By Mike Schaffman, Simplicity Lone Beacon’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing.
Every day financial advisors struggle to creatively craft and properly position their calls to action (CTA). Having an effective CTA allows an advisor to better attract prospects, convert them into loyal clients, increase existing wallet share, and strengthen their brand in the process.
When CTAs are tailored to the different audiences you regularly communicate with, they can significantly impact the success of your marketing and sales efforts. Here, we cover the main components of a CTA, when and why they need to be adapted, and how to best leverage them for the growth of your business.
Understanding the Components of a Call-To-Action
Before you write and utilize your next CTA, make sure to review these 3 areas:
- Targeting: Identifying and segmenting your target audiences, which likely include people at various stages of their customer journey, is critical. By identifying specific demographics, psychographics, or personas most receptive to the services offered through your brand, you can tailor your CTAs to resonate with the right people.
- Offering: Remember that each person will perceive your messaging and corresponding services differently. You’re in business to help solve their problems and guide them to achieve their retirement dreams. As John Capuano shares in his “Advisors and Advisories: How Much of Your AUM is at Threat?” vlog, it’s not easy in an ultra-commoditized industry.
- Goal Setting: This is equally if not more important for you internally as it is for your audiences externally. What do you want your CTA to accomplish? Aligning the CTA with an overarching goal—whether it pertains to finding new prospects, strengthening brand recognition, nurturing relationships, or closing new business—will allow you to create benchmarks for what success looks like.
Tailoring Your CTAs
Having a focused diversification effort across your CTAs will allow you to better cater to the varying readiness levels of prospects. By offering different options, such as educational videos, complimentary consultations, or interactive guides, and not limiting CTAs to a singular nature, you can engage with users across every stage of their customer journey.
To that end, be sure to “meet them” where they’re at with different touchpoints across various platforms. For someone who’s in their preliminary research phase, remember that they’re checking you out and sizing you up against the vast competition that’s out there. At the same time, remember that nearly 50% of investors with $500k or more considered switching financial advisors last year, according to a Nasdaq study, so you’re almost never in the clear.
This is your opportunity to showcase—with authenticity and irrefutability—the solutions you have to offer.
Crafting Effective CTAs for Marketing and Sales Success
Financial advisors, what’s your first impression like? And, what are your unique value/selling propositions?
This is at the heart of leveraging CTAs to maximize lead capture and conversion potential. Ultimately, Graeme Mills said it best in his “2 Secrets Financial Advisors Need to Create Captivating Content That Generates Results” article when he states that your perspective creates uniqueness and generates trust.
As financial advisors continue to unravel the intricacies of client acquisition and retention, the emphasis on call-to-action nuances and strategies serves as a fundamental pillar in the pursuit of sustained business growth and success.
About the Author: Mike Schaffman joined Simplicity Lone Beacon in 2015, pioneering their core marketing platform, creating content and connecting media and broadcast components with a turnkey digital solution. Mike helped transform Simplicity Lone Beacon’s offerings and solutions into one of the leading independent financial advisor marketing services in the country today. When he’s not in the office, Mike enjoys playing golf and hockey and likes to experiment in the kitchen.
