10 Lead Generation Strategies for Financial Advisors

Lead generation in financial services is changing. Cold calling and traditional media used to be the top when it comes to lead generation for financial services providers such as banks, insurance companies, credit unions and others, but today the online landscape has taken the lead.

The internet is where a significant majority, from 75% to 90%, of searches on financial services begin. According to Marketing Charts, B2B buyers consume on average ten pieces of online content before they make a decision.

Clearly, a large number of consumers are looking to the internet for their financial service needs. The change has led to fierce rivalry in the financial services sector, especially in the paid promotions space.

There are two contrasting situations for financial institutions. Either as a financial advisor or marketer there has never been a better time to begin generating leads using financial services online. Unless you are willing to spend more on digital marketing for financial services, you simply need to either outsmart them or constantly invest even more towards your digital marketing strategy.

The Importance of Lead Generation for Financial Advisors

Lead generation is the process of locating, evaluating, and connecting with possible new clients. Top leads are people with sufficient assets and a need for services, for advisors. The lead generation is crucial for the growth of an advisory firm. Without new prospects flowing into your funnel there is no one to build a future client around. It allows advisors to take the lead and create their lead generation instead of being forced to count on referrals or making cold calls.

The Challenging Quest for Quality Leads

This is the ultimate challenge, whereby you must go find and engage with perfect leads. Online investing is a growing fad and, as more and more individuals adopt this as their preferred way to invest, more and more among them are turning to DIY portfolio to manage their most basic investment needs. Advisors need to demonstrate value so that they can attract potential clients.

Billboard, TV advertisements can certainly bring awareness but they don’t lead to high intent leads which is what you need. Today, it is even more difficult to stand out in the noise with the increasing competition.

The Potential of Pre-Qualified Leads to Advisors

Pre-qualified leads are exactly the prospects you want to attract and they align perfectly with your ideal client profile.

The following may be considered factors:

• Minimum investable assets or assets under management
• Age group
• Phase of existence geographical area

If you have a profile that is aligned with the potential clients, then they will be more interested in your offerings and conversion rates will increase. This makes it simple for advisors, their marketing budget can be spent on promising prospects.

Top 10 Strategies for Lead Generation in the Financial Services Sector

Build Strong Foundation of Your Website

The website provides a better way to manage the experience you can give to potential clients. Although there are impressive tools for user engagement via a variety of channels, it’s generally not possible for financial services brands to deliver such an experience on their own.

Financial services providers use their websites to provide leads with a more cohesive and personalized experience. When crafting a digital experience for your website, you should consider ways to give users the power to self-service and self-lead their way through lead qualification tasks.

The advantage of setting up your website as a lead capture tool is that you can drive traffic from multiple digital channels and have a higher number of qualified leads.

Let us consider the process of capturing leads in the banking sector. Using your website as a means to produce your leads will allow you dramatically increase your chances of attracting banking leads. By offering a smooth and tailor-made digital experience and allowing your potential customer to find, compare and start the inquiry for the product at their own time it’s possible.

This self-service method helps in the lead qualification process and at the same time strengthens the customer relationship as it shows commitment to providing convenient and accessible banking services.

Prioritize Mobile-First Optimization

Although mobile-first indexing algorithm came into effect from the beginning of 2018, Google has made them very strict and put their best efforts to make sure that you have no less than a good mobile website even if your organization mostly caters to the offline audience. Mobile search is still surging without any signs it is slowing down.

It is no longer a matter of choice; it is a given that FS brands have to become mobile first. But any potential leads who can browse your site on mobile engage more and convert better on.

Additionally, a website that is mobile friendly increases the possibility of having a higher ranking as this is in line with Google’s mobile first indexing. The best way to make sure that your website is mobile prepared is by having a responsive site that can naturally switch to fit any screen.

Utilize Content Marketing

To attract and also engage your required crowd you need to be churning out and removing valuable substance. By writing articles, videos, webinars and whitepapers things that are showing expertise and creating trust with advisors.

Content Strategy Focusing on the Audience

First thing first, you have to draft a content plan aimed at the things (subjects) and formats (Apathy in Agency) targeted to your ideal clients. For the approaching retirement, this can mean planning a retirement, Social Security options, and healthcare consideration.

Show that you are aware of typical questions and challenges that a potential client might have and that you can recognize them in order to build trust from the very beginning.

Optimize Content for Search Discovery

The easiest part of the equation, is producing the content, we all know what it takes to produce content, that’s one thing, but it’s just as equally as important to ensure that potential customers have the ability to find the content you’re providing. This is completing the work for search engines by conducting keyword research and concentrating on appropriate local search phrases. This is an SEO strategy and it can be a remarkably powerful tool in your content toolbelt.

Phrases such as “[your city] financial advisor” and “[your city] retirement planning” increase visibility for people who are actively searching for these services, and thus give you a high ranking for those phrases.

Launch Targeted Social Media Campaigns

LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are social platforms that give advisors the chance to speak directly to prospects, build relationships, and demonstrate their knowledge through different content.

Choose the Right Social Platforms

There are some platforms that are more in line with the objectives of advisors. For example, LinkedIn is a professional crowd, while Facebook is for a broader crowd. Study your target audience and the platforms they belong to.

Share relevant content, engage with pertinent social communities and with the intent of building connections with clients looking for your services. Paid advertisements can certainly expand your audience greatly.

If you are keen on taking a leaf out of the top players in the field, check out these personal finance influencers Investopedia has lined up for you and see how they approach personal finances.

Craft Captivating Social Media Posts

Produce content real value to your audience. Share insights about the market, tips for retirement, educational material to build your credibility.

Answer their comments to show your understanding, or respond to their questions, even if they aren’t connected with the video. Using images, videos and polls will help to greatly increase engagement levels.

Use Email Marketing

Email marketing lets advisors stay top of mind to prospects in the sales process. Campaigns for target leads educate, end result to conversion.

Grow Your Email List with Integrity

Email list expansion can be done ethically in many ways, including offering content upgrades, running promotions or allowing website visitors to subscribe. Before including potential leads, it is important to secure clear consent. Follow anti-spam regulations and spam standards.

Thoughtfully crafted emails with compelling subject lines have proven to increase the chance of email received being opened and it is also highly effective in increasing the chance of clicked through. Use email to preview insightful content, invite opportunities on webinars, or have reminders for future events.

Automated nurturing sequences that feed educational content may help in showcasing an aspect of amplification gradually.

Host Educational Webinars and Seminars on Personal Finance

Advisors use webinars and in person seminars to demonstrate them know how and connect with possible clients directly. Give practical advice, and thus make yourself a knowledgeable authority.

Choose Relevant Topics

Select the type of subject that could be of interest to your target audience as well as generate appropriate leads. A webinar titled “The Top 5 Retirement Planning Mistakes to Avoid” not only provides great content, but it also displays your expertise in this area.

Promoting and Executing Events

Support other news gathering agencies and share your events through your website, email newsletters and social media platforms. Prepare yourself with careful preparation and encourage lively conversation.

Turn attendees into potential leads by reaching out to all registrants. Spread your presentations and recordings far and wide to have as wide an audience as you can.

Create a Well-Organized Referral Program

The reason recommendations from happy clients tend to have a higher conversion rate is because they have a direct experience working with you. A good referral program is organized in such a way that satisfied clients are encouraged to recommend others.

Create an Engaging Referral Program

Give clients links, templates and dedicated support to streamline the referral process. This will make the process easier and increase the referrals.

Foster Connections for Referrals

Always follow up on every lead immediately and stay in contact with the client all the way through. Communication in the form of adding little notes with or without gifts that express your gratitude shows the world you appreciate them.

Back and forth is met, and client testimonials are shown, which not only strengthens relationships, but also referrals.

Be On the Lookout for Your Competition

Game footage for professional athletes isn’t put through looking back on their mistakes, it’s also used to analyze the effective strategies and intelligent decisions made by their opponents so they can integrate these into their skill set.

It is also necessary to analyze the competition as a financial advisor. Regardless, it’s got nothing to do with scoring more goals; it’s simply about producing better and higher quality leads.

A good way to get insights is by looking at your competitor’s LinkedIn profile to know what they post, and the level of engagement they get. You can turn those elements into your own unique creations if you can recognize the core attributes that have made their posts successful.

Another good way for financial advisors to play it safe is to watch their competitors’ pricing and offerings to know how to better fine tune their sales messages. Decide what makes your service unique from the rest and focus on it in your adverts, emails, elevator pitches and so on.

Strategic Partnerships and Collaborations

Another way to generate leads as a financial planner is to build relationships with other non-competitive professionals such as lawyers and accountants who cater to clients you are looking to serve.

In this approach, you can be sure that when your partner’s client needs help with financial planning, they can confidently refer them to your business. As a result, you get a promising lead and the customer gets a valuable recommendation. One way to use these partnerships effectively is by creating a lead group. Here you and other professionals meet weekly or monthly to exchange valuable lead information.

Optimizing for Local Search

If someone in your vicinity types “financial advisor in my area” into Google, it is important that your company shows up prominently in the search results. The purpose is to bring in visitors to your website and get them to explore it.

In order to get a better position in the rankings, you should use effective local SEO strategies. Start by creating a Google My Business page, also referred to as a Google Business Profile.

Make sure that all must be filled so your leads will know more about your biz.

To get the most out of this lead generation strategy, financial advisors should improve their profile for higher visibility.

It encompasses aspects such as:

• Obtaining Google reviews from customers.
• Addressing those reviews.
• Leveraging the Google Posts feature.

Find additional local SEO strategies that will help you get higher in the rankings. First, promote your profile link across different platforms of social media and improve the internal linking framework of your site.

Effective Approaches to Attract Clients for Financial Advisors

For the growth of an advisory firm, it is essential to bring in promising new leads. Sometimes times implementing targeted lead generation strategy can be challenging but it gives the advisors the power to take control of their success.

There are different strategies through which you can engage prospects and nurture relationships; from content marketing, social media, events and even partnerships. They help in gradually converting leads into clients.

If accepted and consistently put to work these strategies, and adjusted based on the insights, advisors will build a consistent, an unbreakable foundation for on-going growth. An effective strategy will help you bring in more qualified prospects and improve your practice.