Financial advisors and service professionals are constantly looking for ways to market their solutions and bring in more customers. 

However, the traditional marketing methods can become costly and have varying results, not all of which are positive. 

Inbound marketing provides a great new avenue for financial services looking to refresh their marketing approach. 

With a customer-focused strategy and digital techniques, inbound marketing can help those in the financial industry connect with customers and improve their conversion rates. 

• But what exactly is inbound marketing, and why is inbound marketing for financial services important? 
• And is it really a better solution for the financial industry than traditional outbound marketing? 

In this article, we’ll answer those questions and take a look at 11 different inbound marketing strategies that you should start implementing today.

2. Keep on Top of Messages

A big part of inbound marketing is letting customers come to you through social media, chatbots, online forms, emails, or other non-evasive messages. 

However, this still means that you are required to spend your time responding to and nurturing prospective clients. 

Being a prompt messenger and making sure that you invest time in engaging with your audience is an important step in creating an online presence and building a successful inbound marketing program. 

There are tools that can help you track messages, so you don’t have to worry about an opportunity slipping through your fingers.

3. Start Content Marketing

Content marketing is based around different content forms like blogs or eBooks, and is a cornerstone of your inbound marketing strategy. 

After all, how will leads be able to find information about your services if you don’t publish any of that information? 

Content marketing requires some setup before you can launch. 

You’ll want to spend time picking out topic clusters related to your services and doing keyword research in order to narrow down the exact terms you want your pages to rank for on search engines.

One underrated move here is thinking about what your prospective clients are actually typing into Google late at night, maybe slightly panicked about retirement or taxes. If you can tap into those nagging questions—the ones people feel a bit sheepish about even asking—you’re already way ahead of the game. I’ve seen more engagement come from blog posts that answer the “dumb” questions than any fancy whitepaper ever did, and that’s just the honest truth.

And let’s be fair, not every piece needs to be groundbreaking. Sometimes, it’s a matter of showing up in the search results with clear, current information that’s easy to scan and reassuring to read. People don’t want jargon or fifty-step guides. They just need a sense of direction, and if you can provide that, you become their go-to resource before they even speak to a competitor.

4. Send Inbound Emails

Emailing is a great way to stay in contact with your prospects once you’ve collected their names and information through content marketing and other inbound strategies. 

You want to send short, easy-to-read emails that have a clear call-to-action. You’ll also want to keep track of how often you send out emails. 

If you’re in a prospective client’s inbox too often, they may think of you as spam. If you aren’t in there enough, they might forget you. 

Creating automated drip campaigns that automatically send out emails on a semi-regular basis is a great way to be consistent.

5. Incorporate Storytelling Elements

Everyone likes a good story, including your clients. 

When you incorporate storytelling elements into your content, you have a higher chance of capturing the attention of readers. 

Storytelling doesn’t mean writing a fairytale, but it can include things like setting your readers up as a hero who comes across a common problem which your company can solve. 

These simple content elements create a story that customers want to be a part of.

6. Qualify Your Leads and Prospects

Once your inbound marketing strategy roles out, you might be surprised at the number of leads you have coming in. 

Creating a system of qualifying your leads is a great way to make sure that you spend your time marketing and selling to leads who will become clients. 

Not only does lead qualifying help you avoid wasting time, but it can help you determine which of your particular services a prospective client is interested in, so you can then direct them to the appropriate salesperson or financial advisor.

7. Focus on Quality, Not Quantity

Far too often, when implementing an inbound marketing strategy, brands focus more on the quantity of content rather than the quality. 

In truth, the quality is much more important than the amount of content you have available. 

While you do want to cover all relevant topics and keywords, if your content is too short, doesn’t answer questions, or is poorly written, the search algorithms will view your website as untrustworthy and won’t rank your content high enough to be seen by clients.

8. Use Data to Drive Decisions

One of the biggest benefits your company receives from inbound marketing is the amount of data and information you gather on your prospects and clients. 

Data from your social media platforms and marketing tools will help you learn how your efforts are performing. 

In addition to performance data, you can learn critical areas for improvement in your customer’s journeys. 

For example, if you get a high view count on a blog post but lack any follow-through, you know that your call-to-actions needs to be stronger or more visible.

9. Automate Marketing Tasks

Marketing software isn’t just about compiling data and providing performance stats. It can also help you automate time-consuming and repetitive marketing tasks. 

Automations can help you:

• Send out emails on a regular basis.
• Create a workflow to direct incoming web traffic.
• Add personalization tokens like first names, last names, or business names to content.
• Segment your audience and contact database.
• Qualify and organize your leads.
• Test different elements to measure performance.
• Set reminders for message responses or follow-ups.

10. Regulate Social Media Posting

Regular social media postings are important to create consistency and deliver regular messages to your audience on the platforms they visit most. 

It’s a great place to publish information about your company or offer promotions, as your followers will be able to see it without interrupting their own buyer’s experience.

11. Study Reports to Inform Next Steps

Reporting and analytics are key to creating the right next steps in your inbound marketing program. 

Using the auto-generated reports from your marketing tool can help your businesses get the most out of your marketing efforts and make relevant updates to your strategies to continue to grow your business.

Wrap Up: Trying Inbound Marketing for Financial Services

Inbound marketing for financial services doesn’t have to be overly complicated. 

At its core, inbound marketing puts the customer experience first and allows businesses to have better control and visibility into their marketing performance. 

While outbound tactics might still be popular choices in industries like the financial sector, expanding into inbound marketing can bring around many different benefits.

And the strategies that you should implement can be made by any person who wants to improve their business revenue and company performance.

Performance tracking, however, can be difficult without the right tools. 

Our marketing and sales performance tracker helps you understand if you’ve met business goals and simplifies the ways you measure the success of your marketing and sales initiatives. 

Download our free performance tracker sheet and easily organize your metrics today!

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