Financial advisors are increasingly using webinars as a way of reaching existing and new clients. We can tell you the interest in using financial advisor webinars is increasing rapidly due to the pandemic’s impact on traditional face-to-face marketing tactics. A financial advisor webinar is an efficient digital marketing tactic that can reach large numbers of investors on a monthly basis.
This interest is based on the single biggest marketing challenge facing every financial advisor - the production of enough new prospects to talk to each month. Many of the old Outbound Marketing tactics no longer work due to Caller ID and spam filters. Both of these technologies make it more difficult to reach investors using cold calling and direct email. These strategies were always flawed when advisors tried to reach investors who did not want to be contacted. Many advisors have been slow to react to changes that impact their ability to reach large numbers of investors.The Coronavirus is also impacting how financial advisors interact with investors. Social distancing that is temporarily mandated by governments is not the only challenge. The virus may produce long-term or permanent changes in the ways people interact with professionals. For example, we are seeing an exponential increase in the use of telemedicine. It stands to reason if people can interact with doctors over the Internet, they can do the same when they find, research, interview, and select financial advisors.
Consequently, many advisors who have used face-to-face seminars to reach large numbers of investors are replacing seminars with webinars that serve the same purpose.
Digital Marketing
This phenomenon creates a unique opportunity for financial advisors who own their brands and websites. They can use digital marketing and the Internet to produce leads, contacts, and new clients for their firms.
The foundation of digital marketing is also called inbound marketing. That is, investors initiate contact with financial advisors. The Internet and digital marketing make this possible.
However, even when advisors use digital marketing to reach investors, investors still have to be able to find financial advisors on the Internet. A webinar is a very effective strategy for reaching investors on the Internet with a valuable free offer.
Financial Advisor Webinars
Webinars are one of the most popular digital marketing strategies that are being used by an increasing number of financial advisors. Webinars have several unique characteristics that benefit the financial advisors who develop an effective strategy and master their use.
This article describes 5 Top Reasons who so many financial advisors are beginning to make webinars a key part of their digital marketing strategies:
- Reach large numbers of potential clients
- Effective use of time and resources
- Build Credibility Without Sales
- Higher online conversion rates
- Word of mouth business
Reach a Lot of People
Financial advisors have to promote their webinars in order to reach a lot of investors. Unless financial advisor websites have large volumes of traffic, simply advertising financial advisor webinars on their websites will not be enough. Financial advisors will need additional tactics for generating attendance for their webinars.
One strategy is the use of paid advertising to promote financial advisor webinars. The ads may run on Google or Facebook. Sign-ups for webinars require registration so anyone who clicks on the ad has to submit their contact information to attend.
Financial advisors also invite investors on their drip lists to attend their webinars. In this case, they already have the investors contact information. Their goal is to convert investors on drip lists into active prospects for their services.
A webinar is a reason and a way to reach large numbers of people.
Effective Use of Time and Resources
Financial advisors do not have to spend hours calling potential attendees and inviting them to their webinars. Advertising and drip lists are much more effective uses of their time. And, because time is money, it is also less expensive.
Let’s say a financial advisor wants 50 people to attend a webinar. The advisor may need 100 sign-ups to get 50 attendees. They may have to invite 500 investors to get the 100 sign-ups.
Financial advisor webinar strategies are definitely a numbers game: 500 to 100 to 50 to Prospects. But, how else can advisors get in front of 50 investors at a time? Plus, they are creating brand name recognition with 500 investors. Who knows, maybe the next time the 400 non-responders will become attendees for the next webinar.
Build Credibility Without Sales
A high percentage of investors do not attend events if they sense the purpose of the event is sales. In the past, they may have attended seminars for the free steak dinner. But, the ideal investors (higher net worth) do not respond to offers of free dinners.
Financial advisor webinars must be based on topics that create substantial interest. For example, A webinar teaches people how to transition from working years to retirement years. Or, the webinars provide solutions to financial pain-points that impact large numbers of potential clients. How about the fear of running out of money late in life? A webinar describes how to mitigate that risk.
Financial advisors use webinars to build their credibility as financial experts. They should not use the webinars to sell financial advice, services, and products. If they do, eventually, people will stop attending.
Higher Online Conversion Rates
Because most advisor webinars are information-based and not promotional they can convert more names into active prospects. That is investors who register to attend webinars are contacted and they agree to interview financial advisors as part of their selection processes. A contact was converted into an active prospect.
Conversion rates are one of the key metrics that measure the success of financial advisor webinars. Investors find the webinar on the Internet, they register to attend the webinar, they attend the webinar, they agree to meet with advisors after the webinar, they select the advisors to help them plan their financial futures and invest their assets in the securities markets. These are the conversions that drive the success of a financial advisor webinar strategy.
Word of Mouth Advertising
Let’s say a financial advisor produces a great on-demand webinar that provides real insights into a pain-point that impacts a large number of investors. There is a good chance the initial attendees will tell friends, family, and associates about the financial advisor’s webinar.
The very possibility of word-of-mouth advertising should incentivize advisors to produce great webinars and not mediocre webinars that have poor attendance or attendees leave the webinars before they are finished. These are not the actions of attendees who will recommend the webinar to people they know.
A great finish for a webinar is the statement: “If you found our webinar informative and insightful, we would appreciate you recommending it to your friends, family, and associates”. Then make it easy for them to forward the registration information to the people they know. When this happens, high-quality webinars produce their own attendees, just like people follow and recommend their favorite TV shows.
