Podcast: What Do Advisors Really Need to Know About Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? (Listen Now)

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When someone types “financial advisor” into Google, does your firm show up? SEO, or search engine optimization, is an umbrella of best practices designed to make your business rank higher in search results and look better when your business does appear. The goal is to generate more traffic to your website from the most relevant search terms. Financial advisors have a very specific set of needs when it comes to this. First, search results are local. Second, there are compliance rules that we must follow. Join us to demystify search engine optimization for financial advisors. We’ll speak with Mike Dobransky, the top SEO specialist in the financial services industry, who spent two years creating an SEO package that is compliance-friendly and helps advisors get more traffic to their website. We’ll review:
  • What is search engine optimization, and why does it matter?
  • What advisors need to know about SEO
  • The 3 key changes you can make to improve your SEO today
  • Why you don’t need to spend money each month on SEO
  • The biggest SEO mistakes advisors are making
  • The one thing you can do to improve your SEO now and into the future
Listen here now, or download and subscribe on iTunes to listen on your commute! New episodes are published weekly with various guests, including top advisors, tech consultants, and marketing machines who are excited to tell you how to use proven marketing strategies to grow a thriving practice.
Transcription Claire Akin (CA): Thank you so much for joining us for today’s show, and I’m super excited to have Mike Dobransky here. He is our in-house SEO specialist, so he does all of this search engine optimization work for our clients, and it’s incredibly powerful. We went to business school together and we actually worked together for two years to develop this SEO package that is really unique, because financial advisors can’t just use any SEO specialists out there who may not understand our industry or understand our compliance constraints.  We worked hard to develop a package that is a one-time fee of (view here for current pricing) to do everything that we can do to give your website the SEO power that it needs so that you show up for the search results for financial advisor in your area. Also, so that you appear really cohesively well-branded in those search results. Mike is our SEO specialist. He has a master’s in business administration from the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego. He worked for nine years for a tech company.  His specialty is really applying the scientific method to digital marketing. There’s so many people that think digital marketing is an art and that you can do all these creative things, but when it really comes down to being successful, you want to be measuring everything, and watching your data and applying data-driven marketing decisions. Welcome to the program, Mike. Mike Dobransky (MD): Thanks, Claire, that’s a great introduction, I appreciate it. Excited to be here.  CA: Great. The one thing that I like to start with, because I always like to start off with a little bit about your personality. Of course, you’re a two-time Ironman triathlete. I know athletics is a big part of your life. Tell us a little bit of what you’re doing now and what you’re looking forward to on a personal level.  MD: Yes, I love it. As you know, I’ve got three kids that are three and under. We had twins about a year ago, they just turned one. I’ve been pretty much time-constrained with that venture, but I’m very excited to be taking on a big hike at the end of June coming up here, I’m going to be hiking the Lost Coast, which is this stretch of wild country up in northern California that even Highway 1—which goes all the way up the coast—has to divert inland. No one’s been there, it’s the ultimate wild, it’s a three-day hike, so I’m looking forward to getting out there, going off the grid for a little bit, and exploring that part of the country.  CA: That’s awesome. That’s going to be a beautiful hike, you better take a lot of pictures. Tell us a little bit about what you do. You work with our clients all the time, we work with almost 200 independent financial advisors on their websites, on their marketing. Tell us about what you’re excited about and the opportunities that are available to advisors today from a marketing perspective.  MD: There’s a lot to be excited about in terms of marketing. Obviously, there’s a lot of financial advisors out there who are trying to get clients, but it seems like the content that you put out and the ideas that you’ve created over the past handful of years, if advisors apply those, what we’ve seen is they can rise above the noise that’s out there amongst all of the advisers. I think the opportunity really is just learning what the fundamentals are, having a goal, and then applying those.  You talked a little bit about the scientific methodology. Everything in digital marketing is measurable, so if you just keep your eye on a few key numbers, you can improve those over time and eventually you get really good.  CA: That’s fantastic. Perfect. Today we’re going to talk about search engine optimization, which I know for a lot of advisors is kind of a Greek word. They don’t understand it. They maybe are intimidated or overwhelmed. It’s funny because it reminds me of the way the public perceives financial advisors. Sixty-five percent of people in the public don’t trust the financial services industry. It’s because it’s overwhelming, it’s complex, it’s confusing to them, so they ignore it and they don’t get the help that they could need.  That’s a lot like the way that I see financial advisors approaching SEOs. Maybe you’ve gotten a lot of emails for people who want to sell you SEO products, maybe you don’t understand what it is or what it means, so you just ignore it. That is absolutely the wrong decision because SEO is important for every financial advisor, no matter how big or how small; you must hit the nail on the head with your SEO to make the most of your marketing.  Why don’t you walk us through what it means if you’re an advisor that maybe this is the first time they’re ever really hearing about SEO or thinking about it… What is it on the most basic level?  MD: Great question. To your point, working with financial advisors, a lot of times we’ll see a lot of acronyms after their title. It’s financial advisor, CFP, CFA, there’s all these acronyms that go at the end. If you don’t know what those acronyms stand for, your eyes kind of glaze over and you just think, “I don’t know what to think.” It’s the same thing that you said with SEO, if you don’t know what SEO stands for and then you learned that it stands for “search engine optimization,” that sounds complicated. I can see why from the outside it could be a scary idea, and I think one of our specialties is really breaking it down into just really simple ideas that help you reach your goal. The easiest thing to think about is when somebody goes to Google, which everybody’s done, you go into Google and you type in “financial advisor,” that is a search, that is known as a local search. The results that come up for financial advisor, if you search for that, I searched for that and somebody on the East Coast searches for that, we all get different results because Google knows where we’re searching from. What I do in SEO and working with financial advisors is try to help them show up in those results. That’s part one.  The second part is we know from the data that we’ve seen that the number-one search term that drives traffic to an advisor site is actually just a search for their business. Indigo Marketing is your business, that’s going to be one of the biggest drivers of traffic. When somebody types in Indigo Marketing Agency, we want your business to show up and look spectacular, look professional, and start building trust as soon as those results populate in the search engine. It can be complicated, it can sound scary, but really we’re just trying to make your results look good and show up when people search for category terms.  CA: There’s two goals that we have, it’s getting more traffic to your site, and that comes from showing up higher in search results, and also appearing better in search results. When you do Google  your own business or your name, we want your business to come up in that right-hand sidebar, that Google Business Profile sidebar where you have your headshot, your logo, your hours, your address. People can click from their smart phone to call you, they can click to get directions, you can actually publish articles now on your Google Business Profile profile. It’s incredibly important to take control of that listing and to make sure that you look great in that listing.  One way that I explain the basics about SEO to advisors is, it’s a lot like your credit report. Your credit report, your traditional credit report depends on your credit mix, how many credit cards you have, your balance-to-limit ratio, your length of credit history. There’s all these factors that go into your search engine optimization score. Things like how long has your website existed, how much traffic goes to your website, how many social media profiles that you have connected to your website.  What about your business listings? Are you listed with Google, with Yahoo, with all of these other online listings? Apple Maps that verify you out there on the internet to basically tell Google that you are who you say you are. That’s basically all of the things that go into your SEO score, which is a lot like your online credit report. Google wants to give people a good search experience, so when someone types in “financial advisor near me,” they want to bring up the most credible results for that search. Telling Google that you are who you say you are, verifying your business via US mail goes a long way to allowing them to put you higher in those search results.  MD: Yes, that’s exactly right. I will add that there are over 200 factors that Google looks at to determine your relevancy in a search. There’s so many, right? We’ve looked at just about every single factor that we know of that a search engine will score your business on, and then we took all of those and we said, “Okay, which of these factors can we impact to help advisors rank better in search essentially?” Over the past two years, what we’ve really been doing is looking at the numbers as, if we do this, how does that impact somebody’s search ranking? We’ve constantly been testing, at this point, almost a hundred different advisors we’ve done SEO projects for. Every single time we’re trying something just a little bit differently to see how it works. The package has gotten pretty good at this point. We know exactly if we do these things, we’re going to move the needle for an advisor. That’s pretty cool. Obviously, advisors don’t need to know every single factor that could impact their search, you just need to know the most important ones, and then we take care of that for you.  CA: Exactly. You don’t need to understand how electricity works to enjoy the benefits, you just need to understand that you need to plug it in and get it going for your business. One of the things that we do as part of our service to financial advisors is an SEO audit report. We offer all advisors who follow us, who listen to this podcast, who read our blogs, a free video report on their website. Mike will go through and make a video for your site, tell you what you’re doing right, what you’re doing wrong, and how you can improve. Mike, why don’t you walk us through what are the key factors that you’re looking for when you do these SEO audit reports? What are the things that you’re checking to decide whether somebody has good or bad SEO? MD: Great question. We know that every advisor gets hit up by SEO practitioners every single day via email, and it’s a lot of noise, and it’s hard to understand what exactly is correct. We try to make the SEO audit as easy to understand as possible. I started out doing audit reports where we would create a PDF and we would go through all of the factors. Unless I’m there talking through each item with you and helping you understand how that’s going to impact your SEO, it was really going over the advisor’s head.  We just tried to really simplify it. What I do is I pull up your website on a browser, I record my screen and I just go through the most important factors that we find that move the needle for advisors. I show you exactly where your search presence stands on those factors. I suggest improvements along the way. In fact, I’ll give you most of the improvements right there and you can take that information and have whoever make the updates, or we can make them for you. That’s how it works. There’s really not a lot of complication to it, and it works, we just tried to make it simple.  CA: Yes. I love to watch these videos that Mike makes for our advisors. What he does is he starts from when he opens your website and gets his first impressions. He looks if you have a secure site, if it’s mobile responsive, what is the title tag on your site, what is the metadata that’s appearing, how do you appear in search results? He’ll actually give you the information to make the changes, and I would say you could get 50% of the benefit of our SEO package by following the recommendations that he provides on his free SEO audit videos. If you’re interested in getting an SEO audit on your site, just let us know, I’ll have a link in the show notes. Mike, tell us just some of the biggest mistakes that you see advisors making, from an SEO perspective.  MD: That is a great question. There’s a lot to it, but I’m just going to keep the answer really simple. Your point that you made a few minutes ago is Google tries to return the most relevant business to you when you do a search for a financial advisor. What you want to do is make your website the most relevant result that they can return for that search. If your businesses specialize in retirement planning for Qualcomm employees, if somebody types that into Google, you want to be the most relevant search.  The first thing on your website when you land there, and this is what I do in an audit, is I look and I say, “Do I understand within three seconds who you are, and who you help, and how you help them?” It’s got to be that fast because there’s an attention problem in today’s world where people just don’t have the attention. They don’t have the attention to go to your website and decipher your metaphors about what you do. You need to tell them right away on the home page at the very top, this is who I am, this is who I help, this is how. It’s two things. It’s, one, good for the user because if I show up on your site, I know, and then I can take action with you as a business. The search engine knows that and so they look at the information that you have on the top of your site, and they judge your relevancy in the search terms that you’re hoping to rank on. That’s the easiest test and the easiest recommendation I can give is just open up your site and within three seconds, can you tell who you are, who you help, and how you help them? If that is there, that goes a long way to help your SEO.  CA: Even on a third layer of that, I would add bounce rates go into your SEO score that Google calculates for you. If someone comes to your site, they’re overwhelmed with your metaphor for how you help people hit their long-term financial goals and they close out of your site, that’s a bounce. Those bounces count against you from SEO perspective. You want your site to thoroughly explain, in the most basic way possible, what one urgent problem you solve for a specific group, and entice people to stay on your site. You get credit when people go through your site and they click on different pages, and they spend time on your site. Every visitor that spends time on your site is adding to your SEO score. You want to make your site really easy to use and really palatable for your visitors. Walk us through some of the other mistakes. One thing that I think is really interesting to look at is when Mike works on an SEO project with clients, we’re not just trying to get them to show up for a financial advisor in your area because that’s a broad search and there’s a lot of Edward Jones advisors out there that are showing up for that. What we’re trying to do is figuring out what are the best keywords they can show up for us. He actually runs search volume reports for different keywords that they may want to show up for.  Maybe it’s to find benefit plans, maybe it’s retirement planning for Qualcomm employees, maybe it is investments for LGBT community members. Whatever it is, he’ll run a report for what is the average monthly search volume for those terms, and what does the competition look like. If we want to show up for Bristol-Myers Squibb pension plan advisor, we’re probably going to be the only person doing SEO on that keyword. In that case, there could be a thousand searches and we could show up at the very top.  It’s really a supply and demand game that we’re playing, choosing search terms that you want to show up for, search volume that exists, and then the competition to show up at the top of that. Walk us through a little bit about your strategy for choosing keywords.  MD: We try to keep the SEO project really aligned with the overall marketing strategy. I think one thing that you’ve done a really nice job of this year is educating advisors on the truth about how you generate new business as an advisor. The big takeaway is there’s really two ways that you can get new business. You can either get referrals, or you can own a specialty. We have built the SEO package around those ideas.  Number one, optimizing your search presence for your business name, which we talked about a few minutes ago. If somebody searches for your business, you show up there, you look fantastic. That’s a huge part of getting clients, because if somebody thinks that they might do business with you, they’re going to Google you, and they’re going to see what your business looks like online. If it doesn’t look promising and you start to erode trust before you even get a chance to meet them, that’s not good for your business. That’s why we start there.  Like you said about the specialty, if you have a specialty, that’s absolutely an easier term to rank high on because the competition is low. What I do, as you said, is I take all of your services, everything that we talk about about your business, and I do the research and I find out which terms get the most search volume. We should focus on those because if you win those terms, you’re more likely to get more traffic to your site, and then hopefully on your site you build trust and people engage with you as an individual.  CA: That’s awesome. We’re working with a few different advisors with really cool specialties. One of our first advisors we worked with from an SEO perspective that we really won, and he’s at the top of the list, was cash management for school districts in his town. No one else was doing that, no one else was creating content for that, so we got him right to the top of the list.  Another is, one of the advisors we’re working with now who is doing financial planning for pastors, and it talks a lot about the different allowances that pastors get and the different stipends and financial planning concerns that they have. Her website is going right to the top of the list, getting tons, thousands of hits every week or every month for those keyword searches that no one else is showing up for. It all goes into what I preach every day, is that you want to go to an expert in your specific field so that when anybody comes across someone that needs your help, it’s easy for them to refer you, and so that you’re showing up for those searches that are relevant for what you do best. MD: Add onto that just a little bit. Keeping the SEO idea aligned with your general marketing strategy. If we see keywords that are good opportunities for your business, we can then implement the changes right on your website there, but it’s also a content strategy into the future, which is something you also help folks with this, writing those custom blog posts. If we know the right terms that you need to go after, those can be future blog posts shared on social media, and that goes on into the future for their help in your search presence. CA: Yes. Certainly, if you have a specialty, SEO can really be a home run. But even if you don’t, we do a lot of work for your average advisor who is doing financial planning. We just did a big project for an advisor on the keywords “financial advisor in Austin, Texas.” We doubled his organic search traffic. That’s something that is important to know—your SEO crowd really grows over time—so laying the proper SEO foundation, the best time to do it, it was probably five years ago or today.  As time goes on, we doubled his organic search traffic immediately within 30 days, but that’s going to improve over time. That traffic, as people coming to a site each and every day that he doesn’t have to pay for it, he pays us the one-time fee and he never pays anyone else again, Google just sends him that traffic forever. It’s a really powerful investment to make in your firms. I really encourage, if you’re an advisor and you haven’t checked out your SEO, to request a free SEO audit report. Michael, I’ll close it out here. If you could give advisors one recommendation, if they do only one thing from listening to this podcast, what would that be?  MD: One recommendation I would say is do the three-second test. Open up your website, look at it, and say, “Do I know from looking at this website in less than three seconds who this firm is, who they help, and how they help them?” If you do that, you’re going to go a long way to improve your SEO. The second thing you can do is just schedule an audit, and I’ll go through your site and comment and talk through all of the opportunities that you have.  CA: Thank you so much for being a guest on our show, we really appreciate your expertise and your insights. Thanks for being a guest and we’ll talk to you soon.  MD: Great, thanks, Claire.  CA: If you’d like any resources from today’s episode or from other episodes, go to IndigoMarketingAgency.com/remember. It’s hard to forget that address, IndigoMarketingAgency.com/remember.

How can we help you with your marketing?

We help top advisors with a true specialty to create custom marketing plans. Our most popular services include our Independent Websites for Independent Advisors, our Search Engine Optimization service, and our Monthly Marketing Package, but we can also help answer your questions and work with you on project-based marketing campaigns.

About Claire

Claire Akin runs Indigo Marketing Agency, a full-service marketing firm serving financial advisors. It’s her mission to help independent financial advisors help more people through their incredibly important work. Claire is a former Investment Advisor Representative who holds her MBA in Marketing from the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego as well as a BA in Economics from UC Davis.
Katie Cress Digital Marketing Consultant, Sales & Client Strategist
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Jordan Pinelli

Account Manager
Denver, Colorado

A born strategist, Jordan always starts with “why” when brainstorming marketing tactics with her financial advisor clients. With recommendations rooted in data and industry best practices, she loves growing advisors’ awareness of their strategies’ positive impact on their business.

Jordan obtained her bachelor’s degree in business administration (with an emphasis in marketing and management) and her master’s in communication and media management from Colorado State University. Before joining Indigo, Jordan already had 6+ years of financial services experience and 8+ years of marketing/project and campaign management experience under her belt—making her a powerhouse addition to the team! Outside of strategizing for her advisors, Jordan’s hobbies include pottery, hiking (when she’s in shape), and ordering delivery or takeout. She is happily married to her husband, Max, and a dedicated dog mom to her oversized golden retriever, Kai.

Indigo Marketing Team Member Anne Wheeler

Anne Wheeler

Marketing Assistant
Cincinnati, Ohio

Anne Wheeler is responsible for a variety of administrative tasks as well as updating social media pages for clients. Anne enjoys the creative side of her position and the ability to collaborate with the team to help advisors get started with Indigo.

Anne holds a bachelor’s degree in communication from the University of Tennessee. Outside of work, she enjoys walking, baking, spending time with her husband, Rick (a structural engineer), and two sons, Thomas and Turner. Anne loves being a full-time mom, and appreciates that Indigo gives her the opportunity to work part-time while still caring for her boys.

Hugo Fernandez CEO of Indigo Marketing

Hugo Fernandez

CEO
Whispering Pines, North Carolina

Leading the Indigo team with heart, Hugo Fernandez is passionate about helping our financial advisors attract a flood of their A+ clients with sustainable marketing campaigns. He enjoys running companies that are wildly successful and wearing a black t-shirt every day of his life. When his two favorite things come together, you have an average day at Indigo.

Hugo Fernandez is also CEO of Indigo’s partner company, Just Digital, and author of The Client Acquisition Blueprint. He has personally helped hundreds of entrepreneurs grow their business through his proven blueprint for creating an EPIC marketing strategy and online presence.

Kelli McLeod Director of Client Services

Kelli McLeod

Director of Client Services
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Kelli McLeod plays an integral role at Indigo while overseeing the Account Services Team, providing customer service, getting financial advisors onboarded and in serving as their primary point of contact during that process. Her team looks to her for her leadership and decision-making abilities For Kelli, the most rewarding part of this role is working with clients one-on-one to ensure they’re happy and that their needs are met.

Kelli has a bachelor’s degree in communications and public relations from Pacific Lutheran University. More recently, she’s done extensive work in the corporate housing and property management industries.

Kelli currently lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with her husband, Ian, who is an officer in the U.S. Army, and their two sons, Zachary and Cameron. When she’s not working, you can find her running or hiking, attending group fitness classes, and cooking. Kelli’s also an avid book club enthusiast, so be sure to reach out to her if you’re looking for a new read.

Sara Dressler

Director of Operations

DuPont, Washington

Sara Dressler manages all systems and operating processes while overseeing several departments. Sara is responsible for supervising many activities within Indigo and identifying areas of improvement to better meet company goals. She functions as the bridge connecting management to every department.

Sara has a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a minor in communications from Pacific Lutheran University. She leverages this degree, along with her years of experience as a virtual assistant, to keep our company running like a well-oiled machine. Sara is happiest when spending time with her family. Her three young boys and life as a military spouse keep her busy, but she wouldn’t trade it for the world. She lives an active lifestyle and loves working out, getting outside, and watching sports with her family (whether it’s on TV, at her kids’ games, or in the backyard).

Indigo Marketing Team Member Elizabeth Reider Director of Marketing

Elizabeth Reider

Director of Marketing
Clearwater, Florida

Elizabeth Reider is a woman of many talents. She spent 10 years as a Chief Marketing Officer for a top-level independent financial advisor, and since her entry into financial services, she has networked and become friends with many advisors. Elizabeth admires their empathy, knowledge, and passion for their work, and has seen how independent advisors are more than professionals providing investment and planning advice; they are trusted confidants, life coaches, and guides. Over time, they become a part of their clients’ extended family—and she loves coming alongside that. (Check out this video to hear directly from Elizabeth about why she loves working with financial advisors.)

As Director of Marketing, Elizabeth helps get the word out about how partnering with Indigo can take an advisor’s marketing to the next level and beyond to grow their business and increase their productivity.

Elizabeth earned her bachelor’s degree in management information systems from the University of South Florida Muma College of Business. She also holds a life, health, and variable annuity license, which gives her a special understanding of the many products and services advisors offer. Originally from Clearwater, FL, Elizabeth loves to travel and has visited 12 countries, including extended visits to eSwatini, Africa, to visit family and assist with humanitarian relief programs. She has seen firsthand how independent financial advisors are providing advice to their clients that outpours into the lives of their own families, staff, community, and sometimes across the globe. When she’s not working, Elizabeth enjoys attending orchestral and theater productions with her husband, David, and taking their son, Julian, to art museums, as well as family evenings in the backyard playing baseball with her son and shih-tzu poodle, Wrigley. She is also an active participant in overseas humanitarian work—using her skills to make a difference in the lives of others.

Indigo Marketing Team Member Katie Cress

Katie Cress

Digital Marketing Consultant, Sales & Client Strategist
Cincinnati, Ohio

It’s Katie Cress’s mission to help financial advisors reach their ideal prospects through custom digital marketing. On any given day, you can find Katie meeting with new financial advisors to learn more about their marketing goals, who they love working with, and why they’re passionate about helping others. Her favorite part of her job is meeting new advisors every day and continuing to learn how each firm and individual advisor is different, and using her marketing and small business background to help them craft a game plan that empowers them to grow their business and enhance their services. Often described by loved ones as a “helper” and “caretaker,” Katie is passionate about advocating for her advisors’ needs and supporting her coworkers to help them succeed.

Katie holds an MBA from Xavier University and a BA in Economics from Ohio University. A Midwest girl for life, she lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her husband, Brandon (who’s also a marketing guru), and their three kids, Charli, Lucy, and Teddy. She and her husband also own Clean Eatz Cafe, where they use their collective marketing prowess and love of food to create a welcoming space for employees and hungry customers alike. Katie is passionate about and for small business owners, being raised by her father who was an entrepreneur, being one herself with her husband, and working with them every day at Indigo. She loves the spirit, creativity, and drive of entrepreneurs. When Katie’s not working or helping run the family business, she enjoys working out with her husband at Orange Theory, loving on her three kids, and cooking delicious food.

Indigo Marketing Team Member Lori Koepke

Lori Koepke

Account Manager
Boise, Idaho

Lori Koepke plays a major role as a liaison between Indigo Marketing Agency and its wonderful clients. She works directly with our advisor clients on their marketing strategies, marketing calendars, article creation, editing processes, compliance approvals, deployment of their content, and more. Lori enjoys helping strategize and be a support to her clients, and loves the camaraderie among the Indigo team members.

Before joining the Indigo team, Lori was a schoolteacher for 10 years. She has a Master of Education and Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education from Concordia University in Portland, OR. She was born and raised in Vancouver, B.C., and lived in Vancouver, WA, for 25 years before moving to Boise, Idaho, where she currently resides with her husband, Jeremy, and four wonderful kids, Sophie, Tanner, Jonas, and Violet. In her free time, you can find Lori reading, watching football, and driving her kids to all their activities.

Watch this video to hear why Lori loves working with Indigo.

Indigo Marketing Team Member Heidi Wilson

Heidi Wilson

Account Manager

Alexandria, Virginia

Heidi Wilson thrives on helping advisors create an online voice and streamline their marketing efforts. With her mother being a retired financial advisor and her brother-in-law currently a CFP® professional, she’s passionate about taking the marketing pressure off of advisors so they are able to focus on their clients. She loves when advisors tell her something we did for them helped; it can be as simple as taking something off their very busy plate or helping them land a new client with one of the articles we wrote. With broad-based consumer and B2B marketing experience, Heidi is constantly thinking outside the box and brings a fresh perspective to the Indigo team.

Heidi holds a bachelor’s degree in public relations from Florida State University and hails from Tampa, Florida. Her husband, Chris, is in the U.S. Army, and as they are constantly moving, they take every opportunity to explore the new areas where they’re living. Some of their favorite places they’ve called home include Hawaii and New Orleans. Heidi is thankful for the opportunity to work remotely with Indigo, which allows her to take her job with her, no matter where the Army moves her family next.

Watch this video to hear why Heidi loves working with Indigo.

Indigo Marketing Team Member Jillian Segrue

Jillian Segrue

Account Manager
Columbus, Georgia

Jillian Segrue acts as a liaison between clients and the Indigo team, using her 12 years of customer service experience in fields such as healthcare, financial services, and risk management to help hone their message and deploy it effectively and efficiently. Jillian enjoys building unique relationships with each of her clients as she uniquely helps them reach their ideal target audience.

Jillian has a bachelor’s degree in healthcare administration and a minor in business administration from SUNY Brockport. Originally from Rochester, NY, she currently lives in Columbus, GA, with her husband, Tim (an Army captain), daughter, Macie, son, Henry, and two cats. As a military spouse, Jillian appreciates the flexibility Indigo provides—allowing her to juggle motherhood and excelling in her career—and its unmatched positive, supportive, and uplifting company culture. In her free time, Jillian loves to read, shop, and go running outdoors (just not in the Georgia heat!).

Indigo Marketing Team Member Amanda Laskey

Amanda Laskey

Account Manager
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Amanda Laskey works with clients one-on-one to develop and implement marketing strategies that help spread the word about who they are and how they help. In her role, Amanda strives to deliver outstanding customer service to our clients. She is tech-savvy, an independent problem-solver, extremely organized, an excellent communicator, and thrives on helping others. She appreciates the ability to work remotely in a collaborative team environment while supporting her family.

Amanda holds a Bachelor of Arts in Education and a Master of Arts in Inclusive Education from Seton Hill University and has over 10 years of experience in secondary classroom teaching and over 3 years as an Executive Assistant. A proud Army spouse, Amanda resides in Pittsburgh, PA, with her husband, Brandon, their two sons, Jackson and Harrison, and their sheepadoodle, Waylon, and goldendoodle, Cash. Outside of work, Amanda enjoys spending time with her family, relaxing at the beach, traveling to new places, dessert, and all things Disney.

Indigo Marketing Team Member Beverly Anderson

Beverly Anderson

Account Manager
Portland, Oregon

Beverly Anderson is the go-to contact point for advisors to create a targeted and cohesive marketing strategy that is unique to their specific goals. She loves seeing her clients experience positive results from their marketing efforts, and as a world traveler, she appreciates the ability to work remotely and connect with clients from any country.

Beverly holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Oregon State University. In addition to traveling, she enjoys making music as a singer/songwriter and anything outdoors (she’s an avid snowboarder and rock climber). She and her partner have a rescue pup, Toro, a former street dog in Cabo, Mexico, before they adopted him. Beverly has three older sisters, with whom she is very close, and they all, along with her mother, live in the Portland area. Although she spent the first half of her childhood in Fountain Hills, Arizona, Beverly considers Portland to be home.

Watch this video to hear why Beverly loves working with Indigo.

Indigo Marketing Team Member Kasey Yhap

Kasey Yhap

Account Manager
Ellicott City, MD

Kasey Yhap’s commitment to her clients is the driving force behind her work. Her diverse educational background (a bachelor’s and master’s degree in vocal performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music and a master’s degree in communications from Syracuse University) has equipped her with the unique skill set required for success. Kasey’s strong communication skills and creative mindset, combined with her passion for helping her clients, make her a valuable asset to the team.

In her free time, Kasey stays active and maintains a healthy lifestyle through yoga, CrossFit, and spending time outdoors. These hobbies complement her professional life by allowing her to recharge and bring new ideas to her work at Indigo.

Indgio Team Member Dan Corcoran

Dan Corcoran

Account Manager
Madison, Wisconsin

Dan Corcoran enjoys being on the front lines of financial advisor marketing, working directly with advisors to help them build a strong marketing plan to get their firm’s message out. Working remotely can be a challenge as talking to others, brainstorming, and sharing experiences recharges him; he maximizes touchpoints to connect with others to make every day at Indigo rewarding.

Dan holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He enjoys drone photography and videography (he owns his own drone business, Forward Focus Photography), sports broadcasting (he was a hockey broadcaster for four years prior to COVID), spending time with family, camping/hiking, running, swimming, and road biking.

Originally from Sun Prairie, WI, Dan has three siblings, and prior to joining Indigo’s team, he worked for an RIA in Madison for two years.

Indigo Marketing Team Member Jennifer Farrior

Jennifer Farrior

Lead Writer & Proofreader
Louisville, Kentucky

Jennifer Farrior is Indigo’s go-to for all things proofreading and editing. Her attention to detail is unmatched, and she takes pride in making sure every article is clean and concise before it heads out to our financial advisors. She says, “Even a single typo can affect an advisor’s credibility, and we strive for perfection when it comes to how they’re presented online.” As Lead Writer, Jennifer trains and manages the team of writers, and also writes and collaborates with team members to create Indigo’s blog posts and promotional material.

Jennifer holds a bachelor’s degree in English from UCLA. In addition to her role at Indigo, she runs her own copy editing and proofreading business, She Proofreads LLC. Jennifer hails from San Diego, California, but now lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with her three kids, Joshua, Julia, and Joel, and goldendoodle, Dexter. She loves working at Indigo because it provides her with the income, flexibility, and the community she needs as a stay-at-home mom. Outside of work, you can find her spending time with her kids, friends, boyfriend, or working on a puzzle while watching Netflix.

Indigo Marketing Team Member Lisa Gaines

Lisa Gaines

Content Deployment Manager
Fort Hood, Texas

Lisa Gaines spends her work days uploading blog posts to our clients’ websites and LinkedIn profiles, drafting emails, and making adjustments to content as advisors request. Lisa has learned a lot as a long-time member of the Indigo family and has enjoyed seeing the processes evolve to become more streamlined and efficient over time. And she loves working with the amazing Indigo team! 

Lisa is a proud alum of Texas A&M University, where she received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance. As a military child, Lisa feels as though she grew up everywhere; however, she claims central Texas as home where most of her family is originally from. She currently lives in Fort Hood, Texas, with her husband, Korey (an active-duty Army officer), and two kids, Madelyne and Jameson. As a military family, Lisa moves quite a bit—often to areas where the job market is small. She loves that Indigo provides her with a steady job she can take with her wherever she goes. When she’s not working, Lisa enjoys dabbling in interior design, binging a good Netflix series, and spending time with friends and family.

Read more about why Lisa loves working with Indigo.

Andrea Chinapen

Marketing Consultant
Long Island, New York

Joining the Indigo team after more than eight years of experience working with advisory and fintech firms, Andrea is passionate about helping advisors across the country use digital marketing strategies to grow their business in innovative and effective ways. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Berkeley College in New York.

Originally from Guyana, South America, Andrea now lives in the Long Island, NY, area with her husband, beautiful daughter, Sophia, and their puggle, Rex. When she’s not tackling her marketing duties, Andrea enjoys practicing yoga, taking long walks, watching thriller movies, and spending time outdoors with her family. An animal lover (specifically dogs), she spends time raising funds or supplies for shelters when she can.

Indigo Marketing Team Member Sarah Robichaud

Sarah Robichaud

Social Media Manager
Rochester Hills, Michigan

Sarah Robichaud uses her love of spreadsheets to create engaging content calendars for our clients’ social media pages. Sarah holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Salisbury University and a master’s degree in marriage and family counseling from Liberty University. In addition to her role at Indigo, Sarah volunteers as a virtual administrator for Army Wife Network, a nonprofit organization that aims to empower and educate military spouses through blogs, podcasts, and various other resources.

Born and raised in Maryland, Sarah currently lives in Rochester Hills, Michigan, with her husband, Andrew, two children, Emily and Logan, and two fur babies, Penny and Chewbacca. As a military spouse and mother, Sarah loves working for Indigo because of the flexibility it affords her, allowing her to continue to build her career while frequently relocating around the globe and working on her own schedule to accommodate a busy lifestyle. Sarah also loves Indigo’s supportive team atmosphere. Outside of work and volunteering, you can find Sarah enjoying time outdoors with her family, typically running, camping, or traveling. An avid traveler, she’s visited 16 countries and is always planning her family’s next great adventure.

Peter Wardenaar

Peter Wardenaar

SEO Specialist & IT Lead
Cali, Colombia

As a natural problem-solver, Peter Wardenaar uses his skills to help financial advisors find new ways to grow their site traffic and attract more clients they love. Peter enjoys the dynamic nature of his role; the challenges are never the same as every situation is unique and requires a different approach. But don’t let Peter’s technical prowess fool you—he also has quite the creative side! Before joining the Indigo team, he worked as a first-grade teacher and university English professor in Cali, Colombia.

Peter has bachelor’s degrees in education and in music from Portland Bible College and a master’s degree in music production and technology from Berklee College of Music. In his spare time, he loves writing and recording music, graphic design, engaging with people, and studying leadership and theology. Peter is also one of the most well-traveled people you’ll ever meet! He was born and raised in the Netherlands but lived in the Pacific Northwest for over 12 years. Today, he resides in Cali, Colombia, with his wife, Gloria Isabel, and their three kids, Emanuel, Paloma, and Violet.

Indigo Marketing Team Member Kourtney Kearney

Kourtney Kearney

Tech Support
Antelope, California

Kourtney Kearney is a data-driven woman with a knack for coding. On any typical day, you can find her building web pages, troubleshooting bugs in code, and setting up automations to make life easier for our clients. Thanks to her technical background, Kourtney has a vast understanding of the inner workings of websites and the data associated with them. She’s always on the lookout for new technology that will help us improve our workflows so we can focus on what we do best—helping financial advisors grow their business. Kourtney enjoys the variation of tasks and loves the challenge of taking an existing website and making it better without completely rebuilding it.

Kourtney is originally from Newark, CA (Bay Area), but currently resides in Antelope, a suburb of Sacramento, and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and Curatorial Studies. Outside of work, Kourtney spends her free time reading, playing volleyball, baking with her two sons, and hanging out with family.

Indigo Marketing Agency Adrian Bachini

Adrian Bachini

Web Developer & Tech Support
Manila, Philippines

Adrian Bachini works on tasks requiring technical knowledge and other various administrative tasks. A software developer by day, prior to joining Indigo, Adrian had very little knowledge on how nontechnical positions operate. His position at Indigo allows him to both learn and experience a variety of platforms and gain more knowledge about how to maximize marketing initiatives.

Adrian holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science with a specialization in software technology from De La Salle University Manila. Adrian considers himself somewhat of a workaholic, with a full-time day job in addition to working with Indigo. When he’s not working, he enjoys watching documentaries, action movies, and anime, and also loves cycling on muddy downhill trails or cross-country rides, playing video games, and simply resting when he can. He is also a licensed commercial pilot and flies in his free time; he obviously also enjoys traveling. Adrian lives with his family and more than a few pets (11 dogs, 6 cats, a few birds, and fish)—he has more pets than humans in his home!

Claire Akin

Claire Akin

Founder
San Diego, California
Claire Akin founded Indigo Marketing Agency with the mission to help financial advisors leverage marketing to grow their businesses. As a former Investment Advisor Representative and proud daughter of an independent advisor, she’s seen first-hand the value advisors bring to their clients and community. Claire transferred ownership of Indigo Marketing Agency to Hugo Fernandez in 2022 to spend more time with her family.
Indigo Marketing Team Member Adriana

Adriana Escalante

Website Project Manager
San Antonio, Texas

Adriana Escalante thrives on creating an online representation that looks and feels true to our financial advisor clients as she builds their websites to best represent them and their businesses. Her experience working on travel and tourism websites motivates her to make sure every site she works on is exciting and engaging to web visitors. A graduate of University of Texas in Austin, Adriana double-majored in International Relations and a Liberal Arts program called Plan II. She also received a certification for front-end development from a coding academy in Austin, which has equipped her to serve as a great liaison between developers and clients.

After living in Austin, TX, for most of her adult life, Adriana now resides in San Antonio, TX (a city with a ton of history and many things to do), with her partner, Russell, and their dog, Abbey. She also has a brother and sister with whom she’s very close and tries to see a few times a year. Most of Adriana’s hobbies revolve around nature. She grew up spending lots of time on a sailboat or at a beach, and her family has a small cabin in Creede, CO, where she spends half the year hiking, camping, skiing, or snowshoeing (depending on the season). When she’s in Texas, she tries to get out most weekends to kayak. A Texas Master Naturalist, Adriana loves learning about all the plants, birds, and animals in her home state. She also dabbles in making stained-glass suncatchers!

Profile picture of our marketing assistant - Kaitlin Thornal.

Kaitlin Thornal

Marketing Assistant
Fort Moore, Georgia

Kaitlin Thornal helps clients onboard as they begin their marketing journey with Indigo, and she loves meeting new people and learning new things. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication/Public Relations, International Studies, and a minor in French from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as a Master of Arts in Communication and Leadership Studies from Gonzaga University.

Kaitlin was born at Fort Lewis, Washington, but she moved around a lot growing up, spending the most time in North Carolina. She now resides in Fort Moore, Georgia, with her husband, Mason, and their four children, Caroline, Mason, Jack, and Bo. Kaitlin’s favorite place to live has been Europe (Italy, Ireland, and Belgium) and she would go back in a heartbeat! In her spare time, she enjoys long-distance running, reading, and spending time in the mountains of western North Carolina.

Profile picture of our marketing assistant - Samantha Triglia.

Samantha Triglia

Marketing Assistant
Queens, New York

In her integral role, Samantha Triglia schedules social media posts, deploys email campaigns, and updates Google Business Profile pages for clients’ new blog posts. She also assists with lead generation/tracking and other administrative tasks. Helping out wherever she’s needed, Samantha appreciates the opportunities she has to learn and grow in her position. She says, “I love being a part of the team, especially when content deployment involves many moving parts and collaboration to get done and ready to go.”

A former teacher for 14 years, Samantha holds a Bachelor of Arts in Childhood Education from St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York. She also holds a Master of Arts in Middle School Earth Science Education from CUNY Brooklyn College and a Master of Science in Educational Administration and Leadership from the University of Scranton. (Yes, TWO master’s degrees!) While in college, Samantha was the assistant to the Chief Compliance Officer of a brokerage firm on Madison Avenue in New York City for high-net-worth individuals and families, so she’s quite familiar with the types of clients Indigo serves.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Samantha currently lives in Rockaway Beach in Queens, New York (the place the Ramones song is about!), with her husband, Matt (a Navy veteran and currently a New York City Firefighter), and their three sons, Matthew, Thomas, and James. Outside of work, Samantha enjoys spending time with her family riding bikes on their neighborhood boardwalk and going to the beach. They love to travel, including yearly family trips to Hershey, Pennsylvania, and Universal Studios in Florida (they’re big Harry Potter fans!). Samantha also stays active exercising and playing on a women’s softball team and a co-ed beach volleyball team with her husband.

Profile picture of our marketing assistant - Amanda Bicknese.

Amanda Bicknese

Marketing Assistant
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Amanda wears a few hats at Indigo, bringing value to the team by creating custom social media posts for advisors, assisting with the onboarding process of new team members, and tackling behind-the-scenes team tasks. She loves to collaborate with our amazing clients and supportive team members.

Born and raised in Fort Myers, Florida, Amanda holds a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from the University of Central Florida and a master’s degree in education from North Carolina State University. She worked as an educator for about a decade before pivoting to a career in writing and marketing. A Space Force military spouse (former army), Amanda and her husband, Michael, are currently located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with their two children, Mikayla and William, and two fur babies (a cat and a dog). When she’s not reading or writing fiction in her spare time, Amanda enjoys hanging out with family, hiking, trying new foods, and traveling.

Profile picture of our account manager Adam Spera.

Adam Spera

Account Manager
Astoria, New York

A marketer at heart, Adam finds satisfaction when consulting, strategizing, and implementing strategies to improve his clients’ business. He specializes in organic and paid social campaigns, as well as email and SEO optimization.

Adam holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Central Florida and a Juris Doctor degree from Thomas Jefferson School of Law. Raised in Boca Raton, Florida, by his mom (an event planner) and dad (a private boat charter captain), Adam currently lives in Astoria, New York, with his wife, Olivia, who works in pet care. When he’s not cooking up killer marketing strategies, he enjoys role-playing games, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and reading non-fiction and philosophy books.

Profile picture of our account manager Melanie Valdez.

Melanie Valdez

Account Manager
Vancouver, Washington

With her marketing expertise, Melanie Valdez leaves no stone unturned when helping clients hone their marketing strategy. She loves interacting with clients and brainstorming new ideas to enhance their marketing results. No two days are ever the same, and that’s the way Melanie likes it!

Melanie holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Western Washington University as well as an MBA from Western Governors University. When she’s not rocking her role at Indigo, she enjoys cooking (trying out new recipes every week), painting, and discovering new restaurants with friends. She and her husband, Dat, love to travel and go on walks with their dog, Brutus, a pomeranian-chihuahua whose personality is definitely not proportionate to his small size!

Profile picture of our web developer - Joshua Yanson.

Joshua Yanson

Web Developer
Negros Occidental, Philippines

Joshua spends his days developing client websites, implementing automations, and troubleshooting website issues. He enjoys the challenge of working with websites while simultaneously learning new tips and tricks to optimize them for maximum efficiency.

Originally from Pulupandan, Negros Occidental, Philippines, Joshua holds a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology, and in his free time enjoys playing computer games and watching anime and movies.

Hugo Fernandez CEO of Indigo Marketing

Hugo Fernandez

CEO
Los Angeles, California

Hugo Fernandez acquired ownership of Indigo Marketing Agency from founder Claire Akin in 2022. Leading the Indigo team with heart, Hugo is passionate about helping our financial advisors attract a flood of their A+ clients with sustainable marketing campaigns. He enjoys running companies that are wildly successful and wearing a black t-shirt every day of his life. When his two favorite things come together, you have an average day at Indigo.

Hugo Fernandez is also CEO of Indigo’s partner company, Just Digital, and author of The Client Acquisition Blueprint. He has personally helped hundreds of entrepreneurs grow their businesses through his proven blueprint for creating an EPIC marketing strategy and online presence.

To get in touch with Hugo, email him or connect with him on LinkedIn.