Underused Marketing and Lead Generation Tactics for Financial Advisors
In the current climate of economic uncertainty, lead generation is a cause of concern for many financial advisors. No matter how good you are at your trade, what matters most is clients entrusting you with their assets. This can only happen when you, as a financial advisor, have gained enough trust.
True that in financial advisory and wealth management, finding clients might not be as easy as in eCommerce but it is far from impossible. By using the right tools, you too can ensure a steady inflow of quality leads who would be happy to contract for your services.
How you can do the above is what exactly we’re going to address in this post. There are mainly two important channels that are widely underutilised when it comes to the financial advisory sector, they are:
- Social media, namely LinkedIn, and
- Blogging through your website
We are going to talk about each of them in further detail plus less known tactics.
LinkedIn as an effective tool for lead generation
As we mentioned earlier, trust is a major factor for people to choose a financial advisor. When they are looking for someone trusted to handle their money, they are not just looking for known faces, they are looking for someone who seems to know what they are talking about and have the right credentials. They would also like to know how this advisor’s client experiences have been like and what USPs set them apart.
There is no better place than LinkedIn to list all this down in a detailed and organised manner. Right from a professional headshot with a warm smile, to your educational and professional history summed up in a crisp and lucid bio, along with recommendations from clients and colleagues, all this can truly help prospective clients find out more about you.
They can also find out about your expertise, your experience, achievements, how you are as a professional and most of the time this is enough for them to send you an inquiry about their requirements. They might even follow the link to your website, mentioned on your profile, and learn more about the services you offer and send you an inquiry from the website itself.
CALL TO ACTION: Always make sure you are leaving enough room and cues for your LinkedIn profile visitor to take action and reach out to you. Make your language easy to understand, conversational, free of jargons and they will flow right to you. Your clients might not, in most cases, have the same financial acumen as you do, or understand the nuances of the money/stock market, therefore, speaking to them in an easy way will help them understand you better and help build overall trust in you, as their future financial advisor. Put your contact details in your ABOUT section.
You can also go for some of LinkedIn’s paid options such as the Sales Navigator Professional which allows you to send about 20 InMail messages, c. 70 daily invitations to professionals with whom you might not be connected yet and carry out advanced lead searches. This also helps you promote your business directly.
Earn quality leads through blogging effectively
Blogging has always been hailed as one of the most efficient ways of generating leads. The reason why blogging is considered so important is that it is a way of building and expressing thought leadership in any space. You can blog about topics that are pertinent to your industry and share tips and tricks of handling money efficiently with your followers. Your followers will then see value in your content and will keep coming back to your blog to find out more.
You should not set up a blog just for the sake of it. A blog should be something that attracts prospects and keep them hooked. Help them subscribe to your blog through a contact form on your website and send them a bi-weekly or fortnightly newsletters with news updates and recent posts on your blog. These newsletters will not only be informative for your subscribers but also boost brand recall for your business, in their minds.
Be consistent with your posts. Schedule them and publish them regularly at the same time every week. This way your followers will know what to expect and when. Give them a sneak peek into what you are going to write about that week, thus, keeping them in the loop. You can either post your newsletters manually, or you can subscribe to a marketing automation software that helps you automate your newsletters and helps you handle the email marketing list efficiently.
The people who subscribe to your blog posts are clearly expressing their interest in hearing more from you, hence they are not just subscribers, they are potential clients, as well. Send them personalised follow up emails from time-to-time, yet not too frequently. The goal here is to stay on top of their minds without seeming pushy.
This will lead to clients coming to you instead of you having to search for them.
Email campaigns
We can agree that lead generation is the lifeblood of your business. Qualified leads, when nurtured through your email campaigns, convert into buying clients and loyal fans of your brand. Focusing on honing your financial advisor marketing leads strategy will play a critical role in increasing revenue this year.
If you’re struggling with capturing or generating qualified financial marketing leads for your firm, here are six strong ways to begin building your list:
Host Educational Workshops
In-person events continue to be a top marketing strategy. A true connection is established when you’re able to engage and interact with your prospects face-to-face.
Not only does it authenticate your brand and expertise, it’s also a moment to dispense amazing value to your audience for their benefit.
Generate marketing leads by planning to host an educational workshop either quarterly or bi-annually. You can charge a small fee or host them for free but every guest, when they registered, has given you their contact information, making them great candidates for potential clients.
Create Your Own Community Using Social Media Groups
Social media groups present a real opportunity to stay connected with your audience. You have a chance to build a community around your brand and bring like-minded individuals together (Have you joined The Link Tank yet?)
These groups are extremely effective for initiating and fostering relationships with prospective clients, promoting your content offers, and moving followers from social media onto your email list.
Free Reports: Whether it’s through snail mail, email, or any form of communication, everyone is interested in free. If they like what they read and your contact information is available, don’t be shocked if you receive a strong response.
Provide Case Studies
A recent study showed that 97% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses in 2017 (Source: BrightLocal). Additionally, 85% of consumers trust online reviews just as much as a personal recommendation.
Case studies are persuasive marketing tools that take readers on a journey to how you’ve helped an individual in their financial strategy. They’re invaluable assets that can move those who are on the fence about doing business with you and establishing trust.
How can you generate financial advisor marketing leads from case studies? It’s best to highlight these stories on your website where they’re easily accessible. On that same page (and often), have an opt-in form where readers can simply provide their contact details for a complimentary consultation.
and, if you have any time left after all of the above (!), write an e-book.
If you want to be a respected authority in your field, strongly consider writing an electronic book. The easiest way to do this is through Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and its Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) program. It doesn’t cost anything and in addition to finding clients, you could collect royalties. To find clients, leave your contact information at the front and the back of the book. Targeting the front of the book is important because readers using KDP can view the first 10% of a book for free with the “Look Inside” feature, which helps capture the browsers. To grow your brand and increase sales, publish 4-5 books, but not too quickly. Once you have a few books centered around a certain niche, Amazon will see that you’re serious about writing and your search rankings will improve. If you’re seeking high-end clients, write books on topics that interest them.
Generating financial advisor marketing leads doesn’t have to be a challenging feat. By having a clear understanding of who your audience is and using these tactics, you can begin to build your subscriber list and create more opportunities for sales.
For bespoke social media marketing advice to take full advantage of the opportunities available to you via #LinkedIn and beyond in 2020, schedule an initial phone consultation here
