Financial planners must develop online presence
Financial planning practices need to optimise their websites and integrate social media into their marketing plans, according to The Humble Investor's Colin Williams.
Considering there are 74,000 Australian searches for the term 'financial planner' every month, internet marketing represents a big opportunity for planners, said Williams.
"The problem is that many financial planners do not know how to optimise their websites or use social media so that they rank well in consumer internet searches," he said.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) involves editing a website's keywords, HTML and content so it is more likely to be picked up by the algorithms used by search engines such as Google.
The content on a good website needs to be "current, relevant and authoritative", according to Williams.
The inclusion of keywords in the web designs such as 'financial planning', 'investing', 'insurance' and 'saving' will also increase a website's chance of being found on the internet, he added.
Content should also be communicated via social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, said Williams. The best approach with these platforms is to approach them in "casual Friday mode", since they are meant to be social, he added.
When it comes to Twitter, it is ideal to tweet at least three times a day, and to reply to any 're-tweets' of your own messages, Williams said.
However, he warned that it could be a big mistake to use social media to "push" your message too aggressively.
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