As a financial advisor, you wear many hats. One of your most important roles is to be an educator. Finances are confusing and overwhelming for many people, and they often don’t know where to go or who to trust for basic information. That’s where financial webinars come in! They are a great way to reach a large group of people to share financial knowledge while cultivating leads, building relationships, and showing your expertise to potentially grow your firm.
Your role goes beyond just educating—it’s about ensuring that clients receive the professional advice they need. By hosting webinars, you raise awareness and provide essential information, but ultimately, it’s your responsibility to offer your services to those who need more personalized and professional guidance.
Webinars benefit participants and their financial advisor hosts. Participants gain free financial insights, and advisors can build connections. A recent survey found that 47% of organizers say webinars are helpful in the awareness, interest, and decision stages of the sales funnel. Webinars allow you to reach multiple clients and potential clients at once. As a bonus, you can save the content to reuse it multiple times.
Interested in hosting a webinar but not sure where to start? Here are four ways to host an informational finance webinar.
What’s Your Webinar About?
The most important decision comes at the beginning: What will you discuss in your webinar? Aim to be as specific as possible to add value and stand out from the sea of basic financial advice. A webinar about tax preparation for retirees will gather more interest than a general webinar about finances. When considering a topic, think about what makes your firm and services unique. Do you specialize in a specific type of product or client? Are your clients asking questions about a specific topic? Turn those questions into a webinar.
Along with the topic, you’ll also need to select a format. You can share all the information as a solo presenter, invite a guest speaker to share the time, moderate a panel of employees or industry leaders from other firms, or open a Q&A session. Think of the best way to cover your topic and share information with your audience. Your webinar can be live (presented once at a specific time) or recorded (saved to share with guests on demand).
Invite People to the Webinar
Once you’ve chosen your topic and format, start spreading the news to get people to register. Post about the webinar at least a few weeks in advance to give people time to register
However, sending an invitation email on the day of the webinar can be very successful, as participants are more aware of their availability and can make a more immediate decision to join. The goal here is to make the registration process as simple as possible. If signing up is confusing or difficult, people will be discouraged and less likely to join your webinar.
Create a simple form that gathers their contact information so you can send the link and other webinar information closer to the date. Emailing a link to the form, posting the link on social media, and creating scannable QR codes for your office makes it easy for people to access the signup form directly.
Add Interactive Elements
What sets a great financial webinar apart from an average one? Its level of interaction and action items.
One effective webinar tip is to call out and welcome participants by name at the beginning of the session; this personal touch can significantly boost engagement and make attendees feel valued from the start.
Adding interactive elements is helpful for everyone because they help participants stay engaged with the content and provide advisors with feedback and insights about what their audience needs. Interactive elements like polls, quizzes, and Q&A sessions can break up the content into more manageable sections that won’t overwhelm participants.
As you create your webinar, consider what you want participants to do afterward. The most obvious action is to encourage them to schedule an appointment with you, but you should also aim to provide actionable steps, such as specific ways they can manage their money or other resources they can use.
Stay Connected With Participants
The work doesn’t end when the webinar is over. In fact, it’s just beginning. One of the biggest benefits of hosting a finance webinar is building leads and strengthening relationships with current clients.
After the webinar is over, reach out to participants and invite them for a consultation to discuss their financial goals. You can also reach out to individuals who had specific questions during the webinar to provide personalized answers, send additional resources, or share more insights. And because you have the contact information of the participants, you can add them to your email newsletter list for further connections. For follow-up webinars, keep sending those emails. Sometimes people might not be ready to engage with an advisor right away, but they could be planning to get to it later. Plus, a trigger event might suddenly make them eager to inquire about your services. Regular email drips can keep you top of mind when they’re ready to act. Use the webinar as the start of a great relationship with potential clients and stay in contact for whenever they’re ready to hire an advisor.
This is very important because while providing valuable information through webinars is crucial, it’s also important to remember your fiduciary duty as a financial advisor. You can offer all the information in the world, but managing finances is complex and error-prone for those without professional experience. Your expertise and credentials make you the right person to guide clients through these challenges.
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