frank Salvatore Database Watchdog, LLC [email protected] 303.909.2696 http://www.databasewatchdog.com

No matter what path you choose, the “Denver Online Marketing Blog” can be a tremendous asset in your online marketing pursuits.