OPPORTUNITIES EVERY ADVISOR HAS IN ENHANCING THEIR DIGITAL FOOTPRINT

PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE

DIGITAL MARKETING

7

THE STATE OF

WHAT WE DISCOVERED FROM COACHING 500 ADVISORS ON IMPROVING THEIR DIGITAL BRAND

FOR FINANCIAL ADVISORS

2 PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS04 INTRODUCTION 06 OPPORTUNITY 1: RETHINK MODERN MARKETING

07 OPPORTUNITY 2: HARNESS THE POWER OF YOUR STORY

09 OPPORTUNITY 3: CAPITALIZE ON MARKETING RESOURCES

10 OPPORTUNITY 4: SIMPLIFY YOUR SEO STRATEGY

11 OPPORTUNITY 5: ALIGN YOUR DIGITAL EXPERIENCE WITH YOUR IDEAL CLIENTS

12 OPPORTUNITY 6: REINVENT YOUR WEBSITE

13 OPPORTUNITY 7: MONITOR YOUR DIGITAL METRICS

14 CONCLUSION

3PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE

Phone: (800) 514-9116

Email: info@peakadvisoralliance.com

Peak Advisor Alliance Headquarters13321 California St.Suite 100Omaha, NE 68154

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThe evolution of consumer behavior has presented a number of challenges for financial advisors, but none are more pressing

than the need to create a memorable impression and meaningful experience for those who engage with their firm. In a nutshell,

investor behavior has changed so rapidly the majority of advisors are wondering where they lost touch along the way.

Through our conversations, surveys, and long-standing relationships with over 1,000 financial advisors across the country, we’ve

taken this challenge to heart. Our profession is undergoing dramatic change and, with all of this movement, we see immense

potential and opportunity in how advisors re-invent themselves to stay relevant and connect with their clients in ways they haven’t

before. What we found as partners alongside them for the journey of building a digital presence was enlightening. With all the

diversity that exists in branding an advisory firm, we discovered advisors really aren’t as differentiated as they once thought.

7 OPPORTUNITIES IN MODERN MARKETINGIn fact, when it comes to building a modern marketing plan, we discovered the majority of advisors are all in the same position:

wondering how and where to begin. As with any major initiative in your office, the answer lies in having a specific purpose and

defined goals. The goal of this whitepaper is to help you design a compelling online experience that connects and converts. With

that in mind, we uncovered seven digital marketing opportunities every advisor should consider as our profession continues to

evolve in 2015 and beyond:

Opportunity 1: Rethink Modern MarketingOpportunity 2: Harness the Power of Your StoryOpportunity 3: Capitalize on Marketing Resources Opportunity 4: Simplify Your SEO StrategyOpportunity 5: Align Your Digital Experience with Your Ideal ClientsOpportunity 6: Reinvent Your WebsiteOpportunity 7: Monitor Your Digital Metrics

We’ve seen the proof! These opportunities not only differentiate firms from the rest but also give advisors the edge in an area of

the practice that promises to be a leading indicator of success: enhancing the client-advisor relationship. In a time when investors

have more options than ever before – and more businesses competing for their limited attention – designing a memorable digital

presence couldn’t be any more vital for future growth or any closer to the purest definition of “opportunity.”

7 Opportunities. 9 Tools. 1 Interactive Whitepaper.

4 PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE

THE STATE OF DIGITAL MARKETING FOR FINANCIAL ADVISORS

7 Opportunities Every Advisor Has In Enhancing Their Digital Footprint

What We Discovered from Coaching 500 Advisors on Improving Their Digital Brand

he high net-worth investor of 2015 is an

intriguing prospect. They are more connected

to their devices (91 percent of adults have a

smartphone within arm’s reach 24/7 according

to Morgan Stanley), more interactive with their peers (social

media is now the top Internet activity), and more opinionated

(46 percent feel they can be brutally honest online according

to a study by Harris Poll) than ever. They have shorter attention

spans, expect on-demand service, and see convenience in

everything they do as the new standard. This evolution of

consumer behavior has presented a number of challenges for

financial advisors as they try to create a memorable impression

and meaningful experience for those who engage with their

firm. In a nutshell, investor behavior has changed, but the

majority of advisors haven’t.

According to a 2014 study done by DigitalFA, two-thirds of

millionaires said they would like to use electronic media

with their advisor. In regards to social media, LinkedIn has

become the leading source for investors who seek financial

information. According to LinkedIn’s recent research, there

are approximately 5 million affluent investors ($100,000+ in

investable assets) using their social network, 73 percent of

which use it specifically for researching investment decisions.

Yet, with this increasing percentage of interest from investors,

less than 5 percent are actively being engaged by a financial

Tadvisor. If that alone doesn’t set the stage for the amount of

untapped opportunity, consider the fact nearly 70 percent of

consumers now learn about a company through online content

versus ads, and 93 percent of digital experiences begin with a

search online.

Combine some of these hard numbers with the resounding

qualitative feedback we’ve been collecting from our universe

of more than 1,000 advisors over the past two years and

you’ll soon realize the immense potential our profession has

in connecting with investors. Peak Advisor Alliance has taken

“Investor behavior has changed, but the majority of advisors haven’t.”

5PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE

an innovative leap into this territory

because we understand these pressing

challenges perhaps more than any

other content and coaching program

in our space. The need to build a magnetic digital presence that tells a compelling story couldn’t be more of an advantage during an era of diminishing attention spans. In fact, we felt so strongly about

the changing landscape, we designed

a command center that can fuse the

practice management content needed

in any advisory practice with a new

platform that allows advisors to manage

their entire digital presence from one

place. Along with this initiative, we spoke

with hundreds of advisors, helped rethink

how they leveraged their digital brand,

and provided direction on how to move

forward.

What we found as partners alongside

them for the journey was astonishing.

Building a modern marketing plan

is deceivingly complicated without

asking the right questions first. There

are countless channels and avenues to

consider and even more confusion on

how to appropriately target ideal clients.

The preparation and thoughtfulness that

goes into developing a digital marketing

plan is directly related to the success an

advisory firm experiences in executing

the strategy itself. As the old saying goes,

failing to plan is planning to fail. It all

begins with having a defined purpose

and designing online experiences with

investors that connect and convert.

As a consulting firm that always keeps

a pulse on the biggest opportunities

and challenges advisors face, something

became extremely apparent in our

research: with all the chatter around

crafting a modern marketing plan,

advisors have nowhere to turn for

guidance or direction on where to point

“Building a modern marketing plan is deceivingly complicated without asking the right questions first”

their focus. So, here are the seven biggest digital marketing opportunities we see as

our profession continues to evolve in 2015 and beyond:

1. Rethink Modern Marketing2. Harness the Power of Your Story3. Capitalize on Marketing Resources4. Simplify Your SEO Strategy5. Align Your Digital Experience with Your Ideal Clients6. Reinvent Your Website7. Monitor Your Digital Metrics

6 PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE

With higher demands from investors on immediacy and

convenience, advisors have yet to tap into the power of an

integrated marketing plan. By incorporating several touch

points and linking the various channels your clients use to

interact with your firm, you can begin to understand how each

avenue contributes to the big picture. But, before we get to the

big picture it’s important to share some of the misconceptions

advisors have when using digital channels to execute their

modern marketing plan.

MISCONCEPTIONS IN SOCIAL MEDIAThe first misconception relates to social media. Not only did

we find advisors seldom understood the functional difference

between a personal and company social profile, but also that

they didn’t realize how these social channels affected the

overall experience of their online brand. For example, in several

of our personal consultations, many had an epiphany when they

realized their social profiles could also serve the alternative

purpose of driving traffic to their website. Traffic that wouldn’t

have otherwise been generated through a search engine

because of how consumer preferences have changed. Social

media remains an untapped resource. And, not because advisors

haven’t adopted this medium; rather, because they don’t yet

realize the full potential it has in the grand scheme of building

an online presence. Adjusting to this mentality couldn’t be more

beneficial or timely. In our annual Advisor Insights study, “social

media” was chosen by advisors as the biggest opportunity for

RETHINK MODERN MARKETING1

OPPORTUNITIES TO ENHANCE YOUR DIGITAL FOOTPRINT7

THETOP

growth in digital marketing followed by “content marketing” and

“video marketing.”

MISCONCEPTIONS IN VIDEO MARKETINGThis brings us to another misunderstood arm of an advisor’s

digital marketing strategy – video. Again, not because advisors

didn’t see the appeal, but because they didn’t grasp the full

flexibility and fluidity of how a single video could be used in

a variety of channels and for a number of purposes. Produce a

video for your website, announce it on your Facebook company

page, embed it on other partner sites via YouTube, play it at the

beginning of your next open house for clients, and showcase

it in your next email newsletter to prospects. These are five

ways to maximize the same video, and it only took a second to

brainstorm.

The engagement you receive from a simple video blows any

other method of communication out of the water. Visual

“Social media and video marketing tend to be two of the most misunderstood digital avenues advisors utilize when developing a multi-channel marketing plan.”

7PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE

CONVERT – Define the compelling value you offer to entice

them to want more.

ENGAGE – Develop a strategy around how your clients are

treated once they move forward with your firm. Do you have

a communication plan in place? Are you periodically gauging

them to exceed expectations? And, are you coaching them on

how to bring you referrals?

Get a better visual of what an “integrated” marketing plan looks

like by downloading our Modern Marketing Plan Sample below.

Download Our Modern Marketing Plan Sample Here

2

information is processed by the brain 60,000 times faster than

text, according to research compiled by 3M. Or, as Dr. James

McQuivey from Forrester Research explains, it’s like comparing

the value of 1.8 million words to a one-minute video! With that

sort of effectiveness, it’s easy to understand why those who

watch video on a website are reported to stay twice as long,

looking through twice as many pages. It’s also why YouTube has

become the second largest search engine in the world.

We retain 80 percent of what we see, 20 percent of what

we read, and only 10 percent of what we hear. Combine all

those human senses into one experience, and you’ll find

video marketing has the potential to change the way clients

and prospects interact with your firm. According to data from

Syndacast, videos will be responsible for 74 percent of all

internet traffic by 2017. With that outlook, there’s no better time

than now for advisors to engage investors and create a lasting

impression by leveraging video. Here are a few things you can

do to raise your marketing IQ (Implementation Quotient).

RAISE YOUR IQ: SCRIPT YOUR NEXT VIDEOTake the first step to producing a video of your own by writing

out a script. Defining the purpose and message of your video is

the most important piece of the process, and it doesn’t cost you

a thing. Use the exercises below and consider partnering with

experts who can take you the rest of the way (like the Peak

Advisor Alliance production team).

Download Our Video Scripting Exercise Here

Download a Sample Script for an Explainer Video Here

RAISE YOUR IQ: CRAFT YOUR MODERN MARKETING PLANVideo and social media are just two of the countless extensions

advisors need to leverage in order to assemble an integrated

modern marketing plan. Building a consistent experience across

all mediums is what investors have come to expect. Your role is

to ensure those experiences and touch points work together to

create a memorable brand.

To help you outline the main components of any marketing

plan, start with the RACE method:

REACH – Determine the preferred channels of communication

your clients and prospects expect. Ask yourself where they

spend the majority of their time online.

ACQUIRE – Brainstorm how easily they can engage with you

through these channels and tell them what to do next to

continue the conversation.

“Building a consistent experience across all mediums is what investors have come to expect. Your role is to ensure those experiences and touch points work together to create a memorable brand.”

HARNESS THE POWER OF YOUR STORY

We live in a time where companies are seeing new potential

in creating business plans and annual growth goals centered

around one currency: consumer attention. But, attention has

grown increasingly difficult to capture. People are becoming

more comfortable interacting with media than they are with

each other, which poses an interesting challenge for advisors.

With so much content to consume and a never-ending choice

of platforms and devices to leverage, how do financial advisors

grab the attention of their ideal clients and, more importantly,

keep that attention by standing out from the rest?

The first part of the answer starts with a little bit of good news

about human nature. We, as humans, are wired to empathize

and emotionally connect with each other. We’re simply doing it

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by using the technology in front of us every day. And, because

this urge to communicate is built into our DNA, we search

for solutions to our problems with both logic and emotion.

The second part of the answer has to do with how advisors

use emotion to connect with clients and prospects. The most

revealing opportunity we found in our research over the past

two years was the absence of storytelling.

WHY DO BUSINESS WITH YOU?Storytelling is an art and a science, but both can be mastered

by starting with your why. Nearly every advisor we worked

with over the past two years didn’t have the answer to this

question weaved into the fabric of their online presence. Every

advisor, every team, every practice has a story to tell. In fact,

it’s probably something you share with people more than you

realize but that same compelling story is not bleeding into

your digital channels. The advisor who infuses emotion into

his or her story – and explains why they do what they do in all

sectors of their marketing – has the best chance to grab the

attention of that prospect on their website, that client at their

educational event, or that referral who hasn’t even considered

your firm before.

When crafting your story, think about how your audience will

consume the message on a digital device. Just because you

have an old brochure with this type of verbiage doesn’t mean

you should turn a blind eye to refreshing it. Cut down on the

amount of text if more than 600 words or produce a profile

video (around 3 minutes in length) to make your story more

engaging.

RAISE YOUR IQ: TELL YOUR STORYTake the first step in telling your story by showcasing it on

your website. Add a page and title it “Why Do Business with

Us”, “Why Us”, or even “Our Story.” Prominently display this

messaging in a dedicated space that will allow you to explain

how your story drives your firm’s mission.

RAISE YOUR IQ: KNOW YOUR IDEAL CLIENTAs the world gives consumers more and more options – and

puts more of the purchasing power in their hands – they

become harder to convince. Your clients and prospects have

this insatiable appetite to want to know your purpose.

• Why did you become an advisor? • What is your guiding light in running your business? • What meaningful purpose do you have that can speak to

me? • What can I do with this advisor that I couldn’t do before?• How does my advisor make me feel? How do I want to

feel?• How does my advisor and their team become an extension

of me?• What brings us together and keeps me coming back to

them? • What can we do together that I can’t do without my

advisor?

Answer these questions and you’ll see why storytelling is a

huge differentiator.

Download Our Helpful Exercise to Discover How You Can Use

Emotion to Tell Your Story

“The most revealing opportunity we found in our research over the past two years was the absence of storytelling.”

9PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE

By now, you’re probably looking at the first two opportunities

and wondering where you’re going to find the time to tackle the

other five opportunities we’ve yet to cover. Not to fear, our third

opportunity is here to help!

No matter the size of your firm, where your practice is located,

or who you serve as clients, digital disruption is sure to follow.

It’s an inescapable reality that has convinced leading advisors

to invest in marketing resources that specialize in digitizing

their brand. Advisory practices of every size are beginning to

understand how valuable digital marketing is to the future

vitality of their company, whether that means hiring talent,

investing capital in technology, or both. Those who can’t

shell out the money for a full-time specialist are finding

cost-effective ways to collaborate with agencies, freelancers,

and modern marketing services (like Digital Fortress™) that

can easily manage their entire online brand, from building a

dynamic website and creating blog content to social media

strategy.

This opportunity may seem like an elementary observation, but

what we’ve found in working with our advisors is it’s also the

biggest stumbling block as they begin to establish any sort of

digital presence. Those who dedicate a person responsible for

the oversight, direction, and day-to-day management of the

firm’s digital presence – or implement the technology to help

them do it themselves – hold a distinct advantage in both the

speed and quality with which they re-invent their online brand.

The other unrealized advantage this opportunity provides is

saving the advisor time from wearing yet another hat in the

company. For smaller firms or one-man shops, investing in a

full-time marketing associate (which could range anywhere

from $35,000 - $65,000 a year depending on your location

according to GlassDoor and Salary.com) may be an option

but, chances are, it makes more sense to invest that capital in

marketing technology that ends up being more cost-effective,

can streamline communication, automate marketing processes

(like email campaigns), and refresh website content. Prioritizing

this investment over human capital will also give you a solid

foundation to build on if you do decide to hire that person in

the future. Growing a digital presence takes time, energy, and

effort so choosing the right solution will be the difference

between saving you time and pulling your hair out. Advisors

who have team members to draw from can also explore

delegating marketing responsibilities. Expanding their role in

the firm may inspire growth and allow you to capture their

discretionary effort without taking on an additional new hire’s

salary.

Our recent research with efficiency expert Dr. David Lawrence

exposed just how inefficient advisors are with using divergent

solutions, especially as it relates to managing their digital

presence. Advisors invest up to three times as much in both the

hard dollar costs for the initial set-up of their digital channels

and the soft dollar costs (people) in maintaining their online

brand. Because the soft dollars of any practice are hidden in the

firm’s existing expenses (employee wages, etc.), it’s not readily

seen as an impact. However, where it is felt is in the reduction

of time available for other tasks.

Click here to see the hard dollar and soft dollar comparison.

We at Peak Advisor Alliance have seen this efficiency problem in

every area of an advisor’s practice. Just this year, we collaborated

with eMoney’s new emX Select™ platform and built a

single-sign-on function with Digital Fortress so advisors didn’t

have to leave their financial planning software to get to our

digital marketing platform. Whatever the case, the message is

clear: advisory firms of all shapes and sizes need to invest in

technology and the people behind it. It really just comes down

to how. Does it mean hiring a marketing expert, adopting a

digital marketing platform, delegating additional responsibility

to other team members, or a combination of both? Here are a

few tips to help decide what’s right for you:

RAISE YOUR IQ: HIRE TALENT, ADOPT TECHNOLOGY, OR BOTHIf you want to take the first step toward capitalizing on this

opportunity, you must start with considering several factors,

including your current resources, goals, expectations of

marketing, and competitive landscape. Clarifying these areas

will help you understand what type of skills you need for the

new marketing role.

For those in larger firms who have the luxury of delegating this

responsibility to current team members (or hiring for a new

position), it’s time you assign the work. Understand hiring talent

or assigning this role to a current team member is only the

beginning. Possessing the knowledge and skill is an absolute

necessity, but your dedicated people must also have the

necessary tools at their disposal to execute a

3 CAPITALIZE ON MARKETING RESOURCES

10 PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE

modern marketing plan. Partner with a firm that can help your

marketing associate oversee and execute your new web design,

your refreshed messaging, and even your social media strategy.

Leveraging tools like marketing automation, content delivery

systems, and design software is crucial for your marketing

associate to maximize their time, efficiency, and output. Invest

in talent, equip them with the appropriate tools, and they’ll

soon become the linchpin to your success.

Download Our Exercise to See if You Need a Marketing

Generalist or Specialist

Advisors who want to consider a more cost-effective option

in the short-term should consider starting with technology.

Surprisingly enough, marketing platforms can almost serve

as an interim employee in terms of the automation available.

According to Gartner’s Digital Marketing Spend Report, 40

percent of small businesses reported seeing considerable

increases in new clients and time savings from digital

marketing technology. Think of it this way: your platform is

your Marketing Manager, your website is your sales person,

and your email automation system is your communication

plan. You will need to invest some time up-front but, if used

correctly, marketing technology (like Digital Fortress™ and

other options) can end up catapulting your firm’s growth and

increase your brand visibility.

Take our Digital Marketing Assessment to See What Areas You

Need to Invest In

Speaking of brand visibility, search engine optimization is

often over-hyped and sold as the proverbial weight loss pill

that sheds the pounds without ever leaving the couch. When,

in reality, exercise (good content, refreshed design, a powerful

story, and integrated strategy) is much more effective. Yet, when

surveying and consulting with hundreds of advisors over the

past two years, many fall into the trap of throwing loads of

time and money at something they don’t fully understand.

When we ask advisors what they’re looking to improve in their

digital marketing strategy, the number one response we hear

is SEO. And, for good reason. Ninety-three percent of digital

experiences now begin with a search online. Combine this

with the fact Google considers more than 200 factors in each

search query and 1 in 5 searches have never been done before

(according to Jon Mitchell of ReadWrite), and you’ll soon realize

how hard it can be to hit a moving target.

But, before your brain overloads trying to decipher Google’s

algorithms, think about why you want to improve this area of

your digital marketing in the first place. For advisors, this really

comes down to answering two simple questions:

How are clients and prospects finding us online?What are they looking for once they arrive?

4 SIMPLIFY YOUR SEO STRATEGY

“Search engine optimization is often over-hyped and sold as the proverbial weight loss pill that sheds the pounds without ever leaving the couch.”

11PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE

RAISE YOUR IQ: 5 TIPS TO BOOST YOUR ONLINE PROFILEAs complex as SEO may appear, most advisors can start by

boosting their online profile with a few fundamental actions:

Upgrade your local visibility by registering your

website with Google My Business, Yahoo!, and Bing. With

Google’s latest Pigeon update, small businesses now have

the ability to compete locally with larger firms because of

the greater emphasis on the location of the user. Having a

registered business website with a published location just

gives you that much more local visibility, website traffic, and

online conversions.

Incorporate keywords on each page of your site.

Choose a primary focus (describing your ideal client, talking

about your experienced team, etc.) for each page to help

simplify your message.

Create relevant, valuable content (as well as an

editorial calendar) to attract your ideal clients. The more traffic

you organically generate – because people are trained to come

to your site for information – the more visible you are in the

eyes of Google’s algorithm.

Develop a process for refreshing your website. Search

is all about getting users the most recent information; if

Google sees your site as constantly adapting to your audience,

it will regard you as a more credible source.

Get social! Establishing social media networks and

publishing content regularly will only increase your credibility,

both with your target audience and with search engines. Use

LinkedIn’s posting feature to publish engaging content with an

audience hungry for financial information.

A simple way to summarize building your SEO strategy is to

think of it in the form of an equation:

A+B+C=SEOActivity (the frequency in which you update/add relevant

content)

Backlinks (the number of quality referral sites that drive traffic

back to your website)

Content (the substance and value you provide to your target

audience)

Perfect these three areas of your digital presence and the

majority of your SEO strategy is already in place.

Creating a viable digital presence involves many components,

but all are optimized with one person in mind: your ideal

client. The Internet of Things has become the Internet of Me.

Growing a business is all about how you make your clients’

lives easier, more productive, and, while you’re at it, more fun.

So, what does this mean for advisors looking to replicate their

A+ clients? Everything!

For example, we speak with advisors every day who feel their

middle-age clients don’t spend any time on social media. Yet,

research tells us a different story. According to Finect and

The DigitalFA, 68 percent of online U.S. adults that own an

investment account have a profile on at least one social media

network. And, even more surprisingly, 90 percent of affluent

consumers (those who have between $100K-$1M in investable

assets) now use social media. If that doesn’t tell you of the

amazing opportunity in front of you, this will: 63 percent of

these mass affluent will take action after using social media

to learn about financial services. Look at the opportunity the

majority of this profession is missing because of not taking

the time to know where ideal clients are spending their time

online.

Despite these figures, the vast majority of advisors still

assume marketing only comes in the form of a print ad, a TV

commercial, or a piece of direct mail. It’s time to re-imagine

the way you promote your firm and deliver value. Start by

asking yourself some tough questions:

• What specifically have we been hearing from current clients about what they like or dislike about their experience with us?

• What makes us memorable to our prospects before they become clients?

• Where are we delivering value beyond a doubt?• What channels are prospects using to learn about

us?• What avenues are most helpful to our clients when

they need something?

5ALIGN YOUR DIGITAL EXPERIENCES WITH YOUR IDEAL CLIENT

12 PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE

Answering these questions is key to delivering a consistent

and continuous experience across all platforms, devices, and

locations. Don’t be afraid to go a level deeper and put yourself

in your clients’ shoes. Our research has told us this is an area

many advisors feel competent in but haven’t translated the

message to their digital presence. The better you understand

your business and the role it plays in the lives of those

you wish to serve, the more equipped you’ll be to market

your services. A recent Edelman BrandShare study revealed

87 percent of respondents around the world say they want

“meaningful relationships” with brands, yet only 66 percent say

brands don’t share with them at all and 70 percent say that

when they do, it’s only due to “a self-centered desire to increase

profits.” With that much skepticism and negativity around the

current status of relationships between businesses and their

customers, there couldn’t be a better time to make this a focus,

especially as a financial advisor whose profession is designed

to get into the fabric of their clients’ lives. Spelling out exactly

who you work best with on your website and describing the

value they’ll receive closes this relationship gap between

feeling connected to a company and completely anonymous.

RAISE YOUR IQ: SEGMENT YOUR CLIENTS AND DEVELOP PERSONASTake the first step in aligning your digital content to your

ideal audience and segment your clients. Working through

this exercise will allow you to create targeted content and

messaging that appeals to each group. It will also give you

clarity regarding those who aren’t ideal. Once this is done,

you will have a more specific idea of the needs and interests

of each group. Having this detailed background information,

demographic data, and qualitative insight then allows you

to build a fictional, generalized representation of your ideal

clients or, as the marketing world calls them, personas.

Download our client segmentation spreadsheet below to get

you on the right track to segmenting your clients, scoring each

individual on their value to the firm, and developing more

personalized marketing.

Download Our Client Segmentation Spreadsheet Here

With the advent of inbound marketing, websites have been

reinvented. Gone are the days of using your website as an

online version of your print brochure. Ask any advisor when

they last updated their site, and they’ll tell you “we just did

that recently.” After probing a little more you find out “recently”

really means two years ago. In fact our recent Advisor Insights

study confirmed this notion by revealing one in four advisors

haven’t touched their website in more than two years! That’s

where this opportunity begins: with advisors changing their

perception from websites being a project with a beginning

and end to websites as a living, breathing extension of brand.

Gone are the days when one year, much less two, is considered

“recent.” We live in an on-demand culture where immediate

gratification rules and websites are as fluid and changing as

we are. The majority of consumers now go to the web in any

stage throughout the client lifecycle (awareness, consideration,

adoption) making it all the more important to rethink the role

of your website.

Evidence is showing up in nearly every industry study about

the overwhelming amount of financial advisors who don’t fully

tap into the potential of their website as a marketing tool.

According to the InvestmentNews 2014 Financial Performance

Study, a firm’s “website” was chosen by far (65 percent) as the

most successful marketing tool. However, despite this fact,

only 4 in 10 firms report having websites that are optimized

(mobile, content, etc.). In our research, we’re seeing even

more surprising stats. Only 10 percent of advisors in our

2015 Advisor Insights Study report using their website as the

marketing tool of choice when interacting with clients and

prospects.

These numbers have our attention for one reason: advisors

don’t understand the full potential of their company website.

If you think your 18-month-old website is doing the trick, you

may be in for a rude awakening.

RAISE YOUR IQ: BRAINSTORM YOUR WEBSITE’S NEW PURPOSE AS LEAD GENERATOR, EDUCATOR, AND CLOSER For those who see the opportunity to transform the purpose

of their website for the overall goal of bottom-line growth, we

“This opportunity begins with advisors changing their perception from websites being a project with a beginning and end to websites as a living, breathing extension of their brand. ”

6REINVENT YOUR WEBSITE

13PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE

have good news. We’ve discovered the biggest reason advisors

want to enhance their site is lead generation. When committed

to revamping your digital presence, it all starts with the central

hub of your website and how you can drive more clicks, page

views, downloads, and new clients.

Don’t get bedazzled by design. Instead, focus first on the

functionality. The reason advisors aren’t passionate about

re-purposing their website is because they don’t see the

benefits of going through all that time and effort. Rest assured,

it’s absolutely worth your while to maintain your relevance

with prospects. Schedule time with your team to sit down and

brainstorm the new vision of your website.

Download our Website Brainstorm Meeting Agenda (click here

and enter the code “brainstorm”) to guide your conversation.

Think about how to weave call-to-actions (CTAs), engaging

content, and ease of use into your site, and you’ll see why

functionality is trumping design just as showcasing immediate

value is trumping the old sales pitch.

If there’s one area of digital marketing most advisors never even

consider, it’s the task of monitoring the effectiveness of your

website, your content, and your social profiles. Within our own

universe of building hundreds of websites for advisors, we’ve

seen this first-hand. Advisors get so consumed with the initial

build of a website, they forget the responsibility they inherit

after the site goes live. And, it’s not just website statistics.

Measuring the effectiveness of your content plays a huge role

in how you design an engaging client experience that lives

up to your brand’s promise. This is the moment – the ongoing

management of your online presence – where leading advisors

separate themselves from the pack.

To understand the importance of continuously monitoring

your site traffic and the quality of your content, you must first

know what checking the temperature gauge of your marketing

strategy can tell you. Consider the fact that according to CEB,

the world’s leading member-based advisory company for

business performance, 57 percent of your prospect’s purchase

decision is already complete before they even contact you for

the first time. Or that 90 percent of the website traffic you

get today stays anonymous forever because you don’t have an

engagement path laid out for your visitors to follow. Exploring

these numbers alone should open your eyes to just how much

consumer behavior has changed in the last few years. Look for

trends in how your clients and prospects behave. What do they

seem to enjoy reading on your blog? What devices are they

using most often to access your website and social profiles? Is

there an action you want your audience to take on your website

but no one is acting? How are you showing up in search

engines and are people finding you?

“Don’t get bedazzled by design. Instead, focus first on the functionality.”

7MONITOR YOURDIGITAL METRICS

“Advisors get so consumed with the initial build of a website, they forget the responsibility they inherit after the site goes live.”

14 PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE

The point to answering these questions is to know what you’re

looking for out of a digital marketing plan. You can chase

a bunch of meaningless statistics all day long but, if those

numbers aren’t telling you anything (tied to your goals), then

you’ve just wasted a bunch of your time number crunching.

Advisors come to us frustrated all the time because they aren’t

showing up in the first page of Google or their website page

views are not increasing. What they soon realize is they were

missing pieces of data to help tell the entire story. And, because

of it, they couldn’t extract the meaning behind the data.

Develop a system for monitoring metrics and then meet as a

team to determine what the numbers are really telling you.

Chances are your resolution will fall into one of a few areas:

• Adjustments to your content strategy (because it’s missing your audience or it isn’t valuable)

• Changes to your website design/structure/navigation (because visitors are getting lost, not engaging, and bouncing out)

• Adding specific call-to-actions that lead the visitor from one step to another (because you see website traffic but no leads to show for it)

RAISE YOUR IQ: MANAGE YOUR METRICSTackling analytics is actually quite simple if you know where to

begin. Set up your own Google Analytics account and use this

free platform to begin monitoring web traffic immediately so

you have the ability to draw insights from the data presented

and, more importantly, have the proactive information you need

to continually enhance your client experience. The amount

of data available in Google Analytics is vast but, if you have

a focused plan with SMAC-certified (Specific, Measurable,

Achievable, Compatible) goals, you’ll know exactly what do with

it.

Download Our Guide to Set Up Google Analytics Here

SEVEN OPPORTUNITIES. ONE GOAL. At Peak Advisor Alliance, we’re always looking at leading

and lagging indicators of success for advisors. One of the

reasons we’ve gone into so much depth in the realm of digital

marketing throughout this piece is because one leading

indicator has become extremely evident in the research we’ve

conducted and the relationships we have with more than 1,000

elite advisors:

“Establishing a stellar client experience that delivers value beyond a doubt will become the primary differentiator for advisors over the next decade.”Establishing a stellar client experience that delivers value

beyond a doubt will become the primary differentiator for

advisors over the next decade.

According to Gartner’s recent marketing study, in just a few

years 89 percent of businesses will compete mainly on

customer experience. By 2020, some predict the customer

will manage 85 percent of their relationship with a business

without interacting with a human, making the customer

experience the winner over price and product as the key

brand differentiator. Firms without a digital strategy in place

will face a growing struggle as investor expectations rise

and technology continues to play a larger role in the lives of

every person you serve. The threat of losing new and existing

business because of your online presence (or lack thereof) has

become a very real one. And, advisors know it. Our 2015 Advisor

Insights study revealed more than 78 percent of advisor

respondents feel they either “needed immediate help” or

“additional guidance and resources” when it comes to building

an effective digital marketing plan. This shouldn’t come as a

surprise considering 64 percent of those who took our survey

don’t currently have a formal marketing plan in place. Look

behind these numbers and it isn’t hard to conclude that those

who can successfully combine a mixture of technology with

human touch will be the ones who gain the competitive edge

in the future.

It’s a very noisy world out there. Investors have more options

than ever before (yes, including robo-advisors) while businesses

compete on a higher level to capture the valuable attention of

those they target. Whether it’s a new referral meeting you for

the first time or a client who’s been with your firm for 20 years,

“The threat of losing new and existing business because of your online presence (or lack there of ) has become a very real one.”

15PEAK ADVISOR ALLIANCE

“Those who can successfully combine a mixture of technology with human touch will be the ones who gain the competitive edge in the future.”

people are looking for something unique. They’re looking for

personal connection to your firm and an exceptional experience

that reinforces why they chose you.

Take a second look at these seven opportunities with this new

lens, and you’ll notice a theme that permeates into every area:

redefining how clients and prospects build a relationship with

you as their financial advisor. These are the interactions that

will keep your clients coming back and the avenues that will

allow you to compete in future.

We felt compelled to share these findings because of who we

are as a coaching and consulting firm. Our goal is to provide

guidance when advisors are directionless and motivate advisors

when they lack the inspiration to act. Hopefully, this insight

provided both.

NEED A COMPLETE DIGITAL MARKETING MAKEOVER? TAKE THE FIRST STEPIf you’d like to assess your current digital marketing efforts

to see where you stand – and where there is room for

improvement, we’d be glad to schedule a personal one-on-one

consultation with you and one of our experts to discuss your

score and work with you on how you can improve in all of the

seven opportunities mentioned.

Take our Digital Marketing Assessment to See What Areas You

Need to Invest In

www.PeakAdvisorAlliance.comPhone: (800) 514-9116Email: info@peakadvisoralliance.com

Peak Advisor Alliance Headquarters13321 California St.Suite 100Omaha, NE 68154