Recently, a new professional services client told me that “no one looks for financial advisors online.” The following email was my reply to his comment.

Just a quick note in reference to Earle’s assertion that “no one looks for a financial advisor online.”

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project:

• 81% look for information about a product or service before buying it.
• 73% get travel info online.
• 51% take a virtual tour of a location online.

And according to BIGResearch:

• 87% of consumers research products online before buying them offline.

Who your market is…
All those guys you’re trying to reach who managed their own investments and botched the job and are looking for someone to handle their finances? I know a few of them. They did all their stock research on sites like Yahoo Finance, Fool.com, MarketWatch, etc. They bought their stocks online through firms like Scottrade, Ameritrade, Etrade and other online discount brokers.

I’m just wondering what makes you think they are suddenly going to abandon the Internet and start looking for a financial advisor in newspapers and magazines?

Newspapers and magazines aren’t where the action is…
There’s a very good reason the car dealerships and realtors have all abandoned the newspapers. When people are making a big ticket decision, they look online first. Obviously, no one is going to buy a car or a house online. But they are going to find the car and the dealer online or the house and a realtor online. Then they call and make an appointment or send them an email for more information.

It’s the same for insurance, attorneys, doctors, and pretty much all professional services. That’s why, while Joel set up his seminar, our first order of business was to build an effective website for him and our second order of business is to build a specific Cabin Trust website. Then we are going to search engine optimize it so that anyone looking for anything that might be related to a cabin trust in Minnesota will find Joel first.

Pushing people to a seminar versus Pulling them…
A lot of the people who came to Joel’s seminar were sent by a financial advisor. That’s why the reception was luke-warm. They were “pushed” there.

The Internet is a “pull” system. On the internet, if your website is optimized, the only people who will find it are the people who are searching for the subject you’ve optimized your site for. They are “pulled” in and you know they are already qualified and interested or they wouldn’t be there. That’s why we are focusing so heavily on Joel’s new websites.

Great example of using the Internet…
About a week ago, an attorney did a seminar on Cabin Trusts for the Minnesota Seasonal Recreational Property Owners Coalition. For those people who missed it, they put a link on the website to YouTube where a video of the presentation was posted and the guy’s PowerPoint presentation is posted. Talk about effective marketing! They are combining the online with the offline and I’m really going to have to kick some serious butt to compete with this guy because of it.

But I can compete with him because Joel is on board with the same idea. Combine and integrate his off-line and online campaigns.

I hope this has opened your eyes a bit and got you thinking about how effective marketing today really works. If all you want to do is off-line marketing, I can help, but you’ll be leaving most of the money on the table. I’m certain you wouldn’t counsel a client to put all his eggs in one basket. I’m just giving you the same advice.

If you want to talk about the online options, shoot me an email.

Bob

HackingEthics

Originally posted 2008-11-13 10:09:52. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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