The New Year is always the traditional time when many companies will reevaluate their marketing strategies and make any changes that they feel may be necessary. The world finance is no difference and there are some rather novel “tools of the trade” that may be able to help bring a sub-par website into 2014 with efficiency and greater levels of customer satisfaction. While certain IFA sites will naturally cater to their very own niche market (assuming that they have found theirs), there are still some general principles that need to be taken advantage of to experience the success that may await during this coming year. Let us have a look at some of the most trending.
Niche Market Expansion
As 2014 may very well herald in the year that the economy is finally moving out of the global recession, it is a safe prediction to assume that even niche market demographics are likely to gain in numbers during the coming months. When more liquidity enters into the marketplace, customers are highly likely to desire the services of a properly formatted IFA website that is catering to a growing base. So, it is obvious that these sites need to be kept up to date and provide visitors with the latest information. This is much more likely to result in higher visitor conversion rates.
Lead Generation
For sites that are looking to expand, professional lead generation services are quickly outperforming traditional in-house marketing plans. As opposed to a “shotgun” approach to finding new customers, financial leads that are provided by a third party will be much more receptive and qualified for receiving further material. Not only will this save a great deal of time from a flat sales point of view, but those who enter your website will be much more likely to request information.
Inbound Versus Outbound Leads
Another trend that will certainly increase during 2014 is the necessity for an IFA website to receive an appreciable number of inbound contacts. In fact, much of this will have to do with the proper type of lead generation (as described above). Still, proactive hyperlinks to social media, blog posts, webinars and other up-to-date information will be much more likely to attract a more relevant client base. The obvious result is that they will exhibit a proclivity to contact the site directly through such portals as a phone number, email address or contact request form. Either way, it has been statistically found (although this figure will vary from sector to sector) that inbound leads in the financial industry exhibit conversion rates of between 60 and 80 per cent.
So, it is clear that the attitudes of this coming year are seen to be a further emphasis on many of the trends that were embraced in 2013. Such tendencies as proactive lead generation, further market expansion and a great number of inbound leads all signal the growing idea that when marketing a 21st century IFA website, it always pays to work smart as opposed to hard.
