How Financial Advisors Can Attract Quality Leads
On any given day, financial advisors face thousands of decisions competing for priority. One way to cut through the noise is to better understand which decisions affect the bottom line. While it can be fun to focus on the things you most enjoy – which could be meeting with clients, building financial plans, and networking with other advisors – operating without a clear focus can hinder your ability to grow and protect the future of your business. Advisors who understand the direction their firm is going, and the decisions that will take them there, will enjoy better outcomes such as higher profit margins, reduced client churn, and an overall stronger, healthier practice.
One way advisors can streamline decision making is by having a clear vision for their firm. A large aspect of this focus starts with understanding who your ideal client is, and what unique benefits you can provide that attract that ideal client base to your firm. For advisors, this is often called “finding your niche.” As a strategy, this allows firms to build an ideal client persona and understand a prospective client’s challenges and what drives them to decisions. This serves as a filter for how firms talk to this target audience about their services and solutions – whether you’re focusing on clients experiencing certain life events (like marriage or divorce) or career paths (like doctors or athletes). This focus enables your marketing to become more effective. But knowing your ideal client is just the beginning.
Once firms identify their niche, it’s time to take action. Having already gone through the work of assessing and describing their ideal client, firms can then build out their marketing, sales, and client experience framework. As you think about tailoring messaging to prospective clients, your number one consideration should be how your services will solve their financial worries.
Your knowledge is power – and clients turn to you for guidance on topics and strategies that best support their life goals. Much like a doctor assesses and builds a health plan for their clients, an advisor can prescribe a financial plan that enables a long and healthy financial well-being. Your marketing messages should emphasize the uniqueness of your firm and the types of clients you serve. (Of course, don’t forget applicable compliance rules as you build out your messaging strategy.)
1. Adopt Technology That Meets Client Expectations.
Clients expect digital solutions that provide a holistic view of their wealth, allow quick answers to their pressing financial questions, and are accessible on the platforms they are utilizing most. Consider how your client portal and financial plans serve your clients outside of your regular meetings. Can they view their plan anytime? Can they reach out to you, even outside of business hours? (Solutions like Valian by Assetbook allow advisors to remain one compliant text message away.)
2. Create a Website That Attracts Clients.
Attracting your ideal client means having a website that speaks to them. Industry experts recommend having an ‘About Us’ page that is written to resonate with your niche audience. Considering the prior point, it should also be seamless and accessible on desktop and mobile devices. The more you can weave in your ideal client messaging, the better, as it will drive search engine optimization (SEO) that essentially optimizes the results your prospective clients will see when they’re looking for exactly the services you offer.
3. Give Them a Reason to Trust You.
Along with website SEO goals, advisors need to create content that encourages action within the marketing funnel. This means publishing content – blogs, podcasts, videos, guides – that answer their questions, establish your credibility and increase their trust in you as an expert.
Even if a prospect isn’t ready to contact you, it’s essential that you capture their interest and keep sending them relevant information. Advisors can do this through a digital newsletter, an email nurture campaign (including relevant information on key decisions your target client may be facing regularly), all with the ultimate goal of building deeper trust that encourages them to convert to clients.
4. Consider Advertising.
With the new SEC rules, advisors can really dive into online advertising. It doesn’t have to be all new content or messaging, either. Repurposing great content is an excellent way to scale without spending tons of (unavailable) time. Advisors can take snippets from their blogs, podcasts or website content and turn them into messages on any leading social or web platform.
Here are some quick ways to capture advertising content for your website or social platform: ask clients to leave an online review, join a commentary list through your association or media firm like WealthManagement.com, or reshare your latest e-newsletter online. For firms that don’t have capacity to do a lot themselves, a goal of publishing 3x per week on LinkedIn (and cross-posting on Twitter and Instagram) can make a dramatic difference.
5. Join Communities Where Your Ideal Clients Hang Out.
Your work on the ideal client persona should have also included a brief list on where these prospective clients spend their time. Are they into certain hobbies, are they sports enthusiasts (fantasy football, intramural clubs, ESPN followers?) or do they like the outdoors? These are key areas where you can find them – and you may already belong to a lot of them yourself! Consider sponsoring an activity, commenting on digital forums, and weaving relatable terms into your online marketing messages. Meeting them in these settings also leads to greater trust and stronger relationships.
6. Focus on Relationships and Service.
Time spent deepening client relationships and enhancing their experience with your firm is a worthwhile investment. You want clients and prospective clients to leave an interaction with you and feel confident, appreciated, and supported. Consider ways to go above and beyond to show just how much your clients mean to you and the firm. Things like, handwritten letters, video messages to ‘check in’ or thoughtful outreach at key milestones like birthdays, graduations or anniversaries are just a few ways advisors can stand out.
We get it. Leveling up your marketing and growing your business takes time.
One way to focus on growing your business is to consider technology partners that free up more of your time. AssetBook’s platforms enable you to run and grow your business effectively, while building strong, meaningful relationships with your clients. With the ability to customize your tech stack to your needs and your terms, Pulse by AssetBook provides you with all you need to create an efficient solution, so you have time to focus on what matters most to your business-your clients.