While LinkedIn is often overlooked when it comes to social media, it is an essential part of business development. For both Business to Business and Business to Consumer marketing, LinkedIn gives incredible flexibility to help target your ideal client and increase brand awareness. As you get started, these tips will help you completely optimize your LinkedIn Business page and hit the ground running.

1. Create Your Company Page and Add Your Contact Info

If you don’t already have a company page, navigate to the LinkedIn Homepage and then click the “Work” icon at the top right of the navigation bar. This will pull up a full list of options for you to select from. Click the “Create a Company Page” at the very bottom to get started. Select the category that fits your company best, then add relevant information like your company name, website URL, industry, logo, and contact information.

2. Choose a Relevant Banner Image

The banner image is the first thing that someone sees when they navigate to your company profile, but many businesses neglect to take advantage of this prime real estate. I recommend uploading an eye-catching image relevant to your industry to start, but eventually, you should upgrade this to something more meaningful. Many companies hire a graphic designer to either create an image with their tagline, primary services, or relevant awards they have won. To stand out from the crowd, I encourage you to create a custom banner image when time and resources allow.

3. Encourage Your Employees to Link to Your Page

What sets LinkedIn apart from other social channels is the completely work-centric nature of your marketing. Encourage your employees to tag your company as their employer in their work experience section and share the new content that you post. In addition to keeping your employees engaged, it helps to increase the brand recognition of your company and bring new viewers to your page. People who are connected to your employees can engage with the posts they share, and then their networks can see this engagement as well. This creates larger audiences than most social media sites, which focus primarily on direct contacts.

4. Join Relevant Groups

Another unique aspect of LinkedIn are the professional networking groups that flourish there. These groups allow you to accurately target your ideal audience and share content that is relevant to them. Are you looking to work with Physicians over the age of 40 to help plan their retirement? Write a relevant article and share it in all the “Young Doctors” groups that you can find. Even outside of professions, you can find a plethora of groups for locations, interests, and developing skillsets. To learn the ropes of networking groups, add your University Information and join all the alumni groups that you can find to see what content is trending in each one. Additionally, sports fan pages and community groups are great for finding new contacts in your area!

As you expand your social media influence, LinkedIn should be an essential part of your marketing plan. Being able to target consumers by their job titles, interests, and locations makes it easy to deliver relevant content to your ideal clients. By optimizing your LinkedIn Business Page, you’re taking the first step towards a free marketing channel that can deliver excellent results using the content you’ve already planned out.

Now that our last blog post has helped you create your business Facebook page, you now ready to face the challenge of posting relevant content throughout the year. For many financial advisors, this can be a daunting task, these tips will help you maximize your social media marketing while minimizing your effort.

Schedule It Out

Like most financial services professionals, you likely center your life around the appointments in your calendar. To make social media marketing a priority, go through and schedule a few ten-minute appointments throughout your week to post new content, reply to comments, and see what strategies are working best for your page. This will help keep you accountable even as your schedule starts to fill up!

Share Your Own Content

One of the challenges that new social media marketers face is knowing what to post. Your priority should always be to advertise your own content. If you create a new page or add relevant information to your site, share it on Facebook with a short message (ideally under 150 characters). You should also be sharing all of your blog posts across social media sites, and it’s not a bad idea to reshare essential content a few months down the line to be sure everyone sees it.

Broaden Your Horizon

But what should you post when your company has no new content? This is one of the most challenging aspects of social media, and it requires taking time to think about your area of specialization and all that you deliver for your ideal client. Ideally you have created a branded system that includes sharing all that you bring to the table and address for your ideal clients.  From there, focus on those topic areas and take into account what your ideal prospects would want to see on their Facebook feed. Keep in mind that, while I recommend focusing on the areas that are your strong suits, you can also post other articles of interest that don’t have to be related to your field at all. Many companies will share local events or news that affects their target market to create a blend of their own content and other relevant articles. By widening the scope of your posts, you can find relevant and timely content to share every week.

Post That Holiday Cheer

An easy way to come up with content is to schedule it around the holidays in your calendar. Sending out season’s greetings to your clients and fans is an excellent way to broker goodwill and boost your number of posts every month. Don’t forget about the minor holidays as well! Valentine’s Day, Easter, Veteran’s Day, and even cultural events like the Super Bowl are worth posting about.

Images Are Essential

When people are scrolling through their feed, they are more likely to notice posts with a compelling image. Including a relevant stock photo or icon along with your posts will likely increase the attention it gets, so don’t forget to attach a pretty picture!

Be Patient

When working with social media, it takes time to organically grow your followers. By posting relevant and shareable content, you will slowly start to see new users liking your page. Overall, remember that this is a free avenue to share the values of your company, so it’s worth investing the time and effort to nurture this slow but steady growth.

As you begin your adventure into social media, these tips will help you maximize your impact and attract new fans to your page. Being consistent and dedicated in your posting is a critical step in creating a viable social media presence for your business!

Having a basic social media presence is essential in the modern world, as it will allow you to bring in new prospects while nurturing relationships with existing clients. Yet taking the first step into social media can be a daunting task for small businesses, especially those who have never used social media before. Fortunately, Facebook has made it easy to get your profile up and running, and these tips will ensure you optimize your presence from the start. Here is a step-by-step guide to get you started.

1. Create a Business Page

To get started on your company page, go to https://www.facebook.com/business and click on the blue arrow button in the top right corner. This will drop down to give you the option “Create a Page.” Click there and you will be directed to a new page that gives you two different options. Select “Business or Brand” by hitting the “get started” button in the left-hand box. Enter your business name in the Page Name, select a category, then add your address and phone number when prompted so future prospects can find you.

2. Add A Profile Picture and Cover Photo

A picture is worth a thousand words, and this is twice as true when working with social media. The visual display of your profile is essential to success, and you should ensure you’re making the best first impression.

For your profile picture, it’s usually best to upload a copy of your logo. Navigate to your new business page and click the blank white circle to upload a new profile photo. Keep in mind that this photo will display as a circular image, so you may need to add white space behind your photo in order to get it to fit without cutting off.

You should also upload a cover photo that showcases your services, your team, or your location. If you’re unsure of what to add here, look at the pages of similar businesses to get inspiration. Above all, pick an image that is welcoming and engaging.

3. Explore Your Options

Once you have your basic page built, Facebook will prompt you to do a walkthrough of their features. Use this tutorial to learn how to create posts, add details, and keep in touch with your followers.

4. Expand Your About Section

Click on your page’s “About” section and add in all of the relevant details. At minimum, add the link to your website, a brief description of your business and who you serve, and your contact info. This will help new users reach out to you if they’re interested in using your services.

5. Find Fans!

This is the long-term goal of your social media setup, and it requires patience and a few minutes of work every week. To start, use your personal Facebook Profile to share your new page so your friends and family can like your business. Encourage them to like and comment on your posts to boost your popularity at the start. You may also want to send an announcement to your clients or add a postscript to your emails asking them to like your business page. As your followers grow, your page will appear more popular and make it clear that you are a central part of your community. You should also add a link to your Facebook on your website and any other social media, and you may consider adding your Facebook URL to any business cards or promotional material in the future. This will continue to bring in new fans for your page!

Social media is an essential part of modern marketing and having a basic page in place allows prospects to get to know your business before they even reach out to you. As you continue to post and share stories on this page, you’ll create a new avenue to attract prospects and nurture relationships with your existing clients.

The new year is an ideal time to examine your marketing strategy, but you may decide to make even deeper changes to your company’s goals. By looking back at the successes and challenges of the past year, you may even decide to make a fundamental change. What prospects should you try to attract in 2019? Should you redefine your ideal client? Here are some factors you may want to consider as you evaluate your client base.

Envision the Future

Ultimately, being a financial advisor gives you the flexibility to pursue very specific goals. Every year, you should take time to imagine what your perfect future looks like on a large scale. Who are you helping? What functions and roles make you the happiest at this point in time? Will there be any planned changes to your life over the next few years that may affect your priorities? As you walk yourself through these questions, you may end up aligning your professional goals to match the personal.

Consider Your Current Crop of Clients

Look back at the interactions you had over the entirety of 2018. What clients were a delight to work with? What specializations and functions did you enjoy most? Reviewing your workload over the past year can guide your marketing efforts and help you decide what type of clients to target in the future. From there, you can create content to meet their needs and build a business that aligns with your values. Whether you are expanding your ideal market or looking at ways to hone it in, considering your favorite aspects of financial advising can help you take the next steps.

What if Certain Clients Don’t Align?

Inevitably in your career, you will find that some partnerships just don’t work out. Though this can put you in a tricky place as a financial advisor, you can create an easy transition for your clients that will still leave them with a positive impression of your services. If you determine that you need to transition out certain clients, provide them with various options and hold their hand through the transition. If you are passing them on to another team member, introduce the clients to their new advisor either by email or in person. Ideally, you can also create a smooth transition when moving them to another firm, though the client may have to be more involved in this case. Above all, be kind and courteous in thanking them for the opportunity, and mention that the new advisor will have more bandwidth to deliver excellent service.

As you evaluate your favorite aspects of financial advising, you may find yourself adjusting or refining your ideal client. Every year, you should review your personal highlights to determine what career path will deliver you personal fulfilment at work, and this will help guide your marketing strategy moving forward.

As the New Year rolls around, take the opportunity to evaluate your marketing from a bird’s eye view and plan out your strategy for the coming year. Here are some essential steps that you should take every January to bring in new clients and grow your business!

1. Develop Your Annual Marketing Strategy

With the new year comes a fresh start, and it’s the ideal time to sit down and create a comprehensive plan for both your content and strategy. Outline your key content for the year based on annual events throughout the year. If your firm helps clients organize for tax season, you’ll want a run of relevant content leading up to April, along with emails and social media pieces highlighting how you can help new clients with their taxes. If you work with families or trusts, you may want to write pieces about building generational wealth around the holidays. By scheduling out these pieces ahead of time, you’ll always know what to be working on down the pipeline, saving you the stress of last-minute rushing.

2. Plan Out Your Blog

One of the biggest challenges for financial advisors is sitting down consistently to write a blog. By planning your posting dates out in advance—and adding reminders to your calendar—you can ensure that you’re posting relevant content throughout the month. Ideally, you should be posting at least three to four times a month, but even a post or two is better than nothing when things get frantic. If you truly struggled with your blog posts last year, this also may be an ideal time to decide if you have money in the budget to hire a freelancer to take that work off your plate.

3. Branch Out!

The New Year is the perfect time to try new things, so take a look at what’s missing from your marketing plan. Are you being active on both LinkedIn and Facebook? Should you look for opportunities to give presentations in your community? Are you using email marketing to its full potential? Whatever’s missing, this is the perfect time to test out new ideas.

4. Block Out Time to Review Your Performance

You may have some appointments already blocked out for the year, but chances are, this is the emptiest your calendar will be in 2019. Do yourself a huge favor and block out a few hours every month to evaluate your marketing performance. Take this time to review your metrics, see what avenues are working best for your team, and decide what you should strive to improve the following month. It may be tempting to move this appointment as time goes on, but hold yourself accountable and be sure you are sitting down at least once a month to review your progress.

A New Year provides for an opportunity to evaluate your entire marketing strategy, and these tips will get you started on making 2019 your best year yet! By planning out your content, setting new goals, and taking the time to evaluate your progress, you’ll be on track to create a marketing plan that will help develop your business!

Millennials are sometimes overlooked by financial advisors, but they will soon be the largest demographic in the global workforce. It is essential to keep their preferences in mind when designing your website, so here are some tips to make them feel welcome.

State Things Simply, Because They’re Savvy!

Millennials are the first generation to grow up with a constant bombardment of advertisements, particularly on the web. As a result, they can be cynical and wary of “clickbait” sounding content. Especially when dealing with information like fees and expectations, you need to be upfront and to the point. Honesty is refreshing in a world of blatant consumerism, so try to be transparent in all of your content.

Offer a Future of Experiences

Surprisingly, millennials are more interested in experiences than things. While the older generations may have had a vision of success that included new cars, yachts, and vacation homes, millennials tend to skew towards authentic experiences, especially those in nature. Imagery of hiking, kayaking, and other outdoor adventures will feel more relatable than focusing on the typical hallmarks of success.

Keep it New (and Blue)

If you’re catering to millennials, you will face the additional challenge of keeping your website in line with existing trends. Most of the sites millennials frequent change their layout a few times a year. While you don’t have to be this extreme, it may be helpful to keep an eye on major sites like Facebook, Uber, and Amazon to see what web design trends are making the rounds. If these changes are easy to implement, you may want to hire a web designer to give your site a facelift.

As far as colors go, millennials prefer soft and “cool” colors. If you haven’t designed your site yet, you may want to go with a blue color pallet. This color has a calming effect, hence being used as the primary color throughout Silicon Valley and in startups around the world.

Be Inclusive

When millennials are searching for a financial advisor, they want to feel included and represented. Be sure that you are highlighting people of all races and backgrounds in your imagery so you don’t leave anyone out. It may even help to represent different family structures, too, or mention your connection to any diverse communities or organizations.

Conclusion

Designing your website to correspond to your target market is an easy way to make clients feel welcome, and it is essential when working with clients who are incredibly web-savvy! These tips will help your company prepare for the influx of millennial savers as they start to make strides in their financial life.

When designing your website, it is essential to keep your target market in mind. People judge your business based upon its design, their user experience, and the emotional impact of the imagery and messaging. When targeting an older clientele, these tips will ensure that they have the best possible experience on your website, encouraging them to place their trust in you.

Keep it Simple

As you explore the web, you’ll often see flashy animations or graphics on sites that cater to younger users. However, if your target market is pre-retirees or retirees, you’ll want to keep these to a minimum. If you decide to display scrolling images or text, leave plenty of time between changes. Keeping your design simple and steady will ensure an enjoyable experience for those who grew up before all these fancy images and videos.

Show Them Where to Click

One of the most frustrating elements of modern web design is trying to figure out where to go from each page. This can be easily solved by including direct language like “Click here for more information.” In addition, have your web designer include a color change when a user hovers over a link. This makes it clear that the link is clickable and easily guides the user through your site.

What’s on The Menu?

One of the best aspects of modern web design is a “sticky navigation bar.” This allows the bar to move down the screen with you as you scroll through a site. This is a huge benefit for older users as it allows them to return to the homepage (or move on to a different page) no matter where they are. In addition, you should organize your menu in a logical way so users can always find what they’re looking for.

Easy-to-Read and Straight to Their Need

When designing your site, be sure to work with large font sizes to limit strain on the eyes. Using different size headers to summarize each section is also essential, as it allows users to easily skip through your content to find the information they need.

Incorporate Images!

When people imagine their retirement, they may see themselves walking on a beach, lounging with a book, or playing with their grandkids. Including these engaging and hopeful pictures throughout your site gives the user something to dream about and encourages them to start planning for the future. When selecting images, be sure to include both active and relaxing pictures, and find models who actually look like your ideal client. This will help them feel more at home on your website!

Colors Are Key

Though most people select their website colors to match their logo, you also want to consider the psychological impact of your colors. Older people prefer warm color pallets that make them feel secure and optimistic. Use a gradient of your selected color to provide variation and keep your site aesthetically-pleasing!

When clients are searching for a financial advisor, they want to feel included and supported every step of the way. Designing your website to correspond to your target market is an easy way to make clients feel welcome, and it is all the more important when working with people who grew up before the rise of computers!

As you begin expanding your client list, the most difficult challenge you’ll face is to find prospects in your community. While the age of digital marketing makes it easier than ever to find prospects in your target market, geography is still an essential factor. After all, most clients won’t fly across the country to meet with their financial advisor! To help you find prospects near you, I’ve compiled a list of strategies that have a more localized impact, allowing you to find your ideal clients in your ideal place.

Strategy 1: Join Online Communities

Once you have your ideal client in mind, you should have a rough idea of where they “hang out” online. The younger generations prefer more anonymous sites like Reddit, Quora, and Twitter, while almost everyone has a Facebook and LinkedIn Account. Regardless of what social media site your ideal client prefers, they likely subscribe to community groups to keep up with local events and news. Joining these groups gives you the opportunity to share personal experiences and build a rapport with people in your city.

Strategy 2: Always Use Your Local Hashtags

If you’re already creating digital content, this is a simple way to ensure it’s seen by a local audience. Keep in mind that you may want to use several hashtags to cover all the surrounding neighborhoods and key landmarks. For example, a Bay Area post might include the following: #SanFrancisco #BayAreaLiving #SanJose #LaurelHeights #GoldenGatePark #USF #GoGiants

Strategy 3: Sponsor Community Events

Donating to local events allows you to support important causes for a bit of recognition. Most small theatres and sports teams welcome sponsorship in exchange for mentioning your business in brochures or social media posts. Is your niece performing in a local production of Cinderella? Ask if you can contribute and send over a small advertisement for publication in the playbook. Is your son a shortstop? Ask the Little League field if you can pay to hang an advertisement in the outfield. These little acts of goodwill make it clear that you’re giving to the community—and the community is more likely to give back.

Strategy 4: Get Super Specific with Online Ads

If you’re using online advertising, geographic specificity is going to make or break your budget. In addition to listing out your ideal client’s age range, job title, and essential keywords, ensure that you’re only showing advertisements to people within driving distance of your office. Social media sites even allow you to pick the exact zip codes you want to display to, so you’re not wasting your ad budget on people 200 miles away.

The internet has made it incredibly easy to market your business, but don’t waste your time and energy reaching out to everyone. These tips will help you focus your efforts on the prospects most likely to pop in for a consultation: your neighbors!