You probably don’t know it, but there is a huge subculture in Australia – and around the world – that revolves around internet domain names.
Some of the people are involved are just ‘cybersquaters’ who register trademark domains and misspellings, but there are many legitimate ‘domainers’ out there who register generic finance related terms and build lead generating websites.
It’s a system that works pretty well. The domainers (effectively publishers) create content and attract visitors to their website. Then they legitimately collect the client’s information, usually via a secure online enquiry or quote request form, and then they sell the lead to someone just like you.
They publisher gets money for their efforts, and you get a targeted warm lead without having to do much other than paying around $50 a pop.
But here’s my problem with this system – as an adviser you may be getting all of the golden eggs, but you’ll never get the goose. Of course the goose is the lead generating website.
So how do you get your own lead generating website? Many so-called online gurus will just tell you to build a better corporate website, but I disagree. Yes of course a better corporate website won’t hurt, but you’ll never compete with the lead generating masters.
Why not you ask? Well let’s start with your domain name. If you were to search Google for “financial advice Brisbane”, which of the following two results would you be more likely to click on:
- www.equita.com.au
- www.financialadvicebrisbane.com.au
I know which one I’d be clicking on, because I’d know just from looking at the domain that it’s probably what I’m looking for.
Furthermore, Google will also treat the second domain much more favourably as it contains the specific words the user was searching for. This means result number 2 will come up much higher and therefore be more likely to be clicked on.
Now you might be thinking that option 2 (financialadvicebrisbane.com.au) doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue too well, nor is it particularly good for memorable branding.
But that’s the trick – you wouldn’t use financialadvicebrisbane.com.au as your corporate website, it would simply be a doorway for people to find your business more easily. You could either have an enquiry form on the website, or could just direct visitors from this feeder site to your main corporate site.
I used this exact strategy with great success in my own advice business, and was able to gain so many extra leads that I had to sell them to other advisers myself!
So yes, get yourself a great corporate site to impress your existing and prospective clients, but to really drive the lead generation side you need to get some generic feeder websites in place.
Of course I can help you with all aspects of this process, so if you’d like more information please contact me.
Absolutely. If we don’t copy these “domainers” then we’ll be forever their slaves having to pay for leads. Gone are the days of getting free referrals from friends of friends, everyone is going online for their insurance now. The ones who control the leads are the ones who will make the money in future.
That is so true! If you want to pay for leads for the rest of your life, then ignore everything on my blog!
I completely agree that in the coming years it won’t be the financial advisers making the big money, and instead it will be the website owners who control the flow of leads and therefore the income.
Hi Shane
Good website post and I guess a lot of the bigger financial companies and brands have been slow to grab hold of this technique. Much easier for the smaller players & brokers to punch above their weight in the market using this strategy.
Cheers
Larry