Marketing For Finance

Accountants, financial advisors, financial service companies, chartered surveyors, mortgage companies and insurance brokers, specialising in products such as life insurance, pet insurance and travel insurance, all inhabit this corner of the web, and they all have one thing in common: the need for visibility.

However, how do these companies gain any traction in an arena that is so tightly packed?

In such an aggressive marketplace, SEO for finance and marketing campaigns must be managed and maintained carefully to ensure that the website is performing to its full potential.

This will naturally ensure that rankings, conversion and that all-important visibility, improve, increasing the value of the company.

Finance companies for a long time did not have to make much effort to expand their customer base, but this was a time with less competition and no need for financial businesses to reinvent themselves. SEO for financial services is a necessity now.

This market was mainly monopolistic in nature and this meant that getting new customers was never a big concern.

As competition increased, many players entered the market which offered similar products or services at better prices.

This cut-throat competition forced the companies to think out of the box and invent ways to increase their revenues.

As technology took a leap, fliers became digital billboards and yellow pages evolved into websites. This necessitated the birth of a new breed of professionals, the digital marketers.

This necessitated the birth of a new breed of professionals, the digital marketers utilising the only thing they know works best: SEO for financial services.

The evolution of the internet over recent years brought along with it the biggest transformation in online marketing for finance and this transformation revolutionised the process of SEO for finance.

As the best digital marketing agency, in the Midlands we know how hard keeping up with changing technology can be and our experience enables us to make maximum use of digital platforms to give your business a boost and if we’ve convinced you of our considerable skills already, simply click here.

Why is dapa The Answer for Finance Companies?

The pressures placed on financial companies to generate business has never been greater.

The financial sector is very technically savvy, and SEO for finance and digital marketing specialised around finance is something that is becoming more and more important.

Ranking for the right terms can generate high converting traffic, and given that the finance industry is full of massive companies, generating millions of pounds, that conversion can be very, very important for smaller financial companies.

As Uncle Ben once said, ‘with great power, comes great responsibility’, and it’s similar in business, ‘with greater potential profit, comes greater competition.’

Competing in finance means going toe-to-toe with: comparison websites, high street banks, online banks, financial advisors, brokers and lenders amongst others.

So, as we’ve explained, competition is fierce, but at dapa Marketing, specialists in marketing for finance companies, we have great experience in achieving results using SEO for financial services, financial advisors and insurance companies.

 

Here you can see a case study from one of our biggest growing clients. 

 

While traditional marketing cannot be entirely replaced by digital marketing there are many drawbacks of traditional marketing which can be effectively overcome by digital marketing. These drawbacks are:

• Advertisements on television, radio or printed mediums such as newspapers are very expensive and start-ups cannot afford spending their limited funds on these
• Physical advertisements are difficult to measure because conversion rate cannot be measured.

These issues can be addressed by hiring the services of a digital marketing agency which specialise in performing SEO for finance companies, and that’s where we come in.

Digital Marketing sucess can be achieved through many methods such as: onsite SEO, web design, content marketing, social media, and PPC.

Introduction to SEO

In a nutshell, the process of optimising your website and its content in order to rank higher in search engine results is known as Search Engine Optimisation.

You may have done this yourself: if you do not get what you are looking for on the first page, you close the tab assuming there is no content available on the topic.

But you are not the only one who does this; a recent study has shown that almost 75% of internet users do not scroll beyond the first page of search results.

This makes optimisation of your website extremely important for your business so that you do not miss the attention of a potential customer as they perform an online search. In this way SEO for financial services is so important.

 

 Here you can see the average traffic based on the first ten places in Google, as you can see after 10^th place traffic is almost non-existent. 

How Can SEO For Finance Help Grow Your Business?

Ever wondered how SEO works? Check out our nifty ‘How Google Works in a Nutshell’ video. 

Imagine having an employee who does not take leave, works every day of the week, never calls in sick or comes to work late – they do as they’re told.

This is what a website is to your organisation; your blue-eyed employee. SEO rounds off the edges of this employee for you and ensures that the spotlight remains on it.

For any business, the main pain point is visitor-to-sales conversion and by putting in place an effective SEO for finance campaign with us, you can ensure that this problem is taken care of in the most cost effective way.

Without a consultant who has an experience of providing SEO for financial companies, finding your website can prove to be a tedious task for a user and quite similar to finding a needle in a haystack.

 Remember: Giving a guitar to someone who doesn’t know how to play it makes your ears bleed. So, to listen to great music you should hand it over to a rock star. The same goes for SEO, if you want top notch SEO, hire the SEO Rock Stars. And there’s no company who can rock it like dapa.

The Finance Industry

As we’ve mentioned, there is nothing on the internet which is as competitive as the financial services sector.

The search result page is like a wrestling arena where the mightiest warriors of finance battle to become the undisputed champion.

High street banks, investment stalwarts, insurance giants and many stallions strive to establish their dominance.

But there is no reason to be discouraged because this battle is not just about strength but about smarts as well.

The results page of a search engine is the ultimate leveller, all the brands are equal, it doesn’t care how big a brand you are, it is only concerned with one thing, what you have to offer.

 Remember: If what you are providing to your users is of great value to them and your SEO for finance campaign is in trusted hands then Google will ensure that your search engine rankings reflect it.

Marketing Challenges faced by Finance companies

Most of us lack a basic knowledge of finance. Understanding it can be so difficult there’s no telling how hard marketing can get. Marketing for finance is challenging and few of the difficulties faced are:

Lack of awareness

Due to the complexity of this subject there is a lack of awareness among consumers. The numbers, calculations and conditions in their advertisements make it harder for a layman to understand them. SEO for financial services increases understanding and visibility.

Quality cannot be measured

Products offered by finance companies are more generic in nature which means they do not have tangible benefits over those offered by their competitors.

Take commercial banks for example, the return on investment is decided by Central Banks and hence organisations do not have the freedom to provide better rates to get more customers.

Hence the only parameters by which one can judge a commercial bank is how fast the loans are dispensed or their ease of approval or their customer service.

Since most financial companies offer similar products, performing SEO for financial services increases the possibility of acquiring new clients and in this way, ensures that it is a step ahead of the competition.

Unexciting Products

It’s hard to create curiosity around a brand when you are talking about interest rates, insurance policies and account services, as we mentioned people don’t understand it and this tends to intimidate people.

This poses a huge challenge for marketers who need to create a campaign which evokes customer involvement, excitement and emotions.

This can only come from companies like us with experience in the market, using specialist online marketing for finance campaigns.

Regulations

A number of restrictions have been laid down by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) which further complicates marketing for financial products.

The regulatory agencies closely monitor the ad content of these companies and ensure that the criteria is met.

Few regulations are as follows:

• Displaying your fees clearly
• Privacy policy should be updated
• Display the representative APR above the fold
• Details on data protection
• Displaying the correct terms and conditions
• A responsible borrowing page

Complying with all these regulations can be challenging and hence advertising financial services is a unique specialisation which cannot be handled by an inexperienced marketing agency.

For this reason, you must utilise the services of a known SEO company using tried and tested SEO for financial services.

Remember: These challenges are difficult to tackle when traditional marketing methods are applied. However, digital marketing for finance companies is a better alternative and the rising number of financial firms using SEO services stands as a testimony to this fact.

Financial Services That Can Benefit From SEO

We typed ‘loans’ into Google, just as an example take a look at the size of the companies in the ad spaces.

 

A simple search regarding finance will reveal big banks, prominent investment advisors and other competitors. Amidst such competition, it is very difficult to find your way to the top without good SEO for finance skills.

But dapa can make this difficult task easier for you. Our SEO for financial services will allow you to connect with the affluent customers who perform a thorough research online before making a purchase or availing a service.

We will help your website achieve better search rankings through the whitest of the white SEO strategies and the traffic to your website will witness a significant surge.

The following types of financial companies can be greatly benefited by SEO:

Stock Market

If you are a shareholder looking to diversify your portfolio then trading stocks online is a brilliant way to achieve it.

Online stock trading is among the most profitable industries on the web these days. It’s hardly surprising why consumers turn to the web while researching options for mutual funds and stocks as they are provided with a wide array of information on the internet, but it’s important to remember that the most successful utilise online marketing for finance services.

Investment

The internet is the perfect destination for those who want to discover the best investment opportunities.

It doesn’t matter if you are a start-up or an investor, websites that connect funds to opportunities are among the most highly searched on all search engines.

Insurance

The trend of renewing and buying insurance policies online has become extremely popular these days.

It is fast, convenient and has all the information you possibly need and it also helps you to find the best rates among the various options available.

The following types of insurance companies can be helped with SEO services:

• Health
• Property
• Disability
• Liability
• Casualty
• Credit
• Life

Financial Advisors

 

Financial advisors help people to make the most of their financial assets by giving them a clear understanding of their investments and savings options.

They devise realistic and appropriate financial strategies for their clients helping them earn profit through their investments.

At dapa we also provide SEO for financial advisors and have constantly experienced success in raising the volume of traffic to their websites.

How Do People Choose Financial Advisors?

Choosing a financial advisor is a daunting task for a potential customer, but if they need help, they will preserve and if they are looking for an advisor in your niche, you’d best make sure you are at the top of the pile. They will know quality when they see it.nancial Advisors?

In the past word-of-mouth recommendations from family members and friends were a financial advisors bread and butter; but times are changing and changing fast.

It’s not easy for customers to figure out if a financial advisor has done a good job until months, years or even decades after the advice has been given; which means it can be difficult for a financial advisor to convince potential customers they are a trust worthy fountain of useful knowledge.

So, as a financial advisor what can be done?

Well, speaking to an online specialist is a pretty smart first step. At dapa Marketing, we are able to help our customers with an effective SEO for financial advisors marketing campaign. We can help you get your name in front of people and more importantly create a trust worthy online presence that potential customers can rely on.

What Kind of Financial Advisors Can We Help?

We understand that financial advisors come in all different shapes and sizes, and we create distinctive campaigns that don’t pigeon hole them as ‘just another client’.

We also know that not everyone defines themselves as a financial advisor, we’ve seen mortgage advisors, investment advisors, pension advisors and financial planners come under this umbrella.

We’ve also worked with brokers, dealing with:

• Mortgages
• Insurance
• Investments

Of course, whatever they call themselves, they are all regulated closely by the Financial Conduct Authority and we pride ourselves on ensuring that we keep abreast with the latest legislation and changes in the financial industry.

Investment; Pensions; Retirement and Financial Planners

Since 2013, advisors working within these realms were instructed they must charge for advice and carry high level qualifications. Before this, most were paid commission based on charges on the products they sold.

Advisors providing advice on the products, may also provide life insurance and mortgages.

Many will offer all round financial planning, which means they will advise on all of aspects of someone’s financial needs.

These advisors are classified as independent or restricted. The independent financial advisors can recommend all types of retail investment products from firms across various markets.

Restricted advisors may be restricted in the type of products they offer, or the number of providers they are able to choose from.

Mortgages and Equity Release

Mortgage advisors and equity release experts must have specialised qualifications within this niche. These kinds of advisors are still permitted to be paid by commission on any mortgage or equity release product they sell.

Mortgage advisors might offer a wide range of market services, although this doesn’t always mean they can suggest any mortgage from any lender as some lenders offer only directly to the public.

Insurance Product Brokers

These financial advisors are known simply as ‘insurance brokers’. Similarly, to mortgage advisor, they are paid by commission on insurance products they sell.

Insurance brokers will help clients deal with claims you make and will surf the market for you to make sure you’re getting the best deals.

An insurance broker who deal in different niches will be able to find their client the best deal depending on the different on the niche they operate in. However, some will offer a wide range.

Why dapa is the Answer for Financial Advisors Looking for Visibility…

Now we’ve illustrated the differences between financial advisors, the breadth of our knowledge will certainly show that we know that everyone is different and if you’re looking for visibility and you recognise your niche in the types of financial advisors we have mentioned above then look no further than dapa Marketing.

Apart from these, various other types of financial services that can benefit from SEO include the firms which provide accountancy and tax services, banks and building societies, pension providers and wealth management.

Much of our work here at dapa is about staying updated with the latest changes in SEO and the search engine algorithms.

We make our client’s website SEO friendly and at the same time allow them to maintain their brand voice and identity, which enable you to do generate leads for your finance company.

SEO Techniques for Finance Companies

Building links and analytics has always been an important part of SEO for finance, but these days SEO is all about content and social media presence.

Publishing useful content and promoting it through social media has also proven to be an effective SEO technique.

These methods are extremely useful when it comes to generating leads for a business and gaining high-quality back links which is the foundation of SEO.

However, a major problem faced by financial companies such as investment banking and other types of firms is complying with regulations.

Nobody wants to pay a hefty fine for providing wrong or misleading information.

Despite these strict regulations, dapa has earned a reputation for achieving results using SEO for financial companies, using many techniques such as the following:

Competitor Analysis

If you are absolutely dumbfounded about developing a marketing strategy, then a good way to start can be to analyse the backlinks and ranking status of your competitors.

As we have seen above, SEO for financial services is an extremely competitive arena and analysing your competitor’s success can help you devise your own strategy.

Remember we are only talking about analysing their path to success and not copying it because merely copying a strategy does not always lead to success.

Analysing their strategy involves doing some research on their website to review their backlinks and content as this can give you a fair clue about what they are doing, where they need to bridge gaps and which are the sites that are linking to them.

There are many tools available to SEO agencies like us, which can perform competitive analysis and identify the online resources and news which are helping your competition develop PR.

With the help of this data and technique we can help create a strategy and in the case, that you have already developed one, it will help you to evaluate whether you are taking the right actions or not.

Remember: As a renowned SEO agency, dapa has been able to design unique SEO for finance strategies for our clients. We believe that Finance is an ever-changing industry and merely applying similar techniques, a common approach by many digital agencies, will not help you to set yourself apart from your competition.

Gain Quality Backlinks

In the eyes of Google, backlinks are the up votes that your site gets from other websites. Hence each back link that you build is similar to putting a vote for yourself in the ballot box of search engines.

They are extremely important in SEO as they can drastically improve the stature and rankings of your website.

However, it should be noted that a website should focus on receiving natural and organic backlinks because getting them from spam websites can attract the wrath of Google and puts the website at a risk of getting penalised.

It is common knowledge that search engine algorithms over the years have started revolving around the quality of content.

While the quantity of content is important as well, by measuring factors like how much time a visitor spends on your website, Google encourages websites to post quality and useful content.

Content is the best way to establish a connection with your target audience.

If people find your content to be enjoyable and find your posts interesting, then it strikes a personal chord with them.

If you are providing a technical service, it’s important to make content rich in technical information and easily digestible.

On the other hand, if your website is lifestyle related then your content should be enjoyable and easy to read. For such websites the tone of communication between you and the user should be friendlier.

A website should always try different methods of interacting with their audience such as YouTube, social media etc.

This can ensure that the business thrives despite the rising competition in the sector. This will ensure recognition from your target audience on all platforms and in turn help the popularity of your website.

On-page optimisation

It is important for websites to have a structure which can be easily understood by both Google and the users behind the screen.

It should not create confusion in the minds of users and should leave them with a rich informative experience that makes them a frequent visitor to your website.

On-page SEO focuses on all such aspects which improve the structure of the website.

We have several expert developers who can help you achieve the following:

• Add unique Meta titles for each page
• Including semantic and long tail keywords in your content
• Provide links to social media
• Wrap Headings and titles in H-tags
• Provide internal links to relevant pages
• Unique title tags
• Keyword rich URLs
• Meta descriptions that ‘sell the click’
• No canonical issues
• xml
• No duplicate content
• On page sitemap
• Good useful content
• Well-structured anchor text
• Appropriate headers
• Up-to-date robot.txt
• Image tags
• No hidden text

Unlike most of the other industries, financial services need to earn their customer’s trust by establishing their credibility.

For example, the presence of broken links is a declaration to Google that you are not maintaining your website properly.

Such a site is unlikely to gain the confidence of customers as they will have inhibitions about trusting you with their finances.

Remember: It doesn’t matter how beautiful the design of your website is or how usable it is to the visitor – if it doesn’t rank in that all important first page then your efforts may not pay off.

Going Mobile

With the widespread use of smart phones, almost 50% of the traffic to any website is from mobile devices and this trend is not going to slow down in the near future.

 

Here you can see the drop off in desktop traffic and mobile overtaking it as the most popular device to access the internet in 2014.

 

Hence, along with retail and e-commerce companies, it is also important for finance companies to have a responsive mobile site. According to the latest algorithms of Google, a website which is mobile friendly in nature is more likely to rank higher in SERPs.

Therefore, not having a responsive website can result in the loss of leads and traffic. It can also be important in some cases for businesses to develop apps to run alongside their website.

Such factors can have a significant contribution in raising you through the rankings.

A few ways in which you can achieve mobile optimisation are:

Page Speed

Mobile devices have inferior hardware compared to computers and most of them operate on lower internet speeds.

Due to this reason, page speed is more important for mobile users than it is for computer users. Hence optimising websites for mobile users is extremely important and this can be achieved by having less coding, reducing redirects and leveraging browser caching.

Avoid Flash

Using flash in mobile websites does not make sense as mobile devices cannot play flash content.

Hence if you want to give the mobile users a good experience and do not want them to miss out on the fun you should consider using HTML 5 instead of flash.

Avoid using pop-ups

Pop-ups can prove to be more annoying on mobile sites than it is on desktop sites as it can be difficult to close them on a mobile device.

This can lead to a high bounce rate which can greatly affect your search engine rankings.

Keywords

 Here you will see Google’s Keyword Planner 

 

The growing importance of content has not affected the popularity of keywords in the eyes of Google.

It is not expected to lose prominence either as it is an integral factor to measure how relevant your content is to the user’s search queries.

Hence keywords are still equally important in the process of creating SEO for finance campaigns and this makes keyword research extremely important.

Keyword research will reveal the latest trends of users and provide a valuable insight into the needs and intent of users.

By finding the keywords that are relevant to your business you should be able to create content that drives quality traffic to your website and thus improves your rankings.

Content

‘Content is King’ is a line that you will definitely come across when looking for ways to optimise a website. This is definitely the best advice that can be given to any finance company looking an SEO for finance campaign.

Content lets the user know how knowledgeable the site is about the services it is providing and this can create a huge difference in the number of visitors coming to your website.

By having a good strategy for content in place can help establish authority and this help to build brand value. Providing unique and useful content will ensure that you are deemed a market leader in your niche.

Content can be great for your visibility as it increases your chances of being found.

It is the ultimate choice of Google and it never misses a chance to tell you this.

Content does not only mean blogs, it also includes developing creative videos, infographics and tools that can provide the information that your user is expecting from you.

They can also include slide share presentations and downloadable content such as e-books.

Blogging

In the finance industry creating blogs can be an excellent way to create engaging content.

There are various topics to write about as the finance industry constantly evolves in line with the economy.

Accessing information has become much easier than it ever was and as an author of a website you should not face difficulties in searching for topics on which you can write blogs.

However, content has to be aimed at improving the user’s knowledge and not at selling them your product or service. In this way content ensures that a lot of knowledge is commonly available which increases overall awareness and thus websites which are informative will always reap benefits of their efforts.

Articles / Hubs

An excellent way to gain quality inbound links and referral traffic is writing good quality articles and hub pages. It is also a good way to reach out to the financial community.

Providing ‘How To’ guides is an effective method to attract new visitors.

Press Releases

The finance market is extremely volatile and this volatility ensures that you always have new stories to write about.

There can be many updates such as introduction of a new service, update of a section of your website, redesign of your domain or a special offer.

Distributing press releases on any of these issues and this can prove to be a valuable link building resource.

Infographics

Infographics are visually appealing and they offer concise answers to common customer queries.

It facilitates understanding and increases the chances of it being shared on social media given they are very visual and appealing.

Check out our example here.

Guest blog posts

A network with journalists can help reach out to a wider audience with quality content.

This will improve your chances of gaining great links from valuable domains. Content can also be used as a great leverage in order to obtain organic links.

Design that gains trust

If a website is poorly designed, then even the best SEO and content strategies will be of little value.

Hence in order to hold a dominating position among competitors, it is necessary to gain the trust of its users.

Any financial website should be up-to-date with the latest trends and it should also be able to provide the users precise information on various subjects, especially in a sector that relies on transparency when it comes to marketing for finance.

The website should be designed in such a way that it retains the attention of the user while they are on the page with attractive fonts, pictures and colours.

It should be in complete accordance with your brand guidelines.

Calls-to-action should be clearly visible at the end of the page and they should stand apart from the rest of content in order to grab the attention of the user.

This makes it easier for the users to take the next step towards purchases your services.

It is worth remembering that SEO can only be effective in bringing visitors to a website but getting them to purchase the product or service is the bigger challenge.

IP Activity

Web log reviews can be extremely useful as they can help you to identify repetitive unusual activities from an IP address.

For example, if a website witnesses a significant amount of unnatural traffic from a particular location then you can block them.

Content Checks

Plagiarism is a rising concern as competitors find stealing content to be much easier than creating unique content. However, the finance sector should be careful of intellectual property getting duplicated by a rival.

Link Analysis

Analysing the incoming links daily is extremely important. It can ensure that sites stay on top of any potential risks.

Unnatural patterns can be quickly spotted by sorting links by anchor text, IP address and volume.

Why dapa For Financial Services?

Harry Potter needed the cloak of invisibility to fight his enemies, you don’t.

So shed it.

You need visibility and dapa can help you gain it. When it comes to providing SEO for financial advisors, finance companies, insurance firms, brokers and lenders, we know our way around SEO better than most digital marketing agencies.

While others acquire work on the basis of promises, we believe the proof is in the pudding. So contact us today to begin your path to success using SEO for finance.