No matter how successful or impressive a financial advisory firm’s client list is, it’s critical to keep prospects engaged so that the client list can grow even more. This can be done by creating and growing your financial advisor lead pipeline, which describes the engagement with a prospect while they’re considering becoming a client of your financial advisory firm.
But this pipeline isn’t going to build itself, so financial advisors need to become familiar with the most effective ways to increase these leads. One of these methods is by using free offers to attract prospects.
Here are some of the top ways free offers can be used as part of a financial advisor marketing strategy to increase lead pipelines:
Using the word “free” has mass appeal. Why? Because everyone wants to feel like they’re getting something for nothing — even if that something has little or no actual monetary value. This is why people line up at events for free t-shirts and other tchotchkes.
But when it comes to digital marketing, “free” takes on another meaning: information. This puts financial advisors in an excellent position to offer insights into a subject matter that can be quite intimidating for consumers with little to no investing knowledge or experience.
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Use Gated Digital Content
Technically gated content isn’t free to the prospect, even if it doesn’t cost them anything. Why? Because they’re giving something valuable away when they hit submit on that contact form: their information.
The beauty of this is that there is no trickery or deception. In fact, most prospects looking at your financial advisor website and interested in this information are happy to be contacted down the road if it means more helpful information will be coming their way.
And this gated content doesn’t only have to be on your financial advisor website. You can leverage social media audiences and present them information via a lead form on the platform itself that can be integrated directly into your existing financial advisor database. While this is typically done as part of a paid campaign, the ROI of this from a lead generation perspective could make up for the advertising expense.
Host Free Events
Now that the world is getting back to holding in-person events, this is a great time for financial advisors to get back into the practice of holding free in-person events. These events can be anything from hosting an informational seminar to holding an open house to meet the financial advisory firm team and see the offices, or even sponsoring and/or participating in an event hosted by another business or organization.
This type of in-person communication is especially beneficial for financial advisors with a local presence, as it highlights ties to the community that large national firms simply don’t have. Another big appeal of these events is free food and beverages, so don’t skimp on the hors d'oeuvres.
Digital events, however, have an entirely different format. But there are advantages of digital/virtual events over in-person gatherings. The first of those is cost. Compared to the food cost alone of an in-person event, the digital equivalent would be a fraction of the cost to produce.
Also, virtual events have a nearly limitless global audience, as well as the ability to be replayed on demand. To give these events a more personal touch, some financial advisors will keep them small enough that they can interact with their attendees and answer questions live.
Other sessions are larger and take on more of a presentation format with little to no one-on-one engagement. While it’s clear that both in-person and virtual events have their benefits, the real question is what would work best for your financial advisory firm. Perhaps it’s a mix of the two, or even mostly virtual with one or two in-person events each year.
Offer Free Planning Materials such as Guides and Checklists
If the digital materials mentioned above are valuable to online prospects, then why not use that same concept for physical versions of this information to give to those you are meeting face-to-face?
This can be effective on multiple levels, the first of which is that it appeals to those who are not tech-savvy and prefer to do business in person. It can also be used for those prospects who didn’t find you online but would still be interested in the information presented in that online content.
Instead of telling them to visit your website to get it, you could have a printed (and branded) copy of that content with your contact information and the next steps should that prospect move further down the pipeline.
In another instance, these materials could be used as leave-behinds at the offices of business partners, at public events, and especially at the events hosted by your financial advisory firm.
Offer Free Consultations
You may be thinking, “I already offer free consultations.” And chances are, so are all the other financial advisors you know. The difference is how you market these initial meetings.
Calling them “free” implies more value than simply offering your usual consultations, even if that is in fact what you’re doing. It may seem like a simple wording change, but in the eyes of a prospect, this can make this meeting feel like a valuable offer that they got at no cost to them. This can add even more implied value if your competitors aren’t using this wording, which—to a prospective client—makes your offer hard to beat.
Don’t Come on Too Strong
Financial advisors are no strangers to compliance rules and regulations. And besides the legal implications, no one in the financial services industry wants to come across as “gimmicky.” Because rules are changing constantly, it’s a best practice to run all of these “free” offers past your compliance team as an extra precaution.
Pro Tip: If the word “free” doesn’t sit well with you (or your compliance team), consider other terms like “complimentary” “at no cost” or even “no fee” — your prospects will still get the point of the “free” message even without using the word.
