As a financial adviser, it’s essential that you attract more clients. But in today’s world, traditional lead generation methods are no longer the answer. As the baby boomer generation ages, a new wave of clients is on the horizon – and the needs, wants and preferences of this new, younger generation are very different from what advice firms are used to offering. As a result, most advisers today find it hard to generate leads. In fact, if you ask financial advisers what their biggest challenges are in business, most will probably say generating consistent, high-quality leads. So if you’re struggling to generate leads for your financial advice business, read on for our top tips on how to find clients as a financial adviser…
Why the struggle?
It’s not an issue with a lack of demand – in fact, most financial advisers are in very high demand. When it comes to lead generation, however, the trouble is that most financial advisers are inconsistent and use outdated strategies that are expensive but ineffective. Cold calling is dead – there, we said it! 90% of people never respond to cold calls, whilst magazine ads just don’t have the power they once did either. So what does work? In today’s world, it’s all about attraction rather than disruption.
Tip 1: Create helpful content
First on our list of tips on how to find clients as a financial adviser is content. Creating articles that are tailored to your target audience is one of the most effective ways to help attract important prospects to your site – and attracting people to your site is the first step of successful lead generation. Perhaps your potential clients are educating themselves online and starting to realise they need financial advice. They are searching for answers and looking for content that might help them – and this discovery phase is your first chance to get noticed. By creating and sharing relevant and helpful content, you can answer your potential clients’ burning questions and attract them to your website.
Tip 2: Offer them something they want
This basically does exactly what it says on the tin: it’s about encouraging your potential leads to communicate with your firm by offering something of value. In addition to generating helpful content to attract visitors to your site, you also need to think about what you could offer to draw people in. A free consultation on financial advice? An ebook or guide on how to handle their wealth? It’s all about showing your potential clients what you’re worth and that you can offer them something of real value.
Tip 3: Use social media
76% of buyers are willing to have a conversation on social media. So in this day and age, being active on social isn’t an option – it’s a necessity. You’ve written helpful content or created a must-have offer, so now’s the time to get sharing! Sharing on social media, along with a catchy heading and a strong image, is a great way to encourage people to click through to your website. In addition, social media is also really helpful when it comes to growing your list of contacts, too.
LinkedIn is a great platform for contacting and networking with professionals, it’s really effective for lead generation and it’s also a great place to reach HNWIs. In fact, according to LinkedIn themselves, 61 million LinkedIn users are senior-level influencers and 40 million are in decision-making positions – and the chances are that they also have incomes that reflect that seniority. Recent research suggests that three-quarters of affluent investors are now regularly using some form of social media and about 70% of investors have reallocated investments or began or altered relationships with investment providers or other financial firms based on content found on social media. So it’s really important to build a social presence!
Tip 4: Use landing pages
Once you’ve attracted visitors to your website, landing pages can help to draw your audience in and turn them into leads. A good quality landing page will encourage your potential clients to take action. This could be signing up to your newsletters or downloading a guide – whatever you decide, there should be a clear call to action so there’s no confusion about what to do next. And once people do click through, it’s time to turn those visitors into prospects. The aim is to pre-sell your visitors on why you might be the right adviser or planner for them to work with, whilst at the same time, signposting away those people you aren’t right for.
Tip 5: Nurture relationships via email
Once you have your potential clients’ email address, it’s time to start working on your relationship with them. If they aren’t ready to use your services yet, that’s fine; it doesn’t mean that they won’t become a lead in the future. Instead, you can nurture the relationship over time – and by providing more value, you can get them to engage further. Again, think about sending them content they might find useful, or emailing out a regular newsletter with your expert onions on the industry or sharing quick and helpful financial tips. It’s all about keeping your firm at the forefront of their mind until they are ready to use your services.
Tip 6: Ask for referrals
Next up on the list of how to find clients as a financial adviser is referrals. Word of mouth is still an integral part of lead generation for financial advisers. The difference is that today it’s so much easier to do online! Email your existing clients and ask them for a referral or to leave a review online, and then share all of this information on your website. That way, when people Google you, they will see your reviews and automatically have trust in your ability. This will make it much easier to turn potential clients and website visitors from prospects into leads.
Tip 7: Stay on brand
Finally, throughout the entire lead generation process, if you want to build trust in your brand and attract people to your financial advice firm, it’s important to keep all of your messaging consistent and on-point. By building a consistent brand image that people associate with your firm, you automatically look professional and trustworthy – something that is really important when you consider the amount of mistrust in the industry.
Ready to generate more leads?
In conclusion, by building a strong brand, creating regular and helpful content and sharing on social, you’ll see a much greater ROI than traditional and tired lead generation methods. For help and advice on how to maximise the potential of your firm and grow your business, our expert team are on hand to help. At Recruit UK, many of our consultants are ex-financial service professionals, which means we know the industry inside out. So whether you are looking for new talent to grow your firm or need helpful advice on how to get the most out our your business, contact us today and let us help you get to where you want to be.
