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Here’s How Facebook and LinkedIn Can Help Grow Your Practice

Social Media

Do you consider yourself too old for social media, or not experienced with it? Do you think it doesn’t apply to your business? Social media thought leader Spencer X. Smith suggests that you should suspend that disposition, because, as he contends, digital marketing has the power to grow your retirement plan practice at an exceptionally low cost. 

Targeted digital marketing through the use of LinkedIn, Facebook and other online applications is highly applicable because the industry “can now do a lot of things that it couldn’t do a handful of years ago, not just technologically but from a compliance perspective,” Smith told attendees at an April 9 workshop session at the 2019 NAPA 401(k) Summit in Las Vegas.

Smith, founder AmpliPhi Social Media Strategies, and social media columnist for NAPA Net the Magazine, explains that there are three potential audiences: those who have been on your website, those who have interacted with your social media shares, and those who have not done either. Sophisticated advertising – which follows you around the internet – works well for the first two segments, as it reminds them of your company, Smith explains, while online advertising works well for the third segment to generate a first click or initial interaction. 

Smith notes that he always hears people say they “don’t have the requisite content” or they don’t have time to do it, but he suggests starting with something simple. An example would be a blog post about a specific topic that raises interest and gets the person to click on the content which takes them to your website, where you can capture their data. In turn, this allows you to then retarget and remind them about your company, he explains.  

LinkedIn versus Facebook

As an example of how targeting digital marketing works, Smith provided a detailed overview of the key differences between how the LinkedIn and Facebook advertising applications work, comparing the pros and cons of the two platforms. 

One of the most important steps, Smith notes, is to make sure you have their cookies installed. Each has its own unique cookie, dubbed the LinkedIn Insight tag and the Facebook Pixel. Once they’re installed on your site, you can start collecting data, which allows you to retarget them for advertising about your company, he explains. This is where the “creepy stuff” comes in, as Smith refers to the ads that follow you around the internet. 

Both platforms have exceptional ways to target specific audiences by being able to tailor the ad buys by certain attributes and criteria, Smith notes. For example, Facebook has more than 50,000 traits for targeting ad buys. “In the old days, you would broadcast to everyone, but now you can really funnel down to your targeted audience,” he notes. 

For instance, you have the ability to utilize audience attributes within certain areas, job experience and skills based on a person’s profile, allowing you to target a specific niche market, Smith explains. It is also much more cost effective, as the cost-per-landing-page view can range from $2 to $4, he further observes.   

Surprisingly, Smith noted that LinkedIn is about 2½ years behind Facebook on the sophistication of the data it collects. In contrast, Smith notes, LinkedIn generally is better than others at capturing people at work, as most companies still forbid their employees from using most other social media sites. Some caveats with LinkedIn, however, are that it’s usually more expensive for ad buys and it has fewer overall users than Facebook – 600 million versus 2 billion. 

Takeaway Action Items

Incumbent upon all of this is to have some type of educational component that leads to an action item, Smith emphasizes. Examples would be registering for a conference or summit, or posting a white paper or video highlighting a certain topic that could generate a client lead. 

As for action items regarding both LinkedIn and Facebook, Smith suggests:

  • installing the LinkedIn Insight tag and Facebook Pixel on your website so you can remarket/retarget visitors with more content that’s relevant;
  • showing them a piece of content that prompts them to visit your website to learn something;
  • building a target audience comprised of those who have visited your website and those who have visited certain pages on your website (e.g., white papers); and 
  • growing and using that remarketing audience to maintain your top-of-mind awareness.

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