Social media is hardly a new phenomenon, but to look at the online profiles of a number of relatively large advisory organisations, you would be forgiven for thinking it began sometime around Christmas.
There are many cases for not using the various tools out there – having the time to keep it up-to-date being one we can all relate too. But the clear benefits of using social media to engage directly with clients, when there may not be much left in the pot for costly marketing campaigns, must surely be a draw.
Take, for example, a situation like that of the banking crisis in 2008 or the eurozone government debt crisis which reached its nadir in 2009/2010, I would bet a large portion of your office’s time was spent “fire-fighting”, reassuring worried clients their money was safe (hopefully), with many man-hours spent fielding calls.
In that situation a tool such as Twitter could arguably prove invaluable. Granted, not all clients will be using social media, but let’s say 50% are – the 50% of your client base who are young professionals, earning a decent salary and who are undoubtedly tech savvy. If you could get your message out to them, quickly and in a format they use and understand, one could argue they may feel even more reassured than if they were the one who had been proactive and called you.
Lead generation
Research seems to support this. In the United Arab Emirates for example, Nigel Sillitoe, chief executive of Insight Discovery, points to a study last year by Our Mobile Planet which found 74% of the population use a smartphone and 56% of them access the internet every day. Of that 56%, 92% access social media networks, such as Twitter. It would be a fair assumption this number will only increase.
As well as supporting existing clients, there is evidence to suggest using social media can help secure new prospects. Sillitoe says business information technology tools such as Listening Post, which can be used to track individuals wishing to purchase a particular type of financial product, are of particular interest.
In one example, this tool was used by a mortgage and insurance aggregator to target individuals wanting to make direct purchases of these products. 1,099 leads were generated by Listening Post from the various social media platforms, including Twitter, with 10% of these leads actually having the desire to purchase a product. Ultimately, the aggregator converted 30% of these individuals into customers.
This may sound like a low success rate, but the point is the speed and relatively low cost of these methods, against the time spent cold calling, hosting seminars or putting together costly direct-marketing campaigns.
I’d be very interested to hear how you are using, or indeed not using, social media and other digital forms of marketing communication. You can, of course, contact me on Twitter @SimonDanaher1 or by using the comment box below.
