Marketing | Advisor Fuel

Generating Leads for Your Business

blog@advisorfuel.com — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 08:04:15 +0000

While that all sounds very simple, it’s not always as easy as it sounds. Standing out from other companies, especially if you are in a competitive market, can be hard — it’s easy for customers to overlook your business. With that being said, here are some of the best ways to improve your online presence to create a steady stream of new leads for your business.

1. Optimize Your Website

The first thing to do is to ensure that your site is in working order and ready for business. It is discouraging to users when they click on a site that has a slow page loading speed or broken links. Make sure that your website is ready for shoppers.

2. Use SEO.

Only 10% of searchers click past the first results page on Google. With a combination of keywords that are well placed in your online content, you can generate SEO that works.

3. Use Forms with CTAs.

A great way to generate new leads is by asking for their contact information. Make a statement about the value that your content provides to your reader/viewer, then ask for a name and email address to access it. Add those to your address book, and you have instant leads. You can also collect other helpful information about your prospective customers like their phone number, location, and what products they might be interested in.

4. Social media works.
Advertising on social media does require payment upfront, but it is one method of lead generation that truly pays dividends. If you have an active social account, you can generate leads just by your interaction. Take a look at this infographic we created about filling your seminars using Facebook…

It’s All About Engagement

To generate new leads for your business, it’s not so much about how much you advertise; it’s about where. Don’t target the wrong audience, keep things relevant, and make the most of your interactions. The goal is to generate leads and increase sales, and the best way to do that is to be consistent, optimize your sales platform, and keep an active, healthy online presence.

The post Generating Leads for Your Business appeared first on Advisor Fuel.

Podcast Marketing

blog@advisorfuel.com — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 08:04:08 +0000

Over 51% of Americans reported that they have listened to a podcast at some point. And why not? Unlike listening to the radio, you can pick and choose what to listen to and when (politics, entertainment, true crime, etc.). It’s the era of Netflix, Hulu, and other big box streaming services that give consumers the luxury of choice. It makes perfect sense that audio is going in the same direction.

Advertising on the radio used to be big a long time ago, so it’s understandable to feel strange about the effectiveness of podcast advertisement; however, statistics prove otherwise. Podcasts are increasingly becoming one of the best ways to advertise and spread the message about who you are and what you do.

Five reasons financial advisors should have their own podcast

1. Over 67 million people listen to podcasts every month.

That’s a huge demographic. And of those listeners, 45% have a household income of $75,000 or more.

2. You can reach a new audience.

Podcast listeners include a huge variety of people, many of whom aren’t on social media. If posting on social media sites is your primary method of advertisement, it’s likely that the podcast crowd will be a largely untapped audience.

3. Your ads won’t be skipped.

One interesting thing about Podcasts is that the majority of people report multitasking while they listen. Whether they are driving, working, or even cooking – often they are away from their device or have their hands full. This is one reason that podcasts are a fantastic platform for advertising.

4. It is natural and conversational.

It is organic, natural marketing at its finest. It won’t be forced or contrived, and that is what you want from good advertising and brand messaging.

5. It’s more than an ad.

When people listen to your educational content, you become an authority and a credible source of knowledge. When you make suggestions to them based on your expertise, they will listen. They listen to you because they see your value and are interested in what you have to offer.

In case you are still on the fence about podcast advertising, take a look at the stats: 80% of people who listened to a podcast could recall at least one brand advertised in an episode; also, 67% could remember a specific product featured or a promotional offer; lastly, 51% said that they were likely to buy from that brand. People are listening, people are buying, and that means this marketing approach is working.

Why not make podcasting work for you?

The post Podcast Marketing appeared first on Advisor Fuel.

Tone of Voice

blog@advisorfuel.com — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 08:04:21 +0000

Or, maybe you are discovering that your business is not targeting your customers appropriately. Suddenly, you must figure out why tone of voice has such a strong impact on your business’s lead generation, branding, and content and how you can accurately adjust this to meet your customers’ needs and expectations.

So, what is tone of voice, and why does it matter?

Bootcamp for Your Business’s Tone

Simply defined, tone of voice is the way you articulate your words to your audience that speaks to your business’s character. Think of your business as a person. If a person who worked in the healthcare industry tried to engage with one of their clients with pushy language, chances are, that client wouldn’t be around much longer. This principle applies to your business as well; the language that you choose must be carefully crafted to anticipate your audience’s expectations to make a lasting (and positive) impression.

Tone can be influenced by conciseness (or lack thereof), clarity, supporting factual details/examples, consistency in wording, sentence structure, and the emotional value of your chosen words. However, this is not an exhaustive list. Your tone of voice is anything that makes your business’s branding exclusive to your business.

Here are a few reasons why your tone of voice is vital to every piece of content you produce:

1. You can differentiate yourself from your competitors with messaging unique to your business.

2. You do not have to be talking to your customers face-to-face for your business to be recognizable.

3. A consistent tone builds a more trustworthy impression and lends expertise.

4. Your tone personalizes the customer experience as the customers feel as though they are interacting with the same person.

5. You have a strategy for positioning each piece of content so that they complement each other.

When you are producing content for your business, you should keep in mind how you want to come across to your audience. Do your analytical and qualitative research. What is your target audience’s demographics, values, interests, and behaviors? Forming your customer personas before developing your branding is key to creating consistent tone across your content.

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The Perfect Landing Page

blog@advisorfuel.com — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 08:04:27 +0000

How do you make a great landing page? What’s the difference between a landing page with a high conversion rate and one that barely gets any forms filled out? We have compiled a list of the features that we believe contribute to the success of your landing pages, and we’d like to share them with you.

Nine features of high-converting landing pages:

1. A CLICK-WORTHY HEADLINE

One of the most important factors in a landing page design, the headline is the first thing that catches the user’s attention. If it fails to make an impact, the user will simply leave the site. Having a catchy headline together with an engaging sub-headline encourages visitors to continue reading. The secret to creating a click-worthy headline isn’t even that secret and usually includes the following characteristics:

Short, simple and straightforward without being vague.
Offers immediate benefits.
Contains suggestive words that build up curiosity, which will get you that all-important click.

2. BENEFIT-FOCUSED CONTENT

To convert visitors into leads, you need to ensure that your content agrees with your headline. Your landing page copy should reflect what your headline promises, which is why, when creating the copy for your landing page, you need to focus more on the benefits rather than the features of a product or a service. The copy should be persuasive enough for a visitor to want to give you their email or make a purchase. Thus, if you want to keep your audience engaged, follow the tips below:

Keep the copy of your landing page brief and on point.
Clearly state the benefits you can offer.
Improve readability, e.g. use bullet points instead of large paragraphs.

3. CALL-TO-ACTION (CTA)

A call-to-action button draws the audience’s attention towards the next step. “Download my free eBook”, “Start Your Free Trial”, “Sign-up now” – these compel users to take action. So, add an interesting and goal-specific CTA, when designing your landing page. Additionally, here are a few best practices to keep in mind:

Use a bright color to attract visitors’ attention.
Add a brief yet an actionable text (e.g. Try it for Free, Learn More, One-time offer).
Use large fonts to set it apart from the rest of your content.
Lastly, place the CTA above the fold.

4. THE RIGHT COLOUR SCHEME

This is another vital criterion for designing the perfect landing page. Your landing page color scheme should match the colors of your brand. While a contrasting color scheme seems to work best, try to achieve a balance between using too much color and not enough. When designing landing page templates, the rule of thumb is to add two or fewer colors.

5. IMAGES AND OTHER MULTIMEDIA

According to research, content with images gets 94% more views than those without. Thus, include relevant images and other multimedia on your landing page (e.g. an introductory video). The images on a landing page should complement your copy. Further, personalized images work better than stock photos, when it comes to user engagement. Use real high-quality photos of your product, service, or your staff/team. Below are some benefits to using great media:

It helps build user trust.
It improves your brand’s credibility.
It makes your landing page stand out from the rest of the generic landing pages.

In addition, try to avoid using too many links, unless you are referencing someone else’s work. Too many links can be distracting and make it seem like you hardly did any work yourself.

6. SOCIAL PROOF AND OTHER TRUST SYMBOLS

Social proof and trust symbols help enhance the credibility of your landing page and your business. By displaying social engagement numbers, like subscribers, social shares, followers, etc., you can win over audience that are skeptical. Plus, it helps relay the effectiveness of your product or service without too much work. Similarly, Trust symbols or Trust Seals, like MacAfee Secure, SSL, etc., assures your audience that your landing page is safe and trustworthy. The goal of trust symbols is to:

Build trust amongst users.
Drive more traffic.
Boost conversion.

Testimonials are another form of social proof. By incorporating authentic testimonials on your landing page, you can display the experiences of your existing clients/customers who have used your product or service and found it useful. This, in turn, helps increase user trust and boost your brand’s credibility. If you feel like testimonials would fit your business, include descriptive statements with a name, photos, company name (if any), as this can improve trust.

7. SHORT FORM FIELDS

This is one element that you’ll find on all lead generation landing pages. When it comes to the anatomy of a great page, an optimized lead capture form is the most vital part. Make sure that the information you ask is proportionate to the value of the product or service you provide. Simply put, don’t ask pages and pages worth of information just to sell a tube of toothpaste.

8. LEAD GENERATION FORM ABOVE THE FOLD

The placement of your lead generation form plays a crucial role in the success of your landing page. Anything that is placed above the fold gets the greatest amount of attention. And in order to get the maximum out of your optimized lead generation form, make it:

Stand out from other design elements by using contrasting colors and bold text.
Include directional cues to increase engagement.
Have only the required number of fields.

9. A/B TESTING

There is no one-size-fits-all, when it comes to landing page designs; the best practices that work for one business may not work for another. Thus, you need to conduct A/B testing to determine what works best for you. It is only through A/B Testing various design elements, such as contact form, CTAs, headline, eCommerce testing and others, can you create an effective landing page design that delivers results. Thus, running a test with different versions of your landing page is important in order to create that perfect, well-optimized and high-converting landing page for your business website.

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