Whenever an RIA reaches out to my firm, we always ask what they hope to accomplish. One of the most common responses we get is, “We want to improve our social media presence.” What they are really saying is, “If we improve our social media, we’ll get more leads.” In my experience, and the experience of many marketers I talk to, this is just not the case.
Social media generally does not build leads for most financial advisory firms. Of course, rare exceptions exist, but those companies devote more time and effort than 99.9% of advisors ever will creating content, building an audience, and consistently engaging on social media.
The best use of social media is for nurturing existing relationships, but that also requires active engagement. If all you do is post content, then your posts just become one more thing that people scroll past on their cellphones.
If you want to get more exposure with your target market and, as a result, more leads, there are better channels than social media. Let’s look at two of them: influencers and search.
Influencers
Building an audience, whether that is through social media, blogs, YouTube channels, podcasts, or email lists, takes time. While building an audience is valuable and worth pursuing, you should start connecting with that audience by leveraging influencers.
Influencers are the people, publications, and organizations that already have the audience you want to reach. They already have built-in trust with your audience and are likely to have engaged followers.
So how can you leverage influencers? Here are some ideas:
Contribute guest blog posts to popular websites your target market visits.
Contribute articles to publications your target market reads.
Be a guest on a podcast your target market listens to.
Be a guest speaker at a conference, workshop, or event your target market attends.
Engage with influencers your target market follows on social media who may be willing to share your content.
Contribute expertise to a newsletter or educational event of a traditional center of influence (e.g., CPA, attorney) your target market is connected to.
If you don’t have a large network or following of your target market, leveraging the relationships of others will be the fastest way to get in front of your desired audience.
Search
When people have questions, the first place they look to for an answer is the internet, whether that is on Google or YouTube. These are people who clearly have a pain point they want to resolve, and you can help! These people are actively engaged in solving their problem, and a portion of them may be in the mindset of hiring a financial advisor.
The key to using search to your benefit is to identify the most pressing questions prospects who would be interested in your services may search for. You then develop content that provides them with an answer.
This content creation is the first step. The second step is to optimize your content so that your prospect is likely to find it on Google or another search engine, or YouTube if you produce videos.
While the search strategy will not get you in front of your target market as quickly as the influencer method, investing in a search engine optimization strategy can provide compounded rewards over the long run in the form of new prospects.
Summary
If you are frustrated with your social media efforts, don’t double down on a tactic that isn’t working. Instead, focus on leveraging influencers and search engine optimization. You’ll connect with your target audience and have a better opportunity to generate the leads you seek.
About Kristen Luke
Kristen Luke is the President of Kaleido Creative Studio, a marketing agency specializing in helping RIAs promote their businesses to a niche through an expertise approach. Over the past 15 years, Kristen has consulted with hundreds of financial advisory firms and shared her marketing expertise via industry conferences and publications nationwide.