Are These 5 Marketing Services Draining Your Budget Dry?
Marketing for financial advisors can be frustrating because no one really tells you what works and what doesn’t. When I talk to advisors who are investing heavily in their marketing and not seeing results, I often find out they’re paying exorbitant prices for certain services. We’re talking:
- $3,950 a year on their website
- $800 a month on SEO
- $2,000 a month on radio ads
- $6,000 per event for dinner seminars
- $25,000 on webinar marketing
Sound familiar?
The truth is, it’s absolutely unnecessary to spend this much money on these tactics. Yes, some of these are essential for growing your business. You need a website. You need SEO. But you shouldn’t pay over $10,000 a year for these services. You can spend less money and still reach your ideal client.
Let’s talk about why these five marketing tactics aren’t worth the high price tag (and what you can do instead).
1. Website
The average advisor spends almost $4,000 a year on their website and doesn’t think twice about it. They chalk it up as “the price of doing business” and move on about their day.
One industry-specific company that’s quite popular with financial advisors charges anywhere from $179 to $695 a month for website creation and maintenance. That’s $2,148 to $8,340 a year just for a website! Crazy, right?
I promise you don’t have to pay this much for a secure, mobile-responsive website that grabs your prospects’ attention. In fact, we’ve found that spending extra time and money on your website has diminishing returns. As long as it looks good and functions well, you’ll see results.
How To Save Money On Your Website
We did a case study a while back where one advisor was paying $240 a month on his website. He came to Indigo and we were able to upgrade his website AND save him over $2,500 a year on fees.
How? WordPress. It’s the #1 website platform we recommend for independent advisors. It’s only $10 to $15 a month and you’re the sole owner of the site, so you can do with it as you please.
Learn more about WordPress here.
2. SEO
The average advisor spends around $800 a month on SEO services. It’s quite common for firms to charge high monthly fees for SEO and lock you into a minimum one-year contract. This is completely unnecessary.
Many advisors don’t know this, but you actually don’t need to pay for ongoing SEO maintenance. You’ll see 90% of the payoff just from the work you do up front. Unless you’ve had drastic changes to your business, there’s no need to pay for maintenance.
How To Save Money On Your SEO
There’s a lot you can do for your SEO up front to avoid monthly costs altogether:
- Have a well-functioning website that’s mobile-friendly across all devices.
- Create social media profiles that point back to your website.
- Use targeted keywords throughout the headings, meta descriptions, and text on your website.
- Create a Google Business Profile listing.
- Connect Google Search Console to your business.
- Integrate Google Maps into your website.
Now, if these suggestions make you want to stick your head in the sand, don’t worry. We offer a top-rated SEO package for financial advisors. This package is designed to help your business rank higher and look better in search results. You’ll only pay a one-time fee of $1,499. Compared to the $9,600 most advisors spend each year on SEO, it pays for itself in less than two months.
Get your free SEO site audit here!
3. Radio Ads
Radio and TV ads used to be the cornerstone of marketing for financial advisors. But the way people consume media today looks completely different than it did 15+ years ago. Back in the day, someone may hear you on the radio and immediately pick up the phone and call.
Now, not so much. Someone is more likely to hear your name on the radio, look you up online, and then decide if they want to move forward. If your website isn’t attractive and responsive, you won’t see many leads.
What To Do Instead Of Radio Ads
Radio ads are an old-school way of advertising that don’t really work anymore. I know several advisors who spend $2,000 a month on radio ads and they’re not even sure if they’re generating leads.
Instead of radio ads, you could test out different ads on Facebook or Twitter to see if they’re effective at driving traffic back to your website. They’re a lot less expensive and you can easily tweak them if they’re not performing well.
4. Dinner Seminars
A lot of advisors used to use seminars back in the day to get clients and it worked. It was a very effective way to convert prospects into clients. But now seminars are expensive.
They typically cost around $6,000 per event and they take up a lot of your time. You have to show up, feed everyone dinner, and worry about those people who are only there to get a free meal. It’s a lot to handle.
Even if dinner seminars really work for you, they’re not feasible in the age of the coronavirus. Many people can’t meet face-to-face or don’t want to. What can you do instead?
What To Do Instead Of Dinner Seminars
Webinars are a great alternative to dinner seminars. They cost about the same, but they’re not one-time events. Webinars run on your website 24/7. If someone is looking for an advisor at 8:00 p.m. on a Tuesday, they can watch your webinar on the spot to learn more about who you are and what you do.
Webinars also have a conversion rate as high as 40% depending on your call to action (versus 2% to 5% for email). That’s not a bad return on investment.
Here are 8 reasons why webinars are so promising for financial advisors.
5. Webinar Marketing
Speaking of webinar marketing for financial advisors, I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about how much you should be paying for this service.
I recently came across a company that charges $25,000 for webinars for financial advisors. The kicker? This price tag is just for one webinar. I’m a big believer in webinar marketing, but there’s no way I’d ever recommend an advisor pay that much for one.
How To Save Money On Your Webinar Marketing
Don’t pay $25,000 for a webinar. It’s not worth the money. We create custom webinars for financial advisors for a very small fraction of that cost. We do everything from writing and designing your presentation to automating it and promoting it across your social media profiles, so it’s working to bring in new leads 24/7.
Learn more about our custom webinar package for financial advisors.
Stop Overpaying For Marketing Services That Don’t Work
Before you spend any money on your marketing, make sure it’s going to bring in new clients for you. The last thing you want to do is waste money on marketing services that don’t work.
I created Indigo Marketing Agency because I’ve seen what works for advisors. My goal is to put you in the driver’s seat of your marketing so you know what tactics are actually worth the money and which ones aren’t.
Want to learn more? I’m hosting a free webinar on the truth about marketing for financial advisors.
Looking for more ways to improve your marketing as a financial advisor? Find more information on our blog. Or learn more about how we help financial advisors just like you grow their businesses with our Total Marketing Package.