Online Advertising Best Practices for Insurance and Financial Advisors

Confidential, Property of Search Influence, LLC © 2013
@SearchInfluence Presented to NAIFA
Online Marketing
Best Practices
Presented to the
National Association of Insurance & Financial Advisors
Paula Keller, Search Influence

How do businesses promote
themselves online?
• Search Engines
– Organic / Natural Results
– Paid Search
• Blogging
• Reviews
• Social Media (Facebook)
• Personal Online Branding

@SearchInfluence Presented to NAIFAhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/seandreilinger/

SEARCH INFLUENCE
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About Search Influence
• Helping customers successfully market online since 2006
• We work with thousands of clients, directly and as a white-label
provider to major national media companies.
• Scalable Solutions Powered by Experts
• Search Influence:
• 50+ full-time employees
• 70+ contract writers
• 12 Adwords Certified Staff
• Reputation:
• 2011 Inc. 500 honoree
• Recognized leader in search and social for local business
• Over a decade in online media

As Seen In…

About Me: Paula Keller
Director of Account Management
• Seasoned manager with extensive customer service exp.
• Accomplished local search marketing expert
• Leads a team of 18 in:
– Client services
– Results optimization
– Online Marketing strategy
• Develop Products & Process

WHY ONLINE MARKETING?
What is Your Competitive Advantage?

Everyone is Doing it…
Photo Credit: Missourian Kiwanis Club

Local Search:
More Important Than Ever

Source: ComScore

What Does This Mean to You?
• Competing insurance and financial advisors are
finding more ways to find your clients
• You can use local search & social to target non-
traditional buying audiences
• Your focus should be placed on studying your
customer demographic
• Use online marketing resources to target, engage and
add efficiency to your current methods

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
GOOGLE+ & MORE
Helping Your Business Grow

Search Engine Market Share
Source: Hitwise, Volume of Searches for the 4 weeks ending 11/2/2012
66.70%
10.67%
9.16% 2.95% 2.17%
Visits Share
Google
Bing
Yahoo! Search
Ask
AOL Search

How Search Engines Work
• Crawling
• Scouring the web for new content and links
between web sites
• Indexing
• Parsing, normalization, categorization and
recording of these data for later use
• Searching
• Presenting data to searchers in response to their
queries in relevant and useful way

Understanding the Search Results
PAID
Search Results
LOCAL
Search Results
ORGANIC
Search Results

Source: Optify Study, December 2010
37% of clicks go to
the #1 position
60% of clicks go to
the top 3
90% of clicks go to
sites on page 1
Why is SEO Important?

The Local SEO Approach
Organic Results
• Keyword
• Content
• Links
• Lather, rinse, repeat!
Local Search / Maps Results
• Consistency in
local citations (listings)

Essential: Consistent NAP

The Anatomy of NAP
What is a local citation?
N A P + W
Name
Address
Phone #
Website

Why is Consistent NAP
Essential?
Don’t Confuse Google!
• Your NAP should be in each of these places:
• Website
• Social media pages
• Business directories – called “citations”
• Number of citations is Important, but consistency is
more important
• Your NAP is your local search fingerprint

The Local Search Ecosystem

Step 1: Audit Business
Information
Solidify your Biz Name
• Multiple variations?
• Check Secretary of State
Solidify Address
• usps.com/zip4
Solidify Phone Number
- One per location
- Should be local
- Avoid call-tracking numbers

Step 2: Claim your Google+ Local
Listing!
• One listing per location using official NAP:
– Firms with multiple practitioners: one listing per
practitioner also.
• Complete Data:
description, website, categories, photos, etc

Getting Started

Step 3: Update Additional Listings
• Identify incorrect info about you
– Whitespark Local Citation Finder
– Google this:
• "business name" + "phone number"
• Organize citations so you can see NAP data
errors
• Update erroneous citations

Inconsistency & Duplication of
Citations

Update Inconsistencies
• Check InfoGroup, Localeze & Acxiom for incorrect
citation information
– InfoGroup: http://expressupdateusa.com/
– Localeze:
http://webapp.localeze.com/directory/get-
started.aspx
• Channel partners get better pricing
– Acxiom: http://mybusinesslistingmanager.com/
• Duplicate citations are bad

Tips
• Keep track of login information
• Use one email account for communication
with citation sources
• Be ABSOLUTELY sure your NAP isn’t already
listed before adding citations
• Periodically monitor your biz listings

Next Step: Your website!

Your Website Content
• Unique
• Relevant
• Include keywords
– What are people searching when they look for
your services

Content Opportunities
• Title Tags
• Meta Descriptions
• On-Page Headings
• On-site Content

Title Tag

Fee-only financial planning in New Orleans and Baton Rouge

Meta Descriptions

On-Site Local Optimization
• Is NAP on website readable?
• NAP should match Google Plus Local page NAP
• Talk about New Orleans
• Make it easy to contact you!

Improper or Non-Existent On-
Site Local Optimization

ONLINE REVIEWS & REPUTATION
MANAGEMENT
WORD OF MOUTH REFERRALS (OR DOOR-CLOSERS)
Know What People are Saying About Your Business

How Do
Consumers Choose a Local Business?
Social Mentions Vs. Reviews
Source:
Mike
Blumenthal

Sources: Neilson 2009
Harvard Business Review 2008

Keys to Successful Review
Management
• Avoid bad reviews but plan for them too
• What to do if you’ve had a bad review:
– Own it (the customer is always right)
– Describe how future customers will not have this
issue
– Offer to fix the issue
– Remember: Your prospects are the real audience
here!

Considerations When Asking for
Reviews

Reputation Management
• Set up Google Alerts for Personal Reputation
management
– http://www.google.com/alerts
– Place your name into ’Search Query’
• Set the frequency for any mentions to come in “as-
it-happens,” once a day or once a week.
• Consider also setting up alerts for: twitter
handle, the company you work for, etc.

google.com/alerts

BLOGGING
CONTENT = NEW CLIENTS

Blogging Overview
• Much like the on-site content, blog content should
be unique.
• The goal is to create content optimized with
targeted keywords to rank organically for terms.
• The blog should live on your website, it should
also be separate from your news and events
section.
– yoursite.com/blog
– Not: you.blogspot.com or you.wordpress.com

Blogging Examples

What do I write about?
• FAQ’s
– Each Q is its own post
• Current events
• Local events
• Changes in regulation that affects your
customers
• Keep it relevant to your business goals

PAID SEARCH
”RANK” QUICKLY

Paid Search
• Also known as pay per click (PPC) or cost per
click (CPC)
• An online advertising model used to direct
traffic (people) to websites.
• Paid search is the fastest way to get in front of
your target market

Paid Search
• You need landing pages with prime calls to action
• These pages will be your conversion vehicles
• You should track your ROI by using call tracking
numbers
Why Paid Search?
• Ideal for conversion tracking
• It’s a process that is up and running quickly
• You can target your ideal client demographic

SOCIAL MEDIA
TARGETING NEW AUDIENCES
Creating Brand Awareness & Engagement

There is more to Facebook
than this!

Additional Solutions Offered

Where are Facebook Ads
Viewed & Found?

Does it Work?

Check out who “likes” you

Brand your Page

Why Facebook Advertising?
Increased ROI:
– Facebook Ads range from 25-50% of the cost of
running a Google AdWords campaign.
Less Competition:
– Facebook also has an advantage when it comes to
your volume of competition. In many business
verticals, Facebook has an estimated 1/20th of
Google advertisers.

“The Facebook”
• Facebook is a very private and personalized social site
not traditionally used for work
• The more well known you become the more other
professionals become interested in your personal life and
will want to connect via Facebook
• It may make connecting difficult if you are putting out
controversial posts or keeping some old college pictures.
• The recommendation is to hide your profile from the
public eye

Hiding Your Personal Facebook
Profile
• Go to the right hand icon that looks like a gear and
click
• The drop down menu will appear and you will click
'privacy settings'
• Under privacy settings you will click ’privacy'
• Under “who can look me up” change it to “friends of
friends” or just “friends” only
• You also have the option to turn search engine
indexation off

Hiding Your Facebook Profile

Creating a Secondary
Professional Facebook Profile
• Create a profile with your full name and location
information
• Add your professional bio, work history and branding
links
• Go to your profile then click ‘about’ under this page
you have the ability to edit all personal information
• You may also choose to exclude personal details
• Go to privacy settings via the gear icon on the right
hand side and change visibility settings to 'everyone’

PERSONAL ONLINE BRANDING
GET FOUND

Claiming Your Brand on
Personal Identity Sites
• Much like we focus on NAP for businesses think of
your personal brand as Name+Occupation+Biography
= N.O.B.
• Consistent N.O.B. should be flush across your
personal identity sites and social profiles
• Make sure to update all profiles when you change
your bio, add certifications or additional areas of
expertise
• Keep content fresh and unique to your brand

GOOGLE+ MANAGEMENT
FIND NEW CLIENTS

Google+ Profile (Individual)
• Remember everything is public, posts show up in
search results
• Optimize your profile with bio information
• Image
• Tagline
• Occupation
• Posts
• Sharing with circles

Design Your Snippet: Google+
Profile

Google Authorship
• Verify your e-mail address on Google+
• Link to your blog & site from your Google+ account
under profile settings
• Add the links to your other blog authorship profiles
• Link back to your Google+ account in authored
pieces

LINKEDIN MANAGEMENT
FIND NEW CLIENTS

Make Linkedin Work for You
• This is a pure professional play
• Rule of thumb: never post your personal stuff to
LinkedIn (unless it's a cute personal story about
puppies, kittens or babies)
• No one in the industry wants to hear about your
funny business
• Avoid religion and politics
• Become a LinkedIn power house by including an in
depth professional bio image and content

Optimizing Your Linkedin Profile
•Go the tab on the left entitled ‘profile’
•Click the drop down menu and select ‘edit profile’
•First and foremost claim your vanity URL by clicking
‘edit’
•Scroll down and on the right-hand side select
‘customize your public profile URL’
•A window will then pop up, enter your name
•If that name is already taken, place a period between
your first & last name

• Go the tab on the left entitled ‘profile’
• Click the drop down menu and select ‘edit profile’
• Scroll down and on the right-hand side select criteria
entitled ‘recommended for you’ as you see fit
• Some areas to consider are:
– Publications
– Certifications
– Honors & awards
– Volunteer experiences & causes

Linkedin Greatness
• Add skills for areas of endorsement
• Move the skills/endorsements area up to the top of
the profile with the navigation arrows on the right-
hand side of this panel
• Always include your education and contact methods
• Ask for recommendations when you've done a great
job
• Connect with you, say that you are a friend

Linkedin Company Profiles
• Create a company profile (if the organization hasn’t
already created one)
• For greater online visibility add services such as “IRA
Rollovers” or “Long Term Care” to your services tab
• These services act as keywords for Linkedin Members
in search of said service
• They also index in search results
• Be sure to add your company profile image

Linkedin Company Profiles

FINRA REGULATION
OBLIGATION VS. LIMITATION

FINRA Regulatory Notice 10-06
In January 2010, FINRA issued Regulatory Notice
10-06, providing guidance on the application of
FINRA rules governing communications with the
public to social media sites and reminding firms
of the recordkeeping, suitability, supervision and
content requirements for such communications.
Source: www.finra.org

Recordkeeping:
• The obligations of a firm to keep records of communications made through
social media depend on whether the content of the communication
constitutes a business communication.
• Broker-dealers to preserve certain records for a period of not less than
three years, the first two in an easily accessible place.
• These records include: originals of all communications received and copies of
all communications sent (and any approvals thereof) by the member, broker or
dealer relating to its business as such, including all communications which are
subject to rules of a self-regulatory organization of which the member, broker
or dealer is a member regarding communications with the public.

Supervision:
• NASD Rule 3010 requires each firm to establish and maintain a system to
supervise the activities of each associated person that is reasonably designed
to achieve compliance with applicable federal securities laws and FINRA rules.
• Broker-dealers to preserve certain records for a period of not less than
three years, the first two in an easily accessible place.
• These records include: originals of all communications received and copies of
all communications sent (and any approvals thereof) by the member, broker or
dealer relating to its business as such, including all communications which are
subject to rules of a self-regulatory organization of which the member, broker
or dealer is a member regarding communications with the public.

FINRA Best Practices
Be Transparent
• Work with compliance to create a social media policy for
your office to assure all agents are meeting their
standards
Keep Records
• To maintain a digital “paper trail” give compliance your
profile all login credentials to your professional profiles
Be Smart
• Create separate profile pages for your work persona as
well as your company pages

FINRA Best Practices
Be Selective
• Only add local/relevant people as friends to avoid any
unwanted posting or social e-mail activity
Be Safe
• All posts should be knowledgeable information taken
straight from the book (e.g. new product, laws, etc)
• Don’t be too promotional
• Avoid politics, religion and controversial topics
Avoid Branded/Trademarked Posts
• Eliminate any posting conflict by not mentioning
trademarked events, brands, etc.

Remember These Things
• Ask for endorsements & reviews when you’ve
done a great job
• There are new ways to target your ideal client
in pools of new audiences
• Use the techniques we’ve shown you to use
the new FINRA policies to your benefit
• These methods are some that your
competitors may not be aware of…use them!

Thank you!
Paula Keller
– searchinfluence.com/blog
– pkeller@searchinfluence.com
– twitter.com/paulalmkeller

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