Reading Time: 7 minutes
Personal Branding and Building Influence for Finance Leaders

Personal Branding and Building Influence for Finance Leaders

by | 15 Jan 2025 | Digital Marketing, Finance

Reading Time: 7 minutes

In the modern world of finance, who you are is just as important as what you’re offering.

While not everyone wants to become a financial content creator, it’s worth taking note of the value of a personal brand across the industry. This is particularly true for finance leaders. As a central financial figure in a business or specialism, you need a personal brand that displays your knowledge, authority, and the unique value you bring to the financial sphere.

In this article, we’re going to dive deeper into the use of personal branding for finance leaders and influencers. From how to build your brand to navigating the strict regulations of the financial industry, learn how to differentiate yourself from the crowd with key insights from the Woya Digital marketing team.

Understanding the Importance of Personal Branding in Finance

Finance industry customers are – understandably – careful of who they place their trust in. This makes it a tricky industry to break into, especially if you’re looking to make your mark as an individual rather than as part of a larger financial organisation.

This is where personal branding comes in. As an effective marketing strategy for individuals, it helps you:

  • Build credibility and trust: In a highly regulated, competitive industry, personal branding helps you prove your reliability to your consumers, earning their trust. This might be through cultivating word-of-mouth referrals or marketing your accreditations, for example.
  • Differentiate your brand: Stand out amongst a sea of experts and advisors with a unique selling point (USP). This is a central aspect of personal branding that identifies what sets you apart, whether that’s an area of expertise, an innovative approach, or a commitment to sustainability. By defining and communicating your USP effectively, you can make yourself more attractive to your ideal audience.
  • Strengthen professional connections: The stronger your personal brand, the more connections you can focus on building within your industry. When you emphasise your expertise and unique perspectives, you’ll naturally begin to attract like-minded professionals, including mentors and collaborators. With a clear understanding of who you are, you’re more likely to build relationships founded on mutual perspectives.

But how do you start building a personal brand? Read on to explore:

  • How to define your brand identity
  • Developing valuable content
  • Leveraging social media
  • Establishing credibility

We’ll also look at how you can monitor and evolve established brands, ensuring continued growth and success.

Defining Your Brand Identity

The pillar of a strong brand identity is understanding what you bring to the table.

By clearly defining your personal brand, you can communicate it effectively and consistently.

Here are some key steps to get started.

Carry Out A Self-Assessment

Reflect on what you want your personal brand to embody. Consider your strengths – particularly those that make you unique – and the values you hold. These should sit alongside your areas of expertise, and be backed up with accreditations, certifications, and a strong portfolio.

Some questions to ask yourself at this point include:

  • How can I integrate my core strengths and values into my work?
  • What unique experiences or perspectives can I bring to my industry?
  • How do I want my audience to perceive me?
  • What long-term goals do I have, and how can I align these with my personal brand?
  • How do I want my services or brand to impact my area of the finance industry?

Define Your Target Audience

Once you’ve clarified who you are, it’s time to define who your audience is.

Do you guide and help others expand their financial knowledge? Maybe your target audience is a younger demographic. Or, are you engaging with other financial professionals or organisations in a B2B capacity?

Identify Your Brand Voice

Your brand voice should reflect your identity and resonate with your target audience. It can also help you differentiate yourself from competitors, build authority, and gain trust.

Consider who you’re trying to reach and begin cultivating a brand voice that effectively engages your market.

Outline Key Differentiators

How will you differentiate yourself from other established finance leaders and influencers? Your USP should fill a gap in the market, or at least bring a fresh spin on what’s already on offer.

Consider the different ways you can communicate your unique skills, knowledge, and experiences. You can then look to incorporate this into your social media profiles, visual branding, and logo etc. to convey your values and align your branding aesthetic with your USP.

Developing and Sharing Valuable Content

As a financial leader, the content you create and share will help you:

  • Gain the trust of your audience
  • Share value with your audience
  • Build your brand authority
  • Differentiate yourself from your competitors

With that in mind, it’s crucial you invest time in developing a strong content marketing strategy and generating valuable resources that give your audience a reason to listen and engage with your brand.

Choosing Your Types of Content

Explore different types of content that will bring the most value to and reach your target audience on the platforms that they frequent, and align with your goals.

  • Educational Blogs: Blogs provide a great opportunity to display and share your knowledge, build a clear brand identity and tone of voice, and show your readers the value you’re offering.
  • Case Studies and White papers: Create documents that explore the real-world applications of your financial services or knowledge, showcasing success stories and using data to add evidence to your statement.
  • Industry Insights: Position yourself as a thought leader by sharing insights into the financial industry. Share up-to-date info with the latest trends and build authority through relevant knowledge.

What Formats Are Best For Your Content

Alongside types of content, consider formats.

Publishing blogs and articles to your website will support your search engine optimisation (SEO) efforts, and help to increase traffic to your site. Posting articles on third-party sites can help you reach a wider audience, gain authority, and build powerful backlinks back to your website, especially if you manage to publish guest posts or digital PR articles to reputable financial platforms.

Other formats you might want to consider include:

  • Videos
  • Podcasts
  • Webinars
  • Infographics
  • Social media content

Share Content Consistently

When it comes to content, consistency is key. The best way forward is to create a content calendar that outlines your goals, key topics, platforms and publication dates.

You can also repurpose content to maximise its reach and make good use of your insights. For example, use snippets of blog posts to create social media updates. This not only makes your content more visible but also ensures your message remains cohesive across channels, cultivating that clear personal branding.

Leverage Social Media Channels Effectively

Social media has become the cornerstone of personal branding. Whether you’re hoping to become an influencer or land a job in a top organisation as a finance leader, social media can help you gain attention, stand out from the crowd, and prove your credibility.

When it comes to choosing platforms, we would recommend finance professionals being active on LinkedIn and X. Create a YouTube channel for all your video content, and if you’re targetting a younger demographic, add Instagram and TikTok to the list.

LinkedIn Strategies

LinkedIn is a platform that will allow you to cultivate a professional image that’ll be seen by other professionals. You should post to this platform frequently, and ensure that you first carry out profile optimisation to increase your visibility. Look to viral posts for content inspiration, and sharing, but remember to make your own content unique.

LinkedIn personal branding

Twitter Tips for Financial Professionals

Twitter is ideal for rapid, regular insights. This is a great place to build authority as an up-to-date industry leader by reacting to news and engaging with other experts in your specific field. Focus on value-heavy, snappy statements and responses that engage and inform.

Engaging With Followers

No matter what social media platform you choose, it’s important to engage meaningfully with your audience. Respond to comments, make good use of finance-related hashtags, and join in (or create) larger social groups. Think of this as another opportunity to network alongside in-person events.

Maintaining Compliance

If you’re using social media to promote your financial services or share money management advice, ensure you remain compliant with regulations (including protecting sensitive information and never misleading your audience) to avoid landing in hot water with any regulatory body.

Establishing Credibility and Building Trust

A statement that bears repeating: to be successful in the financial services industry, you need to build credibility and trust. So, how exactly do you do this?

  • Showcasing Expertise: Highlight your certifications, qualifications, and professional milestones in your profiles and content to demonstrate credibility.
  • Partnering with Reputable Publications and Events: Look into publishing articles on third-party websites (guest posts and opinion pieces) and speaking at relevant events, on webinars and podcasts to expand your network.
  • Media and PR Opportunities: Use digital PR to engage with the media, sending out press releases to share or comment on relevant news. Respond to press enquiries promptly and professionally.
  • Client Testimonials & Success Stories: Use authentic, specific endorsements to showcase the impact of your work.
  • Search Engine Optimisation: Invest in SEO marketing to establish yourself as a notable presence and boost visibility, helping you compete with other financial figures and gain organic traffic. By securing top spots for relevant search results, your target audience is far likelier to find you, and trust that you’re a credible source.

Monitoring and Evolving Your Brand

Like most marketing techniques, personal branding doesn’t come to an end once you’ve ticked off every task on your to-do list. This is an ongoing strategy and one that you need to continue if you want to build and then maintain momentum.

To continuously evolve and monitor your brand, we recommend:

  • Tracking Impact and Engagement: Use metrics and data to follow the success of your work, and to guide you on your future strategy.
  • Continuous Improvement: Use your metrics to pinpoint the strategies that work and the strategies that don’t, and refine your process moving forward. You can also gather feedback from your target market, ensuring the content you create is in line with their expectations.
  • Personal Brand Audits: Carry out thorough assessments of your online presence as your career evolves. Does your content align with your changing goals? Are you speaking to the right audience? How could you adjust your messaging to be more in line with the industry?
  • Remain Compliant: Stay up-to-date with compliance changes and ensure all of your content is in line with industry standards.

Start Building Influence With a Strong Personal Branding Strategy

From following in the footsteps of successful financial influencers to securing positions at top global companies, personal branding can support you in many aspects of a financial career. Get started by defining your unique values, showcasing your expertise, and focusing on building credibility for a solid strategy.

Of course, that’s far easier said than done. If you’re struggling to get started or build momentum, it’s time to turn to our experts for help.

With years of experience working within the financial services industry,  and backed by an experienced team of marketing professionals, Woya Digital can help you develop an approach that’s rooted in results for a personal brand that’s guaranteed to build influence.

Expert Tips to Inject Fresh Energy Into Your Email Marketing Campaigns This New Year

Expert Tips to Inject Fresh Energy Into Your Email Marketing Campaigns This New Year

by | 2 Jan 2025 | Digital Marketing, Email Marketing

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Email marketing has long been a way for brands to drive conversions, maintain communications with customers, and introduce new launches, offers, and events. One of the big advantages is the ability to contact engaged recipients who have previously made a purchase, opted into newsletters or expressed an interest in your products or services.

However, anyone who has an email address will also know they are flooded with promotions at this point in the year when brands are keen to focus on conversions during the post-festive slump.

If you’re keen to stand out from the crowd, generate above-average campaign returns, or ensure your subscribers are fully connected with your plans for the year ahead, our seven creative tips will boost the success of your marketing—whether you’re sending your first-ever emails or need a tried-and-tested template you can rely on.

Designing Email Campaigns With Consistency and Concision

Tip one isn’t so much a recommendation as a fundamental to developing email campaigns that really resonate, respecting that your audience probably has minimal time and might decide whether or not an email is worth even opening within a fraction of a second.

Great email campaigns aren’t just designed to look great and incentivise viewers to open, read more, discover the exciting news or offers inside, and—essentially—react accordingly.

Amazing branding is also instantly recognisable, and even if you’re at the start of your journey as a business, you want to avoid clutter, rambling paragraphs of text nobody will read, or overwhelming your audience with too much, too fast and too soon (hint: save it for your landing pages).

A simple, well-thought-out email that viewers recognise and can scan quickly is ideal, with plenty of white space to ensure the interaction doesn’t feel chaotic and too demanding of their attention.

Creating One-Line Email Marketing Subjects and Headers to Enhance Open Rates

Next, you’ll want to consider how you title your email; and the obvious answer is rarely right.

Take a quick browse of your inbox, and you’ll likely see dozens of generic ‘Happy New Year’ messages—from companies you barely know—and tons of ‘massive discount’ subject lines that feel samey at best.

Think about your email subject as an appetiser, an incentive, an introduction and a way to give your audience a reason to care rather than simply a boring or predictable sentence that unveils what’s inside.

Keep it short, snappy, and contextual, and don’t forget to add a little personality. A funny, silly, or downright unusual email will be opened countless times more than one that promises little in the way of newness – it’s always good to use intrigue and human curiosity to your advantage.

Placing Equal Importance on Email Graphics and Creativity as Content

Emails are largely text, and it’s pretty hard to embed a video, GIF or large graphic without it taking far too long to load, putting your customers off, or detracting from the point you want to make.

The trick is to think about using carefully selected visual elements to add interest and entertainment to the text within your content, ensuring that you’re not relying on your viewers to do more reading than necessary to take away the messaging you need them to absorb.

Using colours, images, and fonts can capture psychological responses to cute, fun, and user-friendly graphics, which can establish a point or communicate an idea faster than written words.

Making it Personal, Contextual and Highly Relevant

Customisation is king, and consumers who feel seen, valued and part of a community are substantially more likely to engage with a brand, click on offers, react to a promotion or convert from interested viewers to loyal buyers if they feel you have made an effort to customise your communications just for them.

Whether this means inserting user names, cross-referencing past behaviours and purchases, or segmenting your email list to ensure your campaigns are structured slightly differently according to the demographics or preferences expressed by each group, it can have a marked impact.

If you’re fortunate enough to have a subscriber list, say 100,000 strong, it’s incredibly likely that you can split that database into several groups and provide more bespoke messaging to each segment based on all the information you know about their interests, priorities and pain points.

Adapting Email Marketing Campaigns for a Seamless Mobile-Based Experience

Needless to say, a proportion of your subscribers are almost certain to view emails on a phone or tablet, and gone are the lazy days when one format would work for everyone.

Instead, brands need to assume that each recipient could open an email on a phone and press delete or send an email to junk in a flash if the content is blurry, wonky, misaligned or impossible to read.

Optimising for mobile doesn’t have to be laborious or complex. It simply means paying the right amount of attention to layout and formatting, using big, impossible-to-ignore buttons, and avoiding long-winded content, which, as we’ve seen, is typically less effective.

Steering Clear of a One-and-Done Mentality

We often use A/B testing, and it’s much more than seeing which version works best or a tiebreaker between two designs or styles you like equally. It’s more like trying to adapt one message or campaign to satisfy as many of your subscribers as possible and avoiding the temptation to make important marketing decisions based on your own preferences or assumptions.

Getting to know what your audience loves and reacts to means you can pick a version that you know will generate more conversions and clicks without guesswork or hoping your audience will think and react the same way you do.

Our advice is also to ensure analytics and performance monitoring are embedded in your marketing activities rather than sending a campaign into the world and crossing your fingers. Analytics show you who has opened each message, who clicked on which CTA, and which fell flat.

Making tweaks and edits as you go is part of successful marketing, and the adjustments you make along the way are informed purely by your audience’s wants, needs, and responses.

Designing Call to Action Buttons as a Starring Feature

Finally, if you’re depending on your email campaigns to deliver, you need to check that your CTAs aren’t buried, difficult to find, or ambiguous. These clever buttons don’t just encourage reactions but also show your viewers exactly what you want them to do and how to do it.

A compelling, clickable, and highly visible CTA provides a steer for your viewer. The more they jump out of the page (or the screen), the easier it is for a subscriber to click and feel that whatever response you’re trying to gain is an obvious response.

We hope these tips and tricks provide a cheat sheet for immersive email campaigns that exceed your expectations. As always, if you’re stuck for inspiration, floundering at the first hurdle, or unclear on where to start, you are welcome to contact the content and digital marketing specialists at Woya for more tailored guidance, advice, and assistance.

The Importance of Lead Generation Marketing for the Finance Sector

The Importance of Lead Generation Marketing for the Finance Sector

by | 15 Oct 2024 | Digital Marketing, Finance

Reading Time: 7 minutes

The UK is a global financial hub with London at the epicentre.

While this is excellent news for professionals who are passionate about all things finance, it also poses some pretty serious competition for businesses in the financial sector.

There are countless bookkeepers, accountants, financial advisors, and independent banks up and running, making it challenging for new or smaller businesses to stand out. Add to this the current demands for digital transformation and evolving customer expectations, and you’ve got a lot of hurdles to overcome.

The answer to succeeding in such a competitive industry? Lead generation marketing.

In this article, we’re going to dive into what exactly lead generation marketing is, why marketing for the finance sector is so crucial, and the best strategies for financial institutions to employ.

What Is Lead Generation Marketing?

Lead generation is the opposite of waiting for your target audience to come to you. Instead, you take action by identifying and engaging potential customers (your leads) through a series of marketing strategies designed to boost interest in your business.

In the finance sector, there are a few unique aspects of lead generation that it pays to be aware of before you implement a strategy. These include:

  • High-value clients: Rather than casting a wide net and catching low-quality leads (those who are unlikely to convert or will spend less with your business), you need to focus on high-value clients. These are the customers who are likely to stick with your business for the long term and bring in a significant amount of revenue.
  • Long decision-making cycles: In the finance sector, the time between the initial engagement with your business and making a sale can typically be long. Clients are careful with choosing who should handle their finances and are likely to check reviews, shop around, and need multiple interactions before possibly converting.
  • Strict regulations: Marketing for the finance sector involves plenty of laws and regulations. For example, it’s vital you don’t mislead consumers, are clear about any relevant interest rates, and include representative APR examples.

It’s also important to consider the differences between business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) lead generation marketing.

B2B marketing tends to focus on building relationships with clients who already know what they need. The decision-making cycle can be longer with a demand for multi-faceted lead nurturing. In B2C marketing, the decision-making process should be made as simple as possible, with a focus on quicker transactions and ease of use.

B2B marketing tends to be geared towards clear features of your financial services or products, and won’t shy away from using a dash of industry jargon. You’re speaking to an audience who is (usually) already educated about what you’re offering.

B2C marketing is more relaxed and might focus on value and emotions, putting the jargon aside for more accessible messaging.

It’s vital that you know whether you’ll be implementing B2B or B2C lead generation marketing before you kickstart your campaign.

Why Lead Generation Is Crucial For Financial Institutions

Lead generation marketing for the finance sector isn’t an easy business, so why bother? Let’s take a look at exactly what this strategy brings to the table, and why it’s always worth your time.

Customer Acquisition

With over 80,000 financial businesses in the UK vying for a share of the market, focusing on customer acquisition is crucial.

Lead generation marketing is a targeted strategy that begins by defining your niche. This helps you focus your time on quality prospects and, through clever research, gives you the strategies needed to win them over.

It helps you attract new customers by making sure you’re in front of the right people at the right time, too. In business, that sort of serendipity is invaluable.

Building Trust and Credibility

In an industry where you’re often handling client money or advising on how to acquire, save, and grow their funds, trust is crucial. Lead generation marketing allows you to build relationships with your potential clients and establish credibility.

This strategy emphasises nurturing through consistency and transparency, allowing you to showcase your expertise and address questions reliably. By doing so, you help prospective clients form a clear understanding of your business and why they can confidently choose your financial services.

Regulatory Compliance

We’ve already touched on the importance of following regulations when carrying out marketing for the finance sector, but it’s worth going into a little more detail before we move on.

Regulatory compliance isn’t optional. If you don’t follow UK advertising standards then your marketing is likely to be removed and you could face fines and penalties.

This isn’t an area that you can be a little cheeky with, either. The rules are there in black and white, and there’s no wriggle room allowed. Some of the regulations outlined by the Advertising Standards Authority include:

  • Being clear about what your financial product or service is, and not taking advantage of an audience who might not have a strong financial knowledge.
  • Offering free material alongside short advertisements that further explain the deal or contract on offer.
  • Including the basis used to calculate any interest.

If you’re worried about complying with UK regulations, your best bet is to work with a team already experienced in compliant lead generation marketing, like our team at Woya.

High-Value Relationships

Lead generation focuses on quality over quantity – always.

It does this by implementing strategies designed to target long decision-making cycles and focus on serious leads. Lead generation marketing pinpoints your target audience, helps you to understand them and emphasises the importance of targeted campaigns to show off the value that your business brings to clients (both B2B and B2C).

A pretty crucial aspect of lead generation is the use of data. From social media metrics to website analytics, you’ll use data to direct future marketing campaigns and streamline your efforts for an overall boost to your ROI.

Key Lead Generation Strategies for the Finance Sector

Around half of professional marketers consider lead generation to be a top business priority. Our hot take on the topic? We’re surprised it’s not more than 50%.

At its core, lead generation helps you identify and convert the clients who will generate your business’ revenue. That makes it extremely important, to say the least. So, how can you get started?

To gain more insight into what lead generation marketing for the finance sector involves, we’ve taken a look at some of the key strategies. These are techniques used and trusted by our team, giving them the Woya seal of approval.

Content Marketing

Kick off your lead generation marketing strategy with a focus on content marketing. Informative and authoritative content can attract new leads and help them move along your marketing funnel.

From blog posts to podcasts, content is a fantastic way to show off your industry knowledge and establish your business as a thought leader, building trust that moves beyond the features of your products or services.

There are tons of different forms of content that you can create including: White papers (particularly for B2B marketing), case studies, and financial webinars.

We’d also recommend incorporating testimonials into your content marketing strategy. With over 80% of UK consumers trusting reviews, this is a smart way to boost the credibility of your marketing messaging.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO is a lead generation method that involves organically placing yourself in front of your target audience. Unlike traditional advertising, this isn’t invasive – it simply helps leads already looking for a business like yours to find you.

SEO helps you rank for keywords and phrases that your target audience is searching for in Google, and other search engines. For example, your keyword research might identify that ‘accountants for small businesses’ is a frequently searched term. Optimising your website to rank for it could bring more viable leads your way.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

PPC bypasses the lengthy process of SEO for an near-instant marketing method.

This method of lead generation marketing involves paying for a sponsored position in search engines for relevant keywords. So, for example, rather than using SEO strategies to rank naturally for ‘accountants for small businesses’, you’d simply pay for a spot at the top of the SERPs (search engine results pages).

Email Marketing

Email marketing is a smart way to engage leads who are already in your marketing funnel. It’s particularly useful for creating personalised, segmented messaging that tackles different leads’ needs directly.

For example, if a lead gave you permission to email them when they took an action such as downloading your whitepaper on tax compliance, you’ll know they’re looking for information about tax. Emails that market your tax-related services or resources, therefore, are more likely to engage them.

We also recommend using software to add your leads’ names to your marketing. These personalised emails are more likely to be opened, making it a simple way to improve the efficacy of your lead generation marketing.

You must follow best practices for email marketing in the finance industry. This includes following data protection laws when storing client email addresses and other information.

Social Media Marketing

Social media is a useful tool for sharing your marketing messaging with both B2B and B2C clients.

For B2B clients your focus would be on relevant platforms such as LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter). For B2C clients, you may focus more on platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and Facebook.

We particularly love social media marketing for building those all-important, long-term relationships with your leads. Consistent, high-value content sharing will create repeat impressions and encourage your leads to interact with your business as they gain trust in your financial services.

Another important aspect of your social marketing strategy is paid social ads. With an audience of billions of monthly users, targeted, well-formulated ads can help you reach new leads and keep those in your marketing funnel actively engaged.

Best Practices For Lead Generation Marketing

Not all finance sector marketing is created equally. To give your campaign the best chance of standing out from the crowd and turning leads into clients, let’s take a quick look at best practices:

  • Compliance and regulations: Be vigilant that all of your lead generation activities meet industry standards and follow UK laws. This includes advertising standards and data protection standards.
  • Tailor your marketing: By tailoring your content to individual clients (or segments) through personalisation, you create far more engaging campaigns.
  • Continuous optimisation: Lead generation marketing isn’t designed to be stagnant. Use data and metrics to continuously refine your campaigns and keep your strategies focused on results.

Last of all, work with professionals. We might be biased, but we don’t think your lead generation marketing can get any greater advantage than the help of an experienced team. And…

That’s Where We Come In!

At Woya Digital, we’re experienced experts in lead generation marketing for the finance sector and have a stellar reputation to prove it. We offer services specially tailored to finance businesses and, with a niche knowledge of nurturing leads in this industry, we can take your marketing to the next level.

Want to learn more? Get in touch today to talk more about your lead generation.

Understanding Conversion Rate Optimisation – CRO

Understanding Conversion Rate Optimisation – CRO

by | 30 Sep 2024 | CRO

Reading Time: 7 minutes

You’ve got a beautiful website with all the bells and whistles, but it just isn’t securing sales. What’s up with that?

It’s a very relatable scenario and one that a lot of businesses struggle with.

When you’re driving traffic to your website but not satisfying your goals, it’s time to evaluate how you’re guiding visitors to convert. Your audience needs clear prompts to take action, and it’s your responsibility to provide them.

This is where we’d like to introduce you to conversion rate optimisation (CRO), a handy little strategy that plays a major role in website success.

Understanding Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)

Before diving into the deep end of conversion rate optimisation, let’s chat about exactly what this organic form of marketing actually is.

What Is CRO?

CRO is the process of improving your website so that it encourages users to take action (also known as converting). This might mean they make a purchase, sign up for your newsletter, or download your whitepaper; whatever you want your target audience to do, CRO encourages them to do it.

This is similar to how physical shops use layouts to push specific purchases and increase average order value (AOV). If you’ve ever noticed lots of little add-on items in the line for the checkout, for example, you’re seeing in-person CRO in action.

With website CRO, though, you’ll be working on optimising elements and features – including calls to action and web copy – to boost conversions without needing to attract more leads. There’s also a lot of data involved, ensuring your optimisation is based on evidence that’s specific to your business.

Why Is CRO Important?

As a business, implementing CRO is essential to get the most out of your website. You’ve got a digital presence already, but now it’s time to ensure your website is fuelling conversions, boosting customer retention, and producing a healthy return on investment (ROI). Otherwise, what’s the point of having a site at all?

It’s also worth remembering that improving conversion rates can be far more cost-effective than acquiring new traffic. Customer acquisition can cost between 5% to 7% more than customer retention, making CRO a better option for your business budget.

How Does CRO Work?

To learn more about why conversion rate optimisation is such a great marketing strategy for businesses, let’s take a peek at how it works.

The CRO Process Simplified

Woya Digital, CRO is an important part of what we do. Here’s a quick run-through of a simplified version of our CRO process:

  1. Data Collection – Every effective CRO strategy begins by gathering information on your existing website, including how visitors interact with different pages and your current conversion rates.
  2. Analysis – We’ll identify those points where visitors back out of conversions, hesitate or drop off your site altogether. These are clear areas where improvements are needed.
  3. Testing – As changes are implemented, they’re tested to see which solutions see the best results. This allows us to refine strategies and ensure your website optimisation is based on evidence rather than guesswork.
  4. Implementation – The CRO solutions that see results will be applied to your website permanently, driving conversions long after our work is done.

Tools Used in CRO

We have a pretty large fleet of web development tools at Woya, adding to the precision of our CRO. Two of the main categories of tools we use are:

  • Analytics tools: Software like Google Analytics and website monitoring tools provide lots of juicy insights into the performance of your site.
  • A/B testing tools: We use A/B testing tools to compare different solutions for the same problem, analysing the results of each so that we can make the right choice for your specific business target audience

One of the main reasons we use these sorts of tools and software is so that we can provide a CRO approach that’s completely tailored to you. Rather than using generic data or broad studies, we can learn from the numbers on your website to guide decisions that are unique to your business.

Key Components of Effective CRO

Ready to dive deeper into how you can boost conversions and enhance business performance? Let’s check out some of the key conversion rate optimisation components that drive growth.

Understanding Your Audience

CRO relies on a deep understanding of your audience, including what they want from your website and the triggers that will encourage them to convert.

For example, suppose we find out that your audience is motivated to take action when they receive an offer. In this case, we can explore whether highlighting a discount code would increase conversions and AOV. We might also discover that they want simplicity when browsing, and creating more intuitive navigation will lower the bounce rate.

This understanding isn’t isolated to the start of the project. We carry out customer analysis throughout CRO, using surveys and feedback forms to guide the direction of your optimisation.

Website Design and User Experience (UX)

Of course, how could we talk about CRO without mentioning website design and user experience (UX)? The on-page elements and function of your site have a direct impact on your credibility, brand perception, and user satisfaction, all of which dictate whether or not a lead will become a client.

Two main components we recommend starting with to improve UX are:

  • Navigation: We ensure that your layout follows audience expectations and guides them naturally towards a conversion. With almost 40% of users leaving a website that isn’t easy to use, this is a key factor in the success of your site.
  • Load speeds: For every 1 second that your website takes to load, you could be losing 10% of your website traffic. On the other hand, reduce load times by just 100 milliseconds and you could see a 1.1% increase in conversions. The fact of the matter is that site users won’t wait for your website to load, so you need to ensure it’s speedy if you want them to stick around long enough to convert.

Compelling Call-to-Actions (CTAs)

Your CTAs are one of the most important aspects of conversion rate optimisation. They’re the culmination of all your efforts and mark the moment you ask your audience to take action.

The way you write, design, and place your CTAs will have a significant impact on their success. Part of our CRO services involves testing different CTA formatting, including:

  • The colours used
  • Where the CTA is placed on the screen
  • Whether it’s within a button or not
  • The best action-oriented language to use.

Common CRO Techniques

The key components of CRO outlined above provide the foundations for a high-performing website. Now, let’s explore the techniques we use to drive conversions and bring tangible results to your business.

A/B Testing

We briefly mentioned A/B testing earlier in the article, but what actually is this?

To put it simply, A/B testing is the process of creating two versions of your website with slightly different features to see which performs better.

For example, we might have a red and a blue “Buy Now” button that has performed well in preliminary feedback sessions. We then put both live in an A/B test and use data-driven results – such as which one was clicked on more – to work out the permanent choice for your site.

Landing Page Optimisation

Landing pages are areas of standalone content based on user search intent. For example, if your audience frequently searches ‘SEO for Financial Services’, you might create a landing page specifically for this target keyword that provides information that’s relevant to the topic. They’ll also (of course) include a prominent CTA.

These pages are crucial for conversion rate optimisation as they remove other aims and distractions to focus solely on the intended conversion. They’re clear, concise, and fulfil user search intent, giving your UX a boost and reaching specific segments of your target audience.

Simplifying Forms

A user on your website might need to fill out a form in order to contact your team, download a resource, or subscribe to a series.

In terms of CRO, the main way to optimise your forms is by simplifying them. The fewer the fields, the higher your conversion rate, so only ask for essential information.

Your forms will also need to be responsive across devices, clear to see, and easy to understand.

Improving Content Quality

From your text and images to videos and downloadable resources, your website is a hive of content. During CRO, we’ll make sure each and every piece is up to scratch.

This means we’ll assess the level of quality across your content, looking at some key points including:

  • Does it answer user questions?
  • Does it address user pain points?
  • Does it appear professional?
  • Is it clear, concise, and consistent with your brand image?
  • Is it tailored to your target audience?

Your value proposition should be immediately clear in your content if you want to boost conversions. If it’s confusing, full of jargon, or not relevant to your target audience, you’ll end up with a higher bounce rate and lower conversions.

Our content marketing team believes in straightforward communication that highlights what makes your business unique and how you can help your target audience.

Benefits of Implementing CRO

Did you know that the average conversion rate across industries is 2.9%? If you want to get ahead of your competitors, you need conversion rate optimisation and a strong marketing strategy on your side – and here’s why:

Increased Revenue

By streamlining your UX based on customer feedback, including engaging CTAs, and creating intuitive navigation, you maximise the effectiveness of your website. This reduces the necessity for traffic-boosting ads, helping you save money on marketing by making the most of your organic audience.

As your conversion rate increases, you’re also likely to see a boost in sales, raising your business’ revenue for a cost-effective, long-term approach to growth.

Better User Experience

From load speeds to intuitive features, the majority of CRO ties directly into improving user experience.

Optimising for conversions, for example, involves reducing friction points that might prevent an action. This could be a form with too many questions or messaging that isn’t clear. By focusing on quality and clarity, you make it simpler for users to complete desired actions, boosting conversions and UX simultaneously.

Our marketing team at Woya Digital are experts at establishing better website performance through CRO. To tell you more, we thought we’d give you a little sneak peek into how our conversion rate optimisation works. Here are some of the basic steps you can expect:

  • Assess your current performance – We’ll record your current conversion rates and identify the areas for improvement that will see the greatest ROI.
  • Set clear goals – We’ll work alongside your team to ensure our CRO solutions align with your business goals. What specific actions do you want visitors to take?
  • Start small – We opt for quality over quantity and will start with small changes that can create big differences. This lets us test the water with your audience, using analytics to guide the future of the project based on our initial results.

Get In Touch With Our SEO Marketing Agency

We won’t lie to you, conversion rate optimisation is challenging. You need a fleet of software, the ability to interpret data, and the creativity to implement solutions based on those metrics, which isn’t easy when you’ve got a business to run.

To learn more about how we can tailor CRO to your business or to kickstart a conversion-boosting project, get in touch with our team today.

Tactics to Integrate Patient Education into Healthcare Marketing Campaigns

Tactics to Integrate Patient Education into Healthcare Marketing Campaigns

by | 17 Sep 2024 | Digital Marketing, Healthcare

Reading Time: 5 minutes

As part of our ‘ask the experts’ series, we asked professionals working in the healthcare sector about the link between patient education and marketing. 

In marketing, now more than ever, it is important to take a look outside and gather differing opinions and insight. We live in a world of channelling algorithms, so taking the opportunity to ‘ask around’ can provide valuable insight for digital marketing strategies and online visibility campaigns.

What role does patient education play in healthcare marketing, and how can it be effectively integrated into campaigns? Here is what a few thought leaders have to say:

    • Empower Practitioners to Educate Patients
    • Differentiate with Educational Content
    • Build Trust with Knowledge
    • Demystify Therapies Through Workshops
    • Establish Expertise with Informative Content
    • Educate and Convert with Email Series

Empower Practitioners to Educate Patients

Patient education is a vital aspect of healthcare marketing, but it’s true power lies in empowering practitioners to champion patient care. We believe that when healthcare providers are well-equipped with the right tools and knowledge, they can become advocates for patient education, which in turn enhances the overall quality of care. By focusing on empowering practitioners, we can drive a more informed, engaged, and proactive patient base.

For instance, we launched a campaign that provided practitioners with educational resources, such as guides and other resources on effective communication strategies and the latest healthcare trends. These resources helped practitioners feel more confident in their ability to educate patients about their health options. As a result, these practitioners became more proactive in discussing preventive care and treatment plans with their patients. 

This approach not only improved patient outcomes but also positioned our platform as a trusted partner in advancing patient care. By empowering practitioners to lead the charge in patient education, we foster a more collaborative and effective healthcare environment.

Jamie Frew, CEO, Carepatron
Jamie Frew-Featured

Differentiate with Educational Content

Patient education is a cornerstone to building trust and empowering patients to make informed decisions. By integrating educational content into marketing campaigns, healthcare providers can differentiate themselves as credible sources of information while also addressing patient concerns and questions. 

For example, we incorporated educational videos and blogs into our marketing strategy to explain the benefits and risks of various procedures. This not only helped potential patients feel more comfortable and informed but also increased engagement by answering common questions upfront.

David Hill, MD, Plastic Surgeon & Medical Director, Fulcrum Aesthetics & Surgery
David Hill-Featured

Build Trust with Knowledge

Patient education is key in healthcare marketing. It builds trust by empowering patients with knowledge, making them more engaged in their care. To integrate it effectively, focus on clear, actionable content that addresses common concerns. For example, a campaign on managing diabetes could include tips, videos, and tools to help patients control their condition, positioning your brand as a trusted resource.

Chandler Yuen, Digital Marketing Specialist, SNF Metrics
Chandlyer Yuen-Featured

Demystify Therapies Through Workshops

Patient education plays a crucial role in healthcare marketing, as it equips individuals with the necessary tools to make informed health decisions. By incorporating accessible and straightforward resources into marketing campaigns, healthcare professionals can effectively address patients’ common concerns and misconceptions. One effective strategy I employed was developing a workshop series designed to demystify the therapeutic process, which helped alleviate clients’ anxiety about seeking therapy. 

Creating a supportive environment for information sharing empowers clients to actively participate in their treatment plans. Such an educational approach not only fosters patient-centred care but also improves adherence to prescribed medications and therapies. The positive responses from clients reaffirmed that understanding the rationale behind treatments enhances their commitment to their mental health. This emphasis on education cultivates a more engaged and informed patient population.

Kristie Tse, Founder & Therapist, Uncover Mental Health Counseling
Kristie Tse-Featured

Establish Expertise with Informative Content

When marketing your services, providing educational content gives potential patients valuable insights into health conditions, treatment options, and the importance of preventive care. This helps them understand their health needs and encourages proactive engagement. For example, a clinic that offers webinars or informative videos about managing chronic illnesses can attract patients who are looking for guidance and support. By positioning yourself as a trusted source of information, you not only address immediate healthcare concerns but also establish your expertise.

To integrate patient education into marketing campaigns, first identify the specific health topics or issues that resonate with your target audience. This could be anything from managing chronic conditions to understanding preventive care options. Once you’ve pinpointed these areas, develop educational content that is both informative and easy to understand. This could include blog posts, infographics, videos, or even quizzes that encourage interaction.

Maria Knobel, Medical Director, Medical Cert UK
Maria Knobel-Featured

Educate and Convert with Email Series

When someone signs up for more information, my goal is to genuinely help them reduce their medications and improve their health. I create a series of emails that link to blogs where I provide educational videos and written content on how to get well – all at no cost. Over time, many of these individuals become patients or purchase products from my website. 

I also provide ongoing education to my patients, requiring them to watch 60 videos over the course of a year to help improve their health. This approach has made a significant difference in both compliance and results.

Dr. Jonathan Spages, Doctor, Author, Advanced Natural Health Center

Patient Education and Healthcare Marketing

At Woya Digital, we find that when patient education has been integrated into healthcare marketing campaigns, this provides a strategic approach to not only enhance engagement, but also to foster trust and potentially improve patient outcomes. 

To fully capitalise on these opportunities, we would always advise to embed educational content into your existing online marketing channels, for example websites or social media platforms.  This allows clear conversion goals to be established, which is a critical efficacy measurement, allowing the evaluation of impact and return on investment (ROI). 

By consistently tracking and optimising key metrics, healthcare organisations can refine their marketing strategy to deliver more effective campaigns that resonate with patients and achieve measurable success. Full integration will also ensure that your educational efforts align with your broader marketing goals, providing customers with the information they need while simultaneously reinforcing brand credibility. 

The Benefits of Webinars for the Financial Services Industry

The Benefits of Webinars for the Financial Services Industry

by | 6 Sep 2024 | Finance, SEO

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Digital tools power the modern finance industry.

In fact, 80% of global financial businesses state that improving the quality of their digital experiences for customers is a crucial strategy. This is alongside another 80% of banks that are looking to accelerate their technological capabilities, signalling widespread uptake.

The key takeaway? The digital revolution has already begun, and it’s up to businesses to keep up.

One area that financial brands should be looking at in particular is digital communication, and how webinars for the financial services industry could better connect them to customers.

From generating new leads to enhancing brand authority, these remote seminars have simplified global reach.

Want to know more? We’ve got you. In this article, we’ll take a look at why webinars are so relevant within the finance industry and how SEO can help you get the most out of your online events.

What Are Webinars?

Webinars are basically the online version of seminars. A group of people come together using a digital platform (like Zoom, for example) to listen to a speaker – or speakers – discuss a specific topic.

In the world of finance, for example, you might host a B2B webinar on recent corporation tax changes or a B2C webinar discussing the relevance of cryptocurrencies in contemporary finance. Those are just a couple of off-the-bat ideas.

Rather than simply reading from a presentation in an hours-long monologue, financial services industry webinars focus on interactivity. Not only is it possible to see the host’s computer screen and follow their research or presentation, but there are also frequently:

    • Question and answer sections
    • Interactive polls
    • An area to chat with other attendees

This dynamic way of sharing information makes webinars ideal for the finance industry, where clear communication is key.

When discussing complex topics, like legal regulations or tax, the ability to interact ensures the audience keeps up with the conversation, can pose questions, and stay engaged throughout. It also gives the host more feedback on whether all attendees have understood a certain topic, or whether a little more time is needed to explain the subject in further detail.

Webinars are an effective medium for educating clients, showing your thought leadership, and converting leads into paying customers by establishing clear competence in your field.

What Are the Benefits of Webinars for the Financial Services Industry?

Okay, so you know what a webinar is, but why is it important for financial businesses? We’ve dipped our toe into a few of the benefits already, but let’s take a look at what exactly you can gain from financial service industry webinars in closer detail.

Client Engagement and Education

If you’re looking to engage an intrigued audience, webinars are the way to go. You can use a variety of mediums to keep your leads hooked, from pre-prepared videos and presentations to interactive Q&As.

This isn’t just relevant to the topic at hand, either. By fully engaging your audience, you begin to nurture your leads, building relationships based on interactive discussions and a mutual interest in finance (be it from the business or the customer’s perspective). This strengthens trust, gives insights into your brand, and sows the seed that you’re a reliable business to work with.

Converting Leads into Clients

For attendees who have spent some time in your marketing funnel and are on the cusp of converting, webinars provide the perfect final digital touchpoint. You put a face to the business and give your leads a chance to talk with you directly.

You also have the chance to offer additional resources, talk about how you can help individual leads, and impress with your financial knowledge. Through these techniques, you clearly display your business capabilities and prove why you’re the right team for their financial needs.

Cost-Effectiveness and Reach

As an effective way of nurturing and converting leads, webinars are incredibly cost-effective. The fees and logistics associated with hosting a webinar are minute compared to in-person seminars and conferences.

You don’t have to rent a space, kit it out with branded goods, and provide catering for your attendees. Instead, a webinar can be as simple as members of your team on Zoom, with pre-prepared resources made by your business, making it simpler to organise and a whole lot cheaper.

The online nature of webinars also allows you to reach a global audience with ease. There are no issues around location and travel, making your event instantly more successful through the simple power of convenience.

The SEO Benefits of Financial Services Industry Webinars

At Woya Digital, we’re financial services SEO experts. So – of course – we’re going to look at webinars from an SEO perspective, analysing both their benefits for your existing SEO strategy and how SEO can boost your webinar’s reach.

First of all, let’s talk about the SEO benefits of webinars for the financial services industry.

Creation of Valuable Content

Webinars are classed as valuable content, meaning that they bring rich, in-depth information to your target audience.

You can then repurpose the information in your webinar in the form of transcripts, blog posts, and infographics. These are wonderful for showing off your relevance to specific topics and boosting your domain authority (DA), pushing you up the search engine results pages (SERPs) for greater visibility.

Increase Average Visit Time and Increase Engagement Time

By including your webinar on one of your web pages, you can keep them on your site longer whilst they watch your discussion. This should drastically increase your website’s average visit time, showing search engines that your audience finds what they’re looking for on your site.

You could potentially see this increase in engagement rates (fall in bounce rate – the number of users who click off your website without engaging), which is a well-known ranking factor.

Generate Valuable Backlinks

Link building (the strategy of securing links to your website from other websites) is a key aspect of SEO.

By publishing your webinars on your website after they’ve finished – alongside content generated to compliment your event – you create a valuable resource. This makes third parties more likely to link to your site or to share the content on social media, generating high-quality backlinks that pinpoint your financial business as authoritative and reputable.

Utilising Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are more specific than short-tail alternatives, honing in on your niche target audience.

For example, a short-tail keyword might be ‘SEO services’. A long-tail keyword could be ‘SEO services for finance businesses’, which would have a lower search volume but be less competitive and far more targeted towards potential customers.

Your webinar content provides the perfect opportunity to utilise long-tail keywords relevant to the topic you’re discussing. This could see your site move up the SERPs, reaching a specific segment of your audience who are highly interested in what you have to offer.

Understand What Makes Your Audience Tick

The wonderful interactivity made possible through financial services industry webinars bridges the gap between you and your target audience. Why is this so important for SEO? Because it helps you learn what your leads are interested in.

By keeping an eye on the conversations going on between guests, the questions asked, and poll results, you gain a deeper understanding of the topics your audience wants to know more about.

Use this to guide future content (including blogs, social media posts, and podcasts) to boost the number of clicks and keep your leads hooked. The more interest your content generates, the higher up the SERPs you’ll go.

Compliance and Security Considerations

In the financial services industry, webinars must meet compliance and security requirements.

This includes data security. By using encrypted communication tools and following GDPR and The Data Protection Act (UK relevant), you can maintain privacy among your attendees. For example, if you’re storing any guest data, it’s important to protect it with firewalls and get rid of the information when it’s no longer relevant to your business.

It’s also smart to implement restricted access controls for your webinar, ensuring only authorised guests can join the discussion. Security measures like password protection and two-factor authentication can also boost safety.

Any financial data shared during webinars for the financial services industry should be compliant with UK laws and financial regulations. Knowingly promoting scams, misleading attendees, or sharing false financial information is a criminal offence under UK law.

Optimising Financial Webinars for SEO

If you’re hosting a financial services webinar, you’ll want to see the maximum number of people attending or visit on-demand. That’s where SEO and digital marketing comes in.

By using the same techniques that push your website up the SERPs, you can also better advertise your webinar and reach a wider, interested audience of potential attendees, which is especially good for on-demand webinars, as-live webinars or even basic reruns.

To help boost your numbers, here are some top SEO tips to help webinars for the financial services industry stand out:

Choosing the Right Topics

Your webinar needs to address a topic that resonates with your audience. You can pinpoint exactly what your leads want to hear about through:

    • Analysing frequently asked questions
    • Surveying your audience
    • Looking at content that’s performed well for you in the past
    • Keeping updated on industry changes

It’s also crucial that you research keywords as part of your topic creation. Understanding what your target market is actively searching for will guide the focus of your webinars.

On-Page SEO Strategies

Give your marketing material the best chance in the SERPs with on-page SEO. This includes:

    • Optimising titles, descriptions, and metadata with keywords
    • Sharing links to your content on social media
    • Using press releases to gain social proof traction and essential backlinks

These strategies should be used for any content on your website that advertises your webinar, including blog posts and videos.

Post-Webinar SEO Strategies

We’ve already mentioned publishing your webinar once it’s taken place, but this is a point that’s worth repeating. Recorded webinars make wonderful evergreen content that can bring plenty of SEO value to your website, including boosting engagement analytics and providing opportunities for plenty of keywords.

Using specialist software to maximise the potential return with on-demand reruns can be amazingly effective with the least input. As-live webinars are particularly popular and allow you the opportunity to spread your ROI over multiple sessions.

Create additional content to support your financial services webinar SEO before and after it’s taken place. Blog posts, eBooks, and infographics are all wonderful ways to bolster the success of your webinars.

Tracking and Measuring Success

A crucial aspect of a successful SEO strategy is measuring your results. Track the analytics available for your webinar and related content, analysing:

    • Attendees
    • Engagement of your content
    • Website traffic fluctuations
    • Conversion rates

Understanding your data informs your next move, showing you what content caught the attention of your audience and how you can streamline your next webinar to align your business goals with what your potential clients are looking for.

Support With SEO for Financial Services Industry Webinars

Webinars for the financial services industry are an excellent way of bolstering your digital-first strategy, enabling communication with a wide reach. But, a webinar only works if you secure attendees.

Make sure your webinar marketing stands out with the help of our team at Woya. We have years of experience working on both long-term and standalone financial SEO campaigns, and pushing businesses up the search engine results pages.

From keyword research and optimised blog content to digital PR and Google Ads, we offer full-service financial SEO to put your webinar in the spotlight. Get in touch with our team and we’ll be happy to answer any questions or kickstart your webinar SEO.

Local SEO For Financial Advisors

Local SEO For Financial Advisors

by | 2 Sep 2024 | SEO

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Stand out among your local competitors and gain a notable, visual online presence, by harnessing the power of local SEO.

Local SEO for financial advisors can drastically boost the quality and quantity of organic traffic to your website and so generate good local leads. With 4 out of 5 Google searchers looking for local information, this is an aspect of your marketing strategy that you should not ignore.

In this guide, we’ll dive deeper into what exactly local SEO is. Whether you’re looking for financial advisor SEO or hoping to attract some new clients for your finance business, give yourself a headstart with our expert advice.

What is Local SEO?

Local search engine optimisation (SEO) is a digital marketing strategy that helps you stand out and rank higher in search engines for online searches in a specific area – usually the town or city your business is based in. 

Some of the main core components involved in local SEO include:

  • Claiming your Google Business Profile (GBP)
  • Optimising your Google Business Profile
  • Encouraging reviews from local customers
  • Incorporating localised keywords
  • Building a network of local citations on local sites (mentions of your business on a website that isn’t your own)
  • Creating content with a local focus

Many of these techniques slot neatly into the broader SEO strategy, simultaneously boosting your overall search rankings for non-geographic search queries as well as your local online presence. For example, earning a local citation often comes with an inbound link, which brings far-reaching SEO benefits and boosts your website’s credibility in the eyes of search engines.

Why Local SEO is Non-negotiable in 2025 - infographic from Woya Digital

Local SEO Services to Boost Financial Advisors Local Search Engine Rankings

At Woya Digital, we always encourage local optimisation for bookkeepers, accountancy, local offices or branches and financial advisors – but, why? Let’s take a look at just some of the reasons we know this is an important digital marketing strategy:

Visibility in Local Search Results

When you Google “digital marketing in Chichester”, do you know whose profile owns one of the top spots? You guessed it – Woya Digital. We’ve worked hard on our local SEO, to ensure we achieve this result.

Woya Local SEO

Hitting those top spots in Google brings a huge amount of visibility from a local audience. When a user searches for financial services in your area, and you’re one of the first results they see, then you’re going to win big on the leads front.

This is because most searchers want a quick solution to their query, and they trust Google to show results that are credible, reputable, and fit their needs. That’s why over 25% of all clicks go to the very first search result, and anything beyond the first page will see leads plummet in comparison.

With local SEO for finance, you put your business exactly where your local audience can find it.

Targeting Local Clients

With local SEO, you’re actively targeting the clients in your area, showing them that there’s a great solution to their financial concerns, and it’s local.

This local targeting will also start to earn you a reputation around your neighbourhood. The more glowing reviews you have, the higher you’ll be placed in the SERPs, and the higher you’re placed the greater your local brand awareness. It’s a lovely cycle of SEO goodness that’s fantastic for boosting your business.

Improving Your Competitive Advantage

We already mentioned that most people click on the first few results when searching. If clients are looking specifically for a local finance business, optimising your online presence to rank higher gives you a competitive advantage. 

This is because you have the first chance to grab your audience’s attention. You’re literally raised above your financial competitors, shining the spotlight on your business and giving your local audience a clear reason to choose you.

Benefits of Local SEO for Financial Advisors and Financial Planning Businesses

It’s clear that local SEO for finance is a smart move for businesses looking to reach leads in their local area, but we’ve only touched the surface of the benefits. Let’s dive into some more of the perks of this in-demand strategy.

  • Higher quality leads: High-quality leads are those that are more likely to convert. These users are searching with intent, actively looking for services that you offer. By targeting local customers, you’re actively bringing high-quality leads to your site.
  • Enhanced User Engagement: Optimised local listings can push you to the top of the search results, boosting your reputation and earning trust from your audience. This also drives user engagement, encouraging your target audience to click on your site, browse your content, and convert.
  • Improved Conversion Rates: By putting your business in front of a searching audience looking to engage with a local business, you should see an impressive increase in your conversions. This is largely due to the specifics of the search; you’re optimising for an audience searching for your exact type of business in your exact area, making them far likelier to become paying clients.

Local SEO for those in the financial industry isn’t just about online marketing, either. By highlighting your contact details, getting noticed on Google Maps, and showing your local audience exactly where you’re located, you could see an uptick in foot traffic, too.

Core Components of Financial Services and Financial Advisor SEO

At Woya, we offer local SEO services to pull your business up the search engine rankings and establish your finance company as a strong competitor in your area. How do we do this? 

Google Business Profile Optimisation (GBP)

Every business should claim and optimise their Google Business Profile, especially if you’re working in the financial services industry or are a financial advisor. This is an easy way to make your way to the top of the SERPs and has some great, user-friendly features that make it easier for potential customers to find or contact your business.

As part of our local SEO services, we’ll set up and optimise your business GBP.

Local Keywords

Your content needs to match the search queries of your target audience. We’ll research local SEO keywords, looking at the areas people are searching for and how they’re searching for them.

Our wonderful team of copywriters and SEO strategists will then put these keywords to good use so that Google can match your site to the right searches.

Local Citations

Consistent local citations – with mentions of your name, address, and phone number – are important for your business. Not only does it boost SEO by showing search engines that you’re a credible brand with a good reputation, but it also spreads brand awareness online.

Online Reviews

Reviews are a key aspect of your GBP, and can also help you get noticed on third-party review sites, like Trustpilot. Lots of positive reviews show search engines that you’re a trustworthy site for their searchers, give you a competitive edge, and encourage users to convert.

That’s why we always focus on encouraging reviews from your existing clients when working on local SEO for finance businesses.

Localised Content

We tailor your online content to a local audience for a number of reasons, including creating natural opportunities to use localised keywords and solidifying your identity as a local financial authority.

From blogs to guest posts and PR articles, we’ll give your publications a local SEO boost.

Mobile Optimisation

When searching for a local business on the go, clients are going to use their phone – it’s the age we live in! To keep your brand image professional and create a positive customer experience, we’ll optimise your website for mobile use.

Responsive designs (those that work across devices) are also a key factor in SEO, bringing a whole wealth of advantages to your finance-based business.

The Next Steps In Local SEO for Financial Advisors

Whether you’re a bookkeeping company, freelance accountant, or financial advisor, our local SEO generates online visibility to bring customers to you on and off the web.

From attracting high-quality leads looking for local financial services to strengthening your presence in the community, our local SEO strategies have what it takes to get your business noticed.

Ready to take the next step? Get in touch with our team at Woya to learn more about our local SEO services for financial services companies.

Technical SEO for Finance Websites

Technical SEO for Finance Websites

by | 21 Aug 2024 | Finance, SEO

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Did you know that the average load speed of top-ranking Google pages is 1.65 seconds? It can’t be a coincidence that this is around a second slower than average speed across the internet, with those snappy sites constantly scooping up the best spots on the SERPs. 

It all boils down to technical SEO, the unsung hero of digital marketing that’s constantly working away behind the scenes. It’s not flashy, it has no frills, but it does do a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of your website rank.

To learn more about technical SEO for finance websites, we’ve put together this guide to provide an understandable overview of what the technical SEO element is all about.

What Is Technical SEO?

Technical SEO involves improving the foundations and functionality of your finance website. Through a range of different technical strategies, we make it simpler for search engines to find, understand, and rank your website. In turn, you’ll see your site moving up through the ranks, landing those coveted top spots that get around 55% of all clicks (28.5% of which go to the first result). 

A lot of technical SEO focuses on back-end development (the coding side of your site). Some of the core components include:

This a coding-heavy strategy that tends to be more complex than keyword optimisation or writing meta descriptions (both of which are important for on-page SEO). You need an intricate knowledge of how websites are built and improved, making it a job for our SEO experts at Woya Digital.

Why Do We Conduct Technical SEO?

Technical SEO for finance websites is an essential, heavy-duty part of any SEO strategy that takes a lot of time and knowledge. 

Improving Site Performance

Techniques like optimising site speed, improving responsiveness (how a website adjusts to different devices), and creating secure connections all improve the performance of your website.

By implementing technical SEO, websites become snappier and more user-centric. Think of it like polishing your digital presence until it sparkles, which reflects wonderfully on your brand image and improves the way in which your website fulfils its purpose.

Our finance SEO services will also uncover faults in your site. Little errors can impact your site performance, and by fixing them we create a more seamless experience for a site (and business) that’s taken seriously.

Enhancing User Experience (UX)

Those wonderful site performance benefits we’ve just mentioned also have a direct impact on the user experience. By improving performance, we also improve the useability of your platform from the customer’s perspective, making it easier and more enjoyable to navigate

It’s well-known, for example, that over half of users will abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load (and it can be even less when browsing on smaller devices). The fact, therefore, that technical SEO improves load speeds makes it more likely that your visitors will be happy to stick around.

Search Engine Crawling and Indexing

Technical SEO techniques improve the crawlability of your site. This refers to the method search engines use to analyse different web pages, ‘crawling’ them for information in order to index and rank the pages. The better your technical SEO, the easier it is for your web pages to be crawled and understood by Google, and the higher they’re likely to rank.

We implement a number of different clever tactics to make your website easier to crawl. For example, we might do a cleanup of your site structure and create a clear, logical sitemap to submit to Google. We also use internal linking to better map out your website, ensuring that none of your content is missed when the search engines come crawling.

Boosting Search Ranking

As with all of our finance SEO services, the desired result of technical SEO is to help your website rank higher in the SERPs and provide an improved user experience *(UX).

Each method we utilise is known to influence rank, and with our experience of financial SEO services, we can put a tailored spin on your strategy for the best results.

Benefits of Technical SEO for Finance Websites

We’ve taken a look at some of the main reasons we carry out technical finance SEO, but these are just the tip of the iceberg. Let’s hone in on some more of the specific benefits you can expect:

  • Better mobile experience: We focus on responsive design when carrying out technical SEO. This ensures that your website instantly adapts to different devices, including smartphones and tablets, without losing any functionality. All of your features will be in the correct place and your website will work seamlessly to cater to all of your leads, no matter how they browse.
  • Better search engine visibility: By improving your technical SEO, we make sure your web pages are clearly visible to search engines. This ensures that all of your keyword-rich blogs and locally optimised content are indexed quickly, adding countless SEO points to your website and boosting visibility.
  • Enhanced website security: Google wants to present results to its users that they can trust, which is why it favours sites with solid security in place. As part of our finance SEO services, we use SSL certificates, firewalls, HTTPS, and other security measures to keep your users and your data safe.
  • No duplicate content: Duplicate content is a big no-no. Search engines penalise or at best, ‘ignore’ pages or websites that use duplicate content. This includes content published on other websites and on different pages throughout your website. As part of our technical SEO for finance businesses, we’ll check that your site contains original content only to avoid search engine penalties.
  • Easier navigation: Technical SEO creates better-functioning websites, including in terms of navigation. By creating logical site structures and navigation breadcrumbs, exploring your site becomes intuitive for users and potential leads can find the information they need to convert with ease.
  • Reduce bounce rates: By improving site speed and navigation, you should see a reduction in your bounce rate. This is the percentage of users who leave your site without having clicked on another page. A high bounce rate indicates to search engines that your website isn’t fulfilling user needs, which can trigger a decline in your rank. A low bounce rate has the opposite effect, improving your SERP position and boosting conversions.

A Quick Look at Our Technical Finance SEO Services

At Woya Digital, we offer comprehensive finance SEO services for businesses looking to increase their online visibility. Drive high-quality leads to your website and boost conversions with our SEO experts.

To give you a quick overview of what to expect when working with us, here are the steps in our SEO Marketing Success Strategy:

  • Discovery and strategy – we start every technical SEO project by sitting down for a chat with your business to identify goals. We’ll then create a detailed strategy that aligns your requirements with an evidence-based approach to boost your rank.
  • Technical SEO analysis and audits – we’ll carry out an audit of your website to highlight the areas that need to be improved, pinpoint opportunities for quick SEO gains, and identify issues to fix.
  • Implementing technical SEO techniques – after analysing your site, we’ll begin the complex technical SEO strategies to improve the back end of your website. This can include improving your load speeds, removing duplicate content, and creating index-friendly sitemaps.
  • Analytics and reports: to ensure our technical SEO is doing what it should, we’ll constantly monitor analytics to gain insights into your rank position, bounce rate, lead generation and more. We provide you a monthly SEO report to show you how things are progressing.
  • An agile process: we put insights and metrics to good use, using data to direct the future of your technical SEO campaign and constantly streamline our processes to bring the best results to your business.

Technical SEO is an ongoing process, so the work doesn’t stop here! We’ll continue improving your website performance and indexing new content constantly.

Taking the Next Steps in Technical SEO

Technical SEO is complex and should be carried out and managed by a SEO experts who know what they are doing.

That’s where we come in. With our experienced team on your side, you don’t have to worry about load speeds, internal links, and sitemaps because we’ve got it all covered. Sit back, relax, and watch your site skyrocket towards the top of the SERPs with our technical SEO for finance businesses.

Ready to move forward? Get in touch with our team at Woya Digital and let’s give your finance business a well-deserved boost.