
When I think about the future of marketing for financial advisors, I’m excited about two things: webinars and YouTube. Webinars are an incredible solution to get in front of your ideal prospects 24/7 online with an up-front investment of 4 to 8 hours of your time. YouTube for financial advisors is an up-and-coming way to get exposure to millions of people searching for the exact answers you’re offering.
Marketing on YouTube is still pretty much in its infancy for financial advisors. There are a handful of advisors running away with all the success. Here’s one strong YouTube Channel with over 28,000 subscribers and over 6 million video views. Jeff Rose, the marketing genius behind Good Financial Cents, has about 380,000 subscribers and publishes content almost daily on his channel Wealth Hacker.
Key Benefits Of Investing In YouTube Marketing For Financial Advisors
First and foremost, YouTube is a great way to get more traffic and exposure without paying for ads. Did you know that Google owns YouTube? This means that when people type in a search query, Google puts YouTube videos right at the top of the search results. If your video is the best (or only) video on that topic, you are automatically at the very top of search results.
Next, there is relatively low competition from other advisors. Because of compliance, lack of confidence on camera, or whatever other reason, there are only a handful of advisors using YouTube well. Any advisor willing to do a decent job on the platform will rise to the top quickly.
YouTube is a rising platform. While today YouTube is the second social media channel behind Facebook, it is growing every day. Over 88% of those over 55 years old use YouTube regularly, and that is projected to increase in the future. To invest in a marketing foundation for tomorrow, it may be wise to start a YouTube channel today.
Short-form content is a big opportunity: YouTube Shorts is very similar to TikTok, and there has been data showing that YouTube Shorts has outperformed TikTok in terms of the number of monthly users. Repurpose your longer-form content, taking bite-sized pieces of videos to publish on YouTube Shorts to take advantage of the opportunity to reach more viewers.
Watching videos helps people know, like, and trust you. While no single video is likely to land you dozens of new clients, people who have watched your videos are more likely to work with you, more educated about the topic and your firm, and more willing to take the next step.
People would rather watch videos than read. Research shows that 83% of people prefer watching a video to access information over reading an article on a topic. An easy way to boost your exposure? Create both videos and written articles on each piece of content you put out.
Video is an easy way to create content on a regular basis. Every advisor should be creating regular marketing content to stay top-of-mind. Shooting videos is one of the easiest ways to do so in a hurry. You’re already comfortable speaking in front of people on financial topics, so use that strength to get your marketing content created in an authentic and easy-to-consume format.
YouTube can help you narrow your niche! Using videos for your marketing strategy can help uncover marketing niches that you should focus on going forward. Bridgeriver Advisors’ Dan Casey has a YouTube channel with several dozen videos that have about 100 to 400 views on average. But his top 3 videos have tens of thousands of views:
- 8 Fatal Retirement Mistakes That Can’t Be Undone (65,000 views)
- Social Security Changes After the New Budget (33,000 views)
- The Good, Bad, and Ugly of Long-Term Care Insurance (22,000 views)
I would suggest that Dan dig deeper and create more content on one of these topics by creating a playlist on that topic and gaining even more traffic to his videos. By experimenting with different topics, you can understand which ones will get you the most exposure and focus on what works.
YouTube Best Practices For Financial Advisors
Narrow Your Channel’s Focus
You’re not going to win searches for “401k investing” (that award goes to this video), but guess what? If you created a video for “Maximizing Your Ford Motor Company Benefits Package and 401(k),” you would be the only YouTube search result on that topic.
Publish Regularly
The name of the game on YouTube is creating a lot of videos consistently. This manages the expectations of your subscribers and helps YouTube promote your videos. Beyond that, creating lots of videos on the same topic can help you dominate search results for those search terms. If you’re going to dive into YouTube, I recommend that it be your top marketing focus for at least a year and that you commit to publishing new videos weekly or biweekly until you reach at least 50 videos.
Optimize Your Videos for Search
Quantity over quality: If you’re going to upload content to YouTube, make sure you’re checking as many boxes as possible. Here are the areas we recommend paying special attention to for all your videos:
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Title: Name your video something people will want to click on. A lot of advisors make the mistake of not changing the title from the file name of the video (no one will want to click to watch “Video 1”). This is arguably the most important real estate, so use it well!
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Description: Don’t just add a title and a one-sentence description. Think of how your video description can complement the content in the video, serving as a mini blog of sorts, which can also help with YouTube SEO. (Do this for all videos.)
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Captions: YouTube will automatically generate captions after you publish. But you should go back into your video to make sure names and other proper nouns are spelled correctly.
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Thumbnails: Adding thumbnail images to your videos is essential because they allow you to attract viewers to your video. A well-designed image makes your video stand out from the competition and helps you get more views.
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Size: When setting up your YouTube channel, note that ideal size for channel art is 2560px by 1440px. The safe area that will display on all devices is the central area of 1546px by 423px. So be sure to keep any logos, text, or image focal points in this area, or they’ll get cut off!
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Do what YouTube asks: YouTube will often suggest taking steps, like adding end screens to videos, callout text, captions, and more. We’re firm believers in playing into the requests that YouTube makes of your account to better your chances of higher distribution.
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Note: It appears that YouTube no longer requires least 100 subscribers for you to obtain a “vanity” URL. There are now multiple URLs that will point to your specific channel. Essentially you can create a custom “handle” immediately after your channel is created and the URL to access the channel would be www.youtube.com/@handlename. (For example, Indigo’s custom URL using a handle is https://www.youtube.com/@IndigoMarketingAgency.)
Convert Your Viewers
Video views mean nothing if you can’t convert that traffic into leads.
- Links in description: At the top of your YouTube video description, offer an easy next step for viewers to take, such as scheduling a call or asking a question. Make sure you have a “Links” section with multiple calls to action: Book a Meeting, Contact Us, Take an Assessment, etc.
- Like & subscribe: Just like asking for the business of a prospective client, don’t forget to ask viewers to take the actions you really want them to take, liking your video and subscribing to your channel. People may do this on their own, but prompting viewers is something many successful YouTube creators do in all their videos.
- Callout cards: Promote subscribing to your channel or a related video at a point of your choosing during the video through YouTube’s callout card feature.
- End screen: Take advantage of the opportunity to promote your channel and other videos/playlists at the end of your video.
What Should Your Videos Be About?
The best advice here comes from Blair Kelly at FMG: “Simply keep a list on your computer of all the questions your clients and prospective clients ask. Each time they ask you a question, write it down! If they have the question, that means others do too—and it could be a great piece of content for you to record a video answering.”
In addition to answering common questions for your target audience, create videos that showcase your story, your passion, and garner emotion from viewers. Check out a video from Indigo’s founder about who we serve and why she started our firm. Think about creating videos on your team members, updates at your office, and current events.
Video length: Content that tends to perform well on YouTube tends to fall into two categories: YouTube Shorts and longer-form content. By longer-form content, those are pieces that tend to be above 7 minutes long. Your best bet is to stick to videos under 2 minutes OR around 6-10 minutes. It’s a good idea to look at your metrics to see when people stop viewing your videos to gain clarity and direction moving forward.
Considering artificial intelligence?: Check out these 11 recommended AI video generators.
Want to learn more about creating a YouTube channel? Review how to set up and optimize your YouTube channel and examples of excellent advisor YouTube channels. Do you have questions about your marketing strategy? Reach out today to schedule a free strategy call with one of our marketing experts!