One of the most important tasks for financial advisors can also feel like the most daunting: lead generation.
Keeping a continual pipeline of leads and potential clients is a requirement for a firm and advisors to grow and stay in business. But finding the right potential clients and generating leads can be challenging. The old methods of cold calling, direct mail, and newspaper ads aren’t effective in attracting modern customers. Today’s lead generation techniques must be targeted, scalable, and personal.
Here are five best practices for lead generation.
1. Build Your Brand Online and in the Community
When asked why clients initially selected their financial advisor, the overwhelming response was that it was someone they trusted. Establishing your brand as a trusted financial professional is powerful in generating leads and helping potential clients feel comfortable with you.
Today’s financial advisors and firms have countless opportunities to build their brands, especially through social media and blogs. The majority of people are open to hearing from a financial advisor on social media, including 78% of people aged 18-24.
Using SEO and sharing relevant information and advice showcases your skills, helps you rank higher on searches, and gets your name out there. Getting involved in the community and hosting workshops and events on wealth-related topics can also help build your brand. People might not need your services right now, but by establishing a strong brand online and in the community, they are more likely to remember you later.
2. Gate-Keep High-Value Content
Producing free content online helps people find you, but putting high-value content like eBooks, white papers, and webinars behind a gate allows you to collect potential clients’ information. Instead of a blog post that anyone can read, gate-kept content requires people to enter information like their name and email address to have a document sent straight to them.
Gatekeeping content allows you to continue to build your brand, but the main benefit is that it provides you with contact information of people who are likely interested in your services. You can use that information to follow up and cultivate leads that are likely to turn into clients.
3. Collect Referrals & Reviews from Current Customers
Some of the best leads come from referrals from current clients. Instead of taking a shot in the dark, you know these people already have some connection to your services and have heard good things from family and friends. Systemize your referral program, such as having clients complete a form for you to contact their family and friends. And don’t forget to ask for referrals — people are often willing to share your business but need the extra nudge.
Online reviews can also create new leads. For example, 76% of consumers search for a company’s online presence before making in-person contact. Solid online reviews make your firm more appealing to people as they start their research. Similar to referrals, it can pay to ask your clients to leave an online review.
4. Personalize Your Outreach
The traditional approach of sending the same mailer or ad to every person is no longer effective for gathering leads. Today’s clients want personalized service from their advisor, starting with outreach that is customized to them.
Each client has unique financial needs. Sending personalized messages or grouping potential clients based on their life stage or demographics can create stronger leads than sending a mass mailer. PreciseFP makes sending unique messages to multiple prospects easy and automates the process for different types of clients.
5. Scale Outreach with Templates
One of the biggest hangups to lead generation is simply the time it takes to gather and cultivate strong leads. Advisors have plenty of other things to do aside from spending all their time generating leads.
Services, including PreciseFP, have customizable templates to capture new prospects. As you collect contact information from potential clients, you can use that data to generate lead magnets, surveys, quizzes, and other materials with PreciseFP’s customizable content templates. These pre-written templates can be personalized to include your unique services and address your clients’ needs. As a bonus, templates are scalable and can significantly reduce the cost and time spent on lead generation without sacrificing the quality of leads.
Lead generation doesn’t have to be cumbersome. With the right tools and processes, you can build your brand and create a strong pipeline of leads and potential clients. Docupace and PreciseFP are valuable digital tools in the lead generation and client onboarding processes. Click here to learn more and see the free demo.
