Almost all financial advisors know the importance of client satisfaction. It’s a way of gauging what they are doing right and where they could use improvement when it comes to managing their firm. Most of them, however, have not thought about tracking other important data such as performance and marketing metrics.
Tracking this type of information can give a clearer picture of how a firm is doing not only with their business, but also with their marketing efforts. When this data is compared to established benchmarks and objectives you can see whether there has been progress towards reaching marketing and business goals. This valuable information can be used to help increase the effectiveness of marketing efforts, but you have to know where you started to know how far you have come.
Here is a list of important items I like to track for my clients:
- Client data
AUM, households, accounts, average household income, revenue
This type of information is probably the easiest to track and most advisors already have a system in place to collect the information – a Client Relationship Management (CRM) system. If you do not currently have a CRM in place, you can read this article to get more detailed information on where to start.
This is the foundation for seeing if your financial advisory firm (book of business) is growing, and it is also vital to keeping tabs on how your business is doing. You can use this information and compare it to other marketing metrics to find trends in what is working and what is not. This data can also show you what your ideal client looks like and help you set up a target client profile. This is important to finding the right types of clients, not just increasing your numbers.
- Website data
Sources of website traffic, unique visitors, time spent on site, conversions, sales, bounce rate
Most websites have data tracking built in. If they do not there are many options available. One that is fairly comprehensive, as well as free, is Google Analytics. But what do all of these terms mean and how do they help you grow your business? Let me explain.
Key data to track
Sources – Where the website visitors coming from. Are they clicking links from your articles, social media, advertisements, emails or search engines? By seeing this information you can know what sources are most beneficial to bringing traffic to your website.
Most popular pages – Exactly what it says. By tracking most popular pages, especially blogs, you will know that those hot topics are to focus on.
Other considerations
You can also use website metrics to see how many new/unique visitors you have compared to repeat visitors.
Behavior – How long are visitors staying on your site? What are they doing while there?
Conversions – Who is just looking around and who is taking action (using the contact us page or subscribe feature)? A financial advisor’s site is setup to generate leads, not to make a sale. If the goal is to increase subscribers to your email list you can see who is taking this action from your website compared to emails or other outlets.
Bounce rate – Will let you know who is coming to your site and then leaving without spending any time or taking any action. This may help you see where a source is not being as productive as it could be. Factors to consider include whether or not you are marketing to the wrong audience, or your website needs updating to become more user friendly. You can read this article for more information about getting the most out of your website.
- Social media data
Followers, likes, and connections
By tracking your social media metrics you can get a better picture of how well you are using your social media platforms to make important connections with current and potential clients. You can use a simple spreadsheet to track this information, or use one of the many social media tracking tools available on the market. Or, better yet, you could hire a marketing professional that has the tools and the know-how already in place. I am not going into great detail here because a majority of this information is easily accessible, but do know that it is imperative to be aware of the various ways to measure your success in the wide world of social media and how you can use this wealth information to your advantage.
Key data to track
Total Followers – Your audience. While you don’t want a massive following of people that are not paying attention to your content, it is still important to see an upward trend on a regular basis.
Other considerations
Likes/Share/Comments/Clicks – All indicators of engagement. People are doing more than just reading or passing over your content. Increases in these numbers are a good indicator of doing something right. You can use it to continue to tailor your content to your audience.
It is important to watch your follower/following ratio. You want to engage people. The more you get out there and interact with people and their content, the more likely they will be to reciprocate the action. This isn’t as important early on, but it can help you develop into a thought leader in your industry.
- Emails
Opens and clicks
Time and effort go into creating emails; there should be some time and effort put into tracking what is happening once they are sent out. If you use an email marketing service like MailChimp or Constant Contact, certain metrics are built into the reporting system. This takes the guess work out of the process. An email campaign goes beyond writing and sending an email to everyone in your address book. You want to be intentional with your communications, and the only way to know if it is working is to track what happens through it.
Key data to track
Opens – This means tracking the number of subscribers that are opening your emails. Are your emails being read or are they being sent straight to the trash bin? You need to work to keep your content relevant and avoid being “spammy.” You also want to make sure you are not getting filtered to the junk folder by using engaging but clear subject lines. If your unengaged subscribers numbers become large it may be time to clean up the list or change the way you are approaching your email campaigns.
Clickthrough Rate – While knowing if someone opened your email can be useful, it can be more beneficial to know how many people actually clicked on the links provided in the email. By looking at your clickthrough rate you can see how many of your subscribers are reading your messages and taking action. This shows you the number of engaged and interested readers.
Other considerations
Bounce Rate – This number will show you how many of your emails were undeliverable. If this number gets high it is time to clean up your subscriber/email list to get a more accurate number of people receiving your emails.
Conversion Rate – If you have asked your readers to complete an action this number can show you the ratio of those that did so. This too can show you the different success rates of various “calls to action.”
List Growth Rate – New subscribers in ratio to the number of unsubscribes. It is important to know that unsubscribes will happen, and it is okay. It is just a good idea to keep an eye on and monitor whether or not the growth rate is rising.
Sharing/Following – Is your audience finding your information useful? Are they sharing it with other like-minded people? It is important to make sure you are making it as easy as possible to share your information. If this number is low you may want to consider if any changes are needed.
Closing
There are so many ways that you can track the effectiveness and efficiency of your online marketing strategies. The key is not to get overwhelmed. It’s okay to start small, but start somewhere. Financial advisors are moving more and more to online marketing as a means to gain new clients and increase client satisfaction. There is no way to know if this effort is successful if you are not tracking the correct information. It is important to begin to focus on the metrics of the business, not just the client.
If this sounds like something that would be beneficial to your financial advisory firm, but you don’t know where to start, please contact me. As a marketing professional, I have helped many clients set up and successfully track various business and marketing metrics. I can also help you draw the correlation between this data and your marketing goals. My goal is to help you reach your goals and grow your business.