Are You Taking Your Financial Services Business Growth?

As a financial professional in your own business, you no doubt know and have experienced the wealth of information out there on how to grow your financial services business. We have been helping people grow their businesses for many years now, and we know what it takes, what works and what doesn’t work. We also know how confused people get in relation to what they hear and read, and where to even start.It worked for so and so, why isn’t it working for me?The reality is that every financial services business is different, and each has its own uniqueness in regards the process and strategies for digital online success. Research undertaken by Advisers Voice suggests that Financial Services professionals that are taking digital marketing seriously and have a strategic plan aligned to this are:

• attracting 40% more new business than the average adviser
• more than 90% of the e-Advisers are growing their book (even if it is not at 40% more than the average)
• growing their overall revenues right across the board
• achieving higher than market average client retention rates
• servicing on average 55% more clients than other advisers
• achieving wider geographical client spread
• attracting more Gen X and Gen Y clients than is typical in other firms

There are some common myths that we hear time and time again, in speaking with Financial Services industry experts that are actually preventing their business from reaching its maximum growth potential, and no doubt will potentially relate to yours.

Most of these “urban myths” are based on information that was either once true but no longer holds true in today’s digital age or information that has only worked for a very small percentage of Financial Services businesses.

Business growth, is an ongoing process of testing and measuring so don’t be told otherwise, however these are the most common urban myth that we see holding Financial Professionals back from reaching their fullest potential-

Mobile continues to be one of the dominating forces when it comes to online searches and how your next client is looking for your business.

Many consumers and clients are using their mobile devices to look up brands and businesses, purchase products, read reviews and share on social media.

Web use on mobile phones is also growing at staggering rates. In fact, in this year – 2017 research shows that over 80% of searches on the internet are on smartphones. This number is expected to be higher in 2018 and even higher in the years to come. Desktop has been left in the wake of searches on mobile devices.

This means that it is imperative that your business has a conversion optimised mobile responsive website that provides an easy to use and friendly experience.

This includes ensuring that your website when viewed on a mobile device is:

• Optimised for smaller screens
• Communicates a clear call to action
• Is touch screen friendly (ie. bigger call to action buttons)
• Has secure and easy payment processing
• Is linked to social media accounts
• Has clear and easy to read text

Smart Financial Services professionals are discovering that once they have all of these elements checked and in place, their search traffic increases and they receive more sales and social media engagement. This is partly due to the fact that Google gives preference to brands that have a mobile page and rank mobile-friendly pages higher in their search results, and this is going to become more important due to the emphasis on Goggles algorithms moving into the future.

If your business does not have a great mobile friendly responsiveness, then if you’re serious about your business growth, you need to start here. All sorts of clients, customers and businesses are using smartphones, so it is imperative that your Financial Services business has mobile search covered, and done well!

There’s been a lot of information out there over the past few years saying SEO is dead. We only have one response to that…”dead wrong.” The truth is, SEO is still very much alive. Like anything, it has changed to what it was a few years ago however it’s still critical in the scheme of things.

You may or may not know that years ago SEO was a very analytical structured process, that was left fairly undefined. This meant there was a lot of trial and error in business owners trying to improve their rankings.. Today however, many of these tried and true methods are irrelevant and SEO is clearly defined in terms of what does and what doesn’t improve search engine rankings.

SEO is definitely not dead. It all comes down to how well business owners like yourself, optimise their site.

Today  for SEO to be effective you must:

• Offer content that is meaningful and valuable
• Feature keywords but don’t keyword stuff (max 1-3 keywords every 1,000 words)
• Have a mobile friendly website and landing pages
• Have an active social media presence
• Keep your website up to date and post content regularly
• Have an engaging website that is user friendly
• Build links to other quality sites
• Post guest articles or blogs on other sites
• Offer a variety of content styles (ie. SlideShare, Infographics etc.)

With competitors spending big budgets on SEO, it is imperative that your business keeps up by having a solid SEO strategy.

Building a solid SEO strategy will help improve your organic traffic and help your Financial Services business to stand out from your competitors.

Every Financial Services business big or small can benefit from social media. In fact, in this day and age being on social media is imperative to getting your brand in front of people and to help build credibility and trust. As Professional Planner says, the consumer needs to be at the centre of everything you do

Even if you don’t think your clients and prospect’s are particularly active on social media, chances are they are and having a social profile can help to boost your authority, reputation and search ranking results.

Having a strategic social media marketing strategy can also help to build an open communication between you and your customers, and really get them moving closer to your service offerings.

When we talk about having a social media presence, we don’t mean that you need to join every social network out there. You need to be strategic about the types of networks you choose and ensure that they are being used by your ideal client demographic. For example, your financial services may not find Snapchat ideal in terms of attracting ready to go clients, however LinkedIn may be ideal.

Here is a list of all the popular social media networks and what they are beneficial for:

LinkedIn: excellent for networking, building relationships with businesses, increasing exposure as an industry leader, building client lists, promoting industry knowledge and finding employees/employers.

Facebook: excellent for reaching customers and building a community or following, good for local and online brands, main user base aged 25-45, great for sharing content and providing valuable information.

Instagram: great for showcasing products and sharing inspiring messages/art; good for fashion brands and for helping followers get to know your brand.

Twitter: good for networking and building up authority in your industry, great for instantly updating your fans and providing quick messages, excellent place to share content and images.

Pinterest: great for showcasing products and services, excellent for sharing infographics and slides; main user base is middle-aged females.

SnapChat: good for promoting events, main user base aged 15-25; an excellent way to reach a younger audience.

The best way to make social media work for your brand is to pick 1-3 social media platforms that you feel will resonate with your audience best and focus on building your presence on these.

If you have a business blog that very few people are reading, you may be thinking to yourself if this a complete waste of time.

Blogging and writing content is one of the most effective ways to grow your Financial Services business, even if it may not seem that way to start with.

Even if you are not getting lots of readers, having a regularly updated blog helps to –

• Improve your SEO rankings
• Increase organic traffic to your site
• Build your social profile in your industry
• Build your reputation and establish you as an financial services authority
• Increase engagement between you and your audience
• Build an email list that you can later market to

For most financial service businesses, the main mission of your blog should not be to get millions of readers. Instead, it should be to educate, inform and add value to your readers that are interested in your products and services, this then naturally leads them into what your business offers and what it stands for. This in turn, will help your readers to feel confident and comfortable in using your financial services products or services.

Having a business website blog is more about getting exposure in a different, more indirect way to your potential clients.

If you want your business to reach its full growth potential, having a blog that is updated weekly is key. You may also want to experiment with different content types as well such as infographics, slides, images and more.

Having a negative review of your business online is never pleasant to see, however it definitely does not indicate that your business is doomed.

In one study it was actually found that brands that had all positive reviews were just as likely to be less trusted as brands with negative reviews. This is because many consumers don’t trust businesses that only have glowing 5-star reviews, which makes absolute sense. In some consumer’s minds, having glowing reviews with no negative feedback could be a sign of manipulation or falsity in the actual reviews.

What people really trusted when it came to reading reviews however, was how brands responded to negative feedback. When a representative from the business replied to the negative feedback and provided a friendly solution, people were more likely to trust the business.

If you do find a negative review, the best thing you can do is take the time to address it by offering an opportunity to make it right with the client. Try your best to also reach out to the negative reviewer on the platform that the review was written on. This will help other potential clients to see that you do care and that you have your client’s best interest at heart.

It is also important to remember however, that you cannot please everyone. Even if you reach out to make amends, some people are just not interested. If that is the case, let the negative review go and move onwards and upwards.

Some businesses fall into the trap of believing that more products, more content and more of everything that they can produce will help them to grow faster and quicker. Now, that is a real myth!

More often than not, creating more not only drains your resources but also leads to inefficiency. Instead of acquiring more, sometimes it may be better for your financial services business  to focus on scaling what you already have and do well.

There is no point bringing in ten new service offerings if your existing products and services are failing to convert. The better alternative would be to use your resources to work out a way to increase sales of your existing products and services and work out proven reasons as to maybe why they are not converting as fast as you would like them to.

Less is definitely more when it comes to business. You may have the best products and services in the entire world, but if you’re marketing strategy is not up to scratch or aligned with your target market, selling your awesome products and services is going to be next to impossible.

While you definitely want to ensure your products and services are amazing and valuable, you also need to ensure that you have the marketing strategy expertise to bring it to fruition.

This is going to help ensure that your financial services business can produce sustained and lasting growth.

“Great marketing won’t save a poor product, but with poor marketing, even a great product doesn’t stand a chance”

Scoring a big client or a big deal is great for any financial services business; however focusing all your attention onto acquiring these deals can stunt your very own financial business growth.

The reality is this, big clients are far and few between, whereas there are plenty of your average clients. If you simply ignore the average clients,  you could be missing out on a huge opportunity to grow and scale your business.

Who your business chooses to target will depend on many factors, but designing your business to succeed by only focusing on big income earning  clients will be setting your business up for disaster.

While you don’t have to cater to every client and income, it may be beneficial to have a more open-minded approach when it comes to the types of clients that you are focused on.

You may also want to consider offering options that suit at least two levels of income earners. This will help your products or services to be more accessible to a wider range of clients  and potentially companies.

Even though online digital marketing is huge, it doesn’t mean you should forget all other mediums as well.

Marketing is more effective when it is spread across multiple channels such as TV, radio and newspapers, as this helps your message to be seen by a wider audience. It all comes down to strategy and timing.

Focusing all your energy on digital marketing only provides you with part of the picture, however it is a big part of the picture.

One study conducted by TiVo Research found that 84 percent of media companies that cut TV advertising experienced a 15 percent decline in sales.

According to Betsy Rella, the vice president of TiVo Research-

“In today’s multi-screen content universe, consumer brands are reallocating advertising dollars to digital spend, however our research has found that TV advertising is more effective than ever.”

There is still a huge percentage of the population that watches TV, reads newspapers and magazines and looks at billboards, so for your brand to really grow, consider implementing a few of these more traditional platforms, when and if appropriate.

It may also be worth getting out in your local community and networking at local events such as business expos, fundraisers and particular profeesional groups.

No matter which platforms you choose to focus on, just ensure that they are all working together to support your specific marketing message and objective.

As a financial services business owner you probably have many talents, but honestly, it is impossible to be truly good at everything.

In order for your business to grow, you need the brain power of more than one individual and you need to surround yourself with people who are skilled at things that you are not.

This may mean you need to hire the right employees, mentors and outsourcers who can help with different areas of your business, so you can focus on what you do best.

Building a solid presence and brand that can grow rapidly is about having a team of people who can focus on their strengths and not spend time worrying about what you should be doing.

If you don’t have the budget to hire staff to help, consider outsourcing things to freelancers. There are plenty of great freelancers that you can hire from all over the world that can complete small to large projects usually for a flat fee.

Alternatively, you can also utilise marketing automation software to help along with the process. These software tools include:

• Social media scheduling tools such as Hootsuite or Buffer
• Email marketing software like MailChimp or Active Campaign
• Analytical software and tracking like Google Analytics
• Accounting software like Quickbooks
• Website design services like WordPress or SquareSpace
• PPC advertising tools like Google Adwords and Facebook Ads

None of these software options are particularly expensive and all of them can help make your day to day a lot easier and more efficient.

When it comes to growing your business there is never going to be the absolute perfect time to launch ahead with your growth strategies.

While having a solid business plan is a great way to start, sometimes you have to actually put your plan into action in order to work out if it is the best course for your business.

Especially when you are launching a growth strategy, the most valuable results are going to be in the proof, not in the hypothesis or financial spreadsheets.

This means that waiting till everything is perfect and your strategy is fail-proof is only going to delay you and set you behind your competition in the marketplace. Get the bare bones of your strategy together and then just start.

Once things are up and running you can then learn where things need tweaking and how to best continue.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not about blindly stabbing around in the dark hoping to strike gold, instead it is about having a plan in place and then using actual results to tweak it and improve it.

Some effective ways you can create a bare bones growth plan without spending a lot of time or money on research is to –

• Emulate what your competition are doing
• Start small and then scale up when you see results
• Experiment with 1-2 things at a time so you can more accurately measure results
• Have tracking set up every step of the way so you can monitor effectiveness
• Stay open to making changes and tweaking things
• Using real time data and statistics to make changes or scale things

By keeping things manageable and copying what others in your industry are doing, it can help take days out of planning and researching and instead prioritise the practical application of your strategy.

Many businesses we have seen that spend weeks developing a growth strategy also wind up struggling when things don’t go to plan. This in turn, ends up blocking their chances of growth and leaves them feeling stuck in the narrow-mindedness of their strategy.

By all means have a plan, but keep it flexible until you can see the results working for yourself in real time.

When it comes to growing your business, there is no “one size fits all” plan however, these 10 myths are hopefully ones that you can dispell in order to scale your business up to new heights.

To recap, here are the solutions to the 10 myths that you should avoid if you want to grow your business-

1. Get a mobile friendly website that is easy to use
2. Keep your SEO strategy up to date
3. Get on a social media platform that suits your businesses target audience
4. Create regularly updated blog for your business
5. Respond to negative feedback but don’t sweat it either
6. Focus on growing what you have instead of acquiring more
7. Don’t just set your sights on big, high paying clients; expand your reach
8. Digital marketing is great, but consider exploring other alternatives as well
9. Hire or outsource people to help you grow your business
10. Focus on more doing and less planning