If financial companies want to thrive and grow, they need to keep their clients for the long term.
Clients who are loyal can help spread the word about your business and the great service you provide.
Local clients are important, especially if your community is tightly knit.
If you want to increase your client base, there are proven ways to attract locally.
Here are some tips to build on your local client base:
- Get a great SEO strategy
- Utilise social media
- Do paid advertising
- Create an email marketing strategy
- Form partnerships with local organisations
- Get involved in your community
- Get feedback
We’ll cover each step and how they can help you get more clients in your local area.
Start with your local SEO strategy
SEO plays a huge role in brand awareness, as well as local client acquisition.
Local SEO works similarly, except that you optimise your website to be found for local searches.
Google My Business is an excellent tool for companies to manage their own Google presence.
You must include the following key points on your Google My Business Page:
- Name of your business
- Hours of operation
- Number for businesses
- Photos of your business
- Client reviews
If set up correctly, your Google My Business page will drive more traffic to your website and show your business to more people in your local area.
It is also important to understand that positive reviews can make a huge difference in how local clients are found.
According to a study, 79% of people trust online reviews more than word of mouth recommendations from friends and family.
Positive reviews about your business are social proof that your business is worth considering.
Here are some ways to get positive reviews for your website:
- Ask clients to leave reviews by sending a gentle email
- Encourage clients to leave reviews for employees in direct contact
- Incentives such as a discount, or a free gift in return for reviews
The more reviews your business gets, the greater the likelihood that social proof will validate it.
It is also important to engage with reviews. Comment on the positive and respond to the negative.
Utilise Social Media
Another thing you should know about getting local clients is how social media could increase your brand’s reach.
More than 4.6 billion people worldwide used social media. This number is expected to increase indefinitely, making social media a great tool to build brand loyalty and gain prospects.
Social media platforms you should consider:
- TikTok
Paid advertising for financial advisers
Paid advertising is a key element in determining how to reach local clients.
Although organic growth through SEO and content marketing is a great strategy, conversions can be slow.
Paid advertising is a great way to reach local clients quickly.
This can be done through search and display, as well as social media ads.
Search ads are ads that appear at the top of a search engine page.
If you search for “financial adviser London”, an ad will likely be displayed at the top of a search page.
These ads were paid to appear on the first page of search results that target a particular keyword.
Display ads can also be a good option for financial advisers.
Display ads are ads that appear on websites, ads and videos to remind people to visit your site.
This is an excellent retargeting strategy for local clients who have left your website but have not taken any action.
Display ads can be placed on websites or platforms, such as YouTube, Google or Facebook.
Social ads are ads that you place on social media platforms.
They can be used to retarget clients who haven’t converted from your website, or to attract new clients via cold targeting.
It is important to identify who you are targeting and which social media platform would convert your ads to most people.
Plan An Email Marketing Strategy
You control what messages you send to your prospects through this channel.
Prospects also have direct access to your messages through their inbox.
People are more likely to view your message via email, rather than scroll past a message on social networks.
Email is a powerful tool with direct access to prospects and clients. You need to make sure you use it well.
You don’t want to send emails to people they don’t need or aren’t interested in.
This can cause people to unsubscribe from your email list, and/or mark your email as spam.
This can affect your ability to deliver your emails in the future.
This is why segmentation and automation is so important in email marketing strategies. It allows you to send the right message to the right people.
Partner with other local organisations
When looking for local clients, another thing to think about is to form partnerships with local businesses and/or organisations.
Reach out to other businesses in the area and try to establish relationships that are mutually beneficial.
Consider supporting local charities or getting involved with/sponsoring local sports clubs.
There are many benefits to forming partnerships.
One of the greatest benefits is the possibility to send many new local prospects your direction.
Your clients and those of your partners may share the same interests. However, you don’t compete with them.
This allows for a non-threatening flow of local traffic between companies.
Participate in your community
Participating in your local community is one of the best ways to build your client base.
A positive image of your business in the community will make it more likely that people will do business with you.
Show that you care about the communities in which you do business.
Think about joining local networking groups or your local chamber of commerce.
Joining these groups within your community will allow you to get your name known in the business community.
Networking is about sharing and not taking. It’s about building trust and working together towards common goals.
It is important to engage regularly with your contacts and find ways to help them. This will help you plant the seeds of reciprocal assistance for when you need it.
Get feedback
You should not only track your goals and analyse data to improve your local client acquisition strategy. But you should also seek feedback from your client base.
Ask them what they think about your business and what they would change.
Ask them how they can improve your business.
This can be done through online and/or physical surveys.
You can improve your business and attract local clients by getting more feedback on how to improve your financial firm.
There are many options to get local prospects for your business.
It is important to choose the right strategy for your business. If you would like help growing locally, our team is here to help you with all the above.
Schedule a call with one of our marketing specialists today.
