Unleash The Power Of Social Media
For Financial Services
Boost Your Online Presence With These Proven Strategies
As a professional in the investment industry, you understand the importance of staying ahead of the competition and creating vital connections with your community. But with the constantly changing digital landscape, it can be difficult to know how to effectively use social media to get more clients.
That's why we've put together a list of 10 proven investment marketing strategies to ramp up your online presence. By understanding your goals and audience, picking the right platforms, developing a solid strategy, and consistently showcasing your brand's personality, you'll be well on your way to building a successful online presence sets you apart from your rivals.
Align Social Media with Your Business Goals
To build a strong social media presence, it is crucial to have clear, specific and measurable goals, in line with overall business strategy. For example, a goal for a hedge fund company could be to increase brand awareness and attract new investors.
For an asset management firm, it could be to establish thought leadership and position as a trusted advisor. This can be done by setting specific objectives such as increasing social media following, website traffic from social media, publishing thought leadership pieces, and measuring progress to make data-driven decisions to improve the social media strategy.
Aligning the social media goals with your overall business strategy will ensure the efforts on social media drive measurable business results.
Get To Know Your Target Market
Create a buyer persona to help develop your social media strategy. It’s a fictional representation of your ideal customer which is based on research about your existing customers and target market within the financial industry.
To understand your target audience, you can use surveys, interviews, and data from Google Analytics. This research can give you information on demographics, pain points, goals, values and the social media habits of your ideal customer.
By understanding your target audience, you can tailor your content, messaging and platform choice to fit their needs and interest. Focusing on providing specific information and services, such as actionable investment advice and retirement planning can increase engagement and conversions.
Maximise Your Reach On Social Media
LinkedIn is a great option as it is primarily a B2B networking platform, and it's a great place to connect with professionals, entrepreneurs and other financial service providers, as well as showcase your thought leadership and investment strategies.
To get started on LinkedIn we've created a quick step guide to setting up your LinkedIn company page.
Twitter is another platform that can be useful for investment companies, as it's a great place to share industry news and updates, as well as engage in conversations with other professionals and influencers in the industry.
Facebook also can be useful to reach out to a wider audience, and it can be a good place to connect with potential clients and grow your brand awareness.
There are a number of different social media networks you could use. However, it's important to avoid spreading yourself too thin by trying to be present on every single platform you find. Instead, focus on the platforms that are most likely to reach your target audience with tailored content and messaging that resonates to get the best results.
Develop A Social Media Strategy
It's important to develop a comprehensive social media strategy in order to drive results as a hedge fund, discretionary investing company, fund manager, or other professional in the investment industry.
Some popular solutions include creating a content calendar, outlining a plan for engagement and interaction with your audience, and setting metrics to measure success and track progress.
This can help ensure that your efforts on social media are aligned with your goals and that you are utilising resources effectively to reach and engage with your target audience.
Additionally, monitoring and adjusting the strategy regularly can help stay relevant, adapt to new trends, and stay on top of changes in the social media landscape.
Maintain Consistency
When using social media for marketing of financial services it's essential to maintain consistency in branding and messaging across all social media platforms.
It is advisable to establish a set of brand guidelines that outline the company's mission, values, and tone of voice. This can help ensure that all the content produced aligns with the company's brand identity, and that it's clear and consistent.
Overall, consistency in branding and messaging is crucial for building trust and credibility with the target audience and for differentiating the company from its competitors in the financial industry. A clear, concise and relevant writing style can help position the company as an expert in their field and build trust with potential clients.
Use Your Connections
To build your social media presence connect with existing contacts including existing clients, industry colleagues, and other professionals within the target audience.
Make sure your social media profiles are prominently featured on your company's website, and mention your social media profiles in all your communications, whether it be email signatures, business cards or brochures. This can help increase awareness of your social media presence and encourage existing contacts to follow or connect with you on social media.
Additionally, engaging with existing contacts on social media can help to foster deeper connections and can lead to potential business opportunities. Responding to comments and messages, and sharing relevant content can help to keep your social media presence active and engaging for existing contacts.
Overall, connecting with existing contacts is an effective way to build a large social media audience and expand your reach within the financial industry.
Showcase Yourself and Your Company
For all professionals and companies in the financial industry including financial advisors and hedge fund managers, showcasing your personality on social media can be a powerful way to build deeper connections with your target audience. By highlighting your interests, sense of humour, and passion, you can create a more relatable and memorable experience for your audience and encourage them to engage with your brand.
One way to showcase your personality is by sharing personal experiences, such as sharing professional achievements, successes, and challenges. This can help to build trust and credibility with your audience by showing that you have experience and knowledge in your field.
To show off your company's financial services, share any testimonials from clients who have achieved specific financial goals, such as outperforming the market or growing their assets under management.
Additionally, you can share your perspective on industry trends, market movements and other topics that are relevant to your target audience. This can help to position your company as a thought leader in the industry and encourage your audience to engage with your content.
Another strategy is to share behind the scenes content, such as company events, team building activities, or even casual moments at the office. This can help to humanize your brand and make your company more relatable to your target audience.
Actively Engage With Your Audience
Actively engaging with your followers and other industry-related businesses on social media can help to establish your company as a reputable and knowledgeable presence in the industry.
Comment, like, share, and mention your followers, as well as other industry-related businesses on social media. This can help to increase visibility and reach, and can also open opportunities for networking and collaborations.
Also respond to comments and messages in a timely and personal manner, and don't shy away from any negative feedback. Instead, use your responses to demonstrate excellent customer service, and positive end results. This can help to create a sense of engagement and encourage more interactions with your social media profiles. Additionally, sharing relevant and valuable content such as news, articles, research and market analysis can help to position the company as a thought leader and attract potential investors or clients.
Another strategy for financial advisors and asset management companies is to participate in online discussions and industry-related events such as webinars, Twitter chats, or LinkedIn groups. This can help to establish your company as a reputable and knowledgeable presence within the financial industry, and can also open opportunities for networking and collaborations.
But it's important to be aware of regulatory requirements, and make sure that the information shared is compliant with any industry regulations.
Use Curated Content
Curated content can be a powerful tool to connect with your target audience and supplement your own original content, expand your content options, and demonstrate your understanding of relevant industry topics. This can include industry research, articles, images, videos, or even just ideas related to the financial industry.
When using curated content, it's important to ensure that it's relevant to your target audience, and that it's properly attributed and linked to the original source. As with all content it's also important to be aware of regulations and compliance in the industry, and make sure that the information shared is accurate, verifiable and compliant with any industry regulations.
Overall, using a mix of both original and curated content can be an effective way for professionals and companies in the financial industry to connect with their target audience, and position themselves as experts in their field.
Optimise Your Social Media
Optimising your social media profiles and content for search is an important strategy when using social media for financial services.
It can increase the visibility and reach of your brand, which can help attract new clients and increase engagement with existing ones. Here are some tips for optimising your social media for search:
Keeping your social media presence pertinent: Fresh and engaging requires commitment and enthusiasm. Scheduling tools can make this less time consuming but a daily look is still really important. Use it to check brand messaging, respond to comments, and take a peek at the previous day's metrics.
Use relevant keywords: Research keywords that are relevant to your industry and incorporate them into your social media profiles and content. This will make it easier for people to find you when they search for topics related to your business.
Utilise hashtags: Hashtags make it easy for people to discover content that is relevant to their interests. Use hashtags that are relevant to your industry and include them in your posts, this can increase the visibility of your content and help attract new followers.
Incorporate meta tags: Meta tags such as page titles and descriptions provide additional information about your social media profile, they can also influence how your content appears in search results. Use relevant and descriptive meta tags to increase your visibility in search results.
Leverage social media analytics: Use the analytics provided by your social media platform to understand which posts are resonating with your audience and adjust your strategy accordingly. By understanding which posts are getting more engagement you can optimise your content for better search results.
Now working out how to build a social media following, then keeping on top of your online presence will take up a fair amount of your time. The social media marketing tips outlined above can make a difference but if time really is against you, our social specialists are eager to help.
Our award winning combination of digital know-how expertise and smart software applications can deliver cutting edge social media services for your financial or investment company. All of which allow you to target and incentivise users to suit your requirements. Contact us today to see how we can manage your social media more effectively.
Shane McEvoy is a seasoned SEO and inbound marketing expert with nearly 30 years of experience in advertising. He established Flycast Media, a specialist B2B digital agency, and is a published author of two well-received guides while contributing to several industry publications - read his complete profile here.
