5 tips to help professional services marketers stay ahead of the curve

In the financial services, legal, and HR sectors, demand is at an all-time high. Individuals and business leaders alike want to understand what they are entitled to in terms of financial support, they’re looking for advice on furloughing, and making sure the correct procedures are being followed.

Prospects are ringing professional advisors in their droves.

Here are some ideas for things you can be doing to ensure that your business gets noticed, and you stay at the top of your prospects minds so that your company is the one they call.

Tip 1: Spring clean your PPC

Over the last 30 days, searches for the phrase ‘credit card payment freeze’ have increased by 4,200%, and the term ‘what is an IVA’ by 200%. These increases are also reflected in inflated keyword costs for highly competitive search terms.

It’s clear that prospects are looking for advisors in your area of expertise. And it’s really easy to rapidly build up a large Ads bill trying to drive as many paid search clicks to your website as you can – with very little to show for it.

Make every penny of your marketing budget count. There’s a pretty good chance you’re wasting budget on vanity keywords that bring you visitors but aren’t converting into ‘won’ opportunities.

Look into your analytics and find out what keywords convert to revenue for you. Having this information in your CRM system makes it easy to monitor, report on, and spot trends.

Tip 2: Find new opportunities

Conversely, the same data can help to open new areas of growth you might not have thought of, or even explore new ideas to see if they have legs.

• Your potential clients are likely to have very specific questions they’re looking for answers for. Those long tail queries are perfect for testing new ad campaigns.
• Keyword data and insight from inbound calls and enquiries is a goldmine for blog topics that resonate with your target audience – driving more organic traffic and, ultimately, leads.
• Don’t forget your organic search data. Google Search Console collects all your (not provided) queries, and you can tap into this for even more opportunities for content, ad campaigns, and to help improve your organic ranking.

Tip 3: Invest in remarketing

Remarketing (or retargeting) is an incredibly powerful way to drive more leads and sales. As consumers, we naturally shop around – especially for complex and personal services – before making our decision. Remarketing ads target prospects who have visited your website before and are in the research or decision-making phase of their journey.

If you’re already remarketing, here are some simple tips to make it much more effective:

• Slice your data to create lists based on criteria such as: demographics, region, user behaviour, technology (e.g. browser, device, model), ecommerce data, and traffic sources, for example. Combinations of these criteria allow you to create even more advanced remarketing lists.
• You can also leverage dimensions or metrics in Google Analytics to create remarketing lists based on conditions – or behaviours – like visitors who came via a specific referral path, or have visited certain pages.
• Use your own data to create audiences. Analyse inbound conversations, and use this data to create audiences that you can retarget with ads that are specific to their enquiries, like a product or service.
• Your ad message should be relevant to the lists you are targeting – whether that’s for visitors who have viewed specific products on your website, or a new audience that you’re trying to reach – so invest in your ad creative.

Tip 4: Word of mouth marketing

92% of consumers trust recommendations from family and friends, so get your customers to do your marketing for you!

We recommend brands every day without even thinking about it, for instance, replying to a question in a Facebook group you’re a member of, or raving about a financial savings app to friends.

Social proof such as customer testimonials, case studies, Google and Facebook reviews, LinkedIn endorsements, Twitter or Instagram mentions, industry review sites – not forgetting offline conversations – all go a long way to getting your company to be the one people remember when they need you.

With a tightened budget, referral marketing offers valuable potential – delivering great value and building loyalty.

Tip 5: Communicate with your contacts regularly

Demonstrate your knowledge, offer valuable information, and build positive connections. Email newsletters are a really easy and cost-effective way to keep in touch and provide helpful and timely advice to your contacts. This is a great example from our accountant:

Online networking is another constructive way to share your knowledge and capabilities. Create genuine connections, engage with their posts in a constructive way, write your own articles and encourage discussion – show you know your stuff! Be consistent and watch your network and engagement grow.

Adapt and overcome

Marketing in a highly competitive industry is tough enough at the best of times. I hope that you find something you can use in these tips to help drive your marketing forward at a time when others might be pulling back.