Digital marketing for financial advisors is extremely competitive. So, having the right tools can go a long way toward making these marketing efforts a productive source of new clients, assets, and revenue. HubSpot workflows for financial advisors is an online inbound marketing platform that brings together all of your digital marketing efforts into a sales funnel that is designed to attract and convert prospects into actual clients. And while HubSpot offers many tools for financial advisor marketing, let’s focus on workflows and how they can help convert your leads into clients.
What is a Workflow?
Very simply put, a HubSpot workflow creates an action or a series of actions (i.e., sending an email) to a contact based on that person’s actions. More specifically, a workflow tells HubSpot to perform an action based specifically on something a prospect did, such as sign up for a newsletter, watch a video, or open an email.
The days of one-size-fits-all marketing are over. With HubSpot workflows, financial advisors can customize messaging tailored to each prospect based on how they have interacted with that advisor’s digital marketing assets.
Segmentation
Since each prospect in a financial advisor’s database is unique, they should be treated as such when it comes to your inbound marketing strategy. HubSpot workflows integrate with the platform’s list segmentation tool. This tool allows you to not only look at your entire database of contacts but also as parts of separate, smaller segments.
This allows financial advisors to market specific products and services to prospects who fit into relevant categories. For example, if someone has downloaded an eBook, but has not yet signed up to receive email newsletters, that contact can be targeted for a newsletter signup campaign. Perhaps a contact has shown interest in multiple types of estate planning content – that shows you they have a very specific need and can be treated as such.
By specifically targeting prospects rather than blasting generic communications to everyone, you’re not only showing that you understand their specific needs, but are also reducing the number of emails sent overall and thus reducing drip email liest attrition. That’s because if someone is repeatedly receiving emails or offers that they feel aren’t relevant to them, they are more likely to unsubscribe from your communications altogether. Don’t let all the hard work that was put into growing your database fall to the wayside.
Lead Nurturing
Consider lead nurturing as virtual hand holding of prospects through the sales funnel so they don’t get lost. This relationship-building tool delivers a series of personalized communications that help guide prospects by reinforcing key sales propositions and problem-solving solutions that you are uniquely able to provide.
While building trust, this process moves the prospect down the line until they are ready to become clients. As the name “nurture” implies, this is not an overnight process and if done manually, can be extremely time-consuming and nearly impossible to keep track of. But it can pay off tenfold if done correctly. This is where the automation part of HubSpot’s workflows makes a big impact.
Automation
Automation occurs when HubSpot sends emails on your behalf, through a previously established series of conditions that must be met by prospects. Think of automation as having another set of hands sending out messaging and content for you, while you’re busy providing planning and investment services.
This is an essential part of the HubSpot workflow, because it takes the pressure off financial advisors to personally reach out every time someone signs up for a webinar or downloads an eBook. This means instead of doing the same work over and over, you do the work once. This can include drafting welcome email messaging, sending a follow-up email post-download, etc. Whatever it is you want to include in your steps of the sales funnel, it can be automated.
Email Integration
Speaking of emails, HubSpot’s workflows have that covered as well. Within the platform is an email building tool, which allows users to create custom email messaging to help prospects through the sales journey. Even for those with little or no email or HTML building experience, HubSpot provides the structure for the quick and easy creation of professional emails for financial advisors.
Using templates, you can streamline branding efforts including logos and colors as well as control compliance-related disclosures and links. Simply put, you don’t have to be a marketing professional to create polished emails for your workflows.
Superior Reporting
No matter how stellar the digital marketing effort is – or how much or little work was needed to create it – no campaign is complete without a thorough review of the result of that effort. HubSpot’s workflows provide detailed reporting on campaigns, including all messaging that was clicked on, and what actions were taken from there.
Essentially, as prospects move through the sales funnel, you can see why they ended up where they did based on which action was taken. This is a great way to check your workflow for any areas of improvement. Analyzing the reporting can show why some prospects never made it to the next phase of the workflow, or if they made it all the way through the nurturing process only to not convert when they should have.
After all, once moved through the funnel a prospect either converts or drops off. Understanding why someone didn’t convert – especially if a pattern emerges – can help you make necessary adjustments to your workflow to help optimize conversions. Of course, not every lead turns into a client, but the more you know about what happened along the way the better HubSpot can optimize the journey.
Even with all the automation and easy-to-use interfaces, managing HubSpot workflows may still be a process that seems too time-consuming for your financial advisory firm. If that’s the case, reach out to a digital marketing agency with HubSpot experience. Workflows are only a small part of what HubSpot can offer financial advisors for their digital marketing efforts and working with an experienced team can make all the difference for busy financial advisors who want to maintain their client relationships while at the same time adding new ones.
