The studies are in, and the numbers don't lie; marketing
automation is a must-have for any financial advisor that aims to make the most
of their online marketing efforts.
Today's financial advisor is busy, and not every advisory
practice can afford a marketing department. Being able to remove one
professional hat is a great relief for many advisors, which is why marketing
automation should be the first place to look.
Automation is designed to streamline the marketing process
and provide a more hands-free experience. And, quite frankly, it's something
that every advisor should be taking advantage of in their day-to-day
operations.
Marketing automation frees up valuable time by allowing advisors
to focus more on nurturing prospects, make connections with new clients, and
following up with leads. From email campaigns to pop-up ads, financial advisors
can automate just about every aspect of marketing.
Consider this article a primer for advisors who are making
the shift to virtual advisory.
What Is Marketing Automation?
Put simply, marketing automation is the process of putting
various marketing tasks or efforts on an automated schedule or platform.
Rather than having to implement all marketing efforts
manually, advisors can now set schedules and deploy multiple tools to manage
and monitor all marketing efforts. This makes online marketing more
straightforward and more efficient than ever before.
Some old-school advisors worry that automation is destroying
the personal nature of business, but it's quite the opposite.
At least when it comes to marketing, a business that has an
automated strategy in place can dedicate more effort and time to creating a
personal connection with prospects and clients. In addition to marketing
efforts, automation can also be used to streamline and measure workflows to
increase the efficiency of the practice.
Scalable technology is growing in availability, offering
more solutions for advisors and practices who don't have a corporate budget or
marketing department.
Quick Stats: What Marketing Automation Tools Can Do
Marketing automation tools offer several benefits. The best
way to prove that, of course, is to look at the numbers. These statistics
(gathered by Invespcro) help make a case for the power of automation when it
comes to digital marketing:
• Those who use automation for any aspect of their business
are seeing conversion rates increase by as much as 50%.
• Marketing automation increases productivity in sales and
marketing by about 3-4% on average.
• 80% of automation users saw an increase in lead generation
numbers.
• Automation results in an average 12% reduction in the
overhead costs of marketing.
• 74% report the most significant benefit of automation to
be time saved.
• 86% of marketers choose automation tools that are easy to
use. Fortunately, there are dozens of those available.
Work Smarter, Not Harder With Automation
The bottom line is that marketing automation makes things
easier for advisors and their teams (which tend to be small). With so many
tools and resources available, it doesn't make sense to invest that much effort
in marketing if it isn't needed.
Automation tools are available for everything from email
campaigns to pop-up conversions and cart abandonment tools, giving every
advisor the things that it needs to automate the tedious work so that they can
focus on serving clients.
The internet is oversaturated with brands trying to stand
out among the competition. Because of this, many companies are working their
marketing teams to the bone, trying to get ahead and stay in a good spot, but
it is a never-ending battle.
By utilizing marketing automation tools and resources,
advisors will be able to keep up with the competition and save effort for other
areas where it may be needed. Marketing automation can handle things like:
• Landing Pages
• Email Marketing
• Lead Management
• Analytics
• CRM Integration
• Scoring/Predictions
•Social Marketing
While all of these tasks are being automated, people will be
able to focus their efforts on interacting with clients, generating leads, and
fostering solid relationships with existing and potential clients or customers.
The Top Automation Strategies To Implement Now
1. Dynamic Content: This content is also
"smart" or "adaptive" content, and this strategy involves
using content in ads, emails, or websites that change based on user behavior or
preferences, creating a fully customized experience for the user on the spot.
It's easy to do, and it is a demand of today's buyers, so it should be
implemented immediately.
2. Automate Team Collaborations: The majority of
business failures are the result of a lack of collaboration or communication.
Avoid this entirely by implementing an automation tool that transmits
information in real-time and helps team members communicate to ensure that
everyone is on the same page. When the backend of things is automated, more
focus can be placed on the frontend, which is where it should be.
3. Setup Automated Nurturing: Not every prospect is
ready to become an immediate client. However, they may be prepared to learn
more information, download a lead magnet, or sign up for an email newsletter.
By putting automated nurturing tools in place, companies will be able to create
a variety of conversions along the sales funnel, based entirely on a specific
user's behavior. Financial advisors shouldn't push people into sales. Instead,
they are advised to use nurturing to show customers why they should stick with
their brand.
4. Use Email Sequencing For Follow-Up: Using
automated email responders, financial advisors can set up an email sequence
that follows up on leads who submit forms on a website or landing page.
Creating a sequence that nurtures the lead and invites them to explore more is
crucial, especially in a time when people are inundated by spam and junk
newsletters that aren't useful. A single dollar spent on email campaigns can
generate as much as $38 in returns, so it's important to do it right.
5. Automate List Segmentation: A lot of valuable
information can be farmed from leads. When financial advisors arm themselves
with the right information, it will be easy to create groups or segments, so
that they can be targeted with individual marketing efforts. Manual
segmentation is possible, but it is very time-consuming and can also result in
a lot of errors. Eliminate the human condition and increase the ease of
segmentation with automated email marketing tools.
6. Copy And Cheat: Okay, so financial advisors
shouldn't copy exactly or use things word-for-word, but they must study what
the competition is doing. The top performers in the industry will have all of
the best marketing automation strategies in place, and studying them can help
any marketer or business that wants to grow their brand and increase their
marketing reach without increasing their budget substantially.
7. Use Automation To Attract More Leads: There are a
variety of tools and techniques that fall under the marketing automation
umbrella that can help increase lead generation and conversion rates for a
variety of businesses. SEO, social sharing, guest blogging, and other resources
will help promote the brand better in more places, and using automated tools
means it won't take up any extra time or cost a significant amount of money.
8. Automate Keyword Research: As much as possible,
financial advisors should implement keyword tools and research platforms that
can regularly farm and stay updated on relative keywords and industry trends.
Unless there is a salary to pay someone to be dedicated to this task alone, it
is more affordable to automate things and trust the platform to provide the
right keywords for content across various mediums.
9. Automate Content Marketing: With tools like
HubSpot, financial advisors have access to content creation and optimization
tools, email marketing solutions, social media tools, and a full dashboard of
analytics. It makes it easier to track everything in one place and automate
content marketing so that businesses can focus their efforts elsewhere. The
all-in-one convenience of some tools is an ideal solution, but it's essential
to make sure they cover all the bases accordingly.
10. Don't Forget Analytics: Financial advisors can't
measure the success of any marketing efforts without analytics and metrics. Not
only are there cheap and free resources online to measure campaigns. They can
even be automated to ensure that reports are current and data stays fresh to
help with various marketing efforts. From data tracking and reporting to
developing goals from analytics, automated tools provide a variety of solutions
for monitoring all kinds of automated and manual marketing efforts.
How To Choose The Right Tools
Most marketing automation tools will offer some benefits to
almost every advisor. However, some are typically going to be more useful or
relevant than others.
Therefore, it's important to know what to look for and how
to align your advisory’s marketing goals with the available automation
resources to get the best results for the least amount of money and time
invested.
Other factors that should be included in choosing marketing
automation resources are things like:
• Is it a full-service automation platform? Financial
advisors don't necessarily have to choose this type of automation tool.
However, if they intend to automate multiple marketing elements, it could be
easier to have everything in one place. Check out the features included and see
what automation is offered before implementing any new marketing tools.
• Does the automation software include the resources that
are required? Although most will cover a variety of automated tasks, some limit
their offerings. Review the tools and resources out there to find the ones that
deliver precisely what is needed. Whether that is a full suite of automation
tools or a single email marketing automation service, it must provide the right
solution.
• Is it a one-time charge or a regular fee? Some automation
tools can be free to use with limited access. Others might have a one-time use
or purchase fee. Still others may have a monthly or semi-annual fee involved.
Cheap or free tools are always ideal, but they also may not have the features
needed. Avoid limiting your decision to cost alone, but make sure that it is included in the
comparison.
• Are there limits on the services or features offered? No
financial advisor wants to invest in what is believed to be the perfect
solution, just to learn it doesn't actually provide the full features that are
needed for the marketing efforts that are in place. Marketers and financial
advisors must read the fine print and make sure that they know what they are
getting to make the most out of their investment in marketing automation tools.
• Are the goals of the automation tool the same as the
business goals? For example, it wouldn't make sense to implement an email
campaign autoresponder if improvement in website signups is what is desired.
That would require automation of a pop-up campaign or another type of
conversion optimization, just for one example.
Putting It All Together
The numbers don't lie. Business owners and advisors using
marketing automation are seeing better statistics on user engagement,
conversions, sales, and other aspects of business operations. Even things like
productivity in the workplace are improving with the use of marketing
automation tools, creating a win-win situation for everyone involved.
Automation increases the return on investment and offers a
wide selection of solutions while removing the risk of human error at the same
time.
The focus on engagement and real-time interactions is
changing the way that people do business online. Because of that, more of their
time is required for nurturing relationships and working through the customer
lifecycle.
That's where automation for things like marketing can come
in handy. While it was initially only popular among B2B operations, today's B2C
industries are starting to adopt automation software because it offers an
engagement-focused approach to building and growing customer relationships.
Implement the strategies discussed here and find the right
automation tools to get more out of marketing efforts. Just remember to review the
options carefully and get the facts about different automation tools so that
the right one is implemented the first time.
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