Reflect On Your Profile
Take the time to look at your online profile and evaluate it from a spectator’s point of view. Does it reflect what you want it to be? Does it clearly show your firm’s strengths and unique differentiators versus other financial advisors? If not, this is something you need to correct on all of your firm’s external communications channels.
For example, LinkedIn profiles should reflect the company’s web page regarding areas of expertise, whether this is specializing in financial advice for women, small to medium business owners, high-net-worth investors, etc. Who your target audience is and how you can help them manage their assets should be plainly manifest. The messaging should be the same across all platforms.
If you’re able to effectively highlight your firm’s culture and quality of services with your online profiles, you’re actually developing a persona, which can humanize your company and help draw in potential investors.
Use Relevant Keywords And Phrases
To ensure that your firm and personal online profiles have a higher ranking on online search pages, use keywords that are important to your potential audience and make sure that your web copy is well built-out for this purpose. For example, if you specialize in retirement advice, make sure to pepper “retirement,” “Roth IRA” and other similar words strategically into your home page. Remember that high-quality web copy tends to appear much higher in search results. This allows you to be more accessible to potential investors and others in the financial community. Just be careful not to over-optimize—which essentially means you are flooding your website with search terms without any rhyme or reason. This can negatively affect your ranking.
Financial advisors that build out their digital reputation are in a better position to win greater allocations from the digitally conscious investor set. This becomes even more important when considering that we’re about to witness the greatest wealth transfer in history, from boomers to millennials. A recent report from NFP found that $30 trillion is expected to transfer—the vast majority within the next decade—so advisors need to figure out how to get a piece of that pie. Don’t let a quick Google search stand between you this next generation of investors.
Jackie Kolek is a partner and managing director at Peppercomm, a communications and public relations agency.