It’s becoming increasingly difficult for any business to grow these days, but it’s especially challenging to get more clients as a financial advisor. This is because traditional methods of advertising are less effective than they used to be, people simply don’t trust online ads in the way that they used to.
This is why most financial advisers want to get more referrals.
“With a data for more than 28,000 Internet respondents in 56 countries, it has been seen that 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family above all other forms of advertising.” – source.
The problem is how to go about this. How do you actively ask for referrals? And how do you make it easy for your customers to refer you to their friends?
A lot of people in the finance industry want to grow their business but don’t want to come across as “sales-y” and desperate by asking for referrals directly. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way. There are various ways to professionally generate and valuable referrals, and if you launch a referral program you can do it in a way that’s professional, and beneficial for both you and the clients referring you to their network.
We’ve spoken to quite a few financial advisors over the past few months who are all facing the same challenges:
- The market has become incredibly crowded.
- People are hesitant to trust people they don’t know with their finances – even if they are “professionals”.
- It’s difficult to sell a product or service that isn’t tangible.
So, how can financial advisors get more clients? Here are four things that you can do to get quality customers for your financial advisory business.
Create A Free Google My Business Listing
Listing your financial advisor business on Google My Business is a completely free way to help you enhance your digital presence and connect with people who are looking for your services. The details you provide will make your services more easily accessible across Google’s products like Google Search and Google Maps. When creating your company profile on Google, make sure to include relevant keywords that people would search when looking for your services. This can include the financial area in which you specialize (investments, pensions, advisory, insurance, etc), as well as the location of your trusted financial business. Doing this will benefit your SEO, and make sure that people people search for you they see a great profile that looks trusted and professional.
Launch A Referral Program To Get More Referrals
When it comes to their finances, people trust recommendations from people they know. A referral program is an excellent way to leverage existing clients to source new prospects. Referral marketing tools like Referral Factory can help you build and launch a successful financial advisor referral program in minutes without needing a developer.
Launching a referral program as a financial advisor is a good idea for a few reasons:
- Grow your client base: a referral program can help you expand your client base by leveraging the network of your existing clients. When your satisfied clients refer their friends and network to your business, you gain access to a new pool of potential clients who are more likely to trust you since they were referred by someone they know and trust.
- Cost effective marketing: referral marketing is a cost-effective way to acquire new clients since you are not spending money on advertising channels that bring you low quality leads – like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Linkedin Ads and others. You will have to financially reward your clients for every successful referral they send your way, but you’ll only need to pay out this reward on success – meaning you don’t have to waste any advertising budget on pay-per-click ads that more than likely, won’t convert.
- Higher quality leads: referrals tend to be higher quality leads since they are pre-qualified by the client who referred them. They are more likely to be interested in your services, and they may already have a good understanding of what you do.
- Builds trust and credibility: referral marketing helps to build trust and credibility with potential new clients. When someone is referred to you by a friend, colleague or family member, they are more likely to trust you and your financial services since they know that someone they trust has had a positive experience working with you.
- Improved client retention: clients who refer others to you are more likely to be loyal clients themselves. Referral marketing can also help strengthen your relationships with your existing clients because you’ll be rewarding them for helping you grow.
Overall, launching a referral program as a financial advisor can be a great way to acquire new clients, build trust and credibility, and improve client retention, all while being cost-effective.
Target A Particular Niche
In an ideal world you could be all things to all people – unfortunately, that is not always the case. Identify which industry your best clients come from and focus on those types of customers. You will get better quality customers and be able to establish yourself as an industry expert. Are your skills best suited to people in the medical profession? Then target doctors or nurses and specialize in helping them with their financial planning.
Form Strategic Partnerships
Identify professionals in your network with the types of clients you’d like to have that you can partner with to recommend your services to their clients. For example, you could partner with accountants in your area that will suggest your financial planning services to their clients when doing their tax returns. An added bonus here is that you could use the same referral software to manage your strategic partnerships so you know which partners need to be paid for bringing in new business.
Don’t wait until next month or next year to start growing your business. You can get more clients and grow your financial business by taking a few simple steps – make sure you have a Google My Business listing, launch a powerful referral program, make sure you target the right audiences and form strategic partnerships wherever possible.
