Financial Advisors have travelled a long way from some of the very old marketing tools to the newest high-end technology based tools. This article covers online marketing tactics for financial advisors and teach them how to manage their personal brand online. Article originally published on the Technology tools for Today (T3) Newsletter: www.technologytoolsfortoday.com

1. Maximize Your Online Presence as a
Financial Advisor
By Loic Jeanjean, Online Marketing Manager,
Advisor Websites
Financial Advisors have travelled a long way
from some of the very old marketing tools to
the newest high-end technology-based tools.
Today, your clients’ and prospects’ habits have
evolved along with the marketing industry.
They have access to millions of pages online
and will not tolerate being treated as a number
in your mailing list or continuing to be fed old
snail-mail marketing pieces. They want to be
recognized as individuals and be treated as
such. Instead, they will look for the information
online, whether it is on websites, blogs or so-
cial media sites. Your goal as a financial advi-
sor is to get found on all these different plat-
forms. This means having an updated website, creating value on your blog
and engaging with your community on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.
Statistics show that 77% of active Internet users read blogs to share news,
information, stay in touch and make new connections. Statistics also show
that consumers are more likely to do business with a company that is active
online.
Online marketing tips for financial advisors
As a financial advisor looking for success online, one of the most important
things that you can do is start to market your personal brand. When your
personal brand is out there, people will recognize and seek you out, making
it more than easy to get the clients you’re looking for.
• Personal Branding: This is a topic that encompasses much more
than a paragraph, but you do need to begin to brand yourself online through
social media, your website, YouTube, and other resources where people will
begin to recognize who you are. Much of this involves streamlining all of
your different social media profiles and YouTube channel with the same
voice and personal branding concept, whether it be your name, your slogan,
or your logo.
Reprint from November 2010
Volume VIII, Issue 11, November 2010
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All Rights Reserved.
Loic Jeanjean

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• Consider Live Coaching: If you want to take your financial advising to
the next level, you need to make use of YouTube and webinars. There is no rea-
son to feel skittish about putting your face out there for people to see since peo-
ple oftentimes are much more likely to approach you as a client if they have al-
ready seen who you are and what you are about. If you begin to post a series of
videos online in financial coaching, it is a quick and virtually free form of adver-
tising that people will be attracted to.
• E-mail Marketing: If you already have a website, you absolutely must
have an opt-in area on your website where visitors can sign up for a newsletter
or more information. But it doesn’t stop there! You also need to make sure that
the e-mails you send are useful, catchy, and concise, or you risk them being
deleted. Having an email list of clients interested in your newsletter is vital be-
cause you can continue to educate them on financial advice while simultane-
ously offering them your services.
• Use Referral Bonuses: This is a brilliant idea if you are already plugged
into social media. Since you can update your clients through Twitter and Face-
book, why not reward them for referring their friends to your service? Make sure
that this is advertised well in all of your social media profiles, and your clients will
definitely be more than happy to pass on and retweet your information if they
receive a referral discount as a result. This lets your clients do the marketing for
you!
• Be Committed to Social Media: If you are trying to market yourself
online, social media takes serious effort. It involves much more than just setting
up your profiles on a one-time basis, but you need to continue to cultivate, cre-
ate relationships, and share information with people. It is also important not to
only spam or advertise yourself, which people will be likely to block and delete
right away.
What does it take to manage your brand online?
It is often hard to differentiate what will make one brand more successful than
another when it comes to marketing online. Of course, much of this has to do
with your brand management and the way you present yourself to your targeted
demographic.
Here are some of the best tips to contribute to your success in online brand
management:
• Target Your Market: All advertising that you do should appeal to your
targeted demographic, and this type of consistent messaging will ensure that
your product or service is recognized by the right group. This sort of consistency
will build a reputation for your company, making your advertising even more ef-
fective.
• Manage Your Reputation: It is important to set Google alerts and search
on Twitter for your company and products. This will help you to understand what
people are talking about when it comes to your brand. This can help you to put
out potential fires and stop many issues before they start — simply by paying
attention to what people are saying about you.
• Press Releases: For anything newsworthy or any time there may be an
issue with your company, make sure to put out a solid press release. This will

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allow you to jump to the top of the search engine results and stay ahead of the news
when it comes to what is being talked about regarding your brand.
• Search Engine Optimization: This is highly important for anyone searching
for your products or services. There are many simple search engine optimization
tips that you can learn online, but for bigger projects, make sure to hire a profes-
sional. This will help you to pop up higher in the search engine results for any prod-
ucts related to your brand, ensuring that your customers will be able to find you.
Which social media marketing tips work?
Social media marketing in itself is quite a complex topic for online businesses. There
are so many new ventures available in promoting your company through social me-
dia, so which ideas really work?
• Be relevant. When you are offering promotions, realize that coupons may
not be the best choice for the new generation. In fact, many members of younger
generations are steering away from coupons altogether because they don’t want to
resort to coupon clipping. Since this is the case, many social media deals are avail-
able through mobile apps as a relevant and quick resource to promote their busi-
nesses online.
• Advertise outside the box. Beyond the traditional marketing methods of me-
dia and commercials, now people can purchase advertising space on a person.
Some people out there are offering to wear a shirt advertising your brand on popular
social media channels, like YouTube. On top of that, this is a cheap advertising op-
tion that will make sure that your brand is seen where people are watching.
• Get on Twitter. If your business is not already plugged into Twitter, you need
to do that as quickly as possible. This is where people are going for real-time infor-
mation, whether it be political news or who won American Idol. Since this is the
case, it can be to your advantage to get a large community of followers on Twitter
and then share with them about your company.
• Make your content relevant. If you are putting out articles, blogs, or any other
form of content, you need to make sure that it is relevant and in demand. This is
something that will have other websites passing along your content so that you are
getting more and more links and recognition as a result. The bottom line is that it
doesn’t work to put out fluffy content that people won’t want to read.
About Advisor Websites
Advisor Websites is North America’s leading provider of websites designed specifi-
cally for financial services professionals. It specializes in website design, social me-
dia and online marketing strategy and works closely with advisors and financial insti-
tutions to deliver efficient; compliant and high quality products. To learn more about
financial website design, visit us online at www.advisorwebsites.com