Here are my tips for financial advisors who are looking to improve their LinkedIn presence:
1. Change your LinkedIn headline.
Marketing should always be about how you can serve your prospects. People don’t care about what you do; they only care about how you can help them.
The most common headline I see is “Financial Advisor at XYZ Financial”. Great! But nobody cares. This might be your title and company, but it says nothing about the people you serve, what you do, or how someone can benefit.
To craft a perfect headline, you need to focus on what you do, your target market, and how you can help them. Right now, my headline is Helping Financial Advisors Get More Clients Guaranteed. What do I do? Get more clients. How does that help advisors? It makes them more money!
Some good headlines for financial advisors might be:
- Certified Financial Planner Helping Divorcees Manage Their Money
- Investment Advisor Offering Cash Management for School Districts in Arkansas
- Financial Advisor Providing Alternative Investment Advice to Accredited Investors
When you write a headline like this, not only do you stay top of mind to people in your network, but your target market does as well. If people don’t know why you’re different or who you serve, they can’t refer business to you. Make it easy for even non-clients to refer you. You will go from “I think Bob’s in finance” to “Bob’s the guy who helps divorcees manage their money!”
Oh, and please don’t use symbols or emoticons. They look childish and unprofessional.
2. Join groups.
LinkedIn groups are an incredible way to meet new people and/or generate leads from the comfort of your own home. It’s much easier to reach out to someone in LinkedIn groups because you will have a common bond. Join groups that relate to your personal and professional interests, like charities you support, college alumni, hobbies, and professional associations.
There are more than two million groups on LinkedIn, and there are thousands added every week. Take a look at your top clients’ profiles. What groups are they members of? Join those!
If you don’t know where to start, go to https://www.linkedin.com/groups/discover to get custom group recommendations based on your current network.
3. Create your own content.
LinkedIn is one of the only social media platforms that lets you write and publish your own blog posts. It’s important for financial advisors to create their own content because they are subject matter experts. You can create blog posts, articles, eBooks, white papers, podcasts, and much more. Anything that provides value and is relevant to your network is a win. Content marketing gets attention, shows people how you can help, starts a conversation, and drives traffic to your website.
If your target market is divorcees, you may want to publish a series of posts like 5 Financial Steps to Take After the Divorce or 7 Easily Avoidable Mistakes Divorcees Make. The goal is to stay in front of your target market and to be there when they need you.
This is one of the best LinkedIn marketing tips I can give you – I know several financial advisors who are having big success on LinkedIn by publishing and promoting unique content. The magic comes from LinkedIn’s ability to scale. If you publish evergreen content, you can keep promoting it and repurposing it to as many eyeballs as you can. It will keep working for you.
4. Just get started.
About a third of financial advisors aren’t using LinkedIn at all. Those that do use it are reluctant to go big and therefore (remember how I said I didn’t see much growth until 1,000 connections?) don’t see results. Why is there so much opposition?
- There’s no instant gratification. Like I said, results won’t come overnight. The rewards go to those who can put the work in and be patient.
- They think it takes too much time. This depends on how valuable you think your time is. While it does take a little bit of a time investment to tighten up your profile and reach out to people, you have to understand that there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Besides, you can stay top of mind by sharing stuff you already read. When you come across an interesting article, take a few minutes to post it. Clients and prospects will appreciate hearing from you.
- They have compliance fears. This is the most common reason, but the truth is that the same rules apply to everything you do – letters, seminar materials, etc. Just follow the basic guidelines and avoid promissory statements. Offer general information, not specific recommendations or advice. Besides, the more you write and post, the easier it gets.
I hope you see that LinkedIn can be great for financial advisors. If you’re a financial advisor who has any questions about LinkedIn or social media in general, feel free to contact me. I am here to help you succeed.
Source – www.theadvisorcoach.com